LePoseur

I don't know if you can really call it a game, but I've been wasting hundreds of hours on Second Life. When I get into a good zone building something the hours just zoom by. Like digital Legos in a huge sandbox. It goes in cycles of course, but there have been many days of sleepless nights wasted there building/scripting/tweeking and when I'm not doing that I tour around seeing other people's creations that put mine to shame. Now every other game just seems flat and boring. The minimum requirements are pretty high as it's streamed 3D world, but if you're up to it click the link in my sig to try it if you want. Although, I wouldn't suggest going in with any conceptions of it being a normal "game."

Actually I have my TV Hikaru in a Skull 01 right now. Complete with the FAST packs off the 1J (as it doesn't need 'em). Since there's not much I can do about the cockpit, and the head stripes I like better as yellow, if I could just track down another Hikaru pilot or two (one to paint up like Roy) then I'd be set. I almost bought another 1J when they first came out for the pilot and the excuse that I could paint it up like Max's -- now I'm glad I didn't.

The worst thing I ever ate was in my second year in college. After rent I had about $100 for almost four months of food, but of course I wanted to by CD's too, so I used to buy 5/$1 ramen 4/$1 Mac and Cheese and spaghetti by the 5 lb bag until my money was gone. Usually I ran out before the end of the semester and ended up scraping together food by other means (Government Peanut butter off the spoon, Trading old CD's for food, etc.) But one quarter was the worst... I ran out of food with two weeks left. In the end, I had two days left and nothing but a little flour, sugar and tap water. Then I remembered my mother used to make pancakes for us when we were young and poor out of just what I had minus an egg or so. Happily I sat mixing up a batch of batter (using all my flour and most of the sugar) until I had a good mix - only to realize I had no oil of any kind to cook it. After the first one proved that this was not going to work by adhering to the pan (they weren't non-stick of course) I was left to scrape what I could off the pan and eat slightly charred scrambled-egg style pancake. That was the second worst thing I've ate in my life. The worst was when I said, "Ah, screw the scrambled egg thing!" and drank the rest of the batter for lunch the next day. Man, was that horrible! But the next day I had money again and all was well.

Actually Jetfire had a 1S head, not a 1J. Take the new Hikaru 1S, paint the nosecone red, as well as the fast packs, and voila! Instant Jetfire You know something Yamato should make a deal with hasbro, make it so they can distribute the VF-1S as a masterpiece Jetfire. Not to nitpick, and I'm sure most people wouldn't notice, but isn't black/color pattern on Jetfire reversed from the standard DYRL version?

That's lame usually car companies are always jumping at promotions, maybe they feared being turned into a decepticon. Here's a repost of that part of the ToyBoxEX interview from MW's own 20th Anni Prime thread. Kobayashi: Unfortunately, it's never that easy... (wry smile) First, we hit a difficult wall trying to obtain licensing. Originally we started development with a certain well-known German sports car, and even Hasbro said "This is amazing!" and we smoothly progressed to the second prototype stage, but that automobile company simply refused to consent to the licensing of the vehicle. We had no choice but to scrap that and start with a certain well-known American sports car, but we couldn't get the OK for that, either. Most car companies came back to us and said "having these car panels that separate apart conveys an image of being broken, and it seems inauspicious." (wry smile) But, among the different places we went to, it was Subaru and Dodge that gave us positive feedback and said "It's a fun toy with a lot of imagination!". here's a cut and paste link to the whole thing too. (http://www.toyboxex.com/phorum/read.php?f=3&i=178&t=178) Need I say though that the above excuses are incredibly LAME. Any company that said no is missing an awesome chance for exposure to a specific market and the chance to turn many people (adult fans and kids alike) into potential customers (sure maybe not the same model, but at least the brand). As for Decepticons, with all the problems the flight simulator industry has had with using fighter designs - be they even largely or totally governmentally subsidized - I can't see any company letting it's design be used to become an enemy fighter. Of course, they could, and really just should, create highly detailed fantasy versions heavily based off real designs rather than not having any Decepticons at all.

