JsARCLIGHT

If people are going and raiding... can someone raid and pillage for me? I have moneeeeey (jingles purse).

My numbers have also changed slightly: 1/48's - 10 1/60's - 12

CRAP! Someone buy me one too! I'll pay cash! For that price even if they are boots they are better than nothing!

Well I still have the tape... all it will take is some down time in the edit suite so I can get in there and work on it for a day or so. Perhaps this winter when things calm down in late 4th quarter I can take a shot at it again. But right now I'm working my ass (and my team's asses) to the bone. Yeeehaaaw, another 12 hour day!!! (hint to kids in school: marketing and graphic design is NOT a job for you if don't like your workahol.)

Once again: HAW Haw!

Yes that was me with my copy. Three things went horribly wrong with it: 1) the guy doing the transfer for me was doing it as a "favor" and thus it was back burnered for him as he completed more important projects at work. Then that guy up and quit on me and I hired a new editor but I don't know him from adam so I can't ask him for a favor of this magnitude just yet. (Image you just starting a job and your boss walks in and says "hey, I know you have tons of crap to do to but could you see to it to digitize and clean up this old worn out VHS tape for me? Thanks!") 2) Durring our office move our entire network got buttholed... thus we lost many very important projects and our entire raid system... guess what was on that raid system somewhere in some small capacity. 3) Of what Darin got time to transfer and attempt to clean up (the first episode if I remember right) the cleanup process was a steep order as the tape the first three unsubtitled episodes are on is not only a copy of a copy of a copy but it has serious "shelf rot" and the speed jumps regularly and the picture is fuzzy and quite crappy at it's best. ... so as of now the whole endevor is dead. I have no time to do the transfer myself and neither does our new guy. Add to that that our editing suite is in high gear right now and the only time at the controls I could get would be between 9pm and midnight if I where to do it myself. Sorry to break the news so hard and so late but my copy is too far gone for a VHS to VHS transfer worth anything and digitizing it and cleaning it up will take a lot of time I don't have at the moment.

I would have to say if you start forgiving one or two things for one person under the guise of a "summer popcorn movie" then you'd have to forgive more and more sooner or later... which is what we seem to be doing lately for summer movies... cough cough the core cough cough day after tomorrow cough cough vanhelsing cough... I also think something that should be remembered is that ST2 is a straight to video release and technically "cannot compete" with other first run theater movies. ST2 should technically be compared to it's brothers like American Ninja 4: The Dudikoff Factor and any of the ham-fisted movies you see on a sunday afternoon on SciFi Channel. And to me the days of the classic shootem up summer movie are long gone... all we have now are thinly veiled message movies and audience abusing manufactured action hero pieces.

Cameron is still a hack in my book. His talent seems to only go as far as his budget and when he is using someone else's ideas. I like the movie Aliens, but that was not "his baby" as everyone credits him with, he just took someone else's concept and characters and "Terminatorized" it. I also agree that King Kong will be Jackson's undoing.

OK, OK, off topic yes but being the son of a vietnam vet and having a masters degree that I based almost entirely on the first and second indochina war I have to respond to this (which will be my last response here as previously promised) as once again it is a personal belief so I will be as brief as possible so the normal thread can resume: America LOST the second indochina war as we failed on all our objectives. Vietnam is a case of "winning the fights but losing the war". America's objectives were to 1) prop up the failing puppet democracy of South Vietnam 2) halt the spread of communism in SE Asia and 3) finally have a knock-down, drag out fight with the eastern bloc in someone else's yard. We failed on all those counts but the last, seeing as almost all the communist states supported North Vietnam in some way during the war. In the end North Vietnam overran and destroyed the South, Communism spread like wildfire in SE Asia when we pulled out and lots and lots of people died as a result. The second indochina war "had to happen" and it was inevitable that it ended the way it did. With the limitations put on our troops and tactics it could not be "won". Facts and figures can be easily made to dispute history but the primary and secondary mission goals of vietam were a total failure and our "enemies" in that war won the day, if we had not lost then Saigon would not be called Ho Chi Mihn city today. The same goes for Somalia and anyone who tells you differently is just a sore loser. America can lose and we did lose. What does this have to do with Valkyries fighting space monsters? Absolutely nothing so... Back to Macross 7 and I'm outa here for good this time.

