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David Hingtgen

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Everything posted by David Hingtgen

  1. David Hingtgen
    Ok, gotta ask, (and sorry for venting, it's not personal)----because all us train fans are getting so bugged by this----why does no one realize this is a tender? 99% of reviews call this a caboose or boxcar or something. It's a tender---you know, the thing that like 90% of steam locomotives have, all the time, right behind them? Has Thomas the tank engine's "no tender" look become so popular, and so permeated the world's consciousness, that people no longer realize/remember that "oh yeah, steam engines have tenders behind them". (unless they're small and British). Seriously, every single "Wild West" train you see will have one, the trains at Disney World all have them, 95% of the ones you see in museums will have them. The wheel configuration is even decently accurate---tenders are full of water, and so are incredible heavy for their size---they often will have many small wheels in a row, like this: Sure, it's not EXACTLY what Siege Astrotrain has (treads!), but the overall wheel arrangement effect is pretty similar---2 axles up front, by themselves, widely spaced----followed by a group clustered together. Siege Astrotrain having a tender isn't some "weird use of extra plastic" that a lot of reviews seem to "complain" about its presence---it's the most appropriate/realistic Astrotrain has ever been. He's been MISSING his tender for 30 years and always looked "incomplete". He's finally got one. This is like adding 2 booster rockets and an external tank to Blastoff or Skylynx---sure, it's not how they've always looked, but it's DAMNED appropriate to do so based on their "need these things to actually move" alt modes.
  2. David Hingtgen
    That area being black is incredibly accurate to a real steam loco though. Even the most brightly-painted ones left that area black (or covered with heat-resistant graphite-aluminum mixes), because it gets so hot you can't keep it painted. I am planning to make a "real" Astrotrain (as in, take a model D51, and paint it purple) but intend to leave that area black, despite going for overall toy-accurate coloring----same reason I wouldn't paint a "real" Skywarp F-15's nozzles lavender. Lavender tailfins, trans-orange canopy? Sure. But lavender afterburner nozzles? Nope, simply "cannot be" in the real world. Same reason my "real" Astrotrain will not have painted treads on the tires---they are polished (well, more like burnished) bare metal due to the sheer action of running on the rails.
  3. David Hingtgen
    Yup---while there's still plenty of times that Treknobabble saves the day----a lot of the time it's because Sisko or Odo or Kira or even Garak simply did what needed to be done.
  4. David Hingtgen
    The old hinges---a million times yes, but I fear it'll never happen since they haven't made them in years and years. I need white, yellow, red, and blue.... (I bought like two dozen in black years and years ago when I found some cheap---very glad I did, as I needed a bunch for an Executor MOC)
  5. David Hingtgen
    I think the odds of it happening are like 1%, but I'd love it if Lego would look at "pieces that are in very high demand/high price" and just "run a big batch, to get them out to the people who need them". Not asking for "super-rare part used in 2 sets in 1982, in trans-green" but sometimes there's some parts that SHOULD be very common, but simply aren't for some reason, or something like "people need a trillion of them, and it's simply not common ENOUGH". Good example---the lightsaber piece, in dark bley. It's very rare, and very expensive. It shouldn't be. LEGO must make like a million of those a year, and dark bley is a very common color. It should be easy for them to run a batch in dark bley, just "to make available directly" even if not explicitly needed for a set they're making. Another example---https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3685&C=11#T=P&C=11 That, in black. Look how many were available, fairly recently. 4 to *18* in a single set, in the 2010's. But there's very few on Bricklink, and they're very expensive now. Why? Because one guy bought literally 99% of the entire world's supply, for a single very large MOC. I just need 2 for my MOC. But acquiring those 2 pieces alone, in good condition, will cost more than the entire rest of the MOC. Basically---any common/normal piece, still being molded and used in multiple sets each year, should be made available in "very common colors", if price/supply gets seriously out of whack. (like, averaging $10 per piece for basic black/white/grey)
  6. David Hingtgen
    The way these things usually go: There's like a "teaser" release in a few shops/towns. First 4 packs or so. Depending on how those sell, they will decide if they're going to "really release it, for real, en-masse". And there can be a BIG gap between teaser release, and full release. And even when/if it does fully release---it'll take well over a year, and likely two, for it to finish. So I'd suspect, right now, a FEW places in Japan might have a FEW issues for sale. But not many places.
  7. David Hingtgen
    Another Black Series Revan? And they STILL won't put him into on-screen canon anywhere??!? Seriously, I'd rather have 5-secs of cameo/flash-back Revan somewhere, than any figure, at this point. Just make him "uber-official".
  8. David Hingtgen
    No.
  9. David Hingtgen
    Yup, "Captain Britain, but totally not Captain Britain" looks great. Super-soldier version, instead of mythical powers? (so, she doesn't lose her powers when leaving The British Isles?) Also---meh, Hawkguy.
  10. David Hingtgen
    Eh, Tarn himself is "the backpack, holding up the back-cannons". I consider him "weaponry, and a small chunk of the torso".
  11. David Hingtgen
    I like the idea of a DJD combiner, but just turning into a big Tarn, with half the team forming weapons and not the actual bot, seems like a poor execution of a good idea.
  12. David Hingtgen
    The Su-27 is very unofficially "Crane". (Due to the long arching neck) (or really, rather, whatever the Russian word for crane is) But apparently Russia also actually likes the name "Flanker" and calls it that decently often.
