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mechaninac

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Everything posted by mechaninac

  1. mechaninac
    I think you may have missed JBO's point: Valvavre is not a parody; it's unintended parody, which by its sheer awfulness makes it come across as a "masterful parody" to those of a mind to enjoy crap that, despite itself, transcends its crapiness into the realm of "train-wreck" funny... the fact that the writers never intended it as such makes it that much more cringe-worthy hilarious.
  2. mechaninac
    I'm of two minds on this issue: on the one hand, having an animation accurate swing bar would be way cool; however, on the other hand, at 1/60, they'd be far too thin and fragile to withstand even moderate handling during transformation, and in Battroid mode, without bending and breaking (I suppose they could use Stainless Steel in a multi-part assembly involving POM and metal and screws and springs, but that would increase the manufacturing and assembly cost quite a bit; one thing for sure, diecast would be out of the question), or they would need to be thick enough, and seriously out of scale to ensure durability-- similar to what you see on the old Chunky Monkeys.
  3. mechaninac
    LOL! That happens to me all the time; I can usually find it right away by following the soft whimpering sounds of its crying...
  4. mechaninac
    That ordnance hard-point is right where the landing gear bay is supposed to be.
  5. mechaninac
    That's a very TRON-esque evolution of the stormtrooper helmet design... not surprising since Disney is behind both, and I kind of like it; there is a definite design lineage going on from the Rocketeer style from AotC to bridging version from RotS, to the classic design, and now this.
  6. mechaninac
    That's an "Iron Bear" armor, not an Iron Man one... hilarious though.
  7. mechaninac
    WTF! Has American law regarding personal importation of good purchased from overseas change without notice, or is this just FedEx being jerks and trying to cash-in?
  8. mechaninac
    Take DG seriously... hardly. It's more like trowing stones at a hornet's nest; you know you shouldn't do it, and nothing good can come of it, but you just can't help yourself. However, in DG's defense, he is entitled to his opinions... contrarian to widely held views on what constitutes good vs. bad entertainment fare as they are, and the baffling penchant to offer excuses to glaring mediocrity -- it's his schtick, sincere or not.
  9. mechaninac
    Totally agree; and what you point out is the reason I can watch Deep Impact from time to time. There's no redeeming Armageddon for me, however... the only way I'd torture myself through it is if I was getting paid, handsomely, to do it.
  10. mechaninac
    The screenplay was awful. The acting was horrendous. The supped-up shuttles were ridiculous. The physics and spaceflight mechanics were laughable. A high caliber machine gun on a rover? Really? The sophomoric stereotyped portrayal of the Russian Cosmonaut on MIR. The very appearance of the asteroid... something that large would've been potato shaped due to gravity -- look at images of Apophis for example -- and not like a crystalline fractal. The screeching sound FX every time they cut to a scene of the asteroid moving through space. Etc.
  11. mechaninac
    Hyperbole is beyond your ability to comprehend, isn't it? That's like comparing a turd mound to a pile of crap... they both stink. However, although Deep Impact was boring as hell, and maudlin in the extreme, at least it did not make me cringe as Armageddon's stupefying dumbness did, and is watchable to me.
  12. mechaninac
    Armageddon. That's a perfect example of a movie that can cause brain damage. I saw that movie once -- once was enough -- and I swear I still have some misfiring neurons due to how much it made my brain hurt.
  13. mechaninac
    Speachless
  14. mechaninac
    And you're completely missing the entire point. Those involved in the development of any product may not be the only measure of its actual quality (I certainly have not made such a proclamation), but it is indicative of its probable quality; and that's where one's personal experiences and tastes come into play... not group thinkers (shameless use of the asinine sheeple insult by other means). And you wonder why many forum members have come to use you as punch line to their media jokes...