Titanic, True Lies and the Abyss are all terrible movies and James Cameron is a hack. Just because he had one of the highest grossing teen cryfest summer shlock movies of all time under his belt and the academy awards popularity does not make him a good director. What has he done since? Jack. Terminator 1, 2 and Aliens can be seen the same way, they are attrocious movies but everone loves them because of all the guns 'a blazin' and special effects. Same goes for Peter Jackson, He was not much more than a third-teir New Zealander gore movie hack until he landed LotR... and Jackson got lucky that he did not totally destroy the LotR trilogy as he had the bonus of good story material, good actors and a good crew behind him. Plus "Founding" an effects shop in this day and age is no big thing as it is just a matter of money and headhunting the right talent. As for Savini and Burton they also have one or two box office successes, more due to their cast and story talent. But the element all these people have that Phil Tippett does not is experience. Their "good" movies came at number 4, 5 or 6 in their careers. ST2 is Tippett's first film in the chair and it shows bigtime. Just as the movie Spawn was a first time shot for most of it's leading crew, ST2 shows itself as a very shallow, immature film. Budget is just an excuse, mainly being an effects person Tippett is used to having about a 100 million in breathing room to fire up his flints and maya seats. I think King George has proved the point that good effects are no match for a poor story and lousy acting and now Tippett has proved that a bad story, budget effects and an inexperienced director can do the same. But seeing as the budget was so low ST2 will most likely will make money in the first week (like the Spykids franchise) and will convince him he should make more movies. Don't you just love hollywood?

The last time an effects house and an effects person where in charge of a movie we ended up with that pile of crap called Spawn. ST2 is just more proof that in hollyweird you need a royal straight flush of tallent: good actors under a good director using a good script with a good crew to make a good movie. Just having one part of the puzzle is usually course for disaster. And did anyone catch the write up of ST2 in the latest Cinefex mag?

To the honor of those that have asked me not to reply to Keith lest a flame war start I will only say this to him: Keith you and I have lived totally different lives. I served my country, so did my father, my father's father, my fiancee and many people I know. The military is in my blood. I joined to serve my country, to fight in the place of those who could not fight for themselves for this land and what it stands for. I left the military for the reasons you mention and now persue a life of art and peace, but I still respect those in uniform for who they are and what they stand for. I saw crap and did things that I question the sanity of to this day but it does not make me or other soldiers mindless killers or robots for the use of war. And yes, I own guns but they are as a hobby and not because I am paranoid or delusional or craving death. That is a common stereotype of gun owners. No man wants to kill another man but in some occasions there come times when it is inevitable. Kill or be killed. You can have all the peace and love and hope in the world on your side but the evil of others will always wipe you out unless you ready a good defence. There are many people in this world that only understand violence, death and conquest... they will not talk to you or bargain with you or they will use your perceived weakness to their advantage. The Hitlers, Stalins, Pol Pots and other evils of the world only understand force and force must be met with force, not words. I cannot understand your position just as you cannot understand mine because we have seen different things and lived different lives. I got into this because you threw out politically charged insults that others like myself have issue with, not just the person you are trying to insult. Everyone will listen to you more if quit with the name calling, threats and aggressive posture. For one who proports peace you sure have a lot of aggression and anger in your posts. I promise to leave your Macross 7 threads alone from now on if you in turn promise me to cut out the wide based insults and threats. No one threatened you, insulted you or accused you of anything yet you lash out at people left and right. When you lash out and throw insults then you only get what you send out in return. Now I'll step out of this thread again. I dislike conflict on this board just as much as the other members and I wish people could talk about this Macross 7 topic without all the hate and angst but both sides are guilty and neither wants it to end it seems. Someone has to take the first step in stopping this situation. Edit: OK, so Agent One beat me to the punch here. I still ask both sides to work something out and tone down the name calling and rhetoric. I don't like arguing on message boards so if someone would step up to the plate and offer an olive branch here as I'm trying to do perhaps we can stem this whole thing from getting worse.

