lebhead

i just convinced my girlfriend to watch the first episode of Macross 7 with me tonight. some of you may remember that about a year ago i was able to convince her to watch the AnimEigo Macross DVD set with me, and she actually really got into it. keep in mind that before that she thought that my toys were a waste of money, my RT/Macross DVDs were a waste of money, and that just the idea of me watching RT/Macross made her sick. of course, she still thinks my toys are a waste of money, but now she can name which pilot flew which valk. anyway, to get back on track, after about a year's break i was able to get her to watch the first ep of 7. now, we all know that there are 2 types of Macross 7 viewers - those that love it and those that hate it. very few fall in between. i think she'll love it, but then again it may be a matter of whether she can stand those first 15 episodes or so before the story finally starts taking off. she did recognize Max ("he's a captain now??") and sort of smiled when the bridge bunnies and Exedol compared Basara to Minmay. here's to hoping! i'll try to keep anybody who's interested updated with my progress. sorry if i wasted anybody's time with this post. it's late, and i just thought i'd share.

admin & mods, now that things are starting to settle down here on the new boards, maybe it's time to consider bringing back the longest thread? i think after the recent "house cleaning" of offending members the idea of the longest thread might be a good one again. plus, the new mySQL DB should be able to actually handle such long threads, so there wouldn't be any more of those weird bugs that we got with the old DB software. although i didn't post too often in the old longest thread, it was nice to have somewhere to go to talk to other MWers about whatever random thoughts pop up. just a thought & my 2. -dru

http://www.waxy.org/archive/2003/04/29/star_war.shtml has anybody seen the video(s) of that "star wars" kid? basically he's just a high school kid in Canada (Quebec, i believe) who taped himself messing around pretending to be a martial arts star. he returned the video camera to his school, but forgot to take the tape out. some friends found it, posted it on Kazaa, and now he's famous world-wide. there have even been special effects added to make him look like he's really a (bad) jedi. sure, i felt bad for the kid, and still do. but he's been at least partially compensated for his humiliation. waxy.org collected donations to buy the kid a new iPod, and they ended up raising about $4,000 for the kid. so they sent him an iPod and a bunch of gift cards. also, there's a petition to get the kid to have a small part in Episode 3. so i feel a little better about laughing at this kid. also, the kid's parents are trying to sue the kids who published the original video on the net. part of me hopes they win, while the other part of me realizes its just another cruel prank that kids play - although this one did get a little out of hand. what's the real lesson in all of this? if you video-tape yourself doing something embarassing (whatever that may be), make sure you remember to take out the tape before you return the camera.

i like the box, but i see your point. the FP box design definitely contrasts with the 1/48 VF box style.

Now that's an oxymoron! hehe. true. true.

my favorite boots are still the bootleg superposables found in San Diego and the bootleg morphers. now THOSE were boots that even their mothers would be ashamed of!

thanks for the pic, graham. i have mixed feelings on this valk. on one hand, it's another kick ass 1/48. on the other, they just freakin swapped the heads. i mean... i understand that they're just trying to make money, but i really wished they would have just given us swappable heads instead. oh well... i may as well prepare my credit card for the bad news.

for information on the iMacross servers, please see the following thread: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...ct=ST&f=2&t=244 mods, should the other thread be pinned like it was on the old boards?

my first Yammie was the VF-19A. i loved that toy... it was very solid compared to the YF-19, 11B, and 21. not quite Bandai-Brick-solid, but solid nonetheless.

nope. it came from a .txt file. however, i'm on a mac. i beileve (not sure) that this server is on a Win2K machine. macs end lines with a CR (ASCII 13). Windows ends each line with a CR/LF. *NIX machines end each line with a LF (ASCII 10). i think because i'm on a Mac, the DB got confused at the each of my paragraphs because it was expecting a CR/LF, but all it got was a CR. not sure, but that's my running theory. i'll go check the IB forums to see if anybody else has come across this.

