VFTF1

Mr. March - is that incredibly Awesome picture from Calvin and Hobbes? Calvin as a T-Rex piloting an F-14? And just to stay on topic: This whole thread has gotten me thinking - how many other Japanese movies have been ripoffs of famous American productions? Of the top of my head: Godzilla --------------> Ripped off by Japanese from Jurrasic Park Bruce Lee -----------> Japanese ripoff of the Karate Kid I'm sure there are more, but off the top of my head I can't think of any other Japanese films or productions. It just boggles the mind that they are so incapable of producing any original works over there. Sheesh. Pete

Those figures do look interesting, but I'm not too keen on investing money in them. I don't have the knowledge for CG. I've decided to just draw the human characters and certain other elements myself and use the Mecha that Yamato have given us - the idea is to basically have the Mecha blend with the animation much like CG Mecha were blended with animation in Zero and Frontier. It's been a long time since I've actually penciled comic book type art - I was certainly never some super pro by I think I can do a decent enough job to make it work... So... we'll see how long this takes me - but I hope the result will be worth it Thanks everybody for all your comments and above all, I hope people had as much fun reading/looking at this short piece as I had making it. Pete

I never liked Animated Blitzwing anyways One of the few Animated designs that I think they took too many liberties with; and made him way off of what I recall as being "Blitzwing" - but this is mainly due, I think, to them not having a grasp of Blitzwing's character. For me, Blitzwing is defined by his role in Five Faces of Darkness, where he turns out to be a very reasonable fellow, who, like it says in his file card, resents being treated like cannon fodder by the higher ups and is actually quite thoughtful (I see him as being like Thundercracker, only with gutts). Animated blitzwing is a nutjob - which is fine, but I wish they just made him a different character rather than naming him Blitzwing. In fact, now that I think about it - Animated kind of followed the Movie with Decepticons being largely "new" characters and Autobots being rehashes of the classic characters... err....yeah so there Pete

I would be interested in Bandai's rendition of the VF-27 if for no other reason than to compare it to Yamato's SV-51 Nora After all; they are veryvery similar and it would be interesting to see what kind of engineering Bandai pulls off on it Pete

Clearly you do not listen to Doug Bendo, famous half brother of Ben Dover and world famous Robotech fan podcasts! If you had, you would understand that Marcos is the name GIVEN by Harmony Gold to the Chinese guy who put the Robotech toys together. Just like Harmony Gold generally westernized the names to match them up to the way they looked. As Ben Dover famously said, echoing the word of Doug Bendo "Kakizake does not look like Kakizake!" http://ramblingnitwit.blogspot.com/2008/02...d-of-funny.html In any event, the most shocking thing for me isn't that there are chinese people willing to bootleg Robotech into Marcos, and that there are all of these ignorant foreign people who watch Marcos the Final Frontier and don't realize that not only is it a Robotech ripoff, but that it's actually a Star Trek rip off as well (Hello! Final Frontier! Duh). What truly is shocking is the legion of fans that has supposedly developed around Macross Frontier in other parts of the world where people should know better. I mean - come on. The same time that Marcos the Final Frontier comes out, we got Shadow Chronicles! Now - let's be serious for a minute: it is so obvious which of these two is better. I mean, heck, in Shadow Chronicles we even get to hear a portion of We Can Win! towards the end. Meanwhile, what does Final Frontier Marcos give us? EMO! EMO! DELTA RUSH HOUR! I mean - puuullleeeezzzee! A song about Emo, called Emo, where the main lyric is EMO EMO! Gimme a break! And people like this garbage? Pete

Mr. March wrote: Ok - so just to recap and sum up so I have this straight: Battletech was first - I'm assuming it was a spin off from Battle Star Galactica? And then Harmony Gold bought the rights to Battletech and re-named it Robotech and made a cartoon about it? But then the Chinese factory that was making the toys for the Robotech Cartoon suddenly went to Japanese court to claim that they have copyrights for the toys and their lineness and called it Marcos - because that was the name of the guy who owned the factory? I just wanna get this straight finally. Pete

Which articulated Macross figures? In any case - the short answer is "no" - largely because I've got a lot of characters in mind who have no figures since I made them up - and they could technically be dressed in generic UN Spacy uniforms, but I don't have any of those... Also, if by articulated Macross figures you mean the "Robotech" ones - I don't have any of them either, and don't plan on aqcuiring them just to put them in this comic. Rest assured however, that I am thinking and will figure something out. However, be that as it may, comments and suggestions are always appreciated. As crazy as this sounds - but I think I'm going to have to end up drawing the figures myself and then animating them via photoshop - that is - drawing generic bodies and then drawing a bunch of heads with various facial expressions to go with it. I don't see any other way to tell the story than by mixing real life photography of the Yamato models with ...hand drawn animation. So ... off I go to actually do this...and try to make it look better ... Pete

