Awacs

Currently watching "Genisis Climber Mospeada". I am on the 2nd disk and I LOVE it!!! THANKS Totoro for lettin me borrow it.

Heh. Last time I lent my copy of Mospeada to someone he returned it having only managed two episodes. The music just didn't work for him at all.

I'm currently watching "Area 88" - the most recent version and quite enjoying it. Not the most technically accomplished show I have seen, but there is so much love put into it in places. The flying characteristics of the aircraft especially seem to have had a lot of love put into them - the way that the Sea Harrier seems to bounce into the air, whilst the Phantoms haul themselves up off the runway is rather nice. Makes up for character designs that I don't find that appealing

I would be watching "Flag", except for the fact that both times I have bought volume 2 I have ended up with a defective disk, and as the disc exchange program only serves the US I am well and truly out of luck. Annoyed about that, I enjoyed the first volume a lot. I guess I shall just have to hope for either a boxed set with a corrected disc 2 or a Region 2 release to happen

Karl

Cool cool....make sure you take LOTS AND LOTS of pics.

I would, but as I don't own a digital camera I would need to buy a disposable, get them developed, scanned in and then posted. Not sure when I would have time to rattle throught that process unfortunately.

Karl

My Legioss and Tread are now in my tender care. I've only had time to open the box and fix the hands to the Legioss so far. (Darn that I have other things that have a call on my time. Didn't realise it came with some of the nice little extra's - the mini Stick's are quite neat, and I do love the fact that they included caps to cover the screwholes. Applying all of those should keep me out of mischief for an hour or so I guess. I've wanted a Tread for about fifteen years and now I finally have one. Rather pleased tonight, and looking forward to having a fiddle about with it.

Karl

What is the approx. cost for customs? Customs sounds like a bunch o crap to me. Sorry that they rip alot of people off.

I'll let you know once my wallet has been reamed out. At minimum I will be looking at 17.5% of the total value of the order in VAT, then any import duty on top of that and then the Parcelforce handling fee (which seems to be determined by some arcane formula that the Highpriests of the Parcel God keep hidden from us mere mortals).

Annoyed now - my Tread has reached Edinburgh but almost certainly won't be in my hands until later in the week - and I will whizz past the Parcelforce depot on the train every morning too. It is going to be torture, as I've got a Transformers artbook in the same parcel that I am looking forward to just as much.

Karl

My Tread apparently landed at Heathrow earlier today, and is en-route from their to the Land of the Scots. I guess I'd better prepare myself for the voyage to the ParcelForce depot in order to retrieve it.

And I guess I'd better stock my wallet ready for them to mug it for the customs and handling charge I shall no doubt be due. Not looking forward to that bit. But looking forward to heading back into the office with a "big box of Tread" under my arm.

Karl

You could always try hitting it with some plastic cement if you are worried about super-glue fogging on the windshield... Tamiya's Extra Thin is best.

I was more concerned about it having a corrosive effect and scarring the bike actually.

Ta for the recommendations Prometheum5, Gobotfool I shall bear them in mind.

Karl

The Beagle looks rather nice indeed. However, if that rumoured price is anywhere near correct it is going t be well out of my league.

I may have to remain content with me CMS Stick, which I'm actually quite fond of. (But don't tell Stick I broke his bike. It's nt my fault, the windshield just kind of fell off...... On a serious note, anyone any recommendations for what type of glue to use to reattach it. I was going to go for a dod of superglue but wanted to ask around to see if anyone knew if that would cause any problems first.)

Karl

Well, testimony from someone who has one has convinced me that I do want to put the money down for this. Unfortunately it s currently backordered at HLJ. On the bright side not "discontinued" like the MH Stick, so I can but hope that the production run is larger enough that I will be able to get one.

Karl

i dunno about angelic hierarchy names, that is too much gundam 00 for me. ishtar would be weird. naming it after a character from a parallel timeline.

