Captain of the SDF-1 Macross

I got my copy for $CND 7.50. Like MilkManX said, the art is fudgy and its worse than Comico's RT art. The art for SDF Macross#1 was loaded with watercolored art and the characters sometimes look bad. <_<

From what I remembered, there was no sign of Harmony Gold's name in the Flipino English dub, so it means that the Filipino English dub must have got its rights from Big West. Even though, for some reason the Filipino dubbers use a small amount of the RT names even though they also used the Japanese names and original English names exclusive to the dub. Hikaru was called Ricky Hunter or sometimes as "Little Ricky" IIRC.

Ah, yes, I remember this show. It used to air in the Phillipines and other English-speaking countries back then. Filipino TV station RPM-9 aired this show alongside the 1980s version of Astroboy and the Filipino English-dubbed version of Macross on Sundays. What a great time to watch anime back then. B) The show didn't get a nationwide North American release but did air on local stations who independantly picked it up. Canadian TV station CKVR (when it used to be owned by the CBC) aired it around my neighborhood for a while. Thunder Sub/Space Carrier Blue Noah was created by Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato co-creator Yoshinobu Nishizaki, who also did the Quest for Odin anime as well. One of the strangest things in Thunder Sub was that it was dubbed by the BBC, probably the only anime work they ever worked on. IIRC, the premiere borrows from Star Blazers, in which in addition to parking the alien planet close to Earth, they also bombarded with their version of Gamilons' planet bombs as well. The aliens are called Gothomites, under the command of General Zee and their homeworld is called Gotham. High school student Colin Collins and his friends would venture to the N1 research base to activate Thunder Sub. The officers who were supposed to be assigned to it also arrived to take command and recruit Collins and co. as an addition to the crew. Thunder Sub and its crew would be seafaring across the globe As the Italian web page showed, Thunder Sub takes design cues from the Yamato and then some. The ship has its own "Wave Motion Gun" with a protective foldable gun hatches, the midsection splits to reveal its guns and flight deck and can launch two sections as seperate craft. What's not shown was an artillary support craft emerging from Thunder Sub's stern and what is shown on the web page is Tempest Jr., a submarine that stowed onto Thunder Sub's leveler/"thumb" section of the ship. When Thunder Sub seafares around Earth, Tempest Jr. would often be sent for battle as a support vessel. Thunder Sub won't get its spacefarring drive and functions until around episode 20 IIRC once they have destroyed all occupied Gothomite forces on Earth and later goes off into space for a final showdown. Sadly we don't get to see this show again and it was better than Quest for Odin IMO. There are PAL-recorded VHS tapes lurking in eBay time to time, as well as the diecast toy of Thunder Sub. I did asked the BBC's Canadian branch if they still have the rights but they say that they let it go once Westcape (who produced Thunder Sub and Star Blazers in Japan) went bankrupt.

Ditto. B) I bet that all the TF fanboys like us would want the Smokescreen toy, the car and the girl to bring them home, huh. Here's the URL again on more pics, but not much: http://adctalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1942401 Hope to see more CamGirls to promote the Alternators line and the 20th Anniv Prime toy. B)

There was an English dub that was broadcasted in the Phillipines using Filipino actors (good thing it wasn't the HK dubbers from Clash of the Bionoids/Super Space Fortress Macross). It used to air on TV station RPM-9, Sundays at 6 PM. It aired in the summer of 1985 and kept it on reruns up to probably 1988. The Filipino-made English dub retains most of the story intact, all of the songs and music and no sign of HG's Robocrap. B) It was better then what HG has to offer and one of the few people in the board to saw it. Yet, there were alterations: * The openings and endings were changed. The opening gets a strange English male singer singing a song (I can't remember the details) with random clips of the show and an instrumental ending with random clips as well. * There were cuts but minimal. * The character names got a mixed bag. Some retain the Japanese ones, some got the RT ones and some got a new set of names. The names that got original English ones are Lynn Minmay as Maria Lynn-Minmay, Lynn Kaifun as Teddy Typhoon and Millia as Samantha. Wish I had recorded the episodes. <_<

Actually you can find the Macross pilot dub (episode 1 only, I'm afraid) inside the Extras disc of Robotech Legacy Collection Set, volume 5. The dub retains the BGM but it has some alterations despite being a direct-to-video project: * A strange English-made opening song that lacks the power of the original opening. * All first names are altered while retaining their Japanese family names. The only exception is Hikaru, who is named "Rick Yamada". * The dub voices are identical to the RT counterparts, except the narrator. Hope this helps.

And I found an unrelated CamGirl pic with a statue of Optimus Prime. B)

Gosh darn. I forgot to post it. Here's the preview pic. B)

Also, I have found a set of photos of Alternator Smokescreen, the real Subaru car the toy is modeled after and lastly, a CamGirl to top it off. The original thread is found here: http://adctalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1942401 Can't get the image to post, forcing me to use an attachment. Anyways, enjoy the preview.

I know this isn't Prime but I found a picture of Alternators Smokescreen packed in a box. B) Wish there's a thread devoted to Alternators by merging all related threads. <_<

From what I remember, that voice is more along the lines of "the narrator cheering on the heros thing". The robot never talked since it is a piloted machine. As for who voiced that, it is none other than Peter Cullen, who voiced the John Wayne-like Transformer, Optimus Prime. Peter Cullen was also famous for dubbing in World Events' dubbed anime. On Voltron, he played as Coran, King Alfor, the narrator and various extra characters. On Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, he played as the narrator and various extra characters. Currently. he does commercial voiceovers for Cartoon Network's Toonami commercials. The best one IMO is the Transformers Armada commercial, as if Optimus Prime himself self-promotes the show. B) As much as Cullen (and the rest of the G1 voice actors) want to come back, he and the others will not reprise their roles unless they are given a huge salary.

