Batou

Book 4 was released in 1988 fer cryin' out loud. I can understand if the guy has a busy schedule, but c'mon! No one's that busy. I want to know what happened with Deunan and Bri going to Poseidon already!!! From what I remember, he's always said he plans on going back to finish Appleseed one day, and still considers it his life's work. It's just a matter of when he's ready to do it. I just hope I don't need bifocals to read it by the time it comes out ...

I'm pretty sure Graham mentioned that they were not only getting the pilot right, but are redesigning the entire cockpit area to be TV-acurate as well.

I think he does it just to watch us squirm. Kinda like a kid with an ant mound and a magnifying glass on a sunny day. Cruel bastard ... Seriously, there was a rumor going around not that long ago supposedly from a reliable source in Yamato that the 19 and 21 were going to be released in 1/48, but who knows if it was true. That and some of the other information leaked from that source caused quite the little stink around here (most of you know what I'm referring to, so I won't elaborate) and consequently got some people in trouble. Make what you will of that. I for one would love to see one of each, since none of the 1/72 series they released so far did any of the Macross Plus valks justice. I bet they'll do it eventually, especially in light of the sales they've so far seen of the existing 1/48 line. Just not soon enough to shut us up.

Holy crap! I had one of those as a kid - I was with my mom in Sears or something and begged her to buy it for me. How it wound up there is anyone's guess, but I used to love that thing.

My first was an original Jetfire I got one X-mas as a kid (if you can call it a "valkyrie"). I fell in love with Robotech a few years later and picked up a lot of old Revell Robotech and whatever Macross models I could find (had a few of the original smaller Arii ones...), so I guess those were my first real true valks. I can't imagine they looked very pretty, but I loved to do them and I had several. Good thing, too, since I was a clumsy kid ... Fast forward several several years, and I got a VF-19A and YF-21 on Ebay for (what seemed like then) an ungodly amount on a fluke (I think I paid $140 for 'em both - shipped from HK). After that, it didn't take me very long to find this site, and soon developed this terrible, bank-account-emptying afliction known as "valkaholism". Now I'm surrounded by the little buggers of all shapes and sizes and can't stop myself from buying more despite the fact I've completely run out of space for them months ago. <_< Gee, thanks a lot Graham and Shawn. I need a twelve step program all thanks to your little site. I hope you're very pround of yourselves.

Nope. Absolutely not. They really don't bear any resemblence to each other, anyway, whether you're talking aesthetics, size, or the ways in which they are intended to be used. Landmates were always a fairly unique creation of Shirow, and while the concept is pretty common these days, they were a pretty fresh idea when Appleseed was first released (way back in the 80's). Sure you had powered suits like that around at the time, but Shirow really fleshed them out as far as how they were used in his world, how they worked, etc - lots of little nitpicky details that even the Comic Book Guy couldn't find too many holes in. He was and still is a stickler for little details and practicality in his designs, and never seems to suffer from the "because it's cool to have robots in there" syndrome so many other works about mecha subcribe to - all of his mechanical designs were created with a practical use in mind and stayed faithful to that. Appleseed was always my first introduction to Shirow's work, and still the best IMHO. I just wish he'd get around to doing book 5 already ...

You'd have a heck of a time finding it - it was from one of the pages edited out in the N American version for being too .. (ahem) ... "naughty". PM me if you want a jpeg of it. Animeone, Anime-Kraze, Anime Junkies ... I think anbu did one too, but I can't remember. You can find them on IRC and Kazaa without too much trouble, and I know torrent links were available for a while. It's out there, and will be released in N America soon enough, if you're on diail-up. Pretty much all of the main characters from the movie - Kusanagi (obviously), Batou, Aramaki, Ishikawa, Togusa. Maybe someone else that's escaping me at the moment. I don't think that much - certainly not like the manga. It still has a more serious tone like the movie did, but there are the Tachikoma shorts that are kind of humerous. Hey - not everyone liked it, because of how different it was from the manga it was based on. I liked it a lot, but don't deny it had some shortcomings. Hopefully the next one will be just that much better and make us all happy.

Well, it can't exactly be WORSE. ... Well, not while bearing any resemblance to Ghost in the Shell. Some of us rabid Masamune Shirow fans may take exception to that, mister. Then again, from my knick and avatar, you can probably tell my opinion is hardly unbiased. While the original movie had some rather long lulls in the action and melodrama, I think it was masterfully done, even if not enitirely true to Shirow's manga. I haven't seen this entire series yet, but the dozen or so episodes I've seen so far are absolutely breathtaking and as good or better than anything out right now. It's actually very different from the movie - especially in the pacing department - with the only real similarities being the characters and world they inhabit. It still has all of the complicated plot devices and techno babble typical of Shirow's works, but you never feel like anything's dragging on for too long. Give it a chance - if you don't like this series, there's obviously something horribly wrong with you. The good news is that it's nothing a full frontal lobotomy won't cure.

