Mog

One or the other: Too much love and work put into both of these babies.

So, I finally snagged a single Vintage carded Magnaguard tonight.* Yeah. . . Moggy likey!! Absolutely loving the ball-jointed hips and getting a kick out of posing this figure. Kinda wish either the ankles or the knees were ball-hinged (like most of the humanoid SW figures). It would have really opened up a few more posing options. But overall, it's definitely an awesome figure. I'll probably either wet or iron the curly-ness out of the cape, and I'm thinking of painting the hood wrap a slight beige to better match the rest of the cape. Yup, these are definitely an improvement over the old Magnaguards back when Revenge of the Sith first came out! * If anyone's in the South Bay, I found the entire ROTS wave there but left the rest of the wave for anyone else to pick up (Yes, that means I left Sidious/Palpatine, Grievous, Cody, and the rest for anyone else to get). There was also a Jabba's throne there too. PM me if you need more details.

The Hawk's okay; it was functional and served its purpose in the game. But it's pretty obvious they were doing an homage to the Millenium Falcon. The Hawk isn't anything to write home about.

Sorry, Scream, but there already is one: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=33239&st=0

Still pictures just don't do this "tough little ship" justice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50d18pM4Rec&feature=related Simply put, the most kick-ass, tough-as-nails ship ever in all of Starfleet.

Saw a few at Walmart yesterday. But no Magnaguards or Grievous. Mostly, just Anakins, Obi's, and Clones. Someone probably got the prime ones in the morning or on Saturday.

Please tell me you snapped a pic of that table before the guests got to it! That was an awesome idea!!

The one thing I still love about the original 1978 BSG Vipers was the simplicity of the control-buttons on their flight-stick: FIRE, TURBO, and REVERSE. Why is it so hard to find a pic of that control-stick online?!

So, I did a little more digging and found the name of that song/beat by George Strompolos. It's called "With the Punches." (Link to Song) HOWEVER, I think the guy sampled the beat from another song for the following reasons: The song I heard on the radio did NOT have that secondary hook from the 42 seconds to 1:10 mark (the one that sounds like a "time is running out on your video game, hurry up and complete the stage!" theme). The song I heard on the radio also had this blaring trumpets/brass part that counter-pointed beautifully with the rest of that first guitar/bass/drums beat. Although it was primarily an instrumental song (ala "Pick Up the Pieces"), the song also had what sounded like kids screaming or shouting something in unison (like they were out on a playground or something). Like I said, I have a feeling finding the name and title of the original song is gonna be a long-shot.

Okay, this is probably a MASSIVE long-shot, but does anyone know the artist and song title of the hook at the very beginning of this video? I heard the actual instrumental song about a month ago on a local urban radio station (102.3 KJLH), and it also has a nice horns/brass section mixed in with the beat (not heard in the clip above).

Could have swore they were usually referred to as Vintage Original Trilogy Collection (VOTC), then Vintage The Saga Collection (VTSC), and that each wave wasn't movie-specific. Reference Link Reference #2 Reference #3 Personally, I prefer the one they included with the Resurgence of the Jedi battlepack. The face sculpt looks a lot better. Though, I'll grant that Hasbro was smart enough to re-use the legs from the Vintage Tatooine Luke. Does the 181st Squadron TIE Interceptor from a few years back count?

About the only thing I'd seriously consider Yamato or any Macross manufacturer to emulate is all the "gimmick" accessories that Takara seems to add to their MP bots. Cool little accessories like Meg's and Prime's energy melee weapons, the gun Megs uses to shoot Prime in the movie, the Matrix of Leadership, Grimlock's apron, etc. are cool little add-ons that don't take away much from the sculpt or articulation of the 'bots. In the same way, it'd be awesome if Yamato or Bandai could add a few more scene/episode-specific accessories with their normal releases, such as: * The baby pod Milia stores Komilia in; * The Zent' suit Max uses in the Great Escape; * Standing pilots (like the cool ones Exo made ); * That arm weapon the YF-19 fires off (Heck! Any additional armaments for the YF-19!!); * TV Hik' with Misa sitting in his lap (in that classic pose); * Pineapple Salad Roy . Again, just cool little add-ons that can be included with the mecha without compromising the perfect transformation or the articulation. That's really the only thing I'd remotely consider.

Their (generally) lower prices?

Man, I really wish Yamato had just included the FPs with the original YF-19, rather than selling them as a separate release. Those shoulder Fast Packs add some nice "oomph" to the 19's look.

Okay you're right about that. But did they ALSO have to give him that floppy emo hairdo and the Dancin' Saturday Night Spidey scenes (note the plural)?

Andromeda showed minor flashes of brilliance the first season or two. But the studio and Sorbo dumping Robert Hewitt Wolfe from his executive producer role really sent that series straight down the proverbial toilet. They might not necessarily be the WORST, but I still have a lot of bile towards Star Trek Voyager and Andromeda. It's the whole wasted potential issue. If a series is outright terrible, okay, it sucks and no one expects much out of it. But when a series has the potential to be something great and you simply piss that away, that's a downright frustrating shame.

It's the little things (like minor custom touches) that make life enjoyable!

The ball-jointed hips on the Bespin Luke are a little wonky to pose (Don't expect to pose him sitting in a chair all proper-like). But yeah, it's a pretty kick-ass, dead-on sculpt. I'm still amazed at how well Hasbro was able to hide the ankle joints on him. But can someone explain to me why they left the peg on the lit-up lightsaber? Also picked up the Hoth Leia at the same time (about a month ago). Not too shabby either. A mild warning though: if you're gonna pose her without the vest, she'll have a little bit of the "bubble butt syndrome" going on (not that there's anything wrong with that! ). Now, I'm just waiting for the Magnaguards to be released (I have a feeling they'll be impossible to find since they're gonna be packed 1 to a set, and everybody's probably gonna try to troop-build 'em or get at least two ).

I heard he's gonna base these initial Blu-rays off the old non-anamorphic copies. (or should that be a )

I've found my shopping list to be getting smaller and smaller over the past few years (must be due to having a wife and kid now ): Intending to Buy: * SW Bastila Shan - assuming the articulation is reasonably good and they use her actual video game appearance as a sculpt reference (including her maroon and pink get-up). Maybe Purchase: * SW Magna Guards - to replace the two ROTS ones (and their limited articulation) that I currently have on display. * GI Joe Low Light - would unbalance my main Joe display, but liked what I saw from the SDCC pics. If I had the Money (AND someone to build, customize, refine, and paint 'em): * 1/2000 Yamato DYRL SDF-1 * 1/60 Yamato Regult And I'm adding my own category: If They Ever Mass-Produce It, It Looks Good, and is Reasonably Priced, I'M ALL OVER IT!!: * SW Bespin Han; * SW KOTOR-era Sith Troopers; * 1/60 VF-17 Nightmare or 1/60 VF-171 Nightmare Plus; * 1/3000 TV-STYLE SDF-1 (because DAEDALUS ATTACK > ARMD Attack)

It's purty!! You weren't kidding about things getting out of hand with the surrounding city. Are you planning to add any other details to the Macross itself, like all those wires and cables that connected it to the city? Very nice work indeed!!

Regarding Renegades, the animation look/style will take some getting used to. Haven't really been following the news about this, but my understanding is that this is geared with a younger audience also in mind?

Great, Galen Marek is gonna get "disintegrated."

They never did find the Commander's body. . . The door's still open to continue the storyline.