VFTF1

Uh... I'm curious what the back story on this guy is. VFTF1

Since I got the movie color version and can't bear the thought of the old version being better - I shall soooon put up a gallery of photographs showing how perfect MYyy version is muahahah VFTF1

I am heartbroken that Basara is behind both Sharon Apple (bleh!) and the one-hit-wonder Sheryl Nome! Loosing to Minmey I can stomach - but to those two! Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Why don't you guys want to listen to his songs!? VFTF1

I think everyone was "seeing" something else when she was floating towards that area VFTF1

You know - I just can't agree with the content of that message. First of al - it was members of the military that came up with the idea that peace was possible with the Zendradi and pushed to achieve it. It was members of the military that decided to use the power of song and culture to tame the Zendradi. It was members of the military who risked their lives in order to bring peace with the aliens and then created numerous programs to integrate the Zendradi into human society. Lyn Kaifun or Kyle Lin or Lin Kyle or whatever his name is never really explained how he would propose to bring peace with the aliens; all he ever did was badmouth the military in really simplistic terms; using them as a scapegoat. So while I STRONGLY support the idea that you should "Just say NO to Rick Hunter" I don't really find this line of argumentation convincing. That said - this is a truly fun and smart bit of agit-prop ---- too bad it's in the WRONG univers!!! :( VFTF1

Boy that 1/60 VF1 is looking good Yamato! Wow! Double jointed shoulders! Dude that is just awesome! Even I don't have double jointed shoulders! So is that nose smaller, or is the 1/60 VF-1 NOT glad to see me? Way to make a more stable B8P Yamato - looking snazzy. I am so snagging this one up! How many days now? Will they release a Minmey Gaurd or a VF-1D in 1/60? Because that's what I would kill for! Come on Yamato! Get your heads out of the sand and smell the sweet wind of market demand! I hope there are no QC issues with this baby! It better be tight! Oh wow! The 1/60 VF-1! Should I sell my 1/48s? Is the 1/48 line dead? I'm already nostalgic for more 1/48s - they really rule! But having an in scale VF-1 with the other stuff will be great fun. Actually - the VF-1 is pretty small compared to the SV-51 for example. Wow! VF1 in 1/60 scale - whou would'a thought it! VFTF1 (in 1/60 scale no less!)

Good job Graham - hope you succeed- I really want a nice Basara valkyrie. VFTF1

Uh-oh Your post has acted like radi-active goo and mutated me into my alternative personality: Misa-Apologist-Man! (MAM!) I'll try to be delicate .... I understand how the "attitude" might turn people off - but personally, every single time she speaks, no matter what she says, no matter how strict or prigish or whatever - it is just so blatantly obvious that she's a wonderful beautiful woman who has never been allowed to BE one... I think Roy Fokker saw this clearly - which is why he toke Misa's attitude in stride and constantly poked fun at her. Roy is not scared of Misa at all because Roy knows what Misa is about: deep down, she is a girl who never got the chance to be one - due to the family, the military, the war... Hikaru only discovers this gradually. So maybe if you look at Misa in that light - you will suddenly see that even when she acts like the "demon lady" - she actually looks pretty silly doing it and is just being - well - a repressed lady... Unless - of course- I'm misunderstanding what you mean by her attitude? VFTF1

Yes, but that is simply because MISA is wearing it VFTF1

Actually that's a picture of me. MacrossMan and I are friends from way back - we haven't seen each other in years, and we ended up sending one another a couple of 'recent photos.' I thought MacrossMan would be more sensitive to my medical condition than to post in in public (born with my penis up my throat) - but I guess we live in a creul, creul world... VFTF1

See - this is what life in general should look like. Boss: Peter! You're slacking again! Me: Uh, no way boss! I've done helluvalot work! Boss: Yeah!? Like what!? Me: Well - for starters I just bout a 1/5000 Wave SDF-1... Boss: Good work acquiring one man! Keep it up! VFTF1

Hmm... I don't see the point of remaking this... but - then again - I guess movies are starting to be more and more like theater- always a director who wants to put his own spin on the "classics." VFTF1

