VFTF1

I know that, but what you don't know - and what people don't realize - is that Carl Macek and Frank Agramamamjama are the same person. It's a pretty elaborate set up, but you can tell if you look closely. And when they appear together - one of them is always actually an actor done up to be the other one. Notice that usually one does all the talking while the other one just nods - the nodding one is the real one (not the actor, who does the talking...it's counter-intuitive, I know). Now what most people don't understand is that Carl and Frank used to BE Jack. Huh? Lemme explain: Jack was born as twins combined at the hip and at the brain. So technically, even though he had two heads, he was one person. But then, thanks to an operation that was successful, they were split - and suddenly you had two people. Hence Carl and Frank. But when later in life they teamed up to write the Robotech novels, they thought it would be great to use the pen name Jack McKinney (McKinney is Irish for "Two Minds/One Heart"). See - this is the problem with Macross drones. NEVER checking your facts. Always going off of conjecture. Always sure of yourself. And always flat out wrong. Pete

Yeah- Unicron was ok. His planet mode could have been better- but without a doubt he is one of the best and most anticipated Transformers out there. I used to have him, but eventually he went bye bye, like everything else in my collection that wasn't G1. I am not arguing the vintage vs. modern debate here. I think that debate is kind of pointless because it's a matter of preference- I'm just stating mine. Whenever I "bad mouth" modern, it's not like I'm trying to convince people to change their preferences, but instead I'm just justifying mine. A long time ago, I used to be a Transformers completist, until I realized what Hasbro and Takara seem to have realized long long ago - namely that the Transformers fan community and market in general is not homogenous. They needed to diversify their offer because there were so many diverse fragments in the market. Once I realized that, the burden of "being a completist" evaporated. I just decided it was OK not to own figures from each and every line, but just own what I liked for the reasons I liked them. Transformers for me now is all about my childhood - and that is G1. I have discovered that as much as I tried to get into the newer incarnations, and as much as certain elements of them were interesting, and heck...as much as I KNOW about the stories up through BM (which is pretty much in intricate detail)...at some point - they just lost me, and I just lost interest. I collect Encore/TFC/G1 reissues because to me - those figures are special and more alive than any of the more poseable figures from later lines. So...just keep that in mind folks when I dis on modern TFs (which I do a lot). I'm not trying to troll agianst modern Transformers as if it was a matter of getting people to see the light. I just don't have much sentiment for the later ones - not as much as for the vintage ones. Pete

That Pete guy is a total Macross-drone. He's not human. And his wish-washy let's all get along approach is just cover for the fact that he knows that he has no arguments on his side. Whenever someone is in favor of getting along, it just means they know they're wrong. But remember - when you compromise between Food and Poison - poison always wins. The fact of the matter is that Robotech is totally superior in every way AND that the novels came first. Harmony Gold approached the Japanese in good faith, asking them to make the Robotech Cartoon, which could have also done a lot to bring the Japanese anime industry out of its' stagnation. And what happened? Well - it was the 1980s and language barriers were a lot bigger than they used to be and I guess whether it was a mistranslation or misinterpretation - but the Japanese split the cartoon into three pieces that had nothing to do with the original McKinney plot. Now, I think that what is really causing the bad blood between the fandoms is the insistence of the Macross-drones to NOT ACCEPT THE FACTS THAT MEMO HAS LAID OUT IN BIG LETTERS! Clearly and without a doubt the author has a moral right to their work - and Jack McKinney IS the owner and brain behind Robotech, and its' derivatives like Macross. Some people have gone so far as to state, based solely on the fine print in Jack McKinney's Robotech novels, that Jack McKinney is a pen name for two seperate people. This is completely not true. Anyone who has followed McKinney's career knows that he's just very humble and thinks up elaborate ways to downplay his person in any venture. But still the ignorance and hate continues. And now there's this big competition going on in the market between Macross Frontier and The Shadow Chronicles. We still don't know which venture will end up being the most popular. So far, I think Shadow Chronciles has an edge because it's in english and the whole world knows english. Macross Frontier is in Japanese, so of course not many people are going to watch it until it gets dubbed, which probably will not happen. But hey - the Japanese have really isolated themselves by making their cartoons in Japanese. I guess this is why they have that slurmty Cherry Nomy character - because if you can't have understandable dialogue - then the next best thing is sex appeal. But I have faith that in this day an age, no matter how many semi-pornographic cartoons the Japanese churn out, quality story telling and attention to detail will always win out because people ultimately - in the long run - are always looking for a deep and meaningful story. Besides, from what I've read, Macross Frontier was written by a guy named Eggnogy, who apparently also did some earlier cartoons that were popular in Japan. Lots of Macross fans made a big deal out of this, though I can't see why. I check Eggnogy's credits and stuff he has worked on in the past is so obscure that nobody has ever heard of it. Not even worth mentioning really. No wonder that crazy "I know Japanese" Macross-drone Gubaba has been so busy trying to "prove" that Eggnogy has nothing to do with Macross: Frontier - having someone with as bad a reputation as Eggnogy attached to the show would just sink its' prosepcts. In any event, we'll see. Bad as what the Japanese did with Robotech, chopping it up into three series - I will say one positive thing about Macross: it could have been worse. Just look at what the Japanese did to the original Go Bots ("Gun Dam" in Japan). Pete

