Shacky

I've been going through this thread and admiring everyone's collections and decided I wanted better lighting for my curio that houses some of my collection. The top down LED light was just not doing what I wanted as I put more collectibles on the shelves. Lots of shadows. I decided I want to do some LED lighting, but many of the pictures I saw had bright LED spots and I wanted more of an even light. I noticed some people used diffusers, but the LEDs are so spread apart that you can still see the LED diodes as dots. I recently went to Lowe's to pick up some other supplies and spent time looking at the LED strips they had. One caught my attention. The top one looks like it has two types of LEDs (W - White? and CW - Cool White?) and the bottom black one has one type of LED but spaced farther apart. The middle one caught my attention because it looks like a solid piece of LED. If you look closely, there are actually several LEDs under the yellow strip, but they are compacted really closely together. The yellow covering seems to be some sort of built in diffuser. It's not cheap ($59.99), but it comes with power adapter, dimmer, 2 wire connectors (~2 inch wires), and 2 straight connectors. The light emits 4000k at 50W total if using the entire 16.4ft. I bought 1 and installed it last night. It looks amazing and bright, but I'm still fiddling with my collection to get good placement and pictures. A little research on the internet shows the product I bought is COB (Chip on Board) vs SMD (Surface Mounted Device) and is fairly new to the market. Anyone else here looking into LED lighting and know more about this COB type LED light strip?

Interesting that you caught that. There are two groups releasing 704x396 RAWs: Shinsen-Subs and Zero-Raws. Being a RAW, they don't include the subtitles. I'm actually grabbing these versions because they play better with the highest quality I can get on my 6 year old machines (higher resolution is choppy). These RAWs are released before the subtitled versions and I use the soft-subs to watch the episodes with English subs by the weekend. Also interesting as I haven't played with the scripts for Avisynth and I was thinking of giving up on my PSP for watching episodes again on the plane. I'll have to play with this as well. Thanks!

I ususally download the RAW files and take the subtitles from one of the groups (mostly GG and Gatai). I noticed the RAW files use the MBS versus the TBS version that the groups use which means the subtitles are a little off after the opening. So I opened one of them and found the tags that indicate they use Aegisub to create the subs. This program is freeware so I downloaded it and it can play the video while reviewing the subs frame by frame. I then highlight the subs I want moved and then move the video to the correct point. One click on the toolbar and all the subs are offsetted so they match with the video. That's enough for me to play with the subtitles for a little while to retime them and it's usually less than one hour. So what you need for DVD is to convert the ASS (stylized subtitles) to a simple SRT format. This is actually harder to do since you have to make decisions on what you will keep from the Karaoke and some of the text doesn't fit for really long parts. I have a cheap Phillips DVD player from Costco that can play the 704x396 video if I convert the ASS to SRT without having to convert the video. I used this as a test and found my subs getting cut off at the edges because the text was too long. It was at this point that I decided it would take too long for me to do so I just dusted off my HTPC and put the files on there to playback on my TV. One thing I miss is the comments on the proper text to use for the subtitles. I could take that feedback and just edit the ASS files easily to correct translation issues. But that's a side topic... So it can be done, but I just don't have the time to go through it all. In summary, download the RAW, download the ASS files, convert the ASS to SRT, then convert using your favorite tool (like TMPEG) to create DVD VOB files.

No, I ordered during the 1 hour and 50 minute window. I just paid my coworker for it when I picked it up on my last trip to Japan.

Wow! I was quoted! For those of you curious, I did get mine and that's what it cost me (19425 yen plus dinner for my coworkers). Still sitting in it's box after being in the overhead bin on the trip back. Probably going to stay there a while too, just like all my other valks.

I think I got one. 商品名　　　：１/４８完全変形版VF-1S　ウェザリング　特別仕様 （この商品は予約商品です） 価格　　　　：18,690 円 個数　　　　：1 個 -------------------------------------- 小計金額　　：18,690 円 ====================================== 送料：735 円 総合計金額 ：19,425 円 Google translation: Product Name: 1 / 48 scale VF-1S special UEZARINGU (This product is the product reservations.) Price: 18,690 yen Qty: 1 -------------------------------------- Subtotal Amount: 18,690 Yen ====================================== Shipping: 735 yen Overall total amount: 19,425 Yen Just waiting for the shipping notice/payment request. I owe some very nice friends a very nice dinner.

Minmays are ~$5 each. I just bought some in the store. Custom heads, I don't know.

Question: How well have these been selling? Answer: I've been in Japan for business this week (unfortunately no time to visit any MWers this time) and found a store with a new stock of Yamato toys. They had 4 Stealth, 2 Super Stealth, and about 20 VF-0S on Monday night. By Thursday night, they had 3 Stealth, 1 Super Stealth (with a big dent in the box) and 4 VF-0S. I bought mine from them and don't expect the rest to last the weekend. They also have some stands and it looks like the black stands are selling better than the silver ones.

Ahh! One month too early! I'm suppose to head to Japan at the end of Sept. Last month, I picked up a Millia Q-Rau and VF-1J GBP for $87 total (not counting the JR Line cost to get there and back to the hotel). I've decided to start getting 1/48s and was planning to pick some up anyway. Hope there's some left at the end of next month. I also debated checking cases on my flights back. I usually only bring a carry-on and to protect my toys, I ended up checking the carry on and put the Yamato boxes in the overhead bin. If I could figure out some way to bubble wrap and box the valks while there...