VFTF1

Ah... what I really admire about the VF-11B is the backside - that is the top of the plane viewed from above... I remember I had the old 1/72 - and beyond the obvious problem of its' legs falling off, I was forever annoyed at how the thing just wouldn't fold up properly. I swear... ok...MAYBE I was transforming it wrong... but it was impossible to align. This - this is truly perfect Pete

Yes - and NONE of them work. All of the four-pronged fork ones are too long/wrong. They either only go half way up his butt or - in the case of one which I "moded" (aka circumsized by 50%) - even though it manages to fit up his butt, there's still lots of room left between the prongs and his leg-connectors. End result is wobbly Gundam. The othe two connectors don't really work either. The silly thing is - there's what appears to be an MG RX-78-2 on the PICTURE of the Action Base stand package... I dunno. I'm confused. It's almost as though this MG kit was made...differently... And there's nothing in the instructions about getting him on a stand nor is there anything on the sprus that could be used for getting him on a stand. I'll experiment more tomorrow. It could be that I'm being too demanding. I just like it when the prong fits snuggly up a Gundam's butt instead of leaving all this wiggle room. Pete

I find it annoying that the MG RX-78-2 is pretty near impossible to securely fit onto a Gundam stand. You'd think that the original Gundam would...you know...fit! And I can't find anything in the instructions about any special pieces on the sprues that could be used to connect him... I HATE this... I mean - I kind of sort of got him onto it - but he's not as secure as all the other Gundams...who are laughing at him because of it. Help. Pete

Exellent pics everyone. I have a question about those stands. Are the tips made of some kind of adhesive or something? I mean - or is it just that you have to get the jets onto something? I've been thinking about getting stands - and those look like the best around - but how do they "work" ? Pete

Hm. This digression on the subject of girlfriends in the character art thread has suddenly made me realize something: If people don't start making/posting nice pics of Misa Hayase (my Macross girl-who-looks/acts-like-my-girlfriend) soon, I might just start looking around for a girl who looks more like Sheryl or Ranka, since that's all we keep getting in this thread...and Nanase - but finding a girl like her is actually not easy - such great proportions are truly rare... Oh well... getting stuck with Misa is fine, although she's probably the least "cute'n'fun'bubbly" Macross girl of them all. She's just very romantic and sentimental, but not at all as extroverted as all these other girls. But then again, I guess I'm most like Hikaru. I would rather be a circus pilot, but had to fly my plane in the real world of conflict, which I don't like - and I HATE authority, and constantly complain about it... Dag. I never realized just how much I was like the blandest of the bland Macross characters I just hope Hikaru secretly wrote long posts or kept a diary or something.... In the episode right before his first battle ("Daedelus Attack") - we see a couple of books on his shelf when Roy visits him to say goodnight. I could have sworn one of them was Plato... was it? Pete

For that matter - why is "sleazy" somehow "bad?" I like sleezy women And Eugi is right - all of those pics show her in clothes that Sheryl wore on the show. Personally - I hate cosplay where you have a hot babe and then some random purple dress or white dress or whatever because "Sheryl wears a purple dress." It looks lazy. It looks like a Toynami valkyrie - aka - it looks like a valkyrie if you drink enough beer and squint. Cosplayers who make the effort to: a) acquire/create a costume that is anime accurate b) acquire/attain the services of someone who KNOWS how to use a camera c) do a photo shoot are to be commended. I mean - it's not like all those awesome Sheryl pictures just got randomly made in the span of half an hour. Somebody put a lot of work into those - and the girl is hot, but ultimately - she's also Sheryl. As to whether they do it to be "popular" or out of love of Macross... I dunno but... I kind'a get the feeling that this girl is only going to be popular amongst Macross fans. I mean - why take all that time to put on the perfect Sheryl outfit, to mimic her facial expressions and poses - if it's just meant to be popular and considered sexy? The girl could have just taken some pictures of herself in a bikini or some lingerie and posted them on the net or whatever... But she made the effort to be Sheryl - I think that's great:) Pete

