ComicKaze

I wish they would make the strum bar less chunky and thinner.

It just has a horrible feel to it, I don't know how anybody could play that thing with their fingers, it feels like slamming your fingers into a block of soap, it's horrible.

I can't play Guitar Hero without using an actual guitar pick.

So apparently the film is not so good.

Cheap looking CG, goofy plot, too much tied down to the old movies.

I live in the UK, which I think makes me contractually obliged to like football (and it is football, not this "soccer" malarkey!  ), but I've never really been a big sports fan. My family, however are quite nuts about it.

Theres currently some spoof ads on UK TV at the moment from Budweiser, spoofing the American approach to sport and imagining what might happen if US-style sponsorship came to the UK. Moving Arsenal to Yorkshire just because theres already too many teams in London is just one of the ads jokes (although a slightly obscure comedy show called The Mary Whitehouse Experience did much the same thing a few years ago, only somewhat more bitingly... )

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They should have a segment where the American Network makes the ball glow blue so that American fans can tell where it actually is, and adding a red streak to it when it's shot.

(true story, it has been done before to hockey and soccer)

What happened is that Roddenberry's vision turned more and more utopian and pacifist as he got older. His original vision for Star Trek back in the 60s (as quoted by him) was "Horatio Hornblower in Space"...

Horatio Hornblower is a swashbuckling high-seas adventure about a daring young officer rising in the ranks of the British Navy during years of colonial exploration and constant warfare with france. That's the perfect Kirk if you ask me and what any future Star Trek series Captain needs to embody. A modern day/future Horatio Hornblower.

Even "The Cage" which people most often cite as his early works being more cerebral (literlally) and pacifist is bristling with weapons and technology and dark, dark sci-fi material (colony ship crashes killing all but one girl, horribly put back together frankenstein style by Aliens that don't know what they are doing).

fine, the original toy has the wings at the hips and the he stands on his rudders. the first draft of the MPC and every drawn version of him are incorrect because the original toy had the wings coming off his hips and were much much lower than where they are now, coming off his torso.

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Once more, the original toy has no bearing on the masterpiece line. Was Masterpiece Optimus prime designed with a gaping hole in the back? The MP line takes most of it's inspiration from the animated versions as designed by Floro Dery. The wings are that way (including the panels/flaps that flip backward to emulate the stylized raked angle of the animated robot) because it's that way in the cartoon. The intakes can be rotated forward because in the cartoon, the leading edge of the intakes was a right angle in the cartoon's robot mode while the back curved forward. Oh yeah, Starscream doesn't have a giant cone sticking out the back of his head because it wasn't in the cartoon!

How come nobody makes as much noise when Katoki redesigns gundams and ver. Kas them?

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I actually wonder if gundam fans in Japan compain as much about redesigns as we do. Though lets remember, there are a billion version of every gundam, so even if you don't like Katoki's revision you can still probably easily nab a rendition you like as there are billions of different gundam toys and models damn you bandai, stop it with the gundam already... diversifiy....

The reason is that Gundam fans have Gundams of every shape and size and version already. They already have "true" versions of many of the Katoki or ver. Kas or Fix Figuration, etc. in hundreds of toys and models, etc.

With transfans, most of them have been waiting their entire childhoods AND adult lives to be given an accurate to cartoon Starscream and then were shown the first picture in anticipation and then summarily disappointed and had their hopes dashed after all those years.

Then why are you bent out of shape about the tail fins, when that iconic look is FINLESS?

I think I stated as much in the first place, and you threw ANIMATION ERRORS back at me to explain why it needed tail fins on the feet.

While hanging them off the hips is still not animation accurate, it at least looks less retarded than having them stick off the feet.

Because according to the original design, the fins folded up behind the legs thusly they were hidden when viewed from the front. This is aesthetically pleasing and much truer to both toy and cartoon incarnations of Starscream to begin with and simply makes more sense. I think that most people, when they are kids and draw a robot, will put fins on the legs instead of attaching fins/pods to the hips.

