One quick thing because I forgot to do it and I'm BORED ...

I am sitting, right now, in the airport with a little over an hour 'til my flight, and it completely slipped my mind that I was going to do this. I'm sure this is why God created wi-fi -- so bored people could post drawings nobody cares about to the internet for their own amusment, for the novelty of it. Yay for human achievement!

Immediately below is the hastily doodled frontispiece for the latest installment of my soon-to-be-concluding fanfic Robotech Conqueror from the new issue of Emissaries. I post it here because in the tangible fanzine, you can barely see it because all the grays lighter than such-and-such a shade were washed out. It hurt a few images throughout the 'zine, but none moreso than this poor doodle. As I noted somewhere below, this would really tick me off if I had spent more than, oh, five minutes scratching this out. Wish I could show it to you in color -- I grabbed the nearest pen when I drew this, and it was purple. That's how hastily it was done.

So imagine this, only purple. That's what the actual drawing, on a sheet of paper sitting at my house, looks like.



Now to finish my cappuccino and go through security, where my laptop will be irradiated. Again.

Leavin' on a jet plane ...

I was planning on using the picture above (snapped by Tom Bateman -- thanks!), of me standing in front of the ROBOTECH 20th anniversary banner from their booth at AX (and presumably numerous other conventions) last year on the 4th of July, as part of my convention report in the issue of Emissaries that came out back in March. But hey, it fits here, too, since that was nearly a year ago now, and I'm just about to head out on the same perilous journey.

I wonder what time I woke up that day, if this was taken around 1 p.m. and my hair's still wet (he said, noticing that it was almost 2 p.m. and his hair was, again, still wet).

There's a fantastic irreverent little rundown of the Anime Expo schedule here at Irresponsible Pictures. Direct your immediate attention to this quote:

2:00-5:00 pm CLAMP Focus Panel The only focus panel to be held in the Main Events ballroom (~4500 seats) because it will attract THAT many people. I feel sorry for anyone else hosting a panel against this time: J-rocker Mana, Broccoli Intl., Bang Zoom, the Robotech people ... well, I'm sure that they'll get their fair share of congoers who feel that battling for CLAMP isn't worth it.

Point A: Boy do I feel sorry for the fangirls who have to choose between CLAMP and Mana.

Well, no, I don't really -- they're fangirls. But still, that was mean of the AX scheduling folks. (Yes, I'm still venting leftover anime retail bitterness. I built up so much working at Asylum that I've got an awful lot left ...)

Point B: Well, now I sure as hell know I'm not going to the CLAMP panel. (See also, last year's Maaya Sakamoto concert, which was scheduled against the Robotech Retrospective panel.) Ah well.

If you're going anywhere near the convention, read the whole thing. It'll give you a good bird's eye view of what's what. I may have to slip into that TokyoPop Creators Panel on Monday, for instance, just in case one or two of the OEL manga creators I'm actually interested in are actually there. (While that information may be available somewhere, it's not anywhere at either TokyoPop or Anime Expo's sites, which are, y'know, the first places you'd think to look for them, right?)

I leave you now with something I just stumbled across while tiptoeing over the ruins of my old blog, "Anime Ja Nai." It's a post from May 11, 2005, on a dream I apparently had the night before regarding ROBOTECH and some other thoughts I had at the time ...

I had a dream this morning after I rolled over and ignored various appeals to wake up and get around in which there were, like, five or six more Robotech II: The Sentinels hardcover collections, some of which contained all-new original sidestory material. And there were some new and different Robotech guidebooks, too. All really cool looking if I'm remembering it right, though I don't get why I had such a hard time finding an entry on Rick Hunter in that big thick guidebook I was flipping through. Lisa I could find, but not Rick. And for some reason Gloval came after Hayes. Ah well, nobody said dreams had to make any sense.

The best part about it all, within the context of the dream, was that I was digging through this stuff in a store where it was all discounted to $5 each. I was grabbing it all to go to the checkout counter when I woke up. Phooie.

