Back on the crusade to bring more giant robots to the site and my choice this time is another blast from the past.  Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs was along with Macron-1 and Robotech, a staple of my early morning viewing when I was a child.

The show is your basic futuristic western. The Star Sheriffs protect the New Frontier from Outriders, vapour beings from another dimension.  Because they turn into a puddle of vapour when shot, there’s a lot of killing of bad guys which wasn’t something you’d see in many other shows of the time.  Their boss Nemesis even goes as far as getting his forces to kidnap all the Wilderbeasts (think buffalo) just because he thought it would amuse him.  How can you not love a bad guy with so much power he invades another dimension and kidnaps an entire species just for fun (oh and he’s voice by Peter G1 Optimus Prime Cullen).

Big Giant Robots

Ramrod aka Bismark is a spaceship that transforms into a giant cowboy robot, his head is shaped as if wearing a cowboy hat and he has his gun in a holster at his waist – nice.  He also has an abundance of cannons built into his chest which are used simultaneously to obliterate enemies once they are stunned long enough to not dodge.  The packaging on the Complete Collection DVD would have you think that Ramrod, also voiced by Peter Cullen is the star of the show. That’s cobblers. The interactions between the characters is so much better and for the record, Ramrod is piloted, has no personality and only speaks during the same transformation used in every episode  – it’s good yes, the reason to watch or buy, no. Peter Cullen does deserve praise if only for voicing the Heroic robot, the Commander of the Star Sheriffs and the Commander of the bad guys which must be some sort of record for key roles in a good dub (he always does a number of bit parts too). I say good because I’ve heard the dub of Transformers Headmasters and I think there’s about 3 people did the voices for the lot lol.

The Star Sheriffs

One of the great things about this show is that the team is made up of sheriffs from different countries and are proud of it, wearing their country’s flag on their helmet and armour (although the Union Jack and the US Flag are deliberately mis-coloured for ease of animating).  The voice casts for the sheriffs are all superb and sound like they are having a great time with the different accents they get to use and it really brings the characters to life.

Saber Rider is a wonderful blend of the best of England and Scotland.  He has a great English accent and a Scottish family and plays bagpipes – wears the Union Jack and is the veteran leader of the Star Sheriff (despite not being that old at all) and is known as Top Sword as he is the best swordsman in the galaxy. He rides a mechanical flying horse named Steed and uses a saber (duh) and a hunting rifle. Even as a kid I knew there was something up with the way Saber Rider delegated everything to Fireball and sure enough in the Japanese version Saber wasn’t the leader but he’s definitely the brains behind the team whichever version, he’s dull but there weren’t many British commanders of big giant robots back then, wait there still aren’t… He also gets big props for calling everyone chum ^_^

Fireball – the youngest world champion car racer ever and the real hero of the show – he pilots Ramrod and drives a 6 wheeled racer called Red Fury Racer/Turbo (he calls it both inside one sentence in one ep.)   Regardless of the name, it looks good when drawn properly (and any car with a chain gun that comes out of the roof and rocket launchers out the sides is cool in my books.

He has the Japanese flag on his uniform but displays no sign of any Japanese behaviour other than that of typical anime hero, well except using chopsticks in one episode.  He was the first anime character I ever cosplayed as, of course back then, I didn’t even know what cosplay was, I just wanted a red suit of armour like his.  I don’t know if any pictures exist, it was terrible, foam pads on a red tracksuit but it made me happy.  Why Fireball when as I know now and yet my brother knew back then, Colt is far more awesome, well Fireball gets to pilot Ramrod and I’d love to say it’s because he gets the girl in the end but the truth is he gets to press the red button tha transforms Ramrod and everyone knows my love of pushing buttons hehe.  Actually with hindsight I don’t think I even had that habit until I saw this show.

Colt – The man, phenomenal ability to go from clown to badass cowboy in 0.2 seconds.  His helmet has a cowboy hat rim to it and when he is not wearing that, he wears a real one and never leaves it behind.  He has the US flag on his armour and a superb cowboy accent.  He flies one-man fighter named the Bronco Buster and was a bounty hunter before he joined the Star Sheriffs.  His mentor in the art of gun slinging looks suspiciously like Clint Eastwood. He chases girls and gold with equally reckless abandon but when he draws his gun you know vapour beings are going home.  He also has the coolest theme tune and has great arguments with Fireball and April which are often highlights of the shows.

