1/1 LowViz Lurker

Yeah but now it has mutated into mechs with mouths who fight cartoon monsters using sound, and bratty children and furry animals being the main characters. More specuation: I guess if there is a future war, it will involve biomechanical mechs (like those invid/inbit things in mospeada?) that are half lifeform and half robot that communicate using energy from the mind or something. Like a kind of "cyborg animal" that almost models real living things and grows by feeding off living material. I can totally imagine an organic cyborg that wirelessly activates antigravity machines and gives the apearance of magic abilties to telekinetically move objects around. We still don't understand why Sara can manipulate energy, and how those protodevlin creatures could lift cars in macross 7. No explanation is ever given. And if people like Sara learned to harness a hidden ability of the mind (similar to the psychic abilities of those kids in akira: creating thier own energy barriers, floating rocks using the forces of nature, having the ability to predict the future etc) the PC may have had warriors not unlike that seen in dragon ball Z (shooting bursts of energy from thier own body? Lack of reliance on suits to roam around in space?) who basically the Zentradi were scared of when they saw images of Kaifun in the Little White Dragon movie in SDF:Macross which may have reminded them of something they saw a long time ago hidden in thier memory. (just how much information can exedol fit into that brain of his anyway?) The link I see between Zero and Macross 7 is this: Sara could lift rocks with her mind, and the Protodevlin could do stuff like fly in space with energy barriers and all. Some of them altering the gravity to lift things and fling them around with thier own telekinetic ability. (no machinery involved) In SDF: Macross Exedol mentions "the legendary Power" when watching the Kaifun's movie; possibly reffering to something in an old prophecy or something of select humans/protoculture with super powers. (this could fit into the evolutionary path: the smartest, most "highly-evolved" ones were the most sensitive and least-understood, so they couldn't bear living amoungst thier own kind away from civilisation like the villagers in macross zero, or had to live like hermits in secret hideouts like the jedi knights) I stick by my old belief that some of the PC may have had magick powers (not all of them) or able to harness energies from another world/dimension. Again, these would be the macross equivalent of the extinct Jedi Knights in starwars or something. The ones that are closer to nature and pro-life/anti-war are kind of the "spiritual elite", (like the jedi council who use to be able to offer advice to the old republic in the starwars prequels until it turned into an evil corrupt empire of robots, droids, clone soldiers etc when the dark forces took over) and the ones that rely on technology (think of droids, stormtroopers, and bountyunters) are the "grunts" who are materialistic and fight each other for wealth, not caring about nature or simple things.(ie like Sara's people who are strict luddites with an anti-technology/anti-war viewpoint) The macross equivalent of this is probably that some of the PC were peace-loving hippies (the guys who seeded earth and altered our genes but got killed on thier way back?) and other PC people were "conquerer"-types wanting too much influence over everyone else and using thier power to manipulate everyone under thier control with advanced technology. The good guys wanted to start again, creating us, (they were the seeders going back to nature) and the bad ones wanted us dead (the god "Procacha" in macross zero: destroyers ordered to kill us off from the beginning but which failed the first time thanks to the birdhuman which cut its head off in ancient times). This whole mention of "the legendary power" in SDF:macross by Exedol could just be a reference to "music" but we obviously see music has a magickal effect when certain people sing. Ie Basara creates energy, Sara heals plants, Myung awakens Dyson from hypnotic spell etc. Taken to an extreme (the protodevlin abilities in macross 7 for example) you have "super people" like that seen in Kaifun's LWD Movie who could do the stuff the protodevlin might have been able to do. (lifting cars off the ground with thier thoughts, similar to the 'levitating rocks' trick sara used, or just plain kicking ass without the need for technology - thier body and mind being the weapon.) The thing that really scares me is: What if the ending to Zero wasn't just symbolic but literal?? And Shin himself harnessed this "super power" by levitating the plane with his own mind? We are assuming that this strange phenomenon is just a symbolic thing, while casually accepting the "floating rocks" and "healing plants" magick tricks seen earlier. In SDF:Macross when Kaifun flies in the air to kick the giant man to the ground and zaps him with a beam, I can't help but believe that the direction macross is going, is into the direction of super human people with mind powers, psychic abilities, and thought-based magick weapons and away from technology and material, mass-produced weapons. If the PC genuinely had a religion (they had ancient prophecies as indicated in SDF:macross) then maybe they had some kind of messiah-type figure who acted as thier gods but these ancient 'super people' were forgotten over time and thought only to be myths? (causing the destruction of thier once-peaceful civilisation as they turned thier attention to material consumption-based activities that lead to thier fighting for control over these things, ..and away from nature and a harmonious self-sustaining, peaceful lifestyle with no need for the technology and war machines; similar to Sara's primitive people on earth in macross zero whose own energies and magick rituals replenished the destroyed plants and wounded/sick without any help?)

I was just wondering: Why doesn't somebody just clone all the ideas off macross and make thier own spinoff series with transforming mechs and space wars and singing idols? Call it the attack of the birdmechs. They managed to pull it off with macross II and even though it's a fake universe that never existed people were at least interested enough in the mech designs. Just don't call it macross, don't steal the designs, and make up your own story and world. It's not like anyone here liked the direction macross 7 and macross zero were going towards anyway so I say get some other people to make a series similar to macross but with likable characters. If they can make a tv series better than Mac 7 in designs and battles but with less sci-fantasy themes than zero, it would fill up a gap and be a way to appeal to those who have abandoned macross altogether. It wouldn't necessarily have to be planes but mechs that are designed to fight in ground wars (like the transformable destroids similar ot the Konig monster? Or the octos?) and be a good way to cash in on the forsaken macross fans waiting around for the next series. (if there ever is one) I kind of feel as if the need to tell more of the macross world is now unecessary: -the zentradi are now no longer giants, taking away the need for giant robots. Why not just have them battle in dedicated fighters? with dedicated transforming ground vehicles doing the stuff the battroids use to do? The zentradi had thier glaug, regults and Qrau etc, but they also had those fighter pods and had they known they were up against tiny people they could have easily fought on foot without mechs if they wanted to. (thier giant bodies are strong enough to even fight hand to hand against an unarmed vf1) -singing idols are getting repetitive. (nobody liked basara and even if they did, if a new character like him appears I don't think I would like it that much) -UN spacy have no equal in power that threatens thier super power. At least Mac II took the next logical step: brain controlled (maybe even drugged?) slaves taking control of the culture shock tactics and creating thier own. (this isn't too far from sharon apple's mind control and the hypnotic spell she had over the people) -It's going to get to a point in the timeline where it will be too far into the future that there will have to be big changes and leaps in technology with further expansion of the world. Maybe by that time UN spacy has achieved universal peace (they already beat the Protodevlin the dealiest foes in the universe) and there is nothing left to tell. Without an enemy to fight, you can't justifiy the need to keep building military weapons when people have learned to live harmoniously. (unless there is another major 50/50 split in forces and beliefs like the Protoculture had or the UNG comes under the control of an evil force similar to the fall of the old republic in starwars ) -the use of spiritua weapons has almost made conventional (read "cool") weapons obsolete. By the end of macross 7 the main characters had replaced thier weapons with sound energy ones. I'm not so sure this idea is as cool or as appealing to many sci-fi fans as say, the use of force powers in starwars. If something isn't cool to people with a good explanation about how something works, people won't be as interested in following the series anymore imo. If macross dies out and we don't see a new series for 10 years, would it hurt to see a clone of the ideas from macross into a new unrelated series? Is there ever going to be an "end" to the existing world that will close off the whole franchise forever? (similar to how there won't be anything after ep6 of starwars)

Part of it is our fault. I think all of us need to persuade as many of the old robotech fans to using thier buying power on the superior macross toys and convert them over to macross and hit them at the grass roots. Like go on some insane viral marketing strategy until they see the error of thier ways in funding the terrorists. I think ignorance is the main reason why people are all too prepared to buy masterpiece toynamis over other toys from other companies. They don't know any better and HG knows this which is why the silencing any time you mention other companies. They are scared of competition man! The only hope is if fans can infiltrate thier ranks as one of them and convert them to our religion instead. By increasing the international fanbase with a propaganda campaign resulting in a mass exodus, we can win. Printing and handing out pamphlets, setting up various "HG Sucks" websites, using money from accepted donations to build our army will allow us to take the war to the terrorists instead of the other way around. We must bring freedom and democracy to the harmony gold supportors whose minds have been poisoned at an early age to make them all hate us. Come on people, I'm sure somebody can design a simple "Harmony gold sucks!" t-shirt and sell them here on macrossworld? Maybe even go to universities and recruit as many supportors to hold protests, using the funds raised from the t-shirts in order to raise awareness for macross and create more hate for the international dictatorship of HG who tortures kids and spread lies about thier competition. jk

As a casual anime fan I thought my advice might be helpful. Here are 3 no brainer anime action movies to get him quick started: Street Fighter: The animated Movie. Good fight scenes. Vega vs Chunli assasination attempt was my fave. This is like the equivalent of the movie "Blood Sport" for anime. Spriggan: great action sequences and no thinking involved. Ninja Scroll: although there is horror and rape scenes(well they are Demons, what do you expect?), the sword fighting and characters are worth it. The main character acts like a lone cowboy, smart alecky maverick type with no aim. The manner in which he talks to the bad guys is like that of a wisecracking spiderman. If you were a fan of the game samurai spirits you will see the characters design here looks similar. I'm surprised nobody has made a Ninja Scroll fighting videogame! Macross Plus: Forget the original story: ie the events of Space War I that happened in the tv series. That would be history when macross plus starts and those characters don't have any role here. It is unecessary to the main characters in this series so this is something anyone (even non-anime fans) can enjoy. If you liked top gun and giant transforming robots this is a must see. Akira: The story is pretty simple. In a post apocalyptic city, rebuilt anew from the ashes of a past catastrophic event, (it is thought at first to be a nuclear bomb going off?) government MIBs have been abducting kids in order to study thier potential for psychic abilities (ie like telekinesis) It happens a member of a bike gang; a wimpy kid called Tetsuo, is taken by these MIBS to be worked on in secret by the government for study into awakening some kind of new-agey mind powers in an effort to create a prophecised god man. Because this test subject has had a unhappy upbringing from the times of being bullied and made fun of, his anger gets the better of him and he decides to turn his ability against the world and challenges Akira: a god worshipped by cultists for his destructive ability. Throughout the story we see beautifully animated sequences (bike race in the city, the DBZ fight with the chic in the stadium) in this dark future city, and lots and lots of destruction with great sfx and detail in the animation. (i like the bit where Tesuo creates an energy barrier inside the underground labs and the floor and walls crack and split.) Think of akira being similar to "The hulk" story but with a wimpy kid with telekinetic powers rather than a guy with radioactive super strength whenever he gets mad and that basically sums it up. There is a lot of mention of men with super powers (supermen?) as being the "next stage in evolution" from normal men and the idea is that once that is achieved scientists will have ultimate control - quite the opposite as you will find out in the end. Personally, I think the government may have wanted to create thier own army of super soldier? I have not read the manga but it seemed like that was thier goal. The real purpose wasn't stated in the movie ------ Note that none of this requires you understand the backstory of characters or past events to enjoy, the pace is fast, there is a good dose of action and things going on, and because they are one-off stories with no intention of sequels this means they are pretty self contained, with the audiences' only commitment being the length of the movie itself. I wouldn't recommend something like Wings of Onneamese (sp?) since that to me is a slow-paced story. (especially compared to macross plus) Nor would I reccomend ghost in the shell, because to me that is confusing and the story was too compressed for a first time anime watcher who knows nothing of how some of the organisations in the government were structured. (in sections) I also think it was too short and brief. Maybe something like Appleseed (the new CG one) would be a better choice since the world itself and how the government is structured is explained for the viewer so they know what the characters are talking about when they refer to certain groups of people. I thought some of the animation was beautifully and smoothly done (especially the scenes with mechs, you get a good believable sense of how fast they would move if real and what kind of freedom the pilot would have. I always thought Shirow's suits and the amount of detail he puts in his comics were very easy to believe could be real: with mech limbs' motions synchronised to the human form rather than being slow and jerky like your typical mecha with vehiclular controls. After seeing "Aliens" I would expect a powered suit to follow something similar to his designs where the person control every motion manually with thier own body.)

I think the reason roy's death was so memorable to me wasn't because death was uncommon, (right from the start you know that in war people are going to be killed, the first episodes shows people falling from buildings) but moreso that once this main character died, it was up to Hikaru to take his place and "be Roy". And he's like the guy who introduces the OT to hikaru and acts as an older bro so there's this huge "WTF?? you can't just kill the hero like that because he's like one of the main characters and heroes. His death would be the equivalent of han solo being shot down by a random storm trooper or something and not cunning enough to escape.". Kakizaki I can accept because he is always needing help but not the "hero". Because he is so confident in himself (boasting about his shooting 108 enemy planes) and how he is there from the beginning of the series, you wouldn't suspect that he would die. (sort of like expecting global or misa to be killed, or Dyson in macross plus) I guess you could say that because his death wasn't a cliche death*, it was all the more shocking. *ie hero tells his war buddy about how beautiful his girlfriend is, showing them a picture and everything, and how he cant wait to get back home after this final battle, ......before actually dying in the last battle and we the audience groan (and laugh) about how predicitable his death was. *cue* a scene of friend of war buddy crying about his death and keeping something to give to his GF back home as a memory. Rule no.1: don't show me your picture of you GF damnnit!!! It's a huge sign that you are gonna die. I agree that roy's death wasn't handled well either. Almost too sudden, as if they didn't have any use for roy once the focus was on Hikaru + buddies and the love triangle. Somebody just decides: "hey why not kill roy, and give his plane to Hikaru so he can be the skull leader?" At least we see Roy coming to the understanding in mac 0 that time with each person is precious and that he is not pro-war or "proud to be a killer" as we are led to believe (ep 1 descibing how many kills he earned and how he was "just doing his job") but actually hates war and got only involved when a friend died. (is it mentioned who this "micheal" guy is?) Like Hikaru, he was drawn into it and thier skills were valuable.

Isn't the Konig monster pretty new? I hope to see a variable glaug someday from some company. One of my fave enemy mechs. I bet GBP will come out. CF would be a no-brainer for them. Still don't understand why they just dont release a yf19 fp though. (or at least confirm that they aren't doing it) The best excuse people can come up with is: "OMG!!! STFU you whiners, Yamato need to make money too!! Only you US fans complain about this crap. Japanese fans won't buy it, and they are the main market" My response: no venture, no gain. Everything is a little risky.. I see Mac+ as being the one OVA that was popular internationally and not as limited as the others. YF19 is no less recognisable as something as the scopedog they are going to be releasing. I hope the garland makes up for this.

I can get battroid yf21fp to stand up much easier than gerwalk but this doesn't change the fact that the hips are still loose. Also given that you are pretty limited in how to pose the battroid due to small feet (more the design of the mech than the toys fault in that instance) he isn't as stable as vf11bfp. Very easy to push over. Also compare knees of yf21fp to knees of vf11b. vf11bfp is more poseable. Order of easiness: fighter (no probs) > battroid (not too bad but not as good as other toys) > gerwalk (be careful of those tiny feet and wobbly legs!) Oh and people who say they have no probs with thier qraus poseabilty: I believe that, but limbs that get loose over time (such that it becomes hard to put the mech in a neutral standing pose) should be considered loose limbs in the toy imo. If you expect them to get loose but they are tight at the minute of writing then it's worth noting or people (noobs) will get confused. If you inform people so they expect loose limbs they won't be disapointed when thier toy comes if thier's can't be stood upright. I think if the limbs were as tight as the alternators I'd be happy. (Granted its a big toy compared to the alts, but the poseability comments still counts. The backpack is hefty so it puts pressure on the hips if you don't lean it forward. The state of mine is that when I try to straighten the legs, the weight of the backpack is too much for the hips to take, making it fall back instead of staying still.) Also in a previous impressions thread I mentioned it would have been good if the knees and hips on the Qrau had a bit more articulation here. (this is so that you could get them in a compact 'fetal position' pose to mimmic the launching of micromissiles) It was only a nitpick though and couldn't be helped seeing as the armor got in the way. But when you are used to seeing things in anime you hope the toy can mimmic what it does there.

I really like the tv paint scheme on the super max 1j. Since you are getting tv hands and Super Pack parts it might be good value and a good choice for a first 1/48 valk. If you buy a valk with no FP parts you will just change your mind later and decide it will need an upgrade to a super valk anyway. So save time! I know bright coloured valks are not everyone's thing but this to me is how I recognise max the most - the guy who flew the bright blue valk and who stands out more because of it. (he has more 'presence' in the tv series) I think that too much white is, dare I say it, a little boring now. I'm tempted to get a super milia vf1j now. If yamato release more tv valks (that is a hik 1s with super pack, or a brownie/cf) I would be tempted to get them.(even though I've said before I'm finished buying 1/48 vf1 toys) I also thought that the green paint of the standard Zentradi Qraus in the tv series were better than purple. Cmon yamato release green QRau! Give the tv series some love. "Do you remember"... the tv series?

Well mine just barely supports the weight of the backpack and eventually falls on its back due to floppy limbs, unlike my 1/48s and 1/72 vf11b. I can ensure it never does that if I have it leaning forward though. I think I heard someone say though that the max type has stiffer joints? I might get this one in future.

The rest is history: Anti-UN were the biggest threat to UN and they lost the fight for the technology. That's what it was about to me. It kind of felt like macross plus where only a few ace pilots were the focus on the story and thier personal backstory was what fans wanted fleshed out. The mysterious technology should remain that way just like in the xfiles where the government has all the secrets locked away in hiding inside a massive underground vault somewhere never to be seen by the audience but worked on in secret by top scientists who only dare blow the whistle on thier death bed. In the real world maybe it's like that area 51 place where the government tries reverse engineering the alien tech to make thier own secret craft? I keep getting reminded of that old Megadeth song "Hangar 18"

http://img189.exs.cx/img189/9572/newjobcopy7ga.jpg Exchange soundwave for the computer screen in the crashed ship as a tv and that would be perfect. I thought the junk robots in the transformers movie would be the closest to 'lazy bum robots'. All the did to fill time in was watch tv on thier junk planet probably watching mtv or something. Junk for the mind.

I think stuff like that was purposely marketed to boys though. Similar to how wrestling or arnie movies are very boyish. The tough guy needs a princess or object of desire to save as an excuse to go around kicking ass so that he can ride off into the sunset with the babe. (don't let them watch any bond movies! jk ) IN NS you see detailed rape, violence and horror. Not family entertainment. At least in macross you can say that realism was used to convey how horrific deaths can be in a war (whether in space or today) and that the poor guy who was beheaded or the poor guy who was shot at point blank range by max were part of the imagery you might see in real life when people are fighting, so it isn't for 'entertainment' and to be taken lightly. I'm from a different generation and in general girls tend not to like violent movies as much. I thought ninja scroll was violent and would not want kids to watch it. Also I think giant robots in general is still a very guy thing as much as fast cars, drinking, and pron might be. Yeah there might be the usual exception to the rule but this was how I was raised and in my experience I don't think many women want to be forced to except the 'xena warrior princess' role just as much as the typical 'damsel in distress' role you see in action movies. (let them be themselves whoever that might be, by letting them do what they want and making thier own choice as opposed to having PC ideas crammed into them so they don't scare off the boys. ) I would be scared of your daughter if she turned out to be just like milia and had no remorse for the dead by unnecessarily crushing people's head in with her mech foot. About macross plus women being weak I have to agree, the characters needed the men to preach down to them or protect them which even I thought was pretty rich coming from people whose sole interest and motivation for even fighting the ghost was to prove how manly and superior they were to the AI, as oposed to having this noble ideal of wanting to protect people. (in fact they were dangerous in episode 4 where they drew the mech fight into the city (instead of from away) which probably resulted in civilian deaths because of thier fighting. Reckless bastards! Imagine two guys with tanks having a fight in a city and blowing stuff up and innocent people were run over, shot at, or inside one of the buildings while it was happening?)

He just told you.. chest tubes you see.. Haven't you ever seen chest tubes on mechs before? Yang neuman was studying the faults of all other variable craft to find the crucial ingredient to improve them tenfold and realised one day that what all these mechs lacked were chest tubes to make them more effective than others. He must have seen the two tubes on the Q Rau or vf17 and decided his mech needed some too. Kind of like how you see a spoiler on a car which doesn't really do much but it gives the effect that it moves faster. Tubes would make it look cool. Nobody would know what they were for, but it would at least keep general galaxy guessing.

I read comics/manga as a kid. I watched subbed and english dubbed anime. Try everything and let them decide which is cooler. Hell toggle the audio button on your dvd controller while watching macross plus to see what he prefers. I think there are advantages to having english dubs in some cases like in robotech where you hear global's voice with a russian accent and can tell his background right away but unfortunately is offset by the inferior story music etc Don't show the old tv series as it has dated too much. Show it only as a historical thing and explain that is was from another era than him, so he can deal with the wierd hairdos and choppy animation. (kids are really spoilded these days. He may laugh at first ) Instead show macross plus, and macross zero or even DYRL with the violence and all. (don't want to shelterthem forever so that they can't make decisions on thier own and never grow up and mature?) Then get him some models or toys. I find that you apreciate stuff much more when you know what the mech is from and realise its place. ie the valkyire is an all-enviroment vehicle, mass produced for war, custom designed to fight giants, and weapons it has are effective for certain tasks. You know the function and purpose of each weapon and why it is deisgned the way it is. Unlike say transformers where there are hundreds of variations of robots and the kid can just apreciate the vehicles themselves as a toy and the fact they can transform into a robot too is just a bonus without ever seeing the cartoon or caring about the stats on the back of the box. One of the cool things about animation is seeing how detailed they can recreate explosions or bloody deaths and put proper physics into it. This was definately the draw because to me it is an pop-culture artform as much as a serious thing you need to put into a story in a non-gratuitous way. I remember when I first saw DYRL and was blown away at how detailed and realistic the animation was and how serious and moody it was compared to the series. Really like night and day. The object of the game imo is to see how much can they draw you into this fantasy world such that you forget it is not real. If after watching something you say "that reminds me of what it would really feel like if there was an explosion and it whacked me right in the face", then they've done thier job convincing you that you were really there. (you get that feeling when watching macross plus too. Much more cinematic than a tv series because of the playing around with the camera and sweeping effect you see in some of the dog fights) It's not so much that I like violence but just that I'm surprised at the amount of detail and work that goes into "the mindless destruction" compared to cartoons back then. I don't get enjoyment watching car crashes or going to destruction derby and waiting for something to go wrong, just that seeing these things animated impresses and entertains me. I thought "cool, I love the way that regult just turned into swiss cheese when hikaru blew it away with his gunpod" The way the levels of armor peel away and fly apart is sorta beautiful as a little kid. This is why I can still enjoy watching macross II because to me it has the same ingredients that can still make it entertaining to watch even though it is a clone of the oriignal. The same can be said with just about every scene in Akira. The telekinetic powers show lots of animated punch and is rendered beautifully. There is a lot of information hidden inside the movement that you just don't get when they go sloppy with frames. Those frames are like the 'adjectives' that described how something happened. As you can see I enjoy a lot of action anime like spriggan or ninja scroll where there is a lot of energy involved. It's one of the main reasons why I think if they remade or updated the original macross the way astroboy or some old school anime was done it could ressurect some interest for newer generations.

Remember back in the day when you had to flip sides on a cassette tape just to hear the full album? So annoying. Same thing with watching a movie. Once you get used to a comfortable position on the couch, the last thing you want to do is actually exercise. The dvd player is far away! Couches are for eating food while watching something, making out with GF, lying down sideways for a snooze etc You are supposed to be in a relaxed state. It kind of wrecks the experience when you have to open up a box, put the first cd back in its position, open up the other part of the box where disc 2 is, put that in the DVD tray, walk back to the couch, wait for the dvd menu to pop up,(sometimes this takes ages) change the settings you had through the menus, then play the movie again. I say we let Homer Simpson decide on the next format.

I just wish they all had alternator type stiffness of joints and poseability. No reason why a battroid shouldn't be able to stand up. This goes for the Qrau too. I will never have my yf21 fp standing up in gerwalk unless it is leaning against something. Also another thing: the hands don't hold the gunpods too well unless the finger is curved up. If they do a resculpt in bigger size someday, hands with ball joints for more freedom to angle wrists plus individually articulated fingers would be nice.

A friend just asked me about the cockpit looking smaller in battroid when he saw my banpresto valks that I have on top of my computer monitor. These are not vf1d of course, (so I'm probably going a bit OT) but clearly the chest plate moves down making the canopy appear smaller when all that happens is the chest plate moves down. On the lil banpresto ones, all that happens is the canopy slides down into an empty space inside the nosecone (very simple) as opposed to having the chest plate cover a portion of the canopy like the 1/48 yamato. But when you view a battroid-transformed banpresto next to a fighter-transformed banprseto, people will think the cockpit is smaller because it creates an optical illusion("omg the cockpit has shrunk!"). I would really like to see a tiny vf1d banpresto. In battroid mode the armor becomes bio-morphic like the alien bird human skin seen in macross zero. In fighter mode it is disguised as a usual plane which explains why the nosecone.cockpit area looks normal. There you go.. alien technology allows for shrinking/expanding armour plating. jk Obviously those two drawings follow the comic book style of 'exaggerate certain features to look cool' and aren't proportionally accurate. (change in size of nosecone is a dead giveaway)

Whatever you do, if you get a yf21FP never have it posed near the edge of your desk like I did. The head laser on mine is almost ready to snap off. It took me a while to pose it in gerwalk but it's do-able. Just don't breath or put it in an area where there is wind. If anything I would recommend you buy the vf11b w fp over the yf21 w fp since it is way more poseable in all modes, and to me is far more playable for it. The yf21 should only be displayed in fighter mode imo. The only real positive is that you get to have 2 gunpods and it looks prety cool to see a battroid going all john woo on other mecha. (it just has more attitude than the vf11 in battroid) One other thing: the shoulder pads tend to stick out in fighter mode which I don't think is accurate to anime. (looks much better to detach them when transforming to fighter) This tends to spoil the look from the front to me. Maybe it would have been a different story if they released them in a slightly larger scale? Now come on bandai, make an anime-accurate perfect grade vf22. This is your chance to get back at yamato for stealing your re-release chunky monky profits with thier 1/48 vf1s. jk

Well it could be that the pilot was a good cannon fodder but fought a zentradi ace similar to when roy fought milia in SDF:macross and came back with a damaged valk. Come to think of it why not do a damaged skull leader, and sell it as a 'limited edition' battled damaged roy*? Now is there going to be damaged koenig monster coming? I want to see paint chipping, rust, dirt, ash, actual melted parts and gashes in the armor plating, etc *complete with drops of blood in the seat to show how he died..

But that's the problem: Art is subjective. You are a fanatic of artist B, have a price range in mind for how much it is worth (TO YOU) but so long as thier are people out there who earn more money, are less budget conscious, don't care about value, and who have enough money to buy artist B and Artist A while still having change left to buy some unknown artists (because they are just such music fans in general) prices won't go down because greedy fat cats don't want the smaller guys competing against them if they actually DID decide to lower prices. In the game industry: Look at the way nintendo purposely kept the cartridge medium for so long because it was making more profit for them. By doing it on purpose (keep prices high) it meant they could control and charge however much they wanted to third parties who had to pay the high costs of the cartridges to make games on nintendo's game systems, which then had the effect of limiting what they could do with thier games so they wouldn't look better than Nintendo's own inhouse-produced games. Now until sony (thier competitors)came along to cut costs, (when they brought out the playstation 1 which offered a cd medium for third party developers to exploit) they (nintendo) would never have decided to leave thier outdated cart medium for a less profitable one (ie cd medium. "Profitable" in terms of them having all the control). Competition brings lower prices and progress. (to us and to the artists; the workhorses who produce the work and deserve the most of your money, but who are at the mercy of the greed of the person/people who took the risk investing in them) By eliminating any competition, they can maintain thier grasp of the entertainment industry and limit your (consumer) choices of whether to buy the product at the price they deem most profitiable to them. They are thinking in terms of total domination of choices. (so long as people are willing to buy thier stuff at whatever prices they create by them promoting it, they can ignore giving too much power to other artists who may compete with what they invested in. You don't want artist A getting in the way of the profits of artist B when you own both of them. You just want everyone to be forced to buy artist A because you just so happen to have invested more money into promoting Artist A. What some are arguing is that they could make even more profit if the prices were lowered, but I say this risks letting thier competition (small guys) getting too much control and so they plot daily like the evil Mr burns on how best to slow everything down (like when new technologies progress that offer to compete and take away thier controls ie napster) so they are in the best position to keep control under them. When sony brought out the playstation 1 for example this meant third parties had more control and games had more capacity at cheaper price to work with, leading to better better games due to superior medium. No longer did nintendo have control and could just demand any ridiculous asking price to third parties for carts (I think they had to buy the carts off them and any unsold stock the developers ate) because now that sony was here there was a better alternative. So the moral is fat cats probably are aware they might be able to make more overall profit if they reduce prices but they prefer to have absolute control over everything and keep competitors (that is anyone who thinks they can make a profit without them getting a large cut) poor and unable to knock them off the top of the ladder/pyramid. IT worth noting that we are at the point in the game industry where all the big software companies have bought out the smaller ones and some day when all of the talent is owned under a single roof, prices will start to rise and quality may go down because they have zero incentive to put effort into the qualityof something when they have the monopoly on the market all to themselves and can ignore complaints from the few people who care about value and of being ripped off. As long as there are still masses of sheep ready to give up thier cash, those few shouldn't matter to them as they (the complainers) increasingly become a minority group whose profits are neglible compared to the programmed masses who have the well-promoted music shoved down thier throats 24/7 instead of those struggling, (sometimes much more talented) unknown artists. I've noticed that as the buying power of younger generations increases, it causes a flood of stuff older people think of as crappy, and people are forced to ask themselves why stuff like that sells so well. I'll tell you: its because the younger generation has no other choices (again the same poo is promoted day and night) and through the limit of choice, sales of a product is streamlined making it seem as if only what they promoted was any good or worth the money to buy because it just so happens to be selling well after they promoted it heavily.(as opposed to the people choosing it from underground word of mouth by taking the risk on unknown bands/artists.) By limiting what consumers can see and choose, they can ensure thier power stays high and profits mainly go to them. That's why if you really love a piece of art don't be a tightass and instead fork up the money because they will need all the support they can get, to take on the giants and promote themselves. (that is until they get too famous and snub thier dedicated loyal fanbase and become greedy themselves. Metallica and thier attitude towards napster for eg All the established artists who have the most to lose are the ones most scared of change.) It's all about power and ensuring it stays the way it is and nothing changes that might upset thier powerbase such that it will cost them more time, effort and risk to profit. If things stay the same they are happy, because they are lazy and well fed.

