Chronocidal

Ummm... wow...

Well, with an action figure in the cockpit, I wouldn't expect much cockpit detail. Improvements to the wings would be great though, and I hope they bring back the sharp nose. One thing I'd really like to see is for them to fix the rear portion of the engines.. they're supposed to be mounted a bit higher, and that's always bugged me. Course, I'm just funny that way with little things.

Hehe.. I beg to differ- it's a big empty accurate toy, at about 1/3 the cost (the original FX cost upwards of $75 new). I didn't mind the lights/sounds so much, but the stupid flight handle/missile launcher gimmick bugged the crap out of me. Aside from the fubared nosecone, I really prefer the fuselage details on the saga versions, not to mention the removable pilot/astromech. Here's my custom job waiting to happen, personally I think it's pretty when it's all cleaned up.

You know, every time I see these types of pics, I wish Yamato had just blanked out the insides of the intakes. No supersonic engine would have a fan that visible.

I can confirm about the T-16, my brother has one still. The wing mechanism is really very similar to the new "clicky" joints used in the Star Wars Lego sets, but the ridges meant to add tension to the pivot are far too small, and they eventually wear down. The plastic is also rather soft, so the ridges will eventually break down under the stress of moving the wings. I've always displayed mine the same way, sitting on the engines. Keeps the stress off the wing mounts. I can definitely say though that the all the parts are identical between the versions, even going back to the original FX version (save for the altered nosecone and redesigned fuselage for the saga models). The non-FX ones still have the same assembly for the engines, right down to the clear lenses (looks goofy with no lights in there ). I've taken these things apart thoroughly (and I mean very thoroughly.. as far apart as I could get without breaking pieces in general, and sometimes beyond that ), and the cause of the droopy wings is the way they're mounted, not necessarily the materials. The soft plastic obviously doesn't help since the weight of the guns will warp them over time. But the wing mount is just plain loose, and the internal wing mechanism is utterly slopply (completely unlike the older stubby midget X-Wing vehicle toy.. the one thing it DID have was a nice sturdy wing mechanism). The wings actually flop around in the socket, since pressure is only applied to the tabs from one direction. If you ever flip the ship upside down, you'll notice the wings suddenly droop the other way. Btw, I discovered a few tricks to straighten the guns. If you unscrew the gun mounts, you can see that the soft plastic barrels are an insert that get placed inside and sandwiched, with a couple of plastic ridges to attach to. I found I was able to make the guns decently straight by swapping bent pieces to the opposite sides, and making sure the barrels were aligned correctly before screwing the guns back together. It's not perfect, but it's leaps and bounds better than out-of-the-box condition. If anyone wants, I'll take a few pictures to show what I did. I keep the stripped model out on my desk for kicks (and the occasional computer model reference). If I ever get to eventually modifying it like I want, I'll try to remember to keep a record of what I do.

You should play the game Chrono Cross, or just look up the character Nikki. Not necessarily because of low pants, but Brera looks postitively manly by comparison.

Glad to see someone make a thread about this stuff, it's fun to see (even if I can't afford it). I'm gonna have to keep tabs on that new a-wing. I like the new engines on this one, probably have to get one or two eventually (About time I got something to go with all my ginormous x-wings ). As far as movie accuracy goes, I think this one even tops the large scale X-Wings. Personally, I've been on a crazy quest for a detailed x-wing, without the ridiculous cost of the movie replicas. I've got 4 of the large scale x-wings sitting disassembled in a box: 2 red leader versions, one good FX version, and one incomplete FX version for spare parts. I was happy to get the incomplete FX for about $5 (wanted the pointy, non-child-safe nosecone ). My eventual hope is to rebuild one of the red-leader versions into a decent display model. It's already been stripped of stickers and some paint, and the nose swapped to the accurate one. I may leave the rear greeblie deck alone, but I really want to rebuild the wings/engines some. I've always hated how the wings constantly droop on the large x-wings, hopefully I'll find a way to fix that, even if it means building new wings from scratch.

It actually is really close to the anime proportions, I've just never cared for the shape of the nose on that YF-19.. just looks too flat on top to me, and the black part on the canopy looks too long, making the nose look kind of like a duck's bill from the top... the red sensors on the side are kinda wonky too. The Hasegawa 1/72 kit is another animal entirely, since it was made with absolutely no regard for the battroid mode, making it as sleek as it could possibly be. It's these sort of design compromises that make all the YF-19 iterations look so different from one another, Yamato's included. Now, what I'd like to see is what sort of battroid that 1/48 kit would make into (provided someone would sacrifice a good kit to try that ).

Aha! I KNEW I heard "dissociative-something-or-other" in that conversation. lol Didn't catch amnesia, but after her reaction to seeing him hurt, I figured they meant some sort of mental problem. Great, so the cute one has mental issues. What next? Is she gonna go berserk at some point and start whomping on the vajra in battle with crazy voice powers??

Looks awesome I just hope you don't have to pull those cords too far to get the fingers to move.. adding gears or something to scale the motion of regular fingers up might get complicated.

