Blaze Up
Meet Blazer. He's quite possibly the single most obscure Japanese robot character in existence. He's a sidekick -- not even the star -- of Boken! Rockbat ("Adventure! Rockbat"), a bizarre series of five-minute live-action featurettes that ran on Fuji TV for six months back in 1975. (I've always thought of him as resembling a long-lost relative of Futurama's Bender.) Legendary toymakers Bullmark and Eidai produced an incredible array of merchandise for the otherwise unassuming show, ensuring that it would both enchant and confuse the hell out of foreign toy collectors for decades to come.
I write these words a happy man, for in a random web search a few minutes ago -- yes, I admit it, I was running a random Google search for "Boken! Rockbat" -- I discovered an actual sample of the show, which as far as I know isn't commercially available on tape, DVD, or any other medium. Created by "Spectreman" producer Souji Ushio, it is every bit as insane as I hoped it would be. Enjoy.
I like how the poster's other videos all seem to feature skimpy bikini clad models, effectively proving the connection between 70's robot toys and sex.
Posted by: Alex | November 10, 2008 at 11:06 PM
That is amazing! Good work tracking that down. I'd seen Robocon and Kure Kure Takora, but always wanted to see some of Rockbat!
Posted by: hillsy | November 11, 2008 at 03:06 AM
>>the connection between 70's robot toys and sex
You mean, those who collect one... can't possibly have the other?
Posted by: Matt Alt | November 11, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Does anyone know where to buy or view episodes of this series? Seems impossible...(camiespiers@gmail.com)
Posted by: Jade | January 06, 2009 at 04:40 AM
Unfortunately, I don't think it's ever been released on any home video format. But here's an episode list (in Japanese):
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/冒険ロックバット
Posted by: Matt Alt | January 06, 2009 at 07:00 AM