Fit For Natalie

What homophobia? I was referring to their odd familiarial relationship.

He means the ambigious, very, very odd Godmaster brothers.

AHHH! The hinge on my MP Prime's Megatron gun crumbled! AHHH! Tank Megatron is probably the best if one ever wants to see Megatron transform in fiction, since it's practical. You almost never see Megatron or Galvatron transform except as their 'party piece'. But I think the movie will influence future Megatrons (bar existing ones) to have aerial alt-modes.

You mean Powermaster Optimus Prime Let us never speak again of the time Japan thought it would be a Bloody Good Idea to turn Transformers into lifeless automatons driven by human anime stereotypes. Just another great idea from Takara Marketing - "Driving Transformers into the ground and blaming Gaijin when it doesn't work!" Why bother? Better to get a Transforming toy, like Hasbro suggested they might do for Classics. Galvatron was a mobile artillery cannon, judging by the treads. It's a giant weapon-looking thing on his arm, what else would you do with it? And it looks cool. This isn't a mecha anime or something where things have to plausibly work or make sense according to pretend science the writers and mecha designer made up

Anybody see the Transformers Animated 3 min preview yesterday?

Because since Cybertron, Hasbro adopted what Takara does and sells the large hero (or villian) toys by how big their robot mode is, instead of packing them as compact-looking vehicles in rather small boxes. A big robot in a tall box looks more like it's worth your money than the varyingly sized vehicles. Then again, it is Japan. They're about the only robot loving country that doesn't seem to like Transformers (TF Movie did very well in China and South Korea, apparently). One of the problems is the long standing perception (helped by YEARS of mismanagement and poor marketing decisions by Takara) that it's a second-rate comedy based* kids show, if people know about Transformers at all. And as I stated earlier, the local distributor appeared to concentrate advertising on the human cast rather than the robots. *You should have seen how they utterly butchered Beast Wars. Horrible... simply horrible. No wonder Beast Wars lacks respect over there.

Yeah, it does, because Leader Prime's head was one of the more inaccurate parts on him. Well, Leader Prime was designed to stay in truck mode accurately (to date, the Leader class toy has the most accurate truck mode of the transforming Prime toys), as well as try to get the transformation sequence as close to the CG version as they could do with what they had (the main difference is the arms don't form the engines and hood). Voyager class Prime was more accurate in proportions (well, from the front), but had a made up sequence and is not quite as well designed a toy. The Leader Prime toy is pretty accurate and is undoubtably one of the best Optimus Prime toys ever made. The Classics-looking line will be called Universe, and it will probably be around the second half of 2008 along side Animated. Well, Hasbro is in the business of doing things cost-effectively the first time around to maximize profits and recoup the initial expenses on design, construction and production. Then they can come back later with the toys paid for and the hindsight of knowing the accurate depictions and redo them. Another thing is... it's a movie. The movie production and post-production progresses until the movie is released. Hasbro had 'lock-in' the designs in early 2006 so they would have enough time to design, build and make the toys, that's why the toys all look like the concept art and not the final CG in most cases. It made about 40 million, I believe, so it did okay*. The movie toyline contributed to TakaraTomy making double the usual profits of the quarter. Before release, industry commentators had expected the movie toyline to do poorly for TakaraTomy because movie toylines historically did badly in Japan. The current G1 Encore reissue lineup is made up of characters who appeared in the movie (Blackout was originally going to be Soundwave), and the special exclusive repaints of G1 Ironhide and G1 Ratchet are based upon their Movie colourschemes. So expect TakaraTomy to flog the movie themes pretty hard. *For some reason the local distributor in Japan removed all traces of the Transformer characters for the movie poster over there, leaving just the humans. The Japanese Transformers fanbase is not as large or quite as diverse as the US fanbase, owing to Takara having less continuities and media that TF has appeared in and a series of marketing disasters by Takara since their ham-fisted attempt to make Beast Wars a comedy series. As a consequence, Beast Wars is not as revered in Japan as it is in the US. Of course, the fact that Transformers is just another robot show in a nation of robot shows doesn't help TF there. As for reaction, I'm not sure, but there is one thing to consider - historically, American/Western-written Transformers fiction has gone down better with Japanese fans and the japanese public than any of the Japanese-written Transformer fictions. This might be why Takara is gradually incorporating the US fictions and concepts into it's own continuities. US 'Ultra fans' who wanted Bay's head are merely people who take Transformers (or just G1) way too seriously.

