1/1 LowViz Lurker

It's so funny to live through the trends/eras of mechanical design in anime and be present to see how fans react and perceive the changing design of mecha. Not just because the industry trends pertain to Macross, but looking at the mecha genre in anime overall. I recall years ago how many long time Macross fans felt at the time the Macross Plus mecha (the VF-11 Thunderbolt in particular) was so thin and gaunt compared to the old school Macross designs and even the larger super/real robot mecha they were used to. As time went on and mecha designs became noticeably sleeker (of which much of the Macross franchise was responsible for promoting) this reaction from fans appeared again and again with almost every sequel. Macross Zero seemed to be a real point of contention for thin robot modes and Macross Frontier mecha raised even more scrutiny for it's thin designs.

But post-Evangelion, so much anime mecha has been informed by those thin, emaciated EVA designs for so many years that it has become the norm in anime mecha. The fact that a mecha as slim and sleek as the YF-30 Chronos can now be perceived as "beefy" or "muscular" in comparison seems to me a rather amazing turn in how we mecha fans look at modern mechanical design. We sure think quite differently than we did years ago...or perhaps some of us haven't changed all that much and still think these designs aren't "big" enough

Compared to destroids they are all skinny. I think we must keep in mind that the overall mecha are huge. SV-51 is skinny looking, but it is heavier than vf-1 I would imagine due to more volume. Since fighter jets are meant to be light overall, it makes sense that they are weak-looking compared to say zentradi power armour with all the bulky shapes. VF-17 is the exception. What is needed is more transforming destroids but these are not the heroes. Imagine if S.Kawamori allowed them to transform into tanks or something so the ground mechs could appear less useless? They started to put wheels on them in mac zero, so the logical evolution is they have some kind of antigravity hovering capability or something. (think floating rocks helping them to lift them and they slide across the ground like the MS-09 Doms in gundam haha)

VF-11 still looks skinny to me because its shoulder armor look so vulnerable compared to the vf-1 which covers all sides and looks more robust protecting the joints. The yf-19 and yf-21 cover more too. It is such an unsafe looking bot mode imo No wonder the bloody gunpod was lousy and jammed up. It's just a cheap robot made on tight budget.

What I mean is certain unnatural character expressions in cartoons where a animator tries to exagerate the guys face to a point where it is just not realistic enough to believe but you just accept it because it is a cartoon.

People pride themselves on watching shows that are more real than others in terms of what can happen in them (eg the realism of the science in a science fiction anime) but then in the new shows you see characters might do something you never would see in real life like a facial expression that actually takes effort to do that is not natural.

It can be put into the same basket as making the nerdish guy with glasses no muscle mass or confidence suddenly be the ace pilot with great eyesight in macross, or making a drunk guy with long hair be confident and allowed to fly planes without being punished for it.

You just accept this crap because "it's cool man!" But then you sort of like it too because robots in this show are real. They can be grey, brown and look like real planes. We don't care much about realism in characters but we are obsessed with colours of the mechas. lol I've seen nonsense from both western and eastern cartoons. I think both sides are guilty of doing dumb stuff.

We still don't have a realistic reason in macross for why robot mode is needed to fire the ship's cannon. But it is in all the shows post sdfm. Really??? You want to crush your ship's crew by making walls collapse onto them for no other reason than to look cool fighting in space? lol You saw that guy's head get chopped off in DYRL during the transformation of sdf1. What kind of cruel military would do this on purpose just to appear awesome in battle? You get the point: expecting "realistic" crap that's not really 100% realistic to begin with. Macross is realistic. Anime can be realistic. But often times it breaks the rule when it wants to sell toys or be cool with the kids at the expense of going for realism. (colors of robots being perfect example: bright red for milia in sdfm even though zentradi are meant to focus on doing things with strategic value. Bright red is going to give you away and alert enemies. These warlike aliens must be brain dead. )

That's my point though. There's different reasons and occasions why bright vs. muted colors are used. The simplification of "because... Asians." Is laughable to me. I'm not offended but it's down right silly. Next time I watch knights of sidonia, I'll be sure to turn the contrast up. I must've mistakenly turned on the muted color filter by mistake.

I have been watching anime a lot latley and one thing I don't like is whenever a crazy scientist villain is in a anime they always have that dreamworks smile on their faces giving them away as a bad guy who is plotting to take over the world look. It spoils the mystery of guessing who are good and bad guys in shows.

