Drad

Wow! Chimps in this thread too?!

Apparently so are the executives of a certain toy company and its licensor. Cheap chimps hiring.. cheap chimps?

Toynami IS improving their Masterpiece line. Slowly.. but they are improving. You can tell just by looking at the Alpha itself. The sculpt is great, outside of a few forgiveable flaws, and you can see several other areas in which they really tried to do things better this time. Now if only they'd switch to a better production facility, use better materials and get some humans for quality control (I suspect trained chimpanzees at this point), the Masterpiece line really would begin to approach the quality that it's named for.

Understandable. I worked hard to be fair, honest and objective in my review. But I only have control over my own thoughts and feelings about it. It was that lack of objectivity in many other reviews that made it REALLY difficult for me to decide whether or not to buy the Alpha.

PM/IM me.

Don't forget to add your votes to the Alpha poll, guys! Keep those numbers coming in. Thanks.

Rohby-man.. I'm not a customizing kinda guy, but I have to say.. .. those VF-1S head recasts are SUPER NICE! Thanks for providing our community with another great product!

Yeah. Definitely agreed, there. There is such a thing as straying too far from the original.. so far that you lose almost everything that made the series enjoyable in the first place. no, I disagree... I think if a universe is fleshed out well enough, you can tell all sorts of stories without having to reference the original plot/characters. True, but I was referring more to the loss of critical elements that make the series successful to begin with. Improvements are fine. A certain amount of reinvention is also necessary, to a point. Otherwise things get stale. But as far as the critical elements are concerned... .. if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

GameStop just got tired of scooping up Toynami's mess. Sorry, folks... ALL SALES ARE FINAL.

Those are the classic BGC hardsuits. Not the 2040 redesigns.

Yeah. Definitely agreed, there. There is such a thing as straying too far from the original.. so far that you lose almost everything that made the series enjoyable in the first place.

Oh no. Dangard Gollum, the Toymongering Mod, lurks among us...

I thought the BGC 2040 redesigns were really nice too, actually. But you can't go wrong with classics.

Pleasepleaseplease tell me these are prebuilt/prepainted figures and not kits? Please? EDIT: Nevermind, d'oh. The sign says they're non-scale action figures. I knew that. I wants.

I didn't see anything on the Alpha that foretells connection to a Beta fighter. I won't say it's completely out of question, but it's not looking good. Kinda like a lot of peoples' Alphas.

Hard to believe that was Belldandy... wow. So does he kitbash all his kits or does he do stock kits too?

How are the effects in the original release? I've heard that the US release of the film is going to be spruced up a bit. Probably more digital effects, new score and remixed audio track. Still, those enhancements may not necessarily make it better.. just different. I'd like to know if the original is good in those areas as well.

So when's the winner going to be announced?

Yeah, I think this one looks excellent. Maybe not absolutely perfect.. but very, very good. I'd buy one if it were mass-produced in pre-built/pre-painted form.

Damn. DAMN. Exquisite work, Kurt. I don't particularly care for the VF-1A, but this thing is just outstanding. Keep 'em coming.

Weird. I never pictured myself this way.

The simple answer is just that the VF-0 is animated using today's state-of-the-art animation techniques, so it's obviously going to look like it'd run circles around the VF-1. Appearances aside.. .. the VF-1 is the production model and according to the specs, it's better. It's anime. Go with it.

Seems like everything's getting the remastered treatment these days, along with 5.1 Dolby Digital remixed audio. I'm tempted, but I dunno if I wanna spend another $384. I have my old Cowboy Bebop DVDs in 2.0 Dolby Surround, and my equipment provides Dolby Pro-Logic II audio processing. Should I just pass on these remastered discs? How about the rest of you.. would you buy these?

It's your money, in the end. I'd still advise against dealing with him.

Regarding Macross Zero, what is there to push? A few models? Those crappy CM figures? An episode that comes out once every 6 months? There really isn't anything to push. True.. but that exact lack of merchandise and marketing could be considered as Macross not being "pushed." It's definitely not high on the priority list for anyone in Japan besides a few hardcore fans and those responsible for the property.