fearyaks

That's one thing that's disappointed me about the Stormtroopers=clones information. Logically, if you were a dictator of an expansive empire, you'd almost certainly WANT to draw upon your population for the army, whether be it from direct draft or making it seem like the 'cool' thing to do. First of all, you eat up a good chunk of the energetic, able bodies young men (and maybe women) who are bound to be a troublemaking part of the population. Secondly, you then get to all but brainwash them through drills and emphasizing the 'nobility'of their cause and loyalty to their nation. Thirdly, you can glorify the military to the point where those who don't serve are considered less worthy and even unfit to hold office or even be listened to, which weakens the effect of dissidents who don't go 'through the system'. Fourthly, you're providing jobs and pay to the lower classes of the population. Fifthly, you're making anyone who rebels forced to fight their own sons, nephews, and husbands, which can easily eat at their heart. I could go on, but my point is that by making your army an outside entity with no attachment to the populace, you strip all that away. You provide no extra jobs, you let the young and reckless run rampant, you alienate the people from their troops, giving them no incentive to root for them or reason to not kill your men. All you have is fear and while time has proven again and again from the earliest days to the present that fear can control and manipulate the masses, it's not deep rooted and can easily be overturned if the people are ever given something to doubt the validity of what they fear. So it's not entirely logical that the Emperor would employ clones in the OT. Then again, it's also not logical that someone would hire a thug that can't accurately shoot someone who's sitting across the table, so I suppose it fits in the Star Wars universe... As far as I know, the Storm Troopers are no longer clones. This is mostly addressed in the Zahn books in that most of the clone chambers were destroyed sometime before the OT. There are also references to conscripting soldiers in one of the crappier books... either the Dark Saber or the one where Leia is engaged to someone. ... some ship that 'conscripts' soldiers goes wonky and starts conscripting local species to the Emperor's forces. Also, they give Stormtroopers names in the OT (Davin Felth).... I wonder if clones have names or numbers (hence the old rumors that Obi Wan was a clone - OB-1). Finally, there are some short stories written from an imperial perspective which mention the academy. Regarding Greedo, were his poor shooting skills ever addressed in a short story or a comic? I remember Solo taking his jacket in a short story when they were younger and maybe them mentioning how crappy a shot he was... in fact, if memory serves correctly, he was a horrible bounty hunter who nobody took seriously. I look at it like I look at Leia and Amidala being great shots... why not?

I could be wrong but.... I imagine ~ $100 each is the going rate on eBay and even here (MIB).

I presume this is Arafat's collection?.

Um., I presume most of you know this is to attract people who are searching on the keyword 'jetfire'. I presume this guy thinks that if you search for Jetfire, you also might be interested in a hover tank. This is a pretty common thing on eBay. Nothing really absurd... just lame.

They look great! Any chance of getting 1/48 versions?

How is he a con? Check out this thread.

Hah Hah!!! Someone is pretty sore about his tree. The best part is that regular eBayers won't have any idea what the heck he's talking about! Edit - added too many https. Thanks Opus.

Don't know how legit this is but this site compares shots from all three versions. Link to Star Wars DVD images

some folks are clearly hitting the crack pipe before hitting up ebay. ooo, I hope people know that this is ONLY the armor. Notice there's no pictures of the inside stuff. I don't see why these armor parts would go for so much, unless this has been another case of shill bidding. As someone who collects and eBays Toynami MPCs, the going price right now for Rick Hunter Armor is ~ $120 - $140. It's virtually impossible to find at stores and it's not often seen on eBay either. I presume, a close analogy would be the GBP sets for older Macross valks. dunno. I sold a Rick Hunter Valk+Armor set for $220+ a month or so ago.

Eh, it isn't too bad. I think the story is overly simple but the camera work and fight scenes are quite entertaining. For what it is (simple action flick), the execution is quite good.

I read this comment at the above auction "Both of the toys are incredibly beautiful, also in C9.5 condition." So I decided to see what else this seller had listed. Still not too sure what he meant by both as he had many other Macross toys listed. For example this one that I don't think I've seen before. Though I'm not near as up to date on the toys side of things as I am on the model side of things. WHITE COLOR MACROSS ROBOTECH VF-19S VALKYRIE Is this a bootleg? I'm not familiar with 21 Century New Toys. By the way isn't that a Gundam shild? Thanks, Carl I'm pretty sure this too is a boot as I remember seeing some posts about it in the Toys section last month.

Sorry, not too familiar with the Joons line, some kind of knock off valk i assume. Man, if i had to fly that valk i'd find a way to get myself shot down. It is a Joons. As far as I know, I've seen this one, a Blue one, a Green one and a Red one. This is by far the worst one of the bunch.

I actually think it's pretty cool looking...

Thanks for the reply. I should airbrush them? I've never done that before. Does this avoid the streaks associated with using a normal brush? Again, thanks.

They aren't the hottest stickers out there but they do the trick Kinda Yamatoish like you said. Custom ones would be ideal. I'll try to get some good pics up sometime later on today.

I was thinking about that but figured HG would try and drop the hammer on them.

I picked my words carefully. Anyway, the 'plugs aren't an issue with these ones. The pilot seems softer so you can manipulate it into the cockpit fine. Initial thoughts - A lot of frickin' stickers! The wheels/struts (as Soze mentioned) are kinda wimpy and pointless though I imagine one could slip a few molecules underneath the chest plate. Feels nice and hefty... A bit like the 1/60s do (b/c of the diecast). I haven't transformed it yet as I want to finish putting the stickers on while its in fighter mode. I'll u/l some pics sometime tomorrow. I definately dig it and I'm glad I'll be getting a few more!

Just bend the butt plugs and they'll fit right in!

i can't see why not? the flexi displays hold just about everything you could imagine so i dont' see it being a problem. Wow!! First Haterist post in a MPC thread that isn't negative! j/k... I should be getting one of mine in today and I can check to see if the stands would do fine. I can't imagine why they wouldn't.

Dunno if this is the same one you guys are looking at but I found this on froogle.com (actually, it was in the sponsored links on the side). toyfederation site.

So I dig my 1/48s as they are but I really think the missiles they come with look like crap... simple question here - what kind of paint should I use on them? I remember reading somewhere that the Tamiya paints are kinda crappy so I wanted to avoid those ones unless they're actually OK. Thanks in advance.

TAM at tmpanime posted on his forums today that the Alpha's had arrived today and that they were going to pick them up... Perhaps no pirates this time!

Well regardless, I hope they make the Phoenix saga at least interesting. I too have to agree that some of the other characters didn't get enough screen-time (Storm and Cyclops).

Thanks for the answer knight... I too like this current series but for whatever reason, the JLA series is more 'watchable'. I think I could sit down and watch a handful of those episodes back to back but with this series, it's limited to only a couple/viewing. And the alien is cool!

Sorry to bump this but I got the 1st season set on DVD yesterday and I've got a quick question - 1. While the storylines are cool and I do like the art-style, are all of the episodes pseudo-comic style? I feel like I'm watching a cool cartoon from the 70's or something (cool like old Disney, not Sea Lab). Perhaps I lack imagination but I find the JLA animation/colors to be a bit more pleasing. I'm still digging the series but find it a little more difficult to get into.