1/1 LowViz Lurker

Looks like the wife is the common sense one here: Yamato is going to destroy people's lives. And I use to think the obsessed WoW people were dangerous to themselves..(loss of GF/wife/social life due to obsession with game) See if only bigwest and HG worked something out we would all be relaxed and have more stuff. In my case being in australia, the shipping cost eats a big hole so I keep a limit on what I can get. (which robs yamato of more profit in the end since it is all going into the middleman)

That's a very good question. Maybe because the character wouldn't be popular? When you combine unpopular 1A head with unpopular character you take risk? I think completist collectors would lap it up though. As for chunky munky valks, I'm over those now. It's time bandai put some new effort into macross the way they keep pimping gundam. PG macross models with LEDs in the shoulders, hollow head lasers, perfect beefy hands, "magic hands" in the forearms, super posability for anime style dramatic stances, no skinny arms like the 1/48s, etc etc etc Then you might make some money.

If you can only afford one get the Roy VF1S with Super/Strike Parts. Of course optionally you can get GBP but you'd need another valk to wear it wouldn't you? Seems like a waste of money only having a bunch of parts lying around while the single valk you own is wearing strike parts. If you want a good combo and prefer tv valks get the max or milia super pack or hikaru super pack. (tv arm armors woot!)

So who thinks these will turn out to be Limited edition valks? I bet if they were people would rush to them after they suddenly became hard to find. Next up: Angel Birds Valks. (and the teat of the cow keeps flowing )

Smaller boxes would be nice. Oh and about the GBP: it looks heavy but I would imagine it could still move just like the destroids. I'm assuming the reverse: that a valk is naturally very skinny and light as a mech because it has to fly. So the anorexic body with GBP brings it back to 'normal' mech wieght. It is just drawn fat in battroid mode sometimes because of anime magic. VF11 is a good example. To me it has no meat on its bones in battroid mode without GBP "hockey goalie" gear.

Hehe I actually liked the SDF1 over the SDF in macross 7. Also you know in star wars prequel trilogy when they show the emperor's face? I think the makeup of the OT was actually better than the fx of today. (maybe skills have gotten worse?) Althought I do agree yoda as a cg puppet is ten times better than a real puppet now that we've seen him fight.

Me neither. Which is why they got to get the right people behind it. I think it is doable but am not going to get my hopes up high as I think it is mainly fans on robotech.com that want to see it, but may be unaware of the pitfalls if it fails. If the TF live action movie does well, maybe this will bring a resrugence in interest for movies based on fictional robot fighting machines or something. Then a robotech movie can kind of ride on the success of TF as a vehicle (being the test) to get to that audience that liked that kind of stuff. (kind of like how there was the sheer flood of movies about super heroes as a way to cash in on the success of xmen movie which stayed true to what fans would like to see but good enough for a mass audience to treat seriously and enjoy)

What I mean was he is like the 'Ken' to street fighter's 'Ryu' because thier bodies look the same. (height, stance, animation etc with a different head and minor change like the colours) But only in appearance of course. They play differently and have unique style of fighting. The reason I choose the ninja in aerofighters is because I like his death move: it is just this giant SDF1 like beam that destroy anything in its path and makes you invincible. But I hate that his bullets are shuriken which look stupid. I would much prefer just your typical bullets.

I don't really play the SS series much now, but I am a fan of the character design. (I think it is by the same guy who did the ninja scroll characters?) I'm more of a street fighter fan. (there is a big rivalry between SNK Playore vs Capcom when it comes to 2d one-on-one fighters. I personally think that capcom still has the edge in terms of "encouraging diversity in playstyles to win" though, since not all characters rely so much on the same "fireball" techniques that you see in your typical SNK fighting game. (all stolen from dragon ball I would imagine) I think maybe the pilot in the grey low vis is actually a ninja hehe. If you play an arcade game called Aerofighters one of the characters is actually a ninja so maybe they can make a super hero backstory for him. But maybe they'll save that for the yamato stealth valk and in some kind of cheesy G Gundam theme make the character have DBZ style super moves. edit: JB0: Yeah it was "hanzo". He is the guy who disapears with a smoke bomb then attacks directly from offscreen aiming directly above the opponent with a flashy special move as a way to distract and confuse them. (he has a short range though) There is another american ninja which is a body/pallete swap of hanzo with a different head that uses a dog. here is the gif I had saved on hd for forum avatars: oh and one for humor (click to see it move):

