tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373014592012-01-19T09:18:04.178-08:00Incomprehensible Transmissions from the NostrodomatronEvil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.comBlogger7591100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-88310355741060554552012-01-07T19:22:00.000-08:002012-01-08T03:19:43.770-08:00

Robot Japan Summit 2012 is next month and it is written (on my refrigerator calendar) that the Nostrodomatron shall be in attendance! Yes this February 18th will once again see a vast conglomeration of madmen, machines and mad machine men converge upon St. Petersburg, Florida like so many rocket fists returning to their super robot elbows. MegaCon is also that weekend so we'll see if I hit that

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-66504692179865257002011-12-31T04:58:00.000-08:002012-01-08T09:42:10.212-08:00

It kind of figures that only well after I finished my last big Shogunianpalooza podcastalyspe I'd find some more Shogun Warrior ads and come up with additional brilliant thoughts perfect for that show. It's like when the right thing to say pops into your mind days after the conversation. Except in the world of blogging and podcasts there is the advantage of being able to edit material in

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-31581802953387658762011-12-24T09:52:00.000-08:002012-01-08T10:54:32.584-08:00

So the other night I was watching that musical version of "A Christmas Carol" where Sir Alec Guiness played Jacob Marley and I realized that going to hell is actually not a bad price to pay for time travel. When I got to thinking about it, Scrooge accomplished what Einstien and eveybody else who wishes they could relive the 1980s could only dream of. He traveled through time both backwards and

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-37960984168046705752011-12-07T21:30:00.000-08:002011-12-13T23:56:32.782-08:00

The 36th seal of Roboplastic Apocalypse gets ground into a great big juicy super alloy flavored smoothie like a giant robot's arm caught in a blender! Yeah it's another round of Heavy Mattel Mania in the Kingdom Roboplastico as we fire up the GoBackatron 1978thousand on a mission to complete my list of 10 things Shogun Warriors did before or better than the Transformers any other American Toy

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-50869291230151552532011-10-22T08:07:00.000-07:002011-10-24T03:06:36.210-07:00

With all the great stuff that came out celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie I forgot that this year is also the anniversary of GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords. I ran across the newspaper version of the BotRL theatrical poster from its opening day (March 21, 1986)*. I don't remember seeing this one as a kid, or if I did it didn't make much of an impression. I wouldn't

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-18981597889397708932011-10-19T22:25:00.001-07:002011-10-21T05:57:36.340-07:00

Yesterday I went to Tate's, which is the greatest store of anything ever in the universe around here. I was looking to buy a Han Solo in carbonite ice cube tray but mostly I went to do a little recon before this weekend's big Halloween sale. Since my time in Florida is coming to an end I got a most proactively nostalgic idea. I asked if I could take some pictures and the Taters in charge said yes

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-17183238093706692392011-10-18T23:05:00.000-07:002011-10-21T17:11:27.238-07:00

It's March 31, 1986 and a couple lions and some kind of weird monkey are on the loose! Who will stop them? Yes! It's Ohio Magnus! KILL 'EM ALL, OHIO MAGNUS!

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-36280323622297720322011-10-13T04:22:00.000-07:002011-10-16T02:29:31.756-07:00

It's the 35th episode of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse and it's more fun than taking a Snowspeeder to the face! Yes it's a most Star Warsian adventure as the Nostrodomatron revenges returns to Texas for Fan Days IV with the new hope of talking to some people that know a thing or two about drawing robots. Are all Star Wars conventions really toy robots conventions in disguise? They are from a

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-55158670793190859432011-10-11T13:58:00.000-07:002011-10-13T14:10:38.532-07:00

Watching my son color the old Transformer coloring books I got for him at Fan Days is the most insanely surreal experience I've had in a while. He's now as old as I was when I got my Shogun Warrior Dragun. It's like the Transformers stuff that came out when I was 11 are his Shoguns. I was thinking a modern four year old may be a bit too sophisticated for this old robot stuff but he told me he

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-47793616067134201452011-09-29T06:10:00.001-07:002011-10-04T15:40:38.608-07:00

SNOOP AROUND Check out the line art of the thought-to-be-unreleased GoBot SR-71 Blackbird Snoop! She has appeared in ads from U.S. stores before. I found this wonderful Bradlee's roboplastic smorgasbord buried in the back pages of a newspaper from December 23, 1985. It was rather impressive because it was so tall I think it took up three quarters the height of the page! It had all my favorite

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-70076378173722669722011-09-28T00:51:00.000-07:002011-09-28T04:30:59.349-07:00

AND SO IT WAS FORETOLDETH that Robotastic Armageddon shall descendeth uponeth Irving, Texas this October 8th and 9theth via a thunderous sky shattering roar courtesy American Airlines. Henceforth I forehence accomplished various pre-registrations and securedeth hotellish dwellings in grateful anticipation of the coming of our droid, R2-D2. Yeah I registrated myself into Fan Days which is some

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-78505373456154036252011-09-16T03:47:00.001-07:002011-09-16T04:06:41.525-07:00

THE PULSATING RED NOSE TOTALLY GIVES IT AWAYSanta's piloting a Colonial Viper in this Hecht's ad from October 25, 1978. And what an ad it is. It's got a great riff on the Santa reindeer roll call and some great toys from Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Micronauts and they even threw in a StarBird. I think it's the only ad I've seen for the Star Wars three packs. Also cool is how they call a

