Sousei no Aquarion.

[Dendrobius]

Well, those big big Kanji characters going down the middle of the page?

"Heavy Assault Type, retail confirmation!"

(In other words, this isn't a custom, it WILL be on sale, and very soon too hopefully)

Top right corner

"Sousei no Aquarion DX chogokin (diecast) release #2, 'Heavy Assault Type Aquarion', colour test model publically released"

(This is their first colour test model, so looks like they're almost done)

The rest are too small for me to read.

[Renato]

I've said it before, I'll say it again:

HOLY KAWAMORI!!

I am so getting this bad boy.

[wolfx]

I have acquired my Aquarion yesterday and i spent a good 2 hours playing around with it in different modes. This is a "short" review.

Out of the box, the Aquarion vectors felt like floppy things, especially Vector Mars. Felt weird about that. But upon reading the instructions there were plastic pieces that you can append to the vectors to make them more sturdy. Cool.

So 1st thing i built up was Aquarion Mars, the fugly blue one. Aquarion Mars is basically 3 of the Vectors stacked on top of each other, thus is the tallest mode. When I finally got it built up, 1st impression was, FLOPPY. The waist joint can move front and back and its loose, thus due to the back heaviness, it always droops backwards, The skinny chicken legs don't help it stand either and trying to pose it in a non-standing-straight pose was almost impossible.

So the 2nd mode I tried was Aquarion Luna. Aquarion Luna as well couldn't really stand on its own. The legs which were using Vector Sol, the feet are connected to the ankle by a flimsy joint, and its not supported by a heel, which makes this another impossible mode to stand without the stand. Despite that, I like this mode pretty much. Its just so unique...don't know how to put it, but the arms opening up into a bow and arrow just appealed to me. Other than the inability to stand by itself, only thing I didn't like about this mode is when the arms open up into the bow, you have to put in the "golden parts" which have to be swapped out when the hands form back. They could've left the gold parts in the bow somehow without removing the gold parts.

So the last and i would say the most optimal mode would be Aquarion Solar. Overall a very good mode. I could just barely pose it without the stand. The knee ratchet joints are pretty weak to allow it more dynamic poses without the stand. Vector Sol joins to Vector Mars by Vector Mar's head, forming Aquarion Solar's torso. Good idea i thought, until I realised that Vector Mar's neck joint is not racheted and thus too weak to support the full weight of Vector Sol forming the upper body. Thus while posing, the upper body tends to swing out crazily out of position. Abit afraid that this might cause Vector Mar's head to snap off if you're not careful.

Overall, i was very impressed with the engineering of this toy. Its has complex transformation, not for the faint hearted and those who lack patience, but every part moves as it should (no joints stuck making you wonder if it moves or not) and how the toy joins up is very secure thus no worry of it crumbling in your hands while posing. Very good consideration to toy design like how some parts just fit nicely and no force is required anywhere which might cause parts to snap (ie: Toynami :roll: ). And I think this is the toy which by far has the most moving parts I've ever seen. Almost every thing I touch moves someway or other. Pretty cool.

Worth the money IMHO.

[Alex]

Oh god. Just saw the pics of the "Heavy ass" Aqua for the first time. Now i want it more than ever.

That kawamori has stolen more money from me than tax and that bloody vodafone company combined

Ah,,,,who am i kidding? I do these things to myself. i have a sickness. Do they have "Otaku interventions" coz when i go visit the uk next month therell probably be a circle of friends waiting for me

Hmmm.....guns galore but the colours DO make it look a little too plasticky. Well...since this is just a colour test im sure itll look a lot more kickass when its finally out there.

Any word wether this will come with redesigned display stands to show off the gerwalk et al.?

Edited October 24, 2005 by Alex

[grss1982]

The mass production Aquarion are nice, I hope Bandai will produce MG kits.

Its that a gerwalk? 

PS:

I'm the only one who thinks episode 15 was pure crap?

332830[/snapback]

looks like gerwalk alright, but were the hecks the arms?

[wolfx]

I was inspired, and thus decide to make....Aquarion GERWALK!!!

56k warning!

[uminoken]

Couple tidbits I found on the web:

-The Heavy Assault Type/Strong Attack/Reinforced Aquarion is out in March and has "official support for Assault Walker and Armageddon forms" I'm guessin one of those is the 'gerwalk' mode? Also does anybody have any screencaps of the MP Aquarion in various modes? I've only found the wee little ones on the official site...

