Penguin

Mine just arrived from HLJ yesterday. Damn... huge box compared to the other Hasegawa VFs. You are correct... the armour is not removable. A few pieces are layered over the basic battroid, but most significant parts are not. The legs, for example, just have a piece at the top to show the leg protruding from under the armour. The chest armour is layered on, but the chest of the battroid underneath has these big posts sitcking out for the chest armour to attach to.

Great stuff, 1BRD. Reminds me of a button I used to have that read "A sucking chest wound is the GM's way of telling you to slow down."

One small step out of bankruptcy for Palladium, one giant leap backwards for roleplayers. I've already done my DP9/Silhouette port for Macross, and I'm in the middle of my D20 version, so I'll be leaving anything Palladium offers on the shelf. Strangely enough, I loved the Palladium system when I first started using playing Robotech. It took Rifts to kill any enjoyment my gamers and I got from it.

Another manufacturer to avoid like the plague: Hobbycraft. I really wanted to do a 1/48 diorama of the CT-114 Tutor (i.e. Canadian Snowbirds) for my Dad's birthday a couple years back (since he grew up in Moose Jaw, Sask, where they're based). Unfortunately, Hobbycraft (or Hobbycrap as my limited imagination has renamed it) is the only manufacturer of the Tutor I could find. It took every iota of my admittedly average skills to get it looking decent. Took so long the diorama devolved into "in a field with muddy tracks behind it". I swore to never touch Hobbycraft again... until my brother roped me into helping him build their 1/72 Avro Arrow kit. Yech. What I wouldn't give for a decent company to issue models of Canadian military aircraft. At least Hasegawa has issued Canadian markings for the CF-104 and CF-188...

Three words: Gran Turismo Five When that comes out, a PS3 will be mine. 'Til then... meh. ... okay, if a 3rd Guitar Hero is on the PS3, that'll be tempting too... or a Star Wars Battlefront 3...

Primers are quite useful, especially for brush painters like me. Providing a smooth, even coat for the paint to adhere to helps get rid of brush marks and uneven colour intensity. The better primers (like Tamiya) usually come in a few grades. Tamiya has a "fine" grade primer, at least in spray, which I've used plenty. It coats well and doesn't fill in the details. If you ever get the spray primer, make sure you really shake up the can well. I've had a lot of "particulate" matter left over on the model sometimes when using the grey primer if I didn't really shake well before spraying. Also see if you can find both grey and white primer. Grey is best for darker colours, or if you want to dull down the final colours of your kit. White is best for keeping the top coats bright. If you really want dark colours or are doing a "dirty"/weathered model, there are some black primers as well. I used Gunze flat black spray lacquer to prime my Ivanov SV-51, and it helped make a really smooth, dark finish for the RLM-66 grey on top. If you've got a really good kit already (few to no imperfections, nice clean plastic), you can use a light coat of flat paint instead of actual primer, if you're just looking to get a good surface for your top coat to stick to. I used flat white and flat black testors spray enamel for years before I discovered a decent model primer. I found that Tamiya and Gunze acrylics adhered really well to the flat enamel. Just make sure the primer paint uses a different solvent than the actual colour, naturally. Always prime resin and vinyl kits. I've gotten lucky once or twice without, but more often unprimed resin just doesn't take paint well. I did a resin VF-4, got lazy, and just sprayed it FS36375 grey without priming first. The paint just peeled right off afterward. I had to wash the kit again and prime it before I could get a good coat. Plastics you can get usually away without primer if you clean the kit well before hand (to remove any chemical residues), and the plastic is already in a suitable colour.

There is a TON of anime magic in the Cyclone to get it to look so sleek in armour mode. As for the model, there is some parts swapping, but I don't know what you'd consider "a lot". The forearm weapons have to be moved from the front wheels by hand, and the head has to be removed for the armour to be attached to the top of the figure. I think the hip pieces are simply removed and reattached as well, if memory serves (no guarantees there ). Plus, the legs and feet of the figure actually extend to make them larger when in armour mode, so the figure doesn't look out of scale on the cycle. It's actually not bad looking, but lacking in articulation.

Only if you're going to handcraft the armour. The MG Gundam skeleton is too large for the Aoshima models. Although the transformed figures are around 7 inches tall, and close to MG Gundam size, the base figure that rides the Cyclone is only 6 inches and too small for the frame. Transformation include extending the legs and feet, and removing the head, so that would have to be incorporated into the frame. No doubt it could be done, but you'd be looking at a lot of work, and a lot of customization to make larger armour and modify the frame, and in the end it would be out of proportion with the motorcycle. It would be simpler to look into some Wave option kits to add better articulation to the base figure's joints.

