joke-machine

I used to work in the plastics industry, so I can say for sure that its plain and simply the cost of making the item is WAY too prohibitive any other way. The plastic the toys use is called polystyrene. Polystyrene needs a special machine, called an injection molder, to force it into a special built metal mold. A small injection molder can be found used for, oh say a couple of thousand dollars. Add on to that the hundreds of dollars needed to have a mold machined and well you get the picture. This is why so many toy companies are not willing to make toys that won't have a decent selling run. Just to produce one single toy a company may have already spent several thousand or more dollars in design, research and mold creation. Resin, which is the casters poision of choice, on the other hand requires no special expensive tools. Recasters can use silicone rubber to make their own molds, and they don't have to have an expensive machine like the injection molder to cast the parts into the mold.

Bandai 1/55: Four (Roy, Hikaru 1A, HIkaru 1J, Cannon Fodder) Bandai 1/65: Two (Vf-17, Vf-19) Bandai Super Deformed: Five (Hikaru 1A, Roy, Max, Millia, Max 1A) Joons 1/55: One (Millia) Takatoku 1/55: One (Strike) Yamotos of any size: ZERO!

I am really surprised you didn't catch this info over at TFW2005, Bobe-Patt. Well anyways, its not wave three. It a special set assortment. So far its supposed to have several pieces from old waves (Starscream, Soundwave, Anime Prime, Jazz, Megatron) and one new one (Hot Rod). The chases are supposed to be Primes trailer, and Thundercracker. Its great news for WST colectors, finally a chance to own a Jazz that isn't going for huge amounts. PLus if you missed on some of the more popular earlier releases (Soundwave, Starscream) its another chance to get it cheap. Heres the link to the article itself on TFW2005- WST Special Edition Assortment

One of the only faults I have with the chunky monkeys. They must have loaded those springs with industrial strength, ex-military grade truck springs. Or so it seems like that every time I flip mine out. I can't ell you the number of times I got a solid thwack on my finger opening a landing gear on one of my chunky monkeys. It friggin hurts!

Unless you have some wierd varient unbeknownst to anyone yet in the Transformers or Macross world, your Jetfire has a plastic nose.

From what you say I think they are same person. Come on which guy likes pink only if he`s a ... you know what I mean. I bet in that indeed RC is a girl ! Guess...guess...guess.... OHH I know this one (waves his hand furiously at the teacher) I remember your old thread RC where you posted your personal picture, which stared whole load of interesting conversations. Why does it seem your threads allways seem to be linked to some form of controversy RC? BTW What happened to the Hello Kitty decals (or were those just potoshopped onto it before)? Seriously though, its good to see you back. Gives some fresh perspectives on an otherwise narrowly focused environment.

Its the Hello Kitty valk! That sure brings back memories Got any more pics of her in battroid? I second the notion that Graham should post this up in the customs. How many other customs have had nearly as much notoriety as the famous Hello Kitty valk. The only other I could think of would be that nazi valk a while back. Speaking of, anyone remeber who did that, was that a Rick The Hunter custom?

Yeah I can voutch for Celga as well. I have used them for a number of years and always have had great service, good turnaround with emails, and pretty quick shipping. They are pretty much the cheapest currently of the Yahoo Japan bidding services. But even with their cheaper prices its still pretty expensive to buy things from Yahoo Japan. But its worth it in the long run, as you can find some things over there that doesn't appear very frequently, or never, in the US. An example of the fees, I won an auction through them for A Transformers Beast Wars God Neptune figure, complete but loose for under $14 (1400 Yen). By the time it gets to me that $14 will have grown to around $40 But its worth it, as the figure shows up very infrequently on Ebay or anywhere else for that matter.

Is Rob doing his service again? As far as I knew it was a bust becuase of someone who will not be named here *Cough-Arafat-Cough* screwing him real bad with some auctions.

Yep XS toys has it right. As for the rarity of them, the Matchbox versions are much easier to find over here in the US. The Japanese boxed ones are harder to find and command a slightly higher price because of it. The Japanese boxed VF-1A's are the hardest to find of all of them, they will show up from time to time on EBay, but not with any real sense of regularity. You are better trying to find a VF-1S or VF-1J and using a recasted 1A head on it. Better yet, you might want to contact member Rohby, he sells resin recasts of a complete Joke MAchine which I am pretty sure includes a 1A head.

