1/1 LowViz Lurker

This is why I don't collect. But what I'm saying is: why are people using star wars figures as an example of it being bad to collect the cheap items now? Don't these guys realise the items are cheap now because companies want to milk the license for all its worth out of greed (yamato are no different) and so parents can afford to buy them? By flooding the market they ensure competitors to that license don't steal thier profits. (and so keeping the price high has no benefit to them when there is a shortage) But when these little kids buy them and open them, and play with them and lose them and damage them, the items the collectors bought now for nothing, and kept MIB will be worth heaps when companies have finished milking the franchise and no new star wars movies are made, a time when mass producing something that has no buzz generated for it, gives no incentive to make more toys due to percieved lack of interest by the masses. People hate looking at the big picture because they want to do exactly what everyone else is doing and get items other people say are worth heaps now. If I could go back to the time when star wars figures were really cheap for the original movies, (or even robotech stuff) I would have bought huge amounts of the things but I didn't. Why? Because I wanted to play with them, and opening them damaged them. People like me are shortsighted and colectors should be happy we are damaging and losing the toys. (but buying them cheap while they are still mass produced) Same sort of thing here with macross stuff. Cheap prices are good for all, including the collectors. Isn't there even a thread somewhere in tv series, movies where people are tlaking about how interest in macross is dying? Same here. But don't you feel special owning something that no one else has? It would be good if Limited Edition versions were kept that way to reward the diehard fans, (roy is not LE though) instead of misleading people by rereleasing them. In the long run I can see the LE label not working anymore.

Yeah but competition drives quality. How does a company survive and make the best quality toys if they are not profiting by trying to expand the market and increasing the pie slice? It wouldn't make sense to purposely prevent fans from buying the toy and letting collectors demand whatever price they wanted because that would mean less money goes to the company making them. Unless people want them to fail, and profits to be absorbed by thier competitors (imagine if you will, a macross fan deicding that if he can no longer buy a 1/48 roy1s, he then decides to buy a bandai instead?) I don't see the negatives. If yamato were to fail to compete with bandai by meeting demand for a toy, how can they justify future risks and devlopment of newer and more advanced toys in the future? What was the best in the past is not going to be the best in the future. The collectors should take into account the current environment and wait until interest dies down instead of expecting to cash in so early and toy companies to cater to them out of loyalty. A good example is starwars. After the last movie is made (episode 3) do you think toy companies will keep selling the same stuff forever? Of course not, they only do that while the license is fresh and demand for toys during the merchandise blitz is high. When toy collectors stock up now, (by buying the toys cheap while they are still being mass-produced and widely available) they will reap the rewards in the future when new-generation fans envy thier collections and wish they could have been around to buy the toys during the years of the movies' release. Collectors have to be patient. Fans have to be supportive. Two different breeds imo. Also remember that what you think of as being crap is irrelevant to a collector who knows of somebody who is willing to buy that unwanted item off you for a high price. Say you sell an unwanted crappy item for $100 to a sucker thinking you are getting a bargain. That sucker buys it, and then sells it to an even bigger sucker for twice that amount. Of course the catch is he was never a sucker to begin with. He just bought that item off you because he knew ahead of time somebody who was willing to pay more than you were selling, and wanted to make an instant profit. (by writing down a list of items and asking what they'd be willing to pay. Just "being there" at the right time allowed him to do it) This happens with rare stuff that people sell, who are too lazy to go and find somebody willing to pay a good price for the crapper items in thier collections. They believe that thier circle of people they hang with are the only ones who could have possibly been interested in what they had to offer, so they aren't going to bother to find a hidden market and see if the price would vary depending on the type of person they are selling to. (desperate fan, rich guy, uninformed completist, noob with money to burn etc) Price can vary dramatically if you network enough and the item is of a series that may not be commercialy successful enough to be produced in large qauntity anymore, but *critically* successful, and sort-after by specific people. It may have failed commercially for whatever reason and the percieved value has gone down but there is enough of a base for a ocllector to exploit. Not all people realise that items are worth however much the person is willing to pay, not how much you believe they should be worth. If no one can afford it, they will spend thier money on something else. If an item isn't really rare, as opposed to being temporarily in short supply, they can't demand high prices and expect toy companies not to notice. (believing they will allow money to go straight to them, it just wouldn't make sense. Put yourself in yamato's shoes) The secret is to think backwards and do the exact opposite that everyone else is doing and plant those seeds for tommorow, not rush for the same stuff everyone wants and then moan about the value of an item going down if you had no intention of selling them (for a reasonable price) in the first place. Take low vis as an example. You collectors need to treat it like it is worthless to make people want to sell thiers for cheap in exchange for something that you can get in abundnance. Not tell everyone on an internet forum about how sad you are about missing out. They will just hold onto thiers with pride and demand a good price leveraging what you just told them and using it against you. It's only worth what you make it to be or what people are willing to pay.

Yeah but the first type is kind of weird. Because when you have something no one else has, and start gloating about it, and then shoving it everyone's faces along comes the second type to tempt the the fan into selling it but taking away that feeling of being special for owning the rare item. It's like a struggle as a fan to hold onto a precious 'one of a kind' item versus making a small fortune. If you are a fan, you'd keep it, but that money sure is tempting. With rare videogames you at least have emulators and pirates ruining the value, but with toys, comics, autographed sports equipment etc... another matter entirely. Do you want to be special or make a profit? There's also the question of: is the item really rare (like a comic book from the 50s) or just in current short supply to drive demand up by the company who makes it or because that item is popular? A lot of people don't differentiate between the two because they are impatient and want the best deal NOW. Like I say about the time machine, we'd all be rich if we all knew what was going to happen. Sometimes you feel like you just bought something you don't want, (Ironically, I only bought low vis because roy was sold out) but in years to come, it could be worth a lot if you just hold onto to it. As forest gump used to say about boxes of choclates..

