Graham
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Everything posted by Graham
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It's only been announced as an accessory set so far, complete with a Vanilla Microman figure. Of course, that's not to say that Takara might not later release it together with a Scopedog, but there has been no official announcement either way yet. Graham
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Macross 25th Anniversary! New TV series coming!
Graham replied to wolfx's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
I Luv Mylene! Graham -
Anybody have the CM's red & green Calamity Dog toys? Are they decent toys, i.e. do the have good articulation, tight joints, decent paint job and do the parts stay on, or are they a floppy mess with crap paint job and self-destruct if you breath on them? Also, are they made mostly of ABS or dreaded PVC? Graham
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Odd question--has nothing to do with toys or anime...
Graham replied to question's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Not to try to hijack this thread too much, but I'm just curious as to what bitrate you guys use for your MP3 files? After some experimentation I found that 128kbps seems to offer the best balance for me between acceptable audio quality vs file size. Graham -
On The Bloodsucker I handled, the limbs were very loose, the backpack wouldn't stay on and the magazine kept falling off the rifle. Also, the surface of the figure showed more than the normal amount of PVC lumps, bumps and depressions, i.e. the supposedly flat surfeces weren't as flat as they could have been. Maybe this was just a bad one and others are better, but I wouldn't buy it. Graham
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Although I haven't had much time to handle it let, my initial impressions of the Takara 1/18 Strikedog (DMZ #02) are very positive. Articulation is good and the joints are nice and tight with very positive ratchets. The detail and paint job is also very good. It seems Takara fixed most of the issues found on DMZ #01. The head turret is now nice and secure, the visor actually stays up when opened and the antennas are of a flexible blue plastic, so there's not so much worry about them breaking (a second set of harder plastic antenna painted silver are also provided). My only complaint is again about the hand design as the fingers are just not secure enough to hold the big Solid Shooter bazooka and the fingers come off within seconds. I've already super-glued them in place. As others have mentioned, the plastic used in the toy feels more like fragile model-kit-grade styrene rather than toy-grade ABS, but so far on my Scopedog (DMZ #01), which I have had for a couple of weeks seems to be holding up fine. Graham
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No idea if DMZ #03 comes with any stickers, but I agree that it does look really plain with no weathering and no printed markings. I'm definitely going to pass on it. Although I'd like to have a Round Mover and Solid Shooter, I'm not going to buy another Scopedog, especially such a plain looking one, just to get the accessories. C'mon Takara, release more accessory sets! Graham
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Odd question--has nothing to do with toys or anime...
Graham replied to question's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I usually buy from www.allofmp3.com Graham -
Votoms is not that popular here in HK and only limited stock is imported and tends to sell at inflated prices. Hardly any shops sell Votoms toys. In fact pretty much the only toy store that sells a decent selection of Votoms stuff is Animate. I should know as I recently went on a big toy hunt around Causeway Bay, Wanchai, Mong Kok, Tai Po, Fanling and Taikoo Shing. I must have visited over 30 toy and hobby shops and apart from Animate, only 1 or 2 other shops had any Votoms stuff at all and then usually only 1-2 items. Graham
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Thanks, I'll check that out. I haven't gotten around to taking a look at the extras on the CPMs DVDs yet. Graham
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I forget which was my first toy, it was either the Bandai 1/100 DYRL VF-1A Hikaru or the Bandai 1/72 DYRL HCM VF-1S Hikaru back in either 1986 or 1987. I owned several Macross models back in 1983, long before I ever saw any toys. Graham
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I just paid HK$780 (US$100) for the Strikdog (DMZ # 02) at Animate. Chirico's Scopedog (DMZ # 01) goes for a higher price now as stock is getting scarce. Animate still has it, but is selling it for HK$980 (US$126). The Scopedog with Round Mover (DMZ # 03) is selling for about HK$750 (US$96) IIRC. Graham
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Probably going to pick up the Takara-Tomy DMZ 1/18 Strikedog in about half an hour, so my DMZ Scopedog has somebody to fight. Graham
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I just bought the original Japanese DVD of The Last Red Shoulder and even in raw Japanese with no subs, it's pretty easy to figure out what's going on. Graham
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I couldn't care less about the Vanilla figure (Micromen suck) but it's awesome we'll be getting the Red Shoulder Custom weapons set, without having to buy a whole new Scopedog. It looks like Takara is taking a leaf out of Yamato's book regarding releasing accessory weapons sets. Let's hope they also release the Parachute Sack, Round Mover, Solid Shooter and some of the other weapons as accesory sets. I wasn't looking forward to having to shell out big bucks for a whole new 1/18 scale Red Shoulder Custom Scopedog and now I won't have to. Graham