  13. David Hingtgen
    I'm wondering--does the -21 even HAVE rudders? Looking at the original line art, that looks a lot more like a panel-line, than the cut-line for a moveable control surface. It'd be a very oddly-shaped and proportioned rudder. And since it is clearly intentionally copying the -23 there----the -23 doesn't have rudders, they're all-moving slab tailplanes. I suspect the -21 is, as well, and that Bandai/Yamato (and maybe even Hasegawa) have always just mis-interpreted that panel line, adjusted it to 'look right' and "made it into a rudder". Need to rewatch flight scenes... Also--no one's ever gotten the shape of the -11's tailfins right, either. (though I suspect part of that is because the "official" side profile lineart of the -11, seems to blatantly contradict "every other angle Kawamori drew of it"). I'm assuming the official side-profiles are drawn by draftsmen etc, who specialize in blueprint/schematic-style drawings? And either Kawamori didn't catch it, or didn't sign off on it in the first place.
  14. David Hingtgen
    I've wanted a good Pipes and/or Gears for years, but none have ever quite hit the mark for me. I'm still looking for that 'early MP' aesthetic, of blending the best bits of toy and toon in bot mode, while having a very realistic alt-mode. A pure-toon Gears is just way too goofy-looking, but I sure don't want "toy-accurate" overall (that goes for ALL minibots). Pipes---often gets pretty close, much closer than all the Gears I've seen----it's usually the alt-mode that ends up looking odd to me/being the deal-killer, like it's out of scale with itself or something. (kind of like the Ultra Magnus mold with the doors/steps scaled so that it's a 6-story-tall cab, but in reverse)
  15. David Hingtgen
    The -29 is still "the most fun to play with" valk in years, beating any other DX, IMHO. It's basically "a -25 with the Tornado pack built-in". I was kinda iffy on picking one up, but am VERY glad I did.
  16. David Hingtgen
    Oh, do tell, please. (Just as interesting are the "shouldn't be" differences between the Ertl kits of the two, despite sharing many parts)
  17. David Hingtgen
    A blue NACA duct in the door, is actually G1-accurate---it's the only one that is, there. But like all the others, it's missing a LOT of a black ducting/intake/mesh/grille-work----but even more than the others, to the point that it's notably "bare". Plus he's actually missing the rear-most side windows, which none of the others are. (though they are ALL missing the rear window, I think only the actual MP mold has the main rear window in any form) Also--yeesh, the spoiler's mounted wrong on that one, too. Too far outboard. But at least they're the right height, so it's still better than FT did.
  18. David Hingtgen
    The main thing that gives me hope, is that Henry Cavil is apparently a fan of the series (not sure if games, books, or both), and wanted the role--sought it out the moment there were rumors of a live-action adaptation. So he "knows how things should go, how Geralt should be portrayed".
  19. David Hingtgen
    Yup. So we're expecting "Iron Kong" as the 6th member. Piranacon would be a fairly obvious follow-up, but many of the aquatic Zoids are small/simple (and thus a different style than the larger ones tend to have), and not quite the right "type". (Tortoises, not snapping turtles, crabs instead of lobsters, etc). Dinobots, however----Godosnarl, Grimjulas, Swoopamander, so many perfect matches...
  20. David Hingtgen
    Cang Toy's Predaking, is heavily implied, though not utterly confirmed, to have "Optimus Primal", as the gorilla-based 6th member of the team. (likely being the waist/thighs, LongHaul/Devastator-style).
  21. David Hingtgen
    Well, it has no tailfins at all, when the arms are gone (since the fins are on the arms)...
  22. David Hingtgen
    The belly plates go, too, since they mount to the legs. So a YF-21 without limbs, in fighter mode, has the entire belly opened up, and empy---you can basically "see inside up into the inner structure of the upper fuselage/skin". It's just wings, cockpit, and engines---and just enough upper fuselage+skin to hold them together. Bottom-center: You can see the rows of shutters, that normally open up to act as cascades for GERWALK mode, revealed in fighter mode.
  23. David Hingtgen
    And Gundam! Nobody likes Amuro, but everyone wants more Char...
  24. David Hingtgen
    I complained about it like a year ago, when FT first put their earliest render out. I made a detailed post, full of pics/drawings/arrows, hoping they'd correct it. Nope. Had plenty of time, but apparently intentionally wanted "this one part of the car, to be wrong, knowing it was so". PS--I think it's "montana" (the tan one)----it has that big post+bar sticking down under the spoiler. Is that PURELY so the spoiler can rotate 180 in robot mode? Where you never see it, and can't really even tell it's upside down when it is? (it's not like there's a huge "this end up" sign on it) ::edit:: I can't find the post (likely due to thread-merging/pruning at TFW) but here's one of the main pics I made, comparing key part locations: (and yes, technically, the spoiler DOES mount to the trunk lid---only the very extreme edges of it, not the "main" part)
  25. David Hingtgen
    This pic here, highlights my #1 (and deal-killing) issue with Spoiler---the spoiler. That's not how a Countach spoiler attaches. It mounts to the fenders, not the trunk lid. The other 2 got it right. Spoiler's spoiler-supports are way too far inboard, and on the wrong part of the car. And a whole lot taller than they should be, to achieve the same overall spoiler-height because of it. It's another "why on earth are they doing THAT part of the car toon-accurate, when so many other bits are going for pure realism?" I mean, look at their Dragstrip and Wildrider---they aren't making major changes to the body to "match the toon", yet for Spoiler, for his literal namesake feature---they said "oh, let's ignore the real thing right here, and match the toon, so as to have some weird toon-real hybrid, just to mess up the overall real-world aesthetic we've got going on with the car-mode". Real-world alt-modes should NOT be altered to be toon-accurate, period, IMHO. Or if you are---go all-out toon-style. Don't stick toon-accurate "random little bits" on something that is otherwise trying to be as real as possible. Real, or toon, not a hybrid---it's like a weird version of uncanny valley if you mix them. ("anime eyes" on a real person looks freaky----"anime parts" on a real car looks less freaky, but still freaky if you know how it SHOULD look)
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