Sundown

I think it strange that someone has vested interest in us not seeing 20+ year old original line art.

Wow. Thanks for putting these up, JasonC. These are really neat. Again, surprised Robotech didn't swipe more of these. Some of the ride armor designs here could definite have been made into "Hover Cyclones" -- hybrids of Cyclones and a Southern Cross Hover Cycles.

Unthinkable. My guess is that perhaps it's going to be a limited run special item, and maybe it makes more sense for yamato to sell it through their own website-- as anyone who'd want the thing would likely find out about it by means other than store shelves-- and it pays for them to pocket the entire markup rather than sell them at wholesale prices to retailers.

Agree. It seems dumb business to simultaneously annoy overseas customers and miss out on potential profits at the same time.

Wow, that "Tiger" looks uncannily like a Southern Cross Sparta/Hover Tank. And the legs are so Macross Monster-ish. I'm surprised Robotech didn't swipe the art and declare it an experimental Hover Tank/Mac II Monster/Beta developmental hybrid design.

The leg transformation looks better in these latest pictures. Not great, especially in link mode, but better. So close and yet so far.

I guess Yamato doesn't like free money, and would prefer e-bayers to pocket the extra cash.

Wow, thanks Hiriyu. That is definitely gorgeous. Tempted to pick one of these suckers up.

I wish they toned down some of the weathering on this-- it would look good with some subtlety. When I wanted a grey Roy, that's not what I was thinking, heh.

I dunno, I have to agree that Roy looks shoved too far forward and cramped. And I'm not digging that bump in the canopy and like the 1/48's design much better. Other than that it looks pretty decent and I may have to pick up one or two, almost to go with the 1/60 Destroid instead of the other way around. That 1/48 is waaay overweathered.

SaveRT's new pictures look incredible. It doesn't look like the missles can be individually removed, a la the 1/48 toys, sadly. Maybe that'll get changed down the line. But it's totally spot on to the line art and the art on those old Macross model box covers-- which I was starting to wonder was even possible in an actual 3D toy. Hmm, wonder if the hip grenade box thingys open. This just might end up being my favorite or second favorite Macross toy. I'm such a sucker for nostalgic accuracy to the original art.

Wow, I wonder what these would look like with a very light panel line wash. The detail is definitely impressive.

This thing really should be 50-60. It's non-transformable, and not particularly large. The Q-rau has fallen to that price, and I'd say it's actually a somewhat reasonable price now. It's funny what we've been trained to expect with yamato's prices.

I only wish the Warhammer was in the same scale as the weathered Wasp they've got there. Man, that Tomahawk is nearly lineart perfect. It seriously exudes classical 3/4's view line-artyness. It just "feels" so right. I only lament that it's not a 1/48. I'm not sure about the weathered 1/48 though. It sort of exhibits the standard slightly tacky in-your-face over-weatheredness that seems oh so popular. Restraint, people. That said, it's still tempting.

Hurin = me. Except with moderating power and a greater predilection to bite your face off. Also, ideas one has kicking around and would actually fit into the storytelling tend to leave traces of themselves for people to find. If those ideas become jarring to fans when they are revealed, it either suggests that the author didn't have those ideas at the time or that he is a poor storyteller. In either case, it does not fit or work well with the story already told. One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, in republishing some of his writings in later life, deliberately avoided changing parts of it even though his thought was more developed later on. Granted, this is non-fiction we're talking about, but he does show respect for a body of work even though it is his own, and recognizes that his work represents where he was in mind and thought at the time he wrote it. Making The Ark an alien artifact would be equivalent to Tolkien adding a new installment to The Lord of The Rings 20 years later, revealing that Middle Earth was actually the future, that magic was just advanced nano-technology, that mystical beasts were actually just bioengineered creatures from the 23rd century before nuclear war reduced the world to a state and apparence much like medieval Europe, and created "races" like hobbits and dwarves through widespread genetic mutations and deformities identical to what we know as dwarvism and midgets today. Oh, and the elves were just Star Trek Vulcans, who, concerned with the plight of post-apocalyptic humanity, settled on earth to restore civilization and help man in limited ways, following the Prime Directive, by adopting their dress and culture. This also explains their long lifespans. When they sailed off to that place reserved only for elves at the Trilogy's end, they were actually flying in starships back to Vulcan now that their work was done. No, you're not meant to think that this would actually be a fitting sequal to the Rings Trilogy. If anyone thinks so, then we don't have much more to discuss. =P

@low viz That's why M7 is considered crummy to the many of us. In fact Kawamori has been compared to Lucas more than once around here, for the same reason. There's no rule that you can't mix sci-fi with mystery, so long as it makes sense and so long as the fiction establishes that it will do so from the get-go. Stargate and X-Files can do that, because it's consistent with their central premises. However, it *is* distasteful to inject sci-fi to a franchise that has delt with religious mysticism for 20 years, and dispel what made it charming and likeable to its fans by explaining it away with sci-fi. That said, I don't think Lucas would do that. He probably thought of it, but saner minds likely prevailed. However, mixing aliens with religious archeology in Indy is still problematic, however, as it actively invites one to question the nature of the artifacts in the first three movies and thus the established framework of their stories, even if Crystal Skulls doesn't explicitly make statements about them. There's something to be said about surprises and reveals that logically make sense, that in retrospect, you can't believe you didn't arrive at yourself, and that demonstrates its brilliance by all the clues you were given. There should be an "Of course!" moment, and not a "Uh... What the--?!" moment. It's another thing entirely to turn a story on its face just because the creator was tired of telling the type of story he used to tell and the type you wanted to hear, sort of like what Kawamori has done.

