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Great review, Mike! I want an IDW Optimus, but it needs to be to scale with all the other IDW figures that Mastermind Creations, MakeToys, Mega Steel, Mech Ideas, Second Chance, FansProject, Perfect Effect, Hasbro and TakaraTomy have released. Generation Toy (and GCreation) made the mistake of producing a figure too big to display with anything else IDW (except TransFormMission's Stunticons), and the decision has baffled me since the project was first announced. Thankfully, MMC's IDW Rodimus is consistent with the scale everyone else has been adhering to: ...and the likeness is spot-on. Plus, the alt. mode is drop-dead gorgeous! Couldn't recommend "Calidus" more highly!

True dat.

I suppose it depends on what you're looking at, Cap'n. If your focus is on the mecha or the character interaction in the foreground, there's not a lot of clarity to be gained in HD, and the story can be appreciated just as well in standard definition (with less distracting dirt and film grain). If, however, your focus is on setting, mood, or production design, the HD upgrade makes a huge difference. There's far more detail visible in the backgrounds, where the real strength of the series lies -- its rich, atmospheric post-apocalyptic setting -- and here, color and contrast play a significant role in establishing Mospeada's unique visual style. Unlike similar '80s anime series, like Fist of the North Star, Southern Cross, or the latter segments of Macross, the post-war world of Mospeada isn't just a barren, grey wasteland. I'm only six episodes in so far, but I'm amazed by the rich production design work visible in the backgrounds: VHS? In this day-and-age? Good grief, are you missing out...! To demonstrate, here's the same image from Robotech on VHS: Seriously, come join us in the 21st century. These are just a few choice screen grabs from episode 6, demonstrating the diversity of color and detail evident even within a single setting. I can't wait to see how the alien environments look in HD!

Not unless Southern Cross gets remastered for a Japanese Blu-ray release first... which remains unlikely. Harmony Gold could always pay to have Tatsunoko's film prints remastered in HD, of course... but that's even more unlikely. Yeah, I'd hope a Blu-ray release would ditch the "Remastered" sound mix. They'd have to abandon the scale they've established for the Macross line, though... Otherwise they'd be some pretty tiny Mospeada toys!

Yeah, ADV sure screwed up the audio adding those cheap digital sound effects. It's a shame, really, since the Robotech audio had some terrific music cues -- arguably better than the original Mospeada BGM -- and better casting, too. Annie isn't nearly as obnoxious to listen to as Mint, and Lancer has a much more appropriate voice (for a female impersonator) than the ridiculously masculine voice Yellow has. If only Macek hadn't insisted on spoiling every single moment of quiet reflection with offscreen dialogue, interior monologues, and redundant narration...

I've finally acquired Mospeada on Blu-ray! I thought you guys might be interested in an objective* comparison to ADV's 2003 DVD release: Immediately, you will notice a substantial difference in color. The Blu-rays have a slightly greenish tint to them: ...whereas ADV's prints have a substantial blue tint to them. This is most obvious when comparing the neutral background of the eyecatch: ...which appeared powder blue on ADV's DVD release! It has a substantial effect on skin tones as well: ...and even eye color is affected. Comparing onscreen graphics reveals a slight difference in framing: You see ADV's prints favor the top of the frame, while the Blu–rays feature more image at the bottom. The difference in picture quality suggests that ADV had a lot of digital clean-up performed to remove film grain and noise. While detail is much sharper on the high-definition masters for the Blu-ray, there's a lot more dirt evident as well... and, most importantly, there are frame guides visible on the first and last frame of EVERY shot. ADV seems to have removed these entirely. For those of you not familiar with old-school anime production methods, it's important to remember that everything was shot and edited manually on film -- as quickly and cheaply as possible, I might add -- and Tatsunoko in particular was known for leaving these framing marks visible for a split-second on every cut. I first became aware of them myself when viewing Macross on Laserdisc, so I knew what Carl Macek was talking about when he mentioned them at Anime Expo '92. It seems Macek had decided to re-frame Tatsunoko's footage to remove these frame guides when creating Robotech, cropping off the edges of the frame by zooming in on the image. Here's what Robotech's original broadcast masters looked like:** While I was appalled when first hearing about this, I have gradually come to accept Macek's decision; when you start to notice them, those framing marks get REALLY distracting. Unfortunately, the Blu-rays are lousy with 'em. Furthermore, there's a lot more instability between frames as well, with flickering evident in darker scenes and a slightly shaky image throughout. The added clarity and more accurate color reproduction is a major advantage, but the lack of noise reduction results in grainy, unstable images instead. Oh, and there's no foreign-language content whatsoever, of course, which means Japanese fans are likely the only ones debating these issues anyway. * I say "objective" because all the images in this post were generated by the same software, without any compensating filters or color-correction added, so you see them exactly as VLC 2.2.5 displays them. ** Note I superimposed the analog image over ADV's Robotech Remastered DVD, to demonstrate how much of the original image was lost on TV.

