Lunar Archivist

Awesome, thanks! Probably looks a lot better than my version would. :)

Space Kaijuu said:

I though it was somewhere in this thread where someone mentioned the name of the TV special that had the scene with Eddie Valiant in the out of order bathroom but I can't seem to find it now.

Hmm...so I guess that raises another question: does anyone want me to try making this television special available?

Fair warning: I taped it when I was ten years old or so - on a Betamax, no less - and didn't tape the commercials, so the video isn't going to be the greatest quality.

Space Kaijuu said:

I've yet to see ANYBODY pony up a screenshot, but a TV special that was shown during the time the film was first released in theaters has the scene as it appeared in all video versions, so I still have to believe it's a false rumor until valid proof otherwise is presented other than "I saw it there!"

Not that I ever believed the rumor, but has anyone ever uploaded that television special anywhere so that this matter could be put to rest once and for all?

Thanks for the information, ScruffyNerfHerder. I'll have a look. :)

Buster D said:

Right, I didn't think you were calling me a liar or anything, I just didn't think to doubt the ja.wikipedia article until you mentioned that you hadn't yet confirmed the re-broadcasts.

One possible bit of good news is that God Mars has been re-airing on a local TV station (TV Kanagawa, I think). Perhaps they'll air Mighty Orbots afterward as a sort of tie in. A long shot, but you never know.

Well, it's better to clear up any misunderstandings early on this board. :)

You're right, I haven't been able to confirm the rebroadcast myself, though since I don't really speak Japanese, it's kind of hard for me to do that directly. But you'd think that a rebroadcast would mean that someone, somewhere would have more information on it, like air dates and times.

Since my last post here, some additional news has surfaced that's actually slightly more encouraging and effectively doubles my chances of finding the missing episodes that I need. Turns out that I was completely wrong about the United Kingdom and North American releases, but in a good way.

There were thirteen episodes of Mighty Orbots made:

Episode 1: "Magnetic Menace"
Episode 2: "The Wish World"
Episode 3: "Trapped on the Prehistoric Planet"
Episode 4: "Devil's Asteroid"
Episode 5: "The Dremloks"
Episode 6: "Raid on the Stellar Queen"
Episode 7: "The Jewel of Targon"
Episode 8: "The Phoenix Factor"
Episode 9: "Leviathan"
Episode 10: "The Cosmic Circus"
Episode 11: "A Tale of Two Thieves"
Episode 12: "Operation Eclipse"
Episode 13: "Invasion of the Shadow Star"

In North America, the first six episodes were released on home video with one episode per tape and a total running time of 23 minutes per videocassette:

Mighty Orbots - Volume 1: Magnetic Menace
Mighty Orbots - Volume 2: The Wish World
Mighty Orbots - Volume 3: Trapped on the Prehistoric Planet
Mighty Orbots - Volume 4: Devil's Asteroid
Mighty Orbots - Volume 5: The Dremloks
Mighty Orbots - Volume 6: Raid on the Stellar Queen

I've been speaking with a videocassette collector in England via e-mail, and he was able to dig up the names of the UK releases here:

Mighty Orbots - Volume 1: Magnetic Menace
Mighty Orbots - Volume 2: Devil's Asteroid
Mighty Orbots - Volume 3: The Jewel of Targon
Mighty Orbots - Volume 4: The Phoenix Factor
Mighty Orbots - Volume 5: Leviathan

Now, here's where things get interesting.

Several years ago, a UK website known as Anime Video Games did a review of the first volume. But they mentioned that there were three episodes on one cassette, with a total running time of 70 minutes. Based on this, it would appear that the entire series was released on home video in the UK, but in non-chronological order and with two to three episodes per tape, with running times of between 47 and 70 minutes per videocassette. UK Volume 1 is confirmed as having Episodes 1 to 3 on it. No idea what the distribution is for the remaining ones, though. But at least it's a start. :)

Buster D said:

It's possible it never did actually re-air, I can't seem to find anything in a quick Google search in Japanese (other than the Wikipedia article and other websites copying the article).

