To be fair to Arii... Sunrise tried MULTIPLE times to make gundam knockoffs their own selves. Dragonar has circled so far back arround that SEED is stealing designs from it.
Well they tried to find the next Gundam but they're still unique in their own way I'd argue that SEED is actually a knockoff 0079 since it definitely has the overall quality of one and they even just threw the original ms designs in with slight changes So in a strange way, Bandai stole from themselves
@@kxgr9522 seed is not a knockoff of the original gundam. it literaly started the project as a true remake of the original gundam. but then, sunrise didnt want to waste too much money and cut down on alot of the budget. at that point sunrise was basically one step away from giving up on the franchise, since their last few projects bombed hard including the Live Action which they were sure tarnished the brand name in the west. as a side note, this is the main reason why the freedom has such a diferent design to the strike. as originally they wanted to make the freedom be what the impulse ended up being. but, like i said, they didnt want to waste too much money, which is why the freedom ended up having a derivative design from the 2X and some others. as another side note, i dont think its a strech to say that without seed massive success, we would have gundam be as big as it is today.
@@DarkButz I don't care how they brand it It is a downgrade in every single aspect Which somehow includes animation I'd say the second season of 00 does a better job at reworking themes and ideas from the original and Zeta and still managing to feel unique SEED does nothing to justify its existence
Ah, Arii... Now called Micro Ace (since 2000). What to say about them... Well, I dunno if Micro Ace have evolved, but they were, as Arii, always doing "questionnable" kits. Cars, planes, trains, robots, ships, weapons (yes, model kit weapons). But be it under their original names or their new name, they're not easy to get. I know 1-2 persons that got their hands on some of their car kits, But I don't recall them building them. At least, not as of now.
I also made the connection. That said, unlike the very specific shaping and colors of gundam designs, I find it a lot more likely that two Mecha series independently thought “the letter Z is cool, let’s name a planet after it”
I misread the title a bit and thought "What would a M. Bison Gundam be like?" Now I want to make M. Bison's Gundam Shadaloo Custom posed with its arms crossed in that G Gundam style.
I unironically want Chinese third party company like Daban and etc to produce Arii kits. The idea of bootleg making a bootleg would be hilarious. Also, I surprised Bandai haven't make RX 78-2 variant kit based of 18:30 Clover colour scheme even as P-Bandai/Base exclusive
Honestly you kinda have to respect the hussle on this. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit to kinda desperately want to see what those Guldan designs would look like if the mecha designers from the gundam series took a crack at making them into actual Gundam styled mobile suits.
To be honest I always assumed it had to do with the structural integrity of new gen ms vs old hi-mo's. Maybe the lining for the cockpits or even the artificial atmospheres of ms cockpits vs the gforces the mobile suit is being exposed to? I'm leaning on the latter because I always assumed mobile suits had mini artificial atmospheres based on how Char pretty much never wore his pilot suit until Lalah died and still didn't die.
I take ot to be similar to driving any old sports car vs a modern mid teir car. On paper the over all capabilites aren't super different but the way they handle is wildly different. It's not that the new suit is that much better rather that the high mobility is that tightly tuned with zero wiggle room. One is intuitive the other is straight skill
Honestly this is so weird because Arii produced official kits for offical Macross, Orguss and Galvion. They usually did military kits before and after their sci-fi models. I’ve literally never heard of any of these bootlegs lol. Their QC has always been questionable, I’ve built a few of their Macross kits.
When you first mentioned Arii in the video, I had to go look them up. The name was familiar to me. I never built one of their kits. I was always frustrated by what scales Arii chose for a lot of their subjects. Namely their "Owner's Club Series" of car kits in 1/32. Some cool subjects that I wanted. I just wanted them in 1/24 or 1/25, to go with my other car kits. Looking at their catalog on Scalemates (which doesn't list the robot kits BTW,) weird scale choices seems to have been their modus operandi.
