A pair o' links as we begin to bid farewell to '08 ...

First off, in case you were unaware, the Masterpiece Veritech Beta Fighter is out, and Shogundan at CollectionDX.com has an extremely positive, image-heavy review up, complete with video. If I had the money and the room, I'd have one by now.


Dear, dear pal James "Tolarin" Pickens shot me a news item from AnimeNewsNetwork.com; apparently in February there will be a "Super Dimension Launch Ceremony," commemorating the fictional launch date of the SDF-1 Macross, in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district. Details, such as they are at this point, here. Tolarin believes he can make it and promises me pictures. Can't wait! And if he can score me some freebies while he's at it ... hmm? Maybe? Maybe? ^_-

They're sure as hell not being subtle about it.

Preorders for the ROBOTECH Masterpiece Collection Beta Fighter went up on Robotech.com today. If you visit the site, you can't miss it.



Meanwhile, I started working on the Robotech comics site again. I figure, I still don't have a job, so I might as well be doing something productive with my time ...

Toynami & Their Promises - Looking at the SDCC Picture Gallery

Flip through this picture gallery and give me your thoughts in the comments thread. Here's what I took away from it.

1) I think this is the first time they've been so audacious as to show us all four Beta Fighters they intend to release. The Shadow Beta is pretty damn eye-catching, if you ask me. Do we have any release dates?

2) There's a 1/55 scale Veritech line featuring all-new head sculpts coming up -- and yes, I said Veritech and I mean Veritech. Had the ROBOTECH logo on it. Gotta wonder, are they just slapping new show-accurate heads on the old Takatoku/Bandai molds? Because looking at the -1D they had on display (especially the toy's hands), that's what it looks like.

3) The GBP armor system for the 1/100 Valkyries looks rather crap.

4) The 1/100 Battlepod, on the other hand, looks solid, if a bit static. I like it a bit better than the sorta weird, wiry Revoltech Regult that Kaiyodo released a few months back.

5) Maia's lavender Shadow Fighter comes out in December, if Toynami is to be trusted this time. Marcus's gray & white Shadow Fighter then comes out in Spring '09.

6) Yellow's Ride Armor/Lancer's Cyclone from MegaHouse was on display. I MUST OWN THIS TOY.

7) Right next to it was the Masterpiece Collection Scott Bernard w/Armored Cyclone. Offhand, I'd say this is a COMPLETELY different toy than the one that's been making the rounds for years. The one photo Figures.com has makes the red uniform parts look like they're made of cloth. The head was rather different -- looks like a swappable head thing, where before it looked like Scott had a removable helmet (easy to do with Scott's classic slicked-back hairdo). My Spidey-sense tells me this is actually the last of the three Japanese molds that have been in development -- the one from Beagle.

Ah, yeah, it is. Look at this early stuff I found linked through ToyBox DX's forums. Way to go, team. That'll show all those naysayers! Rebrand a few toys here, claim a toy for your own there ... in-house development? Who needs in-house development?

Anyhoo, the three things I'd probably snag out of this lot are Maia's Alpha (really want to do a VF-1S Skull One and Shadow Fighter Skull One back-to-back thing) Yellow's Ride Armor (LANCER ACTION FIGURE OMG!!!), and that Battlepod (because, hey, how often do you get a new Battlepod toy?).

The Beta? Ehh, don't have the room right now. Maybe later.

And you?

Here Are People Who Are Reviewing Things.

-- Josh @ CollectionDX.com finds CM's Legioss & Tread good separately, bad combined, and not worth $300.

-- Atom @ CollectionDX.com finds the 2002 Toynami VF-1A Morpher not worth $2. For what it's worth, those were kind of crap, but I liked the Alphas a lot ...

-- People are still seeing The Shadow Chronicles for the first time. This guy seems to have liked it.

-- From the April 11 Palladium Books press release:

We hope to see new Robotech® sourcebooks released as soon as this Summer. We’d love to have the Macross Saga and Robotech Masters sourcebooks out by July, and the Deluxe, 8½ x 11 (hardcover?) Edition of the Robotech® Shadow Chronicles® RPG making its debut at Gen Con this August.

Southern Cross fans will be happy to know we plan to give the Robotech Masters sourcebook the royal treatment: in-depth coverage, new and updated information, and all new artwork. Writer, Jason Marker, is already doing research for this sourcebook.

