1/1 LowViz Lurker

Hikuro: But if you compare the image without damage, to the image after damage. They look the same. The only visible damage was the petals. Why didn't they just draw/model the face crushed, smashed, melted away, having fresh smoke and steam rising out of the damaged bit just like any other damaged mech would have? Why does the face look like it hasn't been affected at all from the original shape of when it first appears? No indication it was harmed at all. The force field could have absorbed it for all we know. If it wasn't so vague and they had a close up, we'd know. I'm still open to the belief that she is in fact dead, but unless it is 100% conclusive I'm going to assume she merely left earth with the machine to prevent what it was going to do to the humans with its power and also because she had no choice becaue of the contamination if she stayed and did not fold that red stuff out of there. (this was her way of protecting her culture) Like you said it just got whacked with 4 nukes, why wasn't it COMPLETELY destroyed/obliterated then and instead only partially damaged? Obviously the force field clearly had some affect to modify the damage done so we are left unsure about the fate of the pilot unless they show massive damage that is so obvious to the audience that you could say:" no f*cking way anyone could survive that" As for shin: I'm willing to believe he's dead but damnit I want to see a corpse! Until then he merely fell into the ocean for one last dive and to say goodbye to the sea before leaving. (it could just be a visual gag and as usual real world physics does not apply at this part like in so many instances I've seen in anime. I know friends of mine were laughing at this part. It was obviously designed for humor and not to be taken seriously. I mean really why on earth would sara who is probably controlling the blue stuff that makes him float, suddenly want to drop him in the ocean?? That's as bad as the street fighter animated movie joke ending with bison trying to run Ryu over with a truck )

I wish somebody else could answer it. But from what I remember it was of the priestesses of the island but not all the islanders which is why I think it was a grave sin for Sara to let Hasford take her blood sample for study. She gave into temptation as a little kid by accepting a bribe, and her dad was kinda scolding her for not passing this test that her father gave her which is why she has had to live with the guilt her whole adult life and is so paranoid about rules and regulations. Kind of like misa hayase I guess shin wanted to calm her down in the scene where he comforts her about him doing things he regrets, and that you can laugh at your mistakes. Nobody's perfect. The scientists (both un and antiun) probably wanted to prove that the legend about the ancient bird thingy visiting earth was literally a real event and maybe match this rare blood with samples they already have that links these people to the aliens. If they could find the treasure before the UNG maybe this would turn the tide of the war (given that the anti-un were losing?) but as usual it all backfired as the afos had a mind of its own deciding the human race was too dangerous and angry and fearful. Also I think, because the PC maybe had a hand in genetically altering us, (artificially 'evolving' us with thier virus and making us mutate like the little fish with wings?) they got it in thier heads that they could just kill us (using the death beams of the afos to exterminate the experiment) and clean up the mess they themselves helped start if it all got out of control. (that's just my opinion though)

If they can explain how the rocks floated that would be good. Were they: -antigrav? -magick? (sara can heal, and levitate and create a ball of energy. Like gundam and starwars she is a jedi knight/newtype person with special ability due to her genes or blood or something. Mind Power/Telekinesis I can accept because of akira and dragonball, so long as it's done in a tasteful way. In sdf:macross the zentradi's reactions to the movie may hint at the existence of legendary beings with supernatural power - with macross 7 alredy opening the gate to the fact of these beings having some bearing in thier reality) -the painted rocks themselves were just special and possibly alive with some unknown force bound into them. (only these rocks float, nothing else. The land is sacred and all sorts of strange phenomena happen there.) Given that mao's alpha bombay blood in her veins connects her to the afos, and that her people called on a spirit to inhabit her body, I'm willing to accept magick as an explanation and that it's a case of the average person not believing what the myths say about flying birdmen, ancient astronauts etc until it happens in front of thier eyes. Even in sdf:macross nobody believed misa's report of the zentradi aliens without the visual recordings. (her camera was destroyed) She could have made it all up for all they knew and it didn't look like they gave her the benefit of the doubt. And in the first ep of mac zero, people were amazed such a highly advanced ancient relic could be dated so far back in time. If the Zentradi could be genetically altered to become enormous in size (you see britai walking in space without a suit in SDF:macross, a sure sign that the next step were beings who getting close to godlike powers) then I can totally accept that the PC experimented on themselves to 'awaken' a dormant power that was inside them (ie similar to the mind experiments the government scientists were illegally doing on those kids in akira) and that special bloodlines were sent by the pc to various planets on secret missions. Ie breed and live on that planet for generations, keeping your secrets safe from the rest of the planet's inhabitants and living in seclusion and isolation from the natives of that planet as thier technology gradually advances over time. Genetically altering the brain for increased intelligence (as opposed to strength) and tapping into advanced mind powers would be the ultimate way they could advance thier civilisation imo It would mean they could ensure they were the most highly evolved race in the universe. If they genetically altered humans, then it makes sense they could genetically alter themselves and completely throw away this need to build machines out of materials as opposed to just making organic, half-alive machines with self sufficiency (using energy from nature that is free) that eliminate the need for manual maintenance or "repair". (using materials that are limited) The afos after all didn't even look like a machine, it was sort of alive and had an intellgence that read emotions and came to it's own logical conclusions about what had to be done. (I disagree with those who say it was a preprogrammed computer merely waiting and prompting for voice activated commands by the pilot. To me the actual afos was 'thinking' on-the-fly the way a real person would. Keep in mind this thing had actual blood dripping out of its body and the head was reacting to shin and mao as they were kissing. The thing was not a computer imo. It even narrates and talks about the human race as it transforms into a flower with wings. That would be unnecessary if it were just a machine only controllabel by the pilot as opposed to having some freedom and independance by itself.)

