drifand

I bet GAINAX has long agonized over the ethical implications arising from their 'idealism' to make the original series a dead-end one... To do a 'Gundam' on their cash-cow requires quite a bit of 'thick skin' (as the Chinese would say), or Chutzpah. Really creative folks just MOVE ON. I'm certainly glad I don't see any similar bullsh** attempts to revive solid 'dead-enders' like Cowboy Bebop...

LowVis, How do you feel about the newer optional display hands that come with the 1/48 GBP set (IIRC)? This is one of those design issues which really bug me and reinforce my opinion of Yamato as 'half-way' designers. What do I mean? Well, the sculpt of the hands is way better than the scrawny originals for sure, that's not the issue. The issue is: On most modern robot toys, especially for 'Real Robot' designs, the optional hands are provided to simulate the anime-magic 'humanoid' gestures that a standard articulated hand cannot achieve (bar those from the ever improving Bandai Master Grade kits). But even most of these 'magic hands' more or less have the same practical volume as the originals, ie. you can very easily imagine those hands forming up 'square' and retracting/folding-into their respective forearm housings. This is true for the 'Real Robot' toys Bandai makes, e.g. the SOC Walker Galliar, Xabungle, which require 'retracting hands' for their transformations. Now look at the 1/48's BIG optional hands. Sure they LOOK good, but they totally betray the thinking behind 'Real Robot' designs. Why such a scenario? Because the designers settled for an original VF-1 design proportion that ended up with long thin and narrow forearms. All that bulking up from the GBP armor only disguises how poorly thought out the Battroid really is. As such, because I love robots more than planes, the 1/48 will always be 'the toy that sacrificed too much', no matter if it is 'the best available' out there. Just a matter of opinion, folks! Just opinion.

Some pundits have called it 'Solar Core Horizon'. The acting across the board was not bad at all, although I was pretty disappointed by the 'twist' that introduced the Bad Things Happening sequence... Still find it more satisfying than Event Horizon, although the endgame is full of physics inponderables.

For a different take on NIN, please visit: http://www.sadkermit.com/audio.html

Graham, you can have a free listen at NIN's myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/NIN Standout tracks for me are: - Survivalism - The Good Soldier - Capital G - The Warning - The Greater Good - Zero Sum

There are NO official guidelines beyond the kite insignia on the shoulders. Everything else is up to you. :-)

There's not enough info at the moment regarding the OEM process. But one way or another, I do trust Aoshima to NOT produce a POS. If anyone can turn out a more than decent Legioss from the ashes of a MPC Alpha, they can. I have simply yet to see a badly finished collectible produced or re-licensed by them. These are interesting times.

Trust Matt Alt of TBDX to provide some clarity! :-) http://toyboxdx.com/brog/?p=233

1/48 is best for fighter and gerwalk modes... in battroid they suck because of the compromises made for the fighter proportions. Many feel that this should be the case because if the VF-1 was 'real', the fighter mode should take precedence. But for folks like me who prefer the battroid mode overall, the 1/60 does it better. Nor does its fighter or gerwalk mode look BAD in the way the 1/48's battroid does. No, it doesn't mean the 1/60 is 'best'... it's got lots of required mods to make it play nice, and even then, the 'no-grip' hip-pegs are a really LAZY design solution. I just think the 1/48 is a very good execution of a flawed design. (And conversely, the 1/60 is a sup-par execution of what could've been a really great design.)

IF, (and that's a BIG 'if') Aoshima pulls off the unexpected – actually upping the QC and materials from the MPC Alpha to produce a really solid, well-fitting Legioss, would anyone still hold grudges? I, for one, had really wanted to like the MPC Alphas but held off because the fit and finish simply did not justify the 80USD price tag. If the Aoshima edition is actually improved, I'd be more than willing to consider buying one instead of dismissing them out of hand as Toynami-derived POS. (I said 'consider' because my first bet is still on the CM's 2-pack).

Actually, nobody knows for sure. Graham has indicated something's afoot for the new show. As long as neither Yamato nor Bandai has an exclusive license on future Macross toys, things will be better for all of us.

Maybe it's a last grasp for profits before Big-B wrestles its way back in? Yes, I am a cynic.

As I don't have one myself, what do owners of the MPCs think could be improved in the short term to make them more 'solid', desirable? - Sturdier materials for the hands? Optional PVC fixed pose hands? - Better springs and detents for the joints? - Better paint and finishing? Tampo markings? - Display stand? - More accessories? HBT cells? Miniature Cyclone and figurines?

Well, despite the MPC heritage, Aoshima/Miracle House has a reputation for solidly made diecast collectibles with generally impeccable finishing. Their 'Shin Seiki Gokin' series has produced a number of beautiful Getter Robo related toys, and more recently, they have sold the diecast 1/72 SPACE: 1999 Eagle, etc which were also licensed products made by another UK company. This may or may not mean that Aoshima will introduce more stringent QC or improvements to the MPC to ensure their reputation does not get tarnished. Hopefully, the usual Japanese hobby mags will have some decent photo spreads in the run-up to actual production.

P.S. I used Gundam Markers to detail up the Movie edition No. 2 head to match the colors of the TV version. References from various Patlabor diorama books...

I guess most fans who wanted one have got theirs by now, but how many more are crazy enough to get 3 or more to get all the details just right for the TV line-up? Here's my Rumble sumission on the revamped ToyboxDX 'brog': http://toyboxdx.com/brog/?p=217 It's got BBS links to larger pix like this one:

Probably just the usual... a lot of AIR.

OK, let's just agree to disagree on that.

That's a little bit of misjudgement there, I think. What Takara is better at than Yamato is focusing on playability. Quality is always subjective; for example the quality of sculpt and mechanical detailing on the Yamato 1/12 is definitely superior to the DMZ. A Votoms fan might still gain quite a bit of satisfaction from displaying the 1/12 Scopedog in a striped-down fashion with a big array of highly detailed weapons options. But if you want to PLAY, then the 1/18 DMZs are where it's at. :-)

YESsssssssss! Still feel that the scope LED should have been a one-click switch instead of a 'press-and-hold'.

Well, it does have blue hair. Maybe it's a Rei, ZOMG!

Takara may be suffering from merger blues as the new heads try to cut costs and 'make do': Death of lower-profit diecast TF BTs for plastic Alt/KissPlayers, minimal diecast in MP-3 & 5, sloppier finishing esp. on MP-4 (move to cheaper factories?). But the DESIGN of the toys are/were still pretty well-done, via pencil & paper or otherwise. I certainly haven't had any major problems with the VOTOMS Actic Gear or DMZ toys. And I think it's a fallacy to assume CAD instantly provides better design/quality/fit. You just have to look at Yamato: Sure their newest VFs look gorgeous, but their designers still have a lot to learn about materials choices for such precision-fit parts. The scattered reports (I'm being generous) of easily broken parts on the VF-0, YF-19 and Garland puts paid to the CAD myth of automatic design superiority.

That, sir, is truth.

I for one would love to own actual hard copies of these artworks with properly translated notes instead of just a couple of JPEGS on my hard drive. If Harmony Gold produced high quality translations of the various Macross TV source books, I'd buy them too. After all, none of the original Japanese publishers seem to be interested in the overseas market.

Read about a German fan paying up to the RIAA because he couldn't afford the costs of going to trial. HOWEVER, the case was resolved afterwards once the idiots were informed. Fan was reimbursed and presented with a NIN backstage pass. Whatever. The music is pretty good. On first listen I was having a hard time giving any track less than 3/5 stars. A lot more coherent effort than WT.