I'm hoping for Cliffjumper. All the mini-autobots got screwed by having crappy little toys, yet they managed to pull down a lot of screen time in the cartoon. So it'd be nice to see him, Brawn and (God I can't believe I'm saying this) Bumblebee get decent Alternator configurations. I'd love to see Jazz, but not like this... he should be a Porsche, just as Sideswipe should have been a Lam -> a fact all the more driven home in Japan where his name is Lambor. In a side note I was sad to read a while back in the interview with the Japanese lead designer that many car companies had turned them down (especially when he mentioned Europe). I bet Volkswagen was the one he was thinking of.

Hehe, the funny thing about that is, I could have bought a single TBP each year and still been waiting almost ten years for Appleseed 5.... As it is, I feel Morpheus has a better chance of getting it for his library than I do.

Hehe, more than you know. On my last trip back home to the states I brought some bandai reissues and an Iron Giant figure for my friends. Man, you shold have seen the looks I got as that hunk of metal went through the detector. Only when my wife asked "What the heck do you have in there?" and I just said "Toys" did the guards' faces look like they had just solved a riddle and let me pass. But for the amount of time they held me and stared at the monitor, I swore I was going to have to unpack all the luggage we'd brought.

I buy all my 1/48's off TRU-Japan's website for 9,999 yen a pop, except the 1J w/ armor which was 14,999. Although I did get a second Max for about 7,000 when they had the sale price but, of course, that's special, as it's the only 1/48 at TRU to get a mark down to my knowledge. The only problem is "When are you coming?" Right now is a good time as the re-release 1S and Hikaru 1A are still around, but the 1/48's have a tendency to disappear, as do most toys, either because they sell out or the store needs to allot the shelf space to the next flavor of the month. Also, just don't expect shelves overflowing with Macross or you'll be disappointed. BTW, JsARCLIGHT is right on the money, anytime you have to buy an item in one country and then ship it to another expect a price increase. It's not evil, it's just economics... then again, maybe economics is evil. As for Singapore and Hong Kong, and this is just speculation, the reason I guess they can offer a lower price than other countries outside of Japan is that the toys sold their never see Japan. Instead, they enter the market directly from China, meaning A) less shipping cost and B) never having to enter Japan, AKA the land of unbelievably inflated prices.

Watching TV last night were ya Rob? Hmm, ya know, I don't really get into K-1 at all. I thought Andy Hug was a pretty cool guy, but that's based only on when I saw him doing other things but fighting, yet I only recall watching about half of one K-1 match in my life. That being said, I used to love to watch sumo. The dorm cafeteria had a big TV and dinner at the perfect time to catch the last hour of any day's match, so all of us watched sumo. Takanohana, Wakanohana and Akebono were the only Yokozuna, Konishiki was still fighting (and losing) most of his matches, and Musashimaru just couldn't seem to pull things together to win a tournament. Ah... the memories. Any how, at that time I, very stupidly as I love the guy now, had a distaste for Konishiki and a fear of Akebono. The guy was a monster. but that was 10 years ago... leg injuries, bad knees, and too much focus on knocking some one down rather than out are all gonna come back to bite Akebono in the ass I think. Not that I think Bob Sapp is all that... in fact I think in the Tyson vs. Sapp fight, I'd lay odds heavily on Tyson, not that I wouldn't like to have Bob kick his butt. I don't know, I guess we'll see come New Year's.

Well, the one text blurb talking about pilot figures is unfortunately kinda hard to read on this scan, but it looks like they're saying a Miria pilot figure is planned to be included. Now before you get all warm and fuzzy, when the toy's released that could mean anything from, "well, we planned it, but it didn't work out," to only slightly better looking than Guld dog chew toy, to "Here's the mother of all amputee pilots, arm-and-head-only Milia" Then again, a full size figure would rock.... unless they paint the helmet visor a solid color.

Just got married this year to my girlfriend of 10 years. We were in no rush at the time, but looking back on it, wish we would have done it sooner.