edit: me too slow

Nah shin is alive. You see his face (alive) when his valk is about to fall gracefully into the ocean surface before it dunks down. I just watched it. As for Sara, well if you could make out her dead body then I would say for sure but it isn't clear enough to say if she is dead or not. Here's an image of the force field moments before the afos is hit: I'm going to assume she is alive and that the force field was strong enough to protect her but leave part of the afos battle damaged and all the missiles did was leave a burn mark. Image of the afos right after the explosion clears, clearly undamaged (well maybe slightly ): If she was in the bubble she would have easily survived that. EDIT: closer image of the head: Looks ok to me! (ok so the petal looks chopped up but the head is intact) EDIT2: (last one, I promise! ) image of the face without damage just after the invid flower of destruction blooms. (she sits in the green bit) Comparing them, I don't see that much difference apart from it looking less shiny. I would expect maybe the whole thing blown off if the purple bubble barrier wasn't there. Although on second thoughts it does sound better that she actually sacrificed her life on purpose so that the machine couldn't be used anymore. It did have the intention of destroying the world and all. And folding the radiation would have stopped the contamination. But...earlier before her death she asked shin to take care of the island which he isn't able to do now that he gets folded off away from the earth. So there's all sorts of confusion here. Maybe the song genetically modified his body and she sang the creation song to heal him or something? Her ghost may indicate physical death and was used to give shin hope ..still.. a damaged afos doesn't necessarily mean she died. It may be one of her many powers and she is still alive somewhere. And it still doesn't answer the question as to what the hell happened to shin? (I'll just assumed this episode was rushed and they changed the script?)

The protoculture thought the human race might be able to protect the culture, but it didn't so they moved. Shin and Sara would then act as the first male and first female (adam and eve, Rooy Kanu? and Roy Waka?) to try again some place else. (while mao would take on the task of protecting the land - there are probably similar ruins seen on earth all over the universe, just my guess. Just like on mars ) Mao pretty much said shin was more of a bird human so his fate was to be the next birdman of legend who saves the human race from an angry god (Procacha?) using his love. Technology was once again abused and used for destruction and war instead of good. It ballooned to a point that the UN did not have control of the situation (letting the OT transformation data fall into anti un hands for example and allowing them a head start) so it may have been too dangerous to let the afos fall into the hands of either side. (afos then decided it needed to kill everything)Also it was mentioned that all the good pilots were killed in the war and it seemed to me that Roy wasn't as good as his instructor to a point he could decisively kill him. Lucky the afos killed the two best pilots in the world rather than shin and roy. Keep in mind that in the original series the whole 'sharing of the military power' by all the super powers probably came more out of fear of attack from aliens rather than out of mutual trust and love for one another. (but that's just my opinion based on the attitude of the UNG in SDF:macross towards making peace with the zentradi. Global's and Exedol's outlook on humans and zentradi are that we are all fated to kill each other whether on a macrocosmic level (as genetically engineered giants used as bioweapons) or microcosmic level. (global civil war?) Whether in ancient times with low technology or current times with weapons of mass destruction that can wipe out whole planets. The military would have to at least "protect" what precious culture we had developed to preserve our history in case we wipe ourselves out to extinction like the pc. The sdf1 was definately symbolic of some ark of civilisation after the rain of death. If that was destroyed there would be no history of the human race left so it was thought that exploration and spreading ourselves was the best way to survive in case things got out of control like in Macross Zero where either side kills each other and is forced to take peaceful cultures and thier secrets along with it. You'll note that most people on the island got bored of the simple life and wanted to move to the cities, never coming back to the island which was a sad indication of the destruction and loss of that people's own culture. Even Mao was tempted to know everything there was to know about trains, music of other people in cities, and lots of other stuff that might seem exciting to her young mind, but she was too naive to notice the planes, tanks, mechs, submarines etc that threatened her people all around her. The world would be safe only IF the technology had just the good (creative) things but not the (destructive) bad stuff. So in conclusion that's why the Aphos needed to ask the question about the warring humans and whether they had stopped fighting. No point giving us access to better technology (used to make more weapons) unless we learnt not to be a danger to ourselves. My speculation is that aphos birdmen are hidden everywhere and only those ones that succeed the test get a chance to have the newtype powers that Sara possesses. (you know like levitating in a ball, floating rocks when you feel like it, making plants grow just by singing to them etc I doubt just anyone can do this unless thier alien dna enables it, or the human is genetically altered to unlock that power as a way to artificially evolve us.)

