kajnrig

15 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

Watched it, its OK and the format is getting kinda old. MCU will never be on the grown up level that DCU has been.

*snort*

Up for preorder, must have been shown off recently somewhere.

HLJ: https://www.hlj.com/1-72-scale-vf-171ex-nightmare-plus-ex-alto-machine-wavmc-074

Amiami: https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=TOY-RBT-6785

Eh.... Now my initial excitement has been dialed back a fair bit.

I was hoping it would be all three modes separately, but alas, it seems they're going for a transformable kit instead (whether partsformer or perfect). Hopefully seeing it will change my impression.

More info to be shared Oct 1 and 2.

Noel, any idea what that "Realistic Model Series" guff is about? Just new marketing slang, or denoting new tech/a new lineup/etc.?

On 8/26/2022 at 3:58 AM, Big s said:

It’s always good to see people still love these old kits 

The Hasegawa kits are now 20+ years old. Oy vey...

Those can be considered old now. What do these count as, then? Museum pieces?

By the by, the entire movie is basically available on Youtube now, both officially and in chunks.

I have a feeling that "split throttle" is going to be the next Thing that people latch onto. Watch it become a major game mechanic in the next Ace Combat or go-to trick in the next blockbuster movie, like thrust vectoring and Cobras before it.

I know I've shared this before, but if the forearm design bothers you, there's a conversion kit that returns it to a more anime accurate look: https://www.shop2000.com.tw/GK-M/product/p37717039

Otherwise, great job as always, on the photoshoot as well as the modeling itself.

5 hours ago, jvmacross said:

I couldn't get past the first couple of episodes....does it get better?

Honestly, it takes a while to get going. The same thing is true of the comic - the first few issues are decent if slightly aimless gothic horror, and then it begins to find itself around the diner chapter, I think six issues in or so. IIRC, that number corresponds to the same episode of the TV show, which is also the point in the show that it starts to find its identity.

Finished this last week-ish. Overall I enjoyed it, and I was surprised that they managed a decently successful transition from the comics; Sandman to me felt the most ill-suited to an adaptation, more so than other constant namedrops like Watchmen. I'm most interested in seeing non-fans' reactions to it, and I'm glad to see it's pretty positive.

Me, I think it could have stood to be a less literal adaptation at times. It drags in some parts, the music is overly grandiose sometimes, and some of the acting/directing decisions aren't how I imagined they would be. Dream isn't pale enough for my tastes. The narrator being his voice took me off-guard for some reason. There are points in the comic where he's clearly the one narrating, but even then... I dunno, something about it struck me as odd.

Some of the special effects are remarkably cheap, like the low-res green screen of Rose and Gilbert in the car. Some of the scene compositions are remarkably cheap, like John Dee and Rosemary... in the car. That bit got particularly boring, with what felt like ten whole minutes spent just switching back and forth between two static camera angles. As mentioned above, the diner episode mirrors the diner chapter in the comic, being a major highlight and the beginning of the Sandman truly coming into its own... but it dragged a bit between major turns of events. It also omitted some of the more extreme content of the comic, which, while I complained about it being too literal before, I felt did it a disservice.

That all said, it's still a far more competent adaptation than I ever expected. It's literal enough, it's non-literal enough, it's creative enough that I had a good time with it. I would still highly recommend the comics above the show, but the show serves as a good introduction to them and/or if the show is the only way you get to experience the Sandman, it's a good enough experience on its own.

Pfft, you have to manually attach/remove the booster, it's not integrated into the transformation mechanism. PO canceled.

7 hours ago, Moosey said:

Perhaps cos the Shibuya Scramble ones will cost you a kidney or two?! XD

Correct me if I'm wrong, someone mentioned a couple pages ago when these were first announced that "Shibuya Scramble" = limited in some way? Like event-/location-specific and/or lottery system?

I think it's just the name, really. The VF-4 Lightning III (retroactively) shares a name with the F-35 and P-38, and zero of their design features. Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if the VF-4 was originally called Lightning II and then changed to III after the F-35 took the name...

From what I've heard about the project, the KF-21 was designed to have a stealthy airframe with external pylons, with an (eventual) ability to internalize weapons should the need arise. If that's the case, it's a neat design decision, though I'm not sure about the feasibility. Either they're expecting to be able to miniaturize a LOT of stuff, or that prototype is flying around with a lot of empty space.

