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https://www.ign.com/articles/fast-and-furious-11-finally-confirmed-with-final-title-and-release-date This time, they will use giant robots, in which the cabins will be the cars.

They seem to be pursuing a romance angle with the character... which is hard to do with fifty pounds of prosthetics on your face. It's also pretty costly, and they've blown a LOT of the show's cash on sets and heavy prosthetics for minor background characters like the Ferengi and Kelpian cadets. Starfleet Academy's showrunners clearly blew a huge chunk of the show's budget on the enormous and elaborate sets used for the Athena's bridge and Sato Atrium. Given its layout and size, I'm inclined to suspect the Athena's bridge is a redress of the circular Federation Headquarters main hall from Discovery that also served as a courtroom at 23rd century Starfleet Headquarters in Strange New Worlds's second season. It looks to be double or better the size of a normal starship bridge for no practical reason (to the point that Captain Ake has no ready room. The Athena's Sato Atrium appears to even bigger and vastly more complex than Trek's previous biggest interior set, the Deep Space 9 Promenade & Quark's Bar multi-level set. It's much more structurally complex and a LOT more electrified since many walls have rows of built-in flat-panel monitors and almost every surface seems to edge-lit from within using programmable LEDs. There are water features and plants and all manner of other decorative items. After blowing what I'm sure was tens of millions of dollars on this set, they had little choice but to make it as multipurposeful as they could. This overspending is probably also the reason why location shooting for the series was so profoundly half-assed. Starfleet Academy's non-starship spaces like the James T. Kirk Pavilion, the quad, the War College dorms, and the gym all appear to be almost totally unmodified spaces at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario. All they really did was stick some Starfleet signage on various exterior and interior walls and hung a few banners. The academy grounds are just Trillium Park on East Island in Toronto.

Awww, this is sudden news. LEGENDARY actress Catherine O’Hara has died at the age of 71. https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15866579/

I'm looking forward to this new retro-take. Although I'm a reader, for some odd reason I never got into comics or Manga by extension. I'm sure, just as comparing reading a book to a TV or movie adaptation, the Manga offers more in the way of, well, everything. From what I've read about the Manga, prompted by commentary here, the TV and movie adaptations of GitS certainly have been cleansed of their more sexual material. I'm sure this new film will follow suit (to make it more general viewer friendly and avoid an X rating) which is fine, if not preferable. After the excellent SAC series, I look forward to the stories, characters, philosophical musings, gory death scenes, cool robots/mecha, and general tone that the franchise has become known and loved for. I don't need or want it to devolve into hentai regardless of the original manga.

So is the hinge/pivot area super-tight to the point that it couldn't rotate, or did it catch on one of the other nose-gear-doors?

Yeah, not planning to go crazy and add a toilet bowl on its back. Just want to be able to use the parts I love from the old kit on the newer one. Why not start a thread for it. Maybe it’s a one and done thing or maybe the company does other kits for other cool franchises. You never know, maybe other interesting items will become available in this age of retro models. Seems like such a lack of modern mecha and sci fi in anime that most of the companies are making great new kits based on all kinds of older anime and video games

Silent Möbius has a special place in my heart. Besides Macross, it was one of the first anime I loved along with Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis, Vampire Hunter D. I most definitely will be getting that kit once it drops. Thanks for sharing. Lookout Lucifer Hawk!

3 observations from the latest episode. 1. I don't like Jayden's speech pattern. First thought it was because it's his 2nd language or his shyness but it comes across as bad acting. Then I watched a video with the actor talking in their normal much higher pitched voice where they said the producers were going to help him to deepen his voice. Now his speaking pattern makes sense. The actor is fighting too hard not to sound like himself. If they wanted a deep voice Klingon they should of hired a deep voiced actor. 2. Fish face Daren what is with the human disguise? Alien faces cgi too expensive? Why not real makeup? What's the in universe reason? For such a progressive leaning show/school it seems odd for a student to be hiding their true self. 3. Does every thing take place in main lobby of the academy? Classes, diplomatic events, sporting events? This multi use room would be fine if it was an assembly hall but it is just a large lobby where people go through to access all other spaces of the academy. Why aren't there more people walking through and disrupting these events?

I just got my DX Fire Valk from BBTS on Wednesday, so I have not had anything more to do it than take it out of the box and put it in the stand. I will wish it around on my days off. Like the matte finish, very nice! Can’t wait for Jenius’ review of it on YouTube! Twich

Well, as far as I know, filming for Voltron has already wrapped. Now, regarding the others, I believe Thundercats will come next if He-Man is a huge success (after all, he was its direct rival at the time). As for Robotech, it could come sooner than a Macross one (which I always thought could be in the style of Yamato).

@Big s Yeah, it's difficult getting used to them not being there. You could make a Rick Dom II Custom! Whatever you want. Just not as awkward as the GQuuuuuuuuuuuux version😁 Thanks @electric indigo! It's cool to see new subjects coming out! - MT

Dang! I was messing witht he plane today and took it down. As I was closing the front wheel well I noticed that the panel hadnt folded at the hinge, but in the panel and caused a stress mark. IOts closed again, but I dont think I can open it anymore without it snapping. So bye bye front landing gear on my Fire Valk

I rewatched Highlander 2 several years ago. It was still bad, lol. I recall seeing it when I was in high school and laughing with friends in the theater at how bad it was.

Best Character video I have ever seen on the V.O.T.O.M.S series! 👍🏻

Since we don't have a "Silent Moebius" nor a "Cool model announcements from non-major franchises" thread, I'm posting this here where I figure most of the modelers hang out. Also, I predict this will be on my workbench in the future.

I like that .

They just announced that Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns n' Roses is the ending song

Wow , you got to watch it all! BTW the marketing on the2nd gig movie is not on the same level as Akira ..

shame to me, i own Ghost in the shell since the launch of dvd's in late 90's- 2000's and still haven't watched it. i own and watched 2nd gig series and still haven't bothered to watch the movie. someday i'll get to it. It was at the time marketed as the next big quality anime release after Akira. One day....

same i couldn't find the thread either till way later.

So I know I'm excited to get Dream Star's Scavenger and finish their Devastator, but G1 always does better than stylized, I think. And while a lot of us picked up ToyWorld's Constructor back in the day, I also think most of us also realize that ToyWorld's not quite pulling off the modern MP aesthetic. With that in mind I'd looked at X-Transbots' Ground Bite last April, and Fans Toys' Gehry immediately after. But I also mentioned that MMC was coming out with there own, and I'd get their Scrapper before deciding which set I'd ultimately pursue. Well, MMC finally released Deltus, their version of Scrapper, so the ultimate Scrapper fight begins NOW! *Note that for all pics it's Fans Toys' Gehry on the left, MMC's Deletus in the middle, and XTB's Ground Bite on the right. It's funny that when MMC created their Ocular Max brand the idea was that they would do more Studio OX-style stuff, but every OX release gets more and more Sunbow. Deletus here might be their most Sunbow figure to date... sure, the visible hinges and flaps on his shins make him look a little more detailed than Fans Toys', but with the green lumps for shoulder wheels and the thin-legged, top-heavy proportions he's definitely more cartoon accurate than XTB's. But is that necessarily a good thing? If I'm being totally honest, from a purely "how does this look" point-of-view, I still kind of prefer XTB's. It's like Deletus looks too much like the cartoon, Ground Bite looks like the robot the cartoon was based on, and Gehry looks like the the cartoon Scrapper ate the other five Constructicons. Depending on what you're personally going for on a shelf, I guess it's worth pointing out that Deletus is significantly lighter than the other two, and most of the gray and all of the green and purple you see on him is unpainted plastic. On the other hand, I'd argue that Deletus cleans up the best with the tidiest backpack. Perhaps accessories make a big difference? Again, not really. Deletus comes with a gun and a trumpet... same as the competition. As far as the guns go, they're pretty similar. Sure, XTB put a little silver paint on their barrel, and Fans Toys' used a gunmetal paint for the entire gun, but they're all recognizably the gun Scrapper has in the cartoon. Things get a little more interesting with the trumpets. Deletus has the most movie-accurate shape, and a nice painted finish. The other two use a vac-metal coating to make them look more like actual brass instruments, with Fans Toys having the best finish, I think, and XTB's looking the most like an actual trumpet. Aside from guns and trumpets, the other two mostly have partsforming bits, while Deletus comes with a tool intended to help with his transformation. Ground Bite does come with a sword, so I guess XTB has the best accessories? Really, I don't think it matters which Scrapper you prefer, you're going to get the accessories you actually care about no matter what. So we come to articulation. Deletus' head is on a hinge that lets him look up about 75 degrees. He can't really look down, but wait! That hinge is actually a double hinge! It breaks the sculpt a little but you can use the hinges to crane his entire head forward so he can look about 60 degrees downward past his own chest. No sideways tilt, though. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows can combine for nearly 180 degrees of bend. His wrists swivel. His thumb has a ball joint at the base with a hinged pin. His index finger has two pinned knuckles. His other three fingers are a single piece molded into a permanent curl pinned at the base. He's got a ratcheted waist swivel, and about 60 degrees of ab crunch. His hip skirts get out of the way to allow 90 degrees of hip movement backward or laterally, and slightly over that forward, all on ratchets. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed, double-ratcheted knees bend until the bumps on his calves touch his thighs. His toes have a little up/down tilt, and his ankles can pivot nearly 90 degrees. If you go back and check my earlier reviews for Groundbite and Gehry, you'll recall that Groundbite is pretty similar but with even more hand articulation and butterfly joints, but I found Gehry's articulation to be a bit sub-par. MMC eschews the more standard thin tab on the side of the gun handle plugging into a slot on the palm for a larger tab on the back of the handle that plugs into palm under the thumb. It's pleasantly secure on my copy. Trumpet works pretty much the same way, with his fingers curling through the loop. Like Ground Bite, Deletus has the gimmick where you can open a little panel on his wrist to see a communicator/computer. MMC even painted Detetus', which XTB did not. Up to this point you might be getting the sense that I think Deletus and Ground Bite are similarly good figures (but I'm not so hot on Gehry), with Ground Bite having a slight edge for what I consider to be better proportions, a better finish, more and slightly better accessories, and slightly more articulation. And that'd be fair. But then I have to transform them all, and suddenly things start to look different. Gehry is far from the worst Fans Toys transformation I've had to deal with, but it's still nothing I'd consider fun. Ground Bite's transformation is a bit more intuitive and a bit less of a pain, but there's still some sliders and thin flaps and some looseness in the middle until things are finally locked in place. And even then the rear wheels and roof don't stay in place super well. But Deletus is what you've come to expect from MMC... it's mostly intuitive and sometimes downright clever. You might need to check out the instructions the first time or two, but for the most part everything moves the way you think it should with minimal extra flaps or bits, and everything locks together solidly. If you're the type that likes to transform their toys, Deletus is by far the most pleasant experience. The only pain point for me was the tires. MMC engineered a kind of cool gimmick where the tires actually expand for alt mode, but despite claims of "I can do it with my fingernails!" from some circles and a tool included just for that bit I found them to be a bit tight. The plastic on the tool bent and let go before the wheels came out, and I cracked two nails before I dug out a metal spudger and pried the tires open. And what does that transformation get you? Well, forget Gehry again, as I think his alt mode is the worst of the three and clearly the mode that got the lowest priority from Fans Toys. Now, there are elements of Ground Bite that I think convey a bit more realism, like the seat an the working pistons in the shovel arms. I think Deletus' exposed knee ratchets do not make as convincing of a grill. But he's still got a steering wheel, tailights, and smokestack. His roof is a bit more cartoon-accurate, and the sides feel just a tad more cohesive. I guess it's good that Deletus has the best transformation, because I think he just might have the best alt mode. Of course, that alt mode rolls on those expanding tires, and his shovel has some articulation. There's storage under the vehicle for his gun. Normally you could stop here and declare a winner, but as part of a combining team I don't think it's fair to choose a definitive Scrapper without considering the leg mode. And we see that Deletus is noticeably smaller than the other two in this mode- for some collectors who don't really care about the robot or alt mode, they just want to build Devastator, simply being the smallest is the dealbreaker. But it's worth pointing out that Deletus is the smallest because there are no additional parts; if it's not on the robot or the alt mode, it's not part of the leg. Gehry has a huge chunk of diecast that snaps into the heel and wraps to fill a gap in the front, while Ground Bite's knee and thigh are a partsforming piece. Sunbow accuracy might also be a consideration here. Ground Bite would almost make a good toy-style Devastator leg, with all four wheel still visible and his arms sticking straight up to form the heel. On the other hand, I think we see where Fans Toys' priority was, as Gehry went from an ok-but-fat robot to a messy alt mode to a leg that somehow captures the goofy Sunbow model that bore little resemblance to an upright loader. The partsforming heel is the only one that has the two angled sticks from the cartoon. Deletus lands in the middle. His shovel shrinks to get the squarish look of the Sunbow foot and he hides all his wheels, but his heel is more toy-style. Looks are one thing, but how it moves will have an impact on the gestalt. All three have ankle pivots, and again Deletus is in the middle with less than Gehry but more than Ground Bite. However, Deletus is the only one with upward foot tilt. It's not a ratcheted joint, though, so it remains to be seen if that's some exciting extra articulation or a weak point that could cause trouble once there's more weight on it. What's not trouble, though, is the knee. Gehry and Ground Bite can both bend 90 degrees, which is technically enough, but Deletus' knee is double jointed and bends nearly 180 degrees. If MMC can maintain that level of articulation through the other figures in this set then their Devastator could very well be the one with the most articulation... maybe not just among Devastators, but of any combiner I've looked at. And yes, Deletus' gun can be plugged in for leg mode, and it doesn't affect the leg's articulation. So... do we have a definitive Scrapper? Honestly, for as hard of a time as I've given Gerhy, I really think we're spoiled as fans that we have three figures of this caliber to argue about. The truth is, I think it really does depend on what you're looking for. Fans Toys is clearly going to deliver a bigger cartoon-accurate Devastator with a premium finish... if you only care about combined mode and you're the type to put a figure on a shelf and not touch it again until it's time to dust then you're not wrong for going with Fans Toys. Likewise, if you're looking for a set of individual Constructicons I'd say Ground Bite is the best-looking Scrapper. But for me, I'll be forging ahead with MMC. I think Deletus offers the best balance across all three modes. I think Deletus offers the best transformation and the most straight up playability. I have confidence in MMC's QC and engineering, and they're the ones I trust the most to continue to make solid, playable robots with clever and interesting transformations into solid, playable vehicles that combine into a solid, playable gestalt.

Oh, you're thinking of Hallmark movies. The ones that all go "big city business girl with business boyfriend has to go to generic country town where she grew up before moving to the city and falls in love with some guy she just met because he's different from her stuffy big city boyfriend". I wouldn't really say the leads in those are arseholes... they're just regular guys living the 9-5 life instead of making a quaint, folksy living farming christmas trees or whatever in a town so small the annual bake sale determines its continued existence.😅 That's not really Noah Centineo's bag. He's more in the himbo comedy genre.

Slop's on. This week, it's Episode 4 "Vox in Excelso". Apparently it's a Jay-Den Kraag-centric episode... or so the blurb would have us believe. We open on the Athena, back in deep space for... reasons. The series couldn't be bothered to have a ready room set so apparently Captain Ake just throws everyone else off the ship's bridge when she wants to record a log or an address to the students. As per her usual, it's a meandering mess of a speech that reads like a collection of cliches from some form letter graduation speech delivered with all the passion and enthusiasm of someone coming off a high dose of dental anesthetic. Also, does nobody go to class at this academy? The entire time she's talking it's montaging over students doing generic admissions brochure stuff like sitting in common areas with random objects laughing at nothing in particular. The writers are leaning really hard into Kraag being the un-Klingon. He's not Proud Warrior Race guy... he's got some aspects of their culture but he's kind of a coward, he's socially anxious, etc. Starfleet Academy does throw an interesting curveball in that Kraag apparently comes from a three-parent household. He has two fathers and a mother. Not entirely outside the usual for them, given that in the relaunch novels that inspired parts of NuTrek the Klingons were pretty darn LGBTQ-friendly. What is it with the current Star Trek showrunners and trying to kill off the franchise's most iconic aliens? Jar-Jar Abrams tried to kill off the Vulcans in Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Picard tried to kill off the Romulans, and now Starfleet Academy's trying to do in the Klingons. Kraag's memories of home are ALSO subject to the piss filter. What is it with every outdoor space looking like world is being viewed through a pint mug of cheap pilsner? We get a "Master debater" joke. This is how far standards have fallen. 'lil bit of Ho Yay for Darem and Jay-Den? Admiral Vance seems to have forgotten the very basic Klingon cultural tenet that they have no gods. They killed their gods back in their ancient mythohistory. "More trouble than they were worth", as Worf put it. We get to see a few more Federation starships at a distance... USS Capricorn, USS Crimson, USS Horizon, USS Lexington, and USS Riker. If we could only ditch the immaturity and the incredibly dated writing, this episode would be dangerously close to sounding like an actual Star Trek episode.

I think he had multiple fighting styles, guns and melee weapons. I may be mixing memories of one of the later cartoons though