mechaninac

I don't think it's complaining per se; it's more of a critical observation. A lot of it is due to the way the chest looks from the angles the pictures were taken, and the fact that the neutral grey prototype just makes it very bulky and unflattering. An example shot in the proper colors and viewed from better angles will probably make the exaggerated chest much less noticeable...just look at MW's front page with the Photoshoped GBP; it looks great.

Ok...does this mean even the ARC troopers such as Cody, who were supposed to have more individual judgement, don't have inner conflicts turning on their comrades if an order was given by Sidious? One can assume that once the order was given a genetically built-in imperative was triggered, and whatever individuality, sense of loyalty other than to Sidious, or moral/ethical misgivings (if they're even capable of such), would have been negated, and the order carried out by design. These are all clones, matured in accelerated fashion, and programmed to be servile to the Republic and its figurehead above all other considerations, even the more independent commando units.

So I guess GBP now stands for Gargantuan Boobies Package...

I actually thought the E.T. cameos as background aliens-fillers was sort of a clever little tip of the hat to Spielberg. Just like the case with the Millennium Falcon, that sort of cameo neither adds to nor detracts from the plot of the film, and can be cute and entertaining when you notice them. However, the best cameo appearance I've ever seen in any movie was in "Coming to America" where Eddie Murphy's character dumps this load of cash on two "urban outdoorsmen" who just happen to be Randolph and Mortimer Duke form "Trading Places"...now THAT was classic.

Lucas says that its THE Millennium Falcon. If GL says it's THE MF, than that settles that, but from what's is actually on-screen it's impossible to tell with any certainty. The movie was just a bit south of great...saw it last Wednesday. It's leagues above the first two prequels and a bit better than RotJ, but ANH and ESB still rule as the best SW films. Edit: I thought the "Lucas" being referred to WAS GL; if that isn't the case than the actual identification of the ship we barely see is still open to all sorts of anal debate.

A Correlian Freighter, maybe the Millennium Falcon, maybe not, can be briefly seen as a background ship on a panoramic camera panning scene on the Coruscant Spaceport; it's only on screen for a split second...if you blink you miss it.

Mechmaster, how'd you make the parts on the sprues? Did you have them scanned, or model everything yourself? They look very legit from an engineering point of view. Rod, you're absolutely right, the proper lighting is crucial in selling the image (at least about 75% of what makes or breaks a shot); it is what defines the mood and volume of a scene. No matter how amazingly detailed and thought out your model is from a technical point of view, if the lighting is not up to the task of creating the proper real world atmosphere and weight, then the resulting render is just so much CG eye candy. The other two critical things are the environment in which the model is placed along with it's composition therein, and how perfect the model is...very few things in real life a flawless, so the more perfect a model looks the more fake it appears.

Funny, we saw that used in 2001 in the USA. That's odd, the way I remember it, two buildings were knocked down, a chunk of the Pentagon was destroyed, an empty field became a crash site, 4 airliners full of innocent people and about 3000 other innocents not in the planes were butchered before any call for retaliation, naming of enemies, enumeration of fears, beefing up of security, or public declaration of hatred ever occurred. In fact, the USA went out of it's way not to paint an entire culture or religion as culpable, but planted the guilt exactly were it belonged...and acted accordingly. Besides, enemies do not need to be made up when they make themselves so unequivocally known. Maybe you should check the actual order of events before making asinine statements. To every one else, sorry for the rant, but uninformed, misinformed, or just plain idiotically inflammatory tripe sometimes needs to be refuted.

That looks so fake...no one's work bench is THAT clean. All joking aside, that's pretty good; not entirely convincing as a realistic fake-out (for some reason, almost all CG comes across as artificial; it's not something you can really explain cogently, but more of an overall feeling you get when you look at something CG...the human eye and brain are extremely hard to fool).

But, but, but...i've got the torches lit and everything...