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-72000186482181692552011-09-12T07:16:00.000-07:002011-09-14T08:56:52.964-07:00

The 33rd seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse lay burnt and broken, as if mauled by great flocks of dragons and other vast predatory birds! Yes it 's the DragonCon 2011 edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse and this time the Nostrodomatron finds himself in Atlanta, Georgia amidst all manner of madmen, machines and mad machine men in a quest to find some dudes to talk some robots with. Have you

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-90099533121091865572011-08-20T09:08:00.000-07:002011-09-16T07:53:41.334-07:00

Toys R Us 24 November 1977I've started an album over at Flickr Macrocrania called Non-circular Toys R Us ads 1977-1987 and it's full of old Toys R Us ads (or at least it will be soon). By "non-circular" I mean these aren't the full color Sunday circulars but instead they're the newsprint ads that were run in the regular pages of the newspaper during the week. They're not all of the weekday ads

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-12364653511657615642011-08-17T13:30:00.000-07:002011-09-11T18:47:06.000-07:00

It's the 32nd seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse smacking you in the face like a kiss from a semi truck as we roll out to the Fort Lauderdale downtown library in this Gobackatron 1985thousand powered edition of the podcastalypse! Join the Nostrodomatron in a patriotic celebration of the nation's retail scene from the 80s as I crack open some fresh rolls of 1985, Washington D.C. style! Why do I

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-41323640104479832692011-07-19T07:11:00.000-07:002011-07-20T17:02:20.750-07:00

The 31st seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse KRAKKKS apart like the front of your truck as special guest Don Perlin takes you for a spin through the Car Wash of Doom! Mr. Perlin's career as a writer, penciller, inker and cover artist spans so much comic book history you'd need a space bridge to get through all of it! Listen in strange suspense as I tell uncanny tales of my journey to Ancient City

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-82771782594254767502011-07-13T03:15:00.000-07:002011-09-16T03:46:05.170-07:00

Okay so we've got Super GoBot CyKill, vehicle Voltron and Bumblelion the Wuzzle in this Spencer ad from September 15, 1985. It's kind of a strange combination but weigh what they all have in common versus what makes them different. It's actually pretty deep. I wonder if Spencer was purposely choosing toys that were in their theme of being alternative and underground. If you think about it,

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-5164675236476744122011-07-07T11:30:00.000-07:002011-07-08T10:00:02.743-07:00

The thirtieth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse KRA-KOOMS apart like an iPod being eaten by a talking robot Tyrannosaurus in this Florida Supercon 2011 edition of the Podcastalypse! Thrill to the adventures of the Nostrodomatron as I spend the entire convention wandering around talking to myself about toy robots and pictures of toy robots. Then as if that weren't mind-blowing enough, I talk with

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-52572272123819656482011-07-05T13:10:00.000-07:002011-07-07T13:15:38.094-07:00

Hey check out my new powerwasher. I named him Battle King Powerwasher Daimos. Also check out this Toys R Us ad from December 17, 1980. The Jumbo Daimos for only $6.90! Ouch.

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-72659072950797551072011-07-03T18:41:00.000-07:002011-07-03T18:44:25.042-07:00

I'm uploading pictures of this weekend's events at Florida Supercon 2011 over on my Facebook page.

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-85613097993282348262011-06-22T19:26:00.000-07:002011-06-22T19:56:31.603-07:00

Here's a glimpse into the Bloomingdale's toy aisle somewhere in New York City back in November 1977. That's Raydeen standing directly atop a Dragun next to a Mazinga and bunch of other Shogun Warriors. Through the power of Google I found out the kid wielding what looks like a Force Beam grew up to be a Venezuelan film maker! (Actually he was already Venezuelan. You can't grow up to be from

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-78349706869425735562011-06-19T15:28:00.000-07:002011-09-16T04:06:26.377-07:00

Well today was Fathers Day. Since my dad lives a couple thousand miles away I did stuff that reminds me of him like compiling all the newspaper ads I've collected for Darth Vader store appearances from 1977 through 1984. Yeah Darth Vader reminds me of my dad, but not in that "I killed them all, even the younglings!" kind of way. When I think of that first Star Wars movie I remember how my dad was

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-86274461438333249102011-05-25T14:29:00.000-07:002011-07-08T01:34:17.575-07:00

The 29th seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse crunches like Tauntaun drumsticks in the mouth of a Wampa being crushed by a falling AT-AT! Thrill to the adventures of the Nostrodomatron as I give in to the dark side of newspaper ads from 1980 through 1983 looking for toy robots ads in an era most nontoyrobotical, only to find the mightiest toy robot ever in the most unlikely of space opera toylines!

