Spiral Zone
Encyclopedia
Spiral Zone was a 1987 American science-fiction animated series produced by Atlantic
-Kushner-Locke
. Based in part from a toy line made by Japanese company Bandai
, the series focus on an international group of soldiers fighting to free the world from a scientist who controls much of the Earth's surface. It only ran for one season, with a total count of 65 episodes.
Tonka acquired the license from Bandai and created a different treatment to the series, plus a short-lived toy line. Spiral Zone is known among fans as a series that stood out from other contemporary cartoons of the 80s because of its dark story. The series has not been officially released on DVD by Hasbro, who had acquired Tonka in the 90s, including all the copyrights to their properties.
Millions of people are trapped in the dark mists of the Spiral Zone and transformed into Zoners with lifeless yellow eyes and strange red patches on their faces. Because they have no will to resist, Bent - now known as Overlord - makes them his slave army and controls them from the Chrysler Building
in New York City.
His followers are known as the Black Widows: Bandit, Duchess Dire, Razorback, and Reaper. They are immune to the Zone because of a special device called the Widow Maker. However, due to prolonged exposure to the Zone, they also share the same effects as normal people caught inside the Zone, which has dark skies and Zone spores growing in many places. Bent seeks to conquer the world by bringing everyone under control with the Zone Generators. The Zones feed off human energy, which is why Bent does not kill anyone inside.
With major cities Zoned, the nations of the world put aside their own differences in order to fight off the Black Widows. However, only five soldiers using special suits to protect themselves from the Zone could do it. While easy to destroy, Zone Generators were impossible to capture because of booby traps. Overlord would drop more generators on remaining military and civilian centers and force the Zone Riders into a standoff.
Later in the series, French scientist Jean Duprey and truck driver Richard Welt joined the Black Widows. They were codenamed Crook and Raw Meat, respectively.
equipped with a large laser cannon. The other Black Widows ride Sledge Hammers, a one-man minitank that has triangular caterpillar tracks and have whirling mace
arms on either side. They also have a special delta-winged aircraft called the Intruder.
and the Soviet Union
. To counter the effects of the Zone bacteria, British scientists created a rare material called Neutron-90. However, only a limited amount of Neutron-90 is remaining in the world after the British government orders the destruction of the only laboratory where the material was produced. The material is only enough to build combat suits for a team of five specially-trained soldiers called the Spiral Force, also known as the Zone Riders.
As the series advanced, the Zone Riders discovered that there was still enough Neutron-90 left over from assembling the five suits, sufficient to build two additional suits. They are issued to Australian demolition specialist Lt Ned Tucker and field scientist Lt Benjamin Davis Franklin.
vehicle equipped with a large cannon on top. The other Zone Riders ride armored combat monocycles and wear special backpacks.
that was sold from 1985 to 1988. Conceptualized by Gundam
mecha designers Kunio Okawara
and Kazuhisa Kondo, the Special Force Group Spiral Zone series depicted a team of special operations soldiers fighting a war in the early 21st century. The line only had 12 items, organized into Acts. They include: three 1:12 scale six-inch figures with full equipment codenamed Bull Solid, Hyper Boxer, and Sentinel Bear, two Bull Solid cloth uniform and armor sets, two Hyper Boxer cloth uniform and armor sets, two equipment backpacks, two bare human figures, and one vehicle called the Monoseed. The figures had 30 points of articulation. Non-toy media included a notebook, a novel, and a LP
/story compilation released in 1986 by Warner Brothers and Pioneer Corporation
called a Hyper Image Album. The LP disc in particular contains songs composed by Toshiyuki Watanabe
and performed by Tomoko Aran, with the accompanying stories written by Kazunori Itō
. He wrote the novel with HEADGEAR
colleague Akemi Takada
as illustrator.
Bandai had plans to release a fourth action figure (codenamed Fireball) and additional vehicles before the line was cancelled. They include a tank
, a small flight pod called the Beaufighter, a radio-controlled assault jeep resembling the Chenowth DPV
called the Fat Lynx, a fast-attack vehicle called the Mad Lemming, a bipedal mech, two personal transport backpacks, and the Monoseed Mk II assault cycle, among others. The Monoseed and Monoseed Mk II were the respective basis for the Zone Riders' standard motorcycles and Courage's Rimfire Cannon, while one of the two unreleased backpacks, a monocycle called the Monodrive, was remodeled as Max Jones' Zone Runner backpack.
