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sketchley

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Everything posted by sketchley

  1. sketchley
    How unrealistic is it for a language to be composed of only 100 words? Not too much, in fact. Apparently one only needs to know 200 words to be able to communicate at a basic level in Japanese. 400 words for English. Strip out culture words... et voila! It'd still be very basic... but on the flip side, it does explain the intense, immediate fascination the Zentraadi have with Earth's cultures.
  2. sketchley
    Though the recycling of parts of the 3rd movie in the trailer raised the eyebrow, overall the preview is "meh".
  3. sketchley
    I think they're like that due to the compromise between how it looks in the two modes AND the real world mechanics of getting the feet to move. Of course, another option is exchangeable parts... (as in, unmoving thrust vector plates get pulled out and replaced with semi-articulated feet when transforming)
  4. sketchley
    Picked up Macross the First #4 yesterday and noticed something... odd: In the Mechanic File, the QF-3000E Ghost is labelled "Unmanned Fighter QE-3000 Ghost". Is it just a typo... or something more? The text description is unchanged ("A Unified Forces unmanned fighter. It cannot transform but just like the Valkyrie, it can be operated both inside and outside of an atmosphere. It's also loaded aboard the Macross".)
  5. sketchley
    I've done that with the "better" books in my anime/comic collection. But model kits? Nope. That said, I am planning to bring my 1/144 VF-11MAXL Kai on the return trip the next time I go. BUT the only reason for that is it's small. Anything larger... it's actually more cost effective to just buy a new kit here and make it from scratch.
  6. sketchley
    Yes. Those and ductape. It get the girls. "if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" - Red
  7. sketchley
    It's a mobile internet game provider. Like Miniclip, but for mobile phones. A bit more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobage
  8. sketchley
    ... ah... I recommend holding onto those excess kit bits. You never know when they'll come in handy. (In my case, I've put a bunch of them to use in a kit that came with Dengeki Hobby. The base kit was a simple unjointed snap together. But the expanded instructions have you doing things like slicing open the legs, inserting polycaps, sprues/tubes to plastic panels glued over the holes and so on. I'm halfway through, and finding it a refreshing challenge. I'm also feeling like I have roughly half the parts to create a model out of the leftovers. 15 more kits to go and I'll be able to make a complete model out of the leftovers!
  9. sketchley
    Good point. "Yamato 2199" is like everywhere [i didn't even have to search for it ]. Sure, it's a remake. But I puke rainbows every time I see new line art or pictures of the finished anime. Anyhow, if you like space operatic mecha type stuff, pick up the magazines that are dedicated to that kinda stuff: Great Mechanics.DX and pretty much any of the thicker hobby magazines (Dengeki Hobby, Hobby Japan, etc.) come to mind. They're a great starting point to help refine one's searches. Take care of the anime magazines (Newtype, Animage, etc.). These days, they're just following the most popular genre of the day (moer moe >.<). I'm especially disappointed with Newtype, as it used to have cool features for every type of fan and was a score to get. Nowadays... I consider it a waste of money...
  10. sketchley
    But is it? Obviously it's not an extreme case, but paying skilled labour near or at minimum wage is a form of exploitation. Nevertheless, you got the point I was indirectly making: labour costs are higher in Japan, and the end user pays that. Taksraven also brings up an interesting point: for the consumer, removing the middle men is a short term advantage, but long term, are the social costs too high? Is the apparent death of anime (overseas, that is), rooted in the removal of the middle men?
  11. sketchley
    Great Mechanics.DX 21 is out: Macross content is limited to a pair of interviews: "Testimony 1" Hiroshi Oonogi "Testimony 2" Masahiro Chiba Otherwise, the magazine is well worth picking up. Lots of beautiful colour pictures of Yamato 2199, Gundam Unicorn Eps 5, Starship Troopers Invasion (I like the chainsaw they added to the Marauder Mk.II, next to the tri-barrel Gatling gun, of course), and so on. Dengeki Hobby August 2012 Macross content has virtually disappeared. T.T Hasegawa eggplane series is expanding with two MtR themed units: - Eggplane VF-1A/J Valkyrie Double Plus version (tentative) - Eggplane YF-19 Nothung version (tentative) Both SRP ï¿¥1,500 Macross the Forefront: DX Chougoukin: VF-171EX, VF-25G Renewal Messiah, VF-171EX Armour Parts (due in December) Yamato: VF-4G, VF-17D Super Pack, VF-19F Hasegawa: VF-1A Angel Birds, VF-19A SVF-569 Lightnings Metal Box: VF-1S Super Battroid Valkyrie (SD, of course) Bandai Hobby: 1/100 Armoured Factory ... and the SDFM and DYRL BR releases. And tucked into the last corner: All night showings of the 3 Macross movies (DYRL & the 2 MF ones): July 6, 7 and 13. 23:30 to 05:45 @ Shinjuku Baruto 9. Tickets, etc. on the 30th anniversary home page. ... and a special documentary "from the birth of Macross to DYRL" on Tokyo MX, July 8, 20:00 to 21:00.