You could say that it transforms to battroid mode to help cushion the fall a bit. The backpack and feet at full thrust might help and when it landed, the knees would bend to absorb some of the weight. (because of the robot muscle in the legs) The arms fully extended would provide some balance. I just think that a battroid would have more bodily control then a gerwalk for some strange reason because of the way the barrels are extended out so much in gerwalk mode. Even the SDF1 when it landed in battroid mode on earth, demonstrated that it could fall feet first without toppling over. (although it did land in water. Now I wonder if the shuttle mode or even battroid mode could do this, with shuttle mode able to float?) And in the first episode, they don't use any antigrav to help the ship leave. After the monster initially falls from space in battroid it would then hover again in the air and transform into gerwalk and find a nice landing spot in its native gerwalk mode. (mainly because I think the cannons make it look unsteady in gerwak) About relaunching into space: I imagine the battroid tries to gain as much height as possible by using both the feet thrusters and backpack thrust, and as it is falling from a great height it transforms into Gerwalk mode first, boost again for more height using feet thrusters, then while descending again slowly, finally transform into bomber/shuttle mode using the cannon barrels to give it full speed, probably enough to leave the atmosphere. By the time of macross plus, they were getting to the point of valks no longer needing a pack to get them out of the atmosphere. And they probably exploited all the findings of overtechnology to be able to gain enough power and thrust to leave without the need for the added boost pack. About landing gear: In some ways a gerwalk mode is more safe than a bomber mode which must try to land at an angle. With a gerwalk mode hovering low to the ground, they are not exposed as much to enemy fire and don't need a landing strip. They can just skim the surface. Gerwalk can just land and hover above the surface for a while and choose a better spot to land in less time than it takes to line up the bomber to the landing strip. Not to mention you can walk around in gerwalk and attack things as soon as you land, and not do this in bomber mode with landing gears.

Thanks, saved it to hd. Will use this later. Methinks that maybe some diecast was needed in this toy. Are there any other delicate pieces which we should be aware of/handle with care when we first get it aside from what's mentioned?

*Well they are special bombs that nobobdy knows about. The bombs are folded to the location just as the shuttle gets there and the shuttle guides them to thier target. err... or something. Having the bomber carry them adds too much extra weight so in the future un spacy fold all thier bombs to save time. Neat huh? jk It was discovered later on that when the fold system vanished in swI and the pinpoint barrier thing discovered, that all unspacy had to do to win battles was to fold thier ships to the area they wanted to destroy and fire the main gun at the targets for an instant victory. The shipwide barrier would be strong enough to withstand an attack from the enemies long enough for them to then run away. Similarly they then applied this idea to the small scale so vb6 was used to fly in and guide bombs that were folded into the area that was to be destroyed. When the fold system vanished it taught the scientists that maybe they could deliberately fold things to certain areas to save time and so experiments were begun into folding bombs to the location that the VB6 was about to head to. So now you know the story as to why it is called a bomber... The protodevlin used the same trick on unspacy in macross 7 but because tactics like this would be seen as cowardly to the public and damaging to un spacy image, they covered up any references to its use. The only defense against such a cheap and dirty tactic is to: a) play hot potato and fold the bombs back to the orginator who folded them there, thus killing the people who sent them. b) Abuse the barrier system and have an AI automatically turn it on when enemies are picked up by the ships sensors to warn of the attack. c) mind control - thoughts are read of the person's intent before the event happens by having everyone in the known universe be marked with a brain implant allowing the reader to interfere with potential plans to destroy them. All those who resist the mind control are destroyed. Everyone becomes UN SPACY's bitch and subject to thier rule as they become more dictatorial and no one is able to challenge thier military power after the defeat of the protodevlin. Only the anti-un is able to stop them but they fail because they are so far behind in technology. *posted information may not be true

