The Energon Pub

When I was a kid I saw an animated movie on TV. For years the only thing I remembered about it was the name of the robot. It was called Super PhoeniX. I remembered also the name of a planet where the good guys lived. Aurora.

With this I searched the internet for hours from time to time. Not so long ago I was looking for kid movies to rent for my girlfriend's daughter and there it was. It was called "Les défenseurs de l'espace". Obviously I took it.

This anime had a strong impact on me back then. When I first played Armored Core, I first named my AC Optimus Prime then the next was Phoenix (Super Phoenix was too long) Later I decided to create a Mecha based on this name. After a few years A whole world grew around Phoenix. Yet I didn't even remeber what the original Super Phoenix looked like. Only that it turned into a fire engine...

I put the tape in the VHS and sit. A few things strike me real hard. This anime isn't japanese. The animation is terrible, the story sucks and there a lot of sexism. The so called Super Phoenix looks a lot like the Autobot Inferno toy. To the point where I wonder if they just took pictures of it and drew over it. The music playing is taken directly from an obscure Anime named Xabungle. And the blue faced bad guys, riding a repainted White Base, have two Giant robots of their own. They're basically Grendizer (A.K.A. Goldorak) splitted in two giving some details to one or the other. And there are probably other things ripped from other sources.

So there I am. The main mecha and the world I created around it was inspired by a cheap ripoff. This hurts. Badly.

I made a copy of it so I'll be able to take pictures of it and post them here. I'm not sure it's a bad thing to copy a discontinued movie that violates so many copyrights...

ya, i found that at walmart not too long ago. the anime was made in some brittish guys basement, with himself and a couple of buds doing all the voices.

however, it is not an old concept, for many animes were brought overseas, and basicly were remade into new shows, by splicing several diffrent shows together. however, very few put many different toons into one episode or movie.

best example of this is robotech

all 3 series of robotech being completly difrent animes

voltron, was 3 diffrent shows too

battle of the planets, g-force, and eagle riders, 3 diffrent american shows, all one anime series.

and then of course shows like transformers and gobots, were toylines taken, and put to american cartoons.

if ya dont know, the lame gobots come from the cool getter robo.

Well... ever noticed the resemblence between our dear Optimus Prime and RX-78 Gundam?

That must be why the american Gundam in G Gundam was a like a football player in red and blue.

Evank_Horizon wrote:Well... ever noticed the resemblence between our dear Optimus Prime and RX-78 Gundam?

That must be why the american Gundam in G Gundam was a like a football player in red and blue.

Nah, the reason why Gundam Maxter was like a football player with giant magnums is because it was because of the American sterotype that we are a sports-centric society that loves to shoot things. And the boxing could have been influenced by the Rocky movies:




It wasn't limited to America, like the "Tequila Gundam" from Mexico for example:



Or how Gundam Rose looks like Napolean Bomeparte:



And the Matador Gundam from Spain focused on the Bull Fighter motif:



And Prime's resemblence to the RX-78 is passing at best, in my opinion. They share similar qualities, but remember, both are of Japanese origin.

And there's a whole website that lists a lot of other movies that the company behind "Phoenix King" also did, but I can't seem to find it. It had a whole bunch of really bad ripoffs, like Ninja turtles piloting the Gobot power armors, a KO Overlord with Starsaber head, etc. Anyone got a link?

Okay, I know nothing about this stuff, but Napoleon Gundam is freakin' awesome.

I've actually picked up the $1.00 "Defenders of Space" DVD from Walmart... Watched about half of it, turned it off, put it back in to it's case, and haven't touched it since...

I'm sorry to hear you've based so much off of... so little...

And, while Voltron was originally meant to contain the three separate series, they only ended up using two of them... Vehicle & Lion Voltrons... We never really saw the "Gladiator" except in the promotional work for the series...

As for Robotech, the only portion of the series I cared enough about to purchase the DVD's was the "Macross Saga"... So, if I ever get the chance (to afford it), I'll pick up the actual "Macross" DVD's...

Methusalen wrote:As for Robotech, the only portion of the series I cared enough about to purchase the DVD's was the "Macross Saga"... So, if I ever get the chance (to afford it), I'll pick up the actual "Macross" DVD's...

Be wary, the original ADV boxset(which I have) is not remastered, and the video quality isn't that great. There's a "Robotech Remastered" out now, though I don't have it. I assume it looks MUCH better. I've also heard it's uncut, and the original ADV release is cut. There's also the uncut Animego version of Macross, which is the Japanese version, and it's subtitled, with Japanese voice.

