Podtastic

12 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Just returned from WDW last week and wanted to thrown my 2 cents regarding my first experience under the Genie+ system...

I can't say I had a bad experience, but it was definitely more stressful, this will be the case for only the person doing all the ride and dining reservations as it will require you to be checking the "My Disney Experience" app "often" to get the most out of it....

I feel that the biggest difference between the old Fastpass and the new "Lightning Lane" ride reservation system comes at the 60 day mark before your visit even begins....

Under the Fastpass System, you were allowed to select the first THREE RIDES for your day at the park 60 days in advance...with Genie...you can only select 1 "free" ride and 2 "paid" rides on the actual day of your park visit beginning at 7am....this is what I feel is the worst part about the new system...I feel this ruins the ability to at least go into your day not worrying about being able to skip the lines for at least the first 3 rides....or worrying about what rides you want to "battle" with the thousands of other guests at 7am to try and snag....this is terrible.....if you have a crappy phone, staying at a hotel with bad wireless, or are not staying at a WDW affiliated hotel...you can forget about being able to snag any of the major rides at any of the parks...in fact, if you are staying at a non-Disney park, you may as well not even bother paying for the Genie+ services as practically all of the major rides (like Snow White minecarts, RotR, Avatar, etc) will sell out within 2-3 minutes at 7am, which is when WDW resort guests get first crack.  If staying at a non-WDW resort, you will need to wait in line, which at the time I was there last week, was at minimum 30-50 minutes for the 2nd/3rd tier rides through 4pm or so....1st tier rides stayed at 1.5hr+ through park close (between 9-11pm)....but there are a few tips I can share here....first, you can get into any 1st tier ride and wait 15-30 minutes max during the fireworks shows...if you don't care for fireworks, get in line at your 1st tier ride and you will ride it easily without the 1+ hour wait...in fact, you can probably ride it twice....but minutes before the fireworks shows are about to end...the wait times balloon back up quickly....the other tip is to simply wait until park close...make sure you are in line at closing time and you are guaranteed to ride....unless it breaks down!  This happens often with the RotR ride...so keep this in mind....

The other thing I feel has been ruined by "technology" is the ability to order food.....gone are the days of ordering food when you are actually hungry...now you have to "PO" your food and select the time to come back to pick it up.....if you do not, you run the risk of walking up to order at say noon and not getting your food until 1pm or later....so again, the spontaneity is more or less gone from a WDW trip....it has sort of been like that for a while for anyone who can only visit once or twice a year, but it just seems worse now...I lost track of how many people had no clue on how to use the Disney app or who were complaining about how they could never get reservations for dining or the newest rides....Disney has made using their "apps" essential to navigating their parks and being able to get the most bang for for buck during your stay....

As someone who is OK using apps, I was able to get the most out of our family trip to WDW, but I saw how other families struggled.......the other thing that was odd seeing on this trip were all the "guest experience" kiosks all over the park, usually, guest experience was located at the park entrances....there was always a line of at least 4-6 people at these kiosks.....

I think it would be simple to "fix" the problems with the new Genie system...Disney just needs to go back to allowing you to do more of the planning BEFORE you arrive at the parks, rather than forcing you to waste time on it while you are at the Parks, or rather 1-2 hours before the park opens on the day of your visit!.......Genie is basically the same other than this change (ok, the pay-to-play is also debatable, but I'm OK with it...at this stage of my life, time is worth more to me than the $7-15 fee per "individual lightning lane" ride, which was basically just 1 ride at each park)....with Fastpass, you would pick your first 3 and then pick all your remaining ride reservations at the park after using up the first 3 you took care of 60 days prior to your visit...Genie forces you to battle for your 1st three (1 free and total of 2 paid rides) at 7am on the day you are set to visit the park....this is a terrible way to start off your day of "fun"....planning should be done prior to arriving, not on the day you are there....to me this is the biggest problem with the new Genie system

One last tip....if you do buy the Genie+, do not assume a ride is not available just because it says so on the app....keep refreshing it and something "may" come up....again, this is part of what has made the new experience under Genie+ more stressful......however, it is sort of rewarding finding a ride available when you want it, rather than at 8pm when the apps says is the next available window to ride (again, this is only important if you only want to wait 10-15 minutes to ride any ride, rather than wait for hours)....

On this trip, my goal was to ride Splash Mountain multiple times for probably what will be the last time (have no plans on a second trip this year and not sure when Disney plans to shutdown Splash Mt for the makeover)....the new ride taking it's place will probably be mechanically the same, so in the grand scheme of things I guess the reboot really doesn't matter...Tron was still not ready and neither was the Guardians of the Galaxy ride....so as always, reasons to return will always be there....oh and the Epcot food and booze kiosks still delivered as always.....all in all, we all had a great time....it just involved a bit more stress than previous trips, which I think can be easily avoided by relegating the planning back to before you arrive, rather than when you are about to start your day...oh and yes, this game to snag ride reservations must be played each morning before you head into the park at 7am if you are staying at a Disney affiliated resort......if you are not, then I guess you are stuck with what you can get and/or waiting in hours long lines.....

