| Robotech Companion News Central |
| Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:32:00 +0000 Robotech Shadow Chronicles on Blu-Ray |
 Now that the HD-DVD format has been killed, companies are finally bringing out more of their library to the High-Definition disc format. Funimation has finally announce that they'll be releasing Robotech: The Shadow Chronciles on Blu-Ray disc. Happily, it will include all previous released bonus content as well as 20 minutes of new extras. The New features include additional never-before-seen deleted scenes with directors commentary, outtakes, animatics and more. Shadow Chronicles will be released on Blu-Ray on September 2nd, 2008.http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=343 |
| Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:08:00 +0000 Pre-Order the Robotech RPG Today |
| As heard on Space Station Liberty, the Robotech Shadow Chronicles RPG book has expanded to over 300 pages and will cost more money in the stores. HOWEVER, Palladium will honor the original stated price of 16.95 on its first printing. Pre-order it from Palladium today to ensure you get this cheaper price. This book was only going to be 192 pages originally. Finally, the RPG book will release on the first week of April. |
| Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:21:00 +0000 Robotech Shadow Chronicles RPG Update |
 "Yep, it is done. Looks great, is at the printer, and will ship in March!We’ll let you know exactly when Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® ships as soon as we get word from our printer, but it will be before Palladium’s big move at the end of March. Online pre-orders have already shattered the previous record for online sales by 100 copies, with more orders coming in every day! A sure sign this RPG is going to be a smash hit. The Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® Role-Playing Game picks up where the DVD movie begins. The return of the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF), the separation of the SDF-3 from the rest of the fleet, the battle of Reflex Point, space combat, treachery and everything else that is part of Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles®. " - Palladium Books PRE-ORDER: http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=1001&Product_Code=550 UPDATE: Robotech.com is comfirming an End of March release for the Robotech RPG. They have even created online dice to use on their gaming forums for the upcoming release of the game. Very good news. http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=340 |
| Sat, 23 Feb 2008 03:18:00 +0000 Robotech RPG Shadow Chronicles March 2008 |
 Palladium Books:"UPDATE Robotech® RPG Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® RPG is in final production. The writing is done. Artwork is done. We are simply waiting on the last few approvals and changes from Harmony Gold. We expect to get those over the weekend (thanks gents), start laying out the book, and send it to the printer next week. Whew. It’s been a lot of work and a lot of fun. We think you are going to love it. Especially the updated material, the quick roll character generation, the M.O.S. skill sets, the character sheet, the artwork, a few surprises, the cover, the format . . . well, everything. We can hardly wait to get it into your hands and get fan reaction! We’re also dying to start work on the first couple of Robotech sourcebooks! " Robotech® role-playing games are back, and it all starts with The Shadow Chronicles® RPG – spread the word. The Shadow Chronicles® role-playing game picks up where the DVD movie begins. The return of the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF), the separation of the SDF-3 from the rest of the fleet, the battle of Reflex Point, space combat, treachery and everything else that is part of Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles®. Palladium has not seen so much anticipation for a new role-playing game release since the debut of Rifts® in 1990. Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® is a NEW role-playing game, not a rehashed, retooled printing of the original RPG from the 1980s. Furthermore, the release of the Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® DVD Movie, the release of the Deluxe DVD, Shadow Chronicles® Art Book, and the announcement of a Robotech® Movie in development at Warner Bros. Pictures has ramped up interest and excitement for Robotech®. This new RPG should appeal to role-players and Robotech® fans of all generations. Mecha pilots and other fleet personnel character classes. Areas of Military Specialty – M.O.S. New skills, O.C.C.s, mecha and action. New text, art and information. Key Robotech® Mecha statted out and illustrated. Invid enemy statted out and illustrated. The Haydonites, their mecha and more. Other info and details (depending on space). Fast playing RPG rules. Mega-Damage setting. Earth post-Invid occupation, adventure ideas, new character sheets and more. Cover by fan fave, Apollo Okamura. Great art throughout. Written by Kevin Siembieda. Manga size; easy portability. (An 8½ x 11 deluxe edition may follow in the Summer of 2008. Additional Robotech sourcebooks to quickly follow.) 256 pages – $16.95 retail – Cat. No. 550. Sorry, definitely a March release date. Nearing completion. |
| Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:55:00 +0000 Toynami 2008 |
| Thanks to Bryan for providing a link to Toynami's booth at this year's Toy Fair. It's also hard to say if all this stuff is really made by Toynami or not. However, there is the Beta Fighter and Shadow Chronicles Alphas on display. Interestingly, there is a Mospeada package of Toynami's Cyclone. There's also a lot of japanese Macross related toys. Check out all the neat toys here: http://toyfair08.asmzine.com/gallery/toynami/index.html http://collectiondx.com/node/2230 ( Thanks to Harkavyr ) |
| Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:14:00 +0000 Fan Work: Robotech Anthology |
| An interesting fan collection project going on that others should know about: "Zor's Journal is a collection of the best Robotech art and fiction from around the world. We also include other material such as articles and poetry from time to time. Contributors may submit material for inclusion in the journal through this web site. Every six months, the best of those submissions are included in an anthology. Zor's Journal is currently attempting to get a license to publish our first edition. A demo copy of our first edition has been completed and will be considered by Harmony Gold USA, Inc. as well as Funimation. Careful consideration of the product as well as market information will determine if the product will be successful. If all goes well, a license will be granted and the book will be available by summer 2008." Aaron's live action graphic novel pages will be appearing in this anthology book if it gets published. So, keep your eyes open and help support this project. http://www.robotechanthology.com/ |
| Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:54:00 +0000 Shadow Chronicles on Xbox 360 Live |
| I'm not sure when they finally posted it, but i figure I would let people know. I been telling Harmony Gold to take advantage of the online content that the Xbox 360 offers its fanbase. So, finally it's possible to pay and download Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles on the system along with some other anime series such as Ghost in the Shell TV series and Naruto. Shadow Chronicles is only in standard definition widescreen format, not High Definition. It takes up almost 1GB of space. It's nice to finally see Robotech slowly getting out of the closet and becoming part of the age. Sadly, there were no pictures or theme packs to buy though. I don't know why since some of the other animes on the list had them and the Shadow Chronicles page did have an Ariel background. |
| Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:39:00 +0000 Robotech Companion is Back Online |
| It's been a while, but I finally got around to putting Robotech Companion back on the web. I cleaned up the site a little, got it working and all. Does it need a major redesign? Yeah, but it'll be some time before I get around to doing it. The important thing is that its back up. Now fans can read the FAQ and checkout the other goodies. Enjoy. http://www.robotechcompanion.com/ |
| Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:18:00 +0000 Beta Fighter Masterpiece still a Go |
| The latest news directly from Tommy Yune on Space Station Liberty, is that the Beta Fighter will be produced for sure. The difference is that the Japanese will not be doing the production, due to current events read on other blogs. To summarize, the Masterpiece Alpha Fighters by Toynami were going to be reproduced by a Japanese company named Aoshima. This company wanted to enhance the Alphas and sell them in Japan under the Mospeada brand. However, Aoshima felt a need to have these toys out by Christmas in Japan. The factories they decided to use rush the production unbelievably that the toys came out ruined. Ultimately, this is good news for Toynami and maybe even the production quality. Toynami will be sticking with the factory that produced all the masterpiece alpha fighter toys so far. They'll be able to keep their molds and control over the product. |
| Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:27:00 +0000 Michael Bradley Working on LSB II CD |
| It was mentioned on Captain JLS' Odyssey III blog that Michael Bradley is getting to work on his new album for Robotech fans. Well, yesterday, Bradley updated his blog on his hard work to bring out an acoustic version of his tunes: "Still working every day on the acoustic Robotech remake CD...it's a tough one. Much harder than the first fully produced and arranged Lonely Soldier Boy CD. I tried to keep it to one guitar/one voice (as I've said in previous blogs)...but I had to add another guitar here and there. The slower tunes work OK with the solo guitar, but the more up-tempo stuff needs help. So I gotta do what I gotta do. "Lonely Soldier Boy" is just one guitar...as is "The Way to Love"...which has turned into a slower tune. It's a nice mood. I like them a lot. I used a finger-picking style on both of those arrangements. It's really tough to perform, since that's not my style of playing...hopefully I pulled it off. This record is aimed at Robotech fans...and I know you guys are pretty forgiving (at least I hope)! Anyway, I don't have a release date as of yet...but I'm still hoping to get it out real soon." For his full blog post: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=64810710&blogID=337747422 |
| Robotech Comics Blog |
| Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:05:00 +0000 Robotech (WildStorm) #1 (of 6) |
 "From The Stars"Plot - Tommy Yune THE STORYIt is the year 1999. Somewhere in rural northern California, on the fields of Pop Hunter's Flying Circus, young Rick Hunter races excitedly towards his mailbox. Inside is a letter from his dear friend Roy Fokker, currently flying fighters for the military out in the Pacific. He rips the letter open and sits down in the grass beside the mailbox, smiling as he reads the latest from his mentor:"Dear Rick, sorry I couldn't call you, but my latest mission requires the entire carrier group to maintain radio silence, so this letter will have to do. Has Pop let you fly in the circus yet? I know you've been dying to strap yourself in the cockpit and contribute to your family business ... but remember that flying can be dangerous. Take it from me. So stay sharp and remember everything your pop and I taught you, and I have no doubt you'll be flying rings around me in no time." Somewhere in the South Pacific, aboard the U.S.S. Kenosha, Roy Fokker returns from his latest run untouched, a feat which doesn't go unnoticed by his fellow fighter pilots. What also doesn't go unnoticed is the fact that he's gone through four wingmen in the last three months, including the one today. "And in all that time," one of the pilots says, "he's never even taken a serious hit."  "Well, he's been flying since he was a kid, right?" a younger pilot, Steve, says. "I heard he was part of a flying circus. I guess it's in his blood."One of the other pilots tells Steve he can ask Fokker all about it, because he's his new wingman. "Been nice knowin' ya!" he adds. Steve shrugs it off. "Go ahead and laugh, guys. This guy managed to become a double ace faster than anyone else in Skull Squadron history. Frankly, I'm honored." As Steve walks down to meet Fokker, Admiral Hayes looks down from the ship's bridge and asks the Kenosha's captain if he thinks this new wingman is going to make it. "I don't know, Admiral Hayes. That's a good question. Fokker sure has blown through his share of wingmen ... but this new nugget got top scores at the Academy, so let's just say I've got my fingers crossed, sir." Hayes laughs, asking if he carries a rabbit's foot as well. "I don't mind telling you, sir, considering our latest mission, it probably wouldn't hurt. Do you really think the Russians would be so careless as to sell their Oscar-class nuclear subs to a foreign power?" Hayes is quick to respond. "Captain, considering the shape the world is in today, nothing would surprise me. Our orders are to follow the Russian sub that was spotted in these waters, and see if we can find any truth to the rumors. The Pentagon's suffered too many setbacks with all the recent hot spots around the globe. Let's see if we can carry out a mission that they can put in their "win" column." Meanwhile, aboard the aforementioned Russian sub, the SSGN Minsk, Captain Henry J. Gloval asks his first officer Poruchik if there's any sign of the Americans yet. Poruchik says there's no sign yet, but the sonar station is on alert. "Good, good. If our information is correct, the American Navy has probably dispatched an entire carrier group to follow us by now. They must really think we're so desperate that we'd even sell our most prized vessels ... vessels which could then be used against us! I must say, it's been ages since I've heard a more ridiculous notion. It just goes to show you how strange the world has become. Our military forces are already stretched to their limits, trying to maintain a grasp on the many conflicts which have erupted all over the world. And something in my bones tells me this is going to get worse before it gets better." Just then, the sonar operator informs Gloval that an American helicopter just dropped objects into the water above them. "Sonar buoys. I should've guessed ... Admiral Hayes is a slave to traditional American tactics." He gives the order to go quiet, and Poruchik relays the order to bring the sub to a full stop. For a moment, all is quiet except the "ping" of the sonar. Then, above the waters of the Pacific, a volley of missiles strikes and destroys the American helicopter. Gloval is immediately informed of this development. He asks if it was one of theirs that hit the chopper, but it wasn't. Above the water, aboard the Kenosha, Hayes asks if it wasn't the Russians, who shot their helicopter down? He looks out with his binoculars, seething, when the captain tells him the Pentagon is on the line for him. "I'm just a little bit busy right now, Captain," he grumbles. The captain informs him they said it was important. He takes the call. "This is Admiral Hayes, what's -- Well, I'm in the middle of a situation, can't -- I see. Okay. Yes, sir." He hands the captain the phone and tells him he's in charge. "I'm needed back at the Pentagon, ASAP. I want you to send sub hunters after the Minsk, and scramble a fighter squadron to chase down those bogeys." The captain asks why Hayes is being called away. "I honestly don't know," Hayes says. "But what if it is, it's big."  