So if we're covering Gundam Bootlegs now, any chance we could get a deep dive into Captain of Cosmos/Johnny Destiny: Space Ranger/ Space Black Knight? I've watched that at least three times now and it makes less and less sense each time.
interesting, ARII's early 80s macross line was clearly superior to bandai's gundam line within the same time period. they clearly did not have design expertise, but their molds were ahead of bandai then. if I had to guess, they probably repackaged their 70s overproduction supply to mitigate losses, possibly even tried to squeeze out usability on the old toolings.
Ok, Arii had tons and TONS of choices to make when it comes to animation studios other than SUNRISE. They could have picked Toei, Kokusai Eiga-sha (who were still struggling with their funds so they could have come to them if they weren't chickens about how expensive anime is), AIC, Ashi Productions, TMS, Kaname Productions and god knows how many other studios back in 1980 and beyond before 1985 before they could EVER get to Sunrise. Those animation studios are on the plate. Oh and Tatsunoko and Studio Nue too. How could they LET THESE SLIDE?! Hell, Beavis and Butthead was made due to Mike Judge drawing it on paper and colored pencils and crayons and that didn't need any effort of a budget above 100. Beavis and Butthead was ALSO aired in Japan so I think I made myself clear that Arii wasn't the brightest when it comes to creative decisions. 12:40, is it me or does the woman look like she stole Daphne Blake's 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo's wardrobe coupled with Misa Hayase's hairline? Still love her fit and fashion sense though.
If you're looking for more Gundam knock off lines, check out the Starriors and Z-Knights from Tomy. They already had their own line of successful mechs (Zoids), but in 1984 launched a few different lines of humanoid mechs that fell more into the mobile suit area (especially Z-Knights).
Bisson also had the last laugh in terms of anime: in 2011 AIC threw out the ill-fated Justeen OVA at conventions that sadly only got one episode despite the show ending on a preview for the next one. In it mechs based on unused concept art from Gigantic Formula duked it out with all those "totally legit" plamo mecha from Arii, Imai and Aoshima and Bisson was part of it along with Atlanger, Gattai Musashi, Zamac and Shiard.
Gotta say, I am fascinated by this bootleg company (can I call it that?). I'm surprised at how brazen the company was, lmao. Reminds me of the owners at one shitty canadian company I worked for at some point. Always blinded by the idea of making money, they tried suggesting all sorts of dumb ideas for new businesses only to either drop them when they realized how much it would cost or to end up making some shoddy product... I almost find the bootlegs from Arii endearing, they just remind me of those cheap old toys most parents would get for their kids to distract them, but then I think about what the people in charge must have been like and I start getting shivers.
The "Bisson" kits were in 1/76 : ARII wanted to corner the OO scale mecha market! That's Sam's Train who will be happy! ARII is definitely the weirdo brand of japanese scale modelling, and I have a dozen of their kits. It seems one of their speciality is to buy the molds of even smaller japanese model kit brand that went bankrupt and continue issuing their kits (like the Eidai 1/72 Cessna 172), which is comendable when you don't want to be extorded on ebay for OOP kits 😅
Not only their actually reminds us of Mobile suit or even our famous robot anime, but they also reminds me of devilman design and looks like moguera ripoff from Godzilla
I've been working my way through the Ronin Mecha series (there are four) and saw Space Gandam V some time ago. All, of course, were the results of outsourced animators from the Republic of Korea smuggling animation cells home for inept editors to awkwardly splice together.
Heh, considering how much of a Gundam rip off everything is, I'm surprised they didn't just copy the original plot of MS Gundam for their Bisson anime.
The Korean... things used pretty generic super robot plots as well. I don't think they appreciated how much of the love for Gundam was in the writing style.
With Arii.... Making Mechs that looks like knockoffs from the original or borrowed some designs from existing models.... Battletech/MechWarrior did the same thing with Dougram and Robotech/Macross. Super Robot Wars OG, some of their Robots like the Huckebein and the R-1 through R-3 combiner Mechs looks to be Gundam aspired with V-fins, face design, and everything. Korea has some knock offs of Mazinger with Taekwon-V that looks eerily similar.