 

It sounds horrible.

This is interesting.

Top 10 Most Popular Anime of 2021 Globally, Attack on Titan Ranks First (tvfandomlounge.com)

The final Season part 2 is wending its way to me and there is apparently a part 3 as well.

Excellent.😁

@CoryHolmes Are you getting any?

18 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Valkyries make up the overwhelming majority of the mecha in Macross.

So it's not "just one"... it's the single largest category of mecha in the franchise by an absolutely overwhelming margin and the only one which is consistently relevant with each new installment in the franchise.  Destroids and the Zentradi mecha basically tapped out after Macross II and didn't become even tangentially relevant again until Frontier, and even then their relevance was ONLY tangential.  

It's hardly surprising that merchandising favors the Valkyries when they're basically 100% of the "hero" mecha in the series and around half of the antagonist mecha (via 7, Zero, Frontier, and Delta).

So you've described the problem. And then?

18 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

get that you like to be a contrarian, but do try to align with reality sometime eh?

Valkyries are the attention-getters for the Macross franchise.  Always have been.  And they were and are considered VERY distinctive, inspiring a frankly massive wave of copycats and homages that is STILL ongoing.  It says a lot that one of Gundam's all-time most iconic designs is an acknowledged Valkyrie homage (the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam).

Lemmings favour them. So what?

The Regult looks better.

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's almost like the audience are humans themselves and relate best to their own kind... who'da thunk it?

Actually aliens (e.g. Protoss) are often presented as a more morally pure and relatable than many modern morally warped humans. 

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

.. that's your opinion, let's not confuse it for fact or even fact-based.

As is the opinion that Southern Cross isn't good. It does'nt matter how many tasteless fools hold an opinion, that's still all it is.

18 hours ago, sh9000 said:

They’re part of their Retro Prototype line.

I have the old 70's kenner figure its mainly brown. Its these mabalabala parts that are confusing me.

23 hours ago, Macross-Plus said:

I'd like to have some Macross 2 stuff, some official figures would be nice..

I'd buy a decent Ishtar for sure.

22 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

They lost against me in a Texas Hold'em Poker game.

Then you should love them.

You must mean they failed to pay up, in which case its completely understandable.😄

54 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

ooks mean squat in combat; performance matters.

Obviously I'm speaking as a collector here. And, equally obviously, the mecha in Macross are NOT designed purely for functionality, they're meant to be visually appealing.

57 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

In that case, what about all the myriad moving parts in the Zentraedi combat suits?

Point taken. But are you arguing that the Zentraedi mecha are more complicated and less rugged and standardised?

59 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

And at least earth can repair their mecha; the Zentraedi are still trying to get a replacement window for Briti's command bridge.

That is not a feature of the mecha themselves though. And they need to take those back to workshops to be repaired by skilled technicians. Just like a certain tank in a certain war.

The Zentraedi stuff is standardised. And apparently reliable, as demonstrated by that Nousjadeul-Ger cannon that still functioned after who knows how long floating in space.

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

On many occasions, in fact.

Well then, I must have missed it. But then I don't follow him around on the forums.

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Rather than automatically disagreeing with him constantly no matter the topic.

You fail to notice that he often disagrees with things I post as well.

Seto and I disagree on many things. But so what really, there's no antagonism about it. 

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

eah, please do tell us all about the time Ray and Milene used the auricite to reignite City 7's sun and save Arkadia from the Protodevlin. Last I checked, Barara wasn't a member of Menudo, Gubaba didn't have a twin that he would do a stupid song and dance with about going to Arkadia, the Macross 7 wasn't a living ship shaped like a giant blue tortoise, and NO ONE had a bracer that deployed a crossbow on it in that series.

Watched the whole damn thing. But it was completely forgettable it was so crap.

There wasn't a single original character or mecha I wanted to collect.

47 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

eantime: watching combat scenes in Southern Cross was almost as painful as passing a kidney stone. Watching the Logan try to fight surpasses that pain by light-years, and watching Jeanne make a complete @$$ out of herself is enough to make one swear anime off forever.

I wasn't "watching the Logan try to fight", I was watching the Bioroids in action.

49 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Macross 7 is what brought me back into anime.

The worst Macross? Um...ok.

I absolutely hated it. Its not what I want to see in Macross, whereas the Frontier movies were.

13 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

So...maybe Southern Cross is the anime version of kidney stones?

Does someone on the Ammonite staff owe you money or something? Its not like Southern Cross is taking screen time from Macross or anything.

4 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

You're reinstated.😄

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Nobody gives a toss about the Bioroids.

You actually mean the Japanese audience doesn't give a toss.

Globally your statement isn't true. Its still a minority, but its not "nobody."

