1/1 LowViz Lurker

I still say prime looks evil. Look at the eyes. Megatron must have really pissed him off.

Ok but maybe, just maybe Shinn was never supposed to have the spotlight. When I look back I see shinn as a kind Jerid from zeta gundam. Jerid was determined to get even and boost his skill to beat camille, (but never being quite as good as camille) so perhaps shinn being so focused on revenge and getting even, is meant to mean he is the "bad" guy. The thought only came to me today because shinn and jerid are so single minded, and personally I wouldn't mind it if he was a bad guy due to being kira's nemesis. Jerid wants to one day be in control of the titans and shinn aspires to beat Kira focusing everything he has and constantly trying to push the envelope. Very similar to jerid wanting to learn everything he needs to know about improving his skill from more experienced veterens and swallowing his pride. (normally his is arrogant and egotistical, proud of being an elite. Secretly we see he wants to climb the ladder and asks for help. This reminds me of Shinn's pride at being given the medal from dullindal. So long as people are eager to want that apreciation from thier superior with the ambition to one day lead, this is a perfect way to string them along by appealing to the pride of the soldier) Jerid and Cammile both hate each others guts right from the start of the series. Camille even fights him after being made fun of in the first episode. Similarly, Kira is hated by shinn with equal level of hate especially after his gf gets killed. It is established early on that Shinn's family died as a result of Kira's fighting. thus: Shinn = Kira's nemesis the way Jerid became Camille's nemesis. The main difference is Kira = both Amuro from MSG, AND Camille from Zeta Gundam. Maybe Kira will take the place of Judau from Double Zeta and steal the show again? You can't just throw away the ultimate coordinator. Not in the third part at least. He is too valuable. Another thing that has bothered me: there are too many gundams! Why does everyone need the same looking mobile suit? Can't the enemies design thier own superior suit that equals the same power of the gundam but looks different? It would be refreshing to see a mix of gundam and zaku and other mobile suit design fighting alongside each other. It would make the fighting less confusing because from a distance the mobile suits look more distinct and easy to make out in a busy scene where there is teams fighting against each other.

The 3rd series will probably be a recap of the first two series with some extra frames of animation to remind people of what happened last time. Or maybe it will be like double zeta and we will see new characters instead? Seed = MSG Destiny = Zeta Eternity = Double Zeta? A junk collecting civilian will steal the attention from the previous characters and he will be on neither side, only in it for himself, kind of like a Han Solo type person who just joins up without any need to 'serve' any side but just using them. Kira and Shinn had thier chances (50 motherfarting episodes each). Let's move on. When I look at things like Gundam Wing I am surprised how much faster moving that series was - 5 backstreet boys and only told in 1 series and a ova/movie. And closing the universe off in 1 neat attempt. That's the pace I want. Plus I'm sick of the teen angst and youthful ignorance of characters unaware of what's going on. We need to start with a character who was forced to mature early in his life due to the environment he lives in (like a street smart character who has learnt survival skills from experience) so we can skip all that and get to the action. Maybe he is bored, broke, and decides to fight for material reasons at first, seeing it as an adventure and an opportunity to get 'treasure', rather than to get revenge. He then later sees through all the BS politics of either side, and makes decisions on his own with conviction taking practical considerations into mind and telling the people what he thinks of them to thier face, unlike the first two characters who spent too much time with philosophy and thinking about reasons, still unsure of why they do it because they've been indoctrinated by the military on how to behave and what to think (by thier government or the family) and are way too focused on it as a career and gaining rank, respect and apreciation (medals and pats on the back for successful mission completion, no question of the ethical concerns), rather than seeing the bad side of thier own leader for what it really is, from a purely objective point of view as a neutral party, and then nipping it in the bud from the beginning.

When you buy fast packs you will be scared of the amount of weight it adds to the toy. Anything heavy should not be dropped. And when you have it in battroid mode wearing them on its back and the little plastic that holds the backpack upwards looking scary in times when you might accidently flip this off, you will remember to be careful. When transforming, I would recommend taking all that heavy stuff off first. The thing is expensive, but not weak. Just that lots of pressure and weight seems to rest on a small hinge in some areas so this is why care should be taken here. (the backpack should go all the way into the body.) Limbs won't just fall off and feel loose like a banpresto or anything. It is generally tough all round. One of the complaints I've heard is that the little micromissiles tend to pop out of the fast packs so if you were pissed at the feathers coming off on the gundam kit, maybe this will be a problem for you, but so far I haven't had any problems here. It will be interesting to see how the gbp missiles will fit and if they will fall out if you hold it upside down and shake it a little. Maybe people want these to pop out suddenly like in the anime.

