MSW

I'm more then willing to pay $30 for a DVD...heck even just a music CD...no problem at all....and I'm on a modem, so downloading shows would be a week long event What I can't stand, and is largely why I'm seriously considering boycotting the DVD market...are these damn encripted DVDs...I've never burned a DVD, don't even have the foggiest idea how, nor do I have any desire to learn...but I would like to watch DVDs on my computer as well as on my stand alone player...but even the player is haveing a hard time with the latest DVDs Yeah it might only cost something like $2 to make a DVD...but If I just wanted a DVD, I would by a whole stack of blank ones...no, when I buy a DVD I really want the data, the movie, contained within...and am willing to pay $30+ for that...but I'm not willing to by that same DVD if it won't work... Hell I should kick Lucas in the groin for all the trouble the original trilogy DVDs have cost me...ain't even talking about the changes...I've gone through 4 different sets so far, and still haven't got one that doesn't occasionaly hickup on playback...damn non-refundable horse crap Now even the anime companies are getting in on this encryption thing

about 20 minutes in MS-Paint...saved as a .JPG which gave it those funky blur artifacts Macross 7 Mic Sounders style

Because for the last FIVE pages those in favor have been fixated on photoreal CG valks! Even back in the 80's with models, puppets, and bluescreens...the SFX technology has been there to make a visualy impressive live action Macross film....and we all know modern CG tech is up to snuff...WE ALL KNOW THAT! GET OVER IT! and put some frickkin thought into the other 90% of Macross...don't just say the story has to be "good" or "right", tell us what that means...put as much, if not more, energy into describeing that as you do enraptured in the fanboy wetdreams of CG valk eye-candy and you might be able to convince some folks!

Thanks, I'll give it a go...I must admit they do sound interesting. Its prolly just my hit/miss experience with hollywood musicals that concerned me...can't recall ever seeing a foreign musical, so it should be interesting to say the least... I dunno what films we will watch, prolly better if its a suprise anyhow...only other reservation is these old friends were also fans of Troma flicks so who knows what they have cooked up

A couple of old friends of mine invited my girlfriend and I over to watch some movies this comeing weekend. They are big film buffs..French films...italian...you name it...and thier latest "obsession" are Bollywood films... Now I know what they are, but have never seen any....for those that don't know the Indian film industry actualy is bigger then the American film industry. centered in Bombay (reason its called "Bollywood") they are mainly known for produceing musicals... Now I'm a huge animation buff...anime obviously, stopmotion, CG, painting on glass, cardboard cut out...If its animation I'm generaly quite willing to give it a chance....now live action musicals, are a different story Just wondering from those of you who may have seen a Bollywood film or two...if they are all thier hyped to be?

The hoards of blind L. Ron Hubbard fans couldn't push Battlefield Earth to blockbuster status ... despite the fact that Hubbard fandom, for some, is supposedly a deeply religious experience

I still have an old LP of the Orson Wells WOW radio play ... I would rather see something closer to the book then the Spielburg/cruise film seems to be...so the Pentdragon flick is on my list to watch... And seeing how the book is well over a hundred years old now (copyright was 1886 IIRC)...it should be in the public domain...meaning the public holds the rights to it, not a private entity/individual...Pentdragon would no more need to license it then spielburg/cruise...and no need to buy a printed copy to read, cause you can get it legaly for free... Anyway way back when the spielburg/cruise version was first announced I drew up this concept for the martian walkers basied on the book (and trying to get away from the "steampunk" covered with rivits look many others have come up with)...very Nagano-ish, and a bit crude...but would be cool I think

Now a live action Macross that approches the story as a satire or parody of mass consumerisam...manufactured pop songs...iconic collectable toys...the ties to proto-culture (Macross definition)...sort of a musical comedy with a undercurrent of social commentary on comercialisation and consumerisam and the relation to pop culture....such a film could work, but it isn't what you guys want...even though it sorta returns Macross to its origins as a parody. even with a cute chinese actress playing minmay, the story...taken at face value as a serious epic...just doesn't adapt well to the live-action medium, even though it works in the abstract medium of animation.

You guys are really missing the boat on this. a thread four pages long, and the best sales angle you can come up with is the flashy eye candy of photo real CGI Valks in battle ... ( Ironic in a thread about a live-action film, yet CG animation is so far the main drawing point ) Are you so into the flashy SFX that you forget the rest of Macross? Come on folks, think about it...what occures during those battles?...Minimay sings fluffy sappy J-pop love songs to confuse the alien Zentredai troops...an altogether abstract yet semi-plauseable idea...now the concept works in animation, simply because anime is an abstract artistic medium (abstract depiction of the human form, etc)...but presenting the same concept in cold hard live action, and even with the best intentions it comes across as more then a bit goofy and cheesy...perfect MST3K fodder.

