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| Speed Racer | |
 Gō Mifune, also known as Speed Racer | |
| マッハGoGoGo (Mahha GōGōGō) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sports |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Tatsuo Yoshida |
| Published by | |
| English publisher | |
| Magazine | Shōnen Book |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Original run | June 1966 –May 1968 |
| Volumes | 2(List of volumes) |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Written by |
|
| Music by | Nobuyoshi Koshibe |
| Studio | Tatsunoko Production |
| Licensed by |
|
| Original network | Fuji TV |
| English network | |
| Original run | April 2, 1967 – March 31, 1968 |
| Episodes | 52(List of episodes) |
| Manga | |
| Mach GoGoGo! | |
| Written by | Toshio Tanigami |
| Published by | Shogakukan |
| Magazine | CoroCoro Comic |
| Demographic | Children |
| Original run | January 1997 –October 1997 |
| Volumes | 2 |
| Related works | |
| |
 Anime and manga portal | |
Speed Racer, also known asMach GoGoGo (Japanese:マッハGoGoGo,Hepburn:Mahha GōGōGō), is a Japanesemanga series written and illustrated byTatsuo Yoshida. It was originally serialized in print inShueisha's 1966Shōnen Book. It was released intankōbon form bySun Wide Comics and later re-released in Japan byFusosha. Adapted intoanime byTatsunoko Production, its 52 episodes aired onFuji Television from April 1967 to March 1968. In the US, the show aired insyndication at approximately the same time. The anime was later re-broadcast onTokyo MX from July 1 to September 25, 2008.
Selected chapters of themanga were released byNOW Comics in the 1990s under the titleSpeed Racer Classics. These were later released byWildstorm Productions, a division ofDC Comics, asSpeed Racer: The Original Manga. In 2008, under its Americanized title,Speed Racer,Mach GoGoGo was republished in its entirety in the United States byDigital Manga Publishing and was released as a box set to commemorate the franchise's 40th anniversary, as well as serving as a tie-in with the2008 film. The television series was very successful in the United States and is said to have defined anime in that country until the 1990s, being watched by a total estimated audience of40 million viewers during the 1960s–1970s.[1][2][3][4]
Mach GoGoGo was first created and designed by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida (1932–1977) as a manga series in the 1960s and made the jump toTV as an anime series in 1967. The actual manga was inspired by Yoshida's earlier and more popular automobile racing comics,Pilot Ace.[5]Pilot Ace's main storyline formed the structure forMach GoGoGo, which followed the adventures of an ambitious young man, who soon became a professional racer.
The characters' designs inPilot Ace set the main ground for the character design inMach GoGoGo. Yoshida got his idea for the story after seeing two films that were very popular in Japan at the time,Viva Las Vegas andGoldfinger. By combining the look ofElvis Presley's race-car driving image, complete with neckerchief and black pompadour, andJames Bond'sgadget-filled Aston Martin DB5, Yoshida had the inspiration for his creation. Soon enough,Mach GoGoGo hit shelves in the early 1960s. The central character in the anime and manga was a young race car driver named Gō Mifune (Mifune Gō).
The name of the series,Mach GoGoGo, has a triple meaning: "Mahha-gō" (マッハ号) is the name of the car; the name of the main character is Gō Mifune; and finally, it contains the English word "go". In the American adaptation, Mach 5 stems from the number 5 on the door. Although, in Japanese,go (五) is the word for the number 5, the Kanji charactergō (号) which is used in the car name actually means "item number" (i.e. it is an ordinal suffix). In addition, gogogo, is used as a general Japanese sound effect for rumble. Taken together, the program's title means, "Mach Number Five, Go!"
The manga (compiled into two deluxe volumes for Fusosha's re-release) has several storylines, such as "The Great Plan", "Challenge of the Masked Racer", "The Fire Race", "The Secret Engine" and "Race for Revenge", that were adapted to the anime. However, minor changes occur between both the original manga and the anime series, such as differences between back stories of several characters and places.