Here

Hold Prime by the head and it goes a pop! I wouldn't say it's fragile per say, but it does come off awful easy. Actually it doesn't bother me though. I wish the leg could strike and hold some more dramatic poses without feeling the need to "spring" back to their netural pose though.

And just to clear up a bit more, I believe Shoji Kawamori has only one (?) partial credit on the design of all the destroids. Kazutaka Miyatake was responsible for them. Still though, it's really nitpicking as they were both Studio Nue. While it's no big deal, I'm sure Miyatake-san sometimes feels like Paul McCartney when he sees sheet music for Yesterday that reads written by John Lennon.

Just a quick bit. The blue nub on Megatron is so that you can mount him under StarScream when he's in Jet mode. Just plug him (Megatron) into one of the two (exhust?!?) holes in Starscream's chest.

I think you might just win the prize Keith. I haven't seen it yet either, but I'm betting on a pretty close to Megazone 23 part II ending except perhaps with Neo getting offed.

Hehe, well it's about 1,800 yen per adult in Shinjuku, plus 1,000 yen per 30 mins for parking if you're lucky enough to find a place and stupid enough to drive. Plus, while this is going out of style, some theaters continue selling tickets well past the number of seats available, so it is not uncommon to see a bunch of people standing. Man, nothing beats seeing a major release in packed theater in Shinjuku's summer heat with 1,500+ of your closest friends in a rock-hard seat that measures 24 inches wide (including the arm rests) with a date for only just over 6,000 yen (that's two tickets plus treats like the one or two mini-colas you'll drink while waiting for your seat). Hmm... let's see, 6,000 yen for a crappy time at the movies or a new Yammie... hmmm... guess that's why the wife and I watch most everything at home. Of course, if you hunt around (and it's getting easier and easier) you can get some tickets as cheap as 1,250. But once I found civilized theaters like the Warner MyCal's in the suburbs, I've only set foot back into to Kabukicho once.

Not to add some more fuel to the fire, but here goes... Hikaru DYRL 1S is currently sold out at TRU-J (both the individual fighter and the "limited" bundled pack) This pisses me off! Now I have to decide if I'm gonna pound the pavement looking in shop windows to see if I can find one, or wait to see if they'll have an eventual restock. "SUCKER!" you might say, "That's what you get for not pre-ordering!" Well, well, well... Let me tell you my preordering story. TRU-J usually puts a picture up a few days before they give a pre-order button. Then once they've sold out, they'll sometimes leave the picture up (and 9 times out of ten get a restock) or yank it (when nine times out of ten it doesn't come back). Well, I saw the Hikaru 1S picture go up and started checking daily for that preorder button. Came home from work one day and the entries were already gone. I guess somebody here wants 'em as TRU-J sold out pretty fast. Not only that, but their entries for Hikaru's 1A and Focker's 1S also went from no-preorder yet to nothing more to buy before I could get one in for a new 1A. Now Hikaru's 1A is even off the site... making me think I'll have to shop around or even hit Yahoo.co.jp's auctions. (speaking of which even the lowest priced Hikaru 1S is currently more than TRU was selling them for... on the other hand, if you ever wanted to get into the 1/60's for cheap, you should see some of the people dumping theirs at very nice prices) Anyhow...

Well, fresh from Famitsu, Macross sold 72,000 in it's first week, putting it in 2nd, behind Naruto. Pretty respectible showing, though I wouldn't expect to see any Gundam-style staying power. Watch for a drop to (my guess) 20-25% of that for next week. The sad thing is, even with all the PS2's they've sold, the number of 1 million plus sellers on the PS2 is frighteningly low. I guess the SNES days might have really been the hey-day.

AMD 2200, 1 gig memory and a 9800 all-in-wonder and Max Payne 2 is the crap! Of course it's too short, but that's the same as the last one. Hopefully HL2 will secure those objects down a little more though. The Havok 2 engine is great, but man.. talk about bull in a china store. Between this and HL2, and even Second Life, I'd love to be getting a piece of the Havok pie.

