Pat Payne

That may be part of it, but mostly, I'm pretty sure it's two things: 1) Monopoly power. If you're the only one selling an article, you can cvharge whatever proce you want, secure that enough people will buy to make it worthwile. 2) An almost Orwellian thought process that they use on the fans to try to convince them that they own the entire Macross property by putting anything that conflicts down the memory hole. and a third: 3) It's a corporate site, and so putting up what amounts to free advertising for a rival in a message board would be like putting plugs for the next Star Wars movie in the upcoming season premier for "Enterprise."

1) Because United States Law is funny that way. people can buy as many as they want from overseas, and then resell them, because then, it's their property, and HG can't really touch them, IIRC. 2. Yes. they are that paranoid. They released the MPC last year, and tried to do everything to make it the only game in town. 3) Because they are legitimate merchandise, as much as HG would like to deny it, and if they start strongarming Toyfare (which can be a large source of word of mouth) it'd be like biting the hand that could potentially feed it. BTW: Wrylac, WDC, as interesting as the "what is the sound of one hand clapping" routine is, the mods are probably going to get annoyed pretty soon.

For my own two cents on the film: I like Mamoru Oshii's work, but I really didn't like this one. I saw it about six months ago in a class at the University of Oregon (actually, one on Oshii's films), and this one struck me as slow, boring and way too complex. The special effects were good, and the acting I guess was good (It was in Polish so I can't say for sure) but the script and plotting were way off. There was five minutes of the main character, Ash, riding the subways and entering her house over and over again. We coudl have done with much less to grasp the concept that she leads a repetitive, alienated life.

I'd like to see what their full complaint is. I've got a sneaky feeling that the similarities are conceptual ideas on how a vampire/werewolf universe would run (stuff like "embracing," lycanthropy, dark and mysterious twilight world etc.) and not nuts and bolts names, personalities plot beats, etc. If it is, then Universal Pictures should be able to sue White Wolf for infringing on Dracula and The Wolf Man. And you can't copyright theme. That charge is just ridiculous. If ya could, Homer and Shakespeare would be all that'd be on the shelves.

Well, at the drugstore I got a job with, we sell Tamiya and Italeri models int he toy section.

I vote for more DYRL and SDF Macross.

Actually, given commercials and everything, it's more like "wrap everything up in 45 minutes crap..."

Has anyone seen the opening for the TV English dub of Sait Seiya? They decided to use a remake of -- I kid you not-- A Flock of Seagulls' "I Ran"! WTF?

Jemstone, are you and mswump twins separated at birth?

A couple of related things gleaned from Gale Databases' Business & Company Resource Center: 1) Remember how Tommy Yune said that HG "wasn't minding the store" because of a headhunting raid by Haim Saban? That may be a little far from the truth. In an article published in Broadcasting, Jan 4, 1993 vol. 123 num. 1 p38 ("The return of Harmony Gold,") Alan Letz in 1993 said that HG's hiatus from broadcasting in the early '90s (and, I assume, other business concerns such as their alleged license for Macross) had much more to do with a lack of business, as well as a crisis of judgement on how to market what few licences they did have. I won't publish the entire article (they take away library cards for things like that), but here's a relevant quote from Mr. Letz: "'We're not quite sure yet what the best avenue for this product is, over-the-air television or cable,' said Alan Letz, director of sales at Harmony Gold. 'The problem with syndication, as we found out five years ago, is you really need to keep the product pipeline filled,' to justify the staff needed to sell market by market, he said." Also from Variety of this year (Mar. 24, 2003), they're looking to sell RT to syndication again. 2) It looks like Bandai REALLY has little to fear if they were to start exporting chunky monkeys. Also from the same database, here's how the two companies shape up: Sales: Bandai: $1,922,800,000 per annum, with a yearly profit averaging $90,000,000 p.a. HG: total Sales estimated at $14,000,000 p.a., no profit data. Employees: Bandai: 2,720 HG: 35. Certainly HG could make some trouble for Bandai (and if HG can argue the license issue successfully, possibly still win), but woe betide HG if they try to launch a battle of attrition against Bandai in court.

I used my hotmail account with no problems. Maybe it's some sorta gremlins?

The versions released after the mid-'90s are, for lack of a better term, the "director's cut." Ishiguro, Kawamori, et. al, had wanted to do a final concert sequence at the end of the film featuring "Tenshi no Enogu," but literally ran out of money before they could film it (other scenes axed in this way included a wedding scene between Max and Millia which would have explained how he joined the Meltran forces). When Flashback 2012 was made in '87, it was deemed the proper ending for boty Macross TV and DYRL that neither were able to get (Macross TV was supposed to end with a sequence showing the liftoff of the Megaroad). Finally, Kawamori appended parts of the FB 2012 concert to the ending of the film to make for the ending concert sequence. In the original theatrical/VHS version, the credits rolled over a black background as "Tenshi no Enogu" played.

Now are these mannequins, display statues, or........[blushes]?

