MSW

What the heck are you talking about? You can get a stack of 20 collage ruled 100-page notebooks from places like Staples and Sams Club for $10...and even then the retailer is makeing money from the sale. A typical paperback book, like the hundreds of romance novels out there, costs an average of $.30 sells for around $7...larger softcover books, like say any one of the Dummies guides, costs around $1 (larger pages, better quality paper) and sells for around $18...as with CDs and DVD production costs per each are dependant on number produced...heck, read this ( http://www.fonerbooks.com/pod.htm ) talks about the costs involved in small scale Print on Demand publishing...compareable to self published comic books, CDs and DVDs.

No, I get the point...you see those stores need to make money from selling CDs and DVDs too...cut the CD/DVD price, and you arn't just reduceing the money going to the RIAA and MPAA...but the retailer has to bite the bullet too...Sure the Wal-Marts of the world can soak up the loss through other areas, but the smaller specialty shops can't...If you do some research you will find those most opposed to CD/DVD price cuts to be these retailers; NOT the RIAA & MPAA. You already pay at least ten times the manufactureing cost for a hardcover book, and for paperbacks nearly twentyfive times...Which is pretty much in scale to CD/DVD prices...hell, MOST products you buy have production costs between one tenth and one twentyfifth the purchase price, and when you consider fad products (more specificly namebrand clothes and such) the end consumer price can be over a hundred times the production cost. Which brings to mind my teenage cousin, whom bitches about not haveing the money to by CDs - and blaims the greedy recording industry for his plight - while blowing all his money on expensive Tommy Hilfinger clothes and Nike shoes

Then buy BLANK CDs! How many movies do you think would get made if film budgets only covered the cost of the filmstock? -zero!- So yeah, maybe a film made back all its money in the theater, maybe even earned a decent profit too...So why is it so frickkin hard to understand when they go to sell the DVD that they want to make some money off it at the same time the Walmarts, Best Buys, K-Marts, Suncoasts of the world are profiting from thier work? Why is that such an evil thing? Hell, Macross made back its money and then some in Japan...and for a small in comparison one time fee Harmony Gold has been exclusively makeing a fortune off Shoji and company's work...and we all bitch about that!

The Nasicca dub is pretty okay...much better then that "princess of the wind" crap I've found most of the new dubs to be fair to above average...worst offender is Grave of the fireflies...they really needed to use a little girl rather then a high pitched voice actress for that one, it looses all emotional impact when she sounds like that compared to the very natural sounding original track.

CD and DVDs require workers to source raw metal ores, ship it to refineries, refine it into alloys, ship it to disk pressing plants...plastics require oil , which must be drilled, transported, refined, transported again....then there is packageing, printing of covers, inserts, liner notes ... A lot more goes into CD/DVDs then you think. The packageing alone uses the same printing, binding, resources as books...plus the added fluxuation of oil basied resources and transportation costs...even if they refine the manufactureing process, if the cost of materials goes up accordingly, there is no net saveings. Yet CD prices have remained relitively the same sence introduced well over a decade ago ... yeah, the cost of liveing has increased during that same time...books have INCREASED, food has INCREASED, houseing has INCREASED....but so too your income has INCREASED...whcih allows you to not only pay your bills, but still have the same percentage of disposeable income left over for things like CDs...and sense this percentage is of a larger income, it means you have more purchaseing power for the SAME priced CD/DVDs as you had over a decade ago when first introduced. And for the love of god, calm your ass down...I didn't call you a nazi, or even insinuate that type of infantile BS...You do not need CD/DVDs to exist...you wont starve to death without them, you won't freeze to death without them, they won't heal illness...they are a luxury...nothing more, nothing less.

Then buy a BLANK DVD! Books cost far less (even paperbacks) then what they charge for them...thing is you are not buying empty pages...you are buying the words they contain, the media, not just the medium the media is delivered upon...same thing with DVDs and CDs...Strange though that people always seem to overlook this, even though paperbacks are inching up to near DVD prices and it costs far less to manufacter a book then a DVD. Yeah, CDs prices really havent dropped or really risen much sense being introduced well over a decade ago...but then the medium income has risen quite a bit sense then...minimum wage around here was around $2.85 when CDs were first introduced...its now $6.50 which makes that same $20 CD much more affordable. And the whole argument about films already makeing thier money back is moot...hell, if companies were forced to limit thier profitability (edit: in the build up to fight against Germany and Japan during WWII)...we would all be liveing under nazi rule right now, without even the crap films to entertain us.

