Lynx7725

I agree about that statue. [..] The statue is 1/7 scale. 427038[/snapback] It's still a beautiful sculpt though, and in the right hands it can be really nice.

All very nice.. but that's not Mokoto. Face is just that slightly off, and uhm, never seen her dislocate her hips like that.

Ooo it's a good week for Gundam toys. First, I recieved my package from HLJ. EMSIA Justice, MSIA Aile Strike, and HCMPro Sazabi. EMSIA Justice, as expected from my experience with EMSIA Freedom, is better looking left alone. It's back-heavy, its subflight pack is a wee bit awkward (the connecting peg is too short IMO..). Without the subflight pack, the Justice is better but very plain. Still can't grip its beam rifle properly, and the beam boomarang (!) are awkward -- I superglued them together to prevent loss. Overall, not good value for money, but still nice. MSIA Aile Strike is very nice. Aside from the usual warping problem -- my Skygrasper got a curved vertical stabilizer! -- the overall fig is nice and joints are tight. Gun grip is a bit off but better than the EMSIAs'. Could have used a bit more mobility at the waist, but it's still good. The HCMPro Sazabi.. mmmmph. Pretty. Feels like a teeny-weeny plastic model (which it is) which leads me to be concerned about the plastic skirts shattering (won't happen, don't worry). Joints are a bit too stiff, but otherwise fine. Quite posable but as expected, the big shield does get into the way. Had to glue the antenna into place since it's loose. It's a lot darker red than the photos here shows, and that's good. As an added bonus, I went by the mall today and picked up a MSIA BuCue. Cute little bugger, love the novelty of a Quad-MS, especially the ability to let it scratch its (imaginary) ears.

Ick. I guess at least a couple of F-14s ate their doors before they figured what was wrong and pass the new procedure down the line. Any known crashes/ write-offs? Why would that happen anyway? The booms off the KC-135's aren't that close to the door, right? Unless it's a big "rip off the whole probe" deal. Uhm, sure seems like a lot of work to dirty up an otherwise fine piece of work. Still, geniune model builders are probably in their own class when it comes to details.

No, not the non-skid; I know roughly what they were for, I just didn't realise they are not symmetrical; one side is closer to the front than the other. Wonder why.. Hmm so it's mainly C/C touch ups? I do prefer them this way rather than the pretty paintjobs. More.. real, really. Also, seems to be the door to the refueling probe is missing. Is that normal?

Woah, great pic. What's those patches on the top? Literally patches?

I have seen a couple of episodes, and the comment I made to a friend is that it's odd to see space battlewagons approach each other all guns blazing with Wagner (or whatever it is) as the background music. Surreal.

Huh? Dougram had ankle revoltech joints too. Not that well placed, but revoltech none the less.

Well, It's likely that it would be part of the Kampfer Zeonography package due later in the year. I was wondering what "alternative" the Kampfer would be packaged with...

*mutter* *mutter* Looking at the list of Revoltech in the lineup in the pic, I think it's better to rename the line to EvaTech. So many Evas... Anyway, Ingram looks good, just that seems to be no shotgun in the pack. Going to get one.

I know what it's like. I used to play Enemy Territory, a Castle Wolfenstein-based FPS. I remember a couple of matches where I was a MG-er and just camped a chokepoint with the MG. It got so bad that the other side had to use either rockets or mortars (depending on the map) to get rid of me. Anyway, it doesn't look Jin-Roh-ish (*compares with the CG Protect Gear Midori nearby*). Maybe inspired by it, certainly related to it somehow, but doesn't look quite it. I find it a bit funny that one scene seemed to be inspired by the cover of my Band of Brothers DVD -- a obviously Axis group protraying an iconic Allied scene.

Darn, just miss out on HLJ's early bird Zenography Kampfer offer. Guess I'll just have to pick it up for full.. (Yes, I said I'll stop buying GFF/ Zenography, but darnit, it's a Kampfer!)

Well, according to this he is...

Woah, me likey! Sure buy, bring on the Zero next! Odd though, one photo shows the shotgun, but the pic with the accessories doesn't have it.

Same here. Pics, darnit!

I just picked up the Zeonography Gouf Custom, and I finally figured out why I'm usually disappointed with the GFF/ Zeonography line. I personally look for Gundam figures that are playable and look good at it. The GFF/ Zeonography line is basically posable statues. They look really good in a display shelf but really has quite sucky articulation as a general rule -- which makes them awful for me. The EMSiA line though, gives a great compromise between looks, poseability and price. I can do more with my EMSiA Zakus than I can with the Gouf Custom, and the looks are fairly comparable. As such, I think I'll stop with the GFF/ Zeongraphy line and go with the EMSiA line instead. More suited to my needs, I suppose.

