1/1 LowViz Lurker

I might be interested but I think the side piece is more my interest than the hands. I think they look out of proportion despite how detailed they are.

noooooo00... *Darth Vader voice* they still need to cling to macross and finally make us the proimised yf19 fp

The one thing I remember alot about X is how when you got the order down on how to kill the bosses in the quickest time possible, it became less replayable because there was no incentive to play the game creatively. Use the toughest weapon against the boss that is weak against that weapon, and like a puzzle you can own at the game without much more thought. Yeah it does require skill to find boss patterns and such but like a lot of 16 bit games once you knew the pattern it was easy. Once you came upon the most optimum way of defeating something and memorised it, there is no sense of danger through repeated play-throughs because the emphasis wasn't so much on mastering the "physics" of your character moves (like say in sonic the hedgehog) and honing skill that way, so much as knowing what to do and when to do it and then memorising. Now contrast that to the ghouls n ghosts series where there is an element of danger no matter how much a veteren you were back in your prime, and you can see there is a different kind of "hard" to that series that I respect a lot about it. If somehow they remade the megaman series to play more like a Treasure title, with lots of technique that you apply to normal fighting (not just against bosses) I would like the series more. Is megaman Zero on gba really hard? I haven't played it but heard it was very challenging. I like that about the old games where you had to ration each man and learn as much as you could in a single play just to get that little bit further than you did in a previous attempt at trying to win. This is something that is missing from today's style of game where you continue how ever many times you want and are not punished for making small mistakes like in the ghouls n ghost games. That is to say: you knew the limits of your character's abilities to an exacting measure and it took skill and practice just to survive. You didn't expect to beat the game on early attempts but merely to get as far as your ability would allow and learn more and more each time until you were so good and had such high consistancy through all the intense training, that you would actually beat it in 1 credit due to so much time replaying the game through repeated attempts. A game with good character "physics" forces you to hone your skill so that when you don't practice for a long time, you're judgment gets worse as time goes on. If it is a game that rewards your skill as a player reacting to onscreen dangers in real time through mastery of the character's movement physics, as opposed to just memorising what happens and knowing what to do at a certain point (like in X) then I'm into it. A game where even once you know too much about it, and the way a level is structured, that you are still challenged to be good at it by the level of danger in the game when your judgment and reaction time isn't up to snuff. Once I got too good at megaman X I didn't feel a sense of danger anymore and the rest of the game just felt 'flat'. My knowledge of the levels and enemy weakness and merely knowing what to do and where to be on the screen is what saved me more than skill. This is why I distanced myself from the megaman games over time because I felt arcade games like metal slug offered more thrills. Bosses would become more threatening and quicker as they reached death and speed gradually got faster forcing you to pay attention and react "in concert" to the onscreen danger. It was harder to maintain consistant level of success due to this unpredictable enemy AI with multi-layers of patterns, which was more what I was looking for. Even IF an enemy telegraphed thier movement and you knew what the next move the boss was going to make based on his animation, you STILL needed basic good reaction speed to get out of danger in time, and deadly accurate control of your character because of the delicate spacing between you and the bullets onscreen, giving you sweaty palms and faster heartrate after defeating them, no matter HOW many times you fought them before. It is that unknown factor that keeps me thrilled and wanting to play more because the total victory is still uncertain even after many play-throughs. (I like playing lots of shoot em ups for this reason) I mentioned that lack of movement physics took out some depth and enemies were dumb, (play alien hominid for an idea of good AI to know what I mean) but when you got to the boss it has a similar weakness to normal enemies. This is the other criticisms I have: some of the games didn't have the player react in concert to the boss they were fighting. The boss would attack you "blindly" as if you weren't there and you had to react to his pattern, but the boss would not have a counter measure to your evasive moves. This is what I mean by flat. It is that unpredictable "factor X" that was missing from some boss encounters that I didn't like. You couldn't trigger the boss to do the wrong move by being in a specific place at a specific time as a feint to make them miss you. It was more like: "wait for him to do this move, then you do that move." "If he does this move, be at this part of the screen when he does this". But the boss would always do that same thing each time so after a time you could predict exactly what he would do and it would get kind of boring if you got too good at reading the boss pattern as opposed to "reacting" on the spot to his attack; which was a specific move he used on you based on what YOU were doing. (similar to the AI in some of the old 80s and 90s walk-along beat-em-ups or fighting games where an enemy would react to you)

