1/1 LowViz Lurker

I liked robotech when it first came out. Then I got into SDF: macross. I didn't think the 2 other series within the robotech name were done as well as 'the macross saga' for reasons that relate mainly to characters. (I still loved the mecha in mospeada though, and as a little kid I was hoping toys of these mechs would come out)

Today I remain a casual anime fan, but a big transforming robot lover.

I just thought that the idea of the modular tranformations in macross make the robots kind of believable and that's truly what got me into the original macross. Knowing that the design has some functional purpose as well as looking cool helps to keep me hooked into the tv series. When I saw DYRL, I thought: Fark, those explosions are beautiful, but I didn't think the story did justice to all the things that happened in the series. (yes many will argue DYRL was presented better but the tv series grounded us inside the world of macross rather than taking us on a short trip)

years then pass..

Now by the time of macross plus, the idea of the variable fighter was no longer fresh in my mind anymore and given that the meat of my memories was space war I, I thought nothing could really top the ideas within the original series without just adding to, and giving us more of the same... But the overall attention to detail in the animation got me back into macross again. At first I couldn't care less for the cocky character Isamu (he is no hikaru) because he has no reason to be so single minded and flat. Yeah yeah, we get the idea he is young, full of come, loves to fly, and is a good pilot, but what else? (why should we care? I saw this in top gun ) Most of the skills he has will go wasted now that there is no war, right? And focusing a whole story on testing advanced valkyries didn't seem that interesting a concept at first, since no one will be fighting real enemies and not much interesting will happen on a mass scale. (of course in top gun towards the end only, they DID get to fight real enemy/enemies, and in true style of that movie we the audience will predictably expect to see this happen at the climax of mac plus.)

Then after viewing all 4 ova in one go I finally CAN apreciate that this is just a side story and I can relax and enjoy it for what it is. I can now just sit back and enjoy the cool mech fights and valkyrie upgrades and the climactic scene where he rescues the princess.(the overly depressed myung) But I can't help but feel that after that ova ended and the lack of a bigger and much deeper story that: I just want more. I still view macross plus as primarily focused on the action. As a matter of fact, I actually liked the story ideas in macross II better, about the independent coverage of an alien attack by a new race of aliens and how the government's need to look good and not let the people know the truth gets in the way of common sense. I was more interested in Hibiki, than either Isamu or Basara since the two former characters just come off as being too full of themselves and unnecessarily hotheaded jerks if they had been real people.

So naturally, given that the original aging tv series I feel was the foundation amoungst which all the rest of the future of macross stands on, I sense that the best is passed us. I liked macross Zero and all, but to me it is just an 'origin' story and merely aimed for fans of the original with a narrow scope (those who wish to know more about the anti-un) and again, it won't hold the same fondness I have for the original SDF:Macross. Mainly because the tv series covered a lot more ground, had the most characters that were a big part of the central story, and there was a lot of varied mecha in that series that just seemed fresh and new at the time of first viewing. (there was a sense of wonder about what they were all capable of doing) Everything else after this merely being an extension of what was great in the past and just presented in a newer and more interesting way - ie more detailed mech fights and filling in the stories with too many characters with bad "attitude" who are stand-offish )

Give us all a new series on the scale of SW I or remake the original, so that the name macross can come back. I feel that although purists do not want more of the same, the great majority of us do. As much as I didn't care for macross 7 (yes it did answer questions about this 'supervision army' thing without me needing to read on online compendium but this could have easily been tacked into the original series had it been more than 36 eps imo) I feel that centring a whole story on a thin origin story (mac zero) or stretching a series to be sooo focused on the lives of civilians (mac7) and not padding it with enough strong characters, drama, detailed mecha battle scenes, interesting moral dilemmas and generally: real meat, then you will see people gradually losing interest.