Well... true. But I have a hard time imagining that Spielberg, as someone who's also aware that being Jewish is *often*--and traditionally-- both ethnicity and faith, would embrace his heritage and people in Schindler's List and then turn around and alienate many if not most of them by saying, "oh, and by the way, our YWHW's just an alien." He's also not stupid-- the movie would be somewhat distasteful to many. Even The Da Vinci Code's ending left vague room for Jesus' divinity in its half-hearted, vapidly argued, vague attempt to appeal to religious sensibilities after undermining them for two hours. Hah. If anyone talked some sense into Lucas, it would probably be him.

I wasn't aware I was supposed to be pissed off at ET. I just knew I was supposed to find him/it adorable, when in fact I found him horrifying. And I don't think Spielberg is that anxious to piss off Jewish folks, seeing as he's one. After all he did make Schindler's list.

Anyway, since Hurin brought up Last Crusade, I didn't find *all* of the humor bad for the tone of the movie per se-- but *was* very bothered that parts of the plot and believability was sacrificed for gags. Certain scenes were non-sensical to me, the ham-fisted usage of humor killed much of the pacing, and Brody made it almost impossible to take the movie seriously, even as a family-friendly romp. I think The Goonies might have been more coherent. My dissapointment with Last Crusade might also have been due to me playing the Lucasarts game first-- which actually did a much better and more comprehensive job storytelling wise. It was much more evenhanded with the gags-- most of them were moderately clever-- and I found myself wishing the movie was more like the game. That doesn't usually happen.

I don't know if upscaling is a *complete* scam-- it does scale up and filter the output, so it depends on the quality of the filters in your TV. And it does allow you to connect to your TV using HDMI and DVI. And Penguin, that is the best sig ever.

There's quite a bit of speculative "archeology" that reinterprets all the mysticism of ancient religions as being the result of alien encounters. Peruvian culture and the tradition of elogating heads are speculated by believers to be the Peruvian attempts at imitating their alien "gods". Most of this is pretty baseless and creative speculation. Crystal skulls are also connected to past Peruvian civilizations, and boast powers and knowledge of all kinds, although these skulls seem to be recently made fakes. Lucas is obsessed with the topic of crystal skulls-- hence the movie. I think it may have been better if they had picked a mystical artifact steeped in older lore, rather than one made prominent by hoaxes and a more recent obsession. I think Lucas just developed an anti-cool leaning later in life. But for what it's worth the Ark of the Covenant *has* been reinterpreted by some to be an extraterrestrial radio. It wouldn't haven been difficult to do what you describe, as much of the groundwork has already been done. He did mention "going back and taking out the more offensive parts" of his original concept for Skulls when Spielberg and Ford caved and agreed to go with his idea-- so maybe that was what he was referring to: "God" was just a Zeta Reticulan and "The Ark of the Covenant" was just an alien holographic entertainment center/microwave that the Nazis accidentally turned on and melted their faces off with.

Oh, I totally agree. Usually the "hero" is a truer representation of America and her values than those who hide under the banner of the flag.

On the plus side, the Crystal Skull trailer is much more serious than the Last Crusade's. It's even a bit more tolerable than Doom's. I'm mainly worried that the comedic moments they showed were really the best they had to offer, and that the aliens angle is mishandled and forces a reinterpretation of the original movies. I vainly hope aliens are merely a red herring and instead of a Chariot of the Gods angle, it somehow goes the other way around, and we start with aliens but end up with good old fashioned mythology. I doubt that'll happen though. And in context of the trailer, featuring USAF agents and Roswell, the American flag was actually kind of ominous. I cringed for the exact opposite reason that some stated-- it seemed almost cynically displayed, and seemed to reflect the popular trend and American past time of deriding America as a means of loving her that I'm peronally a tad weary of. I could be reading too much into this. But it's interesting that seeing the American flag elicits from non-Americans the immediate reaction it does even when the filmmakers are portraying it in a neutral or cynical context, and are using it in an ironic manner and intent that they might actually agree with.

Apparently Frank Darabont, of Shawshank Redemption fame, finished a screenplay for Speilberg, who that it was the best thing since Raiders and was ready to shoot. George didn't like it. You have the guy who wrote "I don't like sand. It's rough. You're soft and smooth." overriding the opinions of one of the best moviemakers alive and the man responsible for one of the best movies of all time. But to be fair, rumors are Darabont's script dealt with the same subject matter, Indy in the 50's and aliens, and there's a fair amount in the existing movie that keeps his take on things. With Spielberg around, it might not totally be unwatchable. It's going to have Lucas's fingerprints all over the place though. For what it's worth, I didn't think the "I thought it was closer" gag that horrible or juvenile. Maybe not as understated and wryly executed as I would have liked, but it didn't make me totally grimace.

I would think it happening to someone who actually cares or knows what a VF1S is would be pretty small. But I suppose it'd happen eventually.