1/1 LowViz Lurker

They need some competition imo. If there were more companies making high detail large size macross toys, prices would come down. Maybe if there was a japanese version of toynami which made durable stuff and never teased people with vaporware and instead were fast at releasing it? That would bring balance to the force. Yamato seem to have a monopoly so as long as people keep paying the high cost prices will stay high.

So will there be a second release ivanov? More a fan of his scheme than nora. Personally I think the black makes it so much more menacing and evil. It's like the black VF-22 that gamlin uses. Good guys use white Variable fighters while the bad guys fly black ones. Red is for show-offs who get angry when beaten and are hot headed, (ie milia going psycho because she's rarely gets beaten) and blue is for the calm and collected pilot. (max never seems to get angry or lose his cool) I think gamlin will eventually become an anti-un supporter because of the black paintscheme.

No I mean the 1/48 had "girly arms" which people liked to note compared to the first 1/60 yamatos. (noticeable in a side by side battroid comparison shot) It's upper arms just seems less beefy and chunky than 1/60. (1/48 just seems longer and thinner for the fighter mode people) Although nothing can erase the memory of bad headsculpt of 1/60 vf-1s compared to the 1/48 so we are kinda forced to get 1/48. Now with these new 1/60 people have more choice. Something without the chicken hands, but decent head, and more affordable to a casual fan so it will sell more. Edit: I think the chicken hands were the 1/48s main weakness: it means because of the larger gunpod it must hold compared to the 1/60, the 1/48 hands and wrists; which look skinnier and less bulky than the the 1/60 despite being a bigger toy overall, now has problems handling the long gunpod properly in battroid mode. The general limp wristed-ness of that can be a pain in the ass so you tend to leave the toy alone. (like how you wouldn't play with your master piece prime) Ideally you want your robot mode to have tough hands, (for holding the long weapons easily) but still be sleek and sexy in fighter mode. I think a smaller sized valks takes some of the stress away from the wrists a little bit so that's why I think smaller = "more playable". No gangly limbs or joints that can barely support the weight of the things it must hold, getting in the way of your fun which is going to be a problem with a larger toy. Because in a smaller toy they will simplify it and make it chunky, that also has the side effect of making the handling of the weapon more stable. (but I guess you won't get the detail of individual articulated fingers and stuff that people like in the "masterpiece" toys) This is why so many prefer just using the clown hands for the 1/48s due to the weak wrists despite the lessened articulation.

No I mean the 1/48 had "girly arms" which people liked to note compared to the first 1/60 yamatos. (noticeable in a side by side battroid comparison shot) It's upper arms seems less beefy and chunky than 1/60. Although nothing can erase the memory of bad headsculpt of 1/60 vf-1s compared to the 1/48 so we are kinda forced to get 1/48. Now with these new 1/60 people have more choice. Something without the chicken hands, but decent head, and more affordable to a casual fan so it will sell more.

It's good that the 1/60 is being redone. I liked the smaller size of 1.60 but just couldn't bring myself to buy one on the basis that it wasn't a PT toy. But now that these are like "1/48 juniors" they will be hard to resist even for those who say they are sick of vf-1. Actually because of the smaller size it wil mean you can buy more of the bland valks like the cannon fodder and create a display with more valks on a shelf at once. Perhaps have all combinations at once: 1s super and strike, naked valks, and gbp. 1/48 are like what the MP line of transformers are to the alternators. MP will look better upclose with all the moving parts and gimmicks (cockpit details, missiles that come out) as well as seem more realistic in fine details (the head lasers?) like a model, while the alts are something yu can play with and do those barrel rolls. These two scales in a way complement each other. So when they make me a 1/60 destroid and glaug (come on yamato) I can include a few valks in the background too. Can't do it with the 1/48 since people would never buy the larger scales of more simple looking mecha that (due to their lack of detail) don't require a big size to capture the small details. What is a real shame is how they never made the improvements to the hand for the 1/48 which really needed it. Big size should mean more effort to put in details. The yamato votoms is a good example. 1/48 = display toy 1/60 = play with them and pose them without worrying about snapping fine pieces off or losing something. Where is my alaska base green valk? I agree with the people who like the tv series valks: they are a part of Space War I "history" and like the red zeon Zaku that Char uses in the gundam universe in the One Year War, the Blue and Red ace pilot valks that max and milia ride in are *iconic characters many times more notable to war historians than the average grunt in his realistic mecha who gets shot down easily. Yeah I will be there when a Lowvis comes out, but tv series schemes have their place in a display just as much as the DYRL stuff and non-cartoony, non-canon, military schemes. And anyway the tv series has stuff in it that wasn't in the movie: hikaru rescuing minmay in the bright orange high-vis 1D, and almost crushing her with it, more battles with glaugs and regult that is missed from the movie, (ie hikaru fighting kamjin one to one) different looking FAST packs that completists may want to get. These are scenes fans may want to recreate in the 1/60 scale who don't have patience to mod or customise their toys. Almost as important as the missed scenes in the macross plus Movie edition; like the opening rogue zentradi fight, that were there in the macross plus OVA which fans can still appreciate. *keep in mind that even though macross 7 uses the DYRL style, note the obvious nod to the SDF:M tv series designs when miria brings out her tv series flashy red VF-1? TV series valks still live on even after the first space war right alongside the tentacled exedor and vf-22 without brainwaves. "Old" doesn't always mean it doesn't exist anymore. You can clearly see miria's tv-style flightsuit was still around too, so it's not like the tv series and movie design can't both co-exist in the same universe. (miria's more of a MILF in the old flightsuit anyway )