The unreleased vehicles later appeared in the series' gashapon
line, which also had a special Spiral Zone super-deformed board game
and other products not developed in 1:12 scale, such as new personal mecha units, weapon packs, and three figures (codenamed Zone Bolt, Eagle Eye, and Zone Acorn).
Because of their extensive detail and high-quality construction, the Japanese Spiral Zone figures are well regarded among toy collectors and often fetch high prices.
licensed the rights to Spiral Zone from Bandai and created a line of seven-inch figures that were later based on the animated series. The toy line, which hit the market in 1986, comprised four of the five original Zone Riders and all five original Black Widows, plus their vehicles, six cloth uniforms, and eight equipment sets.
However, the cancellation of the series left the figures of Zone Riders Anastacia, Tucker, and Franklin, Black Widows Crook and Raw Meat, and a Zone Generator playset out of Tonka's 1988 release. The figures were also highly detailed, but were not as articulated as the Japanese figures. Each figure has a special audio cassette tape.
first released Spiral Zone on VHS
in 1987 with two episodes per tape. Only three tapes were produced before the series was cancelled. Tonka has not announced plans to release the series on DVD. However, an unofficial DVD set containing all 65 episodes and bonus materials was released in late 2006 by Spiral-Zone.com, with the cooperation of the show's supervising director, Pierre de Celles. The site's operator said de Celles volunteered for the project by providing the original master tapes of the series, which were converted to DVD. He added that Tonka and parent firm Hasbro
never responded to his offers to acquire the rights
.
Atlantic Releasing
Atlantic Entertainment Group, also known as Atlantic Releasing Corporation was an independent film production and distribution company founded by Tom Coleman and Michael Rosenblatt in 1974...
-Kushner-Locke
The Kushner-Locke Company
The Kushner-Locke Company is an American independent motion picture/television production company founded in 1983, it is named after its founders Donald Kushner and Peter Locke....
. Based in part from a toy line made by Japanese company Bandai
Bandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
, the series focus on an international group of soldiers fighting to free the world from a scientist who controls much of the Earth's surface. It only ran for one season, with a total count of 65 episodes.
Tonka acquired the license from Bandai and created a different treatment to the series, plus a short-lived toy line. Spiral Zone is known among fans as a series that stood out from other contemporary cartoons of the 80s because of its dark story. The series has not been officially released on DVD by Hasbro, who had acquired Tonka in the 90s, including all the copyrights to their properties.
Plot
On June 18, 2007 renegade military scientist Dr. James Bent uses a hijacked space shuttle to drop his deadly Zone Generators across half of the Earth, a region called the Spiral Zone (due to its shape).Millions of people are trapped in the dark mists of the Spiral Zone and transformed into Zoners with lifeless yellow eyes and strange red patches on their faces. Because they have no will to resist, Bent - now known as Overlord - makes them his slave army and controls them from the Chrysler Building
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at , it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State...
in New York City.
His followers are known as the Black Widows: Bandit, Duchess Dire, Razorback, and Reaper. They are immune to the Zone because of a special device called the Widow Maker. However, due to prolonged exposure to the Zone, they also share the same effects as normal people caught inside the Zone, which has dark skies and Zone spores growing in many places. Bent seeks to conquer the world by bringing everyone under control with the Zone Generators. The Zones feed off human energy, which is why Bent does not kill anyone inside.
With major cities Zoned, the nations of the world put aside their own differences in order to fight off the Black Widows. However, only five soldiers using special suits to protect themselves from the Zone could do it. While easy to destroy, Zone Generators were impossible to capture because of booby traps. Overlord would drop more generators on remaining military and civilian centers and force the Zone Riders into a standoff.
Black Widows
Bent not only invented the Zone Generators but also an antidote process giving him immunity to the bacteria. He used this antidote process on his small group of soldiers. While immune to the mind-altering effects, each Black Widow still has lesions on their skin and have yellow dilated eyes.- Overlord - commander and rebel scientist
- Bandit - master of disguise, a terrorist of Middle Eastern origin;
- Duchess Dire - assignment expert and hardened criminal.
