kajnrig

A bit off topic, but it'll probably get more eyes here than there:

Updating this and the gunpla thread, though this isn't a model kit.

Bring Arts Weltall-Id

Apr 2022

~$170

https://www.hlj.com/xenogears-bring-arts-weltall-id-enx36046

Updating this and the gunpla thread, though this isn't a model kit.

Bring Arts Weltall-Id

Apr 2022

~$170

https://www.hlj.com/xenogears-bring-arts-weltall-id-enx36046

The more I see of it, the more cautiously optimistic I get.

So after nearly 15 years, 4.0 brings the Rebuilds to a conclusion, and it was... fine. It managed to recover after 3.33 tumbled all over the mat midway through the balance beam routine. And I suppose that says something about Evangelion that it's managed to stick the landing something like... four times now? The TV show, the movie, the manga, and now the Rebuild, each of them despite their own unique hurdles. And 4.0 reaffirms my opinion way back in 2007 that the Rebuilds as a whole are... neat but redundant. I think the biggest success of 4.0 is that it forces a confrontation between father and son that... again, is neat but redundant, but it was nice to see all the same. The Shinji Ikaris of the past didn't need to talk things out with their father in order to mature, and frankly this one didn't either, and arguably Gendo didn't "deserve" the reconciliation... but it was nice to see all the same. It's emotionally satisfying.

I'm in agreement that the CGI Lillith was one of a handful of straight up bad decisions. At the very least, that style of rendering was a bad decision. It's so at odds with the rest of the animation... which might have been the point, to instill it with a sense of wrongness, but the obvious counter-argument is that End of Eva managed to do the same thing, instill the same sense of wrongness, but still make it look cohesive. (There's a term for that, that for the life of me I can't remember.)

I'm curious what young people think of the Rebuild. How it may or may not resonate with them, and how they find it compares to the original and/or its contemporaries.

They really just gonna ignore that whole "idol is psychotic love-starved computer who hypnotized an entire city and took control of its military just to virtually suck off her boyfriend" thing, huh?

Well, I suppose it really is as that infamous tweet says:

"Neon Genesis Evangelion Ultimate Edition" Bluray set
Open for preorder in UK.

UK/Ireland: https://evangelion.alltheanime.com/

US: https://store.gkids.com/pages/neon-genesis-evangelion

AU: https://www.madman.com.au/actions/channel.do?method=view

A quick tl;dr:

- original series + both movies (11 discs total)
- includes both the new official dub/sub AND old dub/sub
- artwork from Japanese laserdisc release
- 156-page booklet
- 11x (Eleven) 12"x12" art boards
- Sachiel resin paperweight
- NERV ID card + lanyard
- no "Fly Me to the Moon" endings

Quote

 

The NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: Ultimate Edition was created by fans as the definitive celebration of one of the most important and influential anime series of all time, featuring exclusive artwork, merch, a 156-page book, and over 7 hours of bonus features. Spread over 11 discs, this set contains the Official Dub and Subtitled versions, and bonus Classic Dub and Subtitled versions.

Limited to 1,500 copies for the UK & Ireland, and sold exclusively on the All The Anime Store.

Featuring

• Limited Edition Artwork
• Bonus Classic Dub and Subtitled Versions
• 156-Page Book
• Art Boards
• Sachiel Resin Paperweight
• NERV ID Card w/ Lanyard

The international re-release of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION does not contain "FLY ME TO THE MOON" in any of its home video editions.

 

ULTIMATE EDITION FEATURES
LIMITED EDITION ARTWORK
The Ultimate Edition is encased in a premium-quality rigid-board shoulder box featuring artwork never before released in the UK. These renderings of Asuka and Rei were previously featured on the Japanese LaserDisc release, and are further accented with a hi-build UV treatment on the title and characters, with micromotion on the LCL around Rei. The set also includes two sturdy fold-out disc carriers featuring LaserDisc artwork of Shinji & Gendo on one with Misato & Kaji on the other.

BONUS CLASSIC DUB
AND SUBTITLED VERSIONS
In addition to the Official Dub and Subtitled versions, there is an extra set of discs including the bonus Classic Dub and Subtitled versions for the twenty-six episode series, as well as the films EVANGELION:DEATH (TRUE)2 and THE END OF EVANGELION.

156-PAGE BOOK
A perfect-bound 156-page book collects promotional posters and artwork, a glossary of Angels and EVA units, a timeline of key moments in the release of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, full credit lists for each episode, detailed surveys of all 26 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION episodes, and more.

ART BOARDS
Eleven double-sided 12x12" art boards are a high-quality replication of the full character-based artwork from the famed Japanese LaserDisc release. Printed on sturdy cardstock, these art boards are ready for wall display or additional framing.

