Nilrem

If it's got 5.1 sound and the original release didn't, i'd guess they are probably using the sound mix that Madman and Manga UK did (in whch case the movie will probably still be stereo). If it is the same mix, it doesn't use the rear speakers massively, but it does use them very effectively at times.

my vote would go for 21, or possibly 14 some really nice designs on all of them though.

i just watched last nights one, and have to say that so far this has been one of the best series of the (last) year I was rather worried at first about the changes from the original one, but so far most of the changes haven't been for the worse. From what I remember of the old series there wasn't a great deal of ongoing story, the new one seems to have a well thought out ongoing storyline (or four). i've got the opening credit's music as a video clip if anyone wants it (about 8mb), but it's not great quality as it's recorded from the video out on my digital cable and i've not had much experience compressing my TV' cards mpeg2 output to divx.

i've got a feeling the art for the UK version was the same as the cardboard box version, or very similar. What I can't remember is if it was snap fix who did it in the U.K. or someone else, for some unknown reason i'm thinking matchbox but i don't think that could be right - it was most likely airfix.

I used to have this model, and I think I still have some parts of it somewhere (I remember seeing it in the past couple of years), probably in one of the bags of toys I put in the loft I don't remember what series/film it was from though.

i'm hoping to get my Macross Box sets through the post in the next couple of days, assuming Royal Fail don't mess up* they were shipped air mail on about the 16th and should have arrived in time for christmas *and they aren't at the bottom of the pile at customs (in which case it could take weeks)

Apparently the Madman R4 release of Macross shouldn't be affected by this, in the words of their message board admin So hopefully it will still be available officially from Australia for a while. *added to make it slightly clearer

www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk doesn't seem to have the voltron DVD on the site. Play.com have it for £5.99 delivered if you're in the UK otherwise Amazon.co.uk and a few others have it.

i guess it's time to bite the bullet and order, i've been meaning to get it for ages I just hope that this isn't the last time we get to see uncut Macross for sale legitimately.

sorry double post

on the off chance that anyone is interested, the UK Macross Plus "Ultimate" collection from Manga can normally be got for about £8-9 ($16), plus shipping these days, and has two DVD's with the OVA episodes on, and a third with the movie version. The picture/transfer on them isn't bad at all, and is the same as used on the R4 Madman disks (Madman actually did the transfer). Having just looked at it with PowerDVD even on the computer it's not bad. Unfortunately I can't think of anywhere off hand who does it at that price and ships outside Europe (it's RRP is £20/$33 but it's been available at the lower price almost constantly for the past 18 months).

I quite enjoyed it, but as someone has already said it would probably have been better as a shorter series - 50 odd episodes especially considering how many times they must have reused some of the footage I could have probably sung planet dance in my sleep by the end of the series (i watched it over the space of a week whilst house sitting), i really started to dislike it but couldn't skip it. Some of the characters were good, others were very so so, but it was nice to see some of the character development from Max and Millia, and others. not to mention the way that it seemed that old mechs were owned in much the same way we own 4x4's and old pickups

I think I forgot to post i received my mech box (#14) on Monday and it's lovely thanks to everyone for their hard work i quite like the blue colour scheme macross plus boxes (the fighter diagrams with the macross plus logo on the top etc)

i've got a feeling www.dvdpacific.com have the sets for about $42-$45 a pop (not sure if shipping is free in the US). that's where i'll probably end up getting mine from next month (about $150 for all 3 sets delivered to the UK not counting import taxes)

that looks really really nice

and i haven't even ordered the dvd's yet i can't wait to see it in the flesh, it should be stunning /clears a space on the shelves ready

I suppose it beats having dozens of the aircraft sitting in hangers practically rotting (well not quite that bad) for years before there are the pilots to actually fly them. It wasn't long ago that the RAF/MOD admitted that they were going to have a load of brand new, high cost attack (i think) helicopters sitting in hangers for years because the pilot training was going so slow. F-ZeroOne, of course it's not cricket unless we give the enemy some advantages. It just wouldn't do to show up fully equiped and ready for the fight, we might make them look bad.

