1/1 LowViz Lurker

So will all the plastic be changed to something more strong? And what about the hands? Will these be easy to break?

Meltran sympathiser! Do not let him contaminate the others. Our warriors will not be pussywhipped!

Poor guy. It's a terrible tragedy to have people addicted to toys. The sellers at toyshops need to take responsibility and have special lists of people to not sell to to help society deal with the problem. Of course then it will just go underground and he will just get the toys on the blackmarket where the problem continues. Organised criminals will get into the illegal toy seller area and feed the addiction making it hard to monitor and control. Ah ...time to go to the toy shop for my next fix..

Some robots I find too colorful and stuff. If I were a girl, I would be embarassed to have them in the house for display. Does it vary to them which type of thing you are displaying or is it just certain types of characters from a particular series? In a way I like to think the macross valkryie is a kind of art worthy to be displayed the same way you might see planes in a war museam or something. (it's like an antique or something to go with pottery or a valuable rug which you just have for display but don't get dirty) Some women don't let dogs into the house for fear of bringing dirt into the house. So maybe it is similar to that? It's the fear of "not having the cleanest house, tidiest living room, and spotless kitchen in the neighborhood" syndrome. The stuff about tools lying around: it's a mess. So the toys being casually displayed is like a similar mess that "doesn't belong" and should be packed away like the tools into boxes so nobody can see them. I don't think it has to do with the robots in particular: just the overall idea of wanting things to be spotless and perfect and everything belonging in a specific place. (cups in the cupbaord, tools in the toolshed, food in the pantry, socks in the socks drawer etc) Like how you might find some neat freak be obsessed with picking off every little piece of lint stuck to his clothes or else they panic and worry what others will think of them and lose the status of perfect person which is the image that they've upheld for themselves and try to project onto others to appear normal and accepted by the elite group they need to fit in with. Colorful robots especially some of the transformers gestalts (devaster isn't too bad) have lots of clashing colors that just look out of place. lol I can understand if it was a huge collection of stuff like that with all this color coming out of nowhere and the living room looking like it is a shop for antique robots rather than a place to relax. It's would be the equivalent of having a messy lawn which nobody mows or a garden that looks like it isn't maintained so it's like: these robots are messy-looking, like they don't belong. The colorful ones are like ugly weeds in the garden that people are too lazy to pick. That;s why I ask the question maybe it's only a specific series that isn't to their tastes because it looks tacky?

The fold booster is great how it gradually fades in and out with energy, and then cycles through the colors (just like these christmas tree lights I have ) and then as power builds up and it actually begins to fold the plane, the pulses of glowing speed up. It's just what I had imagined. At first I was worried it would just be a static light that turns on like a green lightbulb. But It looks like they went to the trouble to recreate the psychedelic color effect from the cg animation in macross plus. And people are still calling it a dildo. I thought we were all tired of that joke the first 50 million times people used it? Besides it doesn't vibrate so if you planned on buying it for your GF as a gift to justify spending the money, she'd be pretty disappointed at its lack of features for the price. Maybe yamato are going to make a limited edition vibrating version to shut everyone up

Roy uses those in SDF:macross on hikaru's vf. It's a good thing the 19 has lasers to fight with in fighter mode still. Maybe the gunpod was mainly designed to be used in battroid mode mostly against other robots for its stopping power, while the lasers were for shooting down other fighters? (more accuracy?) I like the idea of the battroids having the bullet proof shield as a way to try to lessen damage from gunpods even though zentradi use energy weapons where a PPB is enough.

I liked the electric guitar used in robotech. And those drums. The electric guitar used for background music in in "force of arms" is one of my faves. Because the zentradi are a heavy giant warrior race the drums makes a lot of sense to me. It just makes them seem more ballsy and scary to encounter. Zentradi macronised chickens are scary enough, but the giants themselves must be very frightening.