I think you nailed it. I think they were unimpressed with humanity's lack of planning against orbital bombardment in regards to how we all clump together in cities - very easy to kill us all. We seemed to just put up structures haphazardly on the surface without any thought as to whether giant spaceships above us might rain down death at any moment. Which is true - it probably just never occurred to a clone living in space his entire life that we'd never been involved in an intersteller war or even knew the tactics employed in them. From what I remember (and I haven't watched the TV series, so I may be way off), Britai and Exedol were pretty shocked when the UN Spacy forces tossed a few nukes at them and promptly took out a few of their capital ships. "Reaction" weaponry was a long lost technology as far as the Zentradi were concerned, buried deep in their past. Wasn't this one of the reasons they wanted to take the Macross whole without destroying it in the first place? They knew that humans had the technology to 1.) repair and restore the Macross, something that had eluded them for aeons, and 2.) we had nukes - something they had lost to time (or maybe never had - maybe not trusted by the Protoculture to wield them responsibly). Nukes definitely would have helped them against the Supervision Army, and any military wouldn't jump at the chance for a new uber-weapon to use against their arch rival?

Holy crap is that thing big. Excellent work. I especially like the patchy look you got on the wings to simulate panels. So - Now where are you going to put it?

Hopefully Yamato didn't get sent to the land of Wind and Ghosts. Join me or die! Can you do any less? What a brave corporate logo! We accept the challenge of Mr Sparkle!

Arms look the same to me... might compare it to my -1S (using various reference points), but right now I'm too tired and lazy to go and get it. It's probably the new hands that cause the arms to look bigger, combined with the angle of the shots. Plus, I highly doubt Yamato would make such a major design change in the 1/48 in enlarging the arms (this would also undoubtedly affect the legs as well for fighter mode, and would lead to many necessary changes in design) So it's probably just you (though the pic angles and hands are probably to blame as well) Do you notice how there isn't a stripe etched across the forearm like all the valks before now? It might also look thicker due to the absense of the stripe on the forearm - an optical illusion.

That'd be quite the trick to do. You'd have to be pretty careful with the glue, esp what kind you use. I don't think you could use anything strong enough without fogging the clear canopy plastic. It's a neat idea, but since you wouldn't be able to see it anyway, it hardly seems worth the effort involved. Can't wait to see how this turns out, William. I've also been waiting to see how you'd do this one (I refused to build my VF-22 until you got around to posting a step-by-step! ). I'm sure you'll amaze us all again.

Yeah, I've got a few of these. I think they must have re-released them at some point, because I picked them up not more than 3 or so years ago from Kaybee. I just happened to be in there, and saw a lot of these on the clearance rack, and snatched up one of each they had. I don't think the packaging was the same as you see on that site (then again, it was a while back). Anyway, the point being I don't think they had them leftoever sitting in stock all the way from the mid-80's. They weren't great, but not horrible, either. The Spartan was pretty nice, from what I recall.

How about one of these: Link or one of these: Link Since the hoary froating head liked the Bulky Lee so much Yamato made it, how about shoving a few of these in front of the great Kawamori-sama for approval? Either of these would be kosher as far as licensing goes. Heck, I don't know. I'd just like something other than a VF-1 already. I love 'em, but I'm ready for something new.

What he said.

Yes, they are pretty spiffy. I think everyone is having problems with the single-type micromissles not staying put. I've made it a little better sanding a little bit of excess plastic on the little nubs they connect to, but there's still one missle pack that just doesn't want to stay in place.

Wow. I love the Regults, but those valks look a little funny to me. What's up with the head lasers? It looks like Hikaru jumped in some cold water.

That's exactly what I did, but don't expect too much. A lot of the stickers you see on the model kits aren't included in the Yamato version ("no steps", all the nose markings, warning arrows, air intake warnings, etc), and it's a challenge trying to match them up or find suitable replacements. As bad as the VF-1 stickers from Yamato were, the Macross Plus valks really and truly sucked. I say just go with the major ones, and do what I did - canibalize lots of "no steps" and other little detail stickers from your 1/60 Yammies. The scale is close enough to look ok, and it makes it look a lot less naked. Just don't expect to recreate a Hasegawa kit.

Did Hasegawa ever make a launch arm??? I have a few of the stands they made, but they don't in any way resemble a proper launch arm from the series. Now that you mention it, I was just thinking this might make a nice launch arm diorama for a Hasegawa model kit with a little work. I'm not all that interested in these for my Yammies since you'd have to be pretty dense to bet that backpack hinge would hold up the weight without snapping, but I think a lightweight styrene model nay just hold up ok. Thanks for the pics, Graham!

Definitely 1/60, for the same reasons everyone else has already mentioned (space, mostly, then cost). I might buy a Tomahawk in 1/48 if they made it, since I've always loved that particular destroid for some reason, but there's no way I'd get 'em all in 1/48.

Welcome to MW. Toynami is making a variable Legioss in 1/55 (I think), supposedly to link up with a Tread. I don't think anyone knows for sure about any of the Ride Armors, though. There's a pinned thread in the "Other / Sci Fi" section: Link

(sorry, Dangard - couldn't resist). Back OT, nice pic SkullLeader. For a 14 year old, she really fills out that nurse's outfit, no? Who'd have known these kids today have so much lingerie, too? I need to go scrub my eyes with soap now. I feel so old and dirty now ... <_<

And this? If so, you can find these right here at MW: Smaller gif's Larger ones. There's even a screensaver featuring these little guys.

Do you mean this?