1/1 LowViz Lurker

They should set the transformers movie on cybertron already. Fuqing filthy humans trying to steal the show from the real heroes.. Although.. on second thought, I have to admit I wouldn't watch a TF movie if it was soley aimed at fans. Movies have to appeal to a wide audience because I get the feeling normal non fans wouldn't ordinarily watch a science fiction or comic book style movie for the actual franchise it was based on. Think of the blade movie as an example. I think if you never knew who the character was, you would just as likely want to watch it as any 'leave your brains at the door' popcorn action movie with cool effects and people kicking other people's ass. I hope the movie is good as a stand alone movie that really entertains, and not merely an ad to sell toys, comics, and things mainly only fans want, if you know what I mean..

Science my ass. Actually many of the things you see happening in these shows is almost to a level of god-like ability. Dodging numerous bit attack from different directions simultaneously, surviving an explosion and not dying (gundam wing), using melee weapons like giant medieval axes (what the hell?), pulling off manuevers that would kill a pilot, (it's never explained how Hiro could beat Mobile Dolls which are unmanned and supposed to be able to pull off manuevers that are impossible for humans to survive due to the limits of the human body) having fictional science to explain why people can't use guided missiles etc etc (minovsky particles?) Now I like real robot shows but you have to admit many things in them are much closer to fantasy (like star wars) judging by the many feats of the hero (able to win a war singlehandedly - see heero in gundam wing use a giant gun that can take on a whole army of robots with a single shot (!) much like the SDF1 main cannon) more than real science. If there were aliens: you could still have human to human wars so it won't destroy that part. Don't want to leave the solar system? Have the aliens come to us. Don't like that aliens are going to make it a good guy vs bad guy show? Make the aliens easy to sympathise with. (ie like in yamato where they are on the edge of extinction despite having a high level of sophistication or in macross where the aliens are just that much more superior than us to make us almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things) Think it is not scientific enough? Invent poo like the minovsky particle. Use your imagination FFS. One of the things I liked about Turn A was how people had to fight robots using propeller planes and and dig for ancient treasure to become more technologically advanced for example. It might seem funny on paper but it worked out pretty cool in the show. (and was refreshing because there was a difference in power and technological advancement - what I would like to see is the human race in that position of the 'underdog' who has to play catch-up to the aliens in technological advancement and relying mainly on cunning and tactics to beat them over raw numbers or brute strength initially. In war one side should comes up with the idea, the other side has to innovate, by coming up with a counter strategy, and the cycle repeats...but...each side has thier own way of fighting to make them unique. Don't just throw clones of the gundam like they did in seed destiny. That was just capitalising on the popularity of the gundam to make more money, which imo, is boring to watch in fights and can be confusing. At least in G gundam each one was easily identifiable because they had a gimmick that made them unique) What it all boils down to in the end is a fight for power. (no wrong or right) Just usually one side wishes it owned and controlled the other and had a truly global empire (both space and earth) so that there was no enemy left to fight and and resistance could be silenced/overpowered or people kept happy through entertainment (think roman empire with corruption but global. Or how about the main villain at the end of gundam wing movie, instead of being defeated, he has his way). The only thing that could threaten global empire would be an external threat to reset the balance of power. I guess the next logical step would be an alien or a type of being that man has very little understanding of. But they can tie it to humans in some way - the way "the force" is not quite real or physical but more spiritual, but yet the 'midicloron' thing in the PT took some of the mysteriousness away by adding a physical "origin story" explanation to why certain people like yoda or anakin are so powerful. What bothered me about gundam is why people do not freak out over why the hero can pull off his moves so easily and act normal about it. You can't say "amuro just trained his butt off and this is why he is good" because he is a 'one of a kind' super ace and it is unnatural for someone to be that good. Explaining this 'power' is what I want, because I never felt satisfied with SEED mode in gundam seed. You gotta EXPLAIN sh!t and flesh this out more. The whole "his brain was held down by gravity so he couldn't access the hidden potential" is kinda silly and sounds more like propaganda by spacenoids to make them feel superior; like white supremecists telling people skin color is what determines abilty, than a proper explanation. Because the earthnoids themselves invented the frickin gundam in the first place, showing that there is very little to back up the theory that one person is any more "evolved" than another, and instead each side is only changing to best suit the environment rather than making one 'better' than the other. (ie a mouse is small so it can crawl through holes to escape predators. A giraffe has a long neck so it can reach the food in the trees etc They are good at survival for different reasons. So what I want is for there to be more distinction between groups, not just one side stealing the other guys tactics and cloning it, but different sides fighting in unique ways with unique mecha and ideas)