I also had an outage or two. The thing is, this has been happening to me on a regular basis for about three months. Like I said, I emailed Gubaba a long, long time ago asking him if MW was down or something, and at that time, he didn't mention that he had ever had an outage. I personally think it's got nothing to do with the server. I think the North Koreans are doing it. Or the Robotech people. But the outages don't really last very long or anything... it's only bad if you happen to be writing a post and then when you go to "Add Reply" ... nothing happens Then by the time you get to finally add your reply, it's probably a moot point and people have moved on to other matters... Pete

If the economy wasn't in the pisser I would love to get the Bandai chunkies as well. They are really fantastic nostalgia pieces and would go great with my G1 TF collection. As things stand poo doo Pete

Thanks for the info Anyways - all finished! Now Char and Amuro can go head to head! Pete

Ok - true. So let me modify my preference/statement: I like Car Robots. And yeah - the toys were fun and accurate. But I can't stand Armada through Cybertron or their Japanese counterparts, so I guess this is part of what started to turn me off. As for the Toys - Armada and identical? Not really. Energon and Cybertron yes... But that's beside the point... I guess at some juncture I just had enough Transformers and the show just became BAD for me... Not even Animated could recover - largely because the toys felt so cheap, shallow, hollow and...ultimately I didn't like that design aesthetic either I know - I'm being a pain in the butt But maybe that explains why I'm at MW instead of on some TF board Pete

Hm...sexy women who dress up in sleezy outfits that mirror my favorite anime characters and are clueless as to what they are doing? PERFECT! Pete

Thanks Lechuck. I was familiar with Ka standing for Katoki, and him being the designer. Heck - there's even an interview with him in the instruction manual But since I don't read Japanese, I couldn't figure out why he made the design changes he did. I agree that his version of the RX looks more industrial - but I guess my question was: did this more industrial looking version make any appearances in the anime? Like in Stardust Memory or something? In any event - I also have the HG RX-78-2, which looks pretty much exactly like what Amuro piloted in the original MSG - so I guess that's on my "too build shortlist" Anyways - if you could shed some light on whether the KA RX is simply made up by Katoki as an interpretation, or if it has ANY basis in any of the various Gundam anime, I'd be obliged Thanks! Pete

I think we all need to take a moment to salute the female Macross fandom. I mean - how many other fandoms - Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers - whatever - have such a huge lot of gorgeous babes who dress up in skimpy clothing and lewd poses completely for free just so we can worship their awesomeness? Macross Women: I salute you! Pete

Now there is a beautiful illustration of the superiority of G1 design. Look at the craptastic kibble backpack on Movie Prime. I know I know - on screen - he's sleek. But the toy is just this great jumble-wad of kibble. Masterpiece Prime is lean. I mean - yeah - he's "boxy" - but at least he's proportional and his bulkyiness looks like strength. Movie Prime looks like he's carrying a back pack full of scrap metal. Score Generation 1 Pete (who is on the road to totally unintentionally becoming one of those G1RULZALLELZSUKZORZ people... )

Did you take those pics yourself? You are lucky for seeing it. We've all been oogling it on this thread for a few pages now In any case - first Yoko Kanno concert, and now you get to walk around a 1:1 Gundam. Life is so not fair! But at least you're sharing so that's good Pete EDIT: 1. My favorite is the pic with the building in it - for comparisson 2. Question to more experienced modelers ... Why does the 1:1 RX-78-2 have only one booster on each side? My MG kit has TWO... now, granted, my MG kit also has a different shield than the one in MSG - and I'm starting to suspect (although obviously I can't read the Japanese) that KA says he took the model from Stardust Memory or something? Or maybe I'm seeing things wrong? Help.