Yeah its just a styleistic thing to use a revolver...but really a purpose built and designed weapon that is integrated into the labor itself would serve better...maybe store it in the forearm, and when needed it can be flipped around (replaceing the hand, which would then occupy the forearm storeage space)...would reduce the risk of it getting knocked out of the labors hand and such, plus improve accuricy by removeing the risk of an ill functioning or damaged labor hand operateing the weapon (thus reduce potential unwarrented damage)...and with the proper design you could still have a number of different, swappable even, weapon packages. Even the ability to carry and load special shells, while still haveing the ability and functionality of a labors hand when the weapon isn't called for (not like a hand holding the weapon could be used for much else at the same time, anyway)

Naw, the pilots can deal with that...course they are still too buisy haveing a hissy fit over chopping off thier legs to get them to fit in the landmate (see first pic in thread)

Rotoscopeing has never been exclusive to animated films...its also used a lot in the field of special effects. For example the costume glow effect in Tron was rotoscoped. Heck all the live action scenes takeing place in the computer world were essentualy shot on an animation stand with rotoscoped animation cells. Watch the Star Wars original trilogy...see those funky wierd boxes/shapes moveing around the spacecraft? that is from rotoscopeing an isolation matte allowing ILM to get larger, more dynamic motion control shots without haveing to turn the entire model filming stage into a giant bluescreen...not to mention all the lasers flying around and such. and technicaly...modern "didgital wire removal" is basicly rotoscopeing... Even the backlight effects you see in anime (commonly used for glowing effects like in Tron) are often considered rotoscope effects... anyway... Quite true, I'm a huge fan of animation (all forms...but I much prefer good old stopmotion to CGI )...but while rotoscoped effects work is cool in my book...the whole Baski LoTR rotoscoped type thing isn't however... But I did like Linklers Wakeing Life film...some of it worked very well...while some of it didn't, but it will be interesting seeing how Scanner Darkly turns out (Linkler is a big P.Dick fan, so it should be interesting to say the least)

And seeing ANYTHING Golion would be nice. ... But Japan doesn't care about him. true too...Might have to dig up a Golion bootleg, and give toy customing a try. Then too, Zoid blox figures are dissapearing on the clearance racks around here. I could prolly whip some of them together into a custom Golion toy. But Raideen is my fave of the "super robot" golden era...But practicaly any mecha that can change into a bird catches my intrest anyway. I have the Maz 1901 figure...its more display piece (like Spawn or other such figures) then full on toy. Indeed its very poseable and highly detailed, but quite delecate. Sort of a poseable prepainted and assembled PVC garage kit, certainly not a toy along the lines of a SOC ... but I got no problem with that

I really like these 1901 reimagined designs...the Getters look great...I'm hopeing they start a whole 1901 redesigned line...a 1901-ish Raideen would be AWSOME!

Overall it looks pretty good...but I worry about floppyness in that waist/hip area, looks way more complicated then it needs to be

Ya' know...after the embarassing depiction of the "evil" asian centric Trade Federation in SW episode 1:TPM ... a much bigger, more hyped, and far more seen film - then this Lorelei movie may ever be ... well lets just call it even, shall we Afterall its just a frickkin MOVIE; not a rewriteing of our history books

rent it out to a movie theater for displaying during the opening weekend of episode III...rent it out to sci-fi conventions, airshows and such...parades...heck it would prolly pay for itself in a couple of years, there is a small industry dedicated to such things (every thing from batmobile mock-ups to giant inflateable monkeys...just attention grabbing displays inorder to draw peoples intrest)...a guy around here built a hot-rod blown big-block powered oversized shopping card (its like 10 feet tall) and rents it out for parades, opening of shopping malls/walmarts

Looks quite a lot like the real film prop...about the same size too... Way back in the summer of 1986 I was at Disneyland for the opening of the then brand new Star Tours simulation ride...after waiting in the que, then enjoying the ride, you exit into a fairly large Star Wars shop full of all sorts of tee-shirts, SW toys, etc...and hanging from the ceiling was a full size X-wing...wall plaque stated it was used in ESB...the wings were closed, but the landing gear was down...didn't look any bigger, or more real, or even all that more detailed then this mock-up does... And haveing seen quite a number of film props, sets, even minatures...they rearly if ever look as good in person as they do on film...course that is what they are constructed to do...look good on film...with the right lighting and cameraman a cheap cardboard mockup could look pretty damn real

Then without holding a cargo container, it would fall backwords...if that were the case...and given the mass in question, the mechanical leverage place on the loader when moveing around...it sure as poo would need much stronger hydrolic cylinders to power the knees It aint real...aint very plauseable either...so get over it!

