1/1 LowViz Lurker

Yeah I dunno... I really just don't know. But I do hope it doesn't suck despite it being robo-(can't say it too many times or the forum will explode) because I liked the bits in TF with the planes.

I wonder how the hell the ride armor is going to look in a movie as when it transforms there are bits that float in the air that disconnect themselves. These kinds of things are on the same concern level as "how are they going to solve the mass shifting problem of the transformers cartoon when megatron grows and shrinks from giant robot to tiny little gun?" I predict some changes will have to be made to designs for audiences to take it seriously whether a fan is going to like the change or not. Maybe they could get SK to redesign the VF-1 for the live action movie? Upgrade the VF-1 so it looks different and won't clash anymore with macross Valkyries? Then HG can make that design the official Veritech design and scrap the older one, making the live action one the official canon "veritech" from the first robotech war? I think the word "robotech" sounds cheesy for a movie to be honest, just like "robocop". But it's that very cheese that might attract the nostalgiac fans, in the same way some of the cheesy stuff from G1 (the anime magic that goes into growing and shrinking robots) is missed by fans of the original. (as well as certain styles unique to the original like simplistic blocky bodies)

I'm worried and excited at the possibilities at the same time. I want the dogfights to be like that of the scenes in transformers where starscream transforms from robot to plane and back again while flying in the air shooting down other planes. But I get this feeling in my gut that something might go horribly wrong. Some of the things that happen in macross, like rick/hikaru opening the canopy of his plane to rescue minmay from falling is too crazy for a realistic movie. It belongs in anime. But given that TF got away with a lot of strange stuff (sliding on yo ass to shoot a robot in the nuts to kill it with a tiny machine gun) I think it might not turn out so bad. Everyone here hates robotech. If this movie were to take off, can you imagine what would happen when the toys come out and little kids break their toynami's just by opening the box and this leads to the destruction of harmony gold? That would be awesome. No more threats from HG to stop people buying yamato valks. (I kid I kid. I actually think the 1/100 macross vf-1 by toynami aren't so bad actually)

