ScrambledValkyrie

On 11/18/2017 at 7:11 PM, Sanity is Optional said:

Probably because desdroids in general do more poorly than Valkyries (the 2SS and Elintseeker are sold out everywhere).

Actually, MyKombini still has PO open for the VE-1 if anyone is still looking for it:

https://mykombini.com/en/january-2018/8561-hi-metal-r-ve-1-elintseeker-macross-do-you-remember-love-bandai-4549660192923.html

Awesome to see all of those together! Reminds of a similar shot I think you did of all your HMR VFs.

Has anyone else here played through Dracula X Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine (aka Turbo Duo)?

I've been a Castlevania fan for a long time. I own copies of all the non-mobile 2D console Castlevania titles, and I'm on a gradual quest of replaying through them from oldest to newest. After the NES games and Super Castlevania, I'm currently working through Dracula X again and remembering what a great game this is. It's got colorful visuals, a nice soundtrack, reasonable difficulty, multiple paths, and multiple playable characters. 

After this, it's on to Bloodlines for the Genesis, the inferior Dracula X for the SNES, then Symphony of the Night and Chronicles for PS1...

Count me in as very interested to see where this goes. I'm a huge fan of the books (though never finished Silmarillion), a big fan of the LOTR movie trilogy, and somewhat a fan of the Hobbit movie trilogy. My concern would be how much liberty they take in relation to source material. If they invent stories that are Tolkien-esque but aren't as faithful to his actual writings, I'll lose interest pretty quickly.

Very nice, @Saburo. I think it goes to show that composition and lighting matter more than what kind of camera you're using.

That is a cool group shot. Took me a minute to figure out who everyone was. 

Is that Luca between Ishtar and Misa? Odd that he's not over with his Frontier teammates.

6 hours ago, tekering said:

While I welcome further expansion of the line, I'd hope Bandai at least completes the original Macross line-up before delving any further into the sequels...

Generally I agree. I mainly wish they would just go ahead and release everything from SDFM or DYRL that's already been teased (VT-1, Tomahawk, etc).

I don't know that they have to totally wrap up everything from the original series first, as long as they keep expanding it. Like they have with the VF-2 (and the Messer VF-1 to an extent) I could see them starting to sprinkle in valks from Plus and Frontier here and there, while still working to complete the SDFM lineup. It would fit their apparent goal of attracting fans of newer Macross series to the HMR line, as they continue to build out the "classics."

But yeah, I really would like to see a VF-1D, VF-1A TV Max, etc. Not all of us have @sh9000 custom skills... 

4 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Already got those on pre-order. I'm hoping for more in 2018.

The release of HMR Zentraedi mecha is awesome but painfully slow.

I tend to think that the release of HMR in general is pretty slow. But I'm realizing that's how it goes in this hobby. And it certainly does help with the problem of overloading the wallet. 

Given that it's already November, and all we've heard about for 2018 so far is the VE-1, I wonder if it's going to be a slow year in general for HMR. Though the upcoming reissue Dougram makes me wonder if Bandai might not also reissue one of the early Macross pieces. I would love another shot at the armored valkyrie...

On 10/25/2017 at 5:49 PM, Scyla said:

Well I got an Email this morning from Amazon that they aren't able to fulfill my preorder for the SNES mini, since they didn't get a restock in October. This is getting annoying two preorders with two different stores and none was able to fulfill it. 

Maybe I should just buy the cartridges that I'm missing. How high is the percentage of knock off cartridges compared to genuine ones on ebay?

 

Pretty low. In my experience over the last couple of years, the bootleg cart situation on EBay really isn't too bad. The operative word in this hobby is "repro" (as in reproduction) and it's mainly the rare and super expensive games that get repro'd. Some legit sellers will even show you a pic of the board inside as proof. Just read the descriptions, and if the price looks too good to be true, it probably is. And if it's got natural wear in the label from years of use, that can be reassuring. 

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

Got my 5th HMR Monster.

Wow -- isn't that more than the entire SDF-1 had? 

I keep thinking about getting one, but I don't really have the space to display it.

9 hours ago, jenius said:

 Looks great! They should do stand alone GBP and supers.

Agreed, both that @sh9000 did a nice job, and that stand-alone parts would be cool. I think I'm set on FAST packs at this point, but would love the GBP. I can't bring myself to get the armored VF-1J, given current prices and the fact that I already have Hikaru's 1J. I'm still hoping they eventually release that dark-colored armored VF-1A they teased a while back.

A few things that came in today, to help finally expand my Macross collection beyond just valkyries -- plus a curious Hikaru.

Well, since it's a wireless speaker, you could always play Mari Ijima through it instead. 

I'm intrigued by the VF-1S prototype, and will also be interested to see how it comes out in production, especially with the FAST packs.

Even though it's technically the wrong adapter, it can fit and be made to work; as long as the gunpod is there to give it stability. It just won't tab in towards the back.

11 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I’ve got a HM DYRL VF-1A Max and another HM VF-1J Max, HM VF-1 Super Parts set, and 1/100 VF-1D Battroid kit for the VF-1D head coming in.  I can’t be stopped.  

Cool. What's your plan for the two Max valks?

Did you end up grabbing the super parts from Mandarake? I was eying those but figured I had enough at this point.

On 9/29/2017 at 7:25 PM, Scyla said:

Long story short I will take a detour through the shopping mall tomorrow and see if they have some in stock there. If not I'm thinking about buying a Switch in spite. 