From a marketing perspective, this makes the most sense. First-time customers like myself will likely want a Moscato kit in-hand (for a clearer idea of the quality of the product, the time-frame involved, and the work required to construct and paint) before shelling out considerably more money for the next one...

Moscato and King Crab always go well together.

This is becoming a reality much faster than I was expecting! I'm very excited to be getting my own Gurab, and Eager to see what's coming next...!

Sure, change the setting to Earth -- say, 15 years after an apocalyptic war with giant aliens has decimated the population... Turn those weird tri-petaled alien flowers into some kind of poorly-defined energy source... Make the enemy pilots "cloned androids" instead of human POWs... Heck, we could even make it a sequel to Macross!

Having recently acquired This is Animation #10 myself, I can confirm that it isn't. I don't know who those characters are or where the images come from. There's a lot of terrific Southern Cross artwork in the book, however, much of which has never been published anywhere else. This piece is one of my favorites: The sketch in the book is rather monochromatic, so I added a lot of color overlays in Photoshop to create the image you see here. Hope you like it!

Oh my gerd, there's a Robotech toy in there!

I came to a similar conclusion. The Spartan's just a little too big... ...and yet, others have somehow managed to manipulate his thigh and ankle joints to make him appear shorter...

Oh, the infamous Alaska Base shot from "Chinatown"? That was just a telecine error. The HD masters are much higher quality: The Spartan was clearly meant to be green to begin with. [ . . . ] Come to think of it, those old transfers may be responsible for the messed-up Tomahawk coloring as well...

Where does this color scheme come from?

No wonder you need more Regults!

We can only hope and pray that, when Tomahawk pre-orders are finally solicited, they'll have promotional images of a properly-painted test shot to present... and the paint masters will be based on that, not this lavender-and-turquoise monstrosity!

The infamous "egg-cracking" scene cut from Robotech due to excessively graphic violence: The articulation is top-notch, and does allow for some minor height adjustment. I agree, anyone who isn't getting the Spartan or didn't see Future Boy Conan is definitely missing out!

Unfortunately, his gun pods were soon stolen by malcontents...

Let's show these malcontents how we do things in MY town!

No, wait! It's nothing a little forced perspective can't fix...! Oh, is that Robotech-specific nomenclature?

Well, the Spartan is definitely off. According to Perfect Memory, Spartans and Tomahawks are both about 11.3 meters to the top of the shoulders, as this line art indicates: The HMR Spartan stands 14.3cm to the top of the shoulders, which is a good three centimetres bigger than it should be. Note if we apply the same baseline to the HMR line, the Valkyries and Battlepods are consistent... ...but the vintage Imai Tomahawk's definitely too small, and the HMR Spartan's clearly too large.

Confirmed first-hand. If you get the missile effect pieces into the right position, the armor covers will hold them in place. "Missile Effect Set for Super Valkyrie," yeah. If Yamato released a Phalanx, I don't know about it... but here it is with the vintage 1:100 Phalanx and Tomahawk model kits, as well as Yamato's 1:60 Tomahawk and Defender: I'm surprised the HMR Spartan's so disproportionally large, actually. A Spartan shouldn't be bigger than a Valkyrie Battloid...! Don't let that stop you. There are Amazon.jp listings for 50% off as well...

And they're a perfect fit for the 1:100 Missile Phalanx...!

Not unless they fix that color scheme. The Tomahawk's supposed to be military tan, not lilac grey! Previous toys and model kits have gotten it right: ...so what's Bandai's problem?