Radd

I've been curious about that, too, as I much preferred the Takara Starscream (though, ideally, I would have preferred more of a dark grey, or a dark grey with just a tinge of blue as the base colour). I just heard so many horror stories about the hinges on Starscream showing stress marks immediately, and then cracking after several transformations. I even asked the board if it was really that bad, or if maybe it would be fine if I just treated it with the same care I treat my Yamato Valkyries, but everyone seemed to agree that it was a design flaw that would make the toy likely to break no matter how careful you were. Now that the price has skyrocketed and most places are out of stock, I'd be disappointed to hear that it was an exaggeration after all. I can understand the nostalgia factor and I'm glad a version of MP Starscream is coming out to appeal to that, but I'd much rather the toy that I find more appealing to look at. I did pick up Skywarp. Absolutely marvelous. I've transformed him like a dozen times, no stress marks. I even took it to work with me.

And if anyone was talking about realism, I'd be right there with you. However, I believe most people are complaining about how it's a very poor aesthetic choice. At best, it stands out as not looking right. At worst, it makes the toy look cheap. The black hinges are the same problem. Most people don't want realism, anyways. They want a toy in Starscream's very unrealistic G1 colour scheme.

Really? I've been playing a lot of Metroid Prime 3 since it came out. Though I'm disappointed at how the different areas are separated as different planets. One of the joys of the previous Metroid games was being able to find multiple routes through each level to other levels. As a result, the levels feel smaller and more isolated. Other than that, though, it's fantastic.

Price was the biggest complaint listed. Rather than cutting the price, Takara cut out the die-cast content of the toys, but then kept the price the same. Japanese fans were importing the American toys. Kiss Players apparently did better, but the price was still high with no die-cast content, so....meh. Clear Mirage is a repaint. Hasbro cancelled the line because Takara isn't making any new molds. One of the last things Takara did was eff up the pickup truck mold by deciding it must be Prime, then they almost didn't release it themselves. Otherwise it likely would have been Ironhide which would have made those of us who already are quite content with our MP Primes leading our Alternators much happier.

I think FFN's grudge against the Japanese side of Transformers has been how a lot of the lack of success on that side has been so detrimental to the American side in more than a few cases. I can certainly relate, the only TF lines I've been excited about in ages have been the Alternators and the Masterpiece lines, and it seems the Alternators are gone primarily because they did so poorly in Japan (by all accounts, it sounded to me as if they were doing great over here in the west). On the other hand, I don't give Hasbro a free pass. I really dislike the photos of the American MP Starscream, with the garishly bright colours and horribly down "battle damage". Unfortunately, nostalgia seems just as powerful in Japan so I doubt we'll see the first run colour scheme done with the structural improvements used in Skywarp. I know I'm in the minority here, but I really liked the Takara Starscream colours.

On other forums I've heard the soundtrack is intact. No idea how they're handling it, but apparently it doesn't take up that much space, either.

It seems to me, based on what I've heard, that if Takara had dropped the die-cast, the line would have done much better. Most of the complaints I've read had been about price. Though the Kiss Players toys were still just as pricey, lacked the die-cast, but on the other hand they came with those odd little girl characters, and had an odd manga story running. Hmm, maybe just having a manga or tv series might have helped the regular Binaltech line, but cutting the cost by going no-diecast like the American line probably would have helped too. Of course, it's always seemed to me that Takara has really mishandled the Transformers line, even while Hasbro was raking it in.

It sounds as if it's dropped completely, which is an incredible shame. I keep all my Alternators and Masterpiece Transformers on the same shelf, and when you put those two lines together, you've got, what is in my opinion at least, the best TF line ever. Especially if they keep adding non-car variety with the Masterpiece line. I'm hoping for the two original triple-changers sometime soon, and Soundwave.

The NeoGeo was added. First games are Fatal Fury, World Heroes, and Art of Fighting.

So anyone else notice that a new console has been added to the Virtual Console library?

I agree with one of the earlier posts, the important question about Basara is, o you understand his POV? Judging him by typical standards of how well crafted a character he is, Basara falls short. He has his flaws, and while these flaws are tempered by those around him, you never really get the sense that he's changed by them so much as held in check. I truly wanted to deck him whenever he would blame someone else for his own actions, his single biggest flaw in my opinion. There was room for the writers to allow Basara to grow, but it just seems they never took advantage of it. That said, I do think he had some very good ideas, and believe is position is more or less correct, especially when tempered by Ray and the rest. Gamlin was my favourite character in the series largely in part because he was such a dimwit at the beginning of the series, but he grew out of that and becomes a more complete character by the end of the show. On a side note, the term "cel shading" existed before CG cel shaders. It's long been used among anime fans, art school students, and others to describe any high-contrast shading which resembles that used in 2D animation, though it's more appropriate when used to describe a CG shader, because when someone does such high-contrast solid shading in illustration or other work they're not even necessarily trying to emulate a 2D animation look, but the CG shader is most definitely trying for precisely that.

