Rhubarbarian

Had HLJ open and ready to go, was able to snag one. I've have good luck with HLJ the past couple years with Chogokin releases. AmiAmi has a delayed release but I think I've only been lucky once at AmiAmi with a Chogokin release for years.

On 3/25/2023 at 1:57 AM, Vintage Fanboy said:

.. yeah, found that DX has noticeable gap between both legs and shield on its fighter mode. But on its battroid mode, it smoother and every part seems fit more nicely than.. Both have their own pros and cons, and i really want to own both of them, but DX is very overkilling these days even for pre-owned ones.. 

My problem with the Arcadia/DX conundrum is that for every flaw on the DX, there's an equal flaw on the Arcadia. The gap at the knee in fighter on the Arcadia bugs me, the gaps around the shield on the DX bug me, the indentations on the legs on the Arcadia bug me, the angled gun pod on the DX in fighter bugs me... They're both great efforts but it's hard to give a recommendation because it really gets down into the minutia with the differences, and the compromises I'm willing to live with may be dealbreakers for someone else.

I don't think I saw anyone mention it yet, but be careful with the head laser on the DX YF-19 if that's the route you take; a lot of them had broken head lasers out of the box. 

I got to work with him on a couple shows that he did VA work for, though I only directly interacted with him once. He was a super chill dude.

I'm a big Destiny player as well and they're going to have a really hard time filling those shoes; Zavala was kind of the narrative backbone of the game. He was a huge fan of the game, too; the voice-over vids he did for fans were a ton of fun.

Anyways, this one definitely hit me. Big fan of his work and he was way too young. Just really sad all around.

16 hours ago, jenius said:

Is there currently no DX VF-1 toys on the horizon? I feel like they should always have us looking forward to something. 

I'm honestly shocked they're not constantly milking this mold. Four years ago I figured I'd have a Roy DYRL, a Max/Milia, and two more missile packs at least by this point. Are they just that afraid of hitting a shelf-warmer? I can never figure out the economics of these things. 

59 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The way the Titan-A gets its arse handed to it at the end of the episode is just embarrassing.  That is some yakity sax-level dumb.  

It was so, so stupid. The starship equivalent of "stop hitting yourself!"

I have to admit I enjoyed the first two episodes of season 3 as dumb cast reunion material. My partner and I finished S1 but stopped S2 after the first couple eps, and after those two seasons even the schlocky S3 was comparatively pretty decent (or at least, the A plot was; not even Worf could salvage the B plot with Raffi). Crusher was also my favorite from TNG, so it was nice seeing her on-screen again.

Episode three was so bad, though. I went in with basement level expectations and Picard still found a way under them. The gravity portal gun probably would have made for a great stupid episode of Lower Decks, because it made me laugh out loud every time it got used.

18 hours ago, twich said:

While I absolutely love the Hi Metal R VF-2SS, it just leaves me wondering how awesome a Bandai DX Chogokin VF-2SS would be and hope we will see one someday soon!

Oh man, I'd go nuts for a Chogokin VF-2SS. I don't think the HMR sold well enough? Still gonna dream, though!

11 hours ago, MisaForever said:

And yeah, I noticed there was a Rexx and a Sylvie version but didn't know if there were any other differences besides color scheme.

The Nexx has his specific gunpod and an accompanying armor part that lets him store it. Paint's obviously different, pilot is different but also wrong, IIRC? I think he looked like Hibiki's civilian Valk flightsuit. I actually really like the VF-2SS and I think the HMR is a pretty sweet toy, but the heatshield annoyingly doesn't close all the way in battroid mode unless you remove the cockpit canopy. Just a couple minor gripes to be aware of.

Also, you really probably want a Tamashii stage act trident stand if you want to display it with the bits. It looks great with all the bits displayed, but it's an extra ~40 bucks probably so you might want to price that out first.

On 2/24/2023 at 11:19 AM, no3Ljm said:

Are you referring to the review video above? If so, that's RX-124 Gundam TR-6 [Woundwort]. A mobile suit featured in the Advance of Z: The Flag of Titans manga and photonovels. It's a transformable base core unit with a variety of optional parts.