!!!SPOILER!!! Sheryle Nome's father is DARTH VADER!!! Luke Skywalker II (the second, son of Luke Skywalker Jr) shows up to tell Sheryl that Darth Vader fathered her with a Meldrani Quid Rau pilot in an alternative universe that said Quid Rau pilot had accidentally been sucked into due to malfunctioning fold boosters (prototypes fold boosters stolen from Edwards Airbase on Eden in 2040) - the Quid Rau pilot managed to return to her own universe shortly after encountering the sith lord. As to the precise nature of their intimate encounter, it is known that the Quid Rau pilot happened to be Exedol's "cousin" (aka grown from the same gene pool) and therefore super smart. She carried a customized miniaturization device because she liked studying Miclones. She miniaturized herself and met Vader, who was anguishing over his sexual organs having been carred beyond recognition on the moon of Mustafar, and the Quid Rau pilot offered to help him regrow the organs - then she tested them before re-adjusting the prototype stolen fold boosters to return to her own universe. Upon returning, she found that she was pregnant with a baby girl - and that although she returned in her own universe, the timing was a tad bit to the future. And now: the big news about this Quid Rau pilot: MIRYA! Yes - she divorced Max and went solo/rogue! (This was before Macross 7) - but eventually after having an inter-dimmensional affair with Darth Vader, she had a change of heart and "returned" to her husband - albeit they maintained a pretty cold relationship (thus their distance to one another in Macross 7). As to the name Nome - Mirya named her secret daughter Sheryl Nome because she had read about the Birdman in the UN Spacey Archives when they were declassified to reveal this event. mirya was very moved by the Nome girls and decided it was a noble name for her secret daughter to have. I will grant that this episode COMPLETELY took me by surprise! And while I generally don't see Star Wars/Macross crossover as a good thing - I guess it can't be ruled out. VFTF1

Any chance of getting a link to the 15 buck and arm HLJ? VFTF1

Good point about the VF-1D - how people in marketing could miss that is beyond me..... would have been so sweet to have a VF-1D specially made for 25th anniversary with a 25th anniversary box and in 1/48 scale. Much better idea than painting the 19 and 1S black and giving them gold trim ... ah well

What the hemlock is it with those VF-OAs... sheesh. Same thing happened to me. Answer: Buy another one. As for the broken arm - check the "Strike a Pose!" thread - someone has a very good photographic answer for what to do with the broken arm... I my self am working on my own photographic answer as well - battle damage shin... but in general - buy another one and pray. VFTF1

Just so you know - I will soon put that picture up on my laptop as the wallpaper... For now - I have Misa and Hikaru embracing in Hikaru's VF-1S when they see the Macross return to earth after battling Boldoza VFTF1

