As usual I posted in a thread before posting an introduction, so I thought I should come here and do an intro too. I remember hurrying home from the school bus every weekday to catch Battle of the Planets in elementary school. I also remember being frustrated because the show seemed to tell a larger story and I never caught the end. Still, Ken in particular has lived in my head ever since, poor guy. Except I didn't know he was Ken until I went to university and discovered that Battle of the Planets wasn't the original. Life suddenly made sense! I managed to get some tapes (yes, VHS tapes, I'm aging myself here) with key subtitled episodes in a tape trade and was gobsmacked at how much character development and whatnot had been edited out. During university I belonged to the Bird Scramble APA for a bit (an APA was a fanzine where you wrote your bit each $timeperiod and sent in copies, the editor of the zine collated so everyone got a copy, and then sent them back out). I really need to look and see if I still have my copies. I hope so, I don't have electronic copies of the things I wrote for that. Anyway, I'm sleepy and my mind is wandering. My Gatchaman obsession has somewhat ebbed and flowed over the years but is always there under the surface. I have some merchandise like a 2 volume set of manga, an animation cell of Ken in his plane (just his face and hands, it's kind of funny), and a little Gatchaman pin. I also have a model of the original God Phoenix. I had always heard that there were 2 more Gatchaman series and they weren't worth watching, so I wasn't in a rush. Recently I got in a Gatchaman mood, and ended up watching all 3 series back to back in my usual "go big or go home" fashion. I'd never seen all of the first anyway, just the select episodes. I have to say that I found GII and GF better than I'd expected, not that they didn't have their (sometimes sizeable) flaws. GF in particular owes me a new box of kleenex from leaky eyes. Um, what else. I'm a yaoi fan, and had already discovered BirdGo before coming here. (Ladies, you didn't finish your stories!) I write original fiction these days though I'm toying with the idea of finishing a fanfic I never finished way back when for the APA. From the kleenex comment I'm obviously a huge sap. I'm also easily distracted by small shiny objects. Squirrel! Anyway, hello Gatchamaniacs. I salute you.

and good to see you here Chris, I hope you'll join in and have fun with the rest of us, we're a friendly bunch!

Welcome to the boards!

Welcome Chris. Wouldn't it be nice if you could do an easy transfer of your BOTP stories to electronic files. It would make it so much easier to locate things.

Nice to have you here Chris!

Welcome, Chris, great to see you! Birdscramble is still around as a paper APA,. and many of us here are members. Boeke is the OE and she's here as well. You're certainly not alone in your memories of rushing home from school to watch BOTP! I fit into that category myself.

Welcome, Chris! I didn't have to rush home -BOTP was on at 5pm in Nova Scotia- but I sure watched it every chance I got!

Welcome, Chris. I didn't take the bus, but I did quick four block sprint when school started in September (Damn, that ages us almost as much as video tapes does, doesn't it.)

Hello, hello! I think my local TV station had a psychic link with me -- it showed BotP a half-hour after I got home from school, even when the school changed its dismissal time! Anyway, I'm glad you've joined the group, and I hope we can see some of your work soon!

Welcome, Chris! Several of us are still members of Bird Scramble- we'd love to have you back! I think you share the same story as many of us- I was right in front of the TV at 4:00- and I DIED if I had to miss my BOTP!

Hi Chris! Nice to see you in the fandom again. I am one of the rare ones that does not recall running home from school to view Battle of the Planets - I caught it after work. At least until I went to Arizona for graduate work... then it was bike home ASAP to get to see today's offering. I made certain to schedule my classes whenever possible to permit my viewing/inspiration. Glad to have you here!

Originally posted by clouddancer Welcome Chris. Wouldn't it be nice if you could do an easy transfer of your BOTP stories to electronic files. It would make it so much easier to locate things.

Indeed! I'm not sure if it's easier to scan them in and do an OCR to pick up the text, or just re-type them since I'd probably do heavy edits anyway. First step though is finding them. I've found a printout of part of the story I didn't finish, but I know I got farther than those pages.

Originally posted by Transmute Jun Welcome, Chris, great to see you! Birdscramble is still around as a paper APA,. and many of us here are members. Boeke is the OE and she's here as well. You're certainly not alone in your memories of rushing home from school to watch BOTP! I fit into that category myself.

Now I know for sure I've found a group of people as insane as me. How awesome. Will talk to her.

Squirrels and shiny objects Yah! Welcome to the world of like minded people! When you find some of your stories let us know, I for one am looking forward to more reading. As for BirdGo - I too was looking forward to finding out what happened in the stories they did not finish.

I braved the garage of doom and found my Bird Scrambles! Score one for being a packrat. Plus I found a Gatchaman t-shirt I forgot I owned.

Ooooh, lucky you. A Gatchaman T-shirt !!

Look who's become the star of the group!

I think we need a picture of this t-shirt...

I'll try to snap one soon. It's not an official old one I don't think, but it's nicely done. From back when I used to go to anime cons with friends.

Welcome Chris...and hey, don't feel bad. I posted a whole fricken story before I introduced myself...and even then someone else did it for me... Hee.