I suppose I was having this sort of dream because a few mornings ago as I stepped into the shower I was thinking that shortly after Shadow Chronicles comes out, or perhaps around the same time, Harmony Gold really needs to put out a nice Robotech guidebook, for the sorts who, after watching the new material really want to dig in and learn all they can about this new universe they've been introduced to. Sure, you've got Robotech.com for that sort of thing, but I dunno, a slick, well-designed book in the style of Robotech Art 1 filled with new and recent art, pointing out where the two video games fit into the grand tapestry of it all, providing better episode synopses and character profiles, briefly explaining The Sentinels and its place in the world and pointing out the contradictory timelines of the comics and novels that spun out of it before barrelling full force into Shadow Chronicles and hints at the future beyond ... yeah, that sounds like something that should be sitting on an endcap not far from the Shadow Chronicles DVD. And a figure of a new Veritech from the animation (there's got to be a new Veritech in it) should be nearby, too. This should be a launch, a dramatic thrust into a bright future for the franchise. And yet, despite the grand tour and the hoopla, I keep getting this nagging feeling that it's just not going to be strong enough.

Hey, I'm a Robotech fan -- I've been conditioned to think this way, to dream of a bright future, but to accept that surely something is going to go hideously, frustratingly ass-backwards wrong. Such is life.

Reading this, suddenly May of last year feels like a lifetime ago. Creepy.

OK, well, I guess I'll see some of you out in California, and the rest of you have to content yourselves with, I dunno, crossing your fingers and hoping I find a free wi-fi spot while I'm out there. ^_^


Or you can just visit the other guy's blog. I know he'll find a way to post from the convention. *grumble grumble, mutter mutter*

Sweet Monkey Jesus! EMISSARIES is done!

As I write these words, the printer beside my computer is spitting out the pages that comprise the Spring 2006 issue of Emissaries: A Robotech Fanzine. (Yes, I know it's summer already. Quiet, you.) I really, really thought I wouldn't get this done in time for Anime Expo, but I'm happy to report how very wrong I was. Then again, I imagine I shouldn't really celebrate until I have the pile of finished copies in my hands -- there could still be monkey wrenches afoot, like the copy place is closed, or they've got a giant backlog, or their machine eats my original pages during the day, or something. But at the very least, the final step in MY part of the production process is going right now, the printing of the primary copy from my computer's printer. Ah, sweet relief.

Oh, and it looks like we've filled that extra spot in the room. Phew! As I remarked to Evan via text message in the wee early morning hours today, man everything's coming up aces. It's just all falling into place.

The other shoe's just gotta drop any time now ... @_@

UPDATED - 4:47 PM

Hey, look it's my couch! But hey, what's on top of it. Oh, could it be ... ?



Hell yeah, it's a big pile of Emissaries! The print shop took a lot less time than I thought they would crankin' out the copies, so here they all are right now. My work here is done. Mind you, the contrast on some of the art looks awful (*ahem*, my Conqueror frontispiece worst of all), but hey, I was rushing to get it out thinking that the big centerpiece of my day tomorrow would be running back there to pick these up. As it stands I probably could have taken my time to make sure the art would be a little more solid. The key side effect of this is the fact that I'll probably post the Conqueror piece up here on the blog. No biggie. I'd probably honestly be a lot more ticked off if not for the fact that it only took me, hm, fifteen minutes to doodle up. *shrug*

Anyway, well, there they are, and if anyone wants one, send me four bucks via PayPal at the e-mail address to your right, or give me a poor hurt puppy look and ask me real nice at Anime Expo in ... oh, less than sixty-five or so hours now.

A moment of Sentinels levity ...

From Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Three #2, by Tom Mason & John Waltrip ...



The Regent has a "This is not my beautiful house / This is not my beautiful wife" moment, which ultimately turns out to be a bad dream. But man, look at him cowering behind that sheet. While I totally understand if you don't appreciate it, it's my opinion that moments like this are what's really missing from ROBOTECH comics today -- moments of levity and character that give you room to breathe before getting down to business. Sure, this moment is a bit overbaked -- why would the Invid Regess start talking like Mary Jane from Spider-Man in the Regent's bad dream? -- but hey, it's all in good fun.

Now that I think about it, based on Janice and Ariel's Shadow Chronicles makeovers, this is probably what the Regess would look like in the Shadow Chronicles if the current Harmony Gold team thought they could get away with it.