- Razorback - bladesman
- Reaper - manhunter
Later in the series, French scientist Jean Duprey and truck driver Richard Welt joined the Black Widows. They were codenamed Crook and Raw Meat, respectively.
Vehicles
Overlord rides the Bullwhip Cannon, an eight-wheel all-terrain vehicleAll-terrain vehicle
An all-terrain vehicle , also known as a quad, quad bike, three wheeler, or four wheeler, is defined by the American National Standards Institute as a vehicle that travels on low pressure tires, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control...
equipped with a large laser cannon. The other Black Widows ride Sledge Hammers, a one-man minitank that has triangular caterpillar tracks and have whirling mace
Flail (weapon)
The flail is a hand weapon derived from the agricultural tool.The handle is attached to the striking part of a weapon by a flexible chain or cord...
arms on either side. They also have a special delta-winged aircraft called the Intruder.
Zone Riders
Overlord's initial strike put all the major capitals of the world in the Zone. The chaos sparked international cooperation even between the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. To counter the effects of the Zone bacteria, British scientists created a rare material called Neutron-90. However, only a limited amount of Neutron-90 is remaining in the world after the British government orders the destruction of the only laboratory where the material was produced. The material is only enough to build combat suits for a team of five specially-trained soldiers called the Spiral Force, also known as the Zone Riders.
- Cdr Dirk Courage - Zone Riders leader, United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
- MSgt Tank Schmidt - heavy weapons specialist, West GermanyWest GermanyWest Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
- Lt Hiro Taka - infiltration specialist, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
- 2nd Lt Max Jones - special mission expert, United States
- Cpl Katerina Anastacia - medical officer, USSR
As the series advanced, the Zone Riders discovered that there was still enough Neutron-90 left over from assembling the five suits, sufficient to build two additional suits. They are issued to Australian demolition specialist Lt Ned Tucker and field scientist Lt Benjamin Davis Franklin.
Vehicles
The Zone Riders are deployed around the world from a mountain base called the Mission Command Central, or MCC. Dirk Courage rides the Rimfire, a monowheelMonowheel
A monowheel is a one-wheeled single-track vehicle similar to a unicycle. However, instead of sitting above the wheel, the rider sits either within it or next to it. The wheel is a ring, usually driven by smaller wheels pressing against its inner rim...
vehicle equipped with a large cannon on top. The other Zone Riders ride armored combat monocycles and wear special backpacks.
Japanese Spiral Zone
The suits and some of the vehicles in Spiral Zone originated from a line of action figures produced by BandaiBandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
that was sold from 1985 to 1988. Conceptualized by Gundam
Gundam
The is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots called "Mobile Suits" ; usually the protagonist's MS will carry the name Gundam....
mecha designers Kunio Okawara
Kunio Okawara
is a mechanical designer in the Japanese anime industry. A mechanical designer is similar to a character designer, but the design is for robots, ships, and other mechanical items found in a particular show. Okawara was the first in the industry to be specifically credited as a mechanical designer...
and Kazuhisa Kondo, the Special Force Group Spiral Zone series depicted a team of special operations soldiers fighting a war in the early 21st century. The line only had 12 items, organized into Acts. They include: three 1:12 scale six-inch figures with full equipment codenamed Bull Solid, Hyper Boxer, and Sentinel Bear, two Bull Solid cloth uniform and armor sets, two Hyper Boxer cloth uniform and armor sets, two equipment backpacks, two bare human figures, and one vehicle called the Monoseed. The figures had 30 points of articulation. Non-toy media included a notebook, a novel, and a LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
/story compilation released in 1986 by Warner Brothers and Pioneer Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
is a multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The company was founded in 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair shop...
called a Hyper Image Album. The LP disc in particular contains songs composed by Toshiyuki Watanabe
Toshiyuki Watanabe
Toshiyuki Watanabe is a Japanese musician and composer who has scored several films and anime, most notably the Mothra films in the 1990s...
and performed by Tomoko Aran, with the accompanying stories written by Kazunori Itō
Kazunori Ito
is a Japanese anime screenwriter and artist who is well known for his work in the .hack Franchise and his writing for the Ghost in the Shell movie. Itō also provided the art for .hack//Another Birth. He is a member of the artist group known as Headgear....
. He wrote the novel with HEADGEAR
Headgear (artist group)
Headgear is a group consisting of 5 writers and artists who work in the Japanese anime/manga field. The group was set up so that all the creators could retain full copyright to their work, achieve greater publicity for their work and sell their manga to anime sponsors for film production. The...
colleague Akemi Takada
Akemi Takada
is a Japanese manga artist born on March 31, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan. She is a popular anime character designer, noted for her long collaboration with director Mamoru Oshii. She graduated from Tama Art University, after which she worked for Tatsunoko Pro. She is currently a freelance manga artist with...
as illustrator.
Bandai had plans to release a fourth action figure (codenamed Fireball) and additional vehicles before the line was cancelled. They include a tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
, a small flight pod called the Beaufighter, a radio-controlled assault jeep resembling the Chenowth DPV
Desert Patrol Vehicle
The Desert Patrol Vehicle , formerly called the Fast Attack Vehicle , is a high-speed, lightly armored sandrail-like vehicle first used in combat during the Gulf War in 1991. Due to their dash speed and off-road mobility, the DPVs were used extensively during Operation Desert Storm. The first U.S...
called the Fat Lynx, a fast-attack vehicle called the Mad Lemming, a bipedal mech, two personal transport backpacks, and the Monoseed Mk II assault cycle, among others. The Monoseed and Monoseed Mk II were the respective basis for the Zone Riders' standard motorcycles and Courage's Rimfire Cannon, while one of the two unreleased backpacks, a monocycle called the Monodrive, was remodeled as Max Jones' Zone Runner backpack.
The unreleased vehicles later appeared in the series' gashapon
Gashapon
is a Bandai brand trademark widely used throughout the world for their capsule toys. It is also referred to as ." Both gashapon and gachapon are Japanese onomatopoeia, made up of two sounds: "gasha" or "gacha" for the turning of a crank on a toy vending machine, and "pon" for the sound of the toy...
line, which also had a special Spiral Zone super-deformed board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
and other products not developed in 1:12 scale, such as new personal mecha units, weapon packs, and three figures (codenamed Zone Bolt, Eagle Eye, and Zone Acorn).
Because of their extensive detail and high-quality construction, the Japanese Spiral Zone figures are well regarded among toy collectors and often fetch high prices.
Toys
Although best known for producing toys of construction vehicles, TonkaTonka
Tonka is an American toy company most known for its signature toy trucks and construction equipment.-History:On September 18, 1946 Mound Metalcraft was created in Mound, Minnesota with three men as partners, Lynn Everett Baker , Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch. The first products produced by...
licensed the rights to Spiral Zone from Bandai and created a line of seven-inch figures that were later based on the animated series. The toy line, which hit the market in 1986, comprised four of the five original Zone Riders and all five original Black Widows, plus their vehicles, six cloth uniforms, and eight equipment sets.
However, the cancellation of the series left the figures of Zone Riders Anastacia, Tucker, and Franklin, Black Widows Crook and Raw Meat, and a Zone Generator playset out of Tonka's 1988 release. The figures were also highly detailed, but were not as articulated as the Japanese figures. Each figure has a special audio cassette tape.
Home Media
TonkaTonka
Tonka is an American toy company most known for its signature toy trucks and construction equipment.-History:On September 18, 1946 Mound Metalcraft was created in Mound, Minnesota with three men as partners, Lynn Everett Baker , Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch. The first products produced by...
first released Spiral Zone on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in 1987 with two episodes per tape. Only three tapes were produced before the series was cancelled. Tonka has not announced plans to release the series on DVD. However, an unofficial DVD set containing all 65 episodes and bonus materials was released in late 2006 by Spiral-Zone.com, with the cooperation of the show's supervising director, Pierre de Celles. The site's operator said de Celles volunteered for the project by providing the original master tapes of the series, which were converted to DVD. He added that Tonka and parent firm Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
never responded to his offers to acquire the rights
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
.