1/1 LowViz Lurker

I'll probably have my fighter mode with fast packs on (fins retracted) for display mainly anyway. So the small tail only really half pisses me off. If yamato can make the wings on the sv-51 hollow to allow those metal pins to act as anti-droop locks, why not try making fins hollow?

I've decided I'm going to wait for second release roy with strike/super parts and safe shoulders. How long will I have to wait? Hikaru's red trimming on the chest isn't as appealing to me.

The only way is to make the tail fin hollow and have a door on one side that opens up and allows the tip to fold inside it. Diecast hollow tailfin.

Hopefully this thing isn't going to be a floppy mess. Yamato made a wise choice taking out diecast in their toys imo. (only using it for pieces that needed it) If bandai and yamato team up, let bandai do the hands at least.

I'm not even going to click on the article because it will generate traffic to the site and make money. It would be good if someone who already went to the site, while you are there, took a snapshot of the page and posted it as an image, so nobody had to go to it. This is a good point, but also the fact that they are only going to be allowed to put stories up that they are given permission to put up. The media conglomerate is all one big business owned by the same people who have one agenda. You won't find news that goes against them so for example any subculture which doesn't profit them is a target for them to attack. Owning the news is like owning the ability to control minds: what people think, what they are allowed to see, the talking points in any debate, the messages they want to promote. (anything anti-family is cool so long as it benefits them in some way: causing destruction of morals, changing their attitudes to certain issues, deliberately misleading them through movies which are not historically accurate etc) What it all comes down to is: If they can profit from it: it's left alone. If it competes with them: it's attacked. This is why what might seem like innocent 'ignorance of a topic' on the surface is in fact an attempt to intentionally shock people and spread bad info. (possibly to benefit the in some way, drive competitor out of business, buy them for dirt cheap, then own and profit from them. Some examples described here.) tsk tsk just another symptom of the globalisation of the world and centralisation of power. Here in Australia we don't even have an R Rating for games thanks to the idiots in power now who still think computer games are primarily children's entertainment form. And thanks to the mainstream media, parents and older generation actually believe that there is a link to videogame violence and the violence in the real world. Everytime they try to sensationalise their story by shocking people, the chance to see proper rating system so adults don't have to buy the imported uncensored game decrease, (they can get the uncensored local versions instead) because the journo doesn't know poo about what they are talking about or do enough real research. So bad info gets put out there. Videogames get demonised (just like anime or other subculture) and politicians think they are helping to protect society from some great evil by banning some new thing just to gain political points rather than looking at the real issues. I see the same happening with anime. Just write any old bullshit that average joe wouldn't be able to look at and judge critically because they are sheeple and don't have time to question what is being passed off as the facts in the story. At the end of the day they are a business just like any other business and have no obligation to give you the truth. We all just automatically accept that the service is good quality without thinking about who gains from the lie, mistake, spread of bad info etc. Information can be bad on purpose: dumb you down, make you confused, keep your attention focused somewhere else and so you are not focused on the real issue etc. (stories that are factual and good can get pulled)

Ah still deciding whether I should get alto or ozuma. I like Ozuma head turret better. And yeah: even though these look great, I would still want a MG if they choose to go that route one day.

Of course the toynami shits all over the banpresto in terms of how it all holds together since it's a proper toy. That's why I said if high quality versions of it were made I'd be interested in getting them. For example imagine a VF-0 banpresto. Yes we'll probably be getting them from bandai now, but I wonder how much part swapping there will be? (like the yamato 1/100 that was going to come out but was cancelled?) I hope the part swapping is just small stuff like the landing gear and stuff. I'm a big PT guy.

