Ravex in Tezuka World

Produced in time for what would have been Osamu Tezuka's 80th birthday, Ravex in Tezuka World is a short animation featuring characters from Tezuka's body of work meeting an animated version of the musical trio Ravex. It was included as an extra DVD with the group's debut album.

I first reported on this a couple of years ago, and in reading that now I'm kind of surprised at how unfavorable my initial reactions where! I was kind of harsh on it when this project was first announced.

Well, it's taken awhile for me to see it, but it's out there now thanks to a recent fansub. You're on your own if you want to see it for yourself, but I thought it would be fun to give it a quick review with some screenshots right here on ABW for those who are curious. After finally seeing it, I can say that it's at the very least worth being curious about because watching this is kind of bizarre! Whether it's good or bad, it sure is different, so let's go through the the whole story.

Click on the images for a bigger look. Feel free to leave your comments because I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say.

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Astro Baby

This PVC toy is most likely a bootleg and was found on dinodirect.com. Looks more like a baby dressed up as Astro than it looks like the actual Astro, but I have to admit, it's kind of cute. I guess.

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Crazy Astro Font

I found this image of a really strange Astro Boy themed premium typeface a few weeks ago. It came from some kind of marketing exhibition in Japan. These letters are... unique, to say the least.

I bet that someone will have some fun with this font when it's made available, but I'm not sure that I'd ever really want to read anything longer than 2 or 3 words looking this way.

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Castro Boy

I was walking around the streets of Toronto earlier this week and somehow wound up in front of a store with this crazy thing in the window.

It's obviously some kind of custom T-Shirt mash-up of Astro Boy and Fidel Castro, not a real licensed product. At any rate it's not anything I would have ever expected to find in my travels, so I was quite surprised and had to take a quick picture to share with you here.

I don't know the name of the store this was at, but it was somewhere right downtown on Queen Street, if you're interested.

Viva!

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Any Hats Out There?

I got an e-mail recently from a reader named Jen who has a young son that is a big Astro Boy fan. Great to know that a new generation of fans is growing out there. Jen is looking to get an Astro Boy hat for her son, specifically requesting the red "Ministry of Science" hat that Toby wears in the movie.

I haven't had any luck in finding such a hat. The only Astro hat I was able to find is this freaky looking one shown below, and that doesn't seem to be available anymore.

 So I'm putting out the call for help with the hopes that somebody else out there will know something or be able to find an Astro Boy hat. It can be any hat at all as long as it's related to Astro Boy. I'm sure that Jen and her son will appreciate the help, but I'm also interested in seeing what might be out there just for curiosity's sake. If anyone finds anything, please post it here in the comments section.

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Roly Poly Astro

Found these interesting looking early toys for very young kids featuring Astro Boy. These kinds of "Roly-Poly" toys always stay upright, and these seem to make a jingling sound.

It looks movie inspired with Astro's face and various appearances from throughout the film, but Uran is there too, surprisingly.

Not sure about the validity of these toys, which raises not only legal issues but safety concerns as well. At any rate, I found them, and a bunch more Astro stuff, here on Dino-Direct.

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Mighty Gun

Let's dig into the archives and take a look at this classic Astro Boy oddity, the Mighty Gun!

Yeah, basically it's just a standard sci-fi-esque plastic suction cup dart gun with an Astro Boy sticker on it. Real original. But what is quite interesting is the young Atlas target it comes with. Because we all remember the time when Astro shot Atlas with a gun, right?

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Fire Safety with Tezuka

Check out this poster by Osamu Tezuka from 1979 featuring Astro Boy and Uran in an illustration depicting fire safety around children.

Check out Pink Tentacle for more of these fire safety illustrations with Tezuka characters. Some of them are actually pretty funny.

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Astro Homer

This is an actual thing, found on eBay.

Needless to say, this is probably not a licensed product. D'oh!

This bizarre and unholy fusion of Astro Boy and Homer Simpson originates in Mexico, a haven of bootlegged weirdness. There seem to be several other Homers like this, including Flash Homer, Punisher Homer, and Hellboy Homer.

Warning: May contain traces of Mexican cheese.

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Scott Pilgrim's Astro Shirt - Live!

"Scott Pilgrim VS The World" has been released this week in the UK. So, here's an image from the movie, found through this official remix video, that clearly shows an Astro Boy T-Shirt, just like he wears in the comic.

I have to reiterate just how amazing this movie is. It's the best movie I've seen in a long time and it's an absolute crime that it hasn't made more money at the box office in North America. Do yourself a favor and see this movie in theaters if you haven't done so already. If you have, go see it again! I've seen it twice thus far and that just wasn't enough for me. Please go watch it and help support innovative films!

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Scott Pilgrim and the Awesome T-Shirt

The new movie Scott Pilgrim vs The World opens in the US and Canada today! Go see it!

To celebrate, here's an image from the second volume of the Scott Pilgrim comic series that features Scott wearing an awesome and familiar shirt.

Creator Bryan Lee O’Malley is a noted Osamu Tezuka follower and the influence certainly shows in his work. This is a very cool tribute to the master.

UPDATE: An Astro Boy T-Shirt appears in the movie, in pretty much the exact same scene as it does in the comic. Now that's attention to detail! Also, the movie rocks!

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Don't Forget Your Hat, Doc!

This vintage poster was made for the Tokyo Subway system some time ago as a way of reminding passengers to not forget their belongings on the train. Some very interesting artwork of Astro returning Osamu Tezuka's umbrella and distinctive hat. It's a creative and funny way to get a point across, though it's pretty unlikely that Tezuka would ever forget his hat, as he was seldom seen without it.

Check out more Japanese posters made to promote subway manners at Pink Tentacle, featuring Superman, Santa Claus, Doraemon, John Wayne, and more. It's some crazy stuff!

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Tokyo Atom Engrish

Pretty busy with some non-Astro related stuff right now, hence the infrequent posts recently. Things will pick back up later.

As insensitive as it might be, one of my most favorite things in the universe is Engrish; Amusingly sincere mutations of the English language which usually originate from Asian countries. What can I say? I just find it funny. Here is a bizarre piece of Astro Boy related Engrish I just stumbled upon. This "Tokyo Atom" T-shirt may or may not be an official product but is officially awesome in the Engrish department.

ASTRO BOY is a miraculous snncr(?) rober(!) with the worlds! Wow! I though I knew a lot about anime, but that's a new one to me. A provocative message, to be sure.

Source: Alexis Mall.

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Atom Phone

Check out this interesting but possibly bootleg phone made in the image of Astro Boy. The ATOM A520 looks like a toy, but is actually quite technologically advanced. It has cameras, bluetooth, a 1.5-inch screen, and can read MP3, MIDI, MP4, AVI, 3GP, JPG, GIF and TXT files.

I get the feeling that it's not an official product, but hey, points for trying.


Source: ChiniTech - Shanzhaiji

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May the Fourth Be With You

To celebrate this unofficial holiday, here is a picture I stumbled upon of a page from a French translated Osamu Tezuka manga that features a certain famous Galactic bad guy. I bet Dr. Tezuka was a big fan!

Anyone have any detailed information on this image?

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Chew on This

Here is a recent commercial for a brand of chewing gum available in Japan called POs-Ca, made by the famous Gilco company, which is featuring Astro Boy in their marketing campaign.



I guess the idea here is that this chewing this gum will give you mighty teeth. I bet swallowing it is bad idea though, especially if you're a robot.

Thanks to TokyoOn Blog

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Kid Trapped in Cup Holder. Panic Ensues.

Tragedy struck a screening of the Astro Boy movie in the UK as a young boy gets his arm stuck in a theater seat's cup holder. Kent Online has the story.

A boy had to be freed by firefighters after getting his arm stuck in his cinema seat.

The seven-year-old, who has not been named, was watching Astro Boy at the Cineworld cinema in Medway Valley Park, on Saturday, when he got his arm wedged in the cup holder attached to his seat.

He was watching the film with his neighbour and their children and got stuck around halfway through the film - but didn't tell anyone about his predicament until the credits started to roll.