Just to be clear: I appreciate your attempt to help and am not trying to call you a liar or discourage you or something. :)

The problem with Mighty Orbots is that, based on my own intense research over the last two years, there's a lot of inaccurate information out there that's being repeated as fact even though it's not true. I think the most persistent claim that's been made all over the Internet is that it was released on Laserdisc in Japan. This is 100%  false; it actually came out on VHD (Video High Density), an obscure digital disc format that was the Betamax to Laserdisc's VHS and became a popular release format for anime and karaoke. Heck, I even have the product numbers that were assigned to the releases by Victor (a.k.a. JVC):

Videocassettes
Mighty Orbots - Volume 1 (VTG-136)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 2 (VTG-137)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 3 (VTG-152)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 4 (VTG-153)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 5 (VTG-155)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 6 (VTG-156)

VHDs
Mighty Orbots - Volume 1 (ODG-1029)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 2 (ODG-1035)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 3 (ODG-1038)
Mighty Orbots - Volume 4 (ODG-1039)

I've also run across some extremely bizarre things whose veracity I can't verify. For example, thanks to a library director in Austin, Texas, I discovered that the WorldCat database indicated that two U.S. libraries, one in New York state and another in Minnesota, claimed to have copies of all thirteen episodes in their media archives...even though only six episodes were ever released on home video in North America. Unfortunately, both libraries have since disposed of their copies and the representatives couldn't provide me with any additional information, so we'll never know whether the listing was indeed accurate or they were simply mistaken (which one of the people I spoke to indicated was possible).

And even I end up being thrown for a loop sometimes. Until recently, I thought that the United Kingdom home video market only ever got the same six episodes that we did, which was what all my research indicated was the fact. But then I ran across someone who discovered a copy of the seventh episode, "The Jewel of Targon", which was never released in North America, in a thrift shop in England.

I more than anyone want the Animax thing to be true, but it's difficult to weed out what's true and what isn't about this series a lot of the time.

Buster D said:

According to http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%83%E3%83%84 , Mighty Orbots was re-broadcast in Japan on Animax (a basic cable/satellite channel), although it looks like Animax took down their page for it that's linked in the article.

Have you tried looking for it on Japanese P2P?  Digital recordings from the re-airings would probably look better.

Perhaps a DVD release might also be released in Japan someday, or a non-upscaled Blu-ray if we're really lucky.

Thanks for the link. I did actually hear that it was supposedly rebroadcast on Animax, but I've never been able to verify it and have had a lot of trouble accessing Japanese P2P servers. Need to get some help with that.

I'd need to buy a video converter to use that in North America, wouldn't I? That also raises the question of how this crazy setup would work with my Dazzle...

Jetrell Fo said:

In answer to your last question .....

Toshiba VCP-C10, Panasonic AG-W1, Panasonic NG-V50, Hitachi VT-F99EM ...

just to name a few.

Thanks for the list.

Hmm...how much does something like that go for? And is there a good one from JVC? I'm really pleased with the results from the VCRs they've made.

Space Kaijuu said:

Now, please, can we back down from this before it turns into a mess that it didn't need to be just because one person misunderstood what was being said and the other person got overly defensive?

Thanks, Space Kaijuu. :)

Okay, now to get things back on track, let's summarize the three big, important questions that have been asked so far:

1. Does anyone know of a retailer that deals in obscure old Japanese videocassettes or VHDs (Video High Density discs)?
2. Alternatively, does anyone know of a retailer that deals in obscure old videocassette releases from the United Kingdom?
3. Is there such a thing a Super VHS machine that plays both NTSC and PAL videocassettes?

Jetrell Fo said:

If you read them as you said then it seems you openly violated them as well.

Not as far as I'm aware. The following rules are the relevant ones:

No discussions about financial transactions except for the buying, selling, or trading of official retail media. All For Sale/For Trade/Wanting To Buy posts belong in the buying/selling/trading forum.