I don't believe these are meant for the christmas season at all, given they're 'collector' versions. Hasbro was surprised (and pleased) by the enormous sucess of the Movie line, so they're extending it as the main line until June or July, which is why Animated was put back a few months, apparently. Judging by past 'Premium' figures such as the already released Robo-Vision Prime, Best Buy Ratchet and Megatron, these will have lots of paint, in contrast to 99% of Transformers. They're all meant to look more accurate in deco with the CGI models. - Barricade has more of his police and emergency tampographs, small paint detail changes here and there. It's quite possible they painted his car parts black for contrast. - Ironhide has silver on his rims, smokestacks, Road Armor bumper, roof and door handles along with what looks like a faint Autobot symbol tampograph on the hood (probably to compensate for the fact you can barely see the molded one on the tailgate). In robot mode his paint, as David pointed out, are of a higher contrast, while his arm cannons are now molded out of more than one colour of plastic, and painted. - Jazz: They appear to have cast some (all?) of his formerly silver parts black, then painted them silver, then used alot more paint for details. Too bad he still has the wrong gun. - Starscream: Actually in Raptor colours now, with Langley markings on his vertical stabilizers. Robot mode details are based on the CG model, such as small details like the red circuitry in his arms. - Megatron is (hopefully) painted silver with lots of gold and black detailing. - Optimus Prime has a new headsculpt and the flip-out gun has been replaced by the sword he used to kill Bonecrusher. Looks like silver paint is used on all of his formerly grey parts. (Not pictured) - Blackout will look similar to the Japanese Blackout Ver. 4500X released with the DVD at Lawson stores this month. Basically in correct Pave Low hull colours (or so it seems) with more accurate robot mode paint, 4500X markings and the Scorponok accessory is painted up to match his larger version. So, quite alot of changes.

DS9FX's requirements don't really have much to do with other mods, just modules and small files that makes it work, all listed with links on DS9FX's download page. NanoFX2 is a recommended suggestion, but the mod can detect if NanoFX is installed or not, and adjusts the installation accordingly. The Bridge Plugin, Ambassador, Soveriegn ect are just suggestions of mine. You don't need them if you don't want them and DS9FX works fine with or without them. Here's a tip - create a copy of the entire Scripts folder each time you confirm mods work without conflicts. All problems are caused in the scripts folder, so you can just restore the scripts from your last backup while you hunt down the problem.

Yeah, I was there all the time back in Armada's heyday. As I said, I was a 2D 'artist' on the MP1&2 with my friend TheFOrce, who was the real talent behind the partnership. These days I've only stayed in contact with P81 and another modding friend - everybody else dropped off the face of the Earth, it seems. I suggest starting with a clean slate. Stock game > install patch. Then go to DS9FX and download all the stuff it needs and suggest (they will tell you to get NanoFX 2.0). Install all of that. Install the Bridge plugin and it's associated bridge sets. I don't believe the Defiant bridge is a plugin set, but it works without problems. I think the Excaliber set has problems, though. I then suggest getting the TNG Ambassador pack by LC Amaral and CG's Soveriegn pack (whichever version is the newest). Very good models, though you may have to adjust the hardpoint files because they're overpowered compared to the stats of the DS9FX ships. Bridge Commander looks really beautiful with NanoFX and minor texture changes added in (like new high res background stars and a new warp flash).

It's probably more to do with cost-effectiveness. It's cheaper for Starfleet to run perfectly good (for their job) older ships if they aren't obselete yet. As the captain of the USS Hood noted, he was stuck running errands between starbases while the 'Galaxy boys' were off to the frontier. Of course, the Hood's captain is famous and the his ship has the distinction of being the first Starfleet ship (other than the Enterprise D) to appear onscreen in TNG, and has survived various fleet actions led by the Defiant during the Dominion War. Otherwise the Dominion War shows us the Miranda and the Excelsiors have a high attrition rate, suggesting they aren't that great at combat. Remember how the Sitek and the Majestic were taken out while escorting the Defiant? I'd also imagine Starfleet has never been comfortable with building up new combat-ready ships such as the Akira, which is why the backbone of their fleet are still 100 year old designs. That and crews love their old ships.