Welcome Chris - or rather, welcome back!! And no - you aren't dating yourself, merely confirming that you weren't alone and that you have found (as has been said) like minded people. I have to applaud you for braving the Garage of Doom and emerging not only alive but triumphant! I think that for many of us who were teenage, BotP re-defined the "cartoons are for kids" thing - and for me at least - evoked a curiosity into this type of animation. To age myself - when I discovered what is now Anime, it was called "Japanimation" I am going to say here that whilst I enjoy Gatchaman, my first love is and remains BotP. Anyway - Welcome! I look forward to seeing your fic offerings!

A warm Chris! I'm so glad you found us, and also your never-ending love for the series! Like you, mine was dormant for some period, but it was always there! ... it revamped itself after a long period of time and I was so fortunate, and even surprised, to find other people like me, sharing this same fandom, from all over the world, especially when joining this site! I was also a fortunate child, back in the past, to have been able to watch all the original Gatchaman episodes at the most suitable time for me ... that is when I'd have been back home from school and would have finished all my homework! Plus, I didn't have to wait for a whole week to pass from one episode to another ... they aired them daily on Italian channels! Kudos for finding your t-shirt! ... pictures please!!

Hi Chris! Nice to meet you and hope to see you around!

Originally posted by k2p2 Welcome Chris...and hey, don't feel bad. I posted a whole fricken story before I introduced myself...and even then someone else did it for me...

Oh I don't feel bad, really, just rolling my eyes at myself. And I'm trying my hand at a fic since I seem to be stuck on my novel anyway. Maybe it'll shake some cobwebs loose.

Originally posted by Madilayn And no - you aren't dating yourself, merely confirming that you weren't alone and that you have found (as has been said) like minded people.

It is a nice feeling.

I have to applaud you for braving the Garage of Doom and emerging not only alive but triumphant!

It took some convincing. My husband even helped, maybe he was curious about what I might find along the way.

I think that for many of us who were teenage, BotP re-defined the "cartoons are for kids" thing - and for me at least - evoked a curiosity into this type of animation.

Definitely!

To age myself - when I discovered what is now Anime, it was called "Japanimation"

Ditto. I didn't even know that BOTP and many other shows were hacked up translations until I went to university and started hanging out with an anime-minded crowd. That's how I discovered Gatchaman in the first place!

I am going to say here that whilst I enjoy Gatchaman, my first love is and remains BotP.

It's funny, I would have thought I'd be the same. However, I'm really drawn to darker stories, and have really fallen in love with the darkness and depth in Gatchaman.

I've tried attaching an image but it doesn't seem to show up. I'm going to give it one more shot and if it doesn't work, then I'm going to leave it as is and someone will have to tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Chris, I think this site's attachment function is still not working! Try uploading your picture in Photobucket first ... it's the most common way that usually works!

Marie is right, the attachments aren't working. If you want to put up an image, host it in a Phototbucket account and then use the [IMG] tages to post it here.

Here we go. This shirt is still a bright white, it looks like it has dark areas because I draped it over my monitor to bring out the art.

OH wow, that's neat

That's a great shirt with some nice shots!

No Condor though

Originally posted by KT1972 No Condor though

That is a good point. I wonder if it was an early Gatchaman II thing.

so why two Eagles?

Originally posted by KT1972 so why two Eagles?

Hey, I didn't make the shirt, I just bought it. And being Ken obsessed, two Eagles was fine with me, hehe. Though I have to say I'm not crazy about the shot they chose for his profile. It's definitely lacking something without Joe.

and it's something you'll treasure forever!

I love that shirt Chris. It looks like some one Drew the large Eagle and then used a screen shot for the other image.

Originally posted by clouddancer I love that shirt Chris. It looks like some one Drew the large Eagle and then used a screen shot for the other image.

That's very possible.

Cool shirt! Yup, and definitely ideal for Eagle fans. Looks like it could have been based on the image of the Team seeing Getz in his Condor birdstyle in the first episode of Gatch II

Originally posted by lborgia88 Looks like it could have been based on the image of the Team seeing Getz in his Condor birdstyle in the first episode of Gatch II

Sure does!

Lovely shirt, Chris! I can imagine why it's so important for you! Being an Eagle-lover myself, I don't mind the two Eagles, either! Even though I would have preferred to have the Condor in there, also! Without him it's just not the same! LB ... you have nailed that picture!

Love the shirt, Chris! LB, you have a photographic memory, don't you? That's an awesome match!

And I forgot to mention- that's a nice shot of the two guys sleeping on the haystack in your avatar, Chris! I remember seeing that ep...poor team had to sleep in a barn!

Originally posted by Springie And I forgot to mention- that's a nice shot of the two guys sleeping on the haystack in your avatar, Chris! I remember seeing that ep...poor team had to sleep in a barn!

That's from Gatchaman Fighter Episode 16 (I don't have a photographic memory, I just have a lot of screenshots with the full browser shown, hehe). And yeah, I love how the ISO spares no expense for these guys!

Good catch, LB. I think you found the shot.

I am a baby and I need to grow up.