The character designs in the TV series and the DYRL movie are, obviously, a bit different. Not completely, but just a bit. Everything from the Valkyrie pilot uniforms, to Kaifun wearing a suit, to the look of the Zendradi. I just want to know which do people prefer? And I'm not asking about "in general" - I'm asking for down the line specifics. Movie or TV Breetai? I personally prefer TV Breetai because he is more human; his face is more emotive, and his clothing are cloth-based, and don't look so..well...so much like a wacko life support system for genetically enhanced super-bio-engineered muscle bound aliens Movie or TV Exedol? This is where I go balistic because I like Macross 7, where we clearly have DYRL Exedol, but I just can't seem to get TV Exedol out of my head. I understand the idea behind DYRL Exedol - a focus on growing a bigger brain for the "intelence" branch of the Zendradi - but TV Exedol exhudes more character for me, so I guess I'll have to go with TV Exedol. DYRL vs TV Valkyrie Flight Suits: DYRL wins hands down for me on this one. The flight suits in TV just look..umm...extremely lame. Actually - no offence to chunky fans - but they look like something someone would wear to fly a chunky monkey this is to say they look very dated in a way that the DYRL flight suits don't. I dunno - TV flight suits almost remind me of something out of Getter Robo - and I love Getter Robo (the original) but Macross and Getter Robo are two different aesthetic universes... and I just can't find myself liking those TV flight suits - especially those half-cocked sunglasses that come down over the eyes - like something out of Star Wars (I don't like the ones from Star Wars either - the Empire has far better flight suits than the Rebellion) SDF Macross TV vs SDF Macross DYRL Well - since I just bought the Wave Movie color SDF Macross then I'm obviously biased! Having the movie colored one in Macross Plus (and I LOVE the ending of Macross Plus precisely because we see the original Macross again and that is just COOL!!) only makes me more inclined to pick the Movie version. The one thing that annoys me - and that I prefer in TV version - is I prefer the Daedelus and Promytheus being sea-based ships that were retro-fitted to function with the Macross (although that must be some frickin' armor on the Daedelus! Pinpoint barrier or no pinpoint barrier!) I like that aesthetic - the "strange combo" dendencies - I like when things that aren't supposed to function together end up having to function together. So on this note, Movie SDF M loses some points... Hard to pick a favorite here. The garish colors on TV Macross actually don't bother me that much - although it is a little hard to believe that they would - well - paint it in..err...those...colors Minmey TV fashion vs Minmey Movie fashion Ok - I might be a little clunky here because it's been a while since I've seen DYRL and I'm now watching SDF M TV for the seven milionth time, so again - maybe a bit biased but... Answer is: Minmey TV fashion blows DYRL out of the water! My favorite Minmey fashion is that chiche green get up she wore when Roy let her know that Hikaru had gone missing. She looked REALLY great in that! It was one of the few times in the entire series that I considered awarding Minmey the "You win the Love Triangle Competition" fan award. But even in her many different skirts she looked really good; and they had a knack for dressing her up really great when she WASN'T performing. Her performance clothes - on the other hand - were ironically not as attractive - more formal, almost operetic... which is funny - but I guess she was just trying to dress "nicely" for her singing engagements. DYRL, however, gives Minmey a truly lovely dress to perform her title song in - and for this DYRL gets high marks. So I guess: every-day fashion would be TV, while stage fashion would be DYRL Kaifun; The Kung-Fu-Dandy in beeds? Or the metrosexual suit? Metrosexual suit hands down! Kaifun looks really good in it - and it soooo suits his character better than those hippie things he wore. Why? Because Kaifun is more of a limousine liberal metrosexual than an authentic hippy (I know, I'm stereotyping like crazy here - no offense to limousine liberals and metrosexuals and hippies:) ) Hippies would never be so tight assed and self-absorbed. Kaifun is not laid back enough to be a hippy. So his clothes - while they might make the babes go wild - completely don't fit him - because Kaifun takes his politics too seriously. Ergo - Kaifun is made to wear the kind of suit he had in DYRL. 1:1 Misa Hayes: Ok - Misa Hayes looks beautiful in DYRL and beautiful TV. Misa Hayes is, I guess, just simply beautiful no matter what series she's featuring in. I can't think of anything I'd rate higher in either genre - Misa always rocks Hikaru: Oh - well... hmm.... in DYRL he looses a lot of the boyish charm that he has in SDF M TV. I kind of miss that boyish charm. It makes his budding relationship with Misa all the more surprising (because yes - we along with Misa are shocked by Claudia saying "so what if he's younger" and "how's the boy?" etc - because it is shocking to discover that - dag! she has feelings for him! Wierd...unexpected...but cooool). On the other hand, loosing the Getter Robo flight suit for something more suited to Macross is a plus for DYRL and helps Hikaru look like less of a clown or a reject from a tight-fitting Spiderman/Superman costume superhero competition. "I'm pilot man!" .... Roy: I completely utterly do not like what they do with Roy in DYRL - insofar as his death scene "blaze of glory!" is just so utterly demented compared with the quiet nobility of his death in SDF Macross. If they had shown Roy die in a similar fashion as in SDF M TV - DYRL would surely have been a box office sensation and still be running in theaters to this day...er...but...that has nothing to do with...aesthetics...so... yeah - Roy LOOKS better in DYRL. Claudia: Same as Misa And finally - for the life of me, I completely don't remember what gloval and the Bridge Bunnies looked like in DYRL - shoot me - but I don't. And I like Shammy. If I were living on the Macross - I'd have the hots for Shammy. She's cute and girly and silly and has no chance of ever being promoted so there's no risk she's stop being cute, girly and silly. Perfect woman. Quid Rau: GREEN! GREEN IS BETTER! NOT RED! NOT BLUE! GREEN! Any other categories I missed? What are your opinions? VFTF1