Yeah, agreed. Heck - I still remember Euro "G2" (although it wasn't marked as Generation 2 on the box - just "Transfrmers") ... when I first got Clench - and I was shocked that his legs were both independent of eachother and that...GASP!...he could kneel... Er - but that's not really what you're talking about ... yeah - Season 3 and other stuff... I guess I agree. God Ginrai + God Bomber are great. I dunno - perhaps my preference for G1 stems from the fact that the modern TFs, despite their better poseability, still fail to actually LOOK like their onscreen counterparts - which is to say - still manage to do what Transformers have done from the beginning: be chunky and have either no details or details which are not accurate to the onscreen representation. If that's what it's gonna be - then I guess I just prefer the original is all... Pete

That article was posted several pages ago - and yeah - it is pretty cool. I still haven't seen the movie and somehow don't feel like making the effort. Also - there's a new problem now: Even if I DO make it to the movie theatre somehow - I'll be more tempted to watch Bruno! Pete

Killer Robot gets it in one. That's exactly the point. In Macross Frontier, this is the point that Micheal makes to Ranka, who's acting like a sore loser and being pouty because she wants to be famous like Sheryl and wants to be big and popular like Sheryl and Nichan is being a dork... And Michael says: "Hey - did you even see that guy standing by the stairs singing? Could you do that?" And that's the point - that guy singing by the stairs, even though it was a pretty lame song - was really doing bunka. And Ranka's first big lesson in bunka was to just sing - instead of spending her life arguing, positioning herself etc. Now - think about it... how would Basara have reacted if an older brother or a peer had said "you can't become a singer?" He would have just gone and started singing. I'm not trying to be dogmatic here - and yeah, of course my statement about Basara's music being perfect is an overstatement - and it's made to serve a point... But in general, one of the themes in Macross is the corruption of culture by the protoculture and by humanity, who are the direct inheritors and offspring of protoculture's civilization - the "second chance" so to speak. Sheryl starts out as a corrupt self-absorbed pop idol who doesn't understand the power of the music she sings, nor its' importance. By the end of the series, she is a true super star idol - I think that scene in the bunker is a beautiful completion of her character arc - going from aloof super star idol to ambitious girl who wants to help other ambitious girl gain popularity to wash-out nobody, to artist who realizes that whether or not she's selling well, she must still sing - to a singer who can truly move people's hearts without the flashy stage acts. Remember what the bridge bunnies said seeing Sheryl just singing at the club without any light-and-sound shows? "I think I prefer her that way" So... yeah... obviously it's not as clear a sitution as what I made out with Bassara - but I think this is one of the more amazing and important themes in Macross - this tension between culture as mere entertainment/money making aparatus and culture as something more. This doesn't mean I think people shouldn't strive to be popular or make money - but sometimes there comes a point when (like in the case of Myung) the ambition to be popular and famous overshadows the most important question: "Are you popular and famous for something that it's worth being popular and famous for?" Pete Edit: Oh - and just an acknowledgement to my tag-team partner Beware...for when I exit the ring to get some sleep...Gubaba appears!

I'LL GIVE YOU ONE ....MILLION...DOLLARS!! (Zimbabwe) I never knew this was an actual kit Shows how much of a lame brain I am. I noticed that people had miraculosy managed to mod their 1/48s into VF-1Ds... but didn't know it was a kit everyone could get.... hmm... Oh well. I have two 1/60 1Ds... I think I'm good But if anyone has pics of the conversion kit - I'd love to see it just to say "oooh" and "aaahh!" Pete

It's still red on the packaging. I think that they just changed it to blue because in the cartoon, all the Autobots had blue eyes Pete

It's actually sad to see the prices on those SV-51s because the engineering and finish on those is amazing. I really hope that it's just the piss poor economy and not a whaning of interest in Macross Zero or a legitamite market-signal to Yamato that says "never try this again" Also - another thing to keep in mind is that the R&D on the SV-51s had to be imense. I mean - say what you want - but those birds hold together really well for what they are; particularly Nora. And for such huge airplanes to be in 1/60... amazing. I am looking forward to the VF-0D and hope Yamato doesn't give up on Macross Zero. Also - Macross Zero destroids would be awesome. The Cheney is possibly the best Destroid ever... even though it's technically one of the oldest... But the economy has got to pick up. I'm sure people would buy if they had more liquidity and less fear... But in the end - yeah - I think Regult has a good point. These are tough economic times and Yamato is wise to focus its' efforts and narrow on the VF-1 - which is the most recognizable, and in 1/60 scale also happens to probably be cheaper and easier to produce than something as huge and complex as the Macross Zero Valkyrie. As for a v.2 of the Zeros? Who knows. Both could use improvements that go beyond QC, so I guess it is possible. But in these bad times... doubt it. man... this stupid depression, recession, call it what you want...really needs to go away now. Pete