To me: Gerwalk would be fixed cannon mode, that doesn't move much. Like a siege cannon to knock defense down. ie attacking a base and doing as much damage in as little time as possible from long range. Also could be used as any other destroid would be: possibly hiding behind a defensive barrier while shooting. (seen in the series where you can see the orguss. One of them is standing behind something to cover its body.) However zentradi pods with legs similar to the monster are seen flying around so I wouldn't underestimate the ability to use this mode for space combat either. Battroid is the "Shoot the crap out of heavily armored targets in the air but hopefully without falling over" mode. I made this up. I figure if it can't use it's weapons then it must be pretty useless imo. It's slow speed and balance is the thing. So I assume it would be effective in battroid in space with cannons shooting at angles the gerwalk just can't shoot in from the ground, no matter how far the gerwalk tries to bend backwards. If enemy bombers try to attack your territory the monster would shoot them down before giving them a second chance. The attack would be done in the style of a miniture grand cannon. If it could, it would try to use it's own hands to grapple onto nearby objects before firing. Space wouldn't be a problem since you can maneuver easily to point the cannon in any direction. (and imo it doens't matter how ridicuous it looks when you are aiming from afar and not in a close combat role and more of a defense one.) Also if max can manuever his battroid such that he rams his mech's fist into a zentradi pod after "swimming" with his "jet pack" for propulsion in battroid mode in DYRL, with head pointed towards enemy, then so should a pilot of the monster imo The only difference is that it would be more heavily armored and slow but have enough physical range, and robot muscle to be worth it. After all we see zentradi's using thier mech's muscles of humanoid form to physically capture hikaru's vf in fighter mode in DYRL. It can happen when you consider the speed of the qrau for instance. And even in macross zero shin is forced to wrestle the octos in battroid mode underwater using the head laser to aim for its weak spot. The armor might be hard as a tank but that just means using the mech's limbs as a battrering ram is all the more effective. Shuttle mode = Bombing things and hauling ass, hoping the armor is strong enough to withstand attack from lighter craft and ignoring the enemies' attack because they are too busy fighting other things and would take ages to penetrate the monster's armor. Damage could be repaired later but given that you are hauling ass as fast as you can, the goal would be that damage done to you is minimised this way. If macross had its own RTS game, that's how I would want to see a monster work anyway. Battroid would be a special long range anti-air attack mode or a machine to defend against a targets trying to exploit blind spots and weak points in critical areas. If the PPB was ever damaged or inoperable the monster would save the ship's ass with its mobile armor and weapons. It would stay close to the ship to defend an area rather than flying around like the valks. I just think it would be too dangerous to use the cannons in gerwalk mode in built-up areas since you risk killing your own people. (macross 7) But as a defense from attacks directly above, yeah it might makes sense, since I can imagine a drop ship full of non-transformable mechs trying to "paratroop" into sensitive spots and crashing down into populated areas and maybe trying to take vips hostage or something. Destroids would be too slow to get them, (no variability, even the spartan has to run and can't fly) and valks would be too busy fighting away from base, but monsters would be nice and heavily armored to physically block them and begin attacking at long range.

If a ship was going to be attacked from all angles (not necessarily from the front) this mode would let it shoot down enemies dropping straight down directly above. The problem is would it have stability? It looks like it can barely stand as it is in that mode, and the recoil might affect balance. (unless it was hovering around) In the original series, the original monster wasn't seen moving around that much though so the cannons may as well be fixed. So maybe they decide where it is to be placed before hand and the computer figures out whether it is going to hit the target based on where it stands and just keep firing in that one spot. In macross plus when dyson was being attacked by the sdf1, the weak point was supposed to be right on top of the sdf1 bridge wasn't it? If he could dodge all that fire all by himself, think of how vulnerable the ship is if a team of skilled ace pilots could perform a kamikaze style maneuver to destroy that section of the ship without some defense? In space all the monster would have to do is float in that spot and keep firing to take out the pilots from long range before the valks and other destroids had to fight them. (leaving the monster to keep focusing its role on killing things from afar)

aha. Nah, no need to look, just uploading them for laughs. twas a joke anyway. We want only the Koenig in the pic if possible.. What scares me more is the original assumption that we all wanted to see you naked.. Were you planning on transforming this in the nude? Not all the vids people download from the net have to be of porn ya'know. (well maybe about 10%) Oh well here we go again off topic. You guys are sick.. Monster topic is under threat of being hijacked now. I bet there are people trying to access the site from work who have the site blocked now..

Sheesh so paranoid.. it's ok we won't upload photoshopped pics of you to gay amatuer porno sites or anything like in the past. We just want to see the monster transformed in all modes so we don't stress and break its delicate 'little knobs'. jk I would make one if I could but I don't have mine yet. Paris ain't bad, but the monster looks classier.

Yeah and make a video too if you can! Just in case the pics and description aren't enough. Next up I want to see yamato make a variable Octos toy.

Pay the money for the macross boxset, it's worth it. I give it a huge thumbs up. Awesome quality. Once you do that you can sell your robotech dvds and begin the path to finding out the truth of the characters and events rather than the robotech reimaginings. (I'll admit though, I'm still curious about the rick hunter guy from robotech and what he'll be like in the future robotech series if it ever happens. It's like "what if Hikaru and Misa never vanished and entered an alternate universe?"! ) As for DYRL, somebody provided a torrent link to a high quality movie of it a while ago: http://a.scarywater.net/nla/ Takes up 2 cds. For those in australia, the madman release of the series is still available in shops. So if you're really desperate, importing this (for those with allregion dvd players) may be a good last resort. Cost me an arm and a leg but I'm glad to finally be able to see everything.

It's like that bit in ghost in the shell where they are telling the poor garbage collector guy who commited the crime that all his memories were false and they were implanted in his brain by a hacker and every image in his mind was created. That's what robotech does to you. The robotech world and its events were planted there so you would believe they were real but the robotech world never really existed. Harmony Gold = the puppet master.

You may still be able to get this off animeskyscraper. http://www.animeskyscraper.com/torrent.html You may want to use a client like bittornado to sort which files you want to dl so you dont have to download the stuff you won't need. It would have been cooler if Milia got into her old red Qrau and had a mech battle with chlore to see who is better.

3 main things I liked: 1.They kept true to the civilians being key to the rescue of the human race(again) Not the typical patriotic soldiers, but characters who are civilians finally giving an answer to the problem of the cycle of destruction. If the central character was the 'typical soldier doing his duty' he/she would not have been helpful in this case because they are merely doing what they are told and thier duty is 'to protect'. (quote from the end of SDF:Macross where Hikaru tells minmay to continue her career because it is so important to people that she not quit it: while his career as a soldier is to protect people important like her for the benefit of all.) But while they are protecting people, what hope would a mere soldier have in trying to end war when there is no culture to protect from the begining? In the original series it was not clear exactly how spreading the human race (apart from making it harder to make ourselves extinct) to other planets was going to avoid running into the same problems that the PC had: We develop weapons to fight, but ultimately the more efficient our destruction gets, the more we end up spreading our own path of destruction which leads to death for all living things that we feed upon. Even when sdf1 crash landed on earth, we had humans fighting amoungst themselves over who should possess it's power - so contrary to what the governments like to think, it's not a sign of peace for all that alien technology has brought us together in unity and we no longer need to fight each other. It is just another giant weapon for the military to possess and is not a sign all the problems of the past were miraculously solved. Enter the protodevlin: living beings with immense destructive power forced to feed upon all living things in order to survive. They may as well be monsters that need sealing up, but what is the solution to helping them stop what they do? Do they deserve a chance to live just as the zentradi did in SWI by us influencing and then changing thier behaviour by introducing our ability to repair, heal and create? On the one hand you have the military impressed by the destructive power of these beings (almost wanting to make them thier own bioweapons by trying to capture and study them! ) and on the other you have civilians who care not what these things are capable of doing, but wanting to help them solve thier energy problem. Why does the civilian population again prove to be so important to winning the war? Because it is not the human intent to want to destroy other living beings with the false belief that 1 living thing is necessarily more important than another. There is always an alternate, better solution where one does not need to feed on another in order to survive and this is partly the protodevlin's problem: they had no choice because thier bodies; although powerful, were so energy in-efficient like the giants that, it was only a matter of time before they died. (remember how the zentradi reacted after the holocaust? If they didn't work hard to rebuild earth again, they would have starved themselves to death because of a lack of food. You can understnad how food rations were a form of payment for services then. But because they only knew destruction, they were doomed from the beginning, and a danger not just to us, but themselves too. You really learn to pity them. Death is like a disease that spreads, and only by changing thier ways and offering a solution (through the healing effects music had on the beings) could the mistakes the PC had gone through, been finally corrected. Sealing them was only a temporary measure. An enourmous amount of power needs an enormous unlimited supply of energy to sustain it, which means others have to suffer for that power to exist. (by acting as the cattle) And this is not a solution to thier problem, just another problem for another race to deal with. Unfortunately that race was us. What the Protodevlin needed was freedom from thier trap, not to be studied and used and controlled in a lab which is what the military wants for themselves for thier own control. The civilians offer them this solution with positive efects that cancel thier negative effects. This energy is pumped into the void to fill it up with energy until the beings were completely whole again - maybe thier soul was brought back and thier bodies no longer hungered for energy off others as they desired to create for themselves?) 2. Characters who are unique The fact that we don't know much about Basara is a good thing imo. It says to the older, more-demanding fans: pay attention if you want to learn more. At the risk of alienating them they are forced to go on a journey discovering who this guy really is. (through the eyes of the whiny pink haired chic who only wants fame and success and has forgotten - or never understood - the importance of music in helping a race abandon its destructive behaviour) What Basara taught to her was: If singing is just a means to an end, (to fame, fortune, success, good cd sales, better gigs, more love from fans etc) and you could gain that end without song, would you keep singing? Basara is different in that the singing to him was his way of expressing what the heart felt to others and by giving it out through the performance, you can move anything. Filling people with emotion and joy was the true effect of the musics powers and something she had to learn beyond just playing well - you had to be spontaneous too in your expression, giving out the music as you felt it should be recieved, not too structured, rigid and lifeless. Anything way too well rehersed may come off as feeling fake and manufactured. A good example of this was when Alice (the other singer) originally inspired Mylene to create music for herself, but alice had stopped singing and was too tired of it losing her whole inspiration to keep singing anymore. She lost the magic that originally got her into singing because her heart felt she had enough and she wanted to quit. But when hearing Mylene's own songs this gave her some more inspiration and she got back into it again. The power of the songs themselves may inspire others to at least try to create something for themselves which can only be a good thing. This is essentially like what happens with the Protodevlin who may have found thier own way to create instead of consuming things after having Basaras music shoved down thier throats. Another thing is that Basara even when aproached by the military to be used a tool to help, refuses. It's not so much that he doesn't want to help but that he is protesting and saying "I will do as I feel". This is important because so much the reason for what he does is not for control of others in an opressive manner or for personal gain, it is him giving a gift he created himself and hopefully having it accepted and apreciated by the enemy not as some thing to be feared like a weapon, but as a true sign of friendship. It is neither "out of weakness", nor "strength" that he sings. He doesn't sing to save his life or as some official tool to protect people but more as a way to bring hope that the enemies change thier attitude and see no reason to fear us or bring fear to others. What's more