What can I say? Our fanbase rocks. I received an email from a fan named Rijab today, who not only forwarded me the lenticular cover for Animorphs #3, but also for Animorphs #4 and #5. These last two books are not even listed to be released until the end of next year! So yeah, needless to say, I was ecstatic to find these in my inbox this morning!
These covers are official, and are coming straight from the Scholastic Rights & Co-Editions site. Here are a few things to note:
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As you can see, the cover morphs for all of the books are now definitely following the same animal morphing choices from the first print of the series. (#1: Jake to Lizard, #2: Rachel to Cat, #3: Tobias to Hawk, #4: Cassie to Dolphin, #5: Marco to Gorilla, etc). So, aside from the Chronicles and Megamorphs, expect to see the same treatment for the rest of the books (if they publish past the first six).
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Like the first sneak peeks for #1 and #2, consider these covers to be a work-in-progress. These could be the final covers you’ll see, or they could be updated with further changes in the future. The alterations could be anything, as drastic as a complete recasting of the model and animal (in #1), to a different blend of the tech-skin background (#2).
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Along with these covers, we now also have a list of languages Scholastic has the rights to publish Animorphs in, and the publishers who would be responsible for distributing these books in under those language prints. However, it is still unconfirmed whether Scholastic has decided to republish Animorphs under these languages, so don’t get too excited until we say so. Here is the list of languages available:
Bahasa Indonesian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified only), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese- Brazil, Russian, Spanish, Spanish-Latin, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
To see the publishers individually associated with each language, see the Scholastic Rights & Co-Editions page again and click on one of the books to see them on the right.
You may have also noticed that the covers are only available in small thumbnail formats at the moment (publicly). So if anyone finds any of these with higher resolutions, then please by all means email me, so that I can share it with everyone else here as well.
In the meanwhile though, I’ve gone ahead and added the individual books and covers into our Pre-Order Page, with summaries, ISBN, and all. I’ll be adding pre-ordering links to those once they are available.
I think that’s everything for now. Be sure to also follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay current on updates like these.
And again, a major credit and thanks to Rijab for finding these book covers.
Until next time!
posted by Hirac Delest at 1:42 pm
I still surprise myself when I get a little adrenaline rush from stumbling onto something like this, and realize just how much of an impact this series still has on me. Here is a very exciting new promo by Scholastic that features K.A. Applegate herself. In here, she talks about the story origins of Animorphs, about the 90s culture, and about the new relaunch coming next year! On top of that, the video also gives us our first glimpse of the new Rachel model from Animorphs #2! (Why are you still reading this? I know most of you have already clicked play):
You can also see it directly by going to Scholastic’s website!
As for Rachel’s new cover model, you can see her along with Jake at the 1:40 mark, or by clicking on the snapshot I took (above). Also, as last time, if anyone is able to get me a downloadable copy of this video, then please forward it to my email so that I can save it for the archive.
UPDATE: Thanks to a speedy response from Veronica, we now also have the actual video file for the interview! I’ll be sure to add that into the archive once I get some time.
That’s all for now! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates like this on the Animorphs relaunch. Until next time! 🙂
posted by Hirac Delest at 6:35 pm
The new Animorphs #1-3 (Lenticular Editions) are now available to pre-order in United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany through Amazon!
UK and Japan have #1-3 available, while Germany only has #1 & 2 at the moment. All of them are released with the same release dates as Canada & U.S (#1 & 2 in May 2011, and #3 in July 2011). Here are the pricing and pre-order links:
Animorphs #1: The Invasion (Lenticular Edition)
£4.49 from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom)
￥ 611 from Amazon.co.jp (Japan)
EUR 5,99 from Amazon.de (Germany)
Animorphs #2: The Visitor (Lenticular Edition)
£4.49 from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom)
￥ 618 from Amazon.co.jp (Japan)
EUR 5,99 from Amazon.de (Germany)
Animorphs #3: The Encounter (Lenticular Edition)
£4.42 from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom)
￥ 739 from Amazon.co.jp (Japan)
As for international covers, they look exactly the same as the ones that are being released in Canada and U.S. Also, it does not look like these are translated copies, but the same English ones that are being made available in North America. I also did not see any pre-orders available for France, China, or Italy (yet).
In the mean while, I’ve gone ahead and updated these links in our Pre-Order page (see right side). If anyone has information regarding other countries/translations/international covers, then please do let me know so that I can forward it to the rest of the fans.
Until next time!
posted by Hirac Delest at 8:15 pm
Thanks to Ian Hiatt, the new Animorphs #3 (Lenticular Edition) is now available to pre-order on Amazon for both Canada and U.S! The cover has yet to be revealed, however it is priced just the same as the first 2 books: $6.99 US ($7.99 CAN), and is set to be released July 1st, 2011. Here is the full info:
(Spoiler warning, new readers!)
