1/1 LowViz Lurker

Maybe, but no one can predict the future. Collectors don't open the box to handle the toy so the mistakes might not be that much of an issue to them as much as being able to own an item they percieve to be of high value to them. Otherwise why is it that people suddenly want to buy up stuff that becomes harder and harder to find? (herd mentality) But when an item is in thier face, (low visibility) automatically they assume the item isn't worth getting immediately when no one is else is eager for it? I think the same idea of age boosting value of an item can be attributed to toys since people normally think that once something is no longer made (even if it was inferior to later versions) they are getting items that are soon to be rare and a pain in the ass to find when they want it. Also how much disposable income the person has might make a difference since money might not be an issue to them so much as getting the item now! now! now! (the "lazy-but-well-off guy who won't research who buys all the masterpieces out of impatience. )

I'm more a fan of those fuchikoma things in the comic. I wish they were the main character. I know her body is fake but is the major a lesbian? There was some lesbian love panels that were cut out of the US Gits manga. It was the part where she and her friends are on this boat.. Anyway it's not in the original release I had.

Collectors I assume want everything. So maybe if the rarity and age of something grows with time, and becomes harder to get, its collector value goes up? Same idea might be with comic books. The first print is always more valuable than the second print cuz it's the original from an older time? If they mass produced low vis valkyrie or reissued more, the value of the item would go down even though the thing is the same. Having a collection of the rarest things probably makes people feel l33t amoungst other collectors because they possess a thing that no longer is made or exists for others to have. (I often imagine what it would be like if the line of 1/48 were no longer made ever again and how this would affect prices on ebay. Even things that you might think are junk in your garage sale, people will pay enormous prices for stuff you thought nobody cared about.)