crazy? Trying to control a beast many times more powerful than yourself by capture or harm? Or taming the beast so that it understands and trusts you? The characters obviously had some important message to give about thier reasons and viewers are forced to think and observe rather than have all the information in front of them. 3. Backstory is filled in I loved that we finally get to see Exedol learning something about the past when exploring the ancient ruins. You would think that the old guy would be curious to know something about the PC and thier relation to the zentradi more than what was told to him by others as opposed to what his own independant research revealed to him. When first seeing SDF: macross mention of 'supervision army' conjures up this curiosity in me to want to know who these people were. We hear them but never see them and watching macross 7 helps to bridge the gap a little. If the protodevlin could possess people and capture whole races with thier mind control, using people's bodies as soldiers it brings some understanding that these are not your regular physical threat. It's a spiritual one where the threat spreads like a disease and there is no physical cure to stop it. I can consider these protodevlin as 'the devil'. (and the zentradi were the 'satan's dolls') Every living thing would be consumed and it kind of dwarfs the threat of the zentradi invading earth from the first SDF:Macross series, because these beings would be a universal threat (not just global) if left to do what they wish. On a macrocosmic level, you could then say that whenever man, zentradi, meltrandi engages in war with his brother/sister he is possessed by the devil and that his willingness to bring death spreads like a disease (because of the mind control the Protodevlin have, and naturally the instinct is to kill others before they kill you) which has a never-ending cycle for which there is no cure. Only working hard to keep creating (culture) can man save himself from extinction. No matter how big and powerful the weapons the military makes and no matter how deluded people belive their 'ultimate defences' are, (macross plus' out of control AI) the threat of mass extinction always looms until people change thier way by finding alternate solutions that give people and thier enemies the ability to create for themselves so there is absolutely nothing to fight over and reason to want to develop such destructive weapons to kill whole populations with the flick of a switch in the first place. Other things I liked: Mechs - loved seeing new Valk designs. VF22, VF17, and the VF11. Didn't really care much for the colony ships. Also loved seeing apearances of older designs like the vf1 and all those destroids in the robot show. I think at once point there was a polkadot custom robot. Mech Battles - the ones that were good I liked. But unlike the first series there was not not much ship to ship fights. The enemy would retreat and fold out of existance. Gubaba - Obviously the most crucual character in the whole series. I at first kept thinking this guy was put in there just for scenary but you'll note how intelligent gubaba is that his inclusion is as important as the inclusion of r2d2 in star wars. I think that Gubaba might be a newtype! Because he is able to locate people when his fur goes on edge. Maybe they should make a whole series about this furry alien animal and how he rescues his friends captured in a lab. The bad: Like others have mentioned I wish the fight scenes weren't so cut and pasted together and recycled. One thing I was hoping for were dogfights and mech battles that lasted long time and had some acrobatic stuff from SDF:Macross going on. You know when Hikaru uses his stunt pilot skills to avoid enemy fire from pods in the first series, or when max is circle strafing and moving around while firing to finish off miriya in the original tv series (the virtual battroid fight)? I think we may be spoilt by scenes from DYRL and macross plus, but I just felt the mech battles overall were not visually exciting. Part of the reason I love watching anime is to see them doing crazy things they can't do in real life and having that animation express that action in a stylish way that also has a practical reason for having it happen. eg seeing hikaru barrel roll in gerwalk mode to use the legs to create a cushion to push himself away from the walls in dyrl, or having him use the feet as retro boost. You see similar stuff like this in macross zero which puts detail into the fight. And in macross plus you can totally understand why having the feet jump out can be helpful if you need to avoid something in fighter mode or turn in a certain way -ie rolling the fighter towards the direction it wants to turn, then releasing the legs below to push you away from obstacles as a sharp brake-turn. (in space they would just slide around right?) Macross plus and Zero had lots of this: Isamu dives and floats smoothly in gerwalk at the last second, Guld's expensive plane is rescued from the air thanks to Isamu's use of Gerwalk mode to cushion the descent, Roy uses the hand of his mech to capture the gundpod as it falls to the ground, Shin stomps on a plane with the foot, the Battroid mode is seen being used to take advantage of it's head lasers and gunpod as anti missile defense for close encounters ...etc etc All the little things that macross 7 generalised. You would see a scene of a mech holding a gunpod and firing into the screen, then it would cut to an image of something blowing up. Bo-ring! No drawn out fights until the end when the vf22s are shown kicking ass. Overall I was happy to see it, but like others I have reservations about the style. I thought in some of the scenes of the old macross, the art just seemed more detailed than in macross 7. The tone of macross 7 is more light and less serious (it's peacetime) and just judging by the way in which they had to have Basara singing every episode this could be a turnoff for those who were drawn initially by the mecha and not music. I think the goal here is that we are meant to love the character enough to keep watching as opposed to loving the mechas, but the repetition and more gentle pace of this series can drag on if you are looking more for drawn out battle scenes where the focus is on what the mecha and pilots are doing to react to situations. There wasn't a single point in the series (well maybe one) where you actually thought one of the characters could die from an enemy attack, (even mylene at 14 was an ace pilot after all) and this lack of danger changed the tone and seriousness of the whole macross franchise imo. Even the episode about Milia's acceptance of death and old age was just one joke episode. They could have still got thier message across but not used as much repetition and pop music each episode, and instead balanced it to be more like the original. Put in some detail in the mech fights, stretch out the action so it is more relevent and within context with what's happening. Highlight the differences between one mech's abilities to another and visually show that through animations of the pilots using flashy maneuvering etc All the good stuff from dyrl essentially..