I don't mind the humor of macross 7 though, but usually I prefer something serious, where you can integrate that humour into the background of a realistic story rather than have the characters make fun of each other or be a parody of themselves. (here's a good movie example: compare something like lethal weapon 1 which had characters who could still be funny by what they say and by being themselves but still be in dangerous situation, versus the later lethal weapon movies, ie post LW II; where the movies started taking on an almost action-comedy tone)

I think the problem I see in a lot of anime is the main character sometimes takes on the "I'm the central character of the universe, I can afford to fold my arms and be distant from what everyone else is doing or feeling", is the thing that gets me a little pissed off because it just doesn't feel natural. People in real life are full of different variety of feelings and moods. It's hard for me to sympathise with character like basara (there was no change or modification in his own behaviour, this whole series was him preaching to us all) or Isamu or anyone in macross zero because they aren't being themselves until the end of the show/series. If somebody like Isamu or Shin had to fight in a team in space war I and left his mates because he wanted to be the lone wolf, they would probably end up killing too many good people. They might seem like great characters to have in a flashy action flick, but I'm more interested in more grounded characters like Hikaru and Hibiki because they do not fit the typical mold of being try hards. (they have lives out of thier main job, career, or role throughout the story which adds depth)

The jist of it is that: SDF:macross didn't try to put the focusing lens on any one person or thing. (we saw competitive behaviour, fear of death, fear of killing people, love, ambition, depression, greed, grief, sorrow, suffering, death, revenge, conviction, sacrifice, jealousy, etc pretty much everything under the spectrum was covered) It had equal balance compared to all the other series which got carried away and didn't let the audience decide what was important to them rather than, dare I say it, have a central idea or main character "marketed" to people with a specific taste. (Zero being for fans, Plus being mainly for the dogfights and action, 7 for the masses.) If they got back to basics I'd be happy.

The valkyires and giant robots do take centre stage but it is possible to integrte all this cool stuff into the story and with deep characters grounded in reality as opposed to comic book heroes. You don't need to neglect one just to focus on another. In fact it would be possible for them to have say 3 episodes in a row dedicated to just a long drawn-out mech battle (kind of like how battles happen in DBZ ) and have the drama played within it as oppossed to "lets have a battle at the end of each eposode" and wrap everything up in 30 min chunks. (there doesn't even need to be a strict structure ie "let's have the main character always play some music" or "let's have a certain amount of action in each episode" - totally unecessary imo All this can be integrated together rather than seperated form each other like you usually see: action only here, talking only there, drama only in this particular spot, backstory revelations ONLY towards the end etc - with it all seperated)

The grey area in mac+ was in the use of the bio-neural chip. If sharon was more than a program and had this living thing connected to an electronic device, you could say that she was conscious when they used it because robots/ai could be programmed to not harm humans (like the ghost?) and so long as the humans create the programs they are completely safe.

Real people have emotions and will lash out and do stupid illogical things. It's a battle between logic and emotion for control. My guess is Sharon was a combination of this organism that could truly 'feel', AND the failed program which only synthesised the feeling, such that the organism was able to project it's emotions into the electronics (like that brain in DYRL controlling the ship) and control and manipulate the program that was created by the humans and overide that programs restrictions. Otherwise it would not have gotten out of control and that mad scientist would not have had to murder the guy who was ringing to have the concert cancelled. The mad scientist knew what he was doing and what would happen.

The program would be the connection to SDF1 to bring it back to life as if it were a living being, but the emotion in the bioneural chip would be the catalyst to bring death through the weapons; through the history of Myung's past memories feeding it the information it needs to bring the logical-but-unethical solution: kill Isamu or just scare the poo out of him to give him the adrenalin rush he so desires when flying recklessly. The horrible singing of sharon is like that of a dying moan I thought.. (more like a chanting used to annoy the pilot and stop him from focussing) Note for the future: never agree to accept a biometric makr of the beast style chip under your skin!

You would think that after seeing aliens with brains stuck into giant ships (DYRL) to control them, there would be some sort of governement standard to try and restrict this like the restriction on reaction weapons usage. Becuase it would be seen as inhumane, immoral, and unethical by the majority, not to mention repulsive. (this doesn't stop the use of an external system of braincontrol of a flying machine like the one guld uses. But safety first! )

The mad scientist was doing something illegal and probably hoped to make an impression on society with his creation - a truly living breathing organism with feelings and ability to think for itself and form a unique identity of its own. Not just a mere program that synthesised the behaviour of a human. But one that could be left alone to work without programmers maintaining and supervising it. (I guess the military were expecting that the AI program was going to do all thier tasks for them and they could eliminate the need for humans and pilots, little did they know "it" wasn't just a program.) IF SDF1-style battlship could be used to run completely by an AI to make every decision on its own, imagine all the money they'd save paying people a salary? It's all about cost-saving and downsizing.

