Episode 454 - Snakes in MegaTokyo

Episode 454: Snakes in MegaTokyo

Eyewitnesses reported two heavily armed soldiers wearing the uniforms of a known terrorist organisation carrying an unconscious man off before loading him into a black jet fighter that then flew away, but we don’t think there’s a connection

In a break from the usual killer robot rampages, MegaTokyo is instead attacked by evil snake-themed terrorists as a part of their plan to sell action figures. Fortunately, the Knight Sabers are there to deal with a tense hostage situation by going in all guns blazing and dispensing justice with a series of crotch kicks, but things still go horribly wrong despite this brilliant plan. Will Sylia escape the clutches of Cobra? Will Mackie remember the proper clean-up procedures at work? Will Rick ever make a second Grand Mal joke? As you ponder these matters, grab yourself a stolen uniform and can of Uncle Wilikins Grape Soda for Snakes in MegaTokyo. It’s the most eighties crossover you can think of!

Riffers: Dan, Rebecca Bartley, Tsuneo Tateo and Rick R. Mortis

Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Rebuild of Elmer Studios, year ten

Ten years. Wow.

Honestly, when we started this project, we had no idea where it would go. The whole idea of ‘rebooting’ Elmer Studios was a sort of ‘sure, why not’ thing with the plan being to simply keep going for as long as we could or as long as we had material to go on with. Instead, the whole thing took us in completely unexpected directions. The B-Teams, the lost pilots, the guest cast, Storm Force and the rabbit hole that it led us down and so on.

Had you asked me where this would be in 2012, I would have had no clue. And yet, here we are. And we’re still going.

In the last year, we covered seventeen episodes, which was on the low side of things. There were mitigating circumstances, including a problem with uploads that meant that there were no episodes released in October of 2021. But that wasn’t all that happened.

Rebuild of Elmer Studios, year nine

Year nine of the Rebuild of Elmer Studios was one of those strange moments where things took completely unexpected turn. We’ve now completely overtaken the original iteration by a considerable degree, even allowing for spin-offs, side projects, collaborations, lost episodes and the like. And that’s only going to increase.

In the last year we finished twenty-three episodes, an increase over past years. There may have been mitigating circumstances that did prompt that increase in productivity; something to do with us and the rest of the world being stuck indoors with nothing better to do with their times. It’s not quite the fabled two episodes per month I’d wanted, but it’s about as close as it’s ever going to get.

Rebuild of Elmer Studios, year eight

With the conclusion of the eight year of Elmer Studios, we have now completely outlived the original incarnation, both in terms of lifespan in raw time and the episode count. Even allowing for side projects and collaborations, we now have more “modern” Elmer Studios episodes then “classic ones”. And as I type this, we likely have enough material to carry us through to a ninth year.

In this last year we completed twenty-one episodes (well, actually twenty, but Episode 404 is in final edit as I type this. As can be seen from previous years, this sort of pace has become the new normal for us; my goal of two episodes per month has sadly proven to be unrealistic for what is, in essence, a casual hobby project. However, we still did have a number of good episodes in that last year.

It also needs to be said that this last year was the victim of two massive reschedules that also threw off our planning. One of those was a fic that had already not only been entered into the schedule, but also begun work on the riffing; as such, removing it from the schedule changed a lot of other things around. One of the reshuffled fics is still to come; when you read it, you’ll begin to understand why it was moved.

Episode 403 - Bubblegum Shift, chapter 4

Episode 403: Bubblegum Shift, chapter 4

I see nothing that could go wrong with letting a heavily armed masked mercenary vigilante walk around our secret and highly illegal base

James “Darkwind” Williams, immortal shapeshifter, billionaire CEO, member of an ancient conspiracy and recreational helicopter gunship pilot has amnesia. Faced with this terrible development, people stand around and talk about it. And that’s it, really. That’s all that happens in this chapter. Still, we find out that DarkWind was ready to launch a full-scale war for control of MegaTokyo that would have destroyed the city because the good guy and that his secret arsenal of tanks was for purely peaceful purposes, and that’s something, I guess. Not like there’s much else going on, really. So plug into your proprietary charger and blab out all your deepest secrets for the next slab of Bubblegum Shift! It’s got a killer car, or something.

