If you are a child of the 1990s, you'll recall the smash hit Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, adapted from the Japanese Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger.

Zyuranger was not the first attempt to localize Japanese sentai shows for American audiences. Its predecessor Choujin Sentai Jetman almost became Power Rangers; both the 1984 series Choudenshi Bioman and 1989 series Kousoku Sentai Turboranger were also considered to be adapted for Western audiences.

Believe it or not, the late Stan Lee almost brought sentai to America in the 1980s!

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This is an image from the 1981 Super Sentai show Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan. This is notable as the team here was all-male and had three members instead of the usual five. Anyway, Stan Lee got the jump on Haim Saban by proposing this series be exported to the USA; Marvel did hold copyrights to the show as they had co-produced it with Toei. What Lee wanted to do was the same with Power Rangers -new footage would be filmed with a cast of American actors as the character and then English dubbed footage from the original Japanese production of the suited heroes, monsters, mecha, etc would be spliced in. Lee shopped this idea around to networks including HBO which had little original programming in the 1980s.

Let's say as a POD that Stan Lee succeeds and a localized dub of Sun Vulcan hits the USA:

1. How would Sun Vulcan fare on cable television like HBO? How would Sun Vulcan fare in syndication?

2. How would Sun Vulcan perform overall? In the 1980s, there would have been significant competition from other children's programming, especially the now cult favorites like Masters of the Universe, GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, Ninja Turtles, etc.

3. Does the success or failure of Sun Vulcan butterfly away Saban's Power Rangers in the 1990s?
 
1. How would Sun Vulcan fare on cable television like HBO?
Safer to not suffer cuts but the limited starting base unless become a hit bring people to HBO.

How would Sun Vulcan perform overall? In the 1980s, there would have been significant competition from other children's programming, especially the now cult favorites like Masters of the Universe, GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, Ninja Turtles, etc
PR was a hit here would be as big Even bigger on a virgin market, might Even stole the fanbase to TNMT now

This butterfly might help ultraseven too https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Seven
 
Were the Turtles coming to comics from Japanimation? IIRC, they weren't exactly hits when they debuted...
 
Were the Turtles coming to comics from Japanimation? IIRC, they weren't exactly hits when they debuted...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a remarkably successful indie black-and-white not-for-kids comicbook before it became a cartoon.

If memory serves it comes second in the "Wait! They turned THAT into a kids' cartoon?" reaction only to
The Toxic Avenger...
 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a remarkably successful indie black-and-white not-for-kids comicbook before it became a cartoon.
I remember the book. It wasn't successful (IIRC) until after the movie; the audience (at least among patrons of my local direct store) seemed pretty small. (Not quite Beowulf small...but still, there was a time the owner was practically giving them away.)
 
I remember the book.
The latest issue with the pre-cartoon incarnations was published in 2014...
The first run/volume ended in 1993

I remember the book. It wasn't successful (IIRC) until after the movie
That depends on your definition of successful.
It didn't hit the mainstream until the first animated series in 1987 (and it's not bad to get three seasons, or a miniseries and two seasons,
of a saturday morning cartoon if you don't get successful until the movie three years later).

The original comic book is said to have been instrumental in setting off the Black-and-White Boom-and-Bust in the mid-eighties
and acquired numerous parodies/rip-offs well before the cartoon - e.g. Adult Thermonuclear Samurai Elephants, Mildy Microwaved
Pre-Pubescent Kung Fu Gophers, Geriatric Gangrene Jujitsu Gerbils, Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, and Pre-Teen
Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroo.

Also:
Beowulf (D.C:)?
Beowulf (First Comics)?
Grendel?
 
The latest issue with the pre-cartoon incarnations was published in 2014...
The first run/volume ended in 1993
It was always keep on and off, sucessful before the cartoon, heck influenced a lot and was influenced by the 2003 cartoon too.

So you think guys Sun Vulcan could pull it on HBO? maybe HBO exporting more japanese products later on?
 
didn't hit the mainstream until the first animated series in 1987 (and it's not bad to get three seasons, or a miniseries and two seasons, of a saturday morning cartoon if you don't get successful until the movie three years later).
It would've been about then (I couldn't give you a year any more), & I was thinking only of the book itself, not the Turtles. They got really hot.
The original comic book is said to have been instrumental in setting off the Black-and-White Boom-and-Bust in the mid-eighties
and acquired numerous parodies/rip-offs
I remember the plague of take-offs.:rolleyes: I'm not sure I'd credit TMNT alone with the B&W boom, but they were sure part of it. I do wonder if they helped Dinos for Hire. (Not enough. :'(:'( )

My recall is getting faulty.:oops: It's Grendel. Thx for correcting.

And if we're going to discuss the impact of TMNT, maybe we should start another thread.
 
Stan Lee in the early Eighties is at his nadir in terms of public influence. CBS got away with butchering the live-action Spider-Man by doing things like not giving him a motivation for his costumed vigilanteism beyond "hey, wouldn't this be fun?" and treating J. Jonah Jameson like Perry White. Then, when Marvel asked for more than 0.5% sponsorship money for royalties, they cancelled Spider-Man and moved Incredible Hulk around the week at the 10:00 timeslot. When despite that, it still stayed in the Top 20 the first four years of Hulk's run, CBS stuck its final season on Saturday Nights and aired at least three Public Service Messages with each episode its final season. Then CBS aired four more made-for-TV movies over the Eighties as a big middle finger to Marvel and Lee.

Not saying Super Sentai couldn't come over to the U.S. in the Eighties, but Stan Lee couldn't do it alone. No one at the networks or the syndicates respected or feared him.

Maybe a dream team of Lee, Steven J. Cannell, David Jacobs, and either Steven Spielburg or George Lucas...
 
Might be easier to do if they bring over Japanese Spider-Man first.

To wit: Japanese Spider-Man was another Marvel-Toei co production that featured a different take on the famous Web Slinger. The most notable part of his arsenal was the robot Leopardon.

Seeing a familiar hero in an unfamiliar setting (i.e. human size heroes fightin with giant robots) might make it easier for Sentai to make the jump across the Pacific.
 
Might be easier to do if they bring over Japanese Spider-Man first.

To wit: Japanese Spider-Man was another Marvel-Toei co production that featured a different take on the famous Web Slinger. The most notable part of his arsenal was the robot Leopardon.

Seeing a familiar hero in an unfamiliar setting (i.e. human size heroes fightin with giant robots) might make it easier for Sentai to make the jump across the Pacific.
Could HBO show it to test the waters?
 
It is actually funny that Japanese Spider Man is a Tokusatsu show, another possible Toku show to be dubbed abroad is Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, I think the Japanese Spider Man can be exported back like Powerpuff Girls anime became dubbed later on if Toku was exported in the 80's.
 
It is actually funny that Japanese Spider Man is a Tokusatsu show, another possible Toku show to be dubbed abroad is Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.
The Live Action Tokusatsu was done 2000 years after the anime, of course SM was heavily toku inspired, meaning it readapt itself. But was Manga and anime first
 
The Live Action Tokusatsu was done 2000 years after the anime, of course SM was heavily toku inspired, meaning it readapt itself. But was Manga and anime first
It is actually funny that there were attempts to adapt SM as liveaction in American market like Team Angel and Toonmakers Sailor Moon.
 
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