Space monsters in macross frontier. You guys should be worried. What if it is like pokemon with valkyries? The main character is DR. Chiba's son who has to collect the various monsters' powers by studying them with his valk and beating them to submission in fights and eventually putting them in a lab which then allows him to breed them and train them to help fight other monsters which builds his collection. He will have spiky hair and look like YuGiOh and enjoy playing card games like Magic The Gathering. The method of mind control to get the monsters to obey his commands (named the "master of the beast" sound hypnosis technique for creating the mindless zombie slave) is use of sound weapons to confuse them and trick them. (the monsters feel pain when hearing the noise which the scientists use as a form of "sound torture" to the poor monsters who are enslaved by the humans and fear more pain lest they disobey the humans control) Ahaha kawamori has gone crazy. What will happen is the protodevlin will spawn new "monster children" who rebel against their parents and go around eating and killing humans against their parents orders, and the only one that can save the galaxy is a little kid and the use of mind-controlled, hypnotised, zombie-slave, monsters manipulated by music to protect humans. The military will be useless as usual and valks are merely used to maintain the zoos where some of the monsters are kept in captivity and fed cloned "zentradi meat" in battroid mode, similar to how the battroid was used to fight a dinosaur in macross 7. (the racist humans in macross plus really don't like those zentradi trouble-makers who only war-monger) An aged Guvava will probably appear somewhere and act as a psychic newtype radar for locating people lost in space, and be a part of the mad scientist Dr. Chiba's experiments which are too dangerous to test on humans so he has to first test on Guvava. (a lab rat which mylene agrees to allow chiba to experiment on as she is sick of taking care of now that she is famous) Guvava eventually rebels and falls in love with a monster and helps to free the monsters from human mind control by destroying the labs of the mad scientists, and that ends macross 25. Guvava exposes the illegal experiments which leads to DR Chiba's arrest, and is congratulated and becomes a famous icon. The end. No more macross for ages. The sequel OVA exposes a new twist: the military secretly ordered the mad doctor to experiment on these monsters using such cruel techniques for their own purposes to create the ultimate bioweapons which would kill and cause psychological trauma to the enemies that saw them. Chiba spills the beans about the "Operation BeastMaster" to the press and is assasinated and mysteriously dies but his son is able to write a book about it and the grandson publishes it at a time when he believes it is safe. Songs are written about it by heavy metal bands but the morbid lyrics are just too esoteric for average people to understand who are more into pop idols singing alien love songs. The monsters although cartoony, have similar powers to the metroid in the metroid games. They can absorb energy and even convert that energy into electrical power which can transfer the absorbed energy into the powered mecha which begins the next generation of powered armor: part organic living being which feeds off others by absorbing their energy, and part machine which activates the weapons grafted into the bodies of the organic powered armor. (similar to the inbit in mospeada) This ushers in the "new age of the human-controlled protodevlin": mass produced bio-engineered versions of the originals as seen in macross 7 bred for destruction. Humans plan to use these new nightmare weapons to control the galaxy which begins the eventual destruction of their own civilisation as the creatures destroy everything and no longer have enough organisms to feed off and causes the creatures to farm humans again for sustenance. But the humans still do not provide enough power for the creatures that have grown too large over the many centuries of eating, so they must go into a low power "hybernation" state to stay alive and go to sleep until enough creatures for them to feed off of are gradually regrown in the galaxy again (through cloning and a breeding program) to sustain their active state again.. Music and culture are forgotten by the humans as their quest for more power blinded them to the dangers of using the technology for destructive purposes which would backfire on them as it goes out of control. The last human survivor leaves behind a memory plate with a song on it for future generation of alien civilisation to later discover in the hope they learn the lessons of humans. (maybe some variation of the elvish aliens seen in the macross 7 ova?) Humans failed the test, and now it's up to spock-eared elves to take the place of the humans and become the next leaders. Elves become the master geneticists and create the opposite of the protodevlin: take the absorbtion properties of the PD which steal power from other beings, and create new creatures which breed and regenerate large numbers of themselves (like the xenomorph from aliens) creating an overpopulation of that type of creature whose large numbers can feed the PD with enough energy to live forever. These new creatures become the Proto-immortals. Angels whose regenerative abilities allow them to no longer need to feed and only use music for entertainment purposes and not for feeding purpose or mind control reasons. A problem is created: being so advanced and intelligent and living for so long means they are not understood by the many other races of lesser evolved creatures around them and they must seek isolation from the others lest the other races see them as a threat due to their knowledge and intellect which the other races covet. Having lived so long, these angels also become too bored of their existence and wish only one thing: the right to die and be released from living. Using genetic modification they create lesser versions of themselves which are meldings of human and elf dna which live for thousands of years but eventually age and die. The balance is created: culture and emotions to experience all the happiness and joy of humans, long lifespan and immunity to diseases and sickness (which humans once sufferred) of the PC...but... just enough destructive urge and temptations from the more warlike humans and zentradi DNA to allow for the potential for natural death as the civilisation ages and grows bored of itself. Nature takes over and things grow old and die, and this begins the lifecycle of the fully evolved and perfect being, while the "almost supernatural" and mythical Proto-immortals fades away into memory and legend. (they decide to transend the material world and go into the subuniverse living as ghosts having no more influence in the affairs of the beings in this universe and leaving no record of their existence until such time that the gate to their sub-universe is once again opened. But unlike the protodevlin they will not need to feed as they've become truly self sufficient and "whole")

Looks ok to me. But for some reason I think a black yf-21/vf-22 is more fitting than a black 19. It's because of the head being stuck inside a hood in battroid mode so its like it is trying to hide.

I just think the foot thrusters could be useful for boost-assisted 'hopping' as opposed to hover. (backpack thruster in battroid mode could handle most of the work) So while it hops in the air using the backthrusters, (in battroid mode) the feet thrusters kind of guide the jump or slow it to absorb the shock from a fall. (just enough power to slow down as opposed to hover. The legs would be in a position to act as counter thrust for corrections in mid jump) I would love to see that detail put on the toy. I bet it has smallish hands though. Hopefully these (and the wrists they are attached to) will be strong enough to grip the gunpods properly.

Lots of variety here. I like those mass produced ones. Hundreds of average pilots who are worthless at survival will probably end up dying a horrible one shot death but that's what reminds us of the futility of war. Anything like the guntank going to be in it? They could have these to support the gundam for long range fights where accuracy is needed and treads will make it less likely to fall over and lose balance in the sand. (modifiable gundam for after its legs and arms get destroyed )

They did that for wave 2 as well didn't they?

21 hides the robot arms and legs as seperate things better. Whereas the vf-1 has the legs and arms actually be part of the aircraft body itself. (like how optimus prime doesn't hide underneath the truck shell, his body parts are the truck itself split up) 21 doesn't even have a head turret. Just a ball hiding inside the plane rather than coming out of the plane itself. vf-1 has a pin and a nutsack dangling under the fighter as if to offend aliens by exposing itself to them. Not so much concealment with vf-1. Even the gunpods don't protrude from the plane.

