David Hingtgen

Proportions seem much more wonky than the F-22 did. Nose too wide, engines/nacelles/stinger too skinny. Big points for including AA-11 missiles. I'm annoyed with myself that I can't identify the missiles on the left, of the bottom row.

Male vs female?

My guess is Fraulein is underperforming because there's really only like 3 sculpts yet 40 releases...

Umm, no. I haven't even bought anything from them yet.

Hmm? Last thing I saw it was way over 100 for the two, I never saw anything about them being individual. Guess it was just multiple import stores gouging and forcing you to buy both.

The UUM-7 marking goes centered on the side of the "container" the UUM-7 missiles are in. RMS-1 goes just above the stripe on the side, but aft of center. I've never seen/heard of a "Micro Missile Unit" marking on a VF-1. Here's a scan from the Hasegawa weapons set:

Just saw pics of Henkei Dirge and Thrust. If anyone wants to split a pack, I'm interested in Dirge. (though with how much they cost, even splitting a pack is pretty expensive)

I trust it more than a TIVO sometimes...

Aviation is measured in English by international law/standards. That's why a German pilot flying a French plane in Italy, reports his altitude as 35,000ft, and flying 400 miles per hour. Unless you used to be part of the USSR, and you carry around a bunch of conversion charts and have the occasional mid-air collision because of it...

Bandai has above-average registration for a kit maker, but below average for a decal maker. Aftermarket decal makers (which are 99% made by Microscale or Cartograph) can have some insanely accurate stuff done. 4-5 colors, individually printed over each other, not even .2 mm off from from first to last color. In short---it could be done, and well. But not by Bandai.

The backplate should also be different in shape for the head too, not just the laser slots---the backplate touches the "forehead" of Alto's, but the back of the head of Ozma's---Alto's head rotates 180 when it transforms, but Ozma's doesn't. (the blisters on the chesplate meet the blisters on Ozma's forehead)

Slightly OT, but when I bought my last (and current) VCR, I vowed to only ever put brand-new, clean tapes in that I had personally taken out of the shrink-wrap. (based on the one time I ever rented a tape for the VCR before--took DAYS of cleaning before it played right after ONE gunky tape from a store) And you know what? A decade later, and it's NEVER needed to be cleaned, despite years of daily use (I'm the type that tapes stuff in the morning to watch at night). And it plays tapes better than anyone else's VCR--people often thought I was playing a DVD. My stuff is clean, somehow everyone else gunks up their stuff. I've taped and re-taped hundreds of hours of stuff, on tapes years old--and everything's still flawless. Because if you take a clean VCR, and only ever put in clean tapes---neither one will ever get dirty. Same theory applies to video games IMHO. Even if those discs don't have visible (or tactile) goo on them, they are not clean, and eventually all the microscopic bits of gunk that flaked off, will build up and screw with your system--especially the optical drive. And my NES carts never needed to be blown on or take 20 attempts to boot right, but all my friends' did...

The point is, these items shouldn't be exclusive in first place. It's not "transparent green armor" or "All that VF Sheryl-scheme VF-25". It's some of the best-known stuff in the series. I mean c'mon---EVERYONE that's going to buy a Luca wants a Ghost to go with it. And speakers plus Ranka for Michael?

"Playable" is a whole lot different from "in good condition". I swear I've seen used games with blood and snot and who knows what else on them. Sure, they'll play, but do you even want to touch the disc to put it in? Same with cars--a winter beater will run, as will a brand new Vette. But which is nicer to sit in and drive? And assume the price difference between a winter beater and a new Vette is about 5%...

Damn.

The backwards ep is awesome in so many ways. And the last season sucks in so many ways...

And interestingly, those were among the best eps of each series.

Takara does that, but only for weird/obscure/repaints. Clear stuff, "anime repaint", etc. Not something very common/desired/expected for the normal release. This is half a step away from making FAST packs for Roy's VF-1S an exclusive. Something THAT many people want and expect to be available should NOT be hard to get.

Oh man is that going to tick off half of MW. (the half that likes the Bandai design). Speakers and a singing Ranka for Michael's valk---as a webshop exclusive? And Ghosts for Luca just as hard to get? Man, that sucks.

Needs more pink.

LOL to Bsu Legato. It's true, and I am, and I revel in it. As for Radd---THAT's what's bugging me. We have a 100% "came from movie 2-6" plated machined saucer, and an organic/bulbous engineering hull and nacelles. Like 2 different ships were welded together. Honestly, the nacelles make me think of Farscape if anything.

At least they're being honest, showing actual decal application and how opaque(not) the yellow is. They've obviously never heard of double-printing white and yellow inks.

I used to trade in and buy games at a local independent shop. They rejected lots of games. They had a PSX and TV set up right on the counter--they'd pop it in and test it right then and there. Anything you bought used, you knew would be in very good condition. (especially since most of the people trading in were people like me, who keep their stuff minty-mint)

I'm very surprised. I firmly stand by my "texture map of the Ent-A over altered polygons" statement. Incredibly lazy and uninspired. And funkily proportioned. Very hard to tell from that angle if it follows one of the main rules of Roddenberry's Trek ship design---nacelles must be visible from the front. Effectively that means they have to be above or below the saucer.

IMHO the problem isn't the overall shape/design, it's the little details. Anyone who has built a movie-era Trek kit knows "all the little things" that define movie-era Trek ships. And that has nearly every one. It's more movie-era-esque than the Ent-A, Reliant, or Excelsior. In fact, that slavish incorporation of all those little things is what says "fan-made" to me--they're little things that most people don't recognize/realize. It's too much a copy of what's come before, and this movie has clearly shown that "copying existing stuff" is NOT their art direction. Frankly, it's almost like if you took the texture map of the Ent-A, and placed it on a new polygonal model. The shape may be different, but all the little details are the same.