i was finally able to post it - paragraph by paragraph. =\ it must be some weird bug in the forum software, but whatever it was i couldn't paste the whole thing in. it had to be one paragraph at a time. funky. i think it had something to do with it needing a CR/LF vs. a plain CR. whatever it was, i've never seen it before on invisionboard.

i was actually going to do just that, but i figured that he's probably swamped with PMs as it is. so i instead just made a post in the feedback forum. hopefully he'll see it. edit: i was finally able to post it - paragraph by paragraph. =\ it must be some weird bug in the forum software, but whatever it was i couldn't paste the whole thing in. it had to be one paragraph at a time. funky.

if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, then head on down to the San Jose Spaghetti Factory and go upstairs to the game room. there you will find a DYRL arcade game for only a quarter a game. the Spaghetti Factory is in San Pedro Square on San Pedro. parking is free after 6pm.

what he sed.

thanks for the additional info, A7.

you can set the maximum size of a post in the admin CP of IB. the default is 1000 kb, i believe.

i don't know if i'm just smoking crack or not, but i think the maximum post length is too small. i tried re-creating my "Robotech vs. Macross" thread, but my post got truncated about 1/5 of the way through. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...t=ST&f=26&t=228

hmm... weird. i guess the post is too long for the board? i guess for now, you have to visit http://protoculture.lebhead.com to learn about Robotech vs. Macross. ------- mods, do you think you could try and fix the max post size? if not, i guess i'll just post a link to my site instead.

