combined arms

Fox set Firefly up to fail when it was on tv. By running the shows out of sequence it was very difficult to get a feel for what was going on. Fox also didn't run them every week. I remember seeing a couple of episodes, then having to wait a long time to see Firefly again. IIRC, they also scheduled it for Friday nights. (Can anyone confirm that?) WHile a cable station (like SciFi) can get respectable ratings in that time period, any of the four networks are going to fail at that time with Firefly's target demographic. The trailer looks great. I thnk I am more excited to see Serenity than Star Wars. I think this weekend i'm going to watch my Firefly DVDs again. If you haven't seen the show, rent them. Then go out and buy your own set. It's well worth it for any science fiction fan.

my valks go naked. i am too lazy to sticker them up.

the BBC dvd is like 3+ hours and i've been wondering the same thing? i hope they don't take anything out of the story just for the big screen. the BBC show was kind of bleh, the really bad special FX and costumes is what killed it. granted i blew the dust off it and watched it again recently so my opinion differs but back in the in day it was the coolest shiet out. I'm sure that they had to make cuts to the story in order to fit it into standard feature film running time of around 2 hours. the only reason why i am not worried abut it though is because adams himself was involved in the new movie's script before he passed away.

I've seen the Bud missile. I always get a kick out of that. But please educate the ignorant American. What's an octopus highball? Neil

The craziest thing about that pulse rifle is that you can barely tell that it is made out of paper. Only in the close up photos is it apparent. I wish I had that kind of skill for papercraft or regular model making. I can't wait to see how the legioss turns out.

Nobody has answered Skull-1's question yet. What is wrong with the 1/60 GBP? I'm curious too, because I was thinking of picking up a set. Neil

the one on the left definitely looks better on the valk. on the right photo sculpt, the chest armor blocks the line of sight to the head, and the leg armors seem too bulky.

Kurt, Those customs all look great. I especially like the low-viz strike 1A. Which Yamato did you start with for all of these? Neil

Sundown, I think you hit the nail right on the head. Lucas hasn't done a good job of characterization with Anakin in the PT. I believe I said something similar before this thread was hijacked for three pages. Hurin, I agree with you about Lando. He had no choice in what he did on Bespin with Vader, a star destroyer, and a legion of stormtroopers sitting in his back yard. I like to believe that had Han & co. arrived on Bespin before the bad guys, Lando would've tried to hide/protect them. But with the Imperials there, he has reponsibilities and the lives of everyone on Bespin to consider.

holy crap

I always thought that the markings were more red than orange, too. That is what it looks like here, too: Battlestar Galactica tech manual That is Richard Hatch's semi-official BSG site. It has lots of good info on both the original and new series. As for those decals, the website offers them in 12 different colors so I don;t think we can consider it a definitive source.

JsARCLIGHT has the most eloquent, insightful post in this entire thread.

Claudia Black already made an appearance this season. It's cool that they're going to bring her back again. I wonder how the first meeting of her character and Browder's character will go? Oops. I should have read that Dark Horizons article before posting. They mentioned that she has already been on SG1.

damn, i get home from work and this thread has gone from reasoned criticism to juvenile bickering. i have to say that the cartoons are a nice touch. seriously though, i am a fan of the original trilogy and enjoyed the prequels, but i still think that eps 1 & 2 are seriously flawed. i think a lot of the fanboy distress comes from the changes made to the special editions, not necessarily from the prequels themselves. but the prequels show that lucas is a very good filmmaker and not such a great storyteller. stilted dialogue and conflicts in story continuity between films are hallmarks of the prequels. (see my previous posts) also, i agree with others who think that he has forgotten the spirit that made the OT so much fun. for me, TPM is still painful to watch as a film but fun to watch as star wars movie. i actually like AOTC, but the acting leaves a lot to be desired and the romance storyline lacks any chemistry. these are all things that a director or screenwriter has control over, and lucas has both roles for stars wars. i am looking forward to episode 3, and i think that it will be a good star wars movie. but there were a lot of things that lucas could have done in the other prequels that would have made them better and ep 3 an even more anticipated film.

I know that Sidious/Palpatine told them to invade. But why did they listen? What did the Trade Federation have to gain by blockading Naboo? This is never established. And if it is Sidious giving them all the Jedi/Sith mind trick, that isn't established either. It's always been a gaping plot hole for me in TPM. I've been avoiding the spoiler thread. My goal is to go into the theater next month as naive as possible. Not an easy task.

I also agree with what was said before about Anakin not being noble enough for his fall to the Dark Side to be meaningful. Here is how I would have laid out the prequels: I think Lucas wasted a whole movie by having TPM all about Anakin as a kid. Episode 1 should have had him as a new Jedi apprentice with some origin story, too. Here he would be good, but impetuous and emotional, like he is in AOTC. If you want, you can introduce him to Padme here, like in TPM. In fact AOTC should have been Ep 1, minus the romance and with some origin story. Episode 2 should have been the whole Clone War itself. Anakin would have matured to be heroic and noble overall, but the horrors of the war would start to darken his character. This movie is where you would develop the romance between Anakin and Padme, as well as plant the seeds of his corruption by Palpatine. Episode 3 would be Anakin's fall and the creation of Vader. Palpatine would use some major event - a betrayal, Padme's death, whatever - to bring him over to the Sith. Then the rest of the movie is Anakin/Vader hunting down and destroying the Jedi while the Emperor consolidates power and Yoda & Obi Wan flee with the newborn Luke & Leia. I know that a lot of what I described in my versions of Eps 2 & 3 are similar to what Lucas must be doing, but I think that messing up TPM forced him to cram too much into Eps 2 & 3. Having the Clone Wars cartoon helped a little, but as cool as the series was I think it was really a storytelling crutch for Lucas.

The worst thing about the flaws in the prequels is that they didn't have to suck. The Gungans suck in TPM, and the romance is ridiculously juvenile in ATOC. And terrible dialogue that forces wooden performances from some talented actors doesn't help either. Lucas could have kept the main plot structure of both of those movies but by handing over the script to a better writer many of the complaint of fans would have been alleviated. As for some of the specific plot problems, most of them could be resolved easily. The whole cloning of Jango does seem like a crutch to make Boba Fett more important overall. But one solution would be to have the cloner's planet destroyed so that all of the stormtroopers in the OT are conscript soldiers. The Emperor's "game face" could be explained by having it be the deteriorating effects of a wicked force duel with Yoda. Then it becomes a before/after thing instead. The one tha still bothers me to this day is that i can't figure out why the Trade Fed wanted to invade Naboo. I know that it was all about Palpatine manipulating everyone to take over the government, but who gives a crap about some backwater garden? Did they want to build vacation homes on Naboo and Padme wouldn't give them a permit? WTF?

yeah, cause we americans are the only people obsessed with sports. how about canadians with hockey. japanese and cubans with baseball. and almost everyone else in the world with soccer. seriously though, this whole exclusive contract thing is bad for video game consumers, whether it's EA/NFL or Take Two/MLB. as has been said numerous times already, it allows these companies to let their products go stagnant. it's unlikely that nonlicensed sports game could make a serious dent in the sales of the exclusives. some companies will probably try to break into the market with generics, but i doubt that they'll succeed.

Ok, first a disclaimer that i haven't played Matrix Online at all, and I'm not a big fan of MMPORGs in general. But after reading this thread, I spent a bit of time exploring the game's website. It seems like a very interesting continuation of the Matrix universe. I obviously can't judge the gameplay, but I like the story elements that they describe. Even thought there is a fragile peace between humans & machines, the machines are still in conflict with the renegade programs. (Not like Agent Smith, but the "benign" ones like Merovingian and other exiles from the machine world.) As a human, you can takes sides and aid either the machines or the exiles, or just go on missions for Zion. Performing a mission for the Agents is an intriguing twist. It's not enough to get me to play, but I would like to see where they take the story in the future.

buh? That's a joke right? Kinda reminds me of the security bot from Runaway. Runaway? I haven't heard about that movie in years. Those crazy erector-set acid spider robots were creepy when i was 10 years old, but damn was that a bad movie. Gene Simmons was ridiculously over-acting as the bad guy. I did llike the HUD that they had in the police cars, though.

it may not be anime accurate, but i think the white stripes on the arms and the arrows on the head actually look better than the "official" paint scheme.

very nice.

Oh, and to answer the question at hand, I think it will depend what valk it ships with. The only 1/48 scale that I own is a low-viz (that is currently in need of a BP8 replacement). I'd love to try out the GBP armor on it, but in general I prefer the low-viz in fighter mode. Therefore, I would need another 1/48 to wear the armor anyway. I'm not all that concerned about it being anime accurate on a vf-1j. whichever one looks the coolest is fine with me. If Yamato wants to make the most money, they should release the armor at first bundled with a cannon fodder 1a. The fairest strategy to the fans and their bottom line would be to release it bundleed w/ a cf and as a standalone armor at first, then after a delay they should release the cf as a standalone. that way, they'll cover all bases: the hardcore collectors w/ multiple valks, the poor collectors like me who want to get the most for their money, and the moderate fan who would just want the cf. <sigh> i need more cash.

you have way too many 1/48s. you need to donate some to me.

I wonder if they will use the Binaltech/Alternators licenses as the basis for the TFs' car modes?