-English translation of the part of the instructions (Shoji on the design)

Since mahou's only up to ep 18, please tell me during the big battles at the end of the show they DON'T use the opening song for battle music! Everytime they play it for the end of a battle, it gets more and more annoying!!! I just got the second OST and there are some very powerful choir moments that would fit perfectly, hope they don't go to waste like Macross Zero's score

Edited October 25, 2005 by uminoken

[LinxCrossq]

In the second OST there's a version of the first opening made with a chorus. Sounds really good and hopefully that's the version they used in the final battle.

And this looks really nice.

Edited October 25, 2005 by LinxCrossq

[zeo-mare]

I was inspired, and thus decide to make....Aquarion GERWALK!!!

i have yet to see any shots of it but i was wondering could you tell me how tall this figure is? can you maybe take a picture of him near a 1/48 Valk for size references?

thanks

chri

[wolfx]

Dangard Ace posted an image comparing all 3 modes with a VF-1S Hikaru, 2 pages back but it seems to be gone.

http://f40.aaa.livedoor.jp/~toyup/bbs/src/1128005823652.jpg

Anyone still has it?

As for my photos....well....i'll see when I can get to it. Transforming and then posing it is quite a pain really.

On the size, I'd say its slightly bigger or about the same height with a 1/48 (Solar Aquarion mode). So yeah its pretty big.

[isamu_dyson]

still have it

[zeo-mare]

thanks very much, he looks smaller then i thought.

chris

[wolfx]

Truth be told I saw the picture and was expecting it to be quite small before I got it. But believe me I wouldn't want it any bigger when I handled it. It was pretty big and I don't think I want it any bigger than it already is, space constraints and all.

[Renato]

For the Gerwalk's "hands", you can form some cool claw-type things, check it out.

I forgot to take photos of the Gerwalk, but here is what I mean on the Luna.

[wolfx]

For the Gerwalk's "hands", you can form some cool claw-type things, check it out.

I forgot to take photos of the Gerwalk, but here is what I mean on the Luna.

340085[/snapback]

Cool idea. But hey, gotta check in my manual later when i get back if the claws that open are actually part of any transformation cause I dont remmember it in the manual. I thought it was supposed to open to give Aquarion Mars more stability but don't think it was in the manual either.

PS: My hands are itchy. Time to transform it to Luna when I get back.

[LinxCrossq]

Eps 19 is out by mahou (who else).

Beware, this a weird one...

[Akilae]

Eps 19 is out by mahou (who else).

Beware, this a weird one...

341730[/snapback]

Well, we just went through a cosplay episode, how much wierder can it get?

[GRAND CANNON]

Eps 19 is out by mahou (who else).

341730[/snapback]

Thanks!

[Akilae]

I take what I said back... it was... wierd......

[isamu_dyson]

mass production type on preorder :

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN934886

Edited November 3, 2005 by isamu_dyson

[Effect]

Yeah, at first I was wondering if the animation team just had a serious off day but then realized it was actually apart of the story.

[uminoken]

mass production type on preorder :

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN934886

341881[/snapback]

How does hlj handle their pre-orders? Do they send a msg saying when the money will be taken out or does it just happen? Want to make sure I've got the money!

[capt.actionjackson]

Anybody else having trouble with the mahou site? I went over there to download the new ep and they're gone....are the doing site maintenance or something?

[uminoken]

Worked fine this morn but I can't even bring up the tracker page now...

And that was the oddest anime ep I've seen - I'm even counting Kare-Kano's stick figure episode I would dearly love a screenshot of the demon cat about to bite Sylvia tho

[capt.actionjackson]

Seems to be working fine now....must have been a glitch

[bsu legato]

Yeah, at first I was wondering if the animation team just had a serious off day but then realized it was actually apart of the story.

341952[/snapback]

No, even the "normal" animation was crap in this episode. Surprisingly bad, considering how nice the other episodes are. I wonder if they farmed it out to some other studio for the dream world sequences. It could explain why the real-world bookends don't match the rest of the series.

[isamu_dyson]

How does hlj handle their pre-orders?  Do they send a msg saying when the money will be taken out or does it just happen?  Want to make sure I've got the money!