You should check out Space Thunder Kids If you wanna see an insane bootleg anime from South Korea that not only rips off Gundam but plently other mecha anime!
![Was Brron/Zure/Scarr About To Defeat Jaden? [Turning The Page]](/img/n.gif)
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In an alternate universe, Goku2108 just dropped a video on how a rip-off of Bisson was made in the 80's called Gundam.
lol
we need a PG bisson 🔥🔥🔥
oh and maybe a PG don 🔥
YOU'RE TELLING ME THE "GUN" DOESN'T ACTUALLY CARRY A GUN???
Madness
He carry the gun in the spirits
To be fair to Arii... Sunrise tried MULTIPLE times to make gundam knockoffs their own selves. Dragonar has circled so far back arround that SEED is stealing designs from it.
Well they tried to find the next Gundam but they're still unique in their own way
I'd argue that SEED is actually a knockoff 0079 since it definitely has the overall quality of one and they even just threw the original ms designs in with slight changes
So in a strange way, Bandai stole from themselves
@@kxgr9522 seed is not a knockoff of the original gundam. it literaly started the project as a true remake of the original gundam. but then, sunrise didnt want to waste too much money and cut down on alot of the budget.
at that point sunrise was basically one step away from giving up on the franchise, since their last few projects bombed hard including the Live Action which they were sure tarnished the brand name in the west.
as a side note, this is the main reason why the freedom has such a diferent design to the strike. as originally they wanted to make the freedom be what the impulse ended up being. but, like i said, they didnt want to waste too much money, which is why the freedom ended up having a derivative design from the 2X and some others.
as another side note, i dont think its a strech to say that without seed massive success, we would have gundam be as big as it is today.
@@kxgr9522 Wasn't SEED SUPPOSED to be a modern (at the time) reimagining of 0079?
@@DarkButz I don't care how they brand it
It is a downgrade in every single aspect
Which somehow includes animation
I'd say the second season of 00 does a better job at reworking themes and ideas from the original and Zeta and still managing to feel unique
SEED does nothing to justify its existence
@@DarkButzyes.
Its also the most famous and successful AU Gundam.
Japan, China and other asian countries love Gundam Seed.
the "Gun the supersteel warrior" with it tank for it leg should be call "Guntank the supersteel tank"
This is no Baku boy, no Baku!
That thing is painted differently than the box art of a Baku, it's entirely different!
Ah, Arii... Now called Micro Ace (since 2000). What to say about them... Well, I dunno if Micro Ace have evolved, but they were, as Arii, always doing "questionnable" kits. Cars, planes, trains, robots, ships, weapons (yes, model kit weapons). But be it under their original names or their new name, they're not easy to get. I know 1-2 persons that got their hands on some of their car kits, But I don't recall them building them. At least, not as of now.
At first glance, seems like they are now firmly okay as a train brand?
I fell down a huge rabbit hole about a year ago reading about these kits, so it’s really great to see you make a video on the subject!
13:20 Planet Z? That sounds closely familiar to Planet Zi from Zoids. Another famous mecha model kit franchise.
I also made the connection.
That said, unlike the very specific shaping and colors of gundam designs, I find it a lot more likely that two Mecha series independently thought “the letter Z is cool, let’s name a planet after it”
"More on the nose", I see what you did there, Dark Helmet!
The Gundam version of the Galaxy Warriors and the endless Galaxy Hole. Honestly surprised Phelous has not gotten his hands on any of these kits.
1:24 They tried to rip off Thunderbirds too?!
DUDE!
Now I'm just plain ticked!
I just noticed it! SAME! 😂
Yoshiyuki Tomino would punch Arii in the jaw for copyright infringement.
I misread the title a bit and thought "What would a M. Bison Gundam be like?"
