I spent all night making this thing. Please enjoy it, won't you?

One of my chief complaints about the smattering of ROBOTECH-related anime music videos on the YouTube is that they don't do anything ... err ... Robotechy. No mish-mashing of generations. Rarely any Southern Cross. Nobody splicing together New Gen and Shadow Chronicles. Oh, there's a few nice, solid ones out there, but nothing that couldn't just have the Macross or Mospeada label slapped on 'em.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands and do something about it. Took me all night -- ah, the joys of no sleep -- but here it is. Let me know what you think.

Acoustic Robotech on the way!

According to Michael Bradley's MySpace blog (read here), he's been tinkering with the ROBOTECH songs he wrote and performed for the series to create acoustic, single-guitar versions along the lines of the performances he did for ROBOTECH fans in Chile in 2005 (here's an example, on YouTube). He's hoping to get all this out in time for Christmas -- yes, that would be only about a month from now. Wow. I wonder, is this going to be a CD or downloadable tracks? In any case, it'll be available at his website here.

New Frontiers in Print & TV

According to ANN, Macross Frontier will be adapted into a manga by Hayato Aoki, which will be serialized in Monthly Shonen Ace starting in the February issue (on sale Dec. 26). This is the first manga adaptation of a Macross series since the Macross II adaptation fifteen years ago, and the first of an "official Studio Nue timeline" series. And since I've never read an adaptation manga that was any good, it's probably going to be pretty meh, even if the art winds up being nice ...

The ANN article also mentions a 25th anniversary special which will be airing twice during the last full week of the year. Full details here.

Taking the lead.

From YacoLog via Roger Harkavy:


CM's Corporation will be releasing their version of the two green Mospeada Ride Armors (Cyclones), Stig (Scott Bernard) & Rei (Rand)'s, December 2007, making theirs the first modern versions out of the gate. 1/18 scale, 13 cm. tall, 6,300 yen apiece. See Stig here and Rei here.

Also, their Legioss/TLEAD two-pack (Alpha/Beta combo!) is slated for release in February.

Update: Roger Harkavy informs us that Vincent Z. posted up magazine scans of the CM's Legioss/TLEAD at ToyBoxDX aaaaaaa-right here. Check it out.

* * *

In other news, Emissaries and Robotech Roundtable creator Evan Cass has opened protoCULTURE, a brand-new link-blog devoted to ROBOTECH, comics, animation, movies, and more. I actually passed him his current top story (as of this writing) while I was on the phone with him last night. And that would be ...



Great Eastern Entertainment, probably the biggest anime merchandising company in the U.S. market, is and will be producing a whole raft of Shadow Chronicles knick-knacks, including the above pictured plastic keychain of Marcus's holo-locket, which strikes me as a bit creepy, come to think of it. The only one that's out now is a metal keychain of the REF/UEEF insignia, which is actually pretty classy-looking. See the list here. There are actually some pretty nice pieces there.

I can't wait for them to start making the super deformed keychains. Heaven knows they've done it with, like, every other property they've ever licensed, seriously.

Remember to add protoCULTURE to your ROBOTECH-related bookmarks!

Two for now, more to come.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles - 2-Disc Collector's Edition came out today. Didn't see it at the local Wal-Mart today, unlike the previous release, which you may recall I managed to snag at Wal-Mart at midnight the Tuesday it came out. Hmm ...

The Destroy All Podcasts guys talk about Codename: Robotech in their latest installment of largely anime-related snarkiness and trivia-fueled podcastitude. Clicky-click here.

Cyclonic Consequences

With the Toynami Masterpiece Cyclones now slated for the summer, MegaHouse's take on the Ride Armors will be the first modern transformable version of these mecha to hit the market, hitting the streets of Nippon in February 2008. See more photography of Stig & Rei at MegaHouse's website. Both will be released simultaneously and set you back 6,090 yen apiece -- though right now you can pre-order 'em from >HobbyLink Japan for the Early Bird Discount price of 5,510 yen (just shy of $50 at the current exchange rate) each.

I think I kinda like 'em, myself. Something very toyetic and less collectors' artifact-like about them than a lot of the modern stuff, y'know? Like they're not trying so hard to be models for people who can't build models ...

Roger Harkavy is a font of useful information; he delivers the goods, like Santa.

Matt Alt talks to Mospeada mecha designer (and Appleseed director) Shinji Aramaki for Otaku USA here. This is part one of two, which also appears in the November issue of the corresponding print magazine. Part two will be out next month.

Yaco provides a side-by-side comparison of the Toynami Alpha Fighter and the Aoshima Legioss here. Shame the Aoshima toys are so shoddy -- Yaco's photography sure as heck makes that blue Legioss look nice.

And Toynami's new offerings, previously tentatively slated for right about now, are now, according to ToyFare, slated as follows:

Shadow Chronicles Alpha Fighters -- Winter
New Generation Beta Fighter -- Spring
New Generation Cyclones -- Summer

Interestingly, they're saying it's going to be Scott Bernard, Lancer, and Sue Graham's Cyclones again -- just like that first announcement.

Also, the article says something about a Shadow Chronicles video game. Is this Wizard Entertainment not knowing what the hell they're talking about again, or have they just spilled the beans? Hmm. One must wonder.

All courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Roger Harkavy, who continues to make me look bad/lazy.

Macross F(rontier) trailer on-line!

Via ANN, it's at the official Japanese Macross website here.

I'm gonna go look at it now.

The Roboblog Chronicles: Episode 21 - Sum of its Parts

Watch this NOW.



If you have any questions about what you've just seen, do not hesitate to e-mail me at jlswitzer@gmail.com. I'll put up an FAQ by the end of the week.

Oh, and SPREAD THE WORD!