And is it just me or does the stretchy skin of the yf21 seem a little too far fetched?

I know the machine is supposed to be cutting edge technology of the distant future, but why don't they explain to us how it is able to do this? Does the morphing of the armour help to explain the "anime magic" that goes on sometimes?

When the time comes for them to cross areas that require bridges they will be doomed. Then we will see the grasshopper variants with rocketboosted-assisted jumps complete with legs to absorb the fall and arms to carry items and open doors.

Then later will come the giant spidermechs from appleseed which have no need to run over and flatten every building just to get to an area, and also the FuchiKomas from Gits. (hey, maybe even give them grapplinghooks to scale vertically, and maybe optic camoflage) And of course transforming cars for times when these robots need to disguise themselves innocently to the enemy in case there are some sensitive spots. (think of 'Kit' from knight rider but with the transformers transforming ability)

Hell forget the bloody vechicle style machines, we'll probably develop full on androids to replace the flesh and blood killers. (the one that beats up harrison ford to a pulp in blade runner - they'd be so dangerous for humans themselves to hunt, that we'd have to hire other android/reploids just to take them down) Face it, if these noisy things have to get inside an area to rescue people, (ie climb the steps, push the button on the console to activate the elevator etc) they will do as much damage to the good guys and themselves as the bad guys. (you all know what happened to poor old ED209 in Robocop don't you? think about what he did to the inside of the building when fighting Robo?)

Oh and Fu, if aliens saw these they would laugh since they would be so far ahead of us technologically they would have progressed into far much cooler things (flesh and blood robots with a psychic mind control link and remote viewing capability, containing more intelligence than a machine robot) due to thier superior intellect and access to strange and precious metals they could easily mine from other planets given thier use of UFOs and mastery of antigrav which is more efficient than our crude forms of ass-hauling. Thier armoured warriors would be equiped with a Lord of the rings style Mithril (as light as a feather, but tough as poo! ) which would outclass anything we had on earth. The governments of the world wouldn't even know if they were being attacked since for all we know, they may have time travel and teleportation mastered so that the conventional battle tactic used against them would be inapropriate.(beefy machines whose parts malfunction over time and can't repair themselves without us)

I saw gubaba once in the Yugioh cartoon as a monster called "kariboh" if that counts. hehe joke post.

http://store1.yimg.com/I/yugioh-card_1822_390524357

^

picture of gubaba while possessed

They look just like the hunter killers from terminator. Or really cool toys that we might be able to buy in the future.

Now imagine if these bots were to be able to work in teams through some sort of central network to communicate to each other or hooked up to a Skynet type worldwide network. If something were to go wrong with the network and the bots go crazy, humans will need to fight them. Scary yet, what if in the future we replace AI programs with strict rulebased commands and branches with neural network 'learning' robots with fuzzy logic that train themselves to be smarter and more efficient over time the more a task is performed?

Combine this story with the lasers one and you have the scene from terminator. Picture the scene in T3 where they show the cars driving themselves, because the terminatrix hacks into them, contorlling them wirelessly, there is the scary possibility that these machines might mistake humans as the enemy and turn against them. If someone hacked into the network Yang Neuman style, chaos would erupt and we would need to send somebody back in time to fix things.. Your living room could attack you. Think about your videogame system neworked to run everything and sony using that machine networked to every other machine in every other household.

Robots - you can never trust em.. always been turning against us and trying to replacing us I say.

Awesome. Can't wait to see the toy itself.

Never owned any 1/60s so now I feel justified devoted solely on 1/48 valks and thier packs.

Now I wonder whether we will see a clear edition of the gbp? hehe Imagine being able to see all the missiles under the the hood without opening, and the valk naked while it was wearing the armor? Just to show off the toy of course.

The nosecone must morph into shape or disappear altogether in the anime while wearing the armor. Similar to how roy was able to make hikaru and minmay's detached cockpit of the vt disapear mysteriously when rescued in sdf macross.

