1/1 LowViz Lurker

But whether or not it would be safe in the open to only shoot those weapons from a long range is another thing. The point is: Destroids are so vulnerable because they can barely move or survive. Mobility takes precedance over armor. So why not (if you have better speed - take my bubble gum crsis anaglogy into consideration where the robots reach a certain limit that they can' even lay a finger on the smaller and faster Knight Sabers' powered armor) attack them from the sides where you have a positional advantage and in a range where you can actualy see what the hell it is you are shooting? (as opposed to fighting front on and in the open) The zentradi have superior numbers so why should they just play the weaker side in a defensive posture? If you have superior numbers you don't want to waste time and give the opponent time to do other things like recharge the SDF1 main gun for new (free) shots. It might be that the aliens like to do things as quickly and efficiently at a higher level and not care about loss of life since they have so many. The longer you wait, and draw the fight out, the more chance the weaker side has to prepare and the more they can kill by taking them on one-by-one in a sequential manner. There is no need for an alien race to line up to fight, just attack all at once in a rush manner. As the destroid defend a certain "zone", the ones that slip through the cracks get onborad to better positions to fire from (where they can avoid heavy fire and do more damage) and disable the defenses or take out the leader. They actualy tried it in DYRL when the zentradi create a diversion and the only thing fast enough to cover great distance in time was the valk. In gundam if a mobile suit can take a nice focused shot at the bridge then the people onboard giving the commands are history. It could determine who wins or loses. I often wonder why they just didn't send all thier millions of ships to earth to destroy it in the beginning. Would have ended space war I quicker. Destroid = tank, Valk = beats tank, (because it can attack from as many positions it wants playing both defence and offense at the same time) Qrau = beats valk. (just my asumption from tv series. Maybe it was just so that milia can have a dramatic entrance) In martial arts when you see those flowing motions, they are done that way to save energy and move efficiently. There is an ebb and flow to save time and increase response times. If you can be both defensive and ofense in one smooth move, it takes less effort, less risky and tries to do two things to put you in a position to both avoid your opponents attacks (lessening the damage to you) while making it harder for them to avoid yours. (getting as many people within a position to surround the important targets and do enough damage before reinforcements get there or giving time to repair - although the aliens can't do this ) Now I know the destroid may have other advantages because of thier design, but generally you can agree that a valk in gerwalk firing its gunpod while strafing around at high speed it much more effective (more valuable to me who has to plan the attack) because it is a more efficient way of killing stuff. Once you get within a certain range of the slower mecha, thier slow turning rate becomes an issue. I assume that Qraus move like a ninja (sorta like the bubble gum crisis powered armor vs the slower and much heavier police use mecha) due to being for elite pilots who can handle the machine at those speeds, while the destroids although conveniently lined up as a defensive weapon in rows, would be limited in where they can attack from. If I can attack you from the sky, the ground, from the sides, and choose my line but you can't, (because you are weighed down) I am more free in my options. Macross Zero shows this beautifully when you see Nora dodge all the fire from the cheyenne anti-air fire, circle around then get to close range enough range to take those slower vehicles out. (you got to make sharp turns at that distance, no different from why a bmx bicycle is more suited to sharp cornering than a racer is because the bmx has a smaller turning circle and make more efficient movement, or how in a FPS if you have your mouse set to high sensitivity you can generally perform MUCH better than people who use a keyboard and slow controls with slow turning rate, as proven in tournaments.) A good analogy might be those AT-AT in star wars. They move like poo, have heavy armor but also a bigger target and slower to attack the flying targets. The flying vehicles can manuever to attack from various postions beyond the line of the main weapons. (sorta like why mobile suits in gundam are so effective in taking out ships and they need other mobile suit to defend against them) It is much much harder to hit many small fast moving targets that keep changing thier formations and splitting your attention by attack