  12. sketchley
    I've recycled the majority of my boxes. More specifically, I've kept the biggest/most awesome, and used them to store: a) instructions and folded up box tops (by fold, I mean flattened, then the sides are folded under the top) b) leftover parts (at one type I was storing the leftover sprues too with the crazy idea of melting them down to create... something. But have since put them all in the circular file) What happened to the unprinted bottom part of the boxes? They've been reused (or will be. It's nice cardboard. Great for making card backers, a project with the kids, etc.). Suffice to say, 15+ boxes are now reduced to 2 boxes + a pile of flattened box bottoms. EDIT: that said, you should probably keep as many boxes as you can fit all the kits in (with some room for scrunched up newspaper or something to prevent the kits from banging into each other).
  13. sketchley
    Agreed. As much fun as it is to watch people blame others for their inability to deal with getting older... it gets old after a while (hey, isn't that what a lot of people are saying about anime? The gimmick factor of it being "new", because it's from a different culture, has worn off?) I think any problems with domestic releases (that is, the country you are in, and not Japan), is local + spoiled by the internet - you know, that great equilizor that provides up to the minute information for everybody, everywhere, but forgets about how long it actually takes to get the product to you. One could blame the Japanese anime companies for apparent shortsightedness about not making their releases more international (ie Chinese/English/Klingon subtitles), but that's stemming from a lack of understanding the market situation within Japan. (instead of boring you with a disertation on it, I'll ask a question: are the majority of niche releases in your country internationalized? Ie with Chinese/English/Klingon subtitles?) Someone in this thread also mentioned that Japanese DVD/BR are outragiously priced. I don't think any subsequent post addressed that: they are priced that way because the publishers know that they are only going to sell a certain number of units, no matter how many are produced, and they have to recover the production costs on those that sell. Another way to look at it is that those low costs DVD/BR/CD you're used to are due to labour exploitation, and any final sales price differences are because the people who work in the DVD/BR/CD factory aren't getting a decent wage for their labour, coupled with a larger economy of scale. Now the one thing I don't think anyone has posted is that despite the global economic disruptions from the Leiman Shock (erm... Sub-prime meltdown?), the anime industry is still chugging along, producing content. The quesiton I have is, why have such things like the DVD market collapse occured in other countries, but apparently hasn't happened in Japan? Which should, all the more rightly BE occuring, due to the higher costs of DVDs?
  14. sketchley
    IF you can find them, is the kicker. Some things (especially when it's closer to the original release date) are relatively easy to find, but others... no one's selling them!
  15. sketchley
    Oh, I could lament things like violating (horror) rule movies like killing the kid and dog who are hiking in the forest with dad or the inner-city sewer that's located in the wilderness suburbs... but that's the least of the movies problems. In short, I found myself sooooooooooo bored with the movie, once I figured out it was filmed in Vancouver, I spent most of the time trying to figure out what parts of the city it was filmed in and if I'd been to them. The appearance of a reoccurring actor from Stargate SG-1 was also interesting... cause I got to think about what he's been up to since his last appearance in that TV show. So... ... the movie's not even in the so-bad-its-good category...
  16. sketchley
    Though that may be true, his word use herein implies a lesser command of the English language, indicating the possibility that he didn't like the movie simply because he didn't understand the big words that were used in it.
  17. sketchley
    The problem isn't that everyone has different opinions, it's the language being used to describe those opinions. Ergo: Danth thinks Prometheus sucks: I may disagree, but I'm cool with that. Danth thinks Prometheus objectively sucks: WTF is objectively doing in that statement?! (who cares about the opinion)
  18. sketchley
    Uhm... No. It all depends on context. Ie: "Everyone thinks Prometheus is the best thing since sliced bread." "Speak for yourself".
  19. sketchley
    +1 Ebert's review got me excited about seeing it all over again: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120606/REVIEWS/120609989
  20. sketchley
    It's true that I first learned about them via the cartoon. However, I rediscovered them (or the original, cool, hard, graphic awesomeness that the original comics are) via the RPG. It didn't hurt that Palladium got Eastman and Liard to do the art. Should I even mention that the RPG came out before the cartoon and subsequent boom it spawned?
  21. sketchley
    Google works wonders for things like online translations and old Macross World conversations. Hint: try What about Claudia?
  22. sketchley
    Source: http://ja.wikipedia.....82.AB.E3.83.BC Which is pretty much the conclusion of numerous discussions in these forums and others dedicated to Macross. Though it's highly likely that it's just another blonde guy with similar characteristics and the same surname.
  23. sketchley
    SG-1. The first 1 or 2 seasons are a mix of episodes, but the writing really picks up from there on out. After that, go with SG: Atlantis. It has excellent writing right from the start. I can't really recommend SG: Universe... it's completely unlike any of the preceding SG series. Though, apparently it's quite similar to BSG (never seen that), so you may want to watch BSG first.
  24. sketchley
    It's not mentioned. The closest we get is: Incorrect. There are a handful of other specific time mentions (that's time, not only day) in other series, too. Examples: and so on and so forth...
  25. sketchley
    All the other singers in the Galaxy Chart Network CD (or at least the ones that appeared in M7), for starters...
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