Lynx7725

In other news, an MD-80 operated by One-Two-Go, a budget arm of Orient Thai, just crashed on landing at Phuket. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp.../300192/1/.html From the news report and video, it was an aborted landing in very bad weather, and it looks like the plane skidded off the runway, into a ditch and an embankment, broke up and burned. They hadn't recovered the black boxes yet, since rescue work is still on-going.

Probably sunlight. The upper F-22 looks like it's passing through a shadow. BTW, it looks kinda 'shopped..

Space Marine? I'm not sure. A new player won't need so many, and an old player won't need it either. After so many years, I already have enough (assembled and unassembled) marines for a company, I don't really need another one.. and the Vindicator's not exactly something you need very many of.

The Baneblade came out because of Apocalypse, so yeah. BTW, it was my LGS owner who wanted a 3-pack, no such thing on offer, sorry. Apocalypse boxes, yeah, some of them are quite worth the money. The Banies are one, but the triple Leman Russ and triple Basilisks are fairly good, and the many-crisis-suit box is another. Some good value there, but quite steep initial outlay.

Hmm, I probably got this mixed up. My LGS store owner was going on about getting 3 Baneblades, I might have mixed it up and thought they are offering a 3-pack. (They are offering a box with 10 Leman Russ, mind you.... )

Well now, FW I can happily take a knock out of. FW, the good news is that you really do pay for the artistic ability behind the realisation from art to resin; their work is very good and they got some good -- not great, but good -- casters there. However, they aren't very efficient casters. In some cases, such as the IG Laser Destroyer I got a few years back, they cast the entire top AND front as a solid block of resin. It's the stupidest thing I've ever saw in resin casting, and to top it off, I knew I was paying for that stupidity. As the kits get larger, the more resin you get. The biggest kits are actually more resin-efficient because they need not work with existing plastic kits (which is what the Laser Destroyer had to), but the sheer size of some of their work meant a LOT of resin. Bear in mind they work roughly in 1/48 or 1/50 scale, and think of comparable plastic aircraft models. Now imagine the aircraft cast solidly (or mostly solidly) out of resin. That's about how they do it. FW is great for detailing parts, but nowadays they are more into niche armies, which makes it a hideously expensive way to get into 40K. Not as if we aren't spending enough on it already, but FW really straps a booster rocket to the price and lights it with glee.

Oh, then I suppose you would be quite happy to hear that they are selling a three-pack of those?

Where's the M.A.C. II option?

The Baneblade is coming as a plastic kit but not sure how long it would be in production. There's a few things to consider though. 1. It's definitely going to be cheaper than the Forgeworld model. Resin or not, Forgeworld Baneblades are priced beyond your usual gamer's reach. 2. Do note that a Baneblade is not something you commonly put on the tabletop for games... 3. You don't need a Baneblade, you want one. If you want one, this is an opportunity to own one at a cost lower than Forgeworld prices. If you don't want one, then the discussion is moot.

Plastic has since came a long way in hobbyist wargaming. AT-43 from Rackham has very crisp plastic models, and GW had switched to a harder plastic that holds better. And every year, plastic closes the gap between the two material. Metal is still very good when you want a high-grade, high detail model, but at a substantial weight and customization penalty. With just a bit of tradeoff in details for significant advantages in weight and customization, the plastics are very, very acceptable nowadays for hobbyist gaming.

The background and story of 40K is very good, and very rich -- the benefits of having 30 years to develop. That's a big deal, really. Rules come and go, but the richness of the culture is a constant. Even if you have been in the hobby for a dozen years, the attention to detail can still catch you out. As for superiority of models, I think metal are overrated for a hobbyist game and horrible as a pre-painted, collectible game (and I say this having transited from Citadel metals to Citadel plastic and having gone through FASA, Rackham, Privateer Press and Reaper metals and plastics.. Oh. And Wizards too, if you count the rubber as plastic...). No matter what you might want to say about GW, but bar none, and I mean bar none, no company in the world makes models with the level of balance between sculpt, details, durability, customizability, engineering and weight that GW had managed to achieve. None.

They did WHAT? HANG 'EM! (Not in any seriousness, just an expression of dismay.) The nose art represented a facet of history that will likely never happen again (hopefully, it really doesn't happen again). And they painted over it? Sheesh.

Ooo, so that's what that tugging on my leg was. Pull harder, darnit! Hmm, true, the cyborgs were kinda all over the places. But I don't really recall any females with rockets for mammaries in the series -- which actually made it good for me, I think. Less sex-plotive themes, more story and character developments.

Every book, actually. Translated, of course, so yes, I'm sort of familiar. Might be the picture, but it made her look taller than she appears in the manga, and the face shape is a bit different. Still, nice to have something from the series. The Rei figure, mine's fairly intact and still quite ok. I don't play with it very much though.