I'm hardly an expert in all things Macross...hardly a Macross fanatic either...Nor do I really care to be...However I suppose I deserve that for strikeing a nerve or two

I give a big fat NO to a live action Macross movie...and the same NO to other such projects NG Eve, Battle Angel, transformers, etc... Even if they are made, and turn out to be the biggest blockbusters of all time...they would completely fail in my eyes...this isn't some sort of personnel prejudice against live action films...rather it's an example of the complete opposite. Mainstream prejudice against the medium of animation But it all boils down to insecure fans seeking mainstream acceptence and validation of their intrests.

Look, its simple economics...Many, many, MANY more people buy the Spiderman 2 DVD then would buy Cowboy Bebop...as mainstream as anime currently is, it isn't really even remotely as mainstream as big Hollywood flicks...they get into price wars because they can sell a whole hell of a lot more DVDs... Lets say you start your own company and are able to license a recent 30 episode show for 3 million...everything is included (art, music, etc) in that fee...so now you have the domestic release rights...add another million for packageing, disk authoring, sub and new dub tracks...so far this is DIRT cheap...add an additional 2 million for advertiseing your release, nice big eye catching adds in all the right magazines and web sites...so far you have spent six million dollars...and lets say you get the break of a lifetime and the DVD pressing, packageing, and shipping to distribution is FREE...you want this to be super competitive price wise so you target a $30 retail price point for the whole 30 episode box set...now once retail establishments and distributers take thier fair share...you might only make $15 per sale...meaning you must sell 400,000 box sets BEFORE you make any money ... if you consistantly sold 10,000 units per month (thats quite a lot for a domestic anime release) it would take over three years before you broke even...and in the mean time you have employees and bills to pay...not to mention paying for additional advertiseing to keep buyers interested in your release...but if you sold the set at $60 (makeing $45 per unit) you only have to sell some 130,000+ units to make your money back (at the same 10,000 per month rate thats just over a year)...which means you can start shopping around for another anime to license for release that much sooner...

Yet another one ()

Never was a big TF fan...always liked the toys far more then the story/characters/whatever... anyway I just picked up a silver mustang alternator today (grimlock? never can remember thier names)...so far I've got the blue Suburu WRX, viper, Corvette, Jeep, and now this 'stang...overall I'm a bit let down by this alternator line, just way more complex then they need to be...getting the stangs head to pop out was a pain, plus the doors kept falling off when trying to transform him ..the car body shells on the legs of the vette are damn annoying, keep thinking I'll break something. Overall I think the jeep is the best...but the stang looks the best in bot mode. The RX-8 is out, but I don't think I'll buy it...looks like they basied it on the WRX mold

I wouldn't say domestic companies are out to gouge the customer exactly...they do have to license the property, translate it, write a sub and/or dub script...license packageing images and other properties (like music) that isn't covered by licenseing the product itself (and even then there are lawyer fees in two contries, all the translation required to communicate etc..)...set print and disk authoring/pressing time...tickle the fancy of retailers to stock the disks once released...course if there are dubs involved then you must rent recording studio time, hire voice talent, etc... That adds up quickly...then factor in how popular the release might be...it cost more per disk for small releases then larger ones... Pirates can sell them cheap because they have not made that investment...they only deal with the disk pressing end of things...often the cheapest part of getting a domestic release out the door. This isn't to say that the domestic companies arn't makeing money...and seriously after they make such a huge investment in a release, it doesn't do the industry any good if they arn't makeing money...but they arn't out to rip you off either.

Here is what it looks like now, modeled in Wings3D - a free modeling application...I could convert it to .DXF if thats what you need.

looks pretty good. I do think the butt end needs some work, as well as those grey engine "nipples" thingies in the front by the cockpit...the major thing about the rear is that it throws off the visual dynamic of the swept forward wings...but looking good none the less anyway, you can use that model of mine if you want...I could even send you a copy, but I've made some small changes (mostly to the engine intakes) and it looks a bit different now...its very low poly (around 300 IIRC) pretty typical for a "squint" concept design....