Animorphs #3: The Encounter (Lenticular Edition)
When Tobias and his friends were given the power to morph, they were also given an important warning: Never stay in a morph for more than two hours. But Tobias broke the time limit, and now he’s trapped in the body of a hawk — forever. When he discovers an important Yeerk secret, Tobias knows he has to do everything in his power to destroy it. But to do so, he’ll have to contend with a part of himself that’s wrestling for control. A part that isn’t human.
Pre-order from Amazon.com
(U.S.)
Pre-order from Amazon.ca
(Canada)
Release Date: July 1st, 2011
I’ve gone ahead and added this in our Pre-Order Page (right side), and have also updated Animorphs #1 & 2 with the new altered covers that we posted from a while back.
That’s all for now!
posted by Hirac Delest at 1:15 pm
For those of you looking for something creative to do over the holidays: The Animorphs LiveJournal Community is hosting a contest for both fan art and fan fiction. The submissions are due by January 5th, which is roughly 3 and a half weeks (a little less than a month) from now.
This contest is being held by blue rampion, so all submissions must go directly to her. For full info regarding the specifics of the contest’s theme, prizes, and rules, go to: community.livejournal.com/animorphs
**Please note that while the date on there says December 19th, it was pushed to January 5th in a recent post to give everyone time for exams and allow them to work on it over the holidays.
Good luck! 🙂
posted by Hirac Delest at 2:33 am
Thanks to a speedy response from Elaine, Dameg, and Nguyen to our post yesterday, we now have a copy of the morphing animation from Animorphs #1’s lenticular cover!
Elaine was kind enough to give me a GIF of the animation (posted below), while Dameg and Nguyen gave me the original SWF (which I’ll be placing in the video/book database later). I also went ahead and stripped the animation file of its frames, so that we can see the entire morphing process from start to finish (in the form of the older books). Here it is:
(Click here to see the animation in action!)
As you can see, this Jake model is a different Jake from the first lenticular cover that was released. We have no idea why they did this, but there is a definite difference of age between the two models, and the lizard seems to have been changed as well.
That’s it for now! Thanks again to Elaine, Dameg, and Nguyen for sending those files in! We’ll keep you posted on any more updates and changes.
posted by Hirac Delest at 12:21 pm
In case you missed our earlier post today, Scholastic published a press release about the relaunch of the Animorphs series, and also gave us a look at the morphing animation for Animorphs #1’s lenticular cover. To read the full news regarding that, go here: http://www.hiracdelest.com/blog/?p=1328
In the mean while, it looks like Scholastic is going ahead with one of its marketing plans and updating the Official Animorphs Website (The last update was back in 2001, when #54 and the Anibase were released).
Right now they only have a new banner (which is strangely featuring the old covers, when we have already confirmed the new ones), but I’m guessing that this is just a temporary sign to go up with the press release as they get a new design ready. Here are some pictures for the before and after:
OLD DESIGN (Last Updated 2001)
NEW UPDATE (December 9th, 2010)
We’ll keep you informed on any further changes and updates made towards the Animorphs relaunch.
posted by Hirac Delest at 4:13 pm
About an hour ago, Scholastic made an official press release for the Animorphs relaunch, and at the same time revealed the morphing animation for Animorphs #1’s Lenticular Cover! You can see the animation here: http://bit.ly/fSdVQp. (The animation is in flash, so if anyone is able to save a copy of it, either as a gif or avi, please email me!)
As for Scholastic’s press release, it highlights a new quote by K.A. Applegate:
“I am thrilled at the re-launch of Animorphs,” said K.A. Applegate. “Animorphs had far more impact on readers than I ever expected. Animorphs fan sites and works of fan fiction number in the thousands even today. Every library I visit has the old tattered copies, some now barely held together with glue and tape. So I’m very excited at the chance to retire those dog-eared old books, to ratify the enduring faith of the die-hard fans, and most of all, to reach a whole new generation of readers. The invasion is on, the Yeerks are everywhere, and the only ones who can stop them are the small band of kids with the power to become any living creature: the Animorphs are back.”
You can see the entire press release at: mediaroom.scholastic.com.
Most of the details in there are things we already know from the 2011 Library Webcast, however it now gives us an updated release date for Animorphs #4 and #5, which are now released in September and December 2011. So the new official release schedule (along with the ISBN) is as follows:
May 2011
Animorphs #1: The Invasion (ISBN: 978-0-545-29151-4)
Animorphs #2: The Visitor (ISBN: 978-0-545-29152-1)
July 2011
Animorphs #3: The Encounter (ISBN: 978-0-545-29153-8)
September 2011
Animorphs #4: The Message (ISBN: 978-0-545-29156-9)
December 2011
Animorphs #5: The Predator
That’s all for now, but be on the lookout for more news as Scholastic moves ahead with its marketing plans for next year. And be sure to let us know if you stumble across anything interesting!
Until next time!
UPDATE: I just found out that this is our 100th Blog Post on Hirac Delest! How awesome is that?! Makes this news post even better!
posted by Hirac Delest at 1:37 pm
