Twoducks

… You do know that there is a pretty big chance of the kibble being removable, right? I mean, there hasn’t been a single pic of the gimmicks the original design boasted on paper (smirk face, crown, opening nose, engine detail) and people aren’t going “they lied, if this doesn’t have gimmicks it isn’t a MP!!!â€. Why not wait a few days and see what he August magazines have?

Nope I like him too! I've been waiting nearly 20 years for this, I could give a shi* less how ung1 the transformation is, all that matters to me is that... its an F-15 robot mode definitely based on the g1 design fully articulated! Everything else bla, to me its AWESOME! 415073[/snapback] I agree with both of you. 415130[/snapback] Ditto

bear in mind those toys were designed in 94 and released in 95. The funny thing was, all through armada and energon, most of us kept battyING for beast wars quality in our new toys! That didn't happen till cybertron. Beast wars was one of the only lines to have FULL ARTICULATION in each and every figure. Almost all the first wave figures back then had a mutant head and a robot head. It was to play on the fact that they were beasts. The ultra sized Optimus Primal had a bat head; the real reasoning behind this is because the toy initially was to be a tripple changer... gorilla-bat-robot To my knowledge the beast head was called a "mutant mask" back then they were awesome and to me they still are. They are godsends comparing to some of the atrocities we got in armada and energon. and car robots/RID was a prominently vehicle alt mode based line with beast wars level articulation. 411919[/snapback] The "mutant masks" where supposed to be in the original BW series but due to the low budget they weren’t implemented. Don't remember where I read this though. I was thinking it looked like, one of those lego robots... what's that series called? 412015[/snapback] Bionicle. Don't know how kids can like those things over the rest of the Lego stuff (must be that today’s kids have less imagination). Well, for one thing, if that thing turns into a normal looking car that has space for people to ride in we can expect really complex transformations (probably the only thing that will interest me about the movie). Anybody know if the movie transformers will use laser weapons? If that thing in the pic is really one of them, he sure looks fragile (as the Starscream design sketch). Just too many exposed areas to defend you against laser shots.

But those were supposed to be new takes on the old characters. This was supposed to be a perfect version of the old character. It wasn't supposed to heavily influenced by the artist/designer. If anyone doesn't believe that it was supposed to be G1 Starscream, then just look at the first prototype compared to Starscream in his G1 days and they are pretty close. Their was enough "stlye" in the first prototype w/out making it not look like G1 Starscream. Now it looks like like the illegitimate love child of Starscream and the YF-19! (With those scrawny legs and hip kibble) No version of a G1 Starscream toy homage I can remember has ever had gigantic hip kibble. 411433[/snapback] If you want something that really looks like he cartoon, look at this old thing: He even has some of the gimmicks MP Starscream is supposed to have: http://www.bwtf.com/pvc/scf/starscream/ No tail fins and blocky as hell (just like the cartoon character) but it doesn't turn into a plane. Considering how blocky Starscream is, the plane would look like crap. Lets not forget that blocky Optimus turns into a blocky truck, something that I'm sure helped make the design of the MP Prime easier.

*cough* It's a whole, wide world out there, and one's personal beliefs, or the beliefs of the society they live in, aren't necessarily applicable to people in other cultures. The three articles above were written from, what appears to be the US's cultural viewpoint and biases. A lot of the comments that followed, are also from the US's culture point of view. Is the US's culture the ultimate culture? No. Yes, there are good points to it, but there are bad points to it as well (the articles above highlighted some of them.) The same is true of all cultures on Earth - they have both good and bad points, and none of them are better than the others. They are all equal. Different, and equal. Is Japan a sexist country? Perhaps from your point of view. In Japan, a paternalistic country, the issue isn't viewed in those terms at all. In fact, the only way to truly inform you on how the Japanese view the issue, amongst other things, is "put yourself in their shoes." In other words, a culture can only be judged on its own terms, not the terms of another culture that holds different beliefs. I think the points to keep in mind is that anime is by and large entertainment. It is entertainment aimed at different subgroups and ages. These subgroups and ages all have different wants, needs, and escapism needs. Also, it is unwise to view anime by only the few releases that make it overseas - the ones released are already scewed towards whatever the companies releasing them feels their target demographic will purchase. There may also be mistakes inadvertently introduced due to mistakes in translation, or inability to accurately translate the finer nuances of the language used in anime. Not to mention that a lack of understanding of Japanese culture in general will bring about different interpretations of small things - things that may be a non-issue to the Japanese. (For example: nudity. Japanese have a totally different point of view on nudity. Up until a few years ago, and still in the majority of main stream media, below the belt nudity, of both genders is, against the law.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudity 411130[/snapback] Sorry if you were offended but I did say “IN SOME WAYSâ€. And please, please tell me a country that isn’t sexist in some way. Far as I know northern European countries are the ones that have a better rate of males and females in high responsibility jobs but they are far from being the Promised Land. What are Japans rates? I’ve been exposed to a fair bit of Japanese popular culture and the everyday culture. - I see businessman after businessman discussing business over sake. Would a businesswoman doing that be looked the same way? If not, then I’m sorry but you have sexism in a way. - Why do I see a lot of jokes about how bad it is for a woman to not be married when she is 20something years old? I’m sorry but picking on a female more than a male because she isn’t married is also a way of sexism. - Why do females act more humbly than males? I’m sorry but if it’s culturally incorrect for females to not act as humbly as males then you have another sexist conduct. - Why have I seen female Japanese women complaint about sexism more than a couple of times? Looks like people from that foreign culture do view thing is “those termsâ€. I can put myself in a lot of shoes but that doesn’t mean behaviour patterns that help make a sex be below another are good. Doing something for a long time (cultural traditions) doesn’t mean its right or wrong, it just means its being done for a long time. We aren’t talking about sitting in the ground, eating raw fish, being polite, accepting a specific kind of nudity or other idiosyncratic cultural things here. Cultures change (and have changed), if not almost all of us would be lowly peasants, slaves or worst. And you are confusing things. I don’t care about what the US says, if anything I care about what the Declaration of Human Rights says. Is it wrong to want to be equal to the other sex? If it is wrong, in what way does it help the whole of society to behave in a sexist manner? Positive discrimination is supposed to make society evolve quicker, but we aren’t talking about that here, right? When women are given the opportunity to have the same rights they sure like it (that must mean they don’t like to not be able to do things men do freely). So like it or not Japan is a sexist country IN SOME WAYS (like the rest of the world).

