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40th Anniversary Black and Gold MDU.

James Bond.

Very likely. I am an engineer and an academic... overthinking things is practically my stock in trade! 😜 I do admire everyone else in the story having terribly on-the-nose naming sense though. (Made amusing on a meta level knowing the Naresuan is an Earth culture otaku... he quite intentionally gave his ship what he thought was a Cool and Meaningful Name with symbolic resonance and then probably had to weather a few weeks of "What do you mean it's not awesome?" from his crew.)

You're probably overthinking what in-universe corporate marketing types would name a commercial ship.

Having finally completed our Blu-ray collection for Attack on Titan earlier this year, and with my wife's having a long weekend due to the holiday, we binge watched the whole thing finishing today, and wow. This is really an impactful series, lushly animated, extremely well-written, and very-well performed by the English voice cast. We'd started watching it years ago when it premiered on Cartoon Network, but we'd missed eps here and there and I believe we only saw it up to S3, so a full watch was in order. Anyway, we were hooked back then and have been wanting to give it a full watch, so I'm glad this weekend provided an opportunity. It definitely did not disappoint. It's one of those rare shows that stays with you mentally and emotionally for some time after you've finished it. I've read that some fans took issue with the ending, but I thought it offered a satisfying and thought-provoking ending that speaks to human nature. My wife and I both served in the military, so the camaraderie between the characters was very relatable. I'm not a big believer in preordination or fate, but IMHO the way those elements were used within the narrative, especially with Eren's story, offered perspective and in flashbacks, really interesting glimpses at characters' reactions and choices that would affect events. Overall, a tour de force of character-building, narrative and plotting, world-building, and social commentary, not to mention the sheer beauty of the artwork and use of music throughout. To say the least, I recommend a watch.

Yeah, a big chunk of my last shipment was DNA upgrade kits (although less than I expected, as there's at least two more kits that have been out in China but are still showing as not arriving until September here). So we'll keep rolling with DNA DK-49, an upgrade kit for the Studio Series Rise of the Beasts Terrorcons. This kit has parts for three figures- Battletrap, Nightbird, and Scourge. In the package you'll find a chain, a pair of blasters, two swords, two little wings, a forearm and hand, two shoulders, and two truck mode parts. We'll start with the easy stuff. The chain is for Battletrap's mace, and you attach it by sliding the big tab into the notches on the mace. From there, it's as simple as plugging the other end into one of his fists. The chain has a number of joints that could be used for cool poses, except that Battletrap's shoulders don't appear to have held up well despite being in storage in a box in alt mode. He can't support the weight of the mace/chain combo. The blasters, likewise, have pegs at the end that fit into his fists. For alt mode, you can store the chain by leaving it plugged into a fist, then you use the joints in the links to route the chain under the tow hook. The mace/wrecking ball winds up in basically the same spot. The blasters, meanwhile, can be stored by plugging the square holes onto the posts on the sides of the truck, where his arms peg into his torso in bot mode. All told, the blasters and chain are nice-to-haves, nothing I'd say majorly improves the figure but also nothing that requires any major alterations. Nightbird's similarly simple. Grab her tiny little wings and just yank them off their pegs. Then just pop the replacement ones on. The new swords are slightly larger but almost identical in sculpt. They're painted with yellow instead of black, which I believe is a better match for the film. The almost-identical sculpt means that they can still tab onto her hip armor. Really, the biggest improvement with the swords is that there's two here instead of just the one the toy came with. The biggest improvement is definitely the new wings, though. They're still a tad smaller than what she had in the film, but they look purposeful instead of the vestigial nubs she came with. Plus, they have hinges, so they're articulated in a way the originals weren't. Now, you might figure that the reason Nightbird came with such puny wings is because there's a lack of space to stow them when she transforms. But, DNA clearly figured it out. Swivel them and use the hinges to angle them just right, and they should curl under her cabin, right along her spine, just like this. If you got them situated right, the car should button up about as well as it ever did. As for the swords, again, the nearly identical sculpt means that you can tab them in exactly the same as the original. I think I even called out the fact that she had spots for two swords when I reviewed her and questioned why she only came with one. With the easy ones out of the way, we're left to upgrade Scourge, who you may recall already had one upgrade kit with a new right arm that sported articulated figures, a new weapon that wasn't permanently attached to his arm, a new head that's kind of ugly but has a much more solid neck and removable mask, a new claw arm with articulated fingers, some rib filler, and new armor parts for his thighs, butt, and shins. And that was all well and good, but in a lot of scenes he had neither an arm cannon or a claw, he had a normal left hand. What if you want that look? Well, DNA got you covered with an arm that's basically a mirror of the previous one, but with the peg hole for the peg stump that the claw and blaster use. I've seen concept art of Scourge with shoulder pads like the toy has, but the toy clearly wasn't working from the final design because that's not how his shoulders looked in the film. So DNA decided to replace them with more accurate ones, and we're going to have to do a bit of toy surgery to swap them. Begin by removing these two screws. Be careful, as caps will come off with the screws. Hang onto them, you'll need them later. With the arm off, you can slide the DNA shoulder onto the joint and replace the caps and screws. Pull the arms off the old shoulders at the mushroom peg and slide them into the new shoulders. Here you can see the new shoulder vs the old shoulder, with a screen grab of Scourge in the film. The new shoulder armor is much closer to the film... but you might be thinking at this point, "hey, weren't those old shoulder pads a major part of the truck's nose?" They were indeed! Which brings use to our final parts, pieces that replace the shoulders so we're not missing big chunks of the truck's nose. To attach them, you need to find these tabs on his back, and plug the parts into them. This is actually where his original shoulders would tab into the wheels. The fit, as was the case with the thigh, shin, and butt armor from the previous kit, isn't the tightest and DNA advises that you can use glue, but doing so will make it difficult or impossible to revert him to stock. There's a swivel in each of the DNA pieces, so once they're tabbed in you can kind of tuck them in a bit after you plug in his backpack. However, you shouldn't fold in the panels with the smokestacks first anymore. The spot where they're designed to sit is now occupied by the DNA parts. Once the backpack is in place, you can fold them in, but they're now forced to angle backward slightly and not really lock in anymore. That said, It doesn't look drastically different from how it originally went, and the friction in the hinges seems to be adequate to keep everything in place. More robot accuracy is good, but only if it still transforms. And he does, but with a little more finagling to get his arms past the wheels which now have chunks of the nose attached. You also have to take more care to line up the shoulder joints/air cleaner, since lining up the shoulder pads with the nose of the truck won't do it for you anymore. To make sure that the new shoulders sit under the hood you need to take the extra steps of sliding the ring-shaped joint coming out of the shoulder forward toward the nose of the truck while also sliding the new shoulder armor down toward the back of the truck. Once everything's settled the new nose parts should fit over the shoulders and mate with the strip of the hood coming from his backpack and the grill. Despite using new nose parts attached to his backpack that fit over his shoulders instead of making the nose parts out of his shoulders, the truck mode is basically the same as it ever was. His hands, whether you're using the clawed hand or the normal one of the left, still poke out of the back of the cab. If you're using the DNA kit, the blade still folds and clips onto the thumb, and you still kind of just wedge the blaster between his legs. Recommending this kit is a tough call... I think Nightbird is the most obviously improved by it, but is she improved enough? Blasters and a chain for Battletrap aren't pushing it over the finish line. I think it ultimately comes down to Scourge. Did you get the previous kit for him? That kit did quite a bit to improve his screen accuracy, but the shins and especially the thighs would come off if you looked at him funny, practically demanding that you glue those parts on. I think, if you got that kit, you might as well go all the way and give him the option of a normal hand and more accurate shoulders, and you might as well glue the new truck nose parts on, too. If you didn't get the previous kit, which goes a lot further in improving him than this one does, then there's really no point to getting this kit for him. And if you're not getting this kit for Scourge, then you can probably save some money and pass on this kit, too.

