It's that time of year again, and in the spirit of the season I figured I'd share some presents with you. Namely, images of Usei Shonen Papi / Prince Planet menko cards that were passed on to me via old-school Prince Planet fan M.E. So if you want your Christmas to be filled with slightly-off register pictures of Prince Planet and his pals printed on thick slabs of cardboard and intended to be slapped onto the pavement with the mighty force of an 8-year old arm, then you are in luck!
Prince Planet is, of course, the 1966 TCJ show based on the Hideoki Inoue manga about a young boy from the planet Radion who comes to Earth and with his friends Diana, Dan Dynamo, and Adji Baba, defends peace and justice!!
Here we see Prince Planet in his "Bobby" disguise, along with Diana, meeting a strange bowtie-wearing man in a park.
On our next card, Bowtie man seems astonished at Dan Dynamo's manly chest and Adji Baba's little beard as Bobby assumes the position to shout "Kazow" or "Kapow" or "Wowee", or whatever the English voice talent decided to have him yell, as he changes into Prince Planet.
Meanwhile, above Diana and her father Pops Worthy, a mysterious white-haired figure hovers in the air like a religious apparition. From the look on his face I don't think he's here to convey holy blessings.
And our assumptions were correct - white haired guy is sending his super robot to go forth and bring destruction to the world! Bad mans!
In a seemingly unrelated card illustration, Bobby and Diana chat while an auto speeds away and evil Martian wizard Warlock watches them from a tree. Warlock has been taking ninja lessons.
When Warlock is around you know evil can't be far off and we see Bobby menaced by chains! Don't worry, he's using his Pendant of Power to change into Prince Planet!
In his Prince Planet identity he's able to evade the chains with ease and in about a minute Warlock is going to get blasted by a lightning-like bolt from Prince Planet's pendant!
And it's back after that car that sped off earlier. Or maybe this is a different car. It's hard to tell.
This could be Prince Planet fighting that giant robot we saw in a previous card, or it may be him just running through fire. Who knows?
Sometimes Prince Planet flies into outer space and battles other super powerful space people including this one who looks as if Kamen Rider V-3 and Space Ace got together and had a baby.
And sometimes Prince Planet likes to dress in his pink outfit. Don't ask, don't tell, that's the motto of the Universal Peace Corps.
Happy Holidays, everybody! See you in 2009!!
Oh my... the first anime I ever saw. Of course, I was, maybe, four or five at the time... WGN-TV in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI think. I was young. But, oh, I do remember Prince Planet.
Fondly. Recently I watched an episode or two on youtube, and boy is it bad... but in my memory, it glows with a golden light.
Or maybe that's just the Pendant of Power. I'm not sure.