They never kissed. That never happened. It was an animation error. The Japanese are legend for those. When the Japanese made the Robotech cartoon, based off the great American novels by Jack McKinny, they added a lot of crazy stuff that Harmony Gold has been having to deal with ever since then. Like that kissing scene. You know how the Japanese are. They'll always try to throw something mushy like a kissing scene into a cartoon about robots and aliens. The kiss never really happened, but due to legal problems, HG couldn't edit it out. To focus too much on that animation error is pointless. It's like that one scene where Max's Veritech Fighte had missiles on its' tail fins. Of course the Veritech fighter doesn't have those. Do we see people claiming that just because it was on screne, therefore veritech fighters can carry missiles on their tail fins? No. So just because Rick and Lisa kiss doesn't mean it really happened. Just go read the original novel that started it all and you'll know. Pete EDIT: And you DO realize, Gubaba - don't you? - that Macross (Japanese), Mospedea and Southern Cross were all originally ONE STORY called Robotech? And that when Harmony Gold tried to export these to the international market, the Japanese said that due to how their TV syndication works they need to split Robotech into three parts - which the Japanese ended up making unrelated as a plot. I know this is hard for Macross fans to accept, and for Mospedea or Southern Cross fans too: but you guys DO all realize that all of these three cartoons were originally one cartoon called Robotech?

That new Sheryl 1/8 NA figure is a dream come true It's the perfect embodyment of her passion, her showmanship and her playfulness. So far, I've only just managed to acquire a 1/5 Yoko from Gurren Lagann... (pics when I get it!) ... But I hope that I manage to get this one and the 1/8 Ranka In the end, Ranka just doesn't do as well in skimpy sexy poses (Monster Girl)... she's better off being a cute bubbly waitress or prancing around in her big boots and nice dress .... Sheryl on the other hand is perfect in these kind of get ups and poses Pete

What? You STILL haven't watched Toppa Tengenn Gurren Lagann? Life is short! Sieze it! This could be the greatest night in your family's life! Get four pizzas and six bottles of coke and watch the whole series through tonight! Pete

I would highly recommend that the three of you watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's a wonderful anime, and a perfect compliment to super-robot anime. A good family show too. Oh - and HAVEN'T YOU WATCHED TOPPA TENGEN GURREN LAGANN YET?!??! IF NOT! YOU MUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT START FROM THAT! RIGHT NOW! ALL EPISODES STRAIGHT THROUGH ALL NIGHTER!! YOU WILL LOVE IT!! Gurren Lagann is the greatest anime ever made in the history of the universe Pete

