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 ...)

Tripped over on the YouTube

A proper trailer for ROBOTECH THE MOVIE: THE UNTOLD STORY.

Pretty good quality, too.



A more right & proper first post of the new year will be coming later this week.

Eighty pages of Mikimoto Macross manga is nothing to sneeze at.

Anime News Network reported last Friday that original Macross character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto will be writing and drawing a new Macross manga series for the new, now announced as quarterly, Macross magazine Macross Ace. Tentatively titled Macross The First (shades of Gundam character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's Gundam The Origin), it will be focused on Lynn Minmay and, I presume, will cover Space War I through her eyes. Eighty pages of the series will be published in the first issue of Macross Ace, which will appear on Japanese newsstands January 26, 2009.

Hey, DC Comics -- how about you and Harmony Gold go talk to Kadokawa and help us get this stuff over here? I'm sure it'll sell a CRAP-TON better than those musty old Comico collections!

Other minor bits of flotsam I've picked up across the internets:

• Artist Eamon Dougherty reflects on Duc Tran's Antarctic Press ROBOTECH series Vermilion, one of that publisher's stronger efforts, as I've no doubt remarked upon dozens of times over the past ten years.


• Anime blogger 21st Century Digital Boy places the original Macross animation at the top of his "Essential (non-GAINAX, non-Miyazaki, non-Satoshi Kon) Anime" list. (For the record, I've watched at least one episode of ALL but two of those shows; I've seen six of them in their entirety. And I'm pretty sure I'll get around to watching all of Honey and Clover one of these days, and would very much like to bask in the glory of Rose of Versailles in its entirety.)

Half a month of Robotech & Macross links.

The pics have got nothing to do with the links; I'm just in a Masters kind of mood. It's probably that I'm on a "Holy crap, Palladium knocked that Macross book out of the park -- can't wait for the Masters book!" high ...

I just finally cracked open my copy of the Macross Saga Sourcebook today. A couple of opinions on it can be found here (from a self-described "tamed" Macross purist), and here (from my old pal Tolarin; if you've checked the comments for my post on Lonely Soldier Boy II, you may have already read this). Both reviews bring some interesting insight to bear.

Me, I think I need another couple of days to digest the book. Lots of interesting revisions, retcons, and rewrites throughout.

From the end of last month: a ToonZone review of the Shadow Chronicles Blu-Ray disc. Mind you, if you've seen one review of Shadow Chronicles, you've seen 'em all ...

Unless you've been internet-deprived all day long, you've probably heard from one of a dozen or more sources that Warner Bros. ROBOTECH film has picked up some new screenwriters, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who you may be familiar with as the long-standing showrunners for the WB (later CW) TV series Smallville. Kind of a step down from Lawrence "two-thirds of the original Star Wars trilogy and the first/best Indiana Jones movie" Kasdan, if you ask me. (Tip of the hat to fellow Roboblog World Headquarters resident Evan Cass, who e-mailed me the news this morning.)

Anime News Network reported last week that Kadokawa plans on launching an all-Macross, all-the-time magazine in January. These are the same folks who've been cranking out an all-Gundam, all-the-time manga anthology, Gundam Ace, since 2001. The article was unclear whether or not this would be a manga anthology as well, though heaven knows it'll probably have at least one monthly manga serial.

Meanwhile Bandai has decided to hitch their wagon to umpteen nifty Macross Frontier toys. (Though I gotta say, not a fan of the green one. Really don't care for the head. Also, FAST packs as a store-exclusive? Poor Frontier collectors. I weep for them.)

And finally ... the green Tomahawk, it is so pretty. Once again, shame I don't have any f***ing money!!! ARGH!!!

Three for Tuesday.

• Andrew from Destroy All Podcasts reviews the CM's Corporation's Brave Gokin Dark Legioss (Shadow Fighter). There's another toy that's been tempting me, ever since I heard that the Legioss part of CM's Legioss/Tread sets was actually pretty nice ...


• Palladium Books has sent their Macross Saga Sourcebook to the printer, and it should be out in ten days. Their Robotech Masters Sourcebook is penciled in for exactly one month later.


• And finally, HipHopDX is giving away an 8GB iPod Nano along with all thirty-six episodes of The Macross Saga. All you need to do is answer one little question that anyone reading this should know the answer to.

A link, a request, and a promise.

1. Pal Evan passed me this tidbit -- presumably found to post on his own blog, but hey, he sent it to me, so I might as well use it. Artist Neil Vokes, who drew ROBOTECH for Comico back in the 1980's, reprints his introduction to the first Wildstorm Macross Saga trade paperback collection at his own blog. If you've never seen the book, or haven't in a while, it's worth a look-see.


2. Hey, would everyone working on the Roboblog Comics Contest please e-mail me and let me know how things are going? I haven't received anything for a while and I'm starting to worry/panic/get depressed about the whole thing.


3. New Roboblog Chronicles video sometime this weekend. Be watching for it.

That's all I got.

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!

Too Quiet.

