David Hingtgen

I just fiddled with my 1/48, and the "BP-8 hinge to backpack" joint is at an acute angle. Now, I did open my 1/48 totally up and did much sanding of the backpack and hinge joints to allow for an easier, less stressful transformation, but I don't recall it ever not being able to properly transform. ::edit:: Fiddled some more. Ok, carefully and slowly folding the backpack, I note the following: It likes to "catch" when the backpack-to-hinge is at about a 135-degree obtuse angle. (in otherwords, raised 45 degrees from from fighter mode). It will hold this position, and wiggle around it a bit. Then, going further, the stress/force required increases, maximizing right around 90 degrees. Then, once past 90 degrees, it becomes almost effortless and folds flush, with an acute angle. I think you may have to open up your backpack and see what's preventing it from getting past the 90-degree point. Alternatively--trust in the fact that it's SUPPOSED to go past 90 degrees, and push it until it does. It'll either get unstuck or break.

A lot of those things will instantly "undelete" when you try to simply delete them---it's "too easy" to get rid of a virus that way. Anyways---google! Every process, task, and file you don't recognize---google and find out what it is. Honestly, at a time when you have your PC "running perfectly"---write down every single thing it normally runs to operate. That way, you can easily check when something "odd" happens in the future--malicious or not. PS--running Windows XP? Just in case things can't be fixed any other way, there's a little-known but super-useful type of re-install that will NOT destroy all your settings and files, but it's 99.999% as effective as doing a total wipe and formate of the entire hard drive when dealing with worms etc. I don't know of anything it can't fix, but it's a whole lot easier than actually re-installing windows/formatting the drive. ::reminds self to backup hard drive, it's been way too long, and the hard drive is too old to trust much longer and it was making a funny noise yesterday:: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm (it says OEM/restore CD's don't work, but my HP recovery disc did) However, it will remove/revert to the most basic version of XP the PC had when XP was first installed. Suggest getting SP1 and SP2 and all the critical updates you can on a disc so that you can immediately reinstall them before you even think about having the PC hooked up to the web again. And activiate XP's firewall. Your PC will be "naked" once you do this, and very susceptible to getting something again as while you will have lost whatever nasty thing you had, you will have also lost all the virus protection updates etc, and some 2002-era thing could be floating around. Unless you can quickly put it all back on WITHOUT going to microsoft.com to download it. Your PC may be new enough that its "virgin" state of XP already has SP2. But you'd still be missing the updates.

Personally, I'd like to see an almost "double" cosplay----Mylene with Mylene's valk. The ultimate valk-girl. Or Milia with Milia's valk.

I'm thinking this should be stickied, or at least very often referred to.

MSN/MS/Windows can't help for 99% of things, nor will most of the big-name big-buck anti-virus programs---they can PREVENT, but really suck at CURE. Google the virus's exact name and the name of any file you know, and any odd running programs/apps. Then start seeing on the various PC tech/help forums what everyone else who caught it had to do to cure it Seriously, if you really want to get rid of something, you're probably going to have to do it yourself and not rely on "corporate" solutions. Registry edits, nifty little free removal programs some helpful guy wrote tailored for that virus, etc. PS--I recommend Avast!. Totally free with free constant updates, and caught things every other one missed, and didn't miss anything any other found.

It better be cheap (as in under 100 bucks) or it's pointless: We already have $200 VF-1's, they're just 1/48 instead of all the other recent 1/60 valks. A 1/60 VF-1 (new) has got to be a lot cheaper than the current 1/48. I have but one request: PRINT THE SKULLS ON THE TAILFINS STRAIGHT.

I'm currently looking at the A30----only 250 right now at BB. Hopefully it'll go LOWER in the future, and not shoot back up over 300 once the Xmas sales are over. (A30 does 1080p, A3 doesn't---trying to future-proof where possible) (hey, with many TV's I'm interested in coming down 150 to 200 from just 6-8 weeks ago, I should be able to swing a TV and HD player----assuming prices don't rebound to Sept/Oct pricing soon)

What really sucks are the guys who just put in 48-hour codes, and have had over 24 hours of outage.

