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  1. Today
  2. David Hingtgen
    I've upgraded my current PC about as far as I can. It's 11 years old, and despite almost nothing being original besides the case, I need "new everything" to really take advantage of any new tech. I've never had a PC this long before. The case itself is an issue at this point, incompatible with USB 3.1/3.2/C. PSU (#3!) doesn't have 6x2 12-pin for modern GPU's, and is borderline for 5070/5080 wattage requirements. So that pretty much dictates "new everything", to accomplish a GPU/CPU upgrade at this point I came very close to buying a 5060 ti on Black Friday, but was still REALLY waiting for the 5070 Super/Super ti to come out. Well, that's not gonna happen now, and everything is skyrocketing. It's either get something now, or be stuck with an old PC for a very long time or pay a LOT of money for something new a bit later. At the moment, I've swung back towards CostCo again. I could buy it, see if it works/see if it's one of the ones with the better mobo, and return it in-store if not. I dread the thought of ordering a pre-built, waiting for it, then something doesn't work. Much harder to troubleshoot "mystery components" and even harder to ship back.
  3. azrael
    So what’s the reasoning? Are you looking for something to buy now, upgrade later or to have a system that provides a lasting out-of-box experience that you don’t need to worry about for a while?
  4. Big s
    He looks really happy to be a part of the collection
  5. jenius
    Picked one up at HLJ which is perfect, I can ship it and the HMR Scopedog with my VF-17S and and Toyrise Legioss at the end of the month.
  6. danth
    Thank you! A while back, I sketched out some jokey ideas for spaceships -- one based on a triangle, one based on a rectangle, and one on a circle. This is the triangle ship. I designed it in Studio, and since I was also in for a copy, I only used pieces currently/recently in production. I figured that way, if anyone likes it (including me), they can easily/cheaply bricklink the parts. Well, semi-cheaply. Europe seems to have way more stores and better prices. Dang, the head doesn't rotate? I guess with the back of the helmet flat against the top of the air tanks, there's no way for it to swivel. I definitely would have preferred an astrofig to the droid, especially in a color we haven't gotten yet (blue, black, or light bley like you said). I was also hoping for some sort of gimmick, like opening the backpack to reveal some trans yellow panels and a computer room or something. It'd be cool if the back of the printed panel had another print, something like these:
  7. Slave IV
  8. sketchley
    That's kind of assuming that those ultra-high efficiency renewable energy sources and thermonuclear fusion power capabilities are being freely shared. As the Macross Galaxy Fleet suggests, not every government plays nice with its civilians. However, putting all that to the side, this could be a sign that Kawamori-san had the concept of Fold Coal and Fold Quartz in mind all along—akin to the Energy Conversion Armour idea that he purportedly had way back at the time of SDFM but didn't formally introduced until Macross Zero. It also goes a long way to justifying why there was a mining settlement on the planet Basara visited in The Galaxy Is Calling Me. (Perhaps a precursor or initial attempt at the idea that got refined and clarified in the Macross Frontier materials as Fold Carbon & Quartz?) I agree that those explanations are neat. However, due to some other oddities and unusual hangups in those books, I can't fully accept them into my head cannon... 😅
  9. sh9000
  10. SteveTheFish
    Oh wow, you must've procured those designs elsewhere. I think I saw those on Thingiverse. All I did was send you the cockpit interior STL files. I can send you the rest if you'd like. As for myself, I think I'll finally get started laying down decals on my Kakizaki green VF-1A from DYRL by Hasegawa. It has a gloss coat now and is ready to go. I've been slowly working on this for a couple of years now, always getting distracted. I can post pictures of it tonight. It would otherwise be a slow evening after work and the perfect opportunity for hobby time tonight, but today is the commemoration of the female spousal unit's manufacture date. She turned 49 today. Which is fine, but I turn 50 on Sunday. Crap.
  11. sh9000

    sh9000's collection

    Images added to a gallery album owned by sh9000 in Macross Collections

  12. Angesdad
    I got in the mail today an old used copy of a regular version purchased from Mercari, spent about 250cad all in for the arm joint basically. Some dishonest Japanese sellers on Mercari by the way, because it came with no neck cover and 3 of the arm screw covers were nowhere to be found in the blister. The description certainly did not disclose all that while the seller bragged about having all the parts.. Getting real fed up from my recent series of unfortunate events, being turned down and lied to, over some toy. Based on my experience this time around I will think twice before buying another Arcadia and stick to manufacturers who provide support globally - Because crap happens.
  13. sh9000
    HG 1/100 VF-31S.
  14. sh9000
    The Bride of Frankenstein.
  15. sh9000
    Wave 15.
  16. sh9000
    GI Joe Classified Cobra-La Royal Guard.
  17. davidwhangchoi
    As long as you feel confident with buying direct from MSI and their customer support, it makes sense since you have the 990 evo's and need more ram. I feel safer with Costco's hassle free warranty. it's not an easy choice weighing the pros and cons
  18. Bolt
    Sounds like a good time at the big screen.
  19. David Hingtgen
    I've been trying different builds at MSI's site, vs CostCo's version. And I keep circling back to RAM---even if I lucked out and got the 4-slot version from Costco, it'd cost $400 to upgrade it to 64GB RAM. If I also downgrade to a 5070ti instead of a 5080, I still have a 50xx 16GB card, and have 64GB RAM, for only $20 more than the Costco one. Of course, I could literally just walk in and pickup one from CostCo, plus the warranty/return issue...
  20. Big s
    My lady loves the game of thrones stuff. Personally it reminds me of her real housewives shows where there isn’t really a main character and everyone is mad at each other and struggling to be a main character and attacks their enemies in the junk verbally or physically. But she loves it, so I have a feeling that we’re getting the paramount whatever whenever it happens.
  21. davidwhangchoi
    My friend got from costco, an identical spec and cpu 9900x for 2300 around blk friday. I tried to convince him to get the 9850x3d but it was sold out and he really wanted the 5 year warranty from Costco and settled for this one. some of these brands are terrible with RMA's if you got an issue.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    The Akusho-type is too new... it screams 2030s construction, and seems natively compatible with a late 2030s 3rd Generation emigrant ship. Whether it even has an independent propulsion system is unknown. The Qultra Queleual-class, well... that'd be the obvious choice among Zentradi ships since it's a comparatively lightly-armed ship that is basically a massive box designed to have the maximum possible carrying capacity. If you're looking to haul a lot of stuff in the short term, it's probably about the best option available at the time. They do, though given what we know of fold carbon and the fact that fold quartz was not properly known or understood until the late 2040s it seems unlikely that anyone was out there mining for fold carbon when it could be synthesized in industrial quantities. (The assumption that fold carbon was being mined at all comes from the bizarre statement about the presence of coal mines on one emigrant planet... a material that would be totally useless to a civilization with ultra-high efficiency renewable energy sources and thermonuclear fusion power.) Yeah, Circle FANKY's Battleships of the Galaxy Vol.2 gives the ship the unofficial/fan name of "Osaka-class". Max's first command, which he is promoted to at the end of Macross M3 Episode 6, is the stealth space cruiser Haruna. (ステルス宇宙巡洋艦ハルナ suterusu uchuu jun'youkan Haruna) Oddly, this is the second Spacy ship Haruna with the first having been ARMD-10. We're never told what class the second Haruna was, but given the circumstances it's probably also an Algenicus-type stealth space cruiser. It's perhaps worth mentioning that FANKY's attempt to explain the nonexistence of the Frontier stealth cruiser in Macross 7 is that the class was not introduced until ~2041, which would pass the sniff test as a justification for why it is not seen among the Earth defense flotilla in 2040 or the 37th fleet in 2045-6 but is present in the 55th fleet forces. Official media generally suggests that the Macross 7-era ships are mostly products of the very late 2020s and early-to-mid 2030s. The Northampton-class seems to be the oldest, being present in the Macross 1 fleet alongside ARMD II-class space carriers while later fleets had the Guantanamo-class and Uraga-class.
  23. strikevalk

    1/55's revisited

    strikevalk replied to kanata67's topic in Toys

    promo poster on ebay... https://ebay.us/m/ZvELPb
  24. Yesterday
  25. David Hingtgen
    Been looking at stuff all day. Latest conclusions: even if I re-use my current RAM and go with a DDR4 board and lesser CPU, stand-alone GPU prices are so high it's still better to go with pre-built. About the best prebuilt out there is this one: https://www.costco.com/p/-/msi-aegis-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-9-9900x-geforce-rtx-5080-windows-11-home-32gb-ram-2tb-ssd/4000355760?COSTID=iosapp_26.2.2&TRACKING=NO&adobe_mc=TS%3D1772454362|MCMID%3D45984365143951753835997397173870534982|MCORGID%3D97B21CFE5329614E0A490D45@AdobeOrg&sh=true&nf=true However, only 32GB RAM and no extra slots, it's only got 2 slots on a small mobo* *people have reported that newer ones include a 4-slot 840 series mobo instead of the original one. But you're rolling the dice, no way to check until after you've spent 2 grand. However, going to MSI's own site, I can build almost an identical system at the same price which guarantees a 4-slot board, but more importantly, for $275, I can upgrade to 64GB. Yes, $275 for an extra 32GB is insane compared to a year ago, but for what standalone costs, I think it may be my best option, to get a system that's truly an upgrade and meets all my main criteria *matching the Costco price at 32GB requires downgrading to 1TB SSD, but I've got my two 990 Evo's to install...
  26. TG Remix
    I'm aware of the Otani Macross Frontier interview with Kawamori that stated old Zentradi ships were repurposed for those, and I'm assuming that's what the doujin was somewhat referencing too. There was a timeline from the Macross 7 and Plus Movie Program book that charted everything up to the two series (it's where the Second Battle of Macross City was first documented iirc) and it mentioned that they were indeed planned alongside the long distances fleets, but while those were for the survival of the human species, the short range ones was to deal with the population explosion on Earth and resource shortages. It also states they were carried out using lightly equipped, refurbished transport ships. I suppose that's the reason why the Quiltra Queleual was chosen since it was practically one but for giants and weapons for giants, but the Akusho also feels like it could've fitted the mold as well, it's smaller size explains why most of the short range fleets carried up to several thousand, or several hundreds of thousands, at most. Going through many supplementary material such as the Master File books and M3, they do take time to reference things like resource planets. Makes me wonder when the synthesis process started to get good and if it'd render stuff like fold carbon mines obsolete. Maybe not, but I suppose it depends on what's being mined or collected. the same series that sketchley mentioned I believed called it the Osaka-class, which is referring to the first ship Max captained in Macross M3. But it is a wild shot in the dark, and I always assumed the stealth cruiser was a relatively new model of ship.
