VFTF1

I guess I didn't know that. I hope that wedding picture is from Flashback 2012 or something? Pete

Ok - sorry for the..well...triple post .... but... I've been looking over the instruction booklet for Exia. I don't know why I didn't catch this yesterday when I was reading it (side note: do you guys like to read the instruction booklet for your kits? I do. Long before I start building, I always study the instructions for the kits to get a feel of what awaits me)... Anyways - I noticed something disheartening about Exia, namely...does he even HAVE an internal frame? I mean - it just looks like there are policap joints with...well...not armor...but...components...all over. Am I to understand that Exia effectively has no armor, and that the Gundam in OO are just basically walking internal frames? I guess this semi makes sense since arguably if you can build them from durable armor that is streamlined, then why cover them with amor... but I somehow prefer the Mobile Suite Gundam mecha where you have a clear and distinct inner frame will all the do-das and do-hickies and over that you have an armored shell. Anyways... the lack of an internal frame vs. external armor does indeed make the Exia seem somewhat...well..impoverished. I hasten to wonder out loud what the difference between the MG and the NG 1/100 is, beyond the batteries and flashing lights and possibility to build the battle damaged kit? I mean..seriously - I see no place where you can strip the armor to reveal components, hydraulics and electrnics. Certainly I see no where near the complexity of a build that my Force Impulse Gundam entailed. Hm. Heck - even my Turn-A Gundam was more complex than this... No...what am I saying... My RX-78-2 seems to have a more complex and detailed inner frame and mechanics than what I can gather from the instructions... Damn. I'll sleep on this. Pete

Well to be fair, all we saw in SDFM TV was all we saw. For all we know, five months later, Hikaru might have met a bodacious babe on the Megaroad 1, or Misa might have met a guy - and they would have split up. It's all conjecture - and it's very hard to accurately predict how either of them would react depending on the circumstances. But in general, being a mother of a new born infant does equate to dropping everything and staying at home - unless one hires or has a nurse. Concievably, just as in Mobile Suit Gundam, there might be a seperate ward that takes care of small babies so that mothers can continue their work. But my hunch about Misa- based on her interaction with Millia's baby and based on her character - is that she would WANT to stay at home - at least for a while - for the first year or two. On the other hand - maybe it wouldn't be neceesary and our entire little "debate" is totally irrelevent. For that matter we know nothing about technology and customs on the Macross or Megaroad 1 as they pertain to babies. And no - we can't extrapolate based on Millia's treatment of her baby, because being half-zentran, that baby developed at a far quicker pace and required less care than a purely human infant. But since there are little robots selling cola on the street or trying to take your picture or bring you a telephone, then presuming that the Megaroad-1 has not made the technological leap forward to cellular phones that Macross Frontier had, then I assume that the Megaroad one might concievably have robot nannies for children (but no cell phones...?). I dunno. It's all speculation. Who knows how their lives turned out. We can't even say for certain that they got married or stayed together or anything like that. Yes, in the end Hikaru and Misa are together - but that's at a certain moment in time. Four years later could be a vastly different situation. Never know. Pete

Well - with all due respect to matters of taste, I very much prefer Figma and Revoltech Fraulein. Also - have you checked out Yamato's VFM dolls? Although...I think there's only one for now - Queen's Blade Ari... but perhaps in future there will be more. I just find these dolls to be a tad on the generic side - I much prefer the sculpts on recent figmas and revoltechs which have a lot more dynamism in them. But to each his own of course:) Pete

As promised - here he is: Now I need to think real hard...Guncannon...or Exia... What am I saying? I'm NOT going to build the Guncannon - no way. You know why? Because just like RX-78-2 KA, it will NOT fit on a Gundam stand - I'm sure of it. The MSG models just don't fit on the Gundam stands - they are not built for them. I tried and tried and it didn't fit. That wasn't the only reason I got rid of it (mainly because it didn't look like Gundam from the anime) - but I'm sure Guncannon will have the same problem. And I don't want Gundams that can't fit on stands. Now of course somebody is going to make a fool out of me by posting a Guncannon on a stand... Pete

