Ghadrack

Here is my 2 cents.

If you have already got a copy of the robotech series on DVD, then HELL NO you should not re-buy them, buy the original Macross series, the original Southern Cross and the Original Mospeada series, that have all been released. The Robotech remasters are just a slightly less editted version of the original. If you want Robotech for nostaligia, like I did, get the original series as it was aired and then go out and get the source material series in their unadulterated form.

Aside from the fact that the Re-masters are still just editted series I understand from the RT.com boards that they are sub-par so far with bad sound quality, worse than the original DVD release, and while they include some extra snippets they are not worth an entire re-purchase of the series.

My answer is just say no to the remasters. If you like Robotech get it in it's original form, if you want to see the extras and the shows as they were meant to be seen, cut out the middle man totally and go straight for the japanese series.

Yeah, it sucks there only a handful of limited item to go around but that part of the nature of collecting...If you are the completist, sometimes you'll have to fork out alot of money to have something....I shelled out $750.00 for the Takatoku GBP1S/VF1S set years ago....I don't think I could even get $550.00 for it today since there are other alternatives out there.....Oh well....

-K

See, now I view this differently though, the Taka GBP as far as I know, wasn't released in an EXTREME (e.g. 500 piece) run and sold for a significantly higher pricepoint than the Strike 1-S was it? I don't see that as something that was made just purely for the sake of being rare, as opposed to the CMS chase figures or the bookends. Even the chase figures and collectible cards I understand their motivation, because now, the manufacturer is holding you hostage to purchase blindly in hopes that you get something special, which is really sort of scummy on a base level, but has been accepted by society as a valid marketting tactic.

That and the fact that you are buying a 20+ year old collectible toy on the collector's market goes into the price, I can understand the logic behind that sort of pricing and purchase.

Any economics class will tell you that a monopoly allows smaller runs with higher price points and higher profit. Simple supply and demand.

Ghadrack, I don't understand the point of your rant. Do you want the bookends and you're pissed at the price or are you just ranting to rant?

Sure, I am aware of the economics involved, I think that the logic is a little flawed in the sense that the original manufacturer never gets a piece of the re-sal pie unless they Horde or "Find a warehouse stock" of the item after they have created a desire for the item and then attempt to sell it at elevated prices. Naturally, the recognition of the public that they create rare and desireable things will probably enhance future sales and allow for greater production runs.

There really wasn't much point to my statement, I could care less about Toynami bookends. Don't have any, don't desire any, don't have any space or use for them.

I just think that the "Rare for the sake of being Rare" item is a little stupid, it just creates animosity amongst fans, sort of a haves and have nots situation when the original creator is selling an item with a 6 dollar production cost for $200 it puts it out of reach for the average kid. It's all about the benjamins, and that's OK we are a capitolist society, seeing this kind of stuff just makes me re-think my priorities when it comes to collecting, even things that I like. Should I really spend that extra cash just because something is rare? Probably not.

BiN of $599 Holy Crap

I have to see if anyone is crazy enough to pay that much for some book ends. I just can't fathom it.

What is the deal with people lately, I know that there are completists and collectors that want to have a great collection, but some of this stuff is just sickening exploitation of collectors.

The perfect example is those foolish Toynami book ends, and since they are an easy target I will use them. The Robotech special limited edition convention exclusive blah blah blah, $200.00 retail book ends. Some guy is auctioning a pair on E-Bay right now with a BiN of like $750.00. I have no interest in having robotech bookends but they come up when I search Macross/RT stuff on E-Bay, but why exactly do these cost 200$ in the first place?

Seems to me to be abuse of collectors. There are essentially 3 groups of people who see these things, People that have no interest or think that $200.00 for book ends is ludicrous, People that really are interested in them and don't have the money, and finally those that have the money and feel compelled to buy them or think they are worth the money. I understand the company collecting $40,000.00 for 200 sets of book ends, that is pretty groovy for them, but what is going through the collector's mind with something like a book end or a little plastic gashapon that is more rare than another? I don't view these things as a nostalgia purchase, they seem like some sort of bizarre self-rationalized investment.

I guess I just wonder when even the hard core fan stops and says, "No friggin way!". The same could surely be said about the Yamato 1/48's and their hefty price tag, although I would argue that $125 to $160 dollars each for a highly detailed, mechanically transforming model makes more sense than a painted lump of porcelain or plastic it is still insane to some.

I guess this was more of a rant than anything, I understand that companies can control their profit margin more effectively by limiting production runs and setting a price that they feel they can sell out at, but it sure seems lame to me when they do ultra limited runs when they know their is excess demand and then elevate the price to cash in ofn the fever they create by making the run so small.

LOL, dude you have to be kidding. Are you saying that they have vending machines that sell "soiled" undergarments in japan? As in, the stereotypical midget old guy that steal underwear in every non-mecha anime made prior to 1998 was true?

Yikes!

Hahaha,

That is a bunch of cool stuff, and considering the condition it was kept in I think that you will be getting a nasty phone call or a harsh bang at the door some random day. Out of your own sense of self-preservation you probably ought to make sure it is cool with the true owner of that stuff that you take it. From the pictures, by today's collectors prices it looks like you lifted around a thousand dollars worth for goodies if not more.

You know the golden rule.... How would you feel if your mom gave away all your collectibles....

Congrats on the find, I hope that your grilfriend's brother has "Grown up" and doesn't mind you keeping the goodies, but I wouldnt be too comfortable with that haul until you have his approval.

I would like to hear a final price quoted but I am pretty sure I would like one of each.

~Edit~ P.M. Sent

That is awesome, and it looks large enough to fit a hefty sized pilot figure in, someone with some mad modelling/sculpting skills needs to get to work on that I'll take mine in the Max variety Maybe I missed it but what head type is on this beast?

I'll try to remember to check when I get home tonight. I generally prefer gray primer unless I am painting something really bright colors in which case I will use white.

~Edit~ I just went to Krylon's site and looked it up, it is the 1318 gray that I have been using. Not sure what bad experiences you have had with the white, but I don't think the formula is going to be that different from the gray, I firmly believe that the weather/temperature/room conditions have a massive impact on the finish that you get out of the stuff.

In my opinion aside from using thin coats one of the most important factors in spray priming is the weather. If it is too humid, to hot or too cold you are going to get a really crappy finish. After a few horror stories I came to the conclusion that they don't put those directions regarding the temperature/conditions for priming on there to make the can prettier, and I plan my priming around the weather for the day (Since I don't have an indoor area appropriate for spray painting.)

Games workshop primer... in BIG spraycans... "Chaos Black" or "Smelly White Primer"... works very well... it's great for mini figures, AND everything else... I use it alot for mini's and armour... so I assume it will work well for Aircraft, Though I have never tried it... just a little care not to overspray it and it should work great.

Man I bought into the GW horsepoop about their "Special" primer for miniatures that won't fill in detail blah blah blah.

Well a few months ago my local retailer was sold out, so I went to the hardware store and picked up a can of Krylon spray primer and it works great, it doesn't fill in detail and was overall better quality paint for 2 dollars and 50 cents a can instead of the ten bucks GW charges. I used thin coats just like I do with the GW or armory brand stuff and the figures were primed perfectly.

If you don't believe my go pick up a can of the Krylon spray primer, make sure it is the kind for metal and plastic, and test it on a little figure I bet you won't be disappointed and it costs 1/3 to 1/4 of what GW charges.

I have to agree that spray primer is the way I go everytime and I solely paint with acrylics due to the ease of use, ease of clean up. I haven't come across anything that a careful spray primer coat couldn't handle without wiping out the detail.

"Finally got to see Megazone 23 Part 1 after all the years of hearing about it...Pretty good. The characters are a little bland/generic but the action and the story are really good."

"So how the hell was this turned into the Robotech Movie?"

Man, I ran out and bought it hoping to see what series they canibalized to make the RT movie, having never seen it I figured like Macross it would be a straight rip of the video with some audio editting. Anyhow, after watching the first part, I have to assume that the "Aliens" that invade are going to be the humans from the other escape craft and their attack in the Megazone 23 part 2 will have been the action focus of the RT movie.

I can definitely see how they selected Megazone 23 to be the next part of RT, it has a pace similar to the other stories and enough melodrama, although far less mature than Macross. I did enjoy the fact that the main character is basically a street thug and his first use of his stolen mech is to stop his loose girlfriend from giving it up to a choreographer, ahhh abuse of power! They also didn't pull any punches in the violence from what I saw, didn't they blow a guy's head to smithereens in the parking garage, ouch!

That is awesome, it is true and it is funny as hell. I have to believe that that post at Rt.com is a joke in return, did you see the "Simple" chart at the bottom of the page. What a dork.

Anyhow funny stuff, Pierre's reclliner of rage is one of the coolest segments on that show lately

It was returner, Thanks! Now to go do a little hunting

The CG transtormations looked pretty cool in the trailer.

Hey guys, the other night I picked up the Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla 2003 DVD and watched it (I like Godzilla movies and this one made me happy )

Anyhow, on the disk they had trailers for some other movies, unfortunately I can't recall the name right now but they previewed a relatively new Japanese/HK sci-fi movie that featured some really cool looking transforming jets, I seem to recall a big AC-10 style plane transforming in the clip along with a jet fighter.

Any of you guys offhand know the name of the movie? I was hoping to find some more information about it today but I don't have the disk handy

I looked on HLJ and found the Armor+Valk kit. What places do people reccomend purchasing the "Armor Only" versions?

Thanks,

Irishman

Irishman,

At HLJ search under Yamato, Science Fiction, Accesories, if you look under figures or toys it won't come up, but they have the GBP armor and one other thing lsted as an accessory instead of a toy, hope that helps.

Bubba-Hotep is a really cool movie. Don't go in expecting a shoot em up, mega action movie, this is really a character driven story with a few really funny action scenes. It is a good ride and Bruce Campbell is great as aged Elvis.

Any idea what sort of time frame you are looking at for castings? I am just curious so that I can plan out my toy/convention/vacation budgeting. You think we are talking several weeks or a few months?

Wild speculation is welcome if you don't have a date in mind

I have 7 1/48, and will probably stay at this number for a while unless I break down on the 1/60 GBP

1/48 VF-1A Max

1/48 VF-1A Low Vis

1/48 VF-1S Roy

1/48 VF-1S Hikaru

1/48 VF-1J Hikaru Super

1/48 VF-1J Max Super

1/48 VF-1J Millia Super

I ought to pick up a Elint and an Ostich while they are still readily availible but I just don't want to spend the money right now.... I will probably regret my decision to hold off down the road, but I need to focus my disposable income on other things right now.

I got my Max 1-A for 85 bucks plus shipping, it can be a hell of a bargain and has all of the fixes built in. I would only categorize the Low-Viz as a collector's item, it had a relatively low production number (we think) that made it scarce, I bet if given equal production numbers with the other 1/48's it woud have fallen in the middle somewhere in terms of desireability.

If you are looking for a bargain hunt around for the 1-A models you can probably find a deal at a place like toy-wave. If you are looking for a specific model such as the Hikaru VF-1S then get it, they haven't disappeared yet, although you aren't going to find the same bargain prices that you might on a 1-A

Just to further confuse the issue, isn't there a necessary co-efficient between engine thrust and weapon fire reverse-thrust that must be maintained in space combat to keep your ship from whirling out of control? For instance, if you were to bring to bear an armament that was not on the same axis as your thrust/inertia such as a ballistic type missle, or for that matter an extremely powerful energy weapon would these weapons not "unbalance" the craft and cause it to spin and change course?

I bring this up because the upright ship model in "real" space combat could not maintain attitude control if it were firing an unbalanced payload off of it's legs, arms and head unless it had proportional engine thrust to offset.

I notice that in many of the macross mecha, specifically missle launching mecha the missles appear to have a 2 stage booster which I rationalize to be a limited thrust launch stage and a heavy thrust propulsion stage that kicks in after the missle has left the launch bay of the mech. You know, the way they sort of slowly spread off to the side then suddenly accelerate towards their targets.

Some of you guys seem to have studied the effects of Zero-0G space flight and this is something that I have always wondered about, from the battleship yamato to the SDF, it seems like many of these series don't take the "Kickback" of major weapon fire into account.

Hmm, as an old trailer-monkey for the company bought and now called somethin-somethin Ground I would have to say that there are only a few things that would lead to that kind of damage to a package.

1. the Space Saver - This is when your package doesn't quite fit in a little nook of the truck and it has to be gently nudged (Kicked as hard as possible repeatedly in a moment of abject frustration) into said nook until it fits. A steel toed boot and extreme force can be very very persuading.

2. Bottom of the Heap - This is your fragile package is placed at the bottom of a package wall and then someone decides to load a 700 pound automobile transmission on top of it, then during transit the truck goes over a spee bump and the drive axle protruding from the transmission pierces your package with the force of 20,000 pound per square inch of pressure drives through your package like a 50mm shell through a puppy.

3. "Ooops dropped that one off the loading dock I'll get it later" - occasionally while frantically loading packaes onto, or removing packages from a truck one falls off the dock outside onto the pavement. These packages are in great peril of being squished by tractor trailers and switch tractors, package falls behind wheel of semi, semi pulls out, Squish!

4. "I hate my job in this damn truck, Hey there is a baseball bat, ooh there is a box!" You know the rest, whack, whack, whack!! jerk feels relieved, box is destroyed, "Hey boss, those jerks that loaded up this truck really screwed up this one!" Jerk gets off the hook and the guy that touched the package last gets yelled at for nothing.

They all have bad reputations, it is really based upon the people that work for the companies though and how tough they are on employees that mistreat packages. If you live in an area where Fed Ex is good and UPS seems to break stuff then you support Fed Ex, if your town has a great UPS crew and the Fed-Ex people suck (Which is rare) then you go UPS.

Sorry to hear about your Q-Rau man, I would print out those pictures and send a complaint to the head guy at the Chronopost (sp), call their customer service number, find out who runs the show there and write then a well-mannered note explaining what happened to you and send the pictures. At the very least someone will get a major ass-chewing.

I am interested but it is more a question of when tha how much

1/10th!!!!! Do you see the size of that leg part in the picture? I wonder how much you could charge collectors for a 5 foot long Valkyrie, and dear god, how they could display the thing!

Man, that is an awesome homework assignment!

This is fresh from Sony.com:

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT READIES FOR MARKET EXPANSION WITH CREATION OF A NEW HANDHELD ENTERTAINMENT PLATFORM

Company Unveils Plans to Extend PlayStation® Family of Products with "PSP™"

LOS ANGELES, May 13, 2003 – Enhancing its strong platform strategies, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today plans to expand its in-home entertainment to outside the home with a new, all-in-one portable entertainment platform, "PSP™"

The introduction of "PSP" highlights the company's long-awaited foray into the portable entertainment market. With unmatched advantages of the Sony Group, such as global brand awareness, superior technologies in the most advanced semiconductor processes, "PSP" further broadens entertainment experiences into the portable arena.

The foundation of this new platform is Universal Media Disc (UMD), which comprises of a 60mm optical disc (1.8 GB) in a cartridge, developed by the Sony Group, utilizing its latest disc technologies. Compared to the out-dated mask ROM cartridge, optical disc has huge advantages such as shorter turn around time for manufacturing, larger data capacity and lower media costs. The latest copy-protection technology will be applied to offer content developers and publishers a safe and copy-protected environment.