Now I want to make M. Bison's Gundam Shadaloo Custom posed with its arms crossed in that G Gundam style.
*m. bison YES gif intensifies*
Well, I can't fault a designer for liking Dom legs.
This is basically Mirror Universe Gundam.
In my universe it's Gundam that's the ripoff.
More like shattered glass universe
12:30 - "Well, as you've probably guessed by now..." Oh wow, I never could have guessed. *hums along to the background music*
The Bender... Fry would have a field day with that one.
I unironically want Chinese third party company like Daban and etc to produce Arii kits. The idea of bootleg making a bootleg would be hilarious.
Also, I surprised Bandai haven't make RX 78-2 variant kit based of 18:30 Clover colour scheme even as P-Bandai/Base exclusive
Honestly you kinda have to respect the hussle on this.
And I'd be lying if I didn't admit to kinda desperately want to see what those Guldan designs would look like if the mecha designers from the gundam series took a crack at making them into actual Gundam styled mobile suits.
Really appreciate the use of a Bodacious Space Pirates snippet, I kinda miss that anime
4:53 bruh that's literally just Mazinger Z but spray painted red and with drill hands
i need a whole bootleg gundam retrospective series right now
...Okay, that music change at 3:09 was clever.
15:45 “Char and Char 2.0” oof Jonny just can’t catch a break.
oof that gbm ost hit hard. i miss that game so much gb4 is amazing but man the variety of gunpla in that and the random button was so good
some of them are so cool. I really want super real type Bisson kits but with modern engineering and articulation, their designs look so good
4:05 and 4:12 took their background art directly from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Why is it that new pilots can handle next generation Mobile suits but not high mobility versions of older mobile suites
To be honest I always assumed it had to do with the structural integrity of new gen ms vs old hi-mo's. Maybe the lining for the cockpits or even the artificial atmospheres of ms cockpits vs the gforces the mobile suit is being exposed to? I'm leaning on the latter because I always assumed mobile suits had mini artificial atmospheres based on how Char pretty much never wore his pilot suit until Lalah died and still didn't die.
I take ot to be similar to driving any old sports car vs a modern mid teir car. On paper the over all capabilites aren't super different but the way they handle is wildly different. It's not that the new suit is that much better rather that the high mobility is that tightly tuned with zero wiggle room. One is intuitive the other is straight skill
Probably same reason why kids these daus have trouble using windows 11. Different control schemes and operating systems maybe?
Thanks for all the thoughts
This is probably the most I've laughed at a video you've done
Amazing, do more
Wonder how difficult it would be to build some of these in Breaker 4 😅
Just slap Agg arms on the RX-78-2 and you are good to go. 😂
Since there's many weird shit happen in Gundam Breaker 4 like some politicians in Gunpla or even Abe from Kuso Miso Technique 😅
Anything possible
Honestly this is so weird because Arii produced official kits for offical Macross, Orguss and Galvion. They usually did military kits before and after their sci-fi models. I’ve literally never heard of any of these bootlegs lol. Their QC has always been questionable, I’ve built a few of their Macross kits.
When you first mentioned Arii in the video, I had to go look them up. The name was familiar to me. I never built one of their kits. I was always frustrated by what scales Arii chose for a lot of their subjects. Namely their "Owner's Club Series" of car kits in 1/32. Some cool subjects that I wanted. I just wanted them in 1/24 or 1/25, to go with my other car kits. Looking at their catalog on Scalemates (which doesn't list the robot kits BTW,) weird scale choices seems to have been their modus operandi.
You should do a video explaining the legal issues surrounding Gundam Sentinel, and why Sunrise can't make an anime adaptation of it.
Sounds like they did ok considering their entire buyer base was confused grandmas.
Imagine if Kakarot made a video about _Chinese_ Gundam "copycats" for Part 4 💀☠️
One day, you'd make a Dom and Rick Dom documentary. I don't know when that day will be, but it'll be a good day.
