Closing Time.

I've been thinking things over, and despite my earlier excitement over doing a weekly live show, I've decided it's time to let go. It's time to close the ol' Roboblog. It's over two years since The Shadow Chronicles came out, the live action movie is looming far in the distance, and in the interim, there's nothing happening. Oh sure, the franchise isn't dead dead, we've got new Palladium RPG sourcebooks coming out and new toys trickling out from Toynami, but in terms of new story material ROBOTECH's lights are out.

Besides ... well, let me elaborate in a groggy-voiced rambling video I shot about twenty minutes ago:



Anyway, it's been a blast, folks. And if you want to keep in touch, you know where to find me. It's not hard.

--JLS

The Roboblog Chronicles 2009.02 - Lost in the '90s

This week: I talk up James Luceno (writing as Jack McKinney)'s 1994 ROBOTECH novel The Zentraedi Rebellion and talk down his 1995 effort The Masters' Gambit. I then run out of time before I can talk about how boring his 1996 ROBOTECH novel Before The Invid Storm is. Enjoy!



Also: I've responded to all the comments made at YouTube about last week's show, and next week's show should be all about the very soon forthcoming Robotech Masters Sourcebook from Palladium Books.

The Roboblog Chronicles 2009.01 - State Of Play

Betcha you weren't expecting this.



And I'll be back next Monday morning with more.

Annie got her gun. (Please don't let her use it.)

• You know what time of year it is, right? This weekend just past was the New York Toy Fair, which means we've got oodles of photos of Beta Fighters at Toynami booth. Again. How many years has it been now, looking at photos of Beta Fighters at Toynami booths? Five? Maybe six? Oh! Plus the already-released-in-Japan-with-a-different-head Masterpiece Scott Bernard's Cyclone. The only thing that was interesting to me? Tommy's pretty full piece of art featuring Annie, Lunk, and Marlene/Ariel. Which you can see above in this photo nicked from Figures.com's gallery. Flick through their gallery at your leisure here, and Altered States Magazine's gallery of Toynami ROBOTECH photos starting here.


• Andrew and Jeremy from Destroy All Podcasts DX talk about Gregory Lane's two-issue Antarctic Press ROBOTECH mini-series Covert Ops (which turns eleven years old this year) here. And rumor has it that they're going to talk about Haruhiko Mikimoto's manga series Macross 7 Trash next.

I swear, I'll have some things to talk about soon ...

... but for now, enjoy these links.

• Sean at Colony Drop reviews Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles and, to put it mildly, didn't think it was very good


• Collection DX review #1 - JoshB reviews the DX Chogokin VF-25S from Macross Frontier. Looks pretty sharp.


• Collection DX review #2 - Atom reviews the Beagle Mospeada (the Japan version of the Masterpiece Scott Bernard's Cyclone). Lots of photography, lots of detail.


• Collection DX review #3 - JoshB reviews Yamato's Destroid Defender, which appears to be awesome and goes on the shopping list. (Hey, I did just get my federal income tax refund ... hmm ...)

Hey, do you remember that one guy?

You know, the guy who mentioned the Warner Bros./Maguire Ent. ROBOTECH live action thing? The producer guy? The one in the interview that's still linked at ROBOTECH.COM? Well, according to Anime News Network he's off the project. This leaves Akiva "sure, I wrote Batman & Robin, but I also have an Oscar, so screw you, fanboy" Goldsman and Tobey "oh god, I'm going to be playing Spider-Man for the rest of my life" Maguire as the remaining producers on the project.

Soooooo, anyone heard anything about that script the Smallville guys are working on?

If these existed, I would STRONGLY consider buying them ...

Artist "reysol" has Photoshopped up some Robotech Mighty Muggs, based on the Hasbro-produced vinyl toy-styled figures of the same name. Alas, no tangible product, though Hasbro is selling blank Mighty Muggs now, so hey, if you've got the time and the talent ...

Which got me thinking, tangentially ... Character Options in the UK has started doing their own version of Hasbro's cutesy/squat character figures (such as their Marvel "Super Hero Squad," Transformers "Robot Heroes," and so on based on whatever franchise they're associated with) for their Doctor Who license. What's stopping Toynami from doing the same for ROBOTECH? Sure, it'd be just as bandwagon-hopping as Toynami's ill-fated I-Men block figure-style guys, but this is a much better bandwagon to jump on! Am I right here, people? I'm ALWAYS tempted to buy more of Hasbro's Heroes/Squad/whatever guys. Tie that to my favorite franchise of all time and, well, Toynami would have all of MY money!

(Though like I said, Mighty Mugg-style figures? Definitely something I'd consider, too. Especially if, oh, sayyyy, they did a Breetai. Guys? Guys? Are you listening?)

Ouchness! Maia's Shadow Fighter recalled!

Via Kevin McKeever's blog -- Toynami is recalling the Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Masterpiece Collection Maia Sterling's Shadow Fighter due to quality control problems. I wonder -- would these problems be comparable to the problems folks experienced with Aoshima's release of the Masterpiece Alphas?

Funny thing is, the only reason I noticed this news was because I was looking 'round for a review of the toy. I guess this works just as well.

Click through to Kevin's blog for the full details.