VFTF1

Ever since I joined the forum, I have always wondered about the basis for classifying members as Deck scrubbed, pipe holders and so forth and so on... For eons, I have been a mere deck swabber or engine cleaner or whatever my menial task was called - now I see I get to hang out with Shammy However - I'm still wondering: are these designations assigned based on post count? And what do the little blue squares mean? VFTF1

I transform him very very very very very very very carefully after what happened to my last VFOA ;P... here he is striking a pose in fighter mode:) VFTF1

Welcome to the forum This is the Movie and TV section, so I gather you must be asking about movies and tv. Please don't ask about Varitechs because this risks giving people heart attacks As to Valkyrie - in both Macross movies and TV series, Valkyrie have a variety of colors, not just bright ones. Generallyspeaking, though, I doubt whether camouflage via paint color is really even a consideration in space warfare. I would imagine that stealth capacities would be more important. In the SDFM TV and DYRL, the Valkyrie did roughly have real world colors - the only bright ones were the training Valkyrie. In Macross 7, the Fire Bomber Valkyrie had bright colors because they were the private property of crazy artists who liked to custom paint their valkyrie. In Macross Frontier, we once again return to standard "military" color Valkyrie. Yamato has produced numerous Valkyrie figures and toys with special military paint jobs. I recomend the Low Vis. version 2 VF-1A in 1/48 scale. VFTF1

Oooooo In that case Alto's gonna be a-ok As long as he doesn't build a music box for any children! whew! Thanks Funny how the mind works with regard to memories I guess it was just seeing Alto put that earing in his VF-25 reminded me suddenly of how Physica had the dagged music box in a similar place Then again.. Gamlin got shot down and nearly killed! Heck - I would in fact posit that by all rights he should have been killed.. that was the one thing I didn't like in M7. I was shocked and saddened when Gamlin died. Bringing him back the next episode did not make me happily say "oh thank goodness" but rather - Laame! VFTF1

I would like to proudly contribute my 100% non-defective friend who gets no love through no fault of his own... Here he is with family: VFTF1

Seeing the CMs up close - very impressive... I have a semi-related question and didn't know where to put it but... What happened to the Strike a Pose thread in the Toys section, for Valkyrie? I'm sorry if I'm blind - but I can't find it Help VFTF1

Ok picture heavy thread But I looked at 'em all: Is that Luca stuck in Klan Klan's breasts? :) I'm sure he's having a good time - although it kind of reminds me of that Woody Allen film where Woody and the heroine were attacked by a giant breast that shot milk... Alto Princess as a princess... well - shux... poor Alto - I imagine he's gonna be teased for that forever Ranka as the new Minmey - hmm... I dunno...her hair clashes with the dress... My favorite is Sheryl writing on Klan Klan's tie I don't think this thread is perverse It's great fun and the girls are all cute. However - my favorite rendition of Klan Klan is the "gritty realism" one that focuses on her being a tired Meltran warrior more than a sex symbol or loli comic relief... Speaking of which - why is it that as a Loli Klan Klan dresses like a 12th century court jester? (Runs away quickly as the cans and tomatos start flying) VFTF1

Dammit putting Sheryl in a Fire Bomber outfit certainly does make me rate her higher - however - until she does a cover of Angel Voice in Macross: Frontier, I won't budge from my love of Ranka that said... I don't really buy that explanation because it presumes that Minmey, Ranka and all of the other girls aren't attractive, and that Sheryl is ONLY winning because she's the stereotypical blond sex bombshell... But I don't think that's the case. Klan Klan is clearly superior to Sheryl in pure sex appeal; and Minmey and Misa can't really compare because they were ...umm...animated differently .... I think ultimately it's the personalities and movements and voices and looks rather than simply "dude! she's a hot blond!" that are doing it. But just you all wait - that little Zendradi dude is gonna make Ranka into a hot star!! Nanase and Mikhael will design her clothing and she will rulle!! Alto will be sorry when Mikhael steels Ranka from him !! VFTF1

Ah - how sweet it must be to be a professor of Manga Didn't know about Hase. RIP VFTF1

Hmm... Sounds like I might have to hunt down the YF-19 w/Folder Booster set after all... Oh well - having a 19 without a bent wang would be good. But this is one of those "If it rains money I will buy it" mental notes.... But seriously - that's pretty slick on Yamato's part to give you pylons for the Bold Fooster, and have the FB come with a different jet VFTF1

