Excillon

well, that's a PG Raiser leg. I have a bad feeling I'm going to be disappointed, looking over the parts and leg assembly. Interesting system with the clutch knee. Ankles look a bit odd, hope they're not weak after putting all the weight on the top from the body and Raiser. I'm not crazy about 00 mecha, really not crazy about the 00 Raiser, however, I bought it anyway. I think I'll be happy with it, but I don't think I'll ever be 350 dollars happy with it.

Personally, I think it's overrated. I'd rather have a great looking toy that's sturdy. I don't really care if I have to swap parts, if I do, so be it. That's why v1's don't bother me.

My PG 00 Raiser is on the way with a 393USD pricetag. Hope its well worth it

Mine too, but I only paid about 340...did you order the option parts? I said no, they're not worth it. Hope I don't regret it, but the frame just didn't pop out enough for me to warrant paying extra for the option parts.

With all this talk of PG kits....

Has anyone got a pic of a PG kit next to an MG kit so I can get an idea of the size difference? Have just got into this Gundam kit building thing - built the MG Sinanju, Shin Musha and Strike w/ IWSP so far...

MG Sinanju = fun mixed with much tedium

Would love to get the PG 00, but damn it's expensive - something like $450 to get it here to Perth

Average MG: 7 to 7.5 inches

Average PG: 12-14 inches

I'll post a pic tomorrow if no one else does, my smaller kits are all boxed up.

I agree, I'm not even that big of a Gundam fan (almost not at all) but I love those PG kits. They're difficult only in that there's lots of bits to cut and clean and paint but the instructions rocks, the parts fit well and if you go step by step they're easy builds.

I do want to say though, the plastic they use gets brittle over time and the little pegs that hold the armor on the frame can break... I've had to retrofit my PG mkII with magnets and some metal bits to reinforce it.

Really? My Mk.II holds up fine after all these years, just checked it after reading your post. Same goes for my other PG's. I did have a bit of rubber rot on my PG EVA, but not bad. And I got the Extra coating version which supposedly rectifies that. I don't really mess with them too much, I pose them and light play with them occasionally, but that's it.

Come on Pete do yourself a favor, you should definitely get a PG!!!

I'm not a Gundam fan, but the level of inner detail put into these things is beyond belief

I tried convincing him months ago to get a Red Frame or Strike, if he won't get those, he won't get a PG...maybe it's for the better. I remember the ignorant bliss of MG kits and HG 1/100, I debated for a long time before getting a PG...then I finally got my first one and suddenly I just couldn't go back to MG's, so simple and boring, even the 2.0's when compared to the awesomeness that is Perfect Grade. Even the little 1/100 kits seem dinky and bland. I remember building the EX-S MG and thinking how huge and cool it was, now...meh. If it isn't at least a foot tall Gundam, it's not worth it for me. It's a double edged sword though, because now I've gotten almost all 1/60 Gundam kits, DX figures, etc, and there just isn't the variety that the HG and MG lines have. I even found myself doing repaints like Harrison's F91 1/60, RX-78-3, Deactive Strike, Tristars, Ridden and Shin Zaku II's, etc. On the plus side, the 1/60's are just better, from PG to HG and RD. Not only that, but with Bandai and Yamato embracing the 1/60 scale, I can have a scale accurate collection from different lines...which I love. In the end, it's a personal choice. All I can say is if you do go with a PG, there's no turning back. It's like tattoo's (my other hobby), once you get one, you'll either never get one again or get hooked (the latter occurs much more often).

I would love to elaborate .

Basically, quality-science is based on high-school statistics. So a picture is worth a thousand words:

Machines, humans, and whatever manufacturing tools are used are not perfect - no 2 parts ever produced are exactly the same. The point is to keep these minor differences as small as possible and within an Upper & Lower Control Limit (Note that this is not the same as a Specification Limit). A SL is what the design says it is, a CL is your own "quality" standard of what the upper & lower bounds should be.

So, anyways back to the graph, basically we can think of most manufacturing processes as being normally distributed (bell-curve), there are some weird instances where normal distribution need not apply, but 99% of all situations are normally distributed. The center (Mu) is the target. Say you want a part to be 150mm in length - which is Mu. Since machines / people aren't perfect, you will get a batch that is relatively close to 150mm, some might be 150.2mm, and gasp... you have one piece of crap that's 153mm.

The rejection regions falls on either tail end of the curve. If you have low-standards, and your quality is defined as:

-At +1 sigma (1 standard deviation away from mean), that means that a good 32% of your parts might be defective.

-At +2 sigma (2 standard deviations), you have a defect rate of about 5%. Better, but still bad, 5 defects out of 100 units.

-At +3 sigma (3 standard deviations), you have a defect rate of 0.26%. The vast majority of organizations are at this level.

-At +6 sigma (6 standard deviations), you have a really really low rate (lol too lazy to look up exact %).

