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kajnrig

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  1. kajnrig
    I agree; I figured it would be as such. Some folks were wondering so I figured I'd give an impression as soon as I could. I just wish I'd had time to add pics to the post as well to clarify my points, lol. (I'm snapping it together as much as possible at work, then I'll finish it off at home.) Yeah, going by the instructions it looks to be a major hassle. But it should be simple enough if you leave the Armor panels for last, since they simply snap into place. Assemble the leg sans Armor and knee, attach the knee to the leg, glue on the knee cap, and then snap on the Armor around that. That's my initial thought, anyway. Typically I would want to cement the Armor parts together, which would necessitate any number of creative assembly options for the parts being encased by them, but they seem to fit nicely at first glance with no need for any seam removal. Anyway, can't agree more about loving the kit. It's been too long since I've built a Hasegawa model. They're always fun, even if I'm too lazy sometimes to do what they need me to do.
  2. kajnrig
    So after a quick build-up of the legs: - It seems pretty much as I remember it. You CAN, strictly speaking, snapfit nearly everything on the legs - even small detail parts. It'll hold together without masking tape. That said, cement/putty is still strongly recommended. - The old, original battroid parts are a lot of "two halves sandwiching a polycap, big ol' seam line running down the middle," and pretty much require cement/putty. The Armored parts are clearly designed with snapfit assembly and minimal seams in mind, and don't require cement/putty. A bit of a generational whiplash, transitioning between the two. - The instructions will have you cut off a connector on an original battroid part - the "heel"/"rear vector nozzle." Not hard at all, just might surprise someone who's used to gunpla. - Only two TRULY finnicky parts: the battroid knee cap, and the Armored knee cap. Both still, strictly-speaking, can snap-fit into place, but come loose easily and probably should be glued into place. - I did not try to snap-fit two clear pieces on the leg Armored part; it seems they can be pressed into place (but there's no way to get them back out without drilling into the detail beneath). EDIT: Moving onto the hips: - The little prongs that spike out from the bottom of the nose cone (what are those, anyway? what purpose do similar surfaces have on real-world aircraft?) definitely require glue, so there goes the pretense of a snap-fit kit. - The newly-introduced hip swivel is so minimal (5 degrees of total rotation) that they needn't have bothered at all and could have designed the Armored parts around the original nose cone. (Probably there are additional reasons for a dedicated Armored nose, but just noting that added articulation isn't one of them.)
  3. kajnrig
    What's this? Foam packing material yellows over time? Or it'll yellow bare plastic it touches over time? Or...?
  4. kajnrig
    Eh... We'll have to agree to disagree there. Again, I get your meaning. Regardless, the comparison that I was responding to in particular framed Resurrections as the Phantom Menace of the Matrix films in terms of fan feedback, which is kind of... eh... maybe...? I don't remember TPM getting a particularly negative reaction right out the gate, but then again I was a dumb kid at the time too distracted by the twirly whirly laser swords to pay attention to the fandom's reaction. I know the general consensus nowadays is that it's the weakest of the prequel trilogy, but I can't really fathom the reasons why because I think the second movie is easily the weakest, and I don't care enough to revisit those movies to refresh my memory of them and re-assess my opinion. But anyway, I thought the fan reaction to TPM was pretty even to positive in the immediate aftermath of its release, whereas the reaction to Resurrections has been pretty solidly negative across the board, with some finding more to like in the meta commentary than others. Thus, not the greatest of comparisons.
  5. kajnrig
    You could say the same thing about Star Wars. I disagree that it was "rife for a continuation." Star Wars works as a fully standalone product and indeed WAS a fully standalone product before being re-badged "Episode IV: A New Hope," and it didn't "need" a sequel. ...but I get your meaning. The sequel films definitely aren't as good as the original, but they do continue the original's trend - a pattern also repeated by the fourth film - of basically being a blank check for the Wachowskis to explore whatever currently strikes their fancy. Philosophy obviously is a big thing that all four films have indulged in. Wire-fu and anime. CGI and special effects in the two sequels... And what the Wachowskis wanted to explore this time around, inasmuch as there's anything at all, is the very nature of a Matrix sequel, one that doesn't need and doesn't WANT to be made but which is BEING FORCED to be made. If it feels like they're halfing the ass out of it, that's because they almost assuredly are, to a certain degree. Of course, intentionally bad is still bad and all. It's a very cynical movie, this one, but it doesn't shy away from its cynicism. It doesn't try to hide it. It lays it all out there in the open, saying, "This is nothing more or less than exactly what you wanted." Who the "you" is... well... 🤔
  6. kajnrig
    I dunno if the Star Wars comparisons are apt... For one thing, it seems fairly obvious to me that the meta commentary wasn't just for show, and neither of the Wachowskis thought this sequel was a project worth pursuing. Or rather, they - like many fans - agreed that there didn't need to be a sequel to the original trilogy. When presented with "this sequel is happening with or without you," Lana Wachowski decided frakk it, they're gonna force a sequel, I'll at least get what I want out of it. And what she wanted was a love letter slash final send-off to her recently(?) deceased parents. Neo and Trinity, to her, are stand-ins for her parents, so she gave them the happy ending that she wants to believe in for her parents, and literally everyone else's desires could go frakk themselves, for lack of a better term. It's kind of impressive, really, her managing to rope in her entire industry on said $200+ million love letter. It's doubly so for being a scathing criticism of that very industry as well, or at least of its obsession with zero originality and nostalgia- and sequel-chasing. Do I think it's a good film? Not really. But I respect the hell out of the filmmakers for sticking to their convictions.