Dag. As usual, I have the opposite sentiments from the majority. Seems my heroes Basara and my one true love Ranka get the most votes in this poll... Meanwhile - I have voted for Isamu and Myung. I certainly don't "hate" them. The are fine as characters, but I just don't particularly worship the ground they walk on, which is less than I can say for the others who I feel passionately attached to to more or lesser degrees. As for Alto chasing after Sheryl ... Actually it's the other way around - Sheryl chases after Alto because she (Alto) is hot. Pete

See This is the problem with fiction. Nobody really ever wants to read about, watch or generally know anything about truly bad characters. Characters like Dostoyevski's Shmerdikov. Who's that you say? Well - he's from Brothers Karamazov, but nobody really remembers him. Why? Because he was a lazy drunk farmer who happened to kill somebody - if I remember it right (which I might not). But the guy had no redeeming qualities beyond having happened to be born human. These kind of characters are patently uninteresting. All of the bad guys we get in movies, comics and cartoons, are actually interesting and to some degree we can sympathize with their plight. Even Hitler if you think of Versailles, his experience in World War I, and him waking up half-blind in a hospital to hear the news that Gemany had capitulated. And before anybody starts going pale with shock: Go read Charles DeGaulle's book (yeah, THAT Charles DeGaulle - the French President, former general, and former POW during WWI) about how in his view the Germans basically commited suicide in WWI. The book is called, aptly, "A House Divided" - the english version is translated by one Dr. Robert Eden. DeGaulle, even though he was a French soldier, was able to take a very sober look at Germany during WWI, particularly at the German leadership, and his book foreshadows much of the weakness that eventually allows Germany as a state to decompose and come under the rule of madmen. But...that's a big time digression... My point is that the truly evil characters are usually the ones that are dumb, brute, thoughtless, tactless, ugly, boring....in short- totally unsuitable for a movie - because we wouldn't care to even watch their story. In movies, the vast majority of villains are not so much "evil" as they are just tragic heroes. Pete

I have a problem with picking the "best movie badguy" because I usually find myself sympathizing with the bad guys in movies. 1. Darth Vader - well, it's kind of obvious, now isn't it? The Jedi Council broke the Jedi code by asking Anakin to spy on the Emperor. If they knew that he was not ready to be a Master and still had much maturing to do - then why didn't they completely shove him aside from that situation? Because they estimated that they needed him. Not saying Anakin himself didn't do stuff that got him in trouble - his marriage to Padme mainly - but once he saw that the Jedi Council was capable of being duplicious and hypocritical - I'm sure he thought...well so why can't I? And hey - how's this different from the Sith? That's what makes it a tragic story. Naturally, if Anakin was truly strong, he would see the flaws of the Jedi and try to be BETTER than they were instead of using it as an excuse to be "just as bad." Still - not a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination. So he kills people? Big deal. It's war. The Rebels killed people too, and every death in a war is a tragic waste. 2. The Emperor - this one is not so obvious, but I actually have more sympathy for the Emperor than for Darth Vader even. First off, it goes without saying that prior to his ascent to the level of Chancellor, the Jedi ruled the galaxy. Now, true enough, there was a Senate, with Democratically ellected members and then a democratically ellected (albeit by the Senate) Chancellor. But then there was the Jedi Council. And who elected them? The Force? Who had authority over them? Who had anything to say about what their role in the galaxy was? The Force? Well - who gave the Jedi the right to be the monopolists in terms of interpreting the Force? See - Palpatine just noticed that "coincidentially" the Jedi had power and didn't ask anybody for permission to have this power. He wanted the same thing - but he refused to cow tow to the Jedi in order to get it. And let's be clear here - the Jedi were not averse to using physical force to enforce their rule. In fact, as "protectors of the galaxy" - that's what Jedi knights did. They went around killing people who wouldn't succumb to their rule. The reasons might have been noble and just, and the people they killed might have been "evil" - but did you ever see a Jedi reading somebody their Myranda rights? Did the Jedi use their awesome powers to pacify suspects and then give them a fair trial? No. It was zoink! Are you're dead by light saber. Palpatine is right when he tells Anakin that the Jedi are just afraid of losing their power. What makes Luke Skywalker's nobility possible is that the Jedi are no longer part of the government. Then the Jedi code actually achieves meaning because it becomes possible to follow it as an individual and to decide what is right and wrong in accordance to higher morality. Thus you have Luke not only refusing to kill his father but THROWING AWAY HIS LIGHT SABER. It Mace Windu had shown that kind of true courage when facing down the Emperor - Anakin would not have turned to the Dark Side. Anakin instead heard Mace say "he's too dangerous to be kept alive" - the EXACT SAME justification Palpatine peddled when ordering Count Dokoo's killing. So... no duh that Anakin figured that the Jedi were indeed no different from the Sith - except insofar as the Sith were nice to him and wanted to help his girlfriend, while the Jedi were keeping him down. Now - granted - Yoda did begin to understand just how bad the existence of the Jedi Council was when he realized what a "dark path this line of thinking" is leading down - but it was too late. The Jedi were able to save the galaxy when they were out of power and the corruption of politics couldn't touch them. More on other villains in a second.... Pete

