JsARCLIGHT

Those pictures appear to me to be MPC's... I'd recognize those hands anywhere.

I'm probably smoking dope but wasn't Target Earth, or a clone of it, released on the SNES in the mid '90s? I remember a friend of mine in college had a Genesis with Target Earth and then years later I found a game for the SNES that was virtually a clone of Target Earth but called something different. The graphics were different and from what I remember the story was different but the game was a japanese robot shooter that played just like Target Earth... it even had the "re-entry" stage. Edit: The internet is your friend. Cybernator.

I think you guys read too much into my position. I was not saying that Shadow Chronicles spawned all these new Mospeada toys, I was simply saying that the notion that these three companies most likely have a built-in export market to ship to could be a very large reason they are all putting effort into transforming toys. Toys that by all accounts already exist in Japan in the form of imported Toynami toys, which are not selling well if at all. Looking at the links provided by oreillyrel leads me to believe that a good deal of the "retro" boom is mostly in cheap model kit reissues (which Aoshima already did for Mospeada) and in less expensive action figure toys. Transforming toys represent quite an investment in design, tooling and construction... plus they represent quite a steep price point at the retail level for the consumer. I'm sure they feel the JDM can support their efforts but a good part of my mind believes they already have inked deals with Tatsunoko cum HG to export the toys, thus increasing their sales and justifying all the effort. Also Mospeada is more than just a Japanese show anymore. It's not in the same ballpark as Gold Lightan or Vifam... it may be that way inside Japan but outside Japan there is more market share and more money to be made. It all just seems like too much effort to me for a localized JDM only market... But we won't know until the items show up and sell. As a Mospeada fan I'm definitely interested either way, I just feel that all this new effort has to be tied into the potential export to the west in some way, shape or form. Otherwise why would they simply just not rest on the laurels of reissued model kits and perhaps some fixed form inexpensive action figures? Why go hog wild with metal transforming toys... especially transforming toys that sort of already exist and are not selling well? And two companies making effectively the same thing to boot? My mind only points to the lucrative international market and it's tie-ins... if by some reason they fail to sell in Japan then they can still sell in the west. In the end we don't really need to know a reason why, we just need good quality toys to purchase. It's just for those of us who have waited so long for these things we want them to be the best they can be and get the market attention they deserve... it just seems to be "shallow thinking" on these companies behalf if they are only concerned with the JDM with this property, a property that can easily cross the ocean intact and still sell well in a foreign market. Even if the company has "never heard of" the name brand their toys will be selling under.

Still with the "tidal wave" of Japanese fan interest we've had for Mospeada in the past 25 years I'm shocked so much is being done by so many for what pretty much amounts to a little known anniversary for a little followed show. It just strikes me as strange that even for a "25th Anniversary" that so many different companies are moving on Mospeada products. CM's, Beagle, Aoshima... all making transforming toys, not just cheapie plastic figurines or claw game prizes. I know it's easy for those of us who are fans of the show to say "well DUH the show is awesome and it's totally popular in Japan" but IMHO that sort of doesn't ring true. I mean, one short show with it's last showing being a single episode OAV spinoff that came out 21 years ago is not exactly fresh in the minds of Japanese fandom. About the only thing that kept the show alive this long was it's inclusion in Robotech. I'm not trying to get into a Mospeada fandom debate (even though it might seem that I am), I'm just trying to figure out where this big push is coming from... as much as I'd like to believe "25th Anniversary", my brain is telling me more that Shadow Chronicles has possible renewed interest in the designs from the show. The 25th Anniversary seems like a coincidence... either that or Shadow Chronicles hitting right at the anniversary.

Count me in the camp wondering "why" all this Mospeada all of a sudden... I mean, this feels like the '80s again when every hollywood studio put out an underwater movie (The Abyss, Deep Star Six, Leviathan, etc...) out of nowhere. I mean, yes I am thrilled that this old obscure property is getting some treatment outside of Toynami but it just strikes me as strange that it is getting so much focus NOW. [state the Obvious] I wonder if this has anything to do with Shadow Chronicles? [/state the Obvious]

My office was having really, really bad crashing issues with Firefox about a week ago. All of our work boxes run FF and TB for internet and a good number of them (almost all were WinXP Office, SP2) were having crashing issues, usually on message boards. My personal machine in my office in particular was rampantly crashing regularly on AnimePunch forums. I'd be halfway through typing a response and *bing!* crash. I also noticed FF would "hang" on Gmail... I'd go to the site and it would just lock up for like a minute before it let you do anything. Then you'd click an email to read it and it would hang up again for a minute or so. If I remember right about a week ago we noticed FF wanted to update itself from 2.0.0.2 to 2.0.0.3 (I might have those numbers wrong, going from memory here). Since then we have had no crashes.

