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David Hingtgen

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Everything posted by David Hingtgen

  1. David Hingtgen
    Of all plot-holes in Trek-battles, this is the most egregious. "Let's sit here and take it for minutes on end while we try to drop their weak old shields via technobabble---instead of just firing our massive array of top-of-the-line weaponry and hammering it into pieces right now" They vaporized it with a single torpedo---it wouldn't have taken a whole lot more to drop the shields first with other torps and phasers---about two second's worth of weapons fire from "Best of Both Worlds part 2"
  2. David Hingtgen
    I thought the 7-minute mark had the best stuff personally. Anyways---no airbrake on this model? (I have utterly given up on keeping track of the Flankers now---I pretty much stopped caring after the -30MKI/MKK, and now just assume everything afterwards is re-named, re-used, or one-of-a-kind at this point)
  3. David Hingtgen
    I just want an engine room, not a brewery.
  4. David Hingtgen
    We still need an app-style icon for it. My phone still only has a screen-cap of the forum home page. (surely I'm not the only one who has a direct link to MW right next to the weather app)
  5. David Hingtgen
    Probably not, I'd guess. A lot of places/people (including me) don't count most Russian records due to the massive modifications done. There's a difference between stripping the paint off an F-15 to save weight, and putting new engines and tailfins on...
  6. David Hingtgen
    Surely I'm not the only one hoping the Enterprise is utterly destroyed, and we get 1701-A in the next movie, that looks better/more like the true Ent-A? Or heck, make it an Excelsior-class----they're already re-writing plenty of future history anyways.
  7. David Hingtgen
    I never liked Computron much, he'd have to basically be "every single individual bot is amazing on its own" for me to buy. I'd love a good Defensor though---and Hot Spot's alt-mode is both easily updateable, and always did work well as a basis for both a good bot and good torso. (looking back, I do think Menasor and Hot Spot were in the end the best torso-bots, and it's mainly because they have big boxy alt-modes----same reason an SR-71 is a terrible choice for a torso-bot) I am liking TFC's head designs less and less though--especially Uranos. The earlier prototypes looked better. And having a yellow visor over red eyes? No, not at all. It's not Devastator, who switched between eyes and visor every scene. Superion ALWAYS had a visor, and it was always red. And the antennas just look stupid in the latest version, they bulge at the tips way too much. IMHO, Abominus and Piranacon would be easy to do---there's a lot of leeway/interpretation as to how they should look. I mean, we *still* don't know what the heck Blot is! (I still say he's a mutant robo-ape). TFC had some early Terrorcon sketches that looked awesome, especially Hun-Grrr, but they later showed completely different ones that sucked IMHO (Hun-Grrr no longer really a cyber-dragon as much as a mustached Chinese dragon, and Blot was like a warthog-thing) As for Piranacon--he could be GREATLY improved with the removal of the scramble-city aspects. The color scheme of the bots clearly implies a "preferred" configuration, but physically that one doesn't work that well mainly due to Nautilator---Nautilator is colored to be an arm, but he is about the worst possible choice for that position. However, with, you know, like ONE joint added on you could fold his lobster-legs out of the way and all is fine. Almost all the Seacons have "big animal kibble" bits that limit their placement/articulation in gestalt mode---well, if you dedicated each one to be an arm OR leg, not both---you could easily engineer a dedicated folding/hiding spot for those bits. (which almost all the modern combiners are doing---the only one that didn't is FoC Bruticus, and we all know how well that turned out) Overbite is the gun. Period. His color scheme declares it (unique among the Seacons, doesn't fit in with the others in gestalt mode), and he simply makes a much better gun than all the others. Again, going back to "removing scramble city"----think how much better Overbite would be, if he ONLY had a gun mode, and not arm/leg modes. And if you didn't need to force a gun-mode into the other 4 bots---have them be ONLY an arm, not an arm and leg and gun. PS---am I the only G1 TF fan who believes that Piranacon's instructions are wrong, and that Piranacon's gun should incorporate the 'weapon stand tripod' as the main gun barrel, and NOT use the bot's own gun? Try it, it works perfectly, so much so that it's clearly intended by the designer, even if not mentioned in any instructions. The "tripod" is a giant rifle standing up on its end. Until you actually use it as a gun. Makes Overbite a really, really good gun... (I can take pics if this doesn't make sense, especially if you've never owned a Seacon weapon stand and have never seen it up-close---nobody ever photographs it, because I think nobody else realizes what it really is)
  8. David Hingtgen
    I'm pretty much the same way---most every combiner team has a weak member, and you put up with them for the whole. (and it seems likely that Motormaster will be the best one, and the most G1-ish) Whereas IMHO, Uranos has about 3-4 weak members, with the most important one being the worst overall, and the least-G1.