Yeah but it's easy if you are a collector. But for every dollar the collectors make, that is potential money being taken away from the company making those toys, so collectors should always be ready for that risk. And if they are a small company, they'll need that profit to make newer toys so we can all get off the vf1s and onto something else right? Every business does this: milk whatever they can to increase profit to capitalise on growing interest. Popular toys never get rare unless the companies making them dies and there are no more toys being made anymore. I agree with that guy who mentioned that fans should support and help each other out, and not purposely gloat that they have something else nobody else has or didn't have to pay inflated price for it. It's not our fault the fanbase grows after a small resurgence of interest in old tv series or a particular item is in high demand and companies are greedy. If the future was predictable and we had time machines we'd all be rich men. I personally would love to see these toys released locally instead of having to pay import prices for them, and then on top of that, pay some collector a massive amount just because they can charge me that. If I can't have it, I simply will spend my money on something else. But that's just me. And anyway, think of it this way: if you are a collector, the lower price just means you can collect more of them, and cash in sometime in the long future when they become almost like antiques. (like comic books in mint condition from the 50s) any percieved money or value you think you are losing now, could be nothing compared to what you might make in the long term. There is always some rich guy with loads of cash who didn't take good care of his toys and doesn't care how much he has to spend on something that no longer can be found. To us poor ppl, the large amount to pay means nothing to them.

Sold! ...if that happens. I was one of the noobs to have missed out on roy the second time.. But I did end up with a low vis so I'm happy. I just need to get some cash together. I probably would not have ended up buying a tv 1j super max if I'd have known yamato were going to release more roys in the future. That's life I suppose.. Live and learn..

Maybe its not protecting the grenades. It's just a protector for the valk that makes it look more boxy(like the destroids), which just so happens to have grenades as it's feature because that's essentially what those missiles act as when launched at targets. There may be other armour designs with other themes. I'll make one up: Gundam Knight protector. An armor design with a gundam theme. (of course it doesn't protect gundams, just an armor that makes the battroid look like one) Like "bunny slippers". You could think of that in two ways: slippers for bunnies that they wear, or a pair of slippers that are made to look like bunnies. (for humans to keep feet warm) Raincoat: - a coat you wear in the rain to avoid getting wet or - a coat that the rain can wear. Grenade Box protector: - a grenade box for protection (the armor theme being grenade box "style") or - box protection for the grenades (the missiles are delicate little flowers needing armour) I'm willing to think it's the former since destroids have armour that looks like the GBP, and they don't need protection for weapons so much as so they are going to be blown to pieces themselves without armor. Notice that the valks can skate around and dodge fire with agility and speed in battroid mode whereas the destroids just sit there? They are more like tanks because of the fat armor but you never see them hovering in the air or dodging like battroids because I assume they are ground combat specialists (that is fight from the ground) loaded with more firepower and wieghted down. (speaking mainly from the origial tv series where the monster couldn't fly) Destroid = tanks with legs made to resemble a human form. But still a bunch of guns and missile launchers chucked onto its body. You won't see monsters doing a commando rolls on the ground. Battroid = humanoid robots with emphasis on fine articulation. (ie picking stuff up with the hand, fighting giants, putting on a disguise (max does this) etc ..more than just a walking gun turret, kind of the micronised version of the zentreadi battle "suits" like the Qrau etc

Depending on certain factors. What planet and what time of day and how clear from dust the air is. In after noons the sky is sometimes red. All colour is subjective when you think about it. All it is, is a frquency that our optic nerve picks up and sends messages to our brains. Manilpulate that frquency and our brains tell us the colour has changed. Therefore the sky is not blue all the time based on varying factors like how dusty and what frequency of the spectrum is standing out more. (blue is more noticable upclose where red stands out more from afar) And this factor varies depending on results of other factors. The sky is blue on earth most of the time. But even then it's just a label we humans apply called "blue" which everyone can agree upon. Of course there are colours we can't see which we've labeled as well, but my point is someone had to come up with the system first to explain it to us all in the first place. The sky can look red, blue, orange and even pink to people sometimes. A volcanic eruption can change the appearance of the colour. Admittedly I'm new to toys since playing with them from the 80s so I wouldn't know what advances have been made to avoid the chipping. I guess my main concern comes from posing and balance with specific toys like yf21 where the feet are so small, had the top part of the toy been diecast as well, it just wouldn't be poseable enough. For me, I don't care or can tell the difference when I'm looking at it from a distance, all I want is something that is reasonably cool looking, and won't fall over on a windy day without the feet having to be altered like with the toynami's legious clown feet. I mean we can't change how the original design has been structured, so in some cases we are going to need to lighten the burden whether the joints are stiff or not. An all-diecast toy to me says that joints are going to weaken quickly than one whose wieght has been lessened. If the price could be lessened that is just icing on the cake, and the original post was assuming that plastic will lessen price. If good posability like with vf11bs ability to stand at an angle based on the design, are taken away because they wanted to add diecast all over, the poseability and actions it could display doing would be compromised imo. I still stick by this even knowing that diecast gives better finish and is more expensive and ignoring for a minute that diecast could chip. Which is why I said I would still choose the cheaper plastic. (because I'm a skeptic and have assumed an all-diecast toy would compromise some balance than one that is centred with a majority of plastic, and diecast just in places only where needed. Actions that involve having the figure posed in a forward leaning or backward leaning stances would be too risky especially with things designed with small feet.) My need for goood poseability comes from seeing what the thing can do in anime and lack of posability in some toys takes away some of the appeal to me as an adult.

Kung Fu: Well given that the toy is cheaper, who cares if you let it get run over? Just buy a new one because they are in more abundance and cheap. When an old tv requires repairs and the parts are hard to get becasue they're are hard to find, isn't it much cheaper to buy a more modern one than to pay the costs to get the old one fixed? Same with computers, if they were way out of average people's price ranges would we see quick advances and leaps? The profits made lead to better and more efficient ones for the future. Who cares what materials they were made of if the new ones perform better and there is continued advances thanks to the prices being kept down? You know sometimes the most abundant and cheap things: like water is also the most important. (can man survive without it? Just because it is abundant and cheap doesn't mean it is not valuable to many people) Nothing lasts forever, even a chunky monkey can be blown to bits by a mere hand grenade which would make it fail the stringent durability tests of the UN Spacy. Price to strength/durability ratio is the key. It will be a long time before I let my 1/48 get run over by cars because I never play on the roads. But in terms of chipping, hell yeah, if it was diecast and I transformed it or accidently scratched it, I'd be doing lots more damage to the toy from *normal use. Matchbox cars are a great example. Who here can honestyl say they have never ever chipped a matchbox car from playing with them as kids? *normal use being defined as just playing and transforming it without abusing it.

