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kajnrig

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Everything posted by kajnrig

  1. 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...
  2. We had a pretty good turnout of around 20-30 people. I was pleased to see that many fans/prospective fans.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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."
  6. 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.
  7. The Ez8 is "supposed" to go for about $25, similar to others in the line. So it's also been marked up significantly.
  8. 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...
  9. Hm. It's interesting seeing the last few posts. I rewatched the first episode today and even managed to move onto the second, and my opinion of it is a bit more positive than the first run around. It still feels kind of... odd, and not just because of the remarkably uncanny valley acting on the androids' parts. I have very little patience for the outsized role theology plays in the narrative - it just leads to everyone acting incredibly stupid by everyone else, but maybe that's the point? Religious zealots responding to a distress signal and being too religiously zealous to see the practical assistance that's needed and/or asked for, only the opportunity to proselytize. Like c'mon, they're called missionaries, they've been operating for hundreds of years, did you not read a single history book? Not a marginally diplomatic mind among the lot of you. Anyway, the religious conflict aside, the show has piqued my interest in a way it didn't before. Still really dig the androids' acting, still dig the setting, here's hoping it goes somewhere interesting... though judging by your posts, maybe that's a fool's errand?
  10. Finally polished off The Expanse last night. That's a heck of a ride. The fifth season started for me with some fatigue, but I quickly became engrossed again. Tokyo Vice a week or so before that has also been excellent, and I'm eagerly awaiting a second season.
  11. Thor 3 is definitely where Thor finally starts feeling like a full-fledged Marvel movie, but I do miss the classical meter that Kenneth Branagh imbued into the first film and the goofy juxtaposition of that against the modern world in the second. I'll be honest, I don't get why Thor Ragnarok continues to get such effusive praise. It's a good movie, don't get me wrong, definitely in the upper tier of the MCU, but I would hardly put it in the top 10... or maybe even top 15. Even compared to its two predecessors I'd personally put it in second place behind the first movie and impersonally wouldn't rank it that much ahead.
  12. Sigh... I must have been looking at different Exia kits or something, then, I dunno. grumblegrumblwfriggin' three Grades with different versions in each grade and some are pbandai and some aren't andgrumble grumble grumble
  13. Thanks for the insight. Gah, of course I should have looked at reviews as well! According to the wiki, the R2 internalizes the previously exposed cables, not eliminates them. The R3 I assumed would have kept that feature, but apparently it switches to a GN condenser instead of a true GN drive, which might explain the return to the older style forearms... but not thighs? Grumble grumble grumble... And the R4 uses a GN Tau drive... As for the back skirt armor, I chalk that up to stylization, as aside from the splash of blue, the shape of it seem to be the same. (Of course, the model kits maintain this difference in color... Gjrjdkeidhfjskeirbr )
  14. Aw, that's cute. Both the Monster and Makina. It doesn't look like she's the dedicated Monster pilot, though... which for some reason I figured she would have been. I'm down for one or more of these for sure. Very nice, unique riff on the design.
  15. tl;dr - The Exia designs are inconsistent. Does your MB Exia R4 have 1) GN cables? and 2) elbow guards? This might not be completely apropos, but I figured I'd ask here since it involves the Exia R4, for which only a Metal Build exists in physical form. I have a MG kit of the Exia R3 (that has parts to build the Exia, Exia R2, or Exia R3) that I'm converting to an R4 via a conversion kit (that appears to have recast some parts wholesale from the Metal Build), and I'm confused as to which certain parts to use. (The conversion kit is made with base MG Exia in mind, but omits some parts that it arguably "should" include.) 1) Can someone explain the existence or omission of GN cables between versions? The R2 supposedly does away with the GN cables (all of them, not just the obvious ones in the shoulders and thighs), but they find their way back in artwork for the R3, only for some to disappear again for the R4. (And obviously the R4 gets the one shoulder cable back again.) From the promotional images, the Metal Builds don't seem to bother to get rid of them between releases, beyond the shoulder/thigh cables. Is this the case? 2) Similarly, do the forearms change between Metal Build variants? The artwork suggests that the R2 gains elbow guards, the R3 returns to the original Exia forearms, and the R4 re-upgrades to the R2 elbow guards. Interestingly, the MG instructions tell me to build the R3 with the R2 elbow guards, indicating that either the artwork is wrong and the Exia R3 "canonically" is patterned on the R2 design with minor revisions, or the model kit is "inaccurate"... Meanwhile, the Metal Build pics I've seen indicate they do not have different forearms/elbows, and the R4 conversion kit seems to follow in their stead as it does not include the R2-style forearms. For reference, the inconsistencies in artwork:
  16. I sincerely hope there aren't any issues and I'll have unwittingly contributed to screwing over a bunch of people here. Yes.
  17. Thanks for the heads-up. And on that note, I decided to check out the order page on Amiami and there was the prompt to checkout. Either the automated shipping request (if it is automated) didn't trigger - no email in my inbox or junk folder - or it's as @Lolicon said and Golden Week has delayed them. So if you preordered through Amiami and are worried about having not received a shipping request, you might want to check your account. Indeed. Even with the card fee, 29,039 JPY turned out to be something like $227 for me. This lopsided exchange rate is screwing with all my usual money calculations. Typically I just move the decimal over two spots to get the rough dollar amount, but nowadays that's overestimating by as much as... well, in this case, by over $60.
  18. tl;dr - Great experience over several years, but never bought a toy (certainly not a transforming one) from them. I've bought maybe... half a dozen? static figures (no toys) from them for a few years now, starting back when they were just an Ebay store without a dedicated website, and they've always done good by me, with responsive customer service. A quick google indicates it's been the same with others as well. There was apparently one incident where a customer thought they received a fake product and it turned out they misunderstood a sticker or something.
  19. Kappa Hobby: https://www.kappahobby.com/products/dx-chogokin-yf-29-durandal-valkyrie
  20. I didn't pay close attention, was HLJ the only place to already charge customers for the Mirage 31AX? I haven't gotten a shipping request from Amiami, and I wonder if HLJ simply got theirs in early or something.
  21. Man, imagine if we got a 1/48 Monster, eh? 😄
  22. Any info/WIPs/reviews/etc. of the old B-Club 1/100 "Ver Ka" conversion kits for the HG Endless Waltz line? I'm asking on the off chance that someone here might have seen something in the wild or perhaps even worked on one. Google and Youtube haven't borne any fruit, and my Japanese is not deft enough to trawl the Japanese interwebs. There does exist a review of the Sandrock conversion kit by Henry McClellan aka vegeta8259, but nothing on the others. To be clear, what I'm referring to are B-Club conversion kits that allowed you to transform your HG 1/100 Wing Gundam Zero Custom HG 1/100 Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom HG 1/100 Gundam Sandrock Custom HG 1/100 Gundam Heavyarms Custom HG 1/100 Gundam Nataku into their "first season"/"Ver Ka" predecessors (HLJ links for reference): 1/100 Wing Gundam Ver Ka 1/100 Gundam Deathscythe Ver Ka 1/100 Gundam Sandrock Ver Ka 1/100 Gundam Heavyarms Ver Ka 1/100 Shenlong Gundam Ver Ka I've gotten another itch to get the old HG 1/100s again, and I wondered if it might be worth it to try and find one or more of these to work on. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!
  23. Given modern Square Enix's track record of success when it comes to maintaining their back catalog? I dunno about that. Who wants to bet on the FM1 and 2 remakes being horribly optimized junk compared to the originals? They couldn't get Chrono Cross to even match the PS1 original's performance...
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