OK see now you brought ME back into this stupid topic. Why are you bashing gun owners now? If you ask me you have just stepped on a landmine, punk. I was staying out of this thread but now thanks to your stupid choice of an insult I'm back in. You have actually shown me just how little you actually know about things and how much you think you know about a bunch of made up cartoon nonsense. Have you ever fought in a real war? No? I thought so. Do you know the truth about armed conflict and death? No? I thought so. All you know about life and death is what you see on TV just like almost everyone else. Have you ever held a gun in your hand, looking out over the horizon as a bunch of hienous crap starts rolling towards you with the intent of killing you and everyone next to you? Us "gun nuts", as you like to call us, know a hell of a lot more about life and death and war and peace than you can ever hope to know because a good number of us where soldiers. Most of us fought in a few wars here and there and most of us have a lot more responsability and common sence than a lot of other people. Stereotyping all gun owners like you just did makes me want to stereotype you back but I'm not, instead I'm going to focus on this crap-ass show that you hold on high like some sort of life model. Macross 7 from the beginning was slanted with a peace/love/no war angle and the enemies are purposefully written so strong and immune to normal weapons so the whole "love/peace/no war" angle can be exploited. Why don't the normal guns work? Because they never were supposed to. The writers are so caught up in their message that logic and common sense go right out the window. It is the most common failure of modern storytelling. There is no such thing of a war won by love and peace in reality. Wars are won by people dying in droves for no good reason and the people with the most soldiers left in the end occupying the last piece of land are the winners. People want to see wars won by peace and love because they never happen in real life. There is also no such thing as an undefeatable enemy. EVERY enemy can be beaten and killed the question is: how much are you willing to sacrifice to win? Ask the Vietcong about that one after all, they beat the juggernaught of America did they not? Peace and love only wins wars in the movies and on TV, anyone who thinks otherwise is so disconnected from reality that it isn't funny. I was trying hard to stay out of this because I am sick to death of this topic and the people that keep starting it back up with the same arguments... but when you start insulting people who have nothing to do with this topic is when you open the floodgates, buddy. I was indifferent to you before but now you have shown me a side of you that I really don't like nor care to know. You can win your arguments with logic and reason or you can do what it seems you do best: throw out broad-brushed insults and keep repeating the same tired lines over and over. If you are going to argue then argue on topic and quit randomly insulting everyone and anyone you see fit to.

Not meaning to sound like an ass (again) but that poll you will find will be very, very lopsided. I only know one person who has legit R2 items of Macross... everyone else has bootlegs or the handfull of R1 that has been released.

OK, I have no love lost for HG but I keep feeling that some people are potentially being somewhat two-faced on this issue. I keep hearing so many becry "no HG! Give your money to the real licensee!" and yet a good number of those same people (myself included) own the bootleg FX Perfect Edition of this movie. How many people actually plunked down the coin for an R2 Japanese only copy of this movie? My guess would be less than 10% of us. I myself want an R1 release of this movie so I can stop patronizing bootleggers. If HG gets the rights through legal means and releases the movie then by all means I will buy their release to replace my bootleg. And if they don't have legal right to release the property I bet nothing will come of it as the courts will step back in and put the kibosh on the whole thing until the two sides can play nice. As for buying the R2 releases... sure, fine... I don't speak or read Japanese nor do I own an R2 DVD player. I'm not going to go out of my way to buy a DVD player from another region and sit in front of the TV with a fanscript like I have been for years before DVD when all I owned were copy of a copy of a copy VHS tapes of this stuff when there is a good chance someone will bring the movie out as R1 with good subs, clean picture and possibly extras that none of the import or bootleg DVDs have. Now let's look at the other side of this issue: let's say HG does not have the rights and they go ahead and release a butchered, dubbed, edited, "Robotech" version of the movie... the worst case scenario on all fronts. I bet it still sells like water in the desert no matter how much we moan and bitch and whine about it. If that happens then hey, I still have my bootleg of the original product and I will not feel pressured to buy the R1 because then it will not be the same thing. But if they do get the rights and release a solid product then I will buy it. Because I dislike bootleggers more than I dislike HG and I am not buying an R2 DVD player and sitting around with a fanscript like I did in College. This is 2004, you'd think these two huge international companies would quit playing like whiny children in the schoolyard and co-operate for a change so they can both make money and all the fans can be happy.