But even Metroplex's transformation is way more complex than that of BM Cheetor. Metroplex doesn't just "sit down" - his legs unfold three different ways. Also, I think they did take some care with his upper body as well. They could have just had him put his hands up and said "buildings" - but instead they have the half-chest opening into a helipad and one of the arms swinging backwards. Also - again - when making these comparissons we have to remember what was possible in 1985 and what is possible today. Today they SHOULD have a whole slew of greater possibilities. We saw this in Beast Wars, and we've seen it in numerous deluxe sized TFs as has already been said. The argument that the huge ones are supposed to be simple because kids like to play with them is actually NOT that far-fetched. And parents are stupid by and large. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen parents select the "big but simple" toy over smaller more intricate things - I'd be a millionaire now. Sometimes the market does wierd things or things we don't quite fully understand from our POV. But I think that there is a market for big, simple toys. The kids are happy because they are too small to appreciate complex intricacies and actually the more complex a toy, the more likely the are to break it (therefore making the parent think "last time I'm buying him one of those") OR to get annoyed with it, throw it in the corner and go play with something that doesn't demand that much effort from them. These kids are what I like to call the "Screaming Ninnies." A screaming ninny is a little kid whose value system looks something like this in terms of toys: a) Must be bigger than Billy's toy b) Must have flashy colors c) Must be a main strong character who is the most powerful d) Must make noises e) Must be something that will make all the other kids jealous and envious of me That's it. No thought is given to transformation, complexities, anything like that - because the kid doesn't really care about Transformers as such, but more about having the biggest toy of the latest fad toy line. This is augmented by parents who are Adult Versions of Screaming Ninnies. Adult Versions of Screaming Ninnies (Parents) are characterized by the following values: a) They must get jr. the biggest toy because to them big toy = happy child b) They don't know anything about the toy market, about what's available, and they couldn't care less - it's just kids stuff. c) They accept the simple idiom: "Big Item = Big Price" and don't think too far outside of that box. To these parents, it is not surprising that something as simple and crappy as BM Cheetor (supreme) or TFA Supreme Prime costs as much as they do. These parents aren't sitting there scratching their head thinking "dag. Why does this cost so much when it's so simple compared to other Transformers half its' price?" because they've never handled TFs half the price and aren't about to start. This is a segment of the market, and Hasbro just wants a share. I've seen worse. I've seen Christmas where somebody would import some cheap half assed "transforming car" that was also an RC that could be radio controlled (well, I repeat myself) - the thing so obviously cost pennies on the dollar, and it would go for like 20 or 30 bucks and parents would be eating it up because it was like 30 cm tall when "fully transformed" [aka when, Throttlebot style, the car "stood up" - no poseability... But it did have an RC motor...]. But parents bought it because it was "big" and "big" = "happy kid." I remember once some friends of the family were visiting before Christmas, and I gave them an MISB TFA deluxe Bumblebee for one of their kids. They took it, of course, but the look on their faces were "what?! THAT thing is SO SMALL! It will be embarassing to give that to a child as a present on Christmas." They didn't care that the transformation on Deluxe Bumblebee TFA was out of sight, that it was cute, that it was a kiddified bumblebee, that it was kind of the "perfect Transformer" for a little kid... nope. The main beef was - it's so frackin' small. When junior takes this to school - he'll be laughed at. Hence Hasbro makes crappy large scale over-simplifications and sells them for 50 bucks. Because people actually do exist who shop in accordance with the above noted criteria. Pete

