Penguin

Sorry... it's packed away with the rest of my Patlabor stuff right now (until they rotate back into display). Just look at the attached pic and imagine the little black-rimmed disc at the top raised about a quarter-inch on a tiny, clear plastic rod.

The chase figure is a variant of the little red drone from the first movie with its little head disc raised up instead of flush with the body.

Spirit is a classic comic, but I gotta say the trailer makes me think it might be taking itself a bit too seriously. Miller can wax awfully sturm und drang, while Eisner always had a fair bit of wit and humour in the comic. My feelings are mixed about this adaptation.

Try this topic

Now I'm getting excited. I've been waiting for the non-Ingram mechs to get some love. Bring on the HAL-X and some new Helldivers!

AD is all sold out now. I got Beachhead for $14.99.

That sounds pretty damn silly to me.

Yeesh! I never saw those! That's freakin' pathetic! The few I saw down at Another Dimension must have been US imports.

I totally agree. Doomsday was a walking weapon with no personality... the trigger for the Death of Superman storyline. Having Clark encounter him so early in his career is... I don't know what words I want to use. It's like, "let's have everything happen to Clark before he even becomes Superman". Bloody heck, just let him become Superman already. I'm gettin' kinda tired of Smallville. The only way I think I'd enjoy Doomsday is if it was something like a cameo... Clark has to prevent it even landing, gets a glimpse of it, or something. That, or completely change the character so that it gets encountered as it is also on a developing path, sort of foreshadoing that some day it will be back, and even worse the next time. The TV show budget would just hurt the kind of scale Doomsday needs. I was already completely underwhelmed at the whole "Krypton in the past" thing that just got wrapped up. Lame fails to cover it. Tell the meat of Kara's story in some online/mobile phone cartoon and have Clark show up on a redressed Fortress of Solitude set for 5 minutes at the end? Pointless. What could Doomsday do on this kinda budget? A couple of smashed cars and the obligatory crushed fire hydrant?

I hear ya. It's kinda strange, considering how they went so far as to "Canadianize" the sticker sets and file cards back in the day (Scarlett from Grand Prairie, Alberta?? Poor girl ). I guess we're just not a market Hasbro bothers to cater to anymore. I've been getting these figures solely from web stores. At least by getting the US releases, we don't lose half the file card content to make space for the French.

Yeah, but Hasegawa's done that for years with all their other kits... why should the VF-1 be any different? Still, a GBP-1 would be sweet...

Kevin Conroy's doing the voice? Now I'm completely sold. I often find manga/anime-style Batman representations a little off-putting... maybe I'm just a little biased to seeing an American style for so long... so I was a little on the fence. But I love Conroy's portrayal. It's pretty much iconic for the character, in my opinion.

I think GobotFool's review is pretty much on-the-money. The CMs are fragile enough that I keep them in cycle mode, but it's cool that I can pose them with my old Matchbox Invid toys. I keep the Megahouse figures in armour mode to hide the "giraffe neck". I found that really distracting, at least to my sense of aesthetics.

I've already preordered them. While they're not canon, they were originally seen in the "This is Animation: Macross Plus" book, and I loved most of the alternate schemes in there. You're right though... it would be heavenly to get something else. I can practically build that VF-1 model blindfolded by this point.

Well, Macross is really just a Sci-Fi setting, much like any other, so there's really no limit to where you can take it. With the Protoculture aspects, you can get into some SF/Fantasy territory, or you can keep it more military-style. The first campaign I ran followed the history of a UN squadron "Black Diamonds" from its creation as a squadron flying F-203 Dragons, to VF-1s as a squadron on the SDF-1, and then to the next generation of the squadron using VF-4s and VF-5000s, with cameos from the original (surviving) pilots who had been promoted throughout the fleet. (Of course, the players got a lot of mileage as well from the fact that "Black Diamond" is a brand of cheese here in Canada.) Second campaign followed a trio of rookies from their graduation through some pretty wild SF/Fantasy adventures, including a couple of time-travel trips. The last adventure had them wake up in a Macross II-esque timeline, discovering that an Anti-UN rebel had successfully travelled back in time and sabotaged the production of the VF-1, leading to an inability of a VF-0-equipped UN to stop the Zentraedi attack on Earth and the messed-up timeline. They had to find the protoculture gear the saboteur had also used, travel back themselves and set events right, then find the perp in the corrected timeline and bring him to justice. The most recent campaign, currently on hiatus but not dead yet, was more military action/intrigue in nature, following another group of rookies to their first assignment as VA-3 pilots in a UN Marine squadron "Kingfishers". They became embroiled in a plot gone wrong instigated by an embittered UN general who wanted to regain lost prestige by staging a blockade against the colony world the players were stationed on. The adventure featured some wicked VA-3 vs. VF-5000 dogfights that they barely survived thanks to the submersible capabilities of the VA-3s (and one petty-revenge scenario where they ambushed the VF-5000s and dropped 3/4 of the enemy in the opening salvoes). As the only survivors of their squadron, they are currently on temporary assignment awaiting the results of the inquest into their actions.

