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Post by bbechtold on Jul 28, 2004 15:42:48 GMT -5
Am I the only one here who collects SoCs yet doesn't know anything about the robots. I mean, when I started collecting, I had no idea who any of these characters are...I think I might have heard of Mazinger, but thats it.
I have always loved robots (transformers, robotech, etc) so I like the designs and AWESOME quality of these robots.
Am I the only one? It seems most of you know a lot more than me on the robots, their history, etc...
Bill
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Post by GDomino on Jul 28, 2004 17:18:47 GMT -5
I mostly go after superbots I'm familiar with..
Even though I never had the toys as a kid (except for a Voltron, various TFs and Robotech toys), the robots that hold a special place in my heart and "soul" are Astro-Boy, Mazinger Z (Tranzor Z in the US), Combattler V, Voltes V (Voltus V), Daimos, and Voltron (Lions); Robot shows I remember seeing on Hawaii TV at a very young age (I think I was 6 or 7 yrs old then). They have just as much meaning to me as the Flintstones, Scooby Doo, Jetsons, He-man and GI Joe cartoons do. I remember that after their run on US tv in the early 80s, I would still watch these super robot shows on the mexican/spanish channels even though I didn't know a lick of Spanish (also at this age in my life I was ignorant about them being Japanese animation and just saw them as cartoons on TV). Macross/Robotech and Transformers soon followed in my Super bot fetish simply because they had the coolest toys.
Dancougar, I saw the VHS set in my late teens when I was really getting into anime so I wanted him for that. And the Eva anime soon followed so that's why I have them.
TBH, the other bots like Zambot, Grendizer, Getters, and others, I only saw some eps after hearing about them from collecting the SOC toys, so they don't have any real meaning for me to go after them, maybe other than to make my SOC army look bigger on my shelf. But still, they don't really tempt me enough to have them in my collection. I just wanna be part of the "Grendizer is bestest" cool click so I want a Grendizer ;D ;D
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Post by bbechtold on Jul 28, 2004 17:36:39 GMT -5
I am 30 now. Were these shows not on when I was a kid? I remember Ultraman, Voltron (vehicles and Lions), Starblazers, and Robotech. But thats about it.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bill
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Post by andrewdsz on Jul 28, 2004 17:46:00 GMT -5
im 19, i know most of the robots because i played SRW wars games too much. ;D
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Post by Koji on Jul 28, 2004 18:22:06 GMT -5
I grew up watching these bad boys on TV or VHS (or as we used to have in the Philippines, Beta ;D). I started collecting with the Maz family out of sheer nostgalia. The SOCs are cool as they bring back a part of my childhood. Local collectors here have cheap access to the original shows and it helps to keep memories of these SRs alive.
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cborn
Rusty Robot
Posts: 65
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Post by cborn on Jul 28, 2004 18:25:20 GMT -5
I thought it was just me who had never heard of these soc robots, I am glad that someone else came out and said it first. But like you, I have always loved robots and thought the SOC quality was unequalled, and that is why I collect them. It seems as if most people on these thread sites love Voltes V. I have never heard of Voltes V, and when I researched him because I kept seeing the name, I wasn't impressed!! Looks like a very basic design robot with no good gimmicks!!, I know I may be ousted for saying this but.... I'd rather see a ton of other superbots get the SOC treatment before this plain square looking guy. But people probably love Voltes V because of the anime and for nostalgia sake, and I have never seen the anime so who am I to speak.
