ANI-MOVIES, *Magnos The Robot

What most modern otaku might recognized as one of the anthropomorphized stars of Robot Girls, Magnos was a giant robot show from the mid-70s which has been put out on VHS and DVD in America several times. Usually as an episodic series titled Renegade Force, or Super Magnetron in Australia, but in the case of Liberty International as this compilation of the first few episodes of the TV series.

Sir Miles is a resourceful scientist who is convinced that recent disasters plaguing the world are being caused by aliens. The United Nations say he's crazy for thinking that, and refuse to support his theory. So, Sir Miles sets out with his daughter Lady Ester to recruit a karate champ Janus to join their super robot crew and fight the oncoming invasion. The aliens use grotesque giant animal hybrids to attack major cities, which our heroes fight off with their dual mechas, Magnon and Magenta. When the heat turns up though, they ditch their more Gobot looking mecha for the mighty Magnos, which uses the other two robots as laser guns, and occasionally as huge drill bits to completely screw over the attacking kaiju. The feature ends with the aliens failing to stop the Magnos team, and their alien overlord seemingly destroying his lackeys, vowing to continue their invasion.

Magnos The Robot is definitely one of the strangest of the 70s super robots, especially with its totally impractical habit of shifting the pilots from one mecha/vehicle to the other, instead of combining them like Mazinger Z or Getter Robo. It's worth a look though to get the totally trippy action that you could only get from Bronze Age sci-fi action shows!