  9. David Hingtgen
    I have Breakdown pre-ordered, as I feel he is the best of the limbs (most G1-ish in bot and alt modes) and has always been my fave Stunticon and a childhood favorite toy. I'd want him on his individual merits regardless. Now, buying 3 other not-as-good limbs will all depend on just how good Motormaster is. (really, the more I look at it, the more I like Dragstrip---my ONLY issues with that mold are the colors, and they're fairly minor--his transformation is more complex than the others if you take a close look---the rear of the car does a whole lot more than simply flip 180 to make the legs) Currently, I think the ranking of the limbs is: Breakdown>Dragstrip>Wildrider>Deadend. Deadend just sucks, he has absolutely no relation to his G1 self besides color. And frankly, you should be able to identify a "new take/Classics" TF in black and white. Even if you couldn't tell Skywarp from Thundercracker without color, you would still know "it's a seeker" based on some body details/face etc. (any jet with a cockpit chest and vents on the sides of the head is obviously a seeker---bonus point if it has intake-shoulders) But FP Deadend? Take away the colors, and you have NO idea who it is. Heck, we only knew who the grey prototype of it was via process of elimination. And he has no feet. (and sadly, the re-color digibash of FP Wildrider as Deadend, looked a whole lot more like Deadend than FP's Deadend does) And Menasor has always, always been my fave combiner team.
  10. David Hingtgen
    A zoom climb's purpose is to exceed what you can actually "fly" at---you're running on pure inertia/momentum at the top of the climb---the wings would have stopped providing sufficient lift long ago, but still contribute enough, along with the engine thrust, the "sustain the climb" for a little while. You then run of out momentum, and just kinda nose over and fall down---eventually you'll come down enough for everything to start working again, and actually have a CONTROLLED descent for the remainder. It's not THAT far off from firing a bullet into the air---it may not be able to actually FLY to that altitude via wings/lift, but you can get it up pretty high with enough speed given to it at the start... The fact that you're not really "flying" at the peak is why official altitude records set by this method are not the absolute height reached---but the height at which the plane was still flying and in control. The SR-71 certainly holds all the records for sustained level flight, altitude-wise, even if an F-15 has beaten it by many thousands of feet in a zoom climb. Did a quick check and the Streak Eagle hit 103,000 at the top of its climb. Who knows what an F-22 could do. (though I doubt it got anywhere near that, as this was just a standard F-22, and not a stripped-down specially-prepped plane like the Streak Eagle)
  11. David Hingtgen
    It was an embedded pic--or an attempt at one. I think it was a dynamic img or something, and its url was a zillion characters long.
  12. David Hingtgen
    A *stealth* faceplate obviously. PS---it obviously also has such advanced FBW it doesn't need rudder pedals.
  13. David Hingtgen
    Update--apparently the USAF did allow for a Streak Eagle-style zoom climb, and it went well beyond the F-22's official 60,000ft ceiling. So the Air Force has a heart and they really got it up there.
  14. David Hingtgen
    And Elmendorf remains my fave F-22 wing: http://www.ktuu.com/news/ktuu-f22-pilot-flies-young-boys-letter-after-his-request-to-get-it-close-to-heaven-20130128,0,6792287.story F-22 pilot flies boy's letter to his late father 'close to heaven' ANCHORAGE, Alaska— A Joint Base Richardson-Elmendorf pilot carried out a very special mission on Thursday, after hearing about a unique request from a 9 year-old boy who had lost his father. Army Staff Sgt. Justin Gallegos was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. His son MacAidan, who goes by "Mac", was five years old at the time. Every year on January 24th, his father's birthday, MacAidan and his mother celebrate by doing something special like baking cupcakes or throwing a party. But this year, MacAidan, now nine years old, decided to celebrate differently. He recently wrote a letter to his father that included ten very important questions. "Dear Dad," it read. "I have some questions. What is it like in a tank? What is like to be a scout? How old are you now? How old were you when you died? What is your favorite food? What is your favorite animal? What is your favorite hobby? What is your favorite activity? What is it like in heaven? Have you seen what I have accomplished? From, your son." But Mac wasn't finished. He said that he wanted to try and get the letter as close to heaven as he could. His mother, Amanda Marr, put a post on her Facebook page describing Mac's request, and it caught the attention of Helping American Veterans Experience Alaska, or HAVE Alaska, an organization that decided to help make Mac's wish happen. On Thursday, MacAiden met reserve F-22 pilot Lt. Col. Brian Baldwin. He said he handed over his note, hand-written on red construction paper. Red was his father's favorite color. "I said 'I hope he gets as high as he possibly can,'" said Mac. The flight happened on January 24th- his father's birthday. "I wanted to write a letter because I wanted to know more about my dad and to show that I didn't forget him and to show that I also love him," said Mac. Mac plans to write a letter to his father every year and says he is still coming up with delivery ideas for next January.
