anime52k8

Depends; the Tomy/Takara motorized kits come pre-painted and need only stickers to look like they do on the box. The Kotobukiya HMM kits on the other hand are basically zoids gunpla and require all the usual painting/detailing that implies.

what a tease, and I'm not even sure what you bought... anyways, serious question: I've been saving up for a new telephoto lens, and by Christmas I should have enough for a nice new 70-200mm L series. It's either going to be a 70-200mm f/4 IS or a 70-200mm f/2.8. the price is about the same so the only real difference is weight and aperture vs. image stabilization; so I'm wondering, would I be better off with 4 stop IS and a pound less weight or a full stop faster aperture?

*facepalm* shut up, just... shut up. you know nothing about how money works...

eh, I'd say it was more like: blah blah; BOOM-SPOSION; oh noes, covenant on earth; BOOM-SPLOSION; WTF, RAIDEN AGAIN!?!?*; BOOM-SPLOSION; blah blah... wait, what? that's it? *remember when you played Metal gear solid 2 for the first time, and you first realized that you were going to be playing as Raiden for most of the game? it's a bit like that, but with less bishonen.

The problem with your logic is that you're GREATLY underestimating how much of a mark up a third party importer is going to charge for these web shop exclusives. an online import retailer is going to charge at least a 100% mark up or more over the webshop price. just look at the bandai exclusives. a Ghost+weapon set sold for about $50 at on bandai's web shop, and cost $95 dollars through OD. so here's the math in reality: customizable VF-1 web shop price: $70 importers markup: $70 shipping: $30 (that's what OD charges me for shipping anyways) total: $170 Retail VF-1: $75-$100 shipping: 30 total: $105-130 At that point I'd rather buy a hikaru VF-1A/J/S on sale, rip it apart myself and save myself $50-$70.

of all the stuff out there, macross is fairly mild. I'd like to say though that UFO catchers are the work of the devil. I HATE those things.

like I said, it still has the same clips but they're not really usefull at all. maybe it's just mine but you have to force the tail fins in in order to get them to fit between the clips. I don't like having to force the parts that much, and the fins constantly pop out anyways. I find it easier to just not handle the backpack in fighter mode. (in battroid mode the backpack it fine.)

EPIC TROLL IS EPIC. SK would be proud my good man.

hmm... ok, So I've had this for 24 hours now and I haven't had a chance to take pics yet (I'm feeling particuarly lazy today ). I feel like I should post some observations though. First: I have never seen a toy that is this frustratingly tight and loose at the same time. I've already mentioned the head (which I managed to fix through with an xacto knife and some nail polish) but I've also noticed that the Leg Packs are also very loose. they'll stay attached well enough once posed but they have noticeably more play once mounted compared to my strike pack and it's fairly easy to dislodge. the radome is also not as tight as I would have liked it; it stays on fine, but the arm extension is much stiffer than the backpack connection, so you pretty much have to take the radome off to extend it when going from fighter/GERWALK to battroid. Finaly, the backpack can be a little floppy in fighter/gerwalk mode. there's enough play that the backpack can flop up and down with while the fast packs are attached, not a big deal unless you try to grab it by the fast pack boosters. in battroid mode the wings actually prop the boosters up a bit. the little pop up latch things on the back that are supposed to hold the backpack up are useless, the tail fins naturally sit outside the latches so you have to force the fins in (fins aren't supposed to fold) to get them to click in, and then they usually pop right out. At the same time, this toy has the tightest arms I've ever seen. The elbows were almost impossible to move out of the box and are still tight after loosening the appropriate screws on the forearms. along with the stiff elbow, the arm sensor on the left side (the big sensor mast) is also excessively difficult to remove; so far I've only been able to get it off by using a razor blade to pry up one of the tabs. the landing gear are also a little tight. Overall, the toy LOOKS great. the finish is a very nice matte, it doesn't look like plastic at all. paint application if good and the valk itself is heavily tempoed. I was a little disappointed how baron the FAST packs were by comparison; other than the "U.N. SPACY" on the leg parts are the only markings. this is definitely an awesome looking toy, but it is very fiddly. Not fiddly like the YF-21 (lots of little parts and panels that have fold and stack and line up just so for it to work), it's that it has a lot of spindly parts sticking everywhere that tend to get in the way of stuff, transforming it with fast packs attached is very difficult. It's a cool display piece, and totally worth every penny, but it's not as playable as the other VF-1's :edit: oh, and as some have mentioned, the pilot in the back is a VERY tight fit. there's enough head room that you can just drop him in, but then his head sticks up above the seat and that looks stupid. I managed to get him fully seated but I had to force his legs down into the gab between the seats with a paper clip. good thing I don't plan on taking these guys out any time soon.

how cruel, making fun of them just because they're missing hands...

um... what the sh*t is this supposed to be? (seriously, what's this about, I couldn't get more than 30 seconds in without getting distracted and going to another video. by the way did anyