Iron King - The Complete Series [DVD]

Greetings and thank you for checking out my review. Being a BIG fan of the original ULTRAMAN and JONNY SOKKO series, I purchased this sight-unseen, because I thought it to be a worthy follow-up. Produced in the early 1970's and (supposedly) produced by the same people who created the original ULTRAMAN series, IRON KING is very similar to theme and action, but it seems to skewer MUCH younger for audiences. The premise is much more simple than the ULTRAMAN or ULTRA 7 series. The monster designs aren't nearly as interesting or entertaining. And considering that the series took place nearly a decade after the classic Tsuburaya series, the special effects and direction is pretty standard stuff. They really hadn't refined the children's television format, nor did they increase the budgets or special effects. But aside from the two male leads, there are LOTS of fine babes-of-the-week who guest star and get in on the monster action. Only problem is - they have a real affinity for killing them off! (Four die in the brief series run.) Overall though, complete episodes, SOLID transfers, good music and fun, harmless entertainment. Kids should dig it and will appreciate the zany fun. Good weekend viewing at a TERRIFIC Price!

Once again here's another classic Japanese tokusatsu series from the same production team. That brought you the Ultraman series, this 26 episode series starring Shoji Ishibashi as Gentaro Shizuka. A special agent of the Japan's National Security Forces. Wanders the countryside accompanied by a somewhat geeky hiker Goro Kirishima. Played by Mitsuo Hamada, battling terrorist organizations that threaten Japan and the world . But little does Gentaro know that Goro , really is the giant cyborg superhero Iron King. Watching this series brought back memories of not only Ultraman , but also Godzilla . Which are coincedentally made by the same person the late Eiji Tsuburaya. And now with the new Godzilla movie debuting in May, which i hope does well. I thought it was time to add to my tokusatsu section of my dvd collection. Even though this series was made in the 1960's/1970's era, and the special effects and monster designs are outdated . By today's standards a lot of the techniques in this series are still being used in today's tokusatsu t.v. shows. But only with updated special effects and new hero and monster designs.

This is a series I had never even heard of before proved so bad and so cheaply done that it proved highly entertaining and forced me to create what I call the "Saki-Rating" - as in " how many bottles were drunk when the evil robots and creatures were designed. Most I would rate a "6" with some closing in on "10", one robot would qualify for Handicaped-Parking. I spent most of my time laughing in evil delight when Iron King would first encounter his foe, and unlike the "expensively" produced Ultraman, this poor guy often gets his rear handed to him the first time they face. When the show is concentrating on things at the human scale you have the two heroes bouncing between goofball to serious, while the evil-doers are fairly cookie-cutter, and not all that bright.The series is sub-titled in English, and sometimes I don't think the translations were quite literal. About the only thing that annoyed me was the theme music, also played most of the time Iron King appeared, getting stuck in my head. Packaging is good, with each of the three disks in it's own sleave in a sturdy case.If high production values, creative writing, and great special effects are your thing, you may want to pass. But if you recognise that sometimes "bad" has it's own charming qualities, this is a must for your collection at a bargain price.

Cowboy/hippy schtick in a mid-70's giant robo series is weird. The fighting choreography is great. character design is great. the Kaiju are fun. And there's lots of slapstick humor in the story line.The quality of the video isn't great, but I'm sure that's due to the masters not being well cared for. a single season, second tier tokusatsu series released at the peak of the genre's popularity in the 70's was probably not given prime archival treatment.if you can find this on the cheap, grab it.

A good bargain from Mill Creek on a classic show that still makes me laugh out loud at its disjointed storylines, confusing editing, and some of the best monsters-on-a-budget you'll ever see. Sure, Iron King may be a rip-off of Ultraman, but its got a heck of a lot of charm that makes up for blatent copyright infringement.When you pay $7 for a complete series of shows from Mill Creek, keep the expectations low. No problems with video quality at all. Picture is what you'd expect from an aged copy of a 1970s era show. On a few episodes there is a bit of a lag in subtitles. Out of the entire three disc set there were maybe three episodes that have noticable timing issues of a half-second to a second. Iron King hardly makes sense when the subtitles are spot on anyway, so just sit back and enjoy the inanity. I didn't want to shell out the bucks for the BCI version, so this set will do.

Just a warning to those who complain about such things ; Though there are English captions, all these episodes are in Japanese. Fun, crazy and entertaining as heck, this collection is broken up into three story lines. First is a weirdly racist plot line that shines a weird light on the largely ignored subject of Japanese ethnicity. You see, the Japanese islands are largely dominated by the Yamato ethnic group, but there are others...and the first ten or so episodes feature the Shiranui trying to destroy/dominate/eject the Yamato through the use of...well, giant robots. Then we have another (less interesting) brick of episodes involving some guys dressed at mock Arabs (terrorists?) of the Phantom Opposition Party who use giant dinosaur robots, and finally...a race of AWESOME ALIENS called the 'Titanians' who look very 'V for Vendetta' and turn into giant bugs. I warn you...Star Trek this isn't. It's not even as by-the-books as Ultraman or Johnny Sokko. This is a WEIRD series...but it's all the more entertaining for it.

Entertaining. Obviously with all old shows like this, cheesiness is to be expected. I was surprised by Iron King. I recommend this to Tokusatsu Kaiju/Robo and Kyodai Hero fans!

It's an old transfer but I'm just glad to have this historical Tokusatsu in my collection... And the price was well worth it!!!👍👍👍

If your a fan of ultraman your going to like iron king.

I love Japanese super heros and this dvd did not dissapoint at all . I really enjoyed watching it .

30余年前にLD－BOX購入して長らく愛用してましたが新しいTVの方がアナログ端子に対応してないので長らくご無沙汰。ホントになにもかも懐かしい、もう来年(2022年)で放映開始50周年になるんだなぁ。なにもかも・・・ブラウン管テレビで再放送みてるような画質もむしろ懐しさをカキたててくれてるみたいに思えgood！買ってよかったです。音声は日本語のみで英語字幕が強制的に入ります。過去いくつかのimport品で経験し、もう慣れましたが主題歌のテロップや登場ロボットの名前にカブさってくるのはツラい。いや、全部ソラんじてはいるんだけどね。