Gubaba

Curiosity, mostly. I try to make it a point to stay out of threads about things I'm excessively negative about (the Watchmen movie thread taught me that lesson), but after seeing the ads for GI Joe, it looked like it could be a fun little action flick...so I checked the thread here and decided it wasn't up my alley. But before leaving the thread, I saw Agent ONE's post and just HAD to let him know that he had underestimated the willpower of at least one person here.

It's not as cringe-worthy as I had feared it would be...but it's certainly bad (and dull). But I've definitely heard people here and elsewhere say that the new one completely desecrates the "classic" original series. Powerful nostalgia goggles are the only rationale I can think of for why the original is apparently so beloved.

The question's about who you'd rather be in a Valk with, not who you'd rather be stuck in a locker with!

Minmay will sing to you, but you'll end up getting captured by Zentradi who will kill your sempai. Misa will take control of your fighter and crash it into the ground right in front of the wreckage of the Prometheus. Yang will end up shooting you. Ranka will sing and get the Zentradi to lay down their arms. Sheryl will tell you to rescue the guy she likes or die trying. WINNER: Ranka.

No, but you inspired me to turn to Google and I found 'em... Ladies and Gentlemen, the fabulous MEGABUG GLADIATORS: http://www.toyarchive.com/MegaBug.html Predictably, they don't look half as cool as I remember them being.

Yeah...I never understood the DVD region thing. The difference between NTSC and PAL for VHS tapes came about organically because of the difference between American and British TV sets...but (and please correct me if I'm wrong) region coding was deliberately imposed by...who? The DVD companies? The film companies? There used to be a good, vibrant video store scene in L.A.'s Little Tokyo area in the '90s; there were about ten or eleven really good places for video rental. Now there are two, I believe. And they still only have VHS tapes (well...one of them rents CDs as well). There are lots of Japanese movies (and anime) that I'd like to see but not necessarily buy...but there's really no place to go to rent them anymore.

It depends. My computer can switch back and forth between regions, but after a few times of doing that, it will lock. So I use my DVD player (the one, y'know, that's connected to my TV) for Region 1 DVDs, and my laptop for Region 2 DVDs. Either your computer can play Region 2, or else the DVDs themselves are Region 0 (and some Japanese DVDs are. All of Japanese singer Shiina Ringo's DVDs can be played on any player anywhere). Only the ones made by U.S. or European companies, unfortunately. You can always download the subtitle patches at add them to your DVDs, though. I'm not sure how to do it, but Hurin, Xeros, and OptimusX have all worked on such projects, and have tutorials to help you through the process.

I dunno...the "partly metal, partly real" line in the Silverhawks theme song confused me as a kid. The fact that everybody in the show "fell" "down" in space confused me, also. As for underrated toy lines, I remember when I was VERY young, I had these three toys (and I think that's all they ever made) that were vehicles, but looked like insects. The two good guys looked like a dragonfly and a scorpion, and the bad guy looked like a spider. I thought they were very cool, and I really loved them...until my grandparents' dog chewed up the scorpion.

...and I just watched "Lost Planet of the Gods Part II" (episode 3 of the original series) and Jane Seymour just died. I'll watch the next episode or two and see how they are, but I'm not optimistic. ...Why do people like this show, again?

I haven't checked RT.com for a few days now, and I'm not likely to anytime soon; but if the picture you paint here is accurate, it sounds like Memo is just allowing anyone to agree with him to say whatever they want, regardless of the rules. I wouldn't be surprised if someone gets a warning eventually for insulting Pizza, instead of the other way 'round. But still...Memo's the mod. He'll conduct his job however he sees fit. If that includes letting people fly off the handle (and long as they agree with him), there's not much anybody can do about it. And what happens over there (and at Robotech Factor) has no bearing on what happens over here. I've said this before, and I mean no harm, nor do I want to cause offense, but I dislike the way this site is sometimes used by Robotech fans as a substitute RT.com. This is first and foremost a MACROSS site, and I'm puzzled by how many people there are here who never have anything to say about Macross. Negative stuff about RT tends to get a sympathetic hearing here (although not as much as it USED to), but it's not a place for proxy battles between RT.com members. I've said many times that I think Seto's a great guy, and he definitely CONTRIBUTES to Macross fandom in a very helpful way, but the whole "Look at what they're saying about me at RT.com! Aren't they crazy?" line is getting a little old. I'd like to think that most of us don't really care what happens over there, or what people at Robotech Factor say about the RT.com posters. Robotech discussion surely has its place here, but Macross World is not simply an extension of Robotech fandom, and it bothers me that some people seem to want to turn it into that.