On deck, Roy and Steve rush to their fighters. Roy asks Steve if he thinks he can keep up. "You can count on it, sir!" Steve says with a big thumbs-up. As Roy looks at a photo of himself and Rick in happier times, control tells him he's cleared for takeoff. "Skull One-Eleven here, ready when you are. Let 'er rip, tower!" He shoots off into the sky.Elsewhere, on the shuttle back to Washington, Admiral Hayes gets a call from the Pentagon. "Admiral, this is Secretary Dellinger. I know you're probably curious about why we're calling you back." Hayes says "curious" is a good word. "Well, I didn't want to keep you in the dark for your entire trip bacl. You'll recieve a full briefing upon your arrival at the Pentagon, but in short ... we've detected a massive unidentified object that appears to be heading straight for Earth's atmosphere." As he takes the words in, Hayes's eyes widen in sheer and utter shock. Back in the skies over the Minsk, Skull Squadron comes into the range of the fighters that shot down the American chopper. "I count fourteen bogeys, dead ahead," Skull Leader reports. "We've got our work cut out for us, Roy. Lead ahead with Steve and try to break up their formation ... and save some bogeys for us this time!" Roy tells Steve to follow him. When cannon fire begins to come their way, Skull Leader orders them to fire at will. Steve misses with one of his missiles and asks Roy if those are Russian SU-37s they're flying. "No, it's something else ... now pull ahead of me, kid. We're gonna weave a basket!" Steve is unsure -- he points out that he's got a bunch of the enemy craft on his tail. "Absolutely!" Roy responds. "This is an old trick. They're a sucker for this every time!" A short bit of quick maneuvering and gunfire later, and Steve is astonished that it worked like a charm -- the enemy's been torn to shreds. "Would I lie to you, kiddo?" Roy asks. "Uh oh, Roy -- they got a lock on me!" Steve says, spotting a missile on his trail. Roy tells him he won't outrun it, so he has to outmaneuver it.  "Head for the deck and then pull up at the last second. The missile won't be able to duplicate that move." Steve tries, but goes too low. His nose touches the water, and the missile catches up with him, blowing the plane to scrap.After a brief moment of shock and horror, Roy recovers and resumes his fight with renewed conviction, tempered with anger. "All right, you bastards, playtime's over," hs snaps. In a matter of moments, three enemy craft are full of holes and going down. He then spots the one that took out Steve. "I wanna see the look on his face when he realizes his ticket's about to be punched. Wait," he says, pausing to get a good look at the enemy fighter, "those aren't Russian markings. Who are these guys?" As his thumb hovers over the trigger to fire his missiles, Roy decides there's no time to worry about that now. "We can sort this out once these guys are taken out for good." Just then, Roy spots something shining out of the corner of his eye. He looks up ... Just as the sub hunter aircraft sent to track down the Minsk prepares to launch its torpedoes after it, a blazing light draws towards them. As it draws ever closer, the aircraft is torn apart. On the Kenosha, the captain orders all hands to brace for impact and the deck to be cleared, but it's too late. The incoming blazing object tears past them, and the shockwaves behind it knock the Kenosha on its side, spilling aircraft into the ocean; its escorts are tossed about like bath toys by the tsunami created by the unidentified incoming object's entry. Roy kicks in his afterburners, gaining altitude to avoid a burning death as the flaming object from the stars crash lands on a nearby island. Beneath the ocean, Gloval is told there are some strange readings coming in. He takes a look at the monitor and orders the ship to dive deeper immediately.  Back in the sky, Roy tries to radio the Kenosha and Skull Squadron, but to no avail. He takes a look towards the island and wonders what the hell is going on.The Minsk rises to periscope depth and Gloval takes a look outside. He is stunned by what he sees. "Take us to the surface, Poruchik." Poruchik tells him they could be looking at nuclear war here, but Gloval insists. The sub rises, and Captain Gloval gets a look for himself at Macross Island, smoke steadily billowing from its flaming surface, marred by the presence of a massive twin-engined monstrosity. "This," Gloval says forebodingly, "is a whole new war." NOTESTIMELINE - Modern Robotech.com timeline.MAJOR CHARACTERS
 Oh, this one's a doozy. The appearances that Admiral Hayes is between are two separate, distinct stories telling how his wife died. Even better, in each story both he and his wife have different names (Nicholas and Catherine in Return to Macross, Donald and Sara in "Mars Base One"). The latter appearance is the one that is currently canon, by the way. Oh, and on top of that, Lisa is already with Karl Rieber in the first one, and in the latter they meet for the first time. The reason the former is before the latter? Because the global conflict is still on in the first, while in the second it's explicitly stated that we're in 2001.Similarly, Gloval is temporally between events that in no way could have had any impact on his storyline according to the modern canon. This would be because while the story told here appears to be very slightly derived from the old ROBOTECH licensed story canon -- maintaining Roy Fokker's participation in the conflict that raged across the Earth prior to the crash of the SDF-1 and his assignment to the carrier Kenosha -- it shakes up the previously accepted storylines quite a bit. For instance, it scales back the nature of the pre-SDF-1 conflict, turning it from one huge conflict called the "Global Civil War" into an explosion of smaller conflicts across the globe. Unlike earlier works, the lines between countries seem to be about what they were in the REAL 1999. In the Comico Graphic Novel, Fokker was a pilot for the "Western Alliance;" the novels and Bill Spangler's Return to Macross referred to him as having been a pilot for the "Internationalists"; here he seems to be flying for the U.S. Navy. Further -- and this is what throws Gloval's story continuum out of whack -- it takes Captain Gloval and puts him on the opposite side of the conflict from Fokker and Hayes. This is a major difference from all previous pre-Macross era ROBOTECH works, which had put Gloval in charge of the Kenosha and Fokker under his command during this era of war. The only major problem with this is that it has the potential side effect of effectively bolluxing the story Gloval tells Lisa Hayes in episode 15, "Homecoming". As Gloval tells her: "When we were serving together, a problem came up once about inadequate rations for the men. When he couldn't get any action from headquarters, he ordered our entire division to raid the food supplies of the commanding general. The general thought spies had infiltrated the regiment. He kept sending down orders for us to find them." All I can figure is that this must have happened in some joint U.N. operation of some sort in the early '90s (the Gulf War perhaps?); McKinney figured about the same, though he had the luxury of a nearly decade-long Global Civil War to explain it away and didn't have the problem of Gloval and Hayes being on opposite sides immediately prior to the crash of the SDF-1. The only thing that helps shoehorn Gloval's tale in "Homecoming" back into continuity as regards this story is the fact that Gloval knows Hayes by name here. The way he speaks of him it seems the two have a history, and the TV series does nothing to suggest that it was always a friendly one, especially considering the way things go in the TV episode in question. This issue had two different covers, neither of which have much of anything to do with the contents. Cover #1 is a rather nice but fairly stock piece of The Macross Saga art conjured up by Long Vo and his crew at Udon. It's unfortunate that the ROBOTECH logo covers up the top of the image; it would have worked better on the bottom, since there's no important characters' faces there. Heck, the logo covers Gloval's face, and he's one of the few characters on the cover to appear in this issue! Otherwise, though, not bad; the VF-1J isn't even too Super Poseablish. My only other complaint would be that Fokker seems to be wearing a Macross The Movie: Do You Remember Love? pilot's jumpsuit, not a ROBOTECH uniform. Notice how he has no stripe on his shirt collar and the jacket collar is the wrong color. Cover #2 is also nice, though it's obvious that the model for the VF-1S was the "VF-1S Roy Fokker Last Stand" action figure that was a mail-away exclusive at ToyFare magazine in the summer of 2002. Also obvious from their flatter-than-normal appearance is the fact that the Battlepods were modeled off of the video game Battlecry for the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. While not a good representative piece of art for this series, it's a really nice piece. Why don't we have a poster of it, or maybe a wallscroll? Unlike the Comico Graphic Novel and the flashback scenes in Return to Macross, everyone's wearing uniforms that, as far as I can tell, hew pretty close to the present day uniforms of their respective countries, though with a few liberties taken here and there (notably the RDF-style striped shirts underneath the U.S. Navy pilots' flight jackets). I also think Roy's flight helmet probably should have a visor of some sort, but anime creative license tends to say, "No, we don't want a visor on his helmet; we want people to recognize our hero instantly and see his pain and horror," or somesuch thing. On the first page they appear, Hayes and the captain's name badges are blank; on all subsequent pages, they do appear. Hayes is identified only as "Admiral Hayes," though later issues do identify him as Donald Hayes, the second first name the character has been given (though Hayes was only first given a first name during the Academy run on Return to Macross, so I can forgive Tommy Yune & Co. for not being aware of it). The captain serving under him's name badge appears only in one panel, in such small type that I can't read it -- it's on page 8, and it's slightly askew. Anyone else able to read it?  