LEBHead's Guide to the Differences Between Robotech, Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada Last updated 8.23.03 Note: For the most update version of this paper, visit http://protoculture.lebhead.com dead link ROBOTECH, the 85 episode epic series as you know it, was derived from three entirely separate anime shows that aired in Japan in the early 1980's. The animation was edited together and a hybrid story was added to make the three separate series mesh together as one long epic story - Robotech. It was then brought to the U.S. and the rest of the world outside of Japan by Carl Macek and Harmony Gold, and you loved it! How, and more importantly, why did this happen? Well, it's a long story... Soon after the original anime series, Super Dimension Fortress Macross became a hit in Japan in 1982 Harmony Gold purchased the U.S. and international distribution rights to the show from Tatsunoko Productions at the suggestion of Carl Macek after they asked him what show might translate well for North American audiences. Macek originally planned to simply translate Macross into English (i.e. dub it) and market it for broadcast or direct to video sale in the U.S. However, at the time a show in America needed at least 65 episodes in order to be syndicated and Macross only consisted of 36 episodes. The solution? Very interesting indeed. Harmony Gold acquired two other shows, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada, which Macek tied together with Macross to make one gigantic epic story. It was rumored that for a time Macek and Harmony Gold considered just releasing the three shows as separate entities under the Robotech banner, much the way Gaiking, Grandizer, Danguard Ace, The Starvengers, and the Spaceketeers were aired under the title "Force Five." However, for whatever reason this idea never came to pass. The linking of Macross with the two other anime series was done partially at the behest of the hobby company, Revell Inc., who initially helped fund the show and who came up with the name "Robotech." Revell already had the rights to market many of the plastic model kits based on Macross and other Japanese shows and released them under the Robotech banner. Harmony Gold hammered out a deal with Revell and used the title for their TV series as well. As another interesting side note, there was also a two issue comic book series produced by DC Comics related to this original Robotech model line that preceded the Robotech television series. This comic series, which was originally meant to be three issues, featured none of the characters seen in the TV series and was completely unrelated, besides in name, to the television show. The three anime were taken, edited a little for continuity's sake (this is why you see shots of the Robotech Masters in parts of the Macross Saga), and slapped together in a relatively short amount of time and Robotech was created. Although controversial, it must be admitted that such an unprecedented feat had been pulled off quite well. Robotech was then released in America and worldwide (sans Japan and other parts of Asia for obvious reasons) and became a smash hit. The Main Differences Between the Originals and ROBOTECH It should be noted that the actual accuracy of the story and dialogue translation between the three original series and their Robotech counterparts differ. The Macross Saga was probably one of the least affected story and dialogue-wise (along with Mospeada) when being adapted into Robotech. This is because Macross was deemed the most important of the three chapters, therefore it was necessary to keep its story intact as much as possible. Most of the lines in The Macross Saga are more or less directly translated from SDF Macross, sans the character names, and a little added dialogue for both continuity's sake as well as editing for the American market. Also, a lot of "questionable" scenes had to be edited out because American censors simply would not allow them to be shown to kids. These types of scenes include shots of excessive blood and gore, nudity (Minmay's butt to be specific), and excessive drinking. It is interesting to note that although they tried to edit out scenes of drinking by both Zentraedi and humans, many drinking scenes still appear in Robotech because they were considered key scenes. It just goes to show how much drinking actually went on during the first Space War/Robotech War! Perhaps the biggest difference between the original SDF Macross anime and RT: the Macross Saga was in the definition of what "protoculture" was. In Robotech, protoculture was a source of energy that was sought after by the Zentraedi, Robotech Masters, Invid, and even humans. However, in Macross, Protoculture is the name of the first advanced civilization in the universe. The Protoculture were the ones who created the Zentradi in Macross (while the Robotech Masters created the Zentraedi in Robotech). It may be a bit of a stretch, but it is easy to liken the Protoculture in Macross to the Robotech Masters in Robotech. Another major difference between the two shows is that in the original Macross there is no SDF-2 hidden behind the SDF-1, which is also why you never see the actual SDF-2 in the Robotech animation - because it just wasn't there in Macross. Also, in the original Macross series although the SDF-1 (also known as simply the "Macross") was badly damaged by Kamjin's (Khyron in Robotech) ship in the last episode, it was never destroyed as it was in Robotech. This is why you still see the SDF-1 in Macross sequels, like Macross Plus and Macross II. In fact, in Macross all of the bridge crew, including the captain, survived the final attack by Kamjin. You must try to remember that Macross sequels, like Macross Plus or Macross II, have nothing to do with the Robotech universe. Yet another interesting side note is that although the VF-1 is called a Valkyrie in the original Macross series and called simply a "Veritech" for the most part of the Macross Saga in Robotech, it is also called a Valkyrie in Robotech as well by none other than Captain Henry Gloval himself. In Robotech, the VF-1 is officially known as the Veritech Valkyrie, while in SDF: Macross it is merely the VF-1 Valkyrie. The Robotech Masters was probably the most changed story-wise out of the original three shows. This was due to the fact that it had to link what went on in the Macross Saga to the rest of the series. There was a lot of explaining to do! The original Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross anime didn't even take place on Earth. It was on a planet with two moons, one of which had to be airbrushed out for Robotech. Zor, who was the scientist that discovered the secrets of protoculture in Robotech, was really just the name of the invading aliens in the original Southern Cross. And yes, the