The unique thing about the low vis is if you do that, evidence of who the owner was that opened it exists as the black weathering patches rub off the more you touch it and leave fingerprints. So maybe it will degrade in value if you touch it too much and people can tell? Maybe it's best to leave it in the box forever.

Well the way I like to think of it: all the manufacturers have different styles and taste. Some have been shaped with attitude, others for practical reasons (ie those round pod-like submersible shaped designs for water) and others for decoration. (ie the solar aquarion's face in aquarion is like some kind of demon that has possessed the armor, it's wings symbolic of the sun behind its back which is the theme it bases the super attack off for example) But the Turn A, as strange as it is, it makes you think of the robot as more like it was made from an ancient advanced culture or something with its strange angles, rather than for use by military or some wacky custom design by robot enthusiast. (ie G gundam mecha) After a time you don't notice or care who built it, whether feddie or zeon, because it tries to be different, outside the time of the ages of each cataclysmic war, so it isn't something easily identifiable by either side. The mystery is what makes it interesting, maybe hinting that its technology should seem almost magical to the discoverer? It's not completely man made, but like a living giant with healing ability - it even is worshipped like a statue as if some kind of destructive god to be feared. Apart from the colors it is distinct from the other robots. Maybe the ultimate robot is the one with the unknown factor: not any person is allowed to take it lightly or use its features, because of the destructive power which had to be hidden and only used for emrgency. The more mysterious and "forbidden" the robot seems; where the technology is reaching a point that the tools themselves are alive and the pilot is "chosen" by it to have its exclusive power, the more fitting to the overall theme of "turning of ages", only to be awakened at a given time. (when the moon and earth unite and all the superstitious predict the doom through observing the heavens) All the gundams have been like giant knights fighting for justice, but the turn a looks like it goes beyond a specific organisation, time, country, age etc and just tries to remain simple and symbolic, "cryptic" if you may. Like when people write and try to simplify something they can encode a whole meaning in a single sign, a letter, or a symbol. Chuck out the unecessary, and leave what is standard amoungst all things in all ages, without being too specific and putting details distinct to a culture. So that the robot fights for no one group or person in particular, but for everyone. Like with Bruce Lee's fighting style: to not have a style for someone to identify with or exploit weaknesses from through observation or to mimmick, but to be adaptable and flexible like water, maybe to not even give it a name or label at all. Keep the fighting simple and only use what is necessary and practical for the ultimate fighting efficiency; throwing out the unecessary and keeping everything as straightforward as possible. Rather than locking and limiting your potential through given rules or a dogmatic and predictable "style" which means you are trying to consciously or subconsciously keep to a theme or a standard without questioning the practical purpose for it and scrutinising its true usefulness to you. (ie not everyone is the same, some are disadvantaged at doing things because of the way they are uniquely built. eg a tall person has strengths and weakness that are not there for a short person, possibly making certain moves more difficult for that person. Perhaps it is up to that tall person to develop thier own techniques that best suit who they are than to follow the grain unquestioningly?)

I always thought it was mainly the violence that was the controversy. That is people were wondering: "Was it so necessary to be that graphic about it?" Kind of like the violence in Saving Private Ryan. Whichever groups are powerful at the time, who get easily offended by something, usually are the ones helping to create the controversy, and that leads to more publicity which leads to people wanting to pay the money to see the movies just to see how bad they are and what the controversy is about, thus contributing to feeding the beast they so hate. Mel Gibson knows what he is doing. When I watch Braveheart I don't care how historically accurate the thing is, I just want to see some guys beating each other silly and some exciting action. This is what I believe a majority go to see movies for. And this is who is aimed at: the masses. I think the simpsons episode with a hollywoodised version of history sums it up perfectly where they just throw out all logic and take whatever freedom they can to tell an interesting story. After coming out of POTC I thought of it more as a horror movie with the emphasis on just the torture bits.

It just wouldn't be the same. People would see it was a counterfeit. It has to be worth loadsa money to feel special. eg. When you go to the comic book guy's store for his nerdy apraisal he has to poo his pants when he sees it and treat it like it was unique above all other valks. Spotting the differences between all the versions that ever existed and be envious that he doesn't own it. That's the power that comes from being a hunter and collector of rare stuff, baby. People have to be jealous of you and suffering, for it to have a pleasing effect to you. mwhahaha eg nobody really gave a poo about the low vis until after they realised they couldn't have it.

