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Valkyrie Driver

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  1. Valkyrie Driver
    I must have all the 25's... also, this...
  2. Valkyrie Driver
    I'd say Plus first, for a number of reasons. 1) It's a self contained story, that requires little background information, and it's easy to follow, without the Macross Background. 2) It hits all the Important bits of Macross, the love triangle and the sweet mecha fights. 3) It gets to the action pretty quick, and keeps the pace going. It doesn't drag, so it's easy to watch. 4) It's short, sweet, and to the point. 5) The music is pretty catchy, and makes a nice set piece for the story. Final reason, it cuts out a lot of the esoteric pacifist bullcrap (Last thing you want to do is slap someone in the face with philosophy right at the jump). No Basara or Kaifun like shenanigans, just two old friends, who had a falling out, competing over a military project and a woman, and beating the hell out of each other because of it. Not to mention the animation has held up pretty well, and the main mecha are just friggin cool. As for holding their value, I'm in agreement with Mommar on this. Outside Japan, people will pay premium prices for these toys that are hard to get outside Japan.
  3. Valkyrie Driver
    It is, but the problem is we're trying to get something objective out of an entirely subjective matter. Without Mr. Kawamori saying definitively what it is, we'll end up with a million different theories as to how the rank and operations structures work. I'm maintaining that it's based on the way a navy would work, because regardless of the environment, there are more similarities between surface carrier operations and space carrier operations than there are differences, meaning that the navy would be the go to place for experienced personnel. The same holds true for shipboard personnel. That means the UN Spacy would end up with a Naval tradition regardless, because Navy people do Navy things, the Navy way.
  4. Valkyrie Driver
    It's just so bad isn't it?
  5. Valkyrie Driver
    I tried to watch The Maross Saga of Robotech when it was on netflix, and it just couldn't. The voices killed me. I just couldn't do it, they were so bad...
  6. Valkyrie Driver
    Now to get him to watch the anime... And new convert!
  7. Valkyrie Driver
    Now, why does that sound familiar...? I thought so, but I wasn't sure.
  8. Valkyrie Driver
    If I'm not mistaken the JMSDF doesn't have any carriers (as we would know them). They have some Helicopter carriers, similar to our Wasp class amphibious assault ships. So it makes sense that Kawamori drew inspiration from the JASDF, since that's the only place in Japan you'll find fighter pilots and fighter jets. As for the USAF, They've always been at the cutting edge of Aircraft technology, because that's the USAF's only reason to exist is projecting airpower. The Navy has always regarded aircraft as a supplement to the surface fleet, powerful and capable weapons sure, but you need carriers to get those planes to places, and you need more than fighters to defend a carrier. Air craft can cover large search patterns and fill the gaps in submarine defenses, but ships are the navy's bread and butter, not aircraft. There's also precedent in the world to have everything dealing with a certain aspect of war belong to the branch that's specialized in that area. Israel for example, put anything dealing with the air under it's air force's control, so paratroopers, aircraft, aircraft maintenance, and Air Defense troops, they're all IAF. While All ground forces belong to the Army. It's a greatly simplified way of doing things.
  9. Valkyrie Driver
    I'd kind of like an MP-03 Starscream, or one of the other seekers in that mold. Then do a Yamato v2 VF-1S in Jetfire colors for some G1 fun...
  10. Valkyrie Driver
    A friend of mine noticed my Macross collection and as he looked at them he basically said, "These must do something other than just look good on display." To which I responded casually that they transform. He called BS, and then I transformed one right before his eyes. I think a big part is the engineering. They look like fighter jets in fighter mode, and there's no real indication that they transform, to the uninitiated. You look at one and think, "This is a really cool jet" and "OMG! IT TRANSFORMS!". You look at most transformers and there's a vehicle, like starscream and you look at the top and it's a fighter jet. Look at the side (First run MP-03 Starscream) and it still looks like a fighter jet, but then you turn it over and, oh hey there's a robot in here somewhere. Then there's the cartoon accurate MP-11 which from the side has visible robot underkibble. In contrast, Valkyries try very hard to achieve a clean fighter mode, by stowing all the robot bits as efficiently as possible, and trying to stow as much of the fighter bits as possible in robot mode to make it as clean as possible. Some designs do this better than others, like the VF-1, the VF-11, the VF-17/171. While others fall a bit short, like the Y/VF-19, YF-21/VF-22, VF-25/27 YF-29/30, but still look fresh and clean. I might be off the mark. But that's all I really wanted to add.
