Category: looky

In the 1980s my dad was going to Japan on business a lot, and sometimes he’d bring us back some of the cool toys he saw there.

As we discovered more than 20 years later, often the toys would be from a TV show, but without any way of seeing the source shows in question, everything was very mysterious. We got some Valkyries from Macross, and years later when Robotech came out, we knew they were from “Robotech.” Actually this was inaccurate, there was no show “Robotech” in Japan, just three totally unrelated shows all spliced together in an American dub.

There were little catalogs that came with the toys showing all the other related toys. We never conceived of trying to find these other toys, they just seemed a glimpse from a mysterious universe. However this was sort of irrelevant – since dad only went to Japan once every few years, by the time he went back, these toys were no longer for sale.

But the coolest toy we got was the “vehicle Voltron,” which I have since learned was actually called Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. The catalog for this was very confusing – we knew this thing was called “Voltron” here in the US. I saw it on TV once.

Then the “lion Voltron” aired on TV, and was much more popular. This was another combination robot, but instead of 15 vehicles, this one was made of five lions. Whenever someone referred to “Voltron,” this was the cartoon they were talking about.

This was appalling for a number of reasons. First of all, I knew for a fact that my toy was the “real Voltron.” I had seen it on TV, and I had the toys. They were right there, hard evidence of Voltron.

Secondly, this lion thing wasn’t even in the toy catalog! The only other Voltron (we called it “the second Voltron”) was a combiner robot in three parts (three robots combined into one) that I now know was called “Lightspeed Electroid Albegas,” (aka “Gladiator Voltron”). I never saw the cartoon.

The third toy had a lion, it’s true – but it wasn’t five lions. No, this “third Voltron” had a lion head for a torso. I’ve since learned this was “Mirai Robo Daltanious.” There was no cartoon. Why?

From Wikipedia:

The Japanese Mirai Robo Daltanious series was originally planned to be adapted by World Events Productions as one act of the Voltron: Defender of the Universe series in the United States and abroad. The intention was for Voltron to have 3 series components made up of Daltanious, Dairugger XV (the “Vehicle Voltron”), and Albegas (“Gladiator Voltron”). When requesting master tapes from Toei Animation for translation purposes, the World Events Productions producers requested the “[The] ones with the lion.” Mistakenly, Toei then proceeded to ship World Events copies of Beast King GoLion, another “combining-robot” anime featuring lion-shaped fighters. However, the World Events producers greatly preferred the GoLion series over Daltanious, and the GoLion episodes went on to become the most popular portion of the original Voltron run.

I dug a little deeper, and found this saga of the US release of Voltron, St Louis station KPLR, and owner Harold Koplar and his son Ted Koplar.

Are you sick of the stupid “weighing 8 objects on a scale” interview question? How about this one:

In “The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap,” Link finds a vending machine which sells figurines of all the monsters in Hyrule – these machines are called gashapon in Japanese. Link wants to collect all the monsters in the machine, which accepts the local currency, “shells.”

• There are figurines of 136 monsters
• a single figure costs 1 shell
• the machine will dispense a random figure for 1 shell
• …but the machine will only vend figures of monsters Link has seen before
• for an additional 1 shell per purchase, Link can increase the probability of getting a figure he doesn’t already have, at a rate of 1% per shell. Link can spend an unlimited number of shells (up to 100%) per transaction.
• Link throws away any duplicate figurines he receives

The question: describe a strategy to acquire every figure which economizes on the number of shells spent assuming there are 136 unique monsters and figures, and :

• Link has met every monster in Hyrule before he buys any figures
• Link has never met any monsters, but has the ability to do so in between purchases
• Link has met N monsters, and has bought no figures
• Link has met N monsters, and has bought M unique figures already

I (rather famously now) have always hated the first Battlestar Galactica. Initially it was because of the terrible writing and acting, but also because I considered it a rip-off of Star Wars… I found out decades later it’s because many of the same effects people worked on both projects.

Diane is a old-school BG fanatic. She refers to the newer show as GINO – Galactica In Name Only. Like the Republicans, you see.

My brother Ben on meeting Diane:

BEN: You like Battlestar Galactica?
DIANE: Yes, Brian and I watched the entire series just last week.
BEN: … Wow. He must really love you.
DIANE: … what
BEN: I remember him ranting against that show when he was 5.

The new one looks pretty intentionally gritty, much like a mid-1990s comic book, where everyone is scowling and being an anti-hero. Plus they squandered key parts of Starbuck’s character – it’s cool she’s a woman, but she could still be a womanizer!

Anyway that show is banned from my house so I haven’t seen more than 20 minutes of it.

This was printed in Star in August 2009, before the show was on. On page 65:

Shaun Sipos: ROLE: DAVID BRECK:

Spoiler Alert: David is the bad boy son of the original Melrose‘s handyman, Jake, played by Grant Show. Shaun, 27, has previously appeared on the series Shark and Complete Savages.

Oopsie! That was a lie – he was actually the son of Michael, also a character from the original series. Maybe it was an intentional misdirection?

Watching Julia Stiles in the Bourne movies – I was noticing how she definitely plays a type.

Julia Styles’ brand, the character she tends to play, is educated, intelligent. A little bit prissy, a little bossy and arrogant. She is naturally very pale white, her hair is generally a sandy light brown. Her dark serious eyes make her cute and girl-next-door without being cheap. In short she is the bitchy smart princess you wanted to fuck in high school but were too scared. The girl you DO take home to mother.

Stiles presents as a stereotype of “culture.” She has been in a bunch of “updated Shakespeare” movies: “O” (Othello), “Hamlet,” and “10 Things I Hate About You” (Taming of the Shrew). Since she really did grow up in New York and attended an arts academy, perhaps this is just typecasting based on her real personality.

Stiles as a type ends up being a good foil for the “clash of cultures” movie. If they were to remake “Breakin’,” Julia Stiles would be the ballet dancer. She’s also the girl the hero makes cry and then feels bad about it. Check out the second Jason Bourne movie.

Is it because she is pale white and has an all-American look compatible with the white monolithic culture? Maybe she could run for office? With her urban sensibilities and safe lily-white persona, she might be able to woo both sides of the political spectrum. At the moment I would wager flyover states would think she’s stuck up… but a few more movies with Julia crying ought to fix that.