1/1 LowViz Lurker

Maybe in the beginning they imagined at some point people would get sick of the VF1 altogether and they might want to move onto other valks. But then what happened is lots of noobs came in late and missed out on them; looking all over for one as the price rises, so more demand had to be met. Once enough people are content with the amount of vf1s they own and sales start to slow, they will not bother to reissue anymore. Until then...milk that teat. I figure it might be similar to mobile phone services: the hardcore users will get in early, then when everyone who bothered with it, already has it, they try to expand the customer base from there to appeal to people with a different price range in mind. As the market expands, and more people sign up, the service gets cheaper and more total customers bring in more profit as more people are buying it, making less profit on each individual sale, but more sales and getting the profit from the sales quickly. But having said that, just because something can be reissued can we be garuanteed it will? I thought the reason some valks sell more poorly is because they were not flying off shelves quickly? When those unwanted ones are then made in limited numbers, it can give the collector the impression that its value is high later on when people want them, but the company won't make them because of poor sales before. My wish it to see it go down in price one day so more people start buying them. They are pretty expensive. As the price rises, demand might level off due to the valks getting out of thier range of the wallet for them to collect. Anyway I want my mythical 1/48 yf19 w FP.

Takes one to know one - why are you here then? I was agreeing and saying the toy colllections, the obsession a person might have, is probably something that goes between the GF and you (distractions) and so you need to hide it. Just as a woman might feel threatened by your 'love' for your car over her. Attention is what she wants. If she doesn't share the interest (and if you don't share the same interest as her) then its an obstacle. (unless they can share it with you) But women have an evil shallow side to them too just like men. They can be competitive, talk about guys with thier GFs and measure their qaulity, comparing thier BF with each other wishing they had more. Worrying about how that grass is not so green on thier side. They will want the challenge of seeing if they can get a guy just as a challenge too. Just like any 'pig' man will sort through the ugly fat chics in favour of the hot ones. They don't always want the nice guy, but the upfront honest one who treats them like a friend and that they feel they can confide in to get honest objective opinion from. The criticism from the harsh critic who has nothing to gain with a chic he is not attracted to then becomes a form of friendly intimacy for her - by not having the romantic attachment they can be themselves where they won't be judged by somebody that matters to them. Whatever that person will say, no matter how harsh-sounding might be advice they want to hear. But then that changes in time (they want something specific) and eventually women get to a point and want the reliable guy by a certain age who they want to marry. They will see some other couples with kids and wish they could have them too and settle down. If they have a career that gives them even less time. Attitudes change, and they no longer fall for the image of hapiness (that is they are a princess marying prince charming or MR. perfect) they had in thier minds and they begin taking practical things into consideration. They will see the older person as a figure that is stable. And when a man looks at another young woman, that's when a woman's age is a threat because they want to look like that for the rest of their lives - it's competition, this is why woman puts so much effort into looking good, not for herself but so you'll notice her. (ever heard the phrase looking "young and beautiful" as if you can't be beautiful and old?) Giving her attention unconditionally and being honest is more important than lying. Saying: "I don't care how you look, you'll be beautiful to me no matter what" is really what they want. Just as you'll present yourself nicely for a job interview they will try to look thier best to attract a mate. Attention is how they will get this. But if you give them that unconditionally, thier need is satisfied. They feel "protected" and safe - they got thier father figure and BF in one. They may even test you without you knowing. (perhaps they might set you up with someone else- I know it sounds strange but think about it, they got to know how easy you give into temptation to see how serious you are) Somebody said beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Which I interpret as "love can be blind" because you never want to see the faults in your partner and just accept it. It's more than just physical beauty. There are different kinds of love. Some are talkng about how good the sex is, others are talking companionship because they are lonely and the nice things thier partner does makes them feel wanted, someone else might be reffering to thier partner as thier "soul mate" because they share so much in common. The beauty depends on what you are after. If people got to like themselves first, not just how hot they can appear and dress, they wouldn't care what other people think about them because naturally the type of people that like that upfront person will be drawn to you. You will at least know who hates you and who likes you from the begining and weed out the ones that don't match. A women becomes desirable when they just be themselves and aren't afriad to be honest. Men cater to that by giving them the attention, not to trick them, but to help them feel secure in themselves. Women care what other women think. To show the competition up, they need the man to defend and stick up for them the same way your gf would stick by you if you were hurt. Of course sometimes a guy doesn't want his GF helping him because it might be a sign of weakness, so similarly some women find it insulting and sexist that man wants to defend and protect her. (as if she can't do it herself) So hide those geeky sci-fi novels, pretend you have no interest in the toys, spoil them rotten with attention, and give them unconditional love. Tell them they are beautiful because of who they are rather than how hot they look in a specific dress and they will see what's important. You can relax once they feel comfortable enough to not fall for the hype of the perfect guy which is meaningless because the perfection can mean different things to different people. (the words themselves have no meaning because of how each person chooses to interpret them with a different ideal image in thier mind when the term comes up) When you look for a girl do you care about her collection of trashy romance novels? Call me a retard all ya want, show this post to your partner and see what they say. Maybe they will agree. If they don't, fair enough it was all just bullshit theory. But that's ok too, it was no skin off my nose. -Men go after young women because they see beauty in it. This is nature. -Women go after older men because of security and stability. Solution: act more mature and see what happens. I'm willing to accept it's a flawed but just try it. I don't think many girls/women will go: "Whoa your macross collection is huuuge this guy is perfect for me. I want to have your baby!" I bet they will be turned off it. This is all just my opinions, its not dogma. But remember this: whenever magazines do those 100 most hottest/beautiful men/women and people vote on them, how many will agree on who should be no.1? My point is all that was subjective and the winner is arbitrary, the ideal person varies amoungst people so much. The truth is how it is selected can all be bullshit. No one can agree, people then get cynical about it and fight. But each person is being honest:- when they are fighting over who should be higher on the chart, or lower on the chart, they are saying thier ideal of the perfect person is valid too. But it means the words "hottest/most beautiful" are meaningless. When people shed thier vanity and the real person comes out of thier shell, that is more likable because they are willing to admit thier flaws and still not care about what others think about them, which people respect more because they can see the person has integrity/being true to themselves. The people most hated on, are actually who many percieve as the "fake" people.(ie the shell/facade is there, and they want to see it, but then that's all they get to see only able to view the beauty from far away where they can't get a close inspection and scrutinise it in depth)