You see the nosecone goes all soft when the valk's skin gets cold to help it in harsh environments (ala guld's yf21 morphing skin trick). And when it gets hot and the valk wants to impress others with its manliness, the nosecone extends. Think of it like the snail retracting and extending into and out of its shell. [/end absolute bs explanation.]

imo I think they should later combine the strike and super parts set with the gbp set as 1 big-ass package as opposed to having them seperate. Maybe somehow they could fit all that stuff in a single box and save us some cash? I would prefer that to a valk+gbp pack.

Not necessarily. The Zjentohlauedy are not unwillingly goverened. It is the distruction of the individual that I draw the parallel from.

One interesting thing about them is that they've had the flow of information controlled and in some respects the minute they've been born (or grown from the cloning chamber) they've probably been conditioned to believe that what they were doing was right. Not that they were evil or bad or that fighting and destruction is just a tool used by the people supplying them to gain the right to have something. That would only make thier masters look bad to them. Nope: the leaders would pimp the idea that "fighting is the very reason for living".

If anything I think zentradi are victims of disinformation. I use that because the pc relied more on the lack of the zentradi to be able to check what they were being told was true and also the fact that we were forgotten about by the pc so there was no campaign to paint us as being bad.

The music and culture we humans had would have seemed alien to them and very very nice, to thier senses, our structure of living not something they would want to willingly destroy. The only reason they react so funny to the music is because of the conditioning they've been given that everything is related to being a weapon of some sort. It's not so much that they are dumb, but that they were victims of disinfo. If the alien enemies knew our way of living they would finally realise the lies the pc had filled thier minds with. (that is why they were given the legend that the micrones would destroy the zentradi, if they didn't leave them alone) The must have interpreted the word destroy to have meant something to do with a hidden power or secret weapon we had. No wonder exedol was so paranoid about everything in the tv series.

I think in the future once people's views on cloning is relaxed, biotech companies will try to push the idea of clone super soldiers with abilities taken from people where it would be advantageous to survival. Biotech companies = todays pc. Face it we are already at the stage where people can have designer babies.

In sci fi movies like alien ressurection where ripley kills her own baby (ok so it is a monster) it could be seen as a silent conditioning of the masses to accept abortion. What might seem humane to some, can easily be flipped to be inhumane to others. If you were an alien and your GF were pregnant with an alien baby would she destroy it? Contrast the scenes in alien ressurection where ripley kills her clones and the alien baby to the scene in macross where miriya and max are happy to have an alien-human hybrid daughter. They both stir the emotions, but the alien ressurection one is more blatant imo because the baby wants to live and even showed it could express love.

If they wanted to make macross really realistic, I would say there would be a number of groups in the macross world who would be totally against that. The child would probably grow up abused and teased by other kids, discriminated against, and maybe in danger of being beaten up. Maybe even teachers would reject the politcaly correct need to teach history that satisfies both accounts of the war and make the zentradi out to be only monsterous and the humans culture perfect. (ommitting the teachings of past wars in our human histrory from the zentradi - don;t want to give a bad impression now do we? )

This is why I proposed a new macross series where the zentradi revolt against the un be made so that there could be another space war. It would be more like macross plus with action and lessed drama, where the attention was focused on earth again. Without a big war, and reason for split, it loses the epic scale that the original series had. In this story the humans would be the one experiencing xenophobia and fear from sw I survivors, while the zents struggle for equal treatment but don't get it. This then brings a need for independance from the un by pureblooded zentradi. Obviosly the anti un wouldn't be a threat forever, but a force as large as 50% of the population being lead by a dictator who had enormous power to command his own army, buy the media, influence votes would justify a massive war. In that sense it would take the ideas from macross II from the point of view of somebody working within the media as an indy journalist who nobody listens to because they've been led to believe war has ended forever after sw I.

From what I've gathered

-Anti-un want bird to awaken (but more likely because they think they can control it)

-UN want to capture bird for themselves, but will destroy bird if anti-un manages to get control of it. They are probably worried that the anti-un are ahead of them in the use of transforming mechs as it is. The legend about how the heads get close and closer as more people fight, could probably be interpreted as saying: "as the world is split into two sides and they fight against each other, the chances of both head and body coming together increases as the race for better technology speeds up and certain men gains knowledge of the bird human legend." (this happens when sara gave hasford all the secrets when she was a kid, which she shouldn't have done)

