SuperSenpai
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Everything posted by SuperSenpai
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I thought this one could be used to display Hi-Metals. You just need arms from the Tamashii stands to plug into pegs on the base. http://www.yetistand.com/product/yetistand-alpha-with-pegged-base
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I didn't say that JJ should be athletic-looking, I said that she should be "a little more" athletic-looking. I'm not saying that she should look as strong as she appears (because then she'd look like a hulking mass of muscle, whether man or woman), just that I would have preferred an actress that didn't look so frail. The actress that plays her friend, Trish Walker, even she (who looks fit but still fairly normal) has the physicality to sell the role a better.
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I'm about halfway through JJ. The first episode didn't quite "grab" me, but I forged on ahead with the understanding that these Marvel Netflix shows are all about the long game. Three or four episodes in, my opinion of the show turned considerably more favorable. It's generally well-written and acted, and it's definitely more in the vein of a psychological crime thriller than superhero show. Looking forward to the rest of the season. My only complaints are that so far, JJ isn't really that likable of a character. If anything, I feel sorry for her as she's obviously an incredibly damaged young woman, but I don't really find myself rooting for her. I find my interest in her to be purely utilitarian in that she basically serves as a protagonist to move the story along. Also, while I understand that physical appearance doesn't necessarily have any bearing on super powers, for a super hero that has super strength, I would have found an actress that's a little more athletic-looking to be more convincing. It's like Superman -- if he's an alien whose strength has nothing to do with actual muscle mass, then he doesn't technically need to be played by an actor with a muscular physique... but the muscular physique helps to sell the notion that he's a super strong character.
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Integrated landing gear are not beyond the realm of possibilities on a 1/100 scale toy. The issue is whether they can be incorporated in a manner that doesn't make them more trouble than they are worth. The 1/100 Bandai toys didn't mount a gunpod, so they could afford to have small, stubby landing gears. With a mounting gunpod, you need longer landing gears to provide adequate clearance. Also, while the HMR toys are small, they are fairly detailed and realistic for their size. It would difficult to include integrated landing gears that match the level of detail of the rest of the toy without making the toy needlessly more complicated or expensive. Are you willing to settle for something like this?
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With respect to the heat shield -- I think you can still transform it without swapping out the standard canopy. The chest piece just doesn't lock into place as firmly as it would with the heat shield. I remember seeing some pictures here on the forum where someone did that with the first Hi-Metal release. I'm assuming it would work just as well with the HMR. As for landing gears, I just don't see how they could have reasonably included them as integrated parts on this small of a scale. Could it be pulled off, sure. But it would require small parts that would easily be broken. Then people would complain about the lousy build quality. Never mind trying to use your fingers to pry open the landing gear doors or pull them out.
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And you didn't know this before you bought it? This is a well-known aspect of the toy. Let's think about this for a second. It's a 1/100 scale toy that retails for less than $100. I think it's pretty reasonable that the landing gears and heat shield are not integrated parts. If those parts were also integrated, it would either 1) require a larger scale to implement successfully 2) be a durability nightmare with the number of small moving parts involved 3) be a lot more expensive in order to pay for the additional complexity of manufacturing. Given the scale and price, I think these were reasonable compromises.
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As a latecomer, I remembering browsing HKCollectibles and seeing the sold-out listings for V2 stuff. This was shortly after Yamato folded and prices were going through the roof. I couldn't believe some of the prices... SSP for less than $50!
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I haven't tried to put the armor on by HMR 1J, but I've never had issues with the backup holding up super parts on my Focker VF-1S. In fact, I haven't had an issue with loose joints at all, and I own an original Hi-Metal Focker 1S, Hikaru 1J, and Max 1J. Since they are all friction joints, I could see how they might get loose eventually after a lot of handling, but mine seem to be fine.
