UN_MARINE

regardless of continuity, fluff & etc., the appearance of a single machine with a plasma based weapon would prove the point of the producers just being lazy. if they had the resources to show it on any of the Skynet tech, then why is the human cast stuck with conventional weapons? assuming there will be plasma weapons in the movie. if there aren't, then that's just sad. they wouldn't even have to show tons of 'em either. a couple would do. for the humans, it would be some super rare super weapon. according to the novel, the plasma rifles were developed by Skynet & specifically engineered for the Endos. eventually, the resistance got a hold of some & reverse-engineered them for human hands. i suppose it's a good explanation to the different grips on the models & replicas. i think the Sideshow replica is the early Endo version

actually... the presence of the T800, even the 600 means that plasma rifles would/should be available already. if they were actually paying attention to the 1st 2 movies, plasma rifles & T800s together should be fact. it all goes back to Reese's flashback. Reese describes the 800s as "new", but they were already packing some form of plasma rifle. not to mention the ones equipped on the HK's, the man-portable plasma cannons, the plasma cannons in the safehouse, and the thing mounted on the resistance technical. yeah. this is lazy production. i guess all the money went to the bay-style cg effects. couldn't they even buy at least 1 Sideshow Plasma Rifle replica? SCC managed to buy a couple, or replicate their own. and that was a TV show!

on the basis of the joint being a different material from the rest of the valk, i'd say yes. the shoulder hinges on my Hikaru 1s are definitely not ABS. it looks & feels a lot like the YF 21's yellow head spike to me. it could be POM.

i've had my Hikaru 1s for more than a week now, and i have no issues with it. it passed my relatively rough handling & flail testing with & without the FP's. relatively, meaning the kind of abuse you'd give a $20 Hasbro/TakaraTomy. more or less. the said test involved things like picking up the valk by the back FP's & shaking, transforming w/ the FP's & shaking, transforming the valk unsupported, dangling by 1 leg, dangling by 1 arm, and so on. that's the kind of abuse i wouldn't dare on the 1/48 i'm seriously considering getting the 1a next.

i can't tell which way the pins are. they don't want to budge in either direction & i'm afraid to force them out. all i can say is mine aren't or don't seem to be stressing in the critical areas. although i loosened the shoulder ball joint sockets as soon as i could. they were amazingly tight out of the box.

yup. i'm talking about the Hikaru 1s

after fiddling with the new 1s for about a day, i discovered something interesting: the shoulder hinge parts aren't the same plastic as the rest of the valk. i compared how the plastic looks & feels to the rest of the valk & previous valks with known POM parts. i'm convinced they're POM or Nylon. the backpack hook, & the ball-joint sockets are also made from the same material. i'm not sure about the heatshield though. the comparison test is simple, even when they plastics are textured the same way, ABS will sorta cling to you when you drag your finger/s on the material. but the unidentified material on the shoulder hinges feels completely smooth. Happy Holidays !

i just got my 1S ! by Crom! it's perfect! the shoulder hinges don't look like POM. they're most likely ABS just like the rest of the toy. it's super tight out of the box. which is a good thing & bad thing mine had it's arm joints really tight. so i had to loosen the screws a bit. especially the shoulder screws. i suggest loosening the shoulder screws before you do anything else. i tweeked mine to somewhere tight enough that it doesn't flop, but at the same time, you can rotate the whole arm without moving the shoulder hinge. i'm gonna run this thing through a systematic joint-loosening to make sure certain parts aren't stressed unnecessarily.

... "...the 600 series had rubber skin, easy to detect... these are new. blood, sweat, bad breath..." we're all gonna die !!! it's an impressive project. it's pretty advanced stuff for something built in a basement. the facial & object recognition software alone could be something the military would be interested in. i guess the next step would be to fit all that data into something that'll fit inside the frame. looks like the CPU's still wired from outside, with a bunch of other doodads, doohickeys & thingamajigs. then he can work on making it walk. then we're all doomed

i just got the set with the BatPod it's got pretty nice packaging & the display base doubles as the DVD case. damn good set if you ask me, considering the less-than-impressive "extras" DVD. the BatPod's got decent detailing, it looks well enough as it should & it actually looks like it belongs beside the HotWheels 1/18 Tumbler. the only down side is that it's slightly smaller in scale, based on the size of the tires & you can't take it out of the base and the right cannon barrel is shorter by about 5mm. *gasp* ok. the bike was a huge selling point for me

aren't the hip connectors on the v1 POM? you could use those for comparison, if you still have a v1 available. the plastic's texture is a good way to tell which plastic is POM. POM is the stuff that kinda feels like Nylon. hopefully, the Yamato guys still pay some attention to Graham. well, 8 days to find out for sure if they changed something.