Well if it helps: we do see vehicles with mechanical limbs at least. Every week the garbage collector comes to my house to collect the garbage by using a robot arm on the side of the truck to grab the garbage bin and tip the bin's contents into the truck so the garbo doesn't have to keep coming out of the truck by themselves to do this manually, which probably saves time an effort allowing more houses to be done in shorter time. It's not a mecha used for combat but an example of making tools to benefit us while not necessarily replacing something else that is already effective by itself. In space imagine a space junk collector, instead of sending a human to go and collect something, in a bulky spacesuit, you have limbs to manipulate the objects from within the craft to save time. One thing we are forgetting here is that a vehicle can be BOTH a vehicle and a robot at the same time. The lines are blurred because a vehicle could be controlled by a pilot (whether inside the cockpit or outside the machine) or by a learning computer which allows it to follow simple commands fully-automated. A machine that is both of these things is a an example. This isn't too far from those little rubbish-collecting robots in DYRL. We are now in the digital wireless age and once people's houses are wired with automated functions all sorts of gadgets can be made to do things by themselves without you needing to be there. In the future you can expect to have moiniturised gadgets like mobile phones inside your clothes, call up your houses computer, and tell the microwave to cook your food. Physically there is nothing mechanical but the information to activate various tools networked together makes your life easier and more conveniant. We shouldn't expect giant versions of things (hulking biped mecha) when we barely have an interest in making small scale robots and finding uses for them in everday life. But when money can be made from it then you will see advances. To me practical uses for things come from people's own willingness to create machines for themselves (robots to save time) not just because they see something "cool" in a science-fiction movie and say "this is my reason for doing it". (for eg how fans of anime decide one day to build fake mechs in thier garage as thier hobby) In Ghost in the Shell we have a character called the puppet master who is able to wirelessly hack (and defeat thier firewall) into a cyborg's computer brain and control thier bodies and nervous system to act as a kind of humanoid mecha (my own terminolgy). Just because there is no cockpit does not change the nature of the idea of controlling/piloting mechanical things to gain an advantage. This is why I think there will be practical uses for something if it means you can save time, resources, lower risks etc and the population are willing to pay for them on a mass scale. Humans haven't any interest in what goes on out in space so I doubt in our lifetime we could ever reach a point where the global government (like the UNG in macross) makes efforts to find materials on other planets (alien materials?) that would allow for any big advances that we are all used to seeing in sci fi movies. Nope we are stuck on earth bogged down by existing industries that are at least proven and tested to make big $ with no risks and no loss of jobs, because in the end money is what makes the world go round and controlling it is the most important thing on people's mind. If there is no one willing to pay for the time to research something that will bring a definate return on what they invested, then why bother? This is why I'm glad that not all sci-fiction stay so bogged down in current technology and isn't too detailed into explaining how the stuff works. (the antigrav generator? and where are our 3d holographic images?) The sciences we specialise in on earth may be completely different to whatever an older more-advanced alien race's own mastered sciences are, even though there may be similarities. Heck the aliens in a sci-fi may not even be carbon-based lifeforms, (the movie 'Contact' is a good example, it's more like the aliens were from another dimension altogether) but it's just more popular to have them that way. A sci-fi show doesn't need to predict that this is where we will be in x amount of years, they can just explain things away by saying that the people in that world went down a different path, or encountered a more advanced race of people. When you can give a good enough reason for why such and such can do what it does in a fictional story that is good enough for me. If for example we did go down the path to a global war as seen in the beggining of SDF:macross with images of people using hand-carried laser guns, whose to say that all our tax dollars and efforts into making our weapons the most advanced won't suddenly result in fast technological progression that brings us closer to what you see in sci-fi? When there is lots of money pumped behind research into such weapons on a global scale (a world war) because people's very survival rests on it, and so long as the concept can prove itself that it can work, anything is possible. The thing that I'm most interested in is how humans can become connected to machines directly through thier own mind (put a transmitter and reciever in the body, and similarly in machines to control them through thoughts) and how this could parrallel with what we see in macross zero (operating weapons with hands-free controls) or even the matrix. If this is truly possible in a very advanced form, then I can imagine people can be wired to 'feel' what the machine is doing and intuitively control that machine as if it were thier own body through enough training and if the information is fed into them properly. (the famous 'jacking the wire into the back of the neck' scenario. This is why I think a humanoid machine is advantageous because it can 'feel' what it is doing through sensors connected to the person, over something clunky and unintuitive with external controls. So unless a real world example exists comparisons are pointless.) The concept of the robocop may be seen as far far into the future, but the idea to give people cyborg implants (or wear them at least, if not put them into thier body) isn't. (those who are looking for prosthetic limbs) If the incentive to want convenience and the willingness to save money and time is big enough, people will adopt this as natural and when enough money is made in this industry, advances follow and more research is carried to improve the technology. But that requires big risk, and money, and the people making it have to believe in it themselves, not just because they want to make a profit, but also to make something really work that brings a practical purpose for its existance and enough convenience that somebody would actually want to buy it because they feel it is useful to them. edit: Here's a good discusion of mecha use in the fictional world: http://kier.3dfrontier.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-8028 this snippet highlights the point of different vehicles and robots used in combination as opposed to "one-mech-does-all" idea:

If you are going to talk about mecha I would use the more broad term: wikipedia: I'll assume the topic refers to the practicality of any warmachine that does not act alone. (That includes classic human piloted stuff, plain robots like ed209, drones, humanoid cyborgs etc) I think soldiers who have lost limbs in war might suddenly get the chance to be real cyborgs once technology gets good enough. If we can allow the prosthetic limbs to increase strength and eye cameras that provide nightvision etc that would be a bonus. (notice how in a lot of anime the scientists and techs often seem to have "goggle eye" cyborg implants to increase thier sight?) I think there might even be competition between companies for the best solution and we might see a mech vs cyborg thing like in the movie robocop. Remember how impractical the ed209 mech was because it was not suited to small spaces and indoors? It was designed for outdoors. (even fired rockets! now what criminal is going to be so heavily armed that it would need this?) Much more heavily armed then robocop and probably stronger but size and strength are not everything. Then look at how easy it was to kill one with that big gun that blows things up in a single shot? Compared to a normal person's brain controlling robot limbs and feeding off organic food, the ed209 just wasn't as useful in as many situations as the cyborg robocop. I think that cyborgs or humanoid robots that ride in giant or normal sized robot vehicles with wheels to drop them off, will be the solution. A mech doesn't have to be humanoid but it will be suited to more uses (indoors, guarding small areas with limited space etc) than if it was treated like a clumsy vehicle. As robots can communicate to each other wirlessly, I can see even running dogs being useful to complement any deficiencies in the humanoid or wheeled bots. They could bounce information back to each other much faster than a human team could and know where things are instantly. (I liked the way the Terminatrix in the terminator 3 movie was able to wirelessly control cars - that's the kind of thing I envision a team of different robot types behaving - A small wheeled one might be a scout, the heavy one would provide covering fire and long distance, and the humanoids would be able to go inside buildings up stairs in elevators ect where the environment was built up by humans for humans to live/work around in. ie could ED209 even press buttons on a keyboard or fit in an elevator to get the badguy/terrorist/criminal?) I guess my point is this: there is nothing stopping different types of mechs being used and having different sizes and purposes. Some mechs might be suited as wheeled, some might be humanoid, and some might be fourlegged. (like a dog or maybe a spidermech that isn't allowed to crush its own environment) There's nothing stopping different types being used together: example a cyborg, or humanoid robot, riding inside a drone vehicle which itself has limbs that could be mechanical for rough unsteady environments where there is no flat plain or surface to work in. Mechs using other mechs could be a solution to carrying out work in some far off planet where humans who are living in colonies with limits to thier bodies are too valuable to lose or risk thier lives for. The problem with a lot of thinking is that we expect a humanoid robot to be the "one man army" role which does absolutely everything. I say we make robots speak thier own robot language standard so that they can help each other do tasks we humans do in real life. (like my fingers - a type of robot - are typing on this keyboard now because the computer in my head - another type of robot - is controlling nerves that phyiscally respond to what the brain is saying. My computer monitor - yet another type of robot - is giving my eyes (another robot) the information it needs to process the data onscreen to determine what response I need to make. In the real world the humanoid mech who is breaking into enemy hq could control the mech outside because if it can see whats going on outside, while doing tasks inside, it is more powerful than if two seperate humans did it. The mech outside could then tell a wheeled or flying vehicle (controlled by the guy in the humnoid robot in the building) to come and pick up the outdoor mech and the humanoid in the building to make pickup. By working together you eliminate the need for the "Do-everything/one-man-army" robots and the robots mimmick human behaviour and become exponentially more useful. In the real world, we could build rockets to go to the moon because of how we all worked together. We could advance civilisation because we as humans became "specialised" into particular areas and worked together rather than all of us as hunter-gatherers. There shouldn't be a limit on what role the machines are allowed to do, it's just a matter of building specialised machines for different tasks,(bomb disposal, hacking, riot control, transport with vehicular speed etc) different environments (suits that are worn to explore underwater or in space that enhance strength?) and general purpose use. (humanoid robots with hands that can load ammunition into a gun or just serve you in a resturant?) Seeing that humans will always be needed, it makes more sense to have machines with options to be controlled by us manually (just like in the sci fi anime) or by a learning computer. (there are robots now that have learnt - not been hard-coded or programmed with a set of rules - to walk by themselves) Actually there are robots(remote-piloted but still piloted nonetheless, and in "virtual reality" style) that have been used underwater(I think they used one for the titanic movie: http://www.whoi.edu/home/about/currents10_no1_jason.html). Robots may fare better than humans in certain environments if designed to withstand them. Advantages: no need to keep an oxygen supply - ability for everyone to see in realtime what the bot is looking at/surveying without having to be in danger, and also having access to a strong body versus a tired human body whose performance drops after hours. eg a robot fire-fighter, a construction suit for building, a delivery robot that can carry and hold heavy weapons and ammo by itself like that DARPA dog design shown a while ago. Mechs don't have to replace our current stuff, just complement them and make existing tasks even easier, (like how we have robots in iraq helping) but everything has a financial risk which no one is willing to take - maybe money and a lack of a pioneering spirit is what's holding them back?

I can't seem to access the site with the papercraft pulse rifle, but I could before. Strange, the site seems to be down.

The h4ters will probably end up buying the toys anyway. They look awesome. I wish they showed pics of it transforming. I'm interested to see how it all connects together. (both the lego and finished toy, and in all three robot forms) I'm not that huge a fan of combining robots myself, but I'm a fan of the ships. Thier flashiness in robot mode looks a little funny but they look good in fighter mode. (like something out of Gradius games)

So there are no arms put on back to front or anything like that? Looks ok in the pictures. It's the shipping that is the real worry.