The Russians' dialogue is written in a faux-Russian-looking font, which I think is a nice touch. Yes, Gloval was Russian in the ROBOTECH TV series. Yes, I know the character was originally supposed to be Italian in the Macross TV series. Quiet, you.The fighter that shot Steve down has the same markings that T. R. Edwards's plane had in the old Comico Graphic Novel (which also happen to be the same markings seen on the fighters in the flashback in episode 33, "A Rainy Night"). For those of us who know our ROBOTECH, this is foreshadowing; for everyone else, the beginning of a mystery that really doesn't pay off. When this was released, there was a discussion about the physics of the SDF-1's arrival on a ROBOTECH forum. Ironically, it was pointed out that while the tsunami generated by the shockwaves of the SDF-1's arrival would only move the aircraft carrier group around and not utterly destroy them, it would have created enough force to crush Gloval's Minsk, especially if it dove into deeper water. I suppose that's something of a major "oops" given the outcome presented, though I doubt most readers would catch it. |
| Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:07:00 +0000 Robotech (WildStorm) #0 (of 6) |
 "Promise"Story - Tommy Yune THE STORY"At the dawn of the new millenium, the human race discovered they were not alone in the universe when an abandoned alien vessel crashed into the Earth. The bounty of advanced technology within would alter the course of human history. This alien technology was known as Robotech. A powerful alien race, the Zentraedi, would bring an age-old war to Earth. However, aided by the miracle of Robotechnology, the human spirit would prevail ..." NOTESTIMELINE - Modern Robotech.com timeline.MAJOR CHARACTERS
1999  This was the first all-new published story set in Harmony Gold's revised ROBOTECH timeline, which throws all of the old, previously published material out and starts fresh with the original 1985 TV series as its only basis. I have to agree with a friend of mine when he says that the opening narration is missing a little something, namely, "In the year 1999 ..." The date does come up later, but honestly, it should have been in the narration, if only for nostalgia reasons. Besides, the "at the dawn of a new millenium" stuff (which became the standard opening for all the WildStorm ROBOTECH comic series) gives me nasty flashbacks to the Robotech 3000 trailer. *shudder* Note the use of the ROBOTECH: Battlecry video game's VF-1R Veritech Fighter (three-lasered head) as Wolf Leader's craft. The Battlecry storyline was, at this point, the only other all-new story material in the revised ROBOTECH timeline. Wolf Leader Jack Archer's cameo here would not be the only cameo by a ROBOTECH video game character in the comics; Dr. Osmund from ROBOTECH: Invasion would appear in the last two issues of the comic series of the same name. However, Osmund gets to be referred to by name, while Archer is not. Bear in mind, Wolf Squadron was referred to in the first episode of ROBOTECH and reappears in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles, setting up its appearance in the Shadow Chronicles animation. It's set up in the new canon as the other premiere Veritech squadron, alongside the Skull. Despite the reboot, traces from other earlier "secondary canon" works do shine through; notice that one of the primary established characters in this story is Doctor Emil Lang, who first grew to prominence in ROBOTECH II: The Sentinels and works designed to set the stage for that aborted television project (i.e. the original Comico Graphic Novel). If you'll recall, originally he only appeared in episodes 5 and 6 of the TV series. The scenes with Roy and Rick's father also seem to draw heavily from the portrayal of "Pop" Hunter in the aforementioned Graphic Novel, though "Pop," while clad in a very similar outfit, is much younger-looking here than his Graphic Novel counterpart.  Rick's craft in this issue is the YF-4/VF-X-4. He played with a model of it in the opening scenes to episode 36, "To The Stars". There was some chatter about whether or not Harmony Gold could legally use that design prior to this issue's release. Since it does appear in the show, at least in model form, I would assume they do. However, I assume that the mecha was unable to transform in this story for legal reasons; Harmony Gold does not own the rights to Guardian or Battloid modes for this mecha since it only appeared in Fighter mode in the material they own the rights to. In fact, no such forms were designed by mecha designer (and Macross co-creator) Shoji Kawamori for this particular revision of the design. A refined version of the mecha called the VF-4 Lightning was later developed for the 1987 combination music video/series epilogue Flashback 2012 and further refined for the Bandai video game Macross VF-X, only the latter of which actually featured a GERWALK (Guardian) or Battroid (Battloid) mode for the craft. I suspect a Battloid and Guardian mode would have to be designed for this mecha in-house at Harmony Gold before it could be used again in ROBOTECH for any period of time. The two-page spread on pages 7 & 8 depicts the construction of the three mounds that appear in the Masters episodes of the ROBOTECH TV series (a.k.a. SX Point 83). Easily seen behind the unfinished framework of one of them is the remains of the SDF-1; in another, Khyron's downed battlecruiser. The third one is almost complete and thus we don't get a look inside. Harmony Gold has been awfully noncommittal about what exactly is in that third mound. Series story editor & producer Carl Macek has long claimed that he intended for the SDF-2 to be standing back-to-back with the SDF-1 in the final episode of the Macross portion of ROBOTECH, "To The Stars," so that its remains could be the contents of the third mound. However, since no SDF-2 actually appears in the footage, some have argued that the references to the SDF-2 in "To The Stars" had to be referring to events at another location since the SDF-2 certainly did not appear beind the SDF-1, and thus cannot be what is inside that third mound. Since the Daedalus arm of the SDF-1 was sheared off in Khyron's final suicide attack, I suppose that could be the contents of the third mound. (In the trade paperback collection that contains this story, From The Stars, a reference drawing of the under-construction mounds appears and does identify the third mound as the SDF-2. However, that's merely preproduction material, and the finished art remains noncommittal.)Speaking of that location, it appears that New Macross City is relatively intact below the mounds. Since the passage of time between Rick's thoughts about that fateful day in New Macross and his final approach for landing is indeterminite, it's not clear if he's landing at New Macross or at nearby Monument City, but if he is landing at the former locale, this flatly contradicts all earlier licensed material, which swears up and down that New Macross is so terribly irradiated by the destruction of the SDF-1 and Khyron's battlecruiser (and possibly the SDF-2) that nobody should ever go there ever again ... or at least until 2029. I have a qualm with Lang's accented dialogue (not reproduced