Issue(s): Shogun Warriors #1
Cover Date: Feb 79
Title: "Raydeen!"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Dan Green - Inker

Review/plot:
I had a giant Raydeen toy when i was a kid (along with the Godzilla and Rodan toys from the Shogun Warriors series) but i never really knew what it was. I did know that it was awesome.

I can tell you that when i played with Raydeen, he wasn't just a big vehicle controlled by a bunch of losers selected by some aliens or whatever. He was a big badass robot warrior, and he wasn't controlled by anyone.

I picked this up years (decades?) later because i was curious what these Shogun Warriors were really supposed to be about. I figured with Doug Moench writing, how bad could it be?

Well, pretty bad. I guess for this and Godzilla, Moench was really writing for children, unlike his Master of Kung Fu series. It's basically a story about a couple of pilots (one of whom is an African whose last name is "Savage". Seriously, Doug?)...

...learning to use their alien robot vehicles to fight off some invading giant monsters.

Which wouldn't be a terrible premise, if the writing was better. But i wanted to read about giant badass samurai robots being awesome. So this was going to disappoint me no matter what.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Shogun Warriors

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Another of the giant-size Shoguns called Mazinga( I had 7 out of 8 when I was little) had his own comic in Japan which was reprinted/imported in America in the late 1980s.

Man, you don't like ANYTHING good!! You bashed the 3D Man, and you bashed the Human Fly, and you bash the Shogun Warriors! These books and characters were all CLASSIC and spoke to me as a kid AND a collector, and these were very IMPORTANT books in the forming of my character and personality and inspired me to create comics and heroes of my own.

FOOM#22 announced the 3 Shogun Warriors as Raydeen, Mazinga, and Dragun. I'm guessing the last two were tied up elsewhere(most likely in contemporary manga).

Moench said years later that he was "crucified" for his work on this title and Godzilla.

I had Mazinga. He and Dragun were the heavy hitters in the line. For some reason, the stores always had a lot of Raydeens, a smaller number of Mazingas, and very few Draguns -- the Draguns seemed to sell fast (maybe because he was bright red?). I remember the debates as to who would win if Mazinga fought Dragun. Preteens will argue about anything.

http://www.toysyouhad.com/shogun.htm

"Mazinga" is probably Mazinger Z. He is a classic and a major influence in the whole Mecha genre.

I'm a big fan of giant robots. In Japan there is a franchise where they put together a bunch of robots from different companies and have them fight their own enemies with some original characters called Super Robot Wars. So think Marvel, DC, 2000 AD, Valient and so on all joining together.
Anyway Raiden/Raydeen.
Combratra (left robot) is Combattler V.
The right one I've seen called Danguard Ace.

Believe it or not our precious Voltron didn't really do that well in its home country since there were a lot of combining robots at that time. Mazinger Z is considered the grandpa of giant robots with Tetsujin 28/Gigantor being the great grandpa.

Mazinga was the Shogun Warrior I got. Mazinger Z was eventually released in the US as Tranzor Z (like all anime released in the US prior to the nineties, it must have been heavily bowdlerized). Since I saw the cartoon many years later, it never occurred to me they were actually two different properties. I kept waiting for the other Shogun Warriors to show up in Tranzor Z.