Major Focker

i actually didn't recognize it from that shot. shame on me. anyway, here's some (hopefully) better angles:

just got mine today. thanks captain.

picked one up today. nice compact box. deceptively light. when i took it out of the box, it was actually satisfyingly hefty. during transformation it becamse apparent why. lots of metal, in all the right places: shuttle mode was rock solid, but as with other transforming toys, gaps are apparent. i'd love for hasegawa to make a shuttle only version. as mentioned by early reviews, everything is nice and tight and locks and ratchets everywhere. you'll hear lots of positive clicking sounds during transformation. i don't see the arms sagging anytime soon, perhaps never. one minor quibble though is that it looks small even beside the RD VF-25: i was hoping it would scale more like this, relative to the SD's: having said that, holding the toy in hand is bliss. it's heavy and chunky, if that was the right word. tip for when exposing the chin turret: the instruction says to pull down the circular bottom base, but that is actually solid with the chassis so it's actually the cockpit/body which you should pull UP i haven't decided whether to sticker eyes or nose art. but looking at the sheryl nose art, it seems small enough not to overlap the shark mouth. placing the sticker sheet over the toy, i could find a spot a bit higher up and to the right that would clear the mouth. i don't know if the sheryl nose art in the SP version is actually bigger than the one included in the normal version, but i really don't see why they had to overlap the mouth in the SP version, which i would've bought for that sweet clear base but was just turned off by the nose art and shark mouth overlap. can someone confirm if the SP version comes with the nose art already applied? if not, i might get another one for shuttle mode and get the base as well. or then again, i might wait for the weathered version....

nice! is bandai in the habit of issuing weathered versions? that'll probably be the only thing that would keep me from getting this as soon as its out

sold! might i also suggest a gunpod carrier? i believe there was a picture in macross chronicles.

don't forget to call down MULEs at the start of mission. the economic boost should allow you to build hive mind control towers early without compromising funds for your bunker and turret defense. it'll also let you kickstart your upgrades research if you call down MULEs everytime they're available. put HMC towers at the extremes of your perimeter and nab yourself some broodlords. kerrigan will be too busy playing with broodlings to even get near your base.

hope someone can mirror this on hotfile. thanks

i'll take 1/72 and 1/144, and a few 1/60 and 1/100. hope this succeeds and you make more of the other vehicles. speaking of which, someone was making one of the bigger macross trucks. lost track of it though. wonder if it's still on

sorry, no idea if it's a fan design, nor can i remember where i picked up that image. but looking at the "copyright" text at the bottom right, i'd say it's fan made and probably made for a star trek game mod.

true, when you get to the char mission all other missions get locked out, by design, not a bug. they did this for story continuity and momentum in this last leg of the campaign. so you should do all the other missions you care to do before taking on char.

you might want to check this out: Digital Camo Masking Tape

surprised this hasn't shown up yet: normally find trek designs dull, but i kinda fancy this one: and just a few hours ago, i came across this at a toyshop. i think it's from godzilla though so maybe it wasn't a spaceship. looks a bit like a mig ferret:

damn. i was hoping they would be the big ones.

nice. i hope they are the same size as the bunnies ie. 1/7 ish the face on the last one looks weird though..

i'm in

scored a bargain last weekend at the singapore IT fair: Vanguard Alta Pro with pistol-grip ballhead. was originally just after the tripod (which came with a standard ballhead) but then saw the pistol-grip/joystick head. when i inquired about replacing the standard ballhead with the pistol-grip and packaging it with the tripod, the sales lady tried to sell me another similarly priced set which had the pistol-grip but a simpler tripod. fortunately, the manager overheard us and agreed to the package deal at the same price as the tripod and normal ballhead. instant S$100 savings and just as he said that, some of the other merchandisers started shouting "last hour of the fair! all display items 20% off!". i raised my eyebrows and asked if i would get that too. he just laughed and agreed. so got the set for S$240 (~US$160) and they threw in a lens cleaning kit and an umbrella. in hindsight, i should've asked for the beach mat instead

so rather than space cucumber, gourd or baguette would be the more appropriate technical term count me interested. hope a meltrandi counterpart will come someday..

you mean the bat logo? dang! if i knew there was a clear option i would've gotten it instead

finally got a saber in my collection. i think this is the best version thus far but i'm sure a lot of people will beg to differ. still haven't gotten around to watching the anime though.. nice hilt detail: overexposed this shot to highlight the translucency of the dress: now these are an unexpected addition. caught the K-On bug and it still surprises. mugi on pre-order and keeping my fingers crossed that they put out a Ritsu

wicked! now i'm having second thoughts about getting the no-paint VF-1S for this

i've recently been reading up on another HW mod called R.E.A.R.M. currently under active development. from what i gather, there's been a few alpha releases which were well received and triggered both feedback and contributions. that may be just what this mod needs at this stage, so i'm inclined towards releasing something sooner rather than later. on the off chance that it bombs, it can always be rectified by the next release. the key is to demonstrate it's moving forward.