Well, I would *still* choose a cheaper plastic toy to the same toy in diecast which is more expensive. (given that they are both exctly the same in poseability, detail, and meet reasonable enough strength) The main reason is that I like the fact that when it flops to the ground I get the satisfaction nothing is going to break. Stronger material doesn't necessarily = less chance of being damaged. Take a cardboard box vs an old cd jewel case. The plastic of the jewel case can shatter and crack when dropped. The cardboard box will absorb some of the shock and flop to the ground harmlessly protecting the content inside, and being less weighty, cause less damage because there is less gravitaional pull. Harder material may not abosrb the shockwaves and this may harm the weaker parts of the toy that are not made out of the hard materials. The extra weight adds more shock when it lands. And even if plastic yellows, that is only white that it is noticable. Even metal rusts right? So given that a toy will transform and rub against parts and scratch those parts where friction is evident, what chance is there that the average kid is going to bother stripping the paint and applying thier own mod each time they see paint chips? I've got my yf21 in mind, where the transformation isn't very gentle, with some parts squashing together and sliding agsint surfaces very tight where, had those bits been diecast it would be a nightmare just to transform each time. Being a kung fu master you can learn strength through weakness. "Be like water" as bruce lee and Roy Fokker used to say. (mac 0 joke. I think that butch chick who beats shin is a perfect example, with Shin's idea of strength being just a state of mind that gets him easily manipulated into the wrong moves because he is so used to one mode of fighting: ala being good at fighter mode combat but crap in battroid combat) Also take into account that if something is cheaper, you can buy more than one. Companies can mass produce more because of the cheap material, and this drives overall price for toy down, making more people happy and less stress that if the toy gets wrecked, they won't have to repair that toy which would cost more time to pay for the labour of doing that, instead they can rely on the fact that it would be cheaper to just get a whole new one. After they've made thier profit from the cheaper alternatives, then they can just make the diecast version to satisfy the fetishists out there who want to hold and caress their baby and look after it 24/7 instead of play with it and risk scratching it through normal use. However if the entry level price was to high because of the diecast, less people will be able to buy the "higher quality" toy and price will remain artificially higher (can only manufacture fewer) than what it would if it was a normal plastic toy. I wonder how much a 1/48 would cost in complete diecast? I know for sure that I would pay for a plastic one over the diecast one and use the savings to pay for another plastic 1/48 that I wanted. (assuming yamato gave a choice) Now imagine if the low vis was a diecast. A single paint chip could drastically and more noticable bring the total value of the toy down over say, a small scratch on a plastic low vis. And paint chips imo happen more frequently than damages to the plastic in my own experience. (of course this may vary with different people - I'm only stating my own experiences like when my yf21 thigh started with a small chip, then gradually got worse and worse with less and less resistance to chipping the more I started to transform it, to a point where each time I touched part of the legs, tiny sheets of paint started coming off on my finger)

Isn't it Grenade Box Protector? ^(click to see full size). Writing is on the side: this is from hobby book Or maybe Ground-combat Box Protector? ("ground" as in my assumption the thing won't be used in any mode other than battroid standing on the ground, like its fat destroid brothers, unless it is floating in space.) "Grenade" being that the ugly box-like appearance holds the "Erlikon GH-32 Grenade Crusher" high manoeuvrability micro-missiles. as well as the "Erlikon GA-100 Crusher high-speed armor-penetrating projectiles.." and "Ramington H-22T large hand grenades mounted on torso" (from macross compendium) Never quite figured which one it was.

If the price and poseability are better in plastic I would go for the lighter toy. If the diecast is in the wrong places or the toys limbs suffer as a result, I find it just isn't as cool to look at when it is restricted in how it can stand, how it can articulate its arms and legs and whether it can project that comic book-like pose that we love to see in well designed toy. To me an action figure mecha should be able to give off a sense of energy in the way it looks and moves without the person needing to hold it. Poses that can show off the toy give the admirer an impression of style and attitude and add a lot to the toys apreciation. To me outward apearance of the surface and weight is only 1 factor. I find that with the macross plus toys the vf11b w fp is my fave because I can lean the thing at an angle, click its joints into position and know that the stiffness will wear out less, in times to come because of the lessened wieght. Normally I'm not the kind to buy mutiple toys of the same thing though. (ie 1 for play/display and 1 for MIB) Now that's not to say all platstic automatically means very posable. The Qrau in my opinion can barely stand up properly because of floppy limbs. There are probably many other factors I'm missing but overall if the detail in the plastic is about the same as diecast, why worry your ass off that someday that detail is going to scratch off just from touching it? Maybe I'm just paranoid after my yf21 almost crashed to the floor and snapped its head laser off and the inner thigh started getting scratched to poo after some scrapping of the leg armour, but I feel more peace of mind when toys can be left alone without wear and tear or damage from accidental bumps and scratches that would acculmulate over time and eventually lessen the value with more use. If the diecast helps to keep it centred than that's a good thing though. But the weight alone isn't automatically a positive factor just because it makes it feel more expensive when I hold it. If anything I would have thought that diecast just meant that being harder, it would not crack so that automatically means it is indestructible and therefore means quality to most little kids. But I doubt little kids are as anal about how cool the toy should look if left on display (as opposed to smashing them against thier toy trucks) trying to make an impression with "realistic-looking" action poses. I know when I was a little kid all I ever did was smash these toys around, and later looking back at all my matchbox cars, i'm sorry they ever had to be so easy to chip because now they've lost thier beautiful paint job and thier appearance and apreciation for them has gone down. But having said that, now I think less wieght means increased shock resistance, so that when the thing falls to the ground small pieces won't snap off because the toy will plop to the ground safely and minimise damage to the finer, delicate pieces that are going to be put to the test the most. I would admit though that a toy that all plastic and just plain overpriced is another matter entirely. Sometimes holding the Qrau I feel as if it just doesn't justifiy that price tag because when held up it feels too light to be worth it. Hard to explain really..But in the end I would still choose plastic because it has a little more 'give' than metal whereby it can bend and snap into place and stretch a few millimetres. And when you talk about transforming toys where the pieces must rub against each other alot, than you are bound to at least scratch some paint away with diecast as opposed to plastic even if you've been reasonably careful.