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I understand your distaste, and to be clear was not making that statement in a dogmatic sort of way, or as a judgment on its importance or place in the overall franchise (I don't take my entertainment that seriously). It's more of a shorthand way of expressing what I find to be one of the defining characteristic of Star Trek that makes it distinct from other sci-fi franchises, and that seems to be missing from the reboot films. Don't me wrong -- I enjoyed them quite a bit, thought they were a lot of fun, and look forward to more from this series. But to bring this back to the original topic for a bit, I also like the topical nature of classic Trek, and I hope that the new TV show returns to that type of format. That way you would have the best of both worlds (pun intended).
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Good points all around. To be clear, I do not share Roddenberry's humanism, and if fact I have some pretty serious differences with it. But I do appreciate that his philosophical outlook resulted in a TV show that was issues-oriented, and used its sci-fi backdrop as window dressing to explore real-world ideas. Star Trek was thoughtful space opera, and I think that's partly why it wasn't well received when it first premiered on network TV. People wanted simple-minded, exciting action not heady morality plays. In fact, if Star Trek TOS had been more like the rebooted films, it would have probably had a much more successful TV run. Like I said previously, I enjoyed the reboot films for what they were, but in my mind they are not truly Star Trek. But to be fair, that same accusation can be made for most of the Trek films, even the TOS and TNG casts. The TV shows were more cerebral, while the films were made to be popcorn flicks.
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Well yeah, but as I said, a compelling plot requires conflict. If Star Trek was restricted to the utopian world of Federation-era Earth, the show would get boring pretty quickly. I don't see anything dishonest or insincere about having the show use characters or civilizations that depart from Roddenberry's vision for the future as a vehicle to explore the consequences of those ideas. Many episodes of Star Trek have the Enterprise crew encounter an alien civilization that is grappling with some issue that is basically just an allegorical version of a real-world issue. For example, there was one episode of TNG where Riker falls in love with an alien who comes from a genderless culture. When the character decides that she is female, she suffers all kinds of persecution and even ends up being subjected to a kind of conversion therapy. In those instances, the Enterprise crew is usually characterized as holding to Roddenberry's humanistic worldview, and critiquing the alien culture (and really, our own culture) from that perspective. I would argue it's not unlike when a character like Superman, who is usually portrayed as deeply principled and morally grounded, is placed in a dark or cynical context. In such situations, the story itself may have a lot of darkness to it, but that backdrop serves to highlight the inherent righteousness of the main character. There's a difference between a dark Superman story, and a story with a Superman who is dark.
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To be fair, the Hi-Metals have feet that are on a ball joint, so they don't really lock into place in a fixed position when in fighter mode. But you have that same problem with other toys where the feet are on ball joints, like the Bandai DX valks.
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Gene Roddenberry has long been known as a humanist, and this outlook is all over Star Trek. Specifically, Star Trek envisions a future Earth where war, disease, famine, and poverty have been eradicated, and where people no longer work for the sake of profit or vanity, but for the advancement of humanity. That vision of Earth has been specifically described in more than one episode. One that comes to mind is the episode of TNG where the Enterprise encounters three humans from the past that have been frozen and placed in a sleeper ship for the purpose of being revived in the future when their terminal illnesses were deemed curable. One the of three was a wealthy businessman who was anxious to find out the value of his financial assets, only to be told by Picard that financial gain was no longer a motivating factor for people's lives in the 24th century. The very notion of humanity taking to the stars to explore space, not for financial gain, not for military conquest, but the sake of discovery and knowledge is not just a nice backdrop, but something Roddenberry actually believed in. It's that humanistic vision of the future that people have in mind when they talk about Star Trek being bright or optimistic. In terms of stories, obviously you need to have some kind of conflict in order to establish a compelling plot. It would make for a pretty dull show if all they did was fly through space and look at pretty planets, and so Starfleet regularly encounters aliens who don't share these values. And there have been some pretty dark themes that have run through Star Trek. Still, I would argue that there is a foundation of optimism, and the heroes of Star Trek are typically shown as being very morally grounded and principled, rather than cynical anti-heroes.
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Well yeah, it is for the subscription, but c'mon it's CBS. What else do they have that's even worth watching? And as long as they feel like Star Trek will be a reliable draw for the streaming service, they can phone it for the rest.