I think it's classic bored-guy-becomes-troll behavior. He created a persona, went off the deep end with "HG owns all of Robotech" pronouncements, and went off the deep end trying to shoehorn other shows into Robotech (while claiming the Pokemon and Space Gandam V were Macross shows); then he joined RT.com and made a series of outrageously offensive comments and essentially forced them to ban him, and which point he says they betrayed him and now he's become a Gundam fan instead. It was all theatre. Pure theatre.

WOW! That looks great! Very, very cool.

I still think that Robotechfanplus was a deliberate, sarcastic troll. The RPG guy was being serious...

Someone already kinda tried to do that... http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Spa/5972/mecha.html

Coincidence...or CURSE??? I think you may be reading too much into what is probably just Tommy's style of speaking. "Pretty much" is often one of those space-filler terms, like "well" or "y'know" or "basically." I don't think it was part of the official statement. The thing that I'm wondering about...did the Japanese court decide that Tatsunoko NO LONGER had the IP rights, or did they decide that they NEVER had the IP rights? If the latter, than everyone here arguing against HG's position is correct. If the former...then HG may indeed have all the rights wrapped up.

The THORA version is the Yack Deculture edition.

I'll hand it to Tommy, he's funny ("Robot Jox has NOTHING on us" is a pretty good line). Too bad no one asked the follow-up question, "The courts decided that Tatsunoko didn't have the IP rights. How could they sell you something they don't own?"

Yep. Nothing says "seventies" like the brown jackets...except for the disco trio with the double faces on that casino world...and Richard Hatch's hair. And the young Jane Seymour. But, as I said before, I'm fine with THAT aspect of the seventies.

Yeah, that's entirely unnecessary. I understand "sequels by other hands" if we're talking about movies and TV shows. Usually, there are so many people involved that there really is no single "vision" stamped onto the work (or course, there are always exceptions. Star Wars really DOES belong to George Lucas, for better or for worse. Star Trek is and always will be Gene Roddenberry's utopia, not anyone else's. And The Sopranos without David Chase would be entirely unthinkable). Books are different, though. A single writer, fleshing out a unique fictional world (or worlds)...that cannot be continued, replicated, or recaptured (sometimes not even by the original author). Much as the entertainment industry wants to pretend that creativity by committee is best, and that all creativity is equal, it's just not the case. There ARE unique, individual, uncanny voices that come along from time to time, and they are irreplaceable.

Y'know...this thread inspired me. I liked the original series when I was a wee little tyke (I even had the daggit stuffed toy where you pulled the string and it barked), but it's one of those things I never really wanted to revisit because I figured that the older, wiser (?) me would think that it sucked (see also: Tron, The Last Starfighter, and Unidentified Flying Oddballs). So I opted out when the new series started and I never got around to watching it. Finally, thanks to this thread, I decided to check it out. However, at the DVD shop, something caught my eye. Now, I've heard rumblings here and there about how the original series was a true classic, and the new series pissed all over it, as well as cannibalized its storylines. And there, at the store, for rental, was the Original Series box set. So I rented it, figuring I'd watch as much of it as I could stomach before moving on to the new series. So far, I've watched the debut movie ("Saga of a Star World") and I just finished Part 1 of Lost Planet of the Gods, and... Um... Why do people still like this show? It's watchable, but it doesn't strike me as being very good so far. Sure, the theme music pressed my nostalgia buttons (as did the opeing and closing narrations). The special effects are nice, but it rivals Macross 7 in recycled footage. Likewise, the mechanical designs aren't bad, just a little silly. But...man, the acting is terrible, that characters are flimsier than balsa wood, and the stories are pure '70s TV melodrama. Really, I think the loveliness of Jane Seymour is really the best thing about the show. Is there something I'm missing...?

I am SO there.

According to the back of issue 2, it's coming out in November.

I just got back from Kinokuniya in Los Angeles, and they had a HUGE stack (probably twenty copies) of the book. Get 'em while the gettin's good!

Christ, man...is this rant trying to win the coveted Ugly American Essay of the Year Award (Macross World Edition)? Give it a rest. Last time you pulled something like this, the thread in question got locked. DO try not to let that happen again, please.

MAYBE HE'S BUSY DREAMING UP OTHER THE COURT DECISSIONS WE ARE PERVY TO CAN BE MADE TO SAY SOMETHING THEY DON'T OR MAYBE HE'S FINDING NEW WAYS WRITE INCOMPERHENSIBLY SO NOBODY ARGUE WITH HIM BECUAS NOBODY UNDERSTANDING HIM. HEHEHE