Mechamaniac

LOL, Teddy Ruxpin. Not to get off topic, but did anyone ever wonder what would happen if you put a Death Metal band tape in a Teddy Ruxpin doll?.

Well, it dawned on me that at 33 years of age, I have now been an Anime fan for 2/3 of my life. It all started back when I used to watch Speed Racer etc in the 70's. Anime used to be a closet addiction, back when people used to pay outrageous sums for fansubbed anime movies, and they could only be had at Sci Fi conventions etc. These were the days when it was known as Japanimation, before the term Anime really came into vogue, and became the way that long time fans differentiated themselves from the casual viewers. We all have to be elitist about something, so at some point in the early to mid 80's, everyone started watching ANIME, not Japanimation, strange. I have noticed in recent years, that Anime, has taken off tremendously. It used to be one shelf at my local Suncoast, but now there is nearly a full quarter of their store devoted to Movies, Manga, Toys, DVD's, Tapes, and even Japanese snacks like POCKY etc. Suncoast even hopped in bed with Newtype USA, and pumped everyone who bought anime for subscriptions etc. Funny thing, about 6 months ago, I asked one of the guys at Suncoast when they got so much into Anime, and the kid answered "Oh, we've always been really into it". BULLSHIT, I was around before this kid had his first beer, and remember when (as I said above), their anime section was miniscule. The other day, I got a catalogue in my inbox at work from a popular computer parts seller that had an entire section devoted to Japanese snacks, soft drinks, and candy. Iron Chef has taken off in huge ways, and at one point a couple of years ago, threatened to usurp the Food Network's golden boy Emeril Lagasse with it's cult popularity, and even spawned a US ripoff. Now, the reason for my question is this, I knew a guy once who said that invariably, once he started to like something, (Ska music was his example) it would become mainstream (Bosstones), and as a result, he had to stop liking it. He was wierd I know, but he was one of those guys that just had to be different than everyone else. So, I said all of that to say this... Do you think that Anime and Japanese Culture has become TOO Popular?. If so, What do you think will be the long term effects if this boom in popularity?

Yeesh, that is the bomb. But seeing as how the bike was really the only cool thing about Akira, it deserves some props. Wish I could afford to build, and had the skills to build something like that.

Meh, it wouldn't really be cool, unless you could sit in the cockpit etc. Imagine having one big enough in your front yard, you could sit in the cockpit, and rotate the turret at small children, the mailman, and other passers by!.

Hey, the Pin Pals was the name of the Simpson, Syzlac, Burns, Nahasapeemapetilon bowling team on the Simpsons. I love a good Simpson's tie in!. On the other hand, this looks like an asian variant of El Mariachi, and Desperado. Either way, looks like it's worth some popcorn time on my end.

Congrats man!. I for one, am not a fan of the cheesy horror flick genre, but I will watch it nonetheless since a fellow MW member directed it. You should have a Lotteryt here on MW the next time you do a movie, and let one of us do a walk on!. I'd love to die on film at least once, or be a corpse, . Yknow, on the flip side, if you ever wanted to make a film, and have tons of willing unpaid extras, you could always look here. Who knows, we could have a future Brando in our midst. Come to think of it, I have seen just about every other profession displayed here on the boards, but noone has ever claimed to be an Actor, or at least an Actor/Waiter etc. Anyway, congrats on the flick, here's hoping you got at least one Macross goodie with your Director's salary.

yeah, but didn't Seagal beat up his that chick from wierd science (his ex-wife)?? That sounds familiar. He also moved to Japan (before starring in films) and studied at an Aikido dojo, where he met the head sensei's daughter and they eventually got married. They saved up money to move back to the States so he could start his film career but he took the money and left his wife (and child) in Japan and got remarried. He's an a-hole. Oh, and the whole "I'm a peaceful Buddhist" but he carries a handgun with him at all time. He also was the martial arts instructor on Never Say Never Again, and Broke Sean Connery's wrist when he was teaching him martial arts during the filming. On a personal note, I was at a Highlander Convention where the whole cast of the TV Series was there, and someone asked Elizabeth Gracen what it was like to work with Seagal on Marked for Death, and she answered "Do I have to talk about him?". The questioner asked her if she didn't want to talk about it, and she replied "No, I'd really rather not". As to Van Damme, I heard somewhere that he has somewhat of a history of beating the crap out of extras while practicing for upcoming scenes. IIRC, he broke some dude's jaw once.

For being lousy actors who are notorious for having egos larger than even that of AgentONE?