I was thinking of getting bootleg vf19 blazer one day just to see what they are like.. I hear there are good quality boots and bad ones. (not sure what the difference between the quality is though) LMK what the quality is like when you get it could ya? I wish bandai reissued the blazer instead of the fire.

The beauty of the suit is: true to power suits in anime, it merely copies the individuals normal human moves. If taken on a large scale (I dunno like a large robot similar to that thing in aliens) there wouldn't be much need to train a person to pilot a robot for heavy lifting. I think this is the most efficient control system for a real world powered suit since unlike vehicular machine controls, motions are natural and there is no delay. (just like the appleseed suits: that scene where duenan lifts herself in the suit for the first time)

If they renamed this Gundam Aquarion and called the vectors "top fighter", "core fighter" and "bottom fighter", mass produced them in a war (super robots vs super villains) and got rid of the bright coloring then it would be cliche. Variations on a tired theme = original. Bring on the blue robot!

Haha saw ep2 and laughed at that bit. Such a whore. There will probably be many Hdoujin mangas made featuring her and the orgasming transformation sequence. Shame we didn't get to see the blue robot in this episode..

If it were real and if somebody parked a yf21 in gerwalk mode, I would be very nervous to step anywhere near underneath it. Especially during an earthquake.

I'm a little sorry though that Qrau sales weren't that great because to me this is my fave enemy mech in the original series and movie. I bought it hoping that we might start to see more enemy mecha from them in the future and am not disapointed I paid high price to get it. I would love to see a glaug with articulated action figure like the ScopeDog. I like the curved armor design and the overall shape of this mech. It's like the zentradi tradition to have thier powered suits and machines look curvy and bulky (eg pods, thier ships) with skinny insect-like limbs (pods, the yf21) while humans have straight and angular shapes. They still might be able to release a yf19fp from vfx though can't they? I'm hoping they are spreading releases and staggering them so people can afford all thier toys. Some people may be on a budget and need time to save up to get stuff. After gbp, maybe they could finally bring out a yf19fp?

They are going to release the one on the right as a low visibility GBP jk Just out of curiosity, which one?

Left looks more accurate but the right looks very imposing and fierce. (ie badass. Like the skinny valk is now a chunky destroid) If given a choice for only 1 I would probably end up getting the left if it meant no compromises in robustness. My main worry is how sturdy is the toy and if the armor will pop off. But if they do end up with the right, please give us detachable hand upgrades or extensions to suit the rest of the body.

The result was still the same. He had to crash the plane and wreck his own body to do it. Any stealth features still didn't help him beat a sharon-apple-piloted ghost drone which could travel at whatever speed it wanted without concern for a pilot's body. Valks = obsolete The only thing UN SPACY needs humans for is to sing, since they failed to make a computer sing by itself in macross plus to beat the protodevlin. This is why I think Kawamori may be trying to make humans useful by giving them some other purpose by creating the anima spiritua thing in mac7. Like I said in another thread the next generation valks should be piloted by cyborgs who communicate wirelessly with the machine so they can travel at greater speed to fight any future anti-un enemy drones, while also being able to sing to fight rebel zentradi. With the soon global introduction of the "mark of the beast" chip, people will be able to open thier garage and car doors with thier minds, (wirelessly) and soldiers will use this to synthesise the gundam newtype pilot's abilities in anime.. (That rich blonde chic who wears the VR helmet to control/pilot teams of "mobile dolls" in Gundam Wing will soon happen in the future) So you see, control of mechs will mimmick that of sara's control of aphos or sharon apple's hacking of the sdf1. We are beyond the age of AI and moving towards the new age of mind-machine interface. It's just a matter of convincing you of the advantages of taking the mark that will evolve your abilities. Since most businesses will want to save money, it can be predicted you won't be able to buy/sell or do certain things if you don't have your mind link to a global supercomputer which will automate everything for convenience. There probably won't be room for "oldtypes" since these will be superceded by more productive and efficient newtypes. Man will have to fight the machines (for a reason to exist) just as it is depicted in appleseed where the superior class of people no longer look to the outdated ones as relevent in society. (eg. how they purposely put a steering wheel on the hover car just ot make us feel better when they didn't need to - humans will be treated by cyborgs like retards who need everyone's help lol)

