Our “From the Past Friday” article series continues — and we are going to hang on the topic of figures for at least a little while longer.
Once we get beyond Bandai’s own American releases (an early “Super Battle Collection” batch contemporary with the syndication era), FUNimation brings Irwin on the scene, who goes on to repurpose and release everything from the “Super Battle Collection” to the “Super Guerriers” lines.
One of the most fondly-remembered lines of figures were the two-inch “Collector’s Edition” packs, which initially came bundled in packs of four figures each (and were later re-released in different amounts and styles of packaging). As these were repurposed figures previously released in other territories, they sported a wide variety of characters that both had and had not yet appeared in FUNimation’s English dub — everyone from “Krillin” up through “Broly” and even “Boujack” were included in certain packs.
“Series #3” in particular featured “Super Saiyan Gohan” (circa Cell Games), “Super Saiyan Vegeta” (in a Big Bang Attack pose), “Super Saiyan Trunks” (in a Burning Attack pose), and “Mr. Savage.”
Wait, “Mr. Savage“…?!
That’s right, this officially-licensed-by-FUNimation-and-released-by-Irwin figure multi-pack with a 1999 copyright date goes with (a fully trademarked) “Mr. Savage” for the man of many English names.
The earliest mention of “Mr. Savage” on alt.fan.dragonball dates back to November 1998, and hilariously enough, references one of the predecessors of this very website as the source of the information! That original conversation or post of ours seems to be lost to time, but that does help us pin down the initial release of this figure line from Irwin as starting in 1998, even if this exact “Series #3” pack didn’t make its way to store shelves until 1999 (in line with its copyright date on the back packaging).
From here, most American fans know how the story goes:
The character would later be renamed “Hercule” in the edited English dub (a name borrowed from the French dub), and referred to either properly as “Mr. Satan” or an incorrect “full name” of “Hercule Satan” in the “uncut” English dub. The first mention of “Hercule” on alt.fan.dragonball comes in February 1999, but mentions several other strange name spellings on action figures that seem to be taken from other international adaptations. Meanwhile, the first mention that specifically attributes the name “Hercule” to the company’s English dub comes later that year in August — this lines up with broadcast “Season Four” of the Dragon Ball Z English dub hitting Toonami that September and receiving promotion on FUNimation’s official websites.
While other names had up to this point remained faithful to their original Japanese spellings and pronunciations (or otherwise translations of such), Viz followed FUNimation in naming the character “Hercule” in their English translation of the manga. The name debuted in the September 2004 issue of the company’s monthly Shonen Jump print magazine, where the chapter’s introductory page concedes that he is, “…known as Mr. Satan in the original Japanese.”
Viz’s version of chapter 393 attempts to reconcile the two names, suggesting that “Mr. Satan” is his former ring name.
Beginning around the Kai era and in particular with video games, “Mr. Satan” began to see more regular usage, and is now widely used within video game releases.
