SuperSenpai

On 9/10/2019 at 3:55 PM, sjoebarry said:

I got this MPC Shadow Alpha for more than HALF of that.  Mmmmmmmaybe that should have been a sign as to its condition.

Used, I wouldn't pay much more than what they retailed for.  I have two MPC Alphas, the green and red one, that I purchased secondhand for around $60-$70 each.  One of them was missing the box, but the other was pretty much MIB.  I knew about the issues going into the purchase, so I had decided in advance that I would only get them if I could get them for a bargain.  Given the  build quality and durability issues, I didn't think they were worth it beyond that.  

With the increased competition from newer Legioss releases, you'd think that prices would have come down on the MPC Alphas, which was I was curious and ran that search.  Either people didn't get the memo, or there are a lot of folks who really want Robotech-branded product.

With the advent of new Legioss products, I was curious to see what the current market values were for MPC Alphas.  I did a quick eBay search on sold listings and.... holy crap, those things are still selling for over $200 a piece.   

1 hour ago, sjoebarry said:

Ok, back to the Toynami MPC Shadow Alpha i just got.  WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP!  I don't know if maybe the person i bought it from had experienced issues before they sold it, but the thing literally fell to pieces when trying to transform to battloid.  Like into 5 separate pieces.  I've never used so much glue on anything before.  Needless to say, it's "stuck" in battloid mode for good now.  Shoulda just bought a super-posable darnit!  It's a stinkin paperweight now.  Ah well......  one more reason to hope & pray for the Sentinel model.

Some of these toys were known to have issues out of the when they were brand-new, out of the box, so the fact that yours fell apart as a second-hand item is not all that surprising.  The advice I would generally give to folks regarding these toys is to decide in advance how you're going to pose it, carefully transform it, and then forget about ever handling it again.

Am I the only one that thinks that the red/white/black color scheme is kinda appealing?  Maybe not exactly the way the have it colored in that prototype -- but some variation of it. 

Just finished a sale with sjoebarry as a buyer.  Pleasant to work with, no hassles.

7 hours ago, Mazinger said:

My understanding is that Marvel TV and the MCU are two separate entities all together. There may have been some lip service to having it all be one integrated universe, but that really hasn't happened.  Fans have always wanted characters like Daredevil to get some mention in the movies, but the division between the two didn't lend itself to the TV characters landing on the big screen.

Avi Arad's history may have something to with this. Many blame him for the poor execution on earlier Spiderman movies and carelessly letting Terrence Howard walk away from Iron Man.  There may also be some resentment between him and Kevin Feige who seems to have been the biggest proponent of developing the Marvel shared cinematic universe.

 

 

Right, I understood that the two divisions were separate within Disney.  But the TV side has always made at least some effort to reference the films in order to establish the connectivity.  AoS was usually the most blatant about it, typically having at least one or two major references to something happening in the films that were releasing the same week as the episode on air.  The Netflix shows were more subtle -- mostly offhand comments about "that green guy" or Ben Urich's office displaying copies of the NY Bulletin with headlines about the Battle of New York.

But the The Snap from Infinity War, and  

are too big to ignore.  The shows have to either have to address it in some way or make some incredible leaps of logic to disregard it.

This is a moot point now that all of the Netflix MCU shows have been cancelled, but I'm genuinely curious what the writers of those shows would have done in response to the developments of Avengers: Endgame.  They could have done maybe one more season ignoring the events of Endgame, but at some point it starts to look awkward the longer the shows stay on the air.  Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has chosen to ignore Endgame, which is weird considering the current season takes place a year after The Snap.  There are still a couple of other shows out there (Runaways and Cloak and Dagger).  Wonder what they are going to do about it (if anything)...

10 hours ago, reddsun1 said:

So how long before more super-soldiers start showing up in the MCU?  We know the Russians and Americans have managed some degree of success in re-creating a serum to enhance soldiers. 

The Russians managed to do it with Bucky, and even upped the output somewhat with the 5 sleeper-soldiers--before Zemo kills 'em in their sleep.  Was there any reason given for their not trying to create more?