Well I hope it doesn't fail. I like the design of the robots and fighters enough to want toys. (and that's probably all that matters in the end ) I'm wondering how they transform the way they do and think its a work of art just as much as the valkyries from macross. I actually slow motioned the transformation sequence to get a better idea. Even though I'm not a fan of neon lights these robots are non-military so it makes sense for them to be flashy. Similar to the reason why super heroes wear thier undies on the outside: It's just a tradition to stand out and pose for the camera. Maybe today's generation of kids will grow up with fond memories of this show the way some people today have memories of astroboy/Tetsuwan Atom? Well the protodevlin themselves in macross 7 were actually weapons whose appearance had nothing to do with function, (there were creatures who could levitate cars with thier mind) so I wouldn't be surprised. UN spacy may make advances in weapon technology that allows super robot valks with bright colours to supercede the existing weapons. Maybe a line of valks with energy based swords starts making an apearance to countrer the effects of the pin point barrier and shields of current valk designs? One could argue that the levitating of shin's plane in macross zero through magic has already put the series towards a more fantasy path. I don't think I would like to see combiner valks in the future but drones would make sense. Imagine a drone which combined with another drone to add boost and this drone communicated instantly by networking (physically or wirelessly) with two other drones to fight more efficiently? Unlike humans computers can think and react much quicker so there wouldn't be as much delay if they combined and controlled each part individually the way the characters do in this show. One drone boosts and controlls movement, the other one targets and fires, and the other acts as brain to form strategies on-the-fly collecting and processing info and learning patterns.

another similar thing is how the enemies look just like us. Only diffrrence is the zentradi are giant clones. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that ideas are just borrowed. For eg. In macross plus the first thing you think of when you see Sharon Apple's single eye is HAL. And you get this feeling in your stomach that this AI will turn against humans before the end. Now that sony are bringing this movie about an AI with a single eyeball that looks like sharon apple and fans of mac + say it is a direct rip off of macross plus, defenders can say that macross plus ripped the idea off 2001: A space Odyssey Everyone rips off something else, even if they don't know it yet.

I heard about the soiled panty vending machines from others, thought it was funny, so I decided to find out if it were true - (Just for the record in case people think I'm some dirty pedophile whose fetish is colecting dirty underpants and they start calling the cops ) I dont doubt snopes for urban legends, maybe the other link isn't so reliable though. If they make another macross tv series: Please don't have little kids as the main character. Go back to the roots of macross by making it more like SDF:Macross. No furry animals, preachy characters, garish coloured mechs, enemies that are close to invincible. The focus should be huge wars and epic battles. Bring on Space War II. Now that the zentradi know how to repair, they should have anti-un spies and rebel Zentradi loyal to kamjin out there who are able to take on un spacy now that the public have been pacified and weakened for another zentradi invasion by Basara's music. jk Nobody knows Basara's history, (probably the son of Kaifun?) maybe he was part of a plan to make un spacy weak before the big fall? Now that the greatest threat to all sides; the protodevlin, are gone, there is no fear in the world and there should be all sorts of struggles by different alien races for power and control.

Yeah but they are only test planes and you might die if something goes wrong. Think of how many people died on the project before Isamu became test pilot? I think the the movie version is better than the ova: More violence and you get to see lucy's titties. jk Characters have a bit more depth. But the OVA has that cool opening battroid fight with the zentradi. They should make a "special edition" movie with extended scenes form the ova imo. -A naked lucy shower scene jk -more of the scene from the start of the ova -Have a better ending : show what happens after the incident: who won the competition?

I agree with the guy who said the outfits remind him of an american comic book super hero team outfit. The first thought was: Maybe the characters are like the xmen? Marlene = wannabe Jean Grey!

No probs with mine. Might help if you posted some pics of which parts yu are having trouble with.

The blue one looks the coolest. It would have been funny if the combined robot could then transform into a giant fighter, macross style.