You didn't like the regult? Those were cool. I actually like these more than the inbit from mospeada. From the big eyeball in the middle. To the powerful looking legs, to the way they boost jump into the air. And how thier weapons are so simply designed but effective: (the guns sit embedded inside the armor attached to a ballsocket which allows them to freely rotate in any direction - one on each side) I think it looks cool

Ah well in the transformers movie they had this guy who could transform from a planet into a giant robot god. I was thinking that maybe UN SPACY would one day have enough money (they pretty much pwn all other aliens races anyway) to create a giant artificial planet like cybertron, but that could transform into a robot. (kinda like how they got the sdf1 to turn into one) The planet would serve as a disguise "oh please come and attack me all you evil aliens, I'm so defenceless!" and then ..BAM! Trasnform into planet attack mode. (exedol's brain would be inside the planet controlling everything, with the AI able to interpret his commands and scratch his bum while his brain concentrates on controlling the giant robot)

But having characters who are too pretty takes the realism out of a show imo. One of the reasons I like watching a show like Seinfeld apart from how funny it was, was that the people had to go through challenges that average to ugly people got to put up with in life. Ie George costanza is balding, middle age, tight-ass with money, afraid of commitment, mother won't let go of him etc etc and because people can relate to some of this they want to watch the character and see what he gets up to. Because they are 'average' they are both 'villain' and 'hero'. contrast this to a soap like the bold and the beautiful, where the object is to surround the audience with beauty, but the characters are not funny, they have nothing ordinary people can relate to, they don't get into any awkward situations so it is not really fun to watch. Some shows benefit by adding social commentary and the characters are purposely modelled after real people to keep the show relevent to people living for that time. 'Characters' need character. It's the difference between a Shrek which makes fun of the archetypes in a playful manner, (with a character who is ugly and acts more like a villain) and a Friends or a baywatch which is what I don't like. The good looks are important but I think they "stand out" better when those good looking people are surrounded by ugly and average looking people with flaws and this becomes part of the entertainment factor. I won't watch a show filled with beautiful people if that show neglects who the audience is. (ie I hate to insult western people, but I think part of the reason homer simpson is such an icon is because it represents the people who watch it - its funny cuz it's true! Same thing with full metal panic fumofu and its jab at the anime otaku. There is something wrong with those people but that is why it is funny and entetaining to watch because some of it is true and people can relate to it - that is to say the very audience it targets is being made fun of - but in a playful non-evil way.)

The thing I like about them is how sort of numerous they were in the tv series. Yeah they were for the crap pilots, but the brown makes them good in a display next to more colourful valks like max and milia. It's kind of like the green zaku next to a red zaku. If you only displayed red zaku it makes the red zaku less special because it no longer stands out. I think that made sense.

ok if all my photos were already somewhere else: all my yamato valks. They are not rare or anything but they are my current fave toy. If I had a set of star wars stuff I would just let these burn since I am a macross fan more than anything. But lets say the house was made of wood, and it was like really dangerous to go back in there in case something was going to collapse on top of you and it was so smokey you couldn't see sh!t: I would just grab the low visibility vf1 since maybe it was a limited edition vf1. And its value might go up alot amongst proper collectors.

I would say a prayer for my toys and they would all go to valk heaven. I'm sure they would gladly sacrifice thier lives for the photos. Toys hold no real sentimental value to me. Really even if it was rare and a prized possession due to some past experience you had as a kid you could easily get them back. Most valuable thing: 1. life 2. memories 3. making sure there are smoke alarms next time

cool. That pic of the 1/100 looks so ugly eh? The main thing is that wouldn't have been a toy but a bunch of parts that you assemble because it was not perfect transforming was it? Glad they chose 1/60. I think any bigger and it would be out of my price range. Now you can put the VF0 next to a perfect grade gundam for a battroid vs mobile suit fight. The valk would probably lose because it is smaller and there are no newtypes in that universe though.

