Tetsujin 28 Live Action Movie Review

"Look at my big muscles."
One of the reasons for March of the Robots here all this month is because I have recently rekindled a passion for Tetsujin 28, known here in the US as Gigantor. I'll be reviewing some Tetsujin figures in the days ahead and today I'm going to be looking at the live action film from 2005. Tetsujin is a somewhat hard property to bring to life, because one of the main concepts is a boy who controls a giant robot. There is a real gap in reality that you have to get over before you can even begin to accept the premise of this film.


Anyway, the story is about Shotaro Kaneda who was known as Jimmy Sparks in the American 1960's cartoon. Shotaro is a kid who doesn't fit in and who has lost his father. The comparisons to Iron Giant are already pretty clearly at play here. Shotaro is having a recurring nightmare about his father and all he can remember is his Dad pushing him around. His father who is obviously dead, haunts Shotaro because he thinks his father may have hated him.


"Even my hair cut is evil."
It's not long after we see a giant robot attacking Japan. That robot is Black Ox, who is controlled by Dr. Reiji Takumi (Dr. Franken in the anime) who is bent on causing terrorism after the death of his son and his failed computer empire. While Black Ox is on the rampage, Shotaro's mother is injured and he comes across an old dude who is a cross between Mr. Fuji and Colonel Sanders, who apparently worked with Shotaro's father and grandfather in the Tetsujin project.

What's the Tetsujin project? Well it was last ditch effort by the Japanese in World War II to turn the tide of the war, by building a giant robot killing machine. Unfortunately they took too long and had 27 failures before finishing Tetusjin 28. However, by the time Tetusjin 28 was ready, the war was lost. Since that time Colonel Fuji Sanders (I have no idea what his real name is, he's not in the anime) has been the guardian of Tetsujin and now he's here to give it to his rightful heir, Shotaro.


"We can rebuild him. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster, extra crispy."
Shotaro is given control of Tetsujin and they head off to fight the Black Ox. Tetsujin isn't fully finished and Shotaro pretty much sucks at controlling him. This was one of the more amusing parts of the film, as Shotaro loses in ridiculous fashion to Black Ox.


Tetsujin is nearly destroyed in the process. Lots of people are hurt and the Japanese government are angry that Shotaro would try to stop this terrorist on his own. Everyone then proceeds to tell Shotaro what a loser he is. Eventually though, they decide that Tetsujin is the best bet to defeat Black Ox. So they offer to rebuild Tetsujin and train Shotaro to use him.


The movie then becomes a bit like Rocky with giant robots, as Shotaro and Tetsujin are Rocky to Black Ox's Ivan Drago. It's a shame we couldn't get "Eye of the Tiger" to play during the training sessions though. Why no one tries to use tanks or missiles to stop Black Ox, is beyond me. Maybe they saw how ineffectual those weapons usually are against Godzilla. Eventually there is a show down, the two robots do battle and well, the good guys win. If you were expecting something else, then you're in the wrong genre.


So what did I think of this movie? Well it certainly captures some of the elements of Tetsujin. Most of the major characters appear, such as Inspector Otsuka (Inspector Blooper) and Professor Shikishima (Professor Brilliant) but they end up with bit parts. There are a bunch of new characters injected into the story that don't really add much either way. There's a scene with a dude who looks just like Yukijirô Hotaru from the Gamera films, but according to IMDB it's not him.

There were also some strange changes as Black Ox can now fly and the Tetsujin redesign tries to fuse the 1980's and 1960's versions of the character. Personally I don't think they nailed either. The CGI giant robot battles have a couple moments that are impressive, but ultimately they disappoint. For whatever reason Tetsujin really sticks out as a CG model. Black Ox, not so much.


There is no dubbed version of this film, so you have to watch it in subtitles. I forced my poor GF to watch this with me. Ultimately it's a decent giant robot movie and it isn't a terrible transition of Tetsujin from anime to film, but it certainly leaves a lot to be desired as well. It's definitely not your standard kid's film though, with some heavy topics discussed and a fair amount of blood and guts. It's a mild recommendation if you have two hours to kill or if you're a fan of Tetsujin.

I'm sad that Imagi (the company that made TMNT and Astro Boy movies) went out of business as they had planned to make a Tetsujin 28 film as well. Below is the preview treatment they did and it looks leagues better than this 2005 live action effort.



Keep checking in all month long for more March of the Robots content! Read the rest......

