vladykins

42 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Speaking of throwing money at something, when will the next announcement be damnit!

My mind says "YES YES YES!" but my wallet says "Ummmm, well, sure. YES YES YES!"

1 hour ago, jenius said:

Don't forget to check out reviews one anymoon.com (shameless self plug)

And click through the links to BBTS to give you a tiny payment for all your reviews.

3 minutes ago, Special Sauce said:

Awesome thanks vladykins and derex3592 !  I'm going to check it out.  Wow vladykins you started and didn't turn back LOL!  I'm looking into getting the Macross II valkyrie from that line.  I really love the design.

Excellent. Here is one at The Jungle for ¥ 8,250. Shipping is a bit of an extra cost due to Japane Post not being available, but if you look around you can usually grab a coupole things that make the DHL cost worth it.

https://jungle-scs.co.jp/sale_en/products/detail/584147

@Special Sauce Here's the thread!

34 minutes ago, Special Sauce said:

Hi, obviously new here.  What are some opinions on the Bandai Hi Metal R toys?  I'm just getting back into this and it's been a long time since I've bought anything Macross.  I used to collect the Yamato stuff but now I'm seriously out of the loop.  I've picked up a few of the Bandai DX chogokin toys and they're pretty sweet.  I was just thinking of getting into the Hi Metal series.

There is a whole thread below on the HMRs, but some quick notes on them:

1. The scale is roughly 1/90ish, so it will be smaller than likely many of the toys you've seen. That said, it is nice to have a set of toys in the same rough scale, including valks, destroids, and enemies.
2. The destroids and enemy mechs are the star of this show. The Monster is absolutely amazing, a solid and HUGE toy that is fun to play with. The Defender and Spartan are both nicely detailed toys. The Glaug and Regults are all beautifully sculpted and also a lot of fun. Unfortunately while we've been shown the Tomahawk, Phalanx, and Nos J, none of these have been released yet (languishing for a few years now).
3. The VF-1s are not perfect transformation, though this isn't a huge issue given their small size. You have to swap out the cockpit/heatshield and the landing gear are not integral, so using them requires popping out covers and replacing them with landing gear. That said, outside of swapping the cockpit out, the transformation is fairly easy and smooth, with lots of little pegs to hold things tightly if you get them all in.
4. They are addictive. I held off on getting into "one more scale" (having 1/48, 1/55, and 1/60 already). The Monster, not being available in a lot of toys, convinced me to give it a shot. I loved it, so I said "I'll get the other two destroids to go with it." And then I needed a Glaug. And a Regult. And the missile Regult set. And finally I said "I'll get that Messer Memorial vlak since it is a unique paint scheme I don't have otherwise." And now?

6 hours ago, tekering said:

It was redeveloped, actually: first as a sequel to Macross, then a subplot shoehorned into Megazone 23, and finally as an RPG scenario involving... Russians? 

I'm not particularly clear on that last one, but I think we should probably leave well enough alone. 

I lolled IRL.

Just now, tekering said:

The main page, NOT the "Shop" page with the "Coming Soon" product? 

Their Web page design certainly reflects the quality of their prototypes. 

 

Thanks for the correction! 

I still am grabbing some of their 1/48 inbit scouts though. Once those FINALLY get done.

1 minute ago, tekering said:

They were taking pre-orders for a 1:18 3D-printed kit last year... (for your vintage Matchbox Robotech figures, I suppose...?) 

I don't think it ever happened.  Their own Web site is pretending it never existed.

It's still there- you have to scroll down on the main page to see it.

https://www.meptoys.com/

It is still preorders, though, so you just get sent to an email link.

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Eridanus is a popular destination for sci-fi in general.

Yep. Epsilon Eridani was also the loication of Star Trek's Vulcan for a bit before it was moved to 40 Eridani. Bab 5 also is in Episilon Eridani, IIRC. I'll have to go grab my Bab 5 rpg stuff to check.

8 hours ago, Mr Bomber said:

hey everyone

being away for a long time, im thinking in getting back to the P.O madness like old times!

It's gotten more brutal in some ways- Roy's DX was almost instantaneously gone at most sites. But we're seeing restock and drop in prices, so scalpers may have been beaten at their own game and things might return to ordinary PO madness.

Here's a great comparison pic from @jenius's review page showing the size:

They are roughly the same size as HMRs, but unless you can snatch them for the old price ($20) you are better off spending a little more and getting HMRs on deals when you can. These are notoriously flimsy and with prices in the $50+ category for them now, definitely not worth the money.