-Hasford probably doesn't care and wants to awaken bird since he is a little nutty and irresponsible. He doesn't differentiate between the song of destruction or song of creation because he tells sara that creation and destruction are merely the two faces of god. Whatever happens, according to the prophecy the world should be recreated and reborn from the ashes of the destruction. (a new age will begin after everything is cleared first - kind of like a biblical flood which kills off the bad influences gaining too much control, but saving a few) Maybe he believes the song will evolve the race or something, because of the 'pc made humans' theory he holds. (although it is only a theory, right? with some still believing in sdf:macross it was a little genetic manipulation and not creation. We are still intelligent apes but the aliens may have changed a few things)

But I theorised that all these prophetic events are not going to happen in zero (thanks to shin saving the day) and really took place in sdf:macross. This is all based on the idea that it is during the end of sw I when the earth comes to an end and the earth is destroyed by the zentradi. The afos leaves in m0, sparing us for a time but it is a foreshadowing of events for what will happen in the future. Others have mentioned that the afos is more like a machine that can be controlled by sara so it would help explain why it just vanished instead of fully completing its task. (possibly because of the radiation would endanger more people?)

Shin manages to postpone what is inevitable by preventing sara from using the bird to wipe out everything. In the paintings which hasford shows Aries in episode 4, Hasford tells us the full story: The bird human cut its head off because it went against orders from Procacha: the god of the heavens, to destroy us. It prevented the destruction from happening in earlier times, giving the human race some hope and an extra chance as the next race to succeed the pc.

I guess you could say, this is exactly what sara did: Sara did NOT listen to her father, did NOT pass the test of taking bribe from Hasford, and did NOT keep the secrets of the legend from the outside world, otherwise why would hasford say: "you broke the rule to tell me that sara don't you remember?.." and this is why she is so obsessed with petty rules. She secretly feels guilty about having broken the rule given to her and now has to except that she screwed up big time. Sara broke the rules like the bird human did, and through love maybe forgiveness for our imperfections is the reason why we still survived? It is not stated exactly why the bird human cut its head off in the legend so I say: It's love. Remember too, that Sara's dad asked hasford to test her. Maybe her dad knew that thier civilisation was reaching the end times and wanted a sign, knowing the prophecy would come true one day. Thier secrets couldn't remain secret forever. The God Procacha probably knew better than the bird human and wanted this experiment to end quickly knowing that humans will never stop fighting and chances are slim. But the bird human clinged to the hope there were enough good guys still, so it beheaded itself.

I still don't know what the first human Rooy Kanu and first female Rooy Waka is all about. We hear the voice of a ghost in an earlier episode where Sara is being spied upon by aries to record any strange phenomena, so it's probably a spirit of some dead guy.

Well I'm in brissy and this was in the chinatown area in a tiny tiny import store (dont know the name) somewhere in an arcade near lots of restaurants. Sadly I think it is gone now. Me being lazy I never bother to talk to the people to ask if they could order any more of a certain type. Now this is the place where you can get the bandai 1/55 at the $250aud price and the banprestos for $60aud lol

These import stores order tiny amounts of stock (consider the size of the 1/48 in relation to the tiny space they have) so I guess you should expect such a high initial price, but for me it's only as a last resort. I prefer shopping for the best deal online searching first for good reputable stores, and then if I can't be bothered, looking for people with good reps on ebay with reasonable shipping. (but never agree to use payment methods that aren't safe)

I haven't popped by that place in ages though so it's possible they might have stuff (yeah even low vis) by now, but I doubt it. (I'll lyk next time I pass by again)

Did you notice how much more smarmy and confident max was in the tv series when fighting(and perving at) millia then he was in the movie?

In the movie max was actually hit a few times and very worried and his expression was one of surprised and: "OMG I could die any second if I don't move my ass!". Constantly on his toes and alert to the danger of fighting aganist her. But in the tv series it seemed more like millia was blinded by anger and humiliation to be able to concentrate on the fight that her moves (and reflexs) were predictable and slow. Like a bull being led and tricked by a matador. With tv max always in control of the ebb and flow of the fight and much calmer than movie max.

