Because Power Rangers took over the company. Bandai has the same case of brand neglect that Hasbro does.
Speaking of Kendo Robo,this guy looks kick ass! He even got to be a part of the revenge army during Battlehackers when half of Argo City got wiped by the Anti-machine particle missiles. He's pumping his fists proudly. Yeaaaaah,boooiiiii! As for RKillian,I know some people love Gobots. I apologize for the outbursts though. I do know there are some things to like about Gobots. If it weren't for Gobots,not a lot of people outside of Japan would knew about Machine Robo or anything Bandai-esque. I did grew up with Machine Robo but the first time was through Machine Robo Rescue and then it evolved through knowledge of Chronos and then Battlehackers (which became my obsession and fave series of the bunch). If you love Gobots,good for you. I'll try to be a lot more mindful. As for amazing Shin Densetsu,yeah I gotta agree with RKillian. Both Super Sentai and Kamen Rider took over Bandai as a whole along with Gundam. Kinda funny that Metal Heroes died when Robotack was the last Metal Hero franchise and that Machine Robo's last entry was Machine Robo Rescue (bar Mugenbine). Even the amount of Super Sentai/Power Rangers is JUST too overwhelming for me,especially since Toei eventually doomed themselves after the introduction of the collect-tathon which was Gokaiger which ended up twisting badly in Kyuranger and not to mention the HORRENDOUS whackjob in Ninninger no less. Fuck that show. Kamen Rider was doing fine except for Ghost. That piece of shit's story was bad 'nuff. They could've sticked to Metal Heroes imo. If Bandai was smart,we could've had a crossover with not only Sentai and Kamen Rider and Metal Heroes in the mix but they can have Gobots/Machine Robo running around the toku-universe! YES!! Blue Jet with Kamen Riders and Sentai would be AWESOME! Though if we're gonna talk about modernize Machine Robo with articulation for mass market,we gotta bring back one GUY...ONE GUY that basically had a LOT of potential to be a toy and one that adult collectors will remember as the most amazing design-wise and concept-wise. I think this might work since Robocop seems to be coming back. I know just the guy: GARZACK!! Just look at this beautiful mofo here! He's like a cross between Megaman and Robocop. Not only that but he looks like a Power Ranger mixed WITH a METAL HERO!! Look at how many Metal Heroes this guy took inspiration from: Yeah,you can definitely see the Robocop influence in Garzack which oddly enough,Bandai and Toei based Jiban and later,Janperson off of Robocop. So if the Riser suits are basically the Power Loaders from Alien,R. Jettan is the Valkyrie from Macross,Gattai Saurer is Godzilla and both Pro Truck Racer and Tough Trailer is Optimus Prime,then Garzack is basically an amalgam of all the various Metal Heroes all ROLLED into one and in a sense,Garzack is ROBOCOP in design. Though to be real,Garzack was originally gonna take his play-design from the Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future toys that Bandai licensed back in Japan and opted to make a Garzack toy though it was never released,probably due to funding but dammit,IT WOULDA BEEN AWESOME!! I watched Captain Power and it was amazing. I hoped to finish the series. Though now I really see where Garzack's design is from: Garzack's play feature would be like the XT-7 jet from the show as well as Captain Power's charging station where he would obtain his power armor from. Hold the toy in front and press a button when the transformation happens,the toy would light up. I think the same woulda happen with Garzack when you press a red button on his abdomen which would react to one of those green turtle guys or those blue fly boys in Battlehackers whenever they're on screen so you can shoot them. Sadly,it never happened. The only TV reaction thing toy that Bandai ever did was this: And here's a little small evidence of a concept of Garzack's toy. Too bad its small and only in Machine Robo Wedge if anyone ever got it: Now it may not be true about Garzack's play feature and its pretty me theorizing but its pretty good theory considering that I have to watch the entirety of Battlehackers and chop down Garzack's design and figuring out how he works. After ep.20 when Garzack had his last word,spoken by the late Nobuyuki Furuta,he's just standing in the background with other Battlehackers. He doesn't even get a frame in the last episode as well which is sad because Garzack is ending up becoming my favorite Machine Robo design next to Stealth Robo from Machine Robo Rescue.
Got curious and pulled up an episode... Machine Robo is fun, probably amazing for it's time, I can't imagine watching this as a preteen wow. Full episodes on YouTube. Be warned you'll forget all about GoBots after you see this stuff.
That’s what happens when you can sell millions of units of Gundam, KR, MMPR, and DB everyday. That’s why I was so happy with High Metal which seems to be slowing. I can’t blame them for the big sales but I wish they would do more obscure stuff.