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Life long Star Trek fan, both of TOS and the subsequent series and films, but in principle I refuse to pay $6 a month to watch it, just like I refuse to pay for HBO GO or any other single-channel streaming service. Networks can air their shows on their own channels as they see fit, but when it comes to streaming I want them use existing platforms like Netflix or Hulu. I'd rather pay a subscription fee and have access to content from multiple different providers than be locked into one network's offerings. Especially when they are banking the fact that people are signing up just to watch that one show. It's the age-old practice where they try to sell a lot of crap that you don't want as part of a package to get the one thing you do want. As for the show itself -- I like the rebooted universe, but I'd like to see the new show be a continuation of the original timeline. Maybe we can move ahead to see what the Federation look like in the 25th century. Honestly, I see the old and new franchises as really being two different beasts. The new franchise is more of a straightforward, sci-fi action adventure. But the old Star Trek was at its best when it was about real-life philosophical or social issues that were cleverly disguised with sci-fi window dressing. There was that episode of TNG that raised the question of whether Data was sentient or whether he was Starfleet property, and thus fit to be treated as such. That was a great exploration of the notion that oppression is always preceded by dehumanizing the object of oppression.
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With all due respect -- I think you're overestimating how much influence on aftermarket prices a few guys making anonymous speculations on an Internet message board can have. The VF-4G prices are being affected by an actual announcement from Arcadia that a reissue is coming. So far, we've heard nothing official from any company regarding licenses, just lots of idle talk of what might be going on. I don't think aftermarket valk prices are THAT volatile that they can't withstand the slightest bit of gossip.
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Those rivets and deep panel lines definitely spice things up.
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Thanks for the closer pic. To me, it looks like they are using some sort of swing bar mechanism for the hip transformation. Those little pieces that are holding the hips onto the main fuselage look like they might clip over the little nubbies on the nosecone. If that's the case, then it seems to be an adaptation of the one used in the Hi-Metals. It doesn't look like they are going the route of trying to implement an anime accurate leg transformation. Maybe they learned their lesson from the 1/72 model kit. I never thought anime accurate leg transformation in a toy was a good idea to begin with.
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I think I really need to see this fighter in another paint scheme before I make up my mind. I think I like the basic shape and contours, but those colors are just ugly (I was never an Angel Birds fan). And at the risk of over-speculating, I also wonder what the colors might bode for the overall tone of the show. Just remember what happened the last time we got a main hero valk painted up in garish colors.
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Considering that the Hi-Metals, which are 1/100 scale, have actual recessed chest intakes, I should hope they would be able to do at least as well on a 1/35 scale figure. I'm in agreement with the 1/48 Yamato comparison. The length of the nosecone and the beefier leg proportions remind me a lot of that design. If those hands are the actual default hands that fold into the arms, then I'd say that overall it's a pretty good sculpt. I'm surprised nobody has made mention of those little robotic arms that extend from the forearms to do repair work. At 1/35, it's within a reasonable scale that they could implement that gimmick.
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Those fists look a little too big to be able to fold away into those forearms. So they are either optional attachable fists or perhaps the first indication that the 1/35 will be non-transformable.
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I really don't see why this has to be an either/or thing. Despite the fact that they are both pumping out Macross merchandise, in my mind Bandai and Arcadia are putting out two pretty different product lines. Bandai's DX line is clearly focused on toys for current Macross productions, while the smaller scale HMR is focused on legacy Macross productions. The smaller scale of the HMR line will also appeal to a different segment of the collector audience, and has a better likelihood of attracting casual collectors due to its price point. Meanwhile, Arcadia is clearly focused on premium Valkyrie toys aimed at a smaller niche. The price point and focus on lesser known designs positions them to appeal to hardcore collectors, or casual collectors with much deeper pockets.
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I saw a picture that was taken from a different angle, and it looked like it was supposed to be a mechanism that raises the missiles for mounting onto the wings, since it seems to line up with the mount points. I could be mistaken though.