in the quotes above, for clarity's sake), written out like, "vhat is dis?" which strikes me as a trend that should have been given up by comics writers years ago. Nobody has ever written Lang's dialogue that way before, at least not in any published licensed story, despite the fact that he spoke in a faux-German accent in the show. While I could hear Lang's voice the way I remember it from the series a shade more easily with the accented dialogue, I still think it reads like a bad stereotype in an obnoxious kind of way. Notice that Rick is still "Captain Hunter;" he has apparently not recieved a promotion since the end of the Macross episodes of ROBOTECH, wheras Lisa is referred to as "Admiral Hayes." This is another aspect that flies in the face of previous licensed works, which brought Rick up to just under Lisa's rank after the destruction of the SDF-1 and -2 (hence references in the novels from "The Zentraedi Rebellion" onward to "the Admirals Hunter"), but makes good sense. After all, Lisa's last words to Minmei concerning Rick before she and he took off to fend off Khyron's final attack were, "He's a pilot! That's his life!" This very point is made by Rick early in "The Zentraedi Rebellion," and the fact that Yune and Faerber didn't go down that route in this story proves that they were paying better attention to that line than Lisa was in that particular story. The appointment that Rick has with "Admiral Hayes" appears at the end of issue #6. The twelve story pages of this issue were handled by seven different artists. It's not clear who did what, or who served in what capacity; only a person familiar with each artist's style and what each person tends to do (as in "pencils or inks?") would be able to tell, and I'm not that familiar with most of these names. Oh sure, I know Jim Lee, WildStorm's founder and Editorial Director, but the rest of the names aren't totally clicking. I think he did the first page or two; and even then I'm not totally sure, since it's possible that different artists may have worked on the same pages. The mecha art appears to be strongly based on the Toynami Super-Poseable Veritech action figures. The hands on the Veritechs are more mechanical-looking than those in the show, and the neck and leg joints are more detailed and mechanical-looking as well. The large kneecaps are definitely taken from the Super-Poseable toy design; Veritechs' knees are NOT that pronounced. The shoulders, though, are very much those of a transforming Veritech design; they're more boxy and less pointy than those on the Toynami Super-Poseables. Very, very slight but noticeable liberties were also made with the VF-1A's head; it's not as rounded as it used to be. Despite the numerous nitpicks, though, the mecha art looks excellent -- much better than most of Antarctic Press's hand-drawn mecha art -- but it does have certain hallmarks which reek of revisionism rather than nostalgia. Then again, revisionism seemed to be quite the order of the day during the 80's nostalgia boom.  The character art is another matter. Dr. Lang is the spitting image of his anime counterpart, despite some weirdness on his lumpily-drawn jowels. Rick, on the other hand, is barely recognizable. He bears a much closer resemblence to the toned-down and kind of hideous Matchbox action figure from the 1980's than his big-haired anime counterpart. He actually somewhat resembles the early test drawings for the character done by Macross character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto during the two years of lead time prior to the beginning of production on the TV series. Between the story and the pin-up art in the back of the book, I swear that I've seen more Rick Hunters that don't actually look like Rick Hunter in this book than anywhere else ever. Usually artists at least try to replicate his big and weirdly-pointed hair; the artists on this book didn't even seem to try.And the noses look kind of weird, too. Somehow, though, Roy manages to look sorta like Roy. Perhaps it's that his hair is more generically anime-styled and his face shape more specific than Rick's. Looking at it now, the final shot of Roy actually bears a striking resemblence to the He-Man character design from the 2002 relaunch of that property, with a longer chin. Maybe it's just that I've seen so many weird-looking versions of Roy (due to the revolving door of artists on Return to Macross) I'm much more tolerant of weird Roys than I am with weird Ricks. Speaking of He-Man, Rick's dad looks a lot like Man-At-Arms from the '02 relaunch as well. Same age lines, same moustache, same face shape, same predeliction for wearing protective headgear ... In "Boobytrap," Rick says, "You promised my dad you'd return to the air circus when the war was over ..." The only person he promises on-camera here, however, is Rick. I assume Roy made that promise before he made his promise to Rick; otherwise the line from "Boobytrap" either doesn't make sense or, feasibly, you could claim Rick decided to bring up his father in "Boobytrap" just to stick a nice, sharp emotional knife in his "big brother" -- after all, it does come right after Rick calls Roy a "killer." The pin-ups in the back are something of a mixed bag. For the record, they are:
This also appears to have been otherwise hand-lettered, one of the very few hand-lettered books put out by a major publisher that I've seen in so many years. Kinda nice, though the lettering is not as clean as the lettering I recall from the days when all books were hand-lettered. Does lend it more of a nostalgic feel, though. |
| Sat, 26 May 2007 08:04:00 +0000 Robotech: From The Stars (WildStorm/DC Comics) |
This is a whole new war. THE LOWDOWNIt is the year 1999. Across the planet Earth, chaos reigns. Armed conflicts are erupting between nations all over the globe, and amidst this outbreak of war, a rumor erupts within the walls of the Pentagon that Russia is selling off a nuclear sub to a foreign power. The U.S. sends a carrier group into the waters of the South Pacific to investigate.Between the arrival of a mysterious ace fighter group and a phenominal event in the sky that alters the course of human history, only U.S. Navy pilot Roy Fokker and group commander Donald Hayes survive the encounter. Six years later, both men find themselves thrust into the spotlight of history when they become involved in the further investigation and development of the technology that fell into the lap of humanity on that fateful day in the South Pacific. BACKGROUND INFO Like Bill Spangler's earlier Return to Macross, WildStorm Productions' first ROBOTECH mini-series is a look back at the dawn of planet Earth's involvement in the ROBOTECH saga. It is also designed, for the most part, so that someone without a PhD in ROBOTECH history can read it, but not in such a way that most long-time fans will be grimacing at the liberties taken -- unless, of course, they were weaned on the novels by Jack McKinney and still consider them gospel. A fan with a clear understanding and a certain level of acceptance at the way Harmony Gold is handling ROBOTECH these days should be fine throughout the bulk of From The Stars.Harmony Gold Creative Director Tommy Yune and Noble Causes creator Jay Faerber's storyline overwrites the classic and infamous Comico Graphic Novel, "Genesis," and Return to Macross with much more psuedo-realistic and less cartoonish storylines, hewing as close to the way things were in the real 1999 as possible without compromising the integrity of the ROBOTECH TV series -- which, of course, is the only backstory Harmony Gold actually cares about at this point. The inclusion of such elements as the carrier Kenosha and Sentinels villain T.R. Edwards shows that Harmony Gold isn't throwing the backlog of stories created between '86 and '98 out the window entirely, but is rather refashioning their base elements to try and create something better out of them -- or at least something less out of step with the original animation. The frustrating thing about the resulting storyline (besides its frankly bizarre characterization of Roy Fokker as wide-eyed, clueless, and embarrassed around women) is that it sets certain precedents that the next two mini-series by WildStorm follow pretty slavishly; the framing sequence for this series is set in the post-Macross era and introduces at least one plot point that is incongruous with the tale told in flashback throughout most of the series' six and half issues. Later series spend a lot of time on framing sequences, flashbacks, and confusing epilogues that would serve only to confuse casual ROBOTECH fans; this practice was broken by Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles presumably only because it needed every page to blaze through all the story it could possibly cover.  