ending of the original Southern Cross anime is just as dismal as it is in Robotech. In Robotech Zor spreads the pollen of the Flower of Life throughout the earth, attracting the Invid, who later enslave humanity. In the original Southern Cross the pollen is also spread, but what happens is that it turns all of humanity into Zors. Like the Macross Saga, the New Generation also wasn't changed too drastically for Robotech. However, again it was necessary to add elements from past sagas for continuity's sake. In the original Mospeada anime, there was no "Admiral Hunter" to search for. Also, the Invid (Inbit in Mospeada) were not at war with the Robotech Masters, because the Robotech Masters didn't exist in the original anime. Although Stig/Stick (Scott in the New Generation) was on a mission to the reflex point in Mospeada, he was never sent by the Robotech Expeditionary Force, but was instead simply part of the Mars Base reclamation forces. The "Secret" Robotech Movie Harmony Gold did produce a Robotech movie called "The Untold Story." The movie was based on another Mikimoto/Ishiguro collaboration, the OAV "Megazone 23" (Kawamori and Studio Nue were not involved in Megazone). The story was radically changed to fit into the Robotech continuity. While the original concept for the film placed it in the exact same time frame as the Macross storyline, a re-edit forced it about 20 years later, making the setting appear awfully anachronistic. Southern Cross footage was also edited into the movie for continuity purposes, as well as "fresh" Megazone footage made specially for the Robotech movie. Unfortunately, Megazone had been shot in 35mm and Southern Cross in 16mm, and the difference looked awful on the big screen! The movie only showed in Texas theatres in the U.S., but was also released overseas in quite a few markets and did fairly well. Cannon was the distributor of the movie, and were probably the ones to blame for the movie being so bad. Golan-Globus forced a redo of the film to artificially include space battle scenes from the Southern Cross series. Macek was against editing the movie, but was pretty much forced to do it anyway. To the relief of many Robotech fans, this movie was never widely released in American theaters. Also, because Harmony Gold no longer owns the rights to the Megazone 23 footage the Robotech movie may never be released ever again, although various fan-made bootleg copies of the movie are floating around on the Internet. Robotech Sequels, & More The sequel series, "Robotech II: The Sentinels" was to be animated from scratch as a direct sequel to the American Robotech series. It would tie all the previous series together by showing characters from all three separate series interacting together for the first time. Harmony Gold commissioned Tatsunoko Productions to animate the Sentinels in a style that would appeal specifically to American audiences. Tatsunoko's primary design group, the Ohkura Design Studio, was given the task of animating The Sentinels. They had to radically redesign the Macross characters for the sequel possibly at Big West's request, to preserve the "sanctity" of the original series. This may be the reason the animation was so different (most would agree much worse) than the original series animation. Also, it is presumed that Tatsunoko considered marketing The Sentinels in Japan, alongside Macross, possibly as some sort of prequel or sequel to the Japanese Southern Cross or Mospeada. So again, character distinction was necessary. The Sentinels was going to be the first 65 of 175 newly animated Robotech episodes, which, when added to the original's 85, would have allowed for a 260 episode cycle, a different Robotech episode for every weekday of the year. However, the Yen's value rose sharply and the budget skyrocketed, forcing the project to be cancelled after only roughly three episodes. The remaining footage was edited together on one video and later released as "Robotech II: The Sentinels." Recently the Sentinels was re-released as a bonus disc on the third Robotech legacy DVD set put out by ADV Films. The Robotech DVDs were produced under the supervision of Carl Macek, who now works at ADV. Robotech - What's Next? A new Robotech series was originally planned to be put out in late 2001 or early 2002, however the new target release date for this unnamed series is 2004. The new series is planned to be a direct sequel to the original Robotech series, so it will take off where the New Generation stopped. Currently new mecha designs for the series include an armored Shadow/Beta Fighter as well as a new mecha known as the Gamma Fighter. For more information on the new Robotech series see Harmony Gold's official Robotech Web site, Robotech.com. Originally the new series was titled "Robotech 3000" and was supposed to be fully computer animated by the now defunct Netter Digital, but with the lack of success of such shows (Voltron 3D) the idea was canned. It was rumored that Robotech 3000 contained non-transforming mecha only. What little footage that existed of Robotech 3000 was shown at the 2000 San Diego Comic-Con to a luke-warm response. That footage is now available for download at Robotech.com. Even though Robotech 3000 has officially been cancelled for some time now fans still often refer to the upcoming Robotech series as "Robotech 3000," although a more appropriate name would probably be "Robotech 2004." Carl Macek Carl Macek, the most notable figure behind Robotech, currently works for ADV Films and helped produce the DVD release of the entire Robotech series. Macek has either been exalted as anime's savior or damned as it's antichrist by extremist Macross/Southern Cross/Mospeada fans as well as anime fans in general. This debate has no sign of it letting up any time soon. After leaving Harmony Gold after the ill-fated Sentinels series Macek returned shortly to work on Robotech 3000. Once Robotech 3000 was scrapped he left again to pursue other career interests. He is currently working on various projects at ADV, including the Lady Death DVDs. Notes on this Article This article consists of many different writings and interviews on the subject that were collected from various sources and edited together. Although much of this it is original writing by the editor, there is also a great deal contributed by other authors, most of which are unknown or long forgotten. As this article is about Robotech, the fact that this writing is edited together from other sources is rather ironic. This paper is not officially sanctioned by Harmony Gold, and as such includes many assumptions based on research into the subject. I am trying to get as close to what really happened as possible and would greatly appreciate anybody with any firsthand knowledge or sources to contact me at the listed e-mail address. Thank you.