I'm really happy about this. Will buy after looking at these pics for days. The skinny legs of yf-21 reminds me of the complaints about the skinny arms on the 1/48 vf-1. I've been a fan of the skinny limbs ever since the banpresto valks that everyone hates but that I think give the valks a kind of feminine grace. (that is in contrast to their stocky brothers the destroids which are short) I never accepted the lineart of battroid mode as being the "real proportions" of what the robot should look like if it was a plane that transformed into the bot mode. Rather just put this down to the artist wanting to make it look strong and tough for appearances when it really should be "skinny and delicate but agile". (maybe like an eva?) I think ever since masterpiece starscream had his sexy girl legs, that maybe it started a fashion to make the bot mode of these transforming robots into skinny supermodels. Something I don't mind so long as it means the fighter mode looks all the more fast and agile. (vs the bulky and chunky look of bandai toys which seem to go for the tough, stocky, muscular battroid mode which makes the fighter look like it wouldn't fly very well)

One thing I want is for yamato to do the collector stuff, and bandai the chunky munkey kid stuff. But only if: -yamato can somehow make hands that aren't chickend hands but really nice and strong and bulky. -bandai don't go too crazy with removing so much details on the toy. (vf-19 with parts of its inner calf missing just so the arm can fit into it) Both need to try a lot harder. Bandai will probably just put a half-arsed effort though because they have gundam so macross isn't as important to them. Yamato has it's issues with first releases but that is ok so long as they have the right attitude to keep improving and taking feedback seriously. Oh and the hip issues with the 1/72 VF-11 were fixed with the Fast Pack edition of the VF-11. Mine is still healthy. I think it is the best out of the 3 1/72 macross plus valks. YF-21 can't stand in gerwalk, while the yf19 has no locking mechanism for the upper body. VF-11 FP seems ok though.

But the pilot looks vulnerable. All you have to do is kick it in the nuts because he sits on the outside of the robot.

