If there is one thing that kids of the 60s knew about Japan, it’s that the place was literally crawling with giant monsters, atomic power and robots. And packaging all of these elements together, the result was Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.

Johnny Sokko might have just been an ordinary tyke, had fate not placed him aboard a ship with Gerry Monno, a secret agent for the crime-fighting team, Unicorn. During an ill-fated voyage to investigate a UFO crash, their vessel went down, leaving the pair to fend for themselves. It was at this point that Johnny learned of Monno’s secret identity.

Washing up on the shore of a remote island, they soon discovered that it served as home for the same extraterrestrials they were hunting. Led by the sinister Emperor Guillotine, this group of aliens called the Gargoyles set their sites on taking over Earth. Captured by the aliens, Johnny and Gerry made the acquaintance of a Dr. Lucious Guardian who informed them that he had been forced to construct a robot of gargantuan proportions. The only thing keeping them from unleashing the robot was a lack of atomic power. Once his energy cells were charged, however, the first person that happened to speak to the robot (via the doctor’s wristwatch) would forever be his sole commander. The good doctor also created a nuclear bomb in the hopes that it would destroy the island and all of its inhabitants, alien and robots. The problem was, when the device detonated, it instead charged the robot’s cells. Luckily, Johnny was the one who first spoke into the wristwatch and therefore adopted the mechanical beast as his own.

None of this sat well with the Emporer, who decided to unleash a sea monster named Dracalon on the city of Tokyo. Johnny, Gerry and the Egyptian headdress-wearing robot promptly responded to the threat, and thanks to the robots arsenal of weaponry, were able to quickly defeat Dracalon. Little did they know that it was only one of many menacing monsters at the disposal of the evil Emperor. Over the course of time, they would battle one monster after another from a roster that included Dragon the Ninja Monster, a huge eyeball known as Opticon, the electrically-charged Tentaclon and, of course, The Terrifying Space Mummy.

In the final of 26 episodes, Emperor Guillotine faced off against the monster robot that had started as his own. The Emperor, who had substantially increased his physical size thanks to a balanced diet of atomic energy, was now an unstable walking time bomb. One mistake and his demise might be enough to destroy the world. Taking this danger into account, the robot led Guillotine into space where the two engaged in a monumental battle, destroying each other in a gigantic explosion. Johnny and his Unicorn agent pals tearfully watched these events unfold from Earth and gave an emotional salute to heroic efforts of their robotic comrade.

Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot first aired in Japan under the name Giant Robo. The English-dubbed American version debuted in 1969 under the new name. While somewhat popular at first, it gained a much wider audience when several episodes were edited together into a feature-length, made-for-television film called Voyage Into Space. Broadcast frequently as part of the Saturday morning “creature features,” it would eventually achieve a cult status following. The entire series has been recently released on DVD, allowing loyal fans of the series to relieve the glory days when robots, atomic energy and formidable mechanical monsters ruled supreme.