It is important to note that despite a legacy in comics that lasted from 1984 to 1998, this ROBOTECH series was considered part of the '80s nostalgia boom that struck the comics industry beginning in 2001 with Devil's Due's G.I. Joe and continued in 2002 with Dreamwave Productions' Transformers revival. As such, it was treated with great disdain, especially in light of the fact that WildStorm's previous '80s revival book was Thundercats of all things.This series had a Sourcebook issue covering all its major characters and mecha with pin-up pieces, some of them two-page spreads, by a virtual "who's who" of WildStorm talent and brief write-ups by Tommy Yune and Tom Bateman. This issue was released in January 2003 and was partially collected along with the series in the From The Stars trade paperback collection. FROM THE STARS
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| Tue, 22 May 2007 03:49:00 +0000 Robotech: Invid War #1 (of 18) |
 "No Man's Land"Story - Bill Spangler & Tim Eldred THE STORYIt is February of 2033 C.E. Colonel Jonathan Wolff flies his Alpha Veritech down to Brazilia, into the airspace of an organization calling themselves the Stone Men. He's been invited by their commander to mediate a dispute between them and the Global Military Police. A Valkyrie escort leads him to their camp. Wolff enters the camp and tells them he's looking for Gavin Murdock, their leader. Murdock is surprised to see that Wolff actually came. "When the G.M.P. asked if there was a negotiator I would trust, I gave them your name as a joke," Murdock says. "I didn't really believe you were back on Earth." Wolff tells him that he's been doing a lot of this sort of work ever since he's returned, and that he's here to stop the fighting between the Stone Men and the GMP, but Murdock's men don't really believe him. "What's in it for you?" one of them asks, a sign of the times. Wolff tells them they have bigger worries -- the Invid are coming, merciless and hungry for Earth's remaining Protoculture supply. He wants to unite all the remaining power blocs so humanity will be ready to fight the Invid. However, the Stone Men are skeptical. Murdock asks when the Invid are supposed to arrive. "We don't know," Wolff says. "We could have years ... or we could have days. But either way, the Invid are coming. And when they do, they're going to make the Robotech Masters look like amateurs.""Don't give us that!" one of Murdock's men snaps. "We fought the Robotech Masters!" Murdock gets his men to settle down. He explains that most of them are former Southern Cross personnel who fought against the Masters. When the Masters destroyed their station at Mexico City, they moved south, gathering food and Protoculture to survive. Although many of the Stone Men feel they're still a part of the Southern Cross, but as Wolff points out the GMP doesn't see it that way. Murdock thinks the GMP just doesn't want another military force so close to their borders. The Stone Men aren't going to leave Brasilia without a fight. "Maybe if had gone into space, this would look like small potatoes to me, too," Murdock says, "but this is all we have, Colonel. We're fighting for our future here!" Wolff is just about to agree with that sentiment when --  Suddenly, their lookout sounds an alarm. Mecha are approaching. Murdock throttles and decks Wolff, shouting, "YOU SET US UP!!" Assuring Murdock that Satori tricked him as well, Wolff gets up, disables a couple of the Stone Men, and escapes to his Alpha. Two GMP Gladiators and a Raidar X arrive, attacking the Stone Men's base. As Wolff's Guardian-mode Alpha launches, Murdock arrives in a Hovertank. Wolff destroys the GMP's mecha, and leaves. "He fired on his own men ... and now he's leaving!" Murdock stammers in disbelief. "What's he trying to prove?" At the GMP base, Wolff meets with Nova Satori. Wolff isn't happy with her lies. She explains to him that one of her subordinates broke the truce between the Stone Men and the GMP, and she simply pressed the advantage. Wolff thinks she's still lying. However, the issue is settled, as the Stone Men have been dealt with, although Murdock escaped. Wolff tells her he supposes that he's not getting his payment of Protoculture, and Satori tells him to drop the issue unless he wants his superiors in the United Earth Government to find out about his private Protoculture stockpile. "I would advise you to take this setback philosophically," she suggests, "and move on to something else. Clear?"  Wolff leaves the base in his Alpha and as he's flying, there's a crash of lightning. Soon after, UEG Command loses contact with Moonbase ALuCE before losing contact with all its other stations, including Wolff's base at Vahalla. The Invid have arrived. Wolff tries to fight the airborne Shock Troopers, but after a few quick kills, he's shot down.In the morning, a pair of foragers, Norvell and Parkes, discover Wolff's crashed Alpha. Upon noticing the intact canopy, they smash it with a crowbar and help him out, and he asks them to transport him back to Vahalla. NOTESTIMELINE - Jack McKinney novels timeline.MAJOR CHARACTERS
 Brasilia, in the McKinney/Spangler continuity, is the original home of the Army of the Southern Cross prior to its recognition by the United Earth Government and was last seen in Spangler's first ROBOTECH series, The Malcontent Uprisings. That was also where Wolff first appeared on the scene in the pre-Robotech.com continuity; since then, he's been shoehorned into the Macross Saga era as a combat pilot-turned-flight instructor on-board the SDF-1.Wolff and Murdock make an explicit reference to the five missing years from the SDF-3's fold -- seriously, half the characters Wolff encounters in Invid War say something like, "Jonathan Wolff, eh? I thought you'd be older." Wolff also cites the novels' SDF-3 year of departure, 2020. Welcome to McKinneyland! This issue does an excellent job of showcasing the fractured political landscape of the Earth prior to the Invid Invasion. Nobody trusts anyone, supplies are few and far between -- the world is in a severe state of decay. The human race has weathered two armageddons, and it shows. I assume that the name of Wolff's headquarters, "Vahalla," is a misspelling of "Valhalla," the great hall in Norse mythology where soldiers slain gloriously in battle to to await their final test of combat in the battle to end all battles, Ragnarok. |
| Tue, 22 May 2007 02:23:00 +0000 Robotech: Invid War #4 (of 18) |
 "Only Survivors"Story - Bill Spangler & Tim Eldred THE STORYIt is March of 2033. Jonathan Wolff's Orpheus Flight, a mixed team of VF-1 Veritechs and Alpha Fighters piloted by the few men Wolff knows he can trust implicitly, arrive at the burning oil fields of old Texas. Parkes, a former forager, asks how long the others think the oil fires will keep going. Gavin Murdock, formerly of the Stone Men, figures about forty or fifty years. Terry Weston, an ex-TASC pilot and former drifter, points out that the burning fields are providing the Invid with plenty of cover, but Murdock tells him the cover works both ways -- the Invid won't expect them to come in from this direction. Wolff says to cut the radio chatter so as not to draw attention to themselves, though as he thinks about it he realizes that's exactly what he did back at Vahalla ...Speaking of which, back at Vahalla, Major Carpenter has something to show Bekka Cade -- a message from Wolff. "This is a heckuva wake-up call, I know," Wolff says on the recording, "but I think this is the best way to handle things. I've decided I can't ignore Gary Hauser's theory about where the Invid are holding Catherine and Johnny. I've put together a team to attempt a rescue. By the time you see this, we'll be on our way. Murdock, Hauser, Parkes, and Weston are going with me. I told traffic control that we were a scouting mission for the attack on Reflex Point. If you're smart, you won't contradict the story. Believe it or not, Carpenter, I am sorry. Catherine, Johhny and I will probably never be a family again, even if I can find them ... but I owe them this much." He says he'll try to rejoin the main force to attack Reflex Point as soon as he can, but if his men don't return, they'll know what happened. Bekka is outraged. "That arrogant, irresponsible ... who does he think he is??" she asks. "He knows who he is," Carpenter tells her. "He's Jonathan Wolff."  