Release the brownies and then the 1d. Milk this scale for all its worth I say.

Finally caved in to get the vf11b w fp along with a Millia Qrau. Like it more than yf21fp in terms of posability. Light, looks good enough for me, and great stiff joints click firmly into place. No more falling down and me fearing that the head laser is going to snap off when the thing hits the ground like with the yf21. heh Bad news on my yf21 though. Massive paint chipping on the upper thigh as a result of the inside of the legarmour scrapping against this area. Now the paint is really starting to flake off as if a snake trying to shed its skin! (every transformation more paint is coming out. anyone else have this prob? In desperation I've had to put some clear sticky tape on areas where it is coming off to prevent further damage.) Qrau: looks great but sometimes it falls back when it's not standing stright due to floppy hip joints. Better to pose this thing on a slope like a shoebox with one end resting slightly higher up than another and then having it lean forward. Glad this is all plastic. Not so worried any paint chips. Looks detailed on the inside. I wish the knees could bend more so the toy could crouch really low and bend it's legs up into its body to simulate fetal position it goes into when launching all its micromissiles. This is my main concern since the arms are so well articulated. If they could just add more articulation in the knees it would be much better and more poseable. I don't see why they couldn't since there is plenty of space. nitpicks: Looks a little too glossy in normal light, like the thing has just been nicely polished and has never been through a battle, almost like a cg model. I almost expect it to make a cameo apearance in a toy story movie. In the spirit of the 1/48 fp, they could have made each missile removable. /end nitpicks ..Now bring on the green ones from the tv series. (not so sure i will buy a max qrau since it is exactly the same as the red, unlike the slightly different-looking green one.)

Maybe it would be better they ship this thing in pieces. I would have fun assembling the toy. Make the toy easy to disassemble and this way it will be easy to store and we can apreciate the insides of the toy ala fast pack kit for 1/48 valks.

I have a few of these non-fastpack regular ones and the shoulders were loose out of the box. Every other joint is tight, but given thier tiny size and poseability I think they are cool to have displayed in dramatic poses on top of your computer monitor because they are so light. (I have put some bluetack on thier feet ot make sure they don't fall off heh) I have one standing in battroid mode in the classic pose: I also have some electric wire that can be bended and spiralled which acts as a stand for the fighter mode. Putting some blue tac on the base of this is enough to keep it steady. A really cheap alternative when you want a set of valks to display around with no stress of losing and wrecking them. I really wish the 1/48 had this kind of poseability. The balljoint legs on mine are stiff, so all those bent knee, "crouching with eye lined up to gunpod" poses are possible. And the shoulder bend towards and away so it can actually scratch its ass if it wanted to. These are like the gi joes of the valks. (in fact I have put a gi joe size handgun in max vf1j hand so he looks like a battroid cop who is going to crouch behind objects and rely on his accurate sharp shooting skill to bust the bad-guy battroids )

I've seen a few eps of mac 7 and think it is kind of funny. The characters are little different. And it is hard to imagine that this one guy manages to outfly the aliens while these other trained pilots are flying around in the area with him trying to shoot at the aliens. See Macross II (excellent music!) before you see macross 7.. I would see macross 7 last just so you know where some of the songs are from. I noticed there's stuff from macross II and mcross plus thrown in. (so then you can to yourself:"ooh where ave I heard that before?") Also just out of curiosity to see what max and miriya are doing with thier lives. Personally I think it is strange they would make his daughter the focus of the series. Could she have been adopted? How come her hair is pink when her parents have Blue and Green hair? here are some torrent links to fansubs of some of the series: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/16.html ^might be able to find some mac 0 there - (not much seeding) http://www.animeskyscraper.com/torrent.html ^dyrl and mac 7 Maybe by saving some cash (on these) you might be able to afford to buy the sdf macross tv series. (well worth it for the quality - very bright and colourful. Apart from the choppy animation from the time it was made, it looks like the series was just made today! Sell your robotech dvds to raise the funds )

