Technic Heroes

"Guaranteed it's like nothing you've seen before."

- The franchise's slogan, often used in trailers.

Technic Heroes (テクニック英雄) is the name given to the long-running El Kadsreian tokusatsu franchise created and distributed by El TV Kadsre and the Toei Company along with Ryu Hamasaki Releasing. Technic Heroes spanned through films, television movies, television series, video games, board games and more and is the one of the film series with the most entries, having 69 films released in its total during its 43-year-long run. Technic Heroes is sponsored by Technic, an El Kadsreian energy drink.

It was planned from the late 1950s as Heroes of EKTV. When Technic and El TV Kadsre established their relationship, it was renamed to Technic Heroes in 1974 and the first film in the franchise, Robotman was released only in the Vlokozu Union in 1976 (Nova Orbis was the first film to be released internationally, it was released in the Vlokozu Union, the Soviet Union, and Brazil in 1978 and the rest of the world in 1979.) It's supposed to be El TV Kadsre's belated answer to Kamen Rider. A couple of years later, it became Super Sentai-themed franchise, with advanced armor.

Quest for the Masks, which released in 1981, is the most popular film in the Technic Heroes franchise, with a gross of $1,025,782,904 ($2,823,894,710 in 2018 dollars) and becoming the first film on Metacritic to achieve a perfect score of 100. Because of its success, it is now considered by critics to be one of the greatest films ever made.

U.S. syndication rights for the TV series and movies of the franchise were first held by, and are currently held by.

Overview
In almost every Technic Heroes film, television series and television film, the protagonist are the team of people and sometimes, a person, who transform into superheroes known as Technic heroes (or Toa in the Bionicle franchise) and gain superpowers, advanced color-coded armor, signature weapons such as tools like a hammer, sword, claws and others and fighting skills (the Aqua installments see the heroes turn into anthro animals as well), in order to battle a group of evil beings that threaten to take over El Kadsre and sometimes, the entire world.

Concept and development (1955-1976)
Elkan Boukough came up with the idea of Technic Heroes as early as 1955 while he was reading some pulp fiction magazines like Startling Stories. He contacted El Kadsreian Films (now El TV Kadsre Films) to request to make a movie about a robot as founded on Startling Stories. In 1957, the development of the which now known as the "1957 Robotman draft" was canceled and the film was never filmed likely because of the suits, at the time was extremely difficult to make.

In 1971, during the time El TV Kadsre was suffering the 10-year-long downturn, Elkan rediscovered the draft, where it laying here in his bedroom closet while he was moving to the new house. He decided to rework the entire film from scratch by redesigning the characters and rewrite the plot. He requested Ryu Hamasaki to write the film for him. Elkan wanted to make the film series of it. When he found that Technic, the energy drink came to El TV Kadsre and said that they wanted to sponsor Heroes of El TV Kadsre with their own drink of same name, Elkan, El TV Kadsre and Technic renamed the series from Heroes of El TV Kadsre to Technic Heroes.

The Initial Era (1976-1978)
In 1976, El TV Kadsre released the original Robotman movie. But it was only moderately successful. The Nova Orbis movie was first released internationally in 1978.

The Golden Era (1978-1987)
In 1981, Quest for the Masks, based on Bionicle comics was released. It was the critical acclaim and it saved El TV Kadsre's film industry.

In 1984, after the demise of Weiss Global Enterprises, El TV Kadsre hired Miramax Films to distribute Technic Heroes film after signing the 5-year deal.

The MCA Era (1987-1996)
In 1988, El TV Kadsre released Technic Heroes Extended Pack. In 1994, Technic Heroes' film series takes a-year-long hiatus. In 1996, El TV Kadsre and Toei rereleased the Technic Heroes movies in Platinum Edition formats.

On the same year, El TV Kadsre appointed Lego to license it to create the sub-toyline based on Technic Heroes movies, making Technic Heroes Lego's first licensed toyline.

The Dark Era (1996-2000)
In 1996, El TV Kadsre left the MCA because of the El TV Kexit campaign. On July 29 of the same year, due to the negative reception of the 1996 film Bionicle: The Next Generation, El TV Kadsre announced that Bionicle is officially canceled again which marked the start of the Dark Era.

In September 1996, Technic Heroes created Lana X, a female robot that sparks with butterflies, colors, and glitters. They working after 4 years of original creation. It was first released starting with a comic/manga in 1997, then with a TV show in 2000, and her film debut in 2003.

In 1997, El TV Kadsre launched the series of flash-animated webcasts on the Technic Heroes' official website, that was produced from 1997 to 2005. El TV Kadsre stated that the purpose of the webcasts is "to keep Technic Heroes alive".

The successful revival of Robotman dubbed as Robotman Y2K during Millennium.

On June 19, 1998, the online multiplayer RPG game, Technic Heroes World was launched on the web. It was a commercial success and at the end of 1998, over 500+ users were registered.

In March of 1999, El TV Kadsre Films released Technic Heroes vs. Blitzivan, which was considred "the most expensive crossover film of all time" with a budget of $100 million. The film is also a crossover with Blitzivan, a new science-fiction tokusatsu franchise created by writers Max Axis and Akira Hisashi.

The Renaissance Era (2000-2010)
The first Lana X movie was released in 2003, it was critical acclaim and commercially successful. It marks the first female Technic heroine character Lana X.

The Silver Era (2010-present)
Fred Abrams is retired from writing and replaced by Matt Lee in 2011. In 2016, El TV Kadsre releases the new Hunterbots franchise.

Productions

 * Main Article: List of Technic Heroes productions

Video games

 * Main Article: List of Technic Heroes video games

Music
The music for the films is generally composed by Ryota Yamada, who plays a large role in composing the films' soundtracks. The music is recorded by the Technic Band, which is comprised of just a few people, rather than a massive orchestra. A lot of the Technic Heroes songs are mainly grand orchestra and electronica, as well as rock and heavy metal. The Bionicle and Lana X films had the Technic Band being stood in for by Rinava, known for their more keyboard-oriented music with much guitar work.

Some of the series' well-known songs are Technic Fight!, which plays during fight scenes in the films. Some of these songs also appear in some of Cave's Technic Heroes-themed maniac shooters, such as the Donpachi series and others.

Reception
Technic Heroes received very positive reviews from critics. It was praised for its costume designs. It is one of El TV Kadsre's biggest successful franchises.

References in popular culture
See Technic Heroes in popular culture