MSW

Galvion fans check it out! new TF galaxy toy (pic from HLJ - recolored to approx Galvion coloring) looks a bit (and transforms like) good old Galvion - wonder if there will be a "battle chaser" like mode too I'll have to scoop a couple of these guys up for repainting inset image is the Convertors Galvion toy (renamed Indy) its the only commonly found toy of the mech - course the model kits are around too - other then the super rare larger scale toy (see http://www.vega.or.jp/~butto/galvion.htm ) thats pretty much it for Galvion figures Course I hope this TF line spawns a semi-tribute to Zector and the other Galvion car/bot mechs

erm...statisticly speaking the freeways ARE the safest place to ride street bikes.

and speaking of a tweeked Super Bike X-Bot design...I comped this together from a Honda RC-51, inorder to get an idea of how a redesign could look...definetely the potential is there...

With some more design/engineering work, they could be better... Last year I drew this up, basied on the Suzuki GSXR-1000 ... Been looking for some Tamya quality model kits of the bike, inorder to base a kitbash on...Haven't seen any yet, so I might base it on the plentyfull R-1 kits to be found.

Its called something like Super Bike X-bot...seems to have been a series of six basied on what looks like four real world bikes (the 'busa and R-1 seem to have repaints...or maybe the manufacture is trying to pass them off as an R6 and older 750 gixxer.) anyway here is a link to a webpage showing them in more detail includeing the rather simple transformation (which all six seem to share): http://members9.tsukaeru.net/ty1_toys/toys/bikerobo.htm reportedly they kinda suck I think they are made by dragontoys ( http://www.dragontoys.com.hk/ ) anyway here is an image of all six varients:

Perfect Transform Actualy it is possable, not anime accurite possable....but completely possable without parts swaping...although for strength I'd think some metal would be involved. I had started some crude transformation plans for scratch building this exact mecha last year...I'll have some time after Christmas to dig them out, scan them in, and post 'em if anyone wants...

I'm no sports gamer...actualy can't stand them...but I gots to ask, and maybe this is pointing out the obvious Are sports gamers hooked on crack? I mean seriously, why do people even buy these games? go to any EB games and you will find dozens of used copies of last years uber football games, and the year before, and before then too. What, do the game CDs deteriorate that quickly that you need to update the game each and every year? Are haveing the latest player stats so important that you are willing to fork over your hard earned cash so easily...why not find some hacked updated stats table download for say Madden 03 instead? Or is it the graphics that drives people to by this years new game because player models now have three more polygons per butt cheek what gives?

erm...what about the rather raceist depictions of a few Centars in the original Fantasia?...to be fair such depictions were a product of the time the film was made...but now the evidence is completely gone, been digitaly removed ...now we only see a red carpet "magicaly" unroll itself and not the Centar whom did the actual unrolling in the original film.

Cuz....leik....Protoculture's all magical an stuff. So...so...stfu! Sorry, that's the best I could do. I'm sure somebody will correct us, but it does seem a little silly. Then again, I remember enjoying the McKinney books, so even if I was an RT fan I'd be in an outcast. Yeah...magical stuff, this protoculture But in the context of RT: New generation opens with Scott and company returning to win back earth, right?...In RT continuity the invid have sensors that can pick up the active useage of protoculture. stratigicly speaking, if the human ships came across the solar system powered by magical protoculture, the invid would have "seen" them comeing miles away...and had much more time to set up defenses on the moon, mars, etc...but they don't, the invid don't detect the humans until they are within Earth orbit. Still the Earth forces got a beat down, but they could have gotten a worse one if the invid "saw" them comeing sooner...so useing old tech, in effect, allowed the humans to perform a sneak attack of sorts... In a way, it does make logical sense, given the RT storyline, to use such old tech to power the large ships.

On the whole "cone thingies out the back" thing in Robotech: Um...been a while sense I've seen the RT series, but wasn't it about the uber powersource known as protoculture? (I know what it is in Macross, no need to point that out...strictly talking RT here) Isn't that why they are fighting...over a limited power resource, the supply of which has continuly dwindled during decades of war...and then you get to the new generation, fighting the invid. whom have very few large ships, thier strength seems to be in thier smaller fighting craft, troopers, etc.. as such the humans would naturaly put thier limited supply of protoculture to good use in fueling thier own fighters, cyclones, etc...while the larger ships, without compareable invid opposition...could successfuly use older, more abundant, technology... I'm no big RT fan, actualy don't really care to much for this new show either...but in real life, even in our jet engine and nuclear powered military age...we still have prop powered airplanes, and diesel engined ships. Blah!...its just RT after all

Here in North America you can get them at most comic book shops through Diamond comic book distributeing ... many shops can and are willing to order them for you. Also, as leo said, check out L-Gaim ... an anime series form 1984 that was written, with character and mecha designs, by Nagano...many of the FSS mecha are reworkings of those in L-Gaim. Not to mention the series itself is sort of a prototype for FSS.