I wasn't really thinking about the "Macross II" connection at all to be honest. I was running through female war deities in my head and got as far as the Babylonian pantheon.

Karl

On the female mythical creatures side, perhaps:

VF-25 Minerva

VF-25 Nemesis

VF-25 Tisiphone

VF-25 Alecto

VF-25 Megeara

VF-25 Mebd (pronounced Mab)

To go a little further afield

VF-25 Inanna

or if a masculine name was sought:-

VF-25 Enki

or to stick with that part of the world, how about a diety of fecundity as well as war:-

VF-25 Ishtar

In terms of divine/mythical weapons/wargear:

VF-25 Mjolnir

VF-25 Aegis

To keep with the Norse theme:-

VF-25 Heimdall (to go with the sense of a defender and sentinel)

VF-25 Tyr

VF-25 Sif

Karl

Just off the top of my head

VF-25 Hurricane II

VF-25 Bucaneer II

VF-25 Kestrel II

VF-25 Typhoon III

VF-25 Valiant II

VF-25 Pendragon

VF-25 Athena

VF-25 Morrigan

VF-25 Caliburn

(although the later two feel more like the VF-171 to me)

Karl

The other obvious ones I've noticed are Sheryl shouted "Atashi no Uta o Kike!" ("Listen to my song!" using a feminine version of "my" as opposed to Basara's more masculine "Ore no Uta o Kike!")

Sheryl's concert itself is strangely reminiscent of Sharon Apple's.

Alto's VF-25 at the end posed exactly like Hikaru's from the end of SDF episode 2. It's even missing its left arm...I think.

Ranka's pet/cell phone (???) seems to be a reference to Gubaba ( ).

I thought of the ending credits of Dynamite also when they showed the street car...but we may be reaching. The city IS based on San Francisco (and Shibuya, of course...but the Shibuya 109 Bulding has been replaced with Shibuya 119, Lord knows why...), so street cars are something you'd expect to see. I just hope Macross F's Shibuya has a Hachiko statue.

And is it just me, or is the school shaped like the Macross with the main gun down...? That, or a Destroid Monster...

I feel very dense today, I seem to have managed to miss almost all of these. (Except for the San Francisc reference). I think I need to give it another watch, and make sure my brain is spun up to full operating speed this time.

Karl

Stick and Rei are back in stock at HLJ

Or more correctly, they were. The Stick is back to "discontinued" this morning. However the Rei is showing as "low stock" and they are curently processing my order so hopefully I should get at least that one. May have to wait for the possible Toynami release of the Stick at this rate. Or go "not to scale" and pick up the CMS one.

Karl

I'll hold my hands up to having only seen it once. But in my defense I don't watch a lot of stuff anyway and I have been working my way through a couple of TV series on DVD so the hour or so I tend to spend watching stuff has been overwise occupied.

I think I watched the trailer about six times though.

Must get around to watching ep one again. I think I missed some stuff (didn't catch the Isamu in-joke for example).

Karl

HLJ often shows "discontinued" to items when they actually are not. I do not know why they do that. I have seen items get discontinued status and then a week later be in stock. However they have displayed "discontinued" status to the YF-19 with fold booster set for several months now with no change.

I shall keep my fingers crossed then that it is just a bit of a glitch. I was just a bit concerned that the Ray was listed as "low stock" when I placed my order and the Stick was discontinued.

I've got the Ray on order now anyway(with a Revoltech Ingram to keep him company as he on't no be travelling with Stick.) I shall give it a few days and see what happens regarding the Stick I guess.

Karl

The Megahouse Ride Armors are in stock at HLJ.com

Accept that the Stick is already showing as "Discontinued". Out of production already? That is kind of worrying.

Karl

Glad to see that the sword is still there. I hadn't seen it in some of the photo's I'd seen and I was kind of hoping that they hadn't dropped it from the package. I know it is a fairly silly accessory, which references one of the odder episodes of the show, but I have a certain affection for it because of those things. Nice to see we are still getting it.

