RavenHawk

I don't understand what you mean. Yamato made the regular Garland. Fans complained about problems with it. They then offered free replacement parts that fixed a number of the problems that fans complained about, and by the time they did the Proto-Garland, they had incorporated those fixes and made additional improvements. New colors which essentially were the same design as the original Garland also incorporated the fixes (unlike Toynami who kept using the same molds for each new color Alpha, despite fan complaints). I would hope that Beagle DOES follow the Yamato approach.

Haven't watched it yet, but I will.

Which is sort of the same thing I was expecting before I started reading them, so I know what you mean. To be honest, I haven't read the novels in quite a few years, though I really loved them at the time, so I don't know whether the "books" of the comic correspond to the event in each book of the novels, or whether it's a more arbitrary decision in the comics, saying something like "first particular part of the story ends here, so this book will end here too." Either way, I'm really enjoying them and highly recommend them.

I'm halfway through book 2 at the moment, but it seems that it's all one long story, as opposed to separate books being separate stories. Book 1 is the part of the story leading to taking Tirol, book 2 so far is the beginning of the Sentinels campaigns, and so on. As such, your question is a little like having a 4 chapter book, where the fourth chapter is incomplete, and wondering if you should just read chapters 1-3, but skip 4 entirely. I think you should read as much of the sotry as you can, and enjoy the ride.

Talking about the collected editions of the Jack McKinney novels.

I own and have watched all part of Megazone 23 a number of times, and actually would be really curious to see how the Macek take on it would have been in a... purer, let's say, form. It's especially interesting that they commissioned a new ending there, which had nothing to do with the original. I would love to see this re-released (though I have no delusions that it would happen), with the new ending, but removal of the Southern Cross footage. Like said before, it is rather jarring, with the movie quality frames vs. the tv episode frames.

If you want the issues hardcopy, then eBay is definitely the way to go, and you can get them pretty cheap. Alternatively, you can download them. I just finished downloading the torrent with every single Robotech comic, from DC Robotech Defenders, though Comico, Malibu, Eternity, Academy, DC/Wildstorm... it's all there.

The collected editions didn't finish collecting the whole series. They stopped pretty early too. As for any extras in them, they didn't really. What they did have was a revised timeline, to match Harmony Gold's new version of it, and some of the early material was touched up a bit to match Sentinels better, since when they were originally being written, Sentinels wasn't planned yet. I read the Sentinels books first and like them best of all, but I think they're all pretty solid. The later books were more philosophical, and less just basing things on episodes.

I saw 4 collected editions, so figured it was the 4 books of Sentinels, but just looked through them and it's all book 1 of Sentinels, split into 4 collected editions.

Based on what I've read so far, I do indeed recommend them. There were also compilation books of the Sentinels comics put out by Malibu. I'd say look for the originals, or the compilations, on eBay. Probably can get the whole series for fairly cheap. As for the novels, I read the Sentinels ones when they first came out, then the followups afterwards. A couple years ago I picked up all 20 (I think that's how many it was) Robotech novels on eBay for about $30. I really do recommend them. Well written, and well thought out too.

Robotech II: The Sentinels: Book 1 (#1-16, plus Robotech II: The Sentinels: Wedding Special #1-2; Eternity): Well, having put off reading the actual Sentinels books until I'd read a good portion of the pre- and post-Sentinels stuff, the time finally came to delve into this series, written by Tom Mason and Chris Ulm and illustrated by the Waltrips. I'm impressed. I really enjoyed the first book of this. The artwork is very very solid, very consistent throughout, faces are recognizable, mecha look good, without any exaggerated line weights like you often see, and the art looks very consistent with how the Sentinels series was meant to look. The writing is MUCH better than I expected. My complaints on previous Robotech comics were often about them being all action with minimal plot or character development, or being like some high school reality show (with some exceptions, such as Invid War, Aftermath), or being solid but feeling rushed (Malcontent Uprisings was good, but felt rushed to me). I have to say, this book seemed to have everything in just the right proportions. The storytelling is slow (but by no means boring; it is interesting throughout), developing where it needs to, building up where it should (even devoting two issues of a special to the wedding, which seems silly at first, but when you read it, it is just right, and helps character development significantly), and filling in details nicely. There is action, but there is plot as well, and they are going at, in my opinion, just the right base. I'm really looking forward to the next book. Of note, so far this has followed the scripts for Sentinels and the McKinney books (which I am a big fan of) VERY closely. All of this really lends to a cohesive feel to the Robotech "universe." I have heard that later on these two writers leave, and the Waltrips stay on, but handling both art and story. While I am glad that I can expect this consistency, I am curious to see how the writing will change at that point. Also, I have heard that, as the series progresses, it beings to diverge more and more from the scripts and the books, so I am anxious to see that take place. Regardless, I enjoyed this a lot, MUCH more than I expected, and I recommend it highly.

