History Series / MetalHeroes

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metal_heros_faces.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Top (From left to right): Gavan, Sharivan and Shaider. Bottom (From left to right): Juspion, Spielban and Metalder.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Top (From left to right): Gavan, Sharivan and Shaider. Bottom (From left to right): Juspion, Sharivan and Metalder.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Top (From left to right): Gavan, Sharivan and Shaider.<br>Bottom (From left to right): Juspion, Sharivan and Metalder.]]

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[[caption-width-right:250:[-The first six Metal Heroes: Gavan, Shaider, Sharivan (L-R, top), Spielban, Juspion and Metalder (L-R, bottom).-] ]]

Outside of Japan, the Metal Heroes were insanely popular in France, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines where the failed ''Zaido'' spinoff was produced in 2006. In the United States, Creator/SabanEntertainment applied the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' formula to several Metal Heroes shows, resulting in ''Series/VRTroopers'' (1994-1995) which was cobbled together from three different shows and ''Series/{{Beetleborgs}}'' (1996-1997) which was made from at least taking two relatively related shows in the franchise. In 2020, the Toei Tokusatsu is airing most of the shows via the official World Youtube page with English subs to promote them outside Japan.

* Finally, the ending of ''Gavan vs Dekaranger'' depicts a random pick of past Sentai and ''nearly all the other Metal Heroes'' as a MCU-style SharedUniverse.

* HenshinHero: With the exception of both Jiraiya and Blue SWAT (who put on their armor manually) and )Janperson who is a robot without a human form) each Metal Hero transforms to fight, usually by donning a set of PoweredArmor.

* ''Film/ToeiHeroDaishugo'' (1994)

* BeastMan: Accounts for a great many villains in this franchise.

* HenshinHero: With the exception of both Jiraiya and Blue SWAT who put on their armor manually and Janperson who is a robot without a human form.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The last two series, ''Kabutack'' and ''Robotack'', were much DenserAndWackier than all the previous series that had come before, and had much more SuperDeformed and kiddy designs for its heroes.

** In a similar vein to ''Beetleborgs'', recent ''Power Rangers'' series have incorporated Sentai crossovers with Metal Heroes. Through his guest appearance in ''Series/ShurikenSentaiNinninger'', ''Jiraiya'' became Space Sheriff Skyfire in ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'', while the new incarnation of ''Gavan'' who was introduced in ''Go-Busters'' becomes Captain Chaku in ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers.

** For his guest appearance in ''Series/Shuriken Senai Ninninger'', Jiraiya adds himself to the end of the Ninningers' team roll call.

* TankGoodness: Another frequent sight; sometimes it can split into a DrillTank and a CoolPlane.

Outside of Japan, the Metal Heroes were insanely popular in France, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines where the failed ''Zaido'' spinoff was produced in 2006. In the United States, Creator/SabanEntertainment applied the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' formula to several Metal Heroes shows, resulting in ''Series/VRTroopers'' (1994-1995) which was cobbled together from three different shows and ''Series/{{Beetleborgs}}'' (1996-1997) which was made from at least taking two relatively related shows in the franchise. In 2020, the Toei Tokusatsu is airing most of the shows via the official World Youtube page with English subs to promote show outside Japan.

The ''Metal Heroes'' were a franchise of {{toku}} TV series produced by Toei, the same company behind ''Franchise/KamenRider'' and ''Franchise/SuperSentai''. Unlike its brother franchises where teams of warriors in color coded suits fight evil or a cyborg fights against the evil organization that made him one, the Metal Heroes focused on solo heroes or much smaller teams than a Sentai who either wore metal armors or were in fact robots fighting evil. Many were SpacePolice, [[SuperSoldier Super Soldiers]] or robotic armored {{Rescue}} workers. The Metal Heroes shows were on Japanese television from 1982 to 1998, more or less coinciding with the 80s and 90s hiatus of ''Kamen Rider'' on Japanese television.[[note]]Outside of ''[[Series/KamenRiderBlack BLACK]]'' and ''[[Series/KamenRiderBlackRX BLACK RX]]'' in the late 80s[[/note]] The Metal Heroes are relatively darker in tone than either Sentai or KR, and it had a larger adult audience that the other shows did at the time.

* ShoutOut / NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Early shows had a tendency to name their protagonists after film personalities:

* DarkerAndEdgier: Especially compared to both Super Sentai and even Kamen Rider.

* OddballInTheSeries: ''Metalder'' was much darker than the previous shows, and departed from the staples of the franchise (such as fighting aliens and having a massive aerial fortress for the hero). Subsequent series waffled back and forth on these and other elements.

* SharedUniverse: Numerous crossovers, both in the TV run and the revivals of the 2010s, establish that not only do all 17 ''Metal Hero'' series take place in the same world, but that they share that world with the overwhelming majority of ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' (''Super Hero Taisen Z'' adds ''Franchise/KamenRider'' to the mix), with ''Series/UchuSentaiKyuranger'' taking place in a seperate universe.

** One of the names considered for [[Series/KyojuuTokusouJuspion Juspion]], in an early stage of pre-production, was [[Creator/RobertDeNiro Deniro]]. Unfortunately, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen it wasn't carried to the show]].