At the time I was getting into the yamato 1/48 I saw the low visibility VF1 toy, and liked how it was trying to take a fictional mecha and give it a realistic look. (I'm also a big fan of the grayish color on valks especially the tv series gray flight suit roy wears and the dark tone of his valk. Grey with black works well) At first I wanted to get the Roy vf1S but was beaten to it at this store I usually go to. I was forced to get the low visibility because it is the only one left and everyone was buying Roy's vf1s. (Missed by 15 minutes the clerk says) Given no option, I thought that maybe I was destined to own LV kinda like the way Ash Catchem got stuck with Pikachu in pokemon (because Pikachu is kinda 'rare' and 'mysterious' and a bit different to other pokemon for not wanting to stay in its ball, but it was the last one that dr oak had at the time in the show, similar to how the LV became the last valk left thanks to the nerdy collectors beating everyone else to things) Before making an account I then became a forum lurker on macross world trying to get info on availabilty prices of valks and as a refugee from the robotech.com forums which is run like a nazi dictatorship which doesn't even let people talk about other toys apart from toynami. I thought the low vis was cool because the pilot had normal flight suit and was not even canon within the macross universe. So I imagine that maybe I could 'be' him, thus the 1:1 scale in my name. (I know sounds cheesy, but the pilot has no name and comes off as mysterious like he crossed into another world) In order to come up with an account name I decided to name myself the 1:1 scale low visibility. But then that was too long, and it isn't a name of a 'thing' so it sounded silly. Since I started out 'lurking' on the forums before and I thought low vis makes sense as a color for a fighter, I decided on "1/1 LowVis Lurker". (shortened from a longer name) To reinforce the idea of 'low vis' I decided to take a mysterious character (to match what I thought of the pilot in the toy) from a fighting game called samurai spirits as my avatar. What better way than to choose a ninja? I changed it later to something more relevent to macross (and also because of the cull in animated avatars) since then and now have a macross II valk in hopes we get some toys of this made. Kinda sounds like a superhero origin story only without any powers.

That forest walker looks cool. Like something we've all seen in a comic books made real. when are they going to make the octos:

That's how I like to think of it. Like you know how in the gundam universe how the Gundam has experimental materials that are way too expensive for the cannon fodder GM so they are limited in number? (the lunar titanium only goes to the hero at first but the GM pilots must make do with standard stuff) ...but then later as time goes on and knowledge improves, they phase out the GM and put the good stuff (things that tested in the gundam which proved to boost performance) that was in the early gundam into the new line of mass production robots? Ie explains the DYRL style cockpit. VF0 was just 'ahead of its time'. VF0 = a gundam which had to be rushed out. (possibly a Gundam MK II without the expensive armor but with advances in other areas for experimental purpose) VF1 = a GM (doesn't look as classy as 0, but has it where it count on the inside due to more time) VF1-S = GM command version. (in gundam the command version looks the same on the outside for the most part, but is a better performing version than the others) Custom color (painted in showy bright colors, like the Red Zaku) = ace pilots who just modify poo to thier liking to look cool or to get a small increase in performance. eg. in gundam how they might sacrifice more armor for extra speed by shedding some weight, assuming they are too good to even get hit by the crappy canon fodders of thier world, and would much rather use that speed to "do more work/kill more things" quickly. (they can afford to take risks that others without the skills would be too scared to take) ...then later as more money is available for upgrade.. the vf1 in DYRL (as STANDARD for all): -the super upgrade for ALL pilots (increase performance in space) -DYRL cockpit (like what the VF0 had) -no more 'b' 'g' 'f' levers to transform (tv series valks get upgraded as knowledge improves and more money to throw around)

Ah but that is again assuming that all people that don't like subtitles have problems reading and watching at the same time and this must then be the basis for thier preference. That's all I want to clear up: They just prefer to hear people say the words and/or like a less busy view. Nothing to do with how good they are at reading. Similar to how an ambidextrous person can use both his left hand or right hand to do a task but may just favour one over the other. (but still being equally good with either) The problem is some people won't watch something that involves having to read and pay attention to the screen because it means they have to be glued to the screen. Like when a character says something they have to have thier eye ready to capture the message when normally they could hear the character say it without having thier eye at a specific area of the screen. It's got nothing to do with them being unable to read, but more to do with putting more effort into the watching of a show. Something they may only have a casual interest in. A good example: Taking out the garbage takes virtually no skill to perform. But choosing NOT to take out the garbage doesn't mean I haven't the skill to do it. It just meant I was lazy and chose not to because it takes 'effort' (getting up off the comfy couch) or I just wasn't in the mood at the moment to care enough. Nothing to do with an inability to perform the boring task. In my dream world a robot would do this for me. But the basis for me wanting that does not mean I think it is a hard task to perform that requires too much skill: just that I prefer I didn't have to do it. It is more the laziness of people that don't want to keep thier eye focused at a certain area of the screen more than thier inability to read quickly. One is preffered because hearing words is just more relaxing to them. That doesn't mean they think eng dub is better, or that the original VA isn't good, they just aren't that interested enough to care either way and want to put as little effort as possible. Being dumb and preffering dub, is not quite the same as being lazy and preffering dub. For the casual fan, and to get them into something, what you want is the path of least resistance which is the positive point of including dub for those that refuse to care enough about the work (ie the show is just not something they are into to begin with) to even pay attention to the acting. Sometimes to get someone into something you got to cater to thier lazy attitude to something to make it easy (as in takes less 'effort' not 'skill') for them before they will even BEGIN to watch.

