danth

Hey guys, a took a bunch of pics of these. I want people to see how good they look. Sorry about the funky backgrounds -- I had to take these on my kitchen table.

I just watched the first 17 episodes of Macross 7, for the first time, over the last two weeks. Man, oh man. An anime about a guy who flies a flaming red valkyrie into space, piloting with a guitar instead of a flight stick, firing a gun that shoots speakers instead of bullets, and singing at the enemy until they give up. How could this not be the best god damn thing ever created? It doesn't hurt that it has designs by Shoji Kawamori and Miyatake and Haruhiku Mikimoto. It also features some incredibly good music (Mylene's songs -- My Friends and Sweet Fantasy). And, for a TV series, the animation is stellar. Yeah, I'll grant M7's detractors some points. It starts out extremely repetitive: every episode, Fire Bomber's musical performance is interrupted by an alien attack, and Basara flies out to sing at them. I, too, am sick of "Planet Dance." But when the over-arching story picks up, the show gets really good. The last two episodes I watched introduced Sivil (major hottie) and showed her in action. The climax of those epiodes? A rock star flies a valkyrie to sing against a space demon. M7 wins the universe. And speaking of climax...I'm pretty sure Basara made Sivil climax with that song. She cried and everything. Final thought: If I had to hate Harmony Gold for just one thing, it's this: they are why M7 was never shown on US television. If it had been, I bet it would have been a mega-hit.

I paid 17.99 for my 3 non-exclusives at a walk-in store. (Anime Express in San Luis Obispo -- www.animeexpress.com) However, I paid 35 for my SDCC exclusive on the second hand market.

Well, I think the 1/100 looks beautiful in all modes. Also, the fighter-mode picture that Jenius posted shows a pretty messy transformation -- I can get mine to look way better. If you're careful, the gaps between the intakes are minimal. I'll post a pic ASAP.

Considering Yamato stuff is ridiculously overpriced and lacking in QC, I'm not sure I want them to get any license I care about. But the stuff I want to see most, you guys already listed. Mospeada Gall Force BGC Moto-slaves Artmic stuff in general Appleseed landmates

A lot of good anime music out there. Obviously the Macross Stuff: * * Angel Paints * Tenchi Muyo had some great ones: * Ryo-ohki's Theme (first OAV opening) * Talent for Love (first OAV ending) * I am a Pioneer (second OAV opening) Other stuff: Lodoss Wars: Fantasia of the Wind Dragon Warrior Opening (US Version)

Wow, I don't know what you guys are complaining about. I got mine yesterday and it's very cool. Looks sweet in all modes. Yeah, the backpack is floppy in fighter, unfortunately, but that doesn't ruin it for me, not with the price and how good it looks. I have other small gripes, but overall I think the good far outweighs the bad. I'm glad it doesn't have those ugly low-hanging arms and shoulders that the 1/48 has. Also, the canopy is correctly proportioned, unlike the 1/48's bulbous canopy.

You had me until non-transformable. Yeah, I said it. I want 1/35, transformable Cyclones. Man, they wouldn't even be 3 inches tall. Anyway, I used to have that exact same fantasy when I was young. I remember daydreaming of all the Robotech mecha in the same scale. I think 1/35 was about what I thought would work, too. EDIT: Maybe 1/24 would be better. GI Joe was 1/18 and they had an F-14. What would a 1/24 valk be, like 2 feet long? They can sell them in potato sacks for all I care.

No; apparently there's a friggin' news blackout on these.

That is the issue. Since nobody is forcing us...we can actually just stop. The only Yamato I ever bought was the 1/60. I thought it was crap, so I sold it. I was ecstatic when I hear about the 1/48 perfect variable. But when I saw the ugly, downward-sloping nosecone, and the fat-ass canopy, and the low-hanging arms and shoulders, there was no way I was gonna drop over a hundred bucks on it. Especially with backpacks breaking. And then there was the Garland fiasco. So yeah, Yamato is pricing mediocre or QC problemed toys insanely high. People buy them up, though. What can I say, there's a sucker born every minute. The VF-0, though...now that one is nearly perfect as far as I can tell. I do plan on getting an 0A. The upcoming YF-19, on the other hand, well...I can't believe people are going to shell out for that fat-necked monstrosity.