That's what I was afraid of. Well, thanks for the info.

I asked this once, but never received a response. Does anyone know if there are plans to release the "Typhoon"-type motoslaves, or is it just going to be different colors of these "Hurricane"-type ones?

That's good to know. Thanks for the info. I've got the Garlands and metallic motoslave so far, with a Beagle on order, but might want to someday pick up the CMs MOSPEADAs too, to match the scale... though it's tough to justify spending that much money, plus part of me wants the army Garland, the original Garland, and hopes they do a Hargun and Garland E=X.

What was this in response to? So, are your MOSPEADAs, which you said are in a pretty close scale, CMs?

Kind of a cool pic, actually?

Clearly we have very different opinions about Yamato. Have you had a chance to get your hands on the Metallic Priss and Motoslave from Bubblegum Crisis?

Are they really? Nice! Is that the CMs or Megahouse? Why can't Yamato make one too??? Someone had pictures of the Busou Shinki (sp?) High Maneuver Type YDA Stradale and High Speed Trike Type ACH Stradale next to their MOSPEADAs, and that looked decent scale-wise too. Also saw a Garland rider figure fitting nicely on a MOSPEADA. Let me see if I can find them. I think a couple of them may be yours, Drifand?

Can't comment on this too much, since I'm still waiting on my Toynami-Beagle, and don't own a CM or Megahouse (they just don't look right to me somehow, and knowing the Beagle was on its way, I decided to save my money for that), but I bet Yamato would do a nice job of doing a smaller scale MOSPEADA.

Not at all! I appreciated the recommendation, think the thing is absolutely gorgeous, but just, unfortunately, had a problem with it. As I mentioned, I emailed Yamato. They got back to me the next day and said they were shipping out a replacement to me that very same day. I don't know if it's a replacement Garland, or a replacement for the joint that broke, or what. I have to say that I am VERY impressed by their customer service. I have had a recent string of bad luck with items I have purchased, arrived broken, and then had to ship back to the company (Linksys and Robotech.com are the two in recent weeks) at a fairly significant cost to me. This actual customer SERVICE from Yamato really impressed me. Now, my gf says it's a bad sign that they're so used to issues with their products that they have this replacement system down pat... but for me, I love actually dealing with a company that seems to respect their customers. I'm definitely going to continue collecting Yamato products (well, Yamato variable bikes anyway... would love to see them try a MOSPEADA, though I'm sure it will be hard to compete with Beagle). I hope they tackle the Viper's Creed AGS Manuever Blade/Roid, the Blassreiter Paladin, and maybe Ridebacks too (all in the same scale as the Garland and Motoslave, of course).

Garland... MOSPEADAs... Motoslave... as a variable bike obsessive, I love these pics!

I read an interview with him a couple days ago in the back of an old Robotech comic, and he pretty much refused to even discuss Robotech: The Movie, saying it was horrible and he never wanted it made in the first place.

I just saw a commercial with an amazing new pill you can take to fix your limping stick... Sorry, couldn't help it. That really does suck though. Considering how bummed I got when my brand new Garland's leg broke a couple days back, I can only imagine how much more annoying it must be to have that happen to a new Beagle MOSPEADA.

Really? I had just assumed that each one was 20-30 episodes per season, and next season was a new one. I've never really watched more than a random episode here or there, just to explain my ignorance. Somehow, even though I love this kind of stuff animated, the live action just seems too... cartoony, I guess... for me. Plus, to be honest, those cards he uses just make me think of Yugioh. I do love the transforming bikes though. Would love to see more of that.

Haven't yet, but I plan on starting tomorrow. I'll post up comments on each book (they're divided into "books" of 13-22 issues each) as I finish eat.