Check it out here.

UPDATE: Part 2 of the interview is here.

UPDATE 2: Part 3 of the interview is here.

UPDATE 3: Part 4 of the interview is here. 
Also updated the blog below with galleries of the Series 3 concepts, check them out if you haven't seen them!  

(NEW) UPDATE 4: Part 5 of the interview is here.

If you are visiting from reading the interview, welcome!   RocketTubes.Net itself is kind of in a prolonged archival status at the moment so a lot of links are old and non-working but I'm keeping the site up for those who are still referencing it or curious.   Please visit the RocketTubes LiveJournal (http://rockettubes.livejournal.com ) blog to see more current links and other info not presented on the LJ feed that is patched into RocketTubes.Net.   And thanks for visiting!  :D

Check it out here: 



http://www.flickr.com/photos/microbry/sets/72157619761489582/

You can also, as always, see more of my cg renders from Micronauts and other series over at my portfolio site.

Do you have any favorites?  Or are there some other unproduced color variations that you would have like to have seen?   Let me know what you think!

After my computer died, I've been going through my archive and figuring out which parts I want to back up on Flickr.   While there's a lot of stuff going up on Flickr that I will blog about more in depth later, you might want to check out microbry at Flickr in the interim as more will be going up than I will have a chance to talk about just yet (especially with the interviews still in progress--the next one should be on Fanmode next week, due to some small delays).

In other news, I am tentatively planning a large staged update and overhaul to all things rockettubesian to re-centralize things.  There might be some downtime on my archived sites, but the LJ page will continue unabated (save any maintenance on LJ's own part) until RocketTubes.Net 3.0 is ready to launch...

Update: Yep, the rockettubes.net site is temporarily offline at the moment I'm typing this.  I'm aware of the issue and will hopefully have things back up by next week if not sooner.

Update 2: Fixed.  For now.  I will be resturcturing the site soon, but hopefully not before I can put some redirects in so no one gets lost. :)  In the meantime, 98% or more of the site should be back on line, with only a few images missing on some old posts that will later redirect to Flickr versions anyway.   There may still be some minor issues as I have switched servers and the old server hasn't been shut down yet, which can cause some DNS issues.  Hope to have that fixed by Monday at the latest.

...you MUST see this.

Part Two is here.
Part Three is here.
Part Four is here.
Part Five is here.
Part Six is here.


Way back in 2002, we had assembled a consultant group for Palisades as a "think tank" to come up with new ideas and concepts to give a multifaceted source of inspiration and sense of direction for where to take a new original line of Micronauts toys.   After it was over and the plug had been pulled on the Micronauts,  Dave Waugh of Innerspace Online and myself both got permission from Palisades and all the participants to host their images in a gallery.  Dave got his version together first, and it was so well done, I put mine on hold.   Unfortunately, Dave took down this valuable part of his site a few years back and hasn't had a chance to restore it.   And with more and more curious inquiries about the designs coming both on the Micropolis Embassy and directly to myself and others on the project, I thought it high time to share these images again, albeit in not as fancy a format as what Dave had presented before.  

So, here goes.  Please note that all images are copyright their original creators and are hosted with their prior consent obtained at the end of the project.  I do not own these images (except any I have indicated were created by myself), and they may not be reproduced without their creator's permission.   I will be doing a seperate blog post for each creator, and then link all the posts together into a single index post at the end which will be added to the sidebar.  

( First up is the work of Dave Waugh himself! )

Part One is here.
Part Three is here.
Part Four is here.
Part Five is here.
Part Six is here.


Continuing the series of concept art from the think tank for Palisades Toys' cancelled Series 3 of original Micronauts toys are contributions by Will Jones, owner of one of the earlier Micronauts sites on the web, Micronet, and creator of many Micronaut-inspired resin kits and other works.  Will experimented with CG modeling and explored new clever and innovative directions in his line art as well.

Again, please note that all images are copyright their original creators and are hosted with their prior consent obtained at the end of the project.  I do not own these images (except any I have indicated were created by myself), and they may not be reproduced without their creator's permission.   I will be doing a seperate blog post for each creator, and then link all the posts together into a single index post at the end which will be added to the sidebar. 

( The Series 3 concept work of Will Jones )

Part One is here.
Part Two is here.
Part Four is here.
Part Five is here.
Part Six is here.


Mike Bazzell is a talented computer game artist whose work you may have seen in the likes of Alpha Centauri and more recent Civilization games.   He also owns the website Mikerotron's Peculiar Drill Attachment, an old favorite of mine that I thought was long gone but appear to still be up out there on the web after all, at least in part.  Mike was one of the first to contribute to the Series 3 think tank and had some of the most "toyetic" designs of all!  

As with all these posts for the Series 3 gallery, please note that all images are copyright their original creators and are hosted with their prior consent obtained at the end of the project.  I do not own these images (except any I have indicated were created by myself), and they may not be reproduced without their creator's permission.   I will be doing a seperate blog post for each creator, and then link all the posts together into a single index post at the end which will be added to the sidebar.