A feminist is a person that wants both males and females to have the same rights and opportunities. Feminist aren’t there to destroy males or to castrate you; if they are, they aren’t feminist, they are sexist. You also don’t need to be a woman to be a feminist. I want women to have the same opportunities that we have therefore I’m a feminist. The fact is that life is more difficult if you are a female in many more ways that if you are a male. Would you want your daughters to be treated as things? And yes, they might batty a lot, but we are in the year 2006 and they still are discriminated because of their sex. Wouldn’t you be pissed? If they have gotten anything is thanks to the ones that have battyed before. Sometimes females are granted help that males don’t get. That is positive discrimination and it’s done to make society evolve (something needed due to how hard old stereotypes are to kill and how wide spread they are). Culture can also make a society evolve but culture also helps to maintain old sexist stereotypes (just look how women are portrayed in older movies). If a girl sees constantly that the normal thing for here is to think about love and only dream about getting married then she has a good change to reproduce that kind of conduct. So yes, I don’t find it bad that some people batty to have shows that have females with more active roles. PC doesn’t mean feminist either, remember that some values that some feminist might like to push can go against PC (they aren’t the same thing). I’ve seen sexist anime, politically correct anime and anime that has good female roll models (that aren’t love obsessed girls bent on cooking for their loved one). There is a lot to choose from, but a lot of the mainstream stuff does tent to have weak female characters or old sexist stereotypes present. Females are attracted a lot to love and fantasy manga/anime. The love interest can be seen as a result of education and social stereotypes for women but the interest in fantasy is interesting. Females in Japanese made fantasy have more active rolls and are in situations that make real world stereotypes hard to apply. Yes, there can still be found the princes in distress here and there, but in anime they aren’t very common. So if offered, women can like things other than hearts and strawberries. Having stuff that promotes values that aren’t the same old sexist ones can’t be bad. And if they help make society more equal I don’t see a problem. From what I know, Japan is still a sexist country in some ways so there is still room for change.

Great news!

So we have interchangeable feet and the head opens up like in the OVA... nice! And the way they hide the tail fins on the upper body part is great, almost though you had to take them of.

More Starscream http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showpost.php...5&postcount=252 I can't wait to get mine!! *I feel sorry for you kibble haters ... look at the intakes, they now sport "kibble".

Heh, yea. It was pretty ugly how we went out, oh well. On a side note, I'm kind of surprised football isn't as popular here in the States as it is with the rest of the world! Oh well though, I'm enjoying these games! 410877[/snapback] I envy that about the US. You are lucky to live in a country that isn't obsessed with JUST ONE FREAKING sport all year. I would enjoy seeing a good game now and then but here in Spain it’s like the world stops (the sports section in the news could just be called "soccer" because that is all they talk about). Everywhere you look they are stuffing soccer down your throat (and with the WC, even more). I just get sick.

