Hiriyu

This topic should now be closed. These arguments have no place here.

I wish I could make it up there tomorrow morning, but it's not in the cards for me this time. Here's to Scaled, SS1 & Mike! Good Luck & Godspeed.

I dunno, but I found this kind of funny in his item description: "...Detractable landing gear with authentic rubber tires."

Heh. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5924181820&rd=1 Heh heh.

LOTS of great mecha from that series. My old favorites were all of the PA-series armor suits and Mayerls, used to build lots of those models. Still a fair number of old-stock kits popping up on Ebay too.

Thanks for sharing. I've always loved that color scheme - I built one of my old 1/72 VF-1J Miria models in that scheme twenty years(!) ago. Your pics bring back some great memories.

Wow, very cool - I like it I've thought about doing one just like it, but haven't spared the time as yet. More pics please!

UN Spacy, you're a little shy on the video card front, though your CPU and memory should be just OK for this one. You can buy an ATI Radeon 9800Pro now for well under $200, which would allow you to play this and other DX9 titles fairly well. With your existing config, I wouldn't bother. Sorry

You're kidding, right? If so, ignore the following. Though Matsushiro may have held the US patent for the designs, this does not make them the designer. Rather, Matsushiro was a manufacturer/distributor who had some of Takatoku's production tools for a period following Taka's dissolution. The patent appears to be for the outward graphic design or basic appearance of the toy. I was actually a little surprised to see the Matsushiro name listed on the US patent for JetFire, instead of BW, Bandai or Hasbro. I suppose that Matsushiro must have been in posession of the tools when Hasbro made the decision to import them as Transformers.

Echo ewilen here. One thing to consider for many of you, I suspect, is that by rendering your 1/48 custom fodder, you may be losing transformability in that toy at the same time. Please keep that in mind prior to having John do his wunderwerkes.

14/18 here. Like others, I was thrown by the fact that many of these were from console ports instead of the original arcade machines (ie; Frogger never sounded like that in the arcade, so missed that one...)

Don't forget the (lackluster IMHO) MacrossII arcade game either. Also playable in MAME.

You may want to take a look at Platt College here in Pasadena/Eagle Rock. They have an extensive curriculum in fine arts, are reputable, and are very reasonable in terms of tuition costs. Best of luck!

You can disassemble the legs and build up the hip sockets/ball studs with a little bit of clear nail polish. On reassembly, you'll likely tighten all of the leg assembly fasteners better than the factory originally did, which will also make the landing gear, gear doors, and landing light hatches nice and tight, resulting in chunky monkey-like action. No more collapsing rear gear either. While you're at it, *slightly* tighten the screws that hold the fore/aft chest and backplate sections and wings together - this will tighten up the wing sweep quite nicely. Arm joints can be tightened the same way. The reason that the 1/60s have a reputation for floppiness is because of all of these incompletely torqued fasteners from the factory. All of my 1/60s got a ten minute tightening treatment right out of the box, and none of them presents any flop whatsoever... Except for those 1J heads perhaps .

I've finally received my "new" Ride Armor and it's in great condition (actually just like new), but the stickers have all been used and are on the tired side. So, I will definitely need the repros if made available, and will not be able to help supply an unused original sheet. Looks like the ball is in Global's court