Y'know, maybe it's inappropriate for me to say all these things, but really, the amount of Rei and Asuka statues in various stages of dress and undress is really getting creepy. They aren't even of legal age, I think... Brrr.

While it's nice of her to do this for that particular cause, it would be a total embarassment on both sides of the fence if the auction price is too low...

Uhm, maybe I am out of line here, but maybe you get your speedometer checked? I mean, if it's really malfunctioning, that would have bigger implications. How to handle the fine, I'll leave to the rest.

I dunno man, Levy doesn't look too bad 414809[/snapback] Millia might pull that look off, but do you really see Misa in her uniform skirt with that split-leg look? :D 414811[/snapback] Misa could wear her Mars-Base-Exploration-and-Act-Like-an-Idiot Suit... Really though they could put Misa in a dress, that sorta stiff rubber stuff might work.. i mean what poses were you envisioning? The revoltech "giant nut" pose is just that, they could sculpt a more lady like pose for Misa if they wanted. what i'd really like too would be a 1/48 scale revoltech Zentradi foot soldier! 414824[/snapback] Well.. no comment on what I'm envisioning. My Dougrams' are finally in the post, so I don't have one on hand to look at. But I don't think they can get away from the big-nut stance because the Revoltech joints are biggish, so they might have problems getting legs close enough together in a normal standing pose (Levy's sideways lunge is possible though). The alternative to the big-nut stance, I suppose, is the super-birth-hips posture... which would be fairly out-of-human-shape at the scale they are sculpting at. I won't mind a Zentradi foot soldier, but at 1/48 there are better joint systems. Takara's 1/6 bodies, especially their Type IIs, can be good; So are Dragon-in-Dreams 1/6 or BBIs -- all of them are about 12" tall and stand close to approximately 1/48 VF-1 height. That technology is quite mature, and I think there's even a fan-made Zentradi uniform that would go onto a 12" action figure (or man-doll as some call it). Heck, just use the Pop-Box Hikaru figure and you're more than halfway there... If I really want a Zentradi foot soldier with the Revoltech joints, I would prefer them to be of the 1/100 scale. At that scale, there are few joint system that look as good as the Revoltech -- Bandai's EMSiAs are good but not as cosmetic -- so they would be great for Zentradi foot infantry. Throw in 1/100 Destroids and with Toynami's 1/100 Perfect Variables, and we got a rockin' deal.

I dunno man, Levy doesn't look too bad 414809[/snapback] Millia might pull that look off, but do you really see Misa in her uniform skirt with that split-leg look? :D

A Revoltech Misa or Millia might be very very wrong.....