I've never priced any of the stuff, but just thought I'd give out a heads up.

*edit* Wait, I think I misread the post. Disreguard if you've already got it.

I saw that DVD at Walmart, too. "Defenders of Space"... I thought that maybe it was some side-story for the Transforms, cause the Pheonix King looked like a Transformer of some sorts. Boy, I wasted a whole slaggin' $2 at the Dollar Store... I fell asleep during the Pheonix King's big intro where he flew around for about 5 minutes. Woke back up and forced myself to watch the rest of the thing to at least get me $2 worth... then I refused to buy anything in that section of simple remakes again. Those were terrible! I hated that movie!!
I'm terribly sorry that you had to grow up with that. I virtually hug you and sob, knowing some of the pain you have. But we must move on! XD

DeathCaller wrote:I saw that DVD at Walmart, too. "Defenders of Space"... I thought that maybe it was some side-story for the Transforms, cause the Pheonix King looked like a Transformer of some sorts. Boy, I wasted a whole slaggin' $2 at the Dollar Store... I fell asleep during the Pheonix King's big intro where he flew around for about 5 minutes. Woke back up and forced myself to watch the rest of the thing to at least get me $2 worth... then I refused to buy anything in that section of simple remakes again. Those were terrible! I hated that movie!!
I'm terribly sorry that you had to grow up with that. I virtually hug you and sob, knowing some of the pain you have. But we must move on! XD

Thank you

I must admit I dramatised things a little bit. Of course there were other influences to my world other than that crappy video. Megaman and Xenogears being probably the most noticable inspirations. I hope I'll eventually come up with something more complete than a few drawings. Maybe comics or something like that. I'd like to build a role playing game around this world but I guess it would only be played by my friends and me... unless I come up with something online...

Duke of Luns wrote:

Evank_Horizon wrote:Well... ever noticed the resemblence between our dear Optimus Prime and RX-78 Gundam?

That must be why the american Gundam in G Gundam was a like a football player in red and blue.

Nah, the reason why Gundam Maxter was like a football player with giant magnums is because it was because of the American sterotype that we are a sports-centric society that loves to shoot things. And the boxing could have been influenced by the Rocky movies:




It wasn't limited to America, like the "Tequila Gundam" from Mexico for example:



Or how Gundam Rose looks like Napolean Bomeparte:



And the Matador Gundam from Spain focused on the Bull Fighter motif:



And Prime's resemblence to the RX-78 is passing at best, in my opinion. They share similar qualities, but remember, both are of Japanese origin.

And there's a whole website that lists a lot of other movies that the company behind "Phoenix King" also did, but I can't seem to find it. It had a whole bunch of really bad ripoffs, like Ninja turtles piloting the Gobot power armors, a KO Overlord with Starsaber head, etc. Anyone got a link?

Neo´s Portugal gundam pilot is a clown?

Duke of Luns wrote:Be wary, the original ADV boxset(which I have) is not remastered, and the video quality isn't that great. There's a "Robotech Remastered" out now, though I don't have it. I assume it looks MUCH better. I've also heard it's uncut, and the original ADV release is cut.

I have a couple of the Robotech Remastered disks. From what I've seen, the reason it's called "uncut" is because it restores some footage from the original Japanese series that was removed before it aired originally. Most of this was, apparently, because it couldn't have made it onto American television with those elements intact.

They also include completely new title sequences, and, if I'm remembering correctly, redo the sound effects in a manner similar to what Rhino did with Transformers.

Now I don't have the entire Remastered set, so I can only go by the two disks I have, but I'm guessing this is pretty much the same throughout the set.

I found the site of the guys who made "Phoenix King". They did a whole bunch of Rip-off anime', with lots of screen caps from each, and most of it is quite amusing:

http://nandakorea.sakura.ne.jp/koreanime.html

*edit* The third Diaclone triple changer that never made it into Transformers even appears in one of them.

Pic of the third triple changer:
http://www.toyarchive.com/Diaclone/Triplechanger.html

The movie he was in:
http://nandakorea.sakura.ne.jp/koreanihtml/c_20.html

You mean these ones?

1 more.

This one has reflector AND the ark.

