Oh jeez, I can't believe I missed this. I found you via FFF and I've been enjoying the site ever since...I'll miss you. But I do intend to check you out on io9!

Oh shit.  Bunker down for a few days with a cold and to avoid all that election hullaballoo and look what you miss.

I followed Rob here from his toy column over at ANN... and I have regretted it every single day of my life since.. especially Fridays..  and I hardly ever even read the whole things.. just the description o the titles..

Anyway,  enjoy your new trip.. to infinity and beyond.. live long and perspire.. the needs of the many.. yadda yadda yadda

No :(

no

no I don't like this ;____;

come back ;___;

Rob, this site won't be the same without you. If someone had told me years ago that someday Rob Bricken might not be with Topless Robot, I'd have said that was crazy...because you can't have one without the other. Just make sure you pick a good replacement, because I trust a lot of your opinions, especially when it comes to He-Man. We will seriously miss you. And I'll miss your sense of humor on the FFF's but I know YOU won't miss FFF.

Awww  ffuuuuuuccckkkkk... I just realized io9 is a Gawker site.  Fuck Gawker in their ear.  I haven't gone on any of their sites more  than a handful of times since Will Leitch left Deadspin and AJ Daulerio turned it into TMZ Sports.  All of their sites blow, it's like a competition to see which site can be more EXXXTREME!!! and IN YOUR FACE!!!  And they're even more horribly laid out.

So, does this mean Rob will now have to post "celebrity nerd expose" hit pieces?  "BREAKING: We hacked Nathan Fillion's cellphone so we can all now view his secret photos of  the Firefly Reunion!"

Oh man... I step away for a few days to get ready to make my own job transition and I come back to find our Nerd Daddy abandoning us.  Before you know it, this place will be full of pawn shops and check cashing joints, and Dr. Abraxas will be telling us he's pregnant.

We'll miss you Nerd Daddy...

While I don't blame you for taking the gig, I want you to know I came to Topless Robot because I don't like io9. TR is where I go because io9 is full of rabid nerds who will burn effigies of anyone who says a harsh word about Buffy or Firefly, among other things. They're a bit cultish, and so I avoid them. 

Frankly, the peanut gallery at io9 creeps me out, as do a good number of the site's posters/writers. 

I see the occasional io9 article from the safety of FARK, but so far they've turned me off with their general attitude and cultishness. 

I hope you know what you're doing, Rob. I wish you luck. I hope the paycheck's worth drinking the io9 Kool-Aid. 

No, really, I sincerely wish you good fortune. Don't lose track of who you are while raking in that io9 money. 

I have been, and will always be, your friend,

This made me go through the five stages of grief. But I've been on Twitter too much, so it's pared down to:  No! Grrr! Please? Waaah! Fine then.

Already read io9, so I'll see you there, but TR will not be the same.

Rob,

I just found out about this today and I can't tell you how incredibly sad this has made me.  I found out about your site a couple of years ago as I was leaving NY Comic Con.  I was standing on the sidewalk outside--waiting for whatever reason--when I happened to look down see a business card with the TR name and website address on it.  The name was a very memorable one so I Googled it later.  Needless to say I have been an avid fan ever since.

TR has been my one source of nerd news for quite some time.  Your movie reviews have always been excellent, funny as hell and resonated with me because you seemed to give voice to details that had also struck me at the time--little things that I liked or didn't like.  I also enjoyed your FFFs, although I'm sure you didn't. :)  I must confess that I didn't read many of them, I just skipped to your reactions.  I also managed to win one contest, though I regret now that my prize wasn't a t-shirt that I can keep as a reminder.

It's probably been mentioned a lot by now that the nerd-news-o-sphere will be a lot less funny without TR.  I must add my own voice to this, though I respect your decision and will follow you to io9.  However, I will miss this site tremendously Rob.  You are a fantastically cool person and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Laura

I'm going to miss you, Rob. ;_;

Dear Rob,

It has been about a day since I heard about your decision to leave TR, and I am still bummed as fuck.

Topless Robot isn't some nerd news site edited by Rob Bricken, it's Rob Bricken's site.Topless Robot is you,man. That's why the days were Chris covered for you were never quite as fun as the regular days.

It is natural at moments like this to experience anger, but I'm not mad, just sad. Fucking depressed.