A few years after the volumes were released, Yoshida decided to release his manga series as an anime program, adding additional plots. Fifty-two episodes aired in Japan, each one emulating the fast-paced action of the manga.
Selected chapters of the originalMach GoGoGo manga series were reprinted by NOW Comics as two volumes ofSpeed Racer Classics (1988–1989), and byDC Comics/Wildstorm Productions asSpeed Racer: The Original Manga (2000).[6] In 2008, a hardcover box set of the complete manga series was released byDigital Manga Publishing as the two volumeSpeed Racer: Mach Go Go Go.[7][8]
The manga spawned an anime adaptation that actually became a bigger success. Fifty-two episodes were produced from 1967 to 1968. In 1997, Tatsunoko produced a modernized version ofMach GoGoGo that aired onTV Tokyo, lasting for 34 episodes. An English-language adaptation of this remake was produced byDiC titledSpeed Racer X, which aired in 2002 onNickelodeon. Only the first 13 episodes were adapted due to licensing disputes between DiC and Speed Racer Enterprises.Mach Girl was a web-based series by Tatsunoko Productions, created by Tatsuo Yoshida's daughter, Suzuka.[9]
The English-language rights toMach GoGoGo were acquired by syndicatorTrans-Lux andSpeed Racer premiered on American television in the summer of 1967.[10] In the series, Speed's full name was Go Mifune, in homage to Japanese film starToshiro Mifune. His name, Americanized, becameSpeed Racer.[11] His adventures centered on his powerfulMach 5 car, his girlfriendTrixie, his little brother Spritle, Spritle's pet chimpanzee Chim-Chim, his father "Pops" Racer, and his mysterious older brother, Racer X,[12] whose real name was Rex Racer.
| Speed Racer theme | |
|---|---|
 Sample [0:18]via |
For American consumption, majorediting anddubbing efforts were undertaken by producer Peter Fernandez, who likewise not only wrote and directed the English-language dialogue but alsoprovided the voices of many of the characters, most notably Racer X and Speed Racer himself. Fernandez was also responsible for a rearrangement of thetheme song's melody, written and composed by Nobuyoshi Koshibe, and he subsequently also wrote its English lyrics.[13]
ASpeed Racer daily comic strip written and drawn byMort Todd ran in theNew York Post from 2000–2001.[14] IGN ranked the original Speed Racer series at #29 on its "Best 100 Animated Series" list.[citation needed]
AtOtakon 2015,Funimation announced that it had acquired the license toSpeed Racer from Tatsunoko and would release it onBlu-ray for the first time.[15] Funimation gaveSpeed Racer two separate home video releases: a standard release for the English version on May 30, 2017, and a collector's edition for the Japanese version with English subtitles on November 7, 2017, the first such North American release.
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The large red M on the hood of the Mach 5, as well as on Gō's helmet, is the emblem of Mifune Motors, the family business, and an homage to Japanese film starToshiro Mifune. In North America it was assumed to stand for Mach 5 and in the Latin American version for Meteoro. His given name, Gō, is aJapanesehomophone for the number 5 (the number on his race car) which is also represented by the yellow letter G embroidered on his short-sleeve blue shirt. The tradition of symbolism on characters' shirts was also used on Michi (Trixie) and Sabu (Sparky), who had the letter "M" and "S" on their shirts, respectively.
The overall purpose of the anime was to please a growing fan base worldwide with exciting stories that involved facing adversity on the race track and beyond.[16] Review of the episodes in theSpeed Racer: Collector's Edition of Japanese and English-language episodes reveals frequent changes to the sound-track (dialogue and the addition of an off-screen narrator) but very little editing of the image-track. Most significantly, the names of villains are often changed to be more cartoony, e.g. Professor Anarchy in episode 31 ("Lightning-Quick Ninja Cars" in Japanese, "Gang of Assassins" in English).