You know what I mean by creepy and cocky expression:

http://makethedreamworksface.tumblr.com/

http://sorenragsdale.livejournal.com/19043.html

Nobody in real life makes it but you see it in both western and eastern animation these days. So annoying imo. It's like Eddie Murphy has taken over the character's bodies. Another thing in eastern animation I notice is whenever a crazy berserker type character is in the show their faces look hideous and the eyeballs go really big. As if the eyeballs in animes are not already huge enough. When they go super big and the pupils go small it makes them look sooo creepy. Example Gundam Seed when those cyber newtype pilots start attacking. Makes me realise more why the 80s was way cooler than the 90s and 00s. Things were more realistic. You didn't have dudes eyes pop almost out of the sockets to exagerate how crazy people could be. You just had to guess based on subtle facial expressions. Now it's standard in all shows.

Crazy guy face was probably present in older shows whenever they needed a serial killer. But they overdo it now. Everyone is a cocky son of a b1tch. It makes me want to punch the monitor. I get it the main character is so cocky he understands what we are thinking before we think it and is smirking at us all the time aware of how much more control he has over us as lower lifeforms who could never anticpate his every single chess move. Grrr...

Americans are more guilty of it than the asians but I wish it would go away. Not everyone can be as cool as the ninja turtles or sonic the hedgehog. The average joe doesn't make that expression. And I guess the average military vehicle doesn't appear so colorful as it does in macross and gudam but it's way less annoying since at least in the case of macross 7 they gave us a backstory for why the rockstar guy wants to appear different/cool (vibrant colours all over the plane) and not a government controlled grunt soldier who has to obey orders from uncool old men.

Missed the boat.. Looking forward to reviews though.

Yeah but the humans fired the first shot in space war I dude. No excuses. You saw what they did to the giants who were peaceful creatures before the SDF-01 went into auto attack mode in episode 1 Humans will forever be shamed as the aggressors of the war who attacked the aliens unprovoked. At least to the truth community.

If humans didn't let the ship attack the peaceful zentradi warriors who only wanted to teach humans cool fighting tactics and show them their chicken walking vehicles and spread their warlike culture and be best buddies with humans, then we could have avoided fighting over the ship and share its secret without the whole planet getting shot by lasers.

I bet a human hacker was the one who actually made the main cannon fire automatically and not the alien crew who crashed landed the ship to earth as believed by many humans. It wa humans who made the macross movies and we all know the victor of the wars gets to write the history books.

The savage zentradi always look scary and menacing. What about the zentradi that like puppies and kittens and help old ladies across the street and sing war songs and help with disaster relief by removing rocks and rubble during severe earthquakes? Ever considered they didn't need human's help? Are they so helpless we need to give stuff and they can't make it on their own and form their own zentradi nation which is peaceful and do well in business selling giant genetically modified fried chicken cooked with the laser technology they used to kill people in battle and sell to humans who want to be macronised and learn zentradi mixed martial arts and enter zentradi fighting tournaments? The animes are biased takes on the real thing imo. An OVA needs to be made where the zentradi rogues kicked the un spacy butt because they are the good guys for once in the story. Juist because they don't like the UNG doesn't necessarily mean they are evil. Maybe the UNG want something from them that they have and use the fact that they are zentradi rogues as a excuse for murder? Loads of stories we are probably not being told about in space or that are being censored by the network tv. What if the rogue zentradi are actually the good guys in many of the battles and only attack in self defence with no intention of hurting the humans before humans shot at them?

Nobody ever considers that. Much like the mutants in x-men the humans (who fear the power of the mutant) could be the bad guys for once. Britai in the original series even had the decency to only attack max and hikaru with his BARE hands instead of picking up guns to shoot the human pilots. While Max Kakizaki and Hiakru were armed with guns trying to kill him and even tried to burn his face off with the thrusters in the feet of the VF-1.

Pretty sure the Zentradi are the peaceful ones! Brainwashed, but that doesn't mean they are evil just because they get scared of porn and naked chics because of mind control. (fact is maybe it is good for them as aliens as it prevents them from being distracted from fighting better which as we all know is how you protect innocent people.. by killing the enemy before they kill you off without having to like the duty.

If th antiUN and rogue zentradi formed their own UNG and recruited new youg pilots I think they would be able to beat the UNG run by humans who are obviously afraid of the other races.