I suddenly saw that this thing was out of production at HLJ... so immediately bit the bullet and bought a Movie Color version off of BBTS. I am therefore a proud owner awaiting delivery of his very own SUPER DIMENSIONAL FORTRESS MACROSS!!!! TA NA TA NA TA! MAKUROSU DA TE ANIWA TE O KOROTO TA LA LA LA LA (or however that went...sorry, I was going for the melody and not the kana ) ... This is one thing that the internet has not perfected yet - emoticons can underline the emotional context of words - but what about when you want to hum a melody or convey that a melody is humming itself in your head? Oh well - very happy about one thing with this baby: it's small...so shipping is cheap ! VFTF1

Yeah - I was also going to say Max - and actually, let me linger on Max a bit. Max is "perfect" - yet he is not hated for it like Basara is hated for his "perfection" - why? I think the reason is because Max was very humble, and a gentleman. His manner was non-threatening, he didn't brag, he didn't exude a "know it all" demeanor. When Minmey rushes to Kaifun after the big fight in "Kung Fu Dandy" and yells "Wow Kaifun you were great!" - Hikaru is about to say something and Max just gives him a look that says "shut it!" and Hikaru backs off. Because a gentleman is always classy. Max is classy. Max doesn't even have to say anything; he is that classy. He communicates with subtle facial expressions. At no point in time does Max threaten anyone's self esteem. He doesn't judge people, he doesn't have "problems" - he's perfect in a non-threatening way - his perfection does not make other people feel... faulty. Basara's perfection makes everybody feel faulty. He is a better pilot than the military pilots and never ceases to demonstrate it to them. He is a better strategist than the military strategists and never ceases to rub it in. He is a better singer than Mylene, and never ceases to rub it in. He is a better lover than the bald guy with no eye-former Lieutenant what's his name and never cease to rub it in He is a better roughneck/dare devil than the dare devil/rough neck biker chicks and rubs it in He is just better than anybody and everybody - and he lets them know ALL the time. In fact - he is so great that he doesn't say "excuse me, would you like to listen to my music?" - he doesn't, like Minmey, wait for the enemy to overhear a song and explain that that song has had such a grand effect on them - no - he says LISTEN TO MY MUSIC! because it's so great and true. I would hate Basara if not for one small problem... he IS great. His music IS great. He IS a great pilot. He IS right most of the time. It sucks - but the sooner you open your eyes to it, you realize that Basara is ..well... great VFTF1

Then there's the VF-X bathroom sign that Isamu Dyson walks past in MP.... well... ok... I'm sure it wasn't a bathroom sign...but it did say VF-X.... VFTF1

I don't think Sheryl wanted to continue singing - I think she was angry that the military would dare sound an alarm during HER concert. "Uh! The nerve of them!" - that kind of thing. Then she was cluless about what to do - because she's a scripted celeb with no spontaneous artistic talent - so when something doesn't go according to script - she just stands there and doesn't know what to do until the Major pulls her away. The only thing that will redeem Sheryl is if she shaves her head and goes to a rehab center after marrying one of Alto's friends and having a baby with him only to get a divorce and go partying with a hotel hieress later. If that happens - I'll have more sympathy for Sheryl. VFTF1