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Speed Racer / Gō Mifune (三船 剛,Mifune Gō)
Spritle Racer / Kurio Mifune (三船 くりお,Mifune Kurio) and Chim-Chim (三平,Sanpei)
Pops Racer / Daisuke Mifune (三船 大介,Mifune Daisuke)
Mom Racer / Aya Mifune (三船 アヤ,Mifune Aya)
Racer X (The Masked Racer) (覆面 レーサー,Fukumen Rēsā) / Rex Racer / Kenichi Mifune (三船健一,Mifune Ken'ichi)
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Trixie / Michi Shimura (志村 美智,Shimura Michi)
Sparky (サブ,Sabu)
The Car Acrobatic Team
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Many of the show's cars have special abilities in the series. *Note: The names of the cars that have appeared in both the manga and the original anime have been fitted withItalics.
The Mach 5, Speed Racer's car ("Mahha Gō," or "Mahha," in the Japanese version), is a technological marvel, containing useful pieces of equipment. Gō Mifune/Speed Racer easily deployed these gadgets by pressing buttons marked "A" through "G" on the steering wheel hub (although there are buttons on the steering wheel in the manga, the letter designations are exclusive to the anime and the 2008 live action film). This uniquely designed car, built with a sleekCoke bottle bodystyle, has a white exterior with a large "M" on its hood, the logo for the family business, Mifune Motors (changed to Pops Motors in the anime and Racer Motors in the live action film). The two-seat car had a mostly red-colored interior. The number 5 is emblazoned on both side doors of the car. In the manga and anime this is the car's racing number; in the film, it is because it is the fifth car built in Pops' "Mach" series of racing vehicles. Although technically inferior to other racing vehicles such as the Mammoth Car and the GRX, the Mach 5 manages to win most races because of Speed's superior driving skills.
The Mach 5 has been stolen from Speed a few times, once when Cornpone Blotch took the car to add it to his car collection in the "Girl Daredevil" saga. However, Speed always gets it back at the end of the episode. At one point, the car was replicated, functions and all, by Dr. Nightcall. However, this replica included other new abilities that inspired later functions of the car in remakes of the show, one of which were the Aero-Jacks, used as a replacement for the Auto Jacks inSpeed Racer X. In manga continuity, the Mach 5 was destroyed and rebuilt. SeeManga and Anime Differences for more information on the Mach 5's manga continuity.
In both American comic and movie continuity, Pops is portrayed as having built a "Mach" Series consisting of other variants, such as the Mach 4 and Mach 6, in addition to Rex Racer's Mach 1 and the Mach 5.
The Shooting Star isRacer X's car, colored bright yellow with a black front bumper and numbered 9 on the hood and sides. The car's engine is located in the back, and it is a very agile machine, often displaying abilities akin to and even above those of theMach Five. Many of its high-tech features allowed Racer X to keep an eye on Speed Racer, who is his younger brother.
In later comics written byTommy Yune, Rex acquires the car that he names the "Shooting Star" from Prince Kabala of Kapetapek. During his time training with the royal leader, Rex is informed that he is the ninth student of Kabala, hence the number 9. Rex also builds other cars numbered 9 with similar paint schemes and names them with variants like the "Falling Star."
In the 2008 film adaptation, the car makes an appearance but is not named. The car was the only car built in addition to the Mach Five for the movie, and it features weapons like machine guns mounted above the cockpit and under the chassis. In addition to this car, Racer X also drives a car built for the competitions in the film, a T180. This car was titled the "Augury" in the film's video game counterpart. Like Racer X's unnamed street car, it features a number 9 and has the black and yellow color scheme, with a large black "X" on the front bumper. The T180 only makes one appearance in the film, when Racer X competes to protect Speed in the Fuji race after he has rejected Royalton's offer.