It is quite an adventure though it does get quite amusingly confusing after the final ep. of Chronos. Then when you get things like Rescue and the fact that Jay who is Stealth's Robo Master who also happens to be a part of a space program that got a LOT of trouble,then looking at the Good luck kids' backstory from Battlehackers of THEIR space travel,makes you wonder if Machine Robo Rescue was a part of the original story and that Leina's Wolf Sword Adventures DID Take place at the END of the timeline! Hideki Sonoda who wrote for Cronos,Battlehackers and Rescue also wrote the screenplay for Leina's Wolf Sword Legends. Oh and he wrote for Sonic Soldier Borgman as well: Hideki SONODA - Anime News Network It's only because Leina and Laika: The Parent Trap,Anice Firm from Sonic Soldier Borgman was supposed to be part of that OVA but due to license problems (What problems?! I thought Machine Robo and Borgman were in the same DAMN company!),Michitaka Kikuchi made Laika instead: You can see traces of my fave Borgman still linger in her: Two different characters but man,do I love their faces. It's so elegant and soft and...Ahem..well...yeah. That's what I've read of course.
Well,as long as Hasbro is gonna make Power Rangers a big name where Bandai of America fails,Bandai of Japan still goes strong and hopefully,Machine Robo can prosper. Now back to Garzack. Speaking of his toy feature,Captain Power is an amazing oddity of the 80's where the show is basically predating...let this guy explain everything about this new fave show of mine: Here are some commercials on how these toys work: And the various anime-styled training videos where you can shoot down Biodread machines with your XT-7 jets or Phantom Striker if you're working with Lord Dread: You can imagine being either R.Jettan,Mach Blaster,Jet Winner Robo or being Rotary Kidd or Blue Jet,Land Commander 5 or Battle Armor 5 or even the Jet Riser as Akira or Mia shooting down Gurendos Shitappas and Wappas (Yeah,the names of the green turtle guys and blue fly guys are stupid. I'm calling them Turtlers and Fly boys since they're going for a cooler attitude to them.) So I dunno what went down with Bandai of Japan when trying to make Garzack but it worked with Masked Rider 'badass' Black's KingStone Belt,why can't the same thing with Garzack? Eh,well..Gary Goddard and his team who are currently working to bring back Captain Power with Phoenix Rising,I wish them luck and the best of it. I just wish to be a part of that team too but eh,support to watching it,yes of course. It will be some time and man,I want that XT-7 jet though.
Ooohhh, not sure if I sounded Anti Gobot, but I watched a few episodes when I was younger and last night I watched a bit of one....but dude the, Machine Robo anime is in another league. I was shocked.
I love Captain Power. I watched the show and had the toys when I was growing up. I now have the complete series on DVD and have all of the released figures MOSC as well as the PowerJet Xt-7, Power-On Energize, Interlocker, and Phantom Striker. It is a great show and I was hoping Phoenix Rising would make it to TV/DVD. I really want some Captain Power classics or Mega Construx figures too.
I am glad to see there are still fans of Captain Power here who are also Captain Power fans. I hope that Gary Goddard and gang that Phoenix Rising will be a reality. Also,for those who think that Gobots is the best thing around. Luckily,I got emojis to best describe your thoughts if you get sick and tired of hearing 'Gobots stink!' and all that bollocks. Meet Akira Amachi: Still kinda looks like your mom if she had enough of your shit when you were little. XD Still does. One funny mother after another. Well,if you ain't a fan of Akira and his Lupin the 3rd monkey punch face,then you might be to Mia who is pretty much the Spock of the Good luck kids to Akira's McCoy and Luke's Kirk from Star Trek. Yeah,Akira's expressions are more for comedic purposes. Yup. That's a lot more better. Takes no shits whatsoever.
Oh yeah,that ain't no comic book. It's a coloring book. I got images of them,ScaleFace. They all look very beautiful and to top it off, A beta image of the Battlehackers including a RED Garzack which is understandable because the Garzack toy concept I showed you does indeed have a beginning concept sketch. Right next to the F-1 Jack and Hot Rod Joe and Gacklander's beta designs:
Oh yeah,we can't forget about the best Machine Robo ever: TRX-002, Arm Machine, Arm Machine VWS-01 by Bandi - The Old Robot's Web Site Robot Arm Machine. This guy needs to come back too.