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Post by GDomino on Jul 28, 2004 18:37:27 GMT -5
After really going back in my memories and doing some googling ;D, I think I'm remembering things differently. I am pretty sure that Mazinger/Tranzor Z, Voltron and Robotech were the only animes being aired here in the US in either 84 or 85... Tranzor Z only lasted one year of syndication then it disappeared unlike Voltron and Robotech. (Here's a link that contains the audio for the opening of the US dubbed version of Tranzor Z). I got a little confused because at the same time, I used to spend my summers in the Philippines where i used to watch the horrible english dubs of Astro boy, Voltes V, Mazinger, Daimos, and even Macross. I do remember watching their spanish counterparts on mexican TV in Hawaii and also in San Diego where my father was stationed at what was NAS Miramar when it was the home of Top Gun, but now is MCAS Miramar [just a little tidbit but this one I'm definitely positive about heh heh ;D]. |
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Post by renibatz on Jul 28, 2004 20:25:08 GMT -5
I'll be turning 30 this August as well bech. I used to watch Force Five cartoons. I grew up in Santa Clara, California. I think my grandparents had Showtime or HBO though. I think they were on one of those cable networks. I barely remember Gaiking, Grendizer, and Starvengers(Getter Team). I haven't seen these cartoons since when I was a kid. But I love the looks and the designs of the characters a bunch.
I also watched Voltron, Robotech and Transformers of course. However, I'm not at all interested in Robotech or Transformer toys. I do like the Go Lion Voltron for sentimental reasons. It was the first Godaikin my mom got me. Other than that I don't own any Voltron stuff and I'm not interested in it.
So as it turns out, the cartoon series I know least about is the one I'm most intriuged by at the moment. Maybe there's a corelation. As you may know I posted elsewhere that I was looking for Force Five videos to try and figure out what I liked about these guys.
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Post by REX-203 on Jul 28, 2004 20:38:51 GMT -5
Well, through the years I've always been primarily a Transformers fan. Although, as a kid I did have both Lion Force Voltron and Vehicle Force Voltron. I remember seeing the Godaikin GoLion at a local specialty toy store, called Toys By Roy, and thinking it was a rip off of Voltron (I was a 7 yr old American kid, cut me some slack!  ). Besides TFs and Voltron, I also watched Tranzor Z in the brief period it was aired here in the US. My friends and I used to joke around about Aphrodite's "boobie bombs", also referred to as "tittie torpedos", and "mammary missiles" (again, a little slack for the kids, please ;D). Also, somehow I had one of Combattra's feet, but never knew what it was. I think one of my older cousins gave it to me. In fact, up until maybe less than a year ago, I always thought it was some crazy Hot Wheel or Matchbox car. I'm sure it came from Toys By Roy. Little did I know how significant that little toy store in a secluded corner of the mall was until long after it closed down.  Anyway... To answer your question, these are all new to me too. I've grown very fond particularly of Combattler (perhaps because I have his original foot..., maybe?) and I like Voltes a lot too. And of course, any form of Mazinger kicks @$$! I fell in love with Dancouga (especially) and Zambot the first time I saw them too, probably because I love the combiner teams so much. Oh, and just for the record, just about everything I know about Super Robots and SOCs, I learned right here on Robot-Japan. So thanks Ed and everybody else for opening a whole new world of robot collecting to me. It's been, and continues to be, a real blast!  |
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Post by Koji on Jul 28, 2004 20:47:19 GMT -5
I thought it was just me who had never heard of these soc robots, I am glad that someone else came out and said it first. But like you, I have always loved robots and thought the SOC quality was unequalled, and that is why I collect them. It seems as if most people on these thread sites love Voltes V. I have never heard of Voltes V, and when I researched him because I kept seeing the name, I wasn't impressed!! Looks like a very basic design robot with no good gimmicks!!, I know I may be ousted for saying this but.... I'd rather see a ton of other superbots get the SOC treatment before this plain square looking guy. But people probably love Voltes V because of the anime and for nostalgia sake, and I have never seen the anime so who am I to speak. I understand your post. Technically, Voltes was based on Combattler V and for me not as appealling as Mazinger. Some members here will remember Voltes as the SR that launched the Super Robot craze in the Philippines. With that there is a lot of nostalgia assigned to Voltes. If you ask anyone here which Super Robot, they will tell you its Voltes and not Mazinger or the other Go Nagai creations. |
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Post by Ben-Ohki on Jul 28, 2004 20:49:34 GMT -5
The newbie sounds off: I'm pleasantly surprised to hear bbechtold enjoying his new gokin toys so much because in my view, the shows he named are as far from the Super Robot genre as you can get while still featuring robots. Glad to hear you like 'em (come on folks, spread the SoC gospel!)  Anyway, I'm turning 28 this fall. I also grew up on a steady diet of Voltron and Transformers. However, living in a small town outside of Montreal, my cable provider never offered any channels that ran Robotech so I never actually saw a single episode of that until college friends showed me their old tapes (but I did read all the McKinney novels). On the other hand, in place of Robotech, I did catch quite a bit of "Tranzor-Z." And also living in a predominantly French part of Canada, I was also watching Goldorak (UFO Robot Grendizer). So its understandable that my SoC collection consists mainly of black robots with red chests and yellow horns.  |
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Post by Cedar on Jul 28, 2004 21:08:55 GMT -5
I was born and raised in Vancouver, BC, but did spend a few months in Hong Kong every year (where my parents are from) as I was growing up. When in HK, I did watch whatever SR cartoons were on, but I have trouble remembering what they were. They also had knockoff stickers and comic picture books of the robots sold at every corner that you could buy from street newspaper vendors and I used to have a bunch of them. I really wish I kept them now, but growing up, I must have drawn on them and ripped out pages!