Appearing only in the anime, it is supposedly the largest racing vehicle in the world. Similar in design to an extremely long trailer truck, the Mammoth Car is mostly red and is built bySpeed Racer villain Cruncher Block. The Mammoth Car was built almost entirely of $50,000,000 in stolen gold bars. This amount of gold, however, would actually occupy only 74 cubic feet, based on the then price of gold of $35 per ounce. By entering it in "The No Limit World Race", Cruncher wished to smuggle the gold out of the country. The Mammoth Car's main engine has 7,500 horsepower (5,600 kW). Each wheel also has an engine with 1,500 horsepower (1,100 kW), giving it a total of 30,000 horsepower (22,000 kW). It can travel at 500 mph (800 km/h), on any kind of road or terrain. It makes screeching sounds reminiscent of Godzilla. It has magnetic brakes and is over 200 yards (180 m) long, making the Mammoth Car one of the most interesting cars in the series. It was destroyed after it crashed into an oil refinery and melted into its original gold form by the intense heat.
The Mammoth Car makes a small cameo in the 2008 film in the scene where Cruncher Block interrogates Taejo Togokhan (a character created for the movie) after he resists Royalton Industries in the race-fixing business. They were interrupted by Racer X, who battles the Mammoth and saves Taejo. The Mammoth Car in this movie is shown to have view ports for its drivers to shoot out of, just like in the original series, and it is shown to fire missiles from its grill.
The Mammoth Car also makes an appearance along with Flash Marker Jr.'s X3 inSpeed Racer: The Next Generation in the second and third episodes of "The Fast Track" saga, as an enemy program of the show's virtual racing track. Although the Mammoth Car is rendered in CGI after its original anime design, the car is missing its grill and many other details that had appeared in the original anime. The Mammoth Car in this episode makes the same sound as it did in the anime. It pays homage to the original series by using its signature attack of surrounding and circling a rival.
The Melange was a roofless racing car numbered with a "3," driven by Flash Marker. When investigating the mysterious car, Speed recalls the name Melange was the name ofNapoleon's horse, who saved his life several times in battles. (The name was actuallyMarengo but became Melange due to an erroneous transliteration from Japanese to English.) When Speed recalls his knowledge of French history, a rendition ofJacques-Louis David's painting ofNapoleon Crossing the Alps, which depicts Napoleon riding Marengo, is drawn in the episode. Pops Racer, however, identified the name "Melange" as a car driven 15 years earlier by a young driver named Flash Marker. The Melange's chassis was colored with two shades of purple and had an exposed engine on its hood. During the "Race at Danger Pass", the Melange, along with Marker, was finally destroyed in a crash caused by the Three Roses Club.
Since then, Flash's son, Flash Marker Jr., had plotted revenge on the Three Roses Club by building a car with a sleek, black body marked "X3." The car was driven through remote control and a robot dummy was placed in the driver's seat, broadcasting the phrases "Melange still races" and "Melange is alive" to haunt the Three Roses Club. The X3 was used primarily to deliberately crash into and kill those affiliated with the Three Roses Club, leaving behind a card marked X3 to taunt the remaining members. Speed, who had volunteered to help the police, was chasing down the X3 when it narrowly avoided colliding with a train, leaving the robot dummy hanging over thelevel crossing'sboom gate.
Speed noticed its robot "driver" and brought it back to the police for further investigation. Meanwhile, Flash Marker Jr. secretly brought back the damaged car and replaced its body with a replica of the original Melange, placing it over the X3 chassis in his secret underground car factory, to prepare for the next Race at Danger Pass. Since it is the same car with the chassis of the Melange, the car can still be controlled remotely. While the new Melange is still numbered "3", it has the ability to be changed through remote control to X3, which makes the drivers of the Three Roses Club realize that the "new Melange" is actually the X3. The car, controlled by Flash Jr. in his helicopter, was used to fatally crash into two Three Roses drivers before it was destroyed when it lost control and crashed into the final member of the Three Roses Club.
The first episode has been translated into Armenian, using the Western Armenian dialect.[20]
The GRX was technically an engine, but it has become more identified with the gold-colored car that housed the engine in the series episode "The Fastest Car on Earth." The engine was designed by Ben Cranem, and it was responsible for the crashes and deaths of four test drivers and its inventor due to the impossible speeds it could attain. Cranem died and the GRX engine was buried with him, but Oriana Flub and her men exhumed the engine and placed it into the car with a sleek, golden, and markless body.