I liked the millia in the movie much better than the angry incompetant milia in the tv series for that. (it helps that we actually see her waste a few zentradi violently )

I can only come to the conclusion that: Max tv series is superior to movie max. The movie versions actor must have portrayed him inaccurately to make the movie more apealing. Or maybe he overacted. OR perhaps milia (like sigourney weaver) had too much input into the making of the movie and interfered by demanding that she be portrayed as a strong fighting woman with nothing to fear and no mistakes, as opposed to her real life egotistical and proud self in the tv series, who happened to lose each time the challenge was on. The movie director deciding "WTF, lets just make it so they are mostly evenly matched"

Would anyone mind if I started a post where people can post all they know about the Yamato reissues?

I think it would be interesting if we do a poll if anyone would mind.

Then after that, if the people that would mind, won the poll and started acting violently, we then create one anyway. jk

(yes I'm bored right now )

Personally this is what I want to see:

-An ultimate pack with Roy vf1s complete with strike and super parts plus optional rubber hands or chicken fingers, and the 1/48 gbp armor in case of emergencies. Oh, and instead of stickers, everything will be tampo printed on. Cram it all into as tiny a box as possible and I'll be happy.

That is precisely why we had the problem of the $1200 1/55 Valks a few years ago. Its just outrageous to do that, most especially when there are re-releases on the way— whoever shells out $250 (more with shipping, of course) for a valuable collectible is going to eventually find that their toy lost most of its value. There is a whole universe of people selling and trading collectibles, and there is so much dirty pool being played that it is sick. I hate to watch greedy people looking for a fast buck taking in suckers— it does have an effect on the collecting community as a whole.

amen bro. Which is why my idea that they make a limited edition kakizaki or something to lure away some of the people who have way too much money. It's not easy if you still haven't had your first chance to get Roy heh. I was so pissed when I was just a few minutes late into coming into a store to get roy and then somebody got it before me. Grr..

They should just release a special Roy with FP/Strike combo like they did with 1/60.

I'd wait for the reissues. I want to see super and strike combo deal. Hopefully if enough people can convince the robotech crowd to buy yamato 1/48 valks it might create enough resurgence of interest to make more, so noobs like me can get them at sane price? I also wonder if they will release kakizaki in limited number? If they make it in limited number, it could help boost demand for it, and while people are fighting over Roy, the completists who has everything can get this, leaving us noobs time to catch up?

^

That is my all-time fave character in street fighter alpha series of games. He has like the best normal move combos. I just stole your avatar for future boards.

I think he is the only one that can match and defeat akuma's/gouki's? killing moves and in his story he manages to beat him in a death match. (I'ts not fair that a murderer got to kill ryu's/ken's master and other 'old guys' from sfa1 and gets away with it imo)

Theoretically it is possible to perform:

jab punch>short kick>strong punch>forward kick>fierce punch>roundhouse.

Of course that is assuming the dummy you are fighting is not being pushed back, so it is practically impossible to do. But the sheer idea that any normal can be cancelled into more normal moves is awesome.

That's been like that with lots of other stuff in the past like game releases and some import stuff. Also sometimes we don't get certain types of games released here based on certain genres just not being popular with the masses. Also no r rating for games so some get censroed or banned. Sad really.

There is one good thing though: dvd players are all region so we can watch imports with no probs. ie my import r1 mac+ dvd works fine.

I still think there are cheaper alternatives for us aussies with regards to buying valks. I guess his was an extreme example of needing to go to great lengths to get the items. I doubt it's normal for the average guy to pay that much. (although I have seen 1/48 LV @ $400AUD in a retailer at one time - this was before the price started rising I think. Yeah yeah, macross is a religion to some, but everyone, even fans, have limits. )

And before people say ebay, Ive been burned before, and dont trust it. id rather pay more from a retailer and KNOW it'll arrive.

Oh well that's life I guess. Sorry to hear that. Just out of curiosity, what did ebay do? And did you get your money back? I always thought they covered you for items under a certain amount or something? (provided secure payment methods are used) There will always be that risk, but so far I have only trusted reputable peeps with high rating and reputation and have managed so far with no probs.

As for shops I agree wholeheartedly but HLJ are pretty pricey with shipping. for eg even if all you wanted to do was buy a banpresto valk (say $4aud) you would still have to pay $20aud shipping. hah

The key I think is getting a good balance of security (somebody you can trust) with good price. ....still $350 aud for max 1/48, man that is way out my price range. Just out of interest was it super tv max? I saw that for about 260 aud a few months ago incl shipping. Ah, it's HG, they be stunting the success of potential macross fanbase..

