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I'm sorry here, but I gotta chime in. I admit I am biased, but HAS ANYONE ACTUALLY SEEN THE ORIGINAL recently?! I had to watch it last year when I was working on it and seeing it as an adult now was very different than I remembered!! There is all this talk of the original being the "Pantheon" of Sci-fi - it wasn't that great objectively! It was fun when I was a "kid" in school to see that movie and within the sarcastic 80's context, the "one liners" were funny (but how many reviews have I read about people lambasting the recent "Lockout" for its sarcastic one-liners - when Guy was intentionally channeling Kurt Russel of the 80s - you're criticized if you do and damned if you don't!) The original is just plain silly, it had the color pallet of the original series Star Trek, the sets and lighting setups of bad TV, really cheese special effects and totally cartoon characters. I dare any of you guys to watch it again, there isn't even Verhoeven's ultra-violent corporate commentary in Robocop or the political satire of Starship Troopers. Yes, we all know Hollywood is now run by accountants, there's too much risk in originality - but that applies to every film released in the last 5yrs! Really, everything is derivative - its the essence of Modernity. I feel it got a really bad rap and now its easier for everyone to just jump on that bandwagon. I know I am in the minority here, but after watching it twice already, trying to ignore my sets and designwork, the movie works - it's no academy award winner (however I tend to disagree with most of their nominations anyways - too much politics!) but its no worst than most action films today. In fact there is really very little acting in action films - its mostly "reacting" to the explosions - just see Bruce in Die Hard (I've asked him, and that's what he told me!). Of course Kate Beckinsale might have something to do with how much I liked the film. ;-) Half the reviews I've read by the critics obviously hadn't actually seen the movie itself (being intimately familiar with the script) and made blunders that was obviously copied from press releases. Basically movie reviews by critics today seem to have gone the same way product reviews are online - basically someone regurgitating the spec sheet without actually using the product. Ok, I'm off my soapbox now - back to your regularly scheduled TR bashing...

I had that little heart attack too! But its hidden away in the main movie bluray disc case inside the booklet (which was the last thing I opened). Good luck on a good frame!

Finally received mine from CDJapan - but quite expensive after 4,300Y EMS and another $31.06 customs charge at the door! Beautiful set (haven't watched it yet) but I like all the extras. Unfortunately, my filmstrip is only of Misa's reflection as she reads the "alien" protoculture card - not the most exciting. At least I still have my Gold Book filmstrip of Minmay flopping down on her bed - but I noticed that the new filmstrip doesn't have the stereo sound track on the film and the aspect and image is slightly smaller than the original Gold Book filmstrip. I think the new filmstrip just seems like a cheap repro. I'm a little disappointed that the beautiful cutaway poster of the Valkyrie wasn't reproduced in that package of posters. Has anyone scanned that poster in and removed all the folds and pieced it all together? I'd love to have that as a high res wallpaper someday. Can't wait to see it on my 100" HD projection screen on the weekend! Now are there any English subtitles yet timed for this release if I rip it to M2TS?

Thanks Kyp! Man, I thought my 1/350 was going to be the ultimate... but this little 1/1000 is gettin' harder and harder to resist! (this little guy seems almost doable... whereas the 1/350 is like a retirement project for me!)

Wow! That's great... amazing detail for that size... I wish I have time to build.

Hey Kyp, What scale is that kit? How much is it?

Nice! Although they made a typo, if its 16ft long, its not 1/350. I have the 1/350 Bandai kit (not built of course!) but I would guess its around 30-36 inches when finished.

I loved what Bandai did with their re-interpretations of the Yamato fighters a few years ago - I hope they do the same in the same scale with the new stuff!

I'm not sure the DiY Network in Canada will be airing the same thing (can't get an answer out of them). Is there anyone in the States that gets this channel and is willing to record it onto some AVI or MP4 file for me to see? I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for all the amazing photos! I love the rear moveable control surfaces. We gotta be able to get this in North America... that's my biggest worry now. All other expenditures are now on hold to make budgetary room for his baby (regardless of cost!).

Yeah, I used to love Sony, but in the last 20yrs, they've really gone downhill and seem to be against the consumer! They forced an update, sometime last year they snuck in this Cinavia copy protection into an PS3 update and now I can't stream a lot of legit Bluray backups I have from my WHS media server.

If anyone gets DiY Network, tune on starting August 1st to see a making of episode for the construction of Total Recall (hopefully I will be on TV!) http://www.diynetwork.com/hollywood-builders-total-recall/hollywood-builders-total-recall/index.html

I'm in the same boat with CDJ...

CDJapan charged me 4300Y for EMS to Canada - at least that's what it said on the order, but it hasn't gone through on my credit card yet nor have I received any e-mail from them!

Argh, I think I missed the first round and only got in on the more expensive "special request" version. Now I'm getting an available e-mail from Play-Asia! Damn.

Has anyone who ordered from CDJapan received any movement or notifications yet? There has been no charge to my credit card this morning, but it says my order status is "processed" - but I haven't received any e-mails of any kind yet. - argh...

This would be a easy custom...

Wow! That fighter looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing EXO. I guess you'd have to paint the entire thing white for the FB2012 custom (or is it just the moveable surfaces?) - or maybe keep the grey and do a low-viz version maybe where you'd only have to paint the tails. I just hope we can get our hands on one of these beauties here in Canada without too much of a markup.

Thanks, I thought Polar Lights was going to put something out, but haven't heard in a few years. Not that I'm in love with the odd design, but it might be good for completeness. I would love Bandai to do another pre-printed and lit version of this in scale with the others.

Has anyone made a "real" model of this "odd" duck?

WOW! That looks phenomenal! Fantastically clean scheme. Maybe a tiny bit of weathering to give it weight - but amazing job though. More pictures please.

Is this design much different than the Bandai 1/350?

Did you pay over $400+ for the VF-25S?!

+1 (thanks for the heads up though...)

Hey is anyone still monitoring the HLJ link with AlertBox? I'm getting a timeout error; "The server at 10.10.10.103 is taking too long to respond."