Oriana convinced Speed to test drive the car with the GRX and Speed was sprayed with a special serum known as the V-gas to artificially sharpen his reflexes. The V-gas causes its driver to become extremely thirsty and if the driver consumed any compound containing water, they would develop a strong phobia of speed. The car got a new driver, Cranem's son, Curly. Curly was given the V-gas and soon experienced its side effects. The GRX and its engine were destroyed when he fatally crashed the car due to Curly drinking water during a pit stop.
The GRX episodes mark one of the few continuity errors introduced by the English dubbing. In the first episode the GRX's speedometer with a maximum speed of 400 kilometres per hour (250 mph) on it is shown in the beginning of the episode, however, due to a continuity error in the Japanese animation, as Speed drives it, the speedometer tops out at 440 kilometres per hour (270 mph) This would make the GRXslower than the Mammoth Car by the English dialogue.
In the 2008 film adaptation, the name makes an appearance as a car developed by Royalton Industries and driven by Jack "Cannonball" Taylor. The car retains none of the back story from its anime counterpart. It is numbered 66 and colored purple and gold and was transformed from a two-seater to a single-seater. In the Grand Prix race that closes the film, the GRX is the main competitor for Speed in the Mach 6 and features a secret weapon called a "spear-hook" that is illegal in professional racing. After Taylor deploys the device against Speed during the Grand Prix, Speed uses the Mach 6's auto-jacks to flip the cars and reveal the hook to the track cameras, automatically disqualifying Taylor and aiding the case built by Inspector Detector against Royalton.
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The show's mainstream success in the United States spawned an ongoingSpeed Racer franchise. This ranged from comics, video releases, merchandise, a live-action film, and newer series either rebooting or continuing the original series[citation needed]. The franchise began in the early 1990s when a company, Speed Racer Enterprises, acquired rights to the original series.[21] At the time when the series was originally released, very little merchandise was released in the United States. However, during the series' re-airing during the 1990s, Speed Racer Enterprises was responsible for the creation of actualSpeed Racer merchandise, ranging from small collectible die-cast cars, to action figures, to home video releases of episodes from the original series. Speed Racer Enterprises was also involved in creating original American takes on the Japanese series such asThe New Adventures of Speed Racer andSpeed Racer: The Next Generation.[citation needed]
Due to Speed Racer Enterprises, the original 1967 series made a comeback through reruns on MTV, broadcast in the early morning hours.[citation needed] In 1993, the series was rebroadcast in syndication concurrently with a new American-created remake.[citation needed] Since all the rights were then under Speed Racer Enterprises, all references to the original rights holder, Trans-Lux, were removed.[citation needed] Therefore, the opening sequence included an entirely recreated logo, which most people are familiar with today; however when Speed Racer Enterprises authorizedVolkswagen to use Speed Racer in a July 1996GTI commercial,J.J. Sedelmaier faithfully replicated the look of the original episode title cards, including the original logo.[22][23] In October 2002,DIC Entertainment acquired worldwide entertainment rights for the series, consisting of broadcast, merchandising and licensing.[24]
This is the version that later aired on the Cartoon Network in the late afternoon (and later on in late night/overnight) programming, and it was also the version of the series that was first released on Region 1 DVD.