The AI beings who have become "self aware" ad want independance from human bosses could probably help too since as cold, unfeeling machines they could teach the uneducated rogue zentradi how to repair crap and make automated repair factories that can fix themselves and make machines do all the work for the rogue zentradi while they concentrate on fighting and killing and eating humans when food supplies run out and all the giant cows run out and beef prices go up. Humans as food source is one survival tactic out in the wild since giants consume much more food.

If the rogue zentradi built their own SDF01 with the guidance of an AI, they could take on the human-run UNG and be the leaders and clone human factory workers to make toys and model kits at small scale for them to feature in war movies that the zentradi want to make to retell previous battles they fought in. The war movies need minitures (think of it like how we have godzilla movies with miniture cities built for the action scenes) and the humans are smaller than them so their smaller size is suited for this work as well as scientists working in labs to make better genetically-modified killing machines. (combine the aliens with alien animals to make monsters that can be sold as biological weapons to other governments in the galaxy who don't like to fight directly and prefer pokemon style battles to settle disputes)

There is a lot of things human can do for the zentradi like study all the plant and insect life for them while they concentrate on building their empire to conquer the galaxy with force to demonstrate that "if you ever shoot at them first again, we will take over your nation and your planets and enslave your butt by laser bombardments."

"We have to protect the humans from extinction as they are like violent gangs that have gone out of control and if we let weapon of mass destruction in their hands they could have enslaved everyone and erased their history/culture to make them feel inferior and want to give up their traditions. Some freedoms like the freedom to not be taxed by NUNG are things the other alien races had before the humans started coming along spreading their seed. But if the humans are controlled by the Zentradi, then there is less chance you will be shot at first like what happened in the first space war, which is what almost cost them their entire culture and history and almost made them extinct."

Humans had nuclear power and reaction bombs. They used the WMD out of fear that the giants would want to harm them but the giants were more scared of humans than the humans were of giants. As soon as the giants saw male humans having sex with females, as discovered by spies, that was enough to make the giants fear them and not want to attack as this is part of the prophecy "don't harm miclones, they have the power to stop you from fighting. Keep away from them.". Yes the command was brainwashed into them by the PC who were obviously small so they needed to have a safety measure in case the giants turned on them similar to "Directive 4" command in the 1980s movie "robocop", but at least it would not have resulted in laser bombardment of earth which almost wiped out all humans from their home planet, right? .

The humans are not saints either is all I'm saying. And if they ARE descendants of PC then that means they are the seed of a race of ancient advanced aliens that wanted to brainwash the Zentradi into fighting all the wars for them as clones. So naturally the giants should not trust them as they are Satan's Puppets/Dolls" Should the Dolls who just do what they are commanded be blamed for something the puppet master created? Or should we hang/arrest the puppet MASTER who manipulates the puppets (who are victims too) due to all the damage the caused?

Should we arrest the AI personality for hacking the SDF1 in Macross Plus? or should we blame the mad scientist who used the AI to kill off humans using drones? (that guy was human too btw) All Sharon Apple was doing (like the Satan's Dolls) was what the creator wanted. It's not the AI that can be held accountable. It's the human bad guy that made it so he is the guilty one. Same thing with PC creating giants to do all the work for them. The humans who it is speculated might be descendents, are guilty since their ancestors would have been reknown as slave makers. Why then would Rogue zentradi have to put up with crap from the guilty humans who take after their dads from the past? Better to form your own government and warrior culture outisde their system instead of being bossed around by them just in case. Like a backup government for all the rogue zentradi who feel mistreated by human society. (similar to Xavier's school for gifted children in the x-men comics, This is where all the mutant kids go whose abusive non-mutant parents couldn't handle because they fear the mutant but were kind enough not to abort before they were born)

If there are half breed zentradi and humans living in peace, they are not likely to be trusted by pure humans and there is a possibility there for discrimination since there is fear the "giants are taking over and breeding with our daughters". Think about it: in sport the best atheletes are going to be the aliens since they have stronger bodies to resist damage in full contact sports and other things. Humans can't compete with that if they are pure blooded. Do you think pure humans like to lose to aliens who win all the olympic events? It sends a message that "zentradi are the superior race".

I decided to order this. The discount helped a lot since I am short on money right now.