The UN will destroy any independance current nations have so they can control everything. Already that's a good enough reason for thier to be some sort of Anti-UN force to try to challenge the UN. (whether you believe 1 side is good or bad is pretty irrelevant now that you think about it) The have-not nations will be easy to promote the idea of a world goverment to, because they will be getting a good slice of the pie, whereas those who are doing well and prospering and independant of the need for a UN might not be so agreeable with. Personally I think in the real world it was always going to be inevitable that religious people would be the most to object to a one-world goverment. (the UN believe our world is overpopulated for crying out loud, and eugenics is something any person with a conscience should be against, or anyone who are haters of hitler, no matter how much they dress it up in politically-correct terms like "sustainability" and "population control". To religious people the idea is satanic. And there are other reasons why the UN, mainly siding with new age hippies on many issues, would pose a threat to the current powers) It's only the rich and powerful globalists with an agenda who are the ones to really fear, since they have the most to gain with the creation of a goverment that has them in power. Here's a good timely link as to why nobody can trust the UN (they will try make the existing super power look bad) as it would pretty much take whatever control the masses have over thier own lives, and hand it over to the few. Because the few are knowledgable about the aliens and the tech, and the people are kept in the dark, there is a strong chance that all that tech is being kept for the benefit of a few who will increase thier control over the popoulation and demand total obedience since they have control over all these new, more-advanced weapons. You can't trust a single goverment to be ethical in the use of weapons which is why the human race is as much a danger to itself as the alien enemies are to us. This again is reffering to Global's remarks to Misa about why we must not repeat the same mistakes as the protoculture who killed themselves by developing weapons out of fear for thier own opposing side in thier own goverment, to try to secretly control the opposing side, but having those weapons backfire on themselves- killing everything: the good and bad people. (The zentreadi themselves and the supervision army were originally developed as bioweapons remember? and you don't create weapons unless you are going to use them against something, right? Fear creates mistrust which leads to war, so the protoculture split-reunite, split-reunite,split-reunite etc etc over and over again until only good people control the goverment, but in thier case the weapons were so powerful they couldn't regain control and they became extinct, much like how religious prophecies foretell of an eventual extinction of theh human race in the form of an evil beast which devours everything) Global's whole reason for wanting us to spread apart (last episode of macross tv series) is so that when earth goverment becomes militarised, (due to the inevitable threat of new zentreadi attacks on earth) we won't get out of control and kill ourselves with our own weapons. He had amazing foresite because when sending misa to be captain to go and find other planets, he knew there was an increased chance the human race survived if some of us were in danger when and if the world went through another war and almost kill itself.(or from being killed by new rebel zentreadi like Kamjin) Global probably knew what the effects of the military industrial complex had on civilisation and was against the idea of too much of the power being misplaced and put into the wrong hands (like admiral hayase) who are too single minded to reason with. (of course Global had no choice but to follow orders back then when hayase and all were still alive ) It doesn't even really matter why we kill ourselves or go to war against ourself, but rather the fact that when we do, and have such enormously powerful weapons to do it with (like nukes, and energy beams that vaporise whole continents) we risk making the human race an extinct species, so we must spread out and limit the damage we do to future generations. This is much cooler and more realistic reason then just saying that man is more peaceful than his alien brothers and only wants to bring peace to the galaxy. Because in real life we kill ourselves. (the same reason why in lord of the rings the good guys have evil potential within them in the form of temptation/seduction and perversion of ideals rather than because they were born evil like the orcs) The reason why we need to spread is to ensure that we have someone around to carry on the race unless we accidently destroy ourselves like protoculture. But the fact that destruction is inevitable if we are left alone for too long, is the more important point that Global was trying to make. Even peaceful civilisations like the one in macross 0 were forced to be drawn into the war after the UN had so many losses to the anti-un and needed help. If we didn't spread out, God knows how many people would be left on earth to keep the race alive when there are people with such powerful weapons on earth to enforce thier control over civilisation. (as senseless as war is, their is method in the madness to those people who are actually benefiting from the chaos - ie war is profitable and like starcraft there will always be a rush to claim ownership valuable resources and massive profit to be made from the industry that arises from the manufacture of arms that are sold to those killing each other) All of this is just common sense, technology brings war which is what Mao can't stand about the UN's need to bring it to her primitive-but-peaceful people, even if she is being a little bit extreme, overprotective and superstititous. The price you pay for convenience in the short term, is the blood of innocent people in the long term. (it's quite fitting for Maya to associate "taking a blood sample" as to vampiric bloosucking by the whites who are stealing their soul) To people who have stayed hidden from advanced civilisation, maybe it's much better to leave the peaceful people alone on thier island after all? When people like that old Doctor come along to research more into the aliens you just *know* they have military applications of that tech in mind. (as opposed to good uses of the tech) edit: sorry that these replies are so long winded, it's just the way I like to post on forums where I chuck in as much of an idea in a single post as possible. All of this is speculation based on what I think the series should be about but I try to back up my points.

This is why I like to think all the anti-un is, is anyone (doesn't matter what religion you are) against the idea of a goverment that gets to control everything. Especially those who are tired of more of thier spending (lives and money) for war. I'm thinking the only way the UN is going to get everyone together is through force since most nations I bet would try to steal the tech for thier own nation (although mac 0 suggests the anti un had stumbled upon some tech first) and want to keep it for themselves to influence other nations. If alien tech was available it would be kept secret, not made available to anyone to be shared, (look at the real world - knowledge is power) the only reasonable advantage of coming together, being fear that the aliens would come back, BUT with the sole intentions of having that power kept not to the people who are giving up thier hard work and sacrificing, as the macross townspeople did, but instead to those who already have it - ie admiral hayases, and all those hiding in the hole in the ground and whom, whether they win or lose, will *still* be in power making all the decisions despite their huge mistakes in judgment which they don't even have to take accountability for) I'm pretty sure a large group of people just want to forget the alien ship had even crash-landed on earth to begin with so they can rebuild thier life, rather than prepare for even more destruction and loss of thier life and hard-earned dollars. Once people landed a man on the moon nobody really cared about spending that much on science and technology when you think about it, and when you consider the secrecy of the government not letting people know anything about the aliens it's hard to justfy asking the people to support something they know nothing about. (people didn't even know the vf1s were transformable robots until right on the day when the zentreadi arrived, that smacks of mistrust, nobody is given a say and no regards about the ethical uses of the technology itself) So everything costs MONEY and that funding would need to be spent on things people think they are getting something out of (not just weapons that are more powerful), which IMO is the real reason it has to remain secret. Because they know the general populace would object. but those who do object would be "silenced" and at the receiving end of the weapons of the UN. Heck I would be right there fighting alongside the anti-un if I didn't have any idea there was going to be giants coming to earth with the possible intention of invading. The need by the UN to create cover stories to not panic people would bite supporters of the UN in the bum in the end, because without knowing exactly what is going on, they are just being used as a sacrificial lamb. I bet it wasn't until after SW1 (when those responsible for all the civilian deaths could be rounded up) and the formation of the new UNG that people (whos own money was used to fund the projects) could start to enjoy the benefits of the technology. The human race like the protoculture NEEDS to spread itself apart as far as it can to make sure the human race is not wiped out like the protoculture when creating weapons that backfire. (the mistake their civilisation made was to not spread apart enough, so I guess one wise person secretly helped seed earth based on foresite; possibly one step into helping fullful a zentreadi religious prophecy, the same one exedor mentions to britai) That is because it is a human's nature to fight and compete and kill each other like the zentreadi; (it's true, we DO intnetionally kill our own people like bodolza) of which Exedor and Global are the only ones who are well aware of from history. Anti-UN is just the natural opposition to unite under single rule, so that things like the holocaust (world death all around from alien attack) at least have a limit in terms of the damage it can do to the human race. I guess the protoculture (according to macross compendium) could never agree 100% either, so they kept splitting and re-uniting based on the disputes they had over control of things just like us.

Yep that's what I want it to look like. Will that affect his arm poseability?

