X-Bomber (known as Star Fleet in the UK and some other countries) is a Japanese T.V. series from the early `80s created by manga legend Go Nagai. The show is kind of an east-meets-west cultural mash-up of Thunderbird and anime. The series was advertised as being filmed in "Sūpāmariorama" - a Japanese version of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation process - but used rod puppets in place of marionettes.
I've only seen clips of it and never a complete episode, but the series seems to follow the conventions of most tokusatsu and features a group of characters who drive different vechicles that merge together to form a giant robot. Try to imagine Voltron or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but with rod puppets and you'll get the idea.
Only twenty-six episodes were produced, but the show still enjoys a really strong following to this day. If you want to learn more about the show you can visit this X-Bomber fan site and check out a clip on YouTube that contains lots of puppet/robot action fun.