Looks great. Maybe you can texture him or battle damage it. hehe

After reading all this detail about cyborgs with fake bodies I kinda feel sick. Yeah motoko is hot when you look on the outside, but farting her would be like doing a tank. Urgh no thanks. I agree the manga is much better than the movie. Those fuchi koma tanks things are cool. If you like them you will like the tv series because they included them in that (renamed them tachikoma) and gave them a heroic "death" in it. So er go watch it. In this digital age of wireless communication (who here doesn't have some kinda home network or home office?) gits is pretty realistic peek into the future where hackers and cyber crime will become part of everyday life (think of spyware and spam and dataminers as early examples of raping you of info) and there will be need for stronger firewalls and experts to combat them. I think certain aspects of wearable technology are scary. Who the fuq would want to put poo into thier bodies that was made unless they had to anyway? I am scared enough of freaks who get all kinds of plastic surgery to make themselves 'feel' better about themselves.

what he said ... or ... a real space war. Involving many planets, multiple generations of characters, (humans vs humans, rogue zentradi vs humans, brainwashed supervision against all, anti-un vs un spacy, mad scientists with new AI like sharon apple trying to control everything etc) and basically tie this to the end of the universe. No I said end of the universe, not end of the world. There would be a strong relationship between the various races (like those elf people in macross 7) and the protoculture ruins all spread all over the universe and the end of time. Make a huge prophetic PC religion that is followed by hibernating protoculture survivors who are like the high priests of thier culture (awakend from thier sleep like the dark angels in aquarion) and these people decide that all inferior races should be wiped out.) Some of the alien races make a choice to ally with the PC, others fighting against the pc, and meanwhile you have humans sympahtising with the PC and managing to get a good portion of the awakened PC to fight the good fight for the benefit of all. Because the PC genetically tampered with everything they must have a superiority complex and consider everyone else thier 'failed experiment' that must be wiped out to start all over again. (this is where the twisted religious side of the PC comes into play who were agianst experimentation all along - they would think of themselves as superior while everyone else as inferiour and they ar the judges of all existing culture because they came first. They create a kind of Klu Klux Klan for PC to keep thier dying line pure of any other culture or race as a way to survive and preserve thier divine blood) I can imagine a huge 3 way battle being interesting between human+cultured zentradi, supervision army, and PC (highest level of technology but dangerously close to extinction) The focus will be on the love between mixed race human/zentradi (maybe one of max daughters) and a surviving descendant of PC. The PC would have the best weapons, and bioweapons mixed with OT (like organic versions of Qrau with DYRL-style brain in a jar pilots with technology that self repairs and ships that have fully automated functions), the humans would have the second best stuff (using thier knowledge of repairing like the Terrans in Star Craft and our ability to reverse engineer other technology) and the supervision might have some special supernatural, maybe even demonic power. Humans will have tried to spread culture but the focus here will be on the politics (getting back to the real world stuff we saw in the tv series rather than the fantasy in DYRL of "instant conversion and maximum sappy ending and hand-holding, feel-good message") Of course we would see the return of wild characters (remember kamjin and how he had gotten used to the culture shock of minmay and still maintained his bad behaviour?) and these would be like mercenaries for hire in space. Basically what I want is for macross to be as wide in scope to outlaw star. (not just about the military but the economy of each race, the politics, the technological advancement, the culture and relgion etc) That background info may be the motivation for why certain races won't agree to central form of control and be reason for future space wars. But the difference here is, instead of being on earth it is in space - and they are fighting for control over sacred land and power. With the use of space folding all kinds of imported technology and ideas from other cultures must have an effect on the way humans fight wars. Because I think to keep un spacy as an "uncontested power" with no change in how they do things or tactics is boring. It may be the reason why I think the AFOS in macross zero being alive or sentient is such an interesting concept becuase if it is going some place to warn somebody that humans are now going to spread and take over control of things this might be a threat to others' interests. The God 'Procacha' (which I think looks like a dragon) might be a symbol of bad stuff to come. I can imagine the PC having merged reptillian with birds and space whale to create a flying monster which can enter into any environment (space, water, in an atmosphere, on land and with limited psychokinetic abilities) and think independantly and go where it needs to. (kind of like what the white base had in gundam) As this is the last of the macross shows it would have to be a long epic ugly struggle with many casualties and high death count. There would be risk in doing anything but the reward would be worth it. (fighting to live) Cultures would clash and you would essentially have the same stuff that happened on earth but going on in space. ie technology being stolen, sold illegally, to a hostile alien race, people trying to sell out thier own soldiers and innocent civilians and put them in danger or leaving them behind, soldiers turning agianst thier leader, corruption at the high levels where the PC continue trying to recreate more powerful weapons and have lost sight of what wiped out thier ancenstors. Yeah I think it covers everything: racism, betrayal, love, fighting for protection, greed for power, bioweapons experiments, religion, war, politics, exploration (more aliens in other dimensions coming into awareness of our dimension) idealism. If we all hated Kaifun for his anti military stance, we will have characters we equally hate for thier methods of going about conquering others using military might and cruelty in the name of justice for thier kind. Maybe what they could do is have a theme similar to black hawk down where UN Spacy send a special group in to carry out a mission, but all kinds of things go wrong (this introduces us to the hidden PC and thier mecha) and this sparks first contact with surviving PC who are hostile to lesser developed races equiped with thier technology. This team would explore "giant ruins" but encounter organic mecha (sorta like the main mecha in eureka 7) and these ruins would be similar to ruins we saw in DYRL on earth. Linking the DYRL movie with zero, but giving us something completely new. (technology not familiar to humans and somewhat mysterious - machines that float of thier own will, machines that perform psycological attacks on the soldiers, AFOS style 'flowers' that react automatically if you arm yourself with a weapon - everything would have an organic-grown look to it as if creatures had been cloned and genetically modified into bioweapons)