I don't question the ability of the floor to hold up the wieght of the powerloader and cargo ...but as the loader moves about the surface, magnetic feet acting as a mechanical connection...the mass of the cargo and mech moveing around upon different areas of the floor plateing...moveing from one floor plate to another...it starts to call into question how the floor plates are secured to the froor braceing...remember Newt crawled down under the floor grateing during the fight, while the Queen poped off a section of the grateing to reach her...one wrong step and the powerloaders magnetic feet could easily do the same...end up with floor plateing magneticly stuck to its feet , falling over, as the mechanical leverage of its mass acts as a pry bar on the floor plateing...hell I think in the film the powerloader even walked around on the grateing. Course you noticed that a larger heavy load can be held close to the chest to maintain better balance...but on the powerloader ...with frontaly exposed operator legs merely walking could crush ones legs getting pinched between the closely held load and mechanicly powered legs of the loader...not to mention the limiting mobility such an obstruction the load would have on the legs...nor the limiting of the operators view... But its kinda moot point anyway...they never really explain how artificial gravity works in the Alien universe...and with no gravity there ain't much need to lift and carry cargo containers around .

Old news...says nothing about the Aliens powerloader being some real test unit and not a SFX... Its also not supriseing either...look at all the R&D work, tests, and prototypes put into building a better JEEP over the decades.

Makes little difference... I don't doubt military and contractors did at the time and will continue to look into an improved forklift, shoe, bullet, whatever... But the claim that the aliens powerloader is a US military test unit is total BS... The entire Aliens film budget was just over $18 million...2 or 3 days at $200,000 eats a huge chunk of that...and 20th Century Fox would be damn sure to credit the manufacture if a real powerloader were used Besides you are overlooking a number of things...Cameron started in the film industry as an SFX artist...He was well aware of anime at the time...and he personaly designed the entire look and mechanicals of the terminator...he has built models, even done matte paintings, he knew his SFX stuff even before starting on the Aliens film...He knew going in that they could "fake" it, he knrew going in that they could design and build such a SFX creation... Like I said I dont doubt that...there have been all kinds of such prototype equipment built through history...heck GE had such working prototype machines back in the 1960s Yeah its the weight balance issue...sure a 200lbs man can lift a empty 10lbs TV box...and sure a 1 ton powerloader could have the strength to lift a 1000lbs shipping crate...but even with the strength the powerloader, due to balanceing issues, will move around with the same gracefullness, speed, and ease of a 200lbs man carrying 100lbs...and with electomagnetic feet for balanceing you will waste a lot of energy...not to mention the problems of secureing the metal flooring (keep it from popping up with the feet) with that much weight placed in a possition of mechanical leverage to pry the flooring loose...yeah its cool and all but when you have to redesign the hanger floor just to allow it all to work (atop of the engineering for the powerloader itself)...well might as well just put up with the tried and true forklift

Might want to reconsider that trust in your friend...or at least reconsider your trust in his sources...Its been a well reportated fact the power loaders were just suits, hell the SE DVD even have behind the scenes pics and video on them...the commentary even talks about them...Hell the fact the entire film (and it was a rather low budgit flick too) was shot in England should tip you off...if the US government can't trust some of thier own soldiers with such "secret" test equipment...why on earth would they trust an civillion english unionised film crew?...second tip should be the fact the R&D for US military equipment (even the super secret stuff) is contracted out... Anyway... Years ago (about 1990 IIRC) there was a traveling musium exibit on movie special effects that I visited in Chicago...the centerpiece of the exibit was the fullsize powerloader and queen alien from the film posed with a mannaquin of ripley in mock battle...the loader (and queen for all that matters) wern't very impressive in person...much smaller then they seemed in the film...off to one side were the about 1/4th scale rod puppet minatures of both loader and queen used for certain shots ...and to the other side were loads of behind the scene photos and looped video of how they were constructed and performed for the film...I've seen it in person, close enough to touch...so if it was "real" as your friend claimes, then why has the government not hunted me down along with the thousands of others whom saw it on exibit? why would they even allow it to be exibited in the first place?