  15. David Hingtgen
    While Drag Strip is quite far off from G1, it's still pretty clearly him (silver engine for abs), and has a quite involved transformation with a close look---more complex than the other 4 put together I think. Colors are off, though----where's the dark magenta? He did NOT have "Decepticon purple" accents. But Deadend---clearly the worst of the bunch. Simplest transformation with big chunks hanging off everywhere---I really would expect a hinge to flip or fold the doors down from one of the higher-end 3P companies, so they're not sticking straight up past the shoulders like most minicon cars do. And hood for a chest? That's iconically NOT how Stunticons are. Autobots have hood-chests, Stunticons do not. Plus his cube-feet. They couldn't have made ANY of the cuts for that section at an angle, to make some sort of foot-esque trapezoid? It looks like he's got cement shoes. Still, the 2nd two limbs seem much less G1 than the first two---they are homages to neither the toy nor animation, asides from general color and Drag Strip's alt-mode. Reminds me of Uranos---Silverbolt is completely off from the original, when the first 2 bots we saw were very G1. I really hope they release Dead End last, and can make a few tweaks by then. (but I suspect what we see is what we'll get--I know they can't re-do the chest transformation, but just a bit of changes could make a big difference to his shoulder-kibble and feet)
  16. David Hingtgen
    I'm guessing/hoping that they're actually amortizing Motormaster's cost across the other four and can thus have a sub-$100 leader. And as I keep mentioning--if the feet are made from Motormaster's grill and bumper, how do you expect them to come with the legs? (Exactly how it works is speculation but that is how Figueroa drew it)
  17. David Hingtgen
    BBTS's is the best in the business---just email them the pics, and ask what they want to do. They may just mail you a new Lazerbeak. But don't worry, they WILL make sure you end up with an intact Lazerbeak somehow. (generally, it's how BBTS's business strategy is--they are rarely the cheapest place, and often the most expensive--but when dealing with expensive Japanese imports etc, they WILL take care of you if something breaks---opening up sealed rare figures for parts if need be isn't unheard of---the consistently higher prices basically subsidizes the replacement policy, and ensures many repeat customers from people who have had something break)
  18. David Hingtgen
    The Titanium G1 Magnus really got it right, IMHO. It's exactly what I'd want from a masterpiece. (one of the few figures I kept from my great TF sell-off earlier this year--I think it's the only UM I have now))
  19. David Hingtgen
    Odds are good. Though I really want a UM that's designed to be UM from scratch, and not incorporate a $100 white Optimus that only "holds up the head". A UM with a cab-only cab, could make for an amazing vehicle mode. Frankly--screw the "unarmored" mode. Give us an armored Magnus LIKE HE APPEARED IN EVERY EPISODE EVER, made from a car carrier that is designed solely to "be Magnus wholly" and not have to "wrap around" an existing Prime figure's parts. Think had awesome that'd be, without the "compromises" need to include a pointless white Optimus inside. (and how much cheaper it'd be, with a non-transforming but very realistic cab) (well, a cab that only barely transforms)
  20. David Hingtgen
    Depending on how graphically they depict it, I always thought the bood would "lubricate" the motion and muffle the sound (since he does "re-open the wound" every time he extends or retracts them) Sometimes they seem to indicate he almost has "sheathes" for them in his hands that they neatly retract into (like cat claws or something)---other times it's much more gory, in that they simply force themselves out.
  21. David Hingtgen
    Unconfirmed but from a reputable dealer: Pre-orders open Feb 1. Ships mid-Feb.
  22. David Hingtgen
    While Weirdwolf is in the "first/main headmaster as a kid" category for me, I still just cannot accept the weird "paws with a thumb coming from underneath the forearm" hands. And as mentioned, the engineering is the main draw of these figures--but Quad-U seems a bit simpler than the others---certainly less than Code, and I think Robin too. I think I'll pass and hope/wait for the Horrorcon/Triplechangers--I would *love* a new Snapdragon or Apeface.
  23. David Hingtgen
    Not going to get a Flanker into a tank. That's among the worst alt-modes to pick. Some planes just do not work for certain transformations---TFC apparently thought an SR-71 would make for a good gestalt torso... Really, a big part of why Blitzwing "works" is the MiG-25 alt-mode. Updating to a MiG-31 would be easy.
  24. David Hingtgen
    Not interested in FoC triple-changers. 1, they weren't in the game (or they had such quick cameos I missed them) and 2, it's a big cheat to use cybertronian designs for triple-changes, especially aerial ones---ANYTHING can fly on cybertron, even tanks and cargo ships. Give me an Astrotrain that's a steam locomotive and a space shuttle, nothing less/else...
  25. David Hingtgen
    I can afford more 3rd party TF's since Bandai refuses to take my money for -25's and -29's...
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