Mr March

Fair enough. But why is it, for example, nobody is jumping in the Stargate SG1 thread? I just read that and you have 2 pages of nothing but friendly posts of people who like the show. Now I don't like that show, but I don't feel the need to go in it say what a sh*tty show it is and the people who do like it must be retards or something. So please everyone, let's have equal sarcastic jerk behavior! But then, I just can't bring myslef to butt in and ruin their conversation and turn it in to a flame war. Why is it Jemstone and Duke Togo aren't there trashing it? Do they think SG1 is cool or something? I'm sure Duke could search around and find some gay McGyver pictures, he seems to keep those kind of pics at his finger tips. I certainly can't speak for Jemstone or Duke Togo, but I haven't run into the Stargate thread to post a dissenting opinion because Stargate SG-1 simply doesn't warrant any significant discussion of a controversial nature. You see, as much as people love Stargate SG-1, it has been my experience that most of it's fans simply don't treat it like a religion. Not to say that some would, it's just been my experience that they don't. I have never heard nor read about crazy Stargate SG-1 fans and their OCDs. Most importantly, if such occurances do exist, I won't find them at the forefront of public media. By way of comparison, I've heard all about the trekkie who left his wife and kids to pursue his fandom and spread the "trek gospel" and I've read about the "trekkie juror" who wore her Star Trek uniform to court and I've seen the infamous Shatner get a life speech. And yes, I've heard, read, and seen all of this simply because it's been on public media and is deemed important enough to print on front pages or produce documentaries. Simple fact is, Trek fans take their fandom of Trek far too seriously, especially given my own personal opinion of the show's worth (or lack thereof). As a result, controversy ensues Personally, I not only feel that Trek is substandard, worthless material, but I'm willing to stand up and say so whenever a discussion is created. Especially since I am part of the MW community and I want to impart my opinion (which I value) upon other members here. Probably in the hope that eventually Trek will die and that more people will hope it does like I do. No doubt I am now to be categorized as a demon-spawned, hatemonger out to spread word of my anti-Trek manifesto to all the other pagans who would dare to attack the gospel which is Trek and it's fandom. To that criticism, I say let your venom fly cause you only prove my point that Trek is crap. I could certainly go into all the reasons why I dislike Trek, but that's another intense discussion which I'm sure you don't care about anyway. Suffice it to say, I dislike Trek for all it's many weaknesses as entertainment, I dislike the negative effect it has upon production of other sci-fi television (Straczynski anyone?), and I dislike the fanatical fandom continuing to preach the poison of Trek's philiosophy like some union of fundamentalism meets L. Ron Hubbard. That's why Trek threads turn bad and why Stargate SG-1 is treated like something that it is...an entertaining television show.

I like the progress shots. The work looks great so far. This is going to be a very special custom job when it's complete. Well done!

Trek deserves to pass for it's horrible cliches, non-dimensional characters, and outright theft of other, superior works by far better and more worthy authors. Not only that, but it has been the black eye of science fiction fans for as long as I've been alive and gives the genre a bad name. For every one Herbert or Tolkien, there are a hundred bad Trek episodes, novels, or films slammed down the throat of the public. Every time I talk to people about science fiction, the response is often "Oh, is that the Star Trek stuff?" This is a crime, since Trek is at the forefront of awareness of science fiction like some kind of self-appointed champion of the genre; a position of which the franchise is totally undeserving. Last but not least, Trek has not contributed to the innovation or expansion of science fiction storytelling since the 1960's. One wonders why the hell the show is even around when it has nothing to contribute. But that's the tragedy of "entertainment". For the last decade, Trek has slowly but surely fallen off the map and out of the collective conscience. The series are cancelled, the films are box-office poison, and its end has finally come. I herald this end as a bright spot of hope for science fiction and the death of a terrible franchise which has convinced people it offers more than it ever did simply because of it's longevity. As such, I will post my opinions on Trek whenever I can and post my praise for the franchise's demise. The board rules here at MacrossWorld permit bashing, heated discussion, and harsh opinion. So I shall do so.

I'm sorry, but I just have to say that if MacrossWorld rules allow bashing of Macross, Star Wars, Evangelion, and all the popular movies that come up for discussion, there's no way in hell that Trek discussions should be given preferential treatment. I understand there are some fans of the Trek series here, but how many times has the subject of bashing and heated fan debates been covered in other threads? It's obviously allowed, so please get over the fact that your fellow MW members will be sarcastic jerks from time to time (like myself) and chime in with their oh-so-pithy comments. This is a fanboard after all. Make no excuses and post your opinions.

