1/1 LowViz Lurker

Show her the episode where Mylene is sedated, striped naked and about to get raped by that chic. Childish my ass. They probably had a whole dramatic sex scene where she was being taken advantage of and the cut this out. I think that behind the scenes there is a lot going on that we don't get to see. Notice the pictures of basara and gamlin shirtless? WTF? What was that taken from? Did those two try to make an amateur porno with Mylene in some threesome they were having and it got stolen and released on the internet pamela/paris hilton style? (possibly a tasteless publicity stunt to get them attention and in the spotlight as a last resort, similar to the minmay and Kaifun incest scandal of having them go into the hotel together) It's no coincidence she is naked on the credits screen.

That's like comparing batman to superman. Batman uses his mind, honed skill and training. Supes uses his powers. (he is an alien) Max although just a normal person may be the genius he claims to be and just uses that natural skill. (kind of like how you see genius children in the world outsmart most adults because of thier gift) The thing is basara's message to you all is to never give up. The more you fail, the more determined you should be. This is why he is so stubborn. When he failed to move that mountain it was like, this is my dream, I will keep going. And the protodevlin no matter how large and scary were the immovable mountain. Of course nobody can just do this on thier own which is why he needed support from everyone else. I think that is the message to pacificsm. The hope that one person's demonstration may lead to other people passing on the belief and when enough people get off thier bum to voice thier opinions they can persuade the opposing side to stop destroying things. But you see people fighting everyday: Max and milia, hikaru and misa, brothers vs brothers and sisters vs sisters. Rivals will fight over rivals. (Guld and Dyson) Some people will even fight to protect even if it means killing themselves. I doubt we humans could persuade a wild animal that wants to protect its young from predators to stop attacking the predator. For some creatures it is an inbuilt instinct. Basara at least saw that this was his own view of the world and not everyone elses. I suppose the key rests in how much people get off thier butt to fight for peace (whether through weapons or persuasion) because a single person could not do it all. But a group of really determined people might persuade another group. In the case of unspacy they had the luxury of knowing they had no alternative BUT to trust in this kid. In the real world we have other alternatives and usually people go for the more destructive one. (using superior show of force to deter enemy which eventually brings peace - that is until the enemy somehow steals the transformation data or super weapons ala Mac 0) I think the human race is far more going to end up like the people in that appleseed movie. We will put so much faith in the technology that it will rule over us and tell us we are now worthless and too destructive to be "sustainable" to keep alive anymore. (its happening already with the greenies trying to convince us all that the world can't sustain the human population due to global warming and the "evil" industrialised living we have which is just rubbish - it's just a convenient way for the established to maintain control over the entire worlds resources for thier own greedy ends. Already you have poeple trying to justify why they should be allowed to kill thier loved ones because they are not productive members to society, which I find scary. Challenge everything and don't believe the propaganda. Its like how the zeon want to kill off the old types to save the earth but they need to murder thier own race to build thier utopion ideal, making them look more classy and decent on the exterior, but in the end they are no better than the average joe because of thier questionable methods.)

I usually have google or a games site but it changes from time to time. Currently I have the elder scrolls forums as my homepage to check in on any news about the release of Oblivion which is my daily ritual. But its the macross forums I usually visit more than the mainpage.

The thing is with animation it doesn't necesarily need to aimed specifically to adults to be enjoyed by adults. If they wanted to avoid making the animation too realistic, they could wrap the story in a fantasy setting and still be mature. An analogy would be how lord of the rings is with the fantasy world but the real world situations that characters are involved in, can still mirror situation that can or will often happen in real life. (could you trust a schizophrenic gollum-like character enough to not kill him? Or given that there are aspects of that person in everyone, make you want to pity it? Like real life people are not good or evil and the fantasy world can still reflect the real world without needing to be "realistic") It is a good example of where you can have people who are serious fans getting into it, but also people of all ages can apreciate what is in there for other reasons and it would be a story children would be encrouaged to read, analyse and think about. Something that they can take with them to thier adult age and enjoy it multigenerationally. There could be things put in there for commercial reasons (say the 12 year old eurpean with big titties, the tentacled monster, the violence of having people get beheaded in gruesome ways) but it wouldn't just be there for the sake of entertainment only. The story can be based around the idea of war (wasn't that one of the reasons that influenced tolkien to write it? Because of the feeling the world was becoming more evil and from experiences in war?) without needing to get too close to the real world or name actual things or blame actual people or make particular people angry.

