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That's what I meant, although I happen to like Lisa's voice quite a bit. As for the Minmay voice actress, it's so hard to separate the annoying elements of the character (and the horrible songs) from the voice, that I'm agnostic. She definitely shouldn't have been allowed to sing.

I don't know how big Micro-machines are but Valks & other Macross mecha have appeared in fairly small scales. There are still plenty of 1/200 model kits around; that means a Valk in fighter would be under 3" long. Takatoku did several kits with multiple mecha in 1/320 scale, I think; that would make a Valk 1-3/4" long. (I've seen them in a store and was underwhelmed.) More recently, there are the Macross pencil sharpeners (get them eBay or Valkyrie Exchange, among other places), and the Bandai First Mission and Second Mission Gashapon sets. (For info on these last, look at this page on MW. But note that the title is wrong; this isn't the "Bandai : High Complete Model 1/72 VF-1A Kakizaki Type".) Basically, just browse through the Toys and Models sections from links on the front page of MW. Anyway, I'd certainly like to see a series of consistent-scale figures which are small enough and cheap enough to build armies and make dioramas.

That Filipino Macross sounds...interesting. I wonder what its legal status was. Have to disagree with Batou about the voice actors in Robotech. I think most of them did a good job with the material at hand.

Valkyrie dimensions are here. Briefly, a 1/10 VF-1 in fighter mode would have an overall length of 1.423 m (4' 8") and a fully-extended wingspan of 1.478 m (4' 10"). I think you'd have a really hard time making a flying Gerwalk. It's hard enough for Boeing or Lockheed to make a VTOL.

Forgot to mention--IMO, toys of existing jets would make slightly more sense in 1/60 scale, since that scale is rarely (if ever) available in kit form.

Ah, yes. I forgot about Blue Water = the stone in Laputa, and the girl in both stories being chased by pirates who turn out to have hearts of gold. Not that I'm knocking the series. The tone is a bit uneven but my wife and I are enjoying it thoroughly. In fact, the wacko episodes toward the end are a welcome relief from the heavy drama of the middle part. And the animation is very nice; I suspect it was a cut or several above the typical TV fare at the time it was released.l Edit: Hm. Quality seems markedly lower in episode 32.

Wouldn't one suppose that at some point, given the high level of automation (over-)technology available for battroid mode, the aircraft would be designed to use all control surfaces intelligently, automatically, and with instant feedback/correction to optimally achieve whatever maneuver the pilot wants? More or less the way that the X-29 uses computers to achieve pseudo-stability in an inherently unstable (therefore highly maneuverable) design.

I don't think there's much point making a 1/48 toy of an aircraft that's readily available in 1/48 kit form. Yes, I know that a toy would likely be more durable (including movable canopy, landing gear, wings,etc.), but those advantages just aren't enough, IMO. It's enough if someone comes out with custom decals/stickers. BTW, I picked up a (probably mediocre, but it was only $2) Monogram 1/48 Mig-29 at a yard sale. Planning on eventually building it and displaying with my 1/48 VF-1A; if someone comes out with custom M0 decals for it, I might be interested.

Currently watching Nadia and it seems like so much is influenced by other anime. Doesn't Nemo look like Global? Nautilus is vaguely Macross-like (though possibly more like another 70's-80's spaceship--I forget which one). Nadia and Jean look like Miyazaki characters (and Jean especially seems like a copy of Tombo from Kiki's Delivery Service). A white lion? Etc. Is this series well known for having a lot of references to other anime?

A little earlier in this topic there was a discussion as to why HG didn't go after Manga Video for releasing Macross Plus in the US. (In fact, there's also a UK edition and maybe others.) Does the "we were distracted" excuse also apply to Manga's release of Macross II and Viz's publication of the manga? And what about the Macross II RPG Sourcebook published by Palladium? Wasn't that an addition to the Robotech RPG? There must be a story there; I don't see how Palladium could have been able to please both Big West and Harmony Gold at the same time. Apologies if these questions are newby-ish and TIA for answers or links to answers.

