Robotman

Robotman is a 1976 Vlokozuian kadsresatsu superhero film. Its the first Technic Heroes installment and the first Robotman installment. It has no relation with the DC Comics superhero of the same name.

Plot
The oversea release of the film begins with a man on a stage who is the only cast member in the entire film who is not participating in the main story. The M.C. goes on to say that this film was the first ever Technic Heroes movie and reveals how the franchise came to be, and how the film was not released overseas until now. Then walks on stage the hero, Robotman (Brandom Stringer), who interrupts the emcee, telling him that the story is well-known as he was the hero and will become the biggest star in Hollywood now it's being released overseas. The franchise's recurring character, Lenny Jon (Deven Elliott), comes on stage to say that he will be the biggest star in Hollywood. The two then proceed to argue and Robotman tries to fight Lenny with his powers. The emcee breaks them up and lets the film begin.

Philip Lowel witnesses a spaceship appearing on a forest while camping. He is soon discovered and captured by Lord Vel, who plans to turn Philip into a robot to help them rule the Earth. However, during the brainwashing process, Philip awakens and barely misses getting hit by the ship's Control Beam before escaping the spaceship and Vel's forces. He soon drives off the forest, wondering on how will he explain to his friends about his condition.

Vel tracks Philip's location via a tracker implanted on his body. They soon deployed their soldiers, posing as police officers, to Philip's location. Philip soon arrives home where he is greeted by Judith Maddison and Ashley Mizuki. When asked about his leave from the forest, Philip makes an excuse by telling them he was too afraid of the forest environment. A squad of police officers arrived at Philip's home and tells them surrender him. While Judith and Ashley attempt to prove Philip's innocence, Philip suspects the police being Vel's soldiers in disguise. A shootout takes place as Philip engages with the disguised soldiers. As the fight goes on, his slowly begins to transform as the bullet marks of his body revealing metallic skin before ultimately revealing his robot form, but not before one of Vel's soldiers kidnaps Ashley and escapes with her.

Judith becomes weirded out by Philip's new body as the two began to discuss on Ashley's kidnapping. Judith suggests that she talks with her scientist friends led by Lenny Jon, which Philip agrees. Meanwhile, Ashley is brought into Vel's spaceship, where he turns her into a new inhuman form and calls her Ultio. Philip and Judith head into Lenny's lab, where they rework Philip's robot body and train him to be accustomed to it while also tracking down Vel's spaceship. Soon, the rework is completed and Lenny dubs the Philip's alter-ego Robotman, but not before Vel's soldiers busts into the lab in an attempted assault. Philip and the crew soon confronted them and, after defeating them, headed outside to find Vel's spaceship where Philip decides to confront Vel alone.

Inside Vel's spaceship, Philip is soon confronted by Vel and Ashley in her Ultio form. During the battle, Philip tells the truth about Ashley to Judith and Lenny, prompting one of Lenny's friends Chei Eliott to pull out a device from their archives. Philip soon transports Judith and Lenny's crew using the ship's tractor beam and uses one of Lenny's inventions to separate Ashley from her Ultio body, leaving it as a separate entity. Philip soon deals the final blow to Vel and Ultio, defeating them both as he and the crew escape the spaceship, which as about to explode.

Returning to Earth, the group celebrated their victory at Philip's home as Philip decides to keep his robot body in order to help people, feeling like he finally has a purpose for his life. In a mid-credits scene, It's revealed that Vel and Ultio survived the spaceship's destruction as Vel declares his revenge on Philip one day.

Cast

 * Brandom Stringer as Phillip Lowel/Robotman
 * Wilda Moor as Judith Maddison
 * Goro Yukimura as Ashley Mizuki, Ultio
 * Alec Guinness as Lord Vel
 * Sterling Peters as James Harper
 * Mervyn Wilbur as Pete Hampson
 * Lex Moore as Oswald Norman
 * Deven Elliott as Lenny Jon
 * Roy Alvarez as Chei Eliott
 * Jaron Horn as Konnor Statham
 * Rafe Clarkson as Clive Jenkins
 * Rick Wilcox as Stanley Bloxman
 * Graham Stone as Andie Russel
 * as the opening monologue announcer (overseas version only)

Production and release
The movie was filmed with a outside film crew from El TV Kadsre Television Network to save money on hiring an actual crew. The plot of the film was developed from Joseph Campbell's Hero's journey template, as Elkan struggled while trying to write the film and Ryu Hamasaki helped him write the script for him.

When the film was released overseas in 1984, an The Terror of Tiny Town-inspired opening monologue was shot and added to the film. It was filmed at with  as the announcer and Brandom Stringer and Deven Elliott reprising their respective roles of Phillip Lowel/Robotman and Lenny Jon. Some scenes from the film were also missing in this print due to El TV Kadsre using the shortened cut of the film.

The first-ever VHS title to be released in the Vlokozu Union was the Magnetic Vlokozu Video release of Robotman, released on November 1, 1976. It was also released on Betamax and was the only Technic Heroes title to be released on the Flopovision.

When the film was first released on home video, some scenes were cut from the original print in order to fit into the video format, shortening the film from 123 minutes to 112 minutes. This cut was also used in the 1984 international release and in El Kadsre for sometime due to the original film masters being lost due to film junking. The original 16mm film masters were believed to have been lost until 2002 when a uncut 16mm print containing the missing scenes was discovered in a garbage dumpster in Sao Paulo, Brazil by garbageman João Mário Hermanek. The print was later sent to El Kadsre for restoration and in 2004, the film with the missing scenes was released on home video by El TV Kadsre Home Entertainment.

Reception
The film received moderate reception from critics.