Don't think I saw anyone review this yet, but I just gotten a EMSiA Freedom Gundam, after many weeks of picking it up and putting it down... The EMSiA is nicely sculpted and has a good paint job, with some spillover on the shield, but quite ok. Engineering is the usual EMSiA joints (which is a problem, see later) with the exception of the backpack "wings" and cannons, which is not a polycap but a metal joint -- understandable since the wings can be heavy. Accessories: 2 pairs of extra hands (1 gripping set, 1 open palm set), 1 beam rifle, 1 shield, 2 sabers, 1 "Darth Maul" saber. Ok as it goes. Posability is good as per the EMSiA system. The joints are good -- not overly tight and not overly loose, at least for now. The range of motion, especially in the arms, is quite nice, but the knee joint is not capable of folding back on itself, and the waist joint seems a bit limited (but of little concern), and the neck, well, I never did like that design on my EMSiA Zakus either. The beam saber hilts slide into specialized hip hosters and stay there, which is a very good implementation that I haven't seen for a long time. There's supposed to be a hip mount fo the beam rifle on the butt, but for some reason mine doesn't fit well there -- not to mention the wings are in the way sometimes. The engineering on the hip guns is interesting -- it allows you to extend the gun and then rotate it around, so you can even have the Freedom on its belly and still have the hip guns pointing upwards/ forward! Interesting ability there. The top guns are nice and simple, a swing out design that is connected at the wing joints. That meant one set of wings is "floating" and I make it a point to press the joints together every now and then. The bad news. The EMSiA Freedom is flappy. Not floppy, but flappy. It's got a weird shoulder joint thingee where the shoulder armour attaches, and that tends to flap all over the place. The "wings" are too big and tended to get into the way. The hip guns, with its gimmicky fold-out barrel, is not well engineered as the joint doesn't line up well after you fold the barrel out, and that too tends to flap around if you aren't careful. Then we get into the weight issue. As might be expected, the wings add quite a bit of weight to the EMSiA. That makes it hard to pose well, as the MS is quite top- and back-heavy, so with the slightest provocation it tends to flap over on its face. Add that the knee joints on mine seems a tad weak, and it tends to go easily means a lot of flapping.. Add that the ankle joints on mine aren't flappy means the MS is constantly off balance. And the dimensions. Pull the "wings" down and back -- the rest position, supposedly -- and the tips hit the ground, not to mention the weight pulls it back and off balance. The Freedom has to hunch to get its "wings" drawn back, somewhat silly-looking. And the beam rifle is actually too long, so it can't stand straight up and hold the gun pointed straight downwards; the barrel would dig into the ground. The shield is also a tad too big; if you hook it up on the elbow joint provided, the top of the shield would not fit under the shoulder armour if you pose the shield sideways, so the Freedom has to pose its left arm like a gorrilla for that to happen. Put all three together and you get a Freedom that is a hunchback gorrilla with a crooked arm! *pant* *pant* Sorry, got too Probish there. And then let me talk about the gripping hands. They don't grip. At least, they don't grip the beam rifle well -- yup, it flaps around too! Sheesh. Personally, I'm not sure whether the MS design calls for a lot of anime-magic to get the dimensions to fit properly, of just that the EMSiA version is badly executed. It looks correct though, it's just that those honkin' big wings just add too much problems rather than solutions. Is it bad? I don't think so. The paint job and posability is ok, if you can get the darn thing to stay in one pose it tends to hold it quite well, and look good doing it too. It's just a nuisance to get it posed right, and as such is a bit disappointing. Is it worth MSRP? I don't think so either. The EMSiA production type Zaku IIs were worth the MSRP. This? Because of the anime-magic/ design issue, I don't think it quite matches up.

My two cents on this topic.. I'm not really interested per se in having a Hikaru looking at me with those puppy-sad eyes, but from a somewhat 1/6 collector's PoV, I have the following feedback: The quality of the figure looks to be very good, and Graham's review is good, so it must be good. The main drawback is its lack of appropriate accessories. I would suggest including more hands -- two important items in 1/6 toys is articulation and hands. Articulation seems to be there -- as can be seen by Hikaru going up the wall... -- but the hands are not. I'd suggest a gun hand for each hand, and a gripping left hand (a la some of the valks) instead of the current open palms. As Graham points out, it's not appropriate for Hikaru to have "modern" weapons, but it's not necessary anyway; 1/6 weapons are easily found on eBay for very low costs, anyone who's really interested can get his favourite on his own (nameless pistols, MP5, M4s and M16s out the wazoo, AK47, Uzi, Macs, Brens, MG42, MG34, Panzerfaust, Panzershreck, Mortars, Bazookas, PIAT, even Barrett 0.5cal... pick your poison). IMO, all PopBox needs to do is to provide compatibility. Although, Macross-specific infantry weapons might be interesting.. but I digress. Hikaru isn't a PBI, no real reason why he should be packing an RPG. However, accessories that are more in-line with the story.. such as a 1/300 VF-1 or VF-4 display model, or as Graham says, a fish-on-stick, or a hanky with Minmay's name (difficult to pull off) would be more interesting. Aside: a booze bottle seems appropriate for Roy. What I don't really like is the uniform patch and dog tags. The patch, I can understand... I got a jacket which can benefit, but even then it's low priority. The dog tags even lower. Just not something I want. Moving on, I suspect Max and Roy to be similar in nature. What will really interest me is if a Millia or Misa or even Claudia figure would be offered. Sounds really hentai-ish, but frankly, I prefer to look at a female figure rather than a male one. EDIT: It was a fish on a stick, not a fishing rod...

Which is fair enough. Still, the report just cites shutdown above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 48 degress Celsius), not sure if glitches would start showing up at lower warmish temperatures. Truth to be told, it's a result of the overhyped and overbloated cost of the F-22. Poured that much money down that pit, and we still get this kind of reports. Uncharitable sorts would probably make a lot of noise about it, but at the moment I'm undecided as whether I am amused or annoyed.