You wouldn't think it just by looking at her design, but Maria is shockingly difficult to get right in 3d 😭

My nearly month long break has not been in vain! Look at Maria!! She's so pretty so far... :>

Here's PiCPAC & Ensemble De Robot in Game Machine magazine on January 1, 1985! Where PiCPAC were made for showmanship, Taito's ensemble were designed to play genuine instruments Toyama's art book claims the two groups made their debut performances within 3 days of one another! #Namcohistory #PiCPAC

Wow, what a curious group of cute and unsuspecting insects... I wonder if anything magical or otherworldly could possibly befall them?

According to the art book, the Castanets are numbered on their backs! 1 through 5! But because the images in the book are all in grayscale, and we never see the Castanets from behind in any other images, I have no idea which ones are which! Maybe they were arranged in numerical order? #PiCPAC

Here's some adorable PiCPAC fanart I saw in the wild!! It makes me extremely happy to see more artwork of them appearing, keep it coming PiCPAC nation ❤️ By yami_no_kat_ on Instagram!)

I wonder what magazine this image comes from... The left text is describing Tome's character, the bottom text is about the Castanets, and the right text seems to be referring to an unrelated Namco robot that creates ribbon art. I wish I could find the full page,but I have no idea what the source is😵

This brand-new video focuses on the history of Namco’s animatronic Robot Band PiCPAC. The video also goes over the history of Namco’s involvement in robotics leading up to PiCPAC. Go check it out if you are looking for more Namco history content!

The Weird History Of Namco's Forgotten & Lost Animatronic Band - PicPac

YouTube video by Mr. Tele-Tell

youtu.be

I know I’m late to this, but @supergroovy.net (VideoDojo) did a YouTube Short serving as an introduction to Namco’s Robot Band PiCPAC. Check it out!

The Real Glamrock FNAF Band from Japan! #shorts

YouTube video by Dom | VideoDojo

youtube.com

I've always wondered why Tome's physical model didn't end up green... It's clear across marketing material, the logo colors, and his grasshopper identity; he's definitely supposed to be green! So I wonder why he's blue? Maybe a budget thing? A last-minute change of plans? Very mysterious... #PiCPAC

Today I learned that PiCPAC's merch was announced as part of a mail-in contest! Readers were asked to guess which insects the characters were based on, and 11 lucky winners would receive one free PiCPAC item each. Magazine mail-order… what a time the 80s must have been... 🥹

With the official translation complete, I can turn my focus to personal projects regarding PiCPAC... ehehehe

I recently finished my translation of the PiCPAC section of Toyama's art book! Once i figure out a good place to upload it it'll be available for reading. 🙏 #Namco #PiCPAC

This one is a much bigger undertaking, all the key art will need to be redrawn... But I've done it before, I can do it again!

Uploading a full resolution page here wouldn't do much good due to compression, but here's the restored pamphlet in English! The plain black and white version i shared previously was distributed to press members, presumably on PiCPAC's debut day. #PiCPAC #NamcoHistory

Going from a crusty 900px by 1000px footnote to a full 4000px page... I think I've gone mad with power... #PiCPAC #NamcoHistory

Going over the design book again and laughing cause Maria is the only one drawn looking at the viewer in her concept artworks- and she stares into your soul in EVERY piece, no exceptions. She looks simultaneously adorable and like she'll snap and kill me when I least expect it😭 #PICPAC #Namco

Also some BOLD words coming from Tome, first he's a self proclaimed aristocrat, then he claims to be better than Jimi Hendrix? Ok pal, I love ya, but I'm not sure about that last one... #PiCPAC #Namco

Thinking about the PiCPAC love triangle... Tome is always trying to flirt with Maria, but he always fumbles; meanwhile Strobo sweats bullets because he's too shy to confess his own crush on her first. I like to believe Maria is so focused on reaching stardom herself she misses both of their signals

Bandai Namco this is how you can earn millions from the queer community during a time of crisis: bring back PicPAC and make merch of all these old animatronics we will line your pockets forever

Hello PiCPAC nation, I'm not dead! I strained my hand pretty badly a couple weeks ago and have been on the mend... But I'm still chipping away! Here's some translation I've been doing for Maji Mentaro's design page. #PiCPAC #NamcoHistory

My translations are coming along nicely, today I've been working on the character design section! These little designs are what I've chosen to humorously call "Proto-pac". Toyama apparently drew them while PiCPAC was in it's early stages, and they were briefly a comedy show...🤔 #PiCPAC #NamcoHistory

Robot Band PicPac fanart. #namco #robotband #picpac #digitalart #myartwork #fyp

Back in 2022, I invited @voxy.space to art direct & create motion graphics for my first ever PiCPAC video. The new project section on his redesigned website (it's gorgeous btw!) goes into detail about his creative process, including some great BTS images like this! www.voxy.space/projects/the...

Have anwsered your call and did Maji. ;3

PiCPAC Fan@picpacfan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I wanna normalize stylizing PiCPAC fan-art in the same way Toyama used to draw them, his drawings were very doodle-sketchy... Childlike, yet refined, they're super adorable and fun to draw that way ♥️ #PiCPAC #Namco

I really like these concept art sketches I've bumped into in the artbook as I've gone, they really reflect how much turmoil went into the design aspect. Apparently they initially wanted PiCPAC to be stylistically similar to Earth Wind and Fire (third image), what a timeline that would've been😭

Man what I wouldn't do to get my hands on any of their old merchandise 😭 I've honestly considered remaking some assets (like the stickers or badges) myself, just so I can have some form of physical PiCPAC media to sport on my bookbag... #PiCPAC #Namco

Went on a little bit of a side tangent today while translating. The artbook mentions a few of Namco's other robots, so I ended up doing some research on them to make sure I have all my facts straight, it was nice trip learning some about them! Might post more about them another time♥️ #Namcohistory

Working on a video containing some pretty exciting info for PiCPAC fans... Hopefully I can have it finished before the end of the month! 👀✨

I wanna normalize stylizing PiCPAC fan-art in the same way Toyama used to draw them, his drawings were very doodle-sketchy... Childlike, yet refined, they're super adorable and fun to draw that way ♥️ #PiCPAC #Namco