Valkyrie Driver

This is amazing. I want. I see a bit of VF-1 and VF-25 in the shape of the fighter, a little VF-25 and VF-19 in the transformation, and a whole lot of awesome throughout. If/When this goes into production... 

5 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Eventually? Even an R4 would chew through those 150 round mags in a few seconds.

What is their rate of fire?

I don't know if that's stated anywhere, but by sound alone I'm guessing somewhere in the ballpark of 1800-6600 rpm. That's going off of real world guns like the GAU-12 on the low end (1800-4200 rpm), the GAU-22/A at 3300rpm, the GAU-8/A at ~3900rpm, and the M61 on the high end at 6000-6600 rpm.  That's my best estimate, considering how much lead the guns can pump out. It seems that the caliber of the gun and the amount of barrels seem to have an effect on how fast the guns fire. That and the drive, but since VF gunpods have to operate in space, I'd assume the guns are electrically driven considering that there is no air in space for them to driven pneumatically, and hydraulics would be bulky due to the insulation that would be required to keep the fluid in a liquid state. 

I've actually been looking at the TIE Advanced prototype set, as well as the Jakku Quad Jumper and the Scariff Battle set (For some set dressing for the walker). Also I'm really hung up on Star Wars, I've been in love with the sets since they first came out. I'm also a huge Star Wars fanboy, and currently no one is making star wars toys that are as fun as Lego...

1 hour ago, peter said:

In my opinion, US MREs taste a lot better than Canadian IMPs (individual meal packets).  Have you ever been issued ones with a warning label like this?

 

I actually got one just like this on my last exercise, lol!

Actually, sort of. When I was in BMT it came down that the vanilla dairy shakes in some of the lots might be tainted with salmonella. So we could not enjoy our powdered dairy shakes, which Ironically were the only thing that was actually edible in some of the MRE's. Also, don't misunderstand me, MRE's don't taste bad, it's just a literal PITA when they finally transit. Which was what caused the occurrence of the literal worst I ever felt, until I tried to watch Robotech...

I do have to admit that the Draken looks better with the sword than it does with the gun. The LillDrakens make it really offbalanced in battroid mode though.

This is truly beautiful, but I'd have such a problem with modifying a toy that cost a couple hundred bucks...

I was actually wondering, how much harder would it be to engineer this to be multiple parts, so it could be painted and then assembled?

Now I really want a few. Would go really nice with all of my Frontier Valks.

1 hour ago, Xigfrid said:

Thanks for the idea, but I thought that the GoPro adapters would be enough as the GoPro accessories have already plenty of stand bases. 

That's reasonable, though I was just thinking about alternatives, considering that some of those bases might not be large enough given the balance issues that some toys can have.  

I just got my Yetistand stuff today! It's together and mounted!

PICS!!!:

16 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

What little of it I've read sails right off the end of the critical spectrum... past "good" and "bad", through the thickets of "so bad it's good" to "so bad it's awful", and vaulting into the vast abyss of dispassionate loathing where Battlefield Earth and the Star Wars Holiday Special live.

It's operating on a level where I can't help but wonder if the captive Robotech audience inexplicably praising it is experiencing some sort of literary version of Stockholm Syndrome.

I keep trying to watch the Macross Saga, just to try and compare and contrast with SDFM, and I just can't seem to do it. It's almost like it causes me physical discomfort. I haven't felt as bad as that since the end of my rotation at JRTC after eating MRE's for 3 weeks. The feeling of being gassy, constipated, nauseous, all at once, with the feeling of fever, and cold sweats, the literal worst I've ever felt.  

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

They're still around, the fleet just upgraded to a more powerful round intended specifically to counter the higher-powered energy conversion armor of the Vajra starting in ep7 of Macross Frontier.  They were later replaced with MDE shells, because the Vajra adapted.

So are MDE shells mini dimensional explosives?

@Xigfrid, What scale are these in?

49 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I have all three, and like them all, esp the A-Wing from Rebels. The Walker could have been so much better had they used ratcheting joints for the hips so that it can actually walk, but I think they nailed the aesthetic. Too bad it only has one seat; I'd hoped this'd be their first two-seater, as it should be.

So here's my take:

The A-Wing is by far my favorite, mostly because it is my favorite Star Wars fighter. I'm a sucker for a tiny speedster, and the A-Wing definitely fits that bill. It was really interesting to build. I especially liked how the missile firing gimmick was implemented. I do wish that the engines had been attached with ratchets because they move around too easily the way it was done.  

Darth Vader's TIE Fighter was a very interesting build, and the way it was put together is intriguing. I've not had a lot of sets that used the technic style blocks and pegs the way these sets have. Again the missile gimmick was creatively implemented with the vertical sliding bars. I really don't have any complaints with this part of the set. 

The AT-ST, where to begin? I loved the way the cabin and waist went together. This was my first experience with using the technic gearbox, and I want to build more sets like that. Now, my biggest complaint with the set, is the total lack of poseability in the legs. I wanted the hips to be ratcheted, as well as the ankles and toes. The Fixed hips have the unfortunate problem of tilting the cabin forward, making the model prone to balance issues. If the legs had been entirely poseable it would have been much more intriguing a build, but I am still satisfied. As for it being a two-seater, I would have liked that more, since it would have been more accurate to the movies. However, being as I grew up on BattleTech, and the MechWarrior Video Games, having two crewmen never made sense to me (especially since my dad was a fighter pilot and he flew single seaters), so this isn't as big a problem for me. 

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Anyway, happy with your new sets? I hope so. If nothing else, they're fun little builds.