Because it's the consistent canon depiction of a Galaxy class, unfortunately. Why not? It's not like Starfleet was short of warp cores (if anything, the Federation is only limited by manpower and the time it takes to build their fleets.), and the point of the Defiant was fire power and survivability at the expense of everything else, and presumably, to run the advanced, overpowered weapons they needed a powerful warp core to generate the power required. Yeah, the Defiant project was mothballed when the Borg ceased to be a serious threat, but was restarted with the subsequent threat of the Dominion and the war with the Klingons. Same here, though I was a texturer and GUI guy on the Millennium Project 2. Wow, that went nowhere. Wonder whatever happened to Deemon. DS9FX has VERY NICE models of the Galaxy and Nebula (I recommend getting the Soverign by the same modder), Defiant, the Excelsior, Miranda, Akira, Runabouts, Vor'Cha, Negh'Var, Warbird, Jem'Hadar bug fighter and the Dominion battlecruiser. Also features the Lakota and B'rel (and probably other stuff) by my buddy Pneumonic81, one of the more famous Armada modders who now works on the Star Wars Galaxies team. I also recommend getting all the Bridge plugin bridge sets, especially the simply superb remap and minor remodel of the Soveriegn set. The Soveriegn bridge is really nice in its duality of being stylish, yet all-business.

Save your money and get a GOOD speaker set now. Then if you still want Convoy, get the properly coloured version next year.

The Enterprise D was taken out by a B'rel class destroyer (a frigate by Federation standards). Even with shields not working you'd expect the flagship to take more punishment than that. It's kind of TNG syndrome - any damage WHATSOEVER to the ship results in a warp core breach. The Defiant has a compact Class VII warp drive was extremely powerful for it's size, and as such, the Defiant's warp signature equivalent to much larger starships. As this was consistant throughout DS9, we can take this to mean the Defiant's warp drive (warp core and engine systems) were equivalent in sheer power generation to larger cruisers. Add that to the fact pulse phaser cannons are more powerful than standard collimated phaser arrays and that the Defiant has absolutely no other systems other than what is required for combat, there's your reason why the Defiant is so powerful. That said, the Defiant is not invincible, has has serious flaws, such as it's slow maximum warp speed (9.5 versus an average of 9.7 in most ships of that era); most of it's weapons are concentrated on a forward arc, meaning it has a hard time dealing with enemies who approach from other angles, particularly the rear. What I don't like about the Galaxy was it's opulence, a luxury cruise liner with interiors like an overlit hotel designed to host the Alien With Funny Forehead of the Week. The Odyssey offloaded civilians and non-essential personnel before she went into the wormhole. I love Bridge Commander, and yes it is complicated to install mods if one isn't a modder or tinkerer themselves. One dodgy file (especially one used globally by the game) can cause the dread Black screen of death. I highly recommend that you install NanoFX for fancy effects and DS9 FX, which mods most of the classes to DS9-era specifications and adds quick battle missions, such as the death of the Odyssey. In Voyager's 'Relativity', during the Utopia Planitia scene, at least 3 Galaxy class ships were under construction, and at least 5 defended Earth in the last episode of Voyager. The Venture later appeared in Season 6 of DS9 without the 'All Good Things' phaser banks as they based the new CG model on the original ILM Galaxy class model. It participated in the Big Fleet Battle to retake DS9 and was one of the surviving Galaxys that took the Chin'toka system at the end of season 6. The prototype USS Galaxy was the Galaxy class that was hit very hard by the cardi orbital weapons platforms, but survived. It was later assigned to the battle group that was supposed to escort the Enterprise out of Romulan space in 'Nemesis'. According to Memory Alpha, only six Galaxy class ships were named. Also, the USS Challenger appeared as one of Voyager's escorts in 'Endgame'. Though this is probably because of the reused CGI model, this means the Challenger exists in the 'normal' universe. The Miranda and Excelsior are still largely the workhorses of Starfleet, being the most numerous ships they have. In the Dominion War they're cannon fodder.