Oops. You're right. That kind of blows up my argument, or at least proves I'm not a fan of Transformers (going by my own definition of what consistutes a fan), since I haven't ever ventured to discover the full story of Diaclone... Man - I hate it when I write a book's worth of arguments that all get blown up in one sentence... Pete

Not to rain on anybody's parades - but one of the things that makes Basara interesting is that his pacifism is not, actually, as one sided as all these statements about him being an "out and out" pacifist imply. Basrara did shoot missiles at the Protodevilin on one occasion, reacting out of instinct and fear. And he did physically attack some people who were intent on gang banging Mylene (or something like that) at one point - and then got mad at them for "making him hit them." So, while he knew violence to be wrong and definitely advocated pacifism and communication as a matter of principle - he wasn't perfect; and this is something I also appreciate about the story - that Basara is not a total cardboard 1 dimmension character. He has feelings and passions and can also make mistakes (including swinging his fists at people). That he struggles with how to put his pacifism into practice - and fails so many times at it - is a good story. Pete

Well... some technology that I still have lying around that went nowhere - although I'm sad about it are... My Nintendo Entertainment System. The one I got (when I was like 10 or something) had Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt AND some olympics sport game + that big floor thing with the numbers on it that you could run on and plug into the system. Even my mom got into Super Mario Bros. She liked the colors and thought it was a quaint, entertaining and amusing game. I LOVED Skyshark - still have the game, but can't hook my nintendo up to anything, and don't have the controlers any more At one point I had a ton of umm...oh...what are they called?...the thingy...EMULATORS?...Yeah - I have EMU set up for NES on my regular computer (but the monitor stopped working...sigh... and so I don't use it/haven't used it any more...and what with my lovely laptop...I'm in no rush to get a new monitor)... What else? When I was a kid, I had a video camcorder. Actually - I had a second one in college, but (embarrased to admit this since it cost like 200 bucks or something)..I lost it (or maybe it got stolen? I remember the cam corder and a bag of Transformers just dissappearing...I should have reported it, but NOBODY stole anything where I went to college EVER so I thought I must have just lost it...whatever)... Discmans, walkmans....CD Players..heh... hmm... all my old mobile/cell phones...including my "new" Motorola which I've had almost 2 years now and which doesn't feel so "new" anymore...gonna switch it on the 10th - I get to opt out of my contract and pick a new phone/new rates....good thing too. 2 years ago the depression was just beginning so phone bill didn't hurt so much. Now...ouch. Need to lower my rates Umm... I dunno. I actually don't really use that much technology besides my laptop and phone. I have a fax machine at home... Pete