Current Macross Based Transformable Toys Basically there are three (actually 4... kind of) different companies making transformable VF-1 Macross-based toys. They are... Bandai (1/55 scale) Bandai is currently reissuing the old Takatoku Toys Macross VF-1 toys that first came out in the early 80's. They have made very slight improvements on them, but for the most part they are the same as the original 1980's Takatoku toys. These toys feature the original swing-bar design, which enables a "perfect" transformation between modes. There is little diecast, usually only in key places to enable durability (which is very high in these toys). Most of the toy is made out of plastic. The sculpt on these toys leaves much to be desired, although most collector's look past it due to nostalgia. The decals (or what used to be decals) are now painted on, which is probably one of the best parts of the toy. Bandai has released both regular and FAST Pack "Super" VF-1 toys. Although FAST Packs are not available for individual purchase they do fit on all Bandai reissue toys. Currently only the VF-1S Skull Leader has been released as a "Super" version. No further reissues are planned at this time by Bandai. More on Bandai Bandai 1/55 VF-1S Super Yamato (1/60 and 1/48 scale) Yamato was the first toy company to return to the Macross transformable toy market in the last couple of years (not counting Bandai's Macross 7 valks a few years prior). After their success with the Macross Plus line, they started on the Macross DYRL/TV line of VF-1 valkyries (with Bandai soon following with the Takatoku reissues). The Yamato toys feature a highly detailed sculpt that tends to emphasize perfection in fighter mode. Just like the Yamato Macross Plus toys were based on models from SHE, the Yamato 1/60 VF-1's fighter mode was based off of the Hasegawa 1/72 VF-1 models, which is very apparent when comparing the two. Althought the sculpt is very accurate most of the details and markings come seperate as decals/stickers that you have to apply yourself (unlike the Bandai). When making their 1/48 VF-1 toy, Yamato completely resculpted their VF-1 design rather than just blow up an existing 1/60 scale to 1/48 scale. The 1/60 Yamato feature a unique transformation between modes, in that you have to remove their legs in order to transform the toy. This means no "perfect" transformation like the Bandais or the Toynamis. However the 1/48 Yamato does feature a true perfect transformation, much superior to any previous toy ever produced. Unlike the Bandai, Toynami, or Banpresto perfect transformations, the 1/48 Yamato can directly transform into full Gerwalk (Guardian) mode from fighter WITHOUT having to swing open the legs first. So, in essence the Yamato 1/48 is the first "truly perfect" transforming valk. The 1/48 is definitely the most complex VF-1 toy ever made. Yamato has released regular, Strike, and Super versions of their 1/60 line. No FAST or Strike Packs are available for purchase seperately at this time, but Yamato may release them for individual sale at a later date. Not all Yamato 1/60 VF-1s are FAST Pack ready, although a FAST/Strike Pack addition set may include the pieces to remedy this. Yamato will definitely release FAST/Strike Packs for its 1/48 line, which are all FAST/Strike Pack ready. More on Yamato Yamato 1/60 VF-1S Strike Yamato 1/48 VF-1S Toynami MPC (1/55 scale) The VF-1 Masterpeice collection from Toynami features a very similar "perfect" transformation to the Takatoku/Bandais, in that it uses the old swing-bar method. However, the swing-bar in the MPC VF-1s are much less noticable than the Bandais. The Toynami can be seen as a "beefed up" Bandai, in that it adds a lot of small details, like rubber wheels and articulated figners. However, the biggest flaw in the Toynami, like the Bandai, is in it's sculpt. It is rather inaccurate in fighter mode, while Guardian (Gerwalk) and battloid modes seem to suffer less from the sculpting flaws. The first MPC VF-1 (Rick Hunter) lacked the diecast metal found in the legs of later MPC VF-1 toys. In addition Toynami is releasing FAST Pack armor to be sold seperately for the Skull, Max, and Miriya MPC volumes. You can buy them for about $30 each right here from Twin Moons Anime! More on Toynami Toynami Masterpiece Collection VF-1S Banpresto (some small scale around 1/100) Banpresto is actually a subdivision of Bandai. They specialize in making smaller toys and game prizes, which these toys are meant to be. The Banpresto toys feature one of the nicest overall sculpts in all three modes (arguably the nicest), but suffer in quality due to being cheaply made with poor materials, and being so small. The Banprestos feature the legacy swing-bar design, enabling a "perfect" transformation, much like the Bandais and Toynamis. However, due to the fact that the Banprestos' swingbars are platic and not metal (like the other 2 companies'), the Banpresto has better articulation and posability in the hips. Of course this is rather moot as the Banprestos are especially difficult to pose due to their "floppy" nature. More on Banpresto Banpresto VF-1S *updated!

