Team Banzai - REALLY!?

[theBigMac]

Liked the pop culture references, though I never read all the novels, most of my experiences have been the fluff in Mechwarrior and Tech Readout 3025.

[Caesar Steiner for Archon]

  Pop culture references are not that big of deal. The regiment in question has been renamed.  The New Avalon Cavaliers still carry on the legacy. Blaming Stackpole for something that existed before he wrote the novels in question just seems a bit over the top to me. This is a a game universe and some people like to give a nod to RL cultural icons, cult classics et. al. Have you looked at some of the art work in the old house books? Oprah makes an unintended appearance or at least the resemblance is really unnerving. You get some good and bad when you give the nod so to speak. Just roll woth it and remember it is your game so ignore what doesn't work for you.

It's not about the unit name itself, it's about how uncreatively he did his nod.  His Rambo jab was actually pretty okay, because he was saying something ABOUT Rambo. He wasn't just saying "Rambo is a thing that exists!"  His Buckaroo Banzai reference was about as clever as a serious take on The Chris Farley Show skits from SNL.

[theBigMac]

Oh, almost forgot, what about the Butch and Sundance reference in the first Liao sourcebook?  I thought it was funny.

[StoneGiant]

I always enjoyed how McCarron's Armored Cavalry was known as THE BIG MAC myself.  :D

[theBigMac]

Yeah the Whopper just wouldn't have been the same. ;)

[Col.Hengist]

That's what Hanse called his battlepimp  ;)

[Banzai]

The Team Banzai unit predated the novel Riposte by  three years at least.  They were in the first Mechwarrior RPG in '86 as well as the original 3025 TRO that year (including B. Banzai, and the jumpship "The Nth Dimension".)   As I recall, Stackpole was told to kill them off, then that was pulled back slightly by the third Warrior book. 

Obviously my opinion on the unit is different than yours, lol. 

[John_Hawk]

Maybe it was when I read it -- middle school, and Buckaroo Banzai was just available on VHS -- yes, I'm old.  But it struck me as great fun, and it still does today.  BB was a movie that no one in my area had seen, except for me and my close friends. And reading about them in TRO 3025, the Mechwarrior handbook and eventually after that Stackpole's novels, put a smile on my face, like I was in on the joke. 

To this day, I enjoy finding the nuggets of in jokes in Battletech products.  Like "Thom Kazanski" being the commander of the One-Eyed Jacks Aerospace component.  That one still puts a grin on my face.  I haven't located a "Pete Mitchell" in any of the aerospace groups yet, though.

It's all the more fun since it's at least publicly frowned upon by TPTB.  Makes it feel like the inside jokes are even better.  And even if they don't stand the test of time -- BB is no longer a great secret -- the nostalgia it brings is something I dearly love.

[skiltao]

Stuart Yee, sorry for the long delay! I had to go rerent the film. A group of celebrity troubleshooters who act like cowboys and are crosstrained as scientists and test-pilots? Call signs, military technology, interdimensional physics, sci-fi callouts, doppelganger/long-lost family plus katanas and a kimono? Quality of Stackpole's execution aside, I cannot think of a more perfect way to say "this is what BattleTech is!" ;D

A cross-over means that they are the same characters as were portrayed in the film. Ergo it would imply that Dr. Banzai and the Hong Kong cavaliers somehow travelled to the future from the year 1984, or were frozen in time.

It would also imply that somewhere out there are Red and Black Lectroids.

Someone, I think Victor S-D (early in the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy), does mention that "UFOs" were sighted over New Avalon in the 3020s.  ^-^

That said, if Jeff Goldblum's character was a 'mechwarrior, what would he pilot?

New guy, runs around a bunch but doesn't shoot much... put him in a Clint, with a cowboy hat painted across the chest. (Or, if Team Banzai are all in heavies, maybe bump that up to a Quickdraw.)

[StuartYee]

Stuart Yee, sorry for the long delay! I had to go rerent the film.

You mean you don't OWN it?  ???

....plus katanas and a kimono? Quality of Stackpole's execution aside, I cannot think of a more perfect way to say "this is what BattleTech is!" ;D

Essentially participating in the Japanese lovefest of the 80's.

Someone, I think Victor S-D (early in the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy), does mention that "UFOs" were sighted over New Avalon in the 3020s.  ^-^

 :o

Any Red or Black Lectroids?