Yeah, well - being off the radar alone isn't bad. I mean, Transformers was off the radar for a few years too - but look how the fan community flourished back then? You had lots of great fanfiction, great fan websites went up, dealers, conventions, fan comics - and eventually Hasbro got back on the bandwagon with Beast Wars and lots of good stuff later. For all the complaining I do nowadays about Transformers - I realize that I'm complaining about something that has sort of become a victim of its' own success. Seriously - it's HARD to expect people to remain interested in a dead product based on a show that turned out not to ever have really existed, and what's worse, a show whose three component parts are more interesting as stand alones seen in the original Japanese than as a hybrid with bad dubs. But Robotech fans themselves are to blame - although...I can't "blame" them for being to blame...if that makes sense...lemme try an' explain: See - what defines a fan of a given franchise, I think, is a level of dedication bordering on psychotic (and I mean that as a compliment). Take Gubaba for instance. He knows everything and spend hours translating things lots of us have never heard of (or at least I haven't) and actually takes the time to write long essays pointing out misperceptions. Same for Seto who is on top of the legal issues, or Mr. March who has a website and is on top of fictional mecha science... Now - it's a given that this level of dedication is characteristic of a segment of the market - not the "casual" consumer of "cartoons" or "toys" - but a very dedicated type who is attached to a story and a mythology on a level bordering on religious commitment. My point? Imagine someone attaching themselves to Robotech like that? Well - if you really want to be a commited fan, you want to know EVERYTHING - the history behind the show, the details....but Robotech is unique insofar as the more you dig, the more you see one thing springing up time an time again: MACROSS. And not "the Macross saga" but MACROSS - as in the original, Japanese Macross. As hard as you might try to ignore or avoid it, it is almost unimaginable that the things you love about Robotech (the love triangle, the mecha, the characters) won't eventually bring you to MACROSS. And then the dilemna appears: you see the Japanese original and compare it to Robotech and discover that - hey - this Japanese thing is really, really great. And you appreciate what might have inspired the creators of Robotech to bring this great stuff to America 20 years ago - and you also realize that Robotech was just a vehicle meant to introduce Americans and westerners in general to the wonders not just of Macross, but of Japanese anime - which you suddenly begin to fall in love with. And what remains of Robotech? Well - a fond memory, the Paladium games if you played them as a kid, and the thrill of the imaginative adventure that you once experienced but now know to have been a small sampling of a much larger and more fantastic world that you suddenly fall in love with - Macross and Japanese anime as a whole. OR You realize all of this and conclude: Thank GOD Harmony Gold made something worthwhile out of all this retarded Japanese crap, cut out that horrible singing and replaced it with seriously good music and then got rid of the whole music/culture/love theme and made it about psychedelic flowers and generic space ships and transforming robots fighting bug like aliens! and then you see Shadow Chronicles and wonder aloud why this is not being nominated for an Oscar for the third straight year in a row? To me - it is hard to imagine that the second type of person exists. I watch Doug Bendo on youtube. I don't even need to listen to what he is saying - it is enough to look at his desk. His screensaver is some splash from Robotech...but...where are the awesome figures? Where is the collection? Who out there is proud of and cherishes their "MASTERPIECE" Robotech collection? Where is the "strike a pose" thread for those and on what forum? Where are the gamers who can't get enough of piloting their "veritech fighters" into battle? Oh...they're all playing Macross VF-X?...ooops... See - this is the problem with being a 'Robotech Fan' - it is NOT POSSIBLE. By definition - a fan is someone seriously commited - and if you're going to seriously commit to Robotech - it will lead you to Macross. At which point you either decide to leave your brain at the door and just believe everything Harmony Gold says OR...you begin to really enjoy Macross...and start building Frontier kits and striving for the latest Yamato release and singing along to Sheryl and Ranka's songs... Somebody tell me I'm wrong here and show me some good, high quality Robotech fan sites and fanfiction and fan art and fan discussion? Somebody point me to a thread full of serious analysis of the Robotech novels? That's a fairly big body of literature...and it seems nobody cares about it at all? It's hard to care for something that turned out to be the 1980s equivalent of bootlegged pirate DVDs from Tanzania. Pete Pete

Which just goes back to my argument that the real problem with HG/Robotech is not Robotech as such, but HG trying to take away people's freedom to choose what shows they want to watch, what models they want to build, what figures they want to play with etc etc. I'm sure one of the major reasons we have an "HG and Robotech Debates" thread INSTEAD of a "Macross vs. Robotech" thread is precisely that. Otherwise we would all be picking apart the plots of Robotech/SC vs. Macross. But apparently HG is doing everything it can to focus fans on legal issues because they themselves are more focused on legal issues than on Robotech. The biggest impediment to Robotech - and Robotech fans are blind for not seeing this - IS Harmony Gold and Harmony Gold's unprofessional behavior. Pete

