jenius

I think of MacII as a very americanized sequel... the kinda stuff Hollywood puts out to cash-in. The plot is definitely a re-hashing that seems to miss a lot of what Macross is about. The whole thing seems to have been written by a strictly action writer who watched DYRL and then wrote his own ideas into it. It makes up for that though by being flashy and unique enough in its own ways. I just felt it was a real shame they blew up the SDF-1 and had an ending that was way too similar to Boldoza's demise. So, to get back to the subject at hand, I hope we get a cameo of the SDF-1 in the new series. That said, I hope the action actually takes place out in deep space. Maybe just a shot to someone on Earth making an order with the SDF-1 standing in the background would be sweet.

Alright, I was the same dick who said we were way too hyped about the YF-19 when we never saw it standing on its own or posed dramatically in any way. In the end I was wrong (although it still leaves a bit to be desired) and I was happy to be that way. In the same token, I'm going to urge caution in everyone's expectation of having this thing stand in their display cases. One picture in a magazine does not make a guarantee. Patience... In the meantime, even if it does need to be propped, I think it's purty.

Man, I'm with you 90% of the time but I think you're out ahead of yourself this time (as conspiracy theorists are apt to occasionally be). He is a conveyor of information and takes the roll of the messenger. You are the man willing to kill the messenger and even going so far as to be angry with him when there is no message to convey. I have almost no free time these days but when I do I like to contribute to my own Macross/RT site in the hopes that it will help people out. Graham puts my tiniest of tiny contributions to shame. If you don't believe him, or if you disagree with him, then simple patience will reward you with answers from others and in that time you'll probably see the price of the product drop any way. Now is a good time to simmer.

I'm with Mr. March on this one, typically I can tell how well I'll enjoy a show by its first episode. There are many exceptions. I just watched the first seven episodes of Kissdum and thought it sucked until the 5th episode, now I'd like to see more. More often then not there are spots where a show LOSES me. At some point I lost interest in Champloo and Blue Gender.

With a dearth of facts comes an excess of speculation. With an excess of speculation comes large discussions and debate on the past. Love or hate Macross7 discussions, Mac7 does comprise a HUGE chunk of the Macross universe. Thus, any speculative thread on an upcoming series will inevitably carry with it a heavy dose of Mac7 discussion.

You'll definitely have to let us know.

When I watched Robotech i thought all the characters were adults. Now the twist on this is, when you're 8, 16 is pretty much an adult to you and 30 is ancient. The question is, if we were 8 watching it with modern character designs, would we have a similar impression or would we relate more to the characters as children. Personally, I think a lot of people in this industry have given up on making characters that kids watch and think "When I grow up, I wanna be like that guy!" and have instead made characters that kids think "wow, he's just like me!" Sketch, as far as the comments earlier go, if you read a dozen people stating "Basara stays the same through out the series' and then you write "It seems to me, from what I've seen, this is the way Basara is in Mac7" you're not doing anything unethical. Save ethics for married people banging their secretaries. What Chrono did is at worst, a bit hasty, possibly flawed, but I think we can stop the bus short of unethical. If after 10 episodes someone said "the valks in Mac7 look like transformers rejects with cheesy paint jobs and craptastic faces" would you insist that the person watch the entire series for that opinion to be qualified? No. Basara's character is similarly self-evident to the silliness of the valks.

If you acknowledge the potential for error by prefacing your statement in such a way as to notify the entire audience that you're not an expert in something (or that you're not through it entirely) then there's no harm in sharing your opinion. I'm also reminded of someone's comment before that they didn't need to eat an entire turd to know it tasted like crap, one little sample would do. Point is, sometimes you can be qualified to make an opinion without being completely exposed to something, other times you can state your opinion on something and defer ire by acknowledging your own weakness in the subject. Whenever anyone reads a book or watches a movie they constantly analyze what they're taking in before it's complete and there's often a lot to be gained from that analysis. It's also pretty easy to draw some conclusions by simply reading discussions on this forum. So, UN Spacy Academy with a new Valk.... the good news is it should be hard to start that story off with the frantic pace Kissdum worked with.

I wouldn't mind if there was a separate line of Zentran pilots that we could opt not to buy to keep prices down...

Isn't the Matchbox Battlepod about 1/60 scale? I dont' see any reason to believe that this toy would be too big. Also, the thing isn't all that crazy complicated, it doesn't even have arms. I dunno, I guess engineering the legs to both be poseable and capable of supporting the egg could be tricky though. Still, I think we're discussing a toy that's probably on par with the Q-Rau from a cost perspective and with greater appeal.

Just because Basara is a poorly written character it doesn't make him less of a character. Sure, of the two, Mylene is more complex, but Basara is still a lead character AND symbolic of a certain mindset. What irked me most is his mindset is also flawed and in the end he appears to be right without anyone really having learned anything. If only A1 hadn't earned that lifetime ban... I hope the new show has a character with drive and ambition who doesn't devolve into some silly fanatic of ill-gotten causes like Basara. If UN Spacy's answer to new alien threats is "We'll just throw our crazies at them in expensive flamboyantly painted valks" then I'll be rooting for the destruction of mankind.

