My Kickstarter - Robots With Coffee Coloring Book

Gang,

So, as you know, I've spent most of my arting at Robots With Coffee Dot Com. I haven't bought many toys, and actually sold a good number of them in the last year. Thinning the collection. My focus the last few years has been generating material for RwC, and (so far) this year I've had something appear on the site (almost) every weekday: Comics from Mort, new robot drawings, movie and music reviews, and even photocomics from RwC Jesse.

Anyway, as the subject implies, the big news is that I made a KICKSTARTER for The Robots With Coffee Coloring Book. It's a 20 page "toy catalog" of various robros I've drawn over the years, complete with bios that would look great on toy packaging...if these toys were to ever get made (they won't). The bonuses include a sticker sheet, a button, and paper dolls for you to cut out and use with your other action figures or board games or whatever. That's for the basic package. Other tiers include a fun mini sketchbook called Princess Robo, and original drawings and watercolor paintings. There's also a T-Shirt package.

It's got a week to go and though it's funded, it would be great if you could jump on board. Think of it as a preorder - you're getting a great deal on the comic and the extras, especially because one of the stretch goals that we met, an extra sheet of paper dolls by other artists including Transformers artists Casey Coller and Sara Pitre-Durocher, won't be available after the Kickstarter, either with the comic or by themselves. So, pledge now. The more the merrier, and it will help fund more RwC projects.

RwC has become a lot of fun for me. A lot of people warned me of the work that would go into fulfilling these orders but I can't wait. Check it out and pledge today (before August 28th). Thanks!

Way odd to the very end.

I picked up a few Kreons and Generations Roadbuster. Woo! A full report sometime soon.

In the meantime, enjoy this mashup.

Mort Inkingbot and speculating on MTMTE 32

That's Mort Inkingbot, everyone. He used to draw a syndicated comic strip for various Cybertronian newspapers, mostly with pro-establishment, pro-functionist messages, sometimes veiled and sometimes not veiled all that well.

Just kidding. I made him up.

Anyway, expect some more Lost Light Insider and functionist propaganda gags to be repeated here.

In the meantime, the highly anticipated (and dreaded) More Than Meets The Eye #32 came out this week. I have a few thoughts. Just a few, because #33 will answer the 'what the heck?' Hey, it's after the jump because, you know, SPOILERS. Major goshdarn spoilers.

Kreons! And some more Botcon pics!

Kids, I don't know what has taken me so long because I don't have anything to report that has been keeping me busy. Got a few drawings in, been hanging with my nieces, some band practices, feelin' tired from work...I don't RECALL anything that keeps me posting beyond not feeling like being on my computer that much. I haven't seen the new Transformers movie but I DID see SHARKNADO, the Rifftrax live event, with my pal Sean H. It was incredibly funny but I couldn't look at the screen for the last two full minutes, it was that bad. Thundercracker's Sharkticonado would be a much better movie.

SO. ANYWAY.

Here's what I got yesterday:


That's Highbrow and Misfire from the first "movie" Kreon wave. It's actually a bunch of G1 Headmaster/Targetmaster figures and a tiny Trypticon but whatever, why nitpick when the real purpose is to get teary eyed over the harsh level of adorableness involved with the Kreons. Highbrow came with two propellers but as far as his robot mode goes, you're only supposed to have one on his back. Probably because if you have both from his arms (not that unlike his actual G1 version), well, then you can't MOVE his arms. I like the way he looks with two propellers.

Like with any TF figure I buy, I pick 'em based on my Geewunner preference, and even then I'm probably even more selective because there's a good chunk of G1 I normally wouldn't care about...such as the Headmasters & Targetmasters. It was nice to find the G1 Hardhead but kind of embarrassing that Duros was a more fun figure than the complete Hardhead itself. Thanks to IDW, I pick up anything related to the comic story. I definitely don't have a consistent approach to my TF character purchasing, and it's not worth figuring out. I'm here to hopefully provide you with a few laughs, okay?

Please note that unless I'm suffering from eye strain (and I might be these days), Highbrow has a Decepticon signal, and Misfire an Autobot. What the what? ARE WE IN SHATTERED GLASS TERRITORY?

EDIT!

I also bought two Kreo Slipstreams, I mean Slipstrike. They were at Walgreens near where I got the Kreons above. My nieces like Legos and I figured they could have some lady Kreo figures to fight the good fight with UniKitty.

Okay, after the jump, there's an Altered News Comic! Here's a few figures I SAW at Botcon, mainly what I'm looking forward to.

Lost Light Insider - Madness! RwC update.

I haven't had time to archive Robots With Coffee on here like I'd like to. And I have plans for a dot com page. A dot com, I tell you.

IN THE MEANTIME!
Robots With Coffee - Tumblr (NEW! Newish.)
Robots With Coffee - Facebook
Robots With Coffee - Twitter

I'm working on something to give to a friend to take to Botcon. It'll be...something. Anyway, here's another EARLY issue of the LOST LIGHT INSIDER. Stop by these social media places and say hello.

Lost Light Insider includes this football shaped phone!

I made a few more. Then I blinked and @robotswcoffee had a bunch more followers.

Because:

.@robotswcoffee My god, an *IN-UNIVERSE* MTMTE fanzine. As a 90s TF fanzine addict/contributor this is possibly my favourite thing ever.

— James Roberts (@jroberts332) May 17, 2014

These were ending up on other people's tumblrs, by the way. I can't really do anything because I'm taking images from...well, you get the idea. But they're at least listing RwC as a source. Anyway, -paul

MTMTE 29 - The Lost Light Insider

If I had all the time in the world I would make this a real fanzine:

I have too much time on my hands. Really. Sad.

But I don't, and it's sad enough that I'm such a lonely near-middle age man to make that in the first place. But it got me a surprisingly large amount of retweets. Like more than five.

EDIT:

@robotswcoffee You are a genius.

— James Roberts (@jroberts332) May 15, 2014

MTMTE 29 came out and it was great. Continues on with 28's back & forth of modern day Lost Light living & Megatron's trial, making more sense of everything. I haven't combed over every damn panel but there doesn't seem to be as many mysteries or clues BUT I AM PROBABLY WRONG so whatever, I will enjoy it on its zillionth read. Hey, there's a jump discussing this and, more importantly, Windblade. Possible Spoilers!

Windblade #1 - Hooray!

Well, I read Windblade #1 and I really dug it. It's the first of four issues. I'm sure the creative team would like to see it become an ongoing, and there's several reasons why that should be, beyond that it's a really good comic and a fresh, exciting look for the Transformers.

-Mairghread Scott wrote a great introductory comic, not just to a miniseries, but for people who don't read the IDW Transformers comics (even if they are fans of the toys or cartoons or movies).
-Sarah Stone's art is awesome the whole way through. It will appeal to new comic readers. Maybe younger comic readers.
-It's easy to be cynical about the fan-made character gimmick and the Poochie vibe about the whole thing. The Windblade character in this book is done so well that we can now stop talking about how the fans made up the character; the character now exists in this book through the comic team.
-The supporting cast and Cybertron setting? If Optimus Prime & friends are heading back to earth in Robots In Disguise for their ongoing monthly adventures, then Windblade (the title) should be ongoing just so we can have more stories about Cybertron life.
-I don't know what sales are like digitally for the TF comics. Beating out Batman on iTunes for a day, is this impressive? After Heart Of Darkness, IDW was a little twitchy on more miniseries (hence why Chaos was integrated into the regular TF series, alternating with the Police Action story). It's hard enough to convince retailers to NOT cut indies, especially IP titles, in the middle of New52 and Marvel NOW deluges (seriously, that's how my store picked up customers; other stores wouldn't order indies for PULL LISTS for their customers after New52). If sales for a TF mini from distributor to comic store aren't strong, then there won't be an ongoing.
-But if Autocracy and Monstrocity can survive digitally (with collected reprints), why can't Windblade? DC's Batman '66 is doing this too and it seems pretty successful. Windblade beat out BATMAN (albeit on ONE digital distro channel, I don't know how popular iTunes is for comics no how Windblade did on Comixology). If that's the platform, keep hammering at it and hopefully stores will follow.
-And why not a series of miniseries? That might even be a draw for new readers: these stories have an end. It's not always "to be continued."

I didn't have much to say as far as a review. I dug it, and I dug it A LOT. I don't feel like rambling. The reviews I'm reading praise it. The skeptical knowitalls who were cynical about Windblade being a marketing gimmick that ruined their hobby? They love it and/or were pleasantly surprised and will read the whole series. And whatever minor problems I had (not saying, because I don't want to mention any spoilers even if they're minor) I realize later are because this comic was written as an introduction, not just to Windblade, but to the IDW TF comic franchise. I could ramble on a lot about my experience as a comic retailer, trying to push comics on people, trying to push TF comics even to TF fans, every little detail of what I like and didn't like, but I've rambled enough. I've already handed my copy to someone else interested in the comics but hasn't read them. Windblade is really good if you've been reading so far with amazing art and surprising depth for the fan made gimmick, it's truly a great first TF comic to pick up and start reading.

So dig in. And let them know what you think. #windblade on twitter if you can.

Fracture enjoys the comic, even if it's about an Autobot.

Robots With Coffee q&a: Jeffrey Brown (Incredible Change-Bots)

The author of Darth Vader & Son, Jedi Academy, Vader's Little Princess...and INCREDIBLE CHANGE-BOTS did a q&a for Robots With Coffee. Click on the pic below to read it (on Facebook...you should be able to read it without logging in).

These comics are awesome. The coffee is good too.

G1 Headmaster Hardhead & Duros

Hardhead & Duros would be the worst cop show ever.

I was picking up my comics and hanging with one of my pals from the TFW2005.com board and I mentioned we should walk up the street to a new vintage toy shop by the comic shop. The number of vintage toy stores that I know about has doubled in the last half year. This one has a few toys, and by few I mean "a lot of He-Man figures, some other stuff, that's pretty much it," and the rest of the store space is arranged into a hipster thrift shop with a small and expensive record (vinyl) bin. Lots of young people with terrible mustaches is what I'm saying.

We found the small section of TFs on a table. Because I had seen little to mention of my few previous visits, I'm not sure what really compelled me to stop by this time other than that a TF fan hadn't been there yet, even though I thought little of the stock. This time, there was a G1 Hardhead, nearly complete (missing 1 of the guns) and in great shape. And, uh, at a pretty amazing price. I opened to cockpit, and there was Duros, the Headmaster head. SO, I bought it.

The few things I notice about Hardhead:
-He's got a hollow abdomen/butt area. That really stands out; a few thin plastic walls comprise a noticeable amount of his torso. This makes Hardhead seem like a Flimsybot (TM).
-I think I lucked out with the hinge on the armor piece that protects the tech spec area. It's perfect! Nothing broken on it.
-Duros's own face? Amazing for such a tiny robot. Puts all the city combiner faces to shame. TO SHAME!
-His legs are kinda weird looking.
-Careful with those feet. They are hard to lock into place, and then hard to push back in. I was afraid I was going to break them.

Well, not sure what else to say about this figure or the Headmaster line. I think it was a far better gimmick than the Targetmasters, though at the same time, you will always have just ONE robot as opposed to the two or three total you get with Targetmasters. The head (Duros) himself has a lot of moving limbs!

I never liked the idea that a human contortionist forms the head of the robot so that the robot itself can be active. That makes the robot very dependent on the human (or Nebulos). I've asked before, what if the human has to go to the bathroom? Gets cramps or aches while folded over? DIES? The sentient mechanical being that will generally outlive his human partner will be screwed! So I like the Japanese backstory better.

Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Duros' amazingly detailed face.

Tonight, on Airwolf. I mean, Groundwolf.

This doesn't come in a T-top?

Don't come UNHINGED. HA HA HA HA!
Seriously though, I lucked out.

Transformers Windblade writer Mairghread Scott interview on RwC

Yup. Mairghread Scott, a writer on some recent Transformers cartoon programs, was kind enough to do a q&a with ROBOTS WITH COFFEE. It's a Facebook page and you don't need to 'like' the page to read the interview, but if you DID like RwC on the ol' FB, I'd appreciate it.

Click on the photo (by Jason Enright, @jasonenright on twitter) to read the interview!

Okay 'bots,  you ALL want coffee butNONE of you know how to refill the pot?

I want to say that I'm proud to feature Mairghread on RwC. Make sure you give Windblade a shot! You can still get your local comic book store to order it for you!

BIG McLARGEHUGE! Oh, and Scoop & The Ammonites.

I promised a review of Scoop and the MiniCons, who came in about a week and a half ago. "I've been busy" is what I'm going to say to the deep empty universe awaiting a "review" of toys.

As usual, the toys come with comics, though I'm not sure what parts of the Dark Cybertron story these are part of. The MiniCons are known in the comics as The Ammonites, a faction of another set of transforming robotic life-forms engaged in their own war, and are not called such on the packaging. But whatever.

The first thing I noticed about the combined form of the MiniCons is that, when you look at the robot from the back, the face of the figure making up the legs of the combined figure is...

...THE COMBINED FIGURE'S BUTT. Granted that piece's arms should be blocking the face, but I'm incredibly immature and will be pointing this out to EVERYONE. The figure was easy to take apart and turn its three components into regular bots. There's very little transformation on that end.

I think the helicopter figure on your right is a ladybot, based on the diamond-ish shape of its head and her high-heeled footware. I do NOT have to point this out to anyone. I have more proof and more to gain that the combined bot's butt is a face.

Never got into the TargetMasters part of the TF lore because the Headmasters were much more interesting and, despite being just as blocky, better designed. G1 figures after the movie weren't based on specific vehicles (other than the Throttlebots?) and so they looked LIKE toys, and the Targetmasters especially looked like toys holding other toys. So other than Cyclonus, here's the first actual Targetmaster redone in Generations mold. The construction vehicle looks pretty good and the transformation is pretty easy. There's not much else to say about that other than that he's holding two implausible weapons (living people who turn into guns, at least in the original G1 world; they're robots in the IDW comics, of course). The weapons can stack on top of each other, which for those of you with a dirty mind...

ANYWAY.

I was at a gathering of local TF collectors, and my pals Til All Are Mine and Collecticon were present, and good times were had. The host, Rick, who organizes Atomic Sketch, gave me this:

It's a KO tiny Fortress Maximus! It falls apart easily! The transformation would only risk further damage and lost pieces! And it's called...

Which makes me think of this wonderful MST3K bit:

Odds n ends. Just plain odd.

Though I'll probably trip and fall on them in mass quantities at big box stores without even looking, I preordered SWERVE and TAILGATE with my pal Eric from Til All Are Mine, through Big Bad Toy Store. No hurry.

UPDATE! My Hasbro Toy Shop order of Scoop & the Minicons has shipped! According to an email HTS just sent me! With tracking #s that I don't understand what service they belong to! But I give it about a week. So, keep those fingers crossed. Yo.

MORE THAN MEETS THE NEWS: More Than Meets The Eye Vol. 1 is, as of this moment (Feb. 27th) and until the end of the day possibly, $3.99 on Comixology. That's the "Death Of Optimus Prime" 1 shot and issues 1-3 of this awesome comics series. BUZZER! It is back to $7.99, which is still a good price.

Speaking of MTMTE, look to your right and you'll see MTMTE movie taglines. James Roberts had a contest on Twitter for movie poster taglines if MTMTE ever got a movie...and I submitted 117 lines. And they're terrible. Enjoy!

Okay, that's it for now. Looking for Generations Skids for a few friends, so if you got one and it's not a billion dollars then hit me up and I'll see if I can connect you, yo.

Oh, I'll have some ROBOTS WITH COFFEE news soon. It'll be fun.

Enjoy these too (click on them to see them at their original size):

Like the Raccoon in the Guardians Of The Galaxy trailer? Help out its creator.

Bill Mantlo is one of the guys who created Rocket Raccoon, probably the most interesting part of the introdump trailer for Guardians Of The Galaxy. I mean, c'mon, it's a raccoon shooting a machine gun. Who cares about Andy from Parks & Rec? (Well, I do, I love that show.) Anyway, he also wrote the first two issues of The Transformers Marvel comics, that's just a small taste of the multitude of comics he wrote in the 70's and 80's.

Anyway, if you know anything about the comics biz, especially from the time before Image Comics, you might know that 1. most comic book contributors were freelancers 2. they did something called "work for hire," which among other things meant that if you created a gun toting space raccoon, the publisher and its parent company owned the rights. Listing you as the creator was them being nice.

In this case, Bill Mantlo created Rocket Raccoon and he doesn't see a dime for it today. He probably won't see any money from Disney/Marvel. For them to start paying him would be an admission of shared ownership and that'd be a legal and fiscal problem for everyone, like say Todd McFarlane who created Venom. Things like that. Even DC comics tried (and succeeded, recently) to undo the goodwill gesture of giving Superman's creators a slight piece of the pie until Man Of Steel came out.

Anyway, the real point is: Bill Mantlo was hit by a car 22 years ago and hadn't been the same ever since. It's pretty unfortunate and despite his long time in the Marvel Comics bullpen he probably had no pension or health insurance deductions as a freelancer. I don't know, but I do know that he probably won't see a penny from Rocket Raccoon's appearance in this new movie or action figures sold. There's probably a reason why so few characters are created these days by the big publishers. There's a reason why big publishers sue the former freelancers when they try to sell t-shirts of the characters they created, and don't own.

You can help Bill by checking out this link, reading the story, and donating to his family as they continue to help him out. That would be great.

I will get to more trash talking about plastic toy robots and farts next post, sorry.

Robots with Valentine's...cards!

Hey, I added a new page of Valentine's Day cards taken from the RwC page. Enjoy.

Other stuff:
-If your local comics retailer is the type that rewards you for pre-orders (like discounts), now is the time to pre-order More Than Meets The Eye & Robots In Disguise #28, and Windblade #1.
-WTF is going on with the KREO line and Cosmos? I'll miss the Kreons (if they're really cancelled) but can deal. COSMOS? This better not mean I won't get Swerve.
-first shots of Windblade look like First Edition Prime Arcee, but with a new head. "BUT SHE HAS A NEW HAT!" yells Smithers. Still, will probably get it.
-Voyager Generations Jetfire looks great, but, uh, I have enough actual Jetfires and the last Skyfire. So I'm passing.
-The TF4 figures look dopey but I have no interest in them to begin with.

UPDATE: Comic Book Movie link has clearer movie toy pics and, uh, no thanks.

Nothing else to add. Much love to you all. @robotswcoffee on Twitter.
-paul

TINY WHIRL!

Whoa! Look what I found in the $3 bin at Quake!

$3 because he still has no hands, poor guy.

It's a really tiny WHIRL! No more than four, maybe five inches tall. Adorable. I'm sure MTMTE Whirl would find it adorable.

This is a tiny version of the "Dorvack" figure from Takatoku Toys (i'm looking this up on the TF Wiki, yes.). The only readable word for me (in English) is "JAPAN" and the copyright symbol so I can't tell where it officially comes from. There was also a line called Convertors and it looks like this is "Chopper." (We covered Convertors before when I found that tiny camera dude earlier this year.)

Okay, mystery solved. Isn't looking up stuff WHILE typing up a blog entry fun? It is. That's the kind of writing and editing that will get Transformers Aficionado the Pulitzer it deserves.

That rotor's a little sad. EDIT: The rotor was upside down. I fixed it.

EDIT! For scale, here's Tiny Whirl with...coffee.

SKIDS! Hooray for Generations Skids! (a completely objective unbiased review.)

YAY! SKIDS!

GENERATIONS SKIDS!

TOTALLY AWESOME! I MEAN AW-SUM! LMAO LOLZ!

(regains composure, put top hat and monocle back on) Yes, quite. Well, if you haven't guessed by the previous post, mentions in many other previous posts, and by listening to Robots In Cahoots, I have been very excited about Generations Skids. Not only does he wrap up the G1 Autobot (regular size) cars from 94-85, but his design and weaponry are influenced by his appearance (I assume, though I imagine these figures are designed well in advance) in More Than Meets The Eye.

HEY, THERE'S A JUMP. Meaning there's more and there's pictures. CLICK ON IT, YO!

My idea for a Roguelike game: SWERVE-QUEST!

Okay, bear with me. I was thinking about the Rogue game today. If you don't know, it's a simple computer game from the 1980's that has been modded and redone a billion times or so. Why look, here's a Wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)

So think D&D style, turn-based with strategy involving weapons and magic spells, upgradable hit points, and letters in the alphabet to signify enemies.

ANYWAY, I thought, what if the main character were SWERVE from More Than Meets The Eye?

What if it were up to him to save the day?

I don't know programming so I don't know where to start. I did see a "how to code a roguelike game" page so I know there's info out there...but it's not as easy as just copying the code and replacing "dragon" with "Seacon" or something like that. And I'd reduce the number of items (like curing potions with various types of Energon) and cut out things like magic.

So I wrote down some ideas. Loose plot, who the enemies are, what kinds of weapons, things like that. It's all after the jump here; there are More Than Meets The Eye SPOILERS even though I take liberties with how things happen for this game idea.

Robots With Coffee contest - give our KO a name! (and a Silly Page.)

Hola, Amigos. Robots With Coffee is having a contest. THE PRIZE? Issue 1 of More Than Meets The Eye...the $1 version that came out last week!

Why, a comic book reprint with a cover price of ONE DOLLAR? Totally worth the effort needed to go to the RwC Facebook page and think up a name for THIS guy:

This is a KO Seeker I found at Quake.
I did NOT paint him like this.
He, or even She, needs a name.

You can also enter in the comments section but you can't do it anonymously. Winner gets a copy of the $1 reprint of issue 1 of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye by John Roberts & Nick Roche mailed to them. The postage will cost more than the comic book. So, enter. This contest is NOT sponsored by Hasbro, IDW, or anyone affiliated with Transformers or responsible for the comics. But James Roberts DID retweet the contest on Twitter so that made my day.

AFTER THE JUMP: a Silly Page!

Silly page: Arcee getting her own Generations figure?

I sure hope so. And I hope it's not a movie (TF 4) character snuck into the Generations line.

Here's a silly page on the matter.