"PSP" will be equipped with a wide screen 480 x 272 pixel (16 by 9) TFT LCD monitor with a backlight, and powered by super chipsets utilizing the latest 90 nm semiconductor technology. For graphics, 3D rendering will be enhanced by the employment of curved surfaces (NURBS) along with conventional polygons. Video quality will also be enhanced with MPEG4, which delivers quality equivalent to DVD video at a low data rate.

"PSP" will have an USB 2.0 port for further expandability and connectivity to other devices, such as "PSP," PlayStation 2 and many other systems, along with a Memory Stick™ slot for network applications and data transportability in a wireless environment.

SCEI will offer PC-based development tools starting from fall 2003 for the preparation of a new range of computer entertainment content. A new license scheme for "PSP" software development will be announced in summer 2003. Pursuing the founding principles of the PlayStation business, Sony Computer Entertainment will expand its efforts to support content developers to create new forms of computer entertainment.

Together with its business partners, SCEI aims to aggressively promote this new platform to further broaden the arena of entertainment.

"Just as PlayStation and PlayStation 2 revolutionized in-home computer entertainment, we aim to become a new driving force in the portable entertainment platform arena," said Ken Kutaragi, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "The world of PlayStation encompasses hundreds of millions of users worldwide, most of whom view computer entertainment as part of their everyday lives. We look forward to extending the experience through a portable entertainment platform, and are excited about the possibilities and impact 'PSP' will have on the market. Along with game applications, 'PSP' will have a huge potential for delivering other forms of entertainment as well as live entertainment through the network, anywhere, anytime. This is the 'Walkman' of the 21st century."

"PSP" Specifications

Platform name:

PSP™

Display:

Wide screen (16:9) TFT LCD with backlight(480 x 272 dots)

Disc medium:

"UMD" 60mm optical secured ROM disc with cartridge(1.8GB)

Video CODEC:

MPEG4

Graphics:

3D Polygon/NURBS

Sound:

PCM (built-in stereo speakers, stereo headphone output)

I/O:

USB 2.0, Memory StickTM slot

Battery:

Rechargeable (lithium-ion)

About Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Recognized as the global leader and company responsible for the progression of consumer-based computer entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) manufacturers, distributes and markets the PlayStation® game console and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. SCEI, along with its subsidiary divisions Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd. and Sony Computer Entertainment Korea Inc., develops, publishes, markets and distributes software, and manages the third party licensing programs for these two platforms in the respective markets worldwide. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is an independent business unit of the Sony Group.

PlayStation and the PlayStation logo, PS one and PS2 are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners."

Essentially their UMD (Universal Media Disks?) are beefy Mini Discs, tiny DVD's in a cartridge, the MD format is solid, I have been using MiniDiscs for years and have never had one go bad or come defective, which is a lot more than I can say for the CD's in my collection So it is a good basis for the system, they are compact and pretty handy. I am told that there is footage from last night floating aroudn where they were demonstarting the video playback capabilities of the PSP and they showed the Spiderman movie on the system, I am gonna hunt for this later.

Personally I am really excited about the PSP and the price-point doesn't bother me at all, again, this isn't just a handheld video game system, it can potentially be your Walkman, Portable movie player and Handheld game system all in one. No more toting around a PS2 in a briefcase on long trips, hopefully they will put a mini-rca pin on the thing so you can plug it in to television sets to use for movie playback on the road in hotels and stuff. Anyhow, it really looks like a great device.

The Gameboy DS, I am anxious to see more about this, I have been a die hard Gameboy supporter for years and I own one of every version of the Gameboy that they have released from the original with it's three pound battery pack to a GBA and SP, nintendo has always dome a good job with the handheld systems, I hope that they don't lose too many developers to PSP, I don't want a one platform market the competition is the reason games and game technology keep getting better and better for us.