Thanks for clearing that up. I got the feeling though that the coralian is a living thing. Maybe an alien or something and eureka is the key to the awakening of humans. (ie like the newtype's belief in man evolving into a more peaceful understanding human with psychic ability and using that communication skills to create understanding between people so that is why they wanted to migrate tp space: at first it was for overpoulation reasons but then they came up with the theory that space forced humans to use an ability within thier own brains that laid dormant for centiries but was never used up till the time they move to space and rely on it by "excercising" the mind more.) Eureka might be light itself like when you get a bright idea and a light bulb goes off in your head when you find the answer to something. So the 7 might be her and renton's ability to create that seven swell thing at will. It is linked to the mind of the pilot perhaps and that is why feelings attract those flying creatures. You can control trapar like the force in starwars, or it can control you. (like the dark side of the force possessing the individual and making them something other than what they were before they had it) So I think the light particle can be used for good and evil. These are all theories. Maybe the black mecha is the evil form and the NirVash is the good one? When the mind of the pilot is controlled the robot goes all evil (or if the person is angry it goes beserk) but if the pilot is depressed the robot can't respond so it rejects the pilot. The reason Eureka felt so enthusiastic was because she felt she had a purpose and belonging by piloting the nirvash. After a time it rejected her due to her feeling of rejection after renton took over, and she couldn't move it. So maybe the trapar are the invisible medium from which people can psychically communicate to each other? The coralian allows these pilots to wander into each other's thoughts and fears so that is why they could talk to each other in thier dreams? The robot being a living thing, needs the mind of the person to be "synch to the waves" (the max and milia characters can understand the waves better through music as an example) in order to control the board or the mecha as if it were thier body. But you need "love" for the ultimate power so having a partner that empowers the pilot to protect gives the robot things like the barrier. Once the robot reads the pilot's mind it acitivates whatever is needed. This is why renton falls off as he 'loses' concentration and gives into self doubt. The light may respond to fear so the person falls if they are not in synch to the waves. "Hate" allows the robot to act stronger and more menacing (ie when Renton went all psycho against that guy who turned into squahsed bug) and this might be why the black mecha looks so bad. The military want to exploit this dark power of the robot (beserk mode) as opposed to the good power (which is defense and protection.) That scientist lady doesn't quite understand it yet because the results are to do with the emotion of the pilot at the time so it seems erratic. So the trapar waves provide a communication medium for psychic signals ie similar to how radio waves can be used to "transmit" and "recieve" data. When the pilot transmit emotions like "love", or "protect" the robot picks up the psychic signal and unleashes those special abilities like the barrier to defend. This can explain why the flying things respond to happiness. They can recieve the brain and psychic waves of humans by tuning into the trapar waves like a radio can be tuned to listen on certain channels and pick up a signal. Being 'in synch', or 'in tune' to each other "wave frequency" only happens when both pilots feel the same thing at the time or the robot gets confused. I think this is similar to the Aqaurion when all the pilots have "mind sex" together and get the orgasm effect. You can't have three individuals piloting the machine, but when all agree and unite for a single purpose allowing the head pilot to command it, they can form the super robot and fight as a single being or else they will break into vectors.(when they fight amongst each other and lose synch. Badly synched pilots like the cursed girl who doubt themselves, end up screwing up the connection) I will watch more episodes later. Still haven't downloaded ep25 yet.

Bandai did it with the phase shift armor in seed. Changing color depending on what pack is equiped for example so you couldn't just buy the robot and the pack seperate, you needed the robot with the pack together to have canon colors.. I actually think a black battroid squad would look kinda cool. Sort of like a pre-vf17 days attempt to make an elite assasin valk. Just arm them with a knife similar to the thing on the vf11's gunpod and away you go: "close combat/stealth VF1". It would be the equivalent to the black gundam in wing. Maybe even give it a cape.