No,...What's keeping that 1:1 Mylene !?!?! No. What's keeping that 1:1 Millia ?!?!?!?!?!?! Vostok 7 WHERE'S MY 1/1 BODOLZAA'S FORTRESS PLAYSET?????

I'm pretty sure that a return of the original TOS cast (with the exception of Sulu, Chekov and Uhura) is out of the question. Bill Shatner doesn't seem to be showing any interest, Leonard Nimoy has retired and is doing only very short (one day at most) jobs, and James Doohan (sadly:( ) doesn't seem long for this world (They had a reunion of the TOS cast at the Nick at Nite awards a few months back, and he could barely walk or talk.) What I'd do, if I were the new writers is do something like this: Make a plotline where the Borg are going to steamroll the Alpha Quadrant (the Borg Queen's finally fed up with Earth's stubborness), and the Trek crews (who are still living) have to finally put an end to it. But make it, as you suggested, EPIC. Not an action film, but an adventure, perhaps a (aw, crap, it's gonna sound like a geeky fanboy) Star Trek version of "Lord of the Rings," or something like that. What killed the last few movies (primarly Insurrection and Nemesis) were that they were action movies first and Trek Movies second.

-No not really. The creators have never gone into a whole lot of detail concerning age. Although this is in no way canonical, I would assume that Zenradi have roughly the normal lifespan of a human. There would be little benefit to having extended lifespans -- it's just wasted effort when you're churning out a clone army by the bushel. We do know that they have an accelerated training/rearing program -- Millia was a veteran of hundreds of battles at only 16. But we also know that some Zentradi get old enough to where they are useless in battle, for instance Bakorela, Kamujin's gunner during the intimidation barrage against the Macross. Now how old he is is a mystery.

Sounds just a little like one of those old-style gangster movies... [Edward G. Robinson] Nyaa, see, we're gonna let you release that here in the States, see? But you just remember one thing, pally, this here's OUR territory, and you're gonna give us a piece of the action, nyaa....[/Edward G. Robinson]

Ewww! ....Nooooo Sorry...But am I the only one who doesn't like Escaflowne? Melissa Nope. I'm with you and Abombz!!, Escaflowne was a peice of crap. Kawamori needs to stick to sci-fi mecha, not fantasy mecha. Same here. Escaflowne didn't grab me, and what I saw of Arjuna turned me off (the environmental message, while laudable, was s subtle as a freakin' 2X4...).

The other thing to remember is last time, we got Macross series in twos: Mac Plus and Mac 7 came out around the same time. So it's not outside the realm of possibility, and this one might have HAL working on it for character designs. For my own hopes, I'd like to see maybe if not a newly-animated version of the original Macross series (Yeah, and maybe Gary Goleman will be our next Governor), a side story set during the original series, perhaps about another VF-1 squadron.

Doggie Poo? Doogie Poo? They made an animated film about freakin' dog @#!$%??? And it won a prize? I think I've heard of everything now.

Somebody posted a picture of an etherial head of Shoji Kawamori smiting the forces of darkness and evil (in other words, HG ). Ever since, we've called Kawamori-sensei "the holy floating head" or in a slightly un-PC pronounciation, "the hoary froating head."

No, Azrael, they aren't terribly important to the plot of SDFM. The Suprevision Army, in SDFM, is a MacGuffin, that drives the plot into the beginning, where it's taken over by the Zentradi. The SA is in the shadows and basically out of commission in SDFM -- think of the later Star Wars novels, where the Emperor is dead and gone, yet his actions still leave echoes. While the SA is mentioned, and is the reason for the Zentradi attacking Earth, we do not meet a Supervision Army soldier, see a manned, operating SA ship, or see batles with the SA in the series. The Supervision Army (or Varauta, if you will) is the MAIN SOURCE OF CONFLICT of Mac 7, the main villains. And since it's the same leadership, (the Protodevlin) I lump the two together. On that, you're right, and they are two seperate entities, but under the same leaders.

That is the Nousdejaul-Ger (sp? ), the Zentran equivalent of the Queadlunn-Rau. Here's some more information on it. http://macross.anime.net/mecha/zentradi/ae..._ger/index.html

1. Yep. Orguss was done by Studio Nue / Haruhiko Mikimoto also, and the animators put it in as an in-joke (it was the show that replaced Macross when Macross ended its broadcast run in the "Super DImension" timelsot from Takatoku.) 2. They become VERY important in Macross 7. The Supervision Army is actually the Varauta, a type of "super Zentradi" that the PCs developed to "watch the watchmen," so to speak. These got infected by "protodevlin" who were used as the powersource (intelligent, but not wise, these PCs were) and started making zombies out of PC miclones and Zentradi, which foermed the core of the Supervision Army. The army was shattered after the Protodevlin were sealed away by the PCs and now the Zentradi is just going on mopping-up expiditions. 3. It was necessary for the plot. They wanted Hikaru and Misa to fall in love, have kids and go away ont he colony mission, so she had to survive. Besides, there were other survivors (on the moon and in the Grand Cannon) but they weren't main characters, so nothing was said about them on screen.

Although, if they used caseless ammo, they wouldn't need a brass ejection port.