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It Came From Japan!
6 Plays17 hours ago
Marine Boy! Speed Racer! Gatchaman! Irwin Cartoons! So many imported childhood memories! Join us as we gush over our favourite Japanese animations from our Gen X years. The cartoons that made us swim like dolphins, ride our bikes like race cars and wear towels like capes! And after you've subscribed leave a voice message on Https://www.speakpipe.com/GenX4LifePodcast letting us know your favourite Japanese show! Have a Yabba Zonkers Zoinks Day!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Yabba Zunker Zoinks'
00:00:03
Speaker
You've been listening to Yabba Zonker Zoinks, a Gen X for Life podcast. And I already screwed it up. Not to worry. Okay, ready? Take two.
00:00:14
Speaker
Hey, don't turn that channel. You've reached Yabba Zuckers Wings, the Saturday morning podcast where your host, Josh Downing, that's me, will take you on a trip through a Gen X Saturday morning of cereal, toys, cartoons, and so much more.
00:00:30
Speaker
So grab your honeycombs and your favorite Micronaut and sit back and enjoy. Okay, so now we are here. We're we're live now. And good morning. it's ah It's a great Saturday morning, ah wherever you are and wherever I am. And my name is Josh and I'm your host. And welcome to Yabba Zunker Zoinks.
00:00:51
Speaker
And welcome to my best pal, Tyler. Hey Josh, hey everybody. so So excited to be here today. um um This is going to be a kind of a wing it day because I didn't do a lot of prep work. So yeah so hopefully that's a good thing. I don't know, who knows.
00:01:09
Speaker
But we're going to be talking today about one of my absolute favorite Gen X childhood things.
Favorite Japanese Characters Discussion
00:01:16
Speaker
So the first I'm going to ask you is um what ah who is your all time favorite Japanese character?
00:01:27
Speaker
Character versus series. Yeah. Like what what character really stands out for you?
00:01:37
Speaker
That's a tough one. I have to say Gacha Man, but it's still a tough one because, oh yeah you know, the depth of character in anything the Japanese do can really create a lot of heroes, you know? So I would say Gacha Man. Now, I think I know who yours is, but you go ahead.
00:01:58
Speaker
uh yes that's pretty easy because i've already said it many many times but it's marine boy there we go kaitai shonen marine yeah so yeah i don't know what it was at at some point i mean i was watching it in reruns or in syndication because ah marine boy was actually ah in japan the year that i was born so it was was It was a few years before I would actually see it, but I was watching it and it was always the first cartoon on a Saturday morning. So it was on like at, I want to say like five and and then Speed Racer came on right after at 5.30 because it was it was a deal for me to get up and and watch that show.
00:02:42
Speaker
But I loved Marine Boy. I wanted to be Marine Boy. i wanted Oxygum. I wanted an Electro Boomerang. I just, I wanted to be that kid.
00:02:55
Speaker
That's the cool thing about the effect that these shows and characters have on us, you know, where you're just completely consumed and that character is your ultimate hero and you can't wait to go outside and, you know, mimic everything they do safely, you know, and, you know, Marine boy is very specific because it's underwater. Yeah. it say Okay. Was it the underwater element?
00:03:20
Speaker
You know what they mean You know, like I don't know. Speed racer. Yeah. And you know what? and And speed racer was my second love. Like if I wasn't if I wasn't, you know, running around pretending to be Marine boy, i was running around pretending to be speed racer.
00:03:35
Speaker
But speed racer was easier to play because I would just get on my bike. You get your father's car and drive away. Totally. I know I'm only six, but I am driving. TV made me do it.
00:03:48
Speaker
That's what they were trying to warn us of all that, all that time. i I don't know what it was. And maybe it was because I loved being in the water. We were always water kids. like we learned We learned to swim.
00:04:00
Speaker
My dad put life jackets on us, took us on rubber raft out into the ocean and threw us off the raft and said, there you go, swim back. That's good parenting. Right. It's awesome
Dubbed Japanese Shows for America
00:04:09
Speaker
parenting. And so that I was prepping myself for being Marine boy. Yeah. That sounds like that was a good idea. Came back with jellyfish all over me. Oh, no. Terrified, but not terrified of the water for some reason. Weird.
00:04:23
Speaker
and when And when I got a little bit older and I had that paper route money, I started spending my money on ah snorkel equipment and masks and flippers so I could even be more Marine Boy. That's so funny. I will find you, Marine Boy. Yeah.
00:04:41
Speaker
Well, you were closer to Japan than I would be here in Toronto. so Totally true. if Anything's possible. Yep. But don't you find it fascinating like how they would take, like back then, somebody had the initiative to say, oh, let's dub these series that are already made for us, buy it cheaply, and put it on TV.
Origins and Success of Marine Boy
00:05:01
Speaker
But the thing that kills me is somebody still had to sit down and come up with some kind of script. Yeah. for all those shows. Yeah, they had to write a show that matched what was going on. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I find that part really interesting.