Why would he do all that? More to the point (since having laid the original topic to rest we're now just chewing the fat) my personal preference would be to keep M&M's story the same as in the series. I like Max the humble but talented rookie, I want to see Hikaru increasingly burdened by the responsibilities of command (e.g., having to notify Kakazaki's family about his death), and I really enjoy the idea of Max and Millia meeting each other because they naturally gravitate toward the video arcade during their free time. Also, while acknowledging the cut M&M marriage scene in DYRL, I still find the idea of Max joining the Meltrandi implausible, not to mention the difficulties of conducting a marriage ceremony in the Meltrandi environment. Basically, I'm on the side of those who see (or prefer to see) DYRL as an exercise in updating the visuals and the portrayal of technology (like always having FAST packs while in space), while riffing on all the details of the original story. Keeping track of how everything gets changed around is a big part of the fun, but there's little in the DYRL plot that I prefer over SDF Macross.

Well, there is also at least one version that includes 1 & 2 on the same disk. Readily available on eBay, e.g. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=41524 Who makes it? I don't know. I asked a couple sellers and got no response. How's the video quality? Again, no info is forthcoming. (They should be able to fit both episodes on a DVD without any degradation of quality.) Just so we have a permanent record of the combined episode version, here's the cover:

I don't have much experience with modeling or customizing; however, I can say that when it comes to enamels on mass-produced polystyrene models, priming makes a huge difference. But maybe the plastic used in the Bandai 1/55's will take paint better than naked polystyrene. Whether you strip the paint or not could also be a factor in whether you need to prime and what kind of paint will work better. I assume somebody will answer your question...otherwise, maybe you could find a dead Jetfire and use it for experiments.

Hrm. If they go the Conversion Kit route, the Spartan probably gets the shaft again. It's not my favorite, but I'd still hate to see it get left out. Back to the support vehicles idea. (Did any of the destroid models come with support vehicles?) For fun, let's see how big various support vehicles would be in 1/60: XM7 FIST (Bradley variant, probably a good recon/spotter): 4-1/8" long by 2-3/8" wide by 2" high. M548A3 Cargo Carrier (M113 variant, so I used M113 dimensions): 3-1/4" long by 1-3/4" wide by 1-1/2" high M993 (ammunition carrier for MLRS rocket system): can't find data, but based on a lengthened Bradley hull HMMWV (M998 Truck, the "Humvee"): depending on the variant, 3" long by 1-3/8" wide by 1-1/4" high HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck): 6-5/8" long by 1-5/8" wide by 1-7/8" high All calculations based on data from FAS and rounded to the nearest 1/8". And for additional fun, an M1A2 Abrams at 1/60 would be 6-1/2" long by 2-3/8" wide by 1-5/8" high. Incidentally, a tractor-trailer truck is about 60' long, so it would be about 1' long at 1/60. In conclusion, support vehicles would be a pretty substantial addition. I think they'd look really nice, but they'd probably add at least $10 to the cost.

I have it. Closer to 1/65 by my calculations, but I don't have a 1/60 Yamato to compare. Click here for a review.

That's the carded bootleg I reviewed on the old board a few weeks before the transition. Although I was very critical of it in many respects, I actually think it's not bad for $6+tax, which is what I paid for it at a local mall. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is that it's approximately 1/65 scale, and thus should match the Matchbox 7" destroids and Glaug, as well as the Macross 7 toys. Edit: Came across this post several moons later and have to correct myself: the carded bootleg in question is not 1/65 scale--it's the same size (though different proportions) as a 1/60 Yamato.