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-67548241907925931532011-04-17T12:32:00.000-07:002011-04-19T15:15:39.284-07:00

The 28th seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse cracks in half like the spine of that rare 1986 pre-Toyfair Hasbro catalog when you first opened it! Yes it's time to talk toy catalogs with special guest co-host Colin Betts of fairplaythings.com! Thrill to Colin's tales about his experiences amassing a most impressive collection of Toyfair catalogs from the last 25 years. If you thought those little

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-56398370775151286942011-04-11T16:18:00.000-07:002011-04-16T15:40:37.116-07:00

The 27th seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse disintegrates into a dusty pile of ashes like a dead Dire Wraith! Yes it's a ROMtastic Podcastalypse as the Nostrodomatron tries to figure out why the heck there hasn't been a ROM action figure in the past 30 years and what's up with that Boobs McSpaceknight over in the Marvel Annihilators mini series right now. Plus I go looking for someone to talk

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-81660829206105097822011-03-31T05:20:00.000-07:002011-04-09T17:47:39.971-07:00

The 26th seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse bursts into a mighty explosion of flames and burnt pepperoni like a 5 dollar pizza being sliced by Voltron's blazing sword! It's a Voltronian MegaConocalypse as the Nostrodomatron descends upon Orlando, Florida during MegaCon 2011 to record interviews with artists Jayson Kretzer, Juan Antonio Fontanez Jr., Danielle Soloud and Luis Diaz! They all had art

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-31915927310182778212011-03-28T08:22:00.000-07:002011-03-28T14:13:37.911-07:00

I'm back from Megacon 2011 and I had an awesome time. I got to do a ton of stuff during the two days I went. I interviewed four more artists who worked on the 5finity Voltron project, I saw Stan Lee speak, I took a few pics with some people in insane costumes, bought myself another Mazinger-Z and also I met this really cool pottery collector from Colorado with an assload of tattoos. Holy hell I

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-16702421674364560502011-03-20T19:40:00.000-07:002011-03-20T20:20:33.865-07:00

Okay so if you live in Florida the big bad granddaddy of all sci-fi comic conventions is MegaCon and it's happening this weekend March 25-27th up in Orlando. I promised myself that while I lived down here I'd check it out and this is going to be my shot! The big guests are Stan Lee and William Shatner but what's really awesome are some of the other people that'll be there of most extreme

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-58958065348571106302011-03-20T17:44:00.000-07:002011-03-20T18:43:32.085-07:00

Thanks to fellow Macrocranian Colin of FairPlaythings.com for creating and sending this in. This robot talking to himself in a deserted city is the perfect metaphor for being an obscure toy robots archaeologist podcaster on the internet. He also kind of looks like me and has the same mannerisms and delivery. (I especially love it when he holds his arms up as he says "TechspecTesticles".) Our

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-16236859017107538962011-03-11T03:49:00.000-08:002011-03-11T04:32:13.245-08:00

The big GI Joe Convention is coming up at the end of the month in Orlando and I'm really thinking about going. I'm not smart about GI Joe but much of that franchise's lineage is entwined with that of the Transformers. Consequently there's much roboplastical archaeology potential waiting to be mined amongst the Joelebrities that will be attending. I'm talking specifically about special guest Bob

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-72824892879347796812011-03-09T23:46:00.000-08:002011-03-10T14:50:01.903-08:00

IT'S THE 25TH PODCASTALYPSE! And it's more exciting than being on an airplane flown by a velociraptor without a pilot's license because Michael Golden's here and he's got some stories to tell. It's a Prometheus Pit full of fun as the King of the Acroyears recounts what it's like being a respected superhero artist while also being known as that guy who worked on all those licensed toy books. It's

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-87043039161139508752011-03-07T09:51:00.000-08:002011-03-09T07:40:32.303-08:00

When I went to Target the other day I was greeted in the menswear section by a display with a male model wearing Poindexter glasses and a Voltron shirt. Obviously my attempts to rewind the world back to 1985 by uploading thousands of old Voltron and GoBots newspaper ads to the internet were proving successful. Then I remembered that Megan Fox was seen late last year wearing a t-shirt of Voltron

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-23387706877219900012011-03-06T18:31:00.000-08:002011-03-13T13:35:40.124-07:00

The 24th seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse is pulverized instantly like a Tyrannosaurus getting kicked in the face by Jackie Chan when special guest Renee Witterstaetter demolishes the Kingdom Roboplastico! Join me my fellow Macrocranians as I talk to this prolific writer, author, colorist and editor about her career spanning multiple artistic disciplines and numerous roles within and beyond the

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-24206604522850426132011-03-05T11:48:00.000-08:002011-03-07T12:22:16.529-08:00

Jim HensonBack in 1987 Star Wars was a distant memory to me and a lot of people. I was 13 and I thought Star Wars was a stale dead franchise with its best years behind it. At the time I was too busy obsessing over another stale dead franchise with its best years behind it-the Transformers. Even if I had known entertainment industry magazine Variety was doing a 10th anniversary Star Wars

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-77546294301942822052011-03-03T12:21:00.000-08:002011-03-06T07:13:00.225-08:00

The 23rd seal of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse rips apart like a rare and valuable Voltron trading card that you tore in half because you weren't careful opening up the pack! Taste the blazing sword of anticipation as I deliver live interviews from Miami ComiCon 2011 with two of the artists who worked on 5finity's Voltron sketch card set-Michael "Locoduck" Duron and Rhiannon Owens! (But first I

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-24093263654934408492011-02-27T17:13:00.000-08:002011-02-28T14:06:54.918-08:00

Bill Sienkiewicz, Michael Golden, Mark Texeira and the covers they did for Transformers 1, 2 and 4.I'm back from Wizard World Miami 2011 which ended just a few hours ago and I would like to thank everyone who made this show such an absolute blast for me. I have to thank Jerry Milani at Wizard PR who treated me like a legitimate member of the media although I'm just some guy who likes old toy

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-81108765182563990762011-02-23T01:35:00.000-08:002011-03-03T18:06:08.661-08:00