The best thing to do is just save in advance. You don't need a second job to get one. Just don't buy new clothes and eat noodles and avoid takeout. True, but sometimes bitching means improvements. This is the reason I like to hear both negative and positive comments from toy reviews before putting down money. Even minor things like "the stickers suck", "the skull is crooked", "is it worth it compared to what other toy companies have done?" makes a difference. I want the best I can get, at possibly bargain price so I can buy more of it. If nobody bitched about 1/100 VF0 we might not see them upscale the toy. If you complain about what you spend your money on vs what you won't spend your money on, and the feedback is serious (not just being negative towards the company) it can result in good things. Especially if you have the money ready and want to hand it over, but simply won't buy something on principle due to a good valid reason. (ie not being impressed by part swapping or crap sculpt and no details) There is a fine line between being a whiner, and someone giving objective opinion on something and voicing complaint. (ie floppy limbs for yf21, not enough diecast or too much diecast in unecessary places, high price for QRau vs more complex transforming toy etc) There are two kind of complainers: 1. Complainers and 2. complainers who complain about the complainers. It's like this with games in the PAL regions. Often other regions get ripped off simply because that's what people are used to paying for them, not realising it is cheaper to import. What's funny is I know there are small retail import stores that charge way more than what you see online for 1/48 valks. The reasons are for space, it is a small shop, and they have the middle man wanting thier cut so it all boosts that price. But my example of competition is here: had I not shopped around I would have not known there are better prices offered elswhere and this may have resulted in plain me not getting or wanting one. After a bit of shopping around I could get it at a reasonable price to me. Because of the willingness to look for a lower more competitive price for the item, there is a sale gained for the company (that makes the item) down at the consumer level, which can mean good things for the company as a result. (maybe not so for the middleman though) So my reason for saying that "low price means more sales" has to do with this upper limit that people are willing to pay for something before it gets to that critical point where they just won't buy it. If the price keeps going up, that means you will buy less of it. Buying less of it means less money in the long run. If dude A likes it but just won't buy it due to price, then that is a potential lost sale for the company. If in future they find a way to lower the cost to make it, that might trickle down to the average joe who is interested and he might buy more than 1 of it and that results in expanding the market so more will buy it. When enough start to buy one, and more collectors buy multiples, the $ come in faster. But people have mentioned that yamato is a small company and all so I can totally understand why thier buying audience is limited to the hardcore fan. (being 20 year old show with nobody remembering what series the mecha is from and no future fans to carry on the torch because they are obsesed with gundam) I am still happy that we are getting them, especially things like the VB6 as I am a fan of this mecha, so I will continue to support. My point is it is still ok to continue to buy something, but also reserve the right to complain about it. Others mentioned the quality of the HG/toynami valk. They are probably what my next best purchase of a valk would be, but is that saying much? Does it say more about the desperation of a fan or the quality of the toy against strong competition? Would the price even go down in the first place, had the better versions of valks from rival companies even existed? I would say no. Why? No one to compete against them. I would rather be optimistic about the future and see progress rather than say "nothing can be done to improve something. No one should pioneer or try to raise the bar because what has been done in the past can't be bettered so don't try."

Ah maybe that would make people go out and buy more VF1A? (cannon fodder color) Or if no one buys the CF, they should repackage all the unsold ones and include the GBP as a set. (and this time change the color of the pilot flight suit) They did it with fast packs for the tv valks so why not GBP? It would be cool to have all three sets of hands, the chest piece gap filler, and maybe include all new 'boots' piece to make the feet appear bigger that people said they wanted to see? (this would be so easy to do and all the proportions would look good) What would be a good idea for future 1/48 imo is if they found a way to include the new hands in a slightly smaller scale for all DYRL valks? It just seems unfair that tv valks get thier clown hands + chicken hands but the DYRL ones only include chicken hands.

I always get that when I see big red semitrailer and think of transformers. I think of optimus prime and wonder how cool it would be if the truck might start to talk and say "Autobots, transform and roll out!", followed by the classic transforming noise they make.

You mean to say ther were paid by HG to muh-ck it up? (pun intended) First block yamato toys from sale, now sabotage the adv release of macross hoping to kill off any real support for original macross and instead only put effort into robotech. I get it now..

Yeah I was only joking of course. Didnt mean to scare off anyone from buying from them or anything, for those others who may have got the wrong idea from my comment. - joke only. The GBP is very droolworthy. I wonder if we will see the armor for the upcoming vf0, too?