C'mon, you know I'm right.

Exponess, Emissariesness, and Anxietiness ...

Posted this over at the Robotech.com forums, but thought I'd give it a shot on this end, too, just in case ...

If you're planning on hitting Anime Expo this weekend and still don't have a place to crash, Evan "The Cassman" Cass and I have room for one more in our room at the Cortona Inn & Suites -- which, due to the fact that it served as the official Robocon 20 spot last year, is still serving as the ROBOTECH fan hub at AX this year. Don't worry, we don't bite.

Well, I don't bite. I don't know about Evan. I doubt it, though.

So, if you're interested in bunking with us for a few days in Anaheim, drop me or Evan a line via e-mail or through one or our Myspace pages or whatever.


Hoo, yeah, not really a lot to say otherwise. I know I promised some sort of content of some variety the other day, but I'm still working on the latest issue of Emissaries. That's probably going to take up most of my waking hours that aren't spent packing, eating, sleeping, or freaking out before the wee early morning hours of Friday. (Social events turn me into a nervous wreck, and anticipation of said events even moreso.)

(Yes, I know, I'm really selling the notion of spending a few days headquartered in the same room with me for a few days, aren't I? ^_^)

I'm afraid I'm forced to agree ...

... at the very least with the first paragraph of this.

On the one hand, I'm tired of the constant harping on the whole Shadow Chronicles-not-having-a-distribution-deal thing. On the other hand, it's almost been a year since both Darkwater and myself were told to our faces at Anime Expo that the deal would be rolled out at San Diego and, well, obviously that didn't happen. To be told under similar circumstances that we'll have to wait 'til such-and-such-a-time, or that paperwork still needs to be signed ... to be told this, that, and the other thing but NOT what we want to hear ... I know that's not going to sit well with him, and despite my grumbling regarding my fellow ROBOTECH fans who keep getting on Harmony Gold's case about the lack of a film/DVD distributor ...

Yeah, I think that's gonna tick me off just a bit, too.

The thing that's kept me all Mr. Patience and everything was this feeling that Harmony Gold was going to want to roll out the big news at the big summer conventions -- not just once the ink was dry, but y'know, give it a big launch -- and the peak of big summer convention season on the anime end of things is Anime Expo. Sure, there's always also San Diego, where things were supposed to be unveiled last year, but geez, I wonder why the hell Harmony Gold and their would-be partner would want to be just another blurb in the litany of San Diego Comic-Con news when they could be the big news coming out of Expo?

It used to be that Expo was renowned for being the place where anime companies would rattle off all their recently acquired licenses, but that's become a lot more staggered in recent years due to the persistent on-line investigations of anime fans, the increasing number of co-productions, and the increasing number of conventions throughout the year. The amount of news that comes out of an anime convention, even a massive one like Anime Expo, at this point is pretty meager. The announcement of the distributor of the new ROBOTECH animation, as well as a projected DVD date, would be kind of a big deal.

Of course, you know what would be an OK consolation prize to me?

Early draft work for the next ROBOTECH animation. I tell you, I am a total sucker for seeing what's next on the horizon. Get that straightforward first story out of the way -- I want to see the more complicated second tale up their sleeves.

But that's just me. For the benefit of the rest of you all out there, here's hoping we get that announcement one week from today. Because otherwise, I think there'll be rioting on the forums, y'know? And that'll be no good for anyone.

My Favorite T-Shirt

I think I've worn this shirt to pretty much every convention I've been to for the past three or four years. It's my absolute favorite ROBOTECH t-shirt of all, for ... well ... obvious reasons.


Yes, it's a t-shirt of the SDF-1 bridge girls sunbathing on the shoulders of Skull One. The same composition, with overly photoshopped colors and patterns in lieu of the elegant graytones, appeared as the cover for Academy Comics' Academy Blues issue #3 in October 1995. While the shirt features the signature of ROBOTECH comic artist Sean Bishop, also credited with the cover, I hesitate to say it's exactly the same image -- some of the linework is different between the version on the shirt and the version on the comic cover, and the line weight on the cover looks heavier, somewhat blotchier.