00:05:16
Speaker
Because for all the shortcuts to put something like that on TV, you still had to invest in those scripts and in those recordings. you know So it's not like they got it on the cheap in the end.
00:05:30
Speaker
But you know that would have been a huge process you know for both of those shows. Oh, absolutely. And the funny thing is there was no there was no delay. like It was the next year after it was pretty much done.
00:05:43
Speaker
yeah good boy yeah yeah yeah Yeah, I guess it was probably like Astro Boy too. Yeah, it wasn't like 10 years later. And Marine Boy its considered one of the first of those shows that was, you know, kind of translated and retold for an American audience.
00:06:00
Speaker
And apparently it did really well. I mean, I know there was only, want to say about 78 episodes of Marine Boy. So it had like a couple of seasons. Including the 12 forbidden episodes not allowed to be shown here.
Availability and Personal Experiences of Japanese Shows
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:12
Speaker
What I want to find, and I'm surprised I haven't found this yet, is I want to find the first two mini series. And I say mini series, but it was like ah two episodes or three episodes of ah something called The Dolphin Prince.
00:06:30
Speaker
And then the second one was, and I'm trying to remember, I've got it written in down here. The second one was called doll Hang on hang on Marine Kid. And it was 13 episodes.
00:06:44
Speaker
That's the one that came out in 1966. So are these the precursors? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And apparently they were all in black and white because yeah ah people still didn't have color TVs. Right. Right. Like early Astro Boys, black. Yeah.
00:06:58
Speaker
So the first was a bit of a test. Like Dolphin Prince was a bit of a test. And it actually came out. Uh, exactly 60 years ago. Like it was probably 60 years ago to the week. I know it was in April.
00:07:12
Speaker
So three episodes hit Japan black and white. I want to find those. I'll find them somewhere.
00:07:19
Speaker
And then it wasn't until Undersea Boy Marine or Kaitaishona Marine was was picked up by Seven Arts. And I can still hear that logo in my head.
00:07:33
Speaker
I swear we didn't have those shows here. i know you're a couple years older, but like unless they were on at the same time and I'm too young and then they were yanked, but like they were never on.
00:07:45
Speaker
That's so weird. Yeah, because like Marine Boy I'd never heard of until I met you. ah Speed Racer I was fully aware of, but it was never on TV here. And Astro Boy was on TV when I
Details of Marine Boy's Adventures
00:07:59
Speaker
was in high school. It was on in the mornings, you know, at 7.30 or 8 o'clock or something.
00:08:04
Speaker
But for whatever reason, those other two shows, I never saw them growing up. And that's so weird because it it was just, there's a lot of people that i I know and I've talked to don't remember Marine Boy, but everybody remembered Speed Racer. Sure, yeah. I wonder if that was just, you know, that half an hour people were still just, you know, as kids are still in bed.
00:08:25
Speaker
and I just, you know, happened to be up and caught it and was like, oh, I got to watch this. Did you like the Speed Racer movie? Oh my God. Yes. Yeah. So do i when I saw in the theater, I remember sitting there and and thinking, my gosh, you know, when they pan the whole family, I'm like, my gosh, they're on the big screen.
00:08:43
Speaker
Like I, really have no complaints about that movie. You know, I don't either. I, yeah people were, yeah people have their expectations and I'm sorry, but I would, I just wanted to see a fun speed racer movie yeah where people weren't taking it too seriously, but they were making a good film.
00:09:00
Speaker
And I think we got that. Did you get to see the original Mach 5 when it was here? Like the life-size one? ah i want to say i have seen it.
00:09:11
Speaker
It was at Fan Expo, and I don't remember if it was there because of that movie. Like it wasn't the movie version, it was the Mach 5. Yeah. but the I mean the original. um But I don't remember if you got to see it.
00:09:24
Speaker
I'm trying to remember now. It's an incredible car in person. It rivals the Batmobile, you know.
00:09:33
Speaker
I must not have seen it. I must have just seen a lot of pictures of it. So in my head, it's like, oh yeah, there it is. yeah It's in the showroom. Yeah, I could drive it away. Oh, look here, I'm driving it away. ah It's not as fast as I remember. like when you were six. Totally.
00:09:49
Speaker
Oh my goodness. So for those who don't know Marine boy, you you got to gotta find this. I actually have them on DVD. I bought it a number of years ago. I think I only got season one. Um, and I started to watch it, have not gone back and finished it. It's one of those things where I want to go back and watch it. And and it's one of those things that's still challenging for my, my short attention span.
00:10:11
Speaker
But I still want to go back because I just I loved it. I love the characters. I loved the the ship, like the P1 vehicle um that Bolton and Piper, I think they're always driving that.
00:10:25
Speaker
um They're part of a thing called Ocean Patrol. And I did not know that um that Marine Boy, who doesn't seem to have a name, his name is just Marine Boy.
