Like many amazing adventures, this one started in an antique mall. Always on the lookout for diecast Japanese robot toys, one day I found one I didn't recognize. And I don’t want to say I’m an expert or anything, but if there’s one thing that takes up too much of my brain, it’s diecast Japanese robot toys. So I bought the thing, this big-headed orange and green robot man, and found out it was “VALCAN-I” from the Shinsei Mini Power UFO Commander 7 Series, a collection of futuristic robots and vehicles sold in the mid 1970s. Shinsei was and maybe still is a toymaker, selling detailed toy replicas of cars, trucks, construction equipment and other items of interest to kids; the brand was acquired by an Indian corporation in 1985.
The thing about diecast toys is they’re made of metal, and metal is strong. Dogs might chew on it, kids might bury it in the sandbox, they might get smacked around or thrown or dropped, they’ll lose accessories like fists or missiles, but that toy is going to last, a brightly colored artifact of somebody’s childhood that ends up with all the other childhood artifacts on a shelf with a price tag. Soon I was finding other UFO Commander 7 items in the display cases of other vintage toy stores and out of the way antique malls. That’s where I found my Jeek Tunnelins, which is not a rare skin condition, but another mecha-vehicle member of that UFO Commander armada. The Jeek Tunnelin is, as the name would suggest, a tunnelling vehicle. If your Jeek Tunnelin works properly, pushing the vehicle forward on its caterpillar treads will engage a gear that turns the giant tunnel boring machine-style cutting head disc. It's pretty cool.
Over the years I kept seeing various toys at various inflated price points in various antique malls, and then one day I saw something I hadn’t seen before in one of those antique mall display cabinets. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a square little View-Master sized paper pamphlet with the UFO Commander 7 logo and what appeared to be manga-style artwork of the series robots and vehicles. "That," I said, "is coming with me."
My guess was that this would be a little toy instruction sheet, how to fit the missiles into your VALCAN-I or how to operate your BRAIN-III or whatever. You've seen these sorts of pamphlets nestled in among the styrofoam tray inside the diecast toy box, if you're lucky enough to find one that still has the box. Anyway, that was my assumption. And my assumption was wrong.
What this was instead was the legend of UFO Commander 7, the entire saga behind the toy line, the explanation of the UFO "Blue Silver" and how it escaped the destruction of its home planet along with VALCAN-I and BRAIN-III. How the Earth was threatened by the Dragols from outer space, and how three Earth youngsters and a dolphin were selected to join the UFO Commander 7 crew. This isn't an instruction sheet, this is a science fiction epic! But it's the next page that really stunned me.
This is manga, UFO Commander 7 manga. Japanese manga in English from the 1970s, starring Dr. Purron, our friendly talking, bespectacled dolphin Edison, and three Earth youngsters sporting Cyborg 009 cosplay.
This is English-language manga, years before Viz and Area 88, years before I Saw It and Gen Of Hiroshima. This is manga in three languages all about the heroes of UFO Commander 7 teaming up to battle the Dragols, and also some VALCAN-I and BRAIN-III comedy relief robo-bickering.
Writing about classic Japanese animation involves a bit of research. As new information comes to light on old series, we're constantly revising our ideas of "firsts." There always seems to be an older anime series or an earlier anime convention or fanzine. So I'm not going to be the guy who says what we're looking at right here is the first Japanese manga to be published in English (and French and German). But maybe it is.
For one thing, this is a toy pamphlet, not a magazine or a book - buying a UFO Commander 7 toy was the only way to read this. Not unheard of in the toy world, but certainly a difficult way to get the work out to a wider audience.
But let's face it. These are Japanese comics, in English, being distributed in North America in the 1970s. This is a pretty rare thing for America at the time. If you aren't flipping out about this at least slightly, you probably quit reading this blog a while back.
According to Japanese Showa-era toy research blogger Bakadesubakadesu, there was a UFO Commander 7 manga serial in Terebi-Kun magazine that ran from 1976-77. It's unknown who created the manga, and I have no idea if what we're seeing here is repurposed images from that manga, or if this was drawn specifically for the toy line. What I do know is that I'm digging this artwork, this is perfect adventure manga artwork from this period, the human characters have those gigantic Star Of The Giants eyebrows and the mechanical stuff is sharp and tight, the kind of terrific detail we love to see in our mecha illustrations.
I don't know how many super robot narratives end with one super robot throwing another super robot at the enemy super robots, but it definitely happens at least once! Maybe this needs a little notation reminding children to not throw their BRAIN-IIIs across the room, those things are heavy and could do some damage.
Not to worry! The diecast metal from Planet Marvellous is strong, and BRAIN-III has survived the impact with only minor and easily repaired damage.
You can tell the robots are functioning normally because they're bickering with each other like always. Now let's get back to building that underground base, and you, children at home, be careful with your VALCAN-I's space razor!
The immense success of the 1970s Japanese entertainment industry, swelling to a tidal wave of comics, cartoons, films, toys, model kits, and uncounted other pieces of ancillary merchandise, couldn't help but surge past Japan's borders and into the rest of the world. And sure, it's easy to sell merchandise from a property that kids have seen on TV or in the movies. But it speaks to the genius of their toy designers that something like UFO Commander 7 can grab the interest and the allowance money of legions of North American kids without benefit of a TV cartoon. Great toys sell themselves.
Now get out there, collect all the UFO Commander 7 toys, and help VALCAN-I save the Earth from the Dragols!
Well, maybe it IS spelled "VULCAN" after all.
-Dave Merrill
Special thanks to Antiques On 11, Severn Ontario!
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