I just want to voice my support for this project and give my reasons: I am NOT a collector of non-figure/model Macross stuff, but I sure wanna be! I really would love the Alto Macross Frontier Shirt and would probably love other clothing items and apparel as well. Thing is, I can't find any place where they are broadly discussed, and where fans show off their pictures of this kind of stuff - and this kind of keeps me from buying them because I have no info on it. So it's like a vicious circle - no one talks about it, so people like me who might be interested don't know anything about it and have no formal place on the forum to ask So yeah - do make the topic and do share your stuff and your thoughts. Also - I don't know whether this is true for the majority of fans, but since I live in a part of the World where I am the only one selling stuff like this, you can imagine that it's pretty scarce around here So I have to pick and choose wisely in terms of what I'd like to buy, because I can't just go down to the local hobby shop and browse around, let alone go to whereever it is our fellow Asian-dwelling members get their stuff. So - yeah - looking forward to this part of the forum going online and I think it's a great idea. Pete

Well - I'm shocked! Shocked! Such a classic masterpiece (Carnage in C Minor) and it's NOT on Youtube??? I wanted to watch it. I mean - it has singing and robots..maybe it's like Macross? Pete

Wow. That link was...umm...interesting. I'm glad I live at Macrossworld and not over there Pete

Well... Here it is: the faux ending of the battle. Faux because it really explains nothing, and in fact only promises a continuation and explanation down the road. Sadly, as the last panel suggests, my meager talents could possibly lend themselves towards the use of Abstract Art (or total poo, which is synonymous, if you prefer) to populate the Macross Universe with people I was also considering a text continuation, at least for the parts that require people to be doing and feeling rather than mecha to be flying and shooting... I'll give it some thought and see where this takes me... anyways - enjoy it for what it's worth and await with bated breath the ...er...amazing ... continuation ...probably by next week I'll think of something - that is - some method by which to tell this story further - because the story is there...I just have to figure out how to tell it... Pete

I think I was using the Comics font - but I'll have to double check. In general I would advise myself to: a) build some dioramas b) get some stands for the VF-1s that would enable be to take better "in flight" pictures from various angles c) try to russtle up more in scale technicians and other figures I've been thinking about getting the mecha dioramas - the hangar bays and what not - that are available out there - they are not very expensive, but I don't know if they are properly sized... But the biggest problem remains PEOPLE. How do I populate my Macross universe?? The figures really do lend themselves to this form of expression; I think - but there are just too few of them to really do something more expressive... Pete

EL OH EL! Ha Yeah - I sure would be angry! But now that I'm getting more familiar with the inter-nets and their tubes, I realize that there's some pretty sophisticated humor out there This thread is case in point.. Uff...you guys reaaally had me going there for a while - but now I understand that this whole "Marcoss" thing is a joke And a pretty elaborate one at that! The truth that Robotech was produced in America and then stolen by the Japanese is the truth, and it's true because Harmony Gold has the rights and you can't have rights unless they're yours. It's too bad that Robotech has been bootlegged by the Japanese (and probably the Chinese) - but in this crazy wild globalized globe what can you expect? There are plenty of knock-offs and bootlegs out there and thanks to the internets I'm now more aware as a consumer. I know for example that one Japanese company - Yamtoe - makes knock offs of the Masterpiece Robotech Veritechs - so it's not a surprise that if toys are bootlegged than even cartoon shows are then bootlegged. What's next? Well - at least we'll always have the original Jack McKinney novels. I mean - I haven't heard of any bootlegged translations of those - and besides - the real Robotech fans know that it was the books that started everything - even before the cartoon show there were the Robotech books by world famous writer Jack McKinney. Just don't believe those people who say it's a pen-name hiding multiple writers. Sheesh. Some people have nothing better to do with their lives than spreading such garbage. What's next? An entire WEB FORUM dedicated to this bootlegged knock off Marcoss and it's sorry excuse for cartoons? Some people... Pete

