and successful as the first one, lasting 39 episodes. The new robot and its pilots were also featured in the Go Nagai short features Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo G and Grendizer, Getter Robo G & Great Mazinger: Decisive Showdown! Great Sea Beast, despite the fact Getter Robo was conceived as existing in a different universe from the Mazinger/Grendizer continuity. G also became famous in the U.S. as it was included in edited form as part of the Force Five robot series produced for the American market, where its name was changed to Starvengers. These episodes would later be the basis for the direct to video series; Robo Formers. Additionally, toys based on the Getter Robo mecha were licensed by the U.S. toy company Mattel and sold under the company's Shogun Warriors toy line. There was a limited video release of Starvengers in the UK, renamed Formators. Getter Robo Go After some years, the franchise was revived in 1991 with the new series Getter Robo Go, directed by Hiroki Shibata, and featuring a new robot and an all-new team. While originally planned as a remake of Mazinger Z, sponsor Yutaka Nakamura turned instead to rebooting Getter Robo, with the anime focusing on a new Getter Team, Go Ichimonji, Sho Tachibana and Gai Daido, fighting the forces of Prof. Rando and his Metal Beasts. At the same time, Nagai and Ishikawa penned a 7 volume Getter Robo Go manga from 1990 to 1993, with a dramatically different plot, albeit sharing several characters. The Go manga continued the story of the original 1970's installments, and later featured the debut of the Shin Getter Robo in its final 3 volumes. Many products were released, such as CDs, toys, video cassettes, and later a DVD set. In addition to that, this was the first time Go Nagai and Toei Animation began working together since the Gaiking incident. In the advent of Getter Robo Go's success, the influence and popularity of the original show continued in Japan, and it found a way to stay with fans through video games (like the Super Robot Wars game series, in which the Getter Robo is one of its lineup mainstays) and other merchandise. The series was even spoofed successfully in the mecha anime series Martian Successor Nadesico, where the anime-within-anime Gekiganger III was a direct pun (and homage) to the Getter Robo legacy, among many other super robot