David Hingtgen

Any suggestions for a black spray-paint that's hard to screw up? I'd like it fairly glossy (but not TOO glossy), but almost anything that's not dead-flat will do. (glossy is evil IMHO, the glossier it is the harder it is to go on smooth without runs). I've considered everything from Tamiya to Krylon fusion, but I can't really do a test run as it's not like I have any spare nosecones or tailfins to experiment on, and every surface is different. And I'd really rather not screw up a $100 jet.

I'd rather have a VF-0D or VF-4, but a VF-5000 will be ok.

BeyondTheGrave--I can't tell if you're being serious or not. I think it should be obvious what scene I'm referring to. And "that one scene" in DYRL, too.

Re: "stuff can go as far the series itself goes". I'm going to say Sheryl and Ranka at the end of the last ep is beyond what we'd allow. That's NSFW.

Ahh, Armored CC, thanks. I don't think I would have ever even remembered to check that one.

This may fix a drooping wing: With my -21, one of the wings didn't "droop over time" so much as "would never go all the way up in the first place". It'd hold in place--it just wouldn't go up as high as the other wing to start with. Loosening the screw that holds its hinge just a bit completely fixed it. Super-easy to do---just open the gear bay door---there's the screw! Yes, loosening the screw to fix a "floppy" part seems counter-intuitive, but that's how it works--a too-tight screw actually puts tension on the hinge, making it pull the wing down. If you can't get to the screw with your screwdriver (it's RIGHT by the edge of the door, and it may be hard to access without bending something) it's still easy to do: Remove the clear lens on the wing leading edge (mine weren't glued)--just pull it off to the front. Remove the two screws in front of and behind the gear bay door. Pop off that part of the wing. Then the whole bay and hinge area is opened up.

Yes, RiD Magnus. He lacks ankle articulation, but he has knees and hips. His thighs are just very short. But for a transformation-complexity-junkie and vehicle-mode-accuracy-junkie like me, there's few better. His transformation is complex but never frustrating---he's what Alternators wished they were--a long sequence with many joints, but none are tiny little 3-mm-wide triple-z-fold joints that are so stiff you think they'll break and seem to serve no purpose other than preventing the hood from fitting... Plus he has *awesome* colors. The JP version *is* better. US and JP RiD Prime/Convoy are pretty similar, but UM is noticeably different between releases. US Magnus has the Autobot logos on the side of the carrier (which I wish the JP had), but the JP simply has much better colors---all the colors are PEARL metallic. Not simply the "normal" metallic plastic you see in TFs. I noticed the difference in colors instantly when I saw them on US shelves.

I haven't had any issues for weeks and weeks, but just did for the past hour. Totally inaccessible.

Combining with Prime has compromised many a good figure. RiD Ultra Magnus is still one of the all-time best TFs IMHO. Even being hampered as he is. Just imagine how awesome he could have been alone.

Thanks much for the info Myk. Man, prices from early July through now are all over the place for Night Ravens, I can't tell what the going price is. (I don't want to pay too much, but I will pay a bit extra for proof of perfectly working gear and 100% complete ones---I know from experience that completing something that's nearly complete is always a lot more expensive than you think it'll be) Here's another thing I've noticed "researching" the Night Raven---the prototypes seemed to have a cooler bomb bay. Check out the original commercial: The bomb bay has hinged doors that open automatically when the rack is lowered. The production versions just have fixed doors mounted to the bottom of the rack. I've always found it ironic that the bomb bay has missiles, and the missile pods have bombs, and that its weaponry is entirely air-to-ground. Are there any missiles from other Joe vehicles that fit the Night Raven? I'd love to actually arm it for self-defense.

Actually I plan to remove that that chunk of kibble (and the "belt") as those bits are only needed to combine with Prime--which I never plan to do. My Jetfire is to be Jetfire, and not a parts pack for Optimus.

Hmmmn. Do you only need to cut for the feet, or elsewhere too? (darn it, and I'd almost convinced myself not to get a vintage Raven) What about the drone? Aother question about Night Ravens----a concern about the main gear doors---from pics, it appears that the "correct" position is for them to be open about 45 degrees when the gear is down. A lot of ones on Ebay don't (they seem to be fully closed, or that they "flop down" instead of holding in place)---is that usually because of a broken piece, a mis-alignment, or the gear is just being "fiddly"? Perfectly working gear is a big thing to me. If it's broken piece that causes that, is it part of the internal mechanism (hard to fix I imagine), or the gear door itself (easy to replace)? OT question--can someone identify the arms used in the quasi-official 25th Techno-Viper? (and if the chest equipment is hacked-up Para-Viper stuff or something else) I've thought about making a custom, and have been looking at the various other ones already done. Though the helmet is an issue---don't want to use an original one, and I frankly don't like the modern interpretation from BrokenArrow.