No profiting from any activities related to fan edits or preservation efforts. Those found selling their fan edits or preservation projects here or elsewhere will be banned.

Use of the Service. [...] For example, you may not do any of the following: use the Service to sell a product or service; [...]

There is to be no profiting from any activities related to fan edits or preservation efforts. Those found selling their fan edits or preservation projects here or elsewhere will be banned - no exceptions, no excuses.

I've made no attempt to profit from my preservation project. In my previous posts, I whimsically joked about how nice it would be if I could, but that's as far as it went. What's more, my preservation project is nonexistent as of this writing. I haven't even found everything I need to get it off the ground.

I'm really not sure why you're picking on the new guy and seem to lack a sense of humor, but if I've really violated any forum rules, then the powers that be are free to give me a warning or edit my previous comments. I don't think they really need someone acting as a backseat moderator.

I did read those rules. Thanks for the polite reminder.

Yeah, the NTSC/PAL thing is definitely a problem.

The advantages are that getting my hands on the UK releases would save me the problem of syncing the Japanese video with the English audio from the television recordings, offer better quality audio, and lack the unsightly Japanese subtitles.

The downsides, of course, are that I'd have to buy more equipment and the video quality would be ever so slightly worse since I'm not sure there's such a thing as a multi-region Super VHS machine (or at least not one that isn't insanely expensive).

Still, the possibility that the series was released in another country in English in its entirety does increase the odds that I'll be able to track it down. Either way, it's going to be a pain in the butt to assemble this series...just a different kind of pain depending on which route I end up going. -_-;

Well, as mentioned three posts ago, there's been a new development...kind of. I discovered yesterday that more episodes of the series may have been released in the United Kingdom than ever saw the light of day in North America. I don't suppose there're any British/Irish/Scottish/Welsh board members who might have happened upon these videocassettes or know where I might be able to find them...?

Space Kaijuu said:

I feel your pain.  I've spent more than than on Transformers: The Movie related materials to use for the Blu-ray project I'm doing.  I wouldn't want to sell the final product but it does bother me to know there's a good chance that if it gets distributed, there could be Chinese bootlegs of the bluray being sold all over the place, should it become popular.

Tell me about it. As I said, I would be happy to just make my money back from this, and it wouldn't even take that much. Ten or twenty sales and I'd be in the green again.

Not to sound like I'm trivializing your own project - which, I must admit, I'm very interested in seeing the final result of! - but I think that my own is a lot tougher, at least when it comes to the legwork. Transformers: The Movie is a relatively mainstream release and extremely popular. What you're looking for might be hard to find, but at least it's out there. Mighty Orbots is more of a forgotten classic and it's hard to find anyone who even heard of the damn thing. Hell, it took me two years to even find pictures of the Japanese videocassette boxes. Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to track down Bigfoot or a pink unicorn. :P

Thanks for the information, Space Kaijuu. I have recruited the help of someone in Tokyo right now (and of a friend who's frequently there on business trips) to help me look, but it's a slow process.

As for ripping the Japanese tapes, that's definitely on the "to do" list. I'd love to rip the Japanese VHDs at some point since that would give us something as close to DVD quality video-wise as we're ever going to get (barring an official release), but that would be too problematic since I'd have to find a VHD player to do that...and those things cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

I have seen the complete set of episodes that you mentioned on the Spleen, but the last seven episodes especially are in extremely lousy shape and come from a second or third generation copy of fan-distributed bootlegs that were making the rounds as early as 16 years ago. I remember picking a copy of one volume up when I was at San Diego Comic Con way back in 1998.

Right now, the plan (such as it is) is to take the Japanese video and combine it with the English audio from a first generation TV recording that a casual acquaintance of mine, a seasoned professional from the North American animation industry, received from a friend back in the 1980s (provided he can find it). Granted, this will still leave us with a few burned-in subtitles from the Japanese version, but I think the dramatic increase in quality will be worth the trade-off.