An upper body. All that made Starscream was above the waist.

Well, that's only half a Starscream in my book. I imagine my robots whole. Maybe you should buy a Starscream bust then

Ya know, I considered pointing out exactly what I meant, but thought it would be understood.

I guess not.

Every rendition of the VF-1, animation errors excepted, is largely the same, save detail level.

Yes a Yamato 1/48 kicks all kinds of crap out of a 1/55 Bandai, but when you get down to it, they're the SAME THING. Sure the Bandai is a bit chunkier, but the overall styling is the same.

Aside from animation errors, there aren't any stray parts materializing, dematerializing, or moving with the whims of the current artists, except for the gunpod, which is either missing in fighter mode or hanging under the fighter along the centerline.

By comparison, every Gen1 Transformer that made it to animation had no fewer than 3 designs: toy, box art, and cartoon. The diffrences were often drastic enough between the toy and animation that the Skyfire/Jetfire substitution doesn't look excessively absurd.

If, as you say, only the official animation design counts... Starscream had no foot-fins.

The issue isn't foot fins, but wherever they fit to be most hidden as to emulate the "no-foot fins" appearance. Putting them on the hips makes them blatantly obvious which is the wrong direction to go. If you need rockets, fins, any flight control thrust bits, or just extra mass stick... them on the legs, I think that's logically the most aesthetic place. Do you see fast packs hanging off the hips of the VF-1? Incidentally, I'm pretty sure Shoji intended these to be fast packs as he would know the F-15 was the first fighter to use them...but the end result in my opinion is thatt he new version of Starscream looks like a robot with ostrich legs that has two submarines hanging off his belt.

Just for fun, here's Shoji's scribbles on the original design showing the changes he wanted:

That was a pretty much perfect Starscream in my opinion. Changes were unnecessary.

This thread is way too long, so I haven't read through ... so apologies if this has been asked before:

Can someone comment on the Takara Japanese re-issues of the Generation 1 "classic" transformers?

They come in a white window box (similar to Toynami's MPC boxes).  Are they any good?  I mean like quality material-wise.  And are the toys accessible, like Toynami/Yamato, or if I open the box, I won't be able to re-seal the toy, MIB?

Reason I ask is because I am debating whether to buy one or not.

Thanks in advance folks,

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Yes to all counts. You might find American reissues to be cheaper but some of them have some modifications to the missiles for child safety issues.

Diffrence is that this is just one more in a long series of re-envisionings of Transformers. There were multiple incarnations of Starscream even during his original release(box art, cartoon, and toy were all diffrent designs). There is no singular "right" look for Starscream, and I prefer the clean-legged versions anyways.

The VF-1, by contrast, do have a singular "right" look, head excepted.

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Starscream's iconic look is defined by the animation, every comic book from G1, G2, Dreamwave, the newest ones, and all the Super Robot Life TV Magazines and Manga. Every PVC incarnation, over a dozen in addition to the Robot Masters Starscream and the Cartoon Version Reissue of the G1 toy are all aspiring to the cartoon design. I could care less about the original G1 toy. The iconic image of Starcream was derived from the toy and intended to be different from the toy in the first place.

What do you tink of when you first imagine Starscream in your head?

The VF-1 certainly does not have a singular "right" look by your logic as the toys, animation, etc. all varied greatly in their own right. Some by technical limitation or by artistic liscense or sloppy art.

Also, here's something new by The Wombat King at tfw2005:

The point is THE STUFF ON THE WAIST IS ABSOLUTELY UNNECCESSARY - even if the vehicle mode is better.

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"absolutely unnecessary" would imply that it serves no purpose, and yet you follow up by admitting his vehicle mode is better... so obviously it is necessary. but whine some more, obviously better posability (longer feet, he's not balancing on his tail fins anymore) a more portioned body (now he has a waist and doesn't have stubby legs anymore) don't mean that much to you. Yes, lets all stay slavishly true to a toy that came out 20 years ago, even though there have a dozen different versions of him.

