1/1 LowViz Lurker

What I wanted to see was actual optical camouflage as well on the battroid mode. If you are a sniper, you want to have all the advantages you can get on the insects. If you are a victim of sniper, you want to make their job as hard to shoot you as you can. If this tech exists for the fold bomb (dimension eater or whatever that thing is) to hide it, why not make use of it on other things? If Brera had optical stealth/camo, Alto would never have caught the footage of him in his gun camera sneaking away in the episode where you first get to see Brera in his flashy red futuristic valk. Of course there would be "something" on radar to suggest someone was there, but you wouldn't get to describe what it was since it is cloaked right? If Max had the optic stealth valk way back in space war I, he could easily sneak aboard ships better, undetected instead of using that silly disguise. I think UN Spacy has these valks in existence for special missions. That's what those Black yamato non-canon VF-1 toy releases are: when you just have to get close to something and be inside the ship to know what's going on. Oh well maybe if we get a series 2 of macross frontier: New use destroids are used to build cities on the settled home planet and now the humans are being attacked by hostile aliens which were natural predators of the Vajra and had used them as food for millions of years and the humans have upset the balance by taking away their food source. The new version of the octos is used to explore, and ancient ruins are found in the water of a race that once lived there but was destroyed by the vajra. (the vajra had eliminated them a long time ago) Now a split between nuns and vajra and these hostile aliens has begun for control of the planet. The backstory of the supervision army is given.

True but the same could be said of any upgraded mecha. Doesn't mean people dont like the upgrade more. For example I much prefer hikaru in roy's vf-1S because that is when he is at his most experienced as a pilot and the overall appeal of that plane. Just as I like the armored VF-0S regardless of how little time it got in macross zero. Not everyone buys based on how much or how little exposure a given robot gets you know. There are other factors too. Ozuma is not the main character in macross frontier but I think he has a way better looking mecha than alto. Whereas it's the reverse for Macross Zero: I think shin's cannon fodder looks better than white VF-0S. (I hate too much white) The vf-11 cannon fodders got blown away with ease in macross plus and macross 7, but I like the grey scheme, and the simplicity of the bot mode a lot. But they are just background pilots getting their butt kicked and shown to be not doing anything unless a good pilot is in one. They are not heroic, basara has much more significance in his cutting edge vf-19 which saves the galaxy, but why are the grunt so popular? Not because they have a major important person using one and doing something of significance. But other things like personal taste. I hate the coloured stripe system of the DYRL valks. Another thing is I hate the idea that each pilot is in the same team and each of them gets a skull emblem. I don't give a crap if max's battle against miria was handled much more smoothly in animation for the movie than the crappy tv series version. Max is better in the SDF:M with a blue VF-1J (most iconic to me) and Miria is cooler in that green grunt Qrau. (green Qrau with markings just looks better to me) Admittedly I like the upgraded tech and details in the movie editions. But hate the outside paintscheme of the movie. TV series was the real war, so Miria was iconic in her red vf-1J which she used to fight off the desperate zentradi, and max is iconic in the blue VF-1J because that what he used to fight alongside her as a team of aces. His super upgrade is him able to really unleash hell on large numbers of enemies and fight at full potential. So although there is no flashy animation involved the footage of him fighting back to back with his lover in the most significant episode (when the humans are armed with everything they can throw at the aliens; reaction missiles and all - this is the final battle that will determine who wins or loses) that is what people will remember the most.

That looks great. I agree the non-transforming stuff is harder to justify at higher price. But like the Qrau I hope to pick these up some time, because I'm sick of just vf-1. It's just that the list of things to get is getting longer! Argh. These will look great next to the 1/60 vf-1 and Qrau in one big space war I display. If only they were cheaper you could line them all up shoulder to shoulder like in the show. *hint hint* where are those revoltech destroids?

As opposed to people just stealing it through illegally video recording it from tv and sending tapes to everyone? Old days were sadder, more miserable, took longer to get anything done, your own mother had control over what you were allowed to buy. Now you are an adult, you can go and spoil yourself, items actually resemble the thing you saw in the shows, they have better articulation, and for those who watched robotech: now you are no longer so reliant on HG. If they want to prevent you from seeing something the internet allows you to see things translated free without them blocking your eyes. And it's not like you can't still support the makers of the show by buying the original dvds still to show your appreciation. More options! And with the age of youtube you can create your own unique dubs of things if you think you can do better than the american dubs of anime.

