Ghadrack

With no problems at all. I have been importing video game systems from Japan for 20+ years (Wow that's scary), My Japanese Dreamcast and PS2 work like a charm, you should have no problems. As JBO stated, the voltage is nearly identicle and the machines are made to work within a range that covers both ours and theirs.

I throw my guess out there for M.A.S.K. How cool would high end collectable M.A.S.K. vehicles be The way his statement is written, it really sounds like a probable One Shot toy, comparable to Escaflowne so a new toy line probably isn't in the works. How many of those old shows had one main transforming mech as a centerpiece?

I didn't see the overall survey, I did all the individual surveys but not the big one a while back. I completed it today, but that's a littel late I guess. Sorry Still pretty interesting figures. Thanks for taking the initiative to set it up.

It is a competetive board game playing against each other and the board, at the beginning of the game, the players all chose characters, as you fight through the game you acquire weapons, equipment, statistical improvements and money with the ultimate goal of ascending to the throne to fight the dragon king and becoming "king" of the realm. Each of the hundred or so possible characters have unique abilities and attributes. Players fight against monster challenges offered through cards, they can also fight each other if they land on the same space. There are magical spells in the game ( cards) that you can cast at each other sometimes from across the board depending on the card. There are a lot of rules but it is a good game.

I was blown away by these machines on my trip to Tokyo, if the arcade scene wasn't dead in a great deal of america (Non major cities) I think these things would be a windfall and a nice way for arcade owners to diversify just a little bit and sell collectible cards for extra income. They had them for Football, Soccer, Horseracing, Gundam, Baseball, I know I am forgetting some of the machines I saw, it was just awesome.

I still have and occasionally play my first edition copy with my gaming friends, I think we have three full sets in our group with the basic game and the Dungeon, Timescape, City and Dragons expansions (I don't think I forgot any). I'd be interested to see what changes they have made to the game over the years.

I don't have any hotel advice in those areas specifically, but I visited each of them a few months ago when I went to Tokyo. I stayed at the Akasaka Excel hotel (Akasaka district) with my brother and sister, they had fairly nice amenities, decent rates and an english speaking concierge that provided local maps in english (Photo-copies). It was a short subway ride to Akihabara/Ginza (You can walk from Ginza to Akihabara if you want total shopping overload. there were a ton of restaurants and fast food around there, although finding restaurants in Tokyo isn't a problem. When I plotted my trip, I aimed for a central location to branch out from. Basically, I wouldn't worry a great deal about you exact hotel location if you are just exploring, their subway system is really efficient (But watch out for the transfers between the Tokyo Metro and the other subway line. One kinda off the wall location I would recommend, just to see it, outside the Japan Rail station at Ginza, there is an underground shopping center that probably covers a square mile, hundreds and hundreds of shops and restaurants, we had a great lunch down there and explored a while before navigating the JR system. If you like Anime/Japanese toys/Electronics, wow Akihabara is total overload, the 5 to 8 story video arcades blew my mind. Be careful of the "No Photo" signs, I innocently tried to snap a picture of a Gundam video/card game I had never seen for a friend and they threw me out of the joint. If you like Airsoft, look for the ABC Aso Bit City store nearest to the Akihabara JR station, the top two floors are Airsoft sales, it is so awesome, and the very top floor has an airsoft range and I think small skirmish area (I couldn't go in there, we just saw the entrance and the guys coming out with used targets. I can't wait to go back.

Thanks for the tip Have you watched both the original and the "Starblazers" version, I am interested to know if there were substantial edits made to the version we had on TV?

Hey guys, I was looking for some Space Battleship Yamato / Starblazers advice. Much like Macross/Robotech I orginally saw Starblazers as a kid, loved it and then came to know that it was originally a Japanese anime that has been americanized for my consumption, so..... I want to go back and see the show, I have done a little looking and my options appear to be buy the americanized version I saw as a kid, or you can get the first 26 episodes of the original uneditted show but the DVD supposedly fairly poor quality and the company that released those episodes has no plans to release the rest of the series. Are there significant edits that change the show much? Any first hand experince with the DVD's?

Survey's completed. My Yamato collection consists of: 1/72 YF-19 = $75.00 at a con about ten years ago 1/100 Monster = $140.00 1/60 YF-19 = $165.00 1/48 Hikaru 1-S = $120.00 1/48 Hikaru 1-A = $105.00 1/48 Hikaru Super 1-J = $145.00 1/48 Max 1-A = $95.00 1/48 Max Super 1-J = $140.00 1/48 Millia Super 1-J = $140.00 1/60 Millia QRau = $85.00 1/48 Roy 1-S = $105.00 1/48 Low Vis 1-A version 1 = $130.00 1/48 Cannon Foddder 1-A = $120.00 3 X 1/48 Super/Strike Fast Pack sets = $165.00 1/48 GBP-1S = $65.00 1/48 GBP-1S Low Vis Woodland = $65.00 1/60 VF-0A = $135.00 1/60 VF-0S - $135.00 Total - $2,130 if I added properly I may have been a little off on some prices here and there by 5 or ten bucks, I tried to get as close as possible. Prices have been really incosistent over the years with different dealers.

Another way of looking at it, is they are installing/increasing a user base for Blu-Ray with every PS3 they sell, whereas people have to make a conscious effort to spend an extra $200.00 to get the HD-DVD add on for the 360. That purchase is tough for a lot of people to justify now with HD-tv's still not to norm in the average home. I think it is a fairly smart strategy to build in the player if they are playing for the long run gain. a 500 to 600$ video game system price is hard to swallow for some, but for many of us, I spent $650.00 on my first DVD player, Hell I bought a frigging 3DO when it came out, that system cost around $600.00 if memory serves me correctly. If you are willing to pay for cool new technology, then the price won't scare you off. People look at me funny when I tell them this, but I genuinely believe that today, the PS3 is a bargain for what you get in the package.