The PG Zeta gundam looks yummy. If I wasn't into macross I would definatley have went down the gundam road. It would be a dream to see macross receive that much attention to detail. (imagine fine details like the magic hands in the valk, the ability to disconnect the front portion of the plane and attach it to the underside of the valks forearm like in the tv series, head that can be folded down so the pilot can appear out of it, poseable hands with individually articulated fingers, light up leds for the shoulders, heat shield that can slide up into the chest piece in fighter mode, pieces of the armor that can be removed to see what's underneath just like the fast packs etc etc)

If anyone has a bandai blazer they don't want lmk. Haven't seen these on ebay. Those bootleg vf17 must be really rare too.

The cockpit heat shield can be opened up like in the show when roy escape from the explosion of self destructing his valk while in battroid mode? I wonder what it could be?

The second one is the bandai reissue. First are boots. If you look at the box where the bandai logo should be, and see a character instead, then that is one way of telling if it is a boot. The reissue is packaged in fighter mode (and I think some of the detail is painted on rather than as stickers) while the first issue was in battroid mode. I own a bandai and they are pretty light weight but good quality. The joints are stiff, it has a nice glossy shiny look to it, and is very playable and fun to transform and handle. Posability in the hips is not too good though.

Be sure to post massive amounts of thumbnailed pics when you get them just like the GBP thread. I didn't preorder mine but intend to get one, after reading about how great it is on the forums.

Awesome stuff. Can't wait to see it built and transformed. Come on we are all waiting for the transformable legioss now! (complete with beta link up)

he would have voice commands to turn the thing off. Just like how guld says "stealth" in macross plus and activates stealth feature. Maybe they could have another guy to watch and supervise how the controls are going and they can fall back on a manual system. If the crew were to be wiped out or exedol dies, an AI like sharon apple takes control of everything. A ship that is truly organic might be some combination of living thing (like a cyborg) wired to machines. It's skin might be able to heal, and sense something there and like the AFOS have some kind of reaction to the person controlling it. (ie notice how only sara and mao were able to use the AFOS?) I bet the PC have ships that are more like intelligent beings conscious of the pilots that use them. (like a horse choosing the rider and favouring certain people over others) The PC might even use thier telekinesis somehow to interact with thier weapons. Note how Sara could lift the rock or create a ball of energy to save herself from the long fall? So if a pc wanted to scratch its bum, they just grab a rock with thier mind and float it near thier butt and scratch it without even using thier hand.