Well you could still have the variable fighters, but they would just die in 1 hit like the vf-11 in macross 7 The powered armor would be like the long drawn-out fights in macross plus. Just fights that last longer and gradually making each pilot more tired because it's not easy to score a hit (like the max and milia fights or hikaru and kamjin ones, more than cannon fodder ones in the tv series) The emphasis could be in up close fighting and speed. While the VF is more at long range and relying on missiles. Missiles which can be shot with ease at a distance or blocked with pinpoint barrier blobs on the mecha. Powered armor would be somewhere between a destroid (like the spartan) and a valk. (speed, but more from brute force than from being light) So maybe the mecha would take on a less sleek delicate appearance to reflect this idea of being able to resist damage at close range. In SDF: macross when britai fights hikaru in the vf-1 after they run out of ammo, britai ripping the chest plate of the vf-1 only showed how weak the vf is for that kind of thing where the pilot is in danger of getting killed very easily due to the lack of armor. Even when hikaru used the eject button to get away he would have still been doomed because of his small size and inability to run away from the giants or do anything.(of course the story had to be written so they escape but chances look much more slim for survival of a micronised person vs a macronised one) And yes you culd say "we have gbp" for more armor, but that is more as an afterthought and upgrade, to address the problem, not the real design of the original valk which is the idea of dogfighting. More like a patch fix. Whereas the valk is for fighting other valks, the human made powered mecha can be thought of as being useful for fighting other powered mecha with strong armor. (sort of an answer to the lack of firepower of the vf) So the valk in battroid mode is the anti-giant "soldier mode" that fights other giant soldiers, while the powered armor is for fighting the powered-armor those giant soldiers wear. (which might require slightly more powerful weapons?) Advantages are that: -unlike the destroid it can move freely rather than be this clumsy robot with guns as limbs. -It won't rely only on missiles to kill stuff (which at close is impractical since you end up destroying your own base (see the episode when the regults manage to get into the sdf-1. Also the fact that PPB may make that tactic less effective against a skilled and speedy pilot in a fast mecha) -able to take more damage in robot mode so it can't be ripped easily by bigger soldiers of britai's size -safer since it is designed for a mcronised soldier. Less chance of dying if you are not puny -can turn on a dime much quicker than the typical destroids who can then concentrate on long range fighting -unlike the spartan it wouldn't be glued to the ground since it can fight in space like a valk, and also transform -fights are much more natural to the pilot (you never see destroids do fancy spins and strafing fire because they are glued to the ground. Valks can, but they look very skinny and scrawny as battroids and look like they could be killed in a single hit so no long, drawn-out fights for the cannon fodders which die instantly in one-hit kills) Valks have gotten bigger but when they transform into robot mode the animators have to deliberately use anime magic to "beef them up". This is cheating to make the robot mode look tougher than it really is. When you look at it as more a fighter that transforms into a robot it has an almost feminine apearance: light, easy to break if grappled, and not suitable for taking damage. Its hands are so delicate and skinny that it looks like they can easily be snapped off. Its armor suggest that it is only very thin, and that it wants to be more a fighter than a hulking robot. It runs fast because it is light, but lacks muscle up close in confined area unlike the spartans.