00:10:36
Speaker
um He doesn't. I think his name is Tommy. Tommy. Or Billy. It's Billy. It's probably Billy. Billy. um He's a martial artist, which I guess would be helpful underwater. Very helpful. Also a football player. And I don't remember. There's probably an episode where he's playing football.
00:10:54
Speaker
Oh yeah. Episode 17. Yeah. yeah you go So there you go. and And he's accomplished pilot. He's 13 years old and he's an accomplished pilot. No wonder you wanted to be. Seriously. See, like I wanted to be something by the time I was 13. Yeah. You know, not just a kid in school. His dad's name's Dr. Mariner. So his name is Marine boy Mariner.
00:11:16
Speaker
That's a great name. Um, he buddies up with a dolphin. I love dolphins. Delicious. Don't eat the dolphin. You can eat the tuna around
Admiration for Japanese Storytelling
00:11:28
Speaker
them. Just not the dolphins. ah Splasher.
00:11:32
Speaker
and um That was the name? Yes. I think his name was Billy. They were all named Billy. Exactly. And then there was the the naked mermaid girl named Neptina.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yes, that was a tough name, I guess, for them to come up with it. Well, come on. But it's so funny because in Japan, it wouldn't be a it wouldn't be a big deal that she was bare chested. Yeah, yeah. But of course, her hair covered everything. So it wasn't like she was naked. But it wouldn't be like this shocking thing that my children shouldn't see. No, no, it wasn't. It wasn't where you see by any means.
00:12:08
Speaker
And he was helped out by a professor who built all his cool things like oxygum. Now, somebody mentioned somewhere that, you know, oxygum must have been in short supply because the only person who ever got to use oxygum was Marine Boy.
00:12:23
Speaker
So none of the bad guys ever got to use it. None of the other good guys got to use it. Okay. But if it if it was the grandfather's invention, right yeah it was like How was he literally making it? Did we ever see that? No, I don't think so. ok There might have been a lab experiment where they had a bunch of bottles of colored water. But yeah but that's another episode. Yeah, totally.
00:12:46
Speaker
ah What else? And that was pretty much it. I mean, most of the episodes took place In the ocean, around ocean things. um You know, that was his job. See, also, he had a job. He worked for for Ocean Patrol.
00:13:00
Speaker
He didn't have to go to school or anything. Wow. He had a cool ring, and that's how he called Splasher. would blow it into this little whistle on the ring, and Splasher could hear him and would come to save him.
00:13:11
Speaker
And he also had a weapon and his weapon was his electro boomerang, which is snapped onto his arm. And of course I was doing that thing that, you know, snap my boomerang in my arm and then whip it off and throw it at a bad guy. That's so funny.
00:13:26
Speaker
Deflect his bullets. under And then of course his cool suit, which also um had jet heels and, So that could push him really fast and strong. And then also flippers so that he could swim faster as well. So funny. Thank you, grandpa.
00:13:42
Speaker
Oh, so cool. What a great show. Neptina's a magic pearl her around her neck was also magical too. It could create like a bubble of protection. Okay. And fend off dangerous creatures like sharks, I guess.
00:13:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's because the ocean is loaded with, you know, potential death. Friendly you don't ble fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the other cool fact about this was that Marine Boy was voiced, actually Marine Boy, Neptina, and Cleakley. Oh, Cleakley, who was that?
00:14:19
Speaker
Cleakley. I wonder if that was the dolphin's name. But I thought the dolphin oflaher anyway ah was was Corrine Orr. And we we spoke about Corrine Orr because Corrine... was a Canadian who did a lot of voices and also did Trixie and Spritell in Speed Racer.
00:14:36
Speaker
And then Jack Grimes, who was also on Speed Racer, was Professor Fumble and Splasher. Professor Fumble? Yes. That was the name? okay Yes, Professor Fumble. That's so funny. So wacky.
00:14:49
Speaker
Maybe that was a football reference. Oh, yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe. And then Peter Fernandez was the voice of Piper and Dr. Mariner. And he was also in Space Giants, Ultraman, Star Blazers, and Godzilla films.
00:15:04
Speaker
Star Blazers I very much liked. That was also long before school, like when I'm i'm older, but i I did enjoy that. Because I wasn't a Robotech fan, but I did love Star Blazers.
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, see, I i also loved Robotech. Yeah, everybody did, right? Which I get, but... But then that that also leads us to your favorite, which was also one of my favorites. This was an after school one for me.
00:15:31
Speaker
yeah Go ahead. Tell us what was what was it all about? Well, there's this horrible American version of an incredible show called Gacha Man in Japan, which was just slaughtered for North American audiences and renamed Battle of the Planets.
00:15:49
Speaker
Now, the funny thing is my best friend Rob, when I was little, he had just moved from Britain. when that show would finish for the afternoon, he would call me immediately and we would discuss the episode.