14:30 with the GBM music. i miss it
I remember seeing in a mall toy or model store a bootleg kit with the L Gaim MKII body with a Gundam head on it!
Glad to see that no matter when, no matter where
There are always knockoffs
A rule of nature
In fairness, I also love the dom’s legs
Will you do a revision on the Pale Rider suits? So much lore and info has come out from these suits that I think it warrants a full revision.
So if we're covering Gundam Bootlegs now, any chance we could get a deep dive into Captain of Cosmos/Johnny Destiny: Space Ranger/ Space Black Knight? I've watched that at least three times now and it makes less and less sense each time.
I got a bootleg RX 78 from Korea many years ago, 2 colours, red and yellow. Exactly the same as the Bandai recently rereleased RX - 78.
18:54 Walmart Beltorchika 😂
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
To be fair, "Mag Zillion" sounds enough like the name of a Zeon ace.
Oh boy, imagine the kids with the we have gundam at home situation back then. Oh hey, and you used gundam breaker mobile song
interesting, ARII's early 80s macross line was clearly superior to bandai's gundam line within the same time period. they clearly did not have design expertise, but their molds were ahead of bandai then.
if I had to guess, they probably repackaged their 70s overproduction supply to mitigate losses, possibly even tried to squeeze out usability on the old toolings.
Not just Macross but Orguss as well.
By the way, piracy does not exist in japan land during the early 80s. Everything referenced something.
I’m still disappointed that doozy bots isn’t the first Gundam show that appeared in the us 😅
We were robbed. Sunrise needs to make amends and produce the Bisson anime.
Ok, Arii had tons and TONS of choices to make when it comes to animation studios other than SUNRISE. They could have picked Toei, Kokusai Eiga-sha (who were still struggling with their funds so they could have come to them if they weren't chickens about how expensive anime is), AIC, Ashi Productions, TMS, Kaname Productions and god knows how many other studios back in 1980 and beyond before 1985 before they could EVER get to Sunrise. Those animation studios are on the plate. Oh and Tatsunoko and Studio Nue too. How could they LET THESE SLIDE?!
Hell, Beavis and Butthead was made due to Mike Judge drawing it on paper and colored pencils and crayons and that didn't need any effort of a budget above 100. Beavis and Butthead was ALSO aired in Japan so I think I made myself clear that Arii wasn't the brightest when it comes to creative decisions.
12:40, is it me or does the woman look like she stole Daphne Blake's 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo's wardrobe coupled with Misa Hayase's hairline? Still love her fit and fashion sense though.
Never thought someone english speaking would even cover something like this.
I get a kick out of old bootlegs and ripoffs. They are endearingly ridiculous and stupid.
Ari sounds like the origin ae guntank and guncannon early type devs
If you're looking for more Gundam knock off lines, check out the Starriors and Z-Knights from Tomy. They already had their own line of successful mechs (Zoids), but in 1984 launched a few different lines of humanoid mechs that fell more into the mobile suit area (especially Z-Knights).
It looks more like a bat bot than a Gundam
Aw, no Megaro Zamac next? 😅
Good stuff though!
A nostalgic and generous era. Thank you for introducing these supporting characters of history. From Japan with love.
this looks like something you see being sold in the Chines and Korean markets
This was a great video!
wonder if the comics got scanned and uploaded somewhere
Welcome to Plagiarism Playhouse!
Ya know, I’d watch that anime. And i bet i could survive too.
Really, even Mobile suit Gundam, malinger, getter robô and even Star Wars, really!
"I am Gundam."
Setsuna F seiei
😂😂😂
That title sounds like a slur in another language
ARII is still alive though :D
loved the choice of using ANIME JA NAI! as the music for the bisson segment
1:27 that’s Thunderbird fucking 2 on that box 😂
Didn't Arii eventually become legitimate with the Macross line of models? I remember so many Macross and Orguss model kits from Arii way back when.