My aunt bought me a Grandizer w/ UFO and I had a Daiku Maryu w/ Gaiking (both are long lost now), and Red King, along with a host of others... I was pretty spoiled as a kid!
But now, I don't remember any of the plot lines or characters. I suppose just the coolness of the toys are what has me hooked. And now, I have to pay for them myself! Sniff sniff!
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Post by jwm on Jul 28, 2004 21:42:46 GMT -5
I got turned on to Japanese robots back in 1978. (I was 25) There was no cable then, just UHF. I had only the vaguest idea that these toys were all connected to television shows. Nonetheless, the Popy, and Bullmark robots that I saw then struck me as the coolest things I'd ever seen. But I'm not kiddin'- when I got the fever back then and robots began devouring shelf space-people thought I was nuts. I took a lot of ribbing, and once a guy got pissed at me because I didn't want him playing hot-wheels with my new DX Daimos. (Imagine that!)
The Gundam Wing series on Cartoon Network got me hooked on robots again in 2000. I have lots of Gundam Wing figures. My first SOC was Eva 01, which I also had to have because I had seen, and liked the series.
Bottom line: You can get hooked on the toys without seeing the series, but you can't see a series without getting hooked on the toys. Hence, for example, the extreme danger of UC Gundam addiction. Entire houses have been lost in vain efforts to contain the Horde.
JWM
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Post by Mazinkaiser on Jul 28, 2004 22:24:13 GMT -5
I am 33 and spent my youth in the San Gabriel Valley in the Los Angeles area.
I have never liked stuff like Sesame Street, Captn Kangaroo, The Bugaloos etc.
The stuff I always watched when I was like 4 was Speed Racer, The Space Giants (Goldar, Silvar, Gam), Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman), and in later years Robotech, Star Blazers, Voltron (cars and lions), Transformers, etc.
As far as toys, I had like ALL the Shogun Warroirs (I kick myself for tearing them up as a kid) along with Godzilla. I never got Rodan (bummer).
The Shogun Warriors are like the Mazinger family, with Raydeen, Gaiking, Dragun, Daimos, Goldorak. They were like 2' tall and had flying missles etc. They were my favorite toys, probably cause of the size. I also played with micronauts and later on Transformers, zoids, and Gobots.
I buy the SOC stuff as a reminder of my childhood. It's cool now because I know their names. As a kid I didn't care, they were just super big cool robots!
So thats my story ;D
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Post by lancerzx on Jul 29, 2004 6:59:48 GMT -5
Well i was raised in latin america, Venezuela, they used to show every jap. anime of the time, i raised watching Mazinger Z (wich i became a zeto coholic), Great mazinger, Gaiking, Daimos, Dia Apolon, astro boy, jeeg steel, transformers, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc.
I used to have all those chogokin with me but one day as i was growing up my happy mother decided to give away my robots, man was i pissed off, well, now after many years of that incident i decided to collect all my good memories back, starting with mazinger, greto majin go (i love how that sound), voltron and eberything i can find on the internet, but yes, mostly i go for all those robots that marked my life as a kid.