Can anyone tell me what are in the books? I looked at a youtube vid of an unboxing but the person showing the books was very brief.

And what happens when you put the disc in a playstation?

Hopefully bandai do the tv series with english subs one day.

I also buy gundam dvd too, but I hear bandai usa closed?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-01-02/bandai-entertainment-to-stop-releasing-new-dvds-bds-manga

Does this mean no more gundam Unicorn releases in english dub on disc? Where do you get disc releases of stuff if you are not a fan of downloading digitally?

I think the macross series would probably be best rebooted after the existing series came to an end through a space war and then almost everyone dies.

The few survivors genetically modify the alien, human and plants to become the new Protoculture and the cycle just repeats.

If the humans are the PC, then there is no need to answer the mystery of who the protoculture are. You could just say time did'nt exists for the PC. They were just the spirits (from another dimension) of creative beings that did not have physical bodies which gave the ideas to the living physical beings to go and invent stuff. (these could have been living machines they formed to do certain tasks like angels or something like that which lived in the dimension where time does exist)

Thus ends the macross series so it can be rebooted by people who are eager to see alternate universe stories. (ie macross II)

Bandai can milk all the money from multiple series. Much like Universal Century co-exist with all the other universes like Wing Gundam and Seed Gundam etc.

I think the best way to reboot it would be they do a prequel to SDFM which does not have to be accepted as canon, but could be it's own story. (I know Zero is a prequel but I mean something that took place thousands of years ago while the zentradi were fighting wars, earth was still primitive and space demons had not yet been seen as a threat yet as the pc were not knowledgeable of the "space magick" that let them out of the prison) Like it can loosely explain the reason for trying to control and brainwash others much like the star wars prequel trilogy explains how the republic transformed into the empire. (ie the sith were plotting revenge on the jedi who are their nemesis)

Then after the Prequel (which includes supervision army fights and PC, they can start other series which loosely follows the template set by the prequel which could be the hub of "where it all began". It doesn't have to involve anything from SDFM or DYRL or anything from the 80s shows. It can allow people who were not around when those old shows were made to go in with no knowledge and enjoy the future tv shows. (but mecha designs can be modernised to resemble what you saw from the older shows)

Since the prequel was set so far into the past it can get updated and changed and modified over the years. It doesn't need to be set in stone with details that anyone could remember. It is just the creation myth of "how it all began". Since they've already touched on music as a form of magick in macross 7, it would not seem out of place for them to have an explanation of the "God of the universe" (the great creator who spoke all the creations into existence with his mouth) for macross in a prequel imo.

If you see Macross as a Sci-Fi show, that is ok, because even those people who come from the various alie races have to have had some beginning or belief in a god before they became all materialistic and scientific and forgot about their folk tales and ancient myths.

The Halo videogame series do it well by merging the religious stuff with the high tech aliens and references to the Flood (which as we see are physically zombie monsters sent as punishment to stop powerful races getting too powerful. (ie much like the Great Flood of biblical times when Noah and his family were the only ones worth saving due to not having genetic mods done)

If macross took a more religious angle on the creation of the aliens and then explained it in scientific way people would not have problems with the floating rocks of Mac Zero and the space demon idea in macross7.

I can totally accept that a being is mechanical physically but the physical is like a wireless router for data coming in from another dimension which allows that mechanical being to be remotely controlled by gods who live in another universe where there is no concept of time. (kind of like the way humans have alien bodies to mingle with the blue-skinned aliens in the movie "Avatar" but the difference is that the controller of the machine-body does not have a physical body themselves. Instead, they just send the thought invisibly without any technology involved - like how dolphins just use sonar naturally to communicate in the sea, not with any man-made crap. This is what they were 'born'/designed/created with.)

In a lot of JRPG you have ancient myths tied to ruins found in the journey and the ruins become the keys to breaking the mystery of the past which is obviously covered up by the government or the characters in the story to protect those secrets from the bad guys. I think this is what I would like in the prequel. You have aliens that are the main characters who stumble upon the ruins in exploring the wrecks of older civilisations but they are attacked by governments and organisations who wish to grab the knowledge for themselves to have control over thier rivals. The main characters get into contact with the good guys who reveal the secrets of the past and how the universe is created and destroyed by ideas implanted into the music which creates actions in the people who hear it and shapes what they do in future. The ideas can't die. but the people can. That is how the knowledge lives from generation to generation. So all the technology you see is really old knowledge rebranded as new when the past advanced civilisations died off. "We are the protoculture" The dying of older civilisations and re-birth of new ones carries the ideas with it and it is much like how your grandkids will inherit certain things of their ancestors that determine their fate. It is not a linear line with a beginning middle and end point. The universe is more like a bicycle wheel spinning around and we are the monsters killing each other off in the wars, but spreading our culture into the future.

