motley

i love daiguard, its just the right mix of super robots, realism, and comedy. i haven't finished the series yet, but i've only got a couple dvds left to go. the first half of the show was very strong, but its gotten a little weak in the latter part, a little too much time creating additional conflict and not enough time with the main characters, though its still enjoyable. i just wish they'd made some toys, i could really go for a daiguard SOC, though its not likely in my lifetime.

definitely a fun show, but yeah, the last disc seemed a little lacking, and shin dragon was a real letdown. but Shin Getter and the Black Getter One were loads of fun.

its a sad sad day.

actually i'm going to disagree with you on that one. i think the YF-21/VF-22 has the worst battroid and gerwalk out there. yes it is reminiscent of the Q-Rau in battroid, but neither it or the Q-Rau strike me as especially agile on the ground. the Y/VF-19 is a little bit better, but it seems fragile, and it unfortunately has its wings hanging off its hips, much like the 21/22. i just see that as a bad idea for an infantry mode.

something else to think about, is that the later VF's typically have placed less emphasis on the battroid and gerwalk modes. especially the VF-4 and VF-5000, which are the two immediate successors to the VF-1. the later VFs still have all three modes, but the infantry emphasis of the VF-1 is clearly gone, battroid mode is more awkward, and gerwalk usually more-so. the rogue zentradi threat is still there, but VF's primary function remains fighter. an exception might be made for the VF-11, which has a fairly functional battroid mode, but the gerwalk mode is still pretty ugly.

hear hear. at this point only a GBP-J or a half off sale is going to get me to acquire a 1/48, they're just too spendy for my now cramped budget. which is not to say that a 1/48 J-type and a set of the GBP armor wouldn't be expensive, but there's no way i'd be able to pass it up.

well one of those bits of transluscent plastic is the blade of the beam jitte, essentially a bayonet, but designed more for a last second parry of a beam saber than as an offensive weapon. i wasn't aware that there were two on the GP01's beam rifle, but i guess its possible. it looks like a nice kit, unfortunately i'm not all that big a fan of the design. i would, however, be more interested in a PG nu, even at how huge it would be in 1/60 scale.

i tried to watch it, but it was too kiddified for me, i couldn't sit through the whole thing. so i flipped away several times. the tie ins to MSG and the UC ovas via the side characters and the zaku army were thoroughly enjoyable, but the stupid kid and the gundam were decidedly annoying. no doubt it will get worse as the other gundam heros are introduced, and as the rest of the hero's appear to be from wing and G gundam i'm definitely planning on giving the whole thing a pass. but thank god i missed the mouth on the gundam.

i choose other. i've gotten 6 of my seven yamato valks from HLJ.com, the seventh i acquired off e-bay from a MWer. most of my recent acquisitions however have been gashapon and banpresto valks though, and most of these i have purchased from an actual brick and mortar store.

take a look at this its a shot from http://www.rakuten.ne.jp's coverage of the East Japan toy fair. unfortunately prime isn't quite as pretty from the backside, but the big block sticking out from the back looks suspiciously like the radiator grill from the truck mode. i'm guessing then that the transformation of prime's upper torso may involve some rotation/flipping of parts, maybe even akin to the G1 seekers. or maybe not, but its interesting at the least, and now we know where it goes after the transformation. lots of other goodies on display too. lots of mecha godzilla (both the classic and the contemporary), and the bizarre world of panda Z too.

tough break V, but at least its just a glancing blow. a couple years ago i clipped a fencepost in my ex-girlfriends driveway at less than 5 mph in my subaru and broke the turn light and chewed up the fender to the point where the only possible repair was replacement, it didn't affect the driving, but it was a bit of an eyesore. and then a couple months ago a soccer mom backed into the rear door on the driver's side when she didn't see me next to her. she was in the wrong turning lane pulling out of a parking lot. a very minor dent, but still. hope they catch the guy.

right, i was refering to what i see as systematic of the entire line. hasbro obviously wants specific things, and probably picks the general gimmicks (ie minicons firing missiles and the sound heavy ultracons of armada), for energon, its lots of transparent plastic. plus hasbro is the one saying "no realistic alt modes", we can't blame orson for that, but we can blame him for the designs just sucking in general.

