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David Hingtgen

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Everything posted by David Hingtgen

  1. I was really hoping we'd have several eps with the Dom. Guess this means there will be a mid-season upgrade/replacement. ( I figured Build Burning Gundam would BE the upgrade, especially as it's already essentially an upgraded Shining) What'll he get next? Master Gundam?
  2. TC is my all-time fave TF, so you can just imagine how picky I am about *his* coloring.
  3. Weight. Weight weight weight. Always an issue, but even more so nowadays---weight affects range, weight affects payload. Both civil and military planes are going for more range and more payload with a high priority. Even flap and aileron designs are being simplified in the name of weight. Sure, triple-slotted fowler-flaps inherently give more drag and lift for landing---but they're heavier than single or double-slotted ones. Triples replaced with doubles, doubles replaced with singles... Pneumatic vs electric vs hydraulics systems, wires vs fiber optics---none are being chosen in the name of raw performance, but purely by "what weighs less for this section of the plane". A swing-wing mechanism is heavy, regardless of any aerodynamic gains it offers. And almost everything nowadays is "yeah, it may be better---but it's heavier!". "Almost as good but lighter" is the big trend lately. Even 2D vs 3D vectoring---guess which is superior, but which one is almost as good but lighter?
  4. No point, as the color is going to be changed according to Mr K. EVERY photo so far, is of the same original hand-painted prototype. Even new pics of a "fixed" version would still likely be hand-painted at this point, and not match the final production molded-in-blue plastic. (probably be fairly close and give us a good idea, but still not a precise match)
  5. "Maintain"---probably the #1 killer of the F-14's service life. Maintenance time/expenses is one of THE biggest things taken into consideration nowadays. Can easily outrank raw initial cost, weapons, and sheer performance/capability. (SAAB excels at this, SAABs have always given very good performance with easy maintenance)
  6. Yup, almost everbody has a better version of our own stuff nowadays. F-16 Block 60, F-15K, and Australian Super Hornets. (their F's are designed to be turned into G's in the future, and already have the very best radar and ASRAAMs, and I believe the uprated engine that is to power the Super Gripen)
  7. You're not seriously counting a DIACLONE COMMERICAL as G1 canon? Also--fembot /= car.
  8. If any valk ever deserved a functional airbrake, it's the Zero.
  9. That's good, as I was hoping they didn't change it just for a difference that subtle when it needed to be completely different.
  10. They did what I expected them too----they made it darker, instead of less saturated. I think this affected the YF-19 too. Whoever is in charge of colors at Yamato, doesn't seen to realize there are three aspects to color, not just brightness and hue. It's a bit better, but still not right. And no amount of lighter/darker will fix a tonality issue.
  11. Which as 3P has shown, tends to only introduce compromises. The only real attempt was FP's Intimidator/M3, which lead to "not really forming the legs at all" and "not really transforming from alt-mode when used as legs", and was much derised because of it. (to the point that some people rejected the whole team mainly because of that aspect). "Dedicated" arms and legs work so much better, engineering-wise. It's not G1 nowadays---"an unarticulated rectangle with a multi-purpose fist/foot-hole" will NOT cut it as a limb. Not when people complain about "visible elbow gaps" and "only 60 degrees of elbow flex". There's no way* you can design a figure that is a GOOD articulated quad-changer gestalt member (alt, bot, arm, leg). Triple-changers are hard enough. *ok, I'm sure someone *could*. But assuming a budget/timeline of less than a $300 limb within the next 5 years, pretty much "no".
  12. Well, that does go with Takara's obsession with wasting resources to include one-time-only accessories/features on MP figures, instead of including commonly-seen aspects...
  13. Fenders. On a semi, those are the fenders.
  14. Now we just need a new Arcadia YF-21 to go with the new -19...
  15. I've been thinking that too, honestly. Every Jp hobby magazine has scans out there pretty quickly--surely someone else would have found/seen them?
  16. I very much agree with the point that the MP cars were compromised to fit in Prime's trailer---THAT seems like a pointless thing. He NEVER carried cars, only Roller. Roller's the only thing that needs to fit inside. Plus, asides from Knight Rider, cars don't normally fit in regular trailers. (car-delivery trailers are not standard dry-vans like Prime has). Magnus needs to carry cars, but he has open sides and front, etc. A lot easier to make work. (plus his trailer isn't straight-sided nor standard width anyways, another factor that makes it easier). They could easily have made Sideswipe and Prowl a bit bigger, and still fit inside a Magnus trailer----there's little need/desire for them to fit in Prime's trailer.
  17. You've got a Y-shaped adapter? Or arms mounted both in front of and behind the base? Either way, this is pretty much what I've been trying to achieve (but need a 3rd arm for enough height in most cases). So many more optional parts that could be made that I'd buy to "expand" the basic system---extra-long arms for more height, "Y" adapters, etc.
  18. Or just send them to a mod, and we can make a news post etc.
  19. I see MP UM as having an awful truck mode, greatly inferior to Citizen Stack's. Better ramps would have lead to more angled shins, which'd look better and be more G1 accurate (both toon and toy) AND eliminate the infamous "gap" there. Just one of many things that could have been done different. G1 Ultra Magnus IS A CAR CARRIER. Thus, he must carry cars. It's the entire reason and primary design constraint of the original G1 toy. It's absolutely utterly inherent to his design. You can't ignore that aspect. May as well make a Blast-Off that doesn't combine with 4 other guys...
  20. I recently saw a great comment along those lines----at this rate, if they'd asked Lockheed to make a new fighter to tackle the Me262 in 1944, it'd have been ready for the Vietnam war...
  21. Understandable---but so many people want that look, yet also utterly refuse to accept "non-transforming" figures that would be just like that. TF's have even more anime magic than valks do, you simply can't have a tansforming figure that has screen-accurate robot modes. A lot of people want the utter impossibility of "perfectly screen-accurate---while also transforming". That will never, ever, happen. And since one MUST compromise robot mode looks to enable transformation at all, period---might as well try to do the best job possible in balancing the two forms, because transforming yet looking awful in alt-mode is pointless---then you've got nothing, might as well have just skipped transforming. You can either have perfect-looking robots, or good-looking transformers. Not both. And sacrificing all of vehicle mode's looks for the robot mode is kinda pointless--because at that point it'll look so bad that no one will want to transform it---and you should have just made a non-transforming robot that looks really, really good to start with.
  22. Trying out some battroid poses----Nora sniping from below, Isamu dashing to the rescue. And yes, Nora is very stable like that. Even if you tip it over intentionally like 20 degrees, it'll right itself:
  23. Considering how many people ask for hyper-articulated figures that compromise EVERYTHING for the looks of robot-mode, that's not far off from what some people want. They're all "Ultra Magnus doesn't even really need a trailer, much less a working one---he's just going to be in robot mode all the time anyways".
  24. I used Beacon 527, so far so good. It's similar (but not nearly as fume-y) to E6000. A little spot that managed to spend more than 10 secs oozed out before wiping off the excess did slightly etch the base---but I see that as a good thing, as it means it acted as a solvent and not just "sticky". Bonus is you can find it cheap at any local hobby/craft/fabric store. (At least around here) Note that I let mine dry for 2.5 days, just to be safe.
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