VFTF1

Well - I will admit that I always could tell I was back in the states whenever I'd fly into Detroit Metro...just so many overweight people in sweat pants But on the plus side, Americans are usually nicer than Europeans IMO. Or at least more accessable. Pete who is straying way off topic...so...will try to come back to the topic by predictably announcing: ROBOTECH SUCKS! Pete

TOPIC: EPISODE 1 Nice to hear people are watching episode 1 and enjoying it. I was going to comment on all of your comments, but I think I'll wait for more to show up and then try to attack several points at once My ex-girlfriend suddenly called me and made me take her out to dinner during which she proceeded to tell me how much I suck and what a looser I am. Then I invited her to a movie, to which she said yes, but later changed her mind to no. When we parted, she told me that there was no way she could be with me and then kissed me goodnight (and it wasn't a peck on the cheek ;-) ) and went to clean her apartment. I swear - I'm starting to think she's Minmey - NOT Misa. Misa would never be this flighty... anyways.... it totally threw me off track...at least she called me AFTER I got out of the gym, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to work out. Back to the gym tomorrow, and then after I finish my work out routine - I'll try to delve into all of these interesting comments - hopefully there'll be more. Pete

Hm... You know - this line of thought tends to suggest that the next Macross might be about how humanity finally achieve everything the Protoculture achieved and then...blow themselves up Pete

Almost. The thing is, companies can later get those "fees" refunded if they overpayed. Tax payers (consumers) cannot. Thus, it is really a tax on the poor and middle class, not on companies. But notice that BBTS has the following written on ALMOST every item they sell: They've tagged this on to even regular Hasbro Transformers - I suspect it's because they couldn't be assed to go item by item to determine which one mandates the "warning" and which one doesn't. Is there any doubt why the warning is there? I'm sure that lots of children want to and do purchase stuff from them - yet technically the stuff cannot be legally sold to children - so the big fat warning is there to avoid them getting sued by overzealous parents and other problems. You're right about MP Starscream - however, in a way, Transformers as kind of an exemption to the rule because in general Takara develops them ALONG with Hasbro, so they probably take the needs of the US market into account. But try selling Revoltechs or Macross products in the "toy" section of Walmart -- assuming there were no licensing issues - you'd run into the problem of regulations and toy safety laws because of sharp parts, small parts etc etc. However - you're right that this does not apply in all cases - I'm kind of speaking in general. Finally, as cool as BBTS is... it's not like they're walmart or Toys'r'us. They're one store. A huge one, and a cool one - no doubt - but it's not like it's a chain. Pete

Re: TF & Gundam Syndrome: Show-wise...yes. However - there's one big difference in Gundam's favor IMO. Namely, the models are so kick ass that no matter how bad the shows are or get, so long as Bandai keeps advancing it's modeling technology and the actual mecha are well designed - Gundam will remain exciting and viable. I say this as someone who has major problems finding a Gundam show he likes, but has no problems building Gundams from all the various universes and being totally in awe of them - from MSG to Wing to SEED - whatever. I'm now waiting with bated breath on the Blue Frame Astrea. Transformers, on the other hand - does not seem to be offering progressively better toys. I mean - seriously - look at the movie line. It's like the designs and execution gets worse and worse. Heck - I swallowed the movie designs partially because I started imaging how they'd look as toys and thought "wow - that's going to be a radically complex toy - cool." Instead, all the complexity just ends up a MOLD on an otherwise routine blocky piece. Like - look at the movie line - it's all fake. Bumblebee's license plate ends up on his torso... but it's just PAINTED on there. Bad bad bad. It would have been wicked if they figured out a way to GET IT THERE via transformation. Bonecrusher - hello - AWESOME menacing imposing dude is just a deluxe sized piece of crap with all the technological zig-zaggy details moulded on to otherwise blocky pieces. This is why the toys suck so bad - because all of the innovative design parameters are moulded on. I understand this in a LEGENDS CLASS toy... but... in larger toys..come on. COP OUT. Pete TF Gloom and Doom profit..no...wait...PROPHET heh heh...

The VF-1D is beautiful and everyone should get it mainly for Minmey in TV accurate dress!!! She's such a babe in that dress! Pete

Technology and size are nothing in comparisson to the eternal power of a burning passionate love heart [and Sheryl's magnificent bootie! ]!!!!!!!!!!! Pete