Ranka was the Basara of macross frontier. Her ability to heal doesn't come as a surprise because she can talk to the germs, and remember the germs can do two things to you: 1. if you merge they use you as one of their own (just like being bitten by a zombie or vampire, you become one of them to help them) Ranka was infected at birth and merged with the germs. 2. you die if you try to resist. Now if at that point Ranka was the queen she could order the little germs to stop attacking using fold waves. The germs know what you are thinking so if you reject them then they kill. Magick has been in macross since macross 7 and macross zero so I have gotten used to this. My fave character is probably the vajra: they think with their guts so they are like cockroaches which can still live long after you have cut their heads off. Sure they are mindless, but that is what makes them unique monsters. I think they are much scarier than the bugs in Blue Gender. Fast, expendable, attacks in swarms. And they are caring for their mother. Not their fault they are so damn ugly! They can survive in space too. I think they'd make great pets. Forget the ghosts, they are obsolete toys. Since ranka is one of them, I voted for her. Without the power of that insect love song, everyone would be dead. Sheryl's pop songs didn't awaken the monster's memories of bug love. She couldn't connect to the insects so they couldn't become fans and own her song and identify with it. A bit like how some people after listening to a favourite song enough times it becomes a part of them; they place ownership of it and say "that's 'my' song!" If you can't connect with the fans, the power of it is limited. The fold wave is just the way to transmit the song, the song itself contains the feeling and soul which makes people want to listen to it.

Yeah but if Brera had it on his valk he could have avoided being seen by Alto in the series when the first Vajra massive beam gun thingy was first shown.

What I'd like to see is optic stealth. When are they going to have a Ghost which can actually cloak itself visually from cameras like a real ghost? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/...70402141206.htm A ground version of the ghost drone that creeps on the ground would be useful. Sort of like an evolution of the octos, that hides in the water, then goes to ground and cloaks for surprise attacks.

Not for me. I'm happy to own better versions of things from the past. And also things I would never have been able to get like the megazone garlands, and the upcoming mospeada ride armor from beagle. Good riddance old days. Crappy big hair, pink shirts from the 80s, bubblegum underneath the seats at movie theatres just to piss you off, RPGs had to be played in person with others and you met each other!, crappy PC computers which paled in comparison to the commodore amiga which was cheaper but better, toys with no articulation. (mainly the transformers, GI Joes were ahead of their time though! Much better than the star wars figures) But Metallica was still good back then! I read lots of comics! G1 transformers animated movie was good. Optimus Prime's dramatic death actually made everyone cry for a robot! But overall everything was crappier in the past. People are just convinced things were better because they are getting old and their standards were worse back then because they were younger. I'm glad we have progressed on from the chunky munky toys for example. Just let go already. It's the past. Now buy the better new stuff.

Don't forget that is when he and milia get to be seen in the super valk upgrade too. So it's like now he is even more deadly as a pilot with the valk given more speed. In macross II the super valk with fast pack was almost a super robot!

It's not out yet so I'll reserve judgement. Bandai if this fails, (I doubt it will) make some perfect grade vf-25.

You guys all going to buy the robotech version now? I actually think the new head does look better imo. Sad that the thing is actually $200. I was hoping it would be cheaper than that. Still I guess the packaging costs are probably high these days...

There are good and bad point to both companies. Yamato keeps making mistakes, or first releases have problems but they are not as big as bandai still. Maybe that's why people think fans of the yamato toys are yamato fanboys? That's not necessarily true: yamato do get credit where its due because the good outweighs the bad. But that doesn't mean those who buy their stuff are not as pissed off as the next guy when stuff doesn't meet their standard. (after all they are paying the money and know about all the faults - they are expensive for what you get) Bandai offer better price, but given that they like chunky style of robot for toys it may put off fans of tall slim and lean robot that we see from the anime. Slim and lean suggest speed. Squat makes it look tougher, but if the anime had them skinny that would be preferred by most people imo. Two wrongs don't make a right: if both companies fix their problems the world would be better! Personally I want them to both succeed. Rather than rejoice that one must fail just so I can say "nyah nyah I told you I was right nyah nyah" which is what I think anti-yamato and anti-bandai people WANT to happen. I mean really why can't they BOTH just NOT suck in the above things they currently suck at?

