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  2. Not silent, but quieter... mainly as a product of more efficient engine designs driven by tighter regulations on tailpipe emissions and fuel economy. That's a pure vanity feature introduced in the early 2010s intended to replicate the driving experience of older cars with worse sound insulation. Those systems either amplify the existing engine noise or generate fake engine noise and mainly pipe it into the cabin. The fake engine noise isn't... but I can understand how people might make that connection. EVs are required to have an Acoustic Vehicle Alert System that plays an audible tone at around ~70dBA in low speed operation so that pedestrians can hear the otherwise actually silent EV coming. Similar versions of the same requirement all came into effect in the 2010s around the same time that the purely-for-vanity's-sake fake engine notes were being added to cars with combustion engines. It's not the companies... or perhaps it might be more accurate to say that it's not just the companies. The issue is that there are many different governmental and non-governmental bodies developing, publishing, and enforcing/certifying standards. Those organizations which are developing those standards are often (but not always) independent of the corporations that are using those standards in their products. Those standards are usually developed by committee, and the committee can be made up of representatives from multiple rival OEMs, suppliers, research institutions, government regulators, etc. These organizations that develop the standards are often localized to one country or region and don't necessarily come to the same conclusion as another standards body in another country or region. To give an example, there are nominally five different major electric vehicle charging standards in play, maintained by four different organizations: SAE J1772, the main/oldest US-based charging standard developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers SAE J3400, the newest US-based charging standard developed by Tesla and formalized by the Society of Automotive Engineers because nobody trusts or likes Tesla IEC 62196, the European Union's charging standard developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission GB/T 20234, the People's Republic of China's charging standard developed by the Standardization Administration of China CHAdeMO, Japan's domestic charging standard developed by the CHAdeMO Association None of them are compatible with each other at the hardware level, and there is at least some degree of incompatibility at the software/protocol level too. As the comic suggests, any attempt to create one standard that covers everyone's use cases just means you have another competing standard in the wild with all the others you were trying to get rid of. Most of the manufacturers would love to converge on a single standard so we can stop pissing about with having to develop half a dozen variants of a single function or have half a dozen different port hardware variants. It's just that nobody can agree what standard to converge on.
  3. It's getting strange how much momentum the line has lost... Renewal Frontier toys bumped this line.
  4. Today
  5. Posting this here, cus it is in regard to a Playmax kit I've had trouble acquiring. Anyone have experience ordering from Lunapark? I've never heard of them before, so want to find out 1. Are the legit? And 2. What kind of cust. Service they have. ( shipping times, packaging etc.).
  6. I haven’t come across an official Macross-to-Battletech conversion either. Every now and then you’ll see some fan-made versions, but nothing consistent or broadly available. If you want something accurate to the series, you’d likely need to create the stats on your own.
  7. That’s oddly been common even before the ev stuff started becoming common. A lot of the Gas engines have been silent for over a decade, even rather quiet in the muscle cars. I remember a long time ago when the Mustang’s were getting 💩as soon as people realized that the noise was a speaker thing rather than an engine thing. Some people even argue that the fake noise is a safety feature to warn pedestrians and cyclists. As far as Cracker Barrel, that’s a whole different issue. The company was desperate because they started losing money and decided to try a logo change up. Most people didn’t even know it was an iconic logo til the few diehard customers that like the place started crying over it. Honestly I didn’t even know there was one thirty minutes away til my lady informed me about its existence after the controversy was in the news. She hasn’t ever been there either. That’s one of the stupid issues I have with this changeover. The companies aren’t on the same page with the standardization and it’s stalling the industry. If they’d standardize things, it would make the vehicles much less expensive and easier to maintain over time. Most of the charging stations seem to be Tesla and if someone has a different type of car, then they have to hope for an adapter to work. And that issue sometimes goes the other way as well. We might get an ev one day, but they’ll have to sort these issues out and make them more affordable overall and I’m not sure if that will be in my lifetime
  8. It’s actually @tekering’s diorama. 😬 It wasn’t posted in this thread, but I’m the idiot that decided to repaint, panel-line, and sticker up the new Sentinel Tread:
  9. Like I said, those on the dev team absolutely were torn between "Is this crazy enough to work?" and "Is this just plain crazy?". On paper, it sort of made sense. A properly calibrated emotor can deliver as much or more power than a combustion engine and has no RPM restrictions on when it can deliver its maximum rated torque. All other things being equal, an EV could handily blow a regular muscle car into the weeds. Most EVs have to have their motors derated to avoid burnouts and tire damage from anyone who puts their foot down too hard. The intended market, however... eech. Muscle car aficionados are infamously puritanical and winning them over was always going to be a massive uphill battle if not a full-on Sisyphean task. The BGE is a beautiful engine family, but she's not the most efficient thing on the planet, and CAFE and emissions targets were a priority for all of the Big 3. 😵‍💫 Almost nobody in America is buying A-segment or B-segment small cars. Even D-segment and E-segment mid-size and full-size cars have been in sharp decline for years. To the point that a bunch of product lines in those segments from the Big 3 have been axed over the last ten years. Those car lines were key to meeting emissions targets, since the big trucks and SUVs that Americans love are nowhere near as efficient. Something had to give somewhere, which is why all of the Big 3 made a push toward electrification of trucks and SUVs and scaled back production of less efficient engine designs. I wasn't a fly on that particular wall, but it's a sucker bet that the decision to discontinue the HEMI was an attempt to drag corporate average emissions back into line with the low sales of the Fiat 500, 500e, and 500x, and the discontinuation of the 200 and 300. Esp. with all of the Big 3 overdependent on purchased carbon credits. From my own personal experience... sort of? Not really? It's not that the understanding wasn't there. It's more like that the people with that understanding were marginalized by incoming leadership who assumed the market can't be that different and then end up backpedaling. It's actually kind of funny how predictable it is the second time around. Cracker Barrel's situation is a different kind of corporate idiocy, trying to water down a brand with a modern-minimalist aesthetic to make it more appealing to venture capital. And the main reason for that is this: I'm not joking even a little. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for EVs of all types is standards. Every OEM has their own proprietary network architectures, connector pinouts, etc. and in some cases there are multiple national-level competing standards for things like charging interfaces and regulation of energy storage devices. They try to harmonize, but intercompatibility is such a nightmare that Argonne National Laboratory has a facility and annual industry events devoted to trying to get everyone on the same page just with vehicle charging and smart grid integration. It's 100% possible right now to hot-swap EV battery packs in minutes as long as the pack's set up for it. The problem is there's no standardization of pack form factors, mounting points, etc. even within a single OEM, never mind across OEMs. If we could sort out the standards problem, you could keep an EV in service forever with much cheaper generic replacement packs even if battery chemistry changed.