Actually, the longer I sit in this business, the more I come to the conclusion that one of the main reasons why the anime market is a mega-niche market outside of Japan isn't necessarily because it's "small" and therefore the Japanese don't have any incentive to market to us - but rather due to reasons which are completely internal to the west: A) VAT taxes. The USA isn't affected by this, but Europe has horrendously high VAT taxes, and while a business like mine is VAT neutral - so what - since customers have to pay it anyways - whether buying from an importer or whether importing themselves (unless it's a parcel under 100 Euros value...which given the prices of things like statues, valkyrie and SOCs is rare). This tax really REALLY eats into profit margins and makes it very difficult to offer items in bulk B) BUT - even IF a big distributor wanted to offer things in bulk - and this goes for the USA as well, if not even more so than Europe - they have to deal with...TOY SAFETY LAWS. The sad fact of the matter is that toy safety laws in the west have basically made 99% of what WE (adults) once played with as kids..."adult collectibles." Now, with current technology, it is possible to make more and more accurate representations of figures with swords, guns, airplanes, robots etc etc. But so what? Child safety laws prohibit jets from looking like jets, guns from looking like guns, prohibit the accessories we love (because they fall under small chokable pieces) and prohibit "sharp edges" and projectiles - basically FORCING toy makers to MAKE UGLY TOYS. THIS is, in my opinion, one of the biggest reason why Transformers are progressively uglier. In order to mass market them, Hasbro MUST sell them to children - but to target children, Hasbro must comply with laws which effectively say "your jet cannot look like a jet, your robot cannot look like a robot but must look like a safe blob and have nothing that children might swallow, shoot their eyes out with etc". Yamato and Bandai and Kaiyodo and all of the best Japanese companies ARE NOT going to have seperate factories to produce INFERIOR products that happen to comply with American laws - it would just make not sense. C) Licensing Agreements - which are actually nothing more than big corporations using government to impose mafia-like restrictions on other companies and dividing the world into "corporate turfs" much like different Mafia families divide cities into turfs. I'll give you an example: I noticed that in Poland, Cosplay is pretty popular - so I thought I might start offering Cospa stuff in my store. Turns out that according to the laws here, in order to import ANY clothing - you need a "certificate of origin" from the manufacturer... but Cospa, under licensing agreements from all the various owners of the IP that they make clothing to correspond to CANNOT sell outside of Japan. I can import "samples" - 1 or 2 pieces of individual Cospa items - but not in bulk - and therefore it becomes impossible to actually offer anything but direct import at a higher price than I would have been able to offer if not for the licensing agreements. Now - in my opinion - either we have a global marketplace or we DON'T. Imagine a licensing agreement in the USA whereby a producer in NYC cannot "export" goods to...Boston. That would be pretty stupid, wouldn't it? But corporations cut up turf between countries in a way that they couldn't within individual countries because it would go against freedom of commerce. These are just three reasons - but important ones in my view - why Japanese companies CAN'T - not "don't want to" - but CAN'T expand the anime market. And the corporations in the west are happy about it too. What do they care whether kids go into Toys'r'us and see crap on the shelves? They love the "child safety laws" because it keeps competition off the shelves - competition that makes BETTER products (which happen to cost more). This way they can keep manufacturing "safe crap" for pennies on the dollar and shove it down the mass of peoples throats. But thankfully - the internet and independent dealers and little importers (to toot my own horn) are slowly revolutionizing the way the world does business. And we WILL win. Because the huge retail giants are going bankrupt. Big retailers have overhead costs that they simply can't cover in a depression - renting space, workers, electricity bills, health benefits, social security, payroll taxes - not to mention most of them run on credit which has run out. I am happy that there is a global economic crisis because it's time to clean house. These big guys need to go bankrupt. The sooner the better. People are just not buying their crap. Sure - small dealers and retailers are suffering too - but it's proportionate suffering. We're not over-expanded and it's precisely because we service niche markets that we have a better handle on what's going on instead of having a huge store full of over priced crap that nobody wants. So - I predict that when this crisis blows over - anime and the anime market will be stronger for it and all the big guys who regimented the world will be weaker. Pete

I agree with Jenus here. There's usually more than one prototype or design in the works - maybe real soon Yamato will surprise us with something smaller but more feasable. The one thing from the big one that I really wanted was a fully painted Macross city. Pete

VF1A-FAN: I officially add you to my list of favorite MW members and I designate you High Priest of Haruhism on this board!! Not only is your photography outstanding, not only do you have an innate ability to pose small figures of sexy girls, and oblivious guys, not only do you wisely add a small gashapom of Kyon's sister - but your story structure is outstanding. You've just made my Saturday worth living! Pete

Re: "the conspiracy theory" - told you it was real and to quote myself: Re: HG hiding original Japanese anime: Lone Wolf has a good point. They've never pretended the stuff doesn't exist. I think the problem is they didn't anticipate the growth of the internet, and they were completely blindsided by the rise of fans who prefer watching something in Japanese with subtitles. After all - look at it this way: Americans don't DO substitles. Americans don't watch movies with subtitles. Americans need and by and large want things in english so they can turn off their brain an absorb during a movie, rather than read. Subtitles is something the rest of the world reads. But lo and behold - it turns out that a plurality of American anime fans want to see the original Japanese work with subtitles (I think...) Maybe HG was hoping that people would react to the news that Robotech was based on Macross/Mospedea etc just like TF fans reacted to news that the 84 cars were all from the Diaclone line. It's not like there's a huge Diaclone following around...although in fairness I guess that's because Diaclone never really went anywhere - whereas Transformers did. Hard to say. Lots of guessing...unless someone in the know can lay it out. Pete