Karl

I seem to be suffering under a curse to some degree. I sat down at my laptop today to put in a pre-order for the CMS Legioss & Tread. Only to discover that HLJ has stopped taking pre-orders for it. *slaps himself on forehead* I really must try to be more organised.

Ah well, I shall just have to wait until later on in April I guess.

Karl

Now this is where we will agree to differ. I'm not to worries by who they put in the seats of a two-seater VF-1. I figure there must be lots of two-seaters out there, not just the one Hikaru used, so I would be quite happy with a "generic" set of pilots. That said I think it will be a while before we see any of the two-seaters done. Given that they have started with the DYRL Fokker I would expect to see the obvious DYRL birds early on - Max, Hikaru -1S and -1J, before we get onto the two-seaters and TV stuff.

Karl

(And by saying this I have almost guaranteed my catastrophic wrongness.)

I am always inspired by the snaps I see in this thread, but sad to say my VF's are nowhere near as artistically posed as some folk's. (Mind you, a lot of mine live in fighter mode - which is my first and favourite mode for most of them).

VFTF-1 - a couple of lovely shots of the -0A there. Makes me wish I had one to go with my -0S. But I think I need a better display case/shelf first before getting anymore VF's. :-(

Karl

Legend has it that the F-35 Lightning II is going to be better known in RAF service as... er... "Dave". Don't expect Lockheed Martin to be using that on the advertising anytime soon.

Really? That amuses me to be honest. Given that so far its only designation has been the rather clunky official acronym of JCA I have to say that even 'Dave' has to qualify as an improvement. I'm amazed that we aren't going to be calling it 'Lightning' though - after all it is as much an auspicious name for us as it is for the USAF. Although I am probably showing my age by admitting that I remember that we had a jet-age Lightning at all......

Karl

I'll be honest and say that I probably wouldn't bring back anybody. Most of the old characters have their character arcs quite nicely closed so they are in a state that they can quite nicely rest as they are. Hikaru, Misa and Minmei all have their story told, and even Max and Milia's new character arc from Mac 7 seems to have had - in subtext at least - a resolution. I'd say leave the older characters to rest, and allow new characters the space to establish their turf.

Karl

I recommend getting Deluxe Energon Starscream over Armada Starscream. I have Deluxe Energon Starscream and Armada Thundercracker (a repaint of Armada Starscream) and I think the former is the better mold overall. Unless you prefer the mini-con & sound effect gimmicks.

I had the Energon and Armada Starscream, ended up getting rid of the Armada one but kept the Energon one. Energon Starscream is, in my opinion, far more fun to fiddle with than the Armada version. (Yes, this is a factor for me with Transformers - the ones that are no fun to fiddle around with whilst watching the TV end up on the pile for disposal.). Also, Energon Starscream is plain asthetically more pleasing - it just looks nicer than the Armada version.

Karl

Does MH also plan on releasing Houquet and Yellow's ride armor?

There is no news on this sadly. I'll be honest, if they had announced Hoquet's Ride Armour I would have already hunted down pre-orders in for it.

I am really hoping that they will go on and do a Hoquet-type (I can live without a Yellow-version personally), just because she is one of the Mospeada characters I feel most sympatico to. (Her and Stick - so I will definitely be picking up the CMS Stick Ride armour if nothing else).

Karl

Hey did anyone else notice that the CMs legioss has a waist joint that looks like it could turn at least 45 degrees? Is this the 1st legioss toy to actually have a waist joint because if it is thats another point for articulation!

I'll be honest, I didn't notice it at all. But then,. I am known for the ability to lose the keys that are sitting on my own coffee table so...... If it does have waist joint then that is a little bonus. I have a feeling that it will end up in the combined Armo-diver config from the first episode on my shelves though. Either that or it will be a case of soldier mode for Legios and Tread in a back-to-back kind of stance. (no, not at all "Zulu" influenced there at all, honest....)

Karl