I agree, just make the chest lock together for the sake of having a transformation that feels like everything fits into place. The bandai macross 7 toys manage to do it. It can't be THAT hard can it? I can accept things like the koenig monster not having the huge cannons not click onto the top since it is the type of thing that just sits around. But for any future variable fighters, it would be better if they design them to be able to click into place. Just makes the toy all the more safe to hold. Whenever I pick up the 1/72 19 in battroid the whole upper half just swings back. Not happy about that. (but not pissed enough to prevent me from liking it and owning it and paying money.) Maybe for a future yf-19 release they could try to find some way to do this?

It's like the old gunpod for vf-1 it just has the ammo in the gunpod which is more practical since it can fire all its ammo in fighter mode without turning into a robot to replace the clip. Agree with the Qrau thing. I love that it stays true to the more rounded zentradi style of mecha. Disagree with milia's being the coolest. Gamlins is the best. His looks like an evil ninja qrau. There is also something about the head that reminds me of the xenomorphs from the "Alien" movies.

The thing about them being small is you can have an army of cannon fodder. Most of the non-transforming mecha look better in exaggerated proportions anyway. Yamato already fiddled with the proportions when they did the GBP for the 1/48 vf-1. And look how cool that looked with the beefy shoulders and chest with oversized hands. Qrau would look awesome with a stand and the knees completely folded up. With all the anime magic that goes on in the anime and the playing around with proportions of the hands (fists looking bigger than they should, nosecone being blunt in battroid mode, and poses that look too organic and not robotic and stiff to be real. (take the scene where hikaru does a roll on the ground with the battroid for example: as if you would be able to do that with a giant robot! )

I will probably wait for reviews and impressions from trusted members as usual. (nothing personal yamato, I do this with all high end expensive things so I know what I'm getting and can make informed choices. Quality can vary between your releases anyway. So if it turns out crap that won't hold me against buying your toys that got high reviews like vf-1. But I'll be damned if I buy something which requires fixes without any kind of support for customers who have to import for anything macross-related.) BTW where's BoB? Haha I wonder if he gets one?

That fact that they didn't show a front view or side view is a pain in the butt. Being able to see how the arms disappear in fighter would have been interesting. They screwed that up on the 1/72.

Great news. I don't like my yf-21 1/72 in battroid mode because of the weight of the diecast legs. I wonder how this thing will balance in GERWALK mode? I remember when I first got the 1/72 how nervous I was to leave it standing up in that mode because a slght wobble would send it toppling over. Hopefully yamato find a way to make nice and tight ratcheted joints for the limbs and generally tight hands too. (but not at the expense of making them so tight it ends up cracking something - they should be safe to transform) I'm going to be looking forward to see what non-canon 21 they can do. I would love a "stealth" (ie black) yf-21 in a scheme similar to the vf-22 that gamlin used. (it's ok if the head has the yf-21 style: I actually think it makes the battroid seem more alien like compared to the vf-22.) Oh yeah: don't bother making two releases where one comes without gunpods. I will only buy the release with the dual gunpods. Don't know why the original 1/72 yf-21 toy was missing them, but it was a pretty silly idea to do it. I think it would be fair to just allow fighter + FP this time as the standard issue given how simple the FP parts are on the 21 compared to the chunky VF-1 FP parts. So looking forward to this. I have yet to buy my yf-19 w fold booster still. I think a good accessory for yf-21 (if they decide to do one that isn't a fold booster) might be the test drones that Guld shoots with his wrist lasers in the anime. It has nothing to do with the fighter itself but it is part of an image we all remember from when Guld gets to show off in front of Isamu at how flashy he can be with the yf-21 and kill those drones with so much ease and lack of the need for hard work by relying on the brain wave controls. The accessory for the vf-11 would be easy of course: the atmospheric boosters isamu used which detached while he was trying to dodge those dummy micromissile swarms in order to show he could do the same tricks that Guld could do, but with a crapper plane. (and ends up failing.) The Ghost X-9 could come packaged with the test drones guld shot down and have the Guld FAST packs in there too. (that is if they decide to go the route of seperating the FAST pack parts from the standalone toy. So for yf-21 they could have: 1. standalone (includes the dual gunpods but no FP parts) 2. YF-21 with FP + ghost-X9 + test drone thing or just: 1. YF-21 with dual gunpods and FP 2. ghost x-9 + two test drones (which has nothing to do with the yf-21) or 1. yf-21 dual gunpods and FP 2. fold booster (but this is boring since it never showed up in the anime on the 21) + Dyson's YF-19 gunpod which guld loaded with ammo with intention to kill dyson in the episode where the two of them are in a one on one battroid brawl. heh Edit: also give us some cool fixed pose hands. This would make up for the lack of missiles and stuff. One thing I want to do is have the yf-21 hold dual gunpods with hands that don't drop them easy. Maybe have an articulated wrist. (make up for no articulation in the neck )