In December 2013, Tatsunoko gained all rights to theSpeed Racer franchise, retroactively as to May 2011, as part of a settlement of lawsuits between Speed Racer Enterprises and the animation studio. Tatsunoko had claimed that SRE had exceeded its contractual rights in continuing to license the property after 2011.[25][26]
NOW Comics launched an AmericanSpeed Racer comic book series in 1987.[27] The series became a hit with the high production values of airbrush artistKen Steacy. The comics continued for 38 issues and included aspin-offRacer X series and crossovers.[28][29] A miniseries adaptingThe New Adventures of Speed Racer was also released, which included art byOscar González Loyo.[30] In 1993, NOW Comics andAntarctic Press also published a four-issueintercompany crossover between Speed Racer and the characters ofBen Dunn'sNinja High School.[31]
In 1999,DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions released a newSpeed Racer limited series, which became the #1 pick of industry publicationWizard magazine.[citation needed] The manga style of writer/artistTommy Yune recaptured the look of the original anime, which was soon followed by an industry-wide revival of comic adaptations of other classic animated series.[citation needed] The limited series was collected as thetrade paperbackSpeed Racer: Born to RaceISBN 1-56389-649-4,[32] and aRacer X limited series featuring the artwork ofChinese manga artistJo Chen.[33]
In 2008,IDW Productions re-released the Wildstorm series asSpeed Racer/Racer X: The Origins Collection,[citation needed] and previously published issues from NOW Comics asSpeed Racer Vol. 1–5. A new limited series,Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer, was also produced.[34][35]
Seven Seas published an adaptation by Dwayne Alexander Smith in 2007 with art by Elmer Damaso.[36][37]
Editorial Abril, anArgentine company established byCésar Civita, published a Spanish-language comic book in the 1970s.[38] Soon after, his brother, Victor Civita, published a magazine inBrazil throughEditora Abril. In 2000, Editora Abril published a series by Tommy Yune.[39]
In 1993,The New Adventures of Speed Racer, an American-produced series, had a much morecontemporary art style.[citation needed] It was not a direct continuation of the original series; therefore, it is considered areboot.[40] While the original series had more realistic themes, such as gang violence and family ties, this series introduced science fiction themes, like robots and mutants. Tatsunoko did not authorize the production of this series,[citation needed] and it was off the air after only 13 episodes.
For the original series' 40th anniversary in 2006, aFlash-based series of "webisodes" titledSpeed Racer Lives was released.[41] This series was depicted as a continuation of the original series, taking place many years after it.[40] The series was made available on the Internet solely to promote a new line of toys made by Art Asylum.[41]
In 2008,Speed Racer: The Next Generation, a new series, was released onNicktoons. LikeSpeed Racer Lives, this series was conceived as taking place years after the original. It focuses on the sons of the original Speed Racer. Its premiere coincided with the live-action feature film in May 2008.Peter Fernandez voices a middle-aged version of Spritle, Speed's younger brother from the original Japanese series. The show's protagonist, also named Speed, and one of Spritle's nephews, is voiced by New Jersey native Kurt Csolak.Larry Schwarz is the creator of the TV series, which is produced byAnimation Collective, the creators ofKappa Mikey andThree Delivery. Like the 1993 remake, this series was not authorized by Tatsunoko.[citation needed] Pangea Corporation has been working with Speed Racer Enterprises for over 20 years and has created several new show iterations.[citation needed]
The original series was also revived on MTV for a short period of time in 1993, moved to Cartoon Network in 1996, and again to its sister networkBoomerang until 2005.[citation needed]
In May 2022,Apple TV+ announced that a live action television series fromJ. J. Abrams is in development with his companyBad Robot. The series will be based on an unproduced script that Abrams had written in the 1990s.[42]
In 1993, the episodes "The Car Hater" and "Race Against the Mammoth Car" were combined into a feature-length film and briefly released in theaters. It was later released on VHS and DVD and has been available onHulu. The film also featured old commercials for Bondex ready-mix cementing,National Forest Service (featuringSmokey Bear),Flit insecticide spray, andPure-Pak milk cartons (featuringOld King Cole), and a bonus cartoon, theColonel Bleep episodeThe Treacherous Pirate.[43]
The Wachowskis wrote and directed a live-action adaptation ofSpeed Racer, released on May 9, 2008.[44] It was poorly received by most critics and was abox office failure, making just under $93 million worldwide against a production budget of at least $120 million (before prints and advertising).[45]
In 1994,[46] Pangea Corporation wrote and produced a one-act play titledSpridle: A One Man Show [sic],[47] which debuted atSan Diego Comic-Con and was a huge success.[48] It chronicled what happened to all the Speed Racer characters after the show was canceled, following the concept that the characters were real and had private lives. Spritle, Speed's younger brother, relates the tell-all confessional piece as a disgruntled grown-up who is now sour that his career floundered after his celebrity status on the show. It was cited byWizard magazine as one of the top 10 best sessions atComic-Con 1994. The show was written byJohn Schulte andJohn Besmehn, produced, directed and moderated by Cheryl Ann Wong.[citation needed]
Sequences from the original TV show were used for the entirety ofGhostface Killah's music video for "Daytona 500".