Also, AFAIK I think the significance of Gen. Ross having "dusted off" the super soldier program to give Emil Blonsky his enhancements in 2008's The Incredible Hulk has gone largely understated.  In his first one-on-one with the Hulk, we see that Blonsky's moving at clearly increased speed, agility [and presumably strength] levels that appear to approach--but probably not equal--those of Steve Rogers.  It isn't until he forces Dr. Sterns to use the serum synthesized from Banner's blood that he turns into the Abomination.  You tellin' me Ross only secured enough material for one test run?

Oh yeah, wait....

I can see how that might make Ross consider the test a failure. 

Most of the super soldier experiments in the main MCU have been failures.  Steve Rogers is the only one that worked out.  The others all had pretty disastrous side effects -- Red Skull, Hulk, Abomination are not exactly what you'd call successful outcomes.  The super soldiers developed by the Russians/Hydra were also unstable -- they went mad and rebelled against their superiors.  Low probability of success, and high probability of catastrophic damage or loss of life if it doesn't work... doesn't exactly provide a great incentive to experiment.

On the other hand, if you count the TV side of the MCU, you have Luke Cage and Jessica Jones who seem to have their powers without any side effects.

On 4/24/2019 at 7:52 PM, TangledThorns said:

Any of you live near the Washington, DC area? Ralph Macchio, William Zabka and Martin Kove will be at this weekend's AwesomeCon!!

I'd go but I have little ones and don't want to leave my wife alone with them all day, lol. Hopefully we can all go together to a future AwesomeCon as a family when they're older.

 

http://awesome-con.com/guestsdc/

I was there and I attended their panel on Friday.  Since S2 of Cobra Kai had just come out a couple days before, I think most people hadn't had a chance to see it yet at the time (I hadn't), so most of the questions were related to the films.  One particular question was about what they thought of the Karate Kid remake.  They all gave their respectful answers as you would expect (Will Smith is one of the producers), but Ralph Macchio added at the end "Will they still be talking about that movie in 30 years?  I don't think so." 

I just finished watching the series last night.  Great second season, but I have to say that my nomination for the best shot in the whole series so far has to be the last shot from episode 6... you know, the one that references a certain famous line said by a certain character in the tournament from the first movie.  

I know about the leaks being out there, but I don't really feel like I'm in danger of being spoiled.  Maybe it's just because of the places I frequent online, but other than news about the leaks, I've not seen any site purporting to post the actual leaked footage or descriptions thereof.  I feel like I'd have to actively go looking for them.  

6 hours ago, Thom said:

I'm not watching anymore teasers. It would be like I've watched the entire movie before I even sat my ass in the theater.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.  They've released, what... maybe 8 minutes of footage?  Of a THREE HOUR movie?  

On 4/15/2019 at 4:28 AM, eggy99 said:

Canon wise the super packs weren't deployed yet at the time that Max was still assigned a 1A.

I have a vague recollection that he was upgraded to the 1J after he was married where he flew the virgin road 1D. The next time we see him in combat Max and Miria are both assigned 1J customs with Super Packs.

Is that right? I'm still rewatching Robotech Vermilion edition and only up to when Max and Miria have their first encounter so only going off 25+ year ago memory. 

Either way I'd have to keep my 1A Max canon and not equipped with Super Packs for me.

I just want 1 set of Super packs for a 1S Hikaru. 

I think I might actually buy a GBP if it was released. I did plan on displaying the 3x 1J Hikarus in each mode and passing on the GBP, but if a 1D was released (and I managed to secure one) it'd definitely be displayed in gerwalk so then I could have 1 of the 1Js equipped with the GBP.

I believe Max's 1J debuts in the same episode that Hikaru's Super VF-1S debuts.  Max has been promoted to squadron leader and is leading the escort group that Hikaru bails out in the souped-up VF-1S. It's also the same episode that he humiliates Miria in the arcade.