( Mike Bazzell's visions for Series 3 )

Part One is here.
Part Two is here.
Part Three is here.
Part Five is here.
Part Six is here.

Gordon Smuder is another longtime member of the online Micronauts community and has worked in making props and puppets for television and all sorts of cool things I probably barely know about.  I also did one of my very first Micronaut-based CG works long ago based on a concept of his for a miniature Microtron figure.   He came in a bit late to the think tank but still contributed both a number of new ideas as well as shared a couple of his older concepts and demonstrated a combination of strong Takara and Mego influences in his work.  Not to mention a bit of whimsical fun along the way, too!  (Don't take the last image too seriously...)

As with all these posts for the Series 3 gallery, please note that all images are copyright their original creators and are hosted with their prior consent obtained at the end of the project.  I do not own these images (except any I have indicated were created by myself), and they may not be reproduced without their creator's permission.   I will be doing a seperate blog post for each creator, and then link all the posts together into a single index post at the end which will be added to the sidebar.

(  Gordons micro-concepts and imagery for Series 3 )

Part One is here.
Part Two is here.
Part Three is here.
Part Four is here.
Part Six is here.

I have to confess, I don't know Robert personally as well as the other contributors, but he's a Micropolis Embassy member who had some last-minute contributions near the end of the Series 3 think tank's run before the plug was pulled on the Micronauts at Palisades. He submitted some cool ideas that take a lot of influence from the New Microman Acroyear designs and other Takara SF Land-inspired ideas with some new twists.

As with all these posts for the Series 3 gallery, please note that all images are copyright their original creators and are hosted with their prior consent obtained at the end of the project. I do not own these images (except any I have indicated were created by myself), and they may not be reproduced without their creator's permission. I will be doing a seperate blog post for each creator, and then link all the posts together into a single index post at the end which will be added to the sidebar.

( Robert's concepts for Series 3 )

Part One is here.
Part Two is here.
Part Three is here.
Part Four is here.
Part Five is here.

And bringing up the rear, in more ways than one, is myself.   Actually, most of my contributions during the time of the think tank was more in the form of giving input, criticism, and direction, and posting concepts in written form (Dave had a lot of good quotes from this on his old gallery page for the project).  This was because I had my hands full at the time getting a huge number of CG models built and rendered for Palisades on top of my day job.  I had previously shown Ken some sketches before, though, and I did sketch a number of my ideas in really rough form, but never got these later drawings posted during the period the Series 3 think tank was running, unfortunately.  I have shared many of them online since then, but I don't have much in the way of finished concepts so much as some very loose ideas.   For completeness' sake though, I will include them here too.

As with all these posts for the Series 3 gallery, please note that all images are copyright their original creators and are hosted with their prior consent obtained at the end of the project. I do not own any of the other images, just the ones I have indicated were created by myself that are in this particular sub-gallery post below.  They may not be reproduced without my permission. I will be doing a seperate blog post for each creator, and then link all the posts together into a single index post at the end which will be added to the sidebar.

( Bryan Wilkinson's ideas for Series 3 )

Sorry for the delay in new material lately.  Things have been really crazy with work, and now I've had my home PC die on me and take one hard drive with it.  A lot of my original photos from the last year are gone that at least were mostly uploaded to Flickr, and I'm not sure what else was lost.  Fortunately I did have a lot archived seperately, so it's not nearly as bad as it could have been, I think.  

I do expect a partial reprieve in a couple weeks so there may or may not be any more posts here until then, depending on how things go.  At least I have a big stack of backlogged things to update on once I have the chance to do so!  :D

Antron gets a new ride!

"Discovered" by Austin C. at the Micropolis Embassy, I didn't put much thought into the matter until Michael Jaecks photographed one with Antron inside, then I knew I had to get one as well.

It really looks like a lost Mego vehicle made just for Antron, who seats inside perfectly even with all his weapons attached (I really need to get a new eyebolt attachment and an unbroken "spiked gun" for this guy...). Interestingly, while this is a dark green brained Antron, the blue canopy turns it bright and makes it almost seem to glow in regular light. I may later mod the missile launcher to launch a classic Mego style "mushroom" missile. After some discussion, Michael and I renamed this toyjacked vehicle "Scarabos" (which isn't entirely inappropriate for Blue Beetle, either, really), keeping in style with the similar Micronauts alien vehicle Lobstros.

Onell Design's Glyos System now has a modular interchangeable figure called "Buildman".. Made up mostly of multiple connector pieces, the Buildman's design allow for building up all sorts of original figures, vehicles, and robots. Here's just a couple of starter combos I came up with (not even using all the figures I received in the "Buildman Phalanx" construction set). The possibilities are endless!

A Buildman centauroid.



My idea of a Buildman AcroSoldier...note that it stands at the same height as a 3 3/4" figure!  Also Buildman foot sockets fit GI Joe pegs fairly well.

( Read Full Review... )

What do you think of Buildman Ranic?  Do you own any Glyos System toys?