Thomas Scioli has posted some images on twitter, another look at the upcoming IDW Go-Bots reboot, looking pretty nice. Apparently Burt Reynolds served as inspiration for Matt's appearance, which is pretty neat. Also came across this, which looks freaking awesome:
Whaaaaaat? You dunno? XD Ok,enough jokes. Machine Robo Battlehackers. It's the quintessential sequel to Machine Robo Chronos and is optly forgotten and who to blame anyone? Amirite? I'll let this kickass opening speak for itself. Basically,after the battle against Gaddess and his Gyandler army,Rom and a handful of Machine Robos feel that there is still evil in this world. Going into a time dimensional warp,they will forget that their adventures on Chronos ever happened like nothing so its pretty much a reset but putting them into a new world. Enter the electronic planet B-1 where it's a planet but looking more like an island from afar in space. You think there'd be a LOT of peace there right? WRONG! Gurendos,a military army led by the evil computer Skynet...I mean,Dylan which is this evil alien here: He pretty much leads the Gurendos army along with some help. If any of you guys think Dylan is familiar,he's that evil thingy Kubilai from Shaider/VR Troopers: Yeah,Machine Robo seems to be an amalgam of things by Toei and Bandai. Don't be surprised to see Kamen Rider or Power Rangers in Machine Robo. They have you covered which is something fascinates me about Machine Robo. Gacklander who happens to be his main guy who usually commands most of the guerilla plans: This guy's like Goldar from Power Rangers. A right-hand man to the big boss and is voiced by Ken Yamaguchi whom you guys know is Genji Togashi from Sakigake! Otokojuku!! Hell,he looks a LOT like him and Ken Yamaguchi has a cool voice so I'll give him that. But Gacklander's not alone. He's got his Posse' with 'em! The red dude is Sorikondar. He was introduced in ep. 2 when facing Buggy Wolf. He was close to snapping Buggy Wolf's neck until Pro Truck Racer saved his hide. Sorikondar gained the most character development where he was originally seem to be a tough,intimidating presence,even telling his men off to back off since Buggy Wolf was his until ep. 17 when all of the previous encounters and operations against the Battlehackers kinda made him lost his mind and eventually,he was ultimately killed by R.Jettan. The green guy is Kariagen who basically is the typical japanese school gangster with a pompadour usually seen in Japanese fiction like this dude: (Massugu Ubukata from Kamen Rider Build Hyper Battle DVD) So yeah,Kariagen follows Gacklander around but he does have that arrogant streak. He usually combs his hair,probably to make him more cooler. There's also Yazand who is the best villain in the show and only because he's both a Yakuza and a samurai: There's also Rikimines the bull and Shibumidas who works for Yazand. Yazand is also responsible for the Anti-particle machine missile storyline that happens in ep 20-24 and is also the one person to piss off Drill Crusher in ep. 14 of Battlehackers. Yazand is cool. So with villains,there's always heroes. Enter the Battlehackers: Drill Crusher: A triple-changer who transforms from robot to rhino to drill tank of the future. The muscle of the group. Voiced by none other than Koichi ('Beerus God of Destruction' and Ryoga from Ranma') Yamadera Mach Blaster: Transforms from robot to gun to jet fighter. Pretty much the voice of the group. Pretty level-headed as well. He pretty much has a thing with R. Jettan's leadership from the looks of things in ep. 4 and has a sense of responsibility. R. Jettan: Quad changer and transforms from tank to Gerwalk to Jet fighter and robot. Has lots of guns and is basically John McClaine if he were a bad-ass robot. Leader of the Battlehackers. In ep. 17,his wife and kid and town got decimated during one of Gacklander and Casmodon's raids. Ultimately,he got his revenge. He's also getting a new toy by Fewture at the end of this year: And he recently appeared in SRW X-Omega. Garzack: Gun-toting gun-slinger of the group and second in command of the Battlehackers. He's the cool guy and he's the only one in the group who has no toy sadly. Pro Truck Racer: You guys already knew him but he is the same guy we knew. Seems to know R.Jettan's past in ep. 17 according to it. Gattai Saurer: Combiner consists of Headder,Abarer,Leggar and Tailder. Completely lazy goons when doing nothing but when it comes to fighting,they get the job done. Tailder,Abarer and Leggar seem to have a crush on Patricia Longfellow,the silver haired girl of the Good luck kids. Then there's the Wheelmen,Winner Machine Robos and don't get me started on the other two Wheelman,Rotary Kidd and Twin Cam Jimmy: You can find Rotary Kidd's review on CollectionDX. Basically,Battlehackers are more of like the Wreckers from Transformers but unlike the Wreckers who die easily,these guys are pretty much stronger than they look. They're pretty much the shock troopers of the Machine Robo gang. They'll take on any difficult guerilla warfare where regular Machine Robos like Super Car Robo and a bunch of others can't handle the punishment. If you want to watch Battlehackers,check out ScaleFace's list of them on youtube: The whole list of them can be seen on Mega here: MEGA But be warned,there are no eng subs as of this writing. This is a HUGE thing to talk about for me. I can just start right here if you guys want. I could even talk about the token humans that appear in this show too. X_X Also,Leina Stol's Wolf Sword Legend on Youtube is in canon with this. The second episode concluded that the Battlehackers have won according to the two girls in the OVA,Shuli and Ral and Rom is seen shaking hands with R.Jettan and damn,Rom is the same size as R.Jettan. Oh and a quick comment from me. Gacklander looks like he could fit in Cutey Honey which is funny because Honey had to face against Naojiro,a school gangster who was harassing her in the original anime:
