VFTF1

I wish I knew as much as Keith Can you please tell me what anime this is in? Pete EDIT: And to stay on topic: Gamlin is cool because he has grey hair. I have some of that too.

With all due respect to Macross, but NOTHING tops the FLAMING BURNING COMBINATION OF A MAN'S SOUL KICK* from when Gurren Lagann faces Thymil's Mobile Fortress and, after getting (literally) blown sky high, comes falling down with the debris straight at the Enkidu... Now back to worshipping that cheesy guy who wears an orange shirt while fighting terrorists. Pete *I probably got the name of the kick wrong too...but it was one hell of a scene!

It all makes perfect sense. For example, recently, I wanted to post a couple hundred pages worth of raving and cheering about the VF-19 Kai that's coming....but I couldn't figure out where it might be located...and I think I even went into the VF100 thread, but they were talking about the Monster prototype in there and I couldn't find Bassara. This made me sad. On the other hand - USUALLY people are able to spontaneously organize things and post in the correct topic, and the topics are generally pretty clear. My advice: Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. The forum is pretty much as well organized as it can be - unless someone has a radical and sensible idea for why everything should be re-arranged and how that could be better - all we can do is do our best to keep things are organized as possible. Pete

I'm generally sticking to their Fraulein figures which are good quality, although Figma is now competative with them for sure. But there's enough love in me for both. As for super robots - until those prices (in Yen - because I'm not talking about exchange rate causing the price to go up...in this case I think Revoltechs just literally got more expensive) fall for the super robots... it's pointless. CHEAP super poseable anime accurate little super robots - great idea. Expensive little ones...and you start picking out the flaws, seeing the short comings and wondering why bother... But I repeat myself... So I'll also say - I've gone the Revoltech route with Gurren Lagann as well - because really what choice was there? They're the only ones who made Lagann and Gurren, and things like Arc Gurren Lagann etc.... And I do think they are awesome figures. Most Revoltechs are awesome - it's just that SOC is more awesome and I'd rather get those if I can choose between them. Pete

I don't have a DVD player or a TV That's because I just use my laptop. I don't read newspapers, but instead read news and commentary on the internet. Don't watch TV shows, but instead if I hear about something cool I check out Youtube. Naturally my laptop also has a DVD player function built in. And yes - it has a big screen - at least big enough to satisfy me:) Um...and Robotech is yucky! (to keep it on topic) Pete

There's already an entire thread dedicated to these - "non-cannon" VF-1s from Yamato Pete

Wow. Those USB and Alternity toys actually look really good..when seen as extremely miniaturized thumb nails... Ok...sorry...that was a lowball comment... I really appreciate that Transformers fans on this thread don't hang me...seriously... I guess I'm just a 30 year old TF fan who is bitter about how the franchise let him down after sticking with it through so much crap...I didn't gripe ever before...and now it's just all bawling out of me...like a volcano exploding... Pete

I'll tell you what ISN'T made in China: Made Men. They're still made... oh whatever...lame joke # 4001....it was either that or "but do bears really sh!t in the woods?" ....also lame... why is this thread still open? Pete going away now...

I haven't seen the movie compilations, but I have watched the MSG series - and a lot more of that goes on in the series. In fact, it's one of the strongest things that the MSG series has going for it. There are plenty of good Zeon soldiers helping civilians, and getting hammered by the Federation while trying to save children. Then, later in the series, there's a whole sub-plot with a Zeon spy that Kai falls in love with - this is probably the high point of the series for me because Kai, who is just a coward forced to pilot a mobile suite and fight a war he'd rather not fight, sees a kinsman in the girl - who is just a coward who wants to feed her younger siblings and will spy for Zeon to get money for them but would rather not. Both of them hate the reality they are in and find kindered spirits in one another and the tragic ending of the relationship really made me very sad. But it also makes Kai my favorite Gundam character. Pete

So beautiful and so off-topic at the same time. I can tell I'm going to love this book a whole lot more than Minmey's bubbly adventure. Work faster ! (*whip!*) Again - why pollute the world with even a reference to Robotech? As much as I love this thread, I sometimes think the best way to fight HG and Robotech is to totally ignore its' existence. I mean - I imagine that Japanese otaku and Macross Fans don't wonder what's up in the world of Robotech and how Robotech compares to Macross. They're just Macross fans. I try to condition myself to think of a world where there's no Robotech - there's just Macross and all its' stories. And this is actually healthy because ultimately - even by Robotech's OWN standards - it has NOTHING to do with Macross. Pete