LXG, along with From Hell (film stared Johnny Depp, trying to hunt down Jack the Ripper), were originaly comics written by Alan Moore of Watchman fame. Doh!...I forgot about it...I liked it too, but never had a chance to read the graphic novel though

Maybe because the better directors know that the world doesn't need a live action version of Akira. Anymore then we need a live action Evangelion, or Transformers film Or say, Tony Scott? Seems ol' Jerry has had his influences on the family for years...Might be why his name is always at the front of the production.

don't forget Felix the Cat, From Hell, League of Extrodinary Gentelmen, and Road to Perdition...not exactly superheros, but they all spawned from comics. And if Brenda Starr and the Phantom are on the list...then you should add Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, and Garfield: the movie...which also spawned from newspaper funny pages.

first one is definetly Raideen...dunno for sure bout the next two...and the last one looks a bit like Robo Con ( http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?BAN916134 )

although I certainly didn't love the toy...powermaster prime...better known as god ginera, IIRC ... he was always pretty cool in my book...I'd love to see a redesign, modified so the tiny little bot forms the head instead of the engine...always thought headmasters was a neat concept...but the designs sucked (I'm not a TF fan at all...but like PM prime for some reason) Otherwise some of the brave designs are mucho cool...I'm particular to the fire/crane/dump/cement mixer/mazer cannon/missle launcher truck combiners from GGG...J-Decker and Exkaiser arn't bad either course Dangaioh from the original OVA series is sweet! defientely among the best looking combiner design ever in bot mode so too, I like Mighty Orbot ... not a great design, but the show was pretty cool.

It's hard to tell in that pic I posted...but all those guns are shown in the videos as folding out of the backpack...my understanding is that this happens when you press a key to switch weapons...they fold out, and the mech takes one, they then fold back in...additionaly the videos seem to show some sort of "super attack" where the weapons fold out and fire...I love the mech design, very fitting for a game that shouldn't be taken seriously I've got GTA:VC for this here PC...tis okay, I got pretty board with it after a few days...went online, got some cheat codes, played around with the tank for a bit, got bored again...best moment in the entire game was when I was minding my own buisness driveing my tank around and I got car jacked by some street punk ... but really the whole free roaming thing isn't my cup-o-tea

I agree with Southpaw Samurai - your design skills are very nice, but I think you need to experiment a little more...worry about details later, nail down the shape first. This is a little 520 polygon model I did for a game, seen here with just a simple guide texture:

I'm gonna haf'ta throw in the towel and buy an X-Box for this game: xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/metalwolf-chaos/551820p1.html Official site (with videos): www.fromsoftware.jp/main/soft/mwc/ description form another site ( www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3135100 ) : "In the future, the President will defend his nation on the front lines. Michael Wilson, a former soldier and Medal of Honor winner, jumps into his mighty powered suit to battle a coup d'etat masterminded by sinister vice president Richard Hawk, his old army comrade driven mad with jealous rage." corny...but cool! Looks like a blast to play. screenshot:

Picked it up taday at Walmart...will return it tomorrow...was mainly interested in the bonus material (call me a "purist")...started watching the Empire of Dreams documentary...very nice so far...big huge thumbs up for includeing the original 1977 title crawl in that (should finaly put to rest the arguments that the original film release title crawl didn't contain the header "Episode 4: A New Hope")...then just as the documentary gets to the section on the original merchandiseing...tons of frame stutters and simular encodeing problems ... so I skip forward a chapter...same problems...skip forward yet another chapter (sucks cause this was about Empire)...playback gets frozen, quits playing So I remove and inspect the disk, no visable problems...re insert it...decide to check out the sneak peek at episode 3...same stuttering and skipping problems...so I try the DVD on my computer...won't play at all (not supriseing...it doesn't even detect it in the DVD drive ) ... anyone know of a PC DVD drive that can work with disks containing that newer form of copy protection?...I have zero intention of copying anything, but would like to view movies on my much sharper PC moniter rather then my crappy old TV As for the films themselves...haven't even botherd, even if I can't return this set to get my money back, instead haveing to exchange it with another...I won't watch the films...too damn painfull...