WHERE ARE THE FRIGGIN' REVIEWS?! If this was a stupid Yamato product, there would have been a review up a week or two ago. Tons of people already have this thing, and yet there's nothing! I know we're all biased against Toynami, but this is ridiculous. And no, this is not directed towards anybody. I'm just shocked that I can't find one site on the internet that has up-close pictures or comments -- not even a mini-review. And I'm impatient because I've been salivating over these things for months and mine hasn't arrived in the mail yet. I feel like I'm gonna die if I don't see a good profile shot or head-on shot in fighter mode. EDIT: Found this:

Is this still due out in August? According to the following page it looks like it's been pushed back to September: http://www.yamato-toys.com/items/detail.php?gid=948

Gah, please no! The "non-Anime Friend" episodes of Macross are far better animated than the talking-head cartoons we see today.

I hope Toynami goes nuts on these. I want Cannon Fodders, GBP armor, Regults, Glaugs, Q-Raus, everything.

Now for the important question: Did she come with fast packs? Congrats!

I bow down in worship of these models. May thy godly skill be everlasting. I LOVE that valkyrie model.

Hey Zentrandude, you seem to know what's going on. Do you know what I need to do to watch MPEG's and listen to mp3's on my DS Lite? I know there's something called a Playan released in Japan, but it's probably all in Japanese and also I don't know if it will work on a DS Lite. Any ideas? And, those things you linked too, are those for playing MPEG and mp3?

God damn these are looking good. These are going to make customizing a whole lot cheaper. Maybe one of our members here will come up with a retractable landing gear kit. I'm sad not to see a cannon fodder displayed there at the con; I'd love to have at least three of those. Maybe they'll do a three pack? I also demand BATTLE PODS and POWER ARMOR. Hell, they could even do plain armored Zentraedi. Mmmm, fun list time. Enemy Wave 1: Regult Armored Zentraedi Flight Pod (I forget the name) Enemy Wave 2: Q Rau N Ger Glaug Enemy Wave 3: Scout Regult Light Missile Regult Heavy Missile Regult Destroid Wave 1: Defender Tomahawk Phalanx Accessory Wave: Spartan Valkyrie Armor (sumo type) Valkyrie Space Booster

And you guys thought Toynami was bad!

What do you think happens when you separate the males and the females for too long?

Hurin, that site looks great. I saw it before but I had since forgotten, so thanks for the link. Would you guys be interested in hosting exhaustive line art for each valkyrie? Because that's what my goal is. I think this project might need it's own site, because I'd like each picture to have a source listed so fans can go out and get the books if they want them. And Roy, I agree that it's a good idea to buy artbooks if you're into it. Like I said, I have 7 artbooks just on Macross TV, plus an like 100 magazines (American and Japanese) with lineart. And I still want to see this. I once downloaded a RPG rulesbook from the internet. I liked it so much, I bought a hard copy. I've heard songs on MP3 that were so awesome, I went out and bought the album. That's how people are. I don't think this will hurt artbook sales. So, for the ethical question, how bad do you guys think it would be to make a site dedicated to only Macross Valkyrie line art, with no other material from artbooks (like interviews or character designs or color art). Each picture would also have a source listed with ISBNs for people interested in searching out the actual artbooks.

Oh, I have tons of artbooks. But I will never have them all. There just aren't enough to go around. And artbooks aren't complete: I see weird pieces of line art online and I don't know where the hell they come from, even though I own all of the main Macross TV books. I want to see ALL of the mecha lineart, and if a new, obscure drawing shows up, I want that one too. As for piracy, I could give a rat's ass, and let's not play the moral superiority game since we're on the internet. The amount of pirated images on MW alone is staggering. There's lots of stuff in artbooks besides mecha line art -- it's not like we'll need to scan entire books. Mahq.net is a start, but they don't have exhaustive line art nor a focus on Macross.

Mecha, if I had my way.

I was thinking official line art, although I'm happy to accept any signed original artworks you'd like to send to my address.

I think we can all agree that line art is a good thing. I used to spend hours as a kid looking at my Robotech RPG books just for the line art. Nowadays I buy artbooks, but it's hard to get all the lineart I want, especially when it comes to M7, M+, or MII. I'm sure it's the same way for some of you guys. I think Macross World would be the perfect place for a Macross line art archive, but if that's not possible, it should still exist somewhere. What do you guys think? Would you like something like that? Would you be willing to contribute?