Well, to take the subject semi-seriously for a moment, we need to remember that value is relative to purchasing power. I remember when Polish newspapers were up in arms here about a year ago over "exploited" Chinese workers who were brought to Poland to put up buildings and they earned 400 PLN per month (roughly 150 USD give or take). But the thing is, these guys who just come here for say three or four months, live on the construction sight, put up the building or whatever, and go back to China with their money. They had living quarters paid for and food as well. And I'm guessing that the 1200 PLN that they brought back to China buys a tad bit more over there than it does in Europe. If it didn't - you bet they wouldn't be coming here to work in the first place. And in case anybody doubts it, it was exactly the same with Polish people who migrated to the USA in the second half of the XXth century or, more recently, to the UK and especially Ireland. You'd go work in a pub for one summer in Ireland, come back to Poland and you could sit in the capital of the country, pay rent on a nice apartment and live like a king for a year. Of course, now that Poland has been in the EU for a while, purchasing power of GBP or Euro are not what they once were, and prices in Poland have risen to reflect a generally European level. But my point is that these kind of disparaties DO exist for a number of reasons. And there's no point in whining about them. Where would you PREFER your super detailed, super articulated Valkyrie were produced? In Detroit? You'd be paying 2 thousand bucks for a VF-1 then. Really, I personally think westerners need to stop complaining about how everything is made in China for "nothing" and stop to consider that maybe one reason for that is because the West is overburdened by taxes and public debt that are artificially driving up costs. Pete

Sadly, your sig has forever appeared on my screen as a series of squares... Not me. Life is to short to waste it on burying something that's 6 feet under already but just doesn't know it. Err...and that sentence is my way of staying on topic in this thread Pete

There might be only one guitar - but the power of the music that it plays is like a dynamite explosion that expands the universe beyond all known bounds, penetrates space and time and delivers us all to a higher plane of existance! BOMBA!!! Pete who really needs to start an M7 fansite....

Wouldn't it just be easier to burn 2500 USD? Pete

Sometimes the best arguments only require a one liner. Pete

Yes. While I support Gubaba changing his avatar to my laptop's wallpaper - I am deeply hurt and my happy life has forever been shattered because I no longer get to see Ranka with a big carrot and in bunny ears talking to me on the internet. Pete

Don't worry. I was SO stupid that before the first Movie toys came out, I was CONVINCED that ALL of them would at least be at the level of Binaltechs, if not MPs. My reasoning was thus: It's the Live Action Movie - the biggest event in Transformers history - Hasbro will surely make the greatest toys they ever produced for this. Then I got wave one. That was the beginning of the end of my relationship with Transformers... Pete

On a related note, I miss carrot girl Pete

I had a few bucks and was searching ebay for a brain, when suddenly, masked Yamato ninja broke into my house, stole all my money, and left me with nothing but about 20 different Valkyrie lock your doors guys - before it happens to you too! Well - Gatus can have his opinions. The real problem is that we already HAVE a lame thread with absolutely nothing to back people's claims on Yamato... and it is our SECOND such thread, since the old one probably went to the Hall of Super Topics. And invite Gatsu to the existing thread on this topic please EDIT: Knock yourself out Gatsu - all the discussion is going on here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=31503 Pete

Yamato makes seven million USD dollars per valkyrie. They do this by buying female prisoners of war from the hills of Afghanistan, the depths of hyperinflation and war wracked Zimbabwe, Etheopia and Somalia for one penny per person, and then forcing them to have lots of babies who are brought up in Chinese caves where they have their legs cut off at age 4 and are cemented down to a work station at age 5 and taught to produce Valkyrie 16 hours a day. They sleep for 8 hours and are fed kool aid intraveneously, along with assorted vitamins - the basics. They sell the Valkyries for roughly 200 hundreds bucks per piece by themselves - using front agencies to pretend that they are retailers and distributors. Then, they take the money and invest it in a little known trust fund in Hong Kong where the key commodity being traded is uranium, slaves, and frozen embroys. They make millions every day doing this. All this money is blasted into space by rockets launched from Siberia - and the rockets fly to the moon, where Yamato have constructed a huge moon base full of naked stripers and pleasure dolls which service them day in and day out while they watch Macross fans like you work yourself to death to scrape up some dollars for their next repaint. HAH HAH HAH! The evil truth is revealed. Pete

Well - lik I said - I can make no statement about the new BSG (or even the old one for that matter) - but I just like the tone of the article. Of course, if Benedict is actually flat out wrong about his interpretation and completely fails to see some elements of the plot that other people view as obvious - then that's another matter. You might also be right about him being bitter about the sun setting on his career etc etc - but I still like guys like that. I take his complaining with a grain of salt. I'm trying to imagine if someone wrote something like this about a series I love then maybe I'd feel the same as you guys- so ok - point taken. I guess I kind of read this article in the same vein as that one recent article ripping into ROTF (another movie I haven't seen) - and I loved how he ripped into the movie even though I didn't see it and might not agree with him if I had seen it. In other words - abstracting Bennedict's article from the BSG series - I just find it both entertaining, sentimental and I like some of the things he has to say and his general approach. But to repeat - I can't and don't have an opinion on BSG - new or old - because I haven't seen any of them. If anything - think of it this way: Bennedict's passionate rant might just get me to move my lazy butt to watch both of them Pete