But it was under the condition that: if sales slow. I don't think they have now, since the price goes up when people can't find them anymore whether due to genuine shortages or being hard to find. But when they do, I garuantee you will see the price drop to move the valks from the shops to make more space to hold toys that CAN move quickly so the owner can make more money by stocking things that are moving quickly and popular at the time. Of course that is why making a limited number of something (instead of like the transformers of overproducing by flooding the shelves then discounting unsold stock that was cheap to make) and spreading releases apart would work well. Why? Because you can lower that risk of not selling it all. It makes more profit per sale, but at a slower, less risky rate. (this as opposed to making less profit per sale, but having exponentially more people to sell to due to a lower price point, and thus making more money at a faster rate) Roy was reissued several times which pissed off the collectors who wanted him to stay valuable. It was a better move to wait until all was gone to generate demand again instead of making lots of them from the begining. This allows the second hand market to value him higher and justify letting the toy go up in value in the mindshare of the people watching it and then as people watch it go up they are less likely to complain for getting him at a higher cost to themselves. It is only after the reissue and everyone who wanted one, now has one, that it goes back down to normal prices. Why did it go high in the first place? Because everyone thought that it would be hard to get. They had to "compete" with others to own it and that meant the maker of it could leverage this demand to 'hold its value' over time. But in the instance when the market has been flooded with the item and people who wanted it, now have thier fill of the item, that is when the sales will slow and prices goes down. It just so happens that SDF:macross is a good license because in that series there are so many variants of the same mecha so it takes longer. Of course macross is a dying series, but I don't think that has anything to do with why something should be expensive. I think it is more to do with knowing your fans and the amount they will pay, and through knowing the fans and providing them the stuff they want in the toy (eg high detail, perfect transformation) it generates demand amoungst non-fans or casual fans due to the hype and reputation as a 'good' brand, and this heightened demand filters into the mindset of the interested buyers who see value in the toys and willing to fork over high amount for them. For example I would never pay for a toynami due to the 'reputation' they have alone. So to me they are not worth what the original price they were 'set' at. But a good quality brand which is reliable, that trust is worth something and it means I will pay a good price for it because of that worth. The fan knows what is worth something and what isn't worth something so it is all relative to the competition out at the time. Nothing can compete with a 1/48 vf1 but if there were a competitor, you might see a price war like what you see with videogame consoles to capture marketshare and steal attention from the competitor to stay in the game and ride it out for the long run in the hope you wll be the only one left standing and eventually be the guy who has the monopoly. (ie HG with the Mospeada toys and the fact they can put the price high despite the quality - they are kept expensive because they can get away with it) I think the best example is to do your own experiment and ask the seller if they "price match" with other competitors. That is ask them: "will you guys sell me the same thing that I can find at another store for cheaper if I can prove to you it exists at this cheaper price on this date?" Chances are if the seller wants to remain competitive to his rival seller, he will say 'yes' and decide to sell you the item at the price you saw it somewhere else for the sake of just getting the sale from you and having money. Even if it meant he made less profit than if he kept the price the same before you showed him a better price, but got no sale from you. Shop space is important factor too. Having the money keeps them alive and 'in the game' for the 'long haul'; competing for your dollars and patronage and denying the rival competitor of a sale.

But the size of the vf0 of same scale VF1 is that vf0 is bigger. Even at smaller scale to vf1 the toy is still bigger. Haha. The confusion comes when people say "size" but don't specifiy if they meant bigger scale or that the toy itself is bigger regardless of scale. Shipping will be a bitch if VF0 is 1/48. You guys are crazy for wanting massive toys. I want to be able to hold the damn thing and transform it. Hopefully detail won't suffer and they include the rotating seat gimmick. The transformation is less complex (massive swing bar like a bandai) hands don't retract, the heat shield doesn't tuck under chest plate, but hopefuly that means more attention is then spent on improving other things like detail underneath the feet, (1/48 vf1 looks more fake) hands that can grip the gunpod strong and not feel so loose, seat gimmick, tampo printed detail (please), better articulation in the shoulders, and less 'fatty' nose. (not easy since you have to compromise between good looking batroid mode and sleek fighter jet - being originally made as a cg object might help though)