Ditto I'd go for either and wouldn't complain either way. 24" is Biiig, 32" is Huuuuge.

My sister and mom had the same reaction, they dropped by on Christmas Day and I was running through / practicing the drift trials, they thought I was watching recorded car accidents for a minute. If the graphics on that demo are any indication of what quality first/second gen games for the system are going to look like, wow, I can't imagine what Square Enix will be able to pull out of this machine in 2 years......

I'm down for a TV style cruiser kit. The Galactica looks fantastic, great job and thanks for sharing the picture.

I am assuming you guys that have PS3's have downloaded the Gran Tourismo HD Demo and played it by now, what do you think? My Brother and I sat and played Fight Night Round 3 for about 9 hours yesterday, it is a fun game. The control scheme took a while to get the hang of (I haven't played any other games in the franchise) but once I did it is a blast.

I downloaded the Gran Tourismo demo last night and unlocked all 10 of the cars through time trial, all I could say was Wow during the intro movie, this system is going to blow the doors off the house when more game publishers learn to program for it. I can't imagine how far they will take graphics and game physics with this machine after seeing how much power they have been able to squeeze out of the PS2 after all these years. Hearing that Fox is onboard with Blu-Ray makes me extremely happy. I won't replace movies I own on DVD for the most part, but my favorite movies such as Alien/Aliens I will in a split second. I my PS3 P.S. ToysRUs had 9 PS3 60GB in stock Thursday night here, Best Buy in my city had 25 on the shelf on Saturday (yesterday) while I was in there. I have heard all sorts of rumors about the stores hoarding stock to get shoppers in the door close to christmas, who knows if it's truel but there has been a steady stream of PS3's comign in to stores here for the past few weeks.

I decided that I wasn't going to camp a PS3 and just wait till I could walk in an buy one, while doing a little last minute christmas shopping Thursday, Toys R Us had a shipment in so I snagged one and I have had nothing but fun with it. My only complaint is that the Blue Ray Library isn't deeper, I'd be in heaven if 20th Century Fox was on board. Ridge Racer 7 is great, Resistance co-op is a blast, ESPN Fight night looks great. Anyhow, getting off the net to go spend some time with my new shiny playstation baby

I may be mistaken but I read on another forum that the PS3 is currently downscaling for non 1080P HDTV's to 720P instead of 1080i as it is meant to, and there is a system patch coming to fix this. Basically you don't have a problem, but you aren't going to get the "full, top of the line" HD experience. Personally, I when I was shopping for my HDTV I went in to a Best Buy and they had two identicle set ups in he store, they had two LG LCD TV's side by side, one running a Blu Ray disk at 1080P and the one next to it running an HD-DVD at 1080i with them right next to each other, showign the same movie synced up pretty damn close you can tell a difference, it is slight but you can tell. Now if you turn the sets facing away from each other and have to walk back and forth and look at them, you really have a hard time telling the difference on a film. Bascially, my point is that the difference is negligible to most people and you shouldn't lose any sleep over it, also remember that there is nothing broadcast, nor will there be for some time in 1080P, it is going to be solely the realm of Blue-Ray Discs and PS3 games for some time to come. Have they even announced 108oP movie releases on HD-DVD yet?

I got mine yesterday, pretty neat, the transformation process on the thing is really ingenious. I have to say I was terrified of breaking the thing when trying to unhinge the section behind the cockpit, man that joint was tight on mine. Otherwise, pretty much flawless, I am a happy camper, now to be careful about those joints.

The Target here in my town is getting 54 units on the 17th, we are a "small market" store for them too. I overheard two Target employee's whispering in hushed tones yesterday about snagging a few each to try to flip on E-Bay for a quick christmas profit for last minute desperate shoppers. Anyhow, sounds like the 17th will be a good day to snag a Wii.

I had to re-think a couple responses I wanted to post to that stuff. I think constructive criticism is important. That being said, when you cross over from being constructive to just plain criticizing, it's time to be quiet and show how you could do it better. I thought the verbiage in that post seemed a little harsh, and maybe more offensive than intended. I am a huge fan and John's work and thankful he is making kits for us too. Most people seem to recognize and John himself has commented numerous times in these threads about the variances that are presented in the different line-art references, it requires some artistic license and more than a little ingenuity to create a "functional" 3-D representation of these Mechs. I like what I have seen so far of the Tomahawk/Warhammer kit and can't wait to get mine.

LOL man I just checked out th elist of games on that, I am going to buy it ontheway home from work tonight. It has Sword of the Vermillion. I played that game when Nirvana: Nevermind came out, I associate all RPG's with a record that I was in love with at th time it came out. I listened to that record probably 300 times while playing that game and I got to the end and had discarded "A Rusty Key" early in the game, without that key you can't fight the final boss of the game. Start over. I was so pissed, but I want to play though it again, I must be a masochist.

I might have missed it. is there an official "street date" for release? Seeing pictures of boxes and stuff has be salivating

I can't believe that there hasn't been more of a response myself, but I am convinced that if you build it they will come..... The Macross has an eternal audience, the kits should be in demand forever as long as a toy company doesn't make a huge highly detailed replica......

I am a Microsoft/Xbox hater. Gears of War has me eating my words, I played it co-op with a friend from 9:30 Saturday night straight through to 7:30 Sunday morning. Best gaming experience I have had in years. Wow, that game is just bas ass. Inovative, fun, challenging, and it looks so nice on an HDTV, it is about criminal..... The guys that made that game seriously deserve medals.