Renato

Well, that magazine scan looks a lot better than the HLJ pics. Stupid price for stupid colours. I'm certainly not buying one if they look as ugly as HLJ makes them out to be. On the other hand, I might consider it if they look like the magazine pic... Aarrgh..

Yeah, I got that kit, too (never really liked the design but I got it just to complete the 1/144 set)... I never bothered with the panel-lining, though, so yours probably looks better. Try to get a flash on that camera or something, though.

I can't speak for Japan, but the VF-11B FP is still very easy to find here in Hong Kong. In fact during the recent MW HK Shopathon Kanto Hobby had them on sale and Guppy bought one for about HK$200 (£15) IIRC. Graham OK, thanks. Oh, and don't be a stranger, come over and visit anytime. Likewise for Shawn.

Question -- How's the availability for the VF-11B Fast Pack version over in Japan right now? I haven't got an FP one yet, and I was waiting until I go over there next month to do so. I just hope it's not become too hard to find yet.

Yeah, I was reading a biography of Kawamori (actually written in '84) a couple of years ago, and I was surprised to read that he did indeed work on a few designs for Ulysses 31, though I believe he was uncredited. Haven't had the chance to see the show in more than a decade, though. Wonder how the hell I can ever get my hands on it now.

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors Funny, I was thinking about Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors this morning (cool songs in there, by the way). OK, I'm a weird guy. Let's start from there. Sometimes I get some mental images when I'm walking down the street. Anyway, I was thinking about how Jay Leno has white/grey hair, but he's got that black bit of hair in the middle of his head... And, like, how Jayce always had brown hair but white hair down the middle of his head.... And I think... JAYCE LENO...?? Anyway, in other news... Yeah, JEM, right. What a load of old balls. I remember it being on before Transformers so it would just be the crap I'd have to sit through before the real show began, kinda like the supporting band (aptly). Oh, and the "baddies" (rival girl band) were called... wait for it... the MISTFITS. Aaargh.

I'm always moving from place to place, so most of my stuff (several toys but mostly kits) is forever packed up in boxes. I only take them out if I'm staying someplace for more than half a year or so. At the moment I only have a Yamato VF-11B, a couple of Banprestos, a Labor In Action and a customized Phalanx on display. A few months ago I had all my 1/55s out, though. I think my mother respects the hobby a lot more than she did, saying how they're so detailed and delicate, etc... Although I can never tell. She sometimes tells me that since I never get them out anymore I should give a couple of Yamatos to my four-year-old brother. Instead I just gave him two 1/55 bootlegs I was saving for customs. His friend (same age) came over the other day and he pointed at the two Banprestos. He said "Wow. I like those," implying that I should let him play with them. I would have done if they didn't break apart into conveniently-easy-to-lose parts. So I just said "Yeah. Me too."

No, no way. That'll be Gundam. Macross has nothing more than a cult status over there. In fact, anime in general with the exception of prime time TV anime and Ghibli films is a cult thing even in Japan. Good luck finding anybody who's heard of Shoji Kawamori.

LOL... How can anyone avoid the damn pop-ups??? Netflix is the most popular online video rental service. They have a good selection of anime, better than my local Blockbuster and Hollywood video anyway. OK thanks. Never pay attention to any pop-ups.. I just close 'em as soon as they appear.

Do also notice that they re-casted two of the Zentran spies (can't remember which ones, Konda and Rori maybe) in the original Japanese DYRL. In the series they are all played by Japanese actors, but in DYRL two of them are played by foreign white guys, who don't speak Japanese very well. This was to add a bit more of a "strangeness" or "foreign" effect in the peace treaty scene before the climax of the film when they talk about how wonderful protoculture is at the panel. I thought that was kind of a cool and effective touch that many people probably didn't know about. You really have to keep your ear out for it if you don't speak Japanese, though.

Yep. Love the one of Gunbuster in Odaiba.

*Sigh*.... OK. What. What's this all about? What's a Netfix. Explain this. And don't give me a URL. Just explain it so I know what people are talking about, before I make some half-assed vote.

That red guy on the right is named "Fitor," I think. I used to have one too, way back in the day... Yeah. A bit of a crappy design, but now that I think about it, I used to play with him all the time. One of my favorites. Possibly MY FAVOURITE!! Wow, goes to show what else I may have forgotten. Might even go get myself one again... Nah, that'll be going too far... Right..?

Wow. I don't know if I had Spay-C, I definitely had one that turned into a white shuttle, but not sure it was him. Anyway, that red guy in the right -- I HAD HIM!! Forgotten all about him, but looking at the picture now... Yeah, there's no mistaking it. I was actually gonna reply to this thread with a "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout? Gobots suck!" But you are right about nostalgia....