I had a feeling the gbp would be for the camo valk. Fits right in with the monster.

No matter how many times you say it, the purists don't believe that casual fans actually prefer to hear a dub for the "I'm too lazy to read subtitles" reason. A friend of mine can't stand to read the text when thier eyes can be focused on other things while thier ears picking up the words and thier brain processing it all on the fly. Even if the Dub ain't so great, they will gladly take the hit in VA quality in exchange for the convenience of hearing words rather than them reading them out to themselves in thier head. And no, they are not dyslexic, just lazy. I also don't mind variety of having two sets of audio to listen to. It's what dvd is good for. (haven't people ever liked to hear the director's commentary for movie dvds out of curiosity of what peopl were thinking when they made it? Maybe what should have been done is get Mari to do a commentary of what she was thinking in all 36 eps of macross. hehe )

Phalanx, if it helps, the vf1 WAS redesigned for DYRL. There are differences in the hands (more robotic looking) and other things. Yeah they are seperate VF1s in the timeline (tv series has modular transformation through levers marked "G" "B" "F" unlike the DYRL movie version) but it is still called 'vf1'. They also made changes to the Qeadlunn Rau powered armor which the female zentradi aces use in the movie: inside the cockpit looks more alien. The tv series has more markings and stuff on the outside. (this is the one I like) If you mean they should make very 'slight' changes like that, then I see what you are saying, but if it is like a radical change to the basic frame I say "no way". (my reasons earlier were that straying too much from the classic design means it will affect other valks like vf4) What I would accept is if SK decided one day that macross needed to be retold to a new generation the way Gundam Seed was a retelling of UC MSG but with a big budget to back it all. Then I can accept a redoing of all the designs and a more futuristic version for new kids. (may spark a resurgence in interest for macross and a new toyline..yum) It's interesting though that we can all easily accept the radical change of Exedol (tentacles) and Bodolza (brain in a jar) but we are really scared to see the vf1 have such masive change. In the end though I think the adult fans would sorta miss the old due to nostalgia reasons. Like how with the new BSG tv series they initially did not like the upgraded look of the cylons and preffered the cheesy robotic cylon version of old, over the new humanoid cylon versions.

I would rather see him make specifically toy robots that transform into vehicles than just plain aircraft. I think Sony's AIBO should have been a transformable dog like the Gaia gundam in Gundam Seed Destiny!

Maybe it is better they didn't show it for noobs who didn't see SDF:macross. Remember what happened in star wars at the end of ep3? (how primitive the control panels looked as if they suddenly went right back into the 70s or something )

I think I'd do something boring like sell them on ebay to buy a higher quality version of vf1. Bandai will have made a perfect grade kit with even more details that cost a fortune. These will be kept for another 70 years until macross is completely dead, and the value of the item goes up like comic books from the 50s that nobody in the world has any left of anymore. (ie collectors will just want it based on age alone) By this time robotech masterpiece VF1 will have crumbled into dust as toynami had planned and won't retain any value because they are so fragile. (designed to self destruct after a few years even inside the box )

I agree. It may not be canon but it is alternate universe (not rejected completely) so fans of that universe deserve some love too. Maybe in future (when yamato become like another bandai) some small company will make these when we are too old to remember the show? In some ways if it weren't for macross II we wouldn't have seen macross plus/7. The fanbase for macross was probably expected to die by its creator anyway.

I agree. alt prime is wierd, and a proper MP magnus would have been so much better, no matter how you spin it or how an owner of them will use damage control to make themselves feel good. The thing is even if complaint won't do any good and it is unlikley that the company will do anything about it, people will still do it anyway.