Looking at Ngee Khiong pics: Sorry - but I say that THOSE are super expensive for what you get - and what you get is the following: Well sculpted arms, legs, a cockpit, wings, a head - all of them will look just dazzling and brilliant seperately. But put them together and icky poo. That's total fail. Pete

Welcome aboard - happy you're joining us As to your favorite quote: well - see - it's as I always say, one of the genius things about Macross 7 is just how much it reflects the reality of how people view Basara's music. You'll also notice that the audience in attendance at the concert wasn't exactly huge, and when Fire Bomber started playing, it's not like throngs were screaming "play! play!" - and it kind of took people a bit to be roused by the music, to even notice it. So - this anime certainly allows for people not understanding, not liking, or not appreciating Bassara's music. Of course, I always wondered... does Max say this because he is old, and like all old guys, thinks the music of his youth was the best ever (thus...Minmey?)... or is it because Max just can't relate to music as such? I'm trying to remember if SDFM TV gives us any clues - and it seems to me that Max was musically gifted. He had to be because he offered to sing to Minmey during her birthday party when Hikaru refused. Naturally, the act was gentlemanly courtesy, but I wonder - was he going to sing badly, or did he also know how to sing? In any event... I never noticed him really enjoying a Minimey concert... Pete

Re: Revoltechs vs. Yamatos Well - fair enough of course to people making the argument about cost, toys, aesthetic etc. Naturally I'm not dumb enough to actually argue that these should be compared, and I understand there are people for whom the idea of dropping a ton of money on a Yamato is crazy. But. I personally am trying to underscore that I think this line of reasoning is a tad flawed, and that in the long run, one can find themselves dropping lots of money on - say -Revoltechs over the course of time, and those amounts get pretty big too.... but you don't have much to show for it. I dunno - I think personally that it would be better to have even just one Yamato than 5 of these things. Of course people can disagree and do as they like and think otherwise For me, however - there's just no point in getting these - maybe if I didn't collect Yamato valkyrie and love them to death....but then again...not even then...probably... I dunno - I long ago decided that it's best to buy the big ticket items. Maybe this is my girlfriend's fault. And my old ex-boss from the job I had before going out on my own. Both of them spent like there's no tomorrow and basically believed that you only live once and money is just paper anyways so whatever. That said - I STILL say that these VF-1s also go against the grain of what Revoltech has endeavored to give us - namely anime accurate figures. These are not accurate. So what if they're poseable? The whole trick is to succeed in making it poseable AND accurate. Anybody can make a super poseable figure of something that has its' accuracy tossed out in favor of making it pose and transform... I dunno... We'll see how these do - I just have a sense they won't do well - unless Kaiyodo is bagging on there being tons of people who love what Yamato does but can't afford it? But then again - come on -Yamato are not THAT expensive. Seriously. Pete

Actually - that's a realy good point. In all the laughing and poking fun at the VF-1 transformable...I totally missed that. I mean - clearly this means they're continuing to do Macross stuff... so WHY in heavens name can't we get Macross characters in Fraulein?? I mean - even if for some zany wierd reason there are issues with securing the copyright or livense or whatever to DYRL or SDFM TV...then surely making Macross Frontier characters at least would be a no brainer, instead of making what has to be the lamest VF-1 on the shelves out there... Pete

You know - this is something I LOVE about super robots - namely how unpretencious they are. When Transformers lay down on their backs or stomachs and say "now I'm something else!" I get pissy, but when super robots from the 70s do it - I'm thrilled. Why? Because it looks like Combattler V lying on his back with tank treads, airplane wheels and roller wheels. Why? Because it IS Combattle V lying on his back with all that stuff. And that's fine Because yeah sure - if I had a giant super robot and it was able to do that without crushing the wheels - heck - sure I'd turn it into that and call it "tank." I dunno - I just find it fun wheee! Super robot tank! But .... that looks like something my old Combattler V (aka the older version with the original colors) can do... Then again... I wouldn't really want to bother - I much prefer all the seperate vehicles. There's no reason why it would be better for him to be a super robot tank than to be a variety of vehicles, one of which is a tank... So this mode is kind of senseless as well as silly But still fun! Hmm... concievably - I think this mode would make a great battering ram! Combattler V Tank Fist Battering Ramo! Attaack!! Pete

Just so you guys know - the coloring book is probably itself a rip off. Yesterday, while rummaging for something to read, I found an old Voltron coloring book. It has the same "fill in the letter and discover the character's name" format. So - either HG licensed this to one company that also had the license from others and just had a set pattern... or the Robotech coloring book is a rip off of the Voltron coloring book I'll post some scans later today At least it's something to pass the time... Pete

I wasn't talking about the old Revoltech Valkyries, but the upcoming transformable ones. I agree with everything you wrote about the old ones - and the picture shows how wonderful it is. Now try taking the new transformable one and putting it in that post. Even if you could get it in that pose, it would look horrible because it looks horrible in any pose because they made it transformable and did a bad job of it. They also have raised the price of Revoltechs significantly. You won't be able to get these for the 15 bucks pre-shipping that you used to. Now it'll be more like 35 or even 40 dollars pre-shipping. And my comparisson was meant to underline that EVEN IF you could pose a transformable Revoltech Valkyrie "better" than a Yamato - the fact remains that Yamato's are going to win in the accuracy department. They are accurate and very poseable. The transformable revoltechs are not accurate at all - so who cares how well they can pose if no matter what pose you strike, it still doesn't look like it's supposed to? Anyways - point is - I wasn't talking about the old Revoltechs you refered to - and we agree about those Pete

In order of appearance: 1. New Misa: L-O-V-E!! Seriously - I so prefer Misa in normal civilian clothes, let alone in cute preppy outfits, to her uniform. She is a dream girl! 2. Zentradi soldiers fighting a Valk on the hull of SDF-1 Now - that picture is great because it is dark and full of terror. It perfectly illustrates just how blood curdlingly chilling the whole concept of Macross is...I mean - you're out in the void of space, far from Earth, alone, and big green men with clubs are trying to smash your brains in. IT'S SCARY. That's one thing that Macross does not do very well - it fails to illustrate the fear of space combat... or of combat in general. Hikaru is more often than not grappling with his pacifist inclination rather than just plane scared out of his whits... and Misa, upon seeing the dead pilot in space, doesn't think "oh, the horrors of war!" but instead thinks "Hikaru was right - they are risking themselves, so I'll show them I can take risks too and get into the cats eye to go on a dangerous mission myself." It's all very noble, but there isn't much terror going on - and this picture does a good job of terrifying us. Nice find. 3. Blonde Minmey: No. 4. NERV EVA Valkyries: Very nice! Yamato - please call Gainax now. Please ask them to license the three EVAs to you so you can customize the VF-1 molds into transformable EVAs and make these. They will be a hit in 2010! Pete

Well, technically yeah... But then again, Gamlin is not even a VF-11C pilot... he's in Diamond Force Right...? But "Diamond Force" could mean just as much as "Skull Squadron" or "Vermillion Team" ...just because your team has a name...does it make you part of an elite squad? I can't remember if, in episode 10, it's noted that the Pink Peckers were an elite force or not.....but probably it is...we'll keep that in mind as we move forward Pete

