Alpha OTS

Heh, they just started releasing the Ace of Aces DLC for the 360 version of Ace Combat, and at the piecemeal rate and obscenely priced way they're releasing it, it wouldn't surprise me if they postponed the ps3 version until they've squeezed every last red cent out of the 360 suckers, ahem, I mean, base first. It's really one of the worst DLC least bang for your buck pricing structures I think I've ever seen.

Wait, the Yocco's on 222? I live two blocks away from that! Oddly enough, I've never eaten there, even though people rave about the food. We're through the looking glass here, people.....

What's that have to do with the cost of tea in China? Re-read the email from Joel. It doesn't state anything about the price with certainty one way or the other. Wait, there's a Yocco's where you live? I thought that was a Lehigh Valley, PA thing.

Yes and no. I'm with jenius. The way that email reads, Joel has no idea what the price will be, and will inflate the pre-order price to prevent unnecessary preorder cancels until the final price is revealed. IIRC, he has done that before on other items: had a high pre-order price, and then dropped it once the final price was known. Since BBTS policy is to not charge your card until your item ships, they have a bit of leeway here, because who's going to complain that the price went down? $80 isn't an impossible price, imo, for previous reasons stated. But too good to be true for Toynami? Probably.

Bummer. $80 did seem too good to be true.

Are there peg holes on the bottoms of the MH feet? If there is, it'd be pretty easy to make a short "ski" of sorts for each foot.

How about some extendable heel spurs? That's something transformers use all the time to counter the tipping problems of a huge backpack. It wouldn't be accurate, but it'd certainly help with balance issues.

It's not obscene. I think it was $10 to have one shipped when I ordered my last one from there. It's heavy and the box is pretty big. That ebay auction is insane. There must be people out there unaware of the robotech.com store. Robotech.com has Rook, Lancer, and the Shadow Sue Graham all for $59.99 a piece. With news of the Beta, it wouldn't surprise me to see these dwindle too.

I thought the base was going to be a complete seperate piece and not be included with a Voltron.

Nope, has to be Captain Fanzone or I ain't buying.

Just finished watching the new Dinobot animated episode. Good stuff. I know I said I didn't really want any of the figures, but I would totally buy a Prowl if there were a Captain Fanzone aka "Cipowitz" figure to ride him. He's my favorite human character on the show, probably because I used to be a big NYPD Blue fan years ago.

Ok, this is bringing back a vague memory about the Scott MPC. Wasn't there two runs of this thing, and that accounts for the color differences that SaveRobotech mentioned?

My guess is the Shadow Chronicles might have entered into the decision somehow. Maybe sales of it were high enough that they think the interest's there to recoup the costs and still be profitable? Although there's probably much more to it than that. But it wouldn't surprise me too if a tiny part of the reason it's that much is that they lowered it to entice the people who felt cheated by the subpar QC of the earlier Alpha waves. It's a niche enough market as it is even with whoever the Shadow Chronicles pulled in, so they essentially need to be able to re-sell to the same people. Looking at the number of people in this thread that have said they pre-ordered already, $80 is definitely the magic number. I really hope they'll reissue the blue alpha with better qc. Although I'd probably even settle for one of those rumored first wave extras in that warehouse wherever waiting for the Beta release. With the news of the Beta coming, the already insane evilBay prices for a blue alpha are going to climb even more.

I've never cancelled a pre-order with them, so I don't know the policy there, but I do know that they are friendly and easy to deal with. That's part of the reason some of their stuff costs more than other online places do because they usually have better customer service than their competitors. If you've dealt with them long enough, you know where the extra money's going. They have a very good reputation on the forums I frequent. I've never had a problem with them, and sometimes I'll deal with them even if it costs a little more just because I know that not only will it get to me, but it'll get to me fast. I purchased my 1/5000 movie Macross from them for precisely that reason, rather than deal with the perils of importing/evilBay.

Nope, just the hands will.

I'm probably foolish for hoping, but I was wishing they'd re-release the Scott Alpha. Buying a blue Beta/Tread without owning one just doesn't feel right.

Judging by the posts and pics from people on this forum who have purchased them recently, they sound and look like they have worse QC than the Toynami's did. I was toying with picking up a blue one, but those posts put me off the idea.

Pre-order for the Toynami Tread at BBTS? Is this confirmation it is coming? http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product...amp;mode=retail Arrives 3rd quarter 2008 Toynami’s Masterpiece Collection continues with the long-awaited Beta Fighter! This fully transformable collectible converts from Fighter mode to Battloid mode, and attaches to the previously released Masterpiece Alpha Fighter to create an impressively large fighter craft! • Fully poseable • Transformable into three configurations, Fighter Mode, Battloid Mode and VTOL Mode • Sturdy die-cast and plastic construction • Trademark “book-style” packaging *****NOTE - Third picture shows Beta Fighter with Alpha Fighter - sold separately. Product Number: TOY10201 Shipping Weight: 5.60 pounds

I'd hold off on 360 Bully. Online reports seem to indicate that the game is bugged to all heck: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=249455

Looks like they extended the arms in bot mode instead of collapsing them. I wonder if the weapon can be stowed inside the dino mode. I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to Animated, but, again, it may not be my bag, but there's no denying that kids are going to love this. Plus, amazingly, they have good tv fiction to accompany it. I picked up a movie Ratchet over the weekend. It's the first I've seen one in a long long time, and it's the only movie figure I didn't own. Actually, it's rare to see a normal deco in-movie figure on the pegs. He's pretty nice. Like most movie figures, the transformation is refreshingly different. The auto-morphing mechanism isn't much of anything though; kneecaps fold out and the inner calves *barely* bulge outwards.

It hasn't seemed meanspirited to me though. Critical, and sometimes funny, yes, but that's what threads like these are for, imo, discussion. I've posted sparingly in this thread. I know my last "negative" contribution to this thread was based entirely on a new picture depicting something else new that irked me, as it was quite a few others in the ongoing conversation about the same pictures. If a new pic shows up showing the figure in yet another critical light, it's fair game to comment on it, and it's only natural that people will re-summarize what they like/dislike based on the new info (anonymous forum readers probably appreciate that). It'll probably be like that until people have them in hand and we've seen some dynamic and group pics so that all positives and negatives are finally settled. My .02.

Stopped by Best Buy today. This time instead of select titles, all HD-DVDs were on sale for 30% off. The selection seems to be smaller than last I was there. I'd wager by the time it gets to 50%+, like some of us are waiting for, most of the good stuff will already be gone.

I don't have any comic stripish pics, but I do have this one that I've always liked: And that stop motion link is very impressive. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of time that took.

They fixed the plastic display stand cups in the second wave with the VF1Js, but I can't help but think about how well that cup will support the additional weight of the fast packs.

http://xkcd.com/393/