VFTF1

Meh. Is that thing even canon? I don't recal her wearing a swim suit... Besides - I like her best in that white dress with the blue lining and the neato big boots - like the gashaprom wave 1 figure has. Pete

Just use the instructions. I got the hang of it after a couple of times - but as has been said - it's easy to forget. Pete

Maybe I do. I will go and check on it today Thanks... Pete

The joints on mine are fine. It's just that the legs and arms and head are made to seperate from the main body for the transformation... and sometimes they like to seperate without me wanting them to seperate... Albeit - maybe I'm missing something and I have to "lock" them into place or something? Your legs don't tend to fall off the waiste? Definitely not a bootleg. Pete

Wait... Just to be precise here - I wasn't talking about the CMS Minmey in that quote - but about some other Minmey doll... have to go back and see what that was about... But I am very excited about CMS Minmey. Mine will arrive within a couple of days I think it's a lovely Minmey Pete

The only one I noticed was Ritusko Akagi. The Akagi was an immense and very famous carrier, and in fact there's a new model of the carrier out now that is also amazing. And Ritusko Akagi actual did die just like the carrier - namely - she first floated in the water dead for a while, before being blown up...or..in the case of NGE - finished off from her wounds. Pete

So - why haven't you praised yourself for buying it yet? Pete

Yeah, except Lucifer ends up being the brother of Messiah's love-interest, who herself ends up being the real Messiah You know what I mean Besides- the people on Galaxy who created the Lucifer could have come up with a less "evil" sounding name But then again, maybe I'm looking at it from a western-ear context again. Maybe "Lucifer" doesn't ring a "hey I'm a bad guy" bell in Japan Pete

I'd get it - but given that I already have 2 VF-1Ss and that there are so many other important Valkyrie coming down the pipe-line, a TV Style Fokker NOW would not be a priority. But - if they released it in the fourth quarter of 2009 - then yeah - sure. Pete

Just to reply to various points made: 1) Religion/pretentious religious anime names: As usual I might have been misleading. I didn't mean at all for this topic to suggest that giving religious names to characters and mecha was somehow "offensive" to a religion or a religious sentiment. Personally, I can't stand people who take offense at petty stuff like that, and I would compare it to someone taking offense at me being named Peter, since "Peter" is a pretty important religious figure - so hey - I'm pretentious and evil? No... My point was something else: namely, that it just sometimes seems a bit silly and overboard and FORCED - like Mr. March said - it's a kind of wallpaper... So - naturally people are going to have their own opinions - but my intention wasn't to find out if people "are religious and offended" or don't have a religious bone in their body and therefore don't take offense. Far from it. 2) NGE: Actually, I think it was Gundam OO which really set me off on this subject, not NGE. NGE was bearable and proper - because none of the human characters had any pretentious names, and the mecha being called Evangelion was fine within the context. The Angels and the other religious references/imagery also worked and served a purpose in the plot line. I didn't feel that it went overboard at all, and I in fact like the explanation that the religion is alien enough to Japanese people that it helps build a sort of atmosphere in the series that looks and feels alien and different. 3) The Messiah in Frontier: This particular name didn't bother me, because of Shao Pai Lon. Minmey specifically calls Shao Pai Lon a Messiah in the song, so it was a cute and apt name for the new VF fighter. But yeah - the Lucifer was a STUPID name because this has no relevence whatsoever to the Macross universe - in the sense that it doesn't reference back to anything. Messiah has nothing to do with Christianity or any other real-world religion as much as it has to do with a song Minmey sang. The new Valkyrie being called Messiah as a cultural reference within the Macross universe is cool. Pulling "Lucifer" out was just utterly cheesy though. 4) Stupid topic: I was afraid that it might be - that this wouldn't muster enough merit to be a topic, but rather - might just end up being good enough to be a POST in a thread about ...Gundam? Something... anything - but see ... I feared that if I just posted this thought in - say- the Gundam show thread - then it would turn into a long discussion - or relatively long discussion - of religious/mythological names in anime anyways... and that would be off-topic So - anyways... there you have it. Pete

