Astro Boy and Osamu Tezuka: A Collector's Guide to the Mighty Atom

Our thesis: Astro Boy collecting is best read in three generations, the Showa tin and vinyl made while the first series was on air, the revivals and licensed objects that followed, and the artist editions of the present, and the licence line on the box tells you which generation you hold. The Showa toy world is set out in our guide to Showa tin plate and soft vinyl toys, and the pieces themselves live on our anime art and merchandise shelf.

At a glance

From a supporting role to the title

Atom began as a side character. In 1951 Tezuka serialised a story in Shonen in which a robot boy appeared among the cast, and from April 1952 the robot had his own series in the same magazine, running until March 1968. In the story, Dr Tenma, head of the Science Ministry, builds a robot in the image of his son Tobio, killed in a traffic accident; disappointed that the robot cannot grow, he sells it to a circus, where it is named Atom, until Professor Ochanomizu, who believes robots have rights, takes him in. The story sets Atom's birth on 7 April 2003.

Tezuka himself was a doctor as well as an artist. He graduated from the medical department of Osaka University in 1951, passed the national medical examination in 1952 and later received a doctorate in medicine. He debuted in 1946 with a four-frame cartoon in a children's newspaper, and by the 1950s his studio was producing several series at once, among them Jungle Emperor and Princess Knight.

1963: the studio and the television series

Tezuka set up an animation studio under his own name, renamed Mushi Production in January 1962 and incorporated that December. Its first commercial series was Astro Boy, broadcast from 1 January 1963 on the Fuji network, and its success began the first television animation boom in Japan. In 1963 Tezuka travelled to the United States to sign with NBC, which bought 52 episodes, and from September 1963 the series ran on American television as Astro Boy. The character was later remade in colour in the 1980s and again in 2003, the year of his story birthday.

The television years are the background to the first generation of objects. The series won the second TV Reporters Society special award in 1964, and the character's face appeared on tinplate, vinyl and printed goods throughout the run.

The Showa toys

The Showa tin toys are lithographed tinplate, printed flat and pressed into shape, driven by friction, clockwork or battery. A 1960s Atom Bus friction tin toy shows the cast in the windows, and a battery-operated Astro Boy machine gun in tinplate belongs to the same world of licensed playthings. A Sakura friction race car of 1970, boxed, comes from the end of the first generation. The licence printed on these toys names Mushi Production or, later, Tezuka Productions, and that line is the first clue to the decade.

Not every tin Atom is old. Revival makers have reissued the classic designs, and a Billiken Shokai mechanical action tin toy belongs to that later generation. Revivals are honest objects with their own collectors; the point is to know which you hold. Our Japanese toys shelf holds both, and the Lexicon entry on the tin toy explains the materials.

Showpieces, clocks and the things around the character

Atom has always been a shop-front character. Life-size fibreglass statues stood in toy shops and at promotions; a Tezuka Productions life-size statue, limited edition 9 of 100, in FRP with an opening torso, is the modern version, and our shelf of exhibition showpieces gathers others. The character also reached into Japanese daily life: Asahi Shoes Astro Boy children's sneakers of the 1980s, still in their case, and a Jaleco Mighty Atom punching roulette arcade machine are as much a part of the record as the toys.

Anniversaries produce their own objects. A 60th anniversary automatic skeleton watch limited to 1,952 pieces takes its edition size from the year the serial began.

Artist editions and the present

The newest generation is the artist edition. Japanese soft vinyl makers have reinterpreted Atom in small runs: a Secretbase Big Scale Astro Boy, number 3 edition, made in Japan, and a Yukinori Dehara and Yorozuya Astro Boy in black with neon colour, sealed, sit with the soft vinyl of our guide to Marusan and Bullmark kaiju vinyl. Clothing follows the same pattern: a Tezuka Osamu World Astro Boy stadium jacket, limited to 300, belongs with the varsity jackets in our sutajan guide. Tezuka's influence on later artists runs further still; the illustrator Rockin'Jelly Bean, who began drawing manga under Tezuka's influence, made a silkscreen after Apollo's Song, which our guide to Rockin'Jelly Bean describes.

How to read an Astro Boy piece

  • The licence line. Look for the copyright line on the box or base. Mushi Production points to the 1960s; Tezuka Productions, founded in January 1968, to later pieces.
  • The maker. Showa tin makers such as Masudaya and Sakura, and revival makers such as Billiken Shokai, mark their boxes. The maker and the licence together date the toy.
  • The box. A Showa tin toy with its original box, insert and papers is a different object from a loose toy; in our handling, the box can matter as much as the toy.
  • The lithography. Original tin has printed colour with fine registration and some wear at the edges; repainting is a warning to note, not a disqualification.
  • The edition. Modern artist vinyl and limited clothing carry numbers or stated runs, such as 300 or 1,952. Record them.

Every piece is graded on the letters explained in our guide to Japanese condition ranks, with tin checked for rust and mechanisms tested where they can be.

Where the record differs

Accounts differ on the name of the 1951 story in which Atom first appeared. The official Tezuka site gives it as Ambassador Atom; the studio's own company chronology calls it Captain ATOM. Both are translations of one Japanese title, and we print both. The first series' 193 episodes are described both as a 1963 series and as running through 1966; the broadcast began on 1 January 1963 and the last of the 193 episodes aired by the end of 1966.

A correction to the common story: Astro Boy was not Atom's first appearance on Japanese screens. A puppet play of Mighty Atom began on Tokyo Television in April 1957, and a dramatisation marked the opening of the Fuji network in 1959, years before the 1963 animation.

Starting an Astro Boy collection

Begin with a generation. A Showa tin toy with its box records the first television boom; a revival tin toy records the long affection that followed; a numbered artist vinyl records how Japanese makers still read the character today. Read the licence line first, then the maker, then the box. A robot born in a 1951 side story, given his own series in 1952 and a birthday in 2003, has outlived every prediction made for him, and his objects carry each of those dates. That is our reading.

Answered plainly

When did Astro Boy first appear?

As a supporting character in a 1951 Tezuka story in Shonen; his own series began in April 1952.

When was the first Astro Boy anime broadcast?

On 1 January 1963 on Fuji TV, made by Tezuka's Mushi Production; 193 episodes followed by the end of 1966.

What is Astro Boy called in Japan?

Tetsuwan Atom, usually translated as the Mighty Atom.

How can I date an Astro Boy tin toy?

Read the licence line: Mushi Production points to the 1960s, Tezuka Productions to 1968 or later. Then read the maker and the box.

Further reading

Sources

Volver al blog

Deja un comentario

Ten en cuenta que los comentarios deben aprobarse antes de publicarse.