(This pic makes me happy - check out the attention to detail: Mega-slushes, Coop with like six burgers, and they're at a Five Guy's Burgers - one of my favorite joints. Well done gents & Neko Sasuke Kun!)
In honor of Megas' upcoming Sixth Anniversary on May 1st, here's the answers to the six most popular questions that have crawled their way across the internets to my inbox.
Without further ado...
6. Where can I see Megas?
Officially, you can find both seasons for purchase and download on iTunes, Zune and Roadrunner. Unofficially, I know Youtube has all the episodes posted, but I think they' re cut into thirds. There also seem to be quite a few foreign sites that host full episodes, with varying levels of quality.
And I've heard from a number of fans that Megas seems to still be on the air in various countries across the globe - just not here in the U.S....because that would make all the other shows look bad...
5. Where's the Megas toys?
I was actually in a Toys R Us a few years ago, hunting for some damn Star Wars exclusive repaint that Hasbro was tricking me into buying for the sixth time when I overheard a distraught mom asking the customer service rep this very same question. And all I can tell ya, is what I told her, and I'm sure you'll be just as pissed - there really are none.
If you missed out on the online exclusive four-inchers, or the DC Direct statue you're pretty much out S.O.L. Jolibee put out a couple of items a few years ago with their happymeal-style promotions, and although they rocked, I wouldn't really class them as toys. (More like trippy cup lids).
Now should Megas ever be revisited, this may change, but as of right now - ebay, or making your own customs is the way to go.
4. How did the soundtrack come together?
We ran out of money. Simple as that. Our soundtrack budget was pretty much zero, so after we blew what we had on the opening theme, we were forced to use the Turner Library to pull almost all of our tracks and needle-drops - that's why you can hear "Megas" music on CNN, TBS, TNT, etc. Luckily, Turner owned a massive music collection that actually had a lot of great tracks - tracks that made for excellent robot-fightin' mood-music.
And no, there are no plans to release a soundtrack - although it would cost CN about two bucks to do it since they already own the rights to all the tracks...
3. Will there be a third season?
I've learned never to say never in this business - stranger things have happened, and although there has been some interest in revisiting Megas by a third party, it seems that CN kinda has their dance card full of robot shows currently. Also, since they own the rights, and hold all the cards, it falls to them if they want to do anything with Coop's little DIY project.
If it were up to us, we'd be well into our sixth season right now, and in fact when CN pulled the plug, we were writing a feature and roughing out a third season.
2. Where is my damn DVD/Blu-Ray set!?
Ah, yeah I get this question about once a week and the answer is - never. Or at least I don't know. Again, since the show is owned by CN - it is their call to either release the series, or not. And so far it's been not.
As for Blu-Ray, from what I recall, we actually did the second season in HD with the intention of broadcasting and releasing it in high definition, but obviously that plan fell by the wayside with our cancellation.
Not sure how much it would cost to put Megas on DVD, or BR, but with the whole market collapsing in on itself, it just might be a bad time.
But there is this guy who has a bootleg table at all the cons...
1. Why did you shut down Megas?
Truth be told, CN shut us down, and not the other way around as some fans have conjectured. As to why, the new brass didn't feel that we were speaking to the audience they were interested in reaching, even though we were actually breaking records - until they started moving us around.
Not sure if they ever did find that demo they were hunting for...maybe those live-action series did it for them?
That's it for now. This Saturday, celebrate May 1st as Megas Day - watch an ep, have six hamburgers, a mega-slush and creep out your pals with your giant robot trivia knowledge while vomiting on their shoes - just like Coop would!
23 comments:
Some people with a ton of time on their hands actually tracked down all the songs that play in the show and created an unofficial Megas soundtrack. The fans are truly dedicated!
Live action shows,yeah...because that's why kids tune into the Cartoon Network.
And Krys and I will drink slushies until our brains freeze in honor of the anniversary!
Goddammit, Cn, goddammit....!
I finally got all the episodes on my 360 about a week ago :) Amazon had a 4000 point card for $42 and I got $10 off of my order, I wonder how good the eps are selling. Still waiting for the DVD set that may never come. I hate the current state of Cartoon Network, use to be one of my favorite channels but not so much these days. I didn't outgrow it, the programing just went downhill :P
ahh, the Megas XLR anniversary...one of my favorite holidays.
This again is why I love reading this Blog and anything you write in general. You a man after my own heart.
I am a huge fan of Transformer Animated, another CN Show pulled before its time (Though like Megas, they got a good ending). After the show finished a few writers did a Guide to the show called "The Allspark Almanac" \. What Made it Awesome was it was written almost entirely "in universe" with Bio's written by other characters from the show. Ever Thought about putting out a "Gearheads Guide to Giant Robots" for Megas? Including Kiva's Tactical Analysis, Coop's Cool Factor and Jamie Scream Level for Friend Foe in the Megasverse?
I'd buy that.