Yes, that's called the point of diminishing marginal returns - or there's always opportunity cost. But I did note that while demand is theoretically infinitie (we can imagine wanting everything and generally tend to), real demand, measured in the real world, is of course finite because it is tied to costs at every unit of said demand. I thought I was clear, but I guess I wasn't. And saying that there is a point where it over satures is exactly the same as my saying that at each higher price level, per-unit demand is lower. Remember- "price level" does not just mean "money price" - it means opportunity cost - time, other options, any alternative. So I think we're talking about the same thing, just using slightly different words to get to the same point. Yeah - that's the basic explanation they give in Robotech Art III if I remember correctly. I guess you're right that it must have been super-popular for like...a minute. It reminds me of that one TV show in the 80s - Dr. Fad. Do people remember him/it? The show was about "fads" - and people would come on the show on...show off their latest gizmo that they considered amazing - and it would fade into irrelevence a day later. Maybe HG should have come on the show to show off Robotech? No no... You've got it all wrong - MEMO is talking about ONE PERSON. His friend, who happens to be called England and is a big fan OF BASE. As in ACE OF BASE. I mean, we all know that if it was the fanbase in the UK he was talking about, then he'd say "England HAS one of the biggest FAN BASES I know of." As such, this is just a case of MEMO's curious writing style coming back to bite him. He's talking about a person - John England, who is a fan of Ace of Base (the music group). Nothing to do with Robotech. Pete

Yeah - hopefully tomorrow. I just got done building the legs. All I have left now are the waiste and the arms. The "snake" whip is very cool -I haven't built it, but looked in the instructions about how to build it. The legs are awesome too. But no more building for today...I'm beat... Guntank I'll probably get some time early next year... Pete

Well - I can give you my thoughts I was so inspired by your model building pace, that I went and tried to be like you. I have finished the head and main body. I quit for now, but maybe tomorrow morning I'll be able to finish the rest. As for the name Gouf - HLJ's president pointed the same thing you speak of [Gouf = goof/goofy in english] to some Japanese guys from Bandai, but if it amused them or phased them in any way...one did not notice. Anyways - as is pretty much well known, or at least it's no secret, that one of the big cool things about the version 2.0 Gouf is the innovative way that Bandai has made it easier for builders to get all the tube armor parts around the tubes. Well - I report that it does indeed work just like Bandai demonstrated and said it would. Good job Bandai. It sure is a lot easier to build those tubes now - so that is a big plus. As for everything else... the Gouf's inner frame is not as complex as the Zaku II because the Zaku II's cockpit pivotes from left to right (for reasons I don't understand) and you can open the cockpit from either the left side of the mecha or the right. Gouf's cockpit is a solid piece (with windows even) that just opens straight up to reveal the pilot - thus there's less need for mechanics in there. The shoulders are also less advanced than the Zaku II. That said, just as with every single Gundam produced in 2009 that I have built from Bandai - the colors are really awesomely vibrant. I mean - finally they have made the colors so vibrant that seriously - I see no reason to add paint to enhance the colors. I remember building my old Wing Zero custom and thinking the coloring to be a bit bland - no more. Every single model from 2009 could just as well have been painted. Gouf is no exception, the different shades of blue are really awesome. And of course, I love the simplicity of the MSG mecha; but it is just enhanced at MG scale. This is because under that simple, smooth armor there is great technical detail and a complex inner frame - and suddenly it becomes so obvious WHY it's not necessary for the outside to look complex. Armor SHOULD be smooth - there shouldn't be panels, creases, buttons, blinking lights etc etc on the outside - what use would it be - just simple straight forward armor - and that's what I like about the 70s robot aesthetic in general and these Mobile Suits in particular... Anyways, Gouf is not as complicated as Gundam, and MSG models are generally certainly no where NEAR as time consuming as SEED models...for better or for worse. Anyways - hopefully tomorrow I'll finish this guy up and move on to Exia... Pete

Yeah, that answers my questions - thanks I admire the tempo with which you crank these out. I usually can only sit still for 30 minutes per day tops, and sometimes even shorter - unless I'm feeling really mellow, which sometimes happens...then I can do one Gundam after another... I have to do the Gouf version 2.0 next, but after that it'll likely be Exia. Nice special stand by the way. Asfor Guncannon... You know - I'm really on the ropes about that one. I mean - I'll be kicking myself if I build it and Bandai goes and releases a version 2.0 in 2010... Then again - if they were going to do it, wouldn't this year have made more sense, what with the 30th anniversary? Anyways, Gouf, Zaku and Gundam got a v. 2.0 ... why not this guy? I dunno. Ultimately - I leave these kind of decisions up to my market. If I sell out of Guncannon before I can decide to build him - then I guess I wasn't meant to! Pete