Video Review: Battle Cat

I probably won't be reviewing Battle Cat myself, but our newest contributor Fred is here to show off his unboxing and review of Battle Cat. It's a full video exploration of He-Man's trusty sidekick. Check it out below. - Newt



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Sponsorship News: Rapture Surf Camp

With summer fast approaching, everyone is starting to plan their vacations. Have you ever thought about taking a vacation and learning to surf? If you have then you should definitely check out the Rapture Surf Camps.

With several prime locations across the globe, the Rapture Surf Camps offer an affordable and fun summer vacation destination. Check out their Portugal Surf Camp for just a sampling of some of the exotic locations where you can have fun in the sun and learn how to catch a wave.


That's just some of the fun you could be having. Even though they have incredible destinations like Bali and Portugal and some of the other most beautiful spots in the world, they offer low budget rates so that nearly anyone can think about joining them.

Check out Bali Surf Camp if you're into having some summer fun in the sun. Visit their website for more information.


This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest. Read the rest......

Welcome Fred's Toy Run

We here at Infinite Hollywood are proud to present our newest contributor. Fred Guardia, who will be bringing us his Fred's Toy Run videos to the site. Each week or so, Fred will be checking in with a "toy run" similar to our own Tales from the Toy Aisle but presented in all it's HD video glory. Fred officially joins the site with his next Toy Run, but check out his latest run right here as well too. In this episode, Fred is joined by the lovely Tania in what looks like a late night drug deal but it's in fact a late night BATTLE CAT deal!


Fred much like so many others, wasn't able to score Battle Cat from MattyCollector but instead had to lurk in the seedy underground (okay not really) to find a guy who would sell him a Battle Cat. This is a perfect example of the lengths many MOTUC collectors will go through, to find the toys which Mattel seems so unable to make available.

Be sure to check out Fred's YouTube Channel where he as lots of other craziness going on as well. Welcome aboard Fred! Read the rest......

Iron Man 2: War Machine Figure Review

More March of the Robots madness here as we take a look at another great new figure from the Iron Man 2 movie line. As I said before, these guys don't exactly fall into what I consider a classic robot, but they are in line enough with the theme to fit in. Plus they are really great figures and deserve some spotlight.


Iron Man 2
War Machine (Comic Series)
4 Inch Scale
By: Hasbro
2010
$6.99
One of the interesting things that Hasbro is doing with it's new movie toy lines is that it's having separate sections for the toys. Wolverine Origins had figures that were from the movie, but they also had a section of the line that was "comic" figures. This way they can include more characters in the toy line without quickly running out of ideas since, chances are, any one movie will only have so many marketable characters. It's a genius idea and with Iron Man 2, we have three sects, movie, comic and concept armor.

Built by Iron Man for his best friend James Rhodes, the War Machine armor was meant to fill in whenever Iron Man wasn't available. Every bit as powerful as Tony Stark's original armor, and bristling with weapons, War Machine is built not just to stop evil, but destroy it completely.

That's a pretty awesome bio, as per the back of the package. War Machine has always been my preferred armored hero. Dynamo was my favorite armored villain, War Machine my favorite armors hero. Hasbro is treating me well with this line. I think it was the fact that Rhodes was the guy in the Iron Man suit during Secret Wars or just the fact that he ended up with a really cool armor of his own. Either way, I've always been a War Machine fan. This is the comic version of War Machine, not to be confused with the movie version of War Machine. Yep, Hasbro has both on the shelf at the same time. Kudos to them for that.

Packaging:
I still really like the front of the package and I even love that it identifies if this is a comic, movie or concept armor. It's a nice sleek package and it really works with the design of the motion picture. I have no complaints about that.



However, I find the back of the package hopelessly confusing. You've got the good bio and then it all goes to crap. It identifies three other figures and gives them numbers, but the numbers are already so high that I am baffled as to who all is available. It was like Hasbro wanted to give us a check list and then didn't bother to finish it.

Sculpt:
It's so pretty! This is far and away the best War Machine figure I've ever seen. I never cared for many of the Toy Biz versions and even the classic Toy Biz line didn't quite give War Machine the life that he needed. Hasbro has really hit a home run here in terms of sculpt.


There is a nice blue tint to the whole thing which gives it that comic book feel where you often see some blue mixed in with the silver and gray colors. He has a nice gun metal look as well, with just tons of wash and paint aps here. They could have simply made this guy flat, but they really kicked it up a notch.