On the outskirts of Dallas, Hauser is amazed by the energy being given off by the Invid domes among the ruins of the city. As the Veritechs approach the target zone, Wolff suggests that if they come in low and fast they might surprise their foes. However, they are soon met by a squad of Invid Troopers. Parkes and Wolff nail a couple of them, but Weston is hit from behind. Realizing he's in bad shape, he decides to ditch his Alpha at one of the domes. The plane touches the ground and skids along on its tailfins before exploding at the Invid's doorstep. Horrified, Murdock takes his VF-1 down to try and rescue Weston, but as he switches to Battloid he finds himself face to face with an Invid Enforcer.Meanwhile, the fleet from Moon Base ALuCE II descends to Earth as a convoy and is forced to confront the Invid in space. Mecha from Vahalla arrive at Reflex Point ahead of them and launch their attack. Bekka and Carpenter, flying over Reflex Point in a recon VF-1, receive a request for backup from the attacking Hovertank and Valkyrie squads below. Bekka receives word from Captain Nobutu that the moon fleet will arrive in four minutes. However, the forces from Vahalla might not last that long. Back above Reflex Point, Bekka loses contact with Nobutu. Half of the fleet from the moon has been wiped out, and Nova Satori informs Carpenter that she's ordering her GMP forces to withdraw. Carpenter points out that they had an agreement. "I didn't agree to let my people be slaughtered," she retorts. "The Invid had us outnumbered from the beginning. Your so-called reinforcements from the moon don't have any real combat experience. We lost hundreds of soldiers today and we didn't make a dent in that blasted hive. We never had a chance against the Invid and your precious Colonel Wolff knew it. Otherwise, he'd be here! You've got to order a retreat now, while there's still people left to save." Against all those facts, Carpenter finds himself defeated and orders a retreat. Three days pass. In Vahalla, an angry and betrayed Carpenter tells Wolff that he, Bekka, and the survivors from ALuCE II are pulling out and starting their own unit. He accuses Wolff of putting himself ahead of the mission. "Mission?" Wolff asks. "What mission? Letting the Invid use you for target practice?" "That's not the point," Carpenter counters, "and you know it. The point is, you betrayed our trust. My trust." Wolff tries to get Carpenter to accept that he's not the same guy he was on Tirol, and he's certainly not the guy the UEG and REF built up with those old propaganda films. "I'm old, I'm tired, and I let my family down when they really needed me." He tells Carpenter there will be no winners or losers in the war with the Invid, only survivors, and if he can't accept that, he should probably go. Carpenter says he'll be out in seventy-two hours. Elsewhere, Louie Nichols finds that Wolff is currently unavailable. "Tell him it's a matter of life and death!" he urges the operator, but he's already been cut off. "Aaaah, skip it. Typical military mindset. He drags me halfway around the world to upgrade his communications system, and then he doesn't communicate. Well, I've got the message on tape. He'll hear it soon enough." The message is that the Mars Division of the REF fleet is en route to Earth. The Robotech Expeditionary Force is coming home to fight the Invid. NOTESTIMELINE - Jack McKinney novels timeline.MAJOR CHARACTERS
 Continuity-wise, according to Invid War #2, Louie Nichols remained behind on Earth when the rest of the 15th Squadron took off, and will go on to hook up the hackers from McKinney's novel The Masters' Gambit, who wind up becoming his colleagues in The End of the Circle. (He may have already, given that in issue #3 Carpenter remarks offhand that Nichols is working for the Japanese these days.) It's also a major plot point of Invid War that, going forward, nobody can actually leave Earth, so this Louie Nichols won't go on to join Dr. Cochrane's crew at Space Station Liberty in Prelude. However, that is the next place you see the character.It's been a point of contention ever since Sentinels whether or not the Invid Regess developed the Invid Enforcer before or during its first appearance in the ROBOTECH TV series. Of course, the TV series leans towards their genesis occurring at that appearance, since the implication is that she's exploring the Invid's evolutionary development as the series progresses, but later sources, including the Sentinels comics and the RPG assert that while the Enforcer is only in the Regess's arsenal, it did appear prior to the TV series storyline. Given the Sentinels comics' track record, though, and the RPG's penchant for tossing things in for gameplay rather than veracity to the original source material, of course, I could definitely understand counting its appearance here as a flub ... It was a little annoying that early on the only way to tell which member of Orpheus Flight was talking was by paying attention to the pilots' facial hair. Without haircuts and head shapes to tell them apart, the characters' appearances become awfully similar. With the conclusion of this story, Wolff goes even further into the depths from which he'll never return except for that one brief, shining moment at the end of "Eulogy." I like how he addresses the propaganda films, though since Scott watched them I think they're actually Expeditionary Force-produced rather than specifically UEG produced, at least according to this McKinney-inspired course of events; the UEG and the REF didn't exactly cross paths in an organized state ever again after the SDF-3 took off -- again, according to McKinney. Of course, in the post-Robotech.com world, I think they portray Space Station Liberty (the ONLY link between the REF and Earth, according to the narrator in the early episodes of the Robotech Masters episodes) as having actually worked as a relay station on occasion, so perhaps in the TV series continuity it could be the UEG that produced those propaganda films. In either case, I'm glad Spangler left that remark in, since it provides something of a context for one of the key images of Wolff we see in the ROBOTECH TV series -- and that propaganda actually appears later on in Invid War (issue #13). Wolff then says, "There aren't going to be any winners or losers in this war -- only survivors." This line does a good job of illustrating how Wolff's thinking is getting ever closer to his portrayal in "Eulogy." Apparently the feeling that he's lost his wife and son forever really has killed him in a sense. After all, just pages earlier, he seemed rather optimistic as he fought the Invid and helped free those slaves. The battle against Reflex Point is portrayed later in the series as well, in issue #8. In neither instance does it seem massive enough for an attack that took this much planning on Nobutu, Wolff, and Carpenter's parts. There just aren't enough fighters, not enough chatter -- just not enough stuff to convince anyone that this is a major concerted effort to destroy Reflex Point. Remember what it took in the TV series, what with the hordes of Shadow Fighters with big Destabilizer cannons and the like? At first glance, you might almost wonder why Carpenter is so angry at Wolff for bailing on the attack -- did he really think that five more fighters would have made a difference? Then again, notice the way Satori mentions Wolff's absence; she nearly suggests that if Wolff didn't even bother to show up, naturally he must've thought they didn't have a chance in hell. And after all is said and done, he realizes they didn't have a chance. But if he'd been there, perhaps the morale would have been better, or his kills might have prevented some of the casualties, and maybe the joint forces might have gotten out of there in a bit better shape. In any case, Carpenter had good reason to break away from Wolff, even if it's painfully obvious that Wolff's presence wouldn't have done too terribly much. The next time we see Wolff, in issue #9, he's in really bad shape. Thinking about it, it's not much of a jump from saying that all anyone can do is survive to stealing Protoculture and trading lives for the stuff -- just a step, in fact, from saying to doing. But the Jonathan Wolff who saved the slaves from the Invid hive doesn't seem to be the same Jonathan Wolff who lectures Carpenter at the end of this issue, and certainly doesn't seem to be the same Wolff who, in his next appearance, sneaks into Carpenter's new base in search of Protoculture to steal. When the man fell, he fell hard, and he fell fast ... As an aside, I wonder ... is the reason we never see either of Wolff's allies in Orpheus Flight due to Wolff selling them out to the Invid down the road? I wonder. Previous issue | Next issue |