I have to say that all the mobile suits from that manga is awesome. Worthy to have it in Metal Robot Damashii line.  

I haven't had a chance to read the manga yet but I picked the TR-6 up just based on how cool it looks. It's a neat kit, I second the recommendation! Incredibly detailed for how small it is.

As someone who just never really had the time to pursue modeling/painting to the degree I'd like (other hobbies have always taken priority), this stuff just blows my mind. Incredible work, fascinating to watch the progress pics!

On 2/17/2023 at 5:29 PM, azrael said:

The birthdays for the other series showrunners (Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, Discovery) are not listed.

Mike McMahan was apparently born in 1962, which makes me a very bad judge of age because I assumed 1972.

4 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Kind of appalled by the prices, though. Everything is 2-3x more than they used to be, with the Seibzehn for 15000 JPY/$110 being particularly insane. That's damn near the price of the bigger, prepainted Weltall-Id figure from the same company a year or two ago. No amount of inflation can mask such naked greed.

Yeah I'd noticed that. With all the product photos being in color and with that price point, I actually thought it was a prepainted figure at first.

But hey, with that Chu-Chu figure, we can all re-enact the best scene from the game: 

On 2/6/2023 at 11:18 AM, Chronocidal said:

I'll be curious to see if they bring back the SMS bases for the VF-25 re-releases.

Both of the Frontier re-releases so far that I've gotten (Alto YF-29 and the WMM VF-25) had the black hexagon, so I doubt it. They seem to have made a permanent switch.

I'm a battroid fan generally so I like having the stand for at least basic flying poses, especially now that good alternative stands have become so hard to come by. I don't understand why Arcadia doesn't constantly re-release their Simple Display Stand when they don't include stands; I have a few of the launch arms but they don't really make sense canonically with anything aside from the VF-1 and maybe the VF-4. Technically it doesn't make sense with the VF-1 either, seeing as how it's upside down and all. But then, Bandai released that missile pack once and only once, after I think a single VF-1 release, so they both make decisions that baffle me. 

I don't know if it's possible to ascertain without opening the box? I think I had to extend to extend the feet and angle them down to get a good look in fighter mode. @jenius' review has an example at the ~0:43 second mark of what the mis-matched ankles look like.

On 1/27/2023 at 5:25 PM, Bolt said:

Watanabe strikes me as someone who has learned not to pull punches. Hollywood has left it's mark. He also names the producer he hated working with and would've punched, working on the Animatrix. 

I was pretty surprised by that, it's not common in America and even less common in Japan. But then, the guy he named and shamed has only a few Matrix credits to his name, and is currently out of the entertainment business entirely it seems, so Watanabe probably knew there'd be few consequences.

It was a very insightful interview and it was kind of a shame to see most of the pull quotes just be in regards to the live-action CB adaptation, which comprised only a small part of the interview. Personally I found his comments about being powerless as an episodic director pretty fascinating; this is something that surprises a lot of people.

Huh. I actually like the toy version a lot more than the GB promo art. I wouldn't buy multiples like I did with the main MOSPEADA cast but I'd probably pick this one up, assuming the colors are nice. The dusky red/brown/teal was a good color scheme if that's the one that matches this.

Kind of shocked the line did well enough to continue through to Genesis Breakers. Though given that we've seen prototypes of the Tread already at shows, I'd wager we actually get a Tread before this releases.

2 hours ago, jenius said:

Bandai would invite you to buy their upcoming reissue to see if that works out better for you :D.

Somehow I felt like I'd already pre-ordered Mirage's armor parts, and the relief I felt when I checked and saw that they hadn't even gone up for pre-order yet was immense. 😅

I'd probably need to file down the attachment on this part to get it to stay in, there's no amount of pressure that will keep it from popping back out pretty much immediately. I held off filing down the attachment points on the legs for my Hayate 'cause I feel like I'll just mess it up worse. Honestly, I like Mirage's more anyways and the QC is a little better on hers; I think I'll just store Hayate and leave Mirage out. I was hoping since the armor parts were a later release the QC would be better, but they seem to have backslid. It's just such a disappointing line.