I also had an outage just now, and went to built RX-78-2 Gundam. Probably same outage Eugi experienced. Edit:By "just now" I mean about an hour ago. I got through the head, main body, panel lining both and half of the right arm and MW came back Pete

I concur. Can't wait for Armored Ozma. Good job Bandai! The one niggling thing I don't like about the Bandai DX now is widdled down to the cockpit - when you open it. Those stubs - completely ruin the realistic element... so... best not open the cockpit. But beyond that - nice. Pete

Double post, but oh well. After ragging endlessly on Hasbro and Transformers, I shall now praise Takara-Tomy to the sky; not only for reissuing an Autobot that I never had as a child, but for giving him a beautiful new head sculpt.... or... was that how it always was? In any case - this is one of my favorite Autobots, not just as a character, but as a toy - given his die-cast metal hood/chest, the clear windows, the rubber tires, the chrome weapons and the shiny black metal coating... I just love him to death Pete

This would be a legitamite critique if not for the fact that Basara's music was the best ever made in the entire universe. since his music is the best ever made, he obviously doesn't care if other people agree it's the best or not - they just need to listen to his song. His confidence borders on religious fanaticism. Sheryl is just a mere entertainer - an idol - that's how she even thinks of herself, until it is revealed that she is mixed up in something bigger. But see - in Macross Frontier, culture and singing have become somewhat corrupted compared to their pure power as salvation for mankind. If we take DYRL/SDFM to be the "founding" of a new human civilization - founded on the power of song and culture, then by the time Macross Frontier roles around, all that's left is the form. Kind of like churches without worshippers, or people who go to church and just go through the motions. This was also kind of the situation in Macross: Plus. In fact, given just how cynical culture and music had become in Macross Plus, it's no wonder that Macross 7 followed, featuring a return to the pure love heart of music in the form of Bassara. And it's no wonder that everyone was skeptical of the powe of Music (except Max) - because most people were too young to remember Lyn Minmei and even if they read about it - it was kind of ancient history by then. Basara believed in the power of Minmei and loaded his songs with pure love heart. People were thick skulled and not able to appreciate the music. Ironically - it was the Protodevilin - who had for eons been deprived of spiritia and felt under-nourished and were incapable of concieving that they could make it for themselves - found themselves completely drawn to Basara in a way more powerful than humans, who were so saturated with cultural forms that they had a cynical approach to Basara's love heart. That's why Basara's music is able to stop the protodevilin fighting but not the humans - ever. In fact - this is why music ALWAYS stops the alien races from fighting, but is often laughed at by humans. We are the protoculture, after all - or at least their offshot - and we failed - sure, we established culture, but just like with the original Protoculture, we allowed science to corrupt us and we started looking at culture cynically. Bassara is there to shatter all that. That's why Sheryl would want to be with Bassara - because Bassara would harness her song power and make it pure. Remember, Sheryl was just an idol, and her shows were just shows. She had ambition - but it was only the ambition to be popular. It was Alto who taught her that even without fame, she was still a singer at heart and didn't have to worry about whether she was topping the charts or whether here CDs were discounted and selling for 25% and nobody remembered her. Ranka on the other hand, taught Sheryl that music was not just some dumb PR stunt, but actually could work (episode 12). And remember how she started singing in small clubs, and then during the attack, when she was in the shelter and all the people around her were panicking, she started to sing. It was by that point in the series that she had discovered the power of music as something pure, and became a true idol. I'm sure if she had met Bassara, she would have considered him unprofessional and naive and stupid, and silly etc etc etc - but Basarra could have been a catalyst much like Alto and Ranka were - for Sheryl to stop being a manufactured idol and become a real one,worthy of the title "Songstress of the Galaxy." Pete