mechaninac

I love war craft that transform into giant robots, and non transforming Mecha also... it's what draws me to Macross in particular and anime in general (although, if you wanted to be real picky, most anime Mecha are not Robots in the strict sense of the word since they are piloted machines, and generally incapable of autonomous operation). The concept of these types of machines is great for the medium in which they are depicted, but anything other than a quadruped, hexapod or octopod --one could argue that a legged tank could traverse terrain that even a tracked vehicle could not navigate -- would be completely impractical in real life; bipeds are just too vulnerable to damage, and the complexity involved in having them maintain their balance under even the most benign of environs renders them unworkable as war machines. And if you'd like to make a jet that could transform into a vaguely anthropomorphic humanoid form, you'd just be adding insurmountable (at least with today's computational, mechanical, materials technologies) complexity, and stress/failure points on top of impracticality, for no measurable gain... the term "waist of resources" comes to mind. So, keep the cool humanoid mechs where they belong: firmly ensconced in the confines of sci-fi anime, and leave the real fighting to tracked vehicles... manned, remotely controlled, or robotic.

Every time you think things have reached the bottom of the barrel, Hollywood proves that all they need to do is lift the barrel to bestow upon us even more mindless drivel.

If this AEA thing turns out to be true his passing will still be tragic... in a sick, twisted, pathetic way; it will reek of Darwinism.

To my understanding, specialized tooling is a catch all term. To build something as complex as an F/A-22 you require an assembly facility dedicated to its construction (that once retooled for another purpose would be unsuited to its current one), with Raptor specific jigs, pressed, molds, tools, as well as other support equipment that may or may not be suitable for any other manufacturing/assembly functions other than the F/A-22. Add to that the hundreds/thousands of suppliers who also posses very Raptor-centric equipment tailor made to the manufacture of parts for this specific fighter jet; equipment that may be prohibitively expensive to keep and maintain if the parts they produce are no longer needed because the plane is no longer in production. And to top it all off you've got the expertise of those who make those parts and assemble them... once they're gone, they're gone. Canceling the production of further Raptors would, therefore, have a far deeper impact than just the tooling involved. Once that infrastructure is dismantled, putting Humpty Dumpty back together would be a monumental undertaking almost as complex as devising that infrastructure in the first place.

Mass production; or more precisely, production costs is one reason: Toys, even complex ones, are made to have as few parts as possible to minimize the amount of assembly (not a factor in models since the buyer does the assembly) and reduce overall complexity to absolute minimum to make the toy work as desired. Ultimately, one of the biggest reasons, in my opinion, is the targeted buyer. Toys have to be designed with the compromise of playability in mind, even high end collector oriented items will require allowances for robustness which invariably will impact how the toy is engineered, and therefore, how it looks as compared to the source material. Even with today's higher attention to authenticity in design, the product intent will still affect the final product to varying degrees. With a model, most if not all, compromises that would be true to a toy can be ignored. Since the intended buying public are model builders who will invest endless hours and resources (depending on level of skill, patience, funds, etc.) to achieve perfection in the end product, the producer of a model can break down the components in any way they see fit to get the most detail and assembly flow to the buyer. Complexity, depending on subject, is irrelevant (most modelers welcome a challenge and more parts mean easier painting... less masking, and just engenders a "more bang for the buck" feel when the box is opened for the first time), and durability is not even a real issue... you're not supposed to play with your models; they're to sit pretty on display. Long winded way of saying that comparing toys to models is like comparing apples and oranges.

Love the leg MOD, I've got to try that on my unbuilt example one of these days; it makes a huge difference in the leg's posability and improves the kit by leaps and bounds. Another quick and easy MOD to add to these kits is waist rotation. Just saw off the nose cone of the battroid specific fuselage part and add filler plates with scratch-built peg and hole: a peg one on the radome and the matching hole with a polycap behind it on the fuselage side, and voila... a battroid that has dynamic wait rotation. The only tricky part to this mod is aligning the rotation axis just right so that everything lines up when the battroid is facing front, and a thin saw should be used so that you won't need to get extra kits to act as donors.

FYI for anyone who may be interested: HLJ is currently running a 40% off sale on all three Yamato SV-51 toys. I already had an Ivanov version but couldn't pass up on getting a Nora type for 13080 Yen +S&H, and with today's exchange rate the price is even better.

Just an FYI to anyone who may be interested: HLJ is having a 50% off sale on all Yamato BGC Motoslave toys, except Priss'.

