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  2. sh9000
  3. captain america
    Captain's Log--supplemental! I'm still here, just very busy with the molding process! These are all the molds I have so far, with 4 more about to be opened and another four left to be poured! It's utter molding madness, but casting will start next week, praise God!!
  4. M'Kyuun
    I appreciate your insights, Scyla, and you're correct so far as the design methodologies and prioritization. Maverick was indeed done far better than Takara's usual fare, but they also took obvious inspiration from the VF-1 to their credit. Perhaps Kawamori even offered them some guidance. Regardless, it's a rare example of a more realistic and sleek jet mode uncompromised by blocky robot bits or arms dangling off the sides of the plane. When they worked with Kawamori to design MP-03, what we got was arguably the most accurate F-15 fighter mode in TF history, but the bot mode suffered a number of concessions for it. Contrarily, MP-52 went entirely in the opposite direction and what we got was an extremely toon accurate bot mode with a heavily compromised F-15 mode. The pendulum swing within the franchise is pretty wide. Obviously, I prefer Kawamori's approach, as he is able to cobble some really nice-looking bot modes from sleek realistic albeit fictional fighters. I wish the fighter mode was a little more important to Takara, that they would strike a greater balance making both modes look good instead of prioritizing the bot. I realize, too, that, at least when dealing with G1 jetformers, they're tied to their blocky 80s robot designs and cubes and sleek jets do not a good formula make so far as preserving the latter. They have proven, however, such as with Legacy Prime Dreadwing/Skyquake, that they are capable of making a sleeker jet, even if this particular example is a bit on the chonky side. Still it integrates the arms and the overall appearance looks proportional and jet-like. I have both characters b/c I liked the mold so much. I read your comment even while I was in the midst of typing my own. As ususal, our perspectives match. And, seeing Scyla's point, too, I don't think it's necessarily that Takara can't pull off a sleek fighter mode, as they've proven they can, but they're just not interested in doing so most of the time, which is unfortunate as they do a disservice to people like us who really like jets and wish more TFs enjoyed sleeker, more realistic or accurate jet modes without being so heavily compromised for the sake of the bot mode. hell they can make a pretty realistic motorcycle turn into a decent bot, but not a jet. It's purely a lack of care, and yeah, I think it's b/c the fandom has been fed shitty jet modes for 40 years so why start trying now. I think it's telling that Maverick got a lot of negative commentary from fans; it just shows that they've been indoctrinated into accepting egregiously compromised jets. I had to cringe when I watched vid reviews of a few of the recent Aerialbots with commentors gushing over how good the jet looked. Like, really? Have you ever seen an F-15, a Harrier, an F-4 Pjhantom, the Concorde, or an F-16? I just have to shrug and shake my head. But yep, TF fans love shitty jet modes and Takara/Hasbro by extension, is there for them. Thank goodness I can take refuge in Macross and that companies like Touch toys are bringing an alternate reality for fans of transforming robots and sleek jets.
  5. blackconvoy_D01
    Im in the US and haven't heard anything since May.
  6. Chronocidal
    I feel like the biggest "constraint" they deal with is just deciding that it's not worth the effort when people don't seem to care about how ugly the jets are when all they want is a good action figure that looks like the character from a cartoon. You're right about the character designs though. When they aren't hampered by fitting an established character into a jet body we get things like the Tomcat Maverick they released. And while I know lots of people didn't like certain aspects of Kawamori's attempt at a Seeker mold, I think he established a very solid foundation for how you could fit a really good figure into the F-15 body without getting stupidly lazy like the most recent MP Seeker. I really want to see someone take another crack at that general torso layout, but using more modern methods in the legs. Just something that plays with creative rearrangments of the components to give us a more streamlined jet while still giving decent character accuracy. Like since the legs and jet taper opposite directions, what if the shins flipped upside down? Lots of options to try there.
  7. Thom
    Don't need a final trailer, already going to see it!
  8. Today
  9. Thom
    Looking at that map, I can only hazard to say - that light speed is too slow... And clearly they did a long and deep deep dive into all things Star Wars. Very cool!
  10. Old_Nash_II
    Final trailer
  11. jvmacross
  12. VF8000G
    I don't think so, the show never hides its own self-indulgence with the Gainax staff. Or maybe, it was forced to be this way by the committee.
  13. Big s
    I thought it was more of an odd Dunbine reference
  14. VF8000G
    I hate this show. It transcends member berries homages and becomes an Inferno Cop level shitpost.
  15. Scyla
    Thanks @M'Kyuun for the short review. The me the problem with Transformers that turn into jets is that they are designed as robots first. So if the robot-mode is your focus the designer is limited to what they can achieve, especially when they are designing a toy that is supposedly made for kids. The other way around is much easier and you can see it with this toy and you can see it with Kawamori’s Valkyrie designs where the fighter-mode has the top priority and the mecha mode is derived from it. If you large surface areas of your fighter like wings and tail fins just can form a cape or the whole engine area can form just the leg on it’s own you have a much easier time then trying to turn a block into a sleek fuselage. Is this jet an impressive engineering feat? Absolutely? Could Takara’s engineers do a better job designing sleeker airframes? I think so (and FansToys Maverick is proof you can do it). But it is not that Takara is not capable of doing it, they are just bound by different constraints.
  16. M'Kyuun
    After about four and half hours, I finally got the thing transformed. The transformation itself wasn't too bad, although I encountered a little difficulty understanding what was being done once I reached the groin section in the instructions and switched to a video for the rest. Other issues I had were really tight panel connections- this thing was so well engineered that it's often difficult to tell where the panels separate and getting them to do so, I had trouble getting the shoulders to snap into place, I didn't move the waist connector far enough initially- it has a strong snap- so I partially dismantled the torso for better access. I initially couldn't figure out how to get the loincloth to fold and was afraid of breaking it, so I finagled with that for a while. It's complex, not altogether intuitive IMHO, interesting to say the least, and well-executed overall. The fighter mode is gorgeous, and as I mentioned, unlike most Hasbro/Takara stuff, the panel lines are very difficult to spot and sometimes not at all, so well-toleranced is the molding. A tool for separating panels and such is pretty much a necessity, and Touch Toys has you covered as they provide one. It comes in a sealed pouch along with some cards. In my infinite wisdom, I thought it was just a bonus weapon, so I put it back in the pouch. I didn't realize what it was for until I watched the video (Mangmotion) thus I'll spare anyone here getting a copy the mistake I made as well as your fingernails. It's definitely a neat figure and I'm glad I got him. I've long wished for a transforming Su-27 Flanker, or a close facsimile thereof, and this scratches that particular itch. While I don't expect Takara to make their stuff this complex, they could learn a thing or two about making seamless realistic transforming fighters from Touch Toys. Well, it's quite late and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. Cheers all.
  17. Slave IV
    Original show or original Yamato release? Either way, I'm really happy to finally have the set together. I've had the suit for a few years and no proper Valk to wear it.
  18. azrael
    Seeing that you're eyeing the 5060 Ti, it could survive on the dual-fan cooler. The performance isn't great enough that it requires a 3-fan cooler. And seeing that xx60-series cards normally get the low profile/SFF-treatment, you could go either route. It really just depends on the manufacturer. I'd look at how much airflow your case gets and make the judgement call. More airflow, more cooling you could direct at the GPU so you could step up the a 3-fan GPU design.
  19. mikeszekely
    Broadly speaking, cards with three fans tend to have bigger heatsinks and are theoretically better at dissipating heat, and therefore could run quieter. In practice, though, it's going to vary by manufacturer, and your case's airflow is going to be a more significant contributor. Unless you're running a big, hot card that requires beefier cooling I'd bet that you could test a two-fan and a three-fan with the same GPU in the same box and the difference would be similar to doing two passes with the same card. FWIW, I ran a two-fan Zotac 4070 and it was fine. I really only replaced it because my CPU was becoming a bottleneck and with the way the market's been lately it was easier to get a pre-built than to buy parts and build one myself. But I guess I should also say, knock on wood, that I'm currently running an Asus card, I ran an Asus card prior to the Zotac, my last gaming laptop was an Asus, and I currently use an ROG Ally X when I'm on the go, and I've had little to no issues with any of that.
  20. Big s
    Sounds like an awesome guitar from the 70’s
  21. MKT

    Strike A Pose! revisted...

    MKT replied to dapro's topic in Toys

    The suit looks really great, almost indistinguishable to the original.
  22. David Hingtgen
    5060 ti's seem to be in stock fairly regularly, tempted... What are the pros and cons of "short wide card with 2 fans" vs "long skinny card with 3 fans", if any? I do like quiet, so if one style has a more "pleasant" sound than the other... Both MSI and Asus have annoyed me lately to varying degrees, thinking Gigabyte or maybe even PNY?
  23. pengbuzz
    Radarflemanfender.
  24. Big s
    Is that the nichimo radar-x, I mean rifleman, I mean Defender?
  25. Old_Nash_II
    About the last episode of Gundam
  26. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, this series was definitely meant to be this short. There's a lot they could have done with it, but most of what they did was screwing around to waste airtime because they didn't even have enough actual story to fill twelve episodes.
  27. pengbuzz
    Watch the next one be about:
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