00:16:02
Speaker
So I'm like, what, eight, eight or nine, I guess. And we would really discuss the episode from beginning to end. And did you see this part? Yes. Did you see this part? Yes. Did you see this part? It would probably be really adorable to see these two kids talking on the phone, you know, totally. Did you see them do this? And did you see them do that?
00:16:20
Speaker
But like that show just blew my mind. And I remember my dad saying to me, because I saw it on ABC. It was like Tuesday night or Thursday night at 7 or 7.30.
00:16:31
Speaker
My dad said, oh, there's a show on tomorrow night. And it's like Star Wars. And I'm like, okay. And I don't think he would have thought that because he was a little more in tune. But maybe whatever promos were running,
00:16:44
Speaker
made it sound like you got to watch this galactic battle only ever takes place on Earth. um You know, that's just like Star Wars. And they showed like the first pilot episode and then one from like, you know, 80 episodes later. i'm like, that's weird.
00:17:00
Speaker
But like I was hooked immediately. And then I don't remember it ever being on in the evening again. and then suddenly showing up on Canadian stations after school, you know, in syndication, you know? Yeah.
00:17:13
Speaker
And it was just one of those, like the music, the drama, you know, the, the the character designs, the ships, no matter what it was, it was blowing my mind.
00:17:26
Speaker
The subtle directions. You know, I remember you saying years ago, you know, do you notice how nothing's really static? If somebody's holding, if somebody's on the phone, they hold it, then they switch ears.
00:17:38
Speaker
Then they, you know, tuck the phone under their shoulder. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. Like it's still on budget, but nothing's static. you know what mean? Things are moving and we just weren't doing that in animation. So when I look at gotcha man versus like the super friends that are out at the same time, it's like the super friends is a joke, you know, I'm no offense to super friends, but it's just, it's two completely different creations. Oh yeah.
00:18:06
Speaker
You know, where it's like, it's just, here's Hanna-Barbera at its worst. And here's Japan doing exactly what they do, you know, just flawless, flawless,
00:18:17
Speaker
and gorgeous in every element,
Nostalgia and Influence of Gatchaman
00:18:21
Speaker
you know? And so fan for life, I still can't get enough. And I just started rewatching it actually not that long ago.
00:18:28
Speaker
So it's just, it's just one of those, series I'm so grateful for because it means so much. It's affected me so much and it becomes a benchmark, you know, for other things. And if you weren't there, it's really hard to sort of impress upon people how here's all the firsts that came from that 1972 show, you know, but if people are already used to better American animation of recent years, it's not going to mean anything to them, but it's like, you don't get how groundbreaking this thing was, you know? so
00:19:01
Speaker
just absolutely stellar, you know, a favorite for life and a favorite right from the start. And there was just nothing more exciting than them jumping around, you know, so for all the kids who mimic things and I always scratch my head and think like, why are you jumping off buildings or jumping off your bed when it came to gotcha, man? I'm i'm like, I wish I could do all those things. i was just nuts for it, you know?
00:19:29
Speaker
You're listening to the Opposite Prozoics, the Gen X for Life podcast. Pretty cool, huh? Very cool. Yeah. That's my sort of like midway transition.
00:19:42
Speaker
To full on Cylon. would Yeah, totally. Battling it out. So i I have to agree. Like Battle of Planets came like it was the 3.30 show for me. So no dilly dallying. I had to get home.
00:19:57
Speaker
I could not miss an episode. Yeah. And there were so many. Yeah. And it was one of those things. And I think that I think what caught us. maybe when we were young was just how different it was from everything else. yeah Like we were so used to, to the antics of, of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons and everything was kind of goofy and they were all animals. And, you know, there was, there was lots of wackiness happening, even in the ones with, with kids and and people, there was still sort of a sense of, of laughter and and fun, but these Japanese shows were so starkly dramatic.
00:20:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And there was story arcs and yeah continuity. i'm like, what? You mean somebody else, you know, wants to know what happened here and why did this happen in 20 episodes when this happened? I'm like, I was so hungry for that kind of you know, treatment, who just amazing.
Battle of the Planets and Retrofan Magazine
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah. Cause it, it was really effective storytelling. I remember the, when you and I first started watching the, the Japanese Gacha Man series and we were just blown away yeah by the incredible storytelling, like just so dynamic. All those cut scenes that we can now see and,
00:21:19
Speaker
You mean they weren't robot jets? Yeah, exactly. You mean thousands weren't slaughtered every episode? oh my goodness. You told me they were evacuated, Sevens Arc 7.
00:21:32
Speaker
That everybody was safe. ah What are you, a bumblebee? yeah So funny. Fluttering from one end to the other. so that's right i have to fly across the the space station.
00:21:45
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah yeah So funny what what we had to do to to get that show to work here. But you know what? I didn't care. i didn't know the difference. I didn't know it was even Japanese. Did you read that article on Battle of the Planets in Retrofan magazine?