I wish he had done that mad max sequel. Didn't he say something about him being too fat to be max in an interview a long time ago? When he said that, an image popped into my head of him being a fat, donut-eating Main Force Patrol cop again, (in the style of the first movie) and the twist is that they turned it into an action comedy with a black guy as his partner. The world would once again be back to what it was from the first movie and max would have the benefits of futuristic cyborg body parts (remember his injured leg from the movies?) and the future would not be so chaotic. (more like escape from new york. The gangs would only have control of certain areas but they would be managable) The story would be that it was discovered that all the good guys were really living underground and that it was kept secret from the rest of the human race so that they could then later bring about a utopian world after the destruction of the old one. (the underground society think of themselves as like the people who escaped the flood in biblical times hoping the destruction would have wiped out all the violent people) All the technology since then advanced to a certain level and some of the cities are strangely much more advanced than the rest of the earth. (ie like Appleseed) Unfortunately it would all go wrong when gangs had taken control of the cities, stolen this tech and the scientists, and once again there would be need for road warriors to fight against them helping to protect the good people and for survival to outrun and outdrive them to get to safe areas. There wouldn't be a military to protect the innocnet (only a police force) because this idealistic peace-loving socitiety thought they wouldn't need to fight in any more wars ever again, assuming that all the violent and chaotic people were wiped out from the earth, and that the remaining scavengers had starved to death. Ahhh.. too bad. Those kinds of movies aren't made anymore. (set with a lone character similar to a cowboy in a western or a samurai who roams the earth for truth, holding no Politically Correct ideas or ideals and who just fights using his skill and being atached to no single person, except the things he uses to survive to protect himself, in a world where innocent people get beaten over because they are weak and easy prey so thier chances of staying alive and able to fight back are slimmer. ...oh and the stunts are all done without CG effects)

Will we see a G1 Jetfire by any chance?... If you look closely at prime's face he seems really pissed off. Kind of menacing looking like the gundams in stardust memory. Everytime I look at it I think this is an evil prime.

Does anyone have a picture of the box for the black valk? Just curious to know what the box looks like.

I thought of the VF0 as more of a thing where the UN were desperate to "have something" to fight the anti un with because they were running behind in the transforming vehicle idea due to it being stolen, (kind of like how the zeon were late with beam rifles in gundam to the feddies) more than as a machine designed to be used against the aliens. So they came up with something and that was the VF-0. Otherwise it would have all the things the vf1 has. (like thermonuclear engine etc) Would bigger size mean more fuel? Each time they fought they kept having to end the fight because of that. So when the newer engines came, it then meant smaller more agile craft to fight in. (ie ditch the vf0 and go for a new look altogether, giving us the vf1, and maybe scrapping the more expensive stuff for the crap inexperienced pilots to save money on advancement in other areas)

The value will go up eventually. As future generations ignore macross, the toys from the series will be more treasured over time. People will take what they can get. Because HG blocks stuff, it might work to collectors's advantage because the average person has to import to get access to the toys. The reissues like Roy are probably due to high demand aren't they? And the high demand probably allows for them to up the price. But as you; as a collector buy more of the Roy 1/48 (now that they become more available) it will make it easier to sell more of these off in future, making you more happy. (like in 20 years time when they go way up and those that want them can't find them. You will thank yourself for buying the reissues and stocking up cause by then it is time to cash in, where owning more than 1 of the same thing is to your benefit) I'm just guessing. You can always hope that there are people who missed the boat who didn't know anything about yamato and are just coming in as newbies willing to pay massive amounts of money for something they can no longer find. I'm thinking of actually getting a masterpiece Ultra magnus. Not normally a TF person but I missed out on prime. I like masterpiece stuff. I would say get the 1/48 and fast packs mainly for yourself rather than as something that you collect. Although expensive, it is still the ultimate valk imo. Everything dies. It's not like you can take them to the afterlife with you. I'm sure the Bandai reissues are good but when 1/48 came, it was better to make space for a collection of these since they are more detailed. Detail is what makes the masterpiece nice to own because it is closer to the anime. The only stopping me from liking the MPC toynami is QC. I like the alpha and beta as mecha, but sooo wish these were not "limited edition" toys, but rather like mass produced toys at cheap price that you can buy in a vending machine or something instead. (ie like the banpresto vf1 where you were not afriad if something broke. These feel cheap, but they have good posability, good proportions, ok detail for thier size, and transforming them is easy. You can take them apart if you want with ease so if one part is broken just replace it. You even get multiple heads.)

I want one of those black valks. Super duper rare only ever 3 made. How much would one of these be worth?