Actually, who says the body wasn't still intact? My apologies for the gory analogy, but you can squeeze all the juice out of an orange, and you still have the peel and insides there.. they're just smaller in volume (which would explain the armor falling off). My guess is he was just.. well, deflated somewhat, like a hot water bottle with a leak. No reason they couldn't fill him back up with stuffing to make a proper burial.

Hmm.. maybe she's actually bald, and has a Gubaba on her head?

A good pic of the fast packs was in another thread a while back, I don't remember quite where. From what I recall, the boosters don't attach directly to the backpack, but are actually connected across the rear of the back plate. I think the connection between them serves as the mount, and clips around the base of the backpack hinge. So, they may rest up against the backpack, but I think they're connected pretty solidly to the back plate. Edit: found the right page in the other thread finally lol older thread Based on these pics and the one a little further showing just the fast packs, the boosters definitely look like they're connected, sort of like the old 1/55 ones were, but without the shell over the backpack. Looks like the crossbar runs directly underneath the backpack hinge, and I think there are a couple of tabs that actually lock the backpack in place between the boosters. Also to note.. the little goofy backpack latch isn't used in those pictures.. so I'm going to guess that means one of two things. Either they forgot about it (not too likely considering the range of poses shown), or the boosters don't rely on the backpack at all for support (my sincere hope). Anyone have a rear view of the battroid to confirm this?

Crud.. well, I swore I'd wait for the sub, and caved within 5 minutes of doing so. The awesomeness continues.. even without dialogue, I'm loving the way the characters interact. Ranka keeps getting cuter, and I love where the music is going. The ending section with the song felt just like Plus (sad, sincere, and dream-like all at once), glad to have some more Kanno goodness in there. I'm gonna have to watch that a few more times I think.

Well, the one thing that has me waiting for this the most is the fact that I only bought 1 1/48. I'm waiting anxiously for employment before I start giving in. While I don't care so much for the new style of the legs, I don't think they're too bad (yet, have to see them up close to be sure). And despite the new backpack latch, there's one place the 1/60 wins hands down: the fast pack attachment. Every time I put the fast packs on or off my 1J, I'm afraid the back will just snap off. The 1/60 design has the fast packs wrapping around the entire backplate, looking MUCH sturdier.

lol.. I think looking carefully at the title of that pic should explain the size of the legs. Apparently, this one got some bad 'roids.

You know, if you really put a lot of design into it, you could probably get every finger to move independently. I remember seeing toys that do that as well, mostly around halloween. They'd have a ring for each finger (usually one for ring/pinky together), and a handle to grip. The thumb was always a fixed pose. I looked over a couple halloween sites (they usually appear in stores around then), but couldn't find the one I'm thinking of. The trick was though that this design had the fingers directly in-line with the pull-rings.. this might be too different a design to pull that off.

1. Music was great, although repetitive (didn't hear Holy Lonely Night often enough I think). 2. M&M VF-22s. Boo-fricking-yah. 3. Gubaba. Nothing beats a living psychic hairpiece. 4. Okay, I take that back... maybe the ICBS. My personal favorite moment in that entire series was in "Fleet of the Strongest Women" when they launch what I like to call the Inter-Continental Ballistic Subwoofer. The expression on Chlore's face when the music started blasting through the bridge was priceless.

Well, despite my appreciation of the series (movies don't even compare to SAC imo), I can see how this could go two ways.. either very good, or very, very bad... I think it'll depend on a few things.. 1. Soundtrack. JW might not be a great choice on his own, but if he stuck to the feel of the series, I could deal (just please not the movie soundtracks.. ). Now, if they actually do the right thing, and have a cross-culture team pulling from all sources at once (JW, Kanno, Origa, Gabriela Robin, etc) I can see the soundtrack being all kinds of win. Top it off with a good dose of Russian/Latin, and you could have a serious audio triumph. I don't quite know why, but the Italian/Russian/Japanese/English mixing of SAC music always gives me chills. 2. Use of CGI. I know this is meant to be a tech story, but if they overuse the blue-screening, it'll ruin it. The story is supposed to be set in a not-so-far-off future, so I hope they use existing architecture to some extent. 3. Actors. To tell the truth here, I'm not sure if it would matter if the Major was Japanese or not...it would obviously work well if she was, but given the styling of the show, do we know for certain whether the synthetic body she has is patterned after any particular ethnic group? The styling in the first GITS movie actually kind of reminded me of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture for the faces. Edit: Ok, nevermind about the CGI and actors then. Didn't know if 3D meant something like Shrek or not If they're going with CGI, they may just stick with the series voice actors then. hmmm.

Ok, awesome. I guess my question then is, are those hands actually going to work with input from some sort of hand control? If so, I can't wait to see more of how you do that.