  11. Valkyrie Driver
    My introduction to Robotech was through Battlecry for the PS2. I had become familiar with Macross at that point, and recognized the Mecha in the game. Because Battlecry was a side story to the main plot of robotech with a lot of original characters, it was easy to pretend that it was Macross and not Robotech. I have the ADV dub on DVD, and I love it.
  12. Valkyrie Driver
    Sivil seems to be the most memorable (I mean why wouldn't she be...Dat body...), so the body we see her running around in is one of those Evil series super weapons you mentioned? But her actual mind and memories and personality is that of a super-dimensional being? Did the Evil series have any personality to begin with, or do we not have any information on that?
  13. Valkyrie Driver
    I see what your saying about realism. I'm not saying that Basara's character needed to grow, as much as I felt he was just disconnected from the world around him. He just seemed a bit forced is all I'm saying. Basara just stands out as the one thing I didn't like about Macross 7. I thought everything else was pretty fun.
  14. Valkyrie Driver
    If it doesn't follow any specific way of doing things, then why are we even discussing this. To be honest, It's Macross, and I want a good story, and as long as it's even close to sounding right I'm going to be happy, because if I want something that's realistic, I'll go watch Lone Survivor, or American Sniper, or Act of Valor, or Black Hawk Down, because those are the only things that come to mind that have that much realism to them. They also don't occupy my list of things to watch to be entertained. It's nice to theorize, and I'm going to go with my own interpretations, because that's how it makes sense to me. To my knowledge Mr. Kawamori hasn't really said one way or the other, and to be honest, he might have felt that doing that much detail would have gotten in the way of telling the story.
  15. Valkyrie Driver
    I agree with this. I also agree with this. Though with the VF-19Advance, I'm having a hard time seeing it that way, with all the engineering and detail that went into it. Still, My yamato feels like a high grade model, while my bandai feels like a toy.
  16. Valkyrie Driver
    Callsign numbers are not necessarily indicative of how many aircraft are in a squadron. I've seen three digit numbers in callsigns. The Air Force and Army assign callsigns by aircraft name and tail number. The Navy assigns callsigns by Squadron name. The 23 could be a reference to the the Aircraft's modex, but it may be the 23rd aircraft, but that doesn't mean there are at least 23 aircraft in that squadron. Maybe they're using the last 2 digits of the BuNo similar to the way the Air Force does with Tail Numbers, or maybe the Modex numbers are done at a group level and Hikaru's bird is aircraft 23 in the group. Or maybe the number is randomly assigned by position, 2 digit numbers beginning with 2 are team members while 2 digit numbers beginning with 1 are team leaders. The point is, flight callsigns follow a naming convention, and in this case the naming scheme seems navy to me (I've done enough cross service weather briefs to know callsign naming conventions, and this doesn't fit Air Force). You also need to take into account that radio etiquette, you don't say twenty-three over the radio, it's two-three. Actors don't notice these things, and maybe the script writers jacked it up. The Army actually denotes things that way. Platoons get issued callsigns for patrols. So Skull would be the squadron callsign, 2 indicates the team, and 3 indicates who's talking. So Skull actual would be Roy Focker, while Skull 2 would be Hikaru's team leader. I'm not saying that's the way it is, just offering a potential explanation. Unless we have a specific reference that explicitly explains this, we're likely to keep arguing in circles.
  17. Valkyrie Driver
    Congrats and excellent choice! The VF-25 is a great start. My start was a V1 Yamato VF-1A brownie (which I hope to replace with a Yamato v2 soon). While I'm not a huge fan of the VF-25, I still have the Alto, and want the Luca, Michael, and Ozma valks with their respective armors (Ozma in armor, supers for Alto and Michael, and Supers and Ghosts for Luca). It's mostly because I want the SMS skull team, and I also want a CF VF-25A brownie. It's less a VF-25 thing, and more a I like the Bandai DX line of Macross toys, thing. My favorites are without a doubt the VF-19's, I have a 19F/S/P on my to get list, and I already have an F. I just got the VF-19Advance last week, and I am supremely happy with it, if you're a Macross Plus Fan, you should get it, because it beat the Yamato offering, and it's Better priced than the Arcadia. Though it's a frontier era valk toy, it would be pretty easy to customize it into a proper YF-19, with some paint and decals, I have a Yammie, so I don't need to do that... Good luck with the rest of your Macross toy collecting adventure, and we look forward to seeing pics.