00:21:59
Speaker
I have not read it yet. It's in my stack. It's really interesting because the article is called something like, is this a Hanna-Barbera show? And it's amazing how it kind
History and Impact of Irwin Toys
00:22:08
Speaker
of was. Like everything about it Like everybody who was involved was all at Hanna-Barbera and they were like, yeah, go ahead. You can work on that show. We don't care.
00:22:17
Speaker
And it was, it was almost a joke that everything was done by Hanna-Barbera, but it's not theirs. Right. It's a, and it's a good article. If you have time, you should. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I definitely want to read that.
00:22:31
Speaker
Um, I was going to say too, I was also impacted by other Japanese cartoons as well. And I, once again, I had no idea, like I did not realize that these were Japanese, but do you remember the Irwin cartoons? Oh no. Right. so yeah Scary ones, right? you Little mermaid. Hans Christian Anderson stories. No, i'm getting goosebumps. Seriously, like ay storytelling, like these shows, even translated and shown for North American audiences were so jam packed, emotional, like so brilliant. Like, I don't know how many times I cried as a kid.
00:23:17
Speaker
you know watching the little mermaid i believe it i was so tragic yeah so scary yeah yeah and then when i saw the disney version i was like what the bubble gum is this yeah yeah that's the yeah where's the death where's exactly exactly Why are they singing? I'm scared for all the wrong reasons.
00:23:40
Speaker
It's funny because... Sorry. no go ahead. ah When I was little and I was taking guitar lessons, we had to have, I guess, what you would call a concert, quote unquote. And I don't know how old I am. This is like grade four, maybe, or grade three.
00:23:55
Speaker
And they sat us in this little room until it was time for us to go into the gym and go on stage. Right. And they're like here, you can watch TV. And it was the little mermaid. And I'm like, no, this thing is so scary. And my parents aren't here and I have to play this song on my guitar. And I'm like, ah,
00:24:11
Speaker
So it's like a double nightmare for me. Oh my God. Did you have to play the Little Mermaid theme song? No, I wish i could remember what we played. We always had to play crappy stuff like Big Rock Candy Mountain. but Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, nothing fun.
00:24:25
Speaker
I think back when I was in band, I was percussion because I i wasn't coordinated enough to play the drum set. So I got to play the triangle and the maracas.
00:24:37
Speaker
Cool. And stuff like that. That's awesome. That's all I could do. I love percussion. So all those instruments I'm crazy for. Yeah. my My favorite instrument memory of all time was I think it was grade seven and we were in a band competition and we were doing this song that was considered one of the hardest songs for elementary school kids to play.
00:24:59
Speaker
And I think it was called Ritual Dance. Okay. And it had changing tempos throughout the thing. And it had like this swirling effect of just this music just going. It was almost like a soundtrack for ah like a scary, and you know, Japanese Irwin cartoon. And um my like claim to fame was that there was a beat of silence and then there was a whip crack sound. And we we had to buy this special instrument that made that whip crack sound, but it had to be done perfectly in order for it to be effective because the second that snap hit, the music started up again.
00:25:38
Speaker
And so I, I, that was my claim to fame is I would do this smack. Right. It's so funny. Yeah. So I took us off topic, but anyways, no, no, no, no. You should tell people but why you're calling it the Irwin shows.
00:25:51
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So here's the thing. So Irwin was a toy company. Was? What happened to Oh, no. Isn't that scary? Irwin was a toy company. They were from Toronto.
00:26:04
Speaker
And when I was a kid, there was a lot of, you know what's so weird? They were Japanese toys because they were all made in Japan. But you get these little cheap plastic toys um and they would come in this like really colorful packaging from Irwin Toys.
00:26:18
Speaker
And they were just everywhere. They were every store had them, every corner store, every department store. But that was that was Irwin Toys. When I was growing up, they became bigger and they started doing licensing.
00:26:33
Speaker
And their next sort of big claim to fame was that they were the Canadian distributors for the Power Rangers. Another Japanese connection. Yes. And then they got the Canadian rights for Sailor Moon.
00:26:48
Speaker
which made them a ton of money. And then shortly after that, they folded and they were no more. Yes. Cause that's what happens when a family goes into business together and a family stays in business together.
00:27:01
Speaker
It's, it's a tragic Canadian company story because they, they, they were on the top. They had it. They made some of the best toys. No, it should never happen. They, they weren't watching what was going on. And unfortunately they just, they kind of collapsed from within.
00:27:21
Speaker
But ah yeah we benefited from shopping in their warehouse store many a time. That was like an incredible experience. All those Japanese samples, you know, like that was just like jaw droppingly fun to go to. And it was still at a time when nobody really knew that store was there, the employee store.
Experiences at Irwin Toy Store
00:27:45
Speaker
And like, I just couldn't wait to go the next time, you know, because there was, it was always just treasure trove of just incredible things. And they didn't care about what they had. No, no, what they had. done You know, and it was it was sad when they lost the Bandai license and all that stuff left, you know, because maybe that would have helped them, you know, for for a few more years and maybe they could have gotten their act together.