Yeah I think what would happen is this: if fans stopped buying anymore vf1 (say due to space, being sick of vf1, spending money on other things which slows down the rate of thier buying them up) you might see the price lower slowly over time to rake in people who really do think that extra $35 is high. First exploit the early adopter/fans/hardcore collectors who just gotta have it now. (they've got a good paying job, and/or they've been saving for the release for months and are eager to just have the thing right this minute - these are the types that preorder and can't wait to have one now, always worried that they might lose out and the item will sell out and they might go without one) Second step: if sales slow and the first market is overdone and everyone withint that group who wanted one has what they want and can no longer buy anymore, start reducing price for the budget conscious. That is people who really are interested in the toy but for whatever reason just couldn't afford one. They didn't save up for it or go to the trouble of saving for it, (they would rather spend thier money on something else seeing "value" as important in a product and not just quality) have a lower income, but really like the toy. Not enough as the fanatic like some of the guys who own 90 valks, but enough that they would be interested 'within a reasonable limit' once the item reaches thier price range. Not all of us can afford a ferrari even though we would like one. It just isn't practical to an average joe and is considered a luxury. It is out of that person's price range. Now because there are the fans, hardcore collectors, early adopters who open the door to the market for these toys, they are the most likley to eat up the costs due to enthusiasm. Of course they know money is no object and the toy itself is more important. They would gladly pay a high price if the quality was to an acceptable limit to worth it to them. Take the toynami alpha: the only thing holding me back is if the quality of the toy was good enough that there would be no risk of it breaking. I would pay a high price for one if that issue were adressed. Money is no object to me once a certain minimum standard of quality is reached. But I DO pay attention to the price once the standard of care gone into its making isn't good, because to me something is not worth it if it doesn't last. In this instance, I would fall under the second category of "budget-conscious/value-conscious" buyer, not hardcore collector or early-adopting fan. After the "Early Adopter" crowd is milked and even fans have reached thier limit, it would benefit a company to lower the cost gradually over time to the 'second tier' of buyer. (the average joe who might only be interested in 1 but REALLY wants it if he could just find it at a reasonable price for him) Why would this beneficial? Because these possibly outnumber the first tier of buyer and there are more average joes in the world than the hardcore dedicated devotee. If somehow they could find a way to open up the market more to this second tier "budget conscious" buyer, this would result in more overall sales and total number of toy sold. ...But only AFTER they have milked the first group and the people in that category are about ready to see something new. I know I have reached my limit of vf1 and don't see that much value buying up every variant with a slight head change, unless two seater comes out. Space is the main issue: there is only so many of these valks you can have out of thier box at any one time. If the price keeps going up, I will start to lose interest unless I manage to find a bargain. In the long run, it is true they might make more keeping the price up high, but they then miss out on the bigger masses of buyers who might not even be possible to buy more than one even if they wanted to. If there was a way to reach the mass toy buyers then overall more can be moved, the middle man might be able to mke even more because now there are more potential customers for the toy etc The faster they caan be moved and still make a decent profit, the healthier to the macross license overall. But of course I believe since they can afford to "take thier time" due to lack of competition there is nothing to lose if they take it very slowly and spread releases apart. Their only competition is with themselves. ie GBP sales competes with VF0 sales if they are both released same time. Much better to string them in sequence over time. Hoping the fan can replenish the wallet and buy up both once they generate more of that disposable income. It is not disimilar to what had happened when nintendo had thier monopoly on 8bit game consoles until sega came along and split the market into a 50/50. Once nintendo were scared that they would lose half thier marketshare to a rival they started to seriously make a machine that could compete against the upcoming 16 bit generation of console just to "stay in the game". Progress is much faster once you see competition. But so far, like others have mentioned when you are the only game in town, you can afford to take your time because there is nothing lose and no risk of "losing your money to a competing company who offers the same or similar thing as you of a competing quality, and who can outprice, outproduce, and somehow find a way to run more efficiently to reduce costs than you can, making you obsolete unless you can adapt or provide better value". Having said all this I am very grateful to even own 1 of these 1/48 as they represent the dream you had as a kid of wanting a detailed transforming mecha of the thing in the show. Somebody mentioned you can't put a price on that experience you had of finally being granted the wish to see it made into reality. You only live once and money isn't something that will have value into the afterlife. 20 years is a long time to wait and the series is so old that introducing new fans won't be easy since there are those who just won't watch older anime.