from wide angles simultaneously than it is to have a group of them all bunched up. If I have an anti warship equiped valk that can attack you in a position where the destroid are too slow to cover the distance because they have so much armor, my valk is a huge threat just from speed alone. So to adapt to that maybe a variable destroid would fill a gap. Well I figure that range is important because not all humans can focus on moving targets from massive distances as easily as they can if they close in and try to get a better shot. Which is why max could take out the zentradi with his markmanship skills and choose to not damage the enemy by going for parts of the legs. Just because your weapon can shoot that far doesn't mean all pilots have a steady enough hand to be able to make an accurate shot. So I reason that less skilled pilots are going to close in to a distance where they can pepper the enemy where they have a high hit ratio. These are not sitting ducks. Perhaps the zentradi enjoy seeing the enemy before firing or thier laser overheat like the head turret laser on the VF1 if they miss too often? (leaving them open for a short while?) Just because you have great range on a weapon doesn't mean you can kill a target in less time than if you get a little closer and focus those shots onto a single target to eliminate one whole enemy. (and not just damage them, but kill one so it can't fight back) In macross Zero, shin could barely lock on to nora so it's not like they are going to make the task easy for your machines and weapons to do all the work for you. I agree it is better suited to that specific role. But how useful was the role to begin with if: -the enemy has a weapon that can outmanuever it -can attack it from whereever it wants -the enemy doesn't need heavy armor because its speed allows it to get beyond the range of the weapons and thier hits do more damage any, negating some of the advantages of the armor (ie the only reason we could kill a few of the zentradi ships in the rain of death was thanks to the grand cannon and that was a surprise attack: its all about range and speed, and reaction times.) If you are the weaker side with less numbers, you need to be more agile and quick with better skills to fight an enemy bigger or more numerous than you or you will lose. It's the same reason the powered suits in bubble gum crisis could do all those acrobatic moves and be such a threat. It is a case of putting a lot of power in a small space and having weapons that can be enough to beat that armor. Tanks are not invincible. Valks are not invincible but they look like they can survive longer so long as the pilot is good. (same with Qrau grunts) Maybe I got it wrong and the destroid pilots were just unskilled and cannon fodderish. But until the creators make a macross series like what they did for gundam with 8th msteam we'll never know. Well you used the hammer being crap at cutting paper analogy. I was just saying there are tiers of usefullness. 1. Clock = destroid spartan (dedicated to one function, function not necessarily proving superior in usefullness to the next tier) 2. clock radio = destroid which is variable like the monster which can be transported easily with advances in technology. The clock radio can also tell the time like the clock. The clock is not superior than the clock radio at telling the time just because it is dedicated to telling the time. 3. Hifi = valk (can fly as dedicated fighter. It's dedicated fighter would mean it can out manuever the variable destroid) Fair enough, but the question is: will that role be as useful as often? When the znetradi use the powered armor (which I assume is more suited to giants) they get the advantage of the mecha and thier own body size. Destroids are pretty small and the zentradi are pretty big. In DYRL when kamjin punches the valk I assume a zent with a hand carried gun, plus a mech to ride in, means they have advantages over humans running around as little mice in slow moving robots which can't jump around and stuff like the regult could. At one point a regult was seen running at the same speed a valk was hovering in gerwalk. So being giant with giant control might be more suitable to thier style of attack because they feel more of thier own manual dexterity is involved in the control of the machine. Ok so there is not much difference between the control of the power suit and valk. But from what I gateher in macross plus, having your own brain control stuff or having as fast a control system as possible is better than computer assisted stuff like locking onto a target to pick the thing up. I tried to link the difference in controls between Tomb Raider (which is very mechanical) to mouse+keyboard controls in a FPS. The latter is infinately superior because the user has full manual control over what it is they are shooting or aiming at. Meaning you can take out a machine's legs, aim at a weak unarmored point in the target, go for a head shot to disable the head turret (headshot for FPS) if you so choose. So the aces get the machines that allow this freedom and don't want thier control systems to be screwed with because they were trained to use these for genreations upon generations. (no more than you want me changing your OS settings by forcing you to use your mouse at a different sensitivity) So I make this assumption that maybe powered suits still have this advantage over valks in that the ace pilots might be better with thier own unique controls that match thier own muscles, or custom fit for thier hands and don't want to give up the superior manueverability in space combat. (seeing milia strafe so easily and reverse thrust at the exact distance must have taken practice.) I think the idea is that if you can spin on a dime with ease you have more time to react to something in an open environment therefore you can take on more targts at any one time as you are not limited by slowness of the machine itself. Generally the Qrau moves very quickly in space but it also can stop very quickly. It might be that the Qrau is the equivalent to what Char's Red Zaku was to the normal green Zaku. Part skill of the pilot but also it scrifice some armor to do more work in less time if it means lighter overall frame. I know but I am assuming the armor become less relevant if the thing just stands still and the enemy gets close enough to tip it over or do something like shoot a leg or get it from a funny angle that makes the pilot spend lots of time trying to see what it is attacking. That's why I mention buble gum crisis. In that the police use these chunky and bulky mechs but the boomers are like really fast and organic and humanoidish in appearance. So the powered suit allows the knight sabers an advantage in this situation where speed and agility give them an advantage. Again it might just be the skill of the Qrau pilots but they seemed to move about quick even for the valks in the tv series. (maybe until the fast pack came along, but so did char in gundam until the gundam came along) Ok but getting there to defend is important to seal up any cracks. Destroid move like poo and can't fly like valks. See the opening scene to DYRL for example. But the best pilots need to go into the hairest situations and rescue at the last moment (like the cavalry) so they need a fast moving machine with enough power to do those crazy aerobatic maneuvers. (see the last sequence in DYRL where hikaru dodges all those shots) Anything that improves efficiency (like lighter frame) can't hurt. (not everything can be solved with brute force) This is why max can still kick people's ass even though he is some skinny weak guy. I admit though that because the valk is the "hero mecha of choice" it has to be portrayed as the savior of the day, but that's how I like it! A sportcar is just much sexier than a truck. They are both powerful but one is just more aesthetically pleasing to me to watch and has the power in its speed. If you like wrestling watch the destroid slug it out. If you like kung fu where the people move fast enough to disarm the people using guns then watch kung fu movie. I guess it is best to have a good balance (pinpoint barrier punch, plus speed to get that close) and be good at all, which is why I think valks can be mulitpurpose and serve just as well as destroid in thier dedicated role. (its just a matter of skill since valk pilots need to learn to fly a plane too. But the investment is worth it: flying a valk and letting loose a reaction missile and running away like a sissy is more effective than waiting for the enemy to get in range of your guns while they sneak behind your back and side to stab you to death slowly) Saying a spartan is the only one good at close range fighting is like saying short stocky guys are the only good fighters because they can take a punch. It just might be that like Max or Kaifun they chose a more efficient way of dealing with the opponent that doesn't require as much muscle or weight. IE borrow the opponents energy and use it against them. In fact it was max that was able to get behind Britai and restrain him long enough to throw him out into space. Without speed, maybe he would not have been able to get into this situation? It might just be a case of leverage being more advantageous. Although we have hammers to smash stuff, we also have sword to cut, but the hammer unlike the sword cant be used to defend, as the sword can deflect a blow even though using a shield would be more effective. But the shield comes with its own costs like carrying extra weight and slowing the person down so they take longer to get from point A to point B to defend or attack. Because the newer valks have sheilds and pin point barrier punch, a combination of methods is always better than one. Fast speed, powerful attack, good defense etc in a single thing.

I wonder how this will look next to the LS? That thing was pretty skinny but I kinda liked it. (even if the battroid risked looking like a girl mech with a pointy breast) Must be a reaction to the days when chunky munky were the dominant apes, so as the valks got more evolved over time they became more agile and streamlined to increase thier abilty to fly to survive against the others. ^ If they can make these complex yf19 valkyries in 1/100 scale, toynami can sure as hell try to make similarly sized alpha and beta fighters.. (and please make them cheap and able to assemble/disassemble so we can replace a broken damaged piece when it eventually breaks like the banprestos)

I like the changes. Didn't really care so much about the cartoon accuracy so much as the toy kicking butt. I've noticed there are two types of people: 1. character people 2. toy people Character people hate subtle changes. (I do sympathise with them) Toy people apreciate the look of the toy. (the only line of TF I care about is alternators, because they look so real in alt modes and maybe MP for quality reasons more than accuracy to likeness of the character) I think what the character people need to do is give it a chance. The transformers come from a series where things disapear, grow and shrink, and change proportion. It started out just being toys that were cool and the character part of the toys didn't come till later. Unlike with macross where the VF1 had a show from the beginning. I hope they find a solution to please both groups though. I'm personally more pissed that ultra magnus doesn't look anything like his movie or toon version. (does anyone want to bring this up? Hasbro you owe us the real one!) Given the state of an initially trailerless prime and prime repaint passed off as magnus, not to mention that prime isn't as close to alternators in terms of realism in vehicle mode, (making the alternators more a "masterpiece" than the masterpieces?) if anything you TF people should be happy to have the floating head improving the character and gracing the tf universe with his yf19 starscream. Can't wait for the Masterpiece jetfire actually! These will probably be better than yamato 1/48 vf1 lol.

Ah well, I will just be careful in transforming it. For a minute it sounded like pegs were going to snap off or something if you didn't look at instructions carefully and slowly. (ie people showing stress marks on the pegs for vb6 for eg) I'm usually that way anyway, even for things like alternators and stuff which are cheap.

Maybe he wasn't ready to let go of the memory he had of his fiance who died at the beginning so he feels like "if I can like this other girl it would be disrespectful to the woman I was about to marry?" But the alien girl looks up and says she hopes to live on earth with him... and at the last moment (a freeze frame) of the last bit at the end of the last ep of the tv series, notice how we see him throw away the little necklace: hinting that although he leaves the alien girl back on earth maybe this is an indication he is ready to finally let go of that loss and move on, instead of living on the bitterness of the past and painful memories? Him leaving showed that: Sure the inbit were not evil, but people can still be angry and pissed at the aliens for thier own personal losses in the war. And him distancing himself is like saying: I have not gotten over it that quickly. I think the least he could have done would be to land and say goodbye, but he just takes off. I thought stick was an ahole (unaware of the people on earth's fear and the unique position they are in, in order to survive right in the thick of things) but I can sympathise with his need to go back home after the long trip from ep1 in the middle of no where to the enemy base. (he was not even born on earth afterall and to him it is an foreign place. The beginning where he crashed his plane and is scared of the rain and lightning highlights this.) He might associate the planet with all the negative memories of the enemy and going home is like relaxing. Though thier real goodbye was supposed to be right at the time when stig was going his seperate way to fight alongside the other soldiers. (at this point it seemed as if he didn't need to hang around these civilians any more)

Just read some of the impressions. Sounds a little scary to transform like the vb6 monster at first. Still going to be getting one eventually. Hopefully not a dud. But I will definately be paying a lot of attention to the instructions before forcing anything.

I use a technical pencil. I don't want to make any mistakes.

Beam Sabers! Possibly before they were going to use the macross name, these little tubes would be concealed emergency weapon to kill the pilot and take advantage of the element of surprise. Kinda of like the gadgets that were hidden inside r2d2's body in the star wars movies.

I hated that about the crotch piece. I try to not look at the lineart and just say: "I'm grateful I have it since there is nothing else out" I won't feel bad selling the 1/72 version if it means a better one is out. Also when you turn the robot upside down there doesn't seem to be anything locking the upper chest with the rest of the body. Massive floppiness there. (even the bandai clicked in together neatly) I just hope they manage to strike a nice balance so we get a decent robot mode too. I'm not a big fan of the big pointy boob. In the lineart it looks like it is squashed in really deep so it doesn't look as noticable. Oh well at least the 1/72 has a nice heavy feel to it to please the diecast people, unlike the vf11 1/72...

found some pics through google images: http://honowo7.hp.infoseek.co.jp/vf2ss1.html You seeing this yamato? I want one: Even if s.kawamori hates it, it is part of alternate universe/alternate history of macross so there are fans dying for it. Robotech fans have Jack Archer with the mutant head laser, so we want our mutant valk.

Nice custom. I like how you can see those panel lines and the stripe stands out. Looks like somebody managed to take out the LV vf1a and shoot it, and they upgraded him to a 1s turret from spare parts. Must be a vf1B.

I really like that green gunpod. I think it looks better than the black one actually.

If possible get both so it at least gets far enough into the future for info about vf-4.

Wow. Guess all those people who waited for years for YF19 w FP (which has to happen eventually?) are getting thier dream valk, huh? 1/72 you were good to me, but I have new toys to drool over. And because it will be 1/60 it will fit in right next to Qrau, VF-0, and the 1/60 vf1 range. Please excuse me while I change underwear.

Of course. But if shooting at close range they would need a fast turn rate if they are going to be darting about at high speed. Something that can keep up with them. Rather than the other way around. (pilot that can't keep up with the machine ie like M+) In space there might not be any kind of cover and what if all the missiles were used up like what happened in DYRL where they have to use them up just to shoot thier opponents missiles but still have to deal with a zentradi (or human) rush tactic? (in cases where there are a LOT more of them than you? Get the picture? You can't assume it is always one-on-one or the environment even allows you to shoot from afar - eg firing the missiles indoors may damage the ship or the friendlies) Well a spartan is still slower than a valk from getting from place to place. So relative to a lighter mech I put it in crapper tier. Maybe amoungst it's own class (mecha which are mainly for the ground) it is speedy. That doesn't negate the fact it has limits which aren't worth highlighting. If there were a macross RTS I might not find a need for fast ground mecha with chunky feet, and instead go the more expensive option of VF but hope I am getting good value. Personally I wouldn't mind if they made the variable spartan so it can emulate the variable glaug and variable monster and add some extra ability. We have clocks and we have radios. We don't need clock-radios but the option is there for those who do want it, and for those who like to combine or save some space or for some other reason unique to thier situation. Why can't a clock be designed to tell the time but also designed to wake you up early the way a destroid be designed to fight on the ground up close as well as move quickly to get to a new location? If the spartan is slower at fighting other fighters then you wouldn't want the spartan fighting against something better than it. But that still doesn't mean spartan with extra abilities is somehow "useless" compared to one that only has 1 main ability, so I reason it is worth rating that ability compared to other mecha as a weak point. Destroids = threatened overall by flood attacks from aliens who are more numerous and can rush forward in great number. Speed and agility might be preferable in that instance. So I mentioned destroids being cannon fodderish, (no speed?) but left some room for destroid that can fight and are fast for thier class, (ground mech) but still being limited. (can't fly away) Like mentioning that a clock radio (destroid with some ability of a valk) might have inferiour sound to a hifi(valk), but still being usefull compare to clocks with no radio. (destroid on the ground being generally slow because it has to walk to get everywhere eg MK II monster vs a VB6) Well to put it simply: Imagine if you were to train yourself to use a valk and had to learn the flight controls, robot controls, and button combinations to execute a simple move? To an alien, they might see that as robotic and unnecesary. Preferring a more intuitive control. A dedicated suit with a form suitable for space eliminating the unecessary. The same way bruce lee saw many unecessary motions in other martial arts and incorporated the more efficient ones into his style? In many games for example there might be an option to auto lock on to your enemy to shoot them. But wait! This doesn't account for things like being able to shoot your opponent in the eye or in the leg or some other part that the computer doesn't want you to lock onto because it decided it wanted to aim for the biggest part of the mech in the midsection. For a true ace if they want to get really surgical with thier shooting they would want to have manual control over as many things as they can rather than rely too heavily on a preprgrammed move. It would be like the difference between a mouse + keyboard control in a first person shooter over a tomb radier-esque lock on (just aim in the general direction of the target). One is precise and up to your own skill, the other is general and easy to use for a beginner (giving them less to think about) but also sacrifice some freedom. A good example is in how hikaru locks onto minmay and tries to pick her up by locking onto her. A giant might think that is a sucky way to perform a simple action, and over generations and generations of experience fighting and picking up weapons using manual, be so much more used to the manual method that they can't unlearn to use control styles they've been taught. In star wars (at the end of ep4 in the scene where luke fires that torpedo to destroy the deathstar) when luke decides he doesn't want to have the machine help him, and trust his own judegment he is able to factor in small changes to make the accurate shot and perhaps there is some small memory from when he did something from sheer practice and experience that makes the difference. When the machine says "ok shoot" and your eyes respond to it and "shoot" (based on what you see) there is a small delay between when it says ok and when you actually react and pull that trigger. If at blazingly fast speeds, maybe it is best to not wait for your own eyes to see it, but to "go with your gut" and press it extra early knowing that your eye will pick it up and your muscle will react too slowly? Sort of like in martial arts when the master drops the feather in front of the student and informs him how his fingers are just too slow to catch the falling feather due to this delay. (wisdom from experience knowing of your own body's limits of being slow, giving you an advantage, because you knew from the beginning that the delay between seeing "ok" and actually pressing that trigger is enough to miss the shot) I think they even have that element of unpredictability in the end of street fighter III when Ryu tries to catch the falling feather (actually it is a leaf but reminds me of something I saw in a kung fu movie) but is too slow and misses, mentioning he is not really ready to give up fighting yet. There are just some things you can't trust (your eyes, your own reaction speed) and so you must "guess" where and when to close those fingers to catch the falling feather/leaf in order to succeed rather than wait for your eye to first see it, and then use the slow muscles to close them. (which will be too late as the information your eyes receive is updated and changes quicker than your fingers can close to match them. A human/alien might decide to take a shortcut like aim where they "think" a moving target might change direction to rather than going by any hard evidence that they will. One factor might simply be that the target is near an opening near the roof and it is a lucky guess to shoot above where it might jump to or that that the target thinks you like to aim for its legs so it might hop to play mind games) Just on a sidenote: I would also like to mention that just because you can fire at something from a long distance may not be advantageous to the pilot to do so. Weapon effecitveness might be weakened from a distance due to armor so you want to increase damage by going close, the target too fast and small so it takes a damn long time to shoot it down that way, the chance of you actually hitting them in a cirtical part is lessened etc Plus there is always the "style" of fighting of the aliens: choosing to do as much damage in a little time as possible to save ammo by getting near, or to save time by getting at decent distance first to make sure each shot counts, or to ensure the thing you shot is dead. (pilot as well as machine) There is also psychological effect of showing the enemy you are better at dodging then they are at shooting you so you play with them by getting to a close distance to scare them knowing they can't run to a "safe" distance to avoid. At some upper limit armor might not help. The strength of a close range melee attack might be more than worth the time it takes to close the distance. (destroid for example might have a slow turn rate so getting close might make it hell on the pilot trying to defend because you are out of his field of vision. Would you take on a monster from afar?)