The first major toy line of Speed Racer was developed in 1992 by Pangea Corporation for Ace Novelty Toy Company. Products focused on both the classic Speed Racer anime program from Tatsunoko, plus a whole new line based on theFred Wolf series,The New Adventures of Speed Racer.[citation needed]Lego released newSpeed Racer construction sets to coincide with the release of theSpeed Racer film. These include a 242 piece Speed and Snake Oiler set, a 237 piece Racer X and Taejo Togokhan set, a 367 piece Racer X and Cruncher Block set, and a 595 piece Grand Prix set, which includes Trixie, Pops, Speed, Spritle, Chim-Chim, 2 racers, and a racing announcer.[citation needed]Mattel had the master toy license for the 2008Speed Racer film, includingaction figures, related vehicles, and accessories. Mattel'sHot Wheels division produced miniature replicas of the Mach 5 called the Second Wind, and theirBarbie Collector division released a collector doll set featuring Trixie and Speed as they appeared in the film. Also, a Mattel product called UB FunKeys got a new patch, which included a Speed Racer zone.[citation needed]
Jada Toys held the rights to produce die-cast replicas of the Mach 5 from the original animated series.[citation needed]
Playing Mantis released a wide range of the Speed Racer die-cast miniatures, including replicas of the villains' cars and mini-dioramas under their "Johnny Lightning" line.[citation needed] A limited-edition release of the Mach Four from the Wildstorm comic series remains one of the hardest-to-find collectibles to this day.[citation needed] In 1998 Playing Mantis acquired the rights to the "Captain Action" action figure line, a vintage line about a crusading adventurer who disguises himself as famous super-heroes. Playing Mantis had planned to produce new costumes of Speed Racer, Racer X, and Captain Terror for the revamp of the line, but they were never produced. Control art for the Speed Racer costume appears on the packaging of some figures, and pictures of the prototypes are available online.[citation needed]
Resaurus produced two series of five-inch (127 mm) action figures, rich with articulation and accessories; as well as a full-sized Mach V in 1999. A third series of figures and a full-sized Shooting Star were planned, but the line folded before this could happen.[citation needed]Toynami is currently releasing a large-scale version of the Speed Racer vehicles, including a Mach Five playset complete with all of its gadgets.[citation needed] The companyPolar Lights is currently manufacturing two 1/25-scale (according to the box) model kits in standard "glue" and snap-together variations (though the scale of the model inside is closer to 1/32). These can be built with or without the waterproof bubble canopy at the modeler's discretion. The kits feature a homing robot and separate jacks; and a rear engine (possibly a tip to NOW comics, which illustrated the engine in the rear).[citation needed]
RC ERTL has produced Speed Racer's Mach 5 in 1:18 Die Cast Form with many features of the animated car, including pop out saw blades, ion jacks, opening doors, hood and trunk. It includes Spritle Racer and Chim-Chim figures. Special variants were made with decals celebrating Racer X and other characters from the series as part of the 35th Anniversary Edition in 2001. A similar die-cast version of Racer X's Shooting Star was produced as well. It has now been retired from production and is a sought-after collectible.[citation needed]
Art Asylum made a line of toys consisting primarily of their block-figureMinimates in 2006.[citation needed]
In 1992,Accolade publishedSpeed Racer in The Challenge of Racer X forMS-DOS. Two years later, Accolade publishedSpeed Racer in My Most Dangerous Adventures forSuper NES, which was developed byRadical Entertainment.[49]
In 1993,Pangea Corporation created and authored aCD-ROM title that featured game elements, a video clip creator that allowed players to make a classic Speed Racer mash-up moment, along with other themed interactive content. It was marketed under the name "The Compleat Speed Racer."[citation needed]
Namco released aSpeed Racerarcade video game in 1995.[50]