That's what I'm thinking, but I wouldn't rule out a primarily MOSPEADA based movie, with the "Macross" bits told through backstory exposition. Actually, I wouldn't rule out a movie using the bare bones Southern Cross story. If they are indeed going to try and circumvent the whole Macross legal issue, they'll have to do something, while still making it a franchise that has at least a passing semblance to the Robotech story with room to milk it in sequels.

I don't know, if the good-ending/bad-ending theory is true, then both these scenarios kinda water that theme down. I'd rather see them build up that theme if anything, maybe retelling the story as a set of two movies? Or maybe if they do a sequel have the two possibilities collide? Simon versus....Simon?

That's an interesting idea, and if it's true the more the loss because they didn't take it quite far enough. Still, I enjoy the ending. Good series. Very good series.

You're forgetting two things. 1. Hollywood does all that to remakes and movie versions of old shows already. This would be no different. 2. Even if they did want to remain somewhat faithful to the original material...hey, they've got two full series worth of material to work with. They own Southern Cross and MOSPEADA via Tatsunoko. They can mine that for all the material they need. And it would not be difficult to make a Robotech movie that begins with MOSPEADA, only making vague references back to the previous events. MOSPEADA didn't have any preceding series to fill in every single detail until HG duct taped Southern Cross and Macross onto it.

Only in the Imax version.

I don't think azrael was speaking about designs. Taking into considering the likelihood of a complete visual redesign (likely akin to either Transformers, or simply pushing a more MOSPEADA visual style), changing/omitting certain words (Like how they apparently omitted the word "zentradi" from Shadow Chronicles, instead simply calling them "aliens", and the only instance of the UN Spacey fighting kite it was turned into a larger logo/altered enough to get away), and enough changes to the story, and it will be an entirely "Robotech" product, like Shadow Chronicles apparently was.

Finally got MP Skywarp. Fantastic toy, though not nearly as much range of movement in the legs as I'd like. Seems like there's a very limited set of poses you can work the toy into, and some of them, some that i can do easily with a Bandai 1/55th VF-1, are more difficult to pull off than I'd like. Still, once you get him into those poses, he does look good. I still kinda wish he was more Prime/Megatron size, but I'm not going to complain too much. He looks very good on my shelf with the Alternators and the other two Masterpiece toys I have (the aforementioned leaders). I also really want Starscream more than ever, but I'm still not keen on the cartoony Hasbro colour scheme. I don't suppose there's any chance we'll see a rerelease of the Takara Starscream colours but with the improvements they made to Skywarp? If not, I'll settle for the Hasbro colours. I can't stand the thought of a toy I can't pick up and mess with whenever I feel like it. Especially if it will cost me like forty bucks more than the Hasbro version.

I just love all the character designs for the show. You've got some really over the top characters, with obvious homages like JoJo here, and then the understated characters like Lon and Attenborough who really play off Simon's obvious Harlock homage. The look of the show really helps it bounce between the incredibly goofy, the over the top heroic sentimentality, the utterly out-there galaxy sized robots and instant-evolutions, and courage+determination beats all attitude. Of course, the self-awareness the characters have about all this, I think that really ties it all up nicely, "You're the one who made this madness work!" Man, last episode on the way. Been a long time since I've enjoyed a show so thoroughly.

Has business really been that bad for Geneon, or is there something on the other side of the ocean that brought this about?

I dunno, I would not be crushed if it simply ended at 27. Best to end as a modern classic, than disappoint with every sequel.

Oh God, nevermind. Just saw the first episode. Definitely not the same people, unless they were held at gunpoint and forced to make this abomination against their will.

Is this one being done by the same people who did the 90's Giant Robo and the Tetsujin 28 series from a couple years back?

It takes all types. I think 25 appealed most to people who are really into the characters and the over the top sentimentality of the show, and shifting the focus after such a perfect climax to overshadow it with a transformation sequence would have really dragged that down.

And yet damned if someone doesn't point out they're not selling well. I suppose that's a retailer controlled market for you.