April Eagle – chief designer of Ramrod and daughter of Commander Eagle (head of the Star Sheriffs) has a French flag on her armour but like Fireball displays absolutely no trace of her native county’s behaviour or accent.  She has a pink robotic horse named Nova early on which isn’t used again and she usually stays behind in Ramrod to swoop in and save the boys bacon. Trained in karate, she’s not afraid to put anyone in their place but still has odd moments where she’s the helpless damsel in distress.

Changes

Originally a 1984 anime Star Musketeer Bismarck,  the mind blowing list of changes is available on wikipedia, I suggest checking it out to get an idea of just how much was changed, from replacing episodes and renumbering almost the entire series to creating an extra 6 eps of the show to replace existing episodes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saber_Rider_and_the_Star_Sheriffs

Music

Also changed was the music, and the Japanese and US versions of this show couldn’t be more different and for once, the US comes off far better! It varies from the rocking futuristic western the show is to fun to epic. Colt’s theme is just awesome, when you hear it, you know good things are coming – it could be comedy or it could be action but Colt always delivers and his theme lets you know its coming. A huge thank you to Dale Schacker for creating a soundtrack I still listen to and love. It’s genius, especially the bull whip at the end of the intro, inspired.

Toys

Saber Rider didn’t make a dent in the UK so toys never came out, it was bigger in Europe though (especially Germany who got the DVDs long before we did grrr) and I did see some of the toys when on a holiday in France.  This would cause one of longest running and biggest rages of my life as we visited a town (don’t ask me which) and I saw a toy of Ramrod in a toy shop that was closed because it was a Sunday. My parents refused to go out of their way to visit the town again just to go to a toy shop to buy me a toy I couldn’t afford.  They had no idea just how rare this toy was, how important to me it was and just how much grief this would bring them.  I spent the rest of the holiday in a huff and would not see any Star Sheriff toys again for another 8/9 years until, thanks to the internet, I finally found a yahoo listing for a Bismark DX – for $300! Naturally I couldn’t afford it and that re-sparked the fire again. It would be another 8 years before I finally got my hands on the toy, thankfully for a mere $200 while on holiday in the US but still, when I think I could have had it when I was 9 for a fraction of that I still weep.

For a few pictures of it see here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/85964213@N00/sets/72157624024108482/

What do you think Top Sword?

The animation in Saber Rider is usually good for its time, peaking at very good for scenes they want to make the Sheriff’s look extra awesome. The exception seems to be some scenes with the Red Fury racer which make it look like it was drawn by me but on the whole good. More consistent than a lot of the shows its age.  As mentioned, the music is great, sound effects are ripped from the usual sources used for Transformers (you will hear Prime’s gun), GI Joe etc.

The only negatives are some throwaway episodes and flashback eps.  Sadly the story doesn’t always make sense due to some episode re-ordering which is inevitable but after initial wtf, it makes immediate sense.  Does it matter? to some maybe.  Me, I’m always happy to overlook this shows flaws because the upside is that its always fun.  The nameless Outrider troops are always comical (I love their dodgy accents) but at least unlike the droids in the Clone Wars, they are always shown to be a lethal threat to innocents and non-sheriffs, which makes the Star Sheriff rescues all the more enjoyable.  The big robot fights are your typical 80s/90s affair but Ramrod is one of the cooler looking robots out there IMO and having Prime’s voice during transformation always helps.

By now you’ve read how much of an impact this had on my childhood so I’m about as biased  as they come and obviously going to immediately recommend it to EVERYONE.  Naturally it isn’t for anyone that wants long drawn out story arcs or massive character development but it is a whole lot more fun.  It isn’t available in the UK but you can import it as it is region ALL and plays perfectly on the PS3 – Thank you World Event Productions!

Overall, a perfect 5 for anime robot lovers, probably rates about a 2 to normal viewers who probably stopped reading a long time ago as this was never going to be a show for them and is as much an ode to my childhood as it is a blog about the show. That is how intertwined this show and me are.