In gundam they can sometimes eject and/or use that little core fighter thingy to double as an escape vehicle or to attack. Many times in macross you just see the thing explode or the person vaporises. (Kakizaki) I guess battroid mode is the most dangerous since you have to manually open the "roof" and run if you get shot down and the thing is going to blow up. (there was an episode of hikaru ejecting from the head but this wouldn't be practical if the robot was lying down.) I think it is realistic that the newtype guys never get killed because they have psychic ability and can read the thought and emotion of the people they are fighting against so it is like a matador vs a bull or a circus acrobat that does a dangerous stunt but is in control at all times. You don't have this in macross. Its just luck, even main characters can die. eg Roy, and also Hikaru almost dying in one episode had it not been for armor.

It would be good if ther just sold the toy unassembled or sold peices to the valk seperately. (eg hands, backpack hinges, heads) A friend of mine accidently broke a missile and now it is loose when I put it on the attachment. It would probably reduce costs in shipping and assembling the toy, but it would probably reduce profits. You DIY and put the thing together and get the satisfaction that you built it. Everytime I look at the manual and see the pieces lying seperately it tempts me to want to take it apart and reassemble the toy for fun.

These make great wallpaper.

They should have added boots to make its feet bigger. Just joking. I need to save up for a vf1j.

I wonder how the extendable head gimmick would look in toy form?

I would love to see a scene of an army of custom banprestos duking it out on a battlefield. Sort of like what you see on those harmony gold bookends. Have some battledamaged and with limbs blown clean off, others hiding behind cover (like what isamu did in macross plus) and others in plane mode. Maybe pose those banpresto's in gerwalk as well. (I tend not to lock the legs in the little holes, so I can angle out the legs) Don't just have the little guys standing there, see if you can get them all fighting each other and stuff. I have a cannon fodder with gunpod facing forward inside his arm (a bit like max in dyrl only on the other arm) while in the opposite arm he is holding a gunpod in hand while the wings are open and in a spread leg stance. Interesting combinations like that..

So will the limited ed version have a different shade of brown? I want to know in case in future some guy on ebay claims his version is the limited edition and tries to sell it to others for massive price, sucessfully tricking people into thinking they got something like a low vis. In future who knows how valuable the brownie LE version could go for? Brownies would be the least desireable to get as a "first" valk imo since costs will just keep going higher and people don't normally fork out so much (unless getting the more recognisable heroes) for massive toys unless you're a big fan. This would then result in belief that there isn't much incentive to make many of these, and then later they might get harder to find and be in higher demand. I wonder then if they do reissue the brownie once demand goes back up, whether the pilot might be changed? If only another company (bandai?) was making a Perfect grade vf1 to compete ahh. Or we saw a chogokin vf1? Think of level of details? That might drive cost back down.. What I would want to see is the heatshield able to be slid out in fighter mode. (there was an episode where hikaru slides it forward when enterting earth's atmoshpere)

I think CF look better without FP. More as ground fighters who guard an area on land as a giant soldier, then when the time comes they transform into a fighter jet to dogfight enemy fighters or to attack from the air, or to haul ass to a new location quickly. (having no need for fast packs unless they were in space)

Of course you would be able to lock yourself to a position like goldeneye when you hold down button similar to what happens when you use fine aim. It just depends on the software. I think a game that makes the targets nice and big and limits the range you are allowed to be attacked from will ease people into the idea. Note that with 3d platformers like mario 64 when they introduced the analogue as standard setup for n64 games, you didn't need the pxel perfect precision of the old 2d platformers of earlier times thanks to having lots of space and big platforms with lots of surface area. (ie make the game very forgiving for beginners) Similar to that they make sure the software autoadjusts how sensitive the fine motion you make affects things. (notice how little difference there is in feel when you press a Dual Shock 2 button even though its supposed to be sensitive?) They just have it calibrated so that at a 45 degree angle, you are levelled. (like a foot pedal is slanted in neutral position)