Possibly stupid question: With Blu and HD discs taking so long to load (and WHY do they?) does that affect "normal" operations of skipping chapters, fast-forwarding, etc? I mean, if it takes a disc 55 secs just to eject, (same problem I have with printers that take 45 secs to turn on) does that mean the player is always needlessly wasting time for the most basic of tasks?

Well, it's severe enough that MS is actually reporting issues on Live's status: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/?WT.svl=nav

Well, it was insane at the boards: http://forums.xbox.com/14/ShowForum.aspx They finally locked all the threads and made a new sticky thread. PS---yeah Mike, you show up as being online. But none of my other Live friends. PPS--I need a new gamertag pic, and while I'd prefer ME, few of them are any good. Half are so small/dark you can't tell what they are. "N7" is too common. (I have both the preorder bonus and the LE bonus, so I have most of the ME ones out there)

LIVE is down for me, and a lot of other people it seems. Surely someone here is having problems. I haven't been online since before the latest update, and I just went online today to try to get it, and Live won't connect.

Actually, the rattling was likely because it's an Airbus. Was it an A320, and was it the overhead bins? Inherent issue with that design.

China not respecting copyright on a massive scale: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/200.../2004087045.jpg It's China's first "entirely home grown" airliner. Cough, cough. Any resemblance to the DC-9 (specifically the MD-90) is entirely coincidental. Can Boeing sue? PS--this is not an instance of "they just look similar". MDC did send some parts/tooling for China to assemble their own MD-80's and MD-90's from kits sent from MDC. China is basically building new DC-9's from that tooling. I mean, if Iran started actually building new F-14's from scratch, you can bet Northrop wouldn't be happy.

Bluegrass=Basara. (c'mon, he flies his plane with his guitar while singing)

I never realized until now how confusing Hasbro instructions must be to the "uninitiated". I mean, they're confusing to me, who's been TF'ing with their instructions since 1984... That's just evil, dropping hard-to-transform-TF's on unsuspecting parents. Send him BW Tripredacus! It'd be worth what you have to pay for it. THAT is the ultimate TF challenge IMHO.

Nah, while I can totally blame the script/plot/writers/director for the original movie's mess, I think Ming-Na(Wen) was a great choice.

At this point, I plan to buy a standalone HD-DVD player. Whatever I can get for a bit under 200 or so. (And Transformers, Batman Begins, Planet Earth, and Blade Runner) I will buy a PS3 when FF13 comes out.

Remember the C-5 that crashed yet broke up into just a few very large pieces? Crash animation recreation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI5xTmmPbsY From watching the video, hopefully the cause isn't as simple as "they throttled back the wrong engine". (which has happened before, and will likely happen again) Watch N1, and throttle position. #2 is what failed and is holding at zero N1 (almost---the small amount shown is probably just windmill effect). Seems ok as they reduce thrust, but once they start throttling up to get back up on glidslope, they throttle up number TWO instead of number three. Effectively having 2 engines failed. Low, slow, with two engines out---not good.

Repaints are stupid at this point, the regular movie line deluxes alone could support Hasbro for the next 6 months---if they made them! Remember when Hasbro shipped entire cases of Darth Maul due to demand? They sold. They should do the same with concept BB. Or more accurately, they should have done it in November. Hasbro is just costing themselves sales with weird repaints kids don't wont, when parents are desperate to buy normal Jazz/BB/Prime/Barricade etc.

I could actually use that, but I'm keeping my old sony. You just can't find high-quality 20in CRT's anymore. I need to keep mine forever, to play lagless PSX and PS2 and SNES games forever on a screen where they'll actually look good... (same reason I'm keeping my PSX and PStwo---you never know when some obscure incompatability will crop up)

Finally found deep magenta wrapping paper, so here's my Nora all ready for Xmas: (I wanted to use dull gold ribbon for striping, but could only find bright "chrome" gold--was hard enough to find a dull bow)

I just might. However, I don't think the new versions fix any of the issues I currently have. I straightened out the landing gear and gunpod.

The 3253H at the other BestBuy has the exact same problem. ?!?!?

No, I'm not sure. However, I don't ever recall having this problem with any MW attachment before. I doubt yesterday was the first BMP attachment I ever encountered here.