If it's not impossible I would like to see non-canon fin transformation if it means we get normal sized fins and the final result looks better. If it's fragile, I will just be extra careful in how I handle it. And to those who said the yf-21 looks crap in bot mode: remember that the lineart has legs that are extremely long, and I would say that when lineart robot modes have lots of anime magick, it's unreasonable to expect lineart accuracy if you make a toy want to look nice for one mode more. But I do agree the legs are skinny. Kinda like the skinny arms on the 1/48. Oh well maybe in future when bandai take a shot and give us the chunky munky take on the 21.. heh

http://www.geocities.com/duom/gundam/ultban/ultban.html ^ pics of the banpresto. pic of toynami: Note the massive shoulders? Apart from that I like the toy. I wish they used normal sized ones. Yes buy one. But the thread asks about banpresto.

Wow, nice big plug right there for his site. Must be a big increase in traffic after that.

I like the look of them but remember when you try to touch it limbs may flop down, or limbs might fall off. (you need blutack to put inside to secure) Just leave them in one pose, don't fiddle with them, and admire their simplicity. The thing I like about them is they look skinny in robot mode. I like that skinny appearance (high posability) and wish many hasbro jets from the transformers made their robot modes looked like that. I only own the non-fast packed ones. Quality? lets just say you get what you pay for. But you know, if high quality versions of these little guys were made (without screwing around with the proportions of the shoulders like the toynami ones) I would end up collecting these. But these banpresto valks are the cheapest valks around. (without look bad)

Looks awesome. So what's happening with regards to the armor packs? (super and armored) Is it going to be a seperate set of parts that can be removed and taken off the model, or will a model of the valks with the pack on them be released? And VF-171? Bandai announced anything on that?

Just watched it. Good ep. Cannon Fodders got an upgrade!

PC games can be patched. Less risky. Anyway: So how much do replacement parts cost? If worse comes to worst, it might be a good idea to just eat the cost for the one vf-0s, and hope the new QC guy means no more risk of stuff breaking easily. I hope vf-11 doesn't have fragility problems. Customers went through pain on early releases of 1/72.

Love the look of this kit over the toy. What I would have liked for bandai to do is instead of have that 1/100 part swapping macross toy line, they just do 1/72 transforming models (of everything) instead. Most of my toys I leave in one mode or pose for a very long time and rarely if ever play with it. The only reason I go towards toys over kits is because of time/patience to have to build kits. But I prefer the look of them.

Sell them cheap to japanese buyers who can get the replacements easily. We have toynami to screw us over with breaking pieces on the Masterpiece collections. Now it's time japan had their turn and bought all the faulty yamato toys with breaking pieces imo Share some of the burden.

Who cares about the legs. Worry about the hands.

Yeah that's the scary thing. Also why I'll probably never buy the macross zero valks off ebay sellers too since they won't know the difference themselves. Yamato should do something like make the box look a tiny bit different or something so people can tell.

^ That's a really good idea. I just assumed that they would only be parts swapping if it wasn't possible to make a Perfect transformation, not that they were deliberately doing parts swapping to please the model guys who care about accuracy at this size. If they can please both, that would work for me. I'd be interested in this scale if serious attempts are made to try to make it look good, but also put some thought into how the thing is supposed to transform. I got back into the transformers when alternators came out due to the look of the toys. So I do care about the final look of transforming robots in alt modes. But at the same time, as a toy, part of the high price (vs buying a non-transforming kit) of these things is how they were engineered to transform into something else which we as toys guys appreciate as much as the final look. Otherwise it gets to a point where you ask yourself why you didn't just buy the kits. (yeah yeah, they take patience to build but its cheap) Tiny VF-4 which can be close to PT would be great.

