“Force Five” Write-In Campaign from 1981
My knowledge and experience with the Mattel Shogun Warriors toys (Amazon.com search*) is extremely limited. As a kid I barely had any interaction at all with the toys or the comic book, and over the last few years the closest I’ve come is wanting the Egyptian-themed toy we saw a few years ago. (And yeah, I know hardcore Shogun Warriors fans don’t consider that Toynami design an authentic Shogun Warrior. I told you I’ve got limited knowledge and experience.)
One thing that has bugged me for the last five or six years is trying to figure out why so many guys at CollectionDX have so much knowledge of the Shogun Warriors line, including the cartoons that the Mattel toys were based on. Well, I may have finally found the answer: It turns out, according to this Wikipedia entry, that the Force Five cartoons were primarily shown in the northeast. Aha! That’s why I missed those cartoons as a kid.
What finally gave me the hint I needed to uncover even that little but of info was this Starlog Magazine issue that includes an ad encouraging kids to write-in for the Force Five cartoon. I guess kids in the midwest didn’t mail enough of these forms off to get the show aired in the center of the country.
Related articles
- Starlog #23 and Big Trak (battlegrip.com)
- ROM Ad from 1979 (battlegrip.com)
- Toynami Egyptian-Themed Shogun Warrior from SDCC (battlegrip.com)
A local video store had a few Force Five releases, just a few eps of a show here and there. Grandizer, Captain Harlock, Spacekateers etc
It was my gateway into the anime world before that was a thing and the best part was each tape had a intro real after the credits of a bunch of other releases, almost like a music video collection.
@Court – I think the video store when I was around 12 or 13 had these. I kinda remember looking at rental tapes with robot art around that age, and these make the most sense for what would have been in stores in 1984/1985.
I grew up in Massachusetts, I used to love to watch Force Five. Gaiking was my favorite
@Adam – I feel like I missed out on something special.
Showtime ran the Force Five movies, which I think were pieced together from 80-whatever episodes, boiled down to under two hours. Perhaps not great for character development or story arcs, but awesome as a highlight reel. And Grandizer’s the best one.
@Philip it was cool, between Force Five and Robotech I got a good dose of anime as a kid