It depends upon where in Canada you are going. New York and Chicago have nearly identical average temperature ranges as Toronto; Toronto being just slightly colder. Despite being farther north than Toronto, Vancouver is actually the warmest major city in Canada. Vancouver and Seattle have nearly identical weather; Vancouver being slightly milder. I live in Calgary and it gets colder here than most other major cities in Canada, Winnipeg and Regina being the coldest. Luckily, Calgary enjoys chinook winds which regularly warm the city, even in the middle of winter. A common sight since I moved here is to see sunny skies and melting temperatures right in the middle of the cold winter months. Enjoy your trip to Canada!

This is Trek we're talking about here. The show that practically invented the modern dues ex machina that we know as "The Reset Button." No death is for certain in this franchise

Aaawww, and here I was hoping for another season of Lord of the Flies

Wow. Never knew that Trek fans and my government had so much in common when it comes to wasting large sums of money. Maybe both parties really are trying to eliminate currency before the 24th century

I knew a fella in Uni that built a minigun that shot bbs. It was a project he worked on for several years while he was going through the engineering program. It was a very cool looking gun, but I never had a chance to see the gun actually fire because the guy couldn't afford the ammunition. He tested it once and didn't really want to spend a ton of money just to fire it again

Finally got around to watching the final episode of Macross Zero today. Overall, Macross Zero was mediocre. The ending was forced, and far too much emphasis was placed upon mise en scene to properly close all the many threads created in the plot. While the messages of Macross (love, music, culture) did climax as in many other Macross stories, the concepts were too aloof. Combined with the lack of a grounded finale, the plot threads ultimately hurt what the story was trying to convey. Analyzing the character arcs, in the case of the two antagonists and Aries, their deaths were handled with little or no consideration for an overall development. The result is a flat character with a flat death, thus the character shouldn't have been in the story to begin with. Especially in the case of Aries, her purpose in the overall story of Macross Zero is extraneous. If I were an editor, she never would have made it past the cutting room. Shin and Sara's relationship is too underdeveloped to justify the awesome depth of emotion needed for the final act of the story. Like an oft used Hollywood cliche, the two spend their scenes fighting and that's how the audience is supposed to know they love each other. An initial hostile relationship between characters only works if the writer can then create circumstances and revelations in which both characters realize the error of preconceptions. Little of such character development was present in Macross Zero, and certainly not to any significant degree that would make the final relationship between Shin and Sara beleivable. As a standalone story, Macross Zero leaves far too much open to question to be complete or satisfying. The AFOS was never sufficiently explained, Shin and Sara's fate is left hanging, the powers Sara and Mao display are never sufficiently explained, et cetera. Instead, Macross fans are left to engage in supposition about all these questions, often (especially reading this thread) using plot elements and backstory from other Macross animes or tertiary published materials to speculate upon which of those said elements more properly fills all of Zero's gaps. This is both dissappointing and ironic, especially given how much of the beginning script was devoted to backstory and to set up a distinct narrative for the Macross Zero story. IMO, Macross Zero lacks heart and a solid story. While I didn't hate Macross Zero, I didn't find it particularly fulfilling. Looks like SDF Macross and Macross Plus still remain the better productions of the franchise.

I'm more amazed with every shot. Well done!

Could always use the non-articulated hands that come with the FAST Pack sets. They're much bigger and would look better. Yamato will probably have a set of hands with the GBP anyway.

GLAUG!!!!!!! I agree there should be many more Macross products. However, it looks like Yamato has run out of steam. We're scrapping the bottom of the barrel here. Even hoping they complete the 1/48 GBP set may be asking too much at this point

All I ask of Yamato, is to just complete this one more VF-1 product for the 1/48 series and I'll be content that it was a good run. Just this one more product... *crosses fingers*

Note: NEVER code your Phillips 642 for Region 0 or "Regionless" as it can permanently lock up the player and you can never use it again. EVER. My buddy and I both bought a 642 and he tried Region 0 on his and, slam, locked up for good. The safest route is to constantly recode your player depending on which region the DVD your playing is for (it's terribly easy). My one qualm about the 642 is that it Really? And how would one accomplish this terribly easy procedure? I've got a Toshiba SD-2700.

Mr. March, why not pick up a philip DVD 642 for all your R2 DVDs? it's the best region free DVD player (with a code of course). The best part is it plays Divx AVI too! imagine just burning your Mac0 to a DVD or CD and just pop it into the player This DVD has progressive scan, component/S-Video, optic out, and it has one of the best PAL conversion (better than any DVD players I have seen, and I went through alot ) and the price is $69.99 USD cheaper than a 1/60 Just do a google and you'll find it I could, but it seems rather silly to have two players when 99% of my DVDs are Region one. I own very few international DVDs.