Old = Cool I finally added another vintage toy up on my site. They're not the most glorious toys but I'm sure some of you will recognize them from having thrashed them during your youth.

I would say Mylene is more like Hikaru than Gamlin is. I also think people dismiss her because she is so easily dismissed, not because she is a girl. There are strong female characters in Mac7 that are a bit tougher to dismiss, Rex, Miria, Sivil but Mylene is just fluff. She takes all the things that drive us crazy about Hikaru and exemplifies them even more. Like Hikaru though, she redeems herself toward the end of the series but again, she does it in a manner that's not as satisfying. Gamlin plays a good foil to Basara but I don't think he's really all that comparable to any of the cast in the original SDF:M. He's too straight-laced to be Hayao or Hikaru and not talented enough to be Max. As much as anyone would like to say M7 is not about Basara you pretty much have to ignore the fact that every single episode is about him to do so. He overwhelms every aspect of the plot so much that he doesn't even have to be present or involved all that much before he has grabbed the viewer (often for worse rather than better). I hope someone at least mocks this up... it sounds too awesome.

Okay, I just completed episode 5 and I agree with RDClip. The first three episodes are way too much being crammed into way too tiny a timeframe. I imagine it was thought that this would hook a new audience with a ton of excitement but it seems far more likely to turn people away with a peppered story that's entirely too frantic. What I love is that they then threw in episode 4 which takes the previous three episodes and condenses them into one episode that would be pretty much unintelligible garble to anyone who didn't watch the first three episodes (worst summary episode ever). Episode 5 actually appears to be the first real episode in a bunch of ways with the first 3 episodes just being flashback fodder from here on out. It seems like the more conventional approach would have worked better here where the information related in the first three episodes would have been slowly and carefully spoon-fed to the audience throughout the course of the season (think Trigun where we meet the hero and slowly learn why he acts a certain way and eventually just what exactly he is). Man, I hate when heroes call out their attacks! "Sword attack! Jump Kick!" whatever... This story will also seem really familiar on lots of levels. I keep getting Blue Gender flashbacks. Really, I don't watch much anime but I sense that anyone who does will recognize this story as just a collage of things that have already been done. On the plus side, it's really pretty at times. I'm not too put off by the character designs, they work well enough. The two mechs are friggin' sweet in my book (2.5 mechs?). Welp, I hope I'm through the worst of this show as I think it has potential to be pretty enjoyable if not exactly revolutionary. Here's to hoping I'm right...

Let's not forget a TV Version Q-Rau!

i see you caught it.

1/60 scale would be much more feasible and would fit their line better.

If memory serves, the original SDF was not a transformable spacecraft. It was retrofitted to be transformable due to necessity. That same ship then appears in DYRL because it is a re-telling and in Mac+ because it is iconic. I don't think it's really fair to have that be a precedent unless the argument is that the SDF-1 itself should appear in all Macross shows. Mac7's ship is just plain silly and to say "Oh that's just Macross for ya!" ignores that the fact that there's some backstory as to why one large battleship, in particular, had to transform. There is certainly no precedent that UN Spacy was in the habit of producing transformable capital ships. If they're going to include another massive transformable object in a future Macross I hope they at least give some sort of explanation as to WHY it should transform.

Beautiful work. Way to make a great toy out of a less than average one.

I don't know if you guys saw that other thread but it looks like a 0S 2nd issue is coming out after all. Huzzah.

No, it's just showing you the toys you can pit against each other in a grudge match. Ivanov Vs. Roy, Nora vs. Shin.

It's non-canon and it's not a CF. CF is white and beige and is also seen in the anime. Allegedly Kawamori stated that all the VF-0As were supposed to be the same and were supposed to look like the toy Yamato released. So it's a non-canon paint job that represents what the VF-0A would look like in a more realistic world where everyone would fly similarly painted vehicles.

I think it looks decent in battloid... well, if it has all its parts that is!

No, but I believe the original release date was July so it they might be out somewhat soon.

Some thoughts: 1) The Toynami MPC Alphas actually are doing pretty well in the secondary market. Anyone who cleaned up shop at the RT.com $39.99 sale can now make an easy profit. Scott MPCs easily go above MSRP. 2) I don't think it has been implied anywhere that an improved version of the Toynami MPC Alpha is going to come out (with the possible exception of the two announced Shadow Chronicles variants). I think Robotech fans are stuck with the Alpha Toynami originally gave them. 3) Aoshima's Legioss may very well be made available to fans at RT.com but for some reason I doubt it will get a re-packaging treatment as an RT product. For one, the Aoshima doesn't look nearly as close to the vehicle in the show as the Toynami product does (and honestly, RT fans seem easily confused with stuff like that). For another, by keeping it labeled a GCM product they can deflect some of the ire at Toynami's "masterpieces" not being as good as the Aoshima toys.