Let's see. I remember MW was a brand new site which had opened in 1999 (coincidence? The fall of the macross..?) I thought it was awesome that a couple of guys owned so much Macross-related paraphenalia. I had heard of Graham before because he, along with Oliver Barder and Rik Newman (pioneers of Macross fandom) had some thing going on called "5th Triumverate". I remember attending at least one of their do's is London. I'd never seen Macross Seven toys before, not to mention people doing Macross Seven karaoke. Remember, this was around 1997, in the days when Pokemon hadn't yet broken through to the West. I kept in contact with Rik and Ollie, and I wrote stuff to contribute in their "Macross & Mecha" newsletter. My material never.. materialised, though. So I just put it up on the web a couple of years later. At the time Dynamite Seven had just come out so I was getting back into the Macross groove after having finished watching M7 in awe (hey, it was kind of moving at the time OK?). Then the boards opened in December 2000. I believe Major Yoshikazu was the first member (at least, among the first half a dozen), who then became known simply as "Yoshi"). Then the protagonists were "Rick the Hunter", "VF1x", "Max Jenius", "Roy Focker", "Blackaces" and others which gave the forums their unique sense of comaraderie.. Not to mention irreverent humour! I didn't join until February 2001. At the time there was a rank system, where you used to get different Valkyrie upgrades beneath your avatar depending on your post number. Characters like Keith and Godmedia didn't make it over here until quite a while later.... Personally I never saw the appeal of AFM, but what the hell do I know..? I was made quite welcome because there were few translators here at the time, and I often received requests. Unfortunately, these days I can't really comply due to other commitments (even right now, I have a Japanese class to teach in a short while, I should really be checking that all my materials are in place). To be honest, even back then I couldn't fulfill all of Shawn's demands dues to my workload... If you're reading this, I have some of the translations of the Kawamori interview from last year in my files, Shawn.... Sent you an email a while back but you didn't respond... Gee, I hope he's not pissed off. Anyway, I have posted on many occasions on MW, a third of the time trying to be funny, another third trying to be the voice of reason within M7 and HG licensing debates (not to mention the epic one during September 11th), and the remainder of the time trying to provide info that would settle some truths and dispel myths (the tailfin missiles on Max's plane, the deal with the Meagaroad's disappearance, and almost anything regarding the production of the original show and also OST's are all my specialties). Throughout the years, I have made contributions to the board from London, Scotland and Tokyo. In a few weeks I'll be in Osaka. Hopefully I'll still be in touch then. Well, this has been kind of a self introduction. Hope the boards keep on going as long as Macross remains interesting, and long after it's not.

You know what you need to do...You have to sneek in your USB memory stick and download it thru that...Get your friend to make a secne well you download it!!! Nah, I mean... on the PCs that allow me to access Valkyrie's site, they've been configured so that you can't plug anything in. Well, you can physically plug in the USB thing, of course, but it's no use because the PCs have been configured to reject it. That's what I was trying to say. It wasn't a worry about being seen by the staff, or anything. Hell, I could always just have said that I was sending photographs through email, or something. They don't care.

That's just Fukuyama alone in the first picture. He's the singing voice of Basara and lead singer and guitarist of Hummingbird. I can't see who's on drums or bass, but again, if it ain't Furuya or Aso, it ain't Hummingbird. (It's kind of like George Harrison performing solo, but being billed as "The Beatles") He DOES look like Jimmy Page, and even more so now, because of the fact that (in my eyes, at least) Jimmy Page these days looks like some old Asian guy! In fact, I think I'm gonna change my avatar to either a Jimmy one or a Robert one, to suit my sig... In the second picture, that's the Planet Dance concert which I do have the tape of somewhere. That's just Basara's seiyuu, Nobutoshi Hayashi, along with some nobody guitarist (definitely NOT Hummingbird). Together, the only thing they managed in that concert was redefining "uncool". Thank God you didn't put any shots of Tomo Sakurai in there. I'd have probably smashed my monitor.

Argh, bastards!! The admin configurations prevent me from downloading the file in the library of my adult college where I teach, but I can plug in my USB memory stick thing in it, so I could store it there in theory. Meanwhile, in the local library the configurations allow me to actually download the file, but they don't allow me to plug in the extra drive so I don't have anywhere to store the file (and Yahoo Briefcase is too small, only allows a 5MB max. upload at a time). Damn! Gonna have to go to my cousin's house and get it from there.

I'm gonna have to go check the actual records of live performances for Hummingbird now, but I tell you -- it can't be them. If it is, I'll eat my metaphorical hat.

No, that's the other omake concert they included later on, the one where they play Planet Dance. And even then, Humming Bird is still playing in the background. You're kidding me. I really doubt that... But I'm gonna have to go and check out the omake on my VHS for that. Between which episodes is it found? For the record: Hummingbird consists of three members: Fukuyama (Basara) with the messy long hair, Furuya (on the bass, usually with a beard, bandana and glasses) and Shouichiro Aso (on drums, the young one with the long straight hair). I am 99.8% they are not present in that particualr concert. So what concert is it that PlastikMissile is talking about. Not seen that one.

I wanted to see it, but no-one wanted to go see it with me. Same with every damn Japanese movie in Japan, 'cos going to the cinema is so bloody expensive. Same with Cowboy Bebop, too. It's a miracle I managed to persuade someone to come along to watch Patlabor 3. However, EVERYONE wants to go see stuff like Monsters Inc. Cos like, Disney is God. Sometimes it seems Japanese movies and animation are not even mainstream in Japan. In fact, it not only seems that, I think it IS that. Er.. sorry, no, I dunno the song.

Yay!! Thanks a lot, pal. The PC I'm using at the moment prevents me from downloading from that site, but I'll get it soon. Thanks again

I don't think they were released...

I like 'em too. I have the Prime and Megatron transforming ones when I got back from Japan I brought back some choro-Q police cars, vans etc. for my 4 year old brother. He loves them too. They've made hundreds, though, I'm sure theres a firebird in there somewhere. I remember seeing a Delorean time machine from Back to the Future.

I have an MP3 rip of it I made a few months back,from my DVD.I can send it thru yahoo, or AIM, if you p.m me.I would put it up, but I don't know how.If I can send it to someone who can,I will, be more then happy to do so, for you all who want it. Yay! I'd like that song, too, that's another rare track found. I've just posted in the other topic about the lost Acoustic version of Totsugeki Love Heart. It's great that everyone can help each other out.. Thanks!