The GBP-1S "Sumo" armor looks really good, and the inclusion of DYRL? detachable hands is a very welcome addition. But there is one thing that bothers me a little with the front view picture: the chest armor is so bulky that it makes the head of the Valkyrie look like its sunk in, like its a turtle tucking its noggin into it's shell; this may be just due to the angle of the shot or a poorly mounted prototype on the 1J, but that is my one bit of criticism with this 1/48 rendition...I have a 1/60 and it does not have this scrunched head look. Regardless, I'm waiting with baited breath for final production pictures to better judge this thing, and I'll buy at least one copy once it is released.

You think?! Mad skillz with MS-P man.

Wow! That last one makes Millia look like a pensive French Super Model. I love it! PS: The words pensive and Super Model don't really belong together, do they? But it sort of captures the drawing's style and mood.

I'm sure it's just going to be a wild-eyed, "scientifically" based, speculation and conjecture fest in the guise of a nature documentary akin to "The Future is Wild" and the Dragons specials...somewhat entertaining to be sure, but hardly instructive or enlightening since it's all make-believe. However, one thing that can't be faulted with these programs is the incredible talent that goes into producing all the CG and physical effects used to depict the creatures and their environments. As with all the previous shows in this genre, I'll be checking this one out, as it will probably be better than just about anything else on TV at the time.

Berman and Braga have been doing a piss poor job with this franchise for years, so why should Enterprise's send off be any different? Here's hoping that, should Star Trek ever come back with a new series that B&B won't be involved with it. One thing is for sure, however, after this weekend I'll have no reason to tune into UPN ever again...that network has absolutely nothing worth watching anymore. Enterprise may not have been anywhere near the best Sci-Fi series on TV, but it had it's moments, specially in the last two seasons, and at least it was something worth checking out when a new episode debuted.

Ack! It's Kakizaki's ghost. Very nice custom indeed. That green tone looks just about spot on.

If you mean why is a Max 1S more plausible than a Kakizaki 1S? The answer is simple: Kakizaki never flew a 1S and Max did, albeit briefly. Kakizaki bought the farm in his 1A in both the series and the movie...big lug could never catch a break; hence, no VF-1S for the big guy.

Damn! I think I just soiled my pants. One word comes to mind: [Darth Vader's voice] Impressive! [voice off]

Not cool...one more thing to buy.

A TIE bomber would be cool, but I have to agree with cobywan on the non-cannon stuff. Star Wars (all six movies) has enough iconic designs to keep Fine Molds busy for a whole decade without them wasting time on game and comic book crafts. And of all the ships from the OT, the Millennium Falcon shares its lofty status only with the X-Wing, TIE fighter, and ISD...and it is, by far, one of the most original ship designs ever designed for celluloid. I think their decision to bring this to fruition is an inspired one, akin to Polar Lights' NCC-1701 1/350 kit.

Here's something I just ran across at HLJ: Click Me It will be expensive, it will be big, and judging by their previous releases for this license, it will be absolutely stunning...but not until 2006, apparently. I can't wait to see more info on this.

Yamato Macross releases are definitely slowing down in regularity, but they are hardly drying up...at least this year. Check out this thread CLICKIE

Hot damn! I'm so getting this release. This baby and a GBP armor will make my small collection complete.

The only way this may turn out anywhere near decent is if, instead of placing the film's time frame in our present or near future, they make the film contemporary with the Aliens franchise or even further into the future. That way there would be a slight possibility of using mankind's knowledge of both the Predators and Xenomorphs existence as a relevant part of a "real" plot, as well as the hope that we could see the Colonial Marines in action again. However, given the dismal AVP movie, and the fact that this next installment will be it's sequel, I highly doubt we will get anything but PG-13 popcorn schlock. I'm glad I haven't seen AVP yet. I'll probably wait until it makes it to broadcast TV before I waste my time, and money, on it...and the same will hold true for AVP2 unless most of the reviews warrant my attention. PS: "Aliens 5" from Scott and Cameron would be like a dream come true; but, as long as the franchises are in the hands of bean counters and no-talent hacks, that will never happen.

Two words: Too many.