When I was a little kid in 1985 I had a hard time liking the cartoon genre I call "bitchy Japanese space princess superspaceship war stories". These were sci-fi cartoons from Japan that usually took place in highly advanced civilizations where robotic war technology was light years beyond what we had in the 1980s. The most common of these settings were a) outer space future, b) post-apocalyptic

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-52813642086062395372011-02-21T09:05:00.000-08:002011-02-24T11:31:20.776-08:00

One rather interesting aspect of Tonka marketing was that they didn't add character profiles to the GoBots' toy packaging like most every other action figure line was doing in the mid 80s. The very first GoBots hit the shelves with no individual personality profiles on them and the same was true for the next few years' worth of individual figure releases. The packages did tell the general story

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-12805096396030871632011-02-19T07:17:00.000-08:002011-02-20T17:13:38.078-08:00

The twenty-second seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse erupts like an underwater oil well spewing tremendous amounts of flaming oily 1985 toy robots into the gulf of Mexico. Yes it's a RoboEnvironmental disaster as I realize that in my carelessness and zeal to exploit the natural resource that is 25 year old pop culture, nobody noticed I used up all the 1985! Weep in joyful terror as the

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-44680127943464445422011-02-17T06:37:00.001-08:002011-02-24T11:07:51.247-08:00

I once commented over on PlasticCrack that since toy robots were essentially Barbie dolls who turned into cars they should be called Carbie dolls or Carbies or something like that. (Forget calling them "action figures". I've always seen toy robots as a very distinct offshoot of action figure that shouldn't be lumped into the same category as He-Mans or Star Warses or Ninja Turtles.) By logical

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-87484119500646007372011-02-14T14:50:00.000-08:002011-02-15T05:42:36.866-08:00

The twenty-first seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse breaks like your heart after Leader-1 dumps you for a younger, sexier Volkswagen in this VALENTINES FROM GOBOTRON edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse! Yes it's another all GoBots show where I discuss to myself the return of GoBots to DVD, a GoBots writer who's selling storyboards from the old cartoon, ads for GoBots kites & beach towels

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-58236019982272620392011-02-05T07:49:00.000-08:002011-02-08T05:01:16.954-08:00

Rarely in life does an event of such epic proportions occur that it shakes the very foundation of one's own worldview and understanding of the nature of existence while reaffirming a man's faith in the cosmic balance of justice in the universe. Yes, I'm talking about Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch being released on DVD back on January 25th. And just when the world's religions were recovering from

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-65299466356612025712011-01-28T17:50:00.000-08:002011-02-06T18:04:40.646-08:00

The twentieth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse explodes into flaming rocks just like the those tablets Moses threw off the mountain when his hobby drove him crazy. Or download it directlyWHY AM I HERE IS A FUN QUESTION BUT YOU SHOULD REALLY BE ASKING YOURSELF WHY ARE ALL THESE ROBOTS IN MY HOUSEYes, sometimes it is really hard to figure out if your hobby is driving you crazy (especially if

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-57299191017179570072011-01-17T08:10:00.000-08:002011-01-18T10:29:01.392-08:00

Hanging out with my son and other assorted three year old hellions has taught me that preschoolers will mimic the behaviors of those people they most idolize, who are never their parents but instead the goofy cartoon monsters they see on Yo Gabba Gabba. Thankfully those goofy cartoon monsters are trying to teach positive values and acceptable social behaviors. I realize it's a form of

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-43092505811576575042011-01-08T21:42:00.000-08:002011-01-12T06:40:28.424-08:00

Lionel Playworld 28 October 1984Man I used to love clipping out Playworld coupons in the newspaper when I was a kid. They didn't print coupons in every ad so when coupons came up for robots it was like Christmas on GoBotron. Even more special and rare than toy robot coupons were the holy grails of Playworld discounts-$1 off anything in the store coupons. Oh man it was the wild west when that one

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-57268218850687231462011-01-05T16:44:00.000-08:002011-01-07T06:21:43.559-08:00

The nineteenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse meets its repulsively delicious end at the hands of an alien lobster with his brain falling out of his mouth! Yes it's another fifty minute barrage of me talking to myself about aliens, Micronauts, Micronaut aliens, Interchangeables, Micronautical Interchangeables and Interchangeable Micronauticals and other nauts and bots with swappable parts and

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-24046864592609523762010-12-30T04:02:00.000-08:002011-01-03T20:18:05.602-08:00

Albertsons 12/06/84Looking back there are a couple of things I did as a kid in the 80s that are totally not how I would have done things if the me of today were in charge. There were choices my childhood self made like collecting Transformer comics after 1988 and never shoplifting a RoGun from Lionel Playworld that I would do differently if I could have another shot at the 80s. But unlike most

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-15759113462386307612010-12-25T20:52:00.000-08:002010-12-31T18:44:40.008-08:00

The eighteenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse disintegrates in a blinding flash like a high speed virtual rocket sled being driven by Santa Claus into a giant glowing wall of 1982 special effects in this TRIBUTE TO TRON (but not that one). Listen in horrific excitement as the Nostrodomatron extols the virtues of the greatest technological suffix of all time! Yes it's twenty minutes of talking

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-68726997852322440592010-12-15T05:34:00.000-08:002010-12-24T19:25:25.398-08:00