I guess the last space war would be between the competing versions of the "UN Spacy".

UN government = world government for humans and aliens of different races.

Alien UN government = all the rival world government set up by people just as advanced as the humans and aliens from past shows but butting heads with UNG for control over universe and its resources.

If there is a space war between two "universal governments" it would be like empire vs empire.

They put this into the prequel where PC were fighting other advanced civilisations but they were best at mind control and fell out of favour with their gods so turned to manipulation of the masses to empower themselves. Then resistence formed and started peaceful world government and they were artists and creative types who only had peaceful technology and used music to heal people and were very spiritual. (they communicated with their god to ensure they would never use knowledge to control people for selfish reasons)

This would explain why humans fight all the time but also explain why people react to the music as they inherited that creativity so they didn't have to destroy others to steal their resources. They could create something they could call their own and this was their "first culture". Instead of destroying and manipulating people using weapons, they sang, danced, invented things, created new ideas, wrote books, stored history, bred with people who hated violent solutions, shared their knowledge with others instead of hid it away selfishly and jealously guarding it etc Since all ideas come from their god and they attribute creativity to the creator of the universe, nobody gets to take credit for things they make. They did not fight for the right to own something. They willingly gave things to each other for free because they recognised hat fighting over something isn't as productive as combining knowledge to further and advance their civilisation.

The prequel would not feature any valkyires but there would be mecha that looked like the alien weapons from Macross zero where levitation of objects and mind powers formed the basis for settling disputes.

If you have levitation you would not need jet engines and primitive WWII tech. lol

Of course that does not mean people could make the mecha for convenience so they did not need to use their minds. Robot servents (golems) that look like they belong in nature could be used as their version of a destroid for instance. It could pick up items, guns, throw things but it would be almost like a living version of a robot. (the closest things would be a transformer, but it would not be made of only metals. These are technologies that have science behind them but so advanced that it appears like magic because knowledge was not lost in those times when people share knowledge freely and openly)

Big problem with macross is the original can't be topped in terms of scale. All these later shows have the same message but they draw us really close into the characters but leave out what is happening in the background.

The background should be just as important as what the main characters are doing. What happens in the past relates to what is going on in the present. "Why do people fight?" "What's the need for weapons if people are peaceful and that's the difference between aliens and human?" "Is fighting good if its for protective purpose?" "Is it selfish to want to run away from responsibility if you know the world is going to end?" All this is in the original shows. Can you say that the later shows beat SDFM in scale? I'd say they get the ideas from the original in there but if you had no interest in the characters or the cool mecha or music, you couldn't say the show was worth watching by itself.

I thik a prequel would allow us to view something outside of the perspective of humans. Since humans are part of the problem as they were fighitng world war 3 before the alien ship came down. Show us the idealistic peace that people wanted that might have existed in ancient times long before space war I. Could the society that existed known as the PC at one time had no need for weapons or control, or to invent battleships which can kill people in one single hit? If so explain how they fell from grace and spread their wars to earth when the ship crashed and drew giants to investigate it. That story would be far more interesting to me (the origins of alien wars) than retread of the series with new teens. Aim at everyone who likes Sci Fi. Not just fans of robots or teenage girls who want to be pop princesses. It's great junk food entertainment. But maybe they should aim for bigger audience other than the one they target? (perhaps something you could watch with your grand dad and appeals to anyone, not just people who watch soap operas and read romance books? lol)

Best GERWALK is probably the Variable Glaug.

It's not technically a valk but it is close to a valk. It has big powerful bunny/kangaroo legs. It looks stable (not dangerous to be standing up in that mode), aggressive, and the weapons all seem to make sense with the big cannon thing right at the top similar to monster.

As for transformers with GERWALK.

megatron war for cybertron:

you can do a "super dimension cavalry southern cross" style GERWALK mode for this guy. What is interesting when you do one, is how practical it seems for hitting targets at angles higher than you get with hovertank mode. If you are right near a tower and want to shoot right at the top? Go into GERWALK mode and point the cannon vertically towards the sky. The thing about the feet is they are similar to a konig monster in that they are wide and flat so it won't lose balance or topple over easily.