Basically, you shift the bell curve to the right or left by 1.5 sigma to simulate some sort of environmental change (machine wear, employee training, 2012 cataclysm, zombies), and even with a shift, you still have 3.4 defects per million parts... then your organization is top-notch. Note that 6 sigma without a 1.5 shift is lower than 3.4 ppm... 3.4 is kind of like a "worse case scenario".

It's really a percentage, even if you don't make 1,000,000 units you can still scale it appropriately to see where it falls.

The point is that it's REALLY HARD to keep up a high standard. Even Toyota, long time quality gurus, are showing dents in their armor now they have displaced GM as the #1 automaker. The point about the guy sneezing in the antartic was really hyperbolic. What I meant was that there are just a lot of factors a company cannot control - Humidity / Temperature greatly affect a machine's performance, Stress / Emotions affect a human worker's performance, etc.

In the case of Yamato, I used to think that they didn't give 2 cents about QA, but the current track record of valkyries (at least anecdotally) makes me think that I might have been wrong. Fanboys are no longer willing to eat up anything that looks "accurate" even if it's as fragile as a twig.

Thank you for that. I'm a machinist and I'll vouch for all this, as I had to take this course with others at work to gain ISO certification. What I can tell you as a setup machinist is that regardless of whether it's plastic or metal, even aluminum, NO 2 parts are identical. You have variations as cutting tools wear, causing incremental differences, Axis that may not orgin to the precise point it did before, you have mold wear for injection machines, not to mention when dealing with plastics factors such as temperature, chemical consistency, and machining operations ALL play a factor. Many ISO companies use what is called a pre-control, which works like this:

Out of spec: +200mm

Upper threshold: 175mm

Nominal dimension: 150mm

Lower threshold:125mm

Out of spec: -100mm

Tolerance .5 mm +/-, check 1 in 25

What this means is that you get a half mm tolerance, however anything between out of spec and nominal is considered acceptable, and the operator of the machine checks one out of 25 parts. So, you figure bad parts are going to get in the mix, because out of 100 parts run, only 4% were ACTUALLY checked. So there is a 96% chance that there is a bad part or two in the run. It's all part of manufacturing, and there's no way around it. You just hope you or QC catches it before it gets to the customer. Yamato doesn't look at defects individually, no company does because it's impossible to keep up with. They look at PPM's (parts per million) and if it's under say 500, then they're happy.

Sorry for the inane post, just thought it may help those who don't understand the process of manufacturing. Anyhow, as for my opinion, TF's have some cool toys, but I'll take Yamato over them any day. Of course, I'll take Bandai over any of them...

Waiting on my PG 00 Raiser, a 1/60 Rick Dom, and I pre-ordered some blank valks.

Okay, well,

something that sounds like nothing you've heard before. Unless you have this album, that is.

I've heard that before, it's terrible! It's like every member is playing a different song. Sometimes, something can be so terrible it ends up good (ie: Falco or Devo) but that is just fowl...thank you for reminding me of it's exsistence...well, at least as a musician, I am reminded I'm not the worst out there.

Yes, here is the one.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Almost bought one on ebay, but passed. Not enough there to impress me, cool idea though, kind of like a predecessor to PG clear parts.

The paint job's a lot different. A whole lot more purple, and it's a more G1 lavender purple instead of the deep magenta-purple. Silver instead of gunmetal. Red accents in the intakes. Also all the striping is painted on. No "no steps" all over.

Actually, I caved and got one, there is a couple places where it looks different, either different shades of silver or gunmetal (it looks different to me anyhow, more like Gunmetal). I don't understand why they would use two different metallic paints, but it doesn't look terrible. Definately an improvement over my Takara Skywarp, who will now become custom fodder. Maybe Sunstorm...who knows. Of course, if I wait long enough, that's probably going to come as well.

Now

is a music style that you have probably never heard before.

Taksraven

I've heard that style before, it's called AWFUL. Actually, in all reality it seemed like another Punk/Alternative/Rockabilly blend.

On a strange Nirvana, Guns N Roses, Fear Factory (only remixes by FLA) and Zeromancer. Also some 80's like Howard Jones, New Order, and The Dream Academy.

Hm. Electronics you say...?

For a moment, I had a terrible vision of Transformers with their electronics impairing all attempts at accuracy. But then I remembered we're talking about Bandai here. After all, the MG Exia incorporates electronics and in no way does so to the diminishment of acuracy - so why not? Besides, doesn't one of the PG Gundams also use electronics? The Wing Zero?

But I'm guessing it'll be something different altogether, since nothing in the MG line prevents them from using electronics NOW anyways - and as we've seen them go back and do updated MG versions, what would stop them from doing updates again, only this time with electronics (if they wanted to).

As for the 1/72 scale - that would be crap for Gundams... I dunno...why bother. I mean - it would have to be more expensive then, but they still wouldn't be as big as the PG...but bigger than the MG? Wierd...