Riffers: ?, ?, ? and ?
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Episode 402 - Bubblegum Shift, chapter 3

Episode 402: Bubblegum Shift, chapter 3

You’re an eccentric billionaire CEO. Taking your bike to the track for the weekend is perfectly normal. Hell, you can shoot it into space and be hailed as a genius.

The war between the two near identical shapeshifter conspiracies heats up as those guys send out killer robots to attack those other guys. And if that description seems rather vague and useless, then treasure it as it’s about as good a summary of the plot of this fic as I can actually manage. Having lost his giant office building in a robot attack, Jim moves in with Kathy so he can plot his next move from the comfort of her sofa. Does Kathy get a say in this? Probably not, but it’s not like she’s an actual person anyway, so who cares, right? Meanwhile, we vaguely allude to that one Bubblegum Crisis episode with the car (you know, that one) and have an awkward dinner date and some office politics in the name of slowly edging the plot along in this next chunk of Bubblegum Shift. Now with some guy called Bert!

Riffers: ?, ?, ? and ?
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Episode 401 - Bubblegum Shift, chapter 2

Episode 401: Bubblegum Shift, chapter 2

I mean, he could be illegally flying a heavily armed helicopter gunship around a major metropolis for purely benign reasons.

Given that this is a gripping action story of killer robots, high-tech vigilantes, immortal shapeshifter conspiracies and helicopter gunships, the next chapter of Bubblegum Shift is about exactly what you expect. That’s right, corporate land deals and the associated rezoning disputes. And if that doesn’t thrill you, then I suppose you could go with the idea of a gripping robot battle in which you have to ask why anyone built an office tower with extensive anti-missile defences and a self-destruct system, because to me that sounds like the work of a slightly unhinged mind. So take a seat at your hardwood desk with attendant minigun turrets for the next part of Bubblegum Shift for a thrilling round of saving Sho’s Mother’s life. Whatever her name is.

Riffers: ?, ?, ? and ?
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Episode 400 - Bubblegum Shift, chapter 1

Episode 400: Bubblegum Shift, chapter 1

They’re here to kick arse and chew Bubblegum Crisis, and they’re all out of Bubblegum Crisis.

When two sinister immortal shapeshifter conspiracies go to war in the futuristic metropolis of Mega-Tokyo, it’s up to Jim ‘Darkwind’ Williams (yes, this really is his name) to try and make sure that the right sinister immortal shapeshifter conspiracy wins. To this end, he must move subtly and discretely, and by that I mean he’s going to fly around in a heavily armed helicopter gunship blowing stuff up. In the meantime, his partner Kathy is going to infiltrate an elite supertech police force with a threadbare cover for no apparent reason, but this is still all a part of his plan. All this plus killer robots and maybe some guys called the Knight Sabers and you have the first portion of Bubblegum Shift. It’s very nineties in a retro-eighties way!

Riffers: ?, ?, ? and ?
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Rebuild of Elmer Studios, year four

Year four of Elmer Studios was, admittedly, a slow one. With twenty-five episodes done (and a twenty-sixth in progress as of this writing) it was the slowest year so far of the rebuild. There were a number of reasons for that slow-down, however, which do merit some explanation. One of the biggest reasons was simple length of the fics involved, with the last year featuring almost entirely long ‘series’ fics spread over the course of many episodes. If you looked at it in terms of actual numbers of fics done, there’s surprisingly few. Even then, that’s still a good amount of work, and bringing us a lot further along than we expected when we started the Rebuild.

This last year featured a number of highlights and interesting moments, including fictive firsts, the return of old favourite authors, lost prequels and fanfic reboots. It also featured its own story arc for a portion of its run. Finally, it marked some significant milestones in the history of the (new) Elmer Studios.

Episode 300 - Tales of the Red Knight Saber

Episode 300: Tales of the Red Knight Saber

They ended up outsourcing the Esper Killing Department to Consultant who spent millions of the company's money on research before finally suggesting that Genom should just build a bigger killer robot.