Obviously, any toy of the Cyclone will have to include the riders, 'cause without them the transformation would be... well, pointless. If Toynami produces nice, detailed figures of the riders, in a scale that can support really good detail (at least 1/12 I'm thinking... 1/6 too much to hope for) and some good accessories (sidearms, little trinkets like Scott's holo-necklace, etc.), I'd be interested in the Cyclones. Without that, though, count me out.

I always thought the IMAI Legioss had a crappy fighter mode. The wings are just stubs and the whole thing is unattractive. Looks good in battroid mode (or armo-whatever-the-heck-mode-it-was). The variable bikes look nicer, but I found they didn't stay together well in either mode. Transformation was a pain, too. I plan to get two of each bikes and build them permanently in each mode. The notion of using some Wave option parts to spruce up the Legioss battroid has appeal too. Hmmm... how ambitious am I feeling...

My thoughts exactly. Hadn't we already concluded in the "best anime series" threads that these sort of polls only reflect current fad and trend more than any real quality? The only way to get real results from these sorts of polls is to do them every year and see what keeps turning up, year after year. Then you get a sense of what really endures. Even then, you need to do a top 50 or even 100, 'cause the really lasting stuff tends to end up after the flavour of the moment.

Look who stole my answer! The Cima purple is way too red for EVA-01. I've got the Gunze EVA-01 paint set, and Tamiya purple is almost spot-on. Most Gunze purples I've seen tend to be a little too dark for EVA-01, unless you want to give it a more sinister look.

Are you listening to the English dub track or original Japanese? I didn't find the vocals drowned out at all in the Japanese track, but then again I have a 5.1 to separate the channels out and get the full benefit of the redone sound. I have to admit, I prefer the Manga dub to the new dub... but I prefer the original Japanese to any English version. All that being said, Patlabor 1 shows off the 5.1 surround much more dramatically than P2, being the more action-packed of the two.

I tend to collect just the valks that interest me (unfortunately, the 1/48s are starting to interest me more and more since I got the new stealth and woodland camo ones). I always panel line them, since they look much less like toys afterward (IMHO), but I HATE (geek rage!!! ) stickers, so rarely if ever apply them, and even then usually just the UN Spacy logos. All valks get some display time, but my space is limited so various parts of my collection see open air on a rotating basis .

Where's the scam? Future Shop gets to return the DVD to the distributor for credit or just restocks it (it's still untouched in the plastic, after all), HMV got paid what it was asking, and Spatula saves $26.

I never mind re-releases and special editions when it comes to DVDs, anime or not, when its from some title released back in the early years of the format before remastering and special features really caught on. The Patlabor movies are good cases in point. Not only are they among my favourites, but the first editions left so much to be desired that an update was more than welcome, even at the sorta high Amazon.com prices I paid. I only get ticked off when we get bare bones releases of current films, just knowing that there's going to be a special edition in less than a year. For anime companies, who don't tend to rake in tons of profit, I sometimes don't mind supporting a re-release since it helps fill their coffers and fund new acquisitions (hopefully). And I think all Macross fans dream of a better Macross Plus...

Geez, dude, that's what emoticons are for. Sarcasm doesn't translate well in flat text. You shoulda added a laugh or a wink in your post.

Hallelujah, brutha. Then again, I'll take root canal work over the "Doom" movie...

I can understand where you guys are coming from... at his worst, Oshii can be preachy and didactic, and P2 often pushes the limits of it. If I think about why I love it so much, I come up with the following (in no particular order): 1) Top notch animation and composition (the images of the army in Tokyo, especially as it begins to snow, always enthrall me); 2) Kenji Kawai's score; 3) The whole mood and tone of the film; 4) The fact that it is such a departure from your typical mecha slam-bang, with a strong focus on the older characters. I'd have preferred it if we could have seen Gotoh and Shinobu uncover more of the conspiracy themselves rather than be told it all by Asakawa, but I also find the dialogue interesting and engaging.