I tend to think that this is exactly what Nintendo wants people to do. One reason for the timing and short supply of their recent "classic" consoles may be to drive additional sales of the Switch. Get attention from retro buyers, hoping that when they can't get their hands on it, they'll just buy a Switch instead.

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

Underneath the tampo there’s a lovely HMR TV white VF-1S Roy ready to be made.

Exactly. It even already includes TV missiles, TV hands, and a TV pilot figure.

If they would just make that VF-1S in TV Roy livery and a TV Roy pilot...

I'm noticing on the Tamashii website that there's a reissue Dougram for the HMR line coming in February. Does anyone else think that this means no new Macross in HMR for that month, meaning likely no new PO until later in October?

On 9/24/2017 at 7:24 PM, David Hingtgen said:

Anyone have any thoughts on if now would be the best, or worst, possible time to sell my SNES and games?

Note:  my collection is almost purely MIB, so I figure "those who solely want to PLAY the game" will be satisfied with the SNES mini, and/or old rental copies etc (or even emulators).   But if you're a MIB cartridge collector---the SNES mini won't "fill in any holes".     

I really don't think the SNES mini will have much impact on sales of the original carts, especially CIB/MIB copies. It certainly could help to build general interest and awareness of the console. But what you have is going to appeal more to the collector (as you say) than to those who just want to play the games. I kinda straddle the fence between collector and player; most of my retro collection (and all my SNES collection) is loose carts, but I do still like to have carts that are in nice shape. 

Regarding timing, I have definitely seen a "correction" in the market over the last year or so. Prices of more common loose carts have been falling back down somewhat, while the rarer ones hold their ground or climb higher. It seems that this trend has not impacted CIB copies as much, if at all. It seems that if anything, prices of boxed copies continue to rise. So my opinion would be that now is a good time to sell. You could possibly get more if you wait another year, but you don't want that "correction" to potentially start affecting your boxed copies.

Just my opinion, of course.

21 hours ago, Sir Galahad® said:

Another question. Beam Technology. Ever since they Developed the VF-4, they have been using Beam Guns. How effective/ineffective were they since the projectile gunpod was still the weapon of choice until the VF-27 and YF-29 came with beam rifles.

Here are the Valkyries that use beam weapons

Fixed small-bore forward laser guns (VF-17)
Mauler RÖV-25 25mm beam machine guns (VF-25)
Mauler REB-22 beam cannons (VF-171)
Erikon AAB-7B beam cannons (VF-171)
Fixed internal laser cannons (VF-19)
Mauler REB-22 internal converging energy cannons (VF-22)
Mauler ROV-25 22mm beam gun turret (VF-9)

Didn't the VF-1 also use beam cannons (Mauler RÖV-20) in varying quantities depending on the model? And the VF-1 strike configuration also had an additional set of beam cannons. 

Still, the question of why a projectile gun pod is interesting. I'm no expert, but different munitions would have different levels of effectiveness against different kinds of targets, and as they faced different kinds of enemies over time, their weapon selections were tweaked to suit? The situation of a gun pod running out of ammo is demonstrated in multiple series, so perhaps they wanted to get away from that problem with beam rifles?

Yeah, I started about a year ago as well, and first told myself just one HM-R; I'm now well over 10. So far I've kept it to just one 1/60 V2. We'll see how long that lasts.

Anyway, nice collection @HardlyNever. Is that a Matchbox "Veritech" on the top?

On September 19, 2017 at 10:44 AM, Vifam7 said:

Are kids today even interested in toys?

Very valid question.

On September 19, 2017 at 12:33 PM, Duymon said:

It's sad, but it can't be helped really.

Amazon, ebay and other online places allow consumers to get items cheaper than TRU higher prices and TRU's stock of good stuff has always been a little low anyways.

Add to that I think it's a generational shift as well as kids, for better or worse, get hooked on digital crap from an early age and never really get into physical / tangible cool crap. I know all my nephews are already into video games and they're already uninterested in toys... none of them are even 10 while I am still into robot toys well into my mid 30's ;0

I remember going to TRU plenty in the early-to-mid '80s, hunting for the latest GI Joe figure, seeing the G1 Transformers and MASK toys on the shelves, and later browsing the Nintendo aisle. I agree about the differences in today's kids, and their tendency to embrace digital stuff at an earlier age. I actually tend to think this is a larger part of the equation than the competition from online markets. My son is 8, and he doesn't play with toys nearly half as much as I used to at that age. And here I am (a few years beyond mid-30s) scooping up the the latest Bandai HM-R releases...

3 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I'm hoping that the TV Queadluun-Rau and Nousjadeul-Ger get regular releases.

Easier to buy multiples that way?

On 9/17/2017 at 12:11 PM, mikeszekely said:

Why not?  I have a two year old; portable gaming is most of the gaming I can fit in right now.  Besides, it's not like those sprites are going to look any better for being bigger.

I don't plan on getting a SNES Classic.  I definitely don't plan on tracking down an actual SNES, a copy of the cartridge, and a CRT to hook it all up to.

While I would also tend to recommend playing SM on a bigger screen as it was intended (with good audio because the soundtrack is quite immersive) I can certainly relate to the need to fit gaming into your life as you can, and sometimes portability is the best option. My kids are older now, though I remember that nap times were sometimes gaming opportunities! The main thing is that you are at least getting to experience the game on some level.

Perhaps more so than the screen size, there's something about using the original controller that creates a more authentic retro experience for me. For example, when I play my Mega Man X cart with original SNES controller, it feels better than playing the same game on the PS2 controller through the MMX collection.