I generally agree with Mr. March's sentiments, but in the particular - things fall apart. 1. Roy's character was fleshed out thanks to his appearance in Zero. We gain some more insight into why he joined the war effort; we see that he has a knack for taking young boys under his wing and we see that prior to Claudia, he had a girl who knew him from his much younger days - and more importantly, that Roy was not able to save the ones he loved...always. In fact - we get a much better feal for Roy as a person than we do in SDFM where he starts out fairly prominent but after Hikaru finally joins the military (episode 6 I think), Roy suddenly becomes someone who is mentioned often, whose presence is felt, but who doesn't really get explored because his character seems set - finished - there is no arc - he's just Sempai Major Fokker the ace pilot womanizer who does nice things for his friends when they are in need. Then Roy dies. SDF M basically shows him as a fully fleshed out established elder character who serves to guide the development of others and to illustrate that war takes the best people away from us. In Zero, however, Roy gets a lot more screen time and a lot more personal. Sure - having him there might have initially resulted from a desire to please the fans but a) why is it bad to want to please the fans? and b) it could have been handled much, much much worse. As things stand, they did a really good job with it. 2) All people are related to the protoculture; and the power of song is something that all people are capable of generating. Minmey was - and Exedol even CALLED it "the power of song" which is "undeniable." I think it stems from passion and love and all that is spiritual in humanity; and I don't consider it to be a mere matter of DNA/blood line. Think about it this way: To what extent was it important that Sara Nome never lived in a technological modern city? O rather - to what extent does civilization and culture ritually kill itself by moving away from nature? You see - the irony of Zero is that it shows that there is a difference between culture and mere entertainment; and Sara Nome tries to nurture and protect a beautiful culture from what she considers to be "mere" entertainment; the polutants of city life. This really puts a wrench into things; because in SDF M, it is city life and the culture of cities that turns the Zendradi; and Minmey's songs are pop songs that fit perfectly with the somewhat shallow albeit amiable life of cities. Sara Nome's songs are not vapid, they are not shallow - they are, if anything - very high minded and spirited. Hers is a demonstration of a different, more high minded aspect of human culture - it is for humanity what Macross City was for the Zendradi. Just as Minmey and the culture of Macross shocked the Zendradi out of their war-stuppoer - so Sara Nome and her anti-technological spiritualist naturalism shocked the warrior SHIN out of his stuppor and made Shin a believer. If Sara Nome had lived in a city; I am pretty sure that despite her DNA and protoculture blood lineage - she would have accomplished nothing - not even the Birdman would be looking for her.... Bloodline and DNA are, in my view, tantamount to saying that predispositions or potential exists. Actualization of that potential is a manner of will and circumstance. Sara was in the proper setting, had the proper upbringing and was sensitive and willing to embrace the spiritualism of her island religion with a passion that made rocks float and soldiers doubt in war (Shin deciding to jetison all his weapons in the end is the equivalent of Breetai deciding to die with the Macross in the confrontation with Boldoza). My point with regard to character relations? Only this: Sara and Sheryl can certainly be related - but whether the potential of the protoculture bloodline plays out similarly or not is not a foregone conclusion - in fact, I would expect that given Sheryl's latex and her elitism - she seems to be completely de-sensitized and if there was ever any protocultural purity in her blood it has been distilled if not completely destroyed by her professional life... kind of like what happened to Mune... VFTF1

No way. I don't believe the legs on the 21 are detachable. VFTF1

Ok, this thing about Basara as a super-too-good-to-be-true pilot: 1. His friend Keyboard Man is an ex-ace pilot from the Pink Peckers brigade who, after his friend was killed in battle, became depressed and then met Basara and was moved by Basara's determination to foster peace and love. So Keyboard Man sort of became Basara's Sempai; and taught him how to fly Valkyrie; and also had the military develop Basara's special Kai Fire Valkyrie. So it is not a 'mystery' - Basara got his skills as a pilot from being trained by an ace pilot; and Basara's Kai Fire Valkyrie is part of a military project - Basra just has a knack for not really following military protocol and using the Fire Valkyrie as he sees fit; without coordinating with the military. 2. Basara does find himself in danger on numerous occasions. The most famous one is when he is forced by circumstances to go against his grain and fire a missile in order to save himself and his Valkyrie from certain destruction. I think the stereotype that people have of Basara (the negative one) comes from focusing too heavily on the first few episodes which could indeed give the negative impression its' weight. VFTF1