Interesting thread, some great information (i never would have suspected that they didn't try to use a limited number of nut sizes etc). I beleive they already removed the gun from the version the UK are ordering, apparently it will save money, weight and maintinance. That is until they retrofit all the UK ones to take the gun again as will no doubt happen. The reasoning is, I beleive that they don't normally need the guns as missiles are preffered, by that reasoning the ejector seat isn't needed as they normally use the landing gear It was in the papers as apparently a number of the pilots are not happy about it's removal as it removes a layer of protection from them, and removes a backup ability that has been used in the past with some modern "fighters" (improvised air to ground support using the guns). I don't think the "euro fighter" is a VOTL, from memory it's meant to take off like a normal plane, but in a relatively short space. The problem is that most of our aircraft carriers aren't that big, we simply can't afford a carrier the size of the US ones and still have a decent sized fleet able to deploy to more than a couple of locations. So like everything it's a compromise, smaller carriers but the ability to still cover large areas of the ocean and have some flexibility in deployment/maintinance schedules. I think the new carriers we've got have already been modified at least once to give them a longer runway as the original design didn't allow for one of the craft already in service. Personally i can't help but think it might have been better if we'd tried designing the fighter alone, rather than trying to "spread the cost" with half of nato and every country making their own demands on what the aircraft should be able to do (adding to the cost and development time).

that looks fantastic i'm very tempted to place an order for the Mikimoto macross SDF box as well.

i'm sort of interested in the sequel, but won't hold any high hopes for it as from what i've seen so far it doesn't look like it's going to be the same style as the original. If anyone is after a DVD release of Gunbuster (the original), there is an official UK Kiseki release that can be had for about £6 (+ shipping if you're outside the UK). although it has an annoying edit for the bath scene (done to lower the rating it got), and some pretty poor subs. I haven't seen it so can't vouch for the picture quality though.

*is speechless*

it's the vents and the dark grey/black at the front and rear. it looks vaguley like an angular fat batmobile

don't remind me. back when the IBM GXP 75's were living up to their nicknames (Deathstars), i must have seen at least half a dozen people who were in deep trouble because their only copy of important coursework was lost in a drive crash.

I'm unsure of this one, as someone who watches anime about half dubbed, half subbed (it depends on my mood, and what the anime is). on the one hand an accent can let you know straight away the character is from a different area to the rest of the cast, but on the other hand, as already mentioned most english language accents carry too much baggage for it to work particulary well when the accent is really pushed. It's especially true when the anime in question is very strongly set in Japan and you've got the clash of the strongly Japanese background and an equally strong accent that is bringing up mental images of a southern lady (or scruffy lad with a funny brush). It's something that i think has to be handled very carefully (like everything in a dub;)), as when done well it can really work, but when done badly it can really reduce the overall enjoyment of the listener. One example of what i consider to be a really badly done accent is Koalla Su from Love Hina, at least for the first disk or so (i beleive in that case it was the Japanese production company that wanted it that strong at first). It might have worked if the accent had been played a bit more softly rather than so full on. An example of what i'd consider a good use of accents in anime would have to be the various British accents in Hellsing, they actually managed to get english sounding VA's who didn't over do it. It's one of the times i've actually been really suprised at how well a dub turned out, mainly because i'm from the U.K. and so used to American films and TV using the stereotypical 19th century cockney barrow boy or chimney sweep for most english accents. It was a pleasant suprise, and the main reason i tend to watch hellsing dubbed most of the time Having said all that, i can't really distinguish between most american accents very well unless they are pretty strong, or i'm listening carefully for a while, something which probably blunts my ire at the use of american accents in dubs a bit. I've been told this is true of Americans when it comes to British accents, which probably explains the reason most US TV tends to only use what are nearly the extremes of British accents most of the time. Anyway i guess i should be off to bed, it's nearly 3am

sounds nasty It's one of my nightmares, losing all my data due to an error or disk failure.*. erm i used PC Inspector File Recovery with a fair bit of success a few times on drives that have accidently been formated over (and on flash memory cards, which is the main reason i got it originally). You may need to do it a few files/directories at a time. I've also heard a lot of good things about it from other users on a UK computer forum I visit. I beleive it's a free download from here. If you use any file recovery software there are two things you must remember (might already have been mentioned). 1: Install them to a drive other than the one you are trying to recover (don't let anything use the driver/partition with the "lost" information on it, especially defrag programmes etc). 2: Recover the files to another drive or partition. One bit of "after the horse has bolted" advise i'd give is possibly look into secondary hard drives as a backup media. I personally have a couple of drives in my machine that are only connected to the power/data when i am preparing to make a major change in the computer (formatting a drive or something similar), as they make great fast/easy backup devices for emergencies (at least in the short term). This is in addition to most of my other data being backed up to CDR (the only thing that's stopping me from getting a DVDRW is the imminent arrival of duel layer writers). *I'm actually more than a little paranoid about it, mainly because I moderate a large U.K. computer forum and have seen so many "my drive has failed" threads.