Soundwave has to have some kind of sonic weapon and be the guy who jams the signals and spies on everyone by recording things. His recording mode would allow him to watch other decepticons who would threaten to plot against megatron or whoever is in charge. So I think he needs to be someone that is always by the leader's side, not necessarily the guy who does all the sneaking himself. When he plays back the recording it is usually of some plot the good guys have come up with or something starscream is planning. Soundwave can't be a tiny guy, he has to be able to fight off anyone who tries to take on the leader. He should definitely be bigger than that little guy in the first movie. That's just my thoughts. I think what they could do with soundwave is have him be a robot that can project the holographic images of things that his followers have seen and use them along with the sounds to hypnotise the robot victims. (ie macross plus sharon apple style) It would be taking the power from hound though. But unlike soundwave of the 80s the soundwave of today would have collected data of all kind not just sounds, but all the recorded images, programs, files etc that the leader would rely on to spy on everyone. The sneaking doesn't have to be him, as that is what ravage and the smaller guys are for. Instead he could be more like a trusted advisor, who has all the backed up info about details nobody else would know from the top of their head and be too valuable to lose in a fight doing all the work others could easily do. (of course he is a good fighter too, just that I think his presence would be needed by the leader on more important things than doing the spying himself) If they do include soundwave in a future movie, he can't be a cassette tape player/recorder due to the problem with mass shifting. I think a giant computer used for giant robots would be more fitting. This way he can have his size and carry bigger weapons in robot mode. Not be a general grievous on crack robot.

Looks good. Hope the reviews are all positive and that there are no design or QC issues. It's a skinny design just looking at it, so I'd be very delicate with that thing.

I know it's not nice to repost the same image but holy dogpoop that is nice. I had the banpresto in that pose for ages. It's the iconic lineart image of the valk with bulging fist and bent elbow. See those hands yamato? That's what the vf-1 dyrl valks need as non-posable extras with the chicken hands. It's all about presentation.

Looks very cool in those pics. This is exactly why a Qrau needs to be done. You can't bend the knees on the yamato 1/60 which is just so wrong since it's movement makes it seem like it is one of the more agile mecha in the anime. (zigzagging through missile swarms and saying "F-U" you to all the male zentradi cannon fodder power armor).

If hasbro care about the collectors (not necessarily only the ones that can attend the damn conventions) they should release TC, Dirge and thrust. No way would people pay the insane prices those people would just for repaints. You are only shooting yourself in the foot in the long term for that. So which characters are going to be done in the next classic wave?

Sounds like it's not going to be made with all the silence. Maybe they are fixing it after everyone expressed hate for the current appearance of it?