Not content to be a leering creep of a supporting character, Mackie Stingray decides to be the hero of the story in this vintage fanfiction masterpiece. Suddenly transformed into a six foot tall bike-riding try-hard badarse with the power to kill people with his brain and his own super hardsuit that's better than everyone else's to boot, Mackie sets out to do vaguely defined stuff with no clear goal. But he's not the only author proxy in town, as a run in with super-powered dude Kyrind Brandford and his power to tear killer robots in half like they were made out of ice cream attests! (Whether he can tear them in half like they were made out of other soft desserts remains unproven as yet) Throw in a generic villain returning from the dead, a vague semblance of a plot, unlikeable god-mode OCs borrowed from other fanfics and nearly one hundred soldier, and you have the re-edited thing that is Tales of the Red Knight Saber.

Riffers: ?, ?, ? and ?
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Rebuild of Elmer Studios, year three

A year ago, I said I was surprised that we made it to two years of the rebuild. This year I’m surprised not that we made it through another year, but rather by looking at the numbers. We’ve now done ninety-two ‘episodes’ since we re-started. That’s something like sixty percent of the original Elmer Studios run, but in less then sixty percent of the time that it took. And when you realize that the average episode is much longer then in the original run, that makes it even more impressive.

Of course, there are a number of caveats to that which have had the effect of speeding up our production rate. While the micro-chunking process has been a fantastic success (our productivity has been boosted to an insane degree thanks to the process), it’s not the only reason why we’ve been so active this last year. Thirty MSTings is a good year for anyone, after all

Rebuilding Elmer Studios - The Voice

When we were rebuilding the cast in preparation for the Rebuild of Delta, there was one incredibly important matter that had to be considered - who would it be that was sending them the fic? Almost immediately the answer came as a "rebooted" version of the original Elmer Studios host, The Voice. However, that then raised a lot of other questions, many of which had been around since the original series.

The result was that while a very literal off-screen character, the Voice would need a lot of work.

Episode 275 - Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 2

Episode 275: Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 2

Yes, I am glad that such an improbable development was properly foreshadowed rather than being thrown in at the last minute.

A convincing, deep and well-realised villain with well thought-out motives and goals can be an incredible asset to a narrative. I only mention this because the second half of Bubblegum Climax: Freefall doesn’t feature anything remotely like that. Instead it gives us Demond, a goony, one-dimensional clod who has no motivation, no background and no plan beyond ‘blow stuff up with the nuke I have for no real reason’ and goes out of his way to ruin his own operation and generally make things hard on himself. But he’s also incredibly fun, so we’ll let him do it anyway. Throw in a rampaging secret weapon that’s doing more harm to its master than anything else and a Deus Ex Machina that will shock you with just how forced it is, and you can call it a day. Save for the inevitable sequel, of course.

Riffers: Dan, Rebecca Bartley, Tsuneo Tateo and Rick R. Mortis
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Episode 274 - Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 1

Episode 274: Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 1

Leaping to conclusions, the fanfic!

Despite its title, this fic is not actually a lemon. Yes, I was actually surprised as well. What is it then? Mostly it’s a Bubblegum Crisis sequel fic that actually acknowledges the existence of Crash! and could be best summarised as “Knight Sabers In Space, kinda sorta maybe”. Being honest, for the most part it’s about a black jumpsuit that is both enigmatic and strangely fascinating, and certainly a lot more interesting than the person wearing it. It’s also about restating the obvious, exposition news, flubbed lines and airport waiting lounges, so if you are fans of any of those, you’re in for a treat. So sit back, relax, fall in love with a dead robot and enjoy the thing that is Bubblegum Climax: Not a Porno Set-Up, No Really.

Riffers: Dan, Rebecca Bartley, Tsuneo Tateo and Rick R. Mortis
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Rebuild of Elmer Studios, year two

Year two of the rebuild of Elmer Studios. Wow. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if we were going to make it this far; in fact, I wasn’t even sure if we’d make it past the Rebuild of Delta. But yet, here we are, two years in (or seventeen, or ten since the shutdown) and I think it’s fair to say that we’ve achieved a lot.