Yes, extremely. Though, I am a bit sad that they're built and done. Now that I built them once, the magic is gone, since I know how they go together and how they work. That means the discovery is made. It just means that I'm going to have to move on to more complicated sets...

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

I've been slowly catching up on my backlog of sets that I'd set aside while working on my Monster. Sales on sets have been plentiful at Walmart and TRU, so I've added a few new ones to the pile as well. Just built the Jakku Quadjumper, the ship that got blown up in Force Awakens, forcing Rey and Finn to steal a certain 'pile of junk'. Despite it's brief appearance, LEGO made a nice model capable of seating three figs (2 front, 1 in the back) with an 'exploding' feature where the top two engines are ejected off the ship. Fun build that looks good and plays well-what LEGO is all about.

I don't have a backlog, unfortunately, I'm on a fixed income. I'm also one of those people that wants to play with a new toy as soon as I have it my hot little hands, so things don't stay untouched for long. 

I would be interested in recommendations on sets to get in the future. I'm especially intrigued by the Slave 1, but I understand that it's huge and I don't have a ton of space to display stuff in my apartment. 

Well I broke down and got a couple of lego sets. And Here are my results:

Really interesting alternative for a display stand. Here's a possible idea though, maybe you could do something like what ChaoticYeti did, and make an adapter so we can use the GoPro arms on a Bandai DX base? Maybe you already thought about that but just figured I'd bring it up.

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Granted, a rotary gunpod will eventually run out of ammo... but most of them carry enough ammunition to dust several dozen battle pods or battle suits.

The reason rotary gunpods stuck around as long as they did is that they have the advantage of anti-energy conversion armor shells that negate the enhanced defensive ability of energy conversion armor.  A beam weapon used against a VF has to contend with an anti-beam ablative armor coating AND the strength of the energy conversion armor.  The rotary gunpod using HEACA shells is only working against a fraction of that armor strength and the high-explosive component of the shells detonates inside the target, which causes more damage.

It says a lot about the incredible stopping power of the rotary gunpods that the thing that eventually replaced them was a compact dimensional beam weapon.

Out of universe, actual guns sound way better than beam weapons (IMHO). It also serves to keep the feel grounded enough in reality to be believable. 

Also, were the HEACA rounds replaced by something else in Frontier? In order to combat the Vajra?

So would it be fair to say that the New UN Forces are a combined force, where there is mobility between branches based on skill set and assignment rather than being locked into your branch like in the US military? 

For instance if you're a fighter pilot, based on a fixed installation on a planet, you'd be in the NUNAF? If you're based on a ocean carrier or coastal installation you might be NUNN or NUNMC if assigned to a Marine Unit? And if you're assigned to a Space carrier or Colony fleet you'd be NUNS? 

5 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Everything else in the comic is borrowed from somewhere else, why not that too?

It is a baffling confluence of bad. It loops past so bad it's good, to bad again, and then goes another full loop. It over shoots not once but twice, and that's actually impressive, in a morbid sort of way. The images are really lifeless, and every character just hits the bottom of the uncanny valley for me. 

On 11/3/2017 at 5:02 AM, renegadeleader1 said:

Here's the transcript from the HG v FASA lawsuit that spun off from the lawsuit FASA brought against Playmates toys and their Exosquad line, that they also lost.

http://www.kaempen.org/alex/harmony_gold_v._fasa.html

 

If you want I can provide context and background if you have any questions about the various lawsuits.

I completely missed your response, but better late than never, right? Thanks for posting that info, I'm having a look right now.

Edit:

That pretty clearly sums it up. FASA was in the wrong. Oh well. BattleTech was as much a part of my childhood as Robotech was or many of our fellow fans here, so... Besides, post '96 Battletech seems pretty calm and abides by the decision of that case. Though I do have to say that the current suit by Harmony Gold against Hairbrained Schemes is a bit sketchy, considering that harmony gold is claiming ownership over designs that are not in fact based on Macross, that they actually have no claim to. But I digress, and that's a conversation for another thread.

10 hours ago, ManhattanProject972 said:

Where are the VF-31's backpack thrusters? 

Are they those little indents at the rear of the root of the wing structure? 

Looking at my VF-31C toy, it would appear that's the case, however, they're probably not at all similar to the thrusters in the backpacks of the Valkyries prior to the VF-25. The VF-25 and VF-31 share some common design elements.

1 hour ago, arbit said:

I have an Iwata Neo, and I'm not that happy with it.  I can't control spraying in small areas, due to splatter and congestion.

Will the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS be better for me? I have 2 years experience.

Try not thinning your paint as much, or try reducing your air pressure. With my H series, I need about 35psi, but my VL want's to run lower pressure. I hope that helps.

19 minutes ago, sketchley said:

That said, I do see where some of the complaints about it come from (evolution not being more of the same), and I personally think the production team could have handled a few things better.  Nevertheless, M7 has an undeniably great, original setting!

I'm not saying that I want ore of the same, because that's boring. There are some elements that should be present to make the show feel familiar, and connected to its predecessors. The Variable fighter is one such example, it's a staple of Macross, and should be present. The importance of music is of course another thing which should remain constant. M7's setting is definitely interesting, and I enjoyed pretty much everything in M7, just some things resonated wrong for me, and that was jarring, but I'd say my overall opinion of M7 is a net positive, with things I liked outweighing things that I didn't.

While I classified some of my complaints as problems, they're something that I can accept. I don't care for those aspects, but I can get over them. While M7 is not my favorite, it is not my least favorite either. Then again, I don't think I could pick a favorite or least favorite. 

Do we have any information on the Macross Quarter? For instance, how large is the crew?