I use gunbroker a lot and I guess they will be getting all my firearm related attention from now on... sad really. Gunbroker is a great site, it's features could one day rival eBay but they have this... how can I say... problem. A lot of the auction posters on Gunbroker don't seem to grasp the concept of an auction. They are just listing their wares on the site with things like an opening bid of $100 and a buy it now of $101. Add to that that people on Gunbroker don't seem to have a firm grasp that there are other places people can get parts and supplies and some of their prices are just plain "taking advantage". The other "issue" with Gunbroker is that they are not really as slick or streamlined as eBay. All my Gunbroker transactions are herky-jerky most of the time and most have communication issues and delays... due mostly to the archetecture of the site and the way they handle their auction system. Add to that the fact that almost all the auctioneers on Gunbroker are either boycotting Paypal or make you pay the 3% handling fee it just makes Gunbroker so "not business friendly". I was happy parusing listings on eBay and I could find most of what I needed to restore my classic ARs and find normal everyday operating parts and kits on there at good prices. I hope those sellers move over to Gunbroker or Auctionarms as I would hate to have eBay's seeming political stance (and let's be honest here, that is what it boils down to) ruin my ability to find replacement cheap parts and accessories for my guns.

I'd buy an R1 DYRL DVD with nice subs just to get the nice subs... but I would not crow about it. Why would people brag about buying an R1 DVD anyway? As for Macross 7, no thanks.

Seeing as we are discussing the "evil" assault weapons at the moment I'm going to take this spot to update you all about an email I received from eBay today: And eBay does not have an "agenda"... riiiiiiiight. I for one am sick to death of this constant crap. EVERYTHING that fires a bullet is an "Assault Weapon"... it's what you do with a firearm! You "assault" with it! You also assault with knives, shoes, two-by-fours, cats, bowling pins and anything you can get your hands on. I will really be pleased if the Crime Bill sunsets and all those evil assault weapons once again become nice and legal... oh wait... they still are legal... that law does nothing... But what I really wonder is if the law does sunset will eBay still hold this policy? THAT my friends will be the true dye of the wool as they say... Then again, they outlaw the sale of 10+ round magazines, "machine gun" parts, nazi items, bootlegs, game convertors and other such things and people still just lie and list them anyway... or they legitimately list them as such and eBay does nothing to enforce their own policy. Retards. (Yes, once again in one day I am super political sort of...)

Your line work is sub-ziggy and your characters are off model in every frame... but I deem it.... rackworthy. Wurst Yune Everrrrrrrr!

That is the problem with the ban on Norinco weapons, it is not a "law" per se it is an "executive order". Bush pretty much with one swipe of a pen took it upon himself to ban those guns. It was not an act of congress like the Omnibus Crime Bill, the NFA act or any other federal gun law that has come down he just decided that those bad bad Chinese people can't sell their guns here no more. As far as I know that executive order is in place until another executive removes it... but who is going to do that? I mean, that executive order is keeping us all safe from those evil affordable Chinese weapons is it not? (OK now I'm getting a bit too political, even for my tastes...)