They did it to reduce costs. The shipping would have cost more if they made it too stiff as it would have burst out of the cardboard. These are 'adult toys', not for kiddies. ^ That would have made a nice official box cover. It just screams "Got wang?"

What does the basic pilot look like though? What if the person wants a specific character? (I think it would be cool if they just chucked all of them in there including the lowviz one) If they release 2 seaters in the future I hope they can get minmay in the back seat. And..banprestos rock! Banprestos > 1/55 Bandais jk

Ah but what happens is people are scared that lucas was able to disapoint fans of star wars with his new movies, so similarly they get scared any mention of a potentially awesome macross remake would rape the franchise of integrity. They apply that example and believe it would be disatrous. But they should ask themselves this: without cashing in so that the masses know something about the series, how can you expect new toys to be made apart from the overdone vf1s? I think a lot has to do with this whole idea of an high quality toy needing to be a collectors item that only fans should be able to own and not be accessible to the average person. But that attiude is what kinda stunts any potential renewed interest in the old series, if you know what I mean...After a while people move on and forget the franchise and do not keep up to date with anything new. So companies may then guage interest this way and avoid devoted a line of toys for it. Once the fanbase grows old and dies, so will the franchise unless some attempt at a ressurection of the dead franchise is given a chance. Imagine if you will, the transformers generation 1 was given closer-to-the-movie quality animation? The bots were given a new look, that doesn't offend fans of the orignal but makes the characters better, a whole new toyline with the same quality of the BT/alternators was done up, and we didn't have to put up with the dated 80s generation 1 as being the only thing to reference for fans of the old series? (I wouldn't watch the old series again but the old movie I would. Even for nostalgia. It hasn't aged well.) It would be beneficial to both older and newer fans because the older fans can see the original gets back to its roots in story and design, while at the same time the newer fans are not put off by dated look of the old. Apply this to macross and you can see what I mean. The story gets right back to it's roots where the meat of the thing is, a new generation of people can then get into the thing fresh and not have to worry about confusion, (thanks partly to 15 years of robotech conditioning ) and toys would more likely by made because people tend to buy what they know. I admitedly have bought gundam kits without seeing or knowing anything about the series in the past, but now that I've seen a few series I tend to want to hunt for the models/toys of the things I've seen because of familiarity and knowing them. It's more likely the exposure to the series that makes people want toys after seeing them, rather than just wanting the toys and not being exposed to a series first. VF1s are familiar so people recognise them immediately and because of that we see more attention put to them.

I say they remake macross the way certain dead franchises were ressurected in the US. Old cartoons like heman, ninja turtles, (and even zoids which is ancient!) etc. And don't forget recent anime remakes like astroboy which has been redone fresh but still manages to retain the look and feel of the original astroboy. Before old school fans groan, realise that they could make both old series and new series available for both generations of fans. They don;'t have to favour one over the other. In fact the new series could be a vehicle to help sales and interest in the older series. As an example you can still buy the classic 80s astroyboy tv series on dvd right alongside the newer tv series if you were more a fans of the old and had nostalgiac reasons for wanting to see the old. (Personally I'm not familiar with the pre-80s one) Then all the money made from the toy sales will allow new movies, new tv series etc to keep going. But the question is this: do they have enough material? Isn't macross something that has new stuff only every 5-10 years? VF1s are probably the most recognised valk because it appeared in the original tv series. Now that this generation is getting old, it is only a matter of time before interest or knowledge about the series dies out unless a new series is made in the same scale that the original series had when it first seemed fresh. Although when macross plus came out I think it had an impact on lots of people who probably weren't that familiar with original series, so as a standalone spinoff sidestory thingy, a new fanbase was born because of the series just being easy on the eyes to watch. People who saw macross plus may not even know that zentradi were alien giants or the reason why humans needed variable vehicles, or the whole story behind sdf1, but luckily the viewer didn;t need to be filled in about all the little details about the SW to enjoy it. (But it is assumed you at least know what a "zentradi" is and the fact these zentradi made peace with humans and live amoungst them if you don;t wish to be confused) Anyway, after they remake the original, they then paste onto it a newer series if they can. A newer fan of macross can then sequentially watch macross zero, macross remake (without the pain of crap animation turning them away) and then gradually get interested in a new series that way. I see a big generation gap problem when it comes to macross because the meat of what made macross so appelaing is contained in the space war (a good variety of different mecha types appears here) and it is getting too old for newer people to bear watching because of the animations and simple dogfights after being spoilt with macross plus. Bandai could then cash in on any interest generated from a new series and redo the vf1 line to rival yamato 1/48s and then gradually go onto other valks. sigh, wish this HG thing wasn't in the way or I'd be buying more macross toys (and games) because they'd be far more accessible if the mainstream could catch on and recognise macross for macross instead of as robotech. I'm glad robotech got me into it, but now that the universes have split apart and robo is going to continue with mechs from mospeada, macross should finally be given a life to live alongside robo internationally rather than being hidden and unable to unleash its potential in other overseas markets where I bet kids would snap at the chance to be able to buy toys that are mass produced from the series. (if only they were accessible and not "masterpiece collector items" that cost an arm and leg and happen to fall apart once the box is opened)