We are thrilled to be working on Robotech® again, and are having a blast making it even better the second time around.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to run out to your local game store and take a look at a copy for yourself – assuming they can keep it in stock.

I'll be offering my thoughts on the book by the end of the month. Maybe by the end of the weekend. Though really, I shouldn't make any promises at this point ...

Also: Royal ... treatment ... for Masters ... sourcebook ... O_O

Can we say "YAY"?

-- Here's a review of The Art of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles at Akibanana.com. WARNING: This person misspells my name in their review. >:(

Lookin' Good, Lookin' Not So Good

-- Caught the above pic from the February 29th Palladium Press Release concerning the RPG via Kevin McKeever's blog. Maia and Rick are lookin' good, Marcus less so -- is it that his eyes are too close together? Is it that he seems a wee bit too broad-shouldered and manly? I dunno. Something about that art just seems off to me. But that's OK, because I'm not all that fond of Marcus anyway.

-- Moving on to more recent Palladium news, The Shadow Chronicles RPG book either has shipped or will be shipping today. Can't wait to lay my hands on a copy! (This person seems to think, despite being charged for the book already, that it's going to miss the shipping date. Mind you, the remark seems a shade tongue-in-cheek, but you never know -- it is the internet.)

-- A.J. Wells, enjoy your second link from this blog: fan buys vintage Matchbox ROBOTECH figure of favorite character, finds it lacking. Actually, Exedore's is one of the better character likenesses in that lineup. Breetai looks like a pin-headed vampire, Khyron looks like one of the Beatles, and poor Miriya looks like a dude. Let's not even talk about the 3 3/4" range and their poor, misshapen sculpts ...

Bonus trivia: Exedore's orange Zentraedi Cizion on the action figure is probably the result him having an orange Cizion in the style guide Harmony Gold provided to licensees. Check it out.


Chances are good that if you find something bizarrely off or wrongheaded on a piece of vintage ROBOTECH merchandise, it probably has its origins in the 1980's Style Guide. It is quite the font of misinformation that could have been straightened out by reviewing the show itself. (I'm half-shocked he didn't wind up with the teal trim instead of the proper green on his uniform, now that I look at the figure again.)

This is the kind of stupid trivia I thrive on. That's why it goes before the recent toy news you might actually give a crap about.

-- Moving forward in time to much, much more recent toys, Josh tells us that the Megazone 23 Part 2 Proto Garland is awesome, and (deep breath) Cyclones, Cyclones, and more Cyclones -- the MegaHouse one looks awesome but apparently has a more "intentional disassembly"-style transformation, Yaco provides some excellent comparison pics of various Cyclones, and Beagle is apparently still going to make their 1/10 scale version. Which means if we still get the Toynami version that's been shown off for years, that'll be four different Cyclone toys in the span of about a year. Crazy.

-- Also, I see that someone (it says "Roger" -- could it be our old pal Roger Harkavy?) told Yaco that the Toynami Betas are going to be $150 each, not the $80 that BBTS listed them as initially. I see that they have corrected themselves accordingly.

-- And on a personal note, I just won this item off the eBay ...



I don't care how much of a two-dimensional raging maniacal tool he is, I still kind of like T.R. Edwards. He amuses me.

Post #400 is a MASSIVE LINKDUMP OF DOOM.

-- According to ROBOTECH.COM, the Shadow Chronicles RPG should hit retailers around April 3, which is my birthday, which is awesome news to hear. Also, it is over 100 pages longer than they originally thought it would be but will still for this first printing remain at the originally publicized retail price of $16.95. Hope this doesn't cause a big problem for the folks at Paladium -- they could use some good fortune at this point!

-- At BigBadToyStore.com, preorders are open for the two Shadow Chronicles Shadow Fighters and ... drumroll please ... THE FIRST TWO TOYNAMI BETA FIGHTERS! Now mind you, BBTS is the place where the Toynami Cyclones were up for preorder with late 2007 release dates around this time last year, so this is all tentative, but it looks like Maia's lavender Shadow Fighter will be out in April, Marcus's white and gray Shadow Fighter will be out in July, and the Betas will be out in the 3rd quarter of the year (sometime from July - Sept.).