I'm still not sold on the Isamu/Basara parallels. I think Isamu is just a wreckless pilot, not a deep thinker, nor an artist, nor someone who is particularly fascinated with the beauty of the universe. Isamu is "just a grunt" ("no offense") [somebody please say "none taken"...crap...must get out of Aliens loop.....]... Eer... anyways...yeah. Isamu is a boring character as far as I'm concerned. Guld is far more interesting if only for the fact that he is constantly struggling to supress his latent Zendradi bio-engineered war-rage. Isamu's one saving grace was the he lied to Guld to protect his friend from the sad truth that it was Guld who attacked Myun. That was very noble, and made me appreciate Isamu as a noble person (well - that and his general insistence of breaking the rules when he knows it's the right thing to do)... Hm - I don't want to get sidetracked... there's just really not much to say about Isamu... Much more to say about Basara. Isamu just isn't as compelling. His story is nice, but once it's done...does anybody really care to have Macross continue HIS tale? Probably the weakest character in the entire franchise. Ouch. Sorry Isamu and Macross Plus fans Pete

While you're at it please add a double-bacon cheeseburger from Wendys and their frys too. I also finally found a Burger King in Warsaw. There's ONE! It's conveniently placed about two hours driving distance from my house As for Rocky Horror from the USA...I wonder whether it'll play on my laptop? Technically, I know that DVDs from Japan do play on this thing, but I think the region code is different for the USA And of course, you can't ship food produce so no double bacon burger for me either Pete

Re: "Widow-Maker" Valkyrie. I think you've just dreamt up the perfect customizing solution to the piles and piles of broken Yamato valkyrie that apparently exist in the world (with special thanks to Gubaba, who dreamed it up first, or at least says so) Re: Tiwanese Transvestites chocking Tarantino: Don't give him any ideas! That sounds like something he'd put in a movie of his. Personally, I have never even watched any of his films (except Pulp Fiction). I found Pulp Fiction boring, predictable and unnecesarily violent. By "unnecessarily" I mean - in a world where there is no heroism, and no romantic love - WHY would people fight? Or at least...why would the fighting be interesting? This is why I prefer sensible violence (i.e. Russel Crowe in the Gladiator) to senseless violence. But that's neither here nor there. I am all for the Widow Maker and Cannon fodder Macross. They could also make it so that the super singing idol is just that - and not a character we get to know - but seriously an idol who the grunts don't know. Maybe they could even meet her in one episode by chance? Who knows.... But the problem does arise about navigating the formula. You don't want Macross to become repetitive... I think the main way they've done that is by PUSHING the story forward in terms of major events. The little dramas all take place ina larger historical progression - and it's the historical progression that is key. Whether you want it or not - the next step in that history is obvious: Finding the Protoculture. Pete

I LOVE that symopsis Rambo's "ultra-sensitive instincts" (at age 60 no less) tell him he should "refuse" this latest mission But... this hunting partner of Rambo's? It's a guy? Why? I think what this synopsis needs is to ditch the "hunting partner" and the "elite squad" that they try to team Rambo up with and instead do the following: John Rambo, age 60. He spent his life fighting injustice...now...he fights impotence and clogged arteries in the best way possible: he has gone to live with an all female-amazon tribe in the heart of the amazon jungle, where he hunts game for the ladies who cook his prey over an open fire. Now - THIS would immediately set it up so that Rambo has some experience hunting animals/beasts and not just people... which would make him the perfect candidate for hunting this beast/human half-breed. Then, you could have it so that the sister of one of the amazon leaders is an eskimo (basically same ethnic make up so by holywood standards this would be perfectly plausible). So they go to shack up with the sister's tribe of skilled Eskimos who hunt wails (continuing the hunting theme). Rambo, the amazons, and the eskimos make their way to the arctic circle to hunt the beast down. The beast in turn kills off most of the amazons and eskimos and Rambo is left to die - but miraculously one of the whales that the eskimos hunted saves Rambo and teaches him to understand that just because something is an animal, it doesn't follow that you can therefore stick a long dagger into it. Rambo then tries a psychological approach and sits down to negotiate with the beast. It turns out that the guy is just pissed because he was the subject of a genetic experiment when all he wants is a regular life. Rambo and the beast ride the whale who saved Rambo to Argentina, where the Beast gets a job at the local Rio-De-Janero Festival Parade and gets to have sex with lots of extremely drunk women who, in their state of enebriation, don't at all find him unattractive. Rambo, for his part, goes off to die. But it's then that the Beast reveals to Rambo that one of his powers is immortality and injects Rambo with a super serum that rejuvinates him. Rambo goes back to America and reports that the beast has been killed (a lie) and tells the government to back off and stop exploiting him. He then gets a job as a trucker and drives into the open yonder with a sentimental uplifting song full of hope playing in the background. Roll credits. Pete