Hey, how about someting like this for the Hikaru Strike from DYRL? Just threw it together in a couple of minutes....

Kewl, thanks for the props JROCK. Looking to get a DYRL panel going for Otakon 2K4. Happy New Year to all of us at Macross World!!! NOW - Take down those damned Christmas Trees, and Lights, box em up, and put em away! Let's settle in for another year of Macross (crushing toy debt) goodness!

Cool, and you get to see a rare treat in Solscud's picture as well. That valk has the vaunted HARO add on to the strike pack!

Welcome to Anime, the realm of the phyrric victory.

Nice work man! Welcome to MW!

Ahh, good old Steven Seagal, AKA "Girdle Man" Some of my fav movies of his: Above the Plate Out for Dinner Hard to Fill All You Can Eat Buffet Under Siege Fire Down Below - After the double Grande Meal from Taco Bell The Jiggle Man And who can forget the many Mulletts of Jean Claude Van Dumme? But the ultimate Cheesy Martial Arts Gaijin star of all time?..... Micheal Dudikoff!

Yeah, it would be about the size of the HGUC 1/144 Scale Dendrobium

Well, the reason I say this is because of the following: 1. - A couple of years ago, Yamato was barely into the 1/60 line, and was still testing the market. Now they know the market is there, and is huge. 2. - They gave tons of pre-production info to our Sithlord Graham, and he let it be known that they did in fact watch our boards, and even had polls etc to rally questions and suggestions that he made directly to them. Graham was always the one who announced the release date of every new Yamato Macross toy, and we awaited them with baited breath, and erect..... Now, things are being released, and even our sithlord Graham has not been in the know. I'm not trying to say that Graham's powers have been diminished at all, strong he is with the dark side, after all, he got a pre-production sample of Escaflowne after all!. But, I think that with the Macross toy line doing very well these days, Yamato just doesn't need or value our opinions that much any more. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, since they have taken several suggestions and QC issues formerly announced by MW members into account, perhaps there just isn't that much left to fix. And as to suggestions for new toys. As AgentONE said, noone has any idea what it takes to research, design, market and produce a toy, and to do so for every last variant of anything that could attach to a VF-1 would be impractical unless they could see a big enough market to cover the R&D.

Sorry dudes, I think the days of Yamato watching these boards for hints and clues is gone.

Do you really need to ask that question? We all know what Hikaru was watching on the night in question where he took out that armored Valk. A little Miss Macross on the TV, and some big swollen hands on the valk, Mmmm Hmmm, we know what he was up to in the "cock" pit.

yeah, like this post, everything I have ever read about G Saviour has said that it sucked, and you would rather have open oozing sores on your genitals than to watch or own it.

Band of Brothers on DVD Resorvoir Dogs on DVD My wife got me a sweet Black and Decker 14.4 volt cordless drill (RRRRrrrr) honeydo list, here I come. And I got the HY2M GOUF Christmas present to self will be a 1/48 VF-1S with Packs when tax season hits.

S W (Double E) T!

Yeah, I always thought that it "looked cool". But seriously, with all the overtechnology, and the fact that the gunpod can obviously be magnetically attached to the forearm makes it completely unrealistic. I always thought it was funny to watch the valks go to sling arms in battroid mode. Anyone who has ever slung a rifle over your shoulder, and not diagonally across the back when you are trying to use your arms for something, will tell you that slinging the rifle over the shoulder is more of a pain in the ass than just using one arm to do whatever it is you are trying to do.

Well, I have updated my first post to show the stuff we got on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. We never did catch them. The closest I came was seeing the hooded person dropping a bag on the porch on Tuesday night. In the end, I decided I didn't really want to catch them, and spoil their fun, plus the fact that with two kids and Christmas dinner to cook, I didn't have the time! So, this concludes my mystery tour. Sorry I never found out who they were, but I have my suspicions still. I don't know if it would be worth mentioning it to the suspects, it may serve to ruin it for them even after the fact. So, we intend to take this for what it is, and have decided to pay it forward, and do it to someone else next year. It really does sound like fun to be on the other end of this deal!.

Yeah, that's basically a mini version of that giant Buck survival knife that came out in the late 80's. I can't remember what it was called. On the subject of bayonets, here's the one I added to my Heavy Weapon Command Gundam. The gun just ended in this plain round end, so I dressed it up a bit with a pseudo flash suppressor, and made a bayonet out of an unused bootleg Eva knife

My current favorite toy is my 1/100 Heavy Weapon Command Gundam from the Musha series. Favorite Toydel - PG RX-178MKII Titans.