Hm. Wouldn't it be better to go the Robotech route and make BOTH OF THEM leaders of the whole world? And then show Rick doubting if he can do it, because the 1980s Rodimus Prime complex was kewl?? And then show them perfectly in love, perfectly bantering and flirting with eachother and in full command of legions of super battle cruisers that can blow things up? .... Anyways - Keith - this is a great subject to discuss (your post, not my sarcastic Robotech reference)... I wonder...is Misa really the one who wears the proverbial pants in the relationship? Ostensibly yes...but... see... ok - here's the thing - YES - she makes all the decisions. But question: what guides her decisions? LOVE. Love of Hikaru Ichijo. See - that's why in an ironic way, it's Hikaru who wears the pants by not doing anything but being himself. She's so head over heals in love with him that she'll always end up doing things his way... Or - if HE ends up doing things her way, she'll always end up feeling guilty about chewing him out and being a stubborn old shrew. Ah - how I love thos two. How much tenderness there is in their interaction.. But no - I don't think Misa would have children and ditch them. I mean - look how she reacted to Millia's baby. I know technically women generally love babies - but she would be a terrific mom, I think. Maybe when the kid reaches like 8 years of age, she'd go back to work - but I couldn't see her leaving the baby when it's a...well...you know - baby. I think she'd want to be there. And I think she'd like Hikaru to be there too. But that's just probably my sentimentalism talking. But see - isn't it better to have a closed Macross series where all that's left of Hikaru and Misa are our own personal dreams based on the imprint their love left on our hearts? This is a question in reference to Happy Penguin's pondering whether it's better to show what happens to them ala Robotech or whether the Macross "leave it be" way is better. Not knowing has its' sweet touches too. We know they found love and eachother in a crazy universe - and that's enough. I really could care less after that if Hikaru perished bravely at the Battle of B'plak't'mochook choo, if Misa commanded a fleet of supergalacticscazofractic VZBDTBP-19-16-34-234 fighters, whether it was found that Rick Hunter was the descendent of Zor who himself was the descendent of Spor, who was demi-god of the galaxy and keeper of the sacred pit of Garmargelterskelter... You get the point. Construct a decent, good love story and let it be. Love stories - like all stories - should know how to end properly. Pete

Why are there 'z's to be filled in on Boldoza's sleeve? They serve no purpose... Pete

Of course there is. A naked Sara Nome singing in French has always been compelling to me Seriously though - I think that discussions of extraterrestrial life should never be a matter of "converting" people to "believe" one view or another. Maybe if you all stepped back and looked at it from the perspective of a less controversial subject: namely the question of whether or not there is water on the moon and if so, what could that imply? Nowadays, it is widely accepted that there is water on the moon. NASA has stated they found it, and the Indian space agency also discovered it. But stretching back to even before the NASA moon missions, there was great speculation on this subject, and I remember that, for example, the comic book Tintin on the Moon had a scene where Tintin found ice. Now it's just a given - but 10 years or 40 years ago - if you argued to vehemently that there was water on the moon...you were a possible loon I'm just saying - in science, you can never be 100% sure, and Freiflug88 is just presenting what he considers evidence and a personal experience. Arguing against somebody's personal experience is as futile as arguing against somebody's beliefs in general. Much better to just let the various view points be expressed and look at them critically. In any case - I'm having fun reading this thread and all the stuff people are talking about and hope it continues this way and doesn't become a slugfest where people imply others are UFO loons Pete

Well, bringing back the witch-hunting suggestion from an earlier post... I'm shocked! Shocked (but not really) to find that all this time, Gubaba - translator of Japanese Macross, sage of Nanase's boobs, was a CARD CARRYING MEMBER OF THE ROBOTECH FAN CLUB!! Although, I guess even at 11 years old, you had good sensibilities insofar as your reaction to what you got out of it Pete