Part of me died when megas was canceled, Best. Cartoon. Ever. And in the running for best plain show, if I ever get around to deciding it.
About the music. You can actually find the music at varous production music websites online. Infact, some of the music from Megas XLR is also where music for Spongebob Squarepants and Ren and Stimpy come from.
Also interestingly enough, you can hear some of the music from Megas in My Gym Partner's a Monkey.
Hey bro, look what I found in honor of the anniversary:
http://www.anilinkz.com/search/anilinkz/Megas+XLR/
Some people have wondered why Megas XLR never parodied Neon Genesis Evangelion.
I know EVA is definately not the kind of show kids should watch but considering how many subtle anime references Megas had, im surprised...why not a single nod to that show
Skritz: Because the entire show was sort of a reaction to Evangelion.
Up until Megas, just about all giant robot shows had pilots that were waif-like emo kids who were depressed about getting to drive a giant robot. Coop was a direct reaction to that.
Yes, I'm generalizing, but that was the basic idea.
I still don't understand why Adult Swim doesn't air this series. The series perfectly caters to the 18-34 Demographic, and Saturdays they constantly have ratings problems. Megas could probably help there.
Morgan - awesome. Saw the pics - epic!
Fox - Love the idea for the book, but again CN doesn't seem interested in anything Megas - at least not in the current climate...
Don't we know it. But a Fanboy can dream.
Alright, so we know that CN still owns the rights to CN and whatnot, but why on earth do they still want to have those rights if they're not gonna do anything with them? You can't even play that rad fighter game on their website anymore, nor is Megas even in the show list anymore. Yeah, they've got a little cameo in Fusionfall. But that's it .~.
We'd all be better off if they just sell the rights. To you, or that mysterious third party you speak of.
Hello Mr George Krstic, I've been a fan of Megas XLR since day 1, I remember watching the pilot episode back in 2002 when it first aired. The questions you answered are questions that I've been wanting to ask for years. Also I've been waiting for a long time for a DVD release and seeing how there isn't any official DVD yet, I bought a bootleg DVD cause I couldn't wait any longer, I love the show so much, but there is still one thing that I wish to know, when Megas aired on tv were the episodes uncut? Was there any scenes that were animated but cut from the final product?
Kafei - I doubt that CN would ever sell rights to anything they own, but you never know...
Codarik - glad you dig the show, and the only stuff we ever cut was due to gags not working, bad animation, or a show running long.
Hi George!
I see many had celebrated with burger and mega slush on Megas 6th anniversary, wow its really been that long since Megas first aired on TV.
If Megas was still on today what you guys had done for stories and parodies? I kinda imaging Megas doing a parody or homage to the video game Brütal Legend and One Piece, i mention that one because there's a character called Franky that he's half cyborg and does alot of parodies of mechas including Mazinger and Voltron, in my opinion he's the anime version of Coop.
Do they also own the movie rights? The popularity of Megas has a long and growing tail. We've helped with that a bit, we introduce a lot of our friends to the show. There are many more fans now than when it was actually on the air. Its kinda reminiscent of Firefly, actually. Thankfully in that fiasco, Whedon kept the movie rights and was able to give the fans some closure and simultaneously introduce that entire universe to more people who had missed it. But unlike Firefly, I've never shown Megas to anyone who didn't immediately love the show. Firefly usually required a bit of explanation ("y'see, they're frontier planets... thats why they're all dressed like that")
What I don't understand is that there are stupid bogus channels for just about everything under the sun. Most of them are full of crap. Cartoon network has a how many channels now? 2? 3? One for kids (CN), and one for overly sheltered kids (Boomerang). With the greatly mourned death of Toonami, one would have thought that they would make a solid channel dedicated to more mature animation. Considering all of the robot cartoons of the past, one could do a whole channel on that genre alone.
If there's room on the digital cable dial for the Retirement Living channel, (home of Assisted Living Dracula) then surely there's room for a kick-ass cartoon channel.
Is there any kind of petition anywhere to get Megas back in gear? There should be. :-(
Hey Jeff - thanks for putting out the word! And as CN owns all rights, it's up to them if they want to do anything. Honestly, I don't think any of the new execs even know they own Megas...and if they do, they just don't care.
Be that as it may, I'd ask fans to keep an eye out for our new projects - Motorcity for Disney XD, and Orion for SyFy as the spirit of Megas will be every much alive in both.
(Not to mention that we'll be bringing a good chuck of the original Megas crew back for Motorcity...)
I hope someday you will be able buy out Megas XLR!! It had a great future that could a been a great film, great series, amazing video game!!
The guy who create Brutal Legend would've been perfect to make his image on Megas XLR! with awesome bad-ass villains, Coop fighting robots, Kiva and king-fu moves, Jaime getting smacked by more alien chicks, and Coop and Kiva have an awesome bad-ass romance for each other!!
Someday some will buy out that show and will put in charge on the whole series!! just you wait!!
There's always Kickstarter.
Just throwing this out there.
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