00:28:11
Speaker
But, you know, I guess it wasn't long after that. I feel like they tried to rebrand briefly. Remember, they renovated that place to Erwin Toy. And now I think it's the lofts, right? Yeah, it's Erwin Toy Loft. Yeah. So it's nice that it's named after that.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah. But I just think it's a shame that, you know, that family couldn't get it together and keep that business going, you know. so So more of the Japanese connections. One of the one of the things that um I did for many years was collected Power Rangers. And my connection with Power Rangers was because it came from a Japanese robot show.
00:28:48
Speaker
And that just blew my mind. I'm like, oh, my God, this is Japanese robots. you know, TV and here it is in a show called Power Rangers. And I don't care that it's a kid's show. I love it.
00:28:59
Speaker
The toys were freaking amazing. And then we ended up discovering the, uh, the Irwin toy store from their factory. So that was here in Toronto. We lived in Toronto. And so we went to this factory store.
00:29:12
Speaker
And one of the first things I ever bought there was the Japanese, um, Power Rangers Zio, uh, giant pyramid. I think it was called Pyramidus.
00:29:24
Speaker
Pyramidus in America? King Pyramidus in Japan. and i ah they they brought the sample over so they could make the toys. And the sample was just sitting in a closet at the back of the factory store. In the big Japanese retail box.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yes. Yes. And I also got a bunch of the Japanese ah shark cycles from the, ah from these Düringer series.
00:29:52
Speaker
And there was other things too. I just, we cleaned them out. Yeah. And then when Sailor Moon came around, I walked in one time and underneath the table was a box of dolls.
00:30:04
Speaker
And this was a box of sample dolls of characters that had not been produced. Yeah. So anyone who was a fan of the Irwin Sailor Moon dolls, I was the person who got my hands on the Sailor Saturn prototype doll, which was just a doll they made, gave her some purple hair, hacked it off in a really bad crooked bob, put a dress on it and then said, do we are we going to make this? And then they never did.
00:30:33
Speaker
Oh, no. No, no. Didn't they? No. gay they did make They did go back and they made a Sailor Saturn doll, but it wasn't based on that particular series. Yeah, no, not at all. Yeah, yeah, no. Yours is completely unique.
00:30:47
Speaker
yeah And I remember they had the the Emerald prototype. And it was just so superior, you know what mean, to what was actually released.
00:30:59
Speaker
You know, the the jewels that she had, you know, that she wore in a dress. Yeah, sewn right on. Yeah. was It was so much more better made than what the final was. Like, it's it's great that all that stuff got released, but the prototypes...
00:31:13
Speaker
were so superior oh fantastic but like like i remember every trip there and i remember that one and i remember the first time we went and it was just a sea of those green box power ranger toys and it's like i've never seen so many tour in my life you know what mean and then remember when we went and it was all gone Yeah.
00:31:35
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Like who went in and scooped all that stuff? They shipped it to the States. Oh, that's um right. So I don't know if it was a case of the state. I don't, I don't know if they liquidated. I wouldn't think they would have to.
00:31:47
Speaker
It's still early days, you know? Yeah. but I just remember the woman saying, oh yeah, we shipped it all to the States last week. I'm like, oh God, but you had so much stuff. Yeah, that was a very specific time period. Pretty cool, though. That was a lot of fun. And it seems like yesterday.
00:32:04
Speaker
And it's a shame that it was so brief, you know. um And we never did run into anybody else there, you know, scooping up the good stuff. So and this is still kind of pre-internet, kind of, you know.
00:32:20
Speaker
Not that we would have sold any of that stuff at the time, but. No. Those are really cool memories.
Impact of Various Anime Series on Childhood
00:32:26
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Yeah. Any, any other Japanese shows or characters that, uh, that you remember watching when you were a kid?
00:32:35
Speaker
Not so much when I was a kid. When I was older, I got into Cutie Honey and The Big O. Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:32:45
Speaker
Of course, things like Digimon were awesome. you know Then there was almost too much of it coming over. and even though transformers isn't uh a japanese show from the start it's still in that style so you know i i i'm a major transformers fan for series for animated series so to me it's kind of like it's anime Um, and I'm crazy for all those shows. I don't know that there's anything else. I'm trying to quickly think, um, what else has been around. I've tried to get into other things, but it's like, if it doesn't really hit on like a 10 out of 10, then I just, it's like, I don't have time.
00:33:27
Speaker
Totally. Like, it's just, you know, it's really tough. Like Sailor Moon was incredible. yeah loved sailor moon yeah but of course like they're they're commercial hits right like they're they're successful for a reason and that's another series you can talk about how ahead of its time it was you know um and it was and just that rich rich rich rich rich storytelling and character development and all the arcs and every season being drastically different and the enemies just getting cooler and cooler and
00:33:58
Speaker
you know, and if you don't know, then you kind of miss out on how well done these shows are. Yeah. Is there anything else that that you were a fan of, whether it was older or newer? Uh, you know, my I don't know remember this one, but I also loved that short lived, uh, Japanese to North American series, Tech-A-Man.