I don't see any reason why the streamlined F-15 needs the kibble to be attached to the hips besides Kawamori flexing his creative liscense to simply put things where he prefers theme ala Valkyrie design. This has nothing to do with faith to the toy design but the iconic image of Starscream that is pretty much set in stone just like the VF-1 Valkyrie.

Most of us don't give a damn about the original toy and know that it's pretty chunky. The toy isn't the iconic image of Starscream the animation version is. When you think of Optimus Prime do you imagine the toy or his cartoon version?

Anyways... Prime's statememt rings true in this case.

Tailfins dangling off the feet = broke.

Moving them makes for a much cleaner robot.

And I do admit I had none of the jets as a kid, so my nostalgia isn't getting in the way(which could be an issue, since the Masterpiece toys are all about nostalgia).

But I DO remember looking at the pictures in the foldout catalog and thinking the tailfins on the feet were dorky(only one I really wanted was Thrust, for unknown reasons).

And Masterpiece Prime was intended to be faithful to the animation, not the toy. Animation Starscream had no leg fins.

How does tailfins attached to the feet constitute broken when this has been the design for nearly 30 years? Attaching junk to the hips doesn't make a cleaner robot - unless it's a Valkyrie...it's just bulky, clumsy, and in the way. Starscream was animated with tailfins on the legs in certain episodes. Another unneccessary change is that the lefs are now curved and top heavy since it follows the profile of the F-15 undercarriage.

Masterpiece Prime is also quite revisionist itself, neither accurate to the toy nor the cartoon...but at least it kept the general premise of the robot's shape.

How would you feel if Kawamori announced the VF-1 Valkyrie was nolonger going to look like that and that now, the legs would feminine and the wings along with the wouldn't fold back but would be attached to the hips along with the fastpack portions of the legs hanging from the waist?

HAHAHA.. so when convoy comes out, it's all blah blah, his cab mode isn't tru to life, not truck looks like that, his smoke staks aren't big enough, fuel tanks are too small too far back! Comprimise his bot mode for a real world truck!

And now we have an f-15 that actually looks like an F-15 and now the fanboys are at it again.. HOW DARE you compromise his bot mode for a more accurate vehicle mode.. whine whine whine.

And by the way, the very act of redesigning the original G1 toys is being revisionist.

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The point is THE STUFF ON THE WAIST IS ABSOLUTELY UNNECCESSARY - even if the vehicle mode is better.

I am officially nolonger a fan of Shoji Kawamori. The guy should have more respect for the original work, not be slavish to his fighter accuracy fetish. This isn't time for being revisionist.

Here's the prelude to what we see now, Kawamori's "changes" scribbles.

http://www.fantofan.jp/news/mag/dengekihobby/jul2006-2.jpg

You can't keep booting stuff into the future for the reason that technology was already getting out of hand in the 24th century. The further you move out the more technobabble and fake crap they need to spout to explain things that don't exist. The more technology they have, the more deus ex machinas and technology plot devices will exist.

The further you move, the more distanced the audience feels from the future because of less ties to our modern age. Back to basics is the correct approach because the technology in the 24th century was already nigh-invincible - metaphasic shields that can allow a Starship to safely fly through a sun's corona? Why don't they just put them on everything? Federation ships with cloaking devices, machine gun like pulse phasers and quantum torpeados, warp 10... where does it end?

Of course they screwed up Enterprise because Berman is a hack and already by the 3rd episode, you had transporters where the big device of the show was supposed to be how they had to shuttle everywhere and couldn't rely on the cheap transporter to save the day. Then the prime directive came in, etc. etc. and then a quasi-holodeck plot, and then everything from the 24th century flooded back en masse and ruined the show because it just became Voyager by any other name.