and albino drew, a good ftp client for Mac OS X (what i believe you're running, if memory serves me right) is RBrowser Lite. it's a free download from Version Tracker: http://www.versiontracker.com/redir.fcgi/k...serLite.3.2.dmg just download and install the client, connect to the given IP (ex: 192.168.1.1) or domain name (ex: lebhead.com) and enter the given user name and password for the iMacross server that you want to connect to. a good ftp client for Windows is Total Commander, which you can download from: http://www.ghisler.com/download.htm

i can't get the tagged up version of the original post from the old board, but here's a quick cut and paste. i don't know how up-to-date this info is, so the individual iMacross servers will have to either let me know or post corrections here. ----------------- The iMacross Family of Macross Servers On these servers you will be able to download the entire Macross 7 series, including movies, sequels, extras, etc. You will also find other Macross material that hasn't been officially imported into the U.S. as well, like Flashback 2012. There are no Robotech, SDF: Macross, Macross Plus, or Macross II episodes or movies on these servers as they already have been officially released. Buy the DVDs! Support Macross and Robotech by buying the officially released products as they become available!. To access the iMacross servers you will need either an ftp client or a Hotline client. Hotline and ftp clients can be downloaded for free at sites such as http://www.versiontracker.com and http://download.cnet.com . There are PC, Mac, and even Linux versions of ftp clients and the Hotline client available. Once you download the client, install it and use it to log onto either one of the iMacross servers with the information below. iMacross Server Information iMacross III Server Name: imacrossIII Server IP/Name: imacrossIII.dynu.com Login Name: (your macrossworld name) Login Password: vf1a Server Type: ftp Hours: as often as possible Server Admin: lu523 iMacross IV Server Name: imacross4 Server IP/Name: imacross4.myftp.org Login Name: macrossmania Login Password: vf1a Server Type (hotline, ftp, etc): ftp Hours: as often as possible Server Admin: boinger Admin e-mail: boinger5@mts.net iMacross V Server Name: iMacross V Server IP/Name (ftp): imacrossv.myftp.org:2121 Login Name (ftp): (your Macross World user name) Login Password (ftp): macrossworld Server Type (hotline, ftp, website, etc): ftp (uploads) and website (downloads) Port Number (ftp): 2121 Website Address: http://imacrossv.no-ip.com Hours: as often as possible Server Admin: charles55 Admin e-mail: csloan@ec.rr.com iMacross VI - new Server Name: iMacross VI Server IP/Name: macross.serveftp.com Login Name: anonymous Login Password: (your e-mail address) Server Type: ftp Hours: as often as possible Server Admin: khyron Admin e-mail: All server port numbers are default unless otherwise noted. If any of the above info has changed, server admins please contact me. Thanks!

i learned my lesson from the Max and Milia Bandais. i picked up my 1/48 low-viz right away from TMP Anime.

thanks for the updates, Graham. too bad about the no-DYRL hands though. those would've been cool, and the hands of the 1/48 are the one thing i really don't like on an otherwise great toy.

he's around. watching. i do have a copy of my RT vs. Macross post, but until i can find it in the jungle that is my hard drive, a link to my site should do. the information is the same, but the website should be easier to digest. PROTOCULTURE