I wonder why they didn't just mass produce that ninja cyborg guy from the first game instead of using regular soldiers? That guy was kickass! I'm another person who hasn't played anything beyond the first game. (I heard no.2 was a letdown. and no 3 I haven't gotten around to playing)

I think the motion sensing is the natural progression for 3d controllers to be honest. (not necessarily a gimmick although the look of the controller suggests that) I think gryo features will be standard in future just like the rumble pak became standard. Imagine a fps like Descent where you constantly roll, change pitch, accelerate, reverse, rotate, and strafe in 3d to move around? It would be like circle strafing with KB+mouse but for 3d instead. And it would be perfect for a space shooter imo. The problem with FPS is looking affects how you walk, limited your maneuvering to a circle. Why not give omnidirectional movement and orientation (the stick) and use the analogue stick to view and control the weapon independantly of the view - acting more like a fine aim? (I think this is logical because a control stick has force feedback that centres the crosshair when you aren't pushing it) Or better yet have two of them: one pointer to control movement, one pointer to control looking. They tried it allowing the unorthodox players of goldeneye to use two n64 controllers instead of one. This wasn't very practical though. The only problem is how sensitive will it be? Will it be a nightmare to control for the games that utilise all the features of the controller?

I wonder if they'll just lessen the scale for practical reasons? (like they constantly change the size of hands to suit the overall look of the toy, disregarding proportions for that instnace) Does it really matter that everything in the series is exact in scale? If they were to release an octos or something I wouldn't care too much if it matched the size of every other toy to do with macross zero.

Sounds interesting. The reviewer reffered to it as a light saber. I hope they DO (preferably sega) make a macross arcade game.(not a shoot em up) Preferably macross plus which would allow a pinpoint barrier punch to the set of moves you could do in the game. I was a fan of games like Virtual On and mecha games with "fighter style"-controls and special moves. (using various weapons like bombs, missiles, beams and swords) I liked that there was damage scaling in games like that which forced you to fight up close as your attacks got weaker and less effective depending on the range you attacked from and the enemies armor, which makes the game exciting. This forced you not to "turtle" so much and made fights interesting because you had to constantly watch your range and take risks. The thing about sega is their games have a steep learning curve to them (which when you get really good is very self rewarding as you learn new skills and gradually get deeper and deeper into the game) but they are short. (compare the deep strategy and level of skill required to master a character in virtua fighter vs namco's button-mashing tekken series) I guess it is because they wish to make as much money as possible which is understandable. But there are games like daytona which even after all this time people still play and the price has gone down. Not uncommon to see a row of linked daytona machine together in a single arcade these days..

Nice pics. I especially like the look of those hands. Will await reviews before making any decisions though. I wonder how massive the box will be? I've noticed that they never show it wearing the armor with missile covers open.

It's good that they are not limited edition imo. Popularity might fluctuate over time and they might lose in the long run. I think with prices getting higher and higher though, people have less and less money and slower ability to buy, and so the numbers they would need to make need to be somewhat limited to avoid risks of being stuck with unsold valks. I want a Tv Milia with super but I just don't have the cash for now. Timing is everything.

Looks ok to me. Not as good as that battle-damaged custom with holes and stuff, but it'll suffice. I think yamato should do up a battle-damage CF and make that the real limited edition. So this must be the last of the VF1A type releases correct?

It won't be easy though, iIf you don't turn into some social retard who barely moves enough to feed themselves after playing world of warcraft 6 hours a day for months like friends I know, then I award you a medal. Some people will not give up thier addictions just to be cool or to fit in. They let themselves become what they are because they chose to do so. Leave them alone I say. Who really cares what's normal anyway? As for the comment about reality shows I doubt even those are actually real. What you really see is just a snapshot of the main events of the day and if it can get ratings it will be added in to "create a story" to fit into a show. There is still a level of control going on, in what the audience can see. Life is probably much more dull, routine and uneventful for lots of people that they need to escape once in a while. The stereotypical comic book guy from the simpsons is real, (there are people like that) but not a representation of the lot of people. It's just those that obsess over thier image that worry themselves too much and that might be scared to be labeled, being the ones that are probably making the others worry. Learning to not give a poo about what others think is an important skill. If you are one of those people who can't feel comfortable about your hobbies and have to hide them, then that is sad.