Actually, that might be a quaint pop culture reference to have a Merc unit named either the "Red Lectroids" or the "Black Lectroids". Hmmm....  8)

[Banzai]

A cross-over means that they are the same characters as were portrayed in the film. Ergo it would imply that Dr. Banzai and the Hong Kong cavaliers somehow travelled to the future from the year 1984, or were frozen in time.

It would also imply that somewhere out there are Red and Black Lectroids.

That said, if Jeff Goldblum's character was a 'mechwarrior, what would he pilot?

Well, in the write up for the New Avalon Cavaliers lists a former member of the Team was AFFS Marshal Sidney Zweibel, which was Jeff Goldblum's character.  Also the CO of the Cavs was John Parker, with Pinky Carruthers as his XO.

[skiltao]

The Lectroid's TOE would be real easy. John's lance of John's company in John's battalion...

You mean you don't OWN it?  ???

Gave it to a friend - the movie is too good not to share.   8)

[Caesar Steiner for Archon]

You mean you don't OWN it?  ???

Alternatively, you don't have Netflix Instant (cause it's on that)?

[StuartYee]

The Lectroid's TOE would be real easy. John's lance of John's company in John's battalion...

Gave it to a friend - the movie is too good not to share.   8)

John Smallberries would pilot a Stinger

What would John Big Boote pilot?

[Col.Hengist]

Thunderstallion...ever seen the bakside of one? Its got an ass like a clydesdale

[Hotwire]

Have to agree with those that like the Team Banzai and other '80s pop culture refs. I started playing BattleTech in '86 when it was Mad Max in a big stompy robot held together with spit, wire and a prayer. It was, and still is fun to run around the 3rd Succession War with '80s cult-classic icons and techno-punk/heavy metal music.  [rockon]

[Col.Hengist]

Have to agree with those that like the Team Banzai and other '80s pop culture refs. I started playing BattleTech in '86 when it was Mad Max in a big stompy robot held together with spit, wire and a prayer. It was, and still is fun to run around the 3rd Succession War with '80s cult-classic icons and techno-punk/heavy metal music.  [rockon]

 Hell Yea !  [rockon]

[StCptMara]

Have to agree with those that like the Team Banzai and other '80s pop culture refs. I started playing BattleTech in '86 when it was Mad Max in a big stompy robot held together with spit, wire and a prayer. It was, and still is fun to run around the 3rd Succession War with '80s cult-classic icons and techno-punk/heavy metal music.  [rockon]

Don't forget the 80's hair which, coicidentally, made it easier to pilot a 'mech, as well as the imagery of such
things as a dashboard hula dancer on the dash of your 'mech, and little touches like that that seem to have
fallen by the wayside in the more modern universe...except for still eccentric pilots....

[Col.Hengist]

I don't care if it's nixt or forboden, as long as i have my dash board Odin.

[StoneGiant]

Yeah who would've thought shaving the sides of your head into a mullet and wearing fingerless leather gloves would make such a resurgence in the future?  :D

[StCptMara]

Yeah who would've thought shaving the sides of your head into a mullet and wearing fingerless leather gloves would make such a resurgence in the future?  :D

What? The gloves are because, in the heat of a 'mech, the control sticks get hot, while the shaved temples
allow better connection with the neurohelmet! It all makes perfect sense!

[Col.Hengist]

Yeah who would've thought shaving the sides of your head into a mullet and wearing fingerless leather gloves would make such a resurgence in the future?  :D

 Wait... you mean thats not a popular style now?  :o

[StuartYee]

 Wait... you mean thats not a popular style now?  :o

 ;D

With the possible exception of your local Walmart, not so much....

[StoneGiant]

My pops actually affected that style, he would have been cooler than the other side of the pillow, if it wasn't 1995. He was always ten years behind the times when it came to what was "cool".  ;D

[Stormlion1]

What? The gloves are because, in the heat of a 'mech, the control sticks get hot, while the shaved temples
allow better connection with the neurohelmet! It all makes perfect sense!

There are people I work with that fit the description to a T. And there not the type of people I'd trust behind the controls of a mech!  ;)

[Banzai]

We used to joke that BattleTech was War Machines of Tomorrow, Driven By Queensrÿche. 

[Col.Hengist]

No kidding . My penetrater pilot has Jet city Woman play when the mech starts up  [rockon]

[Banzai]

"And Marshal Davion, here is the rest of your Command Company!"  [rockon]

[ColBosch]

"And Marshal Davion, here is the rest of your Command Company!"  [rockon]

Demi-company. Jeeze.

[Banzai]

The rest are out back smoking cloves.