How did you discover Astro Boy?

[Astro Forever]

I know some of you shared your story, but with so many new members, I thought it could be interesting to ask.

I was 7 or 8 in the 1980s and watching the Saturday morning cartoons. At 10 am, I saw a robot being put together (there was a brief introduction with images of the birth of Astro before the opening credits in that version). A robot? Oh no, another of those boys shows! I left the room after a few seconds and turned off the TV. I did the same time the next week, and maybe even the week after. For some reason, one day I stayed in front of the TV. I was instantly hooked! Despite all the reruns, I would always miss the very first episode because I didn't now there would be a rerun and they'd change the schedule, and for years I regretted the day where I first saw the show and didn't watch. I finally saw that first episode about 15 years later!

If we had had DVDs back then, I could have bought the entire series and wouldn't have had to wait for so long.

[ChibiGoku]

Good question. I heard about it back in maybe the 1990s. Never actually saw it pursonally until several years ago. (Excluding the B/W series, I think I may fo seen a few of them.)

[Latu]

Some how I know Astroboy from a long time ago. The memory is in my brain, but I can't seem to access it. I started getting into Astroboy alot a few years ago though.

[dannavy85]

1969 WLVI-56 in Boston showed Astro Boy, Kimba and speed racer in the afternoons. Astro was just totally cool even in black and white. Yup, I took my mom's thick woolen snow boots, ran around in my underwear and had a ball!

Was this the "bad influence" those A.C.T. people were talking about back then?

[Latu]

1969 WLVI-56 in Boston showed Astro Boy, Kimba and speed racer in the afternoons. Astro was just totally cool even in black and white. Yup, I took my mom's thick woolen snow boots, ran around in my underwear and had a ball!

Was this the "bad influence" those A.C.T. people were talking about back then?

HAHAHAHA Sounds fun!

[fafner]

I had seen the announcement on the TV schedule, and for some reason I had thought "again some cartoons with robots"
After a few weeks, a saturday afternoon, I was zapping, and I found a cartoon where boys were throwing a bag at each other, while one of them tried to get the bag back. You probably guessed it, it was "save the Carolina 3". I had stuck on it because I had experienced this kind of situation not a very long time before. Then, the bag went through the window, and guess what? A boy with jets on the feet caught it I didn't know that boy was a robot, so I was confused for some time But before the end of the episode, I had caught astroholism for good

Small trivia: can someone guess where my current avatar comes from?

[Astro Forever]

Yup, I took my mom's thick woolen snow boots, ran around in my underwear and had a ball!

I'd just roll the top of my socks. I played wrestling with my friend in my living room. I think we were in our underwears too...

Did you know Astro's boots were supposed to be red back then?

[dannavy85]

hehehehe.....I remember when Battle of the Planets came out at the same time as Kerbangers did and I was playing Keyop around the house and sent a pair through the kitchen window.

[Mdlbigcat]

Vague memories of watching the 60's b/w show on TV, along with other "Japanation" shows like 8th Man, Marine Boy, Kimba, Speed Racer, Johnny Cypher.

The 80's series/2003 "Revival": Through this board, which I found by googling "Astro Boy" after I saw and read articles in USA Today and the Wall St Journal about the 2003 "revival".

I put "revival" in quotes because as you well know, AB never got a firm footing here in the USA, being bounced around between the WB and CN.

[Strange Wings]

I saw Astro the first time on a french TV channel back in 1986. It was the french version of the ep 'Outer Spaceport R45 (french title 'Le pirates de l'espace'). I remember tuning in just as the opening credits passed by, hence I had no idea about what kind of series awaits me. I was sitting on the couch quite impressed about Matthew Tenisson's rocket battle with the space pirates (I was very fond of animated science fiction stories at that time), and then suddenly this cute little robot was appearing, along with his cute french voice - I immediately fell in love with him . He captured my heart even more firmly as I saw him running along the rockets' runway to eventually taking off doing his arm-wise astroboy flying pose.
The scene as he emerged on the escalator also had stuck in my mind through all those years, and of course, Astro's summary at the ep's end in which the viewer had to find a mistake Astro deliberately had built in just gave me the rest for my now 20 year lasting boy robot passion. After the ep was over I immediately made a few attempts of drawing him on some sheets that were lying around.

Although I was regarded as 'uncool' by my former classmates for watching the show I didn't care about their opinions and started watching nearly every following episode.

I had a short rediscovery in 1996 as I spotted a picture of him in a science fiction cyclopedia, thereafter I bought some Astroboy-mangas in french published by the french distributor 'Glénat' , but it wasn't until september 2002 Astro got me again for real when I strolled through an anime store suddenly spotting some german dubbed VHS tapes containing the 80's eps 2 to 6.
Thanks to the internet I was able to order the whole bunch of Astroboy VHS tapes by Siren Entertainment. They had become collector's items since.

That was my "close encounter of the boy robot kind".