Another transformer with GERWALK is generations lugnut:

I know what you are saying: Isn't he already a triple changer? yes he is suppose to be but he isn't officially one for this particular toy line unless you discover the GERWALK mode yourself. He was only designed to be seen in bot and vehicle form for this toy line despite the character trditionally being triple changing.

So what kind of price do you predict?

I think people are waiting around to see if it holds up well as a toy or is floppy.

Interested to see how that gerwalk swivel joint works. So weird.

I just book mark it. When the toys for the new tv series comes out I want to see it populated with all the TF instructions for quick reference so I know what to look for in case I wreck the thing. Some toys I have left in one mode for so long I have forgotten how to transform them.

I probably won't bother with smaller and cheaper toys. Just the masterpiece grade ones. But if you think something is particularly complex and expensive despite being small, I think it would be useful to add them too. Some people have big chunky hands and are destined to wreck stuff no matter how careful they act.

Sometime a toy might be so tight in the joints and the transformation hinges that you try to apply force and it won't budge. then you wonder if it was supposed to move at all. These videos give you indication which parts really move and which are not supposed to move. Not all toys are fun to transform. Some require some guessing. That's what I use it for.

if its just DX chogokin level i'll be disappointed. as far as i'm concerned, there isn't one dx chogokin better than a V2 VF-1. the overuse of metal on metal ball joints that get loose sitting on a shelf doing nothing is stupid and annoying...no matter how sweet the rest of the valk is. The V2 VF-1s are pleasantly tight and a joy to handle. i' think i'd get one if they made it....but i can't help but know i'll be disappointed. i'm also suspect of how bandai views the proportions of the VF-1. The recent 1/72s with their giant heads and the fairly recent hi metal 1/100 series with its tiny feet.

Diecast should be used in the places that might stress but putting it in the wrong places is bad.

Although VF-1 has been done to death if Bandai could outdo the existing vf-1 v2 from yamato I'm pretty sure most of the people saying they would not want it would do a 180.

It used to be back when 1/48 came out that people would choose which one to get then that would be it, and then it turned into a "gotta get the whole set" thing after being hooked.

If people could afford to buy SDF-1, and build army of valks I think they could do another vf-1 to attract those who want something better than what they have already got.

VF-1 has been done to death but it is also nostalgiac just like G1 transformer characters in the masterpiece collection.

The draw is not in the idea of it being new, (it's been done to death) but being as high quality as you can get from an old design.

There are things about VF-1 1/60 still that are imperfect. For instance the ways the arms fold out has been done better with the HiMetal. The gunpod doesn't look as good as the Himetal which has a better sculpt imo. It has less gimmick than yamato 1/48 vf-1. Now if you can combine what was done better with v2 of the 1/60 yamato vf-1 with the gimmicks of te 1/48 but make it better than the combination of good things of those two toys (like add better arm transformation as we saw in himetal) than I am sure people would get excited enough to get at least one.

One thing I would like to see is if they can make the intake covers perfect transformable hehe.

And the side parts perfect transformable. Don't ask me how.

And for those that have v2 /160 vf-1 you got to ask yourself if that is a perfect rendition of the VF-1?

It's not. The way the fast pack attach is crap. The 1/48 and Himetal did it better. Am I bashing the v2 1/60? Nope. It's still better overall than the himetal and 1/48 yamato. But what we want is something that has the best of all the things we have seen so far from the various VF-1 on the market in one toy, (while removing the crap bits of those toys) PLUS any improvements they could add since those toys were attempted. For example maybe they can do something to make the ultimate VF-1 have more posability in the hands and somehow they make it so that you can have massive GBP super-posable mechanical hands that look right when you put on the GBP? I like the normal sized hands when it isn't using GBP, but when it has GBP hands I like slightly larger mechaical hands even if it is anime magic.

To me if it looks cool is more important than if it sticks to realism. We all know for instance that if you have too big hands it may not be PT due to anime magic, but in robot mode the bigger hands looks better.