  7. kajnrig
    Official stats at least give us a fixed standard, an idea of what "reality" is supposed to be, such that a scale can be determined at all. It's as tenuous a definition as the standard kilogram until recently, wont to be changed and ignored on a whim, but it's still a standard. Your idea of scale here is rooted entirely in subjective perception, is all, yet you talk about it as if it's an objective observation. I mean sure, the source material itself plays fast and loose with size all the time... which is an argument that goes both ways... and it often depicts anything Zentraedi as being larger than it necessarily is... for dramatic effect... and it even makes sense that it should be larger than it is, (...but i mean it's also just as reasonable to assume that zentraedi undergo a micronization every time they pilot a vehicle but a;lskjdf;asldkjfaklsdjflkasjdfl;sjdf) but that aside, the source material also goes out of its way to provide fixed values that these things are "supposed" to adhere to. Grousing about how it's "not in scale" when it is therefore seems like an exercise in futility. Grousing about the official size itself is another thing entirely, and honestly I'd agree for many of the same reasons... but the scale is correct. Like, when I realized how small the VF-1 is compared to nearly every other VF, I didn't think to myself, "Wow, the VF-1 isn't to scale." I thought, "Wow, the VF-1 is WAY smaller than I thought it was." I'd go on to say that maybe they should resize the VF-1 to be more like the VF-0, which would make sense in-universe AND bring it more in line with the other VFs AND bring it more in line with its real-world inspirations AND would really help to open up that frickin' teeny tiny cockpit. But I wouldn't say it's "not to scale." ;lksadfklajsdf;lakjfds but anyway, everyone else is right, this debate is useless, it is what it is, I'm leaving well enough alone now. Cheerio. Isn't an AT-AT supposed to be something like 20 met--ohhhhh. Just googled it. Yeah, no, that's a frickin' nightmare. Am I seriously reading that right? Anywhere between 10 and 25 meters tall?
  8. kajnrig
    But... clearly it is. In scale, that is. "Come up to the Regult's knee"? A VF-1 should come up to a Regult's knee??? Do you think the Regult is (or should be) 30 to 40 meters tall or something? And that thus a 1/72 model kit is/should be nearly half a meter tall? Even allowing for the vagaries of anime magic, the size of the model still comes out to be in the right ballpark. Perusing the first couple episodes of SDFM, it jumps around in size all the time, from roughly the same size as the VF-1 to maaaybe, charitably, twice as tall. And looking through some scenes from the first episode of Delta, the modified Regults are right around the same height as the VF-31s, which tracks with official stats. The scale is objectively correct. It's correct as far as the official stats are concerned. It's correct as far as the math is concerned. It's correct as far as the majority of the animation is concerned. (Or maybe not, the animation on that first show was... eeeuuuggghhh. But you get my point.) The only way in which it isn't correct is as far as your emotional memory of it is concerned. I imagine you want it bigger (significantly bigger, apparently) simply because that makes it more intimidating relative to the VF-1, which is how you remember it, and which is - and here's the twist you might not have expected - a totally reasonable ask, considering the VF-1 was handled with a similar "fast and loose" approach to its proportions and size and such for the sake of making it look "best" in each of its three modes. But just don't mistake your subjective aesthetic desires for objectivity.
  9. kajnrig
    Whoops, that is indeed a Hs head. My old grandpa 30-years old eyes just aren't what they used to be, it seems.
  10. kajnrig
    Is Bogue's new red SV-262 a Ba (grunt) or Hs (commander)? IIRC it has the Hs wings, but the Ba head...
  11. kajnrig
    Yeah, the Lil' Drakens were already pushing things. That thing's the size of a VF-1. Imagine that, a VF-31 with two VF-1s hanging off its wings...
