For the week ending September 22, 2011 we discuss the latest news and reviews as posted to the site. In news Josh and Adam discuss Macross 7, Macross Frontier, and Macross the Ride as well as The 1/6th Iron Monger by Hot Toys. For reviews we talk about The Big O, DX Kaizoku Gattai Gōjūjin, Action Portable Tomorrow Kings, Wolf Nachi and Kevin Flynn . In Blind Boxed Josh breaks down his Top 5 Non-Japanese Super Robots.
News
- More Valkyries from Macross 7, Macross Frontier, and Macross the Ride
- The 1/6th Iron Monger by Hot Toys
Reviews
Blind Box
Top 5 NON-JAPANESE Super Robots
Honorable mention
Comments
9 comments postedI love Robot Jox. It was actually released in theaters. Its "sequels" Crash and Burn and Robot Wars were not to my knowledge. Yeah Robot Jox is just great. Funnily enough the "American" robot is called the Matsumoto-14 as it was named after a character in the movie who was the weapons designer for the good guys. The movie is a bit of a cult classic in Japan where even one issue of the popular model magazine Hobby Japan had a scratch built Matsumoto-14 as its cover and as the feature article.
Yeah I'm a bit of a nut. I even have the Robot Jox novelization.
Wow, you surprise me with your posting, VF5SS. I didn't imagine that you would be attached to "Robot Jox". You don't strike me as the kind of person who likes watching fail just for the lolz.
Long ago when it came out, i had a chance to handle that very issue of Hobby Japan, and it was very cool. (Ron Cobb, who designed the 'bots, has his own web site, but it's down right now, so I can't check to see if he had any info on it. Likewise, it's very difficult to find behind-the-scenes ANYTHING on this film regarding the 'bots.)
I would imagine that even a film this bad would do well in Japan because, well, it had giant robots in it.
Yeah it was a bad film, but I thought there were some very interesting topics they could have addressed but were roughly shoved aside because director Stuart Gordon and the writer Joe Haldeman ("The Forever War") couldn't get along.
Funny- Hollywood will remake classics like "The Day the Earth Stood Still", but they won't risk fixing something that actually needs fixing!
EDIT: BTW, isn't Robot Jox the very first American-produced movie involving live-action [piloted] giant robots?
"You don't strike me as the kind of person who likes watching fail just for the lolz."
That's why I don't watch your videos :3
"EDIT: BTW, isn't Robot Jox the very first American-produced movie involving live-action [piloted] giant robots?"
I think The Empire Strikes Back has Robot Jox beat by a decade...Heck, Spaceballs has everybody beat for live-action movies involving giant space battleships that turn into giant robots.
Ehh, mostly I was thinking humanoid robots. But since you bring up "Spaceballs", I guess that answers the question. Thanks.
There was nothing on Ron Cobb's site about the movie if I recall correctly. Most of the stuff there was more focused on his work as a political cartoonist, and his more famous work on the 1st two ALIEN films and Star Wars. Remember that this guy is considered THE best political cartoonist of the 1960's & 70's by academics and whatnot. There was an interview around the time the ALIEN DVD Box Set came out where he did mention ROBOT JOX... maybe AICN ?
EVA if you or anyone else have any interest in Cobb's work, I highly recommend his art books. The one I have is called "My Fellow Americans" and is really great stuff from his 1960's newspaper political work. There is another which features a lot of the stuff we CDX folk freak for - concept art and other original Sci-Fi/Genre art - called COLORVISION... it is really expensive and out of print but well worth the price, $50-100 is a fair price. His site goes up and down for years at a time and is not really updated often which is a shame. His art seems to be the stuff that people just don't scan and share on the internet, sure there's a lot out there but most of the best is hidden in his books.
Also of note is that someone has a bunch of Ron Cobb's original concept art from ROBOT JOX on eBay right now for *very cheap* - especially from a famous designer like Ron Cobb! Well worth the money!
FORM OF CRIPPLE TRON!
I just wanted to mention that the show is getting better and better. You guys really have a good back and forth. Josh your enthusiasm for anything robot is so sincere and every time you reference something I feel like I know exactly what you are talking about.
I was surprised to hear dynamo joe mentioned. I thought I was the only person who bought that comic :) But at the time I would buy anything giant robot I could get my hands on. For me the 80's was a great time to try and discover small artifacts from Japan and slowly try to piece together what the heck was going on with all these mecha. Now with the web it's so easy to find information and buy stuff.
Great take on the Titan scene. Cool to see someone just appreciate when someone goes above and beyond. Tartakovsky is a genius. Samurai Jack will always be a favorite of mine. And the thing I like about robot jox is the robot scenes. It reminds me of thunderbirds with that slow motion to make things feel huge. Instead of live actors they should have used super marionetation :) Keep up the great work guys!
-Ted
Thanks for the shout-out, guys!