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Thank you very much for posting the video of the panel! Was great seeing Adrian and Tom B up there with BW's Onishi! Very happy to hear they are still supporting the future for physical media for new releases.

Well, as all Macross collectors know, sometimes you can find something that you had no idea existed. Apparently I was a bit premature on my 'got em all' post above! So how about this: SO FAR, this is what we've verified to exist Macross Attack Team (マクロスアタックチーム) Sky Angels Vol 1 Self Titled Sky Angels Vol 2 "Macross Magazine" Sky Angels Vol 3 "Macross Journal" Sky Angels Special Edition "VF-1 Valkyrie" Sky Angels Vol 4 "Don't Say Goodbye" MAT Information Vol 1 & Vol 2 Macross Magazine Petite Angel Vol 1 <<<<<<<<<<<<TODAY'S NEW ADDITION Thanks to @akim's watchful eye, this one found at Mandarake. They are a bit hyper critical (some deserved) of the animation quality differences across various episodes, almost 'end of days' of the series type talk. Fandom has never really changed over 40 years has it lol Here are some pics!!

I don’t know if it’s gonna bomb, seems like a lot of hype. Although there’s some competition as well that might be an issue. I guess we’ll find out soon

Just a reminder to all-Please try your best to keep items posted unique (these have been posted before) You are encouraged to add personal collection pics into the user gallery pages i.e. https://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/gallery/

Exactly...it's like they know the movie is going to bomb so they are moving straight to the profits they will need from physical media sales to make up for poor box-office sales.... Meh....still going to see it on the big screen....then Fantastic 4.....also will catch the latest Jurassic Park movie on a matinee or 5 dollar AMC tuesday.... There's actually more that the usual summer flicks that I'm interested this summer....

Night of the Living Cats. If they touch you you become one. Yup. The world will be inherited by furballs.

Also starting Secrets of the Silent Witch... another series about a protagonist with crippling social anxiety. Is that this season's theme? This one doesn't seem like it's got much going on under the hood. I imagine the jokes about social anxiety are going to get old pretty quickly.

Honestly, I’m not even thinking DVD’s before the movie even comes out in theaters

Bandai Hi-Metal R VF-0D Phoenix (Shin Kudo Use)

Giving another series a whirl while I wait for some automation processes to finish at work... The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses. Y'know, I'm feeling optimistic after Betrothed to My Sister's Ex. This series looks like it's going to be cringe-worthy harem fanservice material but maybe it'll have some substance after all. Aside from feeling like this series needs a counter for how many times the protagonist passes out standing up (the way Excel Saga did for Hyatt dying)... it really feels like an excuse plot wrapped around some fanservice and some barely-there character cliches.

Lol. Love it ! A drunken truth or dare one night stand

They should just announce when it hits HBO Max....

Ayup.

Not worth any more arguments. EXCEPT - Bring up anything in Last Jedi is counterproductive. That movie was a train wreck from start to finish. (and I'll say no more on that either)

It was pretty expensive given the exchange rate at the time. Cruiser mode pic taken in low light.

I'll definitely see if I can get another one to leave in Fighter mode.

16 years is never too late

If Macross and Pacific Rim had a one night stand