Man... I feel sorry for all you guys who are too busy We're in the midst of an economic depression -can't you be...I dunno...unemployed or at least get your hours cut or something? In any case, today I'm gonna download more as soon as I get out of the gym (nod to A1 for inspiration!)... and I am looking forward to reading what everyone has to say about episode 1 Bomba! Pete

That's true. I'm just being gloomy as standard MO for this thread Pete

Yeah, and my car is made of Fortress Maximus grade plastic.... Seriously though - the comparisson is kind of off-kilter. The pictures we've seen do not do justice to what Yamato wanted to do in terms of a finished product - I'm sure of that. The interior of that leg- Macross city - was going to be PERFECTLY painted. Just like the version 2.0 valkyrie have excellent tampoo printings and markings. We were going to get an anime accurate PAINTED mass produced city inside the Macross. We were going to get well crafted and well painted 1/2000 scale valkyrie and destroids. We were going to get Bridge antenna and wires like we saw in DYRL. Fortress Maximus was just a lumbering big piece of plastic with NO panel lining and scant detail - REALLY scant detail. The amount of detailing on Yamato's Macross products is so far superior and an SDF-1 in this scale would certainly be super detailed. Going off the unpainted, unfinished pictures we've seen - you might think it looks simple, lacking in detail and effectively "easy" to mass produce. But try to imagine for a second what that thing would look like if it was ready to go out into the world... Pete

Yep - Ranka Mao is beautiful. But I also like the plushies- especially Ai-kun!! I so want one!! Pete

Since we're on the topic of sex... Question: Why won't Harmony Gold DARE send a Cease and Decist order to the producers of the Robotech Thruster? Answer: Because then their own fanbase would rise up against them, since Robotech fans most likely are the main consumers of the Robotech Thruster. What is Pete talking about? Behold: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Robotech-Th...ice-55398.shtml I dare Harmony Gold to go after these guys! Pete

I think the real reason for the drop in quality is that every time Hasbro announces a new TF, we're also looking at pictures of new Gundams, Revoltechs, VFMs, valkyrie, statues and even gashapom which show more craftsmanship and attention to detail than what they're doing. In short: there is no love in Transformers any more. although, there really hasn't been since BW. In fact, looking back at it now, I wonder whether Beast Wars was just a fluke since nobody was sure whether the brand would experience growth after it. I mean, G2 didn't help generate lasting sales - and whenever the execs see something as a 'fad' they probably don't care enough to intervene... But really for the past X years Transformers has undergone systematization - it's just a formulae of reboots.... I agree with the person who posted above that since it's aimed at kids in a certain age range, they need to reboot it every year hit the new up and coming age range but... I dunno... On the other hand... I just have a feeling that Transformers is the new asset bubble. It's been riding on nostalgia and love of something long gone and buried and it will burst. The high profits from the first move - and the toy sales from the first movie - are the zenith. My prediction: Transformers will dissapear from toy shelves in 2011. The third movie will be their death. And maybe that's a good thing because if the series stays dead a while - maybe fans will remember the good, forget the bad, and something sensible can one day be made of it... Or maybe not. Maybe it'll be around forever. Maybe they've figured out how to perpetuate it forever. Then again - I am again being overly extremist. Animated was decent. It wasn't fully satisfactory but it was certainly a move in the right direction compared to the Unicron Trilogy... But still...I dunno... the toys - the mainline toys get worse and worse... Pete

Wow! So many awesome manga and books! My manga collection is so sad...it's just one little booklet, in French of the first episode of NGE...nothing more But since we're posting Mikuru pictures....I'll take some of my own as soon as I'm finished cleaning my room I recently sold off all my Transformers and have been slowly moving my Macross and SOC figures from my play room to my bedroom, where Transformers used to dominate the shelves... Pete

This is like waiting for the bootleg of your dream Toyota to come on the market I'm gonna wait for Yamato to make a proper SDF-1 if it's all the same Pete