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

You do realize that Southern Cross's story was about the human characters of the Southern Cross Army, right?

And so?

Star Wars was all about the Redemption of Anakin Skywalker and the defeat of the Galactic Empire by the Rebellion. That doesn't mean that the rebels have to be our favourites in the franchise.

But I get the gist. Sadly there's too much obsession with earth humans in all of sci-fi fandom. By this I don't just mean the stories, I mean even when it comes to merchandise. Even if the alien figure comes with really stylish armour and the human only has a dirty sweatshirt, they still want the human.

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

As we've noted, your tastes are more or less completely at odds with practically everyone's.

I'm happy not to be a clone.😆

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Southern Cross wasn't a victim of compromise, it was a victim of uncaring laziness.

And yet I still get a kick out of watching many of the combat scenes. I don't feel like I'm watching some bastard offspring of Biobooster Armour Guyver and Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea, as I did when slogging painfully through M7.

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

"It's just another of one of the main things about this franchise."

Just one. But its treated as if its the only one mechawise, and stuff all the other mecha.

Its not even the most visually interesting.  Its just an aeroplane really. It turns into a giant robot but only the robot's head is distinctive, the rest of it is rather boxy.

11 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

See reply #1 for details. Frankly though, those lack diversity in combat situations.

 

Those battlesuits are much better looking, and also harder to come by.

Am I the only one who thinks a transforming combat mecha is asking for trouble? Nothing can ever go wrong with all those mid-combat transformations right.

11 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

I think Seto hit that one right on the nailhead

When have you ever disagreed with him?

I loved these movies, albeit there was less Klan but that was my only gripe.

They really drive home Delta's suckiness.

On 4/4/2022 at 5:53 PM, azrael said:

No different than any other movie of TV show with exclamation points in their titles. For example, Airplane!, Top Secret!, Mamma Mia!, American Dad!, Just Shoot Me!, Teen Titans Go! or Moulin Rouge!. Ignore the exclamation points if it bothers you so much.

It doesn't bother me, its just silly.

Its like seeing "Bread and water!!!!!" on a restaurant menu.

11 hours ago, sh9000 said:

 

I don't understand. 

22 minutes ago, Bolt said:

he WWM VF-25 is quite awesome, actually

Its just another Valkyrie. It was already available.

Awesome is something like a Quaedluun-Rau or a DYRL Nousjadeul-Ger.

Things will be moving forward when decent new anime and Zentraedi mecha starts being released world wide. 

14 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Far from it.

In fact, that Southern Cross's mechanical designs are so ugly and so obviously ill-conceived even in-setting is a VERY strong contender for the #1 complaint about the series thanks to the Robotech adaptation sparing its viewers from most of its "original" story.  The view that the Southern Cross mechanical designs were blatantly flawed and extremely unlovely was so widely held among Robotech fans during the franchise's brief renaissance in the early 2000s that it ascended to canonical status, with the official Robotech setting making it official that they were badly designed in-universe too.  They're held in such low esteem that the series that is easily responsible for 99.9% of Southern Cross's total viewers made them into hard evidence of corruption and incompetence on the part of the military operating them.

One of the most frequently revisited topics about the "Masters Saga" is how stupid the Spartas's design is, it being a frontline tank that inexplicably leaves its operator exposed to battlefield hazards from every side including the front (AKA "the end that faces the enemy and the direction of incoming fire") and that it seems to also be missing any means of keeping its operator from being violently and unintentionally ejected in the event of a crash.  The cheap shots, of course, are always taken at the Logan's robot mode being short and topheavy and the Auroran being a "space helicopter" despite the helicopter mode not actually being used in space.

If its referring to the giant human made stuff, who cares? Although the Sylphid, the Auroran and the hovertank in vehicular mode look good (for human made designs).

The Bioroids are awesome though. And the Bioroid Assault Craft is my definite fave.

11 hours ago, Big s said:

That’s why they wore absolutely awesome armor. Say what you will about the mecha, but the armor was beautiful even the ones the bad guys were wearing 

True. I would certainly collect them if they made decent SC figures.

11 hours ago, captain america said:

actually think a lot of the Southern Cross mecha designs are nice. Most of them are an engineering nightmare, mostly due to the under-developed line-art, but still aesthetically pleasing. Except for the Logan, which I have unceremoniously dubbed the chode fighter. For obvious reasons.

I don't like the Logan either. It does seem to have fans though.

10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

But hey, shamelessly knocking off iconic designs that've remained iconic for over 40 years

Well I like the Zaku. But its never been a must have like the Bioroids.

In fact, as much as I enjoy Gundam (if only Macross was more like it) I've never felt the need to pick up ANY of their mecha.

On 4/5/2022 at 4:07 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

 Macross VF-25.

Big whoop.😞

Before the Skrulls or the Durlans there were...the Barbapapas.😂

Hot Toys Chitauri Commander arrived with free international shipping.😊