  10. Color choice may have something to do with it, the orange and blue are kind of sports like. I probably expended them too far across the chest as well, so they end up more like stripes. It might not look like a shark, but I still kind of like the effect. I'll play with it some more when I get some time. I have a few other ideas to try as well.
  11. Oh wow, thank you so much!!! I was wondering what was up with "macrossworld2.com." 😆 Thanks again for uploading that video, it's so great to see the VF-5000B in actual missions, instead of just the Scoring Attack and Survival stages from the Special Version/Tokyo Snack Edition release.
  12. Change that sigil on his chest and he could be playing Jor-El!!
  13. One review that I found in Korean Maybe more reviews to follow (or maybe some collectors' don't want to bother if its the same as the renewal version)? Edit: I want to see if this revival version is better than the renewal (in an comparison vid) and to see if there are changes in the instruction manual or it's just the recopy of the renewal version.
  14. Not this time. I’m just trying some color layering experiments and basing it off of the OG VF-1S yellow/black/white scheme for the most part. More to come soon.
  15. I've reached the point in this series where I almost cannot wait for Weyland-Yutani to nuke the whole island (which is honestly what I hope happens in the end). And I have never once ever pulled for the "company" for any reason... until now. I wonder why Morrow didn't say something during the arbitration hearing about the crash being intentionally caused?
  16. @nightmareB4macross Looks amazing. I like that raised texture a lot. I haven’t seen that part represented that way before. Very cool.
  17. The long and skinny on the EV charger is that Stellantis/Dodge attempted to sell a car that its core market openly ridiculed and made fun of. Dodge was known as a performance brand SRT, Viper, Challenger, Charger.. etc. The removal of the Hemi is the death knell for this brand, and the scramble to include"Six Pack" ICE option will not cut it. An example of a European company not understanding the US car market, and totally missing the mark with its core audience.. See Cracker Barrel for similar results. I also find amusement in people applying the "purist" label to people with my point of view.. you do realize we are on Macross World right? If I need to explain that one.. this will go over your head. Even with all that said, I don't hate the EV Charger.. I do like how it looks. But the speaker for engine noise is pretty comical, Yes its fast and pretty impressive at that. On the flip side, these cars will not exist outside of collections in 7-10 years. Same with any EV no matter who the manufacturer due to battery lifespans and cost of replacement. You wanna prove me wrong.. buy the car.. don't lease it. As someone who enjoys classic cars, and I have a preference for the V8. I have 2 cars from 1969 both are fully working and road legal. I challenge any current EV to be in that shape in what.. 2081? not happening..
  18. So after this, will an official DYRL Skull squadron member be released? It has been years since Bandai teased these.
  19. That’s still a hefty catch. Would be nice to know the actual price. BOA can lead people to believe the higher price listed but the figure could have sold for half the asking price.
  20. @F18LEGIOSS2 Nice work on that wing! Very clean and smooth. @505thAirborne can’t wait to see your finished results. @big F that MaK figure is looking good. Always loved the look and feel of those kits and toys. @Papa Rat sorry if I missed it. Will this be a Milia version? @Mog cool diorama. Well, after finally receiving my tile pattern I got it into place. Originally, I was looking for lattice texture, but realized these were tiles and not divets like a lot of the sculpts represent. glad I spend time doing the research.🧐
  21. Wow-that was when I had a 2nd site created to store some of the files because the primary server was full lol Yeah found the vid-remember this was compression from 2002 VFX2EXm1.mpeg
  22. Coloring the ankle gaurds definitely makes the whole thing feel less flamboyant. Something about the gills looks kind of like a sports jersey. Maybe I wasn't cooking with that one, or requires a very nuanced design to look like angry shark gills.
  23. I was browsing the Unreleased section (https://www.macrossworld.com/macross/unreleased/unreleased.htm) on the old Legacy Site and came across a video for the US version of Macross VF-X2 called "Macross VF-X2 Export Edition." I've never seen the US version referred to as the "Export Edition" and wanted to watch the video, but the link to the video doesn't work anymore (https://www.macrossworld2.com/macross/unreleased/vfx2exm1.mpeg). Is there any way to restore this video? Info for the unreleased US version is super scarce and it'd be pretty cool to confirm that its working title was going to include "Export Edition," perhaps as a nod to Macross Plus International Version.
  24. I want it, but the IP/license tax on it is absolutely insane. It's only 2,800 pieces, and yet it's $380? That's a terrible, terrible, terrible price if you're counting price per brick, which I do, I just can't justify the cost right now, after tax you're looking at $400+.
  25. You can recess the ankle joints in diver mode and that helps remove some of the play.
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