Hopefully one day when they are less stingy, we will see yamato tampo print more of the stuff on the toy. Similar to what happened with bandai reissues of the macross 7 valks. I was a little disapointed that for example when the monster came out they didn't put the little eyeball markings on the side of the chest when in a similarly-priced 1/48 vf1, they had at least marked the un spacy symbol on the wing and skull on the tailfin and also included the stripe. The Qrau was also a little disapointing: the figure was not posable, the missiles were not like the detail of 1/48 FAST packs or GBP. Given that it is 1/60 I can forgive. But when you see other efforts like the scopedog you wish they had put as much as was possible into making them 'real' like the standard they set with 1/48 vf1. If they were to ever do a set of destroids it would be great to see all the little missiles inside the robot as seperate pieces just like the GBP. Because the Qrau and destroid do not transform they can concentrate on other stuff. I think that is what seperates the "toy" which you don't mind playing with and handling (bandai 1/55) from "collector item" quality. It's the little details and effort that went into the toy to make it seem like real. When others see the fast packs and the effort put into them they go "wow". When they see the GBP armor open up with all the missiles inside, they take notice. Even stuff that isn't seen on the insides makes a difference to the fan. I'm interested to see the rotating seat gimmick on the VF0. The 1/60 vf0, if matching the 1/48 details, will be collector item quality if they manage to add these finer things to the toy that you don't quite get with the 1/60 Qrau.

You should call them collector's items and then it won't sound so weird. I think the fact that there is lots of attention to detail (see the fast packs) it kind of puts the valk into a adult collector price range as opposed to the "kid who pesters his mom for one" pricerange. Of course that might not have anything to do with actual value but it sounds more grown up. http://search.ebay.com.au/search/search.dl...prclo=&saprchi= If you look on ebay though the real price is about the $130-$135 mark. Shopping around helps. But again for me it is that added shipping cost that hurts the most.

I seriously feel at has something to do with the fact there is no competition. When a rival company can compete you see prices drop in order to stay alive. I am amazed at what I can buy with my money when there are sales on videogames and take into account the healthy secondhand market for quality titles. Why? Because there is so much to compete against for consumer dollars and market dominance. But when I look at yamato toys, I know it is being paid at a premium. Will fans get ripped off and love it? Yes. Because they are fans and fans are usually the most desperate to own something even if they knew they paid more than they should have for something. Having said that, you can't question the actual quality of the 1/48. I love it (20 years and we finally have a detailed valk) and I think if they were cheaper more people would buy them and open the door to others who are not as hardcore into macross as the people on this board. (ie they will see it and buy it on impulse similar to how people buy alternators when browsing the toy section)

Is that why they call them the big bad toy store? jk

Maybe I'm just wishing they'd make the stuff we all want so we can know what to save up for ahead of time. I already have the money saved up for a vf0S, and I'm locked into getting GBP now that I have seen pics and reviews, so I'm thinking ahead of time in the future when and if they do something new. VF1 has been milked to death imo. (already there are 2 different competing scales) Time to move on don't you agree? 1/48 vf1 needs 2 seater the same way the 1/60 got it. This would interest the people who already have everything in the existing 1/48 vf1 line, looking for something new. (I think I have met my limit for buying anymore vf1 now unless it is something that hasn't been released already.)

I will probably end up getting 1 of each variant. Especially hanging out for the 0D. So yamato make em all if you want to rake in the profit. Then when sv51 and 52 are out it will look cool together in a big ass display with all the valks lined up in formation. I remember promising myself to not get another vf1 and yet I still did. Making the price cheaper might make a difference in the long too. It's the shipping for me that is my worry. That is what stops multiple buys at a time. But so long as they put the same level of care to these as they have done with the 1/48 I will be happy. I'm a fan of big toys with good detail and posability with PT. Today I was almost tempted to buy a MP02 Ultra Magnus. Will power stopped me from buying because I knew I needed more macross toys. About the 2 seaters: please make them for vf1! At least the 1D. Original looking face, different looking chest piece, and two seats would rock in 1/48. I bet many people would buy it because it stands out so much with the orange paint and the fact that it is the first valk we see in the hikaru use in the tv series that transforms.