  12. kajnrig
    Oh, that again. I thought you thought they were literally not to scale. I can see where you're coming from. It's more of a "feels correct" than "is correct" thing. I think it's great-looking, and the lack of a transformation (and, to a lesser degree, anime magic) allows them to stick closer to "reality" than with the VF-1. I suppose your only easy - well, "easy" - recourse is to go for the Moscato resin kit instead... or maybe the old Bandai(/Imai?) kit? Anyone know how that one sizes up, roughly?
  13. kajnrig
    ...because they are? 🤔
  14. kajnrig
    I've been ruminating on this movie for the past week or two. It's the best of the MCU trio of Spidey films... but I don't know if I like it on its own merits. It could just be that I'm kind of uninterested in the multiverse as the overarching MCU plot going forward... or I'm Spider-Man'ed out. I dunno.
  15. kajnrig
    From my vague memories of building it, the VF-1 battroid has plenty of peg-and-socket connections, but it's mostly for alignment purposes and will only very loosely hold together if it holds together at all. The same holds true for the VF-0, which I have fresher memories of. I could test fit everything, and some (maybe even most) parts were able to be snap-fitted, but I remember still needing masking tape... Man, now I want to build more VF-1 and VF-0 battroids again. From the quick build video above, it seems that the majority of reused parts can be encased or sandwiched by the new, indeed snap-fit parts... so you prooobably don't need glue for them unless you want to deal with seam lines. My package is still going through customs, but I'll confirm as soon as I can.
  16. kajnrig
    Besides the larger boosters, what's different between these and the original Supers? I'm not particularly familiar with the specificities of the -31 Supers.
  17. kajnrig
    Any reason why this particular episode needs retelling? (Besides it having originally been done by a third party.) Is this specific story particularly resonant with the creators and/or fans or something?
  18. kajnrig
    Yeah, I'm actually a bit embarrassed. I asked HLJ if they had an ETA on restock, and something like an hour after their response, my order of 2 came in. Can't wait for them to arrive in hopefully a week or so! Looking at the scans - thanks, @TMBounty_Hunter! - I'm glad to see that, while they're unused, the original hands are included as part of the recycled runners. I'm really not sure what they were aiming for with these renewed hands; they look like a weird mishmash of the marshmallow hands in some of the line art and the techy hands in others, and the left hand in particular is so... flat. I have to wonder what source material they based those hands on. The lack of original forearm/calf parts, replaced as they are instead by dedicated Armored parts, makes me wonder: Did Hasegawa specially size the Super parts for each mode, as well? I've built a Super fighter and Super battroid, but years apart, and I assumed they used the same Super runners for all three modes. It never even occurred to me that they might have created differently-proportioned Supers for the different modes... but of course they must have, because the same Super runners couldn't possibly fit three different sets of proportions well. Is that the case? If so, that's some serious dedication to their craft.
  19. kajnrig
    The VF-1J Armored is now listed as Backordered on HLJ, indicating that it's been released and either HLJ (et al?) simply took on more orders than they received initial stock and/or Hasegawa's production capability was hindered by the pandemic. Did anyone here get their order? Either way, I'm not worried about getting it in good time. Hopefully this is indicative of demand and not... troubles. EDIT: Also, just an FYI, from Hasegawa's JP site (IIRC these listings won't show up on the EN one): Armored VF-1J shipping ... December 17, 2021 (on sale) Release date ... Around December 22, 2021 Regult Shipped by our company … February 22, 2022 Release date …… Around February 26, 2022
  20. kajnrig
    This was a curiosity to me, too. IIRC, his "goodbye" line has been translated variously as goodbye, farewell, see you later, etc. Of them, it seems like "see you later" is probably the most accurate in terms of capturing both the literal translation and his intent. (Based just on my very rudimentary hearing of the language; I'm sure the native speakers here have better insight.) Assuming that's the case, then it makes sense to portray his lines before that as being fully intended (and his having to kamikaze the Ghost being UNintended). A couple other instances of... over-liberal translation, I think: - Isamu griping about the Guns CDV. In all of the various translations up 'til now (btw, can anyone confirm if this sub is indeed based on the International Bluray release?), that was always translated to something like "You never returned the Guns CDV I lent you!" to which Guld replied "Because you left seven years ago!". In the new sub that line gets translated to a question: "Where's the Guns CDV I lent you? I'm still waiting!" and the reply: "You disappeared seven years ago!" The newer translation feels, dare I say, catty. Sassy. And the response from Guld feels weirdly detached. - Guld, when chasing the Ghost. Variations on "One more minute!" "Just a bit more!" etc., all of which suffice just fine. I suppose "One more minute!" is most strictly accurate. The follow-up, though, "ã‚­ã‚¿!" has itself seen various translations, with the one for this showing being "Got 'em!"... which just seems weird for him to say. The plural 'em instead of singular 'im/'er, the truncation at all instead of them/him/her, the third-person "'em" instead of "you." Not to mention it seems rather boasty, not exactly something I think he would say in this situation. I think the Manga subs is a simple "There!" which seems a better fit all around. - I do love that they tweaked the translation of Isamu's lines to Guld prior to their battle, though. Previously, it was something like "Always following me... Always following people around all the time!", with the repeated verb. I forget exactly what the new subs say, but it finally did away with that awkward repeat and I almost whooped right then and there and confused an entire theater of innocent viewers.
