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F-ZeroOne

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  1. F-ZeroOne
    An amazing artist; he illustrated probably my favourite story featuring The Dark Knight Detective, "Night on Earth".
  2. F-ZeroOne
    Oh, good grief, I feel old. I saw that at the cinema!
  3. F-ZeroOne
    I'm not sure if theres any external distinguishing features between the A and B, the main difference is that the B has 32K RAM as opposed to 16K. I always thought the Model type was labeled on the front but apparently not.
  4. F-ZeroOne
    Yes, as far as the British computing scene of the 80s goes, the Spectrum - the humble "Speccy" - is essentially our NES. In fact, its arguable that its impact was even greater here because it was an actual computer and inspired a good many industry figures of the day to get their start in coding (even if for the vast majority of users, games were the main use). There were other rivals, like the BBC Model B (roughly comparable to the Apple II in terms of cultural impact because it was, for a long time, the school computer here), the slightly more upmarket Amstrad CPC464 (often bought down to the Speccys level due its hardware being similar enough lazy ports that failed to take advantage of the Amstrads abilities were commonplace) and representing AMERICA! of course - much more so than the Apple II - the Commodore 64, the computer your friend down the road always had. Atari had a presence, but more through their arcade games than their computers which were relative rarities. As with many things here, even the retro computer scene can be argued to have an element of class rivalry - the BBC was the upper class, establishment offering and the Speccy the humble working class hero that could punch above its weight. How true that is in actuality, though... most owners choices were probably more dictated by what they, or in many cases, their parents could either afford or were talked into buying by a salesperson in "Dixons". The BBC did a fairly good comedy docudrama on this era called "Micromen" a while back. Its worth seeing just for Alexander Armstongs portrayal of Sir Clive Sinclair as a kind of low-rent Bond villain (not to mention the famous opinion on "Jet Set Willy"... ). As far as Oasis goes, I'm not a big music person but at the height of their fame they were pretty much inescapable.
  5. F-ZeroOne
    There were a number of toys that famously didn't start as "Transformers" but were co-opted into the line later; Jetfire is of course the most famous but there was also the toy that eventually became Omega Supreme and also Shockwave. Not sure if that fits your definition or not. It might be quite hard to find now, but slightly obscure anime-inspired puppet show "Star Fleet" - "X-Bomber" in its original Japanese form - had a toy line which featured at least one version of the Big Dai-X mecha (the "DX" toy) that could transform, kinda, into a sort of space-fighter thing (the actual mecha from the show, whilst a combiner, couldn't). Not sure if you'd count "Gundam", either, there have been a number of transforming mecha from that show over the years, though most representations of them will likely be model kits rather than toys.
  6. F-ZeroOne
    Lots of headlines in the British press today about some kind of huge comeback announcement, I presume they must be referring to this right? [1] [1] In case you missed it, popular Brit beat combo "Oasis" have announced a reunion tour. No way, sis!
  7. F-ZeroOne
    I honestly thought that was a Jaguar at first and my first thought was "But who is still flying those?!"...
  8. F-ZeroOne
    Thanks to all of you who suggested how to handle my Cobi broken track/missing piece, after contacting them they sent me replacement parts.
  9. F-ZeroOne
    There are certainly dubs from back in the day I am fond of - the original "Project A-Ko" for one - but as a fairly fast reader I generally preferred subs (although when it comes to videogames, even where a Japanese language version is included, I'll usually default to English voice acting just because of the sheer amount of dialogue usually involved; possibly I'm also slightly biased as certain big-ticket console RPGs seem to have fondness for British accents now!). Probably worth pointing out that dubs are probably pretty helpful for those with difficulties reading etc.
  10. F-ZeroOne
    Not sure if they're related, but "Kiseki" was a fairly short-lived brand releasing anime in the UK. They released an infamous version of "Gunbuster", though to be fair to them I think the UK censors hit them pretty hard during certain scenes (I just found my copy lurking in my DVD Containment Facility and its rated UK "PG" - "Parental Guidance" - which I'm pretty sure an uncut version wouldn't be, in fact I know it isn't because I recently picked up the UK Blu-Ray release and thats rated "15").
  11. F-ZeroOne
    One report I saw was that he has had skin cancer in the past and requested it. How true that is I'm not sure. They do take that kind of thing pretty seriously where he hails from. I'm not entirely sure the film is the saviour of the Marvel Universe, but it was great fun. And, yeah, there were some great nods there. Anyone else spot at least one reference to a certain series of TV movies from way back when...?
  12. F-ZeroOne
    Just seemingly continuing my self-appointed role of highlighting lesser-known British-produced media of popular 80s toylines, how many of you are familiar with the British "Zoids" comic?: https://zoids.fandom.com/wiki/Zoids_(comics) I really enjoyed the issues I got as a kid - I'd forgotten the stories were bundled in with a certain friendly neighbourhood web-slinger! - but like many of these tie-ins, it just faded away as the toy lines popularity declined in the UK. Like many UK versions of universes created solely for toy sales, there was some serious talent involved; one of the artists was Steve Yeowell, who would later go on to draw that very British take on the superhero genre, "Zenith", in "2000AD" and scripts were by Grant Morrison, who probably needs no introduction. I also remember there being a pre-cursor mini-comic to this, about when the first big motorised "Zoids" kits started appearing; I can't now recall if it was a promotional tie-in given away at toy shops, published as advertising in British comics of time or as "free" gift in certain British comics (I think the latter). Edit: ah, apparently the "mini-comic" was originally a fold-out poster magazine, then resized to a mini-comic given away in toy shops.