I'm really stumped. A new line of Gundams? Hm... beats me...

Pete

All PG's have electronics to a degree. They all have LED's. Anyhow, 1/72 would suck. G-system offers some Gundam 1/72 kits. If I were to take a guess, I'd say it's either MG style action figures (Like SHCM in 1/100) or I for one would love to see a reboot of the 12" DX stuff (1/60), updated with more features.

I like it, except for the hands. On a proto, you can't really judge the seams. That's why it's a proto. God I hope it's a 1/60, I'd be all over it. That would be cool because it would be in direct competition with Yamato, and prices would drop.

I'm sorry but maybe you can clarify how refusing to accept the $80 you requested constitutes "trying to work it out with the seller?" If i was trying to rip you off why would I offer you money back three times. I originally offered you $25, then $40, and eventually accepted your offer for an $80 refund. You then sent it back without finalizing any sort of deal. And I like how you left out all the polite emails i wrote you before. I even sent you a picture of the toy before I sent it as per your request. If you wanted to see the tabs or whatever you should have asked and I would have shown you. Believe me I would rather have not gotten involved in this whole ordeal with you in the first place. If you notice, I stopped being cordial when you sent the email starting out "Look...." and accused me of being a liar. You can try to make me out to be a bad guy all you want. You can call me unprofessional. That's fine. I'm not a professional. I'm not even a collector. I was just trying to sell some stuff for what I thought was a good price. Like I told you, as far as I knew it had never been opened. And I tried to work out a deal with you after you were unsatisfied. And by refusing your own offer because you threw a temper tantrum, you became unreasonable.

Not one to normally tie up the thread with this stuff, but I'm in agreement with Odin so far. This is like some GHQ bull----. If he wanted a guaranteed immaculate valk, then he should have bought one from HLJ. Furthermore, and this is just a thought, he could have taken the 80 that he wanted, and easily sold the valk for 120 to get his money back. Hell, he could have thrown it on ebay and made 30 to 40 more than what he paid. I for one am curious as to see pics of said damage to the valk. Furthermore, what kind of proof do we have that Loop didn't damage it himself?

Needless to say, I'm opposed to Odin being blacklisted. For lack of evidence, and the fact that his other sales went through with no problems. And if these emails were "edited" and some were left out, that shows a willful attempt at generating animosity towards him from other members. If you're going to post this stuff in here, and want opinions, then post everything, not just what fits your case.

And Loop, like I said, if you want guaranteed pristine valks, go to HLJ, BBTS, or someplace like that. It's nothing personal, but I think you could have handled this whole thing better.

I'm with you man!

More Faith No More...

"Falling to Pieces".

"Epic" (boy, was Bjork royally pissed when she found out what the band did to her fish; My view of the subject mirrors that of Scott Ian Rosenfeld- "F*ck P.E.T.A..").

Their version of "War Pigs" is rather good, but no where near as good as Ozzy Sabbath.

Little known fact- A member of the band was the voice of "The Darkness" in the game of the same name. The amazing thing is that it was done without any enhancement.

I know, I'm a big FNM fan from way back. It was Mike Patton, the lead singer. He's probably the most diverse, talented vocalist on the planet. If you really want to hear what he can do with his voice, check out Faith No More's CD Angel Dust, any Mr. Bungle CD, or the song he did with Sepultura on their Roots CD.

"Bring Tha Noise" I think you mean

Best rap metal album ever: Judgement Night Soundtrack

To me, it captures the essence of the alternative and rap music scenes of the early 90's like nothing else.

Best Track on that album:

Faith No More and Boo-Yaa Tribe: Another body murdered

Close second is Helmet and House of Pain: Just another victim

I am definately buying the vf-27! It's the first 1/60 DX I've actually felt compelled to buy.

By the way, it took over 3 and a half years but....

1000 posts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haven't had a chance to check out batman yet, is it as good as they say?

Also, anyone played Demon Souls yet? Looks interesting.

Listening to Clint Mansell's various film scores. Talk about underrated. F**k Danny Elfman, Clint is the god of scoring.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/15473/har...fourth-mad-max-

A Mad Max film WITHOUT Mel Gibson. What a great idea!!

(John Cleese often tells the tale about how some yanks were going to do their own version of Fawlty Towers but they had written Basil out.)

Taksraven

That's better than Mel being in it, since he's like 80. Guess we could hook that big ass V8 from Road Warrior to his wheelchair.

How the hell would Faulty Towers work without Basil? That's lame...

Dude, this was film of the year...deserves an oscar. Nice to see Woody again, been a while since I've seen him in anything.

Add another one:

I started watching the 60's Batman series again...

Really? I got two of them in one shot.

Then your lucky. I had to go to like 6 different ones, and ended up finding one, the only one left in Lake Geneva, WI. over an hour from my house. Got lucky with it, I stopped in for a soda and some windshield fluid and figured I'd check. And the one I got's box was a bit beat up as well.