It's not arguing... it's passionate debating. Macross 7 is a really divisive point for a lot of Macross fans. Some see it as a continuing evolution of the song/spirit/culture themes from the first series. Others see it as a totally whacky and deranged direction to take the franchise in. Personally, I liked the greater insight into the Protocultures and their backstory, thought the whole Spiritia/song thing was an interesting notion, and enjoyed a lot of the music (especially Mylene's stuff... though I hated Planet Dance and Totsugeki Love Heart by the end). On the other hand, although I got where the characters were coming from, I didn't get involved in their story much, and I really started to hate the constant repetition of battle animation. So, I give it about 5 out of 10. Definitely not my favourite, but I don't despise it either. I don't think anyone's at the stage where death threats are being sent to Kawamori-san, though.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, naturally. Yours is entitled "heresy".

It's your Patlabor-lovin' little buddy here again with a quick review of the new DVD release of Patlabor 2 The Movie. Patlabor 2 being one of my all-time favourite anime features, I've been looking forward to this ever since it's announcement. As with the previous re-release of the first movie, this is the first North American release of the 1999 "sound renewal" version of the movie, with remastered video and a new 5.1 soundtrack. Perhaps because it's not as action-oriented as the first film, Patlabor 2's remixed audio isn't quite as immediately striking. Being heavily dialogue-driven, it doesn't showcase the full use of the 5.1 sound stage until the last third of so of the film. That being said, dialogue and background ambiance are crisp and clear, and I found the scenes with the attack choppers dismantling Tokyo really benefited from the improvements. I was a little put off by some of the changes in overall sound design, though. While Kenji Kawai's score (another one of my all-time favourites) is just as clear and crisp as the dialogue, sound designer Shigeharu Shiba actually removed music from some scenes, and replaced Kawai's music for the opening scenes in southest Asia entirely. The arrangement still generates the requisite moody and tragic atmosphere, but I personally prefer the score. Video is also nice and clean, especially on my nice new widescreen LCD TV . Overall colour quality is slightly washed as with the first film, but overall image quality is sharp and vibrant, so I think that's an artistic choice on the part of Oshii. The subtitles provide an almost entirely different set of dialogue than from the Manga Video version, especially during the long conversations between Gotoh and Asakawa. Not speaking Japanese, I can't comment on which is more accurate, but given Manga's track record I'd guess the new translations are more faithful to the dialogue. As with the first movie, they still replace "-san" with "Mr." or "Ms.", and it's still annoying. I did listen to the dub a little and found it serviceable and clean, but no substitute for the original voice actors I've come to love. As with the first movie, the limited collector's edition comes with a second disc of special features and two booklets - "Patlabor 2 The Movie Archives" and a collection of annotated storyboards. The second disc's features are a little uneven on detail, some items getting a good discussion while others are just lightly touched on, and it was fun seeing Hajime Katoki and Shoji Kawamori, however briefly, in the mechanical design segment. The archives booklet is another little gem, including some interesting articles on the political and social climate in Japan at the time the film was made, and a brief discussion of Patlabor fan dismay at the small role given to the younger members of the SV2 (normally the primary characters of the series) and lack of mecha action. It also includes a generous collection of full-colour and black-and-white background location shots and line art. I haven't had a chance to go through the storyboards yet. All in all, I'd recommend that any fan of the film at the very least pick up the non-limited edition release, simply for the improvement in sound, video, and story quality. The extra features of the limited edition are probably of most value to really devout fans of the film and of Patlabor in general.

Definitely Patlabor. I'd love a line with lots of the various labor models from the series.

I won't respond to that directly, 'cause it might lead to a forbidden political discussion , but let me just say that all English-speaking cultures do not have the same point of view regarding sex and violence in media. Have you ever watched "Benny Hill"?

Even if the project had been intended for peaceful purposes, the accident still could have happened, and likely WOULD have as they attempted to find the limits of the organs. It was a quest for the perfect power source. No fuel, no mess, no heat. Just free energy. The fact that it was tapped for weapons first is almost tangental. It would have become the backbone of the protoculture civilization if it had worked out instead of blowing up in their face. 415396[/snapback] Although, perhaps the Protodeviln wouldn't have been quite as much of a problem if the entities had only been able to possess a big, fat, immobile reactor instead of engineered bodies with heads and limbs and vast destructive powers. You do bring an interesting note about the power source. Our current understanding of physics tells us that energy can't be created or destroyed, so sucking it out of the sub-universe would imply that either the laws of conservation are multi-versal, meaning that we can also make energy seem to "vanish" from our universe by shunting it into another sub-universe (maybe that's where the SDF-1's fold engine went...), or that we don't know as much as we think we know. (Or, to cover GrimlockCW's point, that it's a cartoon and therefore physics doesn't apply... but what fun is that?) Oops... killed another cat girl. Don't worry though... they'll draw more.