That's the reason the bridge bunnies in macross 7 love that exedol guy donchaknow? There's all kinds of crazy poo (pssst mass orgy) that goes on there when max is away. I have my own theories about women: Women want the older men. People wo act like kids are unappealing to girls cuz boys don't mature as quick, so they go after people older than themselves. They think that dirty minded old men won't try anything that younger men would. They want a father figure as well as a BF which will make them feel safe. What do you think? Should a survey be done to prove if my theory? Solution to getting women: act much older than you are. Hide the toy collections, the geeky sci-fiction novels and merchandise, the macross models, then when its too late and you've gotten married, that's when you can relax and be yourself. Women are like deluded princesses thinking about only romance and are vampires for attention not seeing the real world for what it is. You just have to keep up the illusion for as long as you can until they get old enough and it is too late for them to compete with younger women for attention so that they have no option but to stick with you. And keep reminding them that if they left you, they can't get any better than you and might have to settle for worse. Them being happy without you is all a fantasy. The way a women's mind works is that they treat the boyfriend like a fashion accessory. They want to show off what they caught to thier girlfriends or other women to make them feel more special than everyone else to make them jealous. You're just a pawn in thier little mind game. They rate you like lab rats in areas like love, romance, performance in bed, looks, but these are just an illusion. The quality won't last forever because nobody can keep up the romantic vision of being the perfect guy forever. The only way is to lower thier standards (when they ask you if "they look fat in this dress?", for goodness sakes be honest and say yes) and bring em down to earth where they belong instead of in the clouds.

Wouldn't mind one of these either.