Actually macross mecha look pretty realistic even for today. Watch DYRL. Gundam is realistic in the sense that death for anyone was just around the corner since it is set during war and the machines could break down or fail and the skill of the pilot is more important than how superior the technology was or how indestructible a single machine could be. (there is an emphasis on training hard to be good at something rather than having the character play the role of gung ho hero who saves the world from evil not ever breaking a sweat or in danger of being killed) The characters respond to the action realistically and regret having to use thier power to kill. This is the "responsibility" theme that I think was a part of what made it deep. (like what made terminator 2 emotionally involving where you can't just kill people or glorify death, things are not that simple. there was violence and killing but it was to be avoided if necessary) You could have absolutely no interest in the toys or anything like that and still like the story to watch it and feel it was a real-enough world for a fictional universe. And the powered suits in BGC and the robots the police use are still pretty limited in what they can do. To me around the 80s was when they started to add more realism. They do it now too, but imo the 80s started to have a more gritty view of the future and things were weighed down by realistic limitations. I don't watch all that much anime now so maybe my view is narrowed down to what I've seen (recently saw gundam Seed, and aquarion and G gundam hehe) but I get the feeling it is made flashy for an audience to buy toys and stuff. (not that his is bad or anything) When I looked at the ships in Gundam Seed I felt the same way about this that I got from seeing the fake looking CG in the newer Star Wars movies. Something is just missing. Maybe like with movies of today I just like the old school way of how things were made. (I was watching a commentary of ninja scroll on dvd where they explained how in the old days each individual bee had to be hand animated but today with computers you can cheat that effect to bring costs down. Kind of parrallels the death of good hand drawn art in 2d games these days. Most 2d-style games these days will use a sort of "2.5 d" view of the action rather relying completely on hand drawn and hand animated sprites. Probably because it would be cheaper this way, not necessarily because it looks any better.) If something looks overly flashy (garish paint scheme with too much primary colours and no shadow), flat (no colour depth), fake (cg objects that stick out too much with the rest of the environment) or just out of place (there are many examples of where cg sticks out like a sore thumb where hand animated stuff would be superior but more expensive - Akira is not one of these since it is very subtle and shows restraint to not make it noticeable)... then I'm usually against it. You are probably right and there is not much difference from back then to today but in my experience (can't speak for all people) things have changed enough to be noticeable.