Finally got around to putting the armor parts on my 31AX, and I can't get the left arm gatling piece to stay on for the life of me. The QC on this thing continues to frustrate me. It's strange because the super part attachment worked fine? So it's definitely the armor part and not the attachment point, I think.

But yeah, I'm very much over the AX line. Think I might just put my AX Hayate back in storage and bring out my VF-31S instead.

On 1/1/2023 at 1:52 PM, nightmareB4macross said:

Lensman has a very old history compared to Mospeada.

I didn't realize the 1984 film was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City/Ninja Scroll/Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust). I never heard particularly good things about it, but I do love dumb '80s anime sci-fi, haha. Maybe I'll give it a watch.

Back on topic, man, I wish I liked any of the Genesis Breakers stuff. The fluff is so incongruous with the original show.

Even the Hi Metal R Monster lives up to the name. I couldn't imagine buying one in a larger scale; my HMR is already boxed up for lack of space.

AmiAmi finally sent the payment request for the Tomahawk, I'm always late since I've usually got a couple other orders boxed with things. Is the PF confirmed at this point?

There was a Japanese DVD release for the 1989 film that had English subtitles and apparently ADV did a domestic release in 2005. I have the Japanese one, the subtitles were fine. Checking prices for the DVDs, the Japanese and American releases seem to run at least $75; there's a bunch of Korean copies on ebay for about 8 bucks, but I have no idea if those are legit or not. There was apparently a 2009 Japanese blu-ray as well, but the prices I saw were absurd. 

As far as I know, there's no real way to see Gothicmade unless you live in Japan and can make it to one of its occasional limited theatrical runs. 

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Ok.. not a fan of that design, but if they put out a White Glint, I am SO down for one.  I have to assume they're planning for the overbooster as well, since the connection port looks like it opens up.

White Glint was my favorite from AC4 for sure. The Aaliyah seems more popular, just based on how many times the basic kit seems to get re-issued? It feels like I see the Aaliyah kit all the time, and rarely see the others being re-issued. WG or the Tellus would have been my go-to designs from AC4/AA; the Aaliyah has such a busy silhouette.

But then, I always preferred the designs from AC3/SL/NX myself. AC4/AA definitely seems to be more popular just going off of reprints of the kits. That being said... I do like the Aaliyah still, Macross releases are sparse these days, and the yen is pretty weak. Don't think I can pass this one up.

As a random aside, checking prices for the kits while writing this post, the Aaliyah kit is ~$70-80 and the WG is $280+. You'd think they'd re-issue it!

It was strange that they listed N-Y but not AmiAmi, haha. 

Anyways, I jumped on the bandwagon of people asking for the YF-21, for whatever that will count for, haha. The survey was very heavy on the Tiny Sessions line, so I think we might be focused on different things.

Yeah, IIRC we only got 3, 4, and then that 3rd person 360 one. We missed 1, 2, and 5. Upon double-checking, I guess the DS port of the first one eventually made it over around 2007? I liked 4 more than most people, it seemed; was always bummed we never got 5.

12 hours ago, Chunky001 said:

Did anyone watch this? I'm surprised that this hasn't been commented on since Sunday.

I saw it with some friends on Sunday. I thought it definitely suffered from "first episode" syndrome; the first 15-20 minutes particularly were a slog. Picked up a bit as it went through. Overall, I was mixed; I found Daemon a lot more compelling than Rhaenyra. I thought it was a weird choice to cast people who looked so similar to characters in the main series (Rhaenyra obviously being very close to Daenerys, and Alicent Hightower kind of looking like an off-brand Margaery Tyrell to me). 

Also suffered from info-dumping a ton of proper nouns and lore while I was already struggling to understand the dialogue through the audio-mixing. It did finally push me to order a new center channel for my surround system, I guess, which I've needed to do for a while. Maybe that will help; I'm gonna see what else I can do on the equalizer front because as someone with auditory processing issues, understanding the first third of the episode was a struggle.

Edited to add, it was pretty interesting that it was such a huge premiere in terms of viewers, but the conversation has been pretty non-existent it seems? I dunno if we're all just waiting to form an opinion or what.