TRANSMISSIONS FROM EARTH
The thoughts and messages of the Star Blazers generation continue
to flow into our virtual mailbox, and we’re overjoyed to
share them with everyone. We want to share YOUR Star Blazers
story next time. Please send your own transmission to us at support@starblazers.com
From: Charles Hoffman
I was in my early twenties back in `79 when I moved from my home town to New York City to seek my fortune. My initial prospects were bleak, and today I vividly recall returning home each day after a futile day of job-searching to watch Star Blazers. Sharing the trials and tribulations of the Star Force gave my flagging spirits a much-needed lift back in those days. It's great to see Star Blazers/Yamato on collectible DVD.
Response: It seems we didn’t all run home from school for our daily dose. Some of us apparently drove.
From: David W. Shelton
Awestruck. Engrossed. Fascinated. Stunned. Elated. Thrilled. I don't know if these words even begin to describe the feeling as I watched the opening credits of Star Blazers on my TV for the first time in twenty years! Sure, that other "Star-something" movie was great, but it didn't appear on my TV every day!
I still have a folder which contains my very own Star Blazers story that was illustrated with my Crayola markers, my first ever attempt at story telling and illustration. This saga ran in 1979-1980 and was an instant inspiration to every bit of drawing and writing that my third-grade mind could handle! Tears came to my eyes a year or so ago when I unearthed this piece of my own past, and the thrill of seeing the series that started it all on DVD was even more emotional! My housemates knew to leave me alone as I dove into the world of the Argo... and before long, they were right there with me. "Wow, this is pretty good!" they'd say. Darn right it's pretty good.
Since that first season captured my imagination I've only seen the series in 1985 when it appeared once again, only to fade away in just a few months. Later, I found the comics, but since then, I was met only with VHS offers that seemed out of reach.
Until now.
It's not often that I reflect on how much a TV show inspired me to pursue drawing as a way of life. But gosh darn it, it did. I've been working as an illustrator and designer for a few years.
To the creators of Star Blazers, I offer sincere thanks for fueling a dream.
To the folks at Voyager, I offer sincere thanks for re-living that dream.
" Warp!"
Response: Just as there is a Star Blazers generation in America that was inspired by the program to pursue their own creative dreams, there is also a Yamato generation in Japan that did the same…and many of them are now professional animators. The animation industry in America isn’t as big or as vital, but it has no shortage of Star Blazers-fueled creativity to help it along. Talk about an infinite energy source!
From: Michelle
Hello all you Starblazers fanatics out there. I used to audio-tape the episodes on simple 45 cent cassette tapes back in 1980-1982 when my family never even had a VCR. I would go to each person in the room and ask them to please keep their voices down because the cassette recorder would pick up all outside noise as well, but I didn't care. As long as I had something to hold me in the Star Blazers world. I know my family thought I was funny, but I would even salute them in the Star Force fashion because I truly wanted so much to be a part ot it. I would play the recorded tapes at bedtime and it would hold me until the next episode.
I hope to obtain series 3 as soon as the collector’s boxed set edition comes out. Here's hoping that they will also include a shirt with it or something... :-)
Thank You to all the creators and the master creator of Yamato... Aloha
Response: Voyager Entertainment doesn’t have plans to include a t-shirt with the series 3 box set, but there will be another 24-page booklet that goes behind the scenes of Yamato III (called “The Bolar Wars” in its Star Blazers incarnation) and examines the making of the series. Would it interest you to know that it was originally conceived as a 52-episode, year-long TV epic? Wouldn’t you love to know what would have happened, had it run its full course? If so, watch your local video shelves in November. (Or better yet, get it right here from our online shop.)
From: Darrell Parker
I remember being pulled into Star Blazers when I was around 12 or 13. At 4:00 pm I watched Star Blazers on WUHQ-TV 41 Battle Creek, Michigan. It was very different from anything else that I had been watching up to that point. No other animated series kept me coming back the way this did. I could not wait to see the very next episode.
The only problem was that I had a younger sister who loved watching Mary Tyler Moore. Both shows aired at the same time in the afternoon in those days. We would race home from school to see who got to "control the TV" for the day.
Often I would leave her in the dust. At times she would get a real good head start on me. I really hated those days. I would try to bribe her or plead with her. She would not hear of it.
But Mother Nature was on my side. I was a very happy camper when she started to notice boys because her interest in our little afternoon struggle went away. I felt like a war had just ended because the enemy gave up. (We laugh about this now)
I knew nothing of the action figures or model kits for the series. My parent believed in "next to new" or facsimiles. For instance, my friends at school had G.I. Joe and I had Big Jim and the Wolf Pack.
My mom had gotten me an audio tape player/recorder for getting nothing below a D+ on my report card. I started recording the audio of each Star Blazers episode. VCR's back then cost around 1800 bucks or more. I had all these 90 minute audio cassettes of Star Blazers from both story lines. At the time I only knew of 2 story lines. I had no Idea about a third story line. All the audio tapes were lost in a garage sale and soon after, the show stopped airing.
I found all three story lines on video when I was 26 or 27 and copied all of them to three 10-hour video tapes. Those tapes were "lost" as I was told by my former girlfriend. All I have now are two movies that are in Japanese with English subtitles. I will get the DVD collection.
I am glad that you guys created this site. It's pretty cool. Thanks for letting me get this out.
Response: It seems as if we can divide the fans from the fanatics with the simple litmus test of asking whether or not they recorded the series on audio tape. In the modern digital world, where almost everything can be had with a few clicks of the mouse, it may seem unthinkable that we had to bend our schedules and wrestle with our siblings to get TV time, and even though it was high drama for us as it was happening, the memories now are a uniformly endearing part of the whole process. That’s why we love getting your messages.
From: Barbara Smith
Hello out there. I just purchased the first series of Star Blazers, and boy did I get a rush of excitement sitting there watching my favorite cartoon. I remember being a little girl of just six and rushing home to watch Star Blazers. Now when I talk to people who are my age they give me blank stares and I can't believe they don't remember it. But that's okay, I am enjoying every moment of this and am thankful for you guys and your website. It has made me feel like a kid again.
Thank you Voyager Entertainment.
Response: The best part of feeling that youthful energy again is that it’s totally free of charge. You’re welcome.