The shirt was produced by Kimono My House of Emeryville, CA, an anime and Japanese toy store that I get the impression has been around longer than I've been into anime -- and trust me, you don't find that many of those at this point. They actually did up a whole range of ROBOTECH shirts, including the classic "We want YOU for the RDF!" shirt featuring the image of Rick Hunter that appeared on the back of all the Matchbox toys; however, THIS is the one that I had my eyes on to buy from the first time I saw it way back in, what, 1996? That sounds right. Probably around the time they were first printed up, come to think of it.

While their website has the appearance of something abandoned -- the copyright at the bottom reads 2000 -- I'm on the verge of checking to see if Kimono My House is still in operation just to get another one or two of this shirt, since the decal on this one is starting to crack all over the place. Maybe even take the "We Want YOU" one while I'm at it.

The site is well worth surfing especially if you were really into anime about ten years ago -- it's like a freakin' time capsule, especially if you take a look at their selection of anime pins. I mean, my god, they've got pins from Bubblegum Crisis, Ranma 1/2, Fist of the North Star and freakin' Robot Carnival. Cripes.

Anyhoo, there's my favorite ROBOTECH shirt and where to get one of your very own, if they're still in operation. I'll have something else for you all tomorrow.

Oh, and anyone found any of those ads for me yet?

Anyone?

Need some quick Emissaries help ...

I'm laying out Emissaries and I've got this vertical half-page hole. I was thinking of filling it up with an ad clipping -- I remember Battlecry and Invasion being promoted with half-page vertical ads -- but for due to a few major purges of piles of magazines around the house, I don't seem to have any copies of those ads anymore.

So if anyone can get me a high resolution scan of any ROBOTECH-related half-page vertical ad from the past, oh, six years or so, along with a quick note telling the date the ad was published, it'd be super-helpful. E-mail it to me at emissaries@hotmail.com. Naturally you'll get credit for the find ... but if you're not a subscriber, you'll still have to pay for a copy of the 'zine.

That is ... unless you track me down at Anime Expo and ask me nicely, while supplies last. ^_^

Thanks, guys! I'm sure you won't let me down ...

Today's Emissaries update ...

Finished transcribing the Ford Riley interview -- it clocks in at about three and a half pages so far (probably more when I pull some quotes and add some images, plus the intro and outro), with about a page and a half of material that you all didn't get to hear regarding his thoughts on the finished Shadow Chronicles movie, getting to hear the dialogue spoken aloud for the first time, and some comments on Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. Hopefully those of you who get Emissaries will find it worthwhile -- I know I did, but I find all sorts of things worthwhile that everyone else seems to yawn at.

In other news, if you scroll down you'll notice I've done some updating on the upcoming releases list -- I was on HobbyLink Japan today and saw there's an all-Minmay series of new Macross trading figures coming in August from CM's. Take a look at 'em here. About half of them appear to be recolors and remolds of Minmays that were in previous assortments of the CM's Macross figure collections, but on the other hand, there's that kinda neat 3D version of the photograph she and Hikaru/Rick took before his first mission, as well as the possibility of a unique chase figure -- Flashback 2012 Minmay, perhaps? I wonder.

Also was digging around and found a site claiming that Toynami's 12" Hikaru doll should be out around the 30th. Take that with a grain of salt, since the same site said the same about the 12" Max and Robotech.com hasn't even opened up a preorder for that, but it's the most concrete date I could find that wasn't buried in the past at this point. We'll see, I suppose -- in fact, I'll be in a unique position to see for myself come the following day, won't I?

Well, it's either off to bed with me now, or maybe I'll try and stay up a while with a combination of coffee and Zeta Gundam. Honestly, I'll probably crash around 7:00 a.m. even if I do try and stay up, but hey, nothing wrong with watching more Zeta Gundam ...

Emissaries update - Four pages down ...

... and who knows how many to go?

No, really, I have no clue. Everything in the 'zine is something I wrote from scratch, because I think I've still only received, like, one page of content. I don't even know what recurring features are finally going to run when I actually have to say, "OK, I'm marching this sucker down to the printer RIGHT NOW, so what you've sent, that's IT."

