TheLoneWolf

Tatsunoko sold HG the international rights to Mospeada while Tatsunoko kept the domestic (Japan being Tatsunoko's domiciliary country) rights for themselves.

I'm with you on this one. Aside from reissuing the old model kits, we've never seen anything done to celebrate Mospeada's 10th, 15th, or 20th anniversaries. One theory I have is that perhaps Toynami's MPC Alphas have been selling well enough on Yahoo Japan to spark an interest in making new toys. Or maybe Japan is experiencing an anime "retro" phase, kind of like how America was with Speed Racer in the mid 90's.

Yuck! Kawamori, put that bong away! The VF-1 color's look like a rejected Jetfire color scheme. I'm also not a fan of the "Spirit of Valkyrie" and "1982-VF-2007" decals printed on them. They definitely look hand painted, but I'd say they're mock-ups for the real deal.

Namco hasn't confirmed or denied whether AC6 will be exclusive to the 360, but given the growing trend of next gen games going cross-platform (the cost of developing todays games has gotten ridiculous) I'd say it's a safe bet that the PS3 will also get AC6. Maybe not right away, but they should get it considering how close Namco and Sony are. IMO, I'd have to go with the 360 version. Xbox Live has proven to be a solid winner when it comes to online matchmaking. I haven't heard much about Sony's experience in the online business, but what little I've heard hasn't been encouraging. Also, if it's cross-platform then I wouldn't expect the PS3 graphics to be significantly better than the 360's.

Note that the slit that goes across the gunpod appears on both sides. Also, I'm not sure if it's due to the lighting on Noel's pics, but the Bandai gunpod appears to be a few shades darker than the Takatoku. Have you tried using a gunpod from the 1/100 battroid or variable kits? They might also make a good & cheap substitute

Yes, but the AC 5 flightstick was USB. There are even drivers in Japanese to get it to work in WinXP. Anyways, Namco has been pretty good when it comes to legacy compatibility, so I think the old flightstick will work on the 360. But I can also see Namco selling an even newer flightstick with AC6 with force feedback and wireless capabilities. Basically, I can see them giving you the choice to use either, but knowing us AC freaks, we'll buy the newer flightstick even if we have the older one.

Noel is right. I've got the 1/100 Bandai VF-1A and it's got the gun. Sorry Totoro242, this once, it looks like you've got some bad luck.

That alone will be enough for me to buy a 360! Right on, we'll be Wolf Squadron It's going to be an expensive fall.

Ace Combat 6 with support for Xbox Live? SOLD!!!!!! Who's ready to form some squadrons!

Despite it's age, the Saturn is an incredibly complex machine, I doubt the Wii has the processing power to emulate it. And even if Nintendo does manage to do so, I hope Wii customers will be willing to invest in some extra sd cards because 1 or 2 Saturn ISO's (even if they're compressed to all hell) will easily fill up the Wii's measly 512mb onboard flash memory. The PS3 and 360 are far better candidates for Saturn emulation as they have both the horsepower and the storage capacity for Saturn emulation.

sketchley, thanks for the informative post.

I agree that most anime tends to feature young, angsty, and usually whiny (not really the case in Macross) teens in a coming-of-age story. Keeping this in mind, it was no surprise to hear that Macross Plus and Metal Gear Solid were nowhere near as popular in Japan as they were in America. Isamu being in his mid 20's and Snake in his early 30's probably made them more appealing to a western audience, but this more than likely had the opposite effect in Japan. Even as a kid, I do remember preferring to watch shows and read books about adults rather than kids my own age. This is probably a cultural thing whereas in Japan kids there would rather see and read stories about their peers. What is it about either culture that causes this? I don't know. I expect the next Macross to feature another cookie-cutter angsty teen. And if Kawamori is involved, lots of preachiness regarding the good of nature. Is it any wonder why a new series fails to excite me?

That was awesome! Encore!!

Absolutely! I work part-time in a videogame store and customers do come back to buy the new color versions, last summer it was insane how many Japanese pink DS Lites we sold to people who already had the white US one. To their credit, most of the time they'll trade in their stock system (at a huge loss) and use that credit towards the new color version. But in the end, Nintendo still ends up selling the same system twice

I don't have the Region 0, but I'd imagine that it's got the same audio as the Region 2. I'd heard that it was literally the same DVD set that Japan got, except that the region was changed to 0.

