Jump to content

slide

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1553

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by slide

    Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted · Edited by slide

    3 hours ago, sketchley said:

    So, that leaves us with 2 possibilities: the aforementioned gear problems, or problems with the licensing (or both).  It makes sense to provide a smokescreen (the official statement) for both those issues, but if it was a gear problem (a manufacturing/materials problem), wouldn't that warrant a delay while they sorted things out, not an outright cancellation?  The gear problem is doubly odd, as it begs the question: why wasn't it sorted during prototyping and test production?

    Yes, smokescreens make sense.

    One assumes they would've delayed the release if the issue wasn't solved, which suggests that it probably has been, or they wouldn't be shipping/selling the thing.

    I would assume "LEGO sold a piece of junk" would ostensibly be way worse for them, long-term, than working with Boeing.

     

    3 hours ago, sketchley said:

    Regarding mention of licensing fees: is this something the company would want to publicly admit?  At the very least, it makes sense to conceal it to maintain an amicable relationship for possible future business.

    If the fees were too high, one assumes they would not have signed the deal/contract...

    Or their legal team dropped the F'ing ball, and Boeing slid-in some extra fees, etc.... also possible.:rofl:

    Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted · Edited by slide

    3 hours ago, sketchley said:

    That's the official statement.  The problem with it, though, is that the set was already in production and being released (sold) to the public.  If it was against their company policy, why did it reach the stage where the set was being produced and members of the public were purchasing it before it was cancelled?

    TBH, i don't follow LEGO very closely, but If one had to venture a guess...

    From Brick Fanatics:

    Quote

    German Peace Society – United War Resisters, an anti-war organisation, contacted Brick Fanatics and shared the following statement:

    • “The new LEGO set is released with an official License from Boeing and Bell. According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Boeing has been the second largest arms company in 2018 with global arms sales totalling € 26.08 billion/$29.15 billion. According to the same data Bell achieved rank 27 with a total of € 3.18 billion/$3.5 billion in arms sales. We are not happy with this cooperation and the new military LEGO set.”

    Shortly thereafter, the LEGO Group shared the following statement:

    • The LEGO Technic Bell Boeing Osprey V-22 was designed to highlight the important role the aircraft plays in search and rescue efforts. While our set depicts a rescue version of the plane, the aircraft is predominately used by the military.? We have a long-standing policy not to create sets which feature military vehicles and in this case we have not adhered to our own internal guidelines.
    • As a result, we are currently reviewing our plans to launch this product on August 1.

    It simply may not have been a problem until someone on their forums [or whatever they do for public interaction] either raised the issue, or pitched a fit [as internet denizens do].

     

    The way I'm reading this:

    It's not the $ amount of the fees being a problem for either LEGO or Boeing, it's that LEGO payed $X to a military manufacturer, which upset some people. LEGO being LEGO, they want none of that, which is understandable.

    I have no idea if that's true or not, but yea, I'd buy the official explanation.

    I've seen companies make costlier decisions for dumber reasons.

     

    Boeing LOVES the idea of kids playing with a toy of their airplane(s), and it was built-in marketing for the V-22 as a SAR bird... Boeing couldn't lose on this one.

    As you said, LEGO was already shipping/selling it, so the evidence would suggest that they didn't want to stop production either. LEGO would've already payed Boeing's fees [presumedly], so why stop unless they thought the resulting brand damage would be major?

    One panicked corporate officer could've easily resulted in this situation playing out this way.

    Tenet

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted

    On 8/24/2020 at 9:40 AM, Dobber said:

    Really looking forward to Tenet....looks trippy. Didn’t really care for that trailer though....seemed more about the music than the movie. Different strokes though.

    Chris

    Agreed on this trailer.

    Somehow this thread is the first I'm hearing about this movie other than "*gasp* it got delayed!" from overly-dramatic film critics.

    Looks interesting... but oh man... "there are people in the future that need us" ... oh boy, that line almost made me vomit from laughing so hard!

    Whats next for Arcadia?

    in Toys

    Posted

    45 minutes ago, MacrossJunkie said:

    The goggles will have 5 different tampos printed all over it for no other reason than Bandai can do it, but have no locking mechanism to keep it in place aside from a slight bit of friction.

    17 minutes ago, sqidd said:

    Seems legit.

    sounds right.

    Hasegawa SDF-1 build

    in Model kits

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Photogirl said:

    the panel isn't going to come off like in other builds, i just wanted something you could see through the windows. I'm going to look for a cooler light ( blueish) not that happy with the glowing orange.

    118723291_2658450364414488_3062617588052438927_o.jpg

    That looks wonderful so far!

    Congrats on pulling that off!

    Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted · Edited by slide

    On 8/30/2020 at 6:55 PM, sketchley said:

    Keep in mind that Lego cancelled a recent aircraft set (that had already started to see a limited release!) because of licensing fees.

    Blame the lawyers and companies wanting to protect their corporate image (as licensing fees inevitably includes questions about how such things are going to be used/depicted in-game).

    I had to look into that one.

    From Military.com:

    "Despite being just 10 days away from its August 1 release date, LEGO pulled the Osprey from its website and announced that shipments of the new set would not go out to retailers. In their official statement, LEGO said:

    The LEGO Technic Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was designed to highlight the important role the aircraft plays in search and rescue efforts. While the set clearly depicts how a rescue version of the plane might look, the aircraft is only used by the military. We have a long-standing policy not to create sets which feature real military vehicles, so it has been decided not to proceed with the launch of this product. We appreciate that some fans who were looking forward to this set may be disappointed, but we believe it's important to ensure that we uphold our brand values.

    LEGO's policy of not making sets based on military vehicles goes back to its very beginning. In fact, the original LEGO brick colors in the 1950s didn't even include grey because LEGO feared that they could be used to make military vehicles like tanks."

     

    and the same quote in a "the Brothers Brick" article. Though that article does point out this:

    "The German Peace Society organized a petition to halt LEGO’s production."

     

    Seems it was LEGO's anti-war stance, and public pressure based on their previous "no military vehicles" track record.

    Which, while I disagree with the decision, is their prerogative.

    Nothing I can find mentioned license fees...

     

    Looks like I get to blame them damned Peaceniks again!:D lol:rofl:

     

    also: does that mean that when it eventually DOES get picked up by some rescue service, it'll be kosher?

    Whats next for Arcadia?

    in Toys

    Posted

    10 hours ago, vladykins said:

    We have swappable hands, so swappable goggles is an obvious money grab. I see Bandai providing one with their GBP but selling the other for 5000 yen.

    I can see the press release now:

    "After much feedback by our customers, we've included grey-swappable goggles with the GBP set. The MSRP has been revised up by ¥5000. Good Day." --  Bandai

    Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Knight26 said:

    Actually, I had a long convo with SuperOstrich about this and it is most likely a legal issue. The rights to use the aircraft are expensive, for some reason, so it's cheaper to use similar but clearly not designs, or even concept designs.  Given that this takes place in an alternate universe they can explain away the design changes.  The issue really comes if they change the design after using it in an older title.  I'm not sure of the CoD games have ever used the F-14 or UH-1 before, but if they haven't then using "inspired by" designs would help them get around licensing fees.

    yes, earlier Black Ops games had more accurate Hueys, for example, these ones look like UH-1N's... or at least I recall them being so...

     

    13 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

    I don't play CoD, but the tactic makes sense to avoid licensing fees. We've seen the same employed by HasTak with Transformers for years. Honestly, it doesn't bother me if a game uses fictitious designs, especially in an action or shooter game. I often enjoy the designs that the artists conjure up for these games. Now if you're talking Flight Simulator, those should replicate the real aircraft inside and out as much as possible.

    that's exactly why they do it, and why none of the guns have their proper names.

    it's still BS, Activision has more money than the Church, and that's just in their CEO's bank account!

     

    As an aside: the "licensing fee" thing never made sense to me... *insert firearms manufacturer* makes a game company pay to advertise their product? What? Same goes for things like Ace Combat games licensing the real aircraft...

    I mean it fit's with a company like H&K, since they've only very recently been seen to give a crap about the US-civilian market, but does anyone else not understand the logic here?

    is it a case of "*insert videogame* isn't going to change the rate of sale of our product appreciably, but $*insert amount* up-front from a licensing deal can immediately be folded into our budget"?

    Super Macross Mecha Fun Time Discussion Thread!

    in Movies and TV Series

    Posted · Edited by slide

    15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

    It likely helps that the simulators we've seen in Macross Plus and Macross Frontier seem to be a bit more... extreme... than anything we currently have today.  

    The one in Macross Plus is particularly terrifying, given that it seems to not only be on a fairly extreme armature but appears to be straight-up rocket propelled.

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's a deathmachine...

    I always thought that it was thrusters, that the pod was floating in an artificial gravity field, and the "armature" was actually fuel lines, power-lines and buses for the various AG generators and instruments inside the pod... but maybe that was me overthinking it on that one... now that I type it out, that sounds REALLY expensive... especially considering what we saw Isamu do to it

    Then again... didn't they new-build the '19 once, then have to repair the crap out of that second one for Isamu's assignment to the project?

     

    14 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

    If Macross Delta is any indication, even single-seaters used for training purposes are replete with all kinds of instructor controls over the student's interface.

    Overtechnology must be wondrous for stuff like that.