And of course, as things happen in the coming week-or-so's time, those pages I've got done may still change. C'mon, Tommy, you've got AX coming up ... you can save any and all shiny new ROBOTECH news 'til then, right? ^_^

But it's a good feeling to have at least some of this issue finally under my belt. I really want to have it done at the beginning of next week so that I can sling a nice stack of copies into my book bag and hand them out like candy at Anime Expo. Sure, that approach didn't work last year, but hey, you never know -- for however many copies I pass out, I could get SOMEONE interested in joining up and contributing. (C'mon, guys -- let me dream!)

Like I said, still slight on submissions (HA, understatement, FUNNY!), but I've been lighting fires under a few people's butts so that this issue doesn't come out reading like the print version of this blog. If it comes to that ... well ... what'd be the point THEN, y'know? Old time's sake? Ugh.

(Mostly) On-topic Anime Expo News ...

Well, according to this press release, one of the two latest announced guests at Anime Expo just so happens to be one Noburo Ishiguro, the head of Artland studio.

Why should you care?

Because he was the chief director of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which as you know is the anime that was adapted into the first generation of ROBOTECH. He was, by all accounts, the head creative individual in the production of that program -- certainly its production was a synthesis of ideas from all involved, especially current Macross caretaker Shoji Kawamori and famed character designer-turned-manga artist Haruhiko Mikimoto, but Ishiguro was very much a driving force behind the program.

So that's pretty cool.

Also appearing, according to the same press release, is former Malice Mizer frontman Mana, who my sister is dressed as here.

Why should you care about that?

No reason. Just thought that was kinda funny.

On the eBay ...

1. Good gravy, it's our old friend the Matchbox SDF-1 Playset. One of my absolute favorite pieces of homegrown ROBOTECH merchandise, to be honest -- a good-sized monument to big dumb kiddie fun with the iconography of the ROBOTECH universe. Looks to be in rather good shape and seems to have all the parts, from what photos are available, but if I were bidding on it I'd ask for a few more pictures. You can never be too careful when going after a rare piece like this, after all, especially one that's both so big and filled with so many doodads and knick-knacks.


2. For those of you who are, like myself, interested in the original animation art of ROBOTECH and Macross, there's a pretty slick cel from Macross: Do You Remember Love of Hikaru's VF-1A diving after Minmei. As the seller points out, good Macross mecha cels are pretty rare and hard to find, and this is a pretty good and exciting specimen. Not too shabby.


3. You know, none of you probably have the proper game system to play this, but this is another one of my old favorites -- the Macross 2036 video game for the PC Engine console. The PC Engine (known in the U.S. as the Turbo Grafx-16) game system was the big rival of the Sega Genesis back in the day, and this game was at one time slated to be released in the U.S., or so the video game magazines told me, under the title "Robotech 2036." A fine, fun horizontal shooter with lots of between-stage rudimentary animated sequences complete with Japanese voice acting, taking place between Do You Remember Love and Macross II. Features Max & Miria's daughter Maria as the main playable character, with Breetai as her commander, and Kamujin returning from the dead to have his revenge. I tell you, when I got to that part of the game, I flipped, especially when I considered what the poor U.S. staff would have had to do to localize the game ... I would have loved to see that.


4. Now this is something you don't see every day -- original art from DC's Robotech Defenders comic book mini-series, based on the 1984 Revell kit line rather than the 1985 animated series. And not only do you get thirty-eight pages of the book, but you also get the first issue cover, a pin-up page, three alternate penciled cover pieces, and a pile of model sheets, character designs, scripts, notes, layouts ... there's a reason why the main image for the auction is a big pile of paperwork, it's because the seller is parting with a big pile of paperwork that went into a version of ROBOTECH that was developed and cut short when Harmony Gold and Revell went in together to give us the show we know and love today. The lot looks fascinating, the kind of fascinating that would usually tempt me except that I've got the trip coming up.


5. Oh, and I'm selling a few things on eBay, too. Nothing ROBOTECH-related, but y'know, I am in this whole begging for money phase, so I thought I'd throw that out there.