My son is almost six, and has a pretty large collection of robot toys himself (mostly transformers) I have quite a few higher value toys I don't want him to play with, so what I do is 1: I keep all my top dollar toys on high shelves. Out of sight, out of reach, out of mind. 2: Have a serious discussion with him about the toys he can and can't play with. So far he has done very well not playing with my "special" toys as we call them. It also helps that I do let him play with the non-special ones (basically the ones I couldn't give a flying crap about, or the ones I know are so well built he most likely won't break them). By letting him play with some, but designating the others as "special" it keeps him from playing with the ones I really don't want him to play with. He still feels like he gets to play with my collection, he just doesn't realize its only a narrowly focused group of the whole.

70.5% pure, so 29.5% corrupted.

Very nice! I will have to get one to go with my special coating 1/24 Scopedog and my 1/60 Scopedog! Anyone know what the price is going to be?

I think it's a head skewered with a hobby knife. Oh yeah, I can see the whole prgressive knife thing. Maybe its the head of a unit 5? I didn't even notice that, I think thats the Lance on Longinus (Sp?) Look at it a little more closely, you can see the split of the shaft right before it is "entering" the tiny Lillith figure. Now I want hese even more than ever.

OMG those are just sooo cute. I really, really want these now! And a pretty decent bargain at less than $10 for the pair. wolfx- did you notice Rei is carrying what looks like a tiny Lillith handbag I think that was what sealed the deal with me more than anything. I can't tell what Auska is supposed to be holding though

Well I can see it both ways. 1. To be a "true" completist you need to have one each of all varients, so yes you should get the extra one. Being a completist isn't cheap. Theres a guy over at TFW2005 that has literally hundreds of MIB Optimus Primes (Elvin Prime). :blink: He has the Spanish box, the Milton Bradley box, the Hasbo box, the Pepsi Prime,etc ......... He is a true completionist. That and I have to imagine he is filthy stinking rich 2. On the other side, you aren't really getting anything different, just a fixed varient. Save the cash and forget the dreams of true completionism (did I just make that word up?) Personally, if you got the scrap ($) and want to go for the completionist idea for 1/48, I say go for it! If you ever get tired of being a completionist later you could always sell off the "extra" varients from your collection.

Do you have link to a site where I can buy some of those on? HI-- There are several bigger Transformer Boards where you will find lots of people selling the wave two sets right now (seems like everyone just got them in stock) Usual price is $5-6 per piece for regulars. Try TFW2005.com, and Allspark.com I know for sure they both have severall sellers each on them.

Well it doesn't have a whole lot of comedy (in fact almost none) but the series Then and Now, Here and There is fantastic. Very dark, plot driven, character developed series. Just don't watch it if you are in a depressed mood (seriously dark anime).

That name brings back memories, What ever did happen to bankofkev?

So many toys I have fantasized about in my life, so little cash 1. 25+ foot Sailboat, to take out on extended ocean criuses. 2. 65' Ford Fairlane convertable 3. Bandai 1/55 Super O 4. Bandai 1/55 Elintseeker 5. Bandai 1/55 Strike 6. Predaking (I'm actually pretty close to him) 7. Gundam Fix Deep Striker 8. BW King Posideon 9. Gundam MSIA Dendrobium 10. Devastator Giftset

Man was that funny. I really liked the one with the car thief.

OHHH- I am soo down for a set of that beautiful armor. I sincerely hope you are planning to recast the Super O set when its done as well (please, please, please, please).

Funny true story, this actually happened to me and a friend of mine. W were trying to get his POS Cavalier fixed in my drieway (very loose/damaged electrical contact point) and left the car running for a second while he called his mom since we were afraid that once it stopped it would never start again without serious repair work. In the literally one minute we were inside someone jumped in the car, and took off with it. the cops found the car less than 5 miles away, broke down and non-operational

I nominate the classic, Minmay song Robotech: To be in love- AHHHH.... stop throwing stones, it was a joke. A joke I tell you.

Haven't seen the directors cut, so can't speak to that. But on the movies... Don't bother with the Re-Birth movie. Its just a recap of the series, and the first twenty minutes of the End of Evangelion movie. Not worth its price in my opinion. but you must DEFINTELY get the End of Evangelion movie. It is a much easier to understand conclusion to the series than the last two episodes on the discs. That and you get to see the Unit Five EVA's which just plain kick ass. I won't spoil anything for you but Auska's battle in that movie is hands down the best combat scene from the whole Eva series. Its worth it to see that alone.