Does anyone know the anime "NANA"? Because... Hot damn, emphasis on HOT. I think I might check it out now...

Edit: Dang, seems the manga has been on hiatus for a decade+ at this point. That's a shame...

Would you frakk that or be fraked by that?

Yes.

Decent movie, still miss Shakespeare Thor but fine with this, agreed that slapstick humor feels like a chore rather than organic. Two credits scenes as is the norm for MCU films now - mid-credits scene, then post-credits scene. Did not see the latter as I had to get to work but had it explained to me by my cousin who went with. A clarifying question:

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

https://blog.alltheanime.com/macross-plus-blu-ray

Just a quick note that I picked up from the press release:

"...will be made available for fans for the first time in English on Blu-ray..."

New dub? Old Cranston dub? New dub keeping Cranston on? Hm...

We had a pretty good turnout of around 20-30 people. I was pleased to see that many fans/prospective fans.

Positively vibrating with excitement.

1 hour ago, Rock said:

'Cause that is the lame pose China has for the statue it is based on. Why they don't just make the statue's arms (on any of them) support a hollow rifle and shield (or beam sabers) so they don't look so weird IDK. I'm guessing it is something to do with guns and children so they omit them.

No, that's what I mean. Both the Freedom and the Nu (in Japan) are in that weird pose. I wonder if there are real-world reasons for it or if they really thought it looked good, or what.

I wonder why they went with the pose they did on the Freedom and Nu. That weird, awkward-looking hands down, fingers sliiightly extended like it's reaching down to lazily grab a bowl of chips that's juuuuuust out of reach.

Sorry to hear about everyone's issues. I joked that "How many technical glitches do you think we'll get?", but our showing had pretty much zero issues whatsoever. I think a single subtitle repeated itself, but that was it.

Had the reel of Fathom events, a remarkably long run of sponsoring expos/cons/etc., then the short intro from Nakajima-san and Endo-san. At first I thought it was the same as the previous one as well, but it was just very similar. Then the Proplica advert, then the movie, then the 3 brief music videos.

Movie itself? Honestly, I was a bit worried it wouldn't be as good as I remembered. I don't know why the last one stuck with me the way it did, but it did, and I went into this a bit anxious despite myself. Turned out it was every bit as good and bad as I remembered. It really is the far superior of the two movies, and it makes me wonder if perhaps my reaction to the second Delta movie will be positive as well (or at least more positive than I have been with the rest of that series).

The ANN review of the two movies made the point that the first movie survived on the strength of its individual moments, but those moments never really came together; and that the same criticism can't be made of the second. I think I'm in agreement. The musical moments especially felt much more appropriate and cogent in this movie.

Speaking of the music, I didn't really notice until now just how horny the lyrics to Sheryl's songs were. It was almost comical; at some point I half-expected the subs to just be "I WANT SECKS WITH U. PLEASE SECKS ME."

Hm... I didn't go into it thinking the theatrical showing would change my opinion of this first movie significantly, and I was right. Condensing the already lightning-paced plot of most of the series into one movie was always a tough ask, and while this movie puts up a valiant effort, it's unfortunately a bit too dense for its own good. It remains the far lesser of the two films, and serves as the necessary homework before the second film's payoff.

I'm in agreement that, taken together, the two are the inferior way to tell the Macross Frontier story. I love the changes to the plot in the second movie, but it builds on too infirm a foundation in the first film.

What irks me most of all, though, is that throughout the entire runtime, I just wanted to watch Macross Plus again instead. It's just such a better standalone experience.

The movie itself aside, we fortunately didn't get any major hiccups. Some streaming hiccups here and there, but they resolved themselves very quickly, and didn't take me out of the movie too much, which is more than can be said of the Macross Plus showing.

Here's seeing y'all again in two weeks' time.

3 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Yep, no way shipping alone can account for the steep markup on the VF-0S when looking at the comparably-sized and weighted Ez-8.

The Ez8 is "supposed" to go for about $25, similar to others in the line. So it's also been marked up significantly.

I was surprised that HLJ charged me for it already. I was expecting a charge closer to the end of the month. Shame, too. I shipped out my Metal Gear Rex like two days ago; if only I'd waited a couple more days...