They have armor plated ones magically enhanced by the PC's experimentating with nature and dabbling in the occult so much. The truth is zentradi evolved from alien apes with tough balls that got harder and harder over millions of years of breeding in a warlike planet (rumoured to be the planet of the apes) where the "hard nut" gene was discovered by scientists to have made them survive this hostile enivornment for so long. Think of the "Saiyans" from dragon ball z only without superhuman strength. On a full moon these apes would go crazy and eventually the pc took this part out of the zentradi to make it easy to control them and later they became more humanlike. It was only a matter of time before they discovered the powers of the ape's magic nuts and how it could generate enormus power (especially on a full moon) and so they created armor-plated ones for use in mechanoid bugs that need them to breed quickly to increase the chances of survival of certain endangered species. Eventually the insects that had these nuts became smarter and more aware and learnt of their origins and turned against the pc for their frankenstein-like experimentation. Now they are after humans because we remind them of the PC. Fortunately the PC were smart and developed a counter to this in case the insects ever got out of control and had spells to defeat them. You have to chant a certain set of phrases repetitively while standing in a circle to trap them, and then on a full moon stab them in the nuts (does not have to be with a sacrificial dagger or a stake) to kill the monsters once and for all. Only DR.Chiba has the ancient spellbook to save us from this crisis and he lost it. But he was clever although a bit eccentric: In order that he never forgot the spellwords he made it into a song so nobody could forget it. This is why the PC use music to control things because they know their civilisation will eventually fall (or get destroyed) so they hope people will pass the songs down to others to prevent their own mind-controlled abominations from turning against future races who are too uneducated to understand the science behind their great achievements. (in the form of innocent songs used to entertain children - ie they use people's brains to store the information like a disc hoping it accumulates over a long time to save each following race from eternal doom) The armored bug race knows their time is up (just like the one in space battleship yamato) so they are after the innocent virgins who represent a threat to their kind as these will perform the encantation that defeats them and magically cuts their balls off and makes them weaker and less warlike. I think that might be the reason the AFOS asked if we were a warlike race in Macross Zero, to see if we were in fact strong enough yet to kill their greatest enemies from the universe once and for all and be their Gods bringing punishment on all the mistakes of nature they created which turned on them. So you see: The AFOS attack on us in macross zero was testing to see how strong we truly were: if we died, then we weren't ready to fight. If we survived, that meant we were granted the right to fight these monsters by proving we could live through all the events they foretold would happen to us in the future. But humans would be allowed only one chance and only if they had the balls to accept the challenge the first time and get off earth quickly to go and fight the monsters they had waiting for us to go and kill with our powerful weapons. It's sort of like a videogame and the universe is a big arena to see who is the strongest as we entertain the bloodthirsty audience waiting for us in the subuniverse which is where all the creatures who are forbidden from playing must go, too injured to continue. Unfortunately the government needed to tell the humans it was "for our safety" that we should leave earth but the real reasons are much darker: we are going to overthrow the rulers and become their enslavers using all the cool weapons that the PC gave to us and be "the ancient cataclysm" that would destroy the zentradi as told in the legends. (zentradi were peaceful compared to us since they are dumber due to their origins from the apes which only fought against their own kind and had no ambition to rule other planets, only following orders obediently) The humans = vanquishers of all evil, to those PC that secretly genetically-modified us on earth ages ago. The power is waiting for us like a treasure in an abandoned ruin for us to raid and become rich, having no regard for the dead spirits who guard all this stuff and who come back as ghosts to attack us for taking their stuff. Basara's songs was one way to trick the PD into giving up their greatest weapons and leaving the bodies of the people they magically possessed. Only the magic spells can ward off the evil ghosts we anger as they are bound by the programming that the immoral PC planted into their heads to make them slaves to do their bidding. The official story was that the releasing of the PD into the world was an accident, but it was possibly done intentionally to revive the dead ghosts in the subuniverse to fight again as undead warriors inhabiting a clone body for use in an emergency when an undead army may be required. It wouldn't work since like vamps they need the energy source from living things to feed them. They turned to the devil for power rather than using natural means which is what caused their own fall. On the surface the wars are just a war for survival. But underneath it's a generation-spanning holy war in space to see if the good guys can beat the monsters who shouldn't even exist due to ancient tampering with nature in the first place. All the existing monster exist only because they were superior killers and survivalists and not for beauty reasons. Although innocent, they are threatening all the other future species that need to appear, so we are like the immune system trying to defend the universe from the unnatural diseases spreading throughout it which are warlike and self-destructive. Earth had to be destroyed so that other races wouldn't. Of course a universe exists within ourselves too, in the form of emotions and decisions we make in our everyday lives which creates an inner conflict which can't be solved easily. And that is why humans are unique and complex due to having a more democratic approach than other mind controlled beasts in the universe who have no culture except survival of the fittest and who can't take responsibility of themselves. We could have killed the Zentradi but we merely made ourselves immune to the disease so they could still fight and we could survive better by using them naturally without need for mind programming or tampering. This way both are happy: warriors can fight, humans can conquer as the PC destined us. PC treated the monsters like mere Pokemon to be used and abused without giving them freedom to think, whereas humans gave the aliens choice and the ability to not fight if they didn't want to which builds more trust since we won't kill things if they disobey orders like the zentradi leaders who have no problem killing thier own kind which is self destructive.