  13. F-ZeroOne
    Wow, takes me back to the time when - at least in my part of the West - it seemed Rumiko Takahashi was anime and manga...
  14. F-ZeroOne
    Thanks again to everyone for the advice, Cobi are now sending me the parts. Also, I didn't know they did a HMS Warspite! I almost certainly don't have room for it, but thats my favourite warship... 😃
  15. F-ZeroOne
    Okay, thanks. I don't watch much anime any more these days (just too much other stuff to do) and didn't know if there was something I was missing.
  16. F-ZeroOne
    A friend tipped me off about this last night and while I've only had time to see a little bit of the first episode of "Frontier"... bloody hell. A "Macross" series. Streaming. In the UK! My younger self scouring "Boots" for VHS copies of random "Robotech" episodes would never have believed it! I may be missing something - as I say, I didn't have to play around last night - but the subs I saw were Closed Captioned?
  17. F-ZeroOne
    renegadeleader1, many thanks for the kind offer, but following Scylas advice I contacted Cobi and they advised me to essentially treat it as a complaint and make a claim through their website. If things don't work out, I'll let you know. And yes, it is the black link.
  18. F-ZeroOne
    I had considered that, I was put off by the shipping prices when I looked at their "spares" category on their website, but I'll give them a go. One issue is that I don't think I have the receipt unfortunately.
  19. F-ZeroOne
    Not sure where else to ask this, but this seems the most suitable thread: I recently got a set of three Cobi tanks (the various Tank Museums three pack with the Panzer I, R35 and - swoon - Valentine Mk. IX) but unfortunately the Panzer I suffered an, ahem, engineering casualty during construction and I broke one of the track links. Theres no spares in the box and whilst I found somewhere that did spare links, it turns out they're the wrong size. In addition, the R35 seems to be missing a piece (it doesn't seem to have fallen out whilst I was emptying the bags/box. The parts I need are listed in the instruction manual as 102496 and 152349. Does anyone know where I might be able to obtain spares, preferably in the UK or at least the EU? eBay doesn't seem to have anything, Cobis website seems to have only a limited selection and so do any of the other third party retailers I've looked. I don't suppose its something Bricklink would do?
  20. F-ZeroOne
    Just a follow-up to this - to those interested in "Action Force", specifically the comic book version, its been announced that Rebellion (the current publishers of - ahem - the Galaxys Greatest Comic, "2000AD") will be releasing Treasury editions of the "Action Force" comics that appeared in "Battle".
  21. F-ZeroOne
    Perhaps the battle isn't talked about because everyone that fought in it was... sent to Coventry? I'll get my cooling vest...
  22. F-ZeroOne
    I know the villain is from a story thats highly regarded but... I've never seen it. I think I have to hand in my bag of jelly babies now or something. 😉 It was broadcast just a little early for my timeline. According to RTD, no, viewership isn't as hoped (though this may be because in the UK at least, there is some competition as the sportsball season gears up for some event or other) but viewership among under-30s is off the charts. Of course, we only have his word for it but its also possible at the moment that people are staying in as we have lighter evenings and "Who" is broadcast currently on the BBC about the time people will be heading out for the pub (or bubble tea cafe or axe throwing club or whatever it is people do on Saturday evenings now), possibly they're catching up later. I know I have been.
  23. F-ZeroOne
    That voice. (this will make more sense after you've seen the latest episode). Also, Fifteen utters one of the most chilling lines I think I've ever heard a Doctor say, props again to Ncuti Gatwa for the delivery. There will be a new "Tales of the TARDIS", at least via the BBC media sources, on the 20th June. SPEC-U-LATE!
  24. F-ZeroOne
    Just to be clear, this weeks episode is not an episode of "Black Mirror". You might be forgiven for thinking so. 😄Also, if anyone needs the concept of "Timmy Mallet" explained to them please let one of us Brits (of certain vintages) know... 😁
  25. F-ZeroOne
    Some general impressions of the new season: excepting "Space Babies" (which some people seem to like... ) I'd say its been a solid run of episodes. If I had some niggles, its that the last three episodes all felt like they needed just a little more time to wrap up properly. The other odd thing is that we still haven't actually seen a lot of the new Doctor yet; what we have seen hints at a lot of potential, but the last two episodes feel like they lent on the companion a bit (to be fair, in the case of "73 Yards", this was because Ncuti Gatwa still had other commitments at the time and could only appear briefly; on the other hand as it was largely a standalone episode it feels like it could have been pushed further back into the run). And no, I won't be the first to point out that the current season is leaning quite heavily on the door marked "fantasy". Maybe this is the series where we finally find out how the Doctor becomes Merlin... 😉
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