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TheLoneWolf

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Everything posted by TheLoneWolf

  1. Recently finished watching the show and enjoyed it. I actually think it's a more polished version of the comic in many ways. I bet Neil Gaiman noted some of the weaknesses in the book over the years and seized upon the opportunity to refine it. Naturally, some of the changes I didn't like. Overall, I feel the positive changes significantly outweighed the questionable ones. The casting was also excellent for the most part; Tom Sturridge did a superb job as Morpheus. There were only a few that were ok at best, but no one was flat out miscast IMO. Like noel mentioned above, there's surprisingly few Asians in a show that's meant to be inclusive. Hopefully this will be addressed in season 2. Speaking of season 2, I'm a little worried it won't happen. Netflix spent a ton of money on the show (even if the VFX was mediocre in a couple of spots). Given Netflix's recent financial troubles, hopefully the show can manage to pull in Stranger Things and Squid Game ratings to secure its future.
  2. Someone used a coat hangar to correctly attach a 1/48 Super VF-1 Yamato to the arm claw way back. One end of the coat hangar was wrapped around the backpack and the other end was wrapped around the claw itself. It looked pretty good IIRC.
  3. Do you know if the card quality was improved on that set?
  4. ^^^ this so much. While it's great that Big West is tending to their aging Western fanbase with these physical releases, I'm really hoping to see some growth in the fanbase. GenZ isn't interested in physical media and Big West's social media presence is practically non-existant. It'll be amazing to see what could happen if Big West made Delta available on streaming, combined with more social media engagement.
  5. An opened official set recently sold for $80 on eBay and an unopened set is still sitting on eBay for $64, so it's kinda hard to say. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $40 for an opened set and $50 for a sealed one. Like I wrote before, it's a cheaply made set. Even the picture quality on them is meh.
  6. My guess is that these are new molds. It makes sense for Bandai to produce new molds for a potential VF-25 continuation through the WWM banner. Lolicon, thanks for sharing your intial impressions with us. I just wish they could've been better.
  7. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    I noticed that same thing last year when I bought a VF-1D DX from LP. Their eBay listing was around $50 more expensive than their direct site. So I bought it from their direct site; aside from a dented box due to zero padding, no complaints here.
  8. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    I'd honestly be shocked if the US got short-changed for these first couple of worldwide releases. Big West is making a big push for their worldwide campaign. If Bandai isn't making enough to meet global demand, it'll be an embarrassing homecoming for Big West. If these first couple of releases end up being shelfwarmers, then I can see Bandai lowering their production runs on subsequent releases, but that wouldn't be until next year at the earliest.
  9. My guess is that Bandai's not going to release anymore 1/48's until they have a better idea of when they'll be able to release them worldwide. And like Noel said, Delta's keeping them busy as is.
  10. I prefer the orange of the DX, but the white landing gears of the Yamato. But since the landing gears only affect 1 mode, the DX comes out on top. And yes, the lack of a sitting Minmay with the DX is annoying. Love your work on both!
  11. That's pretty much it. Studio Nue and Haruhiko Mikimoto (who was never part of Studio Nue) provided the story and designs. Tatsunoko Production and Artland provided the animation the series. Notably, Artland blessed the series with quality animation (eg: Booby Trap, Countdown). Meanwhile, Tatsunoko didn't even use their own in-house animators. Instead, they farmed out their work to subsidiaries, like Star Pro, who did inferior work (eg: Virgin Road). To be fair, Tatsunoko's inclusion appears to be a last-minute arrangement, so their own animation teams might've been committed to other projects at the time. And since SDF Macross wasn't even one of their creations, there's less incentive to assign good animators.
  12. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    Absolutely. All of the past Destroids have sold poorly, Yamato's 1/60 Destroids included. Even with sales and discounts, they'd still sit on the shelves for a little while before finally selling out. IIRC, the HMR Monster could still be found on sale in 2020, several years after it was released. Don't get me wrong, I love the HMR Destroids and have bought every single release. But most Macross fans seem to (ironically) consider the Destroids as a luxury, not a priority.
  13. TheLoneWolf