As long as they don't have acid for blood they aren't doomed. Maybe they can blind the aliens with light and then stab them in the nuts while they are distracted or something? Sorta like how the ride armor guys had to aim for the eyeball to kill the inbit when sneaking around in mospeada? Maybe the humans would need some kind of biological weapon instead of using gunpods? Like a poison-tipped, pinpoint-barrier enhanced spear? heh, a Spartan destroid with a shield and spear being the last line of civilian defence. Maybe put a red cape on it added effect. Or a black one like they did for that death scyth gundam in gundam wing only this one uses optic camouflage and hunts the bugs like the predator? I could see that as SK's revenge against all the people that didn't like the "monster with claws" idea in macross zero.

Alto = slightly more manly than the guy with glasses who was teased by the bridge bunnies in SDF:macross. But he could end up being like a dyson (bored being stuck with noobs) trapped in max's body. (looks like he'd get beaten easily in a fight but actually kicks people's butts because SK is playing with people's minds.) Hopefully these monsters are scary in the same way the zentradi were as giants when first introduced to the humans in DYRL with tentacles and all. Remember when hikaru first encountered his first giant after not knowing why his plane transformed into a giant robot? That's what they need to do with these mechanoid beasts. Bring back the fear and danger. Make humans weak again in a struggle for survival where the odds are against them in some david vs goliath battle. That was the key to why hikaru was needed: military had no idea what to do, and the young inexperienced crew had skills that might bring advantages in situations that older pilots would not be prepared for due to their their old school thinking which might hold them back from learning quickly. I think the insects will probably end up like the race in space battleship yamato who have to breed constantly and be forced to kill weaker races in order to survive due to time being against them and then kawamori wil make us feel sorry for them and he'll make the humans and zentradi make love to them which results in a humanoid insect race with unique powers. (they are hated by the zentradi though for taking away all the jobs because they are more efficient killers which results in a civil war aboard the ships. This then results in a great divide of races whose cultures clash too much and the anti-un rise to power once again)

I'm late to the thread: Only just watched this. Great level of speed in the flying and its like watching an OVA. I hope they do not remove the exaggerated physics of cartoon mech fights that I liked so much about macross now that they are going cg. The valks need to be able to still move around effortlessly (think the battroid fight from macross plus) able to make sharp sudden natural movements and be a contrast to the slower heavier destroid robots which are weighed down by the "real robot" laws (can die easily after being shot, usually acts as a cannon fodder that stands still most of the time) and not an action hero doing fancy impossible moves and elite group kills with ease etc One of the only things I miss: the "pachoo" sound effect of the lasers from SDF:macross. I wonder if the tv series will have an arcade game aboard the ships with the "Pachoo" laser sound? Looks like they did go down the bio-mechanoid alien/monster route after all. Something scary and dangerous at last. You know the aliens in R-type and Life force games? That's what I was imaging they could do but married with the technology/magic/spirit of the PD so they are real living things that can breed and stuff like the things in tekkamon blade. This way the reaction weapons are useful again and you don't have milia preaching that you should be reasoning with the alien like in SDF:macross when she was begging for max to not kill the pilots inside the mecha. If the aliens are more scary, this way the trigger-happy military has something to do in the macross universe apart from rely on basara to save them all the time, you know what I mean?

Ok so who's the best subber? I didn't mind wing except that the suits were "themed" as if they were trying a bit too hard to be flashy and stick out from each other and belong in a boyband or something. Macross-style military mecha with generic mass produced body with off the shelf parts is more my thing. Unique robots are good for super robot shows where the technology might be mysterious or from an advanced civilisation. Not so good for robot war stories though.

Toynami are going to sue for their patented self-destruction gimmick featured in their products after a few seconds of use.

Gold Rings create the first true invisibility cloak Unlike Tolkien's ring, it doesn't look like it has sauron's spirit attached to it. Maybe if they can get a 3d version working in the far future you could use this to hide all the yamato valkyries for those who are too embarrassed to have guests over that might think you are too geeky when they see them..

macross II is canon

Looks like I'm going to have to hunt down a local copy then. The improved Dpad means fighters are actually good to play on the psp now. I sold my original psp long ago due to the dpad. I had trouble hitting diagonal directions. The newer dpad is a lot better, but still not as good as the ancient snes and gba (original) dpad which were super responsive for me.