Buying first edition anything can make you feel bad but you at least got to gloat that you had it first. Ie 1. you buy a nintendo DS which is in high demand and limited in number at first. (those who missed out feel like poo as thier friends get to gloat) 2. newer improved version comes (those who bought the original feel like poo now because they feel pressured to upgrade) all in the name of progress. meanwhile, cheaper secondhand older models are for sale to those who upgrade to newer model. Opening up a lower price point for the bargain hunter who is budget conscious and/or wants a second one for cheap. Newbie buyers who only just jumped in, can now take advantage of better prices in the secondhand market and get stuff they ordinarily would not have been able to buy. Collectors who may not care about mib conditions, can now own more overall valks and post thier number on MWB. It's all good Another example: 1. Masterpiece prime comes out. (you buy it happy to snap it up, gloating that the price will go up as demand increases) 2. Masterpiece prime is reissued (people who missed it, are happy to buy it, no longer pissed they missed out) 3. Masterpiece prime with trailer comes out (all the people who missed masterpiece prime can now get the proper version, everyone is pissed but happy to buy the best version of something) each groups gets to gloat for different reasons.

Change the head turret to 1S. Make it so the weathering doesn't come off on your hands when you touch it. Add the tv series hands, and maybe just maybe see if you can tampo print the finer details that are likely to peel off as stickers. I don't really care for fast packs since I think these would only be good for space. As a little bonus maybe they could make a 1/48 gummy figure of the pilot standing up with helmet in hand.

