Hirac Delest - An Animorphs Archive Marco Hirac Delest Cassie Jake Rachel Ax Tobias

 

Status Report

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Scholastic Store: Animorphs #4 Early Shipments!

 

Ian is back to let us know that the relaunch edition of Animorphs #4 is now shipping early via the Scholastic Store, even though their site says that they are only taking pre-orders for September. Here’s some proof:

 

In addition to this, Ian tells us that the Animorphs #5 cover has also been replaced in the back, with the new Marco model we previously posted about.

Lastly, the Scholastic Store is also holding the Animorphs #4 Relaunch Edition Paperback for an additional 30% off, along with the first three books. The official release date is still September 1st, however, so expect the eBook and Paperback versions to be released at other retailers as planned.

posted by Hirac Delest at 11:02 am  

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Animorphs #5: New Model Cover Update!

 

Scholastic has updated the Official Website and given us a look at the new Animorphs #5 cover with the new model we previously posted about:
 


 

Our relaunch page has been updated to include both versions of the covers and models, and the change has been reflected in our pre-order page as well.

posted by Hirac Delest at 11:33 am  

Friday, July 8, 2011

The NEW Marco model!

 

Scholastic updated the Official Animorphs Website today with the new Marco model they confirmed back in April. Here is a comparison between the two:

 


 

As you can see, based on the whitewashing concerns from fans, this new model (on right) now matches the half-Hispanic “dark complexion” (with dark skin and dark hair) that the character was often described by in the books. He does lack the long hair that Marco is known for in the earlier books, but that feature was changed according to the model type in the Classic books as well (e.g. Animorphs #10). The height/muscle is something I’m sure that the fans will debate over regardless, but the major issue about portraying the character’s correct ethnicity has been resolved. A big thanks to the Scholastic Animorphs Team on a job well done!

Aside from that, it seems as though we’ve caught the official site in the middle of their update. The individual character pages remain the same with the old Marco at the moment (thumbnail/full profile picture), but once that’s been updated on their official site, we’ll reflect the change onto our own relaunch pages as well.

That’s all for now!

posted by Hirac Delest at 7:53 am  

Friday, July 1, 2011

Animorphs #3: The Encounter OFFICIALLY Released! Also, Scholastic series discussion panel at ALA 2011!

 

Animorphs #3 is now officially relaunched today! The book has already been released early at a few select locations, but it should be at all retailers now, including in ebook form. Book summary:

 

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.

See: Paperback and eBook Order Links

 

In addition to this, there’s also some interesting relaunch info by Renata from Why, a Blog!, who attended David Levithan’s panel at the annual American Library Association (ALA) conference this year. Here’s a brief quote:

Anyway, so he starts up his presentation and the first slide is covers of the Babysitters Club and Animorphs relaunch titles, though he said that he didn’t have anything to do with Animorphs (although he did work at Scholastic when Animorphs was being published). He talked about the late 80s and early 90s as the “heyday” of series fiction, when books would come out once a month or twice a month. He cited BSC, Animorphs, and Goosebumps as Scholastic’s “Big Three,” which was interesting to me because I never thought Animorphs were as popular as BSC or Goosebumps? As a kid, I definitely knew more people who read the other two series than Animorphs. But maybe that was just my school. Also, he described all three series as being “episodic” fiction where it didn’t necessarily matter if you read them in order, or read all of them. To some extent that’s true of Animorphs (there are definitely books you could skip, for example) but I don’t think it’s true in the same way it is for BSC or Goosebumps.

Oh, and he talked about revamping the series-es (I think the plural of series is just series but whatev) and making them “time neutral.” The example he gave was if a character was listening to a Walkman, they didn’t change it to “iPod,” since you’d just have to change that again in 10 years. Instead they changed it to “music.” He said it wasn’t that hard to do, which I thought was a little surprising.

I suggest everyone check out the entire post, as it’s an interesting read. She covered the event by posting at both Why, A Blog! and the Animorphs LiveJournal Community.

Lastly, I have also updated the missions archive. Animorphs #1 now has a list of all the relaunch edits that I could find in the re-read (Please let me know of any edits I may have missed), and Animorphs #3 now has the back cover added (via amazon), and a new higher-res front cover.

Oh, and I renewed Hirac Delest‘s hosting/domain for another year (We’re now 4 years old!). Thanks to everyone who has supported us through the years! Until next time!

posted by Hirac Delest at 1:33 pm