Thanks for the comments. The BIGGEST problem is the "more time" aspect - if only I had more time...then again... hmm... I guess the only thing to do is try to spend more time on it. I think the photography I do is good, but the problem comes up when photoshop gets involved... I suck at using photoshop because I generally never took the time to learn how to use it properly The lack of human figures also limits what it's possible to do with a Macross story... but after the third part of this story is completed (should be tonight/tomorrow), I think I'll sit down and get to work on making a 4th, 5th and 6th part (since lots of story ideas have sprung to mind), only this time I'll try to do a better job with the FX/background and stretch it out in time. I am still wondering, however, what to do about humans in the story. If only there were some Revoltech Macross figures (humans) then that would be great - but as it stands, it's really hard to come up with an idea... and yet I feel that I have to put them there to bring more to the story.. Oh well - lots to think about...lots to do... will try to be more ambitious with the next round of comics following part 3 (which is pretty much almost done). Pete

Well, thanks for taking pity on me I anticipated this - which is why I have a perfect explanation for all of this hanging in the wings - so to speak After all - another "glaring error" is the very fact that a Quid Rau is here, and that it's apparently being used to test these two guys... All of it will be explained It remains to see what you think of the explanation Thanks for peeking - next part should be up tomorrow Pete

And some Macross Garcon love as well! Hikaru, Roy, Max, Kakizake, Gloval, Kaifun - the whole lot! And while we're at it - Kaiyodo: get cracking on an SDF: MACROSS SUPA BRIDGO BUNNY SET! I want all of the original Bridge Bunnies with a Bridge Diorama to boot. then we can move on to Frontier. Strangely enough; I don't desire any Macross 7 figures... at least not until they get through SDFM and Frontier first Pete

I'm one of those people who really prefered the first half of the series to the second - with a few notable exceptions - namely the episodes where Ikari and his friend are on that boat in Blood Red Antarctica, and the noir love story between Misato and that one guy (see, I'm REALLY bad with names) That and the last two episodes - I love the last two episodes as well. But overall, I usually remember what I loved and totally forget things that didn't make a big impression on me. But that's also why I'm re-watching the series It's the best way to fall in love with things that you didn't notice were worthy of love the first time around Pete

That's a good point - but it assumes that all kids are equally sophisticated, and that parents don't sometimes just want to "buy some cheap kiddy stuff".... But... on the other hand...yeah - dag...good point... I guess the Transformers ones would sort of be aimed at collectors... but then again - don't Transformers Robot Heroes span the entire range of TF universes? Pete

Ok - now I think I know who you're talking about That kid who shows up at the end who's even more of a pain in the butt than Shinji It's been a while But yeah - now I remember him - although I still don't remember him by name... but I guess I'll be reintroduced to him soon... Thanks for refreshing my memory Pete

Ka-who-ru? Who's that? Is that by chance the name of Misato's boyfriend? (I could never remember his name) - if so; then I guess it's more reasonable... but...err... who is that? Pete

At first, I read your post and was like "Who's Jetfire?! I mean - there's Skyfire...but Jetfire? Huh?" Then, I went on the lines of the inter-nets, and one of those tubes led me to some information which is ...well...quite shocking and unbelievable: Apparently, there was a TRANSFORMERS COMIC BOOK (????) published by Marvel comics (the guys who did Spiderman) and it featured Jetfire! Now THAT is hard to believe - I mean - the Cartoon was the only thing going in the 80s! It's as if everything we thought wasn't so... these Inter-nets and their tubes have such revolutionary potential - but what if it's all a hoax? How can we REALLY know? Pete

There has to be more to it than that! I mean - that happens every other episode practically Pete

I haven't seen this yet - but I am in the process of rewatching the original series, which I love. Judging from that screengrab....hmm...well...Shinji certainly looks EMO... but... he also looks a bit TOO conscious of the fact that he's emo! It's like - he looks like one of those young people who specifically CHOOSE that style and then make an effort to "look" it. But - the Shinji I know, from the original series, didn't "style" himself. He was bashful, timid, and he was very tidy (mainly I think, because he was afraid of being a "burden" - so he would clean up after himself so as not to be a "burden" to people)... This Shinji looks...err... he looks like he gets up in the morning, listens to EMO music and styles his hair and is very extroverted and emotional... He just looks older, more mature and like...a different character template. Misato looks the same though And good Can't improve on her Maybe I'll get around to watching this some day Pete

At times, I was tempted to get these - but the "real" thing is better in almost every case- TF, GI Joe... Star Wars... so the appeal is near zero. I feel like - at the age of 29 - I've finally outgrown Hasbro's target audience I have no matured into Bandai, Yamato and, eventually, Takara-Tomy's target audience Pete

Pete