captain america

Hi Valk. Truthfully, I don't think the Toynami sculpt is all that bad. If anything, they gave the toy a really good balance visually in all 3 modes; particularly the fighter mode, which I think looks better than mine. In this case, my overall sculpt or theirs wouldn't have made any difference; it's more an issue of engineering & troubleshooting. But then, that's where I think I could've helped them most of all. The thing is, these are "collector" toys. Designed more for appearance & detail (as much as you can put on a toy anyway) than for outright sturdiness or quick transformation. Collector toys are more about cool poses with little or minimal playtime and in that respect, that's where this toy blows bigtime, because of the limited joint capability, you simply can't give them the cool action poses like you see on the old Imai box art. I'm going to try to hack-up one of mine, and see if I can't do something more intelligent with it.

Actually, crooked heads & lose shoulders can still be fixed to a decent extent; the real flaw that I see with this toy are the hip joints, which, like the Veritech POS, greatly limit its posing ability because you can't adopt a wide stance. I hate to say this, but I wish Toynami had stolen my hip geometry to do their toy; at least then people would have had greater posing possibilities.

If you look at the Legioss drone carefully, you'll see that it has almost no common parts with the previous models; it's an almost completely different design, as well as a different transformation sequence. I highly doubt they'll ever make that sku.

Yup, the biker gangs here use .22s for assassination as well, even in prison... The government doesn't seem to mind hardened criminals having guns but taxpaying citizens? That is simply not acceptable

...That's precisely what I'm hoping to do with my own gun designs

Hi JS. I'm guessing that the Five Seven would only really be good for plinking or target-shooting at that point, as the round ityself is so small and sharp that you'd basically have no stopping power whatsoever. Seems very controllable and precise though, from what I've read. As for banning the Mini 14: your guess is as good as mine. The laws in Canada are written in such a way that they don't need to show just cause to ban a firearm; they need only DECIDE that the firearm in question is a menace and follow through to ban it. No explanations due. Unlike in the US, where the right to own/bear arms is precisely that: a right. Here in Kanada, gun ownership is a PRIVILEGE and can be revoked at anytime for pretty much any reason. They've actually been at this for years now, and the only reason that really comes to mind is that like any repressive, self-serving government, it's in their own best interests to keep the masses weak, unarmed, and incapable of any sort of armed revolt. Otherwise, the tyrants would be out of a nice, cushy job.

We get our fair share of greusome crimes here too, no worries. I'd be curious to know under what circumstances this took place: time of day, physical state of the victim & attacker, alone or with friends? Wintesses, etc... Five Seven: I find it simply mind-boggling that you guys can literally get your hands on guns that fire armor-piercing rounds, whereas us poor saps in the Kommunist Republic of Kanada are fighting to keep the government from banning the most common of hunting/ranch rifles No joke, the cdn government is trying to ban the Ruger mini 14 as we speak... Along with a whole gaggle of other weapons, I have no doubt.

I'd be even more worried if there were actually a sword-weilding ninja with night-vision goggles IN the building, but seriously, this getting rediculous. As important as we all like to think we are, I think there's a better chance of us winning the lottery than of being executed by a night-vision wearing, sword-weilding samurai...Heck, they don't even assassinate heads of state with that much eccentricity. On a slightly more realistic note, what's the deal with the FN Five Seven? Exclusive police/military use, or are there any plans for civillian release?

Bingo. Guns have the advantage of stopping a bad guy BEFORE he gets in your personal danger zone...And even point-blank, I'll take my chances with the gun.

Swords & glorified steak knives might have been good against unarmed or similarly armed peasants hundreds of years ago (or heck, against steak), but just short of being damn lucky, you won't win a fight against a guy with a 8-9 .40 slugs. The scene when Harrison Ford shoots the sword-weilding arab in Raiders Of The Lost Ark comes to mind

Those of you who got your kits: please PM me with your name & e-mail address; I'll get a set of instructions out to you pronto.

Hi Fulcy. Yes it is. As you can see, the thigh "socket" is contoured to perfectly fit the bottom of the main body, but I left off any allignment pegs so as to give the builder as much posing latitude as possible. The socket basically just "butts" with the centerline drum, but you can determine the leg-spread best suited to your pose.