hope you don't mind, I did my own take on the design...might give you some ideas

This might give you some ideas...did it a while ago as a rough prototype for a video game space ship...ended up going a bit more sleek and elegant

dang, now that brings back memories I recall haveing four Hobby Japan issues...the one with the tigerstripped mecha on the cover , the one with that 1/86 scratchbuilt CCB on the cover, one with a black and greyish "coleopter"...and the one you just posted......I got them brand new from a now long gone local comics shop (special ordered, this was before Diamond dist pretty much dominated the scene...even then they were hard to get, dunno if those were the only issues featureing CCB...do seem to recall maybe a little piece or two in an issue featureing Tyrant sword mecha on the cover, but I might be wrong about that) If you have those issues, any chance of scanning the "fan pages" following the CCB articals in the issue? I dunno what they are called ofr sure...but in at least one of those issues I remember a little page to page and a half with what looked like drawings of (some modified) CCB mecha and characters that people had sent in...some of it looked rather crude, but there was some very cool variationa in there...

gonna hafta pick that one up! anyway...a while ago I cooked this up, trying to design a transformable sportbike type thing (pic is basied on the CBR-600RR...modified a bit) main goal was for it to transform smoothly while being ridden around in a realistic manner (the rider can't come off the seat, no jumping into the air, no splitting wheels in half, etc..) basicly each leg has a wheel on it allowing it to roll around in bot mode sorta like on rollarblades...to transform one leg comes forward, the other back as it sorta does the splits with the arms hugging around the front faceing leg...the seat and foot pegs rotates up slightly, and the grips swing up attached to the bot shoulder mechanisam (the grips then in someway control the arms, with the pegs controling the legs).....the girl is from some website (socalmodels.com IIRC) as I was trying to find a bike profile image with a human in it for scale (sorta works I suppose as she was standing infront of a vertical rack of yellow CBR-600RRs)...

take a chill pill and grow some thicker skin people... Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...some folks have more appreciation for the nuts and bolts of engineering under the hood then others...some have more appreciation for the heratige and history of a marque then others...some have more appreciation for the skill and craftmanship that goes into building the beast... In the end, there is no uber car that trumps all others in every catagory...deal with it.

Yeah, I know its not a true "hemi"...marketing does love to do stuff like that... Just like the great classic small block 350 Chevy is actualy 348cid not 350 Its cool that the new eclipses are starting to look good again...but after the problems over the years at Diamond Star (the plant were they are made...and its only about 30 minutes away from here) dunno if the company could invest to make the cars live up to thier old potential anymore

I'm still trying to figure out what is so "hemi" about the new hemi V-8s yeah, early 2ed gen (70.5-73) camaros are quite cool too...but to me Chevy seemed at a lost with what to do with thier F-body in the 74 through 81 model years....Z-28 was gone..then back...they are still cool cars, but to mee chevy seemed to loose focus (like ford did with the mustang II) and eventualy the 2ed gen Z-28 seemed to morph into a stylistic T/A copycat (yeah they are both F-bodies but they don't share all that much bodywork...doors are different, front quarter panals are different, hood, front and rear endcaps are different...but chevy still seemed to stick all the little 2ed gen T/A like bits on in all the same places) Anyway there was a cool Chevy made in the 70's that seems to have all but dissapeared...might have been because of the IMSA influance of the times...but the 75-76 Chevy Monza was one of my favorite cars growing up...yeah it was basied on the Vega platform, but a factory equiped small block was available...and IMHO with some of the IMSA bodywork, a hot engine, these things are mucho cool

a modern average car (not even performance one) is an all out super exotic race car compared to even race cars of the 1910 and 20s Yeah the internal combustion engine has been around for a long time...but follow the history of its mass production...even into the 1950's engine bearings were not the two piece shells we now enjoy...and even though overhead cam engines were around in race cars back in the 1930's, it took a whole lot of newfangled manufacture engineering to get production up to snuff inorder to make them. Then too modern cars have more onboard computer power then even the NASA Apollo spacecraft...not even the innovative old mechanical fuel injection systems of lore could hang with our modern counterparts... But here is something to think about...because of all the advances modern cars enjoy, they require a more involved labor intensive manufactureing process...multiply that by the fact that assembly line workers now earn $20+ dollars an hour (when they only made $2 or so back in the 60's and into the 70's)..multiply that by all the engineering and R&D that goes into each car model...multiply that by the managers and executives whom oversee the entire process...add in the costly expenses of advertiseing on print, radio, TV, the net...add in the cost for manufacture line tooling, facility, and documentation for those whom will ultimately be called upon to repair said cars.. hell, modern radials have more traction and last longer then the raceing slicks of the 50's...and even the lowly Yugo had front disk breaks, compared to even the 60's very common drum breaks all around... blah, a gallon of milk was like 30 cents back in the 70's...its now ten times that much...That isn't because of namebranding.