Yeah but then there's that problem of calling a release a limited edition. The idea is that by reissuing a limited edition it isn't going to be worth anything in years to come when the toys are harder to come by. I think what companies should do is balance a) the need to flood the market too much to satisfy casual fans or people will think something is common and not worth the price they pay for, and this will affect how fast people buy up the stock...and.. b) limiting how much of a thing is released so they get a "good idea" of what fans are willing to pay for the item when they are at thier most desperate. Most people's attitude change depending on how flooded the market is. What was once "not worth the price I paid for" starts becoming something that is treasured by others who are willing to pay an even higher price that what you paid, making the person who got in early feel less ripped off. People will pay what they think somehting is worth to them personally. (not taking cost to make an item into consideration) Personally I think yamato should flood the market and make these cheap since more fans can then buy more valks but that will never happen. (I don't want a LE CF only because it means I can't have a group of them. Yeah I know it is a rumor but if it is true it will limit my total number of purchases since I will feel "ripped off" with each purchase. LE should only be variants that only collectors would be interested in like an Angelbirds valk or something imo.)

You'll also "need" a 1S. You need one of each mech head to feel complete. 1S - 1 elite guy. Prettiest face. Looks the best. The skull and crossbones make it look mean. The skull leader iz da best! 1A - bunch of these to stand around looking average and cheap. 1J - looks cool but inferior to the 1S with flat visor/head camera. Two head lasers make him more special than average people. Then you have to get armor + fast packs, and then GBP which means at least two more valks so you don't have to take everything off and can display everything at once.

Will it be so heavy that the limbs snap off when you try to pose it?

But the sith also kill thier own guys. Thier enemy isn't innocent people since they can enslave them, but people who also work under them and compete for power, and threaten to ursurp them. The wars were just cogs in a machine to collect power under a single person who would "win" so long as people could willingly accept enslavement under that one person. Those people (working for the empire) deserve to lose since they are scared to fight and are forced to kiss the emperor's ass if they wish to live. Disagree? Then a force-choked death is the only other option. The most commited were the rebels since they let go of thier attachments to live forever and control everything. They were fighting for freedom for others, not themselves. This can't be competed with since they are prepared to die for others and get nothing in return or favours from others. It's thier choice to help the innocent and weak (knights) to preserve the good. The exact opposite of the sith who lost because fear (a control mechanism and theme of the newer movies where the evil plotter can use it to scare anakin and trick him) was an ineffective weapon against bravery in the end. A brave person will not give in to fear of death or the threat of one of thier own being hostage. (anakin genuinely thought padme would die if he didn't follow palp's plan. In ep2 padme was quite prepared to die and fight for what was right just as obi wan told him. Anakin risking "rescuing her" at the expense of the mission means her brave efforts are in vain) But no good came out of it in star wars. Since anakin got nothing from the sith lord. a) didn't get revenge because he wasn't as smart and cunning as him to be able to kill him. (until luke awoke the sensible "sane" anakin) b) recieved no power since everyone treated him like a middleman/teacher's pet and didn't give much respect to him. OT shows this attitude of subordinates for vader vs emperor. Nobody respected him even when he turned. c) no immortality or "power to help his friends" since palp isn't stupid and there would be no incentive for him to help the boy since he has mind control over him. Palpatine allow dooku to die who was his weaker follower, and similary would encourage luke to kill vader. d) Vader took over from anakin (the person was bent to the dark side's will like the evil ring in LOTR) and didn't care to do good works anyway. It was the promise of a power trip after padme died that was all that was left for Vader/anakin to live, which would never come since he is weaker than his master. The master kept him alive long enough just as long as he was a useful-enough puppet till the next person came along. If people are going to say that mace was "being evil" for wanting palp dead there and then, (because they believe it wasn't fair or goes against thier better judgement) then I would willingly accept being evil to do good. But I interpret the evil to be the empire and the plotter who disguised his true intentions thorugh lies and deceit. (which are evil traits amongst a majority of the human race - "sins" if you will.) The wicked lost thier "right" to fairness when they decided to cheat and manipuate minds. I have no sympathy for the "pure" evil characters like Sith Lord, as opposed to the misguided fallen ones who don't know any better due to ignorance - ie anakin whose fall was a result of trickery and opportunitism due to youth and lack of wisdom. As annoying as his whiney teen angst was, you can't say it was all his fault, but also partly poor teaching and upbringing by his mentor who didn't sense the warning signs.

Star wars was also mentioned. But not as much as star trek. I think that the masses would be convinced that adult collectors of toys are somehow good suspects regardless of needing any proof due solely to the idea that a pedophile is just like any normal person in the community. How the hell are you supposed to know who is these days? How do you know your next door neighbor isn't one? Do you know what "signs" to look for? How do you know the people working in a child care centre aren't ones? Do they have a big sign on thier forehead? Same with babysitters? In defense of parents: they have a right to fear anyone based on instinct alone rather than hard stats. Because by the time a pedophile has struck it is too late. Say the child goes to chatrooms almost everyday, you have to admit that those parents should be watching what thier kids are doing and not being tricked into believing that they are merely hanging out with a star trek nerd, but rather that there would be a GOOD chance that some of those nerds might be pedophiles pretending to be star trek fans and melding with the star trek community. So I can see both sides of the argument. The cops are trying hard to find signs and look for ways to profile thier latest breed of pedos and find out thier tricks to get close to kids. Because as we all know there are wolves in sheeps clothing out there too. Just as there are innocent people who will be witchhunted by certain misguided groups. Oh and lets not bash other people religions either, I'm sure there are lots of people who are just as likely to bash people within thier own religion as much as people who aren't within thier own religion.. who have been found guilty. (in fact the people doing this may even infiltrate an organisation just to sabotage its image as a political manuever for more action against thier favourite scapegoat) The media's revealing the catholic priests involvment in pedophilia is a good example. Although there are those out there doing this vile act, the ones who aren't shouldn't be witchhunted. I believe in judging the individual is more important and more pro-active in actually finding solutions to the problem. (as opposed to playing "lets point the finger at games, movies, falling moral standards, lack of proper upbringing" etc Often this can be a cover by both the left and right which excuses the criminal of thier behaviour and the judges go leniant on the criminal based on their political belief rather than punishing them properly so that they face up to the consequences of thier act. When the criminal no longer feels guilty for what they do and people go easy on them, that's when the world starts losing common sense and murders rapists etc laugh thier asses off at the justice system because society has changed so much and they know they can get off easy.) As for MJ: yeah he is wierd and I bet this is more a way for those to gain money off him. But I also have this fear that deep down inside there may be a scheme to whitewash the activities of real pedophiles if somebody who is high profile is in the media accused of a crime. (like the focus is on the shock of the star being in a scandal vs the shock and seriousness of this offence) The idea is that over time if anyone in future with an innocent appearance is accused of pedophilia, people might automatically think, "this is just a repeat of the MJ thing where the only motiviation was so people could get money" and people start to sympatise with pedophiles over time. This is like a test to see people's reactions - bombard them with enough pedophelia so that over time people become desensitised to it and it no longer worries them before moving forward in subtly changing them. Then using one misguided group to fight another misguided group to set up a dialectic struggle which gives one group 50% and another group 50% public support leading to the wrong side getting "a foot in the door" in thier plan to change people opinions rather than individual masses thinking for themselves and not agreeing with either misguided side. The idea is that the these are the white collar rich, powerful, influential pedophiles who will get away with thier act versus the ones who are caught and exposed. These ones ultimately want to plot to make pedophilia an acceptable and legal thing. (yes there are people out there so don't be shocked) In thier mind, the goal all along is to test public reaction then eventually change opinion over time somehow. Look for example at how today's kids are maturing much quicker and dressing more like adults compared to past generations. Does anyone here see a problem with that? Why the sudden change of values over time? Because its working and "they" (change agents) know it. Much better to take the safe side and not trust whatever stats were carefully selected and highlighted to further someone's agenda. But most people are undiscerning and gut instincts and parental fears can sometimes be a good thing. Even if it might seem illogical to some. So maybe there is some truth to the cop's link that we don't know about? I wouldn't write it off too easily for the sake of the few kids who really will get preyed on by the smart ones out there who can convince any kid they are friendly and harmless nerds. (ie pedophiles can look like anyone, that is the scary thing for parents)

I can vouch for the King of fighters H doujin art as being high quality. Yuri and Friends >>> anything else.

But that's like trusting a murderer to babysit the galaxy. People aren't thinking of the big picture. They are thinking "Gee I feel sorry for the guy when he was still a good guy struggling to make the right choice, so now that he is completely evil I should make excuses for him and actually agree that what he is doing is right, when it isn't." If he was right the empire should have beat the alliance and the good guys would have lost in ep6. My stance is: "Tell the whiney brat he made many mistakes and remind him each time that he was wrong, wrong, wrong. You are doing him a service (as opposed to doing this for yourself) and he will actually thank you later when he comes to realise his mistake when the good in him finally destroys the evil in him. It's a battle in the head as much as a physical battle. But the battle in the head, the internal battle to gain control of the real him (as oposed to the shell of a man that the sith lord manipulates like a puppet) has to come first. The internal battle is the important part because if he can deny that "the dark path is righteous", then luke won't have to kill his dad which he loves, or join the emperor in a dictatorial rule over the galaxy by giving in to hate in the vain hope of one day getting the chance to kill the emeror in his sleep which will only replace one evil with another evil, but ultimately result in strengthening that evil because a stronger recruit has now joined the dark side. There are countless innocents hoping and praying that this "hero who saves us", from a prophecy, does the right thing and people are freed from enslavement from the empire. After all anakin should know as a former slave himself, being freed by a jedi, what suffering under a ruler must be like. That could be you being killed by imperial storm troopers, or your family that was on a planet blown away by the death star. Think big! Whatever probs the jedi council had is no excuse for siding with the sith and believing thier point of view. These are people who murder thier own master FFS and who lie, and decieve to gain power for themselves. Self serving motivations vs selfless sacrifices for something bigger than yourself. What people forget is that the only reason Anakin chose the dark path was because he was cunningly manipulated by palpatine to make it look like palp was a victim in all this when he was the schemer. The scene where he pretends to be captured, the scene where he pretends to be a weak old man being beaten by a strong jedi must send an impression to anakin that: "Man he must be on to something here, a healthy strong jedi against an unarmed old man begging for mercy, Phuck these jedi bitches, I'm joining the sith, phucking hypocrites!" But the problem was it was all a "set up", an actor in a play, a political manuever to show anakin the bits and pieces he needed to see to convince him the good guys were actually evil, instead of showing him the full picture - showing him the truth. The sith would turn the power against everyone once the jedi obstacle was out of the way. Anakin gulped it all up because palp could sense the fears and uncertainty in anakin's mind and played with his mind using him as a tool in his sceheme and to rub salt in the wound anakin didn't even get what palpatine was going to promise anyway. Once something more useful to his scheme came (Luke) Palp was quite ready to allow his "friend" be killed. Whereas the good guys care about thier friends (and strangers too), but are prepared to die fighting for the cause, the bad guys care about themselves hoping not to die and to instead live forever selfisly ruling over others as thier immortal master, hopefully for an eternity. Anakin became one of the bad guys when he viewed power itself as the main goal rather than trying to use it for good purposes. (take mace's judgment of not allowing palp a fair defense, I would have done the same thing and ended it right there, without worrying about some snotty little kid with uber powers changing my view when I'm not the one being manipulated and tricked here.) By letting vader realise everything he ever did was a mistake from the begining and showing him examples of how painful the wrong path was, (eg showing him a video of him choking padme, showing him footage of him killing children who trusted him, reminding him that palpatine lied all along and didn't have the power to stop padme's death in the first place) and forcing him to swallow his pride and admit he was wrong, you can correct him. It's just that vader had no real incentive to admit he was wrong so long as he kept believing one day he could kill sidious and have the power to himself or .....to see his son succeeding in the correct path. That's why the darkside is "seductive", because once you buy into it by rationalising what it can give you, and how you can use it to do good, its hard to let go of. (similar to boromir from lord of the rings who was quite prepared to kill an innocent person for the power to bring peace to his people. It's all a lie, even if he had been given the chance to use the power to change the fate of his people, something else would go wrong and the good guys would get corrupt by that power and do bad things because the power starts to control them and they become too proud and arrogant. Then we are back at square one and good people start to misuse the power, but constantly thinking they are "right" in doing so. The bitterness then morphs into hate and mistrust of others around you, and this mistrust leads to fear etc Then when anyone disagrees, you are seen as the enemy, the bad guy, the guy being "jealous", the guy "holding people back" etc when all you want to do is tell it as it is.)