I think it is the look of stuff. I hate it when anime is too bright or uses fake garish colors to attract. Look at the old version of bubblegum crisis to the new one where its more bright and does not have that dark feel to it that you no longer get anymore. Look at the ships in gundam seed which look too colorful and fake like they are toys for kids or the art style which no longer has art that goes for realistic proportions. A little similar to this topic is in the OT star wars movies, when they used models, things like robots and ships had a battle-worn, dusty grimy feel to them with lots of details. (maybe due to WWII) Now they are clean and sleek and modern and pollution-free which makes everything look like somebody washes and shines the machines too well, making the mistake of creating an environment that looks too "perfect". (hollywood always does that: even in terminator 3 I thought the robots were too clean and tidy) I get paranoid when I see bright color because it to me it signals that maybe something has been sanitised for a wide audience. Check out the old ninja turtles cartoon to the newer more serious one. In the serious looking turtles you can actually believe that there are mutants too hideous to be seen by humans roaming the sewers and forced to use thier stealth to stay in hiding for the most part. But in the more cartoony(less comic-book-tone-ish) 80s version they use flatter color. I think one of the reason I watch anime or any animated show is due to the dynamic expression you can get with characters that are not completely 3d or have to play by the rules of reality. The reason the matrix tries to put so much energy in the action is it is trying to recreate that same feeling that you can't get in live action and to me this is the main reason why I like to watch anime, (escapes from the limits of reality but tries to be serious enough with its explanation for things in its worlds) not necessarily for the story since I can just as easily read a good novel or comic. But seeing them in motion is half the fun and where anime comes in. I think one of the reasons I liked the 80s was because that was when lots of sci-fiction movies had a dark textured look to them: Blade Runner, terminator, escape from new york, aliens, and were not afriad to be scary. or were humorously violent: robocop (this at least shows the crime levels rising as the havenots struggle to make ends meet, and the police struggle to fight the increasingly high level of crime, but it also shows the corruption at the higher level thorugh OCP - you know the dark side of humans - you got this feeling with classic BGC) or had a sense of doom in them: mad max (notice the crumbling of law and order and gradualy move into chaos? sort of like a cowboy movie) But these days things are brightly lit, people use clean pollution-free machines (AI, Minority Report) and the dark underworld is kind of hidden from view. The vision is no longer apocylyptic but happy and full of optimism. There is no suffering in the future. Industry is not environmentally destructive and making people sick, the hardware is not rugged and worn and heavy, and there are no warnings for the humans anymore of where we are heading. We are in fact encouraged to accept the future, not fear it like in the good old days when computers (HAL9000) would turn against its creators and technology would more than likely be abused and used against people. (eg the terminators in "terminator" or take the characters in the Final Fantasy 7 game, where magic and spiritual things are pretty much gone and extinct from common knowledge or used for greedy abusive purposes. The future is not shown to be cold and polluted like that anymore, with characters like cloud who you wouldn't want to meet if they were real people, but instead happy.) I fear anything that is just too flashy and happy and fake. I like stuff that goes for realism (like later volumes of appleseed manga) but is based upon stories where the actions of character is suitable for an animated medium. (where you see a lot of crazy poo you know wouldn't be done or would look silly in real life: the speed and grace of the macross mecha dogfights, the super powers of the character in akira, the demonic supernatural ability of the villains in ninja scroll and the characters agility and energy in BGC etc Things felt fluid and flowed like liquid) Also did anyone get the feeling that the animated Clone Wars cartoon dogfights and action was more visually exciting than what you saw in the actual star wars movies? They just had a sense of speed in them. Thats why I like animated shows because it gives you enough believability to convince you it could be real, but without going overboard into fantasy. It's one of the reasons I don't like too much magic in things (see the ending in Appleseed CG where Duenan's mum saves the day , or anything in macross 7) and aplaud its restraint (LOTR movies) wherever possible because when things get flashy and unrealistic or can't be explained (macross Zero ending) that leaves me feeling uneasy. (I even thought the ending to char's counterattack where the "will of the people" stopped the asteroid from destroying earth was a bit too full on) I think to me the 80s and some of the 90s will be my golden age of anime whether its due to nostagia or just the industry in general. Maybe even late 70s stuff. I liked Yamato, I also liked some stuff before this like Astroboy, but there is something about 80s manga and anime or just the style that is hard to put a finger on. (maybe there was emphasis on things having to look and move "realistic" or have limits: ie patlabor, gundam etc or where there were heavy consequences for battling in populated areas or abusing the power of the technology and having characters die)

It was a shame the DC died. Some of my most happy gaming moments were on this system. Anyone who owned one, and played the games would know that this had some of the best games while alive: -Bangai O (millions of little missiles onscreen so reminds me of macross ) -ports of 2d arcade fighters like CVS1&2, MvC 1&2, SFA3, KOF etc -shooters: mars matrix, ikaruga, -3d fighters: Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive 2, Powerstone 1&2 -adventure: Shenmue -platformers: Rayman 2, Sonic Adventure -racers: Metrolis Street Racer, Lemans 24 hours, Outrun -rpg: Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, Phantasy Star Online -Survival Horror: Resident evil CV -Light Gun: HOTD I won't bother going further as most people who owned one probably already know.. I consider the AAA software of the system and the diversity and quantity more important to me than any advantage the ps2 may have had on the DC in tech specs. (whether or not developers had maximised the system or not)

I will be getting at least one but will be waiting reviews. Hopefully the armor and missiles don't pop off the valk if you touch it. Those hands do look good though. What I would like to see is a package that contains: fast pack super + strike parts gbp in one package. (all extras grouped into 1) This would be good for those who only intend to have 1 valk, but want to outfit the thing in whatever combination they want. (bare bones, gbp, fast pack super valk, fast pack strike valk) I wouldn't mind if they did something like that in the event they decide to release ghost booster and gbp for vf0.