Remember how small the gunpod for the original 1/60 yf-19 was? Yeah it might have looked like that in the anime at some parts of the ova. But the bigger one is a lot more sensible imo. Especially considering that in future the YF-19 in the form of VF-19 variants of the original, would later be used by regular pilots for the usual missions. I can accept that the special ops version would have submachine gun type look to it (shorter) since you might emphasise close combat more and lighter weapon = faster drawing of the weapon, but to me if the gunpod is small it just doesn't look as good. We all have our ideal of what the proportions should be so it is not an exact science. Maybe in the future macross tech finally evolves and technology can manage growing and shrinking of the parts like a guy's penis when looking at a dirty japanese adult comic with tentcle monster rape and japaese school girls with lots of panty shots and big titties. But so far we have to just say it's opinion how 'right' one size is to another because lots of the things in the show are impossible in toy form. (ie the massive gunpod of the VF-17 fitting in the leg for the toy)

When yamato/arcadia (let's just call the company "yamato version 2" lol) releases the VF-0 1/60 it will be as big as a 1/48 VF-1. I suppose Bandai want to have something to compete with that giving us 1/48 VF-1? But with as much complexity as possible to attract fans who already own all the other vf-1 toys of the past?

I don't get why people like LED lighting. The batteries take away space inside the toy. They can leak out damaging the toy and you get ugly switches all over the toy. Also LEDs never look as good as painted detail when they are not covered by some kind of housing/reflector. For example I like the TF Quakewave but his eye looks dull and not very collector toy like with the yellow LED just sticking out of his head.

The other toys I bought that have lights I also don't like (Leo Dux, MP-01B Convoy and MP-08 Grimlock). Leo Dux is also my favorite out of the bunch because you almost can't tell that there is a LED + switch in the Feral Rex head. Also I can't imagine when to turn the lights on. I guess I am the odd man out.

I agree with you.

Anything that requires putting in batteries risks making the thing look bad.

If the toy was chunky like a tank there would be plenty of space to put in gimmicks. You could hide switches as part of the frame of the toy. Leader class Brawl toy from the first Bayformers movies has hidden buttons for the sound gimmicks. And you don't see the buttons at all.

Am I missing something? Why is there so many people wanting a Destroid every now and then? When it was released and even on sale, no one mentioned Destroid this and Destroid that. If I had a dollar for every Destroid request read in various threads here, I'd be a rich man by now.

It's becoming too funny for me now. Maybe I'll join you guys and start posting: Destroids all over the boards. Better yet I'll go to the Transformer forums and Destroiding them first.

For me, all I wish is a better stand like the Arm Launch ones from Yamato.

It is funny but at the time when they were released people had to decide whether to buy a valk or a destroid. But if you release them at a time when nothing much else is coming out, they might sell better because they don't have to compete with the valk so much. You know what maybe I don't want to see a destroid re-release. It is time for them to revisit the Qrau. lol Make the joits as tight as they can to hold the backpack up easily. Include a stand with it and the figure.

And I appreciate the work of the videomakers/authors. Very useful when you have your instructions hidden away in box somewhere but to lazy to get out.

Ok will add these two now. Was not active at this board for a while so sorry if it takes long.

VF-25S. And I hope one day they reissue this toy again.

I keep thinking that somebody should make a super deluxe VF-1. Sort of like how fewture makes super expensive Getter robos with lots of diecast, detail, and extras.

What kind of features would you want?

I would want it to be closer to 1/48 size of course to get in more of the detail. Super/strike parts would be included.

I'd also like to see removable covers for engine parts and missiles.

More diecast certainly.

Maybe large enough to have a poseable pilot hikru or something?

Also, how much would you pay?

I would think $500-600 would be nice for something with diecast, solid transformation, and tons of extras.

Maybe fewture could tackle it even? At a weird size they could get the rights?

I don't really mind if there is huge amounts of diecast. It just has to look as close to the show as possible without making battroid mode look off. They would need to make the hands real beefy and individually articulated fingers as the extra if it couldn't fit in the arm during transformation. Hikaru's ejectable seat should be a gimmick.

But yeah good hands. Good big mechanical articulated hands.

Arcadia should give the destroids a second chance. Do 1 each year.

Newer pics of this look good. Will be Interesting to see how it holds itself together though.

Fighter mode is still the best looking to me.

Is there any chance Arcadia could produce VF-1 valks in 1/100 scale?

Would you expert guys tell me your opinions? Thanks beforehand..

I actually sugested this.

But that was during the non-transforming Gnu figures they did.