I've run pen and paper Macross games using Palladium (inspired by Dave Deitrich's stuff at the aforementioned "Steel Falcon" site), Silhouette (DP9's in-house system), and d20 Modern. For the latter, I made some updates of my own to the d20 Modern stuff. For d20 mecha design, I've used DP9's d20 Mecha Compendium (and it's basis, the Guardians of Order d20 Mecha Compendium), the official d20 Modern mecha rules featured in "d20 Future", and a home-brewed system that ported the Silhouette mecha system into a d20 framework. Here's my collected wisdom (such as it is ) from these experiences: 1. Avoid Palladium as if it were the most virulent of plagues. 2. Hands-down best mecha system (of those I tried): Silhouette. But, I got complaints from players about lack of character options under the Silhouette system, hence the move to d20. 3. Most playable d20 mecha solution: d20 Future mecha (with the "Mecha as vehicles" options from the "d20 Future Tech" guide). That last one there was a hard fact to face, 'cause I really don't like the templated system that d20 Future provides. I loved taking the time using the d20 Mecha Compendium or my home-brewed rules to try to model mecha in excrutiating detail. Like Focker noted with Mekton, the d20 Mecha Compendium and Silhouette rules can take quite a while to create a good model for the mecha, but I enjoy that sorta stuff. But, my players really didn't care about how accurate the modelling was. What they wanted was fast-paced, interesting action with the bare minimum of stats to keep track of. Throwing in rules for using different sensor types, different guidance systems, different movement systems... it kinda made their eyes glaze over. So, I stripped it down to the bare essentials and sped everything up, and they were happy as proverbial clams. In the end, as my own available time waxed and waned, I came to prefer a simpler system too since I could add new mecha designs quickly and without too much work. I guess the conclusion here is that make sure you pick a system that reflects your players. If your players are into detailed mecha or military technology, then they'll probably dig a system like Mekton, Silhouette, or the d20 Mecha Compendium where you can get that kind of detail. If they're more like mine, where keeping it simple and fast-paced is more valuable, then these systems might not be a good match. Right now, I've been looking at the new Star Wars RPG SAGA Edition, which has even more stripped-down vehicle statistics and a dogfight system that looks promising. If you're interested in any of the stuff I've put together, you're welcome to it. I've still got all the rules stuff, but all my d20 mecha stats fell victim to a hard drive crash a little while back.

For them what care to know, HLJ's got Hasegawa's 1/72 VF-1D up for preorder, although strangely it is not yet under "Macross". Hasegawa VF-1D at HLJ

Gonna pass on this one, I think. I'd add a 1/6 version to my ever-expanding collection, but the size and price point just aren't my cup o' tea.

Amen to that.

My Patlabor collection could always use a few more Ingrams, but I have to say, I'm starting to think of them the same way I tend to think of VF-1s... "What... again?" I love the vinyl collection we've been getting with a lot of the "filler" labors to go with the CM's line, and I'd like to see some labors beyond the Ingrams and Griffon get a more "deluxe" release. The Revoltech Helldiver was a welcome addition, and there are some cool military labors from both movies. I tells ya... whatever company can keep the new labors comin' has got my dollars. Has anyone heard whether Yamato's using the movie or TV versions as the basis?

Thanks for the answer, eugimon. I figured film had to have pretty high resolution in order to be projected at a decent screen size and retain quality.