Hi guys. I was just wondering if there was any feedback on the latest Samurai Monkey model? I think at least a couple people have gotten their models already; I was just interested to get any feedback. Also: for those of you who have the kit: you may notice that the surface of the parts is somewhat "greasy"... This is simply the effect of the mold release. This is easily removed by washing the parts with mild dishwashing detergent and a toothbrush and/or a sponge. Basically, the mold release is a special, paintable formulation, so it won't affect paint adhesion at all: no scuffing of the surface is really necessary. Instructions: they aren't included in the actual kit, just as with the VF-1 booster & display base, I need to e-mail them to buyers individually... No worries, I didn't forget

...The sale?

I seem to recall someone saying that the premiere miniseries was already available on DVD. Definitely a must have for me, I think the show is just wonderful.

Opus, you're wasting your breath with Happy: he posts the same type of lame comments on other forums. Most members just snicker at him behind his back or in PM, I prefer to do it out in the open. Much more satisfying.

Probably just a glitch. Hopefully Rob'll get that back up & running soon. Also, for all those who've ordered, your kits have been shipped out. ETA: 10 business days.

Indeed, I think that the devil may very well be in the details and the interpretation of the law in this case. However, one cannot ignore the fact that model manufacturers have been producing "license-free" models for decades, and have never been sued for doing so. All of a sudden, manufacturers start clammering for royalties... I may not be a lawyer, but even I can see that this sets a clear precedent whereby the aerospace manufacturers basically "let this slide" all this time, and are now almost arbitrarily trying to extort model manufacturers for money. If anything the aerospace community would have a hard time justifying this new policy in court. Agreed, model companies may need to pay royalties to the Ae manufacturers for using their trademarked company name, but honestly, the model companies can just leave that off the box, and I'll happily buy the product anyway.

I think this is just a sack of sh*t, personally. Military hardware is commissioned by, and paid for by the government (the people), and thus is owned by the people. The stuff is all public domain. If anything, the only aircraft that the companies may be able to get royalties for are commercial airliners, which are privately-owned.

Hi guys. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you. This has been far more insightful & informative than you could immagine. The good thing is that I think we've honed our approach strategy to where we now have a really good direction. THe bad news is that we may yet be up to our collective armpits in legal forms

...And I demand a first run Hi Neova. Actually, the kit as is was designed without poseable joints for stability's sake & price control, but as per Fulcy's earlier posting in the thread, Yellow Submarine's acrylic ball-joints look like they'd be a perfect supplement to anyone who'd like to make the kit poseable.

Selling out the intended run of 50, and hopefully demand for a second run.

Hi Bsu. Thanks for the link! I'm really surprised to find yet another arms manufacturer here in Canada. JS: Definitely a money thing. We need the proper $$ to get the prototype built, tested, and if possible, patented. I think that if we can just get it built & tested/proven, geting a manufacturer or an investment firm to commit wil be infinitely easier. Right now, the 9mm is about 60% done in cad, and my engineer has assured me that he can at least do partial loads testing virtually; maybe even fully. The thing is, knowing that it won't blow up is one thing, but you still need a real working unit to assess whether or not it shoots worth snot The way I see it, a one-off might cost as much as 10G, then of course you have the testing, for which the costs are as yet unknown. As for patents, we have 4, maybe 5 concepts just on the 9mm that can be patented, and at roughly $30k per patent, it adds up real fast. I think I really just need to win the lottery.

Hi JS. I'd discussed the idea of approaching existing firearms manufacturers with my associates. It's technically the easiest route, save for one big problem: as it stands now, we have technology concepts which have yet to be proven 100% effective, since they have only been mocked-up with polymers and not test-fired metal prototypes, and because of that, it's much more difficult to sell a design or a concept because it's "unproven". Companies either wouldn't take us seriously, or would offer probably little more than minimal compensation if anything. Second, because the designs aren't yet patented (because they have yet to be proven viable), I'm extremely weary of sending out prototypes or diagrams to any large firms. I always have ANYONE who looks at our stuff sign NDAs of course, but after reading about what happened to Dan Coonan, I think my concerns are somewhat justified.

Hi Godzilla. A gatling gun and a longer grenade launcher (with removeable cover) would be part of a detail upgrade kit that could be made available provided that the base model sells well.