First things first: The rancor in the original ROTJ was a puppet...NOT stop-motion or even "go-motion" animated...it was a puppet (much like Kermit or Yoda) about 18" inches tall filmed at high speed on a miniature set inorder to give it a convinceing sense of weight... second... Lucas has often compared his filmakeing to painting...in some sense there is truth in that.... However in 1977 I, and many others, effectively purchased his "painting" compromises and all...when you purchase a completed painting from an artist, it is both down right rude and insulting for that artist to barge into your home inorder to "fix" the painting you purchased years earlyer simply because the original work was created under compromiseing situations... But honestly, if you intend on makeing films for yourself...films to suit your vision...you already compromise you vision simply by shareing said works with others...and you further compromise it by asking others to pay money to view / buy copies of it ... The artist of one for the audiance of one must always make compromises inorder to be the artist of one for the audiance of many ... and the first compromise is to address your personnel insecurities concerning the validity of your vision, this is essentualy and often subtley by changeing your vision to appease the intrests of the audiance you intend to share your work with.... so if your films are really for yourself, then don't even bother shareing them with others!

I've always liked the Warhammer futureistic stuff, neat designs and all that...but I know next to nothing about the regular game ...what the various classes are, how it all works...so would this game be okay for newbies? Also I'm not a stratigy gamer (prolly why I never got into the whole Warhammer thing besides looking at the figures in the store)...and RTS games are like pulling teeth to me (way too much information overload )...but I can deal with turn basied ones fairly well...is this game at all suitable (not too much information overload)? My PC can handle it no problem (P4 with a 256MB Geforce 6800 Gt video card Yeah Doom 3 runs great! ) and I much prefer 3rd person platform-ish games like Alice to FPS, with my favorite genre being SHMUPS like Einhander and Ikaruga...guess the PC isn't a great gameing rig for me (except all those emulators ) but being on a lowly 56k modem makes it hard to download most game demos...so sorry for the above questions.

Not just being a parent...but he dropped his long time producer Gary Kurtz after Empire was finnished...Kurtz had worked with him sense American Graffiti, and had no problems telling Lucas "no"...unlike the crew of yes men Lucas has around him now Blah, like it really matters anyway... the next time Lucas gets a wild hair up his butt all that supposedly supported official cannon crap can and will quickly change...like it hasn't already

I might pick up the DVDs...dunno yet for sure as for the Stormtroopers being clones or regular recruits...definetely clones.... Why? Its fricking obvious...all the Stormtroopers are vuagely human...you can't fit a Twlik or a whookie in the armor...heck haven't seen any of the troopers armor capable of fitting around more then half of the aliens seen in the films...so it's pretty obvious that the troopers are human like. And if you were the emperor over the entire galaxy...a galaxy full of all sorts of alien life forms...woould you potentialy piss them off by purposefuly excludeing them from your army...would you tell teh wookies that they arn't good enough to be a part of the empires army, yet expect them to bow down to your every whim? Course not...not even the emporer has enough force power to control the minds of everyone in the whole galaxy...So, you would have all the aliens instantly revolt, not wanting to be ordered around by some human troops without have represenatives of thier own kind helping out....so you just make the stormtroopers clones ...clones of clones if need be...and wash your hands of the whole interspecies relations and potential pratfalls of exclusively useing humans for the army... blah, at this stage in the game I don't think Lucas even knows what is going on anymore in his films

M. Night Shamalumland ... or however it's spelled...the guy that gave us sixth sense, signs, and all that... But before you all jump down my throat, hear me out (yeah signs sucked in the end too, that I agree with) WOTW isn't a war story about big huge epic battles...in fact there is very little in the book that approches such imaginary action...it's a horror story concerning man being ineffectual against the invaders...which is why the main character is little more then a bystander through out the story...we can't stop them, or even barely slow them down, we are powerless against them... To do a WOTW film right, you don't need any huge budget for effects...heck you can get by with only a few scenes showing the martians...it needs to be scarey with a otherworldly creepy feel and M. Night can do that quite well IMHO...he just needs a script that isn't so scientificly and logicaly flawed...no need for big name actors either...the more believeable that the film takes place in the 1890's the better...not need for big action scenes involveing tons of effects...it's better to show the wake of the martians advance...the results of the chemical weapons, the shock of invisable heat rays burning things...then to show every mechanical step the machines take... I think Spielburg can do a pretty decent version...but he isn't perfect for the material...it's a horror story, not a war story concerned with tactics and battle scenarios.