341984[/snapback]

they'll sent you a payement request when it's out and ready to ship .

Edited November 4, 2005 by isamu_dyson

[uminoken]

Cool, I'll put in my preorder tonight then...

As diverting as these comedy eps have been, how long until the main story arc kicks back in?

[Ido]

It's just ep 19 animation that sucks or even the next episodes are so crappy, budget problems?

[LinxCrossq]

As far as I know it wasn't budget problems, they just chose to make that way (what the hell were they thinking?)

I would have any problems if the normal world looked... normal.

Anyway, the next episode starts the final arc in Aquarion and it suppose to be extremely good.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Wierd episode. I liked that it was done up in cartoony child's handrawn non 3 dimensional style.

I think it has to do with how one of the angels is a little kid, playing with thier minds and has some kind of spell on them which forces them to look inside themself and see all the bad stuff.. Once they awaken, the world goes back to normal and thier proper 3d vision returns.

..So yeah it wasn't without reason. The characters that got lost in the teleportation thing, must have got sucked into this alternate world. So when they got near enough to the tower, that's when the mind phucking began. And the person who tried to teleport got sucked into that world too when trying to exchange places. The SDF1 fold drives are probably there too. *macross joke* I guess the angels have the ability to use every trick in the book. Including shapeshifting into people or beings you want to see, like a respected person, or just mind reading; so that what appears is what you were thinking at the time. (whether it be a dirty ugly thought, a feeling of guilt, etc and the illusion gets shaped by what you are thinking like in a dream)

See unlike in macross 7 all this magical stuff at least feels like it belongs. The idea I think was to get that Sirius guy to look at everyone's "ugliness" (cause he can't stand ugly things being an angel and all) and cause the other ones to run scared by looking at each other as a mere shapeshifting illusion, as opposed to seeing and judging them on thier character to get the truth. In real life there is a lot of deception and phoney people trying to pose as people they want you to think they really are and trick you through imagery. This is why I personally think blind people can sometimes be the most honest and truthful people you will ever meet.

So if somebody who looks like your friend comes along, so long as you can see thier character and discern who they really are/were by testing them, you won't be tricked by the illusionary world that the little kid created to try to decieve the heroes. As long as the demons try to tempt you and accuse you and force you to see the ugly side, it is your obligation as a human to reflect that ugliness back at them and force them to look at themself to cancel out the spell. Once they look in the mirror they have no power or legal basis to accuse because thier own ugliness of character scares them. Surface beauty != beauty of real person's character underneath the illusion. I think that is the ugliness of humanity; that we see and judge by surface apearance only and the demons use this as leverage, causing man to do all kinds of evil things to each other while the angels are looking down at it and laughing at thier plan's success.

To me that episode is like getting an ugly person who is trying to make you feel aweful and who is trying to take the moral high ground, to look in the mirror and scrutinise themselves. Who are they really? Have they judged themselves with the same strict rules as they go about judging others through thier drawing of them to look ugly and distorted to make themself feel better? The thing I like about aquarion is it is as much about fighting those personal demons and the spiritual fight as showing one side kicking the other sides ass in a physical fight with swords, fists, arrows etc It is like the angels feed off human misery and negative emotions and get joy from it like a kid being cruel to a little insect for fun. (didn't you ever pull off a fly's wings when you were a kid? ) This attack was the kid's way of playing a practical joke and having fun by driving the characters mad.

The whole story is really just a love triangle. The main character liked the humans more than the angel (the gay angel) and the angel is now bitter for stealing the technology and knowledge from heaven and giving to humans. (not to mention making them have to feed off humans as an energy source.) It kind of reminds me of macross 7 PD who kept feeding from humans as vamps sucking their souls.(only without the music that creates energy freely) Note the similarity between the enslaved souls in the flowers and macross 7 Spiritua Farm?

Edited November 4, 2005 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[wolfx]

I think that the animators just wanted a holiday and they came up with this episode to cater for it.

[wolfx]

Another picture of the upcoming mass production aquarion toy.

[uminoken]

Now that looks like it can do some damage! Already got it on preorder

[Final Vegeta]

Episode 19 was animated by Satoru Utsunomiya. I didn't know him before, but it seems he is a big name in the animation department. Weird but good (the episode).

Just found: Images from Aquarion 2006 Calendar.

FV

Edited November 17, 2005 by Final Vegeta