People scared to lose memories and intellect by going micro? The giant ape like commander might prefer using a heavy powered armor custom built for himself the same way you have elite ace pilots like char in gundam. Maybe something about the way the powered armor matches your exact body movements and allows you to do more fancy moves at close range, would seem preferable to aliens over robot controls? Think of the difference in agility between the Knight Sabers' powered suits in bubble gum crisis vs the more mechanical mecha the police use? (how they can dance circles around them and do somersaults, cartwheels and spins and poo?) Plus it just might suit thier style to get close and smash fists into the mecha to disable them? (because they are so numerous and don't care if they die? the mecha equivalent of kamikaze attack?) If a giant can punch the valk in the chest or rip the chest off a vf1 with bare hands, imagine what powered suit could do? It might be worth it if you have huge numbers. my order of goodness from crap to good: 1. destroids (slow and crap at close combat except for the spartan) 2. valks (fast but weak, designed for speed) 3. powered armor (can go fast in space but unlike the valk the controls are intuitive because you use your own body, and maybe there is less training to get one to move around) Qrau was seen flying circles around the valks in space because the ace pilots had freedom that a rookie learning complex controls might not be able to fend off at close range where the enemy has such speed that they can attack you at that vulnerable ranges. Of course an ace pilot like max who is one with his machine could survive but he is more the exception than the rule. Instead of doing a preprogrammed robot punch you might be able to pull off a custom attack (combination of many attack in one smooth motion simultaneously like a combo - like wearing a suit that "adapts to you" instead of controlling a machine that you have to adapt to and be aware of limit) which the pilot can do in real life with thier own body. As a guard for a vip (say exedol) this might be preferable where the pilot has full manual control over all his own limbs and more freedom in how something should be done. It would be like the difference in manual and auto transmission in cars. The "auto" takes some freedom away. I think part of the reason for needing to have brainwaves control the machine in macross plus might have even stemmed from the need for zentradi to have more intuitive controls in thier robot when they went micronised. (weren't there peole with thier brains hooked up to ships in DYRL?) It just might be a different fighting philosophy for the alien to trust thier own ability over machines. For example why doesn't exedol just recrod everything he knows into a computer which can give advice on previous war strategies? Maybe because they believe that computers don't learn the way aliens/humans can learn. Perhaps humans and aliens can adapt to situations better than an AI which "underestimates" the possibility that the opponent is smarter than the computer? (ie there is that theme in dragon ball Z where the saiyan have those power meter monitors and the computers "lie" about the real potential because they have outdated information which can't measure powers beyond levels the original creator of the machines had expected to exist..)

I just got thinking: Maybe the anti un were "allowed to exist" to give arms dealers something to sell to and keep both sides buying newer weapons? (ie like in gundam stardust memory where the toys for either side have to be about equal to keep war going on for as long as possible to stay profitable) Without a justification for the need to upgrade weapons, (getting taxpayers to spend on research into the ASS1 for example) through some sort of conflict that threatens everyone, how are people supposed to believe they are in danger if they don't have an enemy or scapegoat to hate against? Pre-SWI Anti-UN = macross equivalent of zeon? (able to steal and match against un because the technology is all new and both sides have no big headstart) Post-SWI Anti-UN = macross equivalent of minor threat that the government doesn't take seriously but can blame if something bad happens. (ie when the titans in zeta gundam were formed by letting Gato get far enough to use him as a demonstration of why we need to form a dictatorship to control terrorists like him - and secretly having him on a leash all the time through rogue zeon that are easily bribable) If the anti-un teamed up against the rogue zentradi maybe they might be able to take on the post SWI-un but I doubt the zentradi would do that. Macronised anti-un pilots working with giant aliens and teaching them about human weapons would be an interesting setting though. All the anti-un would need to do is have some kind of spy on earth able to steal information and inform the zentradi of how humans repair, abduct some scientists, create some factory and make variable powered armor (ie similar to mospeada ride armor?) for giants to counter the latest human-made UN valks.