The culture shock tactics were also risky. As we saw later when Kamjin developed what I like to call a "resistance" to minmay's song. Sure he started getting scared (possible genetic manipulation to protect the protoculture from being attacked by the giants they themselves created so their own bioweapons wouldn't backfire?) but with determination, kamjin continued his plan, knowing that the whole contamination propaganda handed down by his superiors wasn't going to "physically" destroy them, but more "symbolically". (ie aliens defect from fighting) After he grew wiser, no amount of minmay singing was going to stop him from trying to attack humans. The thirst for warlike activity in his blood was stronger than the non-warlike activity. And they are not mutally exclusive. (he can enjoy the ancient mating rituals while destorying the sdf-1 ) Perhaps ozuma is right to feel putting ranka's life at risk was going to result in her dying? Her life is important because Ozuma loves her like a sister. Not just because she is valuable 'asset' for military or anything. This might have contributed to her being more pampered and stuff as Ozuma took care of her like a little baby instead of letting her grow up normally? So she comes off as being annoying for not 'manning up' like normal characters should. Minmay had her parents who refused for her to be a singer. Telling her she is too naive and to carry on the restaurant biz. So Ranka has Ozuma constantly worrying about her getting harmed. Using alto to mke sure nothing happens to her. And if you think about it, would you rather have somebody who doesn't want to be there, doing the job half-assed? Or someone who has put 100% effort into what they are doing and not whining or hesitating while there? This is where you get characters like Alice Holiday. She is like Mylene's inspiration, but she feels like she lost some of 'the magic' she had over time when it became 'just a job she does' and not something where she puts her whole soul into the music. So perhaps that is why the bugs developed a little resistance (in ep21) because ranka's singing lacked the true emotion needed behind it, to move them? Just speculating.. There has always been that theme in previous shows where music varies in its usefulness and the character has some self doubt that makes them lose sight of why they chose to sing in the first place. Ranka's self doubt about the reasons for singing is no different. She know she is being used as a "distraction" and that so long as she isn't 100% certain it's the "right thing to do" just singing the song without feeling will lack the energy needed to make a difference. That's my take on the whole thing. Alto can sense when people are merely acting and putting on a show and when people are sincere. I suppose that's what Sheryl likes so much about him. He was the only one to stand up to her in episode 1 when all the gushing fanboys were cheering for her. If she is around him she can act normal and relaxed, and not have to worry that a fan is just caring about her because of her fame/talent/money/looks instead of caring about her as a person.

In one of the links I was quoting. True there are subtle differences between the idols from different shows, but I see just as many similarities too. How can you complain about something like this now, (ranka is selfish) when it's been part of the macross formula for so long? To get pathetic characters who have no interest in fighting and war (hikaru who comes off as very indecisive and unmanly in the show at the start) slowly develop and mature over time as the events around them draw them into conflicts and change them? "oh noes I gotta save the princess from danger. I will be the knight in shining armor to protect you!" and then the characters realises that killing bad guys for the greater cause (not just to save a nice piece of ass) is more noble and higher goal. Eventually their friends die and this makes them realise it's not fun and games or showing off to impress people. Innocent people are relying on you. -The original motivation was selfish (I need to save her and rescue her from danger and the reward is getting the girl). -Then over time they realise they got to sacrifice their free time to help others as well. (ie meaning they grow up, become less selfish and think about others too. Not just pretty princess) They don't just start out instantly grown up knowing absolutely everything.