Well if SK decided out of the blue to remake macross, I would say yeah ok it might be a good idea, (redesign everything) but I would agree that the time would be better spent on new stuff. To me I like the box shape because when you look at robots in thier robot mode, they look sturdy and in a way that blockiness adds to the personality. This is one of the reasons I think I like the vf1 battroid mode over the vf11 battroid mode, even though the vf11 looks more sleek in fighter. (the vf11s shoulders look exposed in robot mode - very awkward) When you add Fast pack to the vf1 it looks even uglier. Like this massive chunk of crap is just bolted on its body as a crude performance boost to a machine ill-equiped to outperform the enemies who are probably veterens in space combat. (where the humans are better than them in atmoshpere) But maybe that ugliness is also part of the charm. Like the rugged beauty of the millenium falcon from star wars. Take away the original look and you take away some of the character of that and the nostalgia fans have for it. So I guess it depends on how far do you want to go? If they change the VF1 that means the VF4 has got to change to reflect the first change made to the vf1 and so on.. I doubt macross will be remade though as many fans just want to move on to new stuff than revisit old. I was already freaked out enough how roy changed in macross zero. Looks so different from the tv series.

I think it looks good as is. The boxy aproach adds a retro chic appeal to it. Like the racer in cowboy bebop. And the comment about how if you change the vf1 you got to change everything after rings true as well. I like that the vf4 retains some of the look of the old vf1 still while at the same time improving. There may even be design reasons to having a boxy look to it too. The zentradi had round ships and mecha (qrau, regult, the ships themselves) while the humans had squarish stuff (destroids, the sdf1, GBP Armor etc) so maybe it is just a style thing. Later when all the technology crosses over in later generations (ie vf22s looking like the qrau, the glaug being variable and used as a fighter etc) it makes sense to evolve the aproach based on the events and tech of the time. The VF0 to me looks advanced but you can see at the time the f14 was being used by unspacy as a fighter in ep1. (before they started to use transformation) So it is cool homage to that time when that was the fighter pilots relied upon to illustrate the transition to the audience from that to the VF0. (but with more high tech look to it fitting of a sci fi audience)

Ok but in the instance where complaints are valid: like the idea that the screen on the gba was so dark that you couldn't see the bats in castlvania and had to keep shifting the angle of the screen to see where you are going, then the people complaining about the complainers are more annoying imo. There was no good reason why the screen had to be so dark given the technology of the time. (other handheld companies had released similar products in the past without the problems so the comparison is valid and should be noted for those about to buy one) The problem I see is when the company releases something in stealth (no ability to give feedback, unlike say the way microsoft handled xbox and asked people "what would you like in a game console?") and then releases an improved version later rather than having the first release good from the start. It will only piss off the parent whose kid now wants the upgraded version after having just plonked down the cash for the "early adopter" version, you know what I'm saying? Rather than spending your money once, you spent it twice. In the case of knowing there will be an improved version around the corner, "hate it? Don't buy!" makes sense, but I would argue that it is better to just release a "high quality with no flaws" version from the start to not piss off the early adopter who will feel shortchanged. Who cares whose feelings you offend so long as you are being honest and up front? There is a fine line between being honest and saying "I will not buy this because of x reason", (and the reason highlights a valid negative point, like inaccuracy of sculpt, floppy limbs, crooked skull) and some person coming in to bash the product for troll reasons who has nothing to offer and wants to bait a certain crowd for thier own amusment. People get emotional over the smallest things and snap at the messenger and accusing them of being whiney people rather than looking at the product objectively from a non-fan viewpoint. If macross fans are whiney, you should see the alternator crowd who are sick of the same repaints and variations and complaining for new stuff. (at least the cars look diffferent ) Compare that to macross people who essentially have thier house filled with the same vf1, and I'd say we are pretty reasonable if a little passionate about what we want. Sure there are people who just want to voice thier opinion, but the majority can agree on certain things they would like to see: -more tampo printed detail (or improved stickers) -nicer box art and smaller packaging -straight skulls -no loose head They are all nitpicks but valid complaints and worth mentioning. We want to hear the good and the bad. Fanboys don't do that: thier sole purpose is to hype everything and blow it out of proportion without considering what else is out there. Like I say: so long as the complaints are valid and suggestions realistic then I think it is all helpful in the long run. Sure we will still buy it with those flaws (because the good outweighs the bad) but that doesn't mean we can't highlight them for fear we will offend fanboys who only like to hear one sided opinions. example: the nintendo apologists I mentioned earlier who bow down and worship it and couldn't accept thier fave company could do wrong having not experienced anything better outside the products they personally use. And then when somebody mentiond something negative to do with the product the fanboys gang up on the critic and tries to spin the bad points into a positive point and say the critic is just another troll out to bait the fans who has unrealistic expectations. What I would rather see is people's honest complaint about something over reading exclusively from a forum full of marketing shills who only hype something but not mention the small details and try to surpress the info by silencing other members.

I think there were drones like that in rahxephon. Only I think they launched the drones like missiles by shooting them vertically.