Minor notes (UPDATED)

1. At RobotechCCG.com, Hero Factory is showing off a couple of the final production cards -- Ben Dixon (common, duh) and his VF-1A (uncommon, also duh). Much better grade of screen shots than the typical ones found on the promo decks, and I especially like the quote for Ben -- that's DEFINITELY the one that was floating around in my noggin when I considered what might be on the Ben Dixon card.


2. If I had more money, I would be here right now, at this very moment, pestering Jason & John Waltrip and demanding Sentinels sketch after Sentinels sketch. They would probably hate me afterwards, but who cares, I'd be rich in Sentinels art. Argh! Accursed cashflow problems! (Not enough cash, too much flow, don'tcha know. ^_-)


3. NEW! Looks like I'm not the only one playing the interviewing game -- check out *this* interview Brooklyn Red Leg conducted with Greg Finley, the voice of both Captain Gloval and Supreme Commander Leonard, over at Darkwater's (Unofficial) Robotech Reporter blog!

An Emissaries interview with Ford Riley

(Image snatched from RobotechMuseum.com's AnimeExpo 2005/Robocon 20 coverage.)

Last week I had the opportunity to talk by phone to Ford Riley, who wrote the script for Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. The full text of the interview will appear in the next issue of Emissaries -- available by the end of the month (fingers crossed) -- but I picked out eleven minutes worth of material to share with you all right now. Take a listen.




MP3 File

Not the post I'd planned for today, but ...

... man I'm beat. Tomorrow, real content. Today, well ... I hope this amuses you for a minute or two.

You see, today's been a little busier than usual. My parents are having company at the end of the week, so my mom's been seriously trying to tidy up, or as my sister and I like to put it, "lie to guests about how the house looks." The upper bound of my participation has been my mom dragging me over to pick up these piles of things I've left over there over the past few years. Now it's only about five blocks away, so it's not that bad actually moving all this stuff, but I'm looking at all this going, "Do I have anywhere to PUT all this stuff?" And the answer to that question is, "No, not really."

One of these items was a gift from my pal Derick from maybe two or three summers ago. I will preface the revelation of this item by saying, I love kitchy knick-knacks based on more-or-less serious franchises. It's why I have a long-standing desire for an original Clover die-cast Gundam toy; it's just so wrong and so brilliantly toyetic. It's why I still harbor some affection for the big plasticy Matchbox VF-1S, less so the modern high detail, streamlined Japanese toys. I look through the merchandise from "other companies" at RobotechMuseum.com and, whenever it really is ROBOTECH merchandise and not just some cheap plastic robot crap with the logo slapped on it, I go, "Y'know, I think I want one of those. I think that'd be fun to have."

This is coming from a man whose front door looks like this:



So of course the idea of a ROBOTECH stamp set brings a big goofy grin to my face. I'd use it to grade papers and such. "You got everything right. Here's a Battloid head!" Wouldn't that be great?

Anyway, the particular ROBOTECH-related knick-knack that Derick delivered unto me was this baby right here:



That's right, a colorful vintage Macross kite -- you can't see it, but the crossbar is made of wood, so you know it's gotta be old. And as I always operate from the perspective of, "this was made to be played with, not to gather dust in an old man's dusty collection" it's very nearly ready to fly at this point -- all I've gotta do is attach the string and pick a windy day and I can fly this sucker out at the park. That's definitely on the to-do list ... along with finishing up that content for tomorrow and getting Emissaries done and twenty other things I'd like to have behind me before AnimeExpo.

*sigh*

More later.

Yeah, I need money ...

As you can clearly see, there are Amazon.com referral links on ye ol' blog now. This is because I'm kind of in a financial pickle right now, and that seemed an easy thing to do, even if it's probably not going to make any real dent. The bar at the top is kind of random, so don't consider a product's appearance there to be an endorsement, but the links at the bottom of the sidebar can be considered recommendations -- I've watched at least a little bit, if not all, of each of those shows, and they're good. It'd be nice, if you did decide to take my word for it and buy 'em, if you used the links here and got me a cut, but if you find a better deal elsewhere, I won't hold it against you. ^_^

There'll be something new for you all either tomorrow night or Monday to make up for the new clutter -- and not just another raft of Photoshop work from me. No-sir-ree. Something a little more substantial.

Speaking of cards ...

