Shizuka the Cat

It is on my radar, but.... finding one in minty fresh condition is tough

YAY! My chunky monkeys arrived today! Will post pics soon, Though... what I do not understand is why 4 chunky monkeys were shipped to me in a box the size of a refrigerator. The amount of packing material was ridiculous!

There was a seller on AmazonJP that shipped to the US, but that one sold out.

My pleasure! Is it bad that I have a daily routine of checking Macross toys at Mandarake, AmiAmi, AmazonJP, eBay, YahooJP auctions, HLJ, and NY? Well... several times a day really. *sigh* Full blown addict here!

No longer available.

Shows as still available to me

It is currently available via Amazon.JP. 11,556 yen + 1.200 yen shipping to the United States https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B07K1L79XQ/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, I won 4 chunky monkeys via Yahoo Auctions via Buyee. For those who have not used Buyee as a proxy before, here is total cost breakdown.... 64,050 yen for the 4 valkyries 3,470 yen for domestic shipping from seller to Buyee 1,000 yen consolidation fee 11,200 yen shipping to the United States TOTAL 79,720 yen.... and this is after having used a coupon that took off 3,062 yen. *sigh* At least they should be arriving tomorrow. P.S. Advice for you guys out there with girlfriends/wives/etc.... NEVER do certain romantic things with her after having eaten habaneros. I have been dying in pain for the past 2 days! My fiance is soooo going to be buying me a valkyrie for this!

WonderCon exclusive I believe.

2002 also marked when the first volume of Macross Zero was released, so Bandai may have wanted to capitalize on the new Macross anime, particularly one set in the past, by re-issuing the chunky monkey. Similarly, Macross Frontier TV premiered in 2008... coinciding with the 2008 chunky monkey re-issue. So I think Bandai is using new Macross shows as an impetus for these chunky monkey re-issues.

Don't you mean $158, not $178?

Correction. SLIGHT AmazonJP price drop to 4737 yen each

I was about to say, be sure to encourage your daughters too! There are not enough of us Macross fans out there.

I imagine the Toynami 1/100 scale VF-1 toys might be good for kids to play with,. They are cheap, so even if your kid damages them, it is not a big deal and easily replaceable. Plus, they do transform, so that can be entertaining for your kid. Granted, they do not have the build quality of an HMR, but are also no where near as expensive.

Wait a minute.... I see that picture of a Transformers Jetfire.... and that does not look like a chunky monkey! Kind of similar, but definitely not a chunky monkey.

Thanks. Just pre-ordered 4 of them from AmazonJP... Cost: 4800 yen per stand,... so 19200 yen for 4 of them + 3000 yen shipping = 22200 yen

One could argue that, if the battroid mode is controlled using brain signal scanning technology integrated into the helmet, then having the battroid mimic a human's range of motion would make sense, considering that one's own personal experience, reflexes, and even muscle memory would be from the context of one's own body's range of motion. Considering that we see battroids perform such actions as turn and elevate their heads, articulate their fingers and so forth, there likely is some sort of neural interface in the helmet, given that I do not see how one can perform such intricate movements usingjust a control stick, throttle, and 2 petal controls. So, that addresses your questions a, b, and c... I hope? Admittedly, it would be advantageous to increase the range of motion of a valkyrie's joints, but if a body motion mirroring system or a mental body reflex capturing system were used for controlling the valkyrie, then I would argue that human limitations would carry over. Now, to address the aforementioned limitations between what the human can perform and what the hardware can do, you could rely on artificial intelligence, which can attempt to learn the pilots tendencies and try to predict what their desired action would be. This, however, poses various problems. One would first need to train the AI, generally by feeding it a large number of sample control performances, indicating what the correct next action would be for each one. For one scenario, maybe the pilot wanted to AI to take control of an arm and make it rotate a bit further. In a second scenario, maybe the pilot did not want the AI to take control. The issue here is that this falls under the realm of predictive analytics, where sometimes the AI can and will eventually make the wrong choice. Further, an inordinate amount of training scenario data may need to be fed to the AI, to try to account for every possible situation that the pilot may encounter. Worse yet, since different pilots may have different reaction times, instincts, and responses to various situations, machine learning training data really cannot be generic, but specific to each pilot..... making the process of accumulating such training data a time-consuming task for the pilot. And, in a combat situation, where there is risk of the AI second-guessing the pilots decisions, that can be fatal. On that regard, some pilots may prefer to have the val;kyrie not make those types of predictive decisions that might not go as expected. Yay, I got to apply my AI and machine learning studies to an MWF post! Well worth the quarter million dollars of tuition money spent! between my bachelors, masters, and current PhD studies LOL

HLJ cancelled your PO? When was this?

I thought it might be the Arcadia, since to me the neck is not so thick.

Very cute. Which YF-19 is that anyways?

My knowledge about Transformers can be pretty much summarized as such: 1.) There is a live-action movie series starring Mark Wahlberg that I have not watched that most people here seem to not like. 2.) There was an old American cartoon series from before I was born that I have not watched. 3.) There's a Japanese anime too??? 4.) The Macross chunky monkey design was copied?/borrowed?/stolen? as one of the Transformer toys. 5.) Most people here hate Michael Bay. Nope, not trolling you. Given that my only exposure to Transformers for the Mark Wahlberg / Michael Bay films was the movie ads on TV or at the beginning of YouTube videos , I just never had any interest in the franchise. I just find those living robots shows kind of.... meh. Why do living robots have lips that move when they talk? UGH. Why do living robots even communicate with each other by talking... at slow human speech speeds? And why have a living robot turn into a toaster oven? It's kind of brain numbing... for me anyways. (I do not mean to offend any Transformers fans out there.) I prefer piloted aircraft mecha shows like Macross so much more. Especially when the aircraft are so well designed.... even though I am not a big fan of gerwalk or battroid modes, I still appreciate the engineering design in making such transformations sort of work.

Hee hee, I wish the J's Super Parts box was the same, compact size as the C's.

So, my Super Parts for the DX Chogokin VF-31J and C came in yesterday... yay for AmazonJP using cheap (1,974 yen), but fast (2 day) DHL shipping. But I wonder.... why is the box for the J Super Parts sooooo much bigger than the box for the C?

What is there not to love about the Pearl Harbor movie? It has actual live-action WWII propeller airplanes flying around in that movie!

Well, I am not a transformable toy planes/robots collector.... I am very specifically a Macross toy collector.... who has now been collecting for about a year now. The fact that I think I spent close to $15K on Macross toys still freaks me out a bit... and tells me just how addictive a personality I have. *sigh* No offense taken. I realize that most folks here on MWF are.... older gentlemen... with a wider breadth and greater depth of fandom than me. As such, I am lacking familiarity with such topics as Transformers, Bayformers, Bumblebee, whatever Voltes V is, etc. For me, my fandom is pretty limited to Macross toys and cosplay (more so in high school and my undergrad years). Michael Bay? No, I don't think I have heard of him. I am pretty bad at remembering people's names. I can calculate 15248 squared in my head, but remember names..... forget it. (looks up name in IMDB) Oh, he did Pearl Harbor! I loved that movie! Hmmm... since he directed such a good movie, now I wonder if his Transformers movies are good too?