I'm talking about the old pre-ban Polytechs. The new ones may be fine and dandy but the old pre-ban ones down here are prone to blowing up in your face their headspace and bolt is so fooked up. Most people won't even touch them with a ten foot pole just on that alone. Pretty much all the ones you see come up for sale have been rebuilt. Then again if we could get those new Norinco M14s down here I bet that would take the edge of springfield big time... I have always said the only thing keeping Colt AR's at the price they are at is the fact they have so much competition.

I knew someone with one of those Polytech M14's (AKA Norinco) and he did the same thing, replaced the barrel, bolt, most of the action, the stock and a few other things. Gun shoots fine now... $600 later. He spent $600 on it at a gun show plus the money he put on it to make it "work" he could have had a Springfield basic (which is about how it shoots). I myself am looking at the springfield "loaded" basic model that my local gunshop tells me I can get for about a grand. All it will need is a milspec GI wood stock purchased sepparately to be complete and look GI.

Yeah but for a Springfield you are paying for the quality. Sure you can go to a gun show and buy a Polytech M14 or one of the Egyptian clones for between $700 and $900 but they are crap of the first order. Bad headspaces, weak bolts, cheap wood and cheap metals. Add to that that they are all pre-ban and quite old and worn out unless you get a safe queen. Springfield used to make quite a few M1A's for under a grand but they are trending towards the fancier NM ones now because that seems to be what people want from that gun. Plus they are doing what most makers of "Evil assualt weapons" are doing: trying to "legitimize" their weapons as target arms. One thing I'd like to say about the price of weapons and their function is about the Crime Bill. Besides doing nothing to curb violent crime with assault weapons that law has turned the firearms industry towards "sporting" applications for these guns. The second that thing came out in '94 the price of "Assault" type weapons has skyrocketed... (actually the price of all weapons in general has skyrocketed since that day) and the makers have been doing their best to find ways people can use these guns other than using them to shoot other people. Anyone else remember when you could walk into a gun show or a shop and walk out with a nice high quality russian AK varient for under $150? All you can find today are those crappy romanian pieces of trash for over $300... and people think they are getting a good deal. Colt AR's used to be about $600 and now the same new guns with less features from the same makers are over $1,000. Tell someone they can't have something and the price goes up... waaaaaay up. My guess is that September will either make it all a bit better or make it much, much worse for gun owners. Only time will tell.

OK I found the pic that 1BRD was most likely talking about (see pic below). He was right about the wire stock... for god's sake why did they put a wire stock on that thing?... but anyway look at the position and size of the pistol grip and the length of the weapon. Both the pistol grip and the muzzle should be visable in the picture. Add to that the fact that the thing has a sling and should be seen with the sling. I think it should also be noted that this pic was of a pre-production design test and not an actual in design item. The design of the ATAC rifle changed quite a bit from this into the one that is seen in the pic 1BRD already posted and that is the one seen in the animation. All Tommy Yune drew was the back end of the gun. We should see the rest of it sticking out at all angles from behind her... his artwork forces us to believe that gun is a tiny thing as it simply vanishes behind her very trim and small back. Also take into account the proportions of the armor in this predesign art. Tommy's have been slim-fasted big time and thus that gun should actually be larger than it appears as the armor has less surface area to hide it now. Once again all these things are nitpicks but I am just a person who gets tired of people redesigning and using non-seen-in-the-show stuff artwork for things that are supposed to be show related. Not pointing any fingers here but the japanese creators of these shows don't seem to have that problem as much as us yanks do... but that is what tends to happen when you are just copying someone else's design and not drawing one of your own. You make mistakes because you do not understand the design like the creator does and dorks like us catch those mistakes. It just bothers me when things are not "right", I guess it was those two years of drawing from life in college.

Which springer did you end up getting? Judging by the price I'd say it was the M1A national match milspec with the walnut stock? I'm still in line to buy one of these and have heard nothing but good things about them. As for the ammo issue I buy all my ammo locally at shops and shows... have to support the local boys in this respect. Sure it may cost a buck or so more a box but I'd rather that money go to my local friends than to a faceless internet store... but that is just me.