Yes I know that I meant in terms of the idea that Brera is protecting ranka from Alto and making it seem like Alto doesn't deserve to protect her, and in how Kaifun is telling minmay to not trust hikaru cuz "he's a dirty baby-killing soldier". The hate level is similar. In SDFM Kaifun acts like he is the only one who can provide good protection. Minmay's own parents rely on him to look out for her. I don't mean exactly identical. Similar != identical. It wasn't really directed at you just the people who point out all the fault of ranka but conveniently never mention that those same faults are in older versions of the pampered/sheltered pop princess role in macross shows before. Where they get to a point where they forget about the larger responsibility of using the music to help the military in some way to save lives. To those people: My argument is that Minmay isn't more mature than ranka if they have the same faults. Saying ranka is self-centred is true. Saying that selfish behavior is a good reason she isn't likeable is also true. Saying ranka is somehow worse than minmay I don't buy that. Saying it's unique part of her character I don't agree with. At the time of the discussion we were only 21 episodes into it. So it's not fair to judge so harshly. When you were a teen all you cared about was yourself and having fun, not being solely responsible for saving people. This is normal part of life. Perfect characters that don't change gradually would seem more unrealistic to me. After all how many times has someone complained that in a lot of these anime shows the young pilots who look like they are kids are able to outsmart adults with training and life experience, ..just isn't believable? Just be patient. give ranka some time. And it's not like she is deliberately seeking to be insensitive or anything. I guess different people interpret things based on their own age. Like I can see people liking misa because she is properly trained and 'tough' (like a role model for those who don't have what she has - ie respect points) while minmay is young and naive. But even misa has to accept that her being all scary and bossy is scaring the guys away from her, making her lonely and sad, which is why all the bridge bunnies make fun of her for being so "It's ok for me to die alone as an old maid". If Claudia weren't there to guide her on matters of the heart she probably would have not made it and hikaru would have went with minmay. She is the most responsible character, but don't you find her sole devotion to her duty kinda sad too? Like "life is all about fighting because I'm from a military family and my genes and status mean I can't do other things too". Similar to how the zentradi think "war is the meaning of life and nothing else matters!" ?

Although there are some homages to old tv series: You get to see miria in flight suit piloting the vf-1. Destroids are back and one old guy get to fire the monster cannon inside the ship. Basara plays as hikaru from DYRL. My fave characters were the biker babes onboard the ship. They don't really add anything to the story but it's like it is part of the atmosphere of the city. You actually get to see different characters beyond the main ones inside city 7. In frontier it seems they've only got time to show us the main ones only. Frontier is big. Maybe if it was 52 eps they would have had more time to show us the different people living in it? Take a break from the vajra and have a few eps on these background characters living inside the islands? Even the bridge bunnies got to go dancing with those spies in SDFM and have fun. The overall tone of the show is it's a more fun relaxing show. Frontier is going back to the roots of macross and the war in space and how it is dangerous with aliens that are quite scary and mysterious. Macross 7 has less of that drama and more humour. You'll be kinda freaked out how exedor must stick his giant head up through the floor. If that was real life I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him if he sneezed.

Yep when ranka runs away from her responsibility to sing at the funeral that is no different from when minmay runs away in DYRL and hikaru chases after her to give her the lyrics that misa translated from the memory plate that she and hikaru found when stranded on earth together. Minmay says to hikaru: "why the hell should I sing those lyrics you and that lady made for me to sing?" I challenge all ranka haters to go rewatch DYRL and tell me minmay was acting any more mature then. (and that version of minmay is the oldest one!) You then come back into this thread and tell me minmay wasn't acting selfishly because she wanted to be happy with hikaru and only sing if she had won hikaru's heart...with a straight face. Really..minmay is sooo different. Much less selfish. Look I'm sorry ranka haters. I'm just not convinced you are using the same standards to measure her by as you did for minmay from both DYRL and SDFM. My opinion: You just go soft on minmay because ranka is newer. Minmay does the exact same thing, but you just chose to ignore this. Ranka does it, "oh that's so selfish!" Now I'm not saying that because minmay was selfish it's "ok for ranka to be selfish and irresponsible". Of course not. I'm just saying that if you say that ranka is something, it's only because that was the formula estblished in SDF:M and DYRL and people don't act out of a sense of duty when they are in love. At this point in the story we are supposed to not like her for that but also we are understanding too because if you don't get what you want, you are not motivated to do anything. Remember that episode when Max first introduces to hikaru that he is about the marry the alien. Hikaru starts to lecture him and stuff. I mean this is the enemy. Love makes people go against what is logical. Doesn't mean they are ignorant to the dead. I'm sure Miria had slaughtered a big pile of humans. But so did max right? But max is being selfish, caring more about his own happiness than whether this is wise and worrying about what others say and his public image and all that. It's irrational but that's love. Now that ranka is going off on a trip, you should be happy anyway because there is the possibility that sheryl gets closer to alto. But I can't stop thinking that her saying goodbye is the same 'goodbye' hikaru gives to minmay in the rain of death episode where minmay is being watched over by kaifun a lot and she is busy with her career. "I may not come back this time" So yeah, this was her last chance to say it to alto because of danger reasons. Of course Brera being in the way is only making things worse since he is Ranka's equivalent to Kaifun constantly following her around. Just remember that humans are not robots perfectly able to do what is only logical and proper at the demand of others. Yes soldiers have to act like that, but that's not what macross is only about. The reliance on pop idols is what makes it unique. At the beginning of the series there was all this: "go sing if you feel like singing. Be true to your feelings. Who cares if nobody wants to listen to it. Just keep singing." And now there is: "Ok only sing when we tell you its ok and when we say you can." So along the way, as she was getting famous and all the events were managed, the singer's own reason to sing was lost. The idea behind her power is when she puts her feeling into it, it can move others. But if she only does it because her arm is being twisted to do it and she doesn't feel right to do it at that moment, that power which motivates her to do it well is lost. The effect is lessened, and the song loses its impact. The turning point in DYRL was when minmay realised she could sing for her own reasons too, not just because the military wanted her to. "I'm going to do it for my parents so they can feel proud of me" or whatever.. (they were obviously dead at this point) But the point was after she was self-motivated, that power to sing with actual feeling returned.