So...I used the search function, and I couldn't find anything like this thread topic - which I will try to explain in a moment. I considered opening this as a "parody" thread in the Fan works section - but I'm more interested in peoples' opinions on the subject rather than making some kind of parody of the subject... Here's the topic: As I watch more and more anime, I notice the widespread tendency of giving characters and mecha various religious or important sounding names, which has less to do with the actual religion or 'important thing' and more to do with making the character or mecha sound important. This part I understand. However, at some point - does it grate on anybody's nerves? Would you prefer that characters were just named regular Japanese names, or at worse regular western/japanese/various international names rather than have them carrying these ridiculously pretensious sounding names? I know - it's not everywhere - and I'll freely admit that I've watched far too little anime to generalize, so if it sounds like I am - don't beat me too hard. And yes - it might just be because I've been watching a bit of Gundam OO and have found the names to all be rather over-the-top...but - is this really as wide spread as I'm making it out? I guess I just started to imagine (here's where the "parody" part comes in) an anime which is called Mohamed Baptism & The Savior666 Trinity Squad Mohamed Baptism is a regular, down to Earth 12 year old Japanese boy who lives on the Saint Peter Space Station, which has recently been attacked by Beelzebub Attack drones. Thankfully, his brilliant underappreciated father, Jesus, has been working night and day on a new line of defensive mecha called Savior666, all of which come in varients and will form the Trinity Squad (consisting of Mohamed Baptism and his friends, the 13 year old blond Mary and the 15 year old brunette Joesephine). Together, they will battle the Beelzebub Attack drones. Yeah - kind of overboard - but sometimes I just get annoyed at the excessive use of "give him an important name" "symbolism" in anime. I don't want to point fingers to any particular anime that I've been watching - because it's not THAT big a deal. And it's not like I think any particular anime goes too overboard with this. I'm just talking about anime in general. Does this bother you? Is it a problem? Will this thread survive? Pete

Happy to hear you like the new 1/60s Uncle Chochop. At least we agree here It is a big step forward. Also, my VF-1S Roy is 2 months old and his shoulders are fine. My second VF-1S Roy is also two months old, and his minorly cracked and epoxied shoulder is also fine. 1A Hiky is crack free and I should be getting my Hiky Js in a couple of days. Yay me Pete

Yep. I'm amazed at my WIP Force Impulse Gundam. The Endless Waltz Gundam Wing isn't all that bad. The only sore spot is getting him to actually hold his beam rifle(s). The wings are actually not all that floppy - although I guess they do tend to sag unless you really make sure the joints are fitted in tightly. Unicorn Gundam is the worse offender. Built to fall apart he happily shoes off this ability every chance he gets... But yeah... the HG 00 Gundams are like little toy figures - not models at all. Very tight and well put together. Same with Force Impulse. Pete

Voted yes. I'm planning on getting a second 21 this year. You only live once. Pete

Yeah - I agree with what Mr. March said. But I would also maybe recomend not writing such blanket statements as the one above. It's one thing to state your opinion - no body is going to "hate" you for it. The worst possible thing that could happen is that I'll just start posting youtube links to Bassara's songs and respond to you by saying "listen to my song!" But, when you make the above kind of generalization - you're kind of fishing for people to get a little bit upset. It would be like me writing "and Macross 7 is of course, as EVERYBODY knows and agrees, the best anime series in the history of the universe." People with strong feelings to the contrary will feel hurt - not because they read something they disagree with, but because - worse - they get the feeling that their very existence isn't acknowledged My point is: I've not problem with people holding the opinion that Zero and 7 stink. Fine. But it's not nice to write that everyone agrees with this opinion because to say so pretends that nobody exists who might like these shows very much. I actually honestly disagree with the majority not just on general points but on just about every point made in terms of criticism of Zero and 7. I'm not really going to repeat myself for the twelve millionth time since I've written at length about it in the Zero and 7 threads - but I'll just say: "everybody" criticizes the ending in Zero. I think the ending was the best part. Everybody criticizes the music in 7. I think the music was what made it a brilliant series. And on it goes. What "everbody" sees as the worse, I see as the best. Again - it's cool to disagree - but let's acknowledge that other opinions exist instead of just saying "everybody hates X" X lovers are out there Pete

