I had this kit back in the 80s. Aoshima 1/48 scale Road Ranger from the Japanese anime film Techno Police 21C (1982). The Road Ranger is the heroes police car. Aoshima also made 1/16 scale kits of the Blader, Vigorous and Scanny police robots that assist the detectives, and 1/48 kits of the two battle tanks - the MBT-99A Temtzin and MBT-90D Mazurka. The film is about tne theft of the virtually indestructable MBT-99A as the police and army chase after it through the city as the criminals use it to rob banks and head for a rendezvous with a submarine to escape. A bit like a Captain Scarlet episode without the Mysterons!
There was a thriving anime fan community in the UK, Europe and the US back in the 80s and 90s who copied the original Japanese or French/ Italian programs onto VHS tapes for fellow fans free of charge. You provided your own blank tape, envelope and postage and they copied it for you. You’d often get Japanese TV adverts on the tape as well if there were commercial breaks! Anime was massive in Europe and many of the Japanese shows were dubbed and shown over there, so sometimes you’d get to see it in Japanese and sometimes dubbed in French or Italian! Great fun. I remember watching this first in its original Japanese, though it did come out for sale in the UK badly dubbed in English a few years later. I've always been struck by how the original Japanese versions use voice actors that sound appropriate to the character they are playing and don't have silly voices like English/American dubbed versions do. For example if a character is an old man they actually use an older actor, whereas in an English dubbed version to save money an actor will do multiple voices and it will be a young man putting on an old man voice that rarely works. Additionally the European versions kept the violence that was in the original. Violence was always edited in US/UK versions as anime was the regarded as "just another cartoon for kids". (Compare the classic 1978 “Battle of the Planets” and its original Japanese “Science Ninja Team Gatchaman” if you get the chance, and be amazed at the number of deaths in the original !). Anyway it was fans helping other fans. Great times!
Fab insights Yorkie. A world which simply passed me by. I love how you got tapes off fellow fans. So cool. I've hundreds of VHS tapes but none of them are Anime!
Aoshima's Techno-Police series was a pale shadow of the classic Japanese SF design wave of the 1960s and 1970s, which I much preferred. Coming out in the early 1980s, here you can easily see the deadening influence of both the Mad Max and Star Wars franchises in the lazy, angular design elements. And the Road Ranger looks about as ugly as a Tesla Truck! Long Live First-Wave Japan SF! SFZ
.jpeg)
Can't imagine having to park that beast.
ReplyDeleteHaha, six wheels of pure coolness Baron!
DeleteI had this kit back in the 80s. Aoshima 1/48 scale Road Ranger from the Japanese anime film Techno Police 21C (1982). The Road Ranger is the heroes police car. Aoshima also made 1/16 scale kits of the Blader, Vigorous and Scanny police robots that assist the detectives, and 1/48 kits of the two battle tanks - the MBT-99A Temtzin and MBT-90D Mazurka.
ReplyDeleteThe film is about tne theft of the virtually indestructable MBT-99A as the police and army chase after it through the city as the criminals use it to rob banks and head for a rendezvous with a submarine to escape.
A bit like a Captain Scarlet episode without the Mysterons!
Wow! You and Lance (USA) know so much about this kind of Japanese TV Yorkie! How did you see it all in 80's Britain?
DeleteThere was a thriving anime fan community in the UK, Europe and the US back in the 80s and 90s who copied the original Japanese or French/ Italian programs onto VHS tapes for fellow fans free of charge. You provided your own blank tape, envelope and postage and they copied it for you. You’d often get Japanese TV adverts on the tape as well if there were commercial breaks!
DeleteAnime was massive in Europe and many of the Japanese shows were dubbed and shown over there, so sometimes you’d get to see it in Japanese and sometimes dubbed in French or Italian! Great fun.
I remember watching this first in its original Japanese, though it did come out for sale in the UK badly dubbed in English a few years later. I've always been struck by how the original Japanese versions use voice actors that sound appropriate to the character they are playing and don't have silly voices like English/American dubbed versions do. For example if a character is an old man they actually use an older actor, whereas in an English dubbed version to save money an actor will do multiple voices and it will be a young man putting on an old man voice that rarely works. Additionally the European versions kept the violence that was in the original. Violence was always edited in US/UK versions as anime was the regarded as "just another cartoon for kids". (Compare the classic 1978 “Battle of the Planets” and its original Japanese “Science Ninja Team Gatchaman” if you get the chance, and be amazed at the number of deaths in the original !).
Anyway it was fans helping other fans. Great times!
Fab insights Yorkie. A world which simply passed me by. I love how you got tapes off fellow fans. So cool. I've hundreds of VHS tapes but none of them are Anime!
DeleteAoshima's Techno-Police series was a pale shadow of the classic Japanese SF design wave of the 1960s and 1970s, which I much preferred. Coming out in the early 1980s, here you can easily see the deadening influence of both the Mad Max and Star Wars franchises in the lazy, angular design elements. And the Road Ranger looks about as ugly as a Tesla Truck! Long Live First-Wave Japan SF! SFZ
ReplyDeleteDeadening! Wow, that's a strong word SF. As for Tesla trucks, do you not think they look futuristic?
DeleteI think Tesla trucks look like a low budget 70's SF series idea of the future.
Delete