Pat Payne

OK, here goes: What impressed the casting directors with Mari Ijima (above and beyond her singing) that prompted them to give her the role of Lynn Minmay?

Mainichi Houzou, or MBS. I'll take characters for $300, Alex.

Hmmm... good question... In no particular order: Star Trek V: Shatner's Ego Trip. The film was a poorly-written muddle that mixes liberal cheap gags (such as Scotty saying "Ach, I ken this ship like the back o' me hand..." just before cold-cocking himself by running into a pipe -- like we haven't seen that one fifty times over?) with a hackneyed plot that has the Enterprise crew taken over by cultists with all the brains of a rutabaga. Sybock was a weak villain -- in fact he seemed more like a road-show cult leader who got what Jim Jones should have got. It's just lucky for the franchise that this turkey was butressed by the excellent Star Treks IV and VI. Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. It's a hentai film in disguise about a tentacl--I'm sorry -- walking junk heap played by Michael Ironside (Warning bells going off yet? ) who has turned an entire planet into his own personal harem. When three comely astronettes (all of whom act like their brains were affected by explosive decompression on the way down) crash land on the planet, guess who has an eye for them? (Fanboys: This is a PG picture.) Peter Strauss (whose most prominent credit is "Biker Mice From Mars") is sent down to rescue the trio from Overdog (M.I.'s character), but runs into Molly Ringwald (! !) who plays a post-apocalyptic street urchin. The two don't like each other. Here's a sample of the subtle dialogue that the writer used to convey this: Wolff (Peter Strauss): What the hell are you? Nicki (Molly Ringwald): What do you think I am, you scrawny earthbag? I'm a woman! (It doesn't help that Strauss has only one note in his performance -- smug Terran smart-ass) The two travel around in Strauss' 1983 POS that looks like a post-Mad-Max SUV until they confront Overdog and his overly creepy crew. They argue. Ringwald spouts bizarre P.A.S.U. slang that's supposed to make her sound futuristic but instead makes us wonder if she was gunning for Ally Sheedy's role in The Breakfast Club. By the time she's finally thrown into a deathtrap maze by Overdog at the end of the film, you're rooting for the maze. In short, you want a cheesy, good 80's sci-fi B-movie? Watch Buckaroo Banzai. Star Wars Christmas Special. Six words: Ten Minutes of Unsubtitled Wookie Dialogue. Two More Words: Jefferson Airplane. Seven more words: Poor Art Carney, Roped Into This Turkey. Three More Words: Carrie Fisher Sings! (add on to that: Where's The Puke Smiley When I Need It?) Two More Words: Bea Arthur! Only Good Thing? Boba Fett! The Final Sacrifice. If all of the other sacrifices were this bad, I'm glad this is the final one. A genuine piece of Canadian Cheese (just to remind us that the country did, indeed, give us Celine Dion ), the plot of the film revolved around a whiny kid whom even I'd beat up for his lunch money trying to escape from a cult that is inexplicably made up solely of Mexican Lucha wrestlers. The rest of the plot is so thin that explaining it would cause a rift in the space-time continuum. In short, there were two saving graces in the movie: One, it was on MST3K, therefore I had the benefit of some good zingers from the Satellite's crew, and Two, I got a good laugh out of the name "Rowsdower." Avalon. Love Mamoru Oshii's work, hate this film. It's a boring, self-important muddle that ends up being "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." And it's in Polish! How boring? I think they could have done, for instance, without the five-minute "Work-tube-home-lather-rinse-repeat" sequence. By the time we actually have Ash (Not that Ash. And not that one either! ) open up a can of whup-ass on something, the audience is already asleep. I guess there's supposed to be allusions to the Arthurian cycle in there, but then again there could be allusions to the Matrix (which hadn't been made by then) in there. Nice special effects, though, especially when the VR tanks get destroyed. And I will admit that behemoth helicopter was a CG tour-de-force. But good CG ain't going to save this mess.

Out of curiosity, what's your Avatar, Father Jack? Looks familiar for some reason...

I've got three Yammies now: 1) VF-1A Valkyrie (1/60) Max 2) VF-1A Valkyrie (1/60) CF 3) VF-1S Valkyrie (1/48) Hikaru Someday I might get the VF-1J Hikaru (1/48) and a couple others if I can keep my bank account up (Damn you Yamato, Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmnnnnnnn yyyyyyyyooooooouuuuuu!!! )

LOL!

Rumors, all just rumors. There was supposed to be a live-action Macross something called "Macross: Final Outpost Earth" which actually was IIRC a Hollywood movie (To be released first in the US, no less) with very strong input from Kawamori and Studio Nue to be released in 1996-7. It has been in pre-production hell ever since, and with the BW/HG ruckus, I doubt it'll ever get made. Here's the link, for historical interest: http://macross.anime.net/production/animat...arth/index.html

I always thought of Minmay as being rather shallow and self-absorbed, sort of the typical teenage girl who becomes a pop star. She certainly isn't stupid, she just is usually with her head in the clouds. What are you smoking? I always though of the two, I would have been more attracted to Misa if she were real. In the "good" episodes (Artland/Studio Nue), I always thought she looked better than Minmay.