Sorry to repost bits I mentioned earlier, but it got buried fast. The shot from Ranka's memory makes me think "escape pod." My guess at this point would be that Ozma rescued Ranka during that event, and got the military boot for it, or something...doesn't make much sense he'd get kicked out for saving someone, unless he completely neglected his orders. Also.. I think we're underestimating how big that vajra is. The thing it's attacking looks nothing like an aircraft of any sort... what it does look like is either a satellite (because of the big sensor dish on one end), or an entire space station. And I'm not talking MIR-sized, I'm thinking more like a star trek style starbase. The central core of the thing looks like it has rows of windows lit up, and could be anywhere from 15-20 decks tall.. and that's ignoring all the other parts of the structure. So, the impression I get is that that particular vajra, while it looks like the one that Alto fought, might be a vastly larger version. So, anyway, barring that Ranka is really some random alien or something, my guess is that Ozma got her onto some sort of escape craft. It could be related to his military history, but that seems unlikely to me. Whether Ranka's parents were killed on the station before she left is up for grabs still.. if Ozma didn't do it, they may have saved her, then stayed behind for some reason or another (can't tell if the explosion damaged the vajra there). The craft they were on was probably a research station of some sort.

For making the hands, you may want to start from a different perspective. I don't think you've really done anything that can't be fixed, but I'd suggest keeping the finger segments disconnected, or at least not with foam. It might also get tricky to size the way you're doing it; the girls may not be able to grip anything if their hands aren't big enough, and those fingers look pretty thick. I think what might work better as a base is just starting with a pair of ordinary gloves. Find a good size that'll fit the models' hands, then build the blocky shapes directly onto the gloves. That'll keep the fingers flexible between the segments, and help to make sure size isn't a problem. Btw, I'm guessing these are for the YF-19.. I don't know for sure how you plan to do the YF-21's hands, or if you're going with the joystick controlled arms idea. The YF-21's hands are more rounded than blocky if I remember, you may want to just use some bulky-ish gloves for those.

K, is this speculation, or actual info? Cause that would explain Ranka's voice having an effect.. but it also opens lots of other cans full of worms. The shot from Ranka's memory makes me think "escape pod." My guess at this point would be that Ozma rescued Ranka during that event, and got the military boot for it, or something...doesn't make much sense he'd get kicked out for saving someone, unless he completely neglected his orders. Also.. I think we're underestimating how big that vajra is. The thing it's attacking looks nothing like an aircraft of any sort... what it does look like is either a satellite (because of the big sensor dish on one end), or an entire space station. And I'm not talking MIR-sized, I'm thinking more like a star trek style starbase. The central core of the thing looks like it has rows of windows lit up, and could be anywhere from 15-20 decks tall.. and that's ignoring all the other parts of the structure. So, the impression I get is that that particular vajra, while it looks like the one that Alto fought, might be a vastly larger version. K, can of worms time though.. if Ranka is pure Protoculture, how did Ozma wind up saving her? Assuming she was on that space station, how did she get there? And best one yet... if Sterne is Protoculture, I'd like someone to explain how his fighter and the VF-25 look so similar. I'm hoping against hope it's not another "lost and never heard from again" fleet that an enemy picked up Valks from. Edit: before I forget, I remember someone mentioning that Alto's gear doesn't stay attached to him all the time... I think that's on purpose. When he gets in the VF-25 at first, his gear immediately starts interfacing with the plane itself, locking him into the controls, and keeping him in the seat (combo control/restraint system). When he jumps out, the system must have a crazy-fast release mechanism to disengage him from the plane. Remember, since the pilots wear their gear, they don't need ejection seats, which is why Alto still had a place to sit after the other guy ejected. I'll have to watch all that again, and I don't expect it to be completely worked out yet.. it seems like a really complex system.

Thank you for that, I almost died rofling.

Wow.. no subs needed, that was awesome, the falling up part especially.. I expected him to catch her yes, but wow, still much more intense than I expected. I had to pry my hands off my desk after seeing that part. K, about the singing.. in Zero, Sara was actually able to make things happen by singing (who could forget the naked with floating rocks scene?), and I think it even triggered that flying rock thing they got on. The aphos definitely responded to her voice at various points. So, here's a funny thought.. is that voice like a source of power? We can't really say that the aphos blood is the controlling factor here, since for all we know, Ranka has no relation to it (unless by some awkward coincidence zentraedi blood turns out to be the same thing, or she's a distant relative of Sheryl's ). So that basically leaves spiritia as the source, or some form of it. I hope they take a more scientific approach this time if they go that route, but I'm interested to see what they come up with. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the aphos blood is reacting to the sound and generating a type of homing signal. Now, the blue blood has me confused. Even the aphos had normal looking human blood, hence the transfusion for Mao, which gave her some wacky powers to boot. Seems to me that the protoculture had a good thing going with that blood formula. Why would they change it? Either the vajra were designed differently for a reason (maybe operating in deep space?) or they may pre-date any known pc technology... or they may be something made by someone or something else. Oh, one last thing... Mikhail's glasses.. they weren't entirely gone in his flight gear.. I don't know if it was some animation glitch, but in several of the frames he only had a lens over his right eye.