The Robotech panel was moderated by Kevin McKeever, the VP of Merchandising at Harmony Gold, and Billy Davis, the Executive Vice President. It was a very crowded room showing that the passion for all things Robotech is still very strong, so whether you are a fan of the Macross Saga, all things Mospeda, or if you are simply a merchandise geek (which there were plenty of in the crowd), there was something to be enjoyed during the course of this panel here at San Diego Comic-Con!!!
To start things off it was announced that there is a new director for the Robotech Live Action film, and he is Andy Muschietti. In case anyone didn’t know who he is, they ran the trailer for his new film from Warner Bros., It. There have been one or two teasers for the film, but this was a full length trailer, and it was scary to say the least. This could make for a really good horror film, but is Muschietti any good at handling a science fiction film worthy of Robotech? Not much was said because he was only recently brought on board. It should be noted that we learned of this last week, but when we reached out to Kevin McKeever for confirmation he told us that he wasn’t prepared to comment at that time. We generally assumed that the reason was to make the announcement at Comic-Con. It’s nice to know we get things right now and then! It was also asked if any Robotech presence would appear in the upcoming movie Ready Player One, but nothing was known at the present time. When the question regarding a multi-movie franchise was brought up, all Harmony Gold (HG) would say is that nothing is set with Sony at present, but that they were actively speaking with Sony regarding all of these points.
It was shared that Sony gave a mandate demanding for more Robotech out in the marketplace, most likely to help generate further excitement for the film. The answer was to really push for online streaming. On Crackle, all 85 episodes plus The Shadow Chronicles, as well as on Netflix, and on Amazon it would include all of Macross and Mospeda.
From here HG launched into the new licenses for merchandising, and there was plenty of that! Starting with new t-shirts, polos and hoodies, these would be available compliments of 80stees.com, and new plushies were to be marketed by Punipuni Factory. All of these could be purchased at robotech.com.
There are so many new partners that HG is currently working with, including Strange Machine Games, Coleco, Nsurgo, Super7, Lootcrate, Prime1 Studio from Tokyo, Calibre Wings and Northrop Grumman. Are you ready to see all that they shared???
Both McKeever and Davis shared that the Robotech.com website has been totally rebuilt, and will include a new store, a new infopedia section, forums, and people who used to log in with their original e-mail accounts will still be able to do so.
Harmony Gold and Udon are also rebuilding (HG’s words) the art books for each of the Robotech series, staring with Macross Saga. These books will include art and tech designs, as well as episode guides. The first book is slated to be out in October. Lastly, there was an announcement that Titan Comics has the license to make new Robotech comics as well as publish the entire back catalogue, with the first issue already released this month. While there will be some retelling of the stories that fans already know, the new line of comic books will also delve deeper into side stories and tell new tales in the Robotech universe, and issue #2 is scheduled for early August.
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What are your thoughts regarding the information from this Robotech Panel? How do you feel about the Sony live actin film? Are you encouraged by the Robotech content that will be available for streaming? What did you think of some of this merchandise?
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