A member of cinema staff found some baby oil and greased the boy's arm to try to ease it out, but firefighters had to be called in to cut him free.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service said: "It was an unusual job. While we were talking to him he revealed that he'd got it stuck halfway through the film, but didn't tell anyone as he thought he'd be able to get his arm out by the end of the movie and didn't want to get into any trouble.

"His arm was stuck right in the holder up to his bicep."

Concerned director David Bowers had this to say on his Twitter page regarding the unfortunate incident.

"Was it really worth reporting?"

It is now, buddy!

I hope the kid liked the movie anyway. Looks to me that he didn't realize it had happened as he was so engrossed in watching the film. Bet he wishes he had an arm cannon like Astro does.

AstroBoyWorld will continue to deliver all the hard hitting news that matters! Thanks to Robert for the tip!

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Robot Vs World

Well, something like this doesn't show up every day. Or maybe it does in Australia, I'm not sure.

Robot Vs World is a play that ran during the Melbourne Fringe Festival last fall. The official plot synopsis is as follows:

Someone is killing off all the famous TV and film robots and the original Optimus Prime, the classic Astroboy and an 80s Dalek must form an unlikely alliance to try and solve the mystery, live on stage.

Keep on rockin', you crazy Aussies! Thanks to Infinite Hollywood for posting about this originally.

Some video can be found by clicking the continue reading link below, where you can get a look at some of the costumes. I must warn everyone by saying there is some NSFW language.

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Crazy Astro Vehicle Toys

I thought it would be fun to post a few images of some interesting and/or weird Astro Boy toys from the past. I have a whole bunch of pictures of this kind of stuff, most of which was discovered on on eBay by myself or members the AstroBoy Online forums.

I like collecting toys but the kinds of things I'm posting here are way before my time and I don't really know much about them. I just find them amusing for one reason or another, mostly because they depict Astro riding in a vehicle that he would probably have no practical use for. If you have any insight into the history of these kinds of trinkets, please post a comment!

Nice wheels, huh? At least the generic car base has sort of a retro-future charm to it that's appropriate for Astro. But would he really ride around in a car that had pictures painted on it of not only himself, but Dr. Elefun too? That be like if Spider-man had a spider-car with a portrait of Uncle Ben on the side.

An Astro plane, again with Dr. Elefun and his giant nose on the tail fin.

I don't really see the point to this one. It's just a firetruck with a picture of Astro on the side for some reason. Maybe this is a specialized truck meant for a crew tasked to put out any fires started by Astro's rocket feet? Yeah, that's the story I'll go with.

I think this Astro Boat is hilarious because of the missiles. It just flies in the face of Astro being a messenger of peace. But I guess the missiles are just painted on so they are no real threat.

I make fun of this stuff, but really, toys like this are sort of cool in their own way. It's a part of merchandising history that is a window into the culture of the time and adds to the mystique of these famous characters. Let me know if you find anything yourself that might be worth posting here.

Don't forget to click on the tags to read prior entries about weird Astro stuff I've posted, and check out the AstroBoyWorld Store to buy some modern merchandise that we can make fun of 20 years from now.

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Super Animation BLOCKBUSTER BOOKMARK!

Wow, look at this amazing Astro Boy bookmark that was found on eBay! It is very special and unique, I'm told!

It is a "Custom-Designed, One-of-a-Kind, Hand-Made Item". Wow!

That artwork sure is something special! But it looks kind of like something I've seen before... hmmm. I wonder where it came from... hmmmmmm.

JLAnime 5: Astro Boy by ~ninjatron on deviantART

Yeah. I drew that picture. My artwork, originally for the Justice League of Anime, was taken without my knowledge or permission and made into this bookmark so someone else can make money off of it. Naughty naughty! It looks like Ninjatron has hit the big time! Oh yeah!

I never would have guessed when I started this blog, occasionally posting various Astro Boy related Oddities uncovered by myself and other fans, that one of those oddities would be something I made! I was pretty shocked to see this. Anyway, I'm taking care of it, but I figured I'd have my fun here first. Big time thanks to Dragonrider1227 for the heads up!

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