I just got mine out the other day and have a gripe with it: When you try to put into battroid mode, you can't have it's cannon pointed forward without the robot hip going all loose on you and falling backwards due to the weight of the cannons. Now I know the cannons pointing upwards is its proper way to have it transformed but I can't help but wish they found a solution to have this able to point the 4 cannons forward. (it just looks cool) It is possible to kind of lean the battroid against something behind its back to stop it from falling back, but what would be great in future is if somehow they found a way to really tighten the hinge on its crotch and upper body so you can have it with cannon shooting forward. Apart from this minor gripe I am very happy with my VB6. In short: I want to be able to display the battroid in the same way as the attached image has it, but without it falling and collapsing forward or backwards. Try this yourself and see what happens..

That's what I was looking for in a review. Thanks. I have much more to go on now. If they ever do a future dub (ie like how you can choose two different english dubs for akira on a single dvd; original or a newer one) I hope they take some of the points here for consideration. Despite what some people think, just because there are a lot of bad eng dubs (I agree listening to the original VA is superior) doesn't mean ALL eng dubs have to be bad. I think that is bias from fans for the original showing. And yes, if they could, bring back that zentradi echo. They even tried something a bit like that on the macross plus eng dub when guld speaks in his yf21. I'm not sure if it was just him thinking to himself or not and that's why it was there, but I really liked that effect.

Well I think all life has potential for both good and bad. Some people do good and try not to do bad. Others do good but also do bad saying that: "well I am bad but look at the good I've done! I can continue to keep doing wrong if I do these good deeds as if the good I do cancels out the bad." The scientists using technology for weapons but also using them for beneficial purposes for good is an example. And then you've got the people who just continue doing bad with no idea that what they are doing is harmful. The alien wants to make an example out of these by destroying them and it leaves a few messengers to carry on the lessen to future generations as a myth to warn them what will happen if you don't behave.. And then the priests or whatever that survive the cataclysm create a death/rebirth creation story to explain it to young kidies with symbols so it is easier to understand. In many ways there is a lot of that kind of symbol in the way fish men warred with the bird men and what evolved were flying fish. Were the flying fish descendants of fish or bird? Did the two races in the myth both make peace and have children similar to zentradi with humans and create genetic hybrid? (there are different aliens in the macross world like whales that can fly, elf people, giants etc) The Phoenix valkyrie does the same thing as a flying fish in the OVA when it dives into the water and then rises back up to fly in the air. Almost mimmicking the behaviour of the flying fish in the story. Some people think it was a joke ending when shin rises up out of the water though. But the phoenix rising up after a 'death' could be thier way of saying: the destruction or punishment half is over, thanks to the sacrifice shin made by giving his life for the human race as a demonstration to all of what can be done to avoid the punishment of an angry god. Now let the phoenix rising be the sign of a "rebirth" of the world out of the ashes of destruction. In this way I think they tried to make Shin out as a sort of messiah figure who saved the world. He saved the "gentiles" from the judgment and extended the right to keep living to all people, not just the holy priest/priestess or chosen few. This is very similar to the Bird human having its "head chopped off" in the legend. (protecting us from procacha by delaying the inevitiable for a time) So by having the alien mech leaving a few people to live to tell the tales, there is hope or potential to do the right thing even if the destruction caused by the alien mech seems unjustified by some. It is sort of like a macross equivalent of the biblical flood which wiped out all the violent people but favoured descendants of Noah hoping his family would continue behaving through thier bloodline. Of course there is no ark, unless you think of the SDF1 being the "Ark of culture" after the zentradi tried to kill off earth with the "rain of death" in the tv series. The zentradi came much closer to realising the extinction of humans than the bird mecha thing. In this way the technology could be used for "good" to help defend us against an alien race with even worse behaviour than us. Sure we humans did "deserve to die and be judged" but through love we can also forgive those doing wrong on us and find a way out of the cycle of death if given a fair chance. (that is what the bird human tried to do by cutting its head off so it couldn't be used as a weapon in the legend. It must have felt sorry for us and went against orders from high to kill us off, so it disables itself) I don't think all the PC were in agreement with each other so I think that there was a rogue faction that still had 'hope' in the humans and wanted the project to keep going while others wanted to terminate it. The bird human might have been the result of one of the human sympathisers to sabotage the earlier order to kill us off, not disimilar to the way Britai and Exedol sided with us humans agianst Bodol. So maybe there was like a similar thing in the past that prevented angry "Procacha", the god who kind of looks like a dragon to me in the painting, from having his way with us.