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| Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:47:43 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0009 "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" |
| Summary: Not Robotech today, but something that disgusted me on a fanboy level much like Shadow Chronicles disgusted Doug Bendo and Khyron_Prime. I discuss the truly bad animated adaption of Dragons of Autumn Twilight. | RDF Underground Episode 0009 "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_of_Autumn_Twilight | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Press_(role-playing_game_publisher) | http://www.dragonlance-movie.com/ | http://www.dragonlance.com | http://www.kencyclopedia.com | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/newsletter | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:03:54 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0008 "Warrior Giants" |
| The Zentraedi. Warrior Giants of the Robotech Masters. Don't make them mad. | RDF Underground Episode 0008 "Warrior Giants" | http://www.rdfug.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=194 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zentraedi | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/newsletter | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:50:12 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0007 "Echoes" |
| Very little Robotech news, but some anime news (some of it sad *frownie face*). All with an echo because I don't know how to use a mixer . . . | RDF Underground Episode 0007 "Echoes" | http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/07/11/adv-discontinues-additional-titles | http://www.mania.com/adv-films-talks-titles_article_86305.html | http://palladiumbooks.com/press/press2008-07b.html | http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080713x4.html | http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/07/14/manganovel-hosts-flash-anime/ | http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/07/14/mythwear-formally-out-of-business/ | http://www.mythwear.com/ | http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-07-13/mach-go-go-go-gets-mach-girl-tv-anime-shorts-in-japan | http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/machgirl/movie.html | http://www.xkcd.com | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/newsletter | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:48:07 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0006 "A Generation Ahead" RDF Underground Episode 0006 "A Generation Ahead" RDF Underground Episode 0006 "A Generation Ahead" RDF Underground Episode 0006 "A Generation Ahead" |
| The case for making a Robotech sequel that takes place a generation in the future of the Robotech Universe. | RDF Underground Episode 0006 "A Generation Ahead" | http://www.robotech.com/gallery/mmitem.php?id=259 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech_3000 | http://www.geocities.com/robotechthreethousand/ | http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=94 | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4298sodl3k | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech#Robotech_IV_and_V_.28planned.29 | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/newsletter | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:43:41 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0005 "Will The Shadow Rise?" |
| Will we see the sequel to a 2006's Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles before the Live Action movie? Will we see it at all? With my TARDIS in the shop, I don't know and can't go into the future to check, but that doesn't stop me from yapping. | RDF Underground Episode 0005 "Will The Shadow Rise?" | http://www.robotechx.com/forums.html?func=view&id=571&catid=5 | http://www.robotech.com/community/forum/read.php?id=1836002&forumid=31&pagenumber=7#post | http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/5988 | http://rdfhqcommunicationscenter.yuku.com/topic/2755 | http://rdfhqcommunicationscenter.yuku.com/topic/2770 | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1103173/ | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/newsletter | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:15:30 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0004 "AX and Delays" |
| Darkwater's Report from Anime eXpo's Robotech Panel and more newsie goodness. | RDF Underground Episode 0004 "AX and Delays" | http://palladiumbooks.com/press/press2008-07a.html | http://bankofkev.blog-city.com/robotech_returns_to_startv_this_july.htm | http://rdfhqcommunicationscenter.yuku.com/topic/2770 | http://robotechflash.blog.com/3287870/ | http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-07-08/english-gundam-00-promo-cast-for-4-meisters-posted | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/newsletter | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:33:56 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0003 "Continuity" |
| A discussion of Robotech Continuity, and it's issues, all from Reflex Point's Laundry Room (otherwise known as work). | RDF Underground Episode 0003 "Continuity" | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech_(comics) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech_(novels) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech:_Crystal_Dreams | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:21:38 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0002 "Rick Hunter Has To Pee" |
| Summary: Fan Audio. Here's how you create it. Oh and, "Rick Hunter gazes longingly at Lisa. He opens his mouth to speak and says 'I need to pee'" | RDF Underground Episode 0002 "Rick Hunter Has To Pee" | http://rdfhqcommunicationscenter.yuku.com/topic/2667 | http://www.celtx.com | http://www.blogger.com | http://www.wordpress.com | http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/ | http://audacity.sourceforge.net | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 | http://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |
| Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:26:09 -0400 RDF Underground Episode 0001 "Mighty Morphin Reboot" |
| Like Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, Batman, and The Monster Movie Show before it, the RDF Underground has also been "rebooted". Listen as I discuss the Latest Robotech News, and bring up a Mighty Morphin Bad Memory. | RDF Underground Episode 0001 "Mighty Morphin Reboot" | http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSN1642634020080616 | http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168306 | http://www.robotechmmo.com | http://www.palladiumbooks.com/press/press2008-06a.html | http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/06/26/4kids-acquires-kamen-rider-ryuki/ | http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-06-30/devil-due-to-adapt-vampire-hunder-d-into-u.s-comics | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8RWeKkCprc | justy@robobotechdefenseforce.us | 1-224-588-8030 | http://www.myspace.com/rdfunderground | http://www.facebook.com/people/Justy_Ueki/533259807 Thttp://www.twitter.com/RDFUG | http://www.rdfug.com/forums | http://www.rdfug.com/promote | http://www.rdfug.com/store | http://www.rdfug.com/support | http://www.rdfug.com/donate | http://www.justyueki.com | http://www.twitter.com/JustyUeki | http://www.pownce.com/JustyUeki | http://www.monstermovieshow.com | http://www.rdfug.com |