  18. Valkyrie Driver
    Another thing to note, is that in Japanese, the name of the rank (at least for officers), Shoi, Chui, Shosa, are all prefixed by the branch name. An Army 1st Lieutenant, would be Rikugun Chui. While a Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade would be Kaigun Chui. The basic rank Chui, does not change, just the prefix. Japanese is a very context based language, where you can drop all kinds of unnecessary words from a sentence and still be understood. You're not going to call a guy wearing a Navy Uniform Kaigun Chui, because you know he's Navy, he's wearing the uniform. Instead you'll just call him Chui. Enlisted ranks are different because enlisted ranks are generally descriptive of certain types of duties. Though the JASDF, and JGSDF generally only differ in the lower enlisted ranks, both are completely different from the JMSDF. Another source of confusion, is that the Japanese military and SDF refers to people by their Command title, if they have one, while western militaries do not. I might refer to my Unit Commander, as my Commander, but when I address him it's always by his rank, not his title. Some militaries make things less confusing, by eliminating the dichotomy all together. The RAF, for instance, uses very descriptive ranks. going up the US grade scale you have O-1 as Pilot Officer, O-2 is Flying Officer, O-3 is Flight Lieutenant, O-4 is Squadron Commander, and so on. In the RAF your rank describes your job.
  19. Valkyrie Driver
    Oh you... On a related note, I'm not sure I ever really knew what the Protodeviln were. Even having seen M7, I'm still not sure. Though there was a lot from M7 that confused me... Can someone explain this please?
  20. Valkyrie Driver
    If you'd read a bit further, I said that's how I perceived it. It's not mentioned in any episode, but I can't help but see it that way. Also Gamlin, told Basara on many occasions to stop getting in the way, so there's that. Please stop just grabbing things out of context and trying to make me look like an ass. I'm perfectly capable of doing that on my own, thank you. That's a good point. However, a Psyops strategy is supposed to target the enemy, and Basara kinda just hosed everyone. JB0 I think you said it best: Distracted soldiers are dead soldiers... Yes it did. Just like they wanted it to. But that brings me to: I had not thought about it that way. Storytelling wise though it just seemed like the cliche "chosen one" routine, which can work, but it just felt a bit forced and hokey. As for frontier, Sure Sheryl is an Idol, and her songs aren't full of deep meaning (at least from what I can tell), but her desire is genuine. She knows what's she doing and why, she wants to entertain, to make people feel good. I can't believe I'm about to do this, but to use rock music of today as an analogy, comparing Basara and Sheryl is like comparing Clutch to AC/DC. Clutch puts out music that they want to play in their own style, and just says "Imma do my own thing", like Basara. While AC/DC kinda went with the mainstream flow and played what people wanted to hear and was just out to have fun and entertain people, like how I perceived Sheryl. Now this is all my perceptions, you might have a different view and I'm not trying to argue against it, simply stating my case. Basara is undoubtedly the protagonist, and I'm supposed to like him, I want to like him, but I think his character was poorly executed and shallow. For the record I'll state that again, I want to like Basara. However, his relation to the rest of the show, the other characters, the setting itself, is so disconnected he comes across as selfish and obnoxious, and I can't help but hate him for it. And maybe that's why I have such an issue with it. Because up to this point, my perception of Macross (I had seen M2, SDFM, Plus, and Frontier before M7) was that it was very concerned with consequences, and how the character relates to them, and that it was more realistic in this regard.
  21. Valkyrie Driver
    That may be so, but I think Lucy is a better fit. Tall, slender, shapely legs and nicely proportioned. Sheryl is just too oversexualized, as much as I like Sheryl, she's just not the fit for the YF-19 that Lucy is in my opinion. Also the use of Sheryl was probably a marketing ploy... I'm revisiting this, because after watching the first frontier movie, and seeing Sheryl again, I can definitely see that. She is a celebrity after all, perfect pinup fodder...