And the Betas are apparently going to only be $80 apiece.

o_O

Wonder how they pulled THAT one off.

-- MAJOR COLLECTIONDX.COM LINKAGE ... First, a New York Toy Fair conversation with Toynami's George Sohn. Looking forward to those rebranded MegaHouse Ride Armors, if the price is right! Then, the Destroy All Podcasts guys take on Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (hint: they didn't like it). And finally, disappointment rears its ugly head when Josh picks up the new CM's Ride Armor (Stick Type) and it all falls to pieces. (Please note that this is NOT the same one I'm expressing hope for in reference to the Sohn interview. TOO MANY CYCLONES!)

-- Hey, the recent Canadian airing of ROBOTECH on SPACE hooked someone who'd never seen it before ...

Keeping Lancer intact was just another part of Robotech’s weirdness. Is it better or worse than most anime jobs of the time? It kept in the stuff edited TV dubs normally take out, but altered things in much more radical ways.

I’m part of the “Pokemon Generation”, at once too old and too young for Robotech. After reading about it in Toyfare once upon a time, I wondered “...did he [Carl Macek] really do that?” Part of the reason I watched it was to see how it was pulled off.

-- Elsewhere, someone has mixed feelings about The Shadow Chronicles ...

I wouldn’t say it sucks totally but it’s not exactly great either. The storyline was straightforward if it’s wee bit dry, if you get my meaning. The biggest flaw for me was that I am totally unable to empathise with any of the character. I mean when one of the Romero sacrifice himself in a blaze of glory, I was thinking “fair enough, but not GAR material either”. And is it just me or does the Haydonite looks like a rip off of the Cylon from Battlestar Galactica?

-- And finally ... these words look very familiar to me. Hmm, where might I have seen them before?

Aoshima TLEAD (Beta Fighter) cancelled!

According to Matt Alt at the ToyBox DX forums, Yaco of YacoLog has spoken to the folks at Aoshima and confirmed that they will not be producing the TLEAD (Veritech Beta Fighter) owing to the quality control problems they had with their release of the Legioss Fighters cast from retooled versions of the Toynami Masterpiece Collection Alpha Fighter mold.

Read the original report here.

What does this mean for the Toynami version of the Beta Fighter? Well, this certainly can't be a good sign ...

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.

BETA! IS! GO!

Thanks to Matthew J. Coelho for writing in with this scoop:

It was announced by Kevin McKeever on Saturday at Super-Con that the Beta will finally see production. Apparently there is going to be an agreement between Toynami and Aoshima regarding the production of the Beta. Toynami has loaned the Alpha and Beta molds to Aoshima which will be producing the Beta for Toynami and it will be way less than the projected $200 cost (my speculation based on similarly produced toys it will be $129). The Beta will plug into the Toynami produced Alphas.

This is good news to all of us that have been waiting for a Beta. The only problem is convincing my wife that I need two of them.

Hehe, I hear that, man.

Anyway, fantastic news for all of us who've been waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting!

He adds that this was supposed to be up on Robotech.com, but as always the official site is entirely unresponsive to such excellent and long-awaited news. I imagine if this was another cell phone game or something, though, we'd have heard about it yesterday ...

I did not know that.

According to this article at Toybox DX, which itself is heavily derived from this Japanese-language post at Yacolog, Aoshima's upcoming 1/48 Mospeada Legioss fighters will not be wholly original new molds -- rather they'll be officially licensed retooled versions of the Toynami Masterpiece Collection Alpha Fighters, featuring stronger joints and, they claim, "new versions with different weapons." (Oh, you mean like this?) They'll be hitting in late July at 10,290 yen apiece in blue, red, and green flavors, but before then they'll be on display at the Shizuoka Hobby Show, so hopefully someone will be able to get some photography so that we can get a good look at how different they are and what these new weapons are, if in fact they're part of the initial release.

Aoshima is also considering releasing Toynami's as-of-yet-unreleased Masterpiece Beta Fighter. Honestly, I can see Aoshima doing it before Toynami at this point, though if Aoshima does it stands to reason that we might wind up with some overpriced import TLEADs in "Robotech Masterpiece Beta Fighter" boxes hitting the ol' Robotech.com store.

This venture is not to be confused with CM's Legioss & TLEAD combination set, due in the more vague "this summer" timeframe.