Alright, so I finally broke down and bought the Bandai set. After hearing all the complaints, I had to compare it to my R2 set. Here's my setup: Sony 38' HDTV Denon AVR-3803 receiver hooked up to Bose 5.1 speakers Xbox modded to output Progressive Scan and play all region DVD's (a damn good dvd player by itself) Sony DVD player DVP-NS755V All running off Monster component & optical cables Gunbuster R1 DVD Box Set (Japan) Gunbuster R2 DVD Box Set (USA) I've got both dvd players hooked up to my receiver and was able to switch realtime between the R1 and R2 DVD's. Here's what I noticed: Video - Surprisingly they're both the same. At least I couldn't notice any difference. Kudos to Bandai! Audio - Ugh! The audio from episode 1 was horribly downsampled on the R1. Compared to the R2 it sounded muddled, imagine comparing an mp3 encoded at 256kbps to one at 128kbps and you'll know what I'm talking about. I also noticed that the sound effects from the training montage have been completely replaced in the R1 version, I guess when Bandai changed the music they had to rebuild the SFX that went along with it. Episode 2's audio was a vast improvement over episode 1's, but it still didn't sound as good as the R2. The R2 just sounded richer on my speakers. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds fine and I probably wouldn't have known if I hadn't done a realtime comparison. To go back with the mp3 analogy, this time I'd say it's like comparing one encoded at 256kbps verses a 192kbps version. Both sound great, but the former still beats the latter. I didn't have time to compare the rest of the discs, but I think it's safe to say that episode 1 suffered from unusually poor audio due to music swap. And I also played the R1 on my Xbox just in case my Sony DVD player happened to have a poor audio processor, but it didn't help. The R1 simply has inferior audio. I'm glad that Bandai setup the R1 so that the science lessons automatically played right after the credits (just like the R2). As a fan of Gunbuster for the past 12 years, I can honestly say that the different music in the training montage didn't bother me that much. It's even timed to fit in with the scene. If only Bandai hadn't downsampled the audio... Anyways, if I get around to testing the rest of the discs, I'll post my findings here.

Given that the N64, GameCube, GBA, GBA SP, DS, and DS Lite all had different color versions, I'd say the Wii has very good chance of sporting some new colors. And don't forget that Nintendo will never miss an opportunity to sell their customers the same product twice.

Be careful what you wish for...

If it makes you feel any better, the FX subs weren't all that great. They were OK at best. It's been a while since I've seen the NLA fansub, but I believe it's subs were overall more accurate than the FX DVD.

Before I make any recommendations, what type of crowd are you looking to attract? If you're looking to attract everyone (men, women, gamers, non-gamers), be prepared to spend a lot on interactive arcades like DDR, Time Crisis, VR games, etc. If you're looking for strictly male gamers who'd rather spend their Friday nights practicing their combos instead of hitting up a keg party, then go for games like SF III: Third Strike, Guilty Gear, and Tekken. Personally, I'd go for pool tables, ping pong tables, dartboards, food, and a couple of TV's edit: I like Wes' idea of setting up several networked consoles on multiple TV's. For safety, you could leave the consoles locked in wooden cabinets with holes only for the controller and A/V cables to run out. Don't forget about investing in some cooling fans. This way you could have a variety of games that you could rotate in and out. Plus you'd save a bunch of money, especially on maintenance!

Just an FYI, but that lineart pic of the SDF-1's head splitting during transformation is from the TV series. IIRC, the head doesn't split in the movie during transformation. Also some of lineart depicting the knees is also from the TV series, but Wave's SDF-1 is the movie version. If you look closer you'll see that the TV and movie SDF-1's are very different.

Bullseye! Also the licenses are very expensive. After spending money on the license and parts & labor, I doubt Liquid Stone/IHP makes much money off their kits.

Why the "ugh?" If the arranged Rondo is a straight port of the original (replacing the old 2D with 3D), it'll be well worth beating. Plus, it can be beaten in one sitting, it's not like you'll have to wait a long time What I want to know is if the cut scenes from original Rondo will be redubbed by Americans or just subtitled (I'm hoping it's the latter!).

I'd say just wait and keep an eye out for spare parts. What exactly snapped? Was it a hinge or one of the tan tabs? If it was a hinge, you could be in luck since someone here (can't remember atm) snapped their 19's tan tabs off and might be willing to sell you the hinge. Try posting in the Wanted Section for spare parts

Why does everyone think the CM's Tread is bad news for Toynami? I'll bet Toynami is absolutely elated with this news, now they have another toy that they can rip-off! Who wants to bet that when Toynami releases their MPC Tread (which is now very likely) that it'll be a carbon copy of the CM's Tread, except with cheaper plastic and a higher pricetag? Robotechies aren't going to know of CM's Tread, so they'll swallow Toynami's version whole.