Basara is a combination of hikaru (the spiky hair) and max (the glasses) in look. Unlike max he is very angry that the military uses weapons instead of music. Unlike Hikaru he is not in love with any of the girls. Like Minmay he sings, but it's rock. That's the good thing if you are a male who has issues with a a guy singing love songs to aliens. I think he is pretty cool character, but this series is focused more on him, and his reasons for singing. So it might take longer to get started compared to other shows imo. It's like how the new batman movies are character studies and less about actions and stunts and fighting. (ie macross plus) I think there is less emotional charge in this show than others. But more excitement in the way basara outdoes the PD and is able to pretty much fly into danger without using harmful methods. There is combat in it, but I would say that since it is not the focus you'll see a lot of repeating animation. The music is very good. Not as much drama. Mech design is high visibility and you'll find it different since the character is trying to attract attention to draw enemy focus away (kind of like Jazz in G1 transformers ) from civilians while the military concentrate on fighting using normal methods. Monsters: they are a bit cartoonish. They have enormous powers. So powerful they frighten Exedol who cowers at the sight of them. Although having said that he is scared of culture shock in the first tv series as well.. Overall the tone is lighter than other shows. This might not appeal to older fans who expected more of a SDFM show. One thing a lot of people have said about basara's character is that they kinda respect his bravery for doing what he does despite not being a big fan of the idea that you can't use weapons to fight things. There are many ways of fighting, and it doesn't have to be violent. I think shoji kawamori wanted to throw a gandhi type figure in macross who is a pacifist to teach kids that "guns are bad mmmkay?" But to a lot of non-idealistic cynical adults that feels a little bit preachy? (maybe why americans who are gun owners don't like macross 7 as much? heh) Really though he doesn't care if the military do their job or try to stop them from fighting their way, just demonstrates that he can succeed without use of deadly weapons in hopes others will see him use the non-violent method. My main gripe is how he hogs the whole show and in a way we are used to seeing characters 'grow' and 'develop' but basara isn't like that: he just IS. Sorta like "Nobody understand him, so lets make this whole tv show an explanation of what basara is all about, yet not tell us who his parents are, what his hobbies are besides music, why his skills with a valkyrie are so good, and how he can fly with a guitar controller" You just got to accept that the show is all about basara and his music. And you have to assume his way is the only way since the PD are far ahead of UN in terms of power. You will appreciate the phrase "Listen to my song." Military is pretty much useless without him. In the same way that if superman wasn't around to save loise lane, she'd have been dead long ago. Fans of weapons have issues with macross 7.