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Post by Gransazer on Jul 29, 2004 7:19:53 GMT -5
I'm 39 and was bitten by the giant robot bug at a very early age. The arrival of cable TV in the early '70s changed me forever; here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we would get both the New York and Philadelphia channels (WPIX 11 and WPHL 17 out of Philly). I was blown away by Space Giants, Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot, Battle of the Planets, and others, but the show that impacted me most was Reideen. There was a dead channel deep in the dial that would occasionally flicker with content, usually on the weekends. One weekend while clicking through the dial (ka-CHUNK! ka-CHUNK! Remotes were a few years down the road at this time...), I stopped at the dead channel and noticed they were broadcasting something that seemed to be in Japanese. As the broadcast became clearer, the image of Reideen seared into my brain. It was as if this show was made for ME! It instantly clicked. During the commercials, which were also in Japanese, they flashed images of Reideen toys and the address of the Marusan Trading Company in New York City. Needless to say, I sent them a letter and received the most amazing four-page catalog of toys I had ever seen. I would stare at the pages for hours. Not long after, the Shogun Warriors invaded America and I had my very own Reideen. Giant Japanese robots have been my obsession ever since.
Most of my original toys are long gone. Hopefully, I'll buy 'em all back by the time I turn 40. ;D
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Post by Lanmandragoran on Jul 29, 2004 7:27:58 GMT -5
Well, I was raised in Brazil but part-time in Italy, as my father is Italian ;D I was a huge fan of Mazinger and Grendizer, Groizer X was huge in Brazil, so this is basically how I got to know Go Nagai. I had many of these bots as a child, including the above mentioned Maz and Gren in both Jumbo and Shogun forms. This should cover 60% of all gokins (Mazinger family and Grendizer). I actually have seen many episodes of Evangelion, so I am up to 80% then? I have to confess that I had the shogun getter teams, but I was not aware of the characters. I just got to know them recentlybecause of SOC. Neither I know the backgrounds for Zambot, Dancouga or Gaiking. BUt i can say that I already love them all! |
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Post by dme3o on Jul 29, 2004 8:44:49 GMT -5
Born in the Philippines and raised in New York, now residing in New Jersey, USA!. I was born in 1972 (When Mazinger and various other classic robots hit the air waves in Japan) and my exposure started with the 70's super robots and then influenced by the 80's american versions (Voltron, Transformers). I then decided to familiarize myself with older ( T-28 classic and Astro Boy, Space Giants, etc.) and newer robots/sentai and Japanese shows because "it's all good"! I appreciate both old and new but as expected, nothing will ever change the connection you have with your "first super robot" experiences.! Peace! |
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Post by ronin777 on Jul 29, 2004 9:33:52 GMT -5
Like dme30 I was also born in the Philippines. At 14 years I migrated to the US in San Diego and after 3 years moved here in Washington DC. I grew up watching Mazinger, Voltes V, etc. As I grew older I also familiarized myself with the other bots I never saw (it took me about 10 years before seeing great mazinger which never aired in the Philippines, lol). Then the collecting itch began. I was a proud owner of a godaikin voltes v and i was dumb enough to sell it about 10 years ago (don't ask me why but I still regret it). I am 34 years old now and still collecting, I'm glad the SOC line came up to make up for those toys i've always wanted to buy but couldn't. I'm still learing as I go along about the other super robots, thanks to google. I'd also like to say hello to my fellow Pinoy collectors, pm me anytime kabayans!
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Post by dme3o on Jul 29, 2004 9:52:17 GMT -5
Hello Hello! But we are all brothers in Super Robots no matter what national origin! ;D (Yes, that was cheesy but I got's ta show sum luv!) Gransazer, Ronin...I do feel your pain... I had to leave all my toys behind when I moved to the US...could not bring them all. Or ANY as a matter of fact!...I would had to have had a freight company ship them...man do I miss my voltes! It's all gone now...no idea what happened...perhaps they were sold and maybe someone out there has my long lost Voltes...hope it's in good hands...(sob sob) |
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