TheLoneWolf

Thanks for the link! Alright, Hikaru's 1J finally gets a heatshield, I'm sold! Is it just me, or does his 1J look more white this time around? That would be another bonus in my book. Here's a small sampling from Californium's link.

Sorry, don't have those. I don't know how long your translation offer is good for, but if I do happen to acquire them in the near future I'll let you know.

Are these CD or book releases? If they're books, I can see if I have them. Just let me know which book to look in.

I've often wondered that as well. Maybe Bandai Visual didn't have the rights to the new sound effects that Manga used, or BV simply didn't not like the new musical arrangement. Whatever their reasoning, I agree that BV's dub was worse than Manga's. Although it does sound like Anne Sherman reprised her role as Myung, but I can't tell since the credits are in Japanese.

Thanks for clearing that up, I always wondered if the suicide was an urban legend, now I know it's true. Whatever demons Hase wrestled with, I hope he's found peace now. By the way, could you please post the Comic Figure Oh volume number and year?

Speak of the devil, I was just browsing Yahoo Japan and look what I stumbled across. http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w20672768

IIRC, the animation inconsistently shows both circular and slot exhausts. But according to the lineart, it's supposed to be circular. Thanks goes out to Mr. March's Macross Mecha Manual for the image.

Just curious, but have you watched disc 3 from the new DYRL release? It's bonus section has the Saturn/PSX cinema scenes and they look cleaner than what appeared in the games and the 20th Anniversary DVD.

It's from the February 1987 issue of B-Club. That "Legend of American Otaku" article sounds hilarious, is it translated anywhere on the web? What I find funny is that Rick Hunter is part of the "Lovely Girls Collection"

That Rick Hunter doll has company.

That's very interesting. I was under the assumption that Harmony Gold held the international toy distribution rights and simply sold Toynami a license to make Macross/Robotech toys. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem that somewhere down the line Harmony Gold sold their international toy distribution rights entirely to Toynami?

I don't believe Big West can take any legal action against Bandai, the 1/55 molds belong to Bandai and Harmony Gold rightfully owns the international merchandising rights to Macross. The most Big West could do is refuse to work with Bandai on any future Macross franchise. But I believe that Big West needs Bandai more than Bandai needs Big West, therefore Bandai is free to act with a great amount of autonomy. After all, who's footing the majority of the bill for Macross Frontier? Bandai.

No. Graham has said on numerous occassions that Yamato will not produce the VF-1D in 1/48 scale.

My votes went to the TV Max & Kakizaki 1A's, VF-1D and the Angel Birds. Essentially, canon VF's that have never been released in 1/55 scale.

Thanks for update, Kevin. This clears a lot up. Agreed. It seems people are letting their personal opinions of Toynami cloud their reasoning. From what Kevin has said, these toys are being assembled by Bandai/Tamashi and shipped to the US for resale by Toynami. It's the exact same thing that happened with Jetfire back in the 1980's. The toy was assembled in Japan and sold in the US by Hasbro. The Elintseeker arm armor plugs into the slot underneath the forarm, so it fits all 1/55's. The Super Ostrich doesn't have arm armor, so it's a non-issue. Bandai's inclusion of arm armor with it in the 1980's was a mistake.

The tan resin version is the DYRL arm armor and the gray version is the TV version.

What the 1/55's look like and whether variants such as the Elintseeker get released is irrelevant in the long run. What's significant here is that a major Japanese toy company has agreed to work with Toynami on getting their toys released in the USA. Bandai's gambit, and most importantly its financial outcome, could determine whether other companies such as Yamato and Kaiyodo do business with Toynami. Big West may not like Harmony Gold, but profits have a way of changing minds.

Are you referring to the images on robotech.com? I think those were taken from the box of 02' reissue.

Kevin, does your distributor know if Toynami is going to repackage these in their book style boxes, or are they just going to slap a Toynami sticker on the Bandai box?

That could be Roy piloting. The man takes what he wants.

I'm referring to somthing else. A while ago someone asked Graham why doesn't Yamato allow Toynami to import their toys to the USA. IIRC, his response was that Big West would no longer do business with Yamato if they went that route. Harmony Gold has held the DYRL merchandising rights since the 1980's and Toynami optioned that license from Harmony Gold when it came to the DYRL Superposables and 1/100 toys.

The Four Horsemen ride tonight. Thanks Toynami. This is a very interesting move. According to Graham, Yamato cannot let Toynami import their Macross toys unless they wish to incur Big West's wrath. So what does this say about Bandai's relationship with Big West? Or, has Big West suddenly changed their stance towards Toynami?

The proportions on these look really good, but is it just me or does it lool like these guys are missing details like panel lines?

Thanks, I haven't picked up a copy yet, but I'll probably end up doing so because I hear that the online mode is really good. The alleged freezing in the PS3 version doesn't bother me too much since Rockstar is supposed to be releasing a patch to fix it. I'm also different in that I actually prefer the PS3 controller when it comes to GTA, but that's because I've played the last three console versions of GTA with the PS controller and simply feel more comfortable with it. But I think I'm still going to get the 360 version. I'll get used to the 360 controller and most importantly, the majority of my friends will be playing GTA IV online with the 360. Is there a way to disable the motion blur? I remember Vice City used the same thing and it drove me nuts until I went into the options and learned that I could turn it off.

That sounds very encouraging. So which version did you decide on?