4 hours ago, azrael said:

Really...we’re arguing the same thing just from different directions. Companies sue each other all the time, but then end up working with one another. In tech, this happens a lot. Why? Cuz it makes money-sense. It’s cheaper or one stands to gain more out of that partnership than lose. And they may keep that relationship going until it no longer is financially sound. Case in point, Apple v. Samsung or your favorite automotive company. 

Not saying there is a right or wrong answer, but there is precedent. 

This is where earlier I said HG and BW may actually negotiate something, since both signed off on the end of the mediation and dropping the appeals. HG isn't going to drop things if they aren't getting something out of it and if BW is in a position to just steamroll over HG anyway, there is literally zero reason for them to sign on, since the money spent on additional litigation to get their judgement would just be a fraction more at this point *if* things are so certain in the EU.

So much as many of us might not like it, I think we're going to see BW work things out with HG. If it is only a payday for HG as Seto claims, then so be it. But this looks to me like them working out something and I still think HG would want too much of a payday to drop Robotech altogether- so we're likely to see HG still involved for quite some time.

1 hour ago, Gerli said:

No, that's China. We're well-known for hiding Nazis.

I lolled IRL so you get a like for sure.

@tekering

Here is the link to the original .pdf:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DUlfX9Am4MOU4BALksRb4ZYy5G11G1jQ/view?usp=sharing

25 minutes ago, tekering said:

Dude, that's very generous of you! Thanks! 

I did a little "digital restoration" work to the cover image. 

Would you be so kind as to scan the cover of your Macross war game as well?

Sure, I'll get that scanned in a bit.

For those interested, I did a quick scan of the Mospeada game from Tsukuda. I need to rescan a few things (like the mapboards need to be flattened out a bit before I scan again, since one corner is blurry).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AT1wr7dHgfrGfFsVQUnWLxXIOH4ffE1G/view?fbclid=IwAR1kcCTFc--ksQudDevmBBOGBiiIDdHvjKfDa7TUctOxPxO5YQpe68WcEBc

They are still making the crappy 1/100s (and have the rip off "retro" packaging).

To go along with the 80s Tsukuda Mospeada war game I picked up the other day, I just received one of the four Macross war games that were released:

Three more to track down for a decent price!

13 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That's part of it, for sure... but I think the lion's share of the blame definitely belongs to other parties.

Mostly, I think you could lay the blame on Tatsunoko Production and its Ammonite design group for so completely half-assing the development of Southern Cross.  If they'd put in the same kind of effort other studios were putting in they'd have left more for the parties downstream to work with.  Most of the Southern Cross misinformation comes from Robotech fans who got their information from the Palladium Books Robotech RPG that based itself on what information it could glean from the Japanese publications it could find.  There was nothing for them to find, information-wise, for Southern Cross so they had to BS their way through it and that BS lives on as misinformation.

You mean the EBSIS and their "mechs" aren't canon?

I kid, I kid. The misidentifications in there did get cleaned up a little bit with the new edition Palladium books at least. I do imagine Kevin sitting there going "I don't know what this drawing is, so I'll just make up some Soviets".

I've known Tsukuda made Macross war games back in the 80s, but until last week didn't know they had made one for Mospeada. I had to have a copy when I found out and happened to find one for a decent price new and unpunched (with just a little staining on the back of the box).

Nice add on to my game collection.

Worse- Robotech Remix appears to be trying to rationalize all of the Robotech canon and non-canon as well as Macross sequels- including even working Robotech 3000 into it. So it is taking it to an even more cheeseball level.

Battletech tends to be designed for slower, close range combat- more like walking tanks than animestyle combat. There are other games that better fit anime-style fighting, like Mekton.

6 minutes ago, crackpot said:

I hope they just sell it. I wouldn't want imported Macross merch to be rebranded as Robotech. 

HG is already branding a lot of their stuff Macross, so that wouldn't likely be a problem.

23 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Very unlikely, given Big West's past reactions to Harmony Gold's attempts to increase their hold on Macross.

You would think that, but BW is signing on to the ending of arbitration and the appeal, so they seem to be going along with whatever game HG is running.

1 minute ago, Einherjar said:

So what is the new date after HG’s announcement?

Last I saw was "extended for the foreseeable future".

From the looks, I'm guessing HG will drop the appeal and BW will allow them to purchase DYRL distribution rights and in return drop fighting distribution of the rest of Macross properties (at least outside the US). US will probably continue to be a mess unless they come to an agreement as well. HG essentially lost the battle in China, they were appealing in the EU, so I don't seem them dropping the appeal unless they were absolutely certain they would lose or if they were sure they got something out of it.