The above post is exactly why I think we shouldn't really discuss real-world situations TOO much beyond general principles is human nature when discussing Macross stories. We could all, I'm sure, begin a long discussion with your post - but ultimately it would be a discussion about our real world problems and not about Macross. Enough to say that human nature is such that a) it abuses power, so b) if some humans make a grab for global power - even under the rather good premise of protecting us from alien attack, other humans will fear - often rightly - that this global power will be abused. Macross shows how corrupt the UN government is (remember how they treated Global upon the SDF's return). It also shows how lost the anti-UN is (they just want APHOS for themselves as a power source). In the end - Macross is about how individuals, no matter what their background, can make a difference, overcome history and bring peace through the power of love songs. No need to start a historical/political discussion about real world problems which will actually go no where because these problems are largely artificial anyways. Pete

Impossible. I just talked to Mike and Steve about it last Thursday and they assured me that he would go good. The box art is just there so the toys don't spoil the moving end for you. Pete

I loved episode 12 - in fact, I loved it so much that I have written about 6 times in the DX thread that Bandai should make a Mikhael VF-25 with a Ranka figure, a stage set - and the DX should have a sound system - press a button and lights come on (yellow flashy stars) and Ranka's song starts. I would also - since we're on the subject - love to have cuddly Zentrans in their armor with love-hearts in their eyes. As for episode 8: it is one of my favorite Macross episodes ever. I absolutely love it. It is a wonderfully wonderfully perfect episode from the animation down to the panties down to the romantic ending. Macross 7 was by far the best Macross series up to date - although this isn't written to detract from SDFM or Frontier - but just overall, it inches out ahead of them. Although, since Frontier is so fresh in my memory - I like to think of it as "the best" as well ... I don't know what cheese you could possibly find in the original series? Pete

Because my girlfriend got sick with the flue and begged me to Micronize and come visit her. She lives in the city. I live with hipp-cows on my farm. In the city, my mobile internet works far faster than on the farm, and since I have quickly cured her and she has taken 3 days off from work and asked me to stay till thursday to shower me with thanks, I am also taking advantage and getting as much anime downloaded as possible I have always wanted to see Ideon, but never had time - and probably won't have time until after seeing Gundam's myriad series. So - I figured I would take the quick and easy path to the Dark Side. I found the movie to be - er - very moving Well - if it's any consolation, you're not the only one. I read through all of the episode by episode discussions of Frontier as the series progressed and I don't remember anybody bringing up the similarity. Maybe people just don't watch Dynamite as often as they should? In any event - the similarity is so amazing Pete

Nothing in "newbie questions" suggests that the questions or answers can't be advanced Besides, we need a thread that screams out to newbies "come to me!" otherwise they would invade all the other threads to ask when Rick Hunter is going to come back Pete

Oops Yes - I do. It's just that I'm also watching Galaxy is Calling Me as well I'm basically watching everything. Ideon Be Invoked too But - the ...err...Grace-look alike/act alike in Dynamite was spooky. She even had the same HAIR DO as Grace - and she pretty much had the same voice. The only thing we don't know is whether Grace had the same lingerie? Pete

Except that in the real world, the US is the most anti-UN, and a good half of Asia and Eastern Europe aren't third-world countries. But, I do agree that we should BLAME CANADA. Barring the Anti-UN being just Canada, I would think that making too far reaching "real world" analogies here is pointless. Any radical, immediate movement towards global government would be militarily opposed for various reasons, all basically boiling down to the near-impossibility of guaranteeing that this global government wouldn't become a full-blown global dictatorship. All federal bodies that have shown themselves to be resilient to the winds of time have done so via gradual growth, long, cumbersome deliberation and usually AFTER facing a terrible war which showed them that the alternative to some form of co-operation was that everyone would die. In the Macross world - Space War I came AFTER the unification wars - and so the Zendradi threat really couldn't mobilize people to unite because it was still remote - even after ASS-1 crashed. Ergo - I think it's enough to just say that the unification wars were the logical result of some countries deciding that it was imperative to unite the planet NOW using full force - for the good of the human species in general - vs. other countries which felt that they would loose any real sense of decision making or power in this new government and who did not see the immediacy of the Zendradi threat - so their fear of loosing independence and being tyranized by Men was bigger than their fear of big green dudes in space ships. No need to start guessing about which countries were part of it or inferring things from present reality. Pete

Well - I am now watching The Galaxy is Calling Me, and I'm glad I didn't watch this BEFORE Macross Frontier - since I would have EXPECTED Grace to be evil (or at least a pedophile) if I had seen Galaxy is Calling Me first Pete

Well I must say that thanks to the laser-straightening and neck-adjusting it looks much much MUCH better. Pete

Woo Straight lasers Pete