Re: ROTF Devastator, "Ultimate" Bumblebee, TFA Supreme Prime...and going all the way back to "Supreme" BM Cheetor: Remember the days when a "BIG" Transformer was actually something you dreamed of and would still die for in rerelease form today? You know...things like Omega Supreme, Fortress Maximus...heck even Ultra Magnus and Galvatron were considered "big guys" in their time... It is so annoying that the largest class Transformers are - these days - the worst. And given their history as shelf warmers...how does it make marketing sense to produce those things? I mean - who dreams this stuff up? Pete ps - since my post lacks a coherent argument...I am kind of assuming you understand what I am talking about: namely that back when I was a kid, Transformers that would fall under today's 'supreme' class category were not just big, but actually had fairly intricate Transformation, usually fit in with the rest of the line or were at least interactive with it, and didn't use cheesy cop outs (ROTF Devastator) but instead took full advantage of their size.

Correction: a rich SEXY hieress... Also - now...I used to think that this was just an anime convention, but Tsurya-chan has vampire fangs...which, like I wrote, is not uncommon as a convention (I think Ranka gets a couple shots with that too)... because they're not these vicious evil fangs.... just kind of cutsy pussy cat fangs...but...could she be a vampire? Also - I just watched the "Homework episode" ... I missed it previously because there was this period of time where I would wait hours for an episode to download and...it would be Endless Eight!!! AGAIN!!! So I have been thoroughly scared away from checking out episodes without extremely clear titles that without a doubt signify they are NOT Endless Eight... but of course the Homework episode was pretty crucial... First - well... for the first time Asahina-san manages NOT to be sexy. I never liked babies (nothing personal)....well...no ...that sounds terrible. It's not that I hate babies - I just don't think they're cute like many moms/girls do. I understand that they are of course little human beings and sometimes they are fun - but when they're not fun, they're crapping, puking, drooling and screaming at the top of their lungs and there's absolutely no way to communicate rationally with them. I guess that on an instinctive level, a mother might be able to figure out "what's wrong" and calm the baby...and maybe even a dad would get the hang of it just by virtue of everyday exposure... but me...I never had any kids. And while I'm great with children (ages 5 and up), I totally don't know and wouldn't know what to do with an infant. Well...Asahina-san was a total turn off in this episode because she was quite literarly TOO MUCH of a cry baby in that sobbing scene. Horrible She was still cute when she cried about losing the TPD-da back when they went 3 years into the past...but in this episode...there was just too much drooling going on. Moving on - I thoroughly enjoyed the confrontation in the...er...Diner?...because they were in a western style diner right? Like a Denny's or something (man do I wish I could walk into a Dennys....damn...mmm...I'm hungry)... between Kyon and Haruhi. Very well done. I'm kind of unclear about the reasoning behind why it was the homework...Haruhi wanted to help but she didn't know how to share?...So maybe she subconsciously did "what she could" by giving the Brigade the day off (ergo "helping" them by giving them one day to do homework?) .... Or maybe it was like - since Haruhi took up all their time making them entertain her during the summer...she sort of owed them help with their hoemwork? Someone explain please because I was too busy fetishizing Haruhi's semi-high heels from that scene to catch the dialogue... Pete Pete

Well technically Ahnold was the trouble making stand out in that scene... But point taken Pete

But does it still star Silvester Stallone? If it doesn't it just isn't the same. Also, I expect Rocky vs. Alien will be next. In Space, Adrian can't hear you scream. Pete

Well, Haruhi-chan implies that Tsuruya has some kind of special powers... what I wonder is whether she is a time traveler, and esper...or something else...something we haven't seen yet. Pete