But Mumra would make for the ultimate live action Villain A Cross between Emperor Palpatine and the Mummy! VFTF1

Diamond Force is like the CF that gets character development - continuing the tradition of Kakikaze... Speaking of which - one thing which kind of stinks in Macross Frontier is that other than people like Cathy Glass, we really haven't met anyone from NUNS - and we certainly don't know any of those pilots.... I hope we'll delve more into the "low morale" plot theme and meet some NUNS pilots. After all - they DO keep flying; if things were so bad no one would join... or are they all drafted? VFTF1

At the risk of stumbling into the dreaded "politics" which are not allowed (and I will try not to get into it in the post, but the subject matter kind of moves us there)...here's my take on it: James Bond is British. James Bond does not hide the fact that he is British. James Bond is an internationally successful film franchise. So why can't GI Joe - a real American Hero be equally successful? It has nothing to do with not liking America - it's more a case of not liking patronizing, pathetic (in the sense of pathos) plot lines. If James Bond was a goody two shoes Boy Scout with a British flag tatooed on his forehead who never suffered, never had to make a hard decision, never found himself at odds with the British government, never met a foriegner he could admire, never went to a different country, never killed any body or risked death himself -- well - you get the picture. What turns international audiences off to RAH is the fact that it's pathetic, plot wise. It really does pander to a very base and simplistic view of the world and of war and this is why people don't like it. If Hasbro/Paramount retain this basic plot premise - it doesn't matter how many Belgians they throw into GI Joe - international audiences will still hate it. American movies about American heroes are internationally successful or at least do modestly well when done right. Remember - if being an "American hero" is made synonymous with the general ideas of justice and goodness that all people pretty much agree on, then all people - American or not - will like the film. If being an American hero means making Rambo look like a serious war movie at the level of Platoon - people will laugh. Even if half the American Heroes are French VFTF1

If it's snap fit and pre-painted at MG quality, then I'd fork out VFTF1

OMG!! I haven't watched episode 7 yet but I just realized there's a very scary homage to Macrss 7 in episode 6!! It's an homage to Physica!! Wasn't Physica going on and on about the good luck charm from his wife before he got killed in battle??? Worse still - his wife was with another guy the whole time!! In Alto's shoes - I'd be scared! Bad omen! Although, naturally I'm being paranoid. The whole scene with Sheryl and Alto before Alto goes of to battle is very touching... Still - he reminded me of poor Physica there... VFTF1

Well - as someone who owns a budding small business, I can understand Yamato - although I fully understand how Beware of Blast feels and it is his right and prerogative to be more careful with their future products or even just to walk away...still...here's how I see it: Yamato is a young company and notice that their product line consists of - really - ONLY high end expensive stuff. They don't mass produce any crapola for really cheap that they can then turn around and sell for huge profits. They have decided to put themselves on the market as the company that takes toy-making technology and design to new heights. The cost of this decision is that they have no cushion. They aren't mass selling Pokemon so that they can R&D Masterpiece Optimus Prime. They don't have the benefit of Bandai which seems to be very well diversified. Ergo - I imagine that the only niche they could find for themselves in the Market is making perfect beautiful amazing figures and selling them at pretty steep prices. Although remember - as has been pointed out before - usually only 25% of that price goes to the origin company - the rest is wholesale, retail, eventual overseas transport/ VAT/tarrifs, taxes etc etc etc. My point is not to excuse Yamato for flaws. I don't have a zillion dollars either; it really broke my heart when my VF-OA broke in three place right out of the box, and when my old VF-11B literally had its' leg fall off right out of the box. But my reaction was to just...buy another one. And now my VF-OA is a-ok. Probability that you will get two bad ones in a row is low. I decided to do this because I for one believe in what Yamato is doing and hope that this kind of company can one day be profitable enough and have the experience to make this stuff in larger quantities at lower prices. I want to see the market go the direction that Yamato is going - Bandai has a lot of really great stuff on offer as well, as do CMS', Takara and others - but in terms of Macross - there's nowhere else to go except for Yamato. So anyways - starting a business is always tough - especially if the whole idea of the business is to cater to high end buyers. I mean - I doubt Yamato thinks "oh stupid kids won't notice our mistakes." They do not make anything for children. Their target group is you, me and Beware of Beast - and I'm sure they take the griping seriously. How seriously? Well - look at the company history: The original 1/72 YF-21 was much better than the SHE and a great figure. But Yamato went back and made a better one. Same with the YF19. The VF-1 went from perfect looking to perfect transforming... It all takes time and effort and painstaking experimentation. I understand that the market is not a charity organization, that people aren't going to patronize a company that keeps screwing up. But I do not believe that Yamato is screwing up due to being lazy, dumb, incompetent or evil. I think they are screwing up because they have embarked on an extremely difficult enterprise. EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. As have we - the people who are determined to own and enjoy such products. I'm confident that the Yamato 1/60 VF-1S will be a page turner - I really hope so - I truly hope that it will be tight and durable and strong. The 1/48 already is - but I still get a little scared when handling it - so there's room for improvement. Improve away Yamato. VFTF1