While they could just be showing one of the "many" cities of the game... but still yes, New York has been completely done to death. I actually kind of groaned "aw not Liberty City again" when watching the trailer... but from all the rumors and conjecture flying around Liberty could just be one small part of the game.

JsARCLIGHT's mini review of the Season Three box set: Having finished watching Season Three last night I must say the overall picture quality is improving across the releases. Season Three's episodes looked much better on my plasma, less graininess and general "old tyme" picture quality appearance. Audio is still the remixed 5.1 and still sounds nice. Absolutely NO special features as said earlier, they even took out the episode synopses from the episode selection screens. They may have gone to five single sided discs versus three double siders but they sure as heck cheaped out on the "presentation" (menus). As before, nothing changed... no music replaced and no cuts. Vice just as it should be. Verdict: If you are hardcore Vice as I am then "special features" are no concern to not buy this set. Season three... the Daytona goes boom, Zito gets dead, the show gets darker and still two seasons to go. Speaking of which... SCOOP! Miami Vice Season FIVE is to be released June 26th

Things I noticed in the trailer: - Liberty City... but different, laid out more like the real New York it seems. - What appears to be a day-night cycle in full blown effect - Much improved renderer and texture map quality - Appears to take place either in modern day or within 10 years of modern day This is my eyebrow going up ->

So it actually was an unused design? Wow... it totally clashes with the feel and flow of the other Ride Armors. I can see why they left it on the cutting room floor.

I've never seen that design outside of Robotech, I've always assumed it was a Robotech creation.

Heh, the only time my XBox moves is when I dust the living room. Last week I picked it up to dust the top of the entertainment center and it left an hourglass shaped spot of "not dusty".

You know, I've had my system since early this year and have never had a single "red ring of death" or other problems. Only one single time during an extended play session (4 hours plus) of the Tony Hawk demo did the system exhibit signs of slowdown and "lag" which I have not seen since. The only real problem I have encountered with the hardware is that the wireless network adapter doesn't "lock" into place when the Nyko Intercooler is on and I had to put a small piece of gaffer tape between the two to prevent this strange buzzing rattle when the system was running. Now, mind you, I don't play this thing every day. Heck I'm lucky if I get to play it for a few hours one day a week. It's standing upright by itself in the open on top of my entertainment center just below my TV. It has nothing else around it to block it's cooling yet the thing still gets hotter than the sun after about half an hour of playtime. Hearing all the negative reports on heat and other problems I walk on eggshells when playing it and shut it down after about an hour just to let it cool off.

Which goes right to the question we are all asking: Who is Beagle? What have they made in the past? Are they are a new Japanese company, are they an importer for Toynami? Someone out there has to know something.

Maisto makes a ton of their bikes in 1/12 which means these "Beagle" Ride Armors will be in scale with all the Maisto crotch rocket toys on the market. If you've seen those they are smallish but not tiny. They (Maisto) manage to get a good deal of detail into those bikes so I'd imagine no less from whoever this "Beagle" company is... then again IMHO this is an "out of the frying pan into the fire" sort of situation. Which would I rather have, a Ride Armor made by an established but dubious toy maker (Toynami) or a Ride Armor made by a complete "nobody" that no one has ever heard of or knows much about their quality?

My concern over a Jupiter Base Tread is that we have never seen one... is there even a creator sanctioned paint scheme for one? I've always taken that red Jupiter Base Legioss to either be some kind of special warfare unit or before reading all the info online I always assumed Fuke's Red Legioss was a "Jim Austin Special", built from a salvaged regular Legioss and painted Fuke red just because the girl seemed to like her red stuff. Heck, we never see another red Bartley ride armor before or after we see Fuke's and we never see another red Legioss either. The blues, greens and shadow units are all over the place... but we only see one red unit, and it's "mated" to another unique red unit. Don't get me wrong I'd love to see a Jupiter Base Legioss / Tread combo... I'm just concerned about how "canonical" it is and whether or not CMs can actually find the correct paint scheme for one or if they are just going to pull one out of their ass.

