Search - Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection on DVD

This should please fans of Japanese monster/fantasy fans

D. Steigman | USA | 05/23/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD contains Mothra, H-Man and Battle in Outer Space - This DVD has both Japanese and English language versions of the movies & are widescreen transfers. I expected these to be clean & crisp letterboxed actually - in Tohoscope & that is what they are.
All 3 of these movies were made by the people who brought us Godzilla such as Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya and music by Akira Ifukube.
MOTHRA (1961) would be the main attraction starring Jerry Ito and the 1 inch Peanuts as they were called. Mothra rescues them after being kidnapped by gangsters. A magnificent movie done with style and taste.
BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE is a loose follow up to The Mysterians minus any monsters but it is a spectacular effects and an endless array of laser ray light show with rocket ships, UFOs and other space crafts. Great special effects during its day.
The H-MAN was the one I watched first since I hadn't seen this in ages..it is relatively short (under 90 minutes) and it basically about a person who becomes an H-Man (hydrogen man) as a result of hydrogen bomb testing - the h-man is a greenish blob that eats other people turning them into oozing blob monsters which also appear in a 'ghost' like form. I watched the English language version and the transfer is nice, and the film is ok,basically it is a lesser title, but still fun to watch. Great effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and lots of lovely Japanese ladies. More or less a Japanese version of the Blob..
All 3 were on VHS in full frame versions and were somewhat obscure. Now we can get them all in letterboxed transfers and see them how they were originally meant to be seen.
The DVD packaging for this is terrible. 3 discs with each movie stacked ON TOP of each other like a layered cake or pancakes. This is an easy way to damage the DVD's."

Great movies, horrible (and cheap) package design

S. Boone | Louisville, KY | 08/18/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I was delighted to go out & buy this today, because I've wanted these movies for a long time on DVD, but when I opened up the box, I was dismayed to see that the package design has all three DVD's sitting on top of each other...no separation at all, just all sitting on the same center post. So someone at Sony probably got kudos for saving money, but we fans get an extremely cheap package & discs that will undoubtably be scratched in removal & shifting around. That is, if they're left in this configuration. I might find something better to put these in. Boo, hiss.

However, I did watch "Mothra" (my favorite of the 3) and I'd never seen the Japanese language version before, and all three films DO have the (edited and shorter) English versions, plus, the Japanese versions...which is pretty cool.

I noticed that all the other reviews for this were all "in anticipation" of this set & not from anyone that had actually gotten their mitts on it yet. I'm certainly glad to have these films, but the crappy package design did not set well with me...bet you won't see many used copies of this on Amazon posted as "like new". Five Stars for the movies, One Star for the package, which averages out to Three Stars....."

Great Movies but Horrible Packaging

S. Littler | Gainesville, Fl | 08/19/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I give these great clasic Toho movies a 4.5! The dvd case however has the three movies stacked on top of each other. It was a miracle that none of the discs were scratched during shipping. I hope this trend stops for companies getting cheap with their package design."

TOHO Rules!

Derek Flint | BROOMALL, PA USA | 09/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1. Okay, bad idea on the packaging, but
2. 3, count em' THREE Japanese science fiction classics in both Japanese and American versions!
3. On seperate discs !!
4. You guys might complain about the packaging, but some of you are probably too young to know just how precious, for us old time Japanese Sci-fi fanatics, a collection like this is! LETTERBOXED! Original Japanese versions! With commentaries to boot!!!
As a guy, like myself, who has scoured the sci-fi conventions for years for titles like these and has settled for bootleg versions on VHS tapes, this is like finding the lost treasures of Solomon! And all for only $19.95 !!!!!
Thank you TOHO! Thank you Columbia! Thank you Sony Pictures!"