  22. Valkyrie Driver
    I think it's important to note that, while yes space programs typically fall under the jurisdiction of the Air Force, many astronauts have been Navy Personnel (at least in the early days). Also important to note, is that before US Space Command (USSPACECOM) was folded into US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), it was a unified command that was usually commanded by an Air Force general officer, but included personnel and component commands from all branches. So following that logic, the air force might control space operations, but it doesn't follow that the crews would be air force. Especially given that the Navy has more experience operating large ships than the Air Force does. In fact I'd expect that a fair amount of space ship crews would be drawn from the submarine service, since they're used to working in tight confines, with their ship in an unforgiving and hazardous environment. That's what I think makes sense, now maybe that's not what Kawamori intended, or maybe he intended us to just go with whatever makes sense to us. Most militaries make distinctions between grade, rank, and position. For instance, while at Barksdale, I had the Grade of E-4, the Rank of Senior Airman, and the Position of Shift Supervisor. My Grade, stated how I was to be paid. My Rank said what my seniority was, while my Position gave me authority. There were other extenuating factors, but basically, I'd have Staff and Tech Sergeants, and sometimes Lieutenants, working for me. Due to the idiosyncrasies of my job, I was more experienced than those NCO's (they had cross trained from other fields and had no experience with the job, while I had 2-3 years operational experience, making me senior). I still had to be courteous, and call them by rank, they had to listen to me when I told them to change things. So there is a difference between the Rank of Captain, and the Position of Captain. A Navy Lieutenant is called Captain whenever they are given command of a small ship, the same is true of a Rear Admiral Lower Half and all the ranks in between. Military command structures can be very difficult to understand if you are coming from no experience. That is especially true of the Naval traditions.
  23. Valkyrie Driver
    To me, a toy is a toy, it should be fun. But then I'm still 4 years old at heart, and like to zoom my toys around and make believe I'm in the cockpit dogfighting with some imaginary bad guy... The fun factor, price, and the extras, make the Bandai better in my eyes. If I could get an arcadia without having to sell my soul, I would. But there's the fact that I can't, so I make do with my Yamato YF-19 for a display, whilst I indulge my inner 4 year old with the Bandai.
  24. Valkyrie Driver
    I can't help but think about those poor sods in the VF-11's that had to dodge around his asinine behavior and got zombified because of it. At least that's how I perceived it. I can't help but see Basara as a disruption to everything around him. I also can't help but think how selfish he is, "I'm going to jump in my garish VF-19, fly around, shoot everything with my speakerpods, and sing real loudly. All because I want people to hear my songs..." He's screaming "Look at me! I'm special and you must listen to my song!" I can't stand that sort of selfish attention seeking behavior. His motivations about wanting people to get along and wanting to bring people together through his music, is great. Forcing it on people, while getting in their way, and preventing them from doing their jobs, just makes them hate you. If they were using him for Psyops and EW, that's one thing, but he's just out there being made of dicks, and giving zero frakks about who gets hurt or zombified in the process. That's just the way I see it. Disagree all you want, I can respect that you disagree, but I'm still not gonna see it your way, and your way isn't the right way. Because it's art, and we all take something unique to ourselves away from it. Then there's how they tried to replicate his success, by creating the jamming birds, but failed because only he can generate the anima spiritia. He's not a character, he's a McGuffin. That's all I'm going to say on the matter. I wondered the same thing... He's only some mutton chops away from trying to be wolverine...
  25. Valkyrie Driver
    The thing is, both toys have their own markets. I think what bandai did really captured the spirit of the 19, while the paint is based on the cameo, the spirit is unmistakably YF-19. The other thing is Bandai's market for the DX Chogokin toys, is probably much bigger, and thus they could make more than arcadia. I'm also not too familiar with arcadia's recent practices, but they don't seem to be thinking about repaints or anything that might deviate from the Animated productions. The Yamato YF-19 and the Arcadia YF-19 are very similar in regards to their closeness to the Lineart (though the Yammie has that gullet). So I can be content with my Yammie YF-19 for dispay and line art, while I can just pick up and play with my Bandai. Best of both worlds...
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