Same here - the Soveriegn and the Defiant are part of what I call Starfleet behaving logically, in concentrating on defense issues in an increasingly dangerous universe that largely does not share the same values as the Federation. Never a fan of the Galaxy - it's kind of fat looking, front heavy. In terms of specifications, it's slow at impulse, has relatively poor armaments (only two torpedo launchers?) and it isn't very durable judging by how easily such a ship is taken out in several episodes. I'd imagine it's size makes it quite costly, too. My favourite Trek ship of all is the Defiant - don't mess with the Defiant

I picked up Landmine for a friend, so I didn't open it. But he's very accurate in vehicle mode. I thought the cryo-freezing tanks in the back were from the vehicle's concept art, but no, there they are on the prop vehicles in the movie. I'd like to see them do a Mission City or Hoover Dam Screen Battles set with Lennox, Eps in the seats and that big soldier manning the auto grenade launcher. Just to make sure - they've only been sighted in Australia so far, so they probably won't be out in North America until December.

I found the AllSpark Power deluxe class toys today: Cliffjumper (Bumblebee repaint), Camshaft (Swindle repaint) and Landmine (Sector Seven buggy). Hasbro says they're supposed to be out early 2008. Might be quite awhile. Primus and Unicron were the centerpiece toys of their respective lines, so they'll probably wait until some future toyline has a story where Unicron is once against being a prick who needs to be put down.

Thank's man. IIRC, they shot the Raptor scenes at Edwards, didn't they? Bay said one of his location directors wasn't allowed near the thing because he wasn't an American.

If you're not going to be helpful, then you shouldn't reply at all.

Guys, I need support here - in the thread for Deep Space Starscream, the apparently movie-accurate repaint of Starscream, I have folks disputing the toy's accuracy because 'Starscream is tan', because the original release of the toy was tan and he looked that way in the movie. One guy is also claiming the Raptor is 'tannish grey'. Apparently they don't notice that every appearance of Starscream in the movie has him framed against sunset (sunset being Michael Bay's film making cliche), so Starscream, the other Transformers and the other Raptors are bathed in a golden light.

hahahaahah! Love the cotton 'smoke', though I have a phobia about cotton *runs*

Anybody see Hasbro's accurate (or as close as Hasbro can get) repaint of Movie Starscream? Well, it's a store exclusive of a fairly expensive toy, so yeah, it's not 'limited edition' in the strictest sense, but it's not going to hang around forever, especially with the organized scalpers in the US and Walmart's lack of caring.

It's possible. Usually if Hasbro or Takara updates a tooling for whatever reason, then both companies will proceed to use the latest version of that tooling. Hence those RID retools of the Car Robots toys being used by Takara for their release of CR in South Korea. Because (at least in Japan's nerd circles) he's some famous mecha designer? Remember how much Takara absolutely FLOGGED his involvement with THS-02 and MP-03 designs? THS-02 compromised way too much of the truck, though the toy design suffers from scale. If it were the size of most other Prime toys, he'd look better in both modes.

When will the F-35 actually be delivered to any of it's customers?

Like I said, Hasbro likely changed the colour of some parts somewhere that Takara originally didn't intend to make in another colour, and the tradeoff was that the hinges became black as they were part of the same sprue. If the hinges weren't part of another sprue unrelated to the wings, then why aren't the wings black or some other large section black? It is unlikely that the hinges would have a single sprue dedicated to themselves, so its far more likely that they were part of a sprue that has now been made entirely black. I'd prefer he keep away from Transformers. Remember that he sacrificed the robot for the plane. One of the problems is that he was involved with the development of Diaclone, back when the G1 toys were just human-piloted mecha. These days it takes more than designing a good looking robot to make a Transformer, because you have to take personality and characterisation of the living robot into account, which is what Hasbro and Takara usually do.