I remember DARPA had that design for the little doggy robot. After seeing the robot mule video (very creepy) I think it wouldn't be too far fetched to say we might have a animal robot in the future that runs low to the ground (harder to hit a running dog? more stability with 4 legs?) and can pick itself up off the ground if it trips. It could be helpful in a forest setting with uneven surfaces. That would be cool. It reminds me of megaman where the little robot animals are used to drop supplies and stuff. It's only a matter of time before they make a BuCue mecha. edit: some links on the dog: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fict....asp?NewsNum=54 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fict...asp?NewsNum=349 mule: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fict...asp?NewsNum=561 Now if they just put guns on its back or sides and armed it with some weapons it could be more deadly than bipedal robot. (which has to crouch low to the surface first for stability and cover and risk falling over if there is a high centre of gravity) Terminator vs robot dog would be interesting battle.

Interesting info. I hope the 1/100 turn out to be good. If I buy these HG has to make me those destroids so I can put them near my yammy VB6 monster. Although I am more a fan of the original macross, I do want to see what happened after the last ep and whether scott finally figured out what happened to Rick Hunter. You never see his face for so long after Macross Saga so it is a bit like the character in inspector gadget. The fans want to know what he looks like. Maybe he wears a mask like char aznable in gundam and has developed into a newtype and that is why he let the missiles hit earth in the last episode of next generation because he realised the humans were polluting it and sympathised with the invid? I've got so many conspiracy theories.. Or maybe his changing skin color is the result of him doing it with an alien, he dies of a disease and what you see is really a clone created by the aliens to spy on us, Zor style? And scott realises Rick is dead!

Good to see they will be addressing the loose joint probs. Would you do a review of the later versions too? (would be good to update us on differences from older to later versions for those who might be interested in specifically trying to get later releases) I wonder if there is going to be differences in later vb6 monsters? I think the joints on the arms for that need a little tightening too.. 1/48 should be thier guide for stiff joint goodness..

I loved the first movie the most. I wonder if they will try to reboot everything from the very beginning and ignore the arnie stuff altogether? (give him the black hair and blue eyes) I want to see some brutal sword fights. At least as violent as the stuff in braveheart but with more fantasy and fx. (very violent equivalent to LOTR? ) I think if they are going to go for brutal, don't just have him fighting normal men, but demons, monsters, giants and stuff. The first movie lacked the feeling of a proper adventure. The second got closer to this "wandering around and doing quests" feeling, but it doesn't seem to have aged as well. I think it is still possible to have arnie as "a good guy" just like in predator but at the same time you got to have something for him to do or it will get boring like what happened when they did the hulk movie. I think if they made movies more where the character speaks with his actions than by what they say it will just be a lot more interesting. (since arnie and conan can barely speak anyway, no offense A1 ) In terminator 2 there was enough action in it to be able to pick this out of your dvd collection and not get bored rewatching everything in it. Now compared to hulk, there was a lot of stuff that I kinda sleep through because the green guy has nothing to do or anyone really worthy to fight against him. Give em something to do: combine the stuff we saw in the second conan movie with the brutality of the first movie, and give us a large dose of fighting and keep all of that in balance. He is not just a muscular guy, but as shown in the first movie has the elite sword skill techniques and in his own way, is cunning too. I think a good guide or middle ground between a fantasy and real movie would be brotherhood of the wolf. I didn't think the fx were all that great, but some of the fighting was done in a stylish enough way to not bore people. They just need to fill the movie with enough fighting for me to not get bored and have it set in a much more scary environment (with much more scary things to kill) than the first movie where at the end all that happens is the bad guy gets his head cut off but didn't seem like a very interesting way to end the movie. A proper fight between the two (ie like the scene in gladiator) would have been much better. If you start the movie with a lot of stuff happening, may as well end it that way too.

They look pretty good to me. I love the dynamic poses. Thanks for the pics.

Is it like the Qrau in terms of gloss level? I didn't mind the polished appearance all that much - maybe it could be mistaken for diecast from a distance like the alternators?