Too many ... and not enough

IIRC, I think Wings of Honneamise had a short sequence in it with a fighter/attack plane, with that general design motif, doing a ground strafing run.

Do you hear him Hasegawa?... Bandai?

I'm a sucker for UC grunt mecha myself, and would love to see the RGC-83 GM Cannon II and the RGM-79N Powered GM Custom produced in Master Grade form.

Which brings me to my question: Is anyone planning on offering after market stickers and/or decals for the 1/60 Destroids? Great pics BTW.

Here's something I've been toying with over the last couple of days: a Beta Boom Lock based on the stand that comes with the Toynami Beta. I've already built one in SLA (using Somos 14120 resin which is formulated to mimic Polypropylene) and have tested it on my Alpha/Beta combo... it works perfectly (sorry, I don't have access to a digicam to show how it looks on the toy).

Thanks everyone for the replies concerning the Beta/Alpha link-up. To address a few points, I did fold the cockpit and splayed open the feet as far as I could make them go before getting leery of breaking something on the Alpha. The Alpha is too heavy and settles lower than it should with the legs apart (I remedied this by making a small propping piece that snaps onto the leg's tab), and the Beta's problem is that the cockpit is just too wide; had they made it just 3 or 4 mm narrower, not only would it look better but also provided a much better fit for the Alpha's foot thrusters, and would allow room for a removable box to improve the look of battloid mode... I guess I'll just have to keep trying until I hit on the proper geometry to make it work to my satisfaction.

Possible... yes, although I do not know how secure it would be. A better solution would be to make your own locking part mimicking the stand's design without having to sacrifice the stand. I've played around with the idea and don't think it would be too hard. On a related note, I can't get my blue Alpha attached to the beta without having to split the legs apart a few degrees (just part the locking tab) and this causes the Alpha to tilt up and yaw to the left a smidgen. Am I missing something?

Just when I had resigned myself to stick with the 1/72 models only... economics and the sheer awkwardness of the 1/60 pretty much dictated this to me unless I could find one of the DX versions at a huge discount. Now these latest images of the 1/100 VF-25 make it look fantastic, way too good to pass up; although, at $50ish a pop they are rather pricey. Thanks Bandai for contributing to my financial ruin

To answer the question posed in the thread title: Yes.... but as cashing in attempts go, The Clone Wars "redux" is a pretty good one. And I agree that the Yoda episode was definitely the best of the two.

The one thing going through my mind as I watched Dr. Suresh's transformation was that he has turned himself into Brundell Fly. So far the 3rd season is off to a respectable start; I hope it gets better or at least doesn't degenerate into the convoluted mess that was season 2.

Just be glad that it's JSF competitor was not the one chosen for adoption: That Flying Guppy was a visual assault to the senses, a total aesthetic abomination; compared to that the F-35 is beautiful beyond description. I tend to think that as far as a theatrical Veritech, it will more than likely be an amalgamation of current twin jet designs with a heavy dose of "aren't I high tech cool" nonsensical design shapes and bits to make it look futuristic, yet recognizable as a jet fighter.

My personal opinion... take it for what it is. The Revo is much smaller than my built 1/100 Arii kit, which itself is smaller than it should be at 1/100. I realize that the Revoltechs are non scale, but to my eye 1/144 is the closest standard scale to the Kaiyodo Regult; I bet that it would look good next to a Banpresto Valkyrie... much more so than along side a Revo VF-1 or Toynami 1/100.

Got my Revoltech Regult yesterday from LOS. The size is about what I expected: smaller than I wanted; I'd peg it at roughly 1/144 scale. Overall it is a very decent figure... a little frustrating to pose as desired at first, but the stand helps a lot.

Yes, they are perfect transformation model kits; at least that's what they're claiming. Given Bandai's other model kits it is safe to assume these Macross Frontier ones will use the same standard treatment: 1. snap fit construction which is not bad judging by how good they've gotten at this type of assembly; besides, you can always glue. 2. colored sprue trees (even the multi-color multi-gated variety)... great for a quick, decent build for those looking for instant gratification; but you can always prime and paint for a better finish. 3. a PS, ABS, and PVC mix of materials. 4. foil stickers and dry tranfer decals... to the ever lasting derision of every serious model builder.

Oohhh! Look at all the faceting on the Vajra model... it looks to be a RP made straight from the animation mesh file(s). The VF-25 looks pretty good in kit form. That's a definite buy form me.

A diamond crevasse??? Is that like a sherry pie?