I got a question, for anyone who's got some technical savvy on film resolution and high-def formats. I was discussing old films on HD formats with some friends, and the issue came up as to whether there's anything to be gained (picture-quality-wise) by acquiring an older film in an HD format if you've already got the DVD (specifically, someone was holding the HD-DVD of "John Carpenter's The Thing"). The discussion all boiled down to a question none of us had an answer for. The only way we could see any advantage was if the original source for the DVD was finer quality than 480 resolution could produce, in which case the HD formats would be revealing quality that the DVD couldn't. Naturally, modern films that are digitally recorded in a high-def format benefit immensely from HD presentation. As for good old film, it still has a physical/chemical equivalent of a "pixel", in terms of the smallest photo-sensitive unit that can be exposed, which more or less defines the "resolution" the film is capable of. So, the question is, does the image on conventional film stock (image deterioration due to age notwithstanding) have fine enough detail that your typical DVD does not reveal all the potential picture quality? This also led into a whole discussion on how much of a scam "upscaling" is as a selling point, since adding pixel density to a 480 image can't create higher quality than the 480 image already has... but that's a whole 'nother discussion.

I'll chime in to support cobywan and MechTech. These models are a ton of fun to build, not too complicated and the transformation is simple. Some glue and a quick coat of spraypaint, and you can turn these into something that looks decent and are robust enough to survive several transformations. I built my first of these kits... gee, must be 20 years or so back... when I found an original Imai VF-1A gathering dust a the bottom of a stack of old Ertl Star Wars kits at a local model shop (and exclaimed "Wow, a Robotech model!" Ah, youth...). This was long before I got into all the "fun" of filling, sanding, etc., etc. Now I've got a couple on pre-order yet again, even though I've already built 10 or so of them before. Of course, I'll do all that extra finishing that's become second nature to me, but you really don't need to go through all that to make a decent end product. One note: Be careful with the glue. That first VF-1A... I ended up glueing the retractable hands into the arms (pause here to curse darkly at ye olde red Testors glue glob dispenser).

I use Gunze spray lacquer to topcoat my models and I haven't had any problems with the soft-tip markers for panel lining. Can't say about acrylic topcoats. Gundam markers do have a similar base to Tamiya and Gunze acrylic paints. I've used a Gundam white marker quite a few times to "erase" small mistakes by using it to lift off the paint and then wipe it clean quickly (doesn't work for Pollyscale/Testors or Life Color acrylics though). Given that, I'd say it's quite possible for acrylic topcoats to damage Gundam marker paint jobs. But, I think that will be more of a problem if you've painted an entire surface using markers. Worst case for panel lines, it might break them up a little and you'd have to go over them again.

Hello. My name is Mark, and I'm a Rock Band-aholic. I was reading A7's review of Rock Band on the PS2, and I gotta say the gameplay is even more fun when you bring in the rest of the instruments and "jam" with a bunch of friends with similarly low humiliation thresholds (even if I do end up the drummer most of the time 'cause they got no freakin' rhythm ). The character creator in Rock Band adds another level of fun to the whole process. It's pretty much killed my enjoyment of Guitar Hero III. I tried going back to GH III after playing Rock Band, and just found it so lifeless and sterile I couldn't be bothered. And the "guitar battles" in GHIII I simply can't stand. I love these games for the music. After playing through the first battle with Tom Morello, I pretty much just unplugged and shelved the game. Earning "attacks" to use on the opposing player is too dumb for words, and destroys the whole illusion that the game presents in the first place. Anyhow, in response to A7's question on songs I'd like to see in the next Rock Band or show up for download, in no particular order and including several "not bloody likely" choices: Buddy Holly - "Rave On" The Beach Boys - "California Dreamin'" (Call me a heretic, but I prefer this version to the Mommas and the Poppas) Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains", "Sex Is Not The Enemy" Morningwood - "Nth Degree" Fear Factory - "Zero Signal", "Invisible Wounds (The Suture Mix)" a-Ha - "The Sun Always Shines on TV" Def Leppard - "Photograph" Type O Negative - "Love You To Death" Stone Temple Pilots - "Trippin' a Hole in a Paper Heart" KMFDM - "Ultra", "Brute" Robert Palmer - "Simply Irresistable" ZZ Top - "Sharp Dressed Man", "Rough Boy" Linkin Park - "What I've Done" Queen - "One Vision", "Headlong" Prince - "Let's Go Crazy", "Little Red Corvette" Green Day - "Nice Guys Finish Last", "Whatsername"