  27. mikeszekely
    Gonna take a break from DNA kits to talk about some A-Level stuff... Studio Series Deluxe-class Transformers One Orion Pax. This is an interesting release, to me, because we already had Optimus, and they're the same guy, right? Except that's not exactly true. There was Orion Pax before he got a T-Cog, then there was Orion Pax after he got his T-Cog, and those two versions got the bulk of the screen time. Pax doesn't become Optimus Prime until he gets the Matrix right before the big final battle. There is, correctly, the obvious height difference between Pax and Prime, but if you look at concept art for the film there are other small details that are different between Pax and Prime's models. The most obvious is that Pax has no faceplate and smaller ear-tenna, sure, but Pax also has smaller smokestacks and a narrower chest window, all of which the new figure accurate depicts. It's less obvious, but the two models had different shoulders, and you could chalk the extra painted mechanical details on Pax's shoulders to that. While Hasbro did manage to get the differences differences right, I think I have more of an issue with the similarities not quite being similar enough. For one, I'm pretty sure Pax and Prime are supposed to be the same color (differences in screenshots are differences in lighting, not the actual color). Pax has much more saturated red and blue colors, with gray plastic that isn't pre-yellowed. I think a lot of people are going to see Pax and say, "Dang, why didn't they make Prime those colors in the first place?" There's also some painted mechanical details on Pax's forearms. These details exist on Prime's character model and are molded onto the toy but weren't painted. So there's a temptation to say that Pax at least looks better than Prime. It's been a minute since I watched Transformers One, but regardless of what he used when in the movies it makes a certain amount of sense to not just regurgitate the same energon axe accessory for Pax that came with Prime. Also, as a smaller, simpler figure than Prime, it makes sense that more of Pax's budget would go to his accessories. So he comes with two. First you have the map he, Elita-1, D-16, and Badassatron used to find the cave. You also have the big digger tool used by the miners. Pax's head is on a ball joint with a fairly good up/down/sideways tilt, in addition to the expected swivel. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double jointed, though you're looking at closer to 120 degrees of bend than 180. His wrists swivel and bend inward. He technically has a waist swivel, but it's in his backpack farther out than his butt, so it looks extremely awkward if you use it for more than a slight turn. His hips are ball joints, and his hip skirts do move, though it's a single piece tabbed into his pelvis, so you can expect about 90 degrees of movement forward, backward and laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes have some downward tilt due to transformation; if you try to tilt them up they'll pop off. His ankles can pivot about 90 degrees. Pax can hold the mining tool with both hands. The blades on the tool spin. The map can plug into a small peg on either of Pax's forearms. All of his accessories can be stored on his back. The tool uses too tabs that plug into slots on the backpack, while the map fits onto one of two small pegs on the bottom of it. Pax is not simply a downsized version of Prime. Although their transformations do share some similarities, there are some pretty big differences, and it winds up being just a bit more awkward for it. Like, yes, the entire lower body folds back so you can fold out the grill and tuck in the forearms, but then you have to fold it back, spin the waist, and move the legs like he's sitting down. The arms, in theory, stay in place by plugging on to a thin flap you fold out from under his chest, then ridges on the forearms are supposed to slide into a slot on his butt. In practice it's very difficult to line everything up just right, and on my copy things keep popping out. Frankly, I'm not even sure the end result is worth it. I mean, it's kind of cool that they tried to tuck Pax's arms up into the cab instead of leaving the most of his arms just lying along the side, but Prime's shoulder shift at least made for a pretty intact cab. There are massive gaps on the sides through which you can clearly see his fists. The back of the cab is a small improvement in that it's mostly red, but there's still deeply recessed and a part of Pax's forehead is showing. At least Pax can tow his gear. The mining too uses tabs that go into the bottom of Pax's shins to ride on the back of the truck. Alternatively, you can use the same tabs as his bot mode storage to plonk the whole thing on the roof. The map uses the same small pegs it did in robot mode to sort of hang off the back of the cab. Hasbro seems determined to milk Transformers One for all it's worth. I don't necessarily mind it, as I did like the film quite a bit. I suppose that an Orion Pax who's slightly different than Optimus Prime was inevitable, then. I guess we should expect D-16 in the future (and maybe he'll come with Megatron's cannon, since Megatron came with D-16's). But it's a bit frustrating that, to maintain some semblance of scale, Pax wound up with a design that's worse than the already very mediocre Optimus Prime. If not for the fact that I think Hasbro wanted all the main characters to be Deluxes to make them easier to push on kids who saw the movie instead of adult collectors, I think Hasbro would have been much better off making Pax (and D-16) better Deluxes while making Prime and Megatron Voyagers. As it stands, Pax isn't a great toy, and you should probably skip him.
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