Thank Crom! i was going nuts not knowing when it's gonna be available now for the 8-day wait...

i have random yellowing on my 1/60 1A too. and all this time, the only thing facing the light was the back of the box. could be the heat though. i live in a relatively warm country. the funny part is that it's completely yellowed on individual parts instead of it slowly spreading. i think it's 4-5 yellowed parts vs a perfectly white valk. i had that "what the hell...?!?!" moment when i saw the head perfectly white on 1 side, & yellowed on the other. and my 1/48 is also showing some light/early yellowing in some corners, but it doesn't look as severe as the 1/60's case.

*gasp* re-imaging? is this a reboot/retcon/alternative universing of our daily ease-the-pain-of-work show? why, floating head! whyyyyy! but seriously, i hope you guys find & fix the problem for good, and hopefully you don't run into any more of these problems. it's gonna be a tough 4-5 days without MW good luck with the fixing & jolly Thanksgiving

Awesome Silverstreak! i was thinking about getting one, this mod is giving me ideas how about painting the head silver instead of the plain metalli-gray plastic? with some black trim and panel lines. that could really bring out the facial details. while we're talking mods, may i present... BFG of Prime! it replaces the rocket-powered ax & allows the addition of extra options, like... a trailer? i suppose it'll look less conspicuous than the ax when it's painted. i'm still deciding if i want it black or gray. any suggestions?

come to think of it... do the pics even show any hint of the thing being designed with the armor parts in mind?

anybody think they're gonna release a repaint/retool of an 11C ? or the armor parts? or are those still technically off-limits due to the license thingy?

that's easy. they'll just edit together footage of the original King Kong & Attack of the 50ft Woman. maybe even blown-up green or blue aliens from Star Trek TOS.

they're about a head shorter than the Revy Frauleins. i'd say about 1/12 scale link EDIT: a noteworthy feature of figmas is the clever use rubber parts. it's something you have to see in person. very cool.

ok, well, it could also be the other way around. Bandai could be trying to Valk-block HG. only time & product delivery will tell.

that Bandai/Toynami deal's gone belly-up, blame HG. HG is always the problem. the ridiculous exclusive FP's are a deal-breaker for me. i was set on the idea that i would buy one if i could have FP's to go with it. a bare VF25 isn't as appealing to me as a fully armed one. i said before that with all their bigness & experience, Bandai does stupid things too. looks like they want to prove it. oh well... guess i'll just have to spend that money on even more VF-1's

i'd pay buckets of cash Figma Macross figs they've got spot-on likenesses, excellent materials & accessories. the 1/18 Valk sounds cool. they could in theory, build one like the super large HY2M Gundams. the hugeness & weight can be solved by clever engineering, material use & placement. they did it with the Jumbo Grade Zeta. it can be done. the only question is who really wants to build it. the only thing you'd have to worry about is the pricetag imagine the cost of one of those HY2M's but doubled or tripled because of the PT, gimmicks & pilot figure! and that's just for the basic Valk! what of the horror the FP's will bing?

i hope they tie up loose ends before they pull the plug.

co-op is nice. you can get S ranks easier that way. but you can't complete the game through co-op. there are specific missions with the co-op option. i've done like 50/50 successful & failed attempts at connecting with my friends. so far with my (crappy) isp, i've had relatively little to no lag. except for when it's loading enemies. but still, almost no "fighting lag" compared to "processing lag". if that makes sense. from what i figure, the machine you pick determines which parts & weapons are available & will be available to you along the line. something like if you choose the armor-based corporation, you'll get the heavy & medium parts right away, then the light & fast parts later. and so on. i'm not sure if the machine choice affects the story mode. it looks like it's the same for every corporation. the difference is in the order you do the missions. the story branches out in specific missions, & there are missions that only become playable after you've done a specific mission or missions beforehand.

quick question... i just got the battle begins animated Optimus. i'm tweaking a couple of things & they involve repainting the thing. 1st thing on the to-go list is the "battle damage" does anybody know which red & silver they use on this thing? thanks