Sounds a bit like MS 8th team but mixed with a macross style acrobatic robot with graceful motions and feeling of lightweightedness. This is the kind of thing I imagine the gundam is: it's got very good strong armor but also superior flexibility to those shitty zaku's which don't look like they could move thier arms with much grace or dexterity. (due to the bulk) It's delicate and speedy, but can take a heavy beating too (armor is superior and lighter - char's skills allow him to fly at dangerously high speeds like an f1 driver and not crash. He has no need for armor due to never worrying about getting hit) For me what gundam needed was to show the differences between a psychic pilot with inhuman reaction speed, using a lightweight robot with virtually indestructible armor (think of the mithril from lord of the rings) and an ace pilot with great reaction speed but limited technology. See if you think about it: money is the only thing seperates the kid from the adult. The kid is inexperienced but gifted, and the adult is experienced but slow. The kid is given a one-of-a-kind robot, and the adult is forced to use whatever the government can afford. (the people paying for it are assuming there is no need for anything better than what they spent the money on) Because the gundam is expensive at first, it has to show through in the animation. Bubblegum crisis is a good example of showing the differences between the more advanced suits over the slower ones and how out of date the police were. The gundam in many ways should move with a lot less restriction in its limbs and handle finer motions much better than the fatter robots. In a sense, it should be at least good enough to move like the Qrau would in macross compared to the chunky destroids which look weighed down by armor. What it comes down to is a gundam features the hardest armor, which at the same time is also light compared to other armor, with no penalty for having that hard armor, while also benefitting from the best weapons. (if you think back to the original gundam beam weapons were the key to melting armor with their power and this was really the first super anti-mobile suit weapon. A single shot was enough to kill a mobile suit. Combine that power with being much lighter and harder, and you have a robot that is stronger in every category that matters but only made in limited number. If the show depicts the gundam as a super robot, it will actually be going back to the roots of the original gundam when the whole idea of beam weapons, and lunar titanium was still a secret project and the mystery of the gundam iteself was enough of a threat to the bad guys, that they'd have to send their best pilots after it to capture and steal that technology. Gundam was never about the nameless soldier, but about high tech gadgets which eventually outclass all the bad guys who are amazed that the robot actually exists and capable of doing the things it does. (as if stunned that nothing like it as possible with current day technology) So in a way gundams were always suped-up to a level that the average soldier thought of as legendary. Every soldier that tried to fight it would get angry they couldn't take down the white suit. So it's got to be much better than mass produced. Not just a bit better in specs, but like way out of the class of the modern technology. It has to be technology that might not even be used for another 10-20 years, something more futuristic that doesn't belong in the age it is fighting in, way ahead of its time. That is how I've always seen it. If it can move effortlessly while everyone else moves mechanically and step by step as if the machine and man are not connected, it will be true to what gundam was about in the first place. The kid is close to machine and communicates with it, (it's like a pet with AI system that learns it's user's behaviour and predicts ahead of time what he thinks) while the adult is grounded in realism and cynical about the world from battle experience. Almost too cocky to believe anything until he can see it with his very own eyes. But the gundam being a secret mobile suit, has to have that impression on the unbelieving adult of: "oh poo, it's a never before seen model that moves scarily quick that I've never witnessed in my entire 30 year career" kind of reaction. If I take that suit down I'm going to be famous. ...this is then followed by that character dying or failing every episode because it is like a storm trooper thinking it can take out a jedi with skill alone, when it doesn't know that skill is only partially to do with it: being psychic and reading what is going to happen ahead of time is a huge advantage. Yes it's unrealistic for a kid to beat an adult, but not unrealstic for a kid with a gift, (whose also a genius with machines) to beat an adult when you take into account the intuition of the newtype. So if you can accept psychic pilot having an unfair advantage then the idea of a super high tech robot with a kid whose got psychic link to the universe telling him what to do, it's not such a hard thing to swallow. We've all gotten used to this idea that a real robot show means that pilots with skills automatically means everyone without as much skill should move slowly and clumsily because they've never fired a weapon in their life before. For me it just means that there is realistic specs and physics, but room enough for fictional tech. (like super light armor, machines that learn, pilots whose minds can process lots of info quickly that can be used to predict what will happen at any given moment even if there are hundreds of moving objects to consider)

No loose limbs, cracks, stress marks etc on yours? ...Looks like this has enough fixes to be worthy of taking a risk and buying.

Revoltech figures of all the non-transforming zentradi mecha would be so awesome. They would be idiots to not do this regardless of if the valk sells. It would be a shame if the opportunity to do these was based on the idea that "if the battroid isn't selling neither will powered armors, so let's not do any more macross figures." Vf-1 is a transforming vehicle so people have gotten used to expecting this in a toy now. Posable Regult, Glaug, Destroid tomahawk, monster, qrau, male power armor, zentradi soldiers etc should all be considered if they have any sense. They could do all the variations: green qrau, blue qrau, red qrau, yellow qrau, purple qrau, and beause they are so cheap people would have no problem buying them up. Destroid? I want my Spartan with the billy club beating up a zentradi giant with alien bloodstains on the club and removable armor on the zentradi. (ok maybe not reasonable to expect that)

Ok so do you guys think they will base grimlock on the old g1 toy or the new classics grimlock? It's obvious they are going to put grimlock in the next movie. (they have that cg footage of him stomping through a city on the viral marketing website sector7) But I want him to look updated. Make him the zoids grimlock so he doesn't have flaps on his back in robot mode. "uuuuuuuurrrgggghhh.....meeee....griiiimm-lock...think..youu prime...is.... tooo wweeeaak to be leeadder of autobots. So...griimlock say... DESTROY YOU OPTIMUS AND GRIMLOCK BE LEADER!!" *transforms into dinosaur mode and headshots optimus prime in the face, using the gun on his back, causing massive head injuries to prime that requires ratchet to have to replace his head with a more accurate G1 head*