I don't know how long this has been floating around out there, but the first time pal Evan and I had seen it was in the Reactor 2007 convention notice at Robotech.com -- it's the ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT cover art for the Shadow Chronicles: We Want All Your Money Ed-- err, Collector's Edition. Yeah, that's the ticket. If you look at the Amazon listing, it's packed with tons more pictures, including a full-color character lineup that I don't think was in the artbook, the new DVD back, the disc art, and more.

Also at the site this week, you can vote for the winners of the Robotech.com photo contest, and you can listen to Tommy & Carl talk about the franchise.

I'll be back later on in the week with a new Roboblog Chronicles or two.

I think he's on to something.

MedMapGuy talks about what may be the key flaw in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles at RDF-HQ here.

My own thoughts on this will come later; I've gotta run out to the post office right now. Just wanted to put this out there for now -- certainly food for thought.

Robotech news ... FROM THE FUTURE!

This is too good. Thank you, MedMapGuy. Thank you very much.

Video tonight, but for now ...

Two links:

• Anime News Network has coverage of the Harmony Gold ROBOTECH panel at the past weekend's Otakon out in Baltimore. Click here to read what Steve said. (The big one: sequel news of some sort at San Diego.)


• People are still watching The Shadow Chronicles and writing about it on the Interwobble. This guy seems to think it was ehh, okay. He also thought Louie was a new character, though that doesn't surprise me in the least.

Huzzah with the linkage.

• Here's an interview with Billy Palmer from Airborne Entertainment, the folks who crafted the Robotech: The New Generation cell phone game that Tommy Yune hypes at every available opportunity. He only very briefly talks about the game, but it's worth a glance.


• From the "where are they now?" files, if you scroll down here you'll find an interview with one Adam Cogan, who was the game designer on Robotech: Battlecry and apparently is now co-writing a psuedo-historical comic series called The Black Coat. Again, very brief ROBOTECH content, but kind of interesting.


• These folks made a 2 3/4 meter tall SDF-1 Macross out of wood. That's what I call crazy dedication.


• Anime News Network reports that the website for the Megazone 23 adventure game is now open. Boy, if the music playing on the website is anything to go by, this is at least going to sound like Megazone 23 ... Apparently this is setting up an alternate timeline spinning off from Megazone 23 Part 1 -- twenty years pass, and Yui gives her son Hiroto the key to the "Blue Garland" of the game's title after she is attacked (killed in a tearful goodbye, it looks like). B.D.'s still around as the bad guy. Wonder what happened to Shogo -- they do show pictures around the site of the original red Garland with Eve lounging on it, so maybe that's some kind of major point? Interesting at any rate, but I still think it's not gonna be much fun to play for a non-Japanese-speaking or reading person like me.


• Treiz writes in to let us know that this month's Anime Insider magazine, in their monthly "versus" column, pits Lynn Minmei against Mobile Suit Gundam SEED's Lacus Clyne. Considering that Lacus is basically, "Relena from Gundam Wing + Minmei + pink hair," that seems an obvious match-up ...

Found on the eBay ...

Wow, the colors on this German edition of the Comico adaptation of "Bye Bye Mars" are ... well, special. (See it here.)

A fistful of linkage.

• Reader Syd sends along the SciFi.com review of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. Yes, people are still reviewing it. As an aside, the local Wal-Mart 'round here has flagged their remaining copies with the "going" tag that means they'll be pulling it from the shelves to replace it with something that's actually moving soon ...



• Nenad of the United Earth Group dropped me a line to promote Robotech Genesis, their overly ambitious CG animated fan project. As far as I can tell from the spiffy-keen trailers, it appears to be a fan remake of The Macross Saga with updated/redesigned mecha, uniforms, etc. He says a third, all-new trailer is coming along soon and the finished product should be rolled out in October. Add it to your bookmarks and keep checking back. Lookin' good!



• Singer/songwriter Michael Bradley, of Robotech: The New Generation fame, and his band the RK Project will be performing at the Rhythm Lounge the evening of Sunday, July 1. That's a stone's throw from the Long Beach Convention Center during the weekend of Anime Expo. There will be a cover charge, but y'know, I don't think any force on Earth could keep me away. I am so there.

Someone else's memories and overpriced soda.

Exactly what it says above:

• Anyone remember what the television landscape looked like when ROBOTECH originally aired back in the 1980's? I know my recollections are hazy. Well, here on YouTube, someone in Chicago has strung together all the ads and such surrounding an episode of ROBOTECH back in '85. Oh, and here's a second set. Seriously, Tranzor-Z, Voltron, and ROBOTECH all on the same channel? Geez, throw in some Transformers and that'd be just about perfect.



• Someone is selling their Jones Soda Zarayba and 100% Distilled Protoculture from the cast & crew screening of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. Even crazier, someone's buying it for, so far, eight bucks plus ten bucks shipping -- I assume, to make sure that the bottles reach their destination without becoming a sticky, pointy mess. (If there wasn't something else on eBay I had my eye on right now, I'd be bidding on it myself, but you know I'm crazy ...)