I don't view anakin the good guy as evil, but I do view him as being perverted towards evil. That is to say he was tricked by somebody more cunning than himself which is what makes his actions soo wrong, but not necessarily all his own fault. There is a difference between the bad guys who are naturally evil (they get pleasure from other people's pain and thier greed stems from doing evil as a reward to themselves) and those who never started out evil in the first place but were lied to and tricked and fell from grace. (those who were misguided by thinking they could fight evil with evil. Which is where Obi-wan failed as mentor, because he didn't pay attention to anakin and his situation enough to protect him from Sidious' scheming before Anakin changed into the monster and it was too late by then) This is why I think of anakin/vader as being two completely different individuals stuck in a single body - his conscience split in half and he became two people. (a little like Gollum from lord of the rings where you feel sorry for him but recognise the evil in him for what it really is, by not changing the definition of evil to make excuses for him. The compassionate part of you realises it would be unfair to kill him, but the just part says he "deserves" it. Neither is right or wrong, but you hold faith they will come back from it all and hope they will turn it around themselves.) Luke's rescue of his dad involved first defeating the dark side by not letting fear morph into hate and let these emotions guide actions, which the emperor wants all along since he is looking for powerful recruits to make the dark side even more powerful by preying on people's fears, and hoping they will be seduced with promises of power if they pledge thier loyalty to the darkside, and through all this power, give themselves a false sense of security and control. (through dictatorship, possessiveness of others, jealously, mistrust of friends and family etc) Haven't you ever done something in anger that you later regretted? This is what it is all about. Controlling that dark part of you so that you can at least limit the damage you do to others. Everyone at some point has gone through it which is why I think people can sympathise so much with anakin because we as humans are a fallen race. Nobody is perfect. That's why we feel sorry for the guy. He had so much power but wasn't allowed to do anything with it, and as a slave he must have felt other people were holding him back from rising in rank rather than protecting him from his recklessness. Yeah it is true he was the 'chosen one' but he needed to learn discipline too. Just because you have power doesn't mean you can let pride get in the way of how things should be done. I think the prophecy was trying to teach him that if you were not going to listen to advice from people more wise than you, then you will learn the hard way and through painful experiences, learn why your decisions are so wrong. Like a kid who puts his hand on a hot stove and through the painful experience, remembers why not to do this in future and corrects himself. Anakin's sufferings at least served a purpose: he can learn from his failings as much as his triumps and still save the galaxy from evil. So long as people cling on to hope there is still a chance the good in him triumps over the evil in him. But ultimately it was his choice to make. We can say that anakin was evil, but we can also say that anakin was good. It was hoping that his good would gain control that is the thing that determines if everyone else in the galaxy must suffer or not which is why it was important not to make excuses for his actions or he'll never learn and change to his former self. (the hero of the prophecy)

If you read the article it mentions star wars as well. You are all sweating now aren't you? All those adult collectors of stuff from sci-fi shows are going to be suspects because teh pedoz use toys to attract kiddiez. Send in the 'used schoolgirl panties' snifferdogs squad!