Back in the mid-1990's, anime distributor Pioneer released a semi-entertaining CCG called Ani-Mayhem, which drew from several different then-popular anime franchises -- Bubblegum Crisis, Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyo, and El Hazard. The game had two expansion sets; one focused a little too much on lower-tier and eve then older properties, like the all-but-forgotten Phantom Quest Corp and Dominion Tank Police, and the latter was 100% Dragon Ball Z, which if you may recall didn't really take off and soar in its initial syndicated release in the United States -- DBZ only got popular after it went onto Cartoon Network's Toonami block years later. The game died a slow death after that, with decks and packs lingering at Suncoast Motion Picture Co. and Musicland stores at ever-increasing discounts for years after.

I'm pretty sure it was a little after the game's time, probably around 1998 or so, that I Photoshopped-together the following ROBOTECH cards based on templates that are probably still floating around on the internet. I had really hoped for a ROBOTECH expansion during the game's life, but if I wasn't going to get one, I was going to make one, dammit! Ani-Mayhem is simplistic and not terribly fun game, more entertaining in principle than practice (lots of very amusing cards in the actual game), but I always liked the look of the cards. Very striking. And yes, the font on the actual cards kind of looked like the one I used -- I tried for a close match.

Primarily I'm presenting these because, well, from the first word of a ROBOTECH CCG I got all nostalgic for this game, and even moreso for these cards I threw together -- honestly, I hadn't taken a look at them in years before I dug them out of the external hard drive yesterday. I never actually played the game with them -- like I said, not a terribly fun game -- but I always thought I did a pretty good job on 'em overall in terms of blending in with the actual decks and reading like honest-to-god Ani-Mayhem cards. Here's hoping when I get around to bashing together some ROBOTECH CCG cards they come off this well, especially bearing in mind the fact that I'll have to pick apart the cards to make my own templates -- cripes!











P.S. -- Don't ask me why there's a "driving" prerequisite for using the VF-1S rather than a "pilot" prerequisite. I don't get that either.

OK, I got 'em ...

Received my ROBOTECH CCG beta decks from Hero Factory today, along with four instruction sheet/play mats. Thumbed through 'em, and couldn't help but notice how dark the printing is on some of the cards, especially ol' Rick Hunter, the first card you see. Also, they really dropped the ball on some of those screen grabs -- I know there are better shots of some of those Battlepods, for instance, especially the Officer's Pod (there's that very airbrushed long shot if it standing in front of the Battlepods in "Battlehymn," much like the shot they used, only not CRAP) and the Light Artillery Pod (when the Battlepod pops up to fire on Rick in "Countdown"). Yes, yes, I know it's a beta deck and the finished product is going to be better -- I expect the cards to be more playing card stock than trading card stock, along with the rounded edges that come with that -- but there are things about the presentation here that make it feel kind of rushed, which is slightly unnerving when you bear in mind that we were originally promised beta decks nearly a year ago in time for AX 2005/Robocon 20.

Can't say much on the play mechanics front yet -- just got 'em in and skimmed the instruction sheet. I'll be having company later, maybe I can pester Levi to give it a shot.

And once I figure out the play mechanics, I am totally Photoshopping some Malcontent Uprisings and Sentinels cards together. Seriously.

New desktop image - the many faces of T.R. Edwards

Only did this in 1024 x 768, since I think that's still the most common screen resolution out there. If you'd like a copy in a different resolution, just let me know. It took a few hours of work, but I'm sure I can jimmy up a bigger or smaller version in, oh, say, a half hour's time -- longer if I have to dig up a few more scans, but I wouldn't mind.


Hope you like it!

Brief business

1) Emissaries is running late. Again. Partially this is due to the whole deal with my hands aching. They're feeling much better now, by the way. Partially this is due to the fact that I've still not gotten much of anything to put in the 'zine. Subscribers -- if you've got anything to offer in terms of ROBOTECH-related content, anything at all, send it along to emissaries@hotmail.com. Please. Don't make me beg.

2) Has anyone who's ordered a ROBOTECH CCG beta deck gotten it in yet? I haven't gotten mine in, and I was just curious.

3) Against my better judgment, I'm at Myspace now. Clicky-click.