  21. kajnrig
    Just got home. I was surprised at the turnout; last I had checked there were maybe a dozen seats sold, max, and it seemed to have doubled/tripled that over the last few days. Movie is as good as it always has been. I don't know if the audio mixing is based on the Bluray mix or what. Regardless, it was different from the various stereo mixes I've heard in the past; some of the decisions were a bit odd. The subs were decent; at times they were much improved over the old Manga translation, at other times they were worse. Most fortunately, the video was completely free of the bugs seen on my, uh, rip of the film, as well as on clips/uploads on Youtube. I was most interested in how young people who had never seen Macross reacted to it, and from the handful of teenage/20-something interviewees afterward, it was universal praise. Predictably, some were more attracted to the "Top Gun in space" aspect than the rest of it. My friend, who has seen the Frontier movies, was already somewhat primed for this, but even then the movie seemed to surpass his expectations. He mentioned twice how the movie didn't feel like two hours at all because of how engrossing it was. So, good sign.
  22. kajnrig
    Actually, I'm curious about this. Did people see anime Jet as anything other than black? It's weird because now that I'm considering it, there's really no more reason why I should have thought he was than not, but I always thought he was black in the anime, which is why the casting didn't bother me at all. Actually, looking it up now, apparently a good number of people thought anime Jet was white... or at least not black. Some of the stories are more loosely adapted than others. For my part, I was also hopeful that the LA would consist of completely original adventures, which it... kind of does, sometimes. EDIT: While we're at it, what are people's thoughts on the existence (or lack thereof) of romantic/sexual tension subtext between Spike and Faye in the anime? Did you get the impression it was there, and would you have wanted it explored more than it was?
  23. kajnrig
    I'm fairly sure it's a common thing in Hollywood writing that in order to get writing credits and/or paid, you have to contribute SOMETHING to the script, so even if one gets brought to you to be "punched up" that's in perfect order, you invariably have to, well, "punch up" that script regardless. It's a malaise that I would love to see put to an end, but alas... I dunno, I think you're missing the forest for the trees, whether intentionally or not. A lot of these "character complaints" are really minor things in the grand scheme of things. The characters are, for the most part, recognizable enough that I can see them acting how they act. That is... one heck of a stretch... 🤨 Anime Faye is a wannabe femme fatale. IIRC she tries it and it more often backfires on her than not. The only times in the anime that the whole film noir aesthetic gets played 100% straight are when it involves Spike... and I suppose that one episode with Jet. And "unreciprocated love with Spike" is speculative at best. The nature of the Bebop crew's relationship with each other is purposely nebulous. Besides surface interactions, they generally hold each other at arm's distance, and they generally avoid acknowledging the formation of intimacy (this despite, of course, some measure of intimacy forming). Regardless of the exact nature of the intimacy forming, it's the acknowledgement of it at the end of the show that was important. I don't know if Netflix Faye showed any signs of being anything other than a lesbian. Funnily enough, I saw more overt romantic/sexual interest between Netflix Spike and Faye than their anime counterparts... and I didn't consider their interactions particularly romantic or sexual at all. But otherwise, she doesn't show any interest in either of her co-stars - or really anyone at all besides engineer girl. Yeah... I don't know how I ultimately feel about that change. He's enough of a throwaway character even in the original that I don't MIND his being made a crossdresser/trans/what have you character who simply operates confidently and competently in a side role. But the changes are also so unnecessary, and nixed a potential second season story point for it.
  24. kajnrig
    Yeah, that's a shame. It surprised me how good it was despite itself. If someone decides to plow ahead with it, I hope they retain the cast. They were far and away the best part of the show.
  25. kajnrig
    In case you can't wait, Amiami's got one of the Yammie version: https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=TOY-RBT-0029-R I know a similar question was asked above, but is the Arcadia toy just the Yammie molds refined and revised, or did they create brand new molds that just necessarily follow similar shapes, lines, etc., as the Yammie one?
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