ARGH!!! 410667[/snapback] The funniest thing is how everyone gets worked up over a piece of plastic that will be removable. Guess the battying won't stop until pics of that easily removable looking part is attached somewhere else. I made peace with the "pedestal neck" a long time before the new sculpt (and I was one of the first to complaint about it) because that toy looked kickass and now it looks even better (I’m really happy I pre-ordered). And if you want something that is more cartoon incorrect than some pieces of plastic you can take off, look at his chest/neck/head. MP Prime didn’t have that neck and neither did the cartoon Starscream.

Have faith in common sense people. Making those parts removable is just plain freaking easy plus it gives them a new feature to rant about. When we see pics of the kibble in the legs and completely detached everyone will be saying how useful and customisable the gimmick is.

I also believe the "so they can be moved to the waist" line could pretty well mean that you can chose were you place the kibble: legs or hips. I mean, it's pretty easy to make those parts removable, so why wouldn’t they? It would mean just another cool gimmick. The leg design wouldn't suffer in any way, the kibble would even blend more with the leg since the new version is more rounded. Just look how well it looks in plane mode and now compare it to the old version: The kibble looks like its part of the leg as opposed to the older version where it looked like it was a different piece. But even if they don't do it removable, kitbashing it doesn't look too hard. I mean you could just cut it from the hips, trim whatever connected it there and glue it to the legs They might even do removable some of the extra bulk in the arms. Hope someone translates the full text soon. But anyways, I like Starscream better this way.

They sure listen to Kawamori; those are pretty big changes made. But Kawamori-san, why didn’t you batty about the pedestal neck!!... Damn your plain fetish

MP Starscream is nice but that Gunbuster looks kick ass! My wallet was already very thin and now this plus the YF-19…

Thanks for the link! Wow, they sure changed the design. New parts have been added plus the hip and lower legs are new! Now the transformations leaves the tailfins attached to the hips instead of the feet... radically new transformation but I like it! The underbelly of the plane mode looks way better now, everything is more tucked in thanks to the new leg design. The sides also look more rounded, look at the new parts added to the sides of the arms.

Will Yamato do the new M+ line AND continue the Macross Zero one or does this mean that the VF-0A will be the last MZero valk for a loooong time? The idea of a VF-0D has taken a back seat? Well, Yamato sure is going valk crazy

oooh, event horizon has got to be one of my all time favorite horror flicks... just well done all around. 409795[/snapback] Yep, that movie was a great ride. All that scary stuff in the middle of space created the perfect mood.

Gunbuster is better but A-ko gives you so many great laughs that it deserves attention. It’s a very well crafted fun story that contains spoofs of a lot of the sci-fi and anime clichés of the time. The animation is good old classic greatness (just seeing A-ko's sprinting at top speed in the school to save C-ko is worth it). If you haven't seen it at least give the first OVA a look Forgot to say that to satisfy my crave for serious, incredible epic scale intergalactic conflicts with lots and lots of well developed characters with a touch of military tactics, the League of the Galactic Heroes is the anime I turn to. I'll give Firefly a try in the near future and set the radar for this The Fountain then.

The most recent Sci-fi movie I can remeber that made me go "Wow, this IS good" is Dark City. Right now I can't think of any other good recent sci-stuf like DC. There are sci-fi things that take place entirely on Eart like A.I. and Minority Report that where nice pop-corn films, just not especial. Now Gattaca was good. I bet Gattaca and Dark City didn’t make much. In a more space ships and aliens kind of sci-fi I must say I'm also really bored. Films either have really flat characters and brainless plots or are knock offs of older stuff. But I did have a really good time watching Pitch Black, heck my girlfriend even enjoyed it (and she hates sci-fi). A very decent and simple Alien substitute. The only sci-fi I like right now is in written form or old anime shows. Thank goodness for anime stuff like the original Gunbuster and Project A-ko or writers like Asimov. Serenity I just couldn't get into. I felt like I was missing information; I didn't care for the characters one bit yet the movie looked like it was expecting me to cry or root whenever something happened to them (must be that you need the TV series to appreciate it). It dose feel like a big budged TV movie. The 40 minutes that I saw could have easily taken place in a D&D fantasy setting full of magic instead of technology and far of kingdoms instead of planets and colonies. But a lot of people here like the movie so there must be something good there or at least in Firefly. How many episodes does the series have? Guess I like my sci-fi to really drink from the reality it takes place on.

I'm sure old Saint Seiya fans will get a kick out of this:

Screw the movie, I want them to make a series based on this! Go Saint Prime

Thanks for the link! Was that Roy giving out orders at one point to a bunch of big name Gundams ? Graham will like that. I guess even Amuro knows who the boss is when Skull Leader is around. Too bad they don't show a big ass fleet battle, just super attacks. You just can't beat the real DYRL? ending.

Wow! More, more!

They are pop culture comedy gems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Chicken I just love the ending because I used to do that kind of stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3FanSFBEkk...0chicken%20lego And the first parts on this one are great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKL-4F5pKPg...chicken%20bible