This is kind of a strange question, but is there actually such an animal as a red Jupiter Base Tread? I mean, you never see one in the course of the show and if my memory serves the red Jupiter Base Legioss is passed off as some sort of specialized "atmosphere fighter" (unless I'm remembering the Robotech version of the unit). Why would an atmosphere fighter need a trans atmospheric booster?

I got my two sets just now at Best Buy. They have a special this week if you buy both sets they are only $50 for the pair... plus Season Three has a $3 off coupon for Season Four on it. Grand total out the door should be $47 plus tax for BOTH this week. I'm watching disc one of Season Three right now (posting from my lappy). Folks who own Seasons One and Two will be glad to hear this: NO MORE DOUBLE SIDED DISCS! Seasons Three and Four come on Five single siders! I'll post a full review of both seasons once I've watched them all. So far picture quality is about the same and audio is about the same as well. As with Season Two, no special features. More to come... <- Sonny Crockett Smiley

Hate to hijack this topic even more (last time I promise) but the depiction of the terrain and foliage was pretty correct as well... the Ia Drang valley in Vietnam was in one of the more temperate zones in the country. Vietnam is not all rice paddies and tropical jungles like they show in the movies, it has different zones just like most any country. Here are some photos from the actual LZ Xray in the Ia Drang taken in 1965: The exact type of plant life and native grasses could not be shown due to obvious filming reasons but the impression of the actual area was quite accurate. OK that was the last hijack I promise, back to the Spartans.

This one is SO right up my alley (as the MW AR15 expert)... heh... The original M16 was being field tested in the early 60's and was approved for service use in 1963. It began to be issued in large numbers to combat troops in late 1964, starting with the elite troops first such as Hal Moore's Airborne brigades that took part in the LZ X-Ray battle in the movie. The movie takes place in November 1965, the M16 was in full field issue for almost a year at that point but it was still very "new" and a lot of troops like the grizzled old Master Sergent had grave misgivings about the weapons which were in Hal Moore's book thus they appear in the movie. However you are correct that the M14 was still in field use at the time, notably with the Marines who only grudgingly adopted it by 1966. ... now back to the Spartans with their privative spears and swords.

A recent "historically accurate" movie I remember is "We Were Soldiers", another Mel Gibson joint. That movie was very accurate. In fact, about the only inaccuracy it had was that it stopped telling the story of LZ X-Ray too early and omitted the whole "ending". But it was pretty darn accurate up to that point and portrayed both sides in the conflict as human. It did pretty good at the box office as well, with a production budget of $70mil it grossed over $120mil worldwide.

During the first attack when Minmay and Kaifun are backstage of the concert hall sitting on the couch just before the transformation, to Minmay's right on the couch with an autograph book who falls on his face when the room shakes is Shoji Kawamori.

Please ease up off the politics, cats. Thanks.

IMHO the "continuity problems" of Macross II came about as the newer Macross shows where minted. I remember when Macross II "came out" and was "the crap", I still remember eagerly waiting for that first VHS to be released. At the time all I had was the tv series, the movie and Flashback... so to me in 1994(? I don't remember the exact year) Macross II was a canonical sequel. At the time I personally saw no "conflicts" or "continuity issues" because no other Macross shows past DYRL and Flashback existed in my world. Now, after Mac II was "finished" in like 1996(? once again I'm foggy on the numbers) with episode 6 my opinion of it went from "hey this is pretty cool" to "wow that ending really sucked, in both story and animation quality"... but in my opinion it was still canon Macross whether I liked it or not. Then years afterward (when I found this place) new, different Macross shows came about, which were Plus and 7. My personal problems with those two shows, content aside, was that they didn't "fit" with what my perception of "macross continuity" was which in my mind which went TV - DYRL - Flashback - Macross II... that is when I found out about the "official" "re-purposing" of Mac II to place it outside of the original continuity. So, IMHO Macross II for a brief period of time was a legitimate, canonical sequel to Macross and heir apparent to the Macross "throne" so to speak... but due to reasons unknown (or at least explained to me in such basic terms that a person of my fourth grade understanding could fathom the politics behind it all) it was struck out of canon and placed into "side story" status. Personally I equate it to the whole "DYRL is a 'movie within the macross universe" stuff... at first it wasn't then it was. But in the case of Mac II at first it was... then it wasn't.

You may want to ask your question here -> Newbie Question Thread I am not the tech guru of Macross but the Macross Compendium has a good spiel on the variants of the VF-1 Valkyrie series here: VF-1 Series Info