Every angle of this guy looks good. He doesn't look like "just another armor" anywhere. You can see the details all over him. I have to wonder if War Machine won't steal some of the thunder away from Iron Man in the upcoming movie, because he's just so cool looking.


He has guns on his wrists, the big shoulder mounted canons, everything it here. It's all surprisingly functional too with lots of poses that can be achieved with the guns. There's an impressive amount of detail packed into such a small frame as well. Still, despite all the guns and weaponry, I am most impressed with the face sculpt which looks quite good in this small scale.


Everywhere has fine sculpting, from the inside of his hands featuring the little blasters to the bottom of his boots having the thrusters on them. This is a marvelous figure and a great rendition of War Machine. In fact, this might be the nicest Marvel figure that Hasbro has ever sculpted. If he's not the best, he's definitely in the top ten.

Articulation:
It certainly seems to me that there was a concerned effort on Hasbro's part to make War Machine retain all of his articulation. This has been something that designers have struggled with since the very first War Machine. How do you do all the added armor and gun weaponry without impeding the articulation? Well Hasbro has come up with a few solutions.


The shoulder pads are on a hinge, so they actually lift up. It doesn't look perfect, mind you, but it does allow War Machine to get some added posablilty in the arms and still look like the badass robot dude he is. The shoulder canons themselves are also quite articulated as they can go forwards and back as well as swivel at the connection point. It works quite well.


With all that work on the top half, it's almost a shame the bottom half is barely poseable. I've said it before and I'll say it again... Ball joint hips don't work on 3 3/4 figures. I'm not sure why that is, but it's just a fact. War Machine has big thick sculpted thighs. What happens is that those thigh pieces hit the ball joint. So he can move his leg forward a few centimeters and that's it. The perfect lower leg articulation would be GI Joe style t-bar hips with a thigh swivel, IMO.


It doesn't ruin this figure by any means, but it does take away from him quite a bit. It's just a reflection of the design choices in this line. I know a lot of the old Marvel Legends fans think that the ball joint hips are the way to go, but I don't. War Machine is a prime example of this because the ball joints are wasted because of how little movement you can get.

Accessories:
War Machine doesn't come with many accessories. He has a stand, two pretty cool translucent "firing" things that attach to his rockets to give the illusion of a firing weapon. I'm not going to go too much into those, you can look at the pictures and see them in action. They're cool.


His other real accessory is the card that splits into three pieces so you can build your own armor. The picture above is of Crimson Dynamo's chest piece. That's the basic piece and War Machine includes one that is of his chest.


Now then you can put War Machine's arms and legs on that piece and create a new armor. What's cool is that it actually gives you a serial number for your custom armor.


Here's another example of a mix and match. It's pretty cool. It's not like, reason to buy this guy or anything but if you get a few of these figures it is a fun way to kill a few minutes. Normally I don't fool with cards or gimmicks, but this one is actually kind of neat and creative.

Value:
At $6.99 and below at most retailers this is a value that almost can't be beat. I'd say that only GI Joe is the better value right now and with all these great Iron Man 2 figures coming out, you simply must pick up a few of these. They are so much awesome packed into a small scale and it's easy to quickly build up a cool hall of armors for Iron Man, but it's also cool that we're not just getting Iron Man himself, but friends and foes as well.



Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 10
Articulation - 6
Accessories - Cards, Stand, Blasters
Value - 9
Overall - 8 out of 10


War Machine is probably the nicest sculpted figure he's every received and one of Hasbro's best pieces of their entire Marvel body of work. Unfortunately I can't help but be a bit disappointed that his legs aren't as moveable as his torso. Such time and effort was put into articulating his top half, that it's a disappointment that he can't sit down or even bend his legs up high enough for a kick.


The bottom line is, that I still recommend this figure. He's just not perfect. His sculpt is, but overall he's lacking just a tad. Still a great pick up, regardless. Join me on Twitter for awesome robot party time.
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Sgt. Slaughter Figures Coming From Hasbro

For the fifteen people out there who haven't seen these photos yet (I'm slow, even Poe beat me to posting these pics and he doesn't even cover Joe) Hasbro has unveiled some prototypes of the SDCC exclusive Sgt. Slaughter figures. There are two types, one based on the original mail away version of Sarge and one version that's based on his Triple T tank driver version. I believe most people owned the latter, so it's a good deal that they made both.