But does buying something expensive actually represent a large percentage of their total income such that it would put them in danger of having to sacrifice something else like savings for college or medical expenses, or danger money set aside for emergency? I'm willing to bet there are a lot of middle class people who might be wearing way too expensive clothes, buying the latest HD TV which they can only just barely afford to buy, at the expense of something else more important. imo that is the 'irresponsible' spender where they put luxury ahead of more important things. If they see a wealthy guy driving a nice car, wearing better clothes than them, using the best home entertainment setup, they got to realise that's only because those people could afford to buy it without it taking up like 50-80% of their weekly earning right? Whereas if a guy who earns a lower income tries to buy a high end item, he may eat into something else more than just the disposable income for the week. Those guys imo are not "spending within your means" and mustn't assume that just because some other guy who earns more money than them or has more things than them, that those people are irresponsible or wasteful in any way. It's not really going to waste if the money they spent on the items doesn't represent much money to them because they actually earn enough to not put themselves in any kind of danger or risk putting themselves in debt. The luxury items that are expensive to rich guy, only represent a small percentage of their total earning for the week. Maybe there are people who owe a lot of money earning lots of money at the same time, and buying luxuries they don't need, but so too are there people in middle class doing that. (ie acting irresponsible) Both individuals (people spending too much on luxury which they can barely afford) and businesses (making poor irresponsible decisions costing jobs) shouldn't be acting irresponsibly.

The thing is collectors don't think logically: the more money you have the more worthless it is to you because it comes to you easy. The less you have, the more valuable. So I think what happens is people buy stuff to encourage more of that stuff they love to be made without thinking about whether the thing made is worth the money to those where money is hard to come by. So then it allows the companies to keep the cost high but no incentive to listen to the complainers and whiners who are more tight with money. Often you would see fights where the guys with money would pick on the guys who would point out flaws and they would say: "you got to pay to play. These are expensive collector items" This silences any criticism of the item and whether or not it is worth the asking price. It's just sellers haggling the buyer to pay more more more. But the buyers, even if they wanted to, may not have the funds to do so. Meaning there will be a lot of unsold stuff floating around out there taking up space. Imo it's much better to listen to the harshest critics to sell items at a decent price so more people can afford it, than to keep price high and have to suddenly sell stuff at sale price when you desperately need money in emergency. By that time, buyers might have already spent all their money or not had a chance to prepare in time to be able to buy anything. You will enjoy today but suffer tomorrow if you are too greedy. In fact those who are tight with their money may be waiting on purpose for sellers to reach a point where they price themselves out of the range of most people as a form of protest. "Improve or die" So it's important to realise that although they are aimed at collectors, you could make more selling to more people at reduced price than if you only sold to a few at a high price. If people were not value conscious, they wouldn't constantly complain about the cost of items. The rich don't don't spend all their weeks savings on one or two items. They can afford to pay high prices without them thinking its high because it's a tiny amount of money to them despite the item being a large amount to the "almost going broke buying this" guy.

Personally I don't think prices will fall to get more people to buy. People will buy because the demand for them remains high. People will just cut back on buying other things. That's my speculation. Sometimes people will react emotionally and get scared, but there are as many opportunities to profit from the scariness as there are to panic at the scariness. That's always been my view. Americans: Start thinking about money reform. Forget these central banks. They only want to steal the nations real wealth, and I bet any attempt to stop them results in some assassination or mysterious death to whoever tries to free themselves from their hold. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18205.htm At the end of the day they want to profit too. I say cut the middleman out of it.