Hrm.. I never thought of that. I guess it should only be used in emergency situations like the aliens are going to wipe us all out. I supposed they can just take a large zentradi ship and use this trick but with a mini grand cannon in it. I think what would be funny is if they took the brain of a zentradi and wired it to the macross 7 like in DYRL, so that exedol would be able to control the whole robot mode of the macross 7 using thoughts. (sort of like a giant version of the brainwave control system in macross plus) Now if exedol wants to do a pin point barrier punch/daedalus manuever, he just thinks it or shouts it out like in a super robot show and the robot mode performs the move.

If they combined toynami box design with yamato quality control and made a new line of mospeada toys that would be awesome. In defence of 1/72 macross plus toys, the later releases solved the fragile hip problems which people were complaining about. (see graham's reviews) It's great to see a company that listens to the complaint and addresses the problems to improve over time. If toynami could steadily make the quality better and better over time I would recommend them but I think the MP stuff should be thought of as transformable models which you should beware of if you treat them roughly. (similar to how the 1/48s have fragile areas like the back pack piece or the monster has those little tabs which risk getting stress marks and eventually cracking and breaking off - they are not toys in the 'kiddy' sense) Toynami maybe were a little too ambitious with details on the alpha imo and should have went with a sturdy less detailed toy which people can handle like the bandai toys. I would be quite happy if they went with strong but light plastic rather than heavy diecast for toys since for me poseabilty is an important thing too. (this is why I like the vf11FP the most out of all the 1/72 macross plus toys, it doesn't feel loose)

Wow episode 35 is action packed. I love all the flashy missile swarms and how they artfully dodge them on the surf boards. Kinda wish this was the level of animation in SDF: macross for each episode! The uber mecha doesn't do anything fancy or anything on the scale of a dragonball-level of destruction in this ep though. You know that bald guy? He kind of reminds me of the bald guy who use light in dragon ball. This guy has like telekinetic powers though instead. Looks like there is big rivalry between the two bros to save the world. Will one die in a sensless Guld-like sacrifice? everyone always whines about thier bank-account/wallet screaming like a battered wife beaten by an abusive husband who won't change. "Just one more..promise I won't spend it all on toys, I will change once I get this.." The 1/48 reissues, the LV variants, the garland, the upcoming vf0, the reissue of masterpiece convoy etc Now is not a time to be adding to the shopping list.

I mentioned a long time ago that it would be kinda cool if they combined the pin point barrier technology (and global eventually used a full barrier system covering the whole sdf1 in the tv series) with the fold technology to fold the earth to the enemy HQ and use the grand cannon as a massive gun similar to the death star in star wars. The portions that are not in the way of the grand cannon would be shielded by barriers? I wonder if UN spacy has the money to afford that? In macross 7 they managed to fold a lot of stuff by careful placement of the fold gadgets to fold one big thing.

The minmay defense/attack plus basara's anima spiritua can beat anything. Kawamori didn't even want roy and shin to beat the bad guys using skill, just let a random dude in a monster save the world and have the dead hero float into space using magic. That's where the government is going to be spending thier money. More funding for valks with faces, boobs, mouths, speakers, and less on armor, pin point barrier, ships, and various mecha. The Sharon-Apple-controlled SDF1 was even beaten by a song that woke the human up to the hypnotic spell making the very machines we rely on inferior to a pop song. I hope we do get a super vision army "clone wars" style prequel. They are so mysterious! I bet the protoculture created all thier technology through magic or they entered into another dimension and made a pact with demons for information on how to make the best weapons. Then brought all this stuff into our universe and this lead to chaos. (with the demons in the other dimension laughing thier asses off hoping to control PC all along after being freed from thier world)

If the vf0 and Garland wasn't going to be released I may have ended up buying a 1J for the GBP.