I'm leaning towards getting one but I will probably wait for reviews of it before forking out the money. Now I wonder if they will make variantions of the monster and release different paint schemes? It kind of looks a little plain in the shots, so I wonder how it will look with stickers applied?

I need something about this size for the banprestos to guard.

For me it comes down to space and cash.

I recently need to pay off my CC a bit, so I sold my 1/60 MAX FAST pack toy. After all, I have the 1/48. so what did i need the 60 for? If i can get myself a Roy 1/48 with the strike set, then ill more than likely sell my 1/60 of him as well.

Lets face it, here in oz, to get something like the low viz or max 1/48 i had to fork out over $350 each! Thats a lot of money I could be spending on the various other toy series i collect for one thing, like transformers and Marvel Legends. Theres only so much I can do and spend, and macross is just to pricey to do hardcore.

Also Yamato (Who I think make the best valks) just arent doing anything new. Yeah theres the Qraus, but im so-so on getting them. Again, they're like $250 or so each for me, so its a big call. The monster is laughably expensive, so Ill skip that. And the mO stuff looks silly. So thers just nothing left to get! I havent posted here in quite some time, bu Id swing by looking for new stuff....and theres nothing.

So with a roy 1/48 and an Alpha fighter i think Ill be done for quite some time. Sad really.

Dude I know about the low viz. I once saw that in a china town import store (things are like 3 times the price!!!) and given the rarity now that one might be understandable. But the other stuff (super max 1/48? or just regular without fp?) you are getting ripped off. Try looking around online for better prices. Even with crappier exchange rates (but for now at the time of writing this, the exchange rates aren't bad at all, they are quite good infact: $1 aud = 0.763271 USD) that's too way too high to be paying for them.

The qrau's should not be $250 aud. They should be more around the $150aud imo. (that's the red milia with pilot vers) Duuuuuude... you must be buying from one of those tiny import stores that charge 3times the price for things.

The exchange rate on the Austrailian Dollar isn't very favorable which would probably explain the higher price he has to pay plus shipping.

that's true, the dollar is weaker, but THAT high? No way. It might be that he bought the stuff from a small retailer that stocks very little. I've seen some outrageous prices for things. For example Those little banprestos valks?This will make you laugh: $60 AUD!!! (and these are the plain, non-super or strike part ones!)

Anyway whereever he got them from, he should shop around a little for better prices, and order them online from somewhere at more sane prices so he can get more stuff. If you buy from a tiny import retail store with a shopfront, you will probably be paying extra and on top of that, whatever profit they want to make off the sale. (usually they will charge double,triple or whatever price they can get away with) The first time I saw stuff like the banpresto valks at $60AUD or the bandai valks @ $250 AUD, I thought: whoah there is no way a little kid is going to be able to afford to buy any of this stuff let alone an adult who is looking for a toy. (unless it's rare or LE like low vis)

As the 1/48 shows, ABS is a much superior solution in terms of aesthetics, functionality and longevity. I haven't had any problems with my ABS toys. The only thing I've broken on a Yamato toy was a shoulder slider on the first YF-22 and that was not made from ABS.

I agree here.

Although I don't own many toys, my yamato yf21fp thighs have massive paint chips now. Also when I tried to pose it in gerwalk and I left it alone, the thing fell down off the desk and crashed to the floor cracking the head laser. I bet if the thing had weighed less like the 1/72 vf11b, it would have suffered less shock and still be ok. Too much excess weight is scary.

What they should do is a sidestory on gubaba. I've always wanted to know how he got seperated from his family. You know how sometime his fur goes on edge and he can sense the direction of missing people? I think this will be a key in a future series when a search party is sent to find the megaroad.

hell no, I just assumed that they probably would, because it appeared in dyrl and how easy it would be.

Maybe it all rests on how well Qrau sells? Once they finish releasing the purple (not the blue max one which looks purple, I mean the female purple ones) and maybe green ones, they might think nobody cares for the other mecha and only focus on the VF? Voting with the $ is the key to getting them confident enough to do it. I thought the qrau was expensive but I ate up the cost out of fear that less popular mecha would not get any love.