30. Got Macross via Robotech. Will forever thank the first art book for setting me straight on its orgins and seeking out the original. BTW God Media, good to see you back.

Hehe, nope, you don't, nor do I, I suppose. But are you enjoying the ride so far? Hehe, a big ol' right back at ya. And if you haven't noticed, I don't care if you break the law. I just take issue with telling people they are stupid if they don't. BINGO! There, I think you do understand. You see, when my company has to eat a product due to low sales (as, unlike your scenario where the retailer is stuck with it - most unsold games are returned in exchange for deals on new titles) we get punished with lay-offs and cut backs. Not to mention the chances of making a sequel go right down the toilet, further adding to job insecurity. See, I that's why I don't care if you're going to do it. While there are some people who DL and then buy the game outright, I'd suspect most never intended to buy it anyway. I guess you could say, I only care about customers. You know, you are right about that, but there are limits. May I suggest you run your ten-acre reptile farm for free for a while? Just give those little buggers out for a year or so. I'm sure the free promotion will do you good. Here's one part I am having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around though. So if it's OK to screw the middleman because the creator "has already been paid" does that mean you steal your groceries too? Would you if you could? How about your car? Hell, I mean the factory has already been paid. I'm a bit curious as to how a businessman such as yourself can help me understand that one. Do you have reptile distributors? Do they know you don't give two shits about them, too? Hehe, again, right back at ya. I think I'll have to sidestep the general bunk of this, by saying that, unlike you it seems, I believe that importers are actually providing a service that they deserve to be paid for. Hell, do you think Kevin and Will here don't deserve a little for helping to bring Valks to the masses? Whatever, man. Yet I still feel this way even when gray imports can cause major headaches for a company. Why? Well, because people are still getter paid. Wasn't this kinda like the sentiment I started this whole thing with? Will, with out your little snipe at the end -- mine sounded more clever. Geez Louise, what planet do you come from anyhow where there is no mark-up over manufacturer's price? If this was something other than a Macross message board I'd support you, but yikes, with a name like MacrossWorld, who can we really blame for you finding Macross fans here? Anyhow, it's been fun, but work starts in a few minuets so I gotta go -- as there ain't nobody giving me reptiles to eat for free around here.

Not sure if I'm the simpleton, but here's some non-worthless rhetoric for ya. Not to bore ya all too much personal information, but, as many of you already know, I live in Japan. This fact, kinda by default, renders most of the "solid points" in the previous posts worthless to me. Luckily, I have a job, actually two, that just happens to intersect with the game industry, so it could be I take things a little personal. On the girl end, having just bought my engagement ring of my girlfriend this month, I guess I have that end covered too. Yet somehow, even after buying that expensive rock, I managed to stupidly have enough money "to blow" on a new Macross game. What a dork I must be, huh? And I guess, when you get down to it, that's the part that upset me. I mean, honestly now, I buy a lot of stuff that other people must think is crap, and likewise, I see way too many people buying stuff that I think is completely worthless. But that's just it, isn't it? We value different things, and so are willing to pay for one while we go without another. No reason to start calling name and slamming other people for stuff they do that is no concern of yours. Like I said before, if you want to pirate, go the f*ck ahead and have a blast. Just don't get pissy when everyone else around doesn't smack their heads and say, "Damn! I just did something real stupid by paying for that game, didn't I? Thanks for showing me the light!" Man... I don't know, just reminds me of the 6th graders who would get all pissed when kids would turn down their chew or something. Finally, after working in the software industry for a few years I got tired of other people swiping my team's work and handing it out, but again, you'll notice that I'm not telling anyone to stop. Hell, I ain't your mother, so do as you darn well please. The only thing I ask is not to expect me to worship any economic insightfulness when it doesn't seem so insightful to me. I figured no one wanted to read a book last time, so I only posted a snide little line instead. Yes, that was kinda cheap of me, but I figured it was better than making a novel like this post turned out to be, looking back on it, I guess I was wrong. -The End

Struck a nerve, did I? Sorry about that.