I've recently got a black slim psp. What I want to know: anyone know a place that still sells "Guilty Gear Judgement"? I want the asian english language version which includes guilty gear slash (which isn't in the US version apparently). Not available anymore on playasia.com..

VF-1A is better when pointed forward imo. 1S is best pointing up at neutral position. 1J is best pointed back a little bit. 1A needs all the extra time it can get to get in those extra shots because it only has 1 laser. 1J can relax a little bit because it has a fatter head and more lasers. 1S has really heavy earmuffs so maybe its best to put them at neutral and rely more on more firepower to kill things quickly. "Big head" means it is cocky and overconfident with an ego, so it doesn't need to act scared of dying like the 1A, or to pose for the camera like the "attention whore" 1J to prove itself. This is due to the 1S pilot being too jaded and tired of having people bother it for new orders all the time rather than the other mecha figuring it out for themselves for once.

If having a DBZ movie = having a live action Gits then bring on DBZ. It's not like many people are huge fans of DBZ here anyway right? 10 minute speeches before being able to kill things, moves that blow up chunks of the floor, and people who just keep getting stronger and stronger to a ridiculous levels that they are no longer in danger of ever dying or being killed by anything due to that power, so there is no reason to keep watching anymore.. Actually one of the things the matrix movie fights reminded me of was dragonball and to a lesser extent akira because of the superhuman strength and environmental destruction in the cg fights. Maybe they can pull off a decent superhero movie with it and take out all the cheese from the cartoons? Ghost in the shell would be easy to do because it looks like something audiences are already familiar with through movies like blade runner. And it's trying to be somewhat realistic in the manga and anime anyway. (I like to think of Motoko as just a "terminator" that can run and jump fast)

Just put un spacy symbols on the toys. "No Robotech Defense Force mecha in my collection."

I can't find 08 bumblebee either. I did see it ages ago, but at the time I wasn't interested in buying anything. Then when I went back with some money ready to buy...the shelf had no tf movie deluxes or classes above that. I did see the re-released beast wars toys though. If anyone was a fan of that and wanted the toys now would be good to start buying. Now with all the macross toys coming I doubt I would have much money left over anyway so I'm not too stressed out.

They should just hire shoji kawamori to design a new highly detailed vf-1 that avoids making it like the vf-1 from the cartoon. (in fact I think I would like it to look something like the vf-11 more ) In fact why not instead of using the old destroids from the toon, have him make a whole new set of destroids too? Bring on some armored core type things, maybe have some treaded mecha and spider mecha designs? Just using legioss as 'the vf-1' will leave nothing for the third robot-eck war. This is the way to go if I were in charge. Leave mospeada/new gen alone and rather than being lazy just get some new fighter that avoids the mess of resembling macross. Now when the toys come out, my dream of a "vf-1 that looks a bit like a vf-11 but isn't" is going to be awesome. I am going to be able to walk into a major toy store, buy a vf-1 that looks like a vf-11, has GBP armor and FAST Pack parts that clip on perfectly, has huge amounts of articulation, and not be made by toynami, as well as being mass produced in large number, and not be at the expensive import price whilst still maintaining good durability/quality. The detail will be high enough to please the older crowd. *wakes up from dream* ...argh... it's probably going to be some hollywood change where the robot has a face and acts like an alien in order to copy trasnformers. Rick hunter will be a character that talks to an AI controlled machine like Luke does to R2, and the robot is alive or something rather than be a mecha..

Regardless if HG benefit from this, I will still see it for the "hollywood take on japanese mecha" as I'm curious to see how they'd interpret this idea. The concept of robots with personalities seems more appealing to mass audience, but pilots being involved in the controlling of the robots makes more sense in a movie more because at least there is a reason now to focus on the humans. I wonder when the second TF movie comes out, what the percentage of human-robot involvement will be? Will they listen to people who want the robots to be the focus or just bring in more humans again? (actually make them "buddies that go on adventures with the autobots")

Goody that means we'll see 22 then. Two cockpit types, pilots, faces will mean double the profits for yamato. Personally I like the head on both but for different reasons. The 21 looks more robotic and alien for some reason. The 22 head "just looks cooler" and more advanced. (like what VF1J is to VF1A)