Sorry if this has been asked before or if it's so 'obvious' that I sound stupid - but here goes: Are these kits snap fit? Are they prepainted? Or do I have to glue/paint them? I'm assuming they're snap fit and pre-painted - but as I've never actually bought a Bandai Macross kit - I don't know. Is it like with the Gundam HG and MG or no? VFTF1

Heh I guess since I live in Poland where NOTHING interesting ever makes it on TV (and therefore I just don't watch TV), I'm used to just downloading everything that I wanna watch - so I don't even think in categories of "well I hope this makes it out of Japan" VFTF1

They also get Ozma and Ranka's relationship wrong - kind of - but it can probably be forgiven since they didn't want to dwell on the back story too much... All in all it's a kind review; although short and sort of...err...lacking in meat. VFTF1

We have female members!? Why haven't they started a 'cutest Macross guy' poll yet?! As for the Whore's Froasted Bed - that thing is cool! VFTF1

Happy to hear that I did forget to spew my opinions about Shadow Chronicles - which I watched on Youtube.... Tum tu dumb! Ta ta ta dumb! Tum tu dumb! Ta ta ta dumb! Tum tu dumb dumb! du dumb dumb du-mb-umb-umb Ta ta ta ta! The Star Wars spoof of an opener is really original - no one EVER does that! I'm glad Robotech Shadow Chronicles has such a unique and memorable openning... NOT! The only scene from the beginning that I like was seeing the Invid regis - but this only means I would probably LOVE the original Japanese show featuring the INBIT... Well - actually - to be fair - I actually didn't find Shadow Chronicles to be THAT bad - but the main reason why it was ok was because it had NOTHING TO DO WITH MACROSS. That's good. No VF-1s or zeros or anything that even looks like one. Granted, there was Prick Hunter - but he's some old dude with thinning gray hair now. So that's all good. I think what really helped here is that the focus was on the Mospedea/Sentinels and there weren't even any Zendradi. Actually - I find that quite hilarious. The implication is that the Zendradi all just flew away with Prick Hunter? Whatever the case - the farther it moves away from the Macross Saga - the more I can take it in as something completely different. Which of course doesn't change the fact that Shadow Chronicles was essentially a wannabe anime. The Haydonites were predictable - largely because of the way they were portrayed. When your "allies" appear veiled in blood red shades and hues with ominous music in the background gathered conspiratorial like around a dimly lit room - you kind of get the feeling they don't have the best of intentions. I dunno - the voice acting was flatter than the english dubbed version of Macross Plus (which was atrocious)... Americans ARE capable of creating great and lively animated characters - que Beast Wars - so I don't know why this came out so bad. Scooter and his alien girlfriend's theme was kind of predictable. As was Ariel's saving the life of the Invid hating kid I'm supposed to identify with. I dunno. I read on some forum that everybody was waiting and hoping for a resolution of the hanging plot theme which was the missing SDF1 - nad really, at the end fo the day - Shadow Chronicles resolved NOTHING. We KNOW that the Invid are defeated at Reflex point - knew that before Shadow Chronicles. We KNOW that the SDF-1 is missing and being sucked into a black hole - knew that before Shadow Chronicles So at the end of Shadow Chronicles - all that we know which is new is that the erstwhile nice guy Haydonites are actually evil one eyed bums who we must slaughter. Over all - I was not impressed. Actually - it kind of made me GLAD that Kawamori doesn't feel the need to yield to fan pressure and revisit his past sagas. I'm happy that there's no "resolution" to SDF Macross, and that we won't find out what happened to Sara and Shin, and so forth and so on. There's such a thing as closing a chapter and letting it be. Shadow Chronicle kind of shows that when you try to create a continuation to "tie things up" you just end up kind of crudding all over the previous works... I dunno - what can I say? It's not Macross. It's an American attempt at bringing elements of Japanese anime over, Americanizing them and therefore making them COOOLER!! It doesn't work. Japanese Anime is best when it is ...Japanese Anime. There's lots of cool, originally American stuff out there - and as I've said before - I appreciate that in the 80s, with no Internet, people wanted to expose Americans to cool Japanse anime. But nowadays there's no need for Americanized Japanese anime - better to just enjoy the subtitled versions VFTF1