00:34:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. but That Dickman Blade, right? Yes. Yeah, because there's been so many, right? Yeah, the first one was Dickman, yeah. Yeah, and you love the Samurai Pizza Cats. Hello, t how could I forget Samurai Pizza Cats? Oh, my God.
00:34:31
Speaker
Loved the Samurai Pizza Cats. So amazing. And I watched that show as an adult. I would watch that show. it was just one of those. oh my God, I have to watch a show. It's just so crazy.
00:34:44
Speaker
But I loved the art. I loved the the three cats and all the cats and all the animals and the the pizza. And I had the toys, too, because I just had too lucky i had the Japanese toys. And that was a that was a great collection to have.
00:34:58
Speaker
Where did the house come from? Was that that store on Spadina? Like, where did that come from? um do you remember? I'm trying to remember. Because we got we found so much stuff tucked away in little shops and little seedy streets.
00:35:13
Speaker
yeah It might have been. i think so. Because it came with that that putty inside, right? where you could Yes, you could make the pizza. Yeah, yeah. You'd make little pizzas out of this brown putty.
00:35:24
Speaker
Yeah. That was like hard as a rock, I assume. Yeah. I don't think you were supposed to eat it. It was more like Play-Doh. But yeah. And it came with the little rubber figures. Yeah. That was a really cool place. Do you still have that? No. I sold all of that stuff. I get it.
00:35:40
Speaker
yeah Yeah. it was It was hard to let that one go. I'm sure. Well, you would have made somebody very happy. Well, yeah, I also had the little mini play sets as well. I remember those. And I also had these sort of model kits, like snap together model kits of some of the characters.
00:35:59
Speaker
um And there was some weird little games that I had. Yeah, that was a cool collection. I remember seeing Nausicaä, the movie, yeah um late 80s, and like that was an incredible film.
00:36:15
Speaker
And My Neighbor Totoro is really sweet, too. But then I kind of go off them after that. But those two particular anime films are incredible.
00:36:26
Speaker
Yeah, Nausicaä was an incredible film. Oh, yeah, so good. The American version is brutal, but not bad. Um, but yeah, I'm trying to quickly think, I'm sure there's ones we're missing. I'm trying to think of things that I've owned soundtracks that I've had, you know, what else? are Videos. I don't know, but, uh,
00:36:44
Speaker
Maybe we've covered them all. I'm not sure. I'm sure we haven't, but you know what I mean? no we have not. there's There's so much amazing stuff that that came out of Japan. um i just It's one of those things where I have great memories as a kid of just watching this stuff and not realizing what it was. But as I grew up and got older and was able to discover it,
00:37:04
Speaker
was really excited. And I thought, you know, it's really cool. And, and, you know, Japan's, uh, love of storytelling and they're, they're not shy about, you know, telling stories to kids. Right. It's like, no, you know what, here's what's happening. Here's what's going on.
00:37:19
Speaker
You know what? Yeah. This guy's really bad. And he's, he's, you know, blowing up all these people in these cities. Right. But you also have really great heroes and in they jump in their robot suits. Gundam is another one. I loved the Gundam series, like the original series.
00:37:33
Speaker
I would love to watch it just because I love robot shows, you know, but I've never seen any version. I thought I would try and watch the super deformed version and I never saw that. So I'm not for that.
00:37:45
Speaker
No, it's it's, and it was like a Robotex. I loved Robotech. That was probably the, the first introduction really to that sort of robo, you know, robo suit. And I just was like, I love this. It's amazing.
Canadian Culture Trivia and Anecdotes
00:37:57
Speaker
That definitely had a cult following here. It did. Yeah, for sure. That's when I think college kids were watching it, you know, that kind of a following. I got to pull out my laser discs and watch those again.
00:38:10
Speaker
Do you have those? I still have the ones that I bought probably way back at HMV. Sorry. I mean, specifically Robotech. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm blanking on the covers.
00:38:21
Speaker
you have your ExoSquad laser disc? Yes. I still have ExoSquad. It's very cool. Very cool. Yeah. I still have Pirates of Darkwater too. Very cool. Yeah. Well, that was awesome. That was a great little trip to Japan.
00:38:34
Speaker
There's so much more we could do and talk about, um you know, Japanese animation. And I think we probably need to come back to Sailor Moon at some point. And then maybe we'll we'll talk a little bit about the Pokemon phenomenon.
00:38:47
Speaker
Oh my gosh, of course. Yeah. Right. You can't, I mean, there was stuff I loved about Pokemon. I cannot believe it is still alive and well today. i Yeah. I would have thought it it would just get slaughtered by whatever's next, you know, and it's not even like it came around again out of nostalgia. It never went away.
