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captain america

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Everything posted by captain america

  1. captain america
    Brand new. There'll be pics of the scratchbuilding process, but I don't think you'll see finished pics for quite a while.
  2. captain america
    This is going live on Friday, November 1st.
  3. captain america
    I thought this was hilarious!
  4. captain america
    For those who don't know, I'm working on an original mecha project. Teaser:
  5. captain america
    Someone sent me one of those kits to inspect a few years ago. I don't know if it was an original or not, but the castings were absolute trash. Haven't seen anything that bad since the JafCon kits from 1993.
  6. captain america
    The EP-13 cannon is characterized as an 80mm beam gun, so it's an energy weapon. Don't think there's much recoil on something like that.
  7. captain america
    Can I get an Amen?
  8. captain america
    Probably not, but if you think that Hasbro's remedy is only top-down vertical enforcement, you're missing the big picture. Where direct legal pressure may fail, all they have to do is tell their distributors that any of them that continue to carry/distribute 3P products beyond a 60-90 grace window will be cut-off. No more official Hastak products for you! Does that wipe Zeta or 3P off the map? No, it just reduces the incentive to carry their stuff that much more. In many ways, this might be far more effective.
  9. captain america
  10. captain america
    Based on the translation of the fan's conversation with Zeta that you posted on TFW2005 in conjunction with this... I think it's fair to say that sufficient pressure was applied to sink the Core Star.
  11. captain america
    What you feel is irrelevant, and so is spite. If they become knowledgeable of an infringement, they must act to defend their IP or risk losing it entirely. It doesn't have to manifest as a full-blown lawsuit, something as simple as having an attorney serve the infringing party with a C & D will get the ball rolling, and they only need to apply as much pressure as is needed to get the other party to back down; not an ounce more. Most 3P are happy to produce figures that aren't in direct competition with official product, nor have they been brazen enough, at least until recently, to market head-to-head with HasTak. That might have been their saving grace. My point is that the more brazen 3P becomes, the greater the chances that they will cross a line that will open the door to them getting legally smashed, and potentially changing the market landscape in a way that will NOT be to the average fans and collectors' benefit.
  12. captain america
    Neither Haslab's nor Zeta's transformation is without its drawbacks, it's just a matter of what compromises you're willing to live with. Looking at the back of the planet on the Haslab, you have a large orange depression and spikes all along the equator, which is accurate. On Zeta's, the equator line is the robot's crotch, which should be blue-grey. Also on Zeta's figure, the four single-cratered panels that flank the vertical leg panels on both sides and to the immediate North and South of the equator are the robot's hip armor, both front and back. Those panels are light gray/silver with blue-grey craters in robot mode, so just with that, you can see that there will be "deco chalenges" to put it as politely as possible. If you look at the flanks of the Zeta planet mode, the area where the rings attach, there should be an orange circle there too, albeit smaller than the one on the back. The panels both north and south of the equator, and the equator band itself make up the shoulders and forearm armor: all orange in robot mode, but mostly blue-grey with some orange splotches in planet mode. Zeta's planet mode is already compromised in terms of shapes, but now ask yourself which mode you want to sacrifice for an accurate paint scheme, because you won't get both! Also, if the Haslab crowdfund fails, there's the real possibility that we'll get neither. Several people on the TFW forums have flatly stated that they cancelled their Haslab preorder when they saw the Zeta figure, and the crowdfunding counter did reflect that. There remains the very real possibility that if several millions of dollars in revenue suddenly goes up in smoke because they couldn't get their 8000 units funded, Hasbro will look to Zeta and have their lawyers make a case for either infringement or tortious interference, and possibly both.
  13. captain america
    MP-10 (V2) was an excellent figure when it was released and still is. At $80, even 3P figures cost more than that. Ultimately, the only questions you should be asking are do YOU like MP-10, and is $80 a fair price in light of all the other similar figures currently available.
  14. captain america
    If the Haslab crowdfunding fails, and based on how it is at a virtual stall now it likely will, then you can bet your a$$ that Hasbro will unleash their legal "Unicron" on 3P, and Zeta in particular.
  15. captain america
    It's impressive just how cleanly Zeta were able to make the transformation, and as a result I wonder just how much thought Takara put into the transformation of their own figure. If anything, Zeta has shown that even a sphere can transform into a robot with negligible kibble. The planet mode is consequently much smaller in relation to the robot mode than Hasbro's, and you can see where a lot of the planet's continents actually become parts of the bot. While this translates to a slightly "awkward" looking planet, had the figure been the size of Hasbro's offering, I suspect that a much cleaner fit of the continental panels could have been achieved. I also think the planetary ring could stand to have been larger and it wouldn't adversely affect the transformation or the robot mode. The head/face is nice for what it is, but it's not faithful to what's seen in the movie. This version looks more like an idealized Unicron.
  16. captain america
    It's like the Navy blew off a Victoria's Scret runway model to bring a short, fat, dim-witted, greasy-faced date to the prom! I'd be slightly less bitter if there was at least a decent 1/48 or 1/32 kit of that plane.
  17. captain america
    On a related note, the 1/12 Motocycle Freak accessories set is available again for a limited time, in case anyone's interested. Just PM me for info.
  18. captain america
    Disagree. I still like the head, chest and arms on Hasbro's version more, not to mention how the ring looks like gigantic folded bat wings in robot mode and adds to is already ominous presence. Plus the maw on the Zeta offering looks like a sphincter. I dare you to unsee that!
  19. captain america
    That. I think the common denominator among the companies that produce the nicest collector toys is that they either have a very effective or longstanding (and maybe both) relationship with their manufactures. One knows what to expect (good and bad) from the other and are capable of resolving the numerous difficulties that arise in the licesnsing/manufacturing process. The talented guys are the most cost efficient/productive and are, in many ways, the glue that keeps the operation from unraveling.
  20. captain america
    No, all that material belongs to the toy company. The point I was trying to make is that you can give a subcontractor EXACTLY what you want (3D sample, blueprints, etc.) and they'll still find a way to f*ck it up. People who know how to do things right seem expensive to the untrained eye, but then when you factor-in multiple re-works and missed shipping windows only to realize that mediocre talent is the most expensive thing you can buy.
  21. captain america
    In fairness to Meptoys, you'd be horrified at just how much liberty a factory can/will take when they tool your designs unless you have people on-site riding the design team like 2$ whore while breathing down their necks and checking on them every 5 minutes. This one time when I was still in the toy business, I had made a sculpt for an original action figure that was then sent to China for sampling. The bloody thing was already sculpted, no guesswork involved or necessary, they just needed to pantograph it... What got back looked nothing like what I'd sent them. It was like going from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Jon Lovitz.
  22. captain america
    People who have crabs are awesome!! While I appreciate what Meptoys is trying to do with their figures, the aesthetic isn't up to the standard of modern collector-grade toys. Depending on what's going on with Genesis Breakers, maybe proper Inbit toys will get a shot. Failing that, I've at least got the kits covered.
  23. captain america
    I MUST have the soundtrack to that video! Guess we'll discover Unicron's fate in the next few days.
  24. captain america
    Nope, there's still time, but barely.
  25. captain america
    Bam!
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