I'm just thankful beyond words that there is finally a Region 1 release of Nausicaa with the original japanese dialogue, good subtitles, and no editing. Watching my Region 2 DVD of Nausicaa was a pain in the ass, since I have no player of my own for Region 2 DVDs. Granted, it was a fantastic edition the japanese finally released, but I've only watched it once since I bought it last year I won't be watching the dub for some time, but I'll watch the original japanese with subtitles and post my reactions. So far, this new Region 1 Nausicaa DVD looks sweet!

Whoa! 1600x1200 cockpit pictures? I'm PM'ing this fella!

Hahahaha! If David Cronenberg did Bugs Bunny... I guess my childhood has been officially raped. It looks terrible.

Fantastic. More, MORE!

Oh, well that's actually good. It means there may yet be some hope that the set will be reasonably priced. If it is, I may upgrade if I can sell my old discs.

Yeah, I believe this came up before. I own all the single Cowboty Bebop DVDs and the Bebop movie already. The price for the new set is very steep. I'm also starting to plan ahead when it comes to DVD purchases. While I enjoy the improvements of DVD over old tapes, I'm already looking toward the next generation digital formats that will reduce/eliminate block noise, color gradients, and layer transitions. I want a format that will finally do ultimate justice to the true look of a quality film.

Honestly, the trailer looks good. Of course, it's supposed to I've read the first three books of Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide and they were fantastic. It would be funny to see this film done right.

If anyone could turn Trek around, it would be JMS. However, in my opinion, his talent would be much better spent on far more promising product (more B5, Rising Stars, etc). But, it's his choice and he can attempt to work on whatever he likes.

I have to disagree with this statement. Mechs of that size would be able to go places a jeep couldn't. I doesn't take much to stop a wheeled vehicle and the current gulf war has taught the army just how vunerable helos are. I can't really speak for the Gasaraki but the scopedog can carry a buttload of heavy weapons. The whole point of a feasable small mecha would be to provide a significant military resource that could go places a light vehicle could not, while at the same time possessing more advantages over conventional infantry that can go anywhere. In this list of criteria would as be such oft-forgotten considerations like cost-benefit of the mecha unit, operational endurance compared to conventional units, unforseen vulnerabilites of an unconvetional humanoid mecha, worth of the mecha unit as compared to the combined arms of the military, etc. From where I stand, a realistic analysis of those anime mecha within the scope of our foreseeable future technological abilities would not provide a viable result. It's OK if we don't agree but to in my opinion the scopedog meets all of your criteria. It's capable of carring a multitude of weaponsystems. It's able to handle enviroments where conventional vehicles can not operate, including zero-G. cost is irrelevant to thics discussion since these are fantasy designs it's impossible to put a pricetag on them except to say that the fact that they exist in thier respective universes means that they must be cost effective to produce. Actually, no it isn't. The only way to begin questioning whether one mecha is more plausible than another is to take our current understanding and apply it to the supposed reality of such vehicles. Otherwise, where can a comparison even begin? If we accept the physics and economics unique to each individual anime series while silmultaneously we suspend our disbeleif indiscriminantly, one mecha is EQUALLY as plausible as the next. In that case, the more outrageous, fantastic, or magical the abilities of the mecha, the better it is as the mecha of choice. Obviously, this is a ridiculous and dead-end way in which to analyze "plausibility". So we return to my original assesment and the reasoning behind it. This makes the afformentioned Patlabor and GITS mecha the more plausible. I think you're confusing practical with plauible. There are tons of mechs that could be plausibly made but none of them are practical. If they were they'd have been made. That's all I'm going to say on the subject. There's no point in arguing over which made up robot is more realistic than the other. Were both set in our opinions so just leave it at that. Any debate you want or don't want is at your leisure. I'm simply responding to criticism of my post. Ultimately, it's up to you to propose a theory which is more sound than mine. So far you've offered no such analysis. You've tried to dismiss en masse all my criteria without offering a competing analysis or even a basis for your own choices. In all fairness, you did briefly attempt to apply my method of analysis to your own choice...albiet piecemeal (applying weapons power to your choice mecha while ignoring all the other considerations). There is no confusion on my part between plausible and practical. I'm definitely basing my opinion on a plausible mecha (not practical, since verification is impossible). What I am doing is using practical reasons why I chose mecha in Patlabor and GITS. Perhaps this is the dinstinction you're not understanding.