1 hour ago, jenius said:

I think Skywalker will just be the new term for Jedi...

Here's a theory: I think the title is really supposed to be "Rise of THE Skywalker".

10 hours ago, Mog said:

Kill the strongest lion!

 

Yes!  This is exactly what I was talking about.  Johnny is not Kreese.  He has his own, well-intentioned-if-a-bit-crass sense of honor.

I honestly don't think it's really that hard to have the shows and films be more interconnected.  Star Trek did it in the 90s when TNG, DS9, and Voyager were overlapping.  You don't need to have tightly interwoven stories and crossover characters.  Just a casual reference here and there would be enough to make the shared universe more believable.  In DS9, Sisko briefly mentioned the destruction of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: Generations when Worf joins the show.  Worf later shows up in First Contact commanding the Defiant from DS9, and still later in Insurrection, Picard makes a comment about Worf taking leave from DS9 to join them on their current adventure.  In Star Trek: Nemesis, the Enterprise bridge crew makes a passing reference to the Dominion War from DS9, and includes a brief cameo from Voyager's Captain/Admiral Janeway.  These were mostly literal one-liners that required no effort for the writers to include, and as someone who watched everything, that was more than enough to me to sell the interconnectedness of the films and TV shows.  

So whenever I hear Marvel execs bellyache about how hard it is to crossover the the shows and movies, I just roll my eyes.  It's not because it's too hard, it's because they just don't want to.  And given the apparently icy relations between the TV and film side, that makes a heck of a lot more sense than excuses about how it's too difficult.

 

I really liked the first season but I hope they aren’t making Johnny and the new Cobra Kai into the villains again. I liked that the first season really showed the need for SOME of the things Johnny was doing with these kids and also explained a bit of his backstory. I also liked that Daniel wasn’t  Mr. perfect either. Now it looks like they are going into that direction again.

Chris

Agreed on this.  I thought the writing in the first season was clever with the way they juxtaposed Johnny and Daniel's circumstances and position in the local community.  I think a direction that is more consistent with S1 would be to have Johnny trying to "evolve", but struggling as Kreese returns and intimidates/tempts Johnny to follow old patterns again.  Something I'd like to see is that in the end, he doesn't necessarily become a pillar of the community like Daniel, but he finally gets out from under the shadow of Kreese and the old Cobra Kai and finds his own way that's a little more positive, while retaining of the rough edges that make him appealing.

I'm not surprised that the Netflix/Disney deal was structured so that Marvel had complete ownership of their shows.  I think Marvel learned their lesson from when they sold off the film rights to all their most valuable properties back in the 90s.  They watched a bunch of sub-par productions get made that dragged their brand through the mud.  Then they had to wait years for rights to expire (Daredevil), work out deals with the studios that they sold the rights to (Spider-Man), or buy companies outright (Fox) to regain access to all their characters.  After all that, you can be sure they are going to keep tight creative control over all their projects going forward.

9 hours ago, technoblue said:

It's not impossible. Thinking about all the movies Disney helped to publish under its Touchstone Pictures label--films like Apocalypto, The Life Aquatic, Good Morning Vietnam, and Starship Troopers. Disney would be in a better position to compete with Netflix if they followed a similar model with their streaming service and published a variety of shows for all ages, including adults. With that setup, moving the popular Netflix Marvel series to a Disney-owned service wouldn't be too farfetched. 

The real downer, from an article I read back in December, is that it will be a year or two before the Netflix contracts end and free the characters up for new projects. If that's true, any speculation about what Disney may or may not do is probably a wash at this point.

Money can make anything happen.  If Disney thinks there is more value in having access to those shows immediately vs. waiting for the non-compete clause to expire, they can always pay Netflix and make it happen.  I think the bigger issue is availability of the cast and crew, who are obviously going to move on to other work and not sit around hoping Disney comes calling.  On the off chance that Disney were able to keep the Netflix MCU going, there was an interview with a Hulu executive recently who implied that they would be interested in acquiring those shows.  Since Hulu is partly owned by Disney, it would be a logical place for hosting those shows, and it would allow them to do so without tainting the actual Disney brand name with rated R-like content.