One extremely frustrating thing, though, is how massive a financial drain this project has become. I've already spent at least 150 bucks out of my own pocket tracking down multiple versions of all six North American home video releases and purchasing two working JVC Super VHS VCRs to squeeze every last ounce of quality I can from the old tapes, to say nothing of the dozens of hours I've spent ripping the cassettes using a Dazzle video capture device, editing the footage together, and scanning and photoshopping the old inserts.

It's really a shame that this forum frowns upon selling fan restoration/preservation projects. Considering that one eBay seller has already sold several copies of his crappy torrent download version of the show for 26 bucks a pop, it would've been nice to at least have broken even on the one I'm assembling, especially considering that TMS and MGM have no plans to ever release it on DVD or Blu-Ray.

skyjedi2005 said:

I would have recommended recobanchou but they are closed at the moment i think and don't have that many vhs or vhd tapes listed.

I myself have looked for an obscure tape final yamato 35mm first version on VHS or beta but don't want to pay upwards of seventy dollars for it.

and nine times out of ten people claiming they have it turns out to be the regular final 70mm version.

Even the studio could not find a good copy and left it off the blu ray.  Sure they could have just used the first issue vhs but that would not look so good, i just wish they had included it as a bonus.

What's Recobanchou and why is it closed?

Have you ever considered putting your name on the Otokichi Premium wait list? They might be able to help you find it:

http://www.otokichi.com/main/newotokichien/engtop.htm
http://homepage3.nifty.com/otokichi/wantsformen.htm

On a related note, a weird new wrinkle has popped up in my search that could expand my search to the United Kingdom.

So, to expand upon my original request, does anyone on this board know where to find obscure old VHS and Betamax releases from the UK?

Thanks for the suggestion Moth3r. :)

Unfortunately, the problem in this case really boils down to finding the blasted things. I believe that the last time that it showed up for sale on Yahoo! Auction Japan was seven or eight years ago and it's taken me nearly a year of searching to even find pictures of the videocassette covers.

With the help of two librarians on opposite coasts and separate countries, I've searched every single database in Japan, the U.S., and Canada, and no one has it in English. Two American libraries, one in New York state and another in Minnesota, supposedly did, but have since disposed of them. A chain of rental stores in Japan known as Tsutaya allegedly has the Japanese ones for rent, but their lack of a central database means that they can't tell me which one, if any of their nearly 1400 stores it's available in. Add to this the fact that people who actually live in Japan have told me they've never seen VHS videocassettes for rent in any of those stores for years anyway...

So yes, it's been immensely frustrating to say the least. :(

Don't celebrate too soon. First, I need to find them. Second, I didn't generally tape the live-action segments, so the animated segments are probably all I have from your list (if anything). :(

This is a ways off, but I can try digging through my tapes to see if I can find any of these. I'll need to see if I can get an old Betamax working, though...

PM sent. :)

As for the points you mentioned, the reason I didn't ask for laserdiscs of the series is because they don't exist. The series was only ever released on VHS and VHD in Japan in its entirety in the mid to late 1980s and that's it. It's never been released on DVD anywhere, let alone Blu-Ray. Only the first six episodes ever made it to home video in North America on VHS and Betamax.

To make matters worse, the only currently publicly available copies of the last seven episodes of this thirteen episode series are third or fourth generation VHS copies taped off of television three decades ago, and they look every bit as horrible as that description makes them sound. Here's a comparison image of the one's that been making the rounds on the Internet for the last few years (top) and the one I've managed to rip using a Super VHS machine and S-Video cable (bottom):

I stumbled upon this forum today and, from what I’ve seen so far, the posters here are incredibly resourceful, so I figured I’d give this a shot.

Does anyone here know of a store that deals in obscure old Japanese VHS videocassettes and VHDs? I’m trying to locate an extremely hard-to-find title and have exhausted every solid lead I have, so any ideas or suggestions would be extremely welcome.

Thanks in advance for any help! 😃