Well, I've had mine (#2894) for about a week now, long enough to form an opinion and make some observations. All in all, I'd say that I'm satisfied with what I bought - though I'm neither underwhelmed or overwhelmed by the product. This is my first Toynami toy of any type. Here are the slight issues/gripes I have with mine, none of which have made the MPC Alpha a make or break proposition for me: 1) "Opus' disappearing o-ring" in right arm - oddly enough, this made no difference and arms are not at all floppy. 2) Chest-piece hinge broken on one pivot before removal from box - a bit of a pain, but nicely and completely repaired by building up the area slightly with Elmer's glue. 3) Paint on nosecone not completely flush/inline with paint on fuselage sides. As for the positives: I really like the overall sculpt. Though it can't compare with fan works like John Moscato's beautifully over the top rendition, it compares favorably with any of the old Gakken toys (I own or have owned every Alpha toy Gakken ever made with the exception of the smaller 1/72s). In comparison with the old Gakken 1/55 two and three mode versions, this thing is actually quite amazing. In no way though, would I consider it to be the structural equal of the old Gakkens, particularly the beefy 1/35s. I also like the overall weight of this toy, though I'd agree with others in that the placement of some of the diecast parts could be questionable - namely the intakes and lifting arm covers. In terms of diecast usage and placement, as stated by others as well, I find these quite comparable to the Yamato 1/60 line - You either like it or you don't. Personally, I don't mind. The transformation mechanism(s), though fairly complex compared to any of the older Alpha toys, seems to work pretty well though in some cases can be kind of frightening to the user . Namely the leg, fuselage, and wing extension and retraction. Once you have a feel for it and the parts have unbound a bit, it's not really an issue, but there were a few heart-stoppping moments for me the first time around. The landing gear are of course kind of silly and small (microscopic even), but I think that most people's complaints about these, and some other parts on the Alpha as well, have been the result of not using them to their fullest extent (pun intended ). Lastly, I'd like to mention the pilot figure and little folded-up ride armor. These, in my opinion, were nicely executed and are overall a nice touch.

I was definitely a Lego kid myself. I remember my aunt sending me my first kit, the Expert Builder (predecessor to Technic or whatever they call it now) GoKart kit back in the mid-late '70s at age seven or eight. The holy grail back then was the Auto Chassis kit with piston engine and full suspension, which took me a few years to lay my hands on. I also fondly remember my old Expert Builder Helicopter kit with geared rotor/stabilizer and retractable landing gear. While all the other kids were screwing around with the inferior castle and space legos, I was building whacked out mechanical contraptions of my own design, like 4-speed crank [and later, electric motor] operated gearboxes and differentials, often integrating them with more static toys and models. I actually won a high school science fair for an older sibling with one of these machines. Man, I wish I still had some of that stuff...

I'm still waiting for my Henshin Robo ride armor to arrive (bought the day after Anubis'), but I'd tentatively like to commit to the repro decals. Not sure about the condition of the original stickers/sheet yet, but fresh spares can't be bad in any case. *edit - If my stickers are OK, I'd be more than happy to scan them at high res *

Kin, Truly incredible work, my lower jaw is on the floor! Earlier in this thread, you mentioned the possibility of using foam as an internal stiffener. This stuff is readily available, inexpensive, and works well, but requires a fairly long set time compared to industrial 2-part urethane foam. Also, since the substrate is paper, you would likely want to add small amounts cumulatively so as not to saturate your paper. At any rate, thank you for sharing this terrific project with us!

That's hardly a strictly asian discipline... If I recall correctly, this skill actually comes from Betelgeuse . ...And slightly on-topic, Graham, I believe that the reasons movies like Hero and Crouching Tiger do better in the states is that they've actually received wide release and heavy promotion, whereas "legitimate" Kung Fu flicks are much more a niche which generally doesn't recieve regular media attention.

There's also the possibility that there are not a substantial amount of these valks left for him to sell, so no need for a substantial amount of buyers. Just a few freakish big spenders required

Yup, been wondering about that comparison myself... This thing is bigger (read, larger physically) than I had thought. Waiting for mine to arrive...

http://www.somethingawful.com/

[Kent Brockman] Looking Off-Camera 'Hmm... Do we have a source on this story?' Furiously Scribbling on a Notepad '"A bunch...of drunken... fanboys. Right!"' To Camera 'So there we have it folks, once again, I've been had.' [/Kent Brockman]

Happy 1000th I'm kind of waiting to see if I get a 'second chance' offer from the seller myself - it wouldn't surprise me a bit...