Do we have any word on whether the markings on the Legioss will be stickers or printed?  The price on the Legioss is a bit high for my liking (though not a complete deal breaker), but it could be more palatable if it turns out that they took a page from Bandai's playbook and printed everything.

3 hours ago, vlenhoff said:

We still don't know how well this toy can handle. I don't see why a detachable bar won't "handle well" My only concern there, is if It would make this toy less durable. All we can do is wait for bandai, and see if they engineered this well, or not. 

You're right, it could be a non-issue for all we know.  The version Bandai implemented looks to be a more feasible transformation than the original line art.  My skepticism regarding handling had more to do with the original design, not Bandai's implementation of it.  That version has each leg being attached to the main body with a pair of pistons that telescope and extend to reach the nose cone, and then attach to the nose cone.  Even at 1/48 scale, a design like that looks to be fragile and difficult to handle.  So my comment was aimed more at being a stickler for having that exact design.  I'd sacrifice some amount of authenticity for having a toy that will handle well.  And it could be that Bandai's solution is the best compromise that preserves something like Kawamori's original design while making for a better handling toy.  We shall see.

36 minutes ago, vlenhoff said:

Why can’t people remember that this is the closest way to how Kawamori envisioned it...

If you're referring to the hip transformation... I think some people are less interested in authenticity for the sake of authenticity and just want a toy that handles well.  Besides, I was always under the impression that the hip transformation as designed in the original art was more of a cheat to explain why the valk looked the way it did, vs. being an intended transformation from the get-go.

I'll give Bandai credit -- that's a novel take on the hip/leg transformation.  Although it's interesting that the bar that swings the hips down has to be detached in order to achieve the waist articulation, and confirms my suspicions that it would be difficult to practically achieve without detaching the legs.  But I suppose that this is technically still perfect transformation since the detachment from the swing bar is optional, and not absolutely required to achieve the transformation.  

Sorry if missed this -- there are so many replies since the news broke.  We don't have any release dates, correct?  Just product announcements so far?

Wow great news Jenius!

I'm not totally sold on the sculpt for the Riobot Legioss, but if I had to choose between that one and the ET, it's definitely the Riobot for me.  Although I'm not liking the big gap between the hip and upper chest, I do like that it has bulkier proportions than the ET Legioss in soldier mode.  I also like that the feet don't extend as far out in the back in fighter mode.  If this has a more reasonable price than the ET Legioss, I'm definitely in for one.

On 7/18/2018 at 1:46 AM, Mog said:

So, I just finished binging Luke Cage Season 2 over the weekend.

Wasn't planning to finish off the season, but there was a really good stretch of 6 or 7 episodes that were really damn good.

Having watched the last episode though, I find myself conflicted about this past season of Luke Cage.  Much like Season 3 of Mr. Robot, I found this season of Luke Cage to be really, REALLY good.  But I'm not sure how I feel about how they ended their respective seasons.

Bushmaster was a really compelling and well-developed villain (much more like Cottonmouth and less cartoony like Diamondback).  They built up the story and characters from the first season.  And the themes and storylines they created just connected well with me (the anger from various characters, the parent-child relationships).

But I'm not sure how I feel about that ending.

 

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Not sure I buy Tilda Johnson going full villain.  Yes, the character we saw in the show killed her screwed-up mom, but not sure I completely buy her getting upset about losing out on Harlem's Paradise.  She hates the Stokes legacy, so I don't see why she'd get so butt-hurt about losing the club.

But more to the point, I'm not sure I agree with the obvious Godfather angle they're going with Luke.  The door closing scene (a clear homage scene to the Godfather) and the bit about Luke telling Claire to go home makes me uneasy.  Again, I'm not completely sold on the angle just yet.

It'd be fun to see Luke and Wilson Fisk butt heads. 

But not sure I want to see Harlem's Hero get corrupted trying to control, "manage" crime in his hometown.