I'm assuming that these polls are asking for favorite character? Or is this a wonderful and cruel joke on Alto Princess? VFTF1

Ok - having watched it: here are my comments: How sad!!! Insofar as episode 5 was like a beautiful joyous day on Frontier, this was a very melancholy episode...sniff... I'm happy for Ranka; and I'm sad for her at the same time. She got what she dreamed of - she's been scouted, she has a fan club... but Alto lied to her (the ol' "cause I didn't want to hurt you") excuse.. He's obviously got feelings for Sheryl - but doesn't want to hurt Ranka so just doesn't talk about it. Mikhael is right - Alto has to do something about this. If he doesn't want to be with Ranka, fine. He doesn't have to - but ...oh - on the other hand I guess it's hard... I mean - Alto obviously hasn't decided yet - or rather - he's a pilot. There's really no sense in "deciding" - since it's not like he'll settle down with either Sheryl or Ranka... well - anyways - Ranka is obviously a bit hurt But I guess I understand Alto - it's obvious him and Sheryl have more chemistry. Ranka is a bit girly with him - being self-effacing and what not - Sheryl ...she's more down to earth, more mature - and maybe there's something to build on in that... Maybe that's what Alto needs now. Tough stuff. The only happy note was Cathy Glass! I guess she belongs on the bridge! And I loved her little quarrel with Ozma - "I'm doing this for you Ozma!" - did I spy...emotions!? Positive emotions!? Did I also spy that she was freaked out when Leon asked her for a favor? She looked at the clock thinking "oh poo! he's off work!?" :) Anyways - big plus for Cathy Glass.... And I guess big plus for the writers for creating characters who were not made of cardboard! The fact that my opinions of the characters change because their actions are too complex to stereotype them is a big plus! I'm a little weary of NUNS military strategy. Why do they keep sending out scouts to get killed? Is this a tradition dating back to SDF Macross? And why oh why can't they finally develop some scouting technology that wouldn't commit Valkyrie and their pilots to the furnace? That really is silly and annoying. Maybe it makes novice viewers think "ooh noo! this is really dangerous! Look! Those scouts just died!" but - it makes ME think "oh come on! Not again!" So Sheryl and Alto are in love - I guess they have a lot in common... Ranka's pampered; she has Ozma who takes care of her and she's got a friend like Nanase. Alto and Sheryl really have nobody but eachother - so - I guess I can see the connection. Anyways - all you guys going on and on about how great Sheryl was in episode 5 - I still think you're wrong. Sheryl was fun - but Ranka was the best in episode 5. Sheryl struck a chord in me here - in episode 6. I loved her conversation with Alto - and I LOVE Alto's reaction to when Sheryl told the security gaurds "he's a friend." Imagine if that was Hikaru? "Minmey! I must see Minmey!" "Let him through. Hikaru is my friend!" "Eh!? Me?! Just a friend!? Is that how you see me?" Alto is more mature - he's a much cooler lead character than Hikaru. I guess Hikaru had a bit to much of a blank slate in him - he was the young boy in the audience watching and wanting to imagine that he was us..er that we were him...oh you get it... Alto obviously functions on a similar level - but he does have a more well defined character than Hikaru - and only after 6 episodes! Of course - it's the scouting agent who is right... and damn- I gotta admit I love the fact that he can make those kind of arguments VFTF1

I haven't read anything in this thread yet and am only 0.6% away from completing my Gattai download! So it'll be like Saturday Morning Cartoon again! Only this time Macross Frontier! Yay! VFTF1

A year ago I had my own apartment, a girlfriend, and partied every day on the town. Now I live with my mom, my dog and my 1/48s! Yeehaw!! VFTF1