I think love may have something to do with it too. Mao kissed Shin underwater and the thing reacted by glowing, something she mentions has never happened before. The song of destruction could be the weapons which are used to 'clean' earth of the people responsible for the destruction. The anti-un pilots are a good example, for having burnt the forest and as a result destroying all the living things inside it, which I assume the earlier culture needed to survive, having been dependant on 'nature' for independance from an industrialised form of life in the city, which ultimatley leads to the creation of sophisticated weapons of war. Note how the peaceful community fishes, hunts for food etc as opposed to buying from a shop? Even though they are curious about technology thier religion is pretty strict and they view technology as evil. The song of creation could be when two people come together and create life through thier love. (ie through sex and union of two people - the zentradi learnt this part of culture in the tv series - when two races mate they created Mylene; a symbol and proof of peace between alien and human cultures. Her mixed blood was used to gain access to the ancient ruins in macross 7 as a key to unlock the secrets of the past. So whoever thought up the alien PC technology knew what was going to happen thousands of years in advance, and planned all this ahead of time) In the last episode, because sara was in love with shin, the alien mecha stopped the destruction. (perhaps similar to the reaction earlier when Mao and Shin were kissing in front of it) So you could say that maybe the mech is alive and controlled by the pilots emotion. (just my theory) Or it could just be preprogrammed with commands by the previous people who put it there. (kind of like the sdf1 automatic firing of the main gun at the zentradi in ep1 of the tv series) So destruction/creation in a sense are related depending on how it was used. The nutty old man was explaining they are just 2 faces of the same coin. If Sara had not changed her emotions from hate to love at the last minute, the mech might have just kept destroying stuff. If man didn't learn the lesson and continued it might have resulted in a "reset". Think Turn A gundam and the destruction it caused. It can be either feared by the people attacked by it, or praised by those who see it as a saviour, depending on how you look at it.

Damn it wish I never stumbled on this thread.. I'm going to have to add this to my shopping list.

At least there are no spelling mistakes or typos. Doesn't that count? hehe yeah it does look like an essay. Or just a really long apreciation comment. I think there needs to be balance though. Oftentimes you get crowds that are like "it's cool to hate" because once the mainstream recognises something they don't want to go with the grain. (ie no longer cool to like something because so many other people like it now.) I remember when matrix first came out, I liked it and wasn't afriad to say I liked it. Then what happened was it got hyped and hyped and people wouldn't stop shutting up about it, and now would be afraid to say it was a good movie lest I end up being thought of as mindless drone or fanboy. But once they released sequels and made animes, and made games, and made all kinds of merchandise to transform the movie into a franchise....that is when the after effect of "now it's much easier to hate matrix in general" started to come around. The movie was good for reasons like good fx, characters that go back to the 80s cyberpunk style of "trencoat and guns and dark sunglasses", having action scenes that were dramatic and interesting etc ...But daamn, did they try to milk it later. When you saw other movies copy what they did and clone it, (charlies angels) you could then blame it for the overuse of cg and wire stunts and the fascination with leather and PVC in other movies, and blame it when hollywood wanted to cash in on its influence from fans of that movie. For many people who just went to see it as a normal movie interested in the dark vision of future, we would just praise it on things we liked and moved on. It did show interesting fights, it had attitude and style, the main villain was cool, it ripped the ideas we liked form other things we saw, but now it is easy to hate due to the overhype. Maybe in future people will call it classic, but to me I think it did enough interesting things (like making us all think of our existence from a "computer prgram with lines of code governing natures laws" perspective) that it deserves the credit it got before the hype train came.