SACHIEL RESIN PAPERWEIGHT
A limited edition resin paperweight modeled on Sachiel, the 3rd Angel. Sachiel is the first Angel to appear in NEON GENESIS EVANGELION and emerges from the sea in EPISODE:1 ANGEL ATTACK

This paperweight was created exclusively for the Ultimate Edition.

NERV ID CARD W/ LANYARD
Recreated from its appearance in NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, this double-sided guest ID Card features the NERV organization logo and includes a reusable 450mm lanyard adorned with the Magi System’s signature "EMERGENCY" indicators.

This ID Card and lanyard are created exclusively for the Ultimate Edition.

 

Oh, it is? Never mind, then, cool. I suppose if I googled Kato, I'd realize they're a player in that industry.

What's up with Patlabor specifically getting such weird scale releases? First that 1/43 (1/43!!!) Aoshima kit, now this.

Nichijou is an absolute riot, even if some of the references are SO Japanese that I need an encyclopedia and a team of accredited historians by my side to understand them.

That said, there are a handful of skits that perpetually recycle through my Youtube; this is the latest:

On 8/14/2021 at 6:44 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

... it definitely has a vibe reminiscent of Azumanga Daioh to it.

That said, I don't think I like it as much as I did Azumanga Daioh.  A lot of the humor here seems to just be "random things happen", which can be funny if done right but it feels a bit overused at 5 episodes in.

The original manga is IIRC a series of 4komas. The author didn't intend for it to be a big thing.

I don't, unfortunately.

What conversion kit are you making?  I'm using mine for a Stargazer.

Saw it Friday night, and I've been incubating my thoughts the whole weekend.

I think it was foolhardy of people, the majority of my theater included, to think this was somehow going to be a typical medieval fantasy epic. Nothing about any of the trailers suggested it would be anything like that, and yet people in my theater could not walk out come the credits fast enough shaking their head at, I suppose, a sense of being duped.

You can see her later in the trailer as well (around 2:05), probably during a prison break or something.

Beat me to the punch, so I'll just say:

Is it just me or is someone on the storyboarding and effects teams using these movies as an excuse to express their kink? First movie was all about the PG-13 vore, now it's PG-13 vore and tentacles.

2 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

Yes. It's PO night for VF-31AX Kairos Plus.

 

Okay, because I'd be up all night if it was the other one, and now I'm only PROBABLY gonna be up.

...okay, let's be clear, it's NOT a reissue of the VF-31A Kairos, it's a preorder for the VF-31AX... Kairos Custom? Siegfried?

As long as Messer doesn't come back, I'm fine with whatever happening to whoever.

11 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

Just because we hate something doesn't mean we can escape from it.

Very true, I'm just having some self-deprecating fun to cope with the pain.

8 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

...I got mine from P-Bandai us website.

Tried via a proxy, but they filled their orders.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply I was talking about you specifically. I meant "we" broadly.

I didn't see the P-Bandai notice until the next day, at which point it was already long sold out. XD

5 hours ago, Big s said:

This situation is a bit different than what’s going on with the nightingale. This one is a web exclusive going through markups at proxy sites and retailers. The other one was just a standard release that will definitely get re released. There’s definitely gonna be some people paying way too much, but if you’re gonna overpay at least do it for a rare item

This is true, but given how quickly this preorder sold out, and how many additional runs the Japanese preorder already has scheduled, I have very little doubt that we'll be getting additional preorder openings here as well, at least somewhat negating the rarity argument. I don't know how many Bandai can and/or have to produce at a time, but it seems like there's enough "leftover demand" to justify at least one more full run. Like, say, they can produce 1000 at a time, but there are something like 1500 customers still willing to pay.

With the Nightingale, I don't know how much they produced... but I also don't know the demand for it. However much "leftover demand" exists, they've probably estimated that it's not enough to justify another full run yet. Like these mass retail runs get 5000 units made at a time to distribute to all the retail outlets, and now leftover demand is only something like 2500. Objectively more than for the TG Fluegel, but not enough to justify another run.

What are the terms being used right now? "Just-in-time manufacturing" versus "just-in-case manufacturing"? If they did another 5000 units and completely satisfied immediate demand, the 2500 units left over would be readily available and they wouldn't have to worry about customers haranguing them on social media and the like for more more more, but there'd be extra costs involved with housing and keeping track of those extra units and blah blah blah etc.... I can see why they might wait a little, if only to maybe get some sort of better gauge of how much demand there actually is...? I dunno, I'm no economist.

So we're all complaining about scalpers in that Hobby Japan thread, then turn right around and pay $150 like it's nothing, then complain about how much scalpers scalp.

The price also suggests it's a prepainted figure. Though FYI, 1/120 is pretty small, probably the size of your hand.