Found this: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/65662-post36.html Seems the Night Raven is pretty incompatible with 25th figures, and there's no real way to mod it to work.

I'd just wait for the sequel at this point.

I don't have a PSP...

*Very* close to 1/72.

I posted this when I got it:

Have it list by year, that's the best way IMHO. You should know approximately when it's from.

Actually, it has a huge YF-23 vibe.

One thing about the new Night Raven does impress me--the cockpit. It looks like it actually works. I don't think it'd be possible to change the original to match though, it'd have to be designed from scratch to incorporate it. I'd also like to see the gear doors sequence better---half the time they're out of position and you have to fiddle around with them so they don't get caught up. PS, slightly OT. My Target Rattler has developed "gear collapse", but not quite. Basically, the right gear likes to fold in 10-15 degrees. The "bumps" stop the gear from collapsing further, but it is annoying since the left one is rock-solid vertical at all times, with no play at all. Large amounts of clear polish have done nothing. It'd help if I could figure out why the left one holds "fully extended", while the right one simply "gets past the bumps then flops around, never locking into the full extend position". ::edit:: I think I'll try clear polish in some other areas, maybe it's raw tension/friction, and not actually a physical lock/block that holds it in place.

Grace should have been the red queen.

I'm thinking of adding a fan to cool the mobo northbridge. (I have no notable problems, I just keep reading that X38s run hot, and I want mine to last forever). Also, I just decided to do a tiny little overclock to my CPU (E8400) a few weeks ago, just to try it out. Factory is 333x9, I'm doing 400x8. So FSB went from 1333 to 1600. This also allows my RAM to run 1:1. (it was 5:6 factory) May go to 400x8.5 or 400x9, depending on how things run the next few months. (and how much noise turning up the fans makes) (going to add an intake fan, too) By setting voltages manually, I'm actually sending less to the components than by simply letting the mobo run everything on auto. RAM is down 0.05 volts, CPU is down about that much as well. Anyone know anything about "life of components" when overclocked very mildly, but actually running with less voltage than stock? However, I have read this particular mobo runs cool for an X38, possibly due to having a large heatsink and the entire mobo overall being designed to run with less power. So it may be pointless (noise/cost-wise) to add a small fan. Ideas/suggestions? This is my mobo, with a good description of the heatsinks: http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1227&pageID=4496

What could be a bigger media tie-in than the new movie? What more could they ask for before reissuing the original Night Raven? Plus, the original would have looked a whole lot cooler and more realistic on-screen. Original Night Raven on-screen would have been the equivalent of casting Peter Cullen as Prime----goes a LONG way towards "taming" the fanboys, and frankly---there's no better option anyways, because the original is so perfect. As for parts--yes, I love moving parts, opening panels etc, on Joe toys. I pretty much demand them---it's why I had almost no "small" Joe toys back when. Heck, the main reason I got figures was to fill up the seats in the large vehicles! Cobra Moray was the best of the boats. I'd rather have one big, good, multi-part vehicle than several smaller simpler ones. IMHO, a good way to judge a Joe toy---how many pages of instructions it has. Ironic--I love gimmicks in Joe, hate them in Transformers. ::edit:: Ah, so that's what the red Strato-Viper's for. I may try to trade my coming 7-pack Range Viper for another standard Strato-Viper. Personally, here's my master wish-list for reissues: Night Raven Mamba Moray That's really all I want, but I desperately want a Night Raven. I really have no need for a Skystriker, or really most any Joe toys, or anything that'd cost less than 20 bucks today. Gimme Cobra. Maybe the X-19 Phantom, since I never had it and it looks cool--I'd buy a cheap reissue, but won't pay for a vintage on ebay. Random rant: The Rolling Thunder is over-rated IMHO. I had it, and the parts never fit well, I lost a part a day I think. (And I was like 10 when I had it, not 5, I was already quite careful with my toys then, and applied stickers carefully, etc----and that thing shed parts!) And it didn't "fold together" very well either--it'd close up, but it never looked QUITE right, as things were always a little off. Very fiddly overall. It's one of the few vehicles I really remember well, as I just remember a bunch of annoyances about it, and I think it was the last vehicle I ever got. ::edit:: Checking release dates, apparently I should have asked for the X-19 that year instead! PS---any chance of new reissues coming un-assembled? Sort of a direct-to-consumer-only line? I figure half the reason they don't reissue big things, is because they'd have to pay so much to have them assembled at the factory, and then pay even more to ship the giant, more fragile toys over here. A Rattler's about the biggest thing they can assemble and ship cheaply. If Hasbro would "allow" unassembled vehicles again, it may help get the big one re-released. (plus, for me at least, a HUGE part of the fun is the assembly process---a factory-assembled Joe toy is like pre-assembled LEGOs) Plus, I can do a much better job than the factory does.

Only at the very end of the very last ep.

Erm, um, I don't recall a "Maia Sterling" in any Macross series...