I'm happy to finally have somethng to disagree with you about Gubaba Anyways - I am unable to comment directly on Benedict's views of the new BSG, since I have only seen one episode, a remember actually liking it for its' dark, brooding and melancholy mood. I have not seen the whole series, so I'm by no means going to say Benedict is right in how he interprets the series. But - I do think he makes a good point in general with regard to the direction that culture, and film in particular (since that's his topic), has gone in. Manly characters in film are few and far between AND ironically - even when they do appear...they have to either be super-human or non-human. Case in point: the Terminator in T2 and T3, Optimus Prime (a robot) in Transformers the movie. Harrison Ford's character in Blade Runner (who, it turns out might be an android himself). Also - I think it would be a mistake to presume on the basis of Benedict's essay that there is only ONE definition of manliness, and that it is always macho and can be summed up by smoking a cigar and hitting on chicks. If anything - Benedict is the liberal here, I would argue- because he is not afraid to talk about sexuality and the differences between the sexes openly - he does not fear making common sense remarks about men and women that would stir people to thought and debate and that have a grain of truth in them. Because -remember guys - we're talking about human beings here - not math. There are not equations of formulae that show us what a woman is and what a man is. Men are different amongst themselves as are women. But that doesn't mean that there aren't often certain traits that women have and certain traits that men have. One good sign of the "society wide attack on manliness" (if you want to call it that, which I don't...) is that people are afraid to talk about these traits - especially MEN are afraid to talk about them for fear that they would be accused of either being old fashioned or outright sexist. But men who can't think about manliness and discuss the subject (and films and movies that have manly characters are one way to discuss the subject), are at a distadvantage because they can't fully understand themselves. Same with women who aren't allowed to consider their femininity. Now, I have nothing against mixing things up with regard to sexuality and gender roles in films and novels. But I DO agree with Benedict that the "suits" often seem to adhere to a formulae that is as equally stale, crusty, stereotypical and therefore BORING as the "old fashioned" shows and movies which had a stereotypical strong macho man and women relegated to the role of shouting "aahh!" Benedict was a theatre actor. He performed as Hamlet. Shakespeare's Hamlet has a very, VERY strong female character - Ophelia (and just to pre-empt cries of "but all she does is whine about love, cry over her dead father and drown like a weak woman - by "strong female character" I do not mean a manly woman - but rather a character who is feminine and strong in her femininity - and unashamedly womanly). My point is - Benedict has clearly had time to consider manliness and femininity. He takes a very light hearted approach to shows like BSG - he prefers that their heroes be swash buckling cigar smoking rogues rather than over-complicating things. He points out a certain direction that our culture is heading in when the "enemy Cyclons" are no longer lumbering killer robots but instead appear to be femme fatales, or penis snatchers if you will. Naturally Benedict is voicing a male fear - a fear of loosing a place for manliness in the world - but also loosing a place for femininity, since females suddenly must be strong, fatale, cold and calculating to be interesting or note worthy. In this sense - Benedict is trying to resuce women (a very manly endeavor) because Benedict is saying - look - you don't like Macho guys? Then WHY are you making all the women in our culture manly? Why is it that women are adopting all of the worst traits of men? Manliness is often frowned upon for lack of empathy, lack of sensitivity, cold-heartedness, lack of thoughtfulness - so if all of these things are so bad - why are the women in our culture striving to be portrayed in film like men? Why are women ADOPTING these bad traits? Possibly because they crave the worse trait of manly men: a craving for power which risks becoming tyranical. And what is it in the universe that serves as a limit on the manly craving for power? What is it that soothes men's appetites, tempers their egos, and puts their masculinity in the service of something better than themselves? Why it's a woman's love of course. The delicate, feminine, soft, soothing and carressing whispers of a woman are more powerful than a thousand thundering obnoxious bellows emanating from the mouths of manly women. In fact - the more women become like men, the more they loose their one true power over men - their femininity. This is also why men are pushed into being less manly and more "metrosexual" in the culture - so that they do not threaten and intimidate pseudo-manly women with their true manliness. Now before people tear their hair out - please remember that I'm speaking in extreme generalizations here - but so are we all - aren't we? Because again - the subject is not math - it's human beings, and human beings cannot be discussed with the precision of scientists - at least not human psychologiy, and not the relations between biology and character either. I think people who look down on Benedict's essay are taking it the wrong way. In fact - I would even say that a show which mixes up gender roles INVITES the kind of discussion Benedict is having. Pete

Yeah...none of those four look too impressive... Pete going to bed

Not Fit For Natalie also posts elsewhere - I think...or maybe not. Either way - I work for Mattel, and I'm being paid to post here to undermine Hasbro. First I was supposed to come in as a "TF fan" with a my own "collection" Then I was supposed to become progressively more dissillusioned with TFs. Then sell them off... you've all seen this. And in the end, I was supposed to start posting about my new Barbie collection. And I would have done that too, had Mattel not pulled the rug out from under me. They failed to send me my Barbies. Hm.. ok - I guess that story was a failed attempt at humor. Never mind... We now return to your regularly scheduled program. Pete

Nooo...these don't warrant that kind of commitment IMO. I mean - whatever floats NuGundamII's boat of course - but I don't actually like any of them that much... Pete not being very helpful here I guess...