I have an xbox game, Halo that has major crack in the centre. It started out small and gradually the crack increases in size over time that it is now seeping into the area where the information is. Even if you have a small crack you should start worrying. Once it gets to a certain size you better pray it can still work and/or that you had it backed up before it is too late. It's also good to only use backups to play if you want to keep the originals in perfect condition so that when you sell them you can get a decent asking price for them when it goes out of print/becomes hard to find. Most of my originals have no scratches or cracks on them though since I take very good care of stuff that I bought first hand. There are however times where you may buy something second hand and you see a few scratches and the condition look used and a little worn. If it is something you really treasure: back it up and ONLY use the backup. I bet there will probably be a time when macross comes out on HD DVD or blu-ray (whoever wins) so we can all have 36 eps on a single disc (I dunno bout you guys, but were you a little annoyed with lord of the rings and how you had to swap discs to see a 3 hour movie? I just bought the extended and I was, since I hate changing discs because it means you have to lift your ass off the couch. When they can get a whole movie like that on one disc plus all the exteneded extras this will eliminate some of the hassle.)

I also like that the toy is more flexible and has more 'give' with its pieces when transforming it. Along with being better in terms of poseabilty, the cheaper price makes it hard to refuse meaning you end up buying more of them. Sure I want to get binal techs for display, but given that transforming them may chip certain areas and spoil the look over time means I am scared to play with it. I'm not a MIB collector as much as a guy who just apreciates the toy to take it out and handle it alot.

Stupid noob question: So is silverstreak worth getting? I am tempted to just get it on impulse. I like Sideswipe despite the flaws (have it left in car mode) and am now wondering if I should get silverstreak. I like the look in robot mode how the front of the car becomes his chestplate. Is he better than smokescreen?

I thought Shin was getting close to knowing and sympathising with Sara when he discovered her secret and he started believing her myths when no one else would. She was very lonely imo because nobody took her seriously enough including her own sister Mao who resented the fact she was trying to force the myths down her throat when all she wanted to do was live in the cities and learn about all the nice things like "machines that run on two sticks". I felt sorry for her seeing that over time newer generations would shun her stories and simple life in favour of adopting a more convenient life in cities. Another thing: Sara's guilt about failing the test her dad set her up with was baggage she kept her whole life and Shin helped her to relax about failure. They both were kind of failures in some sense: Shin's inability to trust anyone because he has his guard up all the time - yet unable to open up his feelings enough in a close combat duel with roy and that butch chick. And Sara's inability to accept responsibility for her mistakes and move on. (the fate of the world rested on her following orders, and you'll notice this in the way she applies strict rules onto others despite her own failing) But both of them fear failure. And fear getting in the way of true feelings stunts ability. Your sparring partner feeds off it and they can feel your moves and see your mind. There was a good reolution to this where it shows Shin shedding the weapons as his way of winning because he could sense the true feelings of sara which you could say he was sparring against. His memories of dead parents was what made him put up so much emotional defenses, making him easy to manipulate and turn fear into hate. Being able to sense a person's feelings brings you 1 step closer to truth; and knowing that person, which is what the butch chic was trying to teach shin. The AFOS head piece senses this emotion of the people using it, and this machine demonstrates in a magnified form how easy it is for people to become self destructive when they don't be true to thier feelings and instead allowing themself to become some emotionless defensive robot that follows a predictable pattern of rigid behaviour. (almost leading to the end of the world I might add) I really think Shin and Sara had a lot in common that brings them close together to justify the two being intimate and wanting to risk thier lives for each other, similar to Hikaru and Misa who are from two different backgrounds (one is a reckless stunt pilot, the other a strict bossy beyatch who can't relax in her dealing with others) but at the same time, despite being from those different backgrounds or worlds, still having things in common that brings them close together. (they are both partnerless and miserable) Its just that this time Shin was from a technical background (the planes let him and roy fly, plus these two had an inability to let go of the past and haven't opened up thier hearts and be true to thier feelings) while Sara is from a nature background (where faith and magick and ancient knowledge give her the ability to levitate, also she's not letting herself let go of past mistakes). Two different backgrounds, while still having something in common = intimacy, which leads to love thus justifiying actions. I was just watching mac+ the other day and in terms of emotional depth I felt this was about equal to macross zero. Actually I felt barely any symthpathy for myung when I saw macross plus because in general she came off as way too depressed about nothing. (almost annoyingly so) It wasn't clear why we should really care for myung at all save for a tiny little suggestion that she may have been hurt by something Dyson did 7 years ago. We aren't given anymore information than that. Compare this to Macross Zero's Sara: she is way more easy to feel sympathy for because she explains her problems and we see what she is about, seeing how her lonliness matches well with shin's lonliness. (like hikaru's and misa's lonliness leading to thier intimacy)

Ok I'm leaning towards the spotlight suggestion like how the vf1 had those shoulder lights. I think it would be very handy at night time if you are guarding an area or you want others to be able to see easily (who don't have any lights)