00:39:05
Speaker
no no like he's like pikachu is now the number one most recognized character in the world yeah you know he's ahead of mickey mouse i'm like yeah mickey who yeah like what did you mean to say pikachu yeah yeah pika pika pika Oh, right. So what are we going to do here? Let's see. Oh, I think we have time for just a couple of quick trivia questions. Oh, no. I'm so sorry, audience. I'm going to go with Japan.
00:39:35
Speaker
ah No, sorry. That is the wrong answer. Let's see. Censor. No, that's not it. There we go. Yes, I heard that loud and clear. Thank you.
00:39:46
Speaker
All right. Okay. So we're, we're, we're going to play some questions from the Trivial Pursuit, totally eighties edition. Here's one for you. It's really topical. Where did Dr. Grant Roberts work on the Canadian show danger Bay?
00:40:04
Speaker
I never watched it. Yes, you did. i know you sure I'm sure it was probably hosted by or sponsored by craft, but no, I never saw that show.
00:40:15
Speaker
Yeah. So funny. At some point I did watch some episodes of the show, probably just for nostalgia sake, because I'm like, oh yeah, it's Vancouver. Oh, I recognize everything. Oh, I recognize Stanley Park.
00:40:27
Speaker
I watched Danger Island, but I never saw Danger Bay. Not the same. Okay. So, so you don't know? Correct. Okay, we'll give you a buzz for that. What was the question? Oh, where do they work? Yeah, where you work? In the bay.
00:40:40
Speaker
At the bay. the bay At the Hudson's Bay. No, the Eatons. I'm sorry. The answer was Eatons? ShopRite. ah No, the Vancouver Aquarium. Oh, of course. Yeah. They didn't even change the name. Like, no, no, no. s The Vancouver Aquarium with, with a former, uh, killer whale, Scana, famous Scana went to that place as a field trip. A lot of times when I was a kid, they should have called it danger aquarium.
00:41:08
Speaker
That would have been more exciting. Yeah. Because it was dangerous. Yes. um Okay. So next question. Who might say take off you hoser if you insulted his performance as Louie Tully in Ghostbusters?
00:41:23
Speaker
Oh, gosh.
00:41:26
Speaker
ah I got to keep my mouth shut on how I feel about Bob and Doug McKenzie and Ghostbusters. Who might have said it? Rick Moranis? Yeah.
00:41:38
Speaker
Yeah. Rick Moranis. Okay, here's a music one. You're good with Canadian music. so so so I'm surprised there's so many Canadian questions on here. This is really bizarre.
00:41:51
Speaker
What reckless Canadian rocker released the 1983 album Cuts Like a Knife? ah That would be Mr. Brian Adams. And you are correct once again.
00:42:04
Speaker
So you got 50 points on the board. who and that's it. That's it. That's all you get. Just 50 points. Okay. Well, mark it down because that's never happened in the past.
00:42:15
Speaker
No, actually, the last time, the last question set, you did really well. Did I? Oh, that's good to know. Thank you. You could be lying. I could be, but I'm not. So I'm going to...
00:42:27
Speaker
It'll be one of these. um Yeah, yeah. Better. Better. Totally. ah can't believe you can still play that instrument. I can't believe what it was called.
00:42:39
Speaker
Trombone. That's right. Trombone. All right. I was going to ask a question for my viewers, but I can't even find a decent question. So we're going to wrap it up with this. I have question. Why aren't you already listening to every episode and why haven't you subscribed?
00:42:54
Speaker
Seriously. Have you not subscribed yet? Like, what are you doing? You got to go subscribe. And you know what? You know what, listeners? I really want you to use the speak pipe. It's in it's in my social media. The link is there.
00:43:07
Speaker
It gives you a minute and a half. All you have to do is like say your name. You can just record. You can even pick up the link from from Facebook page. And do it on your phone because I tested it. So I'm the only person who's actually left a message so far.
00:43:19
Speaker
So you can ask a question, ask a Gen X question. Tell us what a favorite show was. What was your favorite cereal? You know, what was your favorite toy?
Engagement and Gen X Memories
00:43:27
Speaker
And we'll plug it into the episode because I really love to hear from you.
00:43:31
Speaker
Really want to hear something really cool and something wacky. So go ahead and do that. Other than that, until next Saturday, have a Yabba Zonkers Wednesday and we will see you next week.
00:43:44
Speaker
You've been listening to Yabba Zonker Zoinks, a Gen X for Life podcast. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any exciting episodes. You can reach out on Instagram at Gen X for Life podcast. That's Gen X number four life underscore podcast or send an email at Gen X for Life podcast, all one word at gmail.com.
00:44:05
Speaker
I'd love to hear about your favorite Gen X Saturday morning memory, maybe a favorite toy or the cereal you just couldn't wait to tear into. Until then, have a Yabba Zonker Zoinks day, and I'll be back bright and early next Saturday morning.