Man the new My Chemical Romance record is friggin' fantastic. After two huge disappointments in the last Iron Maiden and Helloween albums things weren't looking too good for our hero but then MCR came in and saved the day. There's a line in the first single off Danger Days ((Na Na Na) Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)) that reminded me I had a Universal Studios ad I dug up too late to include in my

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-60220952422228382792010-12-14T11:10:00.000-08:002010-12-27T05:46:04.691-08:00

The seventeenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse snaps like so many people's limbs on the day after Thanksgiving as they get trampled by rabid mobs of toy robots seeking shoppers! Thrill to the adventures of the Nostrodomatron as I travel back in time to black Friday 198X in my insatiable quest to expose shopping season mysteries like why advertising Transformers in December of '84 was a recipe

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-72713940106758225672010-11-24T08:02:00.000-08:002010-11-24T11:17:42.520-08:00

I owned very few articles of Transformer clothing as a kid. I remember having Slag socks, an Optimus Prime hat and shirts of Soundwave and Optimus Prime. Only the Soundwave shirt and Optimus hat remain to this day-the others are either lost or in a landfill somewhere. Maybe my Optimus Prime baseball hat should've been thrown away a long time ago (like in 1987) seeing how ratty and worn it is. But

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-10295910295432262132010-11-21T15:18:00.000-08:002011-03-06T07:13:48.440-08:00

The sixteenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse is broken in Smurftastic fashion when special guest Jim Salicrup conquers the Kingdom Roboplastico! While currently Editor-in-Chief of graphic novel publisher Papercutz, Mr. Salicrup is also known for his legendary career at Marvel Comics during which he became a veteran of the Toy Robots Wars of the 1980s! Listen with excitement as he recounts a

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-4140167669708291592010-11-20T01:56:00.001-08:002010-11-20T02:36:10.644-08:00

The fifteenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse goes out with a bang like a virtual auction hammer slamming down on your computer mouse clicky finger in this special CARTOON ROBOT STORIES FOR SALE edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse! Thrill to the excitement as the Nostrodomatron gives second-by-second gavel-to-gavel coverage of the historic Ron Friedman G1 Transformers documents auctions

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-53119270240096248762010-11-16T12:04:00.000-08:002010-11-25T10:12:09.910-08:00

The fourteenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse collapses and crashes down like that shelf on your wall that you put too many toy robots on in this Vintage Space Toast Tour St. Petersburg edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse! Listen in fear and constipation as I recount my adventures traveling across Florida to invade the homes of several professional toy robots collectorators in search of

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-54749596021335964702010-11-12T10:01:00.000-08:002010-11-12T10:09:20.991-08:00

THE NOSTRODOMATRON WILL BE JOINING FORCES WITH THE MIGHTY LEADER-1 ON A MISSION TO DESTROY ALL MONCHICHIS IN WEST FLORIDA.

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-27042171491540347302010-11-08T13:33:00.000-08:002010-11-17T14:19:59.678-08:00

The thirteenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse explodes apart like the Erector sets your grandpa used to beat you over the head with in this I'M GOING TO EAT YOU edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse! Thrill to tales of the ancient past (circa 1986) when grandpas actually liked their grandkids' toy robots, GoBots turned into bongs and Ultra Magnus went in your mouth, not in your hands! Or

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-53910022053334479512010-10-13T08:20:00.000-07:002010-11-17T14:18:35.089-08:00

Pepsi 12/15/85This is a cool ad because it's the only American promotional material I've found for Pepsi's 1985 "Win a Transformer" contest giveaway. In the US the rules were simple-you bought a Pepsi with Optimus Prime graphics on it (you 'can' see a picture of one of these special cans at the bottom of this page) and if the tab had the word "WIN" on it you would go to your nearest Pepsi bottler

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-13413448399840147402010-10-09T10:48:00.000-07:002010-11-07T08:49:19.230-08:00

The 12th seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse severs and snaps like several zombie necks under the steady rumble of 40 year old robot tank treads in this "catching up with the Tronians" edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse! Listen in horror as the Nostrodomatron talks for over an hour about Yo Gabba Gabba (a new children's show about robots and monsters), Transformers G1 (an old children's

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-13313993881143777282010-07-05T05:46:00.000-07:002010-12-30T06:22:22.795-08:00

Life is ramping up here in the Kingdom of Macrocrania and as I grapple with new responsibilities hoisted upon me lately, I gotta be straight with you my fellow Macrocranians. There is no longer time to compose 900 word lavishly illustrated explorations of the history of Ro-Gun (the robot that is a gun) as related to me by grocery store newspaper ads from 25 years ago that I found at the library.

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-25921650328139898952010-06-27T02:37:00.000-07:002010-06-28T19:38:49.410-07:00

The Botconocalypse is upon me and I can't think or see straight but all I know is this has been the most concentrated dose of awesome old toy robot fun I have had in a long time. If you thought seeing some guy dressed as Snake-Eyes pretend fight some guy dressed as Deadpool in front of some guy dressed as a 500 foot tall Starscream was surreal, try doing it after being awake for 50 straight hours

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-46815875954979066102010-06-26T17:36:00.001-07:002010-06-28T19:37:41.692-07:00

Best of Show Botcon 2010!The competition was really tough this year in the Botcon art contest and I was holding my breath as I sat next to Colin during the panel when they announced the winners. The amount of time and effort he put into his entry was clearly evident and he deserves tremendous credit for such an enormous endeavor. We just weren't sure he was going to win because there were some