Like I said in another thread, if only macross wasn't so old I bet there would be much more variety in the toy releases. And even though the konig tranforms there are still those who don't think it does anything for them. It's all conditional on how much excitement there is.

Jsut like religion haha!!!

Ah, good idea: Maybe to preserve the fanbase we need to create a religion like some people have with star wars.

I always thought of the macross as a kind of ark that saved civilisation in the series. They could name it Valkism or Macrossism and recruit new cult members to the cause. I nominate you as leader. The name Macross must not be forgotten. Generations must not fall under the curse of other evil mecha shows. Only the most dedicated can join and you must give up all your material possessions, money, family obligations, and duties to serve the 1/48 VF1..Staues of vf1 will be erected in battroid form to preserve the memory and members can pray and bow down to thier awesome power. /jk

I only just got into them and am happy to still have access to the variety of valks. I had a friend who had bandais but I was not impressed with the posability.

Then I saw 1/48s and love the detail on them.

To me this toy is an expensive toy that you are not meant to really 'collect' but kind of apreciate for its unique quality above other toys. At least that's the impression I get anyway. (kind of like the image HG are trying to pull off with thier master pieces )

It's kind of like my obsession with games: you tend to apreciate them better when you don't go crazy buying too much at any one time.

I don't plan on losing interest, I think love of the series and interest can be expressed not by the size of the collection but just appreciation in general.

People talk about interest waning because of the flooded market and being a little spoilt for choice but I think the passion shouldn't be affected by that. Just because you know something is widely available and cheaper than what it once was shouldn't change your attitude should it?

I just wish these things were available locally so we can all collect more of them and the masses can start to apreciate the line of toys out there. Imagine going into a shop (non-import) and finally being able to see 1/48s on a shelf and buying them at regular price rather than ordering them from some online shop who has to ship them?

Sales for the toy would increase, and maybe jog people's memories if people could see them upclose on display. I know a few people who would buy one on impulse but are too lazy and couldn't be bothered about them by online purchase. It's too bad that macross is an old series. Had these been available when we were little kids they'd probably ensure more variety in the releases because they could ride on the success and freshness of the name. (this is why if they could retell the events with a new cg series to a new generation, it would allow bigger sales of the toys imo You can't rely on an aging fanbase because they are jaded and won't be there forever)

The mistakes where roy rescues hikaru and minmay are funny. They just magically disappear for a while.

It's the reba west songs that is hard to erase from your mind when watching macross because they were so repetitive from robotech.

One thing I liked about the more about the tv series than the movie was how exedol was just better as a brown skinned alien than a green-skinned alien with a massive head and no hair.

Why did they have to go and change him?

The combination of valks and the epic struggle of humans against superior alien force. Like starwars, I love space war epics and the sci fi themes so long as it had enough cool stuff to keep my attention.

Of course as a little kid you don't care about romance, but I thought at the time the character design was real and that the kid's piloting those machines were not the usual hero archtype like you usually see in cartoons. The fact that major characters do die and are wiped out and the fact that the story continues (as opposed to having 1 episode wrap everything up in a half hour) over a long period of time were other factors. Even when you are little kid you can sense there is a deep story underneath it all, even if you don't quite pay full attention to it at the time.

Actually it wasn't just valks but also the design of the enemy mechas and the destroids. All the mecha design was very cool and the fact that they use the transformations for functional reasons (and not just as a disguise like the transformers) was appealing because many of the ideas showed off the practicality of the mech's to justify why they had been designed the way they were. Eg gerwalks being used to rescue people, battroid to fight in close, fighter for dogfighting.

As a kid I had known about other robot shows but I still thought macross stood out, and even the robotech version wasn't that bad in comparison to what was out at the time. I'm sure the vf1 has burnt it's image into all kids minds who had known it as robotech in the us back then and to newer generations.

I will never forget the action sequence where hikaru does the barrel roll in gerwalk mode to mow down a swarm of micromissiles or the max and miriya mech duels. Roy's first demonstration of each function in the early episodes made a big impact and helped hook me in permanently, as did the first appearance of the regults which I thought were cool. The bad guys seemed to pilot just as cool machines as the good guys.

The war theme as series as it was, was just icing on the cake to me as a kid. Looking back, you don't really care why they are blasting the crap out of each other when you are small. But it does help to set a good realistic backdrop for the mechas to fight in.