This last year saw thirty MSTings, again a good number when compared to the typical run of the ‘Classic’ years. It gets better when you consider that the average episode length definitely climbed, while the number of rebuilds dropped considerably (Two in year two versus fifteen in year one, including a ‘technically not a rebuild’). In addition, two long-standing ‘started but never finished’ episodes were finally released, as well as a comic MSTing that was always on the ‘to do’ list

And, as if by a bonus, we had our first ever real story arc.

Rebuilding Elmer Studios - The Wandering Star Saga

When we were looking through the list of old fics that we wanted to rebuild, one name in particular came up. That was, of course, The Wandering Star Saga. The last fic of the “old” Elmer Studios era, the riffing had never been completed. That in ad of itself had moved it high onto the “to do” list, but there were a number of other factors. Back in the day, we considered the fic to be ‘prime’ material for a number of reasons, not the least of which was our resident new villain, Krokojam.

(And yes, rebuilding Recollections of a Tekkaman was a prelude of sorts to this project. It helped us to get a degree of context and to ‘set up’ material for the rebuild).

However, there were also a number of problems that needed to be resolved in order to make this happen. These would end up making the project a lot more complicated and involved then any prior rebuild.

Episode 241 - The Wandering Star Saga, part 2

Episode 241: The Wandering Star Saga, part 2

Enough forced levity, time for forced drama

The incomplete original MSTing of Wandering Star Saga (Not to mention the original fic’s vanishing from the interwebs) left a lot of unanswered questions on the minds of many (Well, maybe some. Maybe), probably chief of which was ‘Who the hell are Minerva and Paladin and why do I even care?’ Well if you’ve lost precious sleep over that for the past years, prepare to be disappointed by the answer you get! That’s right, not only are our two Self Insertions barely in the chapter, there’s not even the slightest appearance by beloved alien warlord Krokojam! So what is there you might ask? The answer is wangst, block exposition and recaps. Disappointed? I know I am and I’ve been working on this.

That’s right, it’s the rebuild that took nine years to get to you, and you’ll realize why!

Riffers: ?, ?, ? and ?
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Episode 240 - The Wandering Star Saga, part 1

Episode 240: The Wandering Star Saga, part 1

I like Krokojam for his subtle, nuanced chracterisation..

Having composed her wangst potry epic My boyfriend was a clone and now he’s dead, Dana Sterling finds herself abducted by a random space thingy and sent to another franchise. Once there, she’s abducted again by the utterly gooney and yet utterly awesome Krokojam! An evil and sinister alien with a voice that is both monotone and full of ham at the same time, this vile overlord has a plan for the floating naked space chick he just found. What is it, you might ask? Well, we don’t actually know because the fic decides to digress into hilarious practical jokes and their near-fatal consequences. Throw in some visiting Mary Sues who can’t quite figure how to take over the fic and gratuitous use of stock footage and blatant author favouritism and you have the first chunk of the Krokojam Saga!

Riffers: ?, ?, ? and ?
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

The Episode 240 teaser

Since it's Comicon season, I felt it was fair to hand out a teaser trailer of sorts for the perpetually in-progress Episode 240 (Which, incidentally, is now on the final micro-chunk of riffing before we get to edit, cleanup, host segments and stuff). As such, I can reveal three things about it:

1. It is a rebuild
2. It has a different cast to the original version
3. It reintroduces a character not seen so far in the "modern" Elmer Studios MSTings.

Feel free to speculate wildly and see you soon for Episode 240!

Rebuilding Elmer Studios - Celena

Celena Harte was the second member of the B-Team to appear in the “classic” Elmer Studios era. While popular, her she also had her share of problems. However, in her case the issues came less from character and more from utilisation. And while the new approach to the B-team solved a lot of those problems, it was still good to take a look at the character and see what could be done with them.

It seems to have worked. So far, Celena has put in as many “modern” appearances as she did classic, with more on the way.