Learn to READ! Right here the very first thing I wrote: Spoke of a modified EVA - even then made no mention, or even any intention, of baseing this assestment on the inner workings of the design. In short if you want a mecha to perform like a human, be able to navigate a wide variety of terrain, jump, climb, pick itself up unassisted from a fall, carry a variety of weapons ... well its going to have to be basied on a humans joint, mobility and weight bias structure... Votoms, Labors and Heavy Gear fail because the legs shift weight bias tword the feet...and togther with Gasaraki, they all overlook the drastic importance of our backbone and flexable shoulders...EVA takes most all of that into consideration, and thus if you scaled them way, WAY down and took off those fin things on thier shoulders you end up with a very plauseable design able to mimic most human motion and flexability. And if the human basied mecha can't run through an obstical course like soldiers do...includeing crawling around on its hands and knees, climbing rock walls, balanceing on beams, and picking itself up from a fall...then the mecha is far to specialized to be of much good especialy in combat ... it was a guy in a suit, held up with wires and support beam out the back...it was not real, wasn't even made of metal...and the design, speaking for itself, has lots of problems - number one is that it could not lift the cargo containers without some form of counter balance to offset the additional wieght placed on the design...additionaly it doesn't have the physical mobility in the legs to carry such loads...

My arguments had NOTHING to do with strength Your foot weighs less then your lower leg, which in turn weighs less then your upper leg...normaly a persons center of gravity is about mid navel...change that around...like on a heavy gear, votoms, etc and when you swing the heavyer foot forward to walk...doesn't matter how strong the limb is...it throws the entire balance out of wack, compromises its ability to even do the most mundaine tasks...objects put in motion, tend to stay in motion...its just simple physics...adding wheels and such, adds more weight makeing it that much worse... Besides even with our physics friendly mother nature developed physique...we still must swing our arms around to counter balance the shifting weight bias imposed by walking...take away our flexable backbone and shoulders as on Votoms, and Heavy Gears (and no a rotateing waist joint doesn't count) and the mechs ability to counterbalance while navigateing a diverse landscape becomes severly impared...which in turn limits the types of terrain it can navigate makeing the whole walking machine thing a moot point

If you took the fin things off the shoulders and scaled em down to 20-25 feet tall...the EVAs are by far the most plauseable humanoid designs....the Super robot Red Baron would be my number two pick There are big problems with Votoms, Labors, even Madox and such...try sticking 20lbs of wieght around your ankles, put on some oversize clown shoes, then run around...it ain't easy, and has nothing to do with your leg strength...the weight shifts your normal weight bias around more closely mimicing typical "realistic" mecha...course the clown shoes mimic the oversize lower legs and feet...course those designs also overlook another very important part of humanoid anatomy...our flexible back and shoulders...in short if you want it to move like a human, well it really needs to have the same wieght bias and flexability... Another thing to think about...say you set out to design a mecha that can run 60 miles per hour...each foot wieghs one ton...it has a 80 foot stride running this fast...lets see in one minute that mech travels 5280 feet, which means it makes 66 strides to cover that distance....thats a bit over one per second...so every second the mech must pick its 2,000 pound foot up...swing it forward some 80 feet at greater then 60MPH....plant it back on the ground again to repeat the cycle ... Now if you can design a trouble free low maintance ankle, knee, and hip joint that can take that much stress and punishment...then you will quickly find that such joints DO NOT need armor protection Not that I'm into mecha for plauseability and/or realisam anyway

There is absolutely no way I'd ever consider buying anything to eat or drink at the theater. Again, it's a perfect example of businesses ignoring the law of supply and demand... they assume that, just because they forbid you to bring outside food or drinks into the theater, that they're forced the demand up to the point where they can charge as much as they want, instead of finding that nice point on the graph where profits are actually maximized. I mean, inisde the movie theater, a large drink is over $4. Outside, I could go to McDonald's and get value meal large-sized for $4. Inside the theater, bottled water is $3.25. Outside, I could get a case of bottled water for that price. Um...you do realise the MPAA has NOTHING to do with the food prices at theaters. Film companies like Tri-Star, Dreamworks, etc...foot the bill to get the movie made, they also foot the bill for TV advertiseing, as well as the costs of produceing the thousands of film prints to show in theaters... the ticket sales at theaters pay for leaseing the film print from the distributer, as well as insurance premiums for the print in case it gets damaged...That means theaters make all thier money...money to pay the big film projection equipment electric bills, for heating, airconditioning, property taxes, employee wages and salaries, local advertiseing in newspapers and radio, buisness insurance, maintiance to the projectors and sound equipment...that comes from consession sales...

Its been ages sense I've read Hellblazer...but I always pictured someone a bit more rugged and world weary in the role Course the first time I saw the Constantine trailer, I thought they had went and made another Matrix film This is one I can definetely wait for on video