    Hi-Metal R

    Smart move on Bandai's part. Better to only have one SKU that sells like crap instead of two.
  14. Man, what I wouldn't give to review Big West and Harmony Gold's contract. My guess is that the "Macross" mark and UN Spacy kite design will be rolled up into a flat licensing fee, with royalties paid to HG on each item sold. Separating the "Macross" mark and kite design into individual fees could be problematic for HG, as Big West and Bandai could simply remove the kites from their toys in order to avoid paying HG. To which HG could object that the toys aren't faithful representations without the kites. It'd just makes things more complicated than necessary. I believe those logos were a direct response to Harmony Gold's claim of the UN Spacy kite. It's too much of a coincidence that Big West replaced the kite after all the lawsuits were concluded in Japan. If Big West had renamed the franchise to Megaroad or Macbeth in America, HG would've had no legal recourse. But that was probably a bridge too far.
  15. Good question. The short answer: most likely not. Harmony Gold claimed the UN Spacy kite as a trademark design, which prevented it from appearing on other toys in the US. But now that Harmony Gold is licensing their registered "Macross" mark to Big West, it follows that they're also letting Big West use the UN Spacy kite design as well. Forbidding Big West from using the UN Spacy kite would defeat the purpose of letting them the use "Macross" mark, since the two are intertwined.
  16. Amazing, you've done fantastic research into this! I completely agree with your assessment that there were multiple photo shoots for Jetfire taking place at different times. And thank you for providing sources to back up your theory; it's hard to argue with dated pictures. Have you ever considered doing a comprehensive write-up of all your findings? G1 Jetfire's history is one of the most complicated around and it'd be nice to find everything in one (long) article.
  17. Whoah, you're absolutely right, it's not an upscale. It just looks so bad that I thought it was one. 😲
  18. According to that review, the set still has some of the new (inferior) sound effects in it. And after looking at the screenshots he posted, the SDF Macross video is clearly just an upscale of the old AnimEigo release. You can tell because of the oversaturated color contrast that AnimEigo introduced. Now that Harmony Gold/Tatsunoko Production and Big West are working together, maybe there's a chance that a future RT: The Macross Saga will be released with Bandai Visual's Blu ray video, which was a true 1080p remaster.
  19. Welcome to the board! At first glance, I thought those were just relatively new Jetfire knock-offs, but I can see that they're vintage by the oxidization on some of the die-cast metal parts. I think you're absolutely right, these certainly look like QC failures. Like you, I also figured that Bandai's excess surplus of Jetfire armor was due to Jetfire QC failures (the armor would've been much easier to manufacture and assemble compared to Jetfire himself). But it's nothing short of amazing to see that Jetfire's QC failures actually managed to survive for three decades and find their way to store shelves. Better late than never? I'd love to buy one just for giggles, but that ¥20,000 pricetag tho. Thanks for sharing your findings!
  20. The M3 doesn't list any dimensions for the Fan Racer, so I'm guessing not. As for the front landing gear, the cutaway lineart shows that there's literally no room for it. 😆 But as others have said, it should've come with plug-in landing gears, especially since it's being packaged with a DX.
  21. I'm also surprised to see that Big West is now working with Calibre Wings, especially after Noel publically stated that he has no regrets on ripping off the Macross Zero IP and accused Big West of being on a high horse and discriminating against foreigners. And to clarify, Big West's past policy was to refrain from doing business with Harmony Gold's licensees, not foreigners in general. Just ask Manga Entertainment or any foreign convention that's hosted Macross creators. But if Big West is willing to bury the hatchet with Calibre Wings, then I have no qualm with CW either.
  22. I wouldn't hold my breath on Western Blu-ray releases, it'll be cheaper and quicker to do streaming instead.
  23. These must be interesting times for Calibre Wings. Noel picked a horrible time to piss off Big West by ripping off their Macross Zero IP, now that all new Macross products in the US have to be approved by both Harmony Gold and Big West. Harmony Gold is going to want to play nicely with Big West because they stand to make a substantial amount of new business with them, so Noel may find himself as the odd man out in this situation.
  24. I don't think that's the reason. The SDFM Laserdiscs didn't undergo any color remastering, but they still appear more natural-looking than the AnimEigo DVDs when played on a CRT. IIRC, AnimEigo said that their remaster was predicated on the poor condition of the video masters that they received from Harmony Gold (they weren't allowed to use any materials from Big West). It's more likely that the oversaturated colors that they settled on were the best that they could get from HG's video.
  25. I totally get that, it's easy to get carried away when Marie Kondo'ing.
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