I don't own a boot but I have a bandai fire valk. Well the one thing I like about this is the nose is actually nicer than the yammy in fighter. The battroid mode looks ok but has bad posability. (no moving the legs except at the knees and ankles and a bit at the middle of the thigh.) It feels nice and sturdy (if a bit lightweight) though. You can play with it, and there would be no fear of something breaking. So whether it "feels worth it" for the amount of money you pay depends on you. I'm thinking of eventually wanting to get a bandai blazer to sit alongside the fire valk but I don't think bandai will reissue it. (may cave in and get a boot though) Oh and the landing gear looks horrible. hehe What is funny is how the posabilty of the legs for the bandai vf17 is good at the upper part (vf19 is fixed to one position - bad point for vf19) but poor at the knee. (VF19 allows you to bend them backward - bad point for vf17) ...Like you can have one point of articulation but you must lose the other.. Did some guy decide that you must suffer in one area if you gain in another area, so it's "fair"? Maybe they deliberately wanted macross fans to suffer?

I liked the story. The mustache is a nice touch. Do you think they purposely put the mustache there (really just a lowered v fin) just to make it look like an upside down 'A'? I always thought it strange that they finally ditched the samurai helmet with the mask over the mouth design for this series.

But from what I gather max was handsome enough to be a threat to hikaru which is why hikaru was warned that he might end up losing minmay to some other pilot. Especially in that scene. I don't think max was attracted to any of the girls apart from milia though, he was just being polite. I gather that people tend to be more self conscious around people whose looks they admire. And the people who know those people personally over years, notice a change in that person's behaviour when around that person they like. (ie explains why hikaru was given such sudden relationship advice)

Yeah I really hope they put that echo in the zentradi ships. I liked that. What was the explanation for it anyway? Hearing yourself talking after each word must be pretty annoying, alien or not I would think. That sometimes happens when you talk to people in a long distance phonecall. I think Britai needs a really deep voice (like james earl jones or something) and so does the bald guy in command for me to accept them though. Robotech has made me bias.

But the problem is if they were to use old roy, he would sound like Yang neuman from macross plus.

Are the little armored core gashapon toys any good? I was thinking of getting some.

Heard em. I dunno I liked the old Robotech Roy voice better. It sounded deep but not loud. Maybe he should do kakizaki. Same with Claudia. Robotech Claudia I thought suited the character fine. Hikaru: for his tiny size he should sound like that I think. When you see him standing next to all the other soldiers he is like a little kid. Minmay: I have no probs with this actually. When I think of minmay an image of her in the chinese dress and the chinese restaurant floating in space comes to mind as well as her appearance in the kunf fu movie. "I'll have 2 chow mein, thanks". I wonder how milia will sound?

And then work on the beta/tread which will connect to it.

They probably spent all thier money on sdf1 and super upgrade. Maybe they were totally focused on the giant killing aspect of fighting so vf1 became top priority because you could transform and it was proven design. (used the vf0 in un war) If they spread thier resources too thin it might make them weaker. Think how hard it is trying to learn three modes of vf1 and if you multiply that by how many different mecha appear in gundam that would be taxing on the human race I would imagine. They mention running out of good pilots in macross zero too. (roy couldn't even beat ivanov and roy calls his wingmates "chicks") What I would like to have seen was the VF-4 coming in before the end of SW I instead of as a little model kit in the background, just like how they had the VF22S kicking ass in macross 7 at the end. In gundam they tend to show the latest model at a critical point in the story to show that things get better as the weaknesses of the original models are brought to light. I think of the Super as the answer to the Qrau speed in the episode when the humans are first exposed to the female pilots being able to just fly circles around things and unleash all thier micromissiles at once. The super pack is more than a big jetpack for battroid but it can allow speed advantage for space, and in an atmosphere, not having it won't matter so much since the qrau doesn't have the aerodynamic shape to be a threat to a non-fast pack vf1. (you can just escape the fight by flying away) What they could have done was show destroid with modular design. (ie like octos) Since the anti un were using them and humans had the transformation theme floating around in thier head when VF0 were made, I would loved to have seen a type of wheeled destroid that had an alternate mode maybe used for SW I. It would be a more expensive version of the old destroids but be considered "superior" for speed reasons.

They can't bring out 1a because they claimed it would be the last 1a (due to unpopularity?) release evar11 when mentioning the cannon fodder. Somehow I don't believe them. So if it going to be lv, make it 1j, and 1s

Yeah but these were sort of sticking outwards like the zolan elf people. normal round ear: Elf ears: Miria also looks a little Spock-ish with pointy ear but they are not pointed outwards like this. I think what happened is later on Mylene was insecure about her looks and with her success she decided to get ear enhancements. (like breast enlargement, only for ears instead) She was obviously jealous at all the attention Basara was giving Sivil so she changed her appearance. Or maybe it's a disease she caught from one of the planets that mutates the person. Kind of like the pink-skinned alien Rick Hunter from the robotech comic.