Yeah about the messiah thing: original when I brought it up, I mean it as only symbolic thing not a literal thing. (he does kinda save the universe you know. Nukes had no effect, humans had no defence, so the weapons were spiritual defenses more than phyiscal ones) It's sorta like how people thought the movie aliens had themes of abortion in it, or how Ripley in alien 3 in order to prevent future deaths had to sacrifice herself in a messiah-like fashion and with her arms spread out, (like jesus on the cross?) sacrifice herself so others could live. (effectively bringing the alien impregnated in her body with her in the belief it will stop people from getting their hands on it and using it or risk it escaping and breeding) I only meant it in the form of a self sacrifice, to save others: giving your life for no other reason so others can live. (millions and billions of of people from generation to generation who won't be extinct thanks to your efforts) A free gift. It's symbolic, it's not literal as in ripley really was a messiah to be worshipped and bowed to. I think people understand that. Symbols! I could have just as easily used optimus prime from the transformers! Optimus never actually wanted to kill megatron just "defend freedom for all living things". Rather than be like ultra magnus who is a soldier he wants the best for everyone. In many episodes he could have had megatron by the balls and taken him apart and killed him once and for all and bringing an end to the cybertronian war so that people could live in peace and be happy that the decepticons no longer threaten them. But noooooo...like basara he lets the bad guy go because he is a pacifist so megatron is free to continue doing bad things and potential bring ruin to more lives. But prime doesn't like war, isn't just a soldier who likes to use force, and doesn't necessarily want to harm his enemy unless it is necessary. It's more a means to an end to save lives, not the end goal. Bringing death is the bad guys style. If the hero is a ruthless killer, what difference is there between good and bad? Aren't they just the same thing fighting for their individual beliefs and being selfish? Had prime been more like say wolverine, and played a tough guy who doesn't fool around; where he enjoys hurting the bad guy because he gets a kick out of seeing the enemy suffer as much as helping people, then maybe the war could have ended quicker and less lives lost? I only want to show that there is many solutions to get the same result. You could have peace and prevent death by taking a tough decision like gamlin and just killing the enemy to stop them, (like hikaru in SDF:macross who at first couldn't understand why max only hits the regult in the weak spot to prevent the pilot from dying and instead only disabling the weapon to not upset his new zentradi girlfriend) but ever since max and milia got married to show two races could love, the show took a more alternate path: that maybe it is not necessary to take the "tough guy" stance anymore if you could convert the other to your culture or heal the enemy from itself. (in the case of mac7: a bunch of demonic type beings with supernatural powers who in a sense are sick like they are feeding off themselves and forced to farm humans in order to live. Just like zombies who need to eat brains from living people because they hunger for fresh food or vamps who need fresh blood on a constant basis) The evil is really the thing resulting in "Death". Most things want to avoid Death and preserve Life. In the case of macross 7 the beings had no alternative but to take life force from people since they used it to feed the same way a vampire would use blood of a victim to live. It's a "perversion" or "sickness"; a "disease" if you will permit me to use the term, of what is natural since you have to hurt someone else in order to live. (in a way similar to humans who are forced to kill animal for meat. Maybe being forced to feed our stomachs is a form of punishment or curse because it means others things must die so we live?) But to the PD we are the 'cattle' and don't want to suffer. The only solution is help the bad guy help themself and you eliminate this need to take another life to prevent death, and instead just give them life for free as a gift so they no longer need to steal from others and solving the problem. If anima spiritua is the awakening from this "sickness" and you think of Basara as a type of spiritual "healer", then yeah I like to think he is a messiah type figure. It's only my own interpretation but that's how I like to see it. Because the enemies have these demonic powers and I think even exedol mentions that they are "like devils" or "like the Devil" to us humans. (but more that way for the zentradi and the PC's history who are obviously an older race than us humans and have a richer past stretching a long way back) Anyway the bottom line is that I wanted to say that basara is more like a saviour but using the messiah as my symbol it helps people understand where I was going. Maybe he had not intended to be a messiah, (which is how I like to describe it since he gives life to people as a healer, with even episodes showing he can heal the plants, very similar to the girl in macross Zero) but the end result of his action is the saving of generations of people, making him more than just famous star like minmay, but a legendary hero who achieves things without bringing death. (loving the enemy the same way Max loved his alien GF) The military is still needed for defences and buying time, but the main character is what saved humanity, not just the UN Spacy weapons themselves. (which proved useless against the monsters. Like trying to fight a ghost with a gun. Conventional weapons similarly are useless against vampires in lots of fiction, since they are supernatural beings. You need spiritual weapons to combat them. You can't kill a zombie either: they are already dead! Healing them may work though since if you had the power to ressurect something you bring it to life. No need to be violent. ) Now a point I want to bring up is that basara differs from the original anima spiritua guys in that basara doesn't just seal the monster like vampires in a coffin to be locked away forever. He actually solves their problem for them and heals them from their eternal hunger. Returning them to normal. That's a huge difference from just killing or harming them with music, or locking them away which only ignores the problem altogether, only leaving it for later generations to have to solve in the future. To the macross universe his efforts must be legendary. I mean for crying out loud he just fought these beings that have been responsible for probably millions of deaths and had been roaming around for a long time destroying the most advanced civilisation known. It's not a question of "did he save humans?", "did he save earth?", nope he ended up saving the enemy from itself along with many other civilisations. So the evil was really Death and sickness. And the cure was life. (which only resulted in the music which caused them to awaken their own inner power. Like how an avalanche might be triggered from a few small sudden shakes or something, or a small spark might ignite a flame or cause a fire in the right conditions) So just think of it as the "healer" is the saviour, the death is the disease. Find the cure and determine the root cause of the problem, and you may be able to stop the disease from spreading further or making it a nonissue altogether, which is a better alternative than killing the patient (destroying a life with violent solution which won't work long term) to get to the disease. In a way optimus prime is like a pacifist for not wanting to kill people, and he just wants to find a way to stop deaths being idealistic for not just killing megatron when he could have and sticking to his noble beliefs. Ultra magnus on the other hand, is just a simple soldier like gamlin, and really only knows how to fight. But its the idealistic guy who wants to free people and protect innocent lives no matter how futile that is the making of the hero, not just a guy who can kill things. (killing makes you hard to distinguish from bad guys. The ideal of a saviour would be to try to preserve ALL life, including the enemy as well.) If max killed milia, would you have had long term peace? It was an important event to show that humans could actually save themselves by accepting the zentradi, (and then save the zentradi from thier mind control) rather than trying to kill them all off. The alternative solution of helping the enemy benefits both sides in the end. As we all know from watching macross 7: Mylene was consequently born from the love of the two races, and her mixed blood allowed the ruins to reveal the history of the PC to a race that learned how to finally bring peace back through non-violent method. If you link this to Macross Zero: the bird thing asked Sara if humans were stilled making wars amoungst themselves? So the idea is at some point that on the condition we could become peaceful, and mature enough to not wipe ourselves out through wars which result in extinction, we could be granted a larger role in things in faith that we wouldn't abuse any priviliges. The evil is just as much within us, through our need to fight war and cause death as it is in an external neighbor like the PD. Solve the reoccuring sickness that leads to death, and you will be granted a method of preserving life for long term instead of needing to make weapons which only get turned against you by the opposing sides. (short term solution only) Personally I like to think the AFOS in macross zero was expecting the events to happen where humans would just be like the PC, and build weapons and restart wars, but through the disarming of the vf shin understood at the last minute to not take violent action and chose to risk his life and risk being killed by the AFOS to allow sara to live. So it is symbolic of power hungry un spacy (shin and his weapon the valkyrie) vs the natives (peaceful but holding the keys to life or death for a whole race of people). Unless the former showed maturity they would never be allowed to take on a higher level of responsibility lest they bring thier disease (the death caused by thier reasurance of might = right) to other civilisations and restart the cycle again which is what led to the extinction of the first advanced alien race in the first place. (fighting from the wars, I imagine, eventually spreading out everywhere and bringing destruction to everything. A bit like the war in Lord of the rings which eventually endangered once-peaceful races who would rather not be involved in it)