Looks like reflector is some sorta super weapon in this one.

http://nandakorea.sakura.ne.jp/koreanihtml/d_10.html

This one has V'ger, a (very cheesy ) Batman, AND Castle Greyskull!

http://nandakorea.sakura.ne.jp/koreanihtml/d_18.html

What a bunch of perfectly discusting ripoffs! I didn't know there were so many of those. I had counted 6 in the collection last time I searched for that...

Thanks. Now I have something to haunt my dreams.

EnerJolt wrote:

Thanks. Now I have something to haunt my dreams.

Looks pretty neat to me.

I think i've seen that DVD somewhere, looks pretty crap.

Huh mind you behind that DVD i found a Transformers Taraka DVD, its has some of the headmasters stuff, but its a horrid english dub (i think, didn't look that hard).

Immortal Starscream wrote:ya, i found that at walmart not too long ago. the anime was made in some brittish guys basement, with himself and a couple of buds doing all the voices.

however, it is not an old concept, for many animes were brought overseas, and basicly were remade into new shows, by splicing several diffrent shows together. however, very few put many different toons into one episode or movie.

best example of this is robotech

all 3 series of robotech being completly difrent animes

voltron, was 3 diffrent shows too

battle of the planets, g-force, and eagle riders, 3 diffrent american shows, all one anime series.

and then of course shows like transformers and gobots, were toylines taken, and put to american cartoons.

if ya dont know, the lame gobots come from the cool getter robo.

Acualy the Go-Bots come from Machine-Robo
Tonka licenced MR from Bandai in '82
Tonka thought that The Anime for MR was to violent so they hired Hanna-Barbara to create a Show for children.

Also in defense of the shows (yes I know they do suck) but they were only a dollar & my younger kids love them. In one they have a Gundam/Mazinger that conects to a flying train that has to fight a Red Raydeen. Also all of the villans ships look like the Gundam ships plus the badguys use Zaku Robots as well.
Also don't put Starbirds in that mix although a bad dub it is the Daimos movie. Also same with Space Pirate. some how that company got the rights for both of thoise

tmthor wrote:

Immortal Starscream wrote:ya, i found that at walmart not too long ago. the anime was made in some brittish guys basement, with himself and a couple of buds doing all the voices.

however, it is not an old concept, for many animes were brought overseas, and basicly were remade into new shows, by splicing several diffrent shows together. however, very few put many different toons into one episode or movie.

best example of this is robotech

all 3 series of robotech being completly difrent animes

voltron, was 3 diffrent shows too

battle of the planets, g-force, and eagle riders, 3 diffrent american shows, all one anime series.

and then of course shows like transformers and gobots, were toylines taken, and put to american cartoons.

if ya dont know, the lame gobots come from the cool getter robo.

Acualy the Go-Bots come from Machine-Robo
Tonka licenced MR from Bandai in '82
Tonka thought that The Anime for MR was to violent so they hired Hanna-Barbara to create a Show for children.

Also in defense of the shows (yes I know they do suck) but they were only a dollar & my younger kids love them. In one they have a Gundam/Mazinger that conects to a flying train that has to fight a Red Raydeen. Also all of the villans ships look like the Gundam ships plus the badguys use Zaku Robots as well.
Also don't put Starbirds in that mix although a bad dub it is the Daimos movie. Also same with Space Pirate. some how that company got the rights for both of thoise

I surely doubt this was done legally.

Sometimes they are Remeber "Clash Of the Bionoids" I heard that was legaL A Horendis dub but still Legal Also the Starbirds Dvd was the same one they used to air on Showtime & HBO in the 80's I beleive some of these are that old The Phoenix may not even be a KO Of TF inferno but of The Diaclone Inferno. I also have seen toys for the Phoenix they are always oversized & always from Korea.

tmthor wrote:Sometimes they are Remeber "Clash Of the Bionoids" I heard that was legaL A Horendis dub but still Legal Also the Starbirds Dvd was the same one they used to air on Showtime & HBO in the 80's I beleive some of these are that old The Phoenix may not even be a KO Of TF inferno but of The Diaclone Inferno. I also have seen toys for the Phoenix they are always oversized & always from Korea.

I think I still got a copy of Clash of the Bionoids somewhere.

Was confused how that and the macross series worked togather.

I bought a $1 movie at walmart called Space Transformers, I thought that well it was only a buck and it might be intresting to watch, but it wasn't the dub that was the worst part(It was the worst dub though ever), it was the fact that they kept on using the same animation over and over again. There is a part where a robot smashes into a ship and throws the people into space, but then he does it again, and then a third time and there is only one ship.