I have to say goodbye to a site that has been such an enjoyable part of my day is hard. Nerd news will be reported in dry, humor-less ways, Fridays will be emptier, stupid nerd-themed music videos will earn nothing but a "LOL" from idiots on YouTube.

Just the other day I thought about how cool it would be if one day I would make a movie,or a show, or something and it will get reported by you on TR, but I guess now it would never happen.

In conclusion, I love you man.

-Snailo 

I have no idea how I ended up here in the first place anymore, I was probablly trying to prove sometning someone said was wrong and somehow ended up here and found you funny in your hatred of everything and yourself, also something you said pry helped me prove my point to whatever dingbat I was chilling with me at the time was saying all stupid like.

Now I'm back here multiple rimes a day out of boredom. Having a back injury is liberating (Yay no work!) and heavily constraining (Yay, lethargy!).

Anyway Rob, no one will be as skilled at being an enraged, entitled nerd who some how seems cool and friendly while coming off as such an intolerable ass that you want to see how many hits to the face does it take to bend a cast iron pipe? The world may never know...

But i'm sure as fuck going to try and find out!

Around 4 years ago, I was googling for Star Wars memories of the 90s toys I used to collect, and I discovered TR through my search.  I never looked back.  The top 10 lists were addictive and the contests were really heartwarming and hilarious.

In fact, ever since discovering TR, I have copy/pasted the results of every contest and kept them in my kindle reader so I can keep them with me and read them over to make myself laugh, especially the ones about our funny nerd experiences.

I never entered a competition myself, as I never thought I had anything funny enough, until the last one which I did enter and got an honorable mention.  I feel so sad that the first comp I had the confidence to enter and get a mention was Rob's last!   Thanks Rob.

TR is in my opinion what the nerd community on the internet should have been, sticking together and celebrating our foilbles and laughing at out disagreements, it is so much more friendly than a lot of the more one-upmanship based nerd hangouts out there.

FFF and the weird Japan stuff is always there to brighten  our day, who can forget that virgin fleshlight with hymen and blood or Robocop and Batman's tryst.  And it was always handy to have a place to go for nerd news such as knowing if a comic creator I liked had died or something.

Here is to the future and checking out this io9 place and seeing the future of TR,

Best Wishes, Mutate

Well this is depressing. Thanks Rob for ruining my day.

so

I’m going to start by announcing that this predominantly hate

seriously I have little to nothing 

good

to say 

despite the fact that

I've been reading Topless Robot for awhile now

as it’s been a constant and reliable source of nerd news, humor,

and self loathing

as advertised

despite this

however

I've regularly found your style and content

pandering at best  

and embarrassing at worst

more than once I've fantasized about slapping your jowly, unshaven,

and unapologetically drunken face 

as hard as as I can

with my shoe

repeatedly

until we’re both in tears

but

that would be an unfair 

and more importantly

undeserved

reference 

to

either ‘The State’

or

‘The Kids In The Hall’

I can’t remember which 

as I’m presently too drunk to bother looking it up 

so

coming from someone who 

voluntarily started

and then stopped 

reading Toyfare as a early teen

in lieu of substance abuse and self mutilation

be well Rob

and

please

never

come back

you are  

beyond all other things

unnecessary 

Well that's depressing.

to abandon the world in its hour of need press Y

... waitaminute... you CAN'T leave yet!!!! Michael Bay's doing a reboot/not reboot of the Transformers movie franchise! Your FAQs are the only enjoyment I get out of those!

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

Well, I already follow i09m so it'll just be a small change I guess.

Wow, I feel like I've been following your updates here since forever (I don't always comment as much as I used to, but I <em>always</em> check at least every other weekday, if not every weekday).

Sounds like I'll need to start following IO9 more...

well that's a pity, I started coming to this site BECAUSE I was done with IO9.

IO9 articles mostly seem to be:*That article we wrote about "Science Fact A" last week? Turns out we were totally wrong....but NOW we're right!

* New scientific studies on Orgasms!* You heard about this movie? Man this movie is gonna be awsome! we're gonna run 3 articles a week for 3 months before this movie comes out..... (Day the movie comes out) "MAN! That movie sucked!, now here is a weeks worth of articles on why it sucked, why we knew it would suck and why you should feel bad for ever having thought it might not suck

*RACEBENDING!!! We can't go 5 minutes without using the term RACEBENDING!!!! 

 Woah, holy. I'll certainly miss you running this beautiful site (which has become an essential part of my life) very much. Good luck with any future endeavours, Bricken!