Hopefully the tv series is like plus with lots of space, ground, and air fighting. I liked zero's use of trying to emphasise the strength and weakness of each mode. Transformations were slowed down to show it happening, and the fights didn't end with a simple one shot, they lasted for a while and ended in a stalemate. Like it was a duel between two people who were only limited by the machine they were using. Maybe un spacy should make macronised humans who control thier own powered armor to compete with the Qrau pilots and these become replacements for valkyries which get turned into drones like the ghost? Macronised humans would then be the next step in making humans who are adapted to use zentradi ships, equipment, as spies etc Because they are big, they could steal zentradi vehicles (like the glaugs and regult) and use them against the zentradi as well as handle zentradi weapons. Or act as soldiers and not just pilots forced to eject from the battroid when it gets destroyed. Much more useful since they are both soldiers as well as pilots of mecha. (just giant soldiers really) The macronised humans would basically have transforming powered armor (like mospeada?) and stuff like variable glaug, variable qrau, would take over the role as anti-giant mecha. Fighters like the valk would be mainly speedy but lack firepower, while the transforming powered armor would be more suited to fight as ground mecha (but not limited to it) effectively being like the destroid but for offense rather than defensive use. (ie they move quickly and fly and don't just sit in an area guarding things) Now that destroids can fly and hover (konig monster?) it would be good to see more heavy stuff that transforms. (either destroid with variable modes or powered armor for macronised humans with variable mode which may fill a gap)

Oh I forgot to mention: on my last visit to the toy store, I saw some of the protoform movie toys that are already out, and they look so weird. Does anyone have any thoughts about them? They kind of look like transforming rocks! Is it to try to disguise them as an asteroid? Did anyone buy these? I liked the idea better from the toon that they used a ship to come to earth and just crashed here. On the other hand the car robots looks pretty good to me: http://www.hasbro.com/common/images/produc...ba2ca3_A400.jpg I really don't mind that these are not trying to be accurate to the g1 toon at all anymore in that instance.

Cool never noticed it. Thought it was photo-shopped or something. So when are they going to release a miscolored starscream that has thundercracker colors by accident? the *only weakness I see of SS: http://www.bwtf.com/classics/starscream/vm2.jpg ..is that ugly black box where his head is shows up on side views. On skywarp it is disguised a little better thanks to his black colored body. *ok not the only, but the one that sticks out the most to me

And people said they wouldn't bother improving it.. Good to see they know and are aware of complaints of it. oh well I'm still going to wait for reviews from people before deciding. As I kept saying the only thing holding me back from toynami alpha isn't anything to do with it's looks (looks great in pics) it's that I don't like toys that I am too scared to touch for fear of cracking, loosness, self-destructing(weakens over time or from *normal use), and overall just hard or annoying to try to pose or hold. (like the hands not being allowed to grip its own weapon or just generally being easy to break the fingers off trying to put stuff on it) But otherwise all stickered up I like the looks of it. (barring the clown feet) *not childlike "throwing at the wall" type abuse. Just from daily transformation or handling CMs is going for a sleek valkyrie fighter mode look to it. So it will be interesting to see how the final two look side by side. If the Aoshima does well, maybe there is a chance of a beta for it perhaps?

http://www.bwtf.com/classics/grimlock/bm5.jpg The sharp edge of the bayonet on his grimlock weapon is gold. I got a silver one. Are there variations of grimlock with slightly different colors?