Hmm still deciding whether to get a vf11b fp. Are the legs as floppy as Yf21? The damn gerwalk is going to give me a heart attack if I leave it alone too long or wobble the desk. FPs don't look too distorted when viewed from afar imo. I suppose I can just pretend the lineart is distorted anime magic. Yeah that's it. i mean, no way is the toy this skinny in battroid (shoulders are way far apart imo, the only negative point stopping me from wanting the current toy immediately):

Me too. I only just got back into macross (not really a hardcore fanboy yet) and I would suggest getting macross plus collection 1 and macross plus collection 2, so you can see all the scenes that weren't in the movie edition. I get the feeling that it would be a step backwards because I'm not sure if there was as many frames of smooth animation. (and the character's aren't focused on as much in the ova compared to the movie) But if you're a completist you wouldn't want to miss the ova so you could see everything. I also highly recommend sdf macross. For me though it was more for nostalgia at first, (because I loved the tv series) but now after watching it again I enjoy the series as if it were new. It also opens your eyes to how much difference there is to macross saga from robotech. But get DYRL first since that is awesome even by today's standards and worth rewatching if like me your memory of it was hazy. (much smoother + cooler dogfighting than tv series obviously) Mac 0 would then come later. I don't know about 7 though. Keep hearing that it isn't as good as the original.

I think the practicality of the battroid mode would be in the stability and accurcy of aiming the gunpod imo. If the pilot is floating around in gerwalk they couldn't make accurate shots at many moving targets from all angles. (think about the advantage of the batroids tv camera head, as opposed to the gerwalk pilots window - less situational awareness in close encounter environments imo) think about what happens when mechs launch close range micromissles, you could transform to battroid, shoot them all down with a rapid spray from the gunpod and hope that all th targets when exploding, set off a chain reaction that blows them all up without having to individually avoid or go through them. Battroid would be the best mode to shoot down missles since you are staying still and have the best visibility and natural motion to target many things at once. Lining up accuracte shots is a cinch when the machine isn't constantly moving around and obstructing the gunpods ability to line up shots because you just so have to be facing the targets to even begin to shoot it in other modes. Battroid mode offers a wide angle defence and works best for up-close threats or to spread as much fire into as wide an area as possible to defend against numerous smaller objects getting in the way. (I'm assuming the battroid has just transformed and is floating in mid air) On the ground in battroid mode the pilot would have the cover of buildings in a built up area (and no fear of crashing into things) with the assurance the mech hands is kept steady enough to fine aim sensitive areas and weak points of the enemy that are just not possible in fighter and gerwalk mode because of the size of the target to aim at. Think also about stealth and the advantage of being still and not giving away your position through unecessary acitivty. (turn the machine off if you need to. Radar would be useless at certain distance) Also tanks wouldn't be able to shoot a fast moving target, and assuming the battroid can run (I mean really run, not jog like the jogging robots we are seeing today) it would be easier to dodge fire while simultaneously shooting at the same time and performing humanlike manuevers that the more clumsy destroid just wouldn't be able to do. Doing several things at once: walking while aiming the gun, swiveling while firing; ..and at the same time moving the tv camera's head to spot movements in real time etc are all advantages of using a robot becuase it maps the motion of the human form which can do all tasks concurrently) A battroid would also have the advantage over gerwalk mode in that you could aim the gunpod in directions you aren't necessarily facing, increasing reaction speed in areas where the enemy could be hiding behind objects where gunning them down first and getting the first shot would be crucial. Strafing would also be second nature as opposed to a tank which needs to rotate its tracks first before being able to move from side to side. (simply put, tanks do not 'dodge') I can even imagine vf1 in battroid freefalling from the sky, with wings opened up, head pointing down and shooting missiles before they even land. (a quicker form of paratrooping where they just drop from the sky quickly) The human body is far more efficient at doing several things at once then your standard machine which moves "mechanically" and does things in steps one after another. Whereas the destroid looks like it would move slowly (like ripley's loader in aliens?) but pack better and heavier weapons, the battroid could run and if needs be, float with it's "jepack" on its back and thrusters on its feet to "skate" across the surface of the ground. (sort of like the way the Qrau is just a piece of armour or a "spacesuit" for a giant Zentreadi with massive thrust on it ) There is also the possbility of the boost jump (a really long jump with assistance from thrust) adding more maneuverability. We see zentreadi battle pods leaping in the air all the time. There are probably instances where mapping the delicate motion of the human body and expressing that fine movment through complicated robotic movements that are seamless will add a responsiveness bonus and tax the driver/pilot less so he can begin to concentrate on more important things. When trying to control vehicles, you may need more than 1 guy to help with the controls and it's just not as intuitive as having 1 guy control the whole thing and do both tasks himself as if he *were* the mech. (no need for a "crew" when you become the thing and think as one) All a battroid would need to do to kill a tank would be to squash it with its feet. Head lasers would just take out the lighter craft in the air which are flying around but that can't manever in built up areas without crashing into something. (unless the pilot is suicidal and assuming destroids haven't already shot it down, or other pilots in fighter mode aren't keeping them busy) That's the advantage I see the battroid mode having, and we can all just say that alien tech brought ultra light materials. I mean really, didn't the remains of the Roswell UFO crash supposedly contain ultra light metals that almost practically floated? If the anime is sci fi it needs to have at least something to stir our imaginations and make us wonder. The closest thing we have in real life to alien tech is the possiblilty of the UFO crash at roswell and area 51 having access to real technology that is being reverse engineered. Assuming they are real things, we can assume unique things happen when alien tech is involved. (ie antigrav or gravity reduction lessening the g forces of the machines and pilots in them so they can move at amazing speeds while defying the known laws of physics ala like the ufo sightings people are getting used to seeing.) Another advantage in being variable, (lets assume transforming was real for a second) is that even tanks take time to be transported from one location to another. Taking time means increased risk. Are they going to go anywhere if the enviroment is slopey and the terrain is uneven? They will be easy prey. Especially if the land threatens to get them bogged down. What if you are surrounded by mountainous area or even swamp? Mountains provide a natural barrier to tanks. People could place all sorts of traps for heavier, less mobile machines. But in gerwalk or battroid you could hover over the hills and uneven surface, boost-jump over minor slopes, and none of this affecting your ability to aim. Helicopters don't seem so bad ass when you consider that battle pods could hide from them by submersing themselves underwater in the tv series. Sneaking on foot has its advantages especially if you are low in number and can't afford to be shot down by enemy anti air defenses. Gerwalk mode? Lets just say you are stuck on 1 side of the mountain and need to pass quickly out of enemy territory... gerwalk mode would give you boost to fly across, avoiding a long journey over the mountain on foot. You could perform rescue operations in gerwalk mode that a helicopter wouldn't allow (how about having 1 arm firing a gunpod for cover fire while 1 hand is picking up important people as they are running away, as opposed to the wasted time it would take to winch them up and line your guns up with targets the old fashioned way? I hate realism when taken to the extreme because it means people will apply only what only is known to exist of thier time period which puts limits of what is really possible instead of applying the creator's own "sci-fi rules" of the world that the characters live in and must play by for "comic book" realism. (hollywood always gets away with it unscathed, thanks to the matrix bringing over-stylised action sequences which are hard to believe) And to me, the importance of coolness supercedes the importance to stay as real as possible. For all we know, star trek type nanomachines will be a reality for us all where we swallow them as pills and they fix us up from the inside. The future is unpredictable. Either the OT involves special ultra-light-but-super-strong materials or they've got some AG system to help defy gravity somehow or the aliens are just as backwards as us humans. I like to think the aliens are so far ahead of us that anything is possible. Concepts that don't make sense to us humans right now are merely the results of current understanding and the limits of teachings by other humans' discoveries from the past.

