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mechaninac

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Everything posted by mechaninac

  1. Well, I'll be a monkey's brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate... I actually got a shipping notification with a tracking number and everything; estimated to arrive 8/29. BEST ... DEAL ... EVAH !
  2. Ha! ... completely unintended, I swear.
  3. Too good to be true but too good to ignore, so I gave it a shot... for $7.98 delivered, how could I not?
  4. That speeder bike base came out great; excellent use of natural materials for an authentic looking result. However, the bike is only 99.9% finished;... you're supposed to cut off the little slug spanning the two belly-gun square blocks, unless you decided to keep that there as a bit of extra, non-canon, detail -- like a small pressure cylinder.
  5. If I remember Turnabout Intruder right -- it's been years since I watched any TOS -- It was never implied that women could not be captains or even that they were discouraged from doing so. Janice Lester was denied promotion to captain and command of her own starship because she was deemed unstable by Starfleet... and how right they were in their assessment of her qualifications and temperament; the discrimination she blamed for her failures and as justification of her paranoia and gender issues (self hatred) was all in her own mind.
  6. Pretty cool, but "DIRECTER'S" Cut and Deep Space "EXPROLER"...?...
  7. To me the U-wing looked like a flying tuning fork, until I saw its wings-deployed mode; now it reminds me of a collapsible clothes hanger... but in a good way, sort of... The Shuttle is kind of meh; not as craptastic as Kylo Ren's in TFA, but it doesn't hold a candle to the Lambda Class. The one that I really want to see more of is the TIE Striker. It looks slightly reminiscent of the TIE interceptor and has a passing resemblance to the TIE Phantom.
  8. Now THAT is comedy gold!
  9. mechaninac

    Hi-Metal R

    You forge a sword, you cast jewelry. Forging = take an ingot of metal and place it in a forming die where it is struck by a hammer or press to be shaped. The compressive forces result in a very hard but brittle part; it's then heat treated to give it its final strength and resiliency. Forging is labor intensive and expensive. See here Casting = molten metal or resin is poured into a mold, like filling an ice cube tray, where it flows into its cavities which are the negatives of the final part... nowhere near as strong as forging, but it is much simpler and cheaper. The biggest problem with casting metal is that if the metal's or molds' temperatures or subsequent cooling is off there is always the possibility of defective parts due to inadequate density or microscopic gas bubbles that weaken the parts, defects that are not readily apparent but make the parts vulnerable to shear, bending, and torque stresses. See here Die Casting = metal casting under pressure; in a sense it is somewhat similar to injection molding for plastic. See here
  10. mechaninac

    Hi-Metal R

    Ouch! Got my invoice from Amiami. They're only offering 3 shipping methods for the Monster: EMS (6,740 JPY), SAL Parcel (5,690 JPY), and DHL (11,100 JPY) = cheapest option totals out at 28550 JPY + Paypal conversion fee and poor exchange rate... Now, where did I leave the Dramamine?...
  11. mechaninac

    Hi-Metal R

    I'm actually dreading getting the invoice from Amiami. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to get the Monster, but the final cost is going to be nausea inducing...
  12. Nice pen holder... also good to hold a thermometer, or a cotton swab, or a pencil, or a toothbrush, etc...
  13. There are several canon and semi-canon designs they could've used directly or as inspirations that would give the new show a sense of continuity with the rest of pre-established Starfleet aesthetics, or create something completely new yet familiar; but no, instead they go with an awkward nacelled Star Destroyer reject with an afterthought Frisbee tacked on top. Something innovative and unique, yet immediately recognizable as a Federation ship would be infinitely preferable, like the Chariot Class, just as an example
  14. I agree that the Excelsior design is one of the best in Star Trek (#1 - Refit Enterprise, #2 - Excelsior class, #3 - Miranda class, #4 - Sovereign class... imo). However, NX-2000 wasn't introduced until ST-III, NCC-2000 in ST-VI, 1701-B in ST-Generations; and as for not seeing much use... ... it was the most ubiquitous ship class in TNG and DS9.
  15. Well dang! Right off the bat, that's looking far more promising than the VF-2SS ever did, but I'll reserve final judgement until Fighter mode is shown.
  16. The CGSFX from Voyager, a decade and a half plus ago, looked better and more polished than what's shown in that teaser; and yes, that ship is a blatant revamping of the phase II Enterprise design, a design that, although somewhat canon (background filler in TNG, DS9, and arguably ST-III), was rejected because it was too un-Star Trek like.
  17. True, even excluding the sales tax and taking into account preorder discounts of up to 15%, once you add shipping you're right back around the 32-33K or more yen mark... far too much mullah in my book.
  18. And to think that for a moment I considered the possibility of entertaining the notion of purchasing one of these, but for 32,400 yen... Not only no, but H3LL NO. Easy pass unless it ever hits the 50% off discount bin. I know that will never, or at least is very unlikely to, happen so I'll just have to enjoy it vicariously.
  19. ^It's obvious Hamill clearly delights in playing the Joker character; whether or not he ever voices him again, and leaving aside Ledger's brilliantly unique rendition, Hamill has made the Joker his.
  20. That's the word for it, alright. It's the kind of makeup that we've kind of seen a hundred times.. G'kar comes to mind to me, due to the proportions.
  21. Man, this movie has the potential to outdo all the prequels + TFA, combined. From what's been shown, It absolutely has that original trilogy vibe to a tee... it just feels 'right'. I'm far more stoked to go see this in the theater than I was for TFA.
  22. Yep. I gotta admit, the Cosmo Pulsar isn't bad at all.
  23. US fighters air-frames are designed to withstand sustained 9Gs (its cumulative effects do eventually catch up, though), not due to engineering/manufacturing or materials limitations, but due to the physical limitations of the human pilots. Remove the meat-bag payload and there is nothing preventing the development of a 12, 15, 20G air-frame that would mostly negate strain of regular 9G or 12G or higher maneuvering. From a romantic point of view, a thinking human being will always be preferred, but from a practical standpoint AI is the future. Also, any lucky shot that could turn the AI unit into spaghetti could easily be a lucky shot that turns a fighter jock into hamburger meat... same result as far as the plane is concerned; except that with the AI there is no loss of a pilot's life or the investment in his/her training.
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