eugimon

the 10-24 is a wide angle lens, good for landscapes, group shots, etc but relatively long focal point and the bubble front element prohibits filter use. I'd recommend the 12-24mm f/4 DX instead. the 35 f/18 is a wonderfully fast and sharp lens, it's my lens of choice for everyday shooting. I love this lens. the 55-200 is slow... decent if you're shooting during the day or well lit conditions but a poor performer in all other situations. If you're looking for a cheap but decent all purpose zoom, I'd suggest the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. Nice construction with a metal mount. It's pretty fast and pretty sharp. Not as sharp as the nikkor 35mm though. The only issue I have with it is that sometimes the lens and body lose their synch and you have to reseat the lens. Not that big of a deal for me but it is an issue with tamron lenses.

As long as there's a high tension wire that snaps and cuts them all in half at some point.

Meh, giant bird wings, infinitely more silly than a "functional" but ugly as sin jet back thing...

really? less than that one gundam that has giant glowing butterfly wings? or the one with giant dove wings? Anyways, I don't care for the raiser thing either, adds too much clutter for me.

What's the point of half the crap they have hanging off the back of any gundam?

disappointed to find out the hip joint is no longer diecast but ABS inner frame looks pretty devoid of detailing as well compared to other PG releases... not that big of a deal but I liked all the faux mechanical details..

I'm not a consumer whore, I'm a patriot... my logic goes like this: america has a lot of debt japan buys a lot of our debt the japanese need money to buy our debt I give the japanese money the japanese use my money to buy our debt. Therefore, I help the US economy... I'm a patriot!

I'd just like to also mention, the yamato 1/48 vf-1 and the MP Convoy both came out in 2003. Since then yamato has released the following all new molds: 1/60: vf-0 sv-51 yf-19 yf-21/vf-22 vf-11 vf-1 ver 2.0 1/100 konig monster not including 2 destroids, the Q-rau, a 2 seater version of the vf-1, GBP armor, and FAST packs. Takara has released: MP Seeker MP Megatron MP Grimlock And just for kicks, lets include the RotF Prime. 4 high end, show accurate molds versus 7... Despite having a much larger fanbase, 2 hugely successful movies to ride coat tails on, several successful animated programs, a lower price point, international distribution and marketing, OWNING their own licenses, Takara has released fewer toys, the majority of those being released being simple repaints with less retooling than the difference between a vf-1s and vf-1j. So... again... why does anyone think Takara would do a better job?

You say the vf-1 is simple yet it took 20 years for someone to make it without having giant swing bars stuck on the side of the fuselage. While you may not care for things like a realistic and detailed cockpit, landing gear, jets, etc, those features are all animated and detailed and it addresses your assertion that Takara/Hasbro could do "just as good of a job" and yet, with a toy of similar size and similar constraints (turning a realistic jet into a robot) their effort has all the same issues as any yamato (fit issues, prone to breakage) while having none of the other features and detailing. This is just the latest bit of fanboy wankfest... first it was all about how Bandai would make a 100 dollar valkyrie that was perfect and blah blah blah, and then they released a toy that looks and feels like it was designed 7 years ago that come with a slew of QC issues and now they've moved on to takara completely forgetting they've also tried their hand at anime accurate toys that have their own design and QC issues.

me too! And a PG 00 and the vf-1j/gbp set and uhm.. the vf-22 m&m set... holy crap, expensive christmas...

nice... all the shiny shiny plastic brings out the want in me.

just received my vf-1s from HLJ... didn't even know it was in the mail.

dude....

again... MP SS, with jank landing gear, non detailed cockpit, non painted "pilot", a wing hinge that's practically designed to stress and crack, limited posability, fit issues in fighter mode. MP Convoy, can't securely hold its own gun, top heavy, ratchet joints limit posability due to lack of incremental positions, poor QC, each reissue worse than the release before, compromised vehicle mode, fit issues. MP Megs, a bot mode so compromised it makes the YF-21 battroid look perfect MP Grimlock, little more than an upscaled version of the original G1 release. Maybe Hasbro can do better, so far they have yet to prove it.

can we just have an official pinned thread: toys should be cheaper and ignore the laws of thermodynamics?

Hah, well, okay.. like season 1, episode 3, all about misogyny and feminism, episode 6, all about Jack's backstory. Is a crystal lifeform duplicate more sci fi than brain swapping stone thingies?

Well, I agree that SG-1 and atlantis had more of an action adventure focus, but the very nature of SG:U pretty much changes that... most of the crew isn't military, they have limited resources and limited time on away missions. Not only that but the vast majority of the crew has nothing to do while Rush and Eli figure things out... it seems perfectly natural that the stories deal heavily with their personal relationships. But go back and watch Season 1 and 2 of SG-1 again, all 9 seasons are available on Hulu. A lot of the episodes were devoted to their various personal relationships.

Season 1 and 2 of SG-1 was very much like SG:U is now.. it was all about Jack trying to find that kid, Daniel and his wife, Teal'c and his wife and kid, had a whole episode about Teal'c reconciling with his wife who had divorced him and married his best friend and finding their kid who had been brainwashed, Sam and her relationship with her Dad... The Jack and Daniel storyline drove the entire first season while Sam and Teal'c's family drama fueled the second season. Granted, SG:U has spent a great deal more time on the human drama, but they've also already had a time travel episode, a "hoth" episode, two alien infestations, flying into the sun and so on.

yes, how dare we want our toys to actually look like the anime. I guess this is why whenever takara releases a new MP all the tranny fans let out a collective yawn?

do you still need help with this? He's in the lower ruins in the first big room with a round thing in the center, in the south anteroom there's a sarcophagus that has the elven tablet on it and when you pick it up it will unlock a new codec entry

End scientific observation in Antarctica NOW!

The topic, as it is for every single thread in the Toys section, is that yamato sucks. This particular sub topic is, "why can't they be more like hasbro?"

There's only one transformer that approaches what a yamato valkyrie is and that the MP seeker line and SS has fit issues and joints prone to stress cracks and failure as well. MP convoy and megatron seriously compromise one of their forms in order to make the other one work, vehicle for convoy and bot mode for megs. I just want to mention again what a POS my first release takara MP Convoy was... a deformed cab that keeps one chest hatch from locking in bot mode, chrome paint spilled on the top of the cab, loosey goosey ankle joints that can't hold a pose other than stand ram rod straight. and numerous design issues, like hands that can't securely hold the gun, ratchet joints that don't have enough incremental positions, a top heavy design that's prone to toppling. The alternators have their own issues, toys that are difficult to transform without popping parts off for some molds, tons of reused parts, repaints galore, limbs that are hollowed out, paint chipping on poorly fitting doors, etc.

yeah, I've been following some of those posts, complaining that sg-u focuses too much on relationships... personally, I think they're full of crap. Good sci-fi has always been grounded in real world issues, either by allegory or more literal devices. Having a show of a bunch of realistically drawn people, stuck in a high stress environment and *not* exploring those relationships doesn't make it sci-fi.. it just treats the audience like a bunch of children. I get that some people are going to offended by some of the themes portrayed so far, promiscuity, homosexuality, etc... but the fact of the matter is that those issues are important and in a very real sense, are the great moral debate of our time... much in the same way that shows like Star Trek dealt with racism and BSG dealt with the ideas of religion/fanaticism. As for comparing it to shows like melrose place... whatever, it's such a ridiculous comparison it's not even worth talking about.

no no, lets keep talking about toys that came out half a decade ago, come on, somebody whine about tab B!