Bought classics mirage. Very skinny bot mode and lots of articulation. Those double joint on the arms are the kind of thing I wish hotrod had. It would have been good if they gave him both an armor piercing hunting rifle that he could store on his back as well as that electro distruptor gun he already has, so he can arm both weapons if he wants to (like the seekers) or just have one in hand and the other stored on back. Just a little bit of extra plastic was all they needed to supply. With starscream I have armed his hands with: -skywarp's guns held upside down in the hands (underarm) -starscream's null ray on the top of his hands (right side up) -ramjet's beefy gun mounted on side of his shoulders Now he has the appearance of something from a gundam show where the robot has guns all over its body. He can use all three weapon types at once in a single shot for a combo kill. If I had another set of seeker weapons I could have put those in storage on his back as backup for when he wants to select a different set. Now whenever Classics Jetfire wants to fight him in super mode with all his firepower, starscream actually stands a chance (too bad the guns are oversized though, knowing how weak he is, he looks ridculous trying to carry it all)

CMs is modernising it though. That's why the curved surfaces and design changes. It's like what the transformers g1 classics are to the original transformers g1 toys.

When they do these 1/100 valks with FP that force you to buy the valk with the FP, somebody buy them and suggest they do the destroids and enemy powered armor. If you ask now maybe they will be ready in 5 years. 1/100 qrau is needed to fight the 1/100 valks. Just put lots of articulation in those legs so I can put it on a stand and have the legs folded down in fetal position to recreate the move that they do when unleashing all the micromissiles. Can't quite bend the legs all the way on the yamato one.

My recent tf classic purchases since last post: astrotrain + bumblebee value pack hotrod BB: this guy needs a gun. I think as a figure he looks cool like some kind of mini-alternator. I like arming him with astrotrains weapon. Astrotrain: mine has pretty loose shoulder armor and the paint looks sort of faded as if they were running out of paint. Never owned the g1 original toy but I think this guys transformation could have been done a bit better from train to shuttle. When the train turns into a shuttle it has to flip 180 upside down to rightside up which would damage the people inside him and the cargo he carries. One of the cool things I remember in the cartoon was how he could launch from the ground in train mode and then turn into the shuttle just as he drove the train off the cliff to then fly away. Overall nice robot mode. Problem: the gun is purple! Why is it not black which is what would look 10 times better? And why are his eyes yellow? Shouldn't decepticons have the red eyes? hotrod: don't like his elbow. Needs double joints there. But the half-assed turret mode in his car form looks pretty good. The red paint used is too dark. Sports cars are bright red and flashy. Good idea to put the underarm razor blade he uses in the movie to cut the robot octopus. And I like that the gun can provide extra boost in car mode for burst of extra speed. If alt rodimus is real I might get that. They should never have done optimus prime in alternator form imo. Let the MP prime be the alternator leader and just have hotrod as alt in place of alt prime. Alt prime has a very chunky look to his form which just doesn't suit him. I might consider getting clasics mirage next. The articulation on that figure looks amazing. Too bad the gun looks like a crossbow. They should have allowed it to transform into a more compact weapon.

Yeah but in return you get a more epic feeling to the story. So it can build up to a bigger finish. I want to see soundwave.

If the aoshima turns out good enough quality and people end up buying it, I wonder if that means more chance of getting a beta/tread in future?

Transform them once in a while and then leave them for dispay in a pose. They aren't really a size that is good for playing with to be honest. Imagine trying to do a barrel roll with fast packed 1/48 with all missiles attached. Too much effort! With the little banprestos I don't mind though. I intend to get some toynami 1/100 for that reason. Small means you can hold them in one hand and stuff.

Bought the classics Ultra Magnus vs Skywarp two pack. Really like Skywarps' fighter mode. Unlike Starscream the black plastic of the head piece is disguised better since his body is mostly black too. (you can see a black section on the side of Starscream in fighter mode which sticks out since he is mostly grey) Ultra Magnus isn't too bad either. I like that you can use his blaster in truck mode as a gun turret. I prefer doing that instead of having it transformed into the rounded bit that sits on top of the truck. But it's weird how his grille is still on his stomach when the real grille is on his back now. Why did they do that? Have a fake grille and a real one?

Episode 5 ryoma. Looks pretty cool. SW I version of Diamond force? /joking

Some people are probably grateful then since they hate the skinny legioss.

The legioss looks to have lost the heavy armored look in those pics. So what are they from? New series, OVA, game? CM's looks pretty good so far.