  15. mechaninac
    Okay, I can't resist anymore... I'll bite. Movies cost the price of a ticket or rental fee. Money is acquired through the use of you time in a productive endeavor. Time, even small amounts, is a quantifiable portion of a person's life. Therefore, spending money, which costs time, on a piece of entertainment, plus the amount of time it takes to view said piece, amounts to a portion of your life that's been spent. If the end result is that the movie was worth the investment of the time, then it was a net positive and gain to your life; by the same token, it the movie sucks, however one defines the term, then it was a net loss of your money and time... a portion of your life (and feeling like you've been fleeced at the box office or rental can have a detrimental, albeit small, effect on your life, and it's expectancy). Any criteria one decides to use to weed out bad movies, or anything undeserving of an investment of your time/money, is a good thing that serves a constructive purpose. It's the difference between being a discerning consumer of media, and being a sponge. Circular logic. Besides, it IS a snarky, insipid term used by people who'd rather marginalize and denigrate people with whom they disagree, instead of engaging in constructive and cogent debate. A discriminating eye towards anything one buys, based on one's experience, tastes, is the cornerstone to being a smart, discerning consumer. The more information one has beforehand (in a movie's case: screenplay writer(s), actors, director, producers, budget, genre, etc. are all relevant) the better in order to buy the best product possible, and avoid the garbage.
  16. mechaninac
    I really wanted to like this new toy of such a venerable 80's mecha; alas, I think the old Imai 1/40 kit looks way better proportioned... that cockpit looks 2 sizes too small, and that's just one of many minor flaws. Ultimately, price will be the determining factor if this piece will be a buy or a skip, but it doesn't look promising.
  17. mechaninac
    More like Pyroclastic floater... and I don't mean pumice.
  18. mechaninac
    Bandai, Yamato/Arcadia, Toynami, Takara, etc... pretty much all the same standard toy industry plastics used (there is some variability between grades used by each company and on each production run, even for the same company, the triangle NUNS pieces on the VF-171EX Alto vs. VF-171 CF, for example) -- predominantly, ABS. Any plastic welder that specifically states that it works on ABS will work of any toy, from any manufacturer. But if you want a brand, I've had good results with Ambroid Pro-Weld; it's readily available at most well-stocked hobby shops.
  19. mechaninac
    Plastic Weld is a plastic solvent that chemically melts plastic in order to fuse pieces that are to be bonded together; it basically makes two parts become one, with the join being just about as strong as the rest of the part. What is usually referred to model glue/cement is plastic weld for Styrene (Testor's tube and liquid cement, for example); for the type of plastics used in the average toy (ABS, Acrylic, etc.), a professional grade welder such as Ambroid Pro Weld, Tenax 7R, and others is preferred as the hobby variety isn't strong enough to bond anything other than styrene and soft ABS. One thing that can't be stressed enough is to NEVER use Super Glue (cyanoacrylate), hot glue, or two part epoxy on your toys unless it's meant as filler/strengthener to bolster ribs and screw bosses inside parts where the sloppy results won't be visible; otherwise, you're asking for failure The Styrene rout would require shaping a replacement part by machining or by hand. You'll need to bond a stack of styrene sheets together to achieve the correct thickness or start with a extruded square section solid rod to carve down to the correct shape, and you will also need to drill holes for the hinge pins. Since styrene sheet or stock are available in white you won't need to paint, but the white won't exactly match. Shapeways is a 3D printing service where you can upload a 3D mesh model (usually in STL format) to have it grown for you in a range of materials -- including a white strong type would be ideal for toy part replacement. Many members here have used shapeways to offer replacement and accessory parts for the community. Of course, in order to take advantage of this possibility, you need to model a part in a 3D modeling program (or have someone do it for you), upload it to have it vetted by Shapeways, wait for the part to be made and shipped to you... none of this comes cheap.
  20. mechaninac
    ABS is a type of Styrene (Acetyl Butyl Styrene). Even milder solvents like Testor's model cement will work on most ABS grades used in model kits (Gundam, etc) and toys, but always test first on a spare part or an unobtrusive spot to see if it will work.
  21. mechaninac
    Or your fingers are getting slippy...
  22. mechaninac
    The satin/matte finish is so much more attractive and scale friendly than the semi-gloss/gloss of all the other Macross DXs... Keeping my copy sitting in HLJ's PW is going to take a lot of willpower...
  23. mechaninac
    That's two-part epoxy... definitely NOT what you want. These are the sort of things you want to look for: Somewhere to look
  24. mechaninac
    Shyamalan-ma-ding-dong has ridden his one good movie, arguably, into directing a string of ever-worse garbage... and Signs isn't even close to his worst effort.
  25. mechaninac
    Chronocidal is right, if the assembly can be take apart, that part looks to be easily repairable with plastic weld, or easily replaced with a substitute carved out of styrene block, or swapped with a Shapeways facsimile. Still sucks that it sheared right at the hinge pin like that... yet one more thing to keep an eye out for with these Bandai DXs.
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