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Anyone else have the Tread on preorder from BBTS? I haven't heard anything and I'm wondering if they'll be able to honor my preorder.

Shame on you for not getting a AWD Porsche, lol. I learned that lesson too many times where I live, ugh, and will never go back to RWD. Sucks about the Dodge QC issues. I think it looks cool af from the front but its so massive that its like a boat to me. For the size I might as well get a Hummer EV but I won't do that either, haha.

Thankfully the other figure had all of its accessories accounted for. Here’s a family photo for all modes. Of all the modes and for some aesthetic reason I like the tank mode. Maybe perhaps I don’t get to see it in that variable that often.

Perfectly stated! My feelings precisely!

Just because it was bugging me, here are some corrected versions of the group with the decals fixed. 😉 Also, forgot to say earlier, that kind of pursuing what we had talked about way upthread, that these schemes really highlight the difference between the VF-31 and other planes. The 31 is a super cool plane, but it really doesn't look like a fighter, whereas something like the 25 or even the 171 does. There's an aggressiveness to the 25 that the 31 doesn't have. The 31 looks more like a racer, so these VFG schemes end up suiting it better than a more "realistic" color set does, which is what made me want to make these in the first place. The color schemes themselves might not be the greatest, but this bright, flashy approach suits the lines of the plane much better than a typical grey or white does (in my opinion).

I cracked open the Megahouse Orguss Olson Special and the contrast between the original release and this re-release is quite distinct. The less saturated teal color release is not at all reflected by the packaging’s representation of the figure all over the box which is misleading for consumers. Not to mention, the packaging for all the accessory tray didn’t include one of the hands. Really frustrating when you pay for a premium product and you get a partial of what was promised. I don’t know if NinNin’s return policy is another round of frustration.

Unexpected sequence Sisu: Road to Revenge

We mainly meet online every other month through video. A new meeting date will be posted soon. Check out the FB group for all info.

I picked one up. Still have not transformed it yet. Has there been an announcement on the FP release?

Well, how long has it been for the VF-5000?

I think the original Frontier VF-31s were the height of Bandai's engineering AND assembly abilities, and not coincidentally they came out shortly before COVID. During and after COVID most everything has been flawed in one way or another. I guess factories closed and people left and institutional knowledge went with them. Doesn't matter to me, I'm pretty much done with collecting Macross, I've been priced out of the hobby for one, and for another what you pay for what you receive is totally imbalanced. Bandai just don't care.

There is new video about POSE+ Legioss. Quite boring but with some additional details Back view

Amiami is opening preorders tomorrow (08/29) 11 (am I believe) JST: https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail?gcode=FIGURE-190956

That sucked, every place sold out immediately.

Hmm.....me thinks, I better check my 2x VF-11B and 1x VF-11C to see if that hinge has cracked.

The (mini i.e. 19.5cm, just under 7") SoC Metal Gear Rex available at Anime Export (¥33000 pay later): https://www.anime-export.com/index.php?product=96021

Wal Mart being in charge would definitely be pretty bad for the population. They’ve had so many controversies over employee pay and overtime discrepancies over the years, it might make Wayland seem generous and caring

wow how about a Master Piece Ultra Magnus 2.0?

he's got some leg-spreadage and ab-cruchage going on in the teaser image, so there's something.

I mean, that's Magnus all right. In fact, my G1 Magnus is in that exact same pose as we speak. Kinda hard to get too worked up over it until they show off some articulation.

Well, I mentioned elsewhere that my desire to baby my Porsche Taycan caused me to see out another vehicle to drive primarily in the sloppy winters we get here in southwest PA (but also because the township decided the week the kids go back to school is the best time to do roadwork), and @TangledThorns asked me to talk about it. So, my criteria was pretty simple. I wanted something with AWD; I got a good deal on my Taycan, but it's the base model that's RWD, and maybe this could have been avoided had I simply invested a bit more and got a 4S, but what's done is done. I wanted something electric; I'm not road tripping, and with prices of gas and electricity in my area even a pretty inefficient EV is going to run me about a quarter of the cost per mile, to say nothing of lower all-around maintenance costs. It had to be something my wife was ok with; her own car was in the shop for an extended period of time, and though they eventually gave her a loaner (that she never really cared for) we kind of realized that we'd get more value out of a backup vehicle either of us could use than strictly something I'd drive. And, mostly, I wanted something cheap. This car is, after all, essentially a spare. We don't need all the bells and whistles of our daily drivers. Turns out there are a lot of brands offering relatively low-cost, low-mileage leases on EVs right now. Some, like the Honda Prologue and Volkswagen ID.4, couldn't be found anywhere within 100 miles. But we shopped what was in the area, and we eventually settled on, of all things, the Dodge Charger Daytona R/T. (Largely due to my wife's company being a supplier for Stellantis). I'll be honest, the Charger Daytona has fascinated me since Dodge first unveiled it last year. I mean, MOPAR enthusiasts were already turning their noses up a promised gas-powered turbocharged straight six version, insisting that any real muscle car has to have a naturally-aspirated V8... no way were they going to buy an EV! But rather than bolting a muscle car name onto a fastback SUV like Ford did, the new Charger really does look like Dodge tried to make a genuine successor to the name. Even the haters admit that the car looks pretty cool, with a faux grill, and headlights that blend elements of the first & second-gen Chargers with the outgoing 7th generation and taillights that mix the modern with the third-gen, and a long, squared-off retro-modern body akin to the Challenger that it's also replacing. The Scat Pack trim even has a ducktail spoiler like the third-gen Charger did. Capitalizing on the retro vibes, Dodge brought back the Fraztog logo from the '60s and '70s, a logo that would have appeared on the original Charger. With that Fratzog logo comes something Dodge calls "Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust." See, by law, EVs have to make a certain amount of noise so that pedestrians can hear them. Now some, like my Porsche, simply amplify the natural sounds of the electric motor. Others, like BMW, make cool spaceship noises. Dodge, in an attempt to play into their muscle heritage, basically mounted a speaker to the rear of the car to play fake V8 engine noises. It's kind of cool when you turn the car on- there's a sound like a jet turbine winding up, followed by a loud rumble that caused both my wife and my mother to jump like my cat when I sneeze, and as it idles it almost could be mistaken for an ICE engine. But as you accelerate, the sound that comes out of it has a tinny quality that sounds more like an Outrun arcade cabinet than V8. Worse, it revs up and then just kind of whines there, as there aren't any gears to shift through. I think I'd enjoy the Fratzonic Exhaust more if Dodge took a page from Hyundai's book and added fake gears you can manually shift like the Ioniq 5N. Fortunately, you can put the car in "stealth" mode, which shuts the speakers and the fake noise off and relies solely on the sounds of the electric motors. It doesn't matter how good a car looks, though. Ultimately, it's about how well it drives. And, well, it's fast! The R/T Stage 1 I bought can do 0-60 just under 5 seconds, or a hair faster than my Porsche. Opt for the Stage 2 Scat Pack and you can cut that down to just over 3 seconds, which on numbers alone makes it faster than any Hellcat. But I think that's where the similarities to previous ponies with the Charger name kind of ends. See, when you step on the accelerator, you go. No burnouts, no smoking tires, you just go. What's more, the car moves smoothly and confidently. At nearly three tons it's not going to tear through the corners the way my Porsche does, but it's rather difficult to kick the tires loose into a slide. This car's not going to be doing any donuts. Oh, yeah, three tons. Yeah. I went to look at new Charger thinking, "like a Challenger, but electric." No, in person, this thing's nearly a foot longer and four inches wider than a Challenger. My wife's Kia EV9, a three-row SUV, is just a tad shorter than this behemoth. If a technician took the 100kw/h battery off the car it'd still weight more than my similarly-electric Porsche. And yet, it's really not that bad when you. It cruises comfortably, accelerates quickly, and aided by the regenerative brakes it was capable of stopping just as quickly (Car and Driver found the Scat pack to stop from 70mph slightly shorter than both the Hyundai Ioniq 5N and the BMW i4 M40). It's only in sharper turns or successive curves that I really was aware of the size, and again, that's me comparing it to a Porsche. Compared to just about any SUV I've drive I'll happily take the Charger. Pair the composed ride with the interior... it's quite spacious. Despite being a coupe, passengers in the rear have leg room for days, and the seats are wide and a bit plushy. My mother, who has a hard time getting in and out of my Porsche and who finds the bolsters on its bucket seats at tad too aggressive for those of a plumper build, was quick to tell me she actually prefers riding in the Charger. Now, I don't know that I'd go that far from where I was sitting (the driver's seat!). I definitely took the Charger on a few winding back roads and though, "man, my Porsche would just eat this up!" But on the other hand, I didn't even slow down as I barreled over steel plates in the road near my parents house that I'd have to gently coax my Porsche over. After months of worrying about the ground clearance on some steep hills it was actually kind of liberating to simply not care. Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Despite having the car for all of five days, I've already had to take it back for service. On Sunday, after going with a friend to see a movie, the car just wouldn't start. A screen came on telling me that the battery needed service, and the car seemed to being reporting that it was charging despite not being plugged into anything. After consulting the internet, I turned it off and waited for all the screens to go completely dark, and was eventually able to get it started. At least I could get it home, I figured. And for the next seven miles, no problem, but as I come to a light a bunch of warnings come on- "parking sensors off," "stability control off," "speed may be limited." A turtle icon comes on the dash, and the car refuses to go more than 5mph. I manage to turn off into a parking lot and again shut the car down completely and restart it. Took back roads the rest of the way, but didn't have any other problems. In total fairness to Stellantis, I eventually realized I may have left a dome light on while I was programming the garage door opener, which could have drained the 12v battery, and after extra double-checking that all the lights were off I'd since driven it to get groceries on Monday, took it 20 miles through backroads back to the dealer today, then drove it home again without any further issue. And, credit to the dealer, they spent an hour and a half pouring over the car to try to find a problem. They did find that the pump for the washer fluid was dead and ordered a new one that they'll put in after they get it, but both batteries and the connections between then checked out, and all the latest software updates have been applied, so they couldn't do much more there than make a record of it and pass it along to Stellantis. Fingers crossed that it was just my bad, I guess. QC aside, would I recommend this car? Probably not. See, it really comes down to price. I think Dodge was like, "it's faster than a Hellcat, so we'll price it like one!" Down the line, when they inevitably cram a HEMI into it, that might be enough to attract the MOPAR crowd, but right now, as an EV, for everyone else? I don't think Dodge actually built a muscle car, I think they built a grand tourer. The sticker price on this R/T Stage 1 is comparable to a BMW i4 xDrive40, and I took one of those for a ride, too. Trust me, all things being equal, you want the BMW, which ranks among the very best cars I've ever driven. Depending on the options, the Scat Pack will run you another $10-$15k Even with different sales incentives, there are other EVs that are nearly as quick that bring more features to the table. That being said, you might be able to find a good deal on a lease. I got a 3-year, 10k miles/year (a number which I rarely hit in just one car, let alone spread over two) lease for $1000 down and $300 a month. At that price, it genuinely is a stylish and fun alternative to the sea of electric crossovers everyone else seems to be offering, an alternative I'm glad exists even if the pony purists hate it.