But to rub salt in the wound (and to make this a more accurate comparison) you were going to die tommorow in a car accident anyway. Because the Sith lord who promised your friend to help avoid your inevitiable death knew your death was inevitable anyway, and thought it was a pretty decent bargain since your friend didn't state in detail how the sith lord was supposed to prevent your death and in which instance it was to be prevented. (ie maybe you get shot, die of poisoning, car accident, train accident, old age, any of the above etc and he can cheat and say he prevented one of these but not something else that caused your death) The devil always gets the better end of the deal see. Anakin didn't read the fine print and realise his wifes death may be because of what he is doing himself

I thought of that when I first saw it.....but nope, upon further inspection you will see it is connected to his body because he is moving it around - this is clear when he gets up. The arm is like dangling to his side and he moves it around and stuff. Really spooky and strange. looks a little naughty that shot Amazing all those little things you miss upon first viewing and then go back and watch stuff and analyse the details.

A little OT but funny: I was just watching some Gundam shows the other day: MSG, Zeta, Double Zeta, MS 8th team etc and I noticed in 8th team one of the character's (Shiro) has 2 left arms:

I thought it was because they were a limited edition (not because the cost to make it went up) and the people selling them want to attract the hardcore collector who is willing to pay the price for LE? Less made of a thing = the more the seller can demand high price since it will attract those who are most rich/desperate/fanboyish? The idea being that once 1/48s become harder to find and yamato stops making new macross stuff they may even go for higher? (people keep saying how macross is dying and how yamato is a small company and all, not able to fullfil fan wishes.. What if the toy is never reissued ever again and there is no mass produced CF?)

I don't consider myself a true collector. I did collect star wars and transformers in the 80s but those were only because as a kid that was all that was reallly popular amoungst other kids. (I had no intention of keeping them and storing them in a giant collection) The thing I like to collect are toys of various mecha (mainly transformable designs from various science fiction shows) that have a certain level of complexity to how they change from one state to another. I think of them as a work of art and admire the design of the toy as much as what show I've seen them from. (ie like how a fan of the show wants to get all kinds of toys from things he has seen and wants to display them - take my banprestos, I like them because they are nice to have as a display even if they are cheap and easy to break) The transformable toy to me then, is kind of the physical 'proof of the concept' of the modular vehicle shown in the show. (often I like to pause and rewind transformation sequences to get a good idea of whats going on) Of all the transformable vehicles I think the vf1 is my favourite because it stands out in its show as a machine that doesn't limit itself in the world to the environment it does battle in. It can go underwater, float, fight on the ground, in air, in space, in small cluttered environments where staying low may give cover and allow for easier control (I love the scenes of the gerwalk mode in the early episodes on earth in SDF:Macross). Overall the concept of the modular machine that adapts to each situation (as opposed to used merely to disguise) is a thing I've liked since I was a kid. Along with yamatos, I also collect transformers alternators but nothing else. Again it's because the complexity of the toys and realism of them (the vehicles look real!) and as great displays. I care a lot about the poseability of a robot mode when considering toys too. Not happy with the bandai mac 7 stuff. Would love to see yamato have a crack at making some toys from macross 7. I use to like mcfarlane spawn figures but as others may have mentioned they are too much like statues than toys So I'm mainly focused on interesting mecha designs that have a complex transformation to them and functional reason/purpose for thier use in the shows they are in. They also have to look damn cool in the first place to get my interest. So yeah I judge the toy on these things and don't really 'collect em all' like others just because it was all seen in the show. (just the stuff in the show/series/movie/ova I thought was cool) In the 80s I had a small collection of the robotech toys that came out at the time but was more into the model kits. Now the reverse has happened: today I am mainly interested in the toys (transforming a model could be dangerous when you think about it, what if it breaks?) because they can be handled and if given a decent scale, look good as a display too. (but no I don't mod my stuff or anything: too lazy/unskilled/scared) Quality does play a factor in me getting a toy. I would never have bought any of the new transformers alternator stuff unless I liked the toys in vehicle and robot form. Nostalgia isn't that big a reason for me wanting old stuff, more that the old stuff might be hard to find someday if you really treasure that thing personally and don't want to spend an arm and leg to have it. (paying for stuff that isn't worth the money you paid for it) My collection of yamato 1/48 would probably be huge if harmony gold was out of the picture and these were available in masses all over the world. Imagine going into a big chain store and they had a 70% sale off toys to clear space and they stocked yamato macross stuff? *drools*