Well, it's your doll - so it's not like I'm telling you what to do with her.... you can make her look how you like. It's just to me a) she doesn't look like Mikuru without the proper proportions - and this is not an opinion, but just a statement of fact when comparing the animation model to the doll and b) (this is the statement of opinions) - I like the animation model. I mean... it's really been a dilemna for me, which girl in the show to love more. And surprisingly - I have decided that I love Yuki the most. I would marry her in a heartbeat. Reasons: a) Sexy (like all three of them) in her own way. Sure, she doesn't have Mikuru's breasts, legs or butt, nor does she have Haruhi's slender body...but she is feminine. She's delicate and tender and strangely enough...while I generally DON'T like short hair on a girl - Yuki gets a pass because her hair has a lot of body in it - it's thick, it's stylish - there's stuff going on there. And yeah - she does look better without the glasses...but I don't mind them either. b) I love women with power - and Yuki is power incarnate. c) I like women who are quiet, don't talk to much, but are very intelligent and well read. Having said that - it was not an easy choice between the three - and certainly Mikuru's boobs and butt and legs were a big attraction. Oh - and of course that one line she had: "Kyon - if I become spoiled for marriage, will you still take me?" My god!! It's hard to resist a girl who talks like that! But in the end, Yuki won my heart, Haruhi won my head...so I guess that leaves Mikuru with...er..another part of my body that she would win Pete

That's odd. It's usually the other way around. Pete

Meh. If people think the bitching and complaining is bad because Yamato DIDN'T release this to the general public... Imagine just how many "screw you Yamato!" threads there would have been if Yamato HAD released it, and it started breaking in people's hands If anything - this is a QC victory - they concluded it wouldn't work...yet. Back to the drawing board. Good. Bravo. Like Graham said - be patient. I for instance am holding out for a 1:1 Minmei android who does everything we possibly could dream of Pete

Let me preface my response by saying that I think this is exactly the how life should look like: a serious debate about whether or not Mikuru should have big breasts, or small breasts... The thing is... if it's just a matter of prefering smaller breasts - you've got Yuki and Haruhi herself to play with. I don't understand how you can love Mikuru on the one hand, but want her breasts smaller on the other? I mean - a guy who said about a girl " I love you - but you need bigger boobs" would be called insensitive. Now you're saying about Mikuru "I love you - but you need smaller boobs." I mean - I guess I can sort of see that you love the character, the personality and think the girl has boobs that are too big... ok ... but... to me - Mikuru's personality is tied up in her boobs and her generally chunky (chunky like say...Nanase) figure. I don't like to think of people as being abstract minds whose bodies have nothing to do with who they are. Naturally, one must moderate, and of course the intellect is superior in many ways - but why not - when we are able - also enjoy the body and acknowledge the impact it has on who we are. Mikuru's boobs are part of her personality. Make them smaller, and you belittle Mikuru-chan. Mikuru must have boobs that are big, and her butt must be firm and big and her waste tight and her legs short but firm and proportional, Just like her hair must be long. It's just who she is - as Haruhi says - every story needs a beautiful lolita - and few stories get a beautiful lolita with a body like Mikuru's. I will defend her big boobs to the end Pete

Heh This is a criticism that is also often heard about the first few episodes of the series - but already I plan on exploding it when we get around to episode 2.... which...I will do later - or try to do But actually - it's good you bring this up. Because let's see whether this stereotype, which has also grown and kind of sunken into the general fan outlook just like the "one dimmensional Basaara character" stereotype actually holds up.... Don't worry Technically we shan't be watching episode 2 until next Friday... Unless I wake up tomorrow and there are like 20 posts about episode 1 and it looks like we've said all there is to be said But we'll see Pete

That's fine. I mean - the thread "rules" are not really rules as much as guidelines so the thread doesn't get too derailed or turn into ANOTHER general discussion of Macross 7.... because each episode actually contains a lot of meat. And like I pointed out above - I noticed in our recent various M7 threads or whenever M7 was brought up, the main debate always went something like this "Yes, Bassara is one-dimensional but I love that dimmension!" or "Basara is one dimmensional and I hate that dimension" ... And as I rewatched episodes 1 and 2 - especially 2 - I reminded myself that actually NO - Basara is not a cardboard one dimmensional character. There's lots of nuance in there... It's just it gets lost because generally M7 has a powerful thrust in the form of Basara's relentless crusade... but if we go episode by episode...I think we'll start to rediscover the strength of the plot and character writing... That said - sure...two a week is fine. But for now - why don't we see if anyone has anything substantial to contribute about episode 1? If, after a few days, nobody has anything else to add about episode 1 - then yeah, we'll move to episode 2. I think in general what should determine our pace is how much people have to say about an episode, how much debate there is/will be AND of course a reasonable allowance to give people a chance to catch up. I'm going to be downloading more episodes tomorrow - and hey, I also want to watch more faster... but I'd rather not and hope people hop on board and give them a chance to comment. The purpose here is to take it a little slow and give a fair viewing to the good, the bad and the Honey in Macross 7. Easy: It is a big pyramid structure that comes out of the water on a certain planet wherein all the mysteries of the Protoculture reside... But I think we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and talk about that thing until the episode comes up Anybody have anything ANYTHING at all to say about episode 1? Pete