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I also picked up the Max Factory 1/35 scale Scopedog Turbo Custom 2 days ago. I usually avoid PVC mecha toys like the plague, as you never get nice sharp, crisp detail like you do on ABS toys. Also, with PVC the surfaces are never completely flat and the joints inevitably loosen quickly, or more often than not are loose from the box. However, I really wanted a Scopedog Turbo Custom with full weapons, so I decided to take a chance on the Max Factory version. I'd previouly bought the Takara-Tomy 1/48 scale Actic Gear version, but was somewhat disappointed by it's fiddlyness and the fact that it did not include the Solid-Shooter for the left arm or or the shoulder missile pod. I'd kill for either a Yamato 1/12 scale Turbo Custom or a Takara-Tomy 1/18 scale version and while they will likely come eventually, it's probably going to be quite a wait. I've little experience with the Max Factory 1/35 Votoms line, except for MWer Sebastian's Bloodsucker, which I examined while visiting Shanghai recently. Both Sebastian and I were of the opinion that the Boodsucker was a peice of crap with increadibly loose joints, parts that fell off if looked at the wrong way and typical PVC toy lack of crisp sharp straight edges. Anyway, despite the negative view of the Bloodsucker I decided to take a chance on the Max Factory 1/35 Scopedog Turbo Custom. On my return to Hong Kong, I visited the branch of Animate in Sugar Street in Causeway Bay and picked up the last one in stock for HK$240 (US$30.76) Comments: - The big head sculpt is really annoying and spoils the look of the toy, but I did know about this before hand. The right elbow joint is very loose and will not support the weight of the GAT-22 rifle. The forearm always droops down so the rifle's muzzle is touching the ground. The left knee joint is very loose and the left lower leg frequently falls off when handling the toy. The right shoulder armor is not very secure and often falls off when handling the toy. The waist missile launcher attachment peg was way loose and had to be glued in as the missile launcher would just fall off the peg. The front part of the waist missile launcher (the rectangle surrounding the missiles) fell off out of the box and had to be glued on. I doubt I'll be buying anymore of this line. The joints are too loose and the big head really does spoil the look. I'm going to be sticking to selective Yamato 1/12 and Takara-Tomy 1/18 for my Votoms fix. Graham
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To the top of the head, it's about 15.3cm. To the top of the blue-tipped antenna, it's about 16.7cm. Graham
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I've just come back from 4 days in Shanghai, I had no internet access. My first time too see this also. Yes, it looks hideous. Notice they have also mispelt "Spirit of Valkylie" on the toys Graham
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Wadda ya expect, this is Yamato afterall, they of the huge box fetish. Graham
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Yes, but the CM's Ingram pilot figure is tiny when compared to a Yamato 1/48 VF-1 pilot. Mind you, a Takara Actic Gear 1/48 pilot is smaller even than the Ingram pilot. Graham
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TV edition is already here in HK, just saw it in Animate today during my lunch break. Graham
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Picked up an Actic Gear Red Shoulder Scopedog Turbo Custom yesterday (AG-VTM05). This is the one that comes with a hexangonal desert color base and 4 extra stranding figures. The Scopedog has a light paint wash on most of the green parts and some mild weathering, so it doesn't look so plasticy. It comes with the chains, bedroll and extra ammo mags hanging off the back of the mission pack, but lacks the large missile pod for the shoulder and the gun for left forearm. From what I understand this is an OVA version. Engineering, articulation and detail are good for the size, but definitely not up to the latest HCM-Pro standard IMO. The amount of bits that needed to be cut off from the spru far surpasses any HCM-Pro. My biggest complaint was the insecure attachment of the two waist weapons (the gattling gun and twin-missile pod). I'd been warned about this, so was expecting it anyway. It seems it would be simple for Takara to make the attachment slots in the waist deeper so the weapons attached more securely. At present the slots are stupidly shallow and the weapons fall off if you even look at them wrong. Anyway, I ended up super-gluing these on. I tried normal model glue first, but it wasn't secure enough. Some of the small parts on the figure, such as the knee caps and elbow pads also have a tendency to fall off easily, so they got the super-glue treatment as well. All in all, not a bad little figure, but a bit too fiddly unless you glue everything on. I'm hoping Takara make a 1/18 scale Scopedog Turbo custom with full weapons or Yamato in 1/12 as it's my favorite Scopedog variant. I was thinking of getting the Max Factory 1/35 scale PVC Scopedog Turbo Custom, but I dislike PVC toys immensly, plus it's head sculpt is far too big IMO. Graham
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If we are talking about what would be the most realistic and practical mecha and could possible work in the real world given moderate advances in technology, I'd have to give the nod to Gasaraki & Votoms (both by the same director ) and MADOX-01 from Metal Skin Panic. Any other mecha, including labors are a bit too large to be truely practical. Graham
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Have they strengthened the tips of the two metal bars as well as the shoulder sockets? The metal bar tips are another common area of breakage. The shoulders of my two early Garlands are still fine, it's the tips of the metal bars that broke on both, where they connect to the front wheel. Graham
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Nah, I'm just messing with ya all. Honestly, this time my sig has nothing do do with Macross. But it was pretty funny reading Dobber's interpretation of it. Maybe I should use more obscure song lyrics for my sig and see what sort of wild and wacky guesses you guys try to read into it. Graham