Speed Racer was released for thePlayStation. It was published in Japan byTomy (1996) and in North America byJaleco (1998).[51]
A video game based on the1997 series, simply titledMach Go Go Go, was released byTOSE and Tomy for theGame Boy (withSuper Game Boy support) in Japan.[citation needed]
In 2006, a joint production of enterthemonkey.com and blitinteractive.com, titledSpeed Racer — The Great Plan, was released as a Web browser game to Shockwave.com. The game has all the original voices, sounds, and Mach 5 controls from the original television show. The game features the operational steering wheel buttons from the original animated series. Each button activates a customized accessory to avoid obstacles and take on rough terrains.[52]
Speed Racer: The Videogame, a game based on the movie, was released for theWii,Nintendo DS andPlayStation 2 platforms. StarsEmile Hirsch (Speed),Christina Ricci (Trixie) andMatthew Fox (Racer X) reprised their roles.[citation needed]
During an interview withSiliconera,Capcom producer Ryota Niitsuma commented that Speed Racer was considered for the roster ofTatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, but since he was purely a race car driver, making him fit in in a fighting game was unfeasible.[53]
Artisan Home Entertainment/Lionsgate Entertainment (throughFamily Home Entertainment) released episodes 1 through 11 of the original series inDVD format in the U.S. and Canada on April 22, 2003. This turned out to be the first in a series of five DVD re-releases of the show. The second volume, containing episodes 12 through 23, went on sale on May 18, 2004. The DVD came in a special package where one could push a button on the cover and the Mach 5's headlights would light up, while a portion of the show's English theme song played.[citation needed] Volumes 1 and 2 were re-released as a two-disc set on April 20, 2010. The third volume came out on May 24, 2005, with the discs packaged in a round metal box made to resemble the steering wheel of the Mach 5. It contains episodes 24 through 36. This volume was later released to promote the live-action film in a standard keep case.[citation needed] Lionsgate Family Entertainment released the fourth volume, which featured episodes 37 through 44, on March 14, 2006; this volume included a die-cast toy Mach 5. The last episode, "Race the Laser Tank", was time-compressed (in other words, sped up), similar to when Cartoon Network aired the series in the mid-1990s. Although nothing was removed from the episode, the higher-pitched voices of the characters and the diminished quality of the episode due to the time compression upset some fans.[54] The fifth and last volume was released on October 31, 2006. This volume included episodes 45 through 52 and for a limited time it came with a miniature license plate with the inscription, "Go-Speed Racer-Go!"[55]
The entire anime series was released in Australia on April 30, 2008, and in the United States later that year, on October 7. The U.S. release of the entire anime series is a repackaging of all five individually released volumes into a comic book-style box set, in homage to theMach GoGoGo manga. In addition, a bonus disc containing special features and an episode ofSpeed Racer: The Next Generation is included. These six discs were packaged in an exclusive die-cast casing modeled after the Mach 5.[citation needed]
All previous DVD releases went out of print after Tatsunoko gained worldwide rights to the franchise.
After Funimation garnered the rights, they released the English version on separate DVD and Blu-ray sets on May 30, 2017. On November 7, they released a Blu-ray + DVD Combo Collector's Edition of both the English and Japanese versions, as well as the Japanese version ofSpeed Racer X, known asMach Go Go Go: Restart on DVD. It has a bust of Speed Racer with sound effects, as well as a key chain and an exclusive interview with the voice actress of Trixie and Spritle,Corinne Orr.[56]
In 2024, it was announced thatShout! Studios had acquired the distribution rights to the series and the original Japanese series, which was released on digital streaming on June 1, 2024.[57]
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