Jump to content

mechaninac

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4189

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by mechaninac

  1. mechaninac
    The RVF-171 comes with the slick wings by default, but the hard-point wings are included in Luca's Nightmare plus box to swap on the spot. If (probably when) Bandai releases the Tamashii web exclusive super pack set they will, I assume, skip the wings, and perhaps include additional ordnance -- maybe a set of anti-Vajra missiles -- to justify the same price point of the previous 171 SP sets.
  2. mechaninac
    ^ The only caveat to that is that movie makers tend to focus far more on the bad and the ugly, than the good... too often glorifying the bad and the ugly, sometimes to the point of portraying the worst of human degeneracy as the norm of the "human condition"; while, at the same time, denigrating the good as old fashioned, judgmental, and unenlightened. The definition of "Human Condition" may be neutral, but it's use in practice often is not; more of a lowest-common-denominator "fun house mirror" tool to steer audiences' perceptions and opinions. Let's face it, though... it's nothing new, and bad and ugly are far more entertaining than good and honorable.
  3. mechaninac

    Have a good 2015

    mechaninac replied to arrow's topic in Toys

    2014 was a very heavy burden to my wallet, busting through my frivolous expenses budget with a vengeance. Here's hoping that 2015 will be far kinder to my finances... THAT would help make the new year a good one.
  4. mechaninac
    ^ You're right; at .04C to Proxima Centauri (100 yrs for a 4LY trip), Ascension would have continued to be able to communicate with Earth, albeit with an ever increasing time lag... provided that home base continued to transmit and receive. From the point of view of those in the "ship", and considering the cold war paranoia, turmoil, and conflicts at the time when the mission was conceived, executed, and "launched", Earth has suffered the fate their progenitors feared and there is no one left to send or receive signals past the point when they stopped getting messages. They may have tried to reestablish contact, and given up after a few years without any replies. The miniseries itself, however, was rather dull and disappointing. While the reveal was interesting, and surprising, it happened too early in the story, IMO, and the whole thing really went nowhere plot-wise in all its 6+ hours. Combine all the little flaws, the inside man (nobody could keep that kind of secret and stay sane when having to face all the clueless crew, day in and day out for a whole lifetime within such a confined environment), the directionless plot, and the Newtype angle, and the end result was far less than the sum of its parts, and ultimately: unsatisfying.
  5. mechaninac
    Once you add stripes and other colored -- or even different grey(s) -- details, panel line it, and put on the decals and/or stickers, that primed look will be displaced by a low-vis, "realistic" military-like appearance.
  6. mechaninac
    It looks too uniform to be a dye job... looks like primer grey to me. If so, I wonder how well it holds up to transformation.
  7. mechaninac
    Oooo... baby crab cakes for the new year...
  8. mechaninac
    What I'd like to see is some standalone animated movies of either series, much like what we get with a lot of anime. A movie about Zuko's quest to find his mother, for example (a plot point introduced in the last episode of TLA, and never pursued); or Korra's and Asami's adventures in the Spirit World, or a future crisis not connected to the series's events. Edit: Just to emphasize the point... keep this property away from Hollywood hacks. Shyamalan's farce was an insult, completely devoid of any of the quality, charm, and heart that made the series so great.
  9. mechaninac
    ^ This! 1000X this!
  10. mechaninac
    Well... you asked...
  11. mechaninac
    ^You're in for one hell of an enjoyable ride. And if you haven't done so, watch Avatar: The Last Airbender also, as it is really good as well and introduces most of the concepts that Legend of Korra glosses over or takes for granted.
  12. mechaninac
    Standing Vader, and sitting Vader for the cockpit?...
  13. mechaninac
    The latter. If I'm not mistaken, or remembering wrong, every Bandai Macross DX's preorder has gone live at that time; which makes preordering these things an unqualified pain in the butt for those living in the North East...
  14. mechaninac
  15. mechaninac