And the Arii molds wound up at Bandai.
1:26 ah yes I love the thunderbirds crossover they had lol
I need that Gouf-wolf from Gungao, was it?
The Giant Space Dome looks like those Spherical Transport Ships from Battletech/MechWarrior @13:34
Bisson also had the last laugh in terms of anime:
in 2011 AIC threw out the ill-fated Justeen OVA at conventions that sadly only got one episode despite the show ending on a preview for the next one.
In it mechs based on unused concept art from Gigantic Formula duked it out with all those "totally legit" plamo mecha from Arii, Imai and Aoshima and Bisson was part of it along with Atlanger, Gattai Musashi, Zamac and Shiard.
I want these Guldan kits and am prepared to pay super inflated import prices for them!!! 😊😊😊
Gotta say, I am fascinated by this bootleg company (can I call it that?). I'm surprised at how brazen the company was, lmao. Reminds me of the owners at one shitty canadian company I worked for at some point. Always blinded by the idea of making money, they tried suggesting all sorts of dumb ideas for new businesses only to either drop them when they realized how much it would cost or to end up making some shoddy product...
I almost find the bootlegs from Arii endearing, they just remind me of those cheap old toys most parents would get for their kids to distract them, but then I think about what the people in charge must have been like and I start getting shivers.
2:53 The famous 1978-released Sonny Chiba-starring Toei classic movie then TV show space opera Message from Space?
The "Bisson" kits were in 1/76 : ARII wanted to corner the OO scale mecha market! That's Sam's Train who will be happy!
ARII is definitely the weirdo brand of japanese scale modelling, and I have a dozen of their kits. It seems one of their speciality is to buy the molds of even smaller japanese model kit brand that went bankrupt and continue issuing their kits (like the Eidai 1/72 Cessna 172), which is comendable when you don't want to be extorded on ebay for OOP kits 😅
Not only their actually reminds us of Mobile suit or even our famous robot anime, but they also reminds me of devilman design and looks like moguera ripoff from Godzilla
14:29 the nostalgia…..! I sure miss the game 😭
Looking at the Don they were also ripping off Trider G7.
I've been working my way through the Ronin Mecha series (there are four) and saw Space Gandam V some time ago. All, of course, were the results of outsourced animators from the Republic of Korea smuggling animation cells home for inept editors to awkwardly splice together.
Besides, do you know Korean got their bootleg "Macross" too?
😂😂😂
Space Gundam V! Gundam V!
Heh, considering how much of a Gundam rip off everything is, I'm surprised they didn't just copy the original plot of MS Gundam for their Bisson anime.
The Korean... things used pretty generic super robot plots as well. I don't think they appreciated how much of the love for Gundam was in the writing style.
With Arii.... Making Mechs that looks like knockoffs from the original or borrowed some designs from existing models.... Battletech/MechWarrior did the same thing with Dougram and Robotech/Macross. Super Robot Wars OG, some of their Robots like the Huckebein and the R-1 through R-3 combiner Mechs looks to be Gundam aspired with V-fins, face design, and everything. Korea has some knock offs of Mazinger with Taekwon-V that looks eerily similar.
The story for this animes sounds similar to the story of Gundam Wing
Ngl I think the Zarigu looks kinda cool
You should check out Space Thunder Kids If you wanna see an insane bootleg anime from South Korea that not only rips off Gundam but plently other mecha anime!
Wow, before we kitbashed and use all the 30mm parts, they did it decades ago!!!
It was straight gundam bootleg but I can see if it somehow survive long enough, it can turn into something else.
looks really cool
Governor Pealotte?
Sweet Jebus lol
Mom: We have gundam at home.
Where y'all find that Bisson Manga? It's interesting to Me... I know, like Bruh, but I'm a Mech lover like the rest of y'all.
1:23 Bootleg Thunderbird 2?
oh hell naw they finna outdaban daban outta the bootleg market💀