How about a mythical all-black stealth bomber like that all-black vf1, haha? You could paint evil red eyes on the cockpit and paint the orange bits dark red. Maybe even add shark teeth. The secret stealth monster only attacks at midnight, is painted in dark colours, has no visible markings and is equiped with claws to restrain its victims from escape or raid other mecha and loot them. In the future, the UNG will have undergone a huge war with a new species of alien that wipes out 99.9% of human life leaving only civilians struggling to live on a scorched earth which leaves only a few destroid pilots fighting over the resources of earth. People customise thier mechs to survive in this new harsh environment, and salvage wrecked mechs from previous wars which are modified for close combat and the lack of ammo and supplies becuase of the destruction of once-working factories. (stealth is more valued and heavily armored vehicles are preffered over aircraft which did not survive the "second holocaust" of space war II when the humans and zentradi lost. ) Now because of this, sand and dirt is applied onto some of the custom mecha to camoflage the non-stealth mechs during the day, and like the post apocylptic movie "mad max" we have all kinds of desperate savages trying to kill each other for survival of the fittest where there are no laws, no cops left, and no order. Just a few herioc lone gunmen in mechs killing each other with only half-working technology which can only be repaired by a few people who are knowledgable enough to understand the ancient alien technology. In the future the monster would be the weapon of choice followed closely by the spartan because of it's hands (used for construction as well as close combat) and bulk. The idea of visually camoflaging the mech to avoid seeing them from the ground would make sense in this scenario. (not a fan of bright colours like Max and Milia's blue and red, I liked the dark green they had for the monster before. I think dark colours kind of make something look solid and heavy) A bomber, which then transforms into a robot attacking at nightime providing the first strike for others to safely invade and distract would make sense. Anything to gain an advantage. Hell, yamato should release a clear monster and call it an experimental optic camoflage mecha.

I know, but what if they do fix a problem that some of the complainers whine about because they took it very seriously? (there was one guy in the roy reissue thread with a missing piece) You got to at least try to let them know by providing some feedback. If they don't know about it, chances are nothing would get done. It's for thier own good even if they don't know it. Kind of like a kid who doesn't want to brush his her teeth but you make them do it. heh. I bet even if they do not respond, they are still listening. It's just a matter of if enough people complain, or if it will affect the bottom line. Take the toynami thing for example: I bet all those who buy something and are upset by the thing who do not complain, are probably glad now that they are accepting returns for faults. I just feel it is normal to be able to still complain about something but at the same time still feel you can support the product and company, you know what I mean? But there is always going to be some who think: "If ya don't like it, don't buy it" which isn't the point. We want to buy, but also like it. Fans are still enthusiastic about the release and WILL buy it, (just like with the toynami alphas) but they still wish for the QC and hope they aren't going to be the unlucky one who gets one with a missing piece, one with a part that was put backwards, a loose limb etc If they are unlucky and do get one, complaining about it, isn't a sign they aren't interested in the toy, since they wouldn't have parted with thier cash in the first place! If yamato thinks that, (enough to cancel every project at the slightest complaint) then they've misinterpreted. Note to yamato: For all those who are sitting back and waiting for reviews, it is not that we are not interested in the toy, quite the opposite, we are just laidback and want to know more about it first. (otherwise we wouldn't come to forums to gobble up the latest information, would we?) We're the guy who go to EB, reads reviews, and don't mind returning stuff that doesn't satisfy us, rather than keeping something that might make us unhappy and being miserable. For some of us, buying an expensive thing whether it be a tv, or new piece of hardware, import game systems from an importer who has them early, etc...we like to at least know as much as we can before diving in. (early adopters pay the most, and sometimes get burned the most, but that doesn't stop them from wanting to pay a good price for something they really want.) It's normal. Customers can have stupid reasons for not liking something, but in the end, if they are unhappy with something, it's best in the long term to listen to complaints imo. History proves it.

That's what I was thinking! If I ever buy another 1s it will be a tv 1s but this time I do not want to buy a seperate fast pack parts box and would rather have it boxed together with a valk like they did with tv max & miriya to save on shipping. My shopping list right now is to get a monster, get the fast pack for the current roy 1s I have, get the upcoming GBP, hopefully wish that a green QRau comes out, and then, if I'm still not sick of macross stuff, I will consider getting a second 1s. If they do a tv roy I would be tempted to get it but I'm more interested in an official fastpack-equiped tv hikaru 1s. (mainly because I personally don't have any of his valks -whether dyrl or tv vers- yet. And yeah I could take the pilot from 1j hik but I don't have him ) I think that will be it for 1/48s for me unless sometime in the future they find a way to make a 1/48 VF1D.