    Amiami = They'll carry it with a great discount, but your chances of securing a preorder with them are less than getting struck by lightning on a cloudless day. Hobby Search = They'll carry it with a good discount (usually the same as HLJ), and although your chances are better than Amiami, the chances of actually placing an order are slim, and cart-jacking is highly likely. CD Japan = They'll carry it with a slight discount (~5%); somewhat better chance to preorder than HS, but still difficult. Big in Japan = They may carry it, but securing an preorder is still difficult, and sometimes, depending on the item, the require payment upfront. Anime Expo = They'll carry it, but a very small allocation that sells out in a split second... and they require payment upfront. Nippon-Yasan = They'll carry it starting at MSRP for the first batch, raise the price 1000-2000 Yen for the second preorder window, and may increase again with every subsequent batch. They offer flexible payment options: pay upfront, pay anytime, pay upon invoicing. N-Y is the go-to retailer of last resort. HLJ = They'll carry it, but nobody can tell when they'll open the preorder -- could be on the opening day, or a week later, and they sometimes screw up on the ordering limits. Preorder chances are hard to quantify. Then there are the ones that I do not recommend = Play-Asia (stay clear... you've been warned), and Nin-Nin Games (overpriced from the get-go).
  16. mechaninac
    Yamato's first run of their YF-19, while no entirely terrible, had a fair number of issues in addition to its wonky, gullet-tastic, arched back proportions, most notably the crooked gun-pod syndrome in fighter mode -- when mounted it cannot face straight ahead. Yamato's second release, the one that included the Fast Packs and Fold Booster, corrected this problem... no fixing the odd side profile, though. Bear in mind, however, that Arcadia's version also has plenty of flaws: horrible ankle design (Yamato's is much better in this regard) and a gun-pod that points down when mounted in fighter mode (Yamato's 2nd release doesn't have the ground strafing gun-pod weirdness of Arcadia's, but it is undersized to the toy; also, Arcadia forgot to include the vent slots on their gun-pod's barrel jacket). You can also go here for a full rundown on the Yamato 1/60 YF-19 toys.
  17. mechaninac
    You'd need to use a proxy service, or, if you have a friend in Japan, have them preorder for you. However, you don't have to go through such hoops; if the item is a general release you can suffer the preorder madness with everyone else (Jan 06, 2015 - 4:00PM Japan time for the VF-19 Adv AFAIK) by trying to secure one from any of the usual places, and when it's a web exclusive/limited edition you can preorder, drama free, from Nippon-Yasan.com as they carry all Tamashii exclusives.
  18. mechaninac
    That's nucking futs!!!... If I had an extra 11C (only have one, currently boxed, copy) I'd be listing it for sale. It's cha-ching time for whoever has extras they're willing to let go.
  19. mechaninac
    Err... The VF-1J that will come with the GBP armor in the bundle will be fully transformable -- just like every other VF-1 v.2 that has been released thus far by both Yamato and Arcadia (same exact molds). This also means that this "new" GBP armor will be entirely compatible with every single VF-1A, J, and S v.2s ever sold by either company. Again, the Valkyrie itself was,is, will be transformable between all 3+ modes; but only with the armor off, because that's how the VF-1 Armor was in the show: a single mode add-on to be worn in battroid mode and, like wmkjr stated, has to be jettisoned (removed) prior to allowing the Valkyrie to go into the other modes.
  20. mechaninac
    True enough. I actually pinpoint the beginning of the suck to the very episode where they were first introduced, when we're shown the Borg nursery... they go from menacing to silly in one dumb scene.
  21. mechaninac
    ^In that case, you have to go back all the way to the episode where Geordy gets a "pet" Borg he names Hugh.
  22. mechaninac
    Or just wait it out for Arcadia to reissue them. It's bound to happen sometime.
  23. mechaninac
    It looks fine to me, with plenty of fine surface detail and good proportions; but then, I'm not as fussy a model builder as some. Also, the fact that this will be a widely available Styrene kit, the production of a Hasegawa or 3rd party photo-etch frets to super-detail the hell out of it is almost a given, too; so those who find themselves underwhelmed will likely get their wish for more detail. Now Hasegawa, get on producing a TV version SDF-1 as well... and a Battle 7 and Frontier, and some of the other ships from all the shows -- take a page from Bandai's line of 2199 1/1000 kits.
  24. mechaninac
    That's entirely dependent on whether or not you're the impatient type. Impatience = more expensive shipping. In my personal experience, SAL has always come through in about 2-2.5 weeks, with the longest transit time being about 3.5 weeks, and the shortest being 4-5 days.
  25. mechaninac
    My second VF-25S copy, from CDJ, arrived today; 20 days door to door from shipping notification by SAL unregistered... who needs EMS?
×
×
  • Create New...