Hm. The armchair economist in me just smiled. If there was truly a high demand for it, then it would have been met. As such, demand is always infinite - since all of us want an infinite amount. But demand is always measure relative to cost/price - which is the best measure of the reality of scarcity that we have. And of course as the price goes up, so the per-unit demand is lower. As the price receeds, per-unit demand is higher. Now by your own testimony, the series was "too expensive" for HG to sustain - question is - why? I mean, cost wise, it was really no different from other cartoons of the time which were able to go ahead and be made. So what made it "too expensive" ? In my view - it had to be the low demand. That is to say, there was too little demand at the specific price point where supplying that demand could have been cost-effective and therefore profitable. I keep repeating it, but I will note it again: I NEVER once as a child came across Robotech on TV. NOT ONCE. EVER. It was not syndicated in Cambridge, MASS and if it was - then please - if you or anyone you know lived in Cambridge MASS at the time - please let me know where in the blazes YOU saw it - because I watched cartoons every morning before the school bus came and in the afternoon after school and on Saturday mornings and seriously - I would have seen it... So it was actually not even universally syndicated/distributed in the USA. Now there is a debate about the extent to which supply creates and sustains demand or vice-versa. But whatever the particular case for Robotech - it just wasn't happening. I'm sure that Matchbox's rather sub-par merchandise didn't help either. I dunno..oh wait . yes I do... Let me go get my Robotech Art III and quote something please - now this is about Senitnels, of course, but I think that's what we're talking about, since it was rushed and ultimately crammed into some kind of stinky special feature wasn't it? In any event - from Robotech Art III: Ah crap.... I can't find it...must be upstairs...if anybody has it maybe they can find the exact quote... But it says in there, at the beginning when they're explaing the production history, that the exchange rate changed radically and that their contract was in Yen, and that suddenly they had to pay more USD than they initially thought. Now this is technically plausible, but it could also just be another HG cop out. Who knows. If it is true - then their argument is basically: there was huge demand for Robotech, but then the exchange rate changed and we failed. I don't buy it. If the huge demand had been there and they suddenly came up short a couple million bucks or whatever then that's what banks are for. It is highly unlikely that they wouldn't have been able to secure credit to make up for the exchange rate collapse if Robotech were indeed ravingly popular - SOMEBODY would have given them a loan to make money off of that popularity. Pete

Oh wow. Really? That is pretty bad. I only watched 5 episodes and got bored with it pretty quickly. Kind of felt a bit like that SEED movie "the blazing starlight" or whatever it was called, but without the benefit of being only 2 hours long... OO was asking me to suffer 26 episodes or however much of it there might have been. Oh - and that's another thing. Gundam has just about ZERO humor in it. This is true for just about all the Gundam I've seen except for Turn-A, but even there the humor is a double edged sword because it's just usually stuff like Loren bumping his head - which isn't so much funny as meant to show that things do not always proceed smoothely, without a flaw. But yeah...if your show lacks any humor whatsoever and compels a sombre, sober and gritty theme upon you...then that theme better be good. I personally was very enthusiastic about OO judging by the first episode - the idea of the Celestial Beings as endeavoring to stop war, and the complex political landscape that the show presents us on Earth - all very promising. But then really quickly things go really wrong...I'm not sure what exactly it was the put me to sleep... oh...now I remember...I think it might have been the colorless and boring characters....and that Graham guy .... But this show is really hot and cold - some people really love it. I don't hate it. I haven't seen it, so who knows? But it just doesn't stick... As for the mecha... hm...ugly? I dunno. A bit spindly at times... above all - too much mecha. Too much. I don't like shows where there's too much super-mecha unless they're presented like in Gurren Lagann where there's just a supreme amount of carnage... err... um... As for: Good question. For that matter, the idea of a Sniper mecha isn't exactly something that either Frontier or 00 came up with either, is it? I mean, there was a Gundam sniper mecha in some earlier series, and I'm sure if we dug around, there'd be various sniper mecha in obscure anime that came before too. Pete

