cschell

I'm not a CD/LP collector, so I'm not sure if this is rare or not, but I thought I'd pass on this link to an auction for Macross "Jam Trip" over at Mandarake. http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/auc_e/itemInfo.do?itemId=03002853490100001

Seeing this topic pop up again, I'll post my only Macross TV cel. It's seen better days but I like it.

Local stores around me are pretty bare too. Nearest Target has had the same figures for months, 1 Scarlet, 1 CC, and a few comic packs. TRU has taken the space for GI Joe and put other toys there. The few remaining Joes they have (TRU exlusives, old comic packs, 1 peg for figures) aren't even located adjacent to each other anymore. I did finally find the latest comic packs, the wave with Firefly, not sure of the number these days. It was at the walmart nearby, which was shocking as it's the most poorly stocked walmart I've ever seen. Apparently being the only one on the east side of town they can't be bothered to stock it. (And I'm not just talking toys, it's common to see half empty shelves everywhere.) Looking at the hisstank sightings forums, Phoenix seems to have the latest waves and vehicles all over the place, but they apparently haven't made it down to Tucson. Typical. I'm glad I ordered my VAMP through BBTS, received it today. It's the one vehicle I really wanted. They made some changes compared to the classic one, but I like it. I do think it was really stupid of Hasbro to give Clutch arms that won't bend 90 degrees at the elbow. Makes it hard to get him to hold the steering wheel. What were they thinking? It's the first figure I've felt the need to trim down an arm so that it can bend properly. At least they included weapons and a figure stand for Clutch, unlike the Target exclusives. And they kindly even listed the name as just Clutch on the base, not "Double Clutch" as they're calling him these days.

I finally received my Doc earlier this week. Only had to wait 11 weeks from the time i sent the order form in until the time Hasbro finally got it to me. I had actually given up on ever receiving it. I wonder what the typical turn around time is for these things.

Sounds like the Targets around here, although they've been that way for a couple of months. Only difference is that some of them also have a Ripper or two. At least they did get the exclusive vehicles in at one point to break up the monotony.

Thanks for that. Looks like BBTS's markup isn't too bad so I'll go ahead and preorder. I have to get the VAMP as it was my first GIJoe toy and always was one of my favorites, and the Targets/Walmarts near me have been really bad about getting new stuff. It's still all Ripper/Hooded Cobra Commander around here.

I've never even heard of the Mamba. I always liked the Dragonfly as a kid though. (I think that was the name, it's been a while though.) When I was still playing with Joes back then the only helicopters were the Dragonfly and the Fang. I've still got my original Skystriker through. It's the only Joe vehicle I kept. Shin, do you happen to know what the price is supposed to be on the upcoming vehicles (VAMP in particular)?

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Here's the only cel I have from roughly the same age as Macross. Most of my cels are from newer series. Perhaps someday I'll find one of Voltron to go with it. (Came close once on a really nice one, but got there just a little too late.)

Picked up the target vehicles yesterday. They must have just put them out as the display was full. Mostly wanted the Hiss but decided to grab the others given they hardly cost more than a figure by itself. If I end up not liking them I guess I can always sell off the vehicles. The boxes/windows of the ones at my Target looked to be in pretty good shape overall, so I guess there is hope for the box concerned collectors. Thanks for pointing out that they're up front by the registers. They were up by the second row back of registers in a rather obscure location. If I hadn't known to look by the registers I never would have found them.

If anyone is interested Mandarake has a Milia TV filght suit close up currently on offer in their auction section. http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/auc_e/itemInf...001537060100002

Actually when it comes to windows some of the flat panel LCDs out there have excellent anti-glare screens (or at least they used to, current trend seems to be moving to glossy screens for a little higher contrast ratio.) When I replaced my CRT a few years ago with an LCD with the anti-glare screen in a room with a big window just to the side of the TV it was so much easier to watch than the CRT due to the reduced glare. Also helps a lot at reducing the glare from floor/table lamps. Viewing angles are pretty good these days as well. Not the 178 degrees they all claim, but fine for most practical viewing angles. Of course if you're never going to use HD, then it's pretty pointless to get an HDTV. Extra cost, small 4:3 pillar boxed area relative to screen size, and scaling required. Have you considered thrift stores or garage sales?

So which comic packs would those be? The one I picked up with Scarlet and Hawk still has the original (worst case) for both Scarlet and Hawk. And Hawk uses the same body as Stalker.

Was at target today, and they had a lot of single carded figures and comic packs. Finally picked up a Zartan. The best thing I noticed though was that they had some Stalkers with a truly fixed crotch. Not the minor mod like on Beach Head that IMHO doesn't make that much of a difference, but rather one that looks like the old style figures with a really thin crotch area. The figure can actually bring it's legs to about 85 degrees from vertical while keeping both legs parallel. Finally one that should be able to sit properly in a vehicle. Hopefully they'll fix the other figures like this going forward.

I have to say in my experience the Microman versions are definitely better, and much cheaper as a bonus. (But they are still too floppy.) My Shounen Ace Asuka is one of the worst figures I own. It falls apart if you look at it funny. Trying to pose it is an act of frustration as you move one part into place and a different part just falls off. Mine also has the loose heels so I had to glue them into place to get it to stand. And what's up with the heels anyway? I don't recall 8" stilettos in the cartoon. (I'm not really the biggest fan of the sculpt on this figure, always seemed a little too sharp / stylized for me, but that's of course personal preference.) I think Kaiyodo did a really nice job on the sculpts of the gashapon sets they released long long ago, so I have high hopes that the revy figures turn out really well. Wouldn't it be great to have a good looking figure that you can move without it falling to pieces? Kinda like the GIJoe toys or the Microman 99 line.

You're probably much better at this stuff than I am (pretty anyone would be) but be warned that at least on mine while the silver paint was one quite thick and required some effort to remove, the blue paint on the feet was incredibly thin. Just the slightest touch of alcohol completely removed the paint from a spot.

Without the colors how does one distinguish SS, Thundercracker and Skywarp?

A "classic" that I can't stand is Apocalypse Now. I remember this one especially because my cousin always ranted about how terrible it was, despite the fact that it was generally well regarded. So I finally watch it, and in the beginning it seems pretty good and I'm wondering what my cousin's problem was with it. Then it gets to the part with Brando, and the whole movie dies a horrible death. How exactly was this guy supposed to be a great actor?

Received my shipment today. Placed the order on the 7th. My "free gift" was a Generator Gawl Vol 1. Everything I ordered is present. It's all in boxes / DVD cases. And yes they punched through or slashed the bar codes. (Which I don't care about at all.) I had no problems the last time I placed an order on a similar sale from them either. Chad

Bluetooth is 2.4 GHz technology. It's just a protocol definition for products to follow so that they can interoperate with one another, but it shares the 2.4 GHz ISM band with many of the other home (and other) electronics. Just because Microsoft isn't using Bluetooth doesn't mean they will have problems. Their controllers are probably using some form of spread spectrum transmission protocol that will allow them to operate just fine in the typical home use 2.4 GHz environment. Chad

Looking at the snake eyes picture I can see why they put them in the cloth pants. Those legs look terrible. I only ever liked the first few years of the 3 3/4" figures, the ones where the vehicles and weapons were mostly based off real stuff.

At least that makes planning any MW Tucson get togethers a rather simple matter. But to bring things back on topic, I have a question about Hasbro vs. Takara Gen 1 reissues. I have two Hasbro reissues, and they're both pretty poor quality. Silverstreak whose mold has lost a lot of the detail of my original, and Skywarp who has one wing that is so poorly made it doesn't even want to stay in the socket. Are the Takara versions any better? (Somehow I'm guessing they aren't.) Chad

Thanks for the welcome. I'm a southern California transplant. Not a frequent poster (obviously) but I did make it to two of the MWCons. Chad

Since I know there are some Tucson folks on here, I thought I would let you know that the Toys R Us at Broadway and Craycroft has a few Grimlock and one Battle Ravage if you're still looking for either one.

Hi, I must say I'm surprised that all of your LEDs are even lighting. White/blue LEDs have a much higher forward (turn on) voltage than most red LEDs. With everything connected in parallel your red LEDs should light at a voltage too low for your white/blue LEDs to even turn on. This would mean that all the current from your batteries (probably about 150 mA for alkaline) would flow through your two red LEDs, most likely destroying them. Of course once they were destroyed all of your white/blue LEDs would then light. Are you sure your red LEDs are still working? (Are they shining through red plastic, perhaps the red is lighting from backlight from the nearby blue LED?) Anyway, connecting a bunch of LEDs in parallel without individual resistors is not generally a good idea. (Too late now I know.) If you want to do this you need to make sure all of the LEDs have matching forward voltages at the current you wish to run them. (Even two LEDs of the same brand / model will likely have varying characteristics.) Let me try to explain this with an analogy. Think of an LED as a spring loaded trap door. Now imagine a room with several spring loaded trap doors in the floor of that room, and lets say that the doors are all water tight when they are closed. Now you begin filling that room with water. As the water level increases the pressure on the trap doors will rise, until eventually there is enough pressure to open the trap door with the weakest spring. Water will begin flowing out of the open trap door. The trap door will continue to open wider (and allow more water to flow out it) as more water is added to the room. This will continue until one of three things happens. 1) The water level rises to the a point where it opens the trap door wide enough that the rate of water flowing into the room is equal to the rate of flow out of the trap door. At this point equilibrium has been reached and things will continue in this state forever. 2) The water level rises to a point where the pressure on the trap door is too much, causing the trap door or fail catastrophically. To complete the LED analogy I'll have to add at this point that the trap doors have a failure sensing mechanism such that once a catastrophic failure is detected an emergency bulkhead completely and permanently seals the opening created by the damaged trap door. (Sorry, I know it's weak. ) Thus no more water flows out of that trap door again, ever. 3) The water level rises to the point where the second weakest trap door opens, and now water flows out of both open trap doors. However, there is still (and always will be unless the first door fails) more water flowing out of the first trap door than the second. This process will repeat itself until eventually the system reaches a state where the rate of water flowing into the room is equal to the rate of water flowing out of all the open trap doors. As the water level rises more and more trap doors will open, but the chances of the weakest trap doors failing also increases. If the flow of water is too strong it would eventually destroy all of the trap doors. Ok, I hope that was fairly clear. Now the analogy is that a bunch of LEDs wired in parallel is equivalent to a room with several spring loaded trap doors in the floor. The water level in the room (or the pressure it places on the doors if you prefer) is equal ot the voltage applied to all of your LEDs. The water flowing out of open trap doors is equal to the current flowing through the system. Catastrophic failures are when you too much current flows through and LED, destroying it and effectively removing it from your circuit. The strength of the spring in the trap door is equivalent to the voltage at which the LED will turn on and start to carry current. (Just like door opens and lets water start to flow.) The more current that passes through the LED, the brighter it glows. So in your system, you have 13 doors with strong springs (the white/blue) and two doors with weak springs (the red.) The red will either be glowing very, very brightly before the white/blue turn on, or they will have already failed. (Unless you have red LEDs with unusually high turn on voltages.) But even when all of your LEDs turn on, they will not glow with equal brightness, and they will not have the same current flowing through them. Pairing each LED with an individual resistor is like raising the trap doors to different levels in the room. You place the strongest trap doors on the bottom, and weakest near the top. That way the weakest doors will have less pressure on them and all the doors will open at approximately the same time and the let the same amount of water flow through them. Ok, end of analogy. Now let's go back to your situation. Red LEDs typically have a turn on voltage around 2 volts. White/blue LEDs typically are around 3.6-3.7 volts, although some can be higher. Your red LEDs are likely dead, or being overdriven to the point where they won't last that long, so I'm going to ignore them. To clarify a lot of what has been said in this thread, I'm going to bring in the equation that relates voltage, current, and resisitance (Ohm's law.) It is simply: voltage = current * resistance (* = multiplication) So if you have a 5 volts across 1 ohm, you get a current of 5 amps. Most LEDs can handle 20 mA (.020 Amps) without a problem, although you stated yours were 10 mA, so if that is what they are rated for that's what I'll use. Once an LED turns on, it starts conducting current through it with a very low resistance. This means that a small change in the voltage across the LED will create a large change in current through the LED. So while 3.6 volts might turn on a white LED with a few mA of current, 4 volts is likely high enough to destroy the LED. In your case, you have 13 LEDs in parallel. They are almost certainly not matched to one another, but let's assume that they are close. Alkaline batteries are not high current devices. AA Alkaline batteries are 4.5 volts, but only at about 150 mA. So your system is current limited and the average current going to each LED is about 150mA/13 = 12 mA. (Probably 8 to some, 14 to others, etc.) Now, what would happen if you connected a 4.5Volt, 1A wall adapter to this same chain of LEDs? They would probably all be destroyed. So AA batteries are ok because Alkaline batteries can't provide enough current to damage your LEDs, and NiCD/NiMH batteries are low enough voltage (3.6 Volts) that they will most likely will not turn your LEDs on to a point where they will draw enough current to damage themselves. (NiCD/NiMH can source more current than Alkaline batteries). Your typical AC/DC wall adapter is an unregulated voltage source. This means that it attempts to provide power at the rated voltage, but does not use feedback to ensure that is happening. So a 4.5 Volt, 1A wall adapter will attempt to supply 4.5V as long as the current draw is 1A or less. If you draw more current, the voltage out of the adapter will sag to less than 4.5 volts. There seems to be an idea in this thread that wall adapters will supply exactly the amperage they are rated for. That is not true. They will supply up to that amount as needed, just like a battery. If you need less, they will supply less. Using a high voltage, low amperage wall adapter to run LEDs directly (without a resistor) is a bad idea. It can work because the adapter will sag to the lower voltage of the LEDs because it can't meet the current requirements to run the LEDs at its voltage rating, but this can cause the wall adapters to over heat because you are using them in a way that they were not designed to be used and basically asking them to supply too much power. (Note that you can get current sources, which supply a fixed current rather than a fixed voltage, but that is not what a typical wall wart does.) So what I would recommend is that you get a power supply that can supply enough voltage and current to safely drive your 13 LEDs and use an appropriate sized resistor. So lets say you have 13 LEDs all drawing 20 mA. (I know you're aiming for 10, but let's be conservative). That's a total of 260 mA. So a 5V, 500 mA adaptor is more than enough. Now we need a resistor to limit the current flowing into your LEDs. The equation for choosing the resistor value is as follows: R = [(Power Supply Voltage) - (LED Forward Voltage)]/(Desired Current) So if your LED forward voltage is 3.6 Volts. (And I DO NOT KNOW THIS, as I DO NOT HAVE THE SPECS FOR YOUR LED) it would go like this: Power Supply Voltage = 5V LED Forward Voltage = 3.6V Desired Current = 10mA R = (5-3.6)/10mA = 140 Ohms Resistors also have a power rating. So you have to make sure your resistor can handle the power it will be dissipating. (It converts the energy into heat.) Power Dissipation = (Voltage Across Resistor * Current through Resistor) = 1.4V * 10mA = 0.014 watts Resistors are commonly available as 1/4 (0.250) or 1/8 (0.125) watt resistors. So using one of either wattage resistor should be fine. So, does that help at all? And as someone else recommended, I highly suggest trying any power supply setup on an external set of resistors before connecting them to your model. It's a lot better to make a mistake on that set than have to rip th model apart. Chad P.S. I kept switching between forward voltage and turn on voltage. They are the same thing. Sorry for the inconsistency but I'm too lazy to fix it.