It's too late now imo since collectors already have the larger perfect transformation toys so they would put the smaller perfect transformation toys lower on their list of priorities. Sales of one canibalise the sales of the other.

Maybe there will be need for it if the bigger toys go out of the price range of toy collectors. I think they are still in the range of the toy collector because if you save up your money over the year you could get at least one of them. Whether it is good value is up for debate though since older toys had similar or higher level of quality as newer toys and still you can get them cheaper than the new ones. But if you want something really badly you will find a way to get it. (ie sell old crap before the newer better crap arrives to help pay for it)

I'm not really a collector in that sense because I usually just get one or two from the series which I like but not everything within a set. But I can't say the overpriced toys are out of my range. Since I buy them still.

Depending on how new a show is, I think that helps to get price down a bit.

If a show is new there is an active community for the show since the show is an ad for the toys and they can mass produce those that appear in the show. Macross Plus on the other hand was old and I guess not as popular as Mac7 in japan so that is probably why we pay premium. There is also less to milk. With SDFM the VF-1 comes in many paint variants so they can milk the same toy over and over again. You can't do that as much with YF-19 since in the OVA there is only one. That means less overall repaints to collectors and less money. So they rape the wallets of the ones buying the one toy and here we are now debating about whether the expensive toys are worth it for what you get.

Personally I would love to see re-emergence of Himetal and would buy a YF-19 and YF-21 himetal but to be honest who on here would do it? If they already have larger version they probably will use the money on something else. I think if we preorder that also helps. Putting all the money into their pockets ahead of time to say you want this and are willing to front up the cash, might convince them for the more unpopular things.

We still need some macross II toys. Himetal VF-2 would be cool. But you got to prove it with money guys.

And the timing has to be good. remember when those revoltechs came out? That would have been perfect because revoltechs do not have the PT of the Himetal 1/100. But nooooo.....yamato was lazy and decided on non-transforming GnU figs which didn't have as good super posability as the revoltech macross toys.

If Himetal came out during the Revoltech figures, I think it wold have done better imo. (could be wrong though and people think cheaper super posable small figures that can't transform is better than PT small figures with quality materials but at high price)

Working towards getting this after meadow's post. Thanks for confirming it for me and welcome to the boards ( i hang out mostly in the toys section).

I recently bought two copies of mario kart 8 on wii u so i am a bit short on money. One for me and the other for my nephew. Will have to scrape some money together to afford this but it is good to hear that finally I can purchase legit macross stuff with official subs and the money is going to the owners of the property not the evil HG.

I have SDFM boxset, macross plus dvds including movie edition (not sure if I want to upgrade to blu ray) , but not dyrl (no censored crap thanks: still prefer illegal copy with the gore hehe). I am hoping that by buying this I am doing my part to let these guys know we want subbed quality international versions.

Wasn't a big enough fan of mac 7 though to care to want that. Too cheesy for my tastes.

Why do people like the S so much? The paint scheme, or the fact it was Ozma's?

It's pretty obvious because it is the skull leader.

But the paintscheme (grey) and the cool head and the emblem help a lot.

VF-1S is also popular and this is the "Roy Fokker" for MacF.

I always prefer the S head unit BTW. I hate the VF-1J with its tiny sensor. People only like it based on character not tech reasons. Our eyes can see a little bit to the sides so a rounded surface is best. That's why S has the best design while J is for people who only look straight ahead. hehe I think the reason S gets a bit more hate is because in fighter mode the head kinda hangs lower being a bigger overall head. But the added firepower of the turret makes it perform better. You could probably fire at a much higher rate than J and A because of the number of pipes to shoot from. (no overheating the barrels as much) This means increase damage plus less chance of missing. When you look at the J it is like putting on goggles. You lose some peripheral vision and this can limit your awareness.

Also I am going to assume the stock also extends on the VF-11 one but they didn't include that gimmick on the 1/60 toys. This would make it longer. Being a bigger robot overall the 19 needs the extra power so a slightly bigger gun makes sense..

Still they are both dwarfed by the VF-17 one (stealthy gorilla)

the 19 Gunpod dwarfs the 11B, haha

Not really it's the angle of the shot. Do a side by side comparison and they are about the same. (with the bayonet included they are closely matched in length)

Both are solid toys. Even though VF-11 lack the diecast it doesn't feel fragile. Just light.