From what I remember, the US dub shows no evidence that anyone in the team is in command, either. Strange. The only thing is that the Japanese guy is the focal character, but not really leading the team. When World Events (who also dubbed Voltron) dubbed the show, they were trying to make the American the lead character but stopped after a few eps when they realized that the Japanese guy is the focal character.

Stick to Takara. B) Price isn't an issue because Takara's and Hasbro's are priced at the same value. However, Hasbro has to make alterations to the reissues because they make alterations to pass today's toy standards and to also appeal to the youngsters as well. As the others have said, missiles are altered to be longer, some spring-loaded features are removed, loss of chrome (of fear of chipping and kids may lick them), sharp/breakable edges are dulled and they have no extra accessories that are only found on Takara's reissues. Not one Hasbro reissue I have ever satisfied me. The only one that never went any alteration is Hot Rod/Rodimus Major, which was constructed for the American toy market in mind.

At first glance, it looks like Optimus Prime abducted the Machine Robos from Machine Robo Rescue, spraypainted them in KO colors and force them to gattai with him.

True, but the G2 Gobots/RID Spychangers were the worst-case scenario of repaints for different characters. The basic six molds (Hot Shot, REV, WARS, Crosswise, Mirage and Ironhide) had three color variants to represent different characters and some fans got upset on Hasbro on not being innovative. Hasbro flooded them and got oversaturated on the shelves, which is happing the same thing with the RID Spychangers. The idea came from the RID Autobot Brothers, who got new color schemes as their "power-up" versions of themselves. This now ended up as a brainbug now, which ended up onto Armada, Universe and Energon lines. <_< Oh, I almost forgot. The Machine Robo Rescue toys just got "power-up" versions of the Machine Robos now released, as shown on HLJ. Kinda making an in-nod to Transformers there, huh.

I found a couple of sites hosting the Japanese Battletech images: http://www.ceyah.org/~jandrese/jbt/ http://www.flames-of-vengence.co.uk/Battle...battletech.html Also, I found a site on which mecha get changed into FASA's Battletech mechs: http://brianscache.com/unseen/ How this helps. B)

Very funny. The thought of that makes me want to buy some Kimba anime (Right Stuf and Pioneer has them IIRC) and show the stuff to my nephew and nieces.

As much as Takara/Hasbro wants to name the toy as Tracks, they lost the trademarked name Tracks. As a result, the Hasbro reissue of him is named "Autobot Tracks", much like Jazz was renamed "Autobot Jazz". <_<

The rubsign stickers were added in 1985 by Hasbro to prevent customers from buying bootlegs and the reissues still have them. Beast Wars did brought them back as well, called "energon chips". However, they don't work as effective as the G1 ones. Beast Wars and Beast Machines later replace the rubsigns with "spark crystals", a marble-shaped ball notched into the toy with a faction symbol seen through the transparentcy. Sadly, these hidden emblem features have disappeared like the diecast when it comes to new TF toys. <_<

The Japanese, however, did cry foul on the Lion King, saying that they ripped it off from Jungle Emperor Leo, or its official English name Kimba the White Lion. A Japanese friend of mine was upset about it, when she and I exchange rants about anime. Matthew Broderick, who voiced Simba in the Lion King, stated in an interview that he thought Disney was remaking Kimba the White Lion even though Disney says they are not. Kinda sad that few Americans know the 1966 anime show since the show haven't been in reruns for 30 years. <_<

Both animated works have taken inspirations from 19th century science-fiction stories, with leanings to Jules Verne. Both producers from both have stated that, at least as far as I know.

Simply put, Manga Video just got the rights to Macross Plus directly from Big West and HG can't do anything about it. The "excuse" made by HG is a red herring, saying that Saban hired off HG's staff off. In fact, Saban was already well established back in 1985, with "Macron 1" (a spliced anime of GoShogun and Strungle) and they already have some staffers/voice actors work on Saban time to time since that point. I can answer to that because I own the Macross II RPG books, in which they are the first official Macross-related RPG product. B) All of the books have Big West and US Renditions on the copyright notice and US Renditions logo on the back on some of the sourcebooks. The Siembiedas stated that they got their license through US Rendtions and Big West, though they didn't update to have Manga's name back in 1994-1995 when they were still in print. Also, Harmony Gold didn't do anything to stop it nor crosspromote it with the Robotech RPG. Hell, Kevin Siembieda stated (Macross II RPG book, pages 5-6) on the introduction that Macross II should be treated as a Macross-only work and not to be confused with Robotech. He even delve into the history and license rights on who owns Macross-related animation. Also, he said he pursued the license because he was a mecha anime fan, hence he got the RPG licenses to Robotech and Macross II. Aside from using all of the Macross II source material for the RPG and can't expand it, Palladium Books can't get the licenses to Macross-only stuff because Big West is asking too much on the license fee and PB can't pursue this at this time.

Don't forget that Studio Aeon (who did Armada) has been called upon again to animate the Energon TV show. The Universe sub-line is just as worse. Hasbro repaints older figures in KO quality colors as the emphasis of the line: 100% repaints as an another side-effect of the ending of Armada when various older TFs return to fight again. Not worth the regular sticker tag for toys that look like KOs.

If you are about the flip-up "extra" helmet, then yeah it does. My guess for the flip-up "extra" helmet is that Energon Prime would most likely combine with his trailer (yet again). <_<

Afraid so. I am still not one with the controller.