Another thing is: it wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a lot of things you wanted to buy. But for those who are content with what they already have: High prices are great for the collectors who may have bought all their import toys at a time when the dollar was strong so now they can actually feel good. You might be able to sell some of the older things you bought and demand better price from a seller now than what you originally bought it for. (especially if you are talking mint condition) People won't buy as much items in total, but they will understand that they have to pay more per individual item they buy. (ie they are more fussy over 'what' they will choose to spend money on, now that money is harder to come by, but will not have as great leverage in trying to bargain you down since prices are high everywhere else) What I predict is more people going to group buys to reduce cost.

Yes: so yamato better not make toys break so easily! -Smaller boxes. -Spread the releases out more and take your time. Importers can't get the replacement free. -Better announcement system so people know what is going to be released in advance and can better save up for it. Being too secretive is counterproductive to fans imo. Often fans can give early feedback on stuff which will allow changes to things they don't like. (eg how you guys never put the side parts on the 1/60 VF-1 valks and now it's too late) I'm glad I ended up buying my CMs Legioss and Tread before the aussie dollar went down hehe. If I didn't buy it earlier I simply would never have bought it after it went down to .70 to the USD. It was already freakin overpriced as it is. This hobby is more expensive than my other expensive hobby: computer and video games. It's a lot to ask for mere pieces of transforming plastic. If times get harder, I will just sell all the old crap I own to buy newer crap I want to own more badly. This is why I wish yamato put some differences on their boxes to let us know which are the earlier releases of toys and which are the later releases of toys so that when a guy sells all his stuff on ebay he can have some way to tell the customer what release he is likely selling to you (take the megazone garland for example: people can know they have a fragile shoulder release just because the red garland was the earlier version) and then based on that, buyers are more confident and informed; allowing the buyer to haggle with sellers better to see if they can get a discount; which moves old stock quickly. When buyers are confident in something, they will be more relaxed about purchasing. When you make it hard to find info, you only hurt yourself in the long run imo. I'm also glad I skipped all the Mospeada toys that came out prior to the Beagle release because now that I know this kicks the asses of all the other toys I don't feel so bad for holding off and being more patient.

If future bandai macross robots inherit the chunky munky gene, I won't mind so long as they also do 1/72 kits as well. I never thought I would think to buy the kits, but I'm seriously thinking of getting them all now, since I tend to be the type to display my stuff not play with it much. Part of that admitedly is because I am just afriad something will wear or stress, but the other part is that I just like to look at them more than actually whoosh them around the place like a little kid. Bandai made a good decision to make the kits transformable imo.

It kinda looks like it can take a beating more because its squat. As a fan of the tall banpresto style of robot, (where the limbs are allowed to be a little gangly) I think the model kit looks better though. I just think valks are about speed and are more nimble than your typical robot. Only when they have armor can they look tough. If they look a bit bulky in naked form it goes against the idea that the "fighter mode is more important than battroid" which is how I have always felt it should be. (and why I like yamato's focus on that mode for designs that feature lots of anime magick distortion)

The robot mode looks ok despite looking like it's legs are set too high. Model still kicks its ass! But the durability will probably be where the toy makes up for it. I'll wait for reviews and mre info on armored pack. I might end up getting ozuma only and if prices come down try to get the others. But right now the model kits look more tempting to me. 2 months eh? Wonder if bandai will eventually reveal something changed in that time?

Looks good. Finally some destroids! Pretty damn posable too. Anyone buying the weathered one?

I'll be watching. If it's like the 2d one but in CG, then I can't see why not.

Yeah but the jedi were tougher in the old days though weren't they? For example Vader lost his abilities after being pwned by obiwan and losing limbs. The jedi being extinct in the later movies is like how there are no more real cowboys anymore. And the only reason the jedi got wiped out was because they were shot in the back. They were still more powerful looking then in later times though. At the start of original trilogy they mock vader and his devotion to his sad religion. That's like how magick is almost gone and knowledge is lost like in the final fantasy games. Primitive ancient voodoo weapons have no place in modern society anymore. The age of the guns/blasters/machines is here. People can be weaker now. The technology has softened them up.

the Red garland is the one with the older shoulder. Email yamato usa. Get the Army (brown) or Factory (silver) garland if you want to get a non-weak-shoulder garland out of the box. I still got to get the protogarland...

Great new pics. I especially like mid transformation ones.