this is continuing to be OT so apologies to the thread owner. i just hope it serves as an indication/encouragement of how eagerly anticipated this mod this. finishing SC2 whetted my appetite for more PC games (i haven't played PC in years). so i raided the storage room and found i actually had 2 copies of HW2 (one still sealed) and also 2 of HW:C. can't remember how i ended up with multiple copies anyway, i'm also going to be queueing Freespace2 and Nexus:Jupiter Incident. i hope they play nice with W7. yeah, in HW1 capturing was easy to abuse, but relic overcompensated on making captures more difficult in HW2. i miss capturing under fire being a viable tactic, i also miss my captured fleet of multi-beam frigates and acolytes, and claw formations, and fighters running out of fuel (they forced carriers to be more forward and therefore the rest of the fleet to protect them, rather than just camping around the MS). anyway, a few things to keep in mind when capturing in HW2: 1. make sure you have a spare slot in the unit caps for whatever you're capturing. otherwise your MFs will just be inert after a "successful" capture as you've described above. 2. always send more MFs than you require, to soak up the fire, ensure enough survive for the capture, and have immediate spares in case some get destroyed mid-capture 3. make sure there are no destroyers in the vicinity, theirs AND yours. they're very good at chewing up frigates. and i say including yours because they do splash damage to your own attached MFs. better yet, keep the rest of your fleet away once the capture has been initiated (particularly if the capture target is smaller than a BC), or keep them occupied with other targets. 4. destroy subsystems before and during capture. take out engines so your MFs can attach faster, then missile batteries so they don't rain on your attached MFs. but never use your destroyers to take out subsystems. they have lousy aim and will end up hitting your MFs. to capture the hyperBC in M11 i kept targeting its engines with my bombers to make it lag the rest of the enemy wave and to make sure it was far enough from my front line during capture (otherwise it'll keep firing its trinity cannon and i'll have a bench clearing rumble). when there was enough distance i sent the MFs on a shift-queued down then up route to dodge the incoming wave. give the destroyers a wide berth or they'll come after your MFs. timing when to send your MFs is critical. if you wait until you've cleared the rest of the wave, chances are the next wave is already inbound, or your frontline would've inched forward and start clobbering your target BC. i've found having the MFs initiate capture when the rest of the enemy wave is just past half strength provides a sufficient window of opportunity. you're frontline will be occupied leaving you to capture in relative peace. during the capture, bombers should alternate between keeping the engines and missile batteries offline and helping out at the frontline. prioritize engines if your fleet is just about done with rest of the wave, otherwise hit the missile batteries to keep your MFs alive. it's a lot of micro but also very rewarding (despite having to replay M11 several times as the BCs don't always build a hyperspace module). the hyperBC is immensely useful for both M12 and M13 to reach the more distant enemy groups earlier. after that though, it starts to lag behind in upgrades, but i kept it until the end simply because i was too attached to it.

perhaps not level design per se, just the difficulty scaling algorithm gone bonkers. depending on your fleet size at the end of M11, the game scales up the number of BCs you encounter on M12. IIRC retiring some or all of your frigates in M11 results in a more reasonably sized vaygr force in M12. you can rebuild a good number of frigates before things get hairy. against 10-15 BCs coming in waves of 4-5 the level design is able to present a challenging and varied mission eg. one can opt for pre-emptive strikes on shipyards, or hit BC engines to stagger their approach, or hit an run vaygr groups to prevent them from converging etc. beyond 15 BCs the level design is overpowered by the scaling and it devolves into a nearly impossible slugfest, which has happened to many players who came in with maxed fleets. the most fun i had with this mission was when i had a captured vaygr BC with a hyperspace module (from M11)

got mine today. while waiting for the decals, i'll probably try to score a non-painted VF-1S

have to agree with you there, at least pertaining to the final mission. even on hard difficulty it's ridiculously easy if you opted for mind control and going up against air units. once you mind control a couple of brood lords the kerrigan threat is neutralized and from there one could amass a fairly hefty airforce of mutas. spamming mind control is so powerful they probably should've made your mind controlled zerg vulnerable to the energy nova if you choose to use it, which incidentally would also have been more consistent with how the nova works. and the ground zerg waves were never really credible; not enough ultralisks to force you to build thors or banshees. the last zeratul mission was much more challenging as a defense mission, or at least more involving since you had to build/replace continuously and microing was essential to fend of the hybrids. i feel for a finale mission they should've made it longer perhaps multi-stage; scout several zerg bases around the primary hive, select one to wipe out and install the the relic, then defend until it's fully charged. having said that, i thought the rest of the game was epic. production values were top notch, the challenges extend play value beyond the campaign, achievements provide some replay value, and the attention to detail and extra backstory material (eg. at the armory and laboratory) enrich the experience. the non-linear mission selection could've been thought out better though-- the coherency and build up of the story suffered if one jumped around mission strands too much. i feel they could've crafted a more powerful story by forcing some of the mini story arcs to be completed in sequence and/or made some of the choices in-mission. this way the cut scenes could coherently build up the story, either that or they should've made more alternate cutscenes to cover the permutations; that to me adds tons of replay value. well, now comes the wait for the next installment. in the interim i have just one request to blizzard: please give the license to hot toys so they can immortalize raynor in black marine armor with a death's head faceplate and a BFG!