Just got mine a few hours ago, and I am impressed. I already like the 1/48 better than my 1/60s, but I have a few problems with it so far (nothing major, but still wondering if anyone knows how to fix/if I'm doing something wrong, &c.) 1) The arms are a little floppy in Fighter mode. (as of yet, I haven't transformed it) They are also floppy with the FAST Packs on (the instructions show a hole-and tab arrangement on the arm armor parts that secure the arms to the legs, but I can't find it). If I fiddle with them, they get less floppy, but that knocks one of the legs a little askew. 2) The Backpack clip doesn't seem to work well. When I put the backpack into the up position (I'm definetly NOT forcing it -- it is a sad man who doesn't learn from his own mistakes, it's a bloody idiot who doesn't learn from others' )it pulls up the hatch. Just to be safe, how far can I put the backpack up before risking breaking the hinge? 3) There's a little gap on one side of the canopy -- looks slightly mis-molded. Although it's not noticable enough to be annoying, I'm glad Hikaru's got that full pressure suit Other than that, I thiunk the casting is lovely, and the FAST Packs finally give it that "Valk all dressed up and ready to open up a can of whup-ass" look I've been waiting for. It was well worth the money, IMHO.

Thank you--that's a bit of T.M.I. there

Here's a site that has the lowdown with the AOL/E-Bay/PayPal scams on what's going on, as far as is known: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/paypal.asp

I knew they had vending machines for almost everything in Japan, but really...

Watch "Meet the Parents" with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller -- that's how "Focker" is supposed to be pronounced.

Nope, although IIRC, they did change the pronouniation from Fokker (short "o," how it's supposed to be pronounced to something like "fohker" (long "o") to keep over sensitive parents from accidentally hearing it as "#*$%er" or "*#$% her."

Sorry to be picky, but I think you mean "WW I" aircraft. AFAIK, Germany never used Fokker built aircraft during WW II, though the Dutch did. They may have used some of Fokker's planes after Holland was overrun in 1940. The Germans, whose own military industry was never able to keep up with demand (the Germans didn't even go to a total war footing until 1943! ) gleefully used captured equipment themselves whenever they could. But that's getting a little off the track of this conversation

The name is very definetly a reference to Antony Fokker, the Dutch-born aircraft designer who desinged and built some of the most defining German aircraft of WW1: the Fokker E-1 Eindecker (which in 1915 began the "Fokker Scourge"), the Fokker Dr.1 (the Red Baron's mount) and the Fokker D-VII (which was so effective that it was the only piece of military hardware mentioned by name in the Versailles treaty). The D-VII can also be seen a couple of times in Macross: Early on in a flashback, we can see Roy (and, IIRC, Hikaru) flying them and later, Roy gives Hikaru a model kit of the plane as a "get-well" present.

My Max 1A has no yellowing, but my CF is...waaaaaaaaait a minute

Not too bad, although I'll have to defer judgement on the storyline until I see about a week's worth (or 25 minutes) of shows. Animation is stunningly excellent (then again, this is Genndy Tartovsky we're talking about here) and all the voices except Palpatine's (c'mon, it's not like Ian McDiarmid was really doing that much ) were spot on. I almost forgot that that wasn't Ewan MacGregor.

I wouldn't mind seeing a show about Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron, or perhaps other units involved in the OT timeline.

Mmmmmmm...can't wait for my to get here...It looks gorgeous!

I thought Kamjin hated everyone anyways. Good point. However, we at least know that Millia reciprocates

IIRC, he does use a powered armor of some sort when he's fighting Roy.

Yeah: thanks for pointing us to that archive, Yellowlightman. :thumbsup: It does beg the question though: What WAS the "trading relationship" between Sunrise and Paramount? Also, it's fascinating to get that sort of "time capsule" feeling of an anime fandom back when it was still local niche clubs and 27th-generation fansubs. Hard to believe, now that Anime is on every streetcorner, that it was like that here in the states...

I heard somewhere that the shooting model for the USS Stargazer (from ST:TNG) was kitbashed from a number of anime models, including a VF-1. Anyone know what parts and where? It'd be kind of cool to think there's a part of Roy Focker cruising around Starfleet

While they're not fighting each other as in DYRL (the Meltrandi were the stand-ins for the Supervision Army in that movie), they don't like each other very much in the TV series, as you can see by the antagonistic relationship between Kamujin and Millia. This was due to the influence of the Protocultures, who segregated male and female Zentrans to keep a monopoly on reproduction, as well as to keep their fighting spirits honed (as we see with Millia, the Zentradi killer instinct gets dulled once Cupid's arrow hits)