MikeRoz

I already have the first release, and I'll probably give in and double-dip on the promised upcoming NA release. No interest in a triple-dip. All those years ago I figured I'd mux in the best of the fansubs with a raw rip of my physical copy, and I never got around to it.

The episode was good. But one thing I really appreciate about it was the TIE fighter hangar. They didn't have fold-up wings (which weren't canon prior to Disney), they hadn't been landed on their solar panels (also not canon prior to Disney), they didn't invent some new third landing method with super-long landing gear. They were held in a rack and dropped into flight, as they were always meant to. Bravo!

Ironic, for someone who has so much fun pointing out contradictions 😜

Why should that be surprising they're on the list? I know there was a bit of a rough patch with those DX VF-1 movie supers, but they came through it okay, didn't they? Doesn't anyone remember how they were the only ones delivering Kairos stock, months after the other retailers had cancelled everyone's pre-orders and resold their stock at the scalper prices? PO madness being what it is these days, I have a feeling half the members here grit their teeth and placed an order once they missed out at HLJ and Ami-Ami trying to pre-order this latest reissue of the VF-25F. They're just ashamed to admit they're paying the mark-up. Which wasn't even that bad this time, I might add!

My Nin-Nin order with EMS ended up being only $10 less than BBTS, but that's because I accidentally ordered in USD and Nin-Nin hit me with a $10 "exchange charge".

RightStuf has it, $271.99 https://www.rightstufanime.com/VF-25F-Super-Messiah-Valkyrie-Alto-Saotome-Custom-Revival-Ver-Macross-Frontier-DX-Chogokin-Figure

As expected, they told me I was out of luck. I was told to "be more vigilant" next time.

BBTS is about $10 more (before tax) than my Nin-Nin order with EMS, thanks to that $10.53 "exchange fee". I have a ticket in to see if I can re-pay in JPY without losing my place in line, wonder if that will get anywhere...

That's good - but now I'm struggling even more to see how they're going to drag the rent-a-cop through more arcs. That sounds impressive, but someone without much knowledge of US economics and demographics might be impressed if I tell them I'm going to steal the Federal government's entire quarterly payroll for North Dakota (when other states or even cities would be comparatively much more impressive targets). As a casual viewer and student of some of the good parts of a now-defunct EU, I have no idea exactly how big a deal that's supposed to be. But if it's only one of four stories we're getting this season (and thus two remaining), I tentatively withdraw my complaint, and I look forward to seeing how the Lord Walder's ISB gets pulled into the mix.

Nin-nin's preorder is still open, which doesn't engender much confidence. How blacklisted am I if I cancel after finding it at a domestic shop?

Actually, in my case, I think the conversion was happening on Nin-Nin's side, and Paypal was merely reporting it.

Dammit, I checked out at nin-nin but through Paypal and in USD. Couldn't find where on the 'select payment method' screen to switch to JPY.

I forget, is nin-nin one of the ones we trust these days?

Finally had a chance to watch the four episodes of this currently available. Six whole years ago, I wandered in slightly late to a showing of Rogue One in theaters. The early parts of that movie featured our now-titular hero skulking about with a blaster and using it very early on to let us know that he was not your typical goody-good Star Wars protagonist. These scenes reminded me of another non-Star Wars show I had on my mind at the time: Homeland. While I appreciated Rogue One for what it was, I still was left thinking to myself "They should make a Star Wars show like Homeland." A scene of Carrie hiding from a lone guy with a gun could have as much or more tension as any of Rogue One's big, bombastic scenes. There's a great show to be made if they lean into the espionage angle and keep the mind-reading space wizards off-screen doing other important things elsewhere. A while back when they announced they'd be making Andor, I thought "Oh cool, they're making that show I wished for." Or are they?

How is ordering from US sites on a PO night like this? Should I expect a BBTS link to go live at 3 AM? Do BBTS and other US-based retailers experience huge server issues when the link goes live like the Japanese vendors used to back in the day? I recently reached out to HLJ to inquire about what the shipping price would be for an MG kit I had on backorder, and the shipping was easily more than the kit itself. So I'm not that opposed to eating a bit of markup to buy domestically, so long as the shipping is reasonable.

Very tempting... If nothing else, this will probably lead to some cheap offerings of the original release in the FS/T forum. I know if I bite I'd be looking to sell one or both of my original releases.

The Wing Zero EW is still available. I'm really torn on whether to pick it up. For that price, I can grab a MG Wing Zero EW Ver Ka model kit from HLJ, ship it to the US, pay eBay prices to grab a MG Tallgeese Fluegel, grab the Snow White Prelude version of the Zwergs from eBay, and have money left over. From what I understand, neither of these kits would offer a huge challenge to someone as inexperienced as myself. I kind of don't like the way that the main wing subdivides into almost skeletal feathers, but that's a feature I could just elect to not take advantage of when posing. I wish there was a side-by-side somewhere of this item and a completed but unpainted MG kit.

I was just thinking I should sell all my Hi-Metal R products and exit the line entirely, and then this comes along and I start salivating. When will I ever learn?

Has anyone done this on a VF-19 Advance? Didn't even occur to me that this might have yellowed until I took off the shoulder armor and it was lighter underneath. I'd be concerned about the peroxide taking it too far and making it look like an Arcadia VF-1. Valid fear?

Awww. There goes that idea. Maybe if they ever get around to a 1/48 Millia I can use that N-Y store credit then. Is it me or has it been forever since the last 1/48 VF-1 release?

It never occurred to me that you could essentially transform any Valkyire into an Armored VF-1J with the extra head included with that set. I think I've finally found something on which I should spend my N-Y store credit.

Cardboard is opaque to UV though. It was probably just made of a different plastic than the shuttle. Sometimes plastics undergo a chemical reaction as they age, no sunlight required.

I know that most people here are a tad more on the negative side than I am when it comes to the recent season of Trek. My opinion is that the past seasons have certainly had their flaws, but I was able to derive enough enjoyment from them that I was happier for them existing than it not. I'd hoped that the showrunners vaulting the ship and crew hundreds of years into the future would be an opportunity for a fresh start, free from the shackles of fifty years of continuity to worry about. However, I was largely disappointed by this season. They threw away more and more of that potential each episode in. Things I didn't like: Like others, the infinite interior volume of Discovery really bothers me. Maybe there will be a brick joke moment in Season 4 where one of those guys thrown off a turbolift finally lands, weeks later. It was easier to look past the Breweryprise than this, and I hated that as it was. I don't think they were sure what they wanted to do with Osyraa. First she's a ruthless warlord with no scruples, then she's an empathetic statesman, then she (understandably) balks at being told she has to be tried as a tyrant (why was the Federation willing to ally itself with the Klingon Empire if every ally has to be held to Federation moral standards?), and then she is back to torturing and maiming - which, for some reason, comes as a complete surprise to her scientist friend. Then it's as though the writers realize they've hit a dead end with her, and she drops dead like a sack of potatoes. Her scientist friend is seemingly completely okay with this, and is now added to the collection of strays Discovery has accumulated. She stepped on her own feet here - if she wanted an alliance with the Federation, there's no reason she had to pursue that at the same time as she was holding Discovery hostage and trying to acquire the spore drive. Vance and/or the civilian Federation leadership would have been more likely to believe her and less likely to play hardball. Feels more like bad writing than any tragic character flaw on Osyraa's part. Why were there random discharges in the computer core? On a par with Galaxy Quest "chompy crushy thingies". Why was it so easy for the Emerald Chain to wipe the Discovery computers, which would have included the sphere data? Were portions of the sphere data irretrievably lost any time a DOT-23 got mowed down? How much of it survived to the end of the season? The Burn ending up being a child's tantrum feels more like Doctor Who writing than Star Trek writing. In a universe where continuity is less elastic, this presents a problem like Admiral Holdo's last stand or a poorly-calibrated time jump effectively turning Braxton's time pod into a solar system-destroying bomb. Some day, someone with bad intentions is going to reverse-engineer the physical process that Su'kal kicked off by accident, and then be able to unleash their own Burn offensively. Also frustrating is the idea that in 100 years nobody was able to figure this out until Burnham arrived to wrap reality around her little finger. Why would they (Saru or the writers) pick Tilly for first officer over an entire bridge full of experienced officers? Why not ask Vance to give you someone who's not 700 years behind on current events? Feels like this happened more because of the popularity of Mary Wiseman's character than any in-universe reason it would make sense. I didn't like the way that Burnham was railroaded into being demoted. Black box or no black box, there was no way that Burnham was going to leave Book twisting in the wind, not after they'd bonded for a year by trying to survive without Discovery or the Federation. But the writers' need to show that Burnham is the only person with the vision to care about the apocalypse that levelled the Federation gets in the way of any more rational way she could have framed the necessity of the mission, or Saru's emotional intelligence to see that Burnham's not going to let Book die. I mean let the Black Box get away. Totally about the Black Box. Of which I presume that Starfleet has recovered none over 100 years, making this one essential. If you're going to do a backdoor pilot for the Section 31 show, at least introduce some of the characters and settings that are going to be in it. Otherwise your two-episode romp through the mirror universe that ends up all being a dream anyway just ends up seeming self-indulgent. The Disco bridge crew's near-orgasmic ecstasy upon finding Burnham. Burnham, spending a year without them, I can understand being super emotional. For the Disco crew, it's been about a day? I was just finishing up a TNG rewatch at around the time S3 started airing, and I remember one of the actors (I think it was Wil) in an interview saying that Rick Berman or someone else had straight up told him "Don't emote!" - I'm not going to pretend that TNG was perfect, but can't we find a happy medium? There were some things I did like: Vance was cool. The refit Discovery was cool. The badges were cool. As AirPods and Apple Watches become ubiquitous, Starfleet communicator pins become less and less compelling as 24th-century technology. I was able to suspend my disbelief about the practical shortcomings of the TNG pins, I can live with suspending my disbelief for some of the rough edges of the new combo pin UI. Though, how can a transporter beam itself somewhere?

I'd been kind of tuning out on this thread for a while (not interested in Kaki, no big announcements) but this is really disappointing to hear. I'll admit I've been remiss in pressing my ticket tag game with N-Y - they initially got back to me advising me of the cost to upgrade my order to UPS or downgrade to SAL, but no response since to my two replies. Submitted a new ticket just now. If they fall through, what's a good price for these? Is the $174 I'm seeing at Amazon a decent option? A 100% markup leaves a sour taste in my mouth but I might have to deal. Torn between giving up on N-Y or continuing to play it by ear, hoping they come through like they did for the Kairos.