The ONLY THING that could work in a future story is if you have a massive intergalactic war or calamity that destroys everything and people have to rebuild and learn science all over again. In fact, that would be great. The Dominion war shouldn't have ended.

STUPID KAWAMORI!!!!! THIS IS STARSCREAM NOT THE YF-19 !!!!!!!!!! No waist wings!

Because Kawamori is such a fighter accuracy purist, he's added all this kibble (check out the extra chunks on SS's forearms) to make the fighter undercarriage smooth.

For those that have seen Tokyo Drift - do they get away with faking it's Tokyo ? I thought it was riduculous how the film kept getting changed...

First it was supposed to be 80% tokyo, 20% America and then it kept getting pushed back to 60-40, 70-30, 50-50 and eventually what they ended up with is like 10% Tokyo and 90% filmed in the US.

You forgot to mention Swoop appears in robot form as animation error in Autobot city fighting when the sun goes down. He shouldn't be there until the morning when Optimus arrives.

I made this because I'm so pissed off at how stupid the movie suit looks.

(The real poster with ugly wetsuit/t-shirt style collar and mini-S: http://www.supermanhomepage.com/images/sup...ewspaper-ad.jpg)

dumb hairstyle, dumb cape attachment, dumb suit overall with tiny logo.

Singer is playing Lex Luthor as Gene Hackman's over the top portrayal, and Bosworth is weak as Lois Lane and doesn't even look the part.

I generally really want my TF's to have 2 arms/hands.  Even if poorly shaped/molded---G1 Brawl is OK by my standards.  (heck, all the Combaticons, and most other G1 combiners are like that).   But Cybetron TC has "top half of a Flanker" for an arm.  And because of a GIMMICK.

Nothing I hate more than when some stupid "action firing" gimmick ruins an entire limb.

*cries over the Energon Shockwave toy again*

Headmasters and Targetmasters were about the only good gimmicks, as they didn't affect the transformation or sculpt at all.

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I only ever had one headmaster. Was the wolf-ish decepticon thing.

The transformation lock broke, so it was stuck in beast mode forever.

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Only Powermasters had Transformation locks.

I can destroy any song as long as the orange fret button isn't used!

It's hilarious, I bought Guitar Hero but I still don't own a PS2.

I want them to make a spinoff called KEYTAR HERO so I can play all my favoritre songs from Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Gary Numan and ABC.

And why no David Bowie in there? Ziggy Stardust anyone?

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Same, I want Guitar/Keytar hero 1980s edition.

Screw everything from 60s-70s and 90s-2000s. 80s is all you need.

Did somebody say Wheeljack? G1?

People always prefer dark-sci fi of gritty warfare or flawed characters rather than the the floating United Nations of purple carpet and matching pastel uniforms that Roddenberry's dream seemed to be.

Even Paramount realized this and basically kicked Roddenberry off Star Trek II completely because the first one did poorly compared to its huge budget. And guess what? That turned out to be the favorite Trek movie when Nicholas Meyer purposely made it more military by using military style uniforms and sequences like arming weapons and running across steel floors to battlestations, etc.

For a major motion picture Trek movie to be successful, it really needs to be darker and grittier.

I think Ford should just cut Mercury all together.  Mercury is losing Ford money and continues to be a thorn in their side.  Ford also needs to start pumping up Jaguar the same way GM did with Cadillac, get some realy innovation into the brand.  It seems like all Ford is using jaguar for is R&D.

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I think Ford wants to associate Lincoln as being in the Cadillac range. Jags are really the competition for Mercedes and BMW in their scheme of things.

i got a reply from her. She said that she will be in Toky on the 9th and 10th so she will be using that tiem to prepare for her trip. So she cannot make it to the Con. But that is better since there will be no entrance free for this year.

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So it appears I missed all the stuff about the last MWcon where Mari was there. Is there an old thread with infromation about this and/or pictures, discussion, etc?