That would be how most scifi series would want to portray the anti un. Like in Star wars though I like to think the rebel fighters and rogues (like han solo) are more like heroes who are not afraid to fight for people too weak, scared, or mind-controlled to be able to do anything to free themselves from the power. (similar to innocent people at the hands of nazis: the people supporting them weren't so much "evil" themselves, but rather scared to go against the power and control that had them enslaved. When all that military power is misplaced and goes into the wrong hands somebody has to challenge it to give control back to the people again. Anyone trying to do this would be rebels and seen as traitors, but not to thier conscience.) It's like in early episodes of star wars where we get hints that senator palpatine is using mind control to take away power from the various leaders through unfair means and yoda and other jedi can't sense where this evil is coming from because it is invisible. If Jar Jar bink's weak-mindedness is being preyed upon using a jedi mind trick, then people have a lot to lose and fear with the loss of power they will eventualy have when the emperor finally takes hold of the goverment and uses military might to squash any resistance to his plan for world (i mean universal) domination. Even though the rebel fighters might look dirty and unkempt and a ragtag disorganised bunch, (actually that's what makes them cool for being like that) and we prejudge them on early appearances, (isn't han a smuggler?) rather than clean shaven, unthinking drones with no conscience like the imperial storm troopers,... ironically, they are the only ones with the guts, skill, and determination to be able to challenge the empire. Here's a quote that best sums up why I think realistically there would be restistance to a UN world goverment and why there would be (rightfully) such strong opposition to a world controlled by a single select group whom nobody can trust to listen to the people (as opposed to themselves): I would assume most would be forced to accept a less quality lifestyle and the purpose of resistance would be to fight for all those that had a lot to lose (both in principle, and in terms of power) in some attempt to regain thier freedom and independance. If you were a superpower independant and unreliant from the rest of the world, that had nothing to lose by going against the UN, why bother following thier rules and pretending to care what other nations think about you when most of your beliefs go counter to thiers anyway? Giving up control would be the last thing you would want to do, and like star craft your interests would always come before theirs...unless you were too scared to let all the power and knowledged from alien tech bite you in the bum in future for not co-operating unwillingly. All those who can't stand being under the one rule would then have to go underground. The truth of human and znetreadi nature is that we were born to kill each other as exedor so clearly put it, so even the UN would have major problems trying to bring peace when humans can't even bring peace to themselves. Much more realistic and deep than just saying we are at war with the usual evil baddie wearing a mask who is laughing maniacally and easier to identify. There's got to be some reason and interesting backstory to how these people came to get that way. If the protoculture made mistakes; wiping themselves out, and we were altered to be like them then there is a chance that humans would almost wipe themselves out through war too. If Sharon Apple, like hitler or palpatine (with his mind control over vader) used her hypnotic control over the people and machines to take over the world, Terminator 3 style, the only failsafe would be the few who had not fallen sway under that power, to destroy the war machines and bring the resistance to keep the human race alive. You wouldn't get that from people who were aren't seen as stubborn and bull headed (like Isamu and Guld, who always fight against each other) because they wouldn't be persuaded as easily as most people. It's that ability to sense bullshit at the higher level that results in true freedom and independance, but most people would think that thier freedom just comes about for free without needing to fight for it, just by being politically correct and dishonest with themselves for comfort. (costing lives ala Misa's dad who endangered the unprotected world's population who were not hiding in the hole.) So to make out that the UN is free of criticism and are the good guys (that's not to say there aren't good guys working within the UN) would be an insult to all the dead civilians that died from the UN's stupid decisions. It would be a different story if Misa's dad chose to fight a force that wasn't so large, because the losses may have been minimised, but the whole human race almost got wiped out from 1 crap decision made at the top level. Millard makes a good point in Mac+ about how human pilots are more effective than drones because the humans may make a drastic decision (like sacrificing themselves - the "necessary evil") which can save many more lives, while a drone wil just follow orders to preseve itself. I can only assume because drones may not have human courage programmed into them or by looking at the bigger picture to protect people. Even drones can be controlled by an AI! Whereas the UN would like us all to be "drones", follow orders, and listen to your superior, no matter how dumb the decisions they make are, and make you pretend to agree with each other even when you don't, ...there are others would like thier ability to be in control of themselves, be independant from too much control and to follow thier conscience. Nothing wrong with that. Without a few people being a little daring, Myung may have been killed and the casualties would have been far worse with the SDF1 main gain possibly aimed at civilians. (who knows?)

