In The Amazing Spider-Man #12, during the “Spider-Verse” event, Takuya Yamashiro and his giant robot, Leopardon, burst onto the scene. But this isn’t some sort of Power Rangers-inspired addition. In fact, the Japanese Spider-Man has been around since 1978.

The live-action Spider-Man television series was produced by Toei and was considered part of the “tokusatsu” genre, which literally translates to “special filming.” The genre included series that featured lots of special effects, such as Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Super Sentai, plus films like Godzilla. Spider-Man ran from May 1978 to March 1979 for 41 episodes and has since gained somewhat of a cult following.

Peter Parker is notably absent from this version of the Spider-Man story and is replaced by Takuya Yamashiro, a motorcycle racer who investigates a UFO crash. As it turns out, the ship was an alien warship called the “Marveller” from the Planet Spider. He meets Garia, the last surviving warrior of Planet Spider, who warns Takuya of the evil Professor Monster and the Iron Cross Army. Garia then injects Takuya with some of his own blood, giving him spider-like abilities, and a bracelet that activates the Spider-Man costume as well as calling upon the Marveller ship, which turns into the giant fighting robot Leopardon.

Though the Super Sentai/Power Rangers series are now well known for their giant robot battles, the idea originated with Spider-Man and Leopardon. Leopardon was the first giant robot to be featured in any of Toei’s television series, and the experience and positive reception led to the inclusion of similar battle mechs in the Super Sentai franchise.

Incidentally, Leopardon became known as the “mightiest instant killing giant robot in the history of tokusatsu programming” after the suit became quickly damaged due to the inexperience of the stuntmen, and later lost entirely. This led to the battle scenes relying on stock footage of the robot, which also shortened the battles themselves and made Leopardon appear much more powerful than originally intended.

Marvel has made two of the episodes of this quirky series available on their website as part of the celebration of his recent comic book appearance. The series is also available on DVD and Bandai has released toys based on Takuya and Leopardon as recently as 2006.