I agree here. If they shrunk the chest then the armored undies and big shoulders and fat leg armor would look really big and out of proportion too. (if the undies stick out further than the chest it looks like a big ugly diaper) This way by making everything fat and the chest extra big it still has that mean, agressive, pumped look to it. If i had never seen macross or the gbp before and this was my first exposure to gbp I would say this in a way looks better than the original old proportions. My main concern is how much the poor robot can be posed now that all this armor gets in the way, more than proportions. Hopefully nothing pops off when trying to hold or move stuff. I will await reviews before buying. I am glad though, that the missiles are removable. You can then display the GBP as either having used up some or fully loaded. (as opposed to the Qrau where the open hatch forces you to show them all fully loaded.)

ep4 gunpods sound different I think. May have to check again. But sound might be normal for gunpods in earlier eps of the eng sound. All the other things like echo for gulds 'thinking moments' in the yf21 are just part of the addition in general that aren't in the japanese audio. Other stuff like "Kachaaaang!" being the new noise for transforming is just me wondering why that's the new noise for transformation for macross in general. (as opposed to the old SDF:macross transforming sound which was quieter and less grating to the ears) You will here the Kachaang noise in ep1 of macross zero when nora transforms into gerwalk. Why so noisy?

Ah my mistake. Maybe there is a link there with his skill and what his parents were involved with. I'm still trying to understand what relation Edgar in macross zero has to Claudia in macross. Are they even related?

Well whatever it was it sounded weird. Along with gunpod noise and robotech roy fokker being used for yang neuman. Another thing I find wierd: How come whenever a valkyrie transform it makes this loud ka-chang!! noise? I liked the old sound better.

It's fun to compare the sounds in ep4 by constantly flipping the audio as it plays. The weapons and explosions are different in eng but in jap they sound normal. But I like them both. Also in english sound, guld has the strange Robotech "zentradi echo" effect to his voice when talking in the yf21. (like when Britai and Exedor are speaking in thier ship in robo) You don't hear that in the japanese audio. I think it is a good effect.

PG. I got the dvd here. But those deaths only occured to sell new toys. As long as they don't stuff it up, I'll be happy. If it does end up sucking it can't necessarily be blamed on the rating though since this can't be used as an excuse from the examples: macross plus, transformers the movie are both "family friendly" but not necessarily "kiddy-only" which can satisfy a broad range of ages.

When you think about it robots killing robots isn't violence. (no blood or gore) Remember how violent wolverines attack's were against the sentinels in the x-men cartoon? But you never saw him rip a fleshy character to shreds did you? And even though the robots in transformers are not mass produced (they seem coser to people - like when one dies its gone for good) they can repair themselves. That kind of thing can still be in a transformers movie and still be family friendly. Plus no hint of sex and no drugs in the TF universe so really nothing to complain about here. Maybe like the BattleStar Galctica series they can even invent new swear words and still be ok with parents bringing thier kids to see the movie. Face it transformers (a kids robot show) should be marketed towards that audience. The movie should be at the least an entertaining popcorn flick. I hope it stays at around the level of the old live action Teenage mutant ninja turtles movie. Just give us a dark mood (I would like to see movie autobots as being grim and serious and at least conflicting in ideas) with effictive lighting(play with light, don't stick to bright colours like the toys or anime), some humor that doesn't take the thing too seriously,(eg starscreams sarcastic comments) decent action scenes (interesting car stunts with robot transforms in mid air) and an epic story like the animated transformers movie. I'm thinking something like star wars, that does not pay attention to technical detail but goes all out in action and interesting characters. I will watch a movie when I see characters with some level of depth. And it shouldn't be afriad to ignore the canon. What I want to see at least 3 major things that are new and different about the movie version of transformers from the 80s version. I will still go to see it if it is family friendly but if it screws up that's another thing. I'm hoping it will be at least PG too though and avoid aiming specifically to kids rather than to both adults AND kids if you know what I mean. The Macross Plus OVA were PG and still family friendly. Violence, blood and gore isn't always necessary to make something watchable you know..