For those who want to try their own translations (but who are Japanese-impaired), I found one other site that wasn't too hard to use: http://nifty.amikai.com/amitext/index2.jsp Make sure you use the right option on the popup menu. (Use the option that has three characters pointing to two characters, which I assume means "Japanese -> English".) The translator has the merit of giving the romanization of kana. Some of the other sites I tried seem to have trouble with the length or complexity of the quotes, and it's tiresome to try to break them up into smaller parts. Anyway, here's what I got for the M0 official site quote: A little bit clearer than the babelfish version, though still not great.

This is my take on it too. Forget your VF-Xs, the VF-0 is their replacement as one of the final iterations of VF-1 prototypes. The VF-Xs were never mentioned in Macross either, but that doesn't stop people taking their existence as gospel. Looks like you're right. I don't get it, Imode. Gokurakumaru is on the side of those who believe that the VF-0 is a precursor or prototype of the VF-1, not a parallel or advanced design, and his evidence is pretty solid.

Over at import-anime.com, they list a different edition. Here's a link. The producer logo indicates it's by "AC-MAC", whoever that is. The box cover is radically different. (Visit the link above to see it. You can click on the image to see it enlarged.) There's no review unfortunately, just as I haven't been able to find any reviews of the two-episodes-on-one-disc edition. As I wrote in another topic, I really can't understand why Bandai didn't release M0 in Japan as regionless with English subtitles. The whole idea of regionalization is to (a) prevent DVD's from showing up somewhere before a movie has been released theatrically there, and (b) allow producers to charge what the market will bear in different areas, without having to worry about being undercut by imports. Obviously (a) doesn't apply to an OAV (unless they hope eventually to release a Macross Zero movie theatrically in the US--hah!), and (b) is very unlikely to matter for a Japanese release. At ¥5000, nobody is going to save money importing the Japanese edition. What Bandai/BigWest could have accomplished by releasing a regionless disc with English subtitles is essentially the same thing they and Yamato accomplished with their toy releases: strangling the bootleg market and letting hungry American fans do an end-run around Harmony Gold's embargo--while paying full Japanese retail prices into Bandai/BW's coffers.

I have the MI version of episode 2. The subs are mediocre at best, but not quite bad enough to really annoy me. The video, however, has the problem which has been reported here and elsewhere, where the screen gets a bunch of lines across it when there's fast action. It's as if every other scan line is being discarded. Over at import-anime.com, someone claimed that this only happens on some DVD players. I asked if he was sure the same exact disc had been tried on different players, but he hasn't answered yet. I did try the disc on both my Raite 715 and the DVD drive on a Power Mac G4, and it had the same problem on both. Note that the Raite 715 is an obscure Taiwanese player that uses a PC-type drive--maybe the disc would work better on a mainstream player, but I doubt it. I don't know who made my vol. 1, but I'm pretty sure it's not MI and it doesn't have any of the video problems. I described the appearance of both discs/packaging in great detail in a topic in the old forum. Somebody out there has also made a disc which combines both episodes, but I haven't gotten any answers as to who made it and whether the video is any good. Here are the relevant topics from the old forums: Macross Zero ep.2 has just arrived on my doorstep! macross zero part deux, HK DVD version bug?

Pity. That means Exedore never got to do his Minmay singing and dancing imitation in front of a horrified UN Spacy.

Well, I haven't seen M7. I was vaguely aware that Exedor/Exedol is back to being a giant in M7, but I assumed that was because he had himself remacronized for some reason. Does he also have his brains crowding out of his head? In any case, the visual representations of Exedor and Minmay are one thing; following the storyline of DYRL is quite another. In this case, from what you're saying, it appears that in M7, the story is that Max got macronized, married Millia in that state, and then the two of them later got micronized. Really?

So you guys are saying that M7 (or at least the movie version) follows the DYRL continuity (at least regarding how M&M got together)?

Thanks Radd, SuperOstrich, Exo, and Agent One. I didn't really expect to get to the bottom of this--I thought it was just an easily-overlooked plot hole with an amusing angle. Does any of you know where the information on the cut scenes comes from?

Overstock.com has it on DVD for $20.39 shipped. Here's a link.