But I was hoping to read some of Rob's thoughts on Littlest Pet Shop Fan Fiction... Something that not everyone knows, but I'm a Brony thanks to Rob... and FFF

Holy crap. Gonna miss you, Bricken. You are 100% why Topless Robot is what it is, and I hope you're gaining an assload of cash in this move.

Good luck you delicious son of a bitch.

Aww, I'll miss your posts on Topless Robot, Rob.  Good luck!I actually followed your toy reviews on ANN, and I only started following TR when you stopped doing toy reviews.  I guess I'll start looking at io9 now too.  :)  (By the way, I still miss your reviews from ANN.  The new guy just isn't the same.)

io9 is still a thing?  huh.

Topless Robot is a real achievement. Best of luck to you Rob....and if you don't mind I am going to blame this on you having to report on Hobbits every day. Who could do that and still want to live?

I am sad

I'd like to wish you luck, but it would be insincere as nothing would make me happier than everyone at io9 and the rest of gawker to be unemployed and potentially injured in some fashion. A bunch of fucking hackneyed pandering dipshits with the combined intellectual depth of a beer cap. Their better off having you, but your worse off for being mentioned in the same breath as them much less "working" with them.

With apologies to Sir Elton John:

Good bye Rob Bricken,

I would have liked to blow you

The way you did to Joss Whedon

No, I only kid

Good bye Rob Bricken

I'll miss your knee jerk hatred

of Nintendo

And bizarre love of Dragon Ball Z

Well, it seems to me

You could have spared the time

To watch one lousy episode

Of Classic Doctor Who

That's all I got.  Feel free to add other verses.

Holy... goddamn, Rob, hell of a bombshell for a tuesday morning...

Regardless, best of luck to you, man. We'll all save a seat for you at our collective tables.

your welcome rob but as you said the time has come to let your baby that is topless robot take fings but topless robot will be a little strange with out you here.  but one has to try new things best of luck in your new challenge rob.

<vader>NOOOOOOOO!</vader>

Best of luck, Rob!

Aww Rob! Best of luck to you! I'm not afraid of trying anything new, so I will definitely be following you there. Topless Robot has been my most favoritest place on the internet since I discovered it who knows how long ago. Your commentaries on FFFs  are the absolute best and sometimes make me laugh a shit-ton more than the stories themselves. I love this place and you make it what it is. Now I'm being gross, but you get the idea. Stay shiny, Captain. 

anyone else find it odd that Rob's departure takes place so soon after the Lucas-Film acquisition by Disney? Was Rob a Lucas-Film product conceived in the dark pits of their special effects laboratories using forbidden Sith alchemy and copious amounts of booze unleashed to terrorize the world until the madman's ransom was paid? It's just a theory, but it's a theory that fits the facts.

<bad Dr. F baritone> Who . . . who will I kill </bad Dr. F baritone>Goodbye, and remember, no matter where you are . . . I WILL kill you!  <sobbing>

sonnabi.....  they'll just whore you out at io9...where's your pride...oh wait...floating at the bottom of that beer bottle...nevermind....well we'll stay here and spit at io9 cause we're too lazy to move right now...err what we really mean to say is good luck and remember us back here

Fuck the election, this is the only real shock I'll get from today's events. Holy crap.

I have posted many times in the far past, but I finally went through signing up for the new comment system just so I could express my shock, amazement, sadness, and careful optimism.

I love io9, but this has been one of my absolute favorite places on the internet for years. End of an era. I'm genuinely not sure what to do with myself.

I can remember, back in the early 90's, seeing an old commercial for the next episode of MST3K where they were going to be watching some movie called "Mitchell". In the commercial Joel commented offhandedly that he was going to finally be escaping the S.O.L. and I was instantly upset! How can the show go on without Joel! I went on to watch bemused and distraught that episode of one host leaving and another host coming aboard. It was a bittersweet day for me. Since then I've come to realize that it was for the best, as Mike was my favorite of the hosts.

But don't think for a moment, no matter what Joel Hodgeson may say in any interviews, that, now, he doesn't regret leaving the show. It was his baby. His creation. ...and I'm sure he wished he'd stayed.

Please, Rob, please.... don't go on to your The TV Wheel. We all know how you'll regret it.

SoaB. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lT49R7Ffxzg 

Continued: ful site