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 overseas 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 and wipe out all of the human race as part of their plan to expand its galactic empire. 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 site via a tracker implanted on his body. They soon deployed their soldiers, posing as police officers, to Philip's site. Philip soon went to the El Kadsre City suburb of Elkanstone then arrives Ashley' home where he is greeted by Judith Maddison (Wilda Moor), Ashley Mizuki (Goro Yukimura) and his parents. When he was 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 Ashley's home and tells them to 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.

Judith and Ashley becomes weirded out by Philip's new body as the group discuss about Philip's robot form. Judith suggests that she talks with her scientist friends led by Lenny Jon, which Philip agrees. Meanwhile, Vel's henchman Ultio begins to create a new set of armor for him, which he claims to be stronger than the metal used to create Philip's robot body. Philip, Judith, and Ashley head into Lenny's lab, where Lenny was dissecing one of Vel’s soilders, which suddenly regained consciousness and strangled Ashley before getting its exposed brain ripped out by Philip. They convinced Lenny to rework Philip's robot body and train him to be accustomed to it while also tracking down Vel's spaceship, in which he accepted. 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 face Vel alone.

Inside Vel's spaceship, Philip is soon confronted by Vel and Ultio. During the battle, Philip sends in Judith, Ashley, and Lenny's crew using the ship's tractor beam, where they fend off Vel's soldiers so Philip can focus on Vel and Ultio. Philip soon deals the last blow to the two, defeating them both as he and the crew escape the exploding spaceship.

Returning to Earth, the group celebrated their victory at Philip's home as Philip decides to keep his robot body 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
 * Jeptha Brewster as Vincent Thompson
 * 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 idea of Robotman traces back to 1955, when Elkan bought a copy of magazine at his local bookstore. He was impressed by that book and gave him an idea to make a movie about the robot in the cover. He later pitched the idea to El Kadsreian Films. Because EKTV didn’t had a rights to the magazine, they made a few tweaks, including making what would be later be called “Robotman” from chrome to blue and add a few characters. The story and the screenplay was written but the costumes, especially the Robotman costume, were too difficult to make and in 1957, the film was shelved.

In the 1970s, Elkan rediscovered the film draft in his bedroom closet while he was moving to the new house. He later pitched the draft to El TV Kadsre and the film was revived.

The movie was filmed with a outside film crew from El TV Kadsre Television Network to save money on hiring an actual crew. One of those outside film crew members, film editor Corbin Black Green, would be a regular on Technic Heroes projects for years to come. 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.

Though Robotman first appeared in the United States through a series of Technic commercials when the drink was introduced to the country, the film was only released overseas in 1984. For this release, an 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 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 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. 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, 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.