The mail away version is supposed to be more "wrestler" based even though there was very little wrestling ever mentioned in the original Sgt. Slaughter storyline. I believe there were a couple of one liners in the comics when he debuted though. Sarge hit the trifecta when it came to GI Joe appearing in the toys, cartoon and comic books. This version comes with a GI Joe wrestling belt and a microphone. These accessories don't interest me that much, but I give Hasbro big time kudos for making the Joe belt look like the old WWF Winged Eagle belt. Now I need to make a custom General Mustafa to manage him.


The Triple T tank version looks better in my mind, but that's because I had a bunch of this guy when I was a kid. He comes with some guns and stuff, which is pretty cool because Sarge only ever came with a baton but I always thought he looked good with a big gun of some sort. The only version I think that ever had a gun was the 2005 Joe Con figure which sadly I do not own. Oddly enough this isn't my favorite version of Sarge. That would be the Warthog driver version, which had the removable hat. Either way I'm super excited that Hasbro FINALLY got us some Sarges.


I do have one tiny problem with the figures overall. Sarge looks really good and a lot like the actual Sgt. Slaughter. The only real problem with this is that Sgt. Slaughter in the GI Joe comic, toon and toys was a super enhanced version of himself. Sarge had a barrel chest in the old toy, but he also had huge arms. In fact his arm piece was brand new with extra puffed up muscles and only he had them for a while. Eventually some other figures got those large arms, but they were reserved for only the rarest of rare.

This Sgt. Slaughter looks more like a real version of the man. Who, no doubt is still tough looking. Even though Sarge came up in the 80's, he was a leftover from the 70's and Slaughter never did steroids or had the "He-Man" body that most wrestlers in the 80's did. Instead Sarge was an old school barrel chested brawler. This figure reflects that, but I would be remiss if I didn't wish he was a little closer to the old figure. Oh well, I guess I have my Jakks 3 3/4 version with his HUGE arms to make up the difference. I'm going to get several of these Sgt. Slaughter SDCC exclusives.

There are some Joe fans who dislike Slaughter. If you don't like Sgt. Slaughter, you are dead to me. Last year I showed off my Joe versus Cobra style Custom Sgt. Slaughter that I made. I never did make a 25th style one because I was hoping that Hasbro would eventually get it done and thankfully they did.

I really hope Hasbro makes them readily available because I have wanted a Sgt. Slaughter figure in the GI Joe line since it returned in the 25th Anniversary. As soon as this figure hits, my brother and I are off to have our war like two little kids again... AND THAT'S AN ORDER! Read the rest......

Give Stan Lee an Oscar

With the Oscars being tonight I thought this was a good time to post this. You know, Stan Lee continues to be 100% awesome. Not only did this guy basically build the Marvel Universe, but he's never made any bones about his opinions on things. Stan sometimes gets a bad wrap in certain sects of the community and he's had his fair share of failures too, but you have to respect the guy. Check out his latest effort from Funny or Die, where he's campaigning to get an Oscar for "Best Cameo"...


Stan Lee's Oscar Campaign

The scary thing is, in some ways he has a point! Read the rest......

Sponsorship News: TMNT Tees and More

If you're like me you probably love a good ironic t-shirt or at least one of your favorite cartoon or comic book properties. There's a great place called Thatsmyshirt.com where they have hundreds of shirt choices to choose from. They are really becoming one of the most popular sites for these types of shirts because they have so much selection and diversity. I really like the price and selection that this place has. Most sites over charge or simply have a few good shirts on display, but this site has almost anything you could imagine. That's one of the reasons they have such a strong Facebook following.

My personal favorite shirt is a design of the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I haven't seen anywhere else. It features Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael done up in vintage retro style with the phrase, "Strictly for my Ninjas" on it. It's hilariously inappropriate and that's what makes it great. The incredible thing? This T-shirt is priced at only $14! That's really good.



There are all kinds of great shirts at their Thatsmyshirt Fan Page where they give out coupons and all sorts of other stuff.

They just have so much selection, like Atari, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Mario and other video game t-shirts. Plus they have some basic cool design t-shirts too. I could see spending a lot of time on this website just picking out designs I liked. There really is something for everyone, especially if you're a child of the 80's. We love our tees.

Check out Thatsmyshirt.com Junk Food Tees if you're into famous snacks, as well.

Visit their website for more information.


This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest. Read the rest......