Body proportion and face doesn't look quite correct, but still quite nice. Odd that they have both a motoball AND a MIB version..

Ah, the joys of military thinking... Seriously speaking though, what's so special about the gun? USN and USAF planes do tend to get economics of scale in production because they use standard equipment, and this is a huge advantage in logistic, so it's a bit strange to see a RAF fighter with this problem.

Oh my, my wallet just curled up in a fetal position. 1 Strike VF, 1 Movie Patlabor, at least 2 Helldiver (probably 4, a full platoon), and depending what accessories the "Broken" comes with, at least 1. Hmm, my wallet just started digging...

Heh, that sounds like some food and safety hazard warning..

I'm not a big fan of Star Wars but did follow the X-Wing books, which are well written. I think the primary problem I have with the EU is that they always try to rehash the old characters -- it's always Luke saving the Republic, it's always Han doing some daring stunt with Leia cheering in the background. Honestly, if these guys were actually alive, the mileage on their clocks would have killed them off already. I think that's why the X-Wing books are so interesting. Yes, the key characters are important, but they are peripheral to the story -- they provide some high-level backstory but let the main book characters do the work. That shows us that the universe is really bigger than just Luke, Han, Leia and a sock puppet -- which gives more interesting texture to the story.

Hmmm mm. A few thoughts. One, the stand may not come with the actual. On the Beta Battroid, that seems to be grooves on the upper part of the crotch area, so it might be, but it's really hard to say at this point. At any rate though, a stand is not the answer because it relegates the connected Armo-Soldier to a display piece, and you just know someone would play with it off the stand. If the material strength isn't strong enough, well... flying (followed rapidly by crashing) Legiosses would be a concern. Then again, the Beta's really too big to be playing with.. Two, the connecting arm's not the only weak point. I'm not sure whether the arm actually extends sufficiently to cup the Legioss' groin -- the pics aren't very clear on this point (hidden mostly by the Legioss' legs) and the arm doesn't seem long enough. If it doesn't cup, that means the whole Legioss is essentially supported/ hanging by the hinges that the cockpit connects to the torso. I'm not really sufficiently confident of that joint. As it is, the stand/ display seems to be canted backwards a bit, so it might be taking the weight off the joint a bit.. I'm also not sure whether the Legioss is a production build (with the heavy die-cast content) or a resin mockup (considerably lighter), it looks like a production build... I think it does cup the Legioss' groin, because the alternative is just too stupid to consider. Would help if we have additional pictures from other angles..

That happened quite a few years ago I think. It's a bit weird to see the pylon detach along with the bomb, I think it's not supposed to do that (because that makes the bomb very inaccurate.. well, MORE inaccurate). Still, it's good to see both pilot and photographer bail out successfully. One of the comments there said both survived without injuries, but they must have been bruised pretty badly from the ejection.

I like this shot. Only problem, the alpha's in the way... Hmm, I'm not sure I am happy with the connector arm. I know they are limited by what they can do, but that's the only support I can see, which places a lot of strain on that part. Given how relatively heavy the Alpha is, that's going to be an area of concern. I also hope they get the cockpit to secure better; a "smiling" Beta while connected to the Alpha is a bit weird..

Bright Blue (Aoshima) is showing visible banana nose; note that the nose gear is fully extended whereas the MPC display isn't. Also, it appears to be resting on its chestplate. From experience, I know you can get a smidgen of clearance there, so it's probably a mistransformed Legioss. (Bear in mind that the tolerances for a "perfect transformation" is a bit tight so it's easy to mistransform the thing..) I think it would be difficult; the problem really lies in the chestplate and the upper torso points (offhand), so it's hard to put in anything that would counter.. unless you mean a snazzy paintjob that will distract you, I suppose a shocking pink Hello Kitty Alpha would work then... Let me take some time to say this.. although I'm quite critical of the Toynami Alpha, I think the basic design is good although some areas (like the head sculpt and neck area) can be improved. I see the problems of Toynami Alpha as mostly deriving from poor design-to-manufacture realization: the wrong use of the wrong material, too much and too little parts clearance tolerance, and perhaps a business failure to ascertain product quality before mass production.

Well, I heard of it (and using it daily...). Anyway, my home laptop, not really an issue anymore -- just once a day, it tends to stay logged in. I'm ok with that. I suppose it might be my ISP acting up. My work PC is horrendous. Every few minutes. I suppose our internet gateway, anti-virus and all that plays merry havoc on the settings...

Well, the banana-boat can be minimized, it's just that you do need to worry at the transformation a bit to get it to sit right -- the torso has to compress totally and the arms have to be at the right place to hook into the holes, after which you have to tweak here and there a bit. You can minimize the bend so that it's not that noticable, but AFAIK it doesn't quite go away. And yeah, the hands are kind of flaky. My Hoquet's right hand is cracked and that's kind of tricky to repair.