A model kit of that scale would typically be around $15 to $30.

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

Just get the Hasegawa and pretend it transforms...lol

Oh believe you me, I have many, MANY of those.  

(And I mean actually, it would be incredibly easy to swap those FS winglets and canards for those of the Kairos, or better yet, to scratchbuild them and save me a kit. But STILL, Bandai, would it kill you to give the fans what they want?)

48 minutes ago, technoblue said:

The examples referenced are just showing how other Blade Runner media stick to the cyberpunk tech noir formula. I don't know what else to say if that isn't coming across. 

Ah, I see. It seemed to me you were saying the story of the Westwood games were better than the story of this show, hence my confusion because this show obviously hasn't come out yet and its story is unknown... unless you have some privileged information.  I gotcha now.

17 hours ago, borgified said:

These are line art of the 31ax variants for the Bandai Model kit line @cosmic. 

Very high chance that the DX versions of these will be similar. 

I haven't seen anything in the model kits section about this... Are you sure?

Bandai never released a 1/72 VF-31A Kairos model kit. If this indicates that one is on the horizon, I'm very excited. If not...

Is this going to be an actual show, or...? All I know about it is that it dropped a certain same-chan into the background.

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Anyway, the mouth animations bugged me the whole way through; they just looked bad. The story was ok, but SAC did it much better, IMHO.  

A couple basic questions because I still plan to watch it despite that goofy clip I was shown a while back:

1) Mouth animations as in when they're speaking dialogue, or just in general?

2) If for spoken dialogue, were they animated to the Japanese or English dub?

3) If animated for Japanese, did you watch in English? And vice versa.

4 hours ago, azrael said:

"companies to make enough supply..."

The problem with this is this may not be possible quickly. We could go into supply chain, manufacturing, etc., but it just may not be possible. And even if they did, it will take time to make changes to supply chain and manufacturing.

Yep, very much this. In the case of Bandai's hobby division specifically, which is the original context of this whole situation, not the collectible toys market that most people here are thinking of, they have a massive catalog of injection molds going all the way back to the late 70s, spread across a relatively small number of manufacturing facilities. They can't simply expand to new facilities in China, say, because they still need those limited-number molds to make the actual kits with. They could make new molds, but that would be incredibly expensive, maybe prohibitively so.

As much as I dislike that they don't regularly have this or that legacy kit in stock, I temper that frustration with the knowledge that to a certain degree, they simply CAN'T produce the variety of kits I want at the speed I want.

4 hours ago, azrael said:

"The second is for consumers not to purchase from scalpers / flippers."

Easier said than done. When people want something which is in such short supply, they will go to lengths to get that product. We've been telling that to GPU buyers, yet 9 months in, people are still buying well above MSRP, from secondary markets, and likely being scalped.

This as well. Tying it back to the hobby industry, if there's a kit that I really really want - like, say, early 1/100-scale kits of a subject that have largely been supplanted by newer, better-selling versions of it - that hasn't gotten a repop in a long time for whatever reason(s), or just is no longer in production at all, then I don't really have room to negotiate on price. I paid something like 2-3x "MSRP" for this, and I'm... well, I'm not "fine" with that, but I find it an easy enough pill to swallow.

2 hours ago, Vifam7 said:

HJ mag editor created this storm in the wake of Gunpla fans exasperated by the inability to acquire the recent HGUC Nightingale. I'm pretty sure Bandai made plenty of that kit. But I think even Bandai has limits to how many they can produce. And even though overall supply is plentiful, how many a particular retailer gets or can get is limited. 

I have zero doubt that they maximized production on the HGUC Nightingale, and that the demand is simply overwhelming.

They do engage in artificial scarcity regularly, though, which is why I see their (I think they own HJ??? maybe, maybe not) canning of an employee to be little more than, dare I say it, cynical virtue signaling.

2 hours ago, Vifam7 said:

And the scalpers often get them ahead of the average buyer.  The HJ editor had the nerve to basically say - If you couldn't get it, you didn't try hard enough. If you really wanted it, get to the store first in the morning and lineup - I guess oblivious to the fact that, unlike scalpers, most people have a life - like going to school or work in the morning.

I think this is one of the key issues that need figuring out. "Regular consumers" are having to compete against automated bots and the like, and there's only so much they can do; the onus now is on the manufacturers/resellers to try to detect and cut out scalpers... if they really want to cut them out at all, that is. To a certain extent, they're content with (and/or maybe even need) the existence of the scalping market. Scalpers driving up the price customers have to pay for products slowly trains customers to be comfortable paying more for arguably the same, which eases tensions for the manufacturer if/when they push up their own price, etc.

That's a pretty cynical and limited-view perspective, but... alas.