the alt mode is very reminscent of beast machines jetstorm, though the transformation borrows heavily from the two japanese sequels to beast wars, as well as macross. and yeah the robot mode has a little gundam wing/zeta to it. can someone explain to me why this guy isn't working with the toy department at hasbro, other than making orson look like a hack?

the new prime does look like ass, and for some reason it looks like thy borrowed scorponok's parts from a couple power shovels. but to cut orson some slack, its not all his fault, he's doing what he can with what hasbro mandates. that said, i do think he's doing a crappy job. hasbro clearly isn't interested in fans over the age of 9, despite the notion that energon is still supposed to appeal to the now older fans of armada. energon looks like its even more dumbed down than armada. at least the transformer's franchise is co-owned by takara so we can count on a few gems like the alternators line. hopefully the new prime will look better with his power-up/gestalt parts, though i'm not holding my breath.

from what i've gathered yeah. FASA is no more, though i believe Battletech was acquired by WizKids. that's why they've moved to the rather odd "dark ages" stuff. there may be some issues with the old (original) designs and the new company. and while Dark Ages is the future of battletech, the Wizkids has licenced another company to produce the classic stuff. i'm not exactly sure what's going on with the pen and paper stuff. FASA isn't completely gone, Microsoft has a studio in their video gaming department called FASA studios, and they're the ones who have been making the recent Battletech games.

FASA (who originally created Battletech) acquired the rights to some macross mechandise back in the day, i think they were the inheiritors to Revel's Robotech line, as the early battletech designs borrow heavily from Dovorak and Dragonar as well. later they appropriated the designs into their battletech miniatures game and the pen and paper RPG. whethor or not they were stealing the designs is debatable, but they had some rights to them. the ultimate decision would have come from the court decision from the HG vs FASA court case, but it was settled out of court with a non-disclosure agreement, so the issue remains largely unsettled, except that, obviously FASA stopped using the designs, and the case ulitmately lead to FASA's bankruptcy and dissolution.

you so should have asked me, i would have warned you about the lack of beam sabers and funnels. i'd have told you to get the GFF instead. but its not like you're missing out as it is. the regular nu that did come with funnels and lit beam sabers wasn't much better than the one you got. the US version came with five funnels molded together and a sixth that you could pop on or off, and the blade for the main beam saber was nicely huge, but only had about as much rigidity as aldente spagetti. i'm hurt. you haven't called me in ages. i recomend a pass on these as well, the 2.0 that just came out is a piece, floppy as all hell, and the articulation actually is worse thanks to the "transformation", which is really just pulling off the arms and legs and reattaching them and the binders to a filler block. the old figure had better articulation than quite a few others (with the exception of the shoulders), even if the shoulder binders were a bit loose.

i would kill for a perceptor in either micro or re-issue form, but somehow i think he missed the boat. as for the megs in the second batch, i think he's like starscream in that he's lots of little parts that come apart readily.

well, there is already a gundam CCG, it just never really took off here in the states, especially since there isn't enough story to Wing to do more than two card sets, and the UC stuff seems to go completely over the heads of the kiddies. and if we're talking about macross characters borrowed from gundam, you can't forget Roy Fokker being a carbon copy of one Slugger Lang from MSG; they even both die tragically (though its admittedly rare for tomimo's characters not to die tragically).

its really just as well that gundam.com shut down, it stopped being a decent local for information and chat a long time ago (if it ever really was). there are still a number of good gundam message boards out there, though they may not be nearly as good for pointless drivel and holier than thou smackdowns. i frequent Gundamwatch, its got a lot of rules and the mods are tough, but its a good place to get real info on any gundam show or merchandise. the mods and members are highly knowledgable, and Mark Simmons of the late great Gundam Project is a frequent contributing visitor. its largely a site for serious discussion, and its gundam related discussion only, but there are a couple sister sites for more general chatter.

if it ain't broke don't fix it or at least not much. still no caps.

1/72: 2 FP versions VF-11 and YF-21 1/60: 6 VF-1A CF TRU, VF-1A CF MP, VF-1A Max, VF-1S Roy (Strike), VF-1D, VF-1J Millia 1/48: 1 VF-1J Max