Sky Girls was a fairly iffy series.

I enjoyed the original OVA as a fluff piece and watched some of the TV series but got kind of bored with it so I haven't watched more than the first few just yet. But I love the Sonic Diver suits themselves and knew I had to get one if they made toys of them. I had hoped they would do them as Busou Shinki toys, which are fairly direct cousins, but they only did figures of the girls, not the suits. 

The plus side is that Freeing designed the suits in a non-scale size that is probably somewhere around 1/15 to 1/12 scale (the girls themselves are quite small in the series...more so than they ought to be for their purported age), and it can easily fit the 2003+ MIcroman figures, recent long-legged Gi Joes figures,  as well as some Figma figures, so as far as I'm concerned it's 1/18th...ish. Will have to post more pics later of that... Because of its ambiguous scale, it looks nice next to the 1/15 Yamato Garland toy as well as next to the 1/18 Takara Dual Model Zwei Votoms ScopeDog and such. The toy is impressively articulated, can transform to an autonomous robot mode and a flight mode, and has opening micro-missile pods on the shoulders. Great stuff!

( Read Full Review... )

A kitbash of Microman Military Force, BJPM Gene Block parts and a McFarlane Toys Phantom of the Opera mask.

I got lucky and found this guy loose with a Hurricane Bird for pocket change (the auction photo was low res, didn't indicate anything special about the Robotman Ace in the description, and it was difficult to tell in the pic it wasn't the regular opague version). Not to be confused with the super-rare all-clear Robotman Ghost, Clear Robotman Ace was a less rare but unusual Toys 'R Us exclusive. Amazingly, even many of the opague-looking parts in this pic are clear as well, such as the feet and hands.

Misodrill creates a neat new Microvehicle using parts from a Meccano construction playset!

He's also made some pretty nifty original Acroladies...

Great articles by Gobi at Fanmode:

MugenBine
Assemble Borg

(Check his sidebar for others, too, such as for Figma, Revoltech, Busou Shinki, etc.)

Another amazing kitbashed transforming microbike from Kaboflower.

From GI Joe fansite HISStank.com: amazing GI Joe vs. Transformers customs (kitbashed GI joe vehicles that transform and other crossovers!):
Optimus Prime/HISS
DeceptiClaw
Laserbeak
Grimlock
Ravage
There are others such as Skywarp/Nightraven but they require forum membership to view the images.   Given that HISStank.com has a great reputation for cool custom work, I'd say it's probably worth a join to see what else folks are doing... and then there's that five foot tall 1/18th scale Devastator custom...

Been meaning to give props for some time now, but AcroNinja has some really nice Marvel Micronauts-inspired customs on display on his new Toys as Art blog.  Check 'em out!

I've added a sidebar section for Rockettubes LJ sponsors.   If you are interested in sponsoring my blog, let me know.   I will be happy to endorse any interested toy-related shops or sites that I've had reliable good business with and add them to my sidebar after discussing it with them.    I can also support some non-obtrusive advertisement posts within certain reasonable limits.  I am not opening this site to banner ads, pop-ups, and eye-sore flash adverts, this will just be a modest, minor addition for only the few exclusive dealers and sellers who I know well enough and meet my personal approval. 

Rockettubes LJ's first official sponsor is the wonderful Zira28, a Japanese seller on eBay who frequently has interesting Microman products along with other interesting and unusual items.   She is very reliable and has many friends in the Micro-community, and this blog has thrived partly thanks to her.   Zira28 is an honorary sponsor who has more than earned her place as Rockettubes LJ's first one.  I hope you'll bookmark her and look for nice items in the year ahead.  :)  

A slight tangent from my usual posts...

I've been collecting a few Figma figures from different anime series, and have been blown away by the quality, attention to detail, posability, sturdiness, ability to hold poses tightly with more freedom of movement than Revoltech's ratcheting joints, and extras.

Overall I have been pretty disappointed with my few Revoltech purchases, which do not hold poses as well as I hoped, are overly heavy, have inconsistent jointing (the Frauleins in particular lack the famous revolver-joints in the knees and elbows, and the elbows seem particularly weak) and lacking in options by comparison. Perhaps the expensive but versatile Assemble Borg line will change my feelings toward Revoltech later, but for now, I think Figma as a more elegant solution and their figures are close to Microman posability (no double joints in the elbows and knees, but a very broad range of motion in those joints nonetheless) and scale (a bit bigger, probably close to 1/12 scale depending on the figure). Also of note to Microman/Cyborg fans, there are now a male and female "Archetype" blank Figma figure in clear plastic that look rather nice.

Not all Figma figures are anime heroines, either, with a number of male characters (particularly from Code Geass and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) and figures of Japanese baseball team mascots and, most bizarrely yet, former gay porn star Billy Herrington, who has become a popular internet meme in Japan...

Figma English page

Do you collect anime figures?   Do you prefer them as "statuettes" or as action figures?  Do you have any preferred series of anime-style action figures? If you own any Figma figures, what do you think of them?