I'm happy that line came up, Happy P. See - this is a good lesson for all: just because there's demand for more of something - maybe it isn't productive to rush more of something out too quickly? I mean, I think - I can't know for certain - that there was always a pretty big demand for more Macross in Japan, but they didn't tend to be rushing out series every new year. They took their time, and when they did present a Macross to the public, it had been worked on for quite a while, likely undergone numerous changes, and was well thought out. Result? STAYING POWER. The same can be said for the majority of excellent anime that were produced over the past decades and to this day people watch them on Youtube. That is, you see, another thing - in my opinion - that the internet will change. I remember reading in Robotech Art III that HG was rushing to get Robotech produced and syndicated because there was this general rush in the market to capitalize on the cartoon/toys formulae - and you had Transformers, He-Man, GI Joe and a host of other shows duking it out with eachother for prime time, and you really had to get Robotech out there and not dilly dally over the details. Nowadays, however, a new anime or cartoon NOT ONLY has to compete with whatever other new things are on TV... but it actually has to compete with EVERYTHING that came before too. Because If I think the new Transformers series sucks, I'm just gonna go on Youtube to watch the old one. If I don't like some new anime, I can go watch Gunbuster or Ideon or an old Gundam series. It's all there - at peoples' finger tips 24/7 - and it competes with anything new. This means that the "rush" to syndication is no longer justified because what is more important than getting your cartoon on TV is making a GOOD cartoon. Robotech didn't do that in the 80s, which is exactly why it sputters like a Soviet car right now rather than having any momentum. Because say what you want about how cheesy lots of its' competitors were, but the fact remains that Transformers was an artistic masterpiece in comparisson - its' three seasons were actually connected, made consciously, and there was a lot of continuity in the cartoon (not to mention the comic). Hm. There, see, I can say nice things about Transformers after all. Anyways - Robotech's real legacy, IMO, is in the novels and the role playing games. It is seldom mentioned even in this thread just how awesome the Role Playing game was. Is that because I am the only person in the universe who played it? Or could it be because Robotech was not on TV when I was a kid, but it WAS in the bookstores (novels) and in hobby shops (role playing game) and I primarily remember it fondly as a Role Playing Game? Anyways - that was really awesome because it added a level of realism and imaginative adventure that you couldn't get from just passively watching a cartoon. But the Role Playing games are deader than the Robotech cartoon it seems, and the cartoon wasn't very good to begin with. The novels - for all their faults surely the high point of Robotech lore - have been retconned and gutted by the powers that be. They put all their dice on Shadow Chronicles and it fell flat because it was building on something that had little staying power anyways. Robotech is NOT, after all, on any serious individual's "must see" list of anime. Robotech, if anything, is rather a historical curiosity. It's kind of like a stage in the evolution of the cartoon market in the USA - and given that, to my mind, it is the only real known case of a company chopping together different shows and changing them radically - then wouldn't it be safe to say that it is an example to others of how not to go about things? In any event - this one thing keeps coming back to haunt Robotech - and it won't stop - ever. Namely, the fact that it bypasses the literary and artistic intention of its' parts, which are not related to eachother and which belong to seperate universes. In no uncommon terms - it is a lie. A hack job. And if that was supposed to be some kind of "vehicle" for bringing anime to America then it demonstrates, IMO, just how LOW of an estimation of the American market the Japanese have. I mean - it must. I can't see how they'd agree to that hack job except that they never cared what Americans thought of anime and looked at it purely financially - ok, this guy wants to buy three anime and take them to some country we don't care about and make some lame show out of them. Fine. Happens all the time. Just leave the money at the door and go have your fun. Thankfully, nowadays with the internet, the rest of the world can just enjoy Japanese anime as is. And I think the Japanese are much happier with being able to speak directly to a global audience, with not having to "westernize" their anime - with the fact that as it stands it is loved by people all over the world just fine. And that now they respect foriegn views on the subject a bit more - because those foriegners do not need a filter in the form of HG or anybody else to give them the anime they desire to see. Pete (if you think that's a long post, be thankful I don't drink coffee in the morning!)