I always just imagine the anti-un as just being anyone who doesn't want to give up thier land, sovereignty, and soul to the central goverment. If you own a large piece of property (years of hard work to get that) and some politician redistributed that to somebody else, (stole your work) because they assumed control of absolutely everything as the world goverment, I would be mighty pissed. Of course to the UN it would be "humanitarian" to steal what wealth you attained and redistribute it to others (the have-nots) but not without a fight from you! Just as much as people will try to stop immigrant workers stealing local workers jobs because they can't compete, so too will people; who have something to lose (with the establishment of a new world order), try and fight against a world goverment that reorganises things to how they see fit.. just so someone in power wants to increase efficiency in how things are done for the global cause, regardless of who loses out. I don't think its about power so much as principle. As an individual, why on earth would anyone willingly give up thier freedom of choice? It's like giving a person a choice of 10 unique flavours to taste (the world is much more interesting when split up, because of variety) and then suddenly taking that choice away and saying "this is how things wil be done, you will give up any rights you once had to a handful of powerful men who probably want to control your life to suit thier own personal agendas". All your tax is going towards a globalist agenda involving total militarisation of society whether you want one or not. (this after having just fought a global war, you would think the worlds population would be sick and tired of wanting to spend and waste more money on war) True there are going to be honest people genuinely wanting world peace, but the opportunity (by the world's military) to grab what power and knowledge they could from the alien ship would be the primary motivating factor, (the greed) and not as idealistic people believ: to geniunely bring about an end to wars. (there is too much to gain through waging war if you are the more powerful nation - think of it like a game of starcraft ) Ok so an alien ship crashed and there was a geniune threat to the survival of humans but that doesn't mean we all have to bloody like it. Without some kind of balances and checks and accountability, people become suspicious of that much centralised power being turned against them. I doubt anyone buys the idea that politicians have the average joe's interests at heart and will not lie just to get voted into power. There is just no way you can make everyone agree with each other without using force to get them in line. Now given that world goverment leaders would most likely control the whole military and have no reason to listen to the people based soley on the idea that they control the world, who will fight for your individual rights if you happen to disagree with what the central goverment says you must do? (obviously there will be no alternative since its a global goverment It's not like you can move to another country since it's all controlled by the same goverment.) Now in macross the protoculture may have prepared for the possbility that thier govemment may turn into a dictatorship with the development of super zentreadi (just my opinion not saying this is fact) to watch the military in case something like this happens and in case there is "no escape" from enslavement by corruption in the system, but... as like what happens in many science experiments in science fiction stories, something goes wrong with the project and all hell breaks loose as the experiment goes out of control. The secret weapon backfires. This is what I think the Anti-UN is.. just a bunch of people (like a few people in the protoculture who didn't trust the way the goverment was going and the decisions they were making, fearful they would use the military against dissidents) who have lost a lot of what they thought thier independance gave them (ie much better lifestyle in thier view) and now vainly trying to claw back what they've lost by fighting a world empire. Sort of like the rebel fighters in star wars who seem like a ragtag bunch of idealists in the backdrop of an empire's total rule. With rogue characters like Han Solo seeming to the empire like petty trouble makers, who really wouldn't register in any importance or threat; and really hated by the ordinary person who just wish they'd stop resisting. Like the rebal fighters in star wars, I'm thinking the Anti-UN are sort of disorganised, but afraid enough that if they all don't band together to fight the UN (despite not all members agreeing with each other on every issue) they will forever be the slaves to these people making all the decisions for them and ordering them about. Without thier independance they lose everything (national pride mainly) so they fight to bring about as much chaos and anarchy as they can to upset the UN's effort to maintain a tight grip on thier control of everything. There would probably be 1001 reasons to not like the UN but just based on the idea that no one can agree 100% with each other on how things should be run and who should control what, is enough of a reason for the need for an anti-un. Because the Protoculture developed weapons that were too powerful, based on the idea of one side not trusting the other, they ended up destroying themselves because of limiting themselves (thier whole race?) to being controlled by a central goverment instead of spreading thier race as far apart as posible to ensure they could increase thier chance of survival. (only a few people with foresite must have decided to make some effort to genetically alter humans in secret) Based on distrust, a central goverment (with 2 opposing sides) would eventually split apart with the secret intention of either side to fight to the death to eliminate all those who oppose their views, resulting in eventual war. It was only a matter of time before they had decided to reunite JUST so they could deal with the Evil series, but never really wanting to join willingly through genuine heart-felt feelings of love for each other. And just like the protoculture, the human's global goverment on earth with the different sides (formation of UN) would find a need to unite to deal with the Zentreadi threat, (just as protoculture needed to unite against the evil series threat) with many people on either side secretly unwilling to trust whatever enemies they made during the global war that was on earth, so suddenly. After all, you can't really expect worst enemies, to become best friends overnight, so what you have is this "united front to combat aliens" but underneath, you still have many people who lost lives to thier sworn enemies from the global war who still harbour that hate, wanting to bring the world back to the way it was, and also not trusting a global order because it would be like helping the enemy. I can see Anti-UN as being many things to many people but mainly as a last resort to prevent world domination by leaders the people feel they can't trust to listen to them.

The shoulder sliders are fine and I can say they are strong, but given this is my first M+ toy I have nothing to relate this to. I'd say they should be up to reasonable abuse with no sign of wear and tear though. I've tranformed it roughly about 10 times and really I don't see how these could snap off. (and this is considering that the arms that slide back and forth along this slider are quite stiff for me. Just make sure when you slide the arms to put a thumb on the front/back of the slider (depending on where you are transforming from/to) and an index finger on the arm's shoulder,.... and not just yanking the whole arm with your hand like you would as if pulling a rope! :-D The only thing that worries me is the paint chipping on the legs of mine. One thing I wish they included was the two little slots where the 2 gunpods sit on the leg armour piece in the mac + movie edition where you see Guld firing from in fighter mode - well, these don't open up. It would have been cool to just have covers that open up so people could see how the gunpods fire from underneath the plane when guld is firing them in fighter mode. As it is, only half the gunpods nozzles seems exposed so it doesn't look very threatening for people who may think they are stuck covered up like that, instead of having that part of the armour open up. This is just fan nitpicking though. Also another nitpick: not much detail on the gunpods imo. (and no dark panel lining here, like on the rest of the toy, better to do this yourself, same with putting some black lining on the edges of the extra landing gears and wheels to add definition. The landing gears look kind of plain with all that white thick paint and barely noticable detail when looking at medium distance.) Now bring on the 1/48 yf19 yamato, you slackers