The cult label Toy Robot Video has a genuinely deranged September on the way, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Their slate careens from an 80s toy-commercial-turned-fantasy-epic to a pair of gonzo Japanese action films, a practical-effects creature sequel, and a summer-camp slasher. It is exactly the kind of eclectic, no-two-alike lineup that boutique physical media does better than anyone. Here it is ranked by want, with the standard caveat that “want” measures how fast I would hit pre-order, not some objective quality scale.
1. Masters of the Universe (1987)
This is the headliner, and deservedly so. Cannon Films’ gloriously ambitious, gloriously broke live-action Masters of the Universe is getting its global 4K UHD debut, and for a certain generation of collector that is a genuine event. Dolph Lundgren swings the Power Sword as He-Man, a young Courteney Cox turns up years before Friends, and Robert Duncan McNeill suits up before he ever piloted a starship on Voyager. But the film belongs, then and now, to Frank Langella, who plays Skeletor not as camp but as a genuinely operatic Shakespearean villain, fully committed and secretly magnificent. It is the best thing in the movie and one of the great “wait, that guy is amazing in this?” performances in cult cinema.
The legend of its production is half the fun. Cannon was hemorrhaging money, so the story famously abandons the fantasy planet of Eternia early and dumps the characters into a small American town to save on sets, a compromise fans have argued about for decades. This new edition includes both the theatrical version and an alternate preview cut, and it lands at a perfect moment, with a big-budget Hollywood reboot of the property finally on the horizon. Grab the scrappy original before the shiny new one arrives.
2. The Sanada and Chiba Double Bill: Ninja Wars & Roaring Fire
Here is the deep-cut treasure of the slate, and the reason film historians should perk up. Toy Robot is releasing two early-80s Japanese action films, Ninja Wars and Roaring Fire, that share a remarkable pair of stars: martial-arts legend Sonny Chiba and a very young Hiroyuki Sanada. If that second name sounds suddenly enormous, it should. Sanada just won an Emmy for Shogun, capping a decades-long climb through The Last Samurai, The Wolverine, Bullet Train, and John Wick: Chapter 4 to become the most respected Japanese actor working in the West.
And this is where he came from. Sanada made his screen debut at age five playing the son of a character Chiba portrayed, then joined Chiba’s fabled Japan Action Club as a twelve-year-old, learning his craft in the most demanding stunt-and-action school Japan ever produced. Chiba was his on-screen father, then his real-life master, and the entire dynasty of daredevil performers that poured out of that club is a corner of cult cinema we have always had a deep soft spot for. These films catch the two of them working shoulder to shoulder, the legend and the protégé, with Chiba himself choreographing the mayhem. Watching them now, after Chiba’s death in 2021 and Sanada’s global apotheosis, is like finding home movies of a torch being passed, and it lends two gonzo genre romps an unexpected weight.
The films themselves are a riot. Ninja Wars is a completely unhinged supernatural samurai fantasy, all sorcerous monks, demonic curses, and Warring States intrigue. Roaring Fire is even nuttier, a globe-hopping martial-arts stunt-comedy in which Sanada plays a Texas cowboy who turns out to be a kidnapped Japanese heir, and which features, no exaggeration, the notorious pro wrestler Abdullah the Butcher rising from a swimming pool to do battle. Both get North American Blu-ray debuts here, and for anyone who fell for Sanada through Shogun, they are essential viewing.
3. Guyver: Dark Hero (1994)
For the practical-effects faithful, this one is a treat. Guyver: Dark Hero is the superior sequel to the live-action adaptation of the beloved bio-booster-armor manga, directed by creature-effects wizard Steve Wang and starring none other than David Hayter. Yes, that David Hayter, the man who would go on to write the first two X-Men films and voice Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games. Here he is punching rubber-suited monsters, and the film is a loving showcase for the kind of hand-built, latex-and-foam creature work that CGI has largely swept aside. Toy Robot is giving it a worldwide Blu-ray premiere with both the original cut and an enhanced version featuring new effects, which is exactly the sort of format-nerd bonus that makes these releases sing.
4. Marshmallow (2024)
Rounding out the slate is the lone new kid, a contemporary horror film that keeps the collection from feeling like a pure nostalgia trip. Marshmallow is a summer-camp shocker from director Daniel DelPurgatorio, who cut his teeth co-directing the animated Tales of the Black Freighter segment for the extended cut of Watchmen. A festival favorite getting its worldwide Blu-ray bow, it drops a killer campfire legend into the great tradition of camp-set horror that stretches back to Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp. It is the change of pace the lineup needs, and proof that Toy Robot is minding the genre’s present as well as its past.
Grab Them Where You Grab the Good Stuff
Four wildly different flavors of genre cinema, all restored and loaded for collectors, all arriving in the same month from a label that clearly loves this stuff as much as its customers do. The releases roll out through MVD Entertainment Group, so you will find them at the MVD store, at cult-collector stalwarts like Diabolik DVD and Orbit DVD, and through Amazon. Whether you are here for He-Man’s Power Sword, a future Emmy winner’s stunt-kid years, a rubber-suited superhero, or a fresh trip to summer camp, Toy Robot has built a slate with something for every corner of the genre-loving shelf. Clear some space.