    I can't imagine having any sort of remote shutdown/control stuff in a fighter, but then again, Alto was able to slave his VF-25 to his EX-gear wirelessly... which, I suppose, is the same thing connectivity wise...

     

    15 hours ago, sketchley said:

    Thank you for posting this.  As someone interested in military aviation in general—not to mention being a fellow "Canuckistanian" who has moved to the land of the rising sun—it's very informative.

    ... and further highlights just how romanticized things are in Macross.  However, I suspect that things in Macross are influenced as much—if not more so—by the procedures in the JASDF than they are by those in the USAF.

    No worries, I became quite interested when it was mentioned and decided to find out.

    I have a PS for that post: If you sail under a star of fortune like Chris Hadfield, once you've spent some time at CETE, you apply to the Canadian Space Program and get to ride the big rockets with NASA!

    Super Macross Mecha Fun Time Discussion Thread!

    in Movies and TV Series

    Posted · Edited by slide

    On 8/20/2020 at 7:46 AM, sketchley said:
    • what the other guys said about it being to train test pilots at New Edwards.  Maybe the pilots are used to the "stock" VF-11(B or C).  It would make a heck of a lot of sense to gently push them outside of their familiarity envelope with a tuned VF-11 to show them just what they're getting themselves into (without going overboard with a risk-your-life-every-flight VF-19A!)
    On 8/27/2020 at 7:27 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

    Wouldn't that be what simulators and training versions of the more ambitious aircraft are for?  (e.g. the VF-19B?)

    Simulators are used to teach pilots systems-management, procedures, emergency procedures, cockpit familiarization, etc. while safely on Terra-Firma. They also allow a pilot to get an expectation of what's up with certain handling quirks [I'm lookin' at YOU, F-14 Tomcat!!] in a safe environment, so that they can spend their actual flight-hours integrating all their previous flight knowledge with the minutia of running/flying a new machine specifically. so yes.

     

    In the real-world, it's an absolute luxury to have a gov't rich enough to order dedicated training models of a front-line fighter. Even then, dedicated trainer models are typically rare, short production-run things.

    Canada, for example, has 2-seat CF-18's, but they're not dedicated trainers, they're fully operational air-frames that may conveniently be used for the training role. This is how most nations get around that problem... they're 'not trainers', but they can be/are often used that way.

    Of course, then there are countries like India, whose entire Su-30MKI fleet is Tandem-seating...

    "training versions of the more ambitious aircraft " ...... that's at odds with modernity it seems, as there are no two-seaters for our most advanced, ultra expensive air-frames like F-22, F-35, Su-57. J-20, J-35, F-117 [though Nighthawk is more of a unique case.. especially since she's an attacker].

    However, since NUNS runs the world(s) in a way our current world powers can only have steamy dreams over, they can do whatever they want, I suppose, so they could just order VT [or B, D, etc] versions of everything.

     

     

    Anyhow, I would suspect a "Test Pilot School" would be about teaching very competent pilots about test-flying and those procedures/skills, which is a big change from combat-flying. In addition to a set of "instructor controls", I suspect the rear-seater in the New-Edwards VF-11D's has FCS/computer-access and all sorts of failure/kill-switches to mess with the student.

     

     

    For anyone interested, the current training scheme for an RCAF Fast Jet pilot is as follows:

    Spoiler

    Phase 1: primary flight training on the Grob 120-A

    Phase 2: basic flight training on the CT-156 Harvard II

    ---Students are sorted into their career-streams at this point: Multi-Engine, Rotary Wing, and Fast Jets.

    Phase 3: advanced fighter training on the CT-155 Hawk; learning advanced aerobatics, instrument flying, and tactical formation flying.

    Phase 4: known as Fighter Lead-In Training (FLIT), still on the Hawk

    Then you graduate to 410 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron (the Cougars) at CFB Cold-Lake, where you will learn how to fly the CF-18 [410 Sqn. are the most prolific, but all the operational CF-18 squadrons train nuggets]. 

    So by the time you've reached the Front-Line fighter, you already know what you're doing, you just need to learn the particulars of your new airplane.

    In Canada, the AETE is where you would end up to be a test pilot, and to qualify, you need to be a graduate of a test-pilot school program like this

    Hi-Metal R

    in Toys

    Posted

    15 hours ago, seti88 said:

    EPIC shots of HMR right here.

    Wait...what...how did you get 2 reaction missiles mounted on the underside beside the gunpod of the VF-4? :huh:

    Or even missiles on the wing for that matter...!

    Such a cool arrangement for a display...:rolleyes::good:

    I believe @sh9000 glued some hard-points to the wings of that VF-4, and used extra munitions from VF-1 sets.

×
×
  • Create New...