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-78467688227430513762010-06-25T21:35:00.000-07:002010-08-10T17:52:13.886-07:00

The Botconocalypse is off to a fantastic start. The absolute highlight of Friday morning was Bob Budiansky's panel. He was entertaining and engaging and well prepared with a slideshow of Hasbrotastical informations that I will be analyzing in the days immediately after I get back home from Botcon. Most of the information and anecdotes he's already given in previous appearances and online

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-30103516479927522382010-06-25T18:35:00.000-07:002010-06-28T19:38:49.420-07:00

And so Botcon 2010 began as usual with me showing up Thursday night to pick up my name tag and other special presents I get for "pre-registering", which is just a fancy way of saying I Respondezed-Si-Vous Plait. I waited so long to pre-reg that pretty much every living toy robots archaeologist did it before me, meaning the guys who paid attention when the call first went out for toy robots

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-42717046620556868912010-06-25T04:09:00.000-07:002010-06-25T04:27:11.464-07:00

I don't have much time to write photo descriptions but I'm dumping pictures at Flickr in a set called crazysteve at Botcon 2010. It's pretty much the same stuff you'll see at all the Thoroughly Informative Transformers Themed Internet Entertainment Sites, but with the added bonus of me obscuring said stuff by standing in front of it.

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-50356575694865073302010-06-24T23:03:00.000-07:002010-06-28T19:39:24.744-07:00

Vintage Space Toast Tour 2010 continues as my toy robot hobby powers have once again managed to transform something that should be exciting and fun (a vacation at Disney World) into something mind numbingly boring and painful (a six hour visit to the library looking at microfilm reels). Unfortunately my old newspaper looking ended up being a colossal waste of time from a toy robots ads

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-52948978587812484032010-06-23T13:53:00.000-07:002010-06-28T19:39:12.759-07:00

I SHALL SEE YOU THERE MY FELLOW MACROCRANIANS!

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-56076050038493042812010-06-21T04:02:00.000-07:002011-03-06T07:13:36.828-08:00

The eleventh seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse snaps, crackles and pops like I stuck my microphone in a bowl of rice crispies at a firecracker convention in this special Florida Supercon 2010 edition of the Podcastalypse! Thrill to the adventures of the Nostrodomatron as I walk the floor talking to myself for ten minutes about must have items I saw at FSC that every toy robot collector needs in

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-45939867397070985232010-06-18T19:31:00.000-07:002010-06-28T19:39:39.389-07:00

FLORIDA SUPERCON FRIDAY RECAPHaven't seen any cosplayers in robot costumes yet.My robot heroes Delbo and Sienkewicz weren't there but that was cool because I forgot to put an SD card in my camera!One dealer had bootleg DVDs of Mighty Orbots, Japanese Transformers, Tranzor-Z and one that I think was called "The Best of GoBots"!Very little by way of robot figures on the dealer floor. Saw a Japanese

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-18962541962227120762010-06-18T05:32:00.000-07:002010-06-18T06:40:41.155-07:00

Florida Supercon kicks off today with tons of guests from all different facets of pop culture. They really do have something for everybody at this show and the level of celebrity in attendance is rather impressive. But while everyone else is clamoring to get the autographs of Leslie Nielsen, Shaft, The Iron Sheik, Tia Carrere, and the guy who played the "These aren't the droids we're looking for

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-844266697215532552010-06-17T04:03:00.000-07:002010-06-17T08:11:28.213-07:00

Last week I was getting out of my truck in the parking lot of the comic book store when one of those big scary 70s vans I always imagine being full of villains and scoundrels pulled up behind me and a guy pops his impressively mustachioed head out the door and says "Hey I know this might seem weird but do you wanna buy some nice home theater equipment?" I wondered how it was possible he was

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-5211695844239171982010-06-16T06:55:00.000-07:002010-06-16T16:11:57.850-07:00

The other night as I was perusing the Google newspaper archive I came across a true gem in the microfilm rough. It was a complete 16 page Children's Palace circular from November 30th, 1985. I've seen this ad a lot on microfilm in person at various libraries across the country and I tell you, the quality of Google's transfer here is easily the best I've ever seen. It's beautiful. This is an

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-52889992536415621542010-06-15T14:58:00.000-07:002010-06-17T03:48:45.630-07:00

I got a robot in the mail todayof extremely limited editiononly a few thousand madeall packaged in mint condition On the way back from the mailI opened up the boxI detached-ed all the plastic bagsAnd finally held prized botWith club exclusive pedigreeand some aftermarket collectibilityso prized by the Transfan fraternitythis robot worth forty bucks someplaceMy son who's three looked up at

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-29094570788297562732010-06-14T15:36:00.000-07:002010-06-17T12:22:22.216-07:00

When I was a kid in the early 80s playing with action figures was a lot more interesting than playing video games. The limited graphics of the Atari 2600 or Intellivision just didn't deliver the same punch as He-Man could (literally). Then the Transformers arrived at a time when console gaming was totally dead, a year after the big video game crash of '83. Consoles would eventually make a

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-66186956482334592142010-06-09T20:43:00.000-07:002010-06-15T04:27:53.798-07:00

I got really lucky back in April when I was at the mall and found the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen game for PS3 on clearance for 15 bucks. I was really excited because on the package (and in the trailer and on just about every video game review for it) there's these awesome depictions of an Optimus Prime vs. Devastator fight. They could put that image on tampons and I would buy them. All I

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-69507692579399755772010-06-08T08:09:00.000-07:002010-06-10T08:37:39.547-07:00

My fellow GoBotronians, I need help identifying this particular piece of GoBot merchandise. Does anyone recognize what it is? I've never seen a Leader-1 with the GoBots logo on its chest. I'm guessing this is some sort of promotional tie-in, maybe a toy that's not a toy but also something else like a toothbrush or radio or walkie talkie. I found the picture in an old 1985 newspaper article about

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-78543682854399904572010-06-07T19:54:00.000-07:002010-06-09T21:11:23.790-07:00

It was 1985 and toy robots were everywhere, infesting every retail, drug and toy store all across America. I guess it was inevitable that the robots would start looking like locusts since they were already acting like them. And look like them they did once Hasbro blew the fifth trumpet of the seventh seal of the roboplastic apocalypse and unleashed upon the world the Insecticons! Kickback,

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-82800501104964946622010-06-04T05:16:00.000-07:002010-06-10T15:02:02.269-07:00

I remember clearly which 80s cartoons I watched on independent channels and which were on the networks because the signals from the UHF independents were weaker than the networks. We didn't have cable and consequently if I wanted G.I. Joe, Robotech, Star Blazers, Wheeled Warriors or Voltron to come in good I had to mess with the UHF antenna. So when my memories of a particular cartoon are

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-65535612387393558752010-06-03T17:39:00.000-07:002010-06-07T08:12:11.070-07:00

Sometimes I'm at the library looking through old newspapers and I'm not finding any good 25 year old toy robots ads and I'm all hating life in that special way that only a hobby can make you do. And just when it seems like I've blown a good five hours that I could have spent playing Turbografx-16 I come across that one ad that makes not just the wasted day worthwhile, but also reaffirms that

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-44224128529381298972010-06-02T07:37:00.000-07:002010-06-07T07:26:40.556-07:00

I grew up in El Paso, Texas during the Great Toy Robots Wars of the 1980s but I had family in Los Angeles. Occasionally I'd get to go spend a few weeks of my summer vacation with them and 1985 was the greatest of those trips. I was eleven years old and at the peak of my Transfornerddom and Los Angeles was just an awesome place to be for me that summer. That's the vacation I spent in L.A. buying

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-20377085371482332072010-06-01T19:20:00.000-07:002010-06-08T18:39:54.827-07:00

If I were to continue in logical fashion with my ramblings about the 1985 Hasbro catalog then this would be part three featuring the Insecticons, who were the robots on the pages immediately following the Autobot Mini Vehicles which was where I left off last time. Since the '85 toy catalog arranged the Transformers in ascending order by size and price point, larger robots like Shockwave would've

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-38119355767727310932010-05-26T06:20:00.000-07:002011-04-17T18:45:37.556-07:00

One crazy trope of old eighties robot cartoons was that the places these mechanical beings lived in were fit less for robos and more suited to hobos. The combination sequence of Mighty Orbots illustrates this perfectly with only Bort in his airplane hangar starting out in a place remotely appropriate for a robot. The other Orbots are living like homeless vagrants, wandering the Arizona desert,

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-72235024499462795922010-05-25T04:50:00.000-07:002010-05-27T08:58:37.939-07:00

Although the Nielsen ratings for February of 1986 don't technically qualify as "25 years ago" the numbers are still important analytical tools for roboplastic archaeologists looking to study the popularity of cartoon robot Volkswagens and their transforming Tyrannosaurus cohorts. I'm taking a look this time at the February '86 ratings for shows in the 'Early Fringe' time period (Monday through

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-77453317800227065602010-05-24T04:09:00.000-07:002010-05-29T07:20:59.024-07:00

Last week was full of anticipation and excitement as I was expecting to solve yet another great mystery of Roboplasticology but then I found a dead baby duck in my backyard. (He looked more like a teenager duck actually.) Now as a veteran of many great imaginary toy robots battles I am no stranger to death and destruction. I've seen whole planets devoured by Orson Welles and I've seen the very

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-56122669254505268522010-05-19T06:28:00.000-07:002010-05-20T08:42:11.150-07:00

No this is not my entry into some upcoming showcase of art by psychotic people, this is my first try at doing a portrait of Shockwave in that ever so elegant and sophisticated of artistic mediums-the Lite Brite. The fascinating thing about Lite Brite is anything you attempt to draw with it will look sort of pretty, no matter how much of a horrible distortion of reality your picture actually is. I

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-81738481424046675822010-05-18T14:52:00.000-07:002010-06-07T05:51:30.784-07:00

Syndicated cartoons were not exclusively aired on independent stations in the eighties. While many of these half-hour toy commercials may not have qualified for airing on Saturday mornings due to big 3 networks standards, the local network affiliates had no problem carrying them on their Monday-Friday afternoon schedules. This was a sweet irony for many of these shows. In 1984 Tonka's marketing

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Coming up with a unique way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Transformers from 1985 is not as easy as it seems. Thanks to the resurgence in popularity the brand enjoys it's like every day is an explosion filled celebration of the 25 year old robots toyline from Hasbro that I wished would last forever when I was a kid. Except this was not the future I thought it would be where Bob

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When I was a kid living in El Paso my grandma would go to Juarez a lot and sometimes she'd come back with Marvel comics in Spanish. She never brought back Transformers issues but I still have an old copy of El Asombroso Hombre Araña she got me once. Based on my grandma's comic runs and my own experience I don't think the Marvel Transformers were ever released in comic form in Mexico. I was

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-44645347752809589382010-05-10T09:43:00.000-07:002010-05-12T08:56:16.644-07:00

As I uncover more and more television ratings reports in old issues of Variety magazine a couple of things become clear to me. First, ratings were reported in a number of ways at a number of times. There were three main reporting periods-February, May and November. However, judging from ads placed in broadcast industry publications like Variety and Broadcasting, networks also had access to weekly

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-15087885428949234912010-05-08T10:53:00.000-07:002010-05-08T22:58:22.924-07:00

From the back of the 1985 Transformers Lite Brite refill pack.

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-84048384599899734192010-05-07T22:28:00.000-07:002010-05-09T06:46:10.007-07:00

Back in the 80s the American companies who were selling toy robots had other toys that were also quite famous. Companies like Ideal and Tonka pioneered some of the greatest boys' playthings ever like the Erector Set and those steel toy construction trucks way before they got involved with robots. Then once robot mania hit, these toymakers combined their robots characters with their other toys

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-82706967677762870752010-05-05T08:21:00.000-07:002011-10-03T06:12:34.427-07:00

Becoming a fan of any old dead toy robots line nowadays is nowhere near as easy as jumping on the Transformers bandwagon. They aren't exactly pumping out the Robo Force t-shirts at Hot Topic if you know what I mean. I'll bet there's a couple obscure robots fans out there who would kill to be disgruntled about a movie where Megan Fox gets leg-humped by their favorite Zybot. Alas, there are no

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-24457514469080829122010-05-03T20:55:00.000-07:002010-05-12T08:54:57.600-07:00

I was looking through the June 26, 1985 issue of Variety Magazine when I came across some television ratings numbers. They were for the reporting period covering May of 1985 and they showed ratings for television shows in the top 100 markets in the US. This was awesome because fellow roboplastic historian (and perennial favorite among the collector community) Hooper X and I had been wondering

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-86329055526850514732010-04-28T18:20:00.001-07:002011-04-17T18:45:52.411-07:00

Every action figure has that one big iconic vehicle-the one that sticks in the minds of fans as the ultimate preferred mode of transportation for their little plastic people. For Micronauts it was the Battle Cruiser, Star Wars had the Millennium Falcon and for G.I. Joe it was the Skystriker. But move outside of the 3 3/4 inch scale and giant mega vehicles become rare. Although Robo Force robots

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-26053536790047964562010-04-27T15:03:00.000-07:002010-04-30T15:18:45.532-07:00

Thrift Drug 18 August, 1985ITS NUMBER IS SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY SIX!

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-3695028531470065732010-04-26T04:28:00.000-07:002010-04-29T07:15:17.943-07:00

I do oftentimes lament the current state of the toy robots scene and feel bad for the children growing up in my country where they can buy any toy robot they want as long as its a Transformer. When I was a kid there were many different toy robot lines with all sorts of varied themes in a slew of different sizes, shapes and colors. Now I do appreciate how Hasbro today is doing a great job of

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-32078833328927177772010-04-24T12:44:00.001-07:002010-04-25T06:33:26.634-07:00

The tenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse breaks like so many of your ribs as Hun-Dred crushes you with his crusher arms while forcing you to listen to this, the RoboForceTastic Podcastalypse!Or download it directlyA CALL TO (CRUSHER) ARMS!TV Guide Youngstown-Erie, PA 12/13/84The Robo ForceTastic Apocalypse comes to its crushy, grippy end with this Robo Force themed edition of the

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-25070546118412575962010-04-23T11:23:00.000-07:002011-01-22T16:12:36.727-08:00

TV Guide 08 December 1984It is a momentous day my fellow Robo Force-ians! I have uploaded the one shot Robo Force cartoon special "The Revenge of Nazgar" in three parts unto YouTube. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3YOUR HOMEWORK IS REVENGEWhen the time comes for this week's Podcastalypse I would like for everyone to know what I'm talking about and get all the references so if you would watch it I'd

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-29882622635982180952010-04-22T20:50:00.000-07:002010-04-23T14:30:25.159-07:00

Although Robo Force did not last beyond its initial debut year, Ideal was still able to commission a decent amount of fictional material exploring the Robo Force mythos. There were Robo Force stories in a variety of formats including the comics that were included with the figures, storybooks that were sold separately and also in the premiere (and only ) issue of Robo Force Magazine. I don't have

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-88864422079594689132010-04-22T20:44:00.000-07:002010-04-23T14:30:12.344-07:00

Last time on the RoboPaper Apocalypse I assembled the Maxx Steele and Hun-Dred paper models from the Robo Force Punch-Out Toy book. All that was left were the other two paper robots, Coptor and Blazer. The way I see it, the choice of characters included in this book supports my theory that Blazer was originally intended as a bad guy. If you could only choose four robots from a toyline in which

Evil King Macrocranioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01693211146604544544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37301459.post-69370338076081449182010-04-21T20:20:00.000-07:002010-04-23T14:30:25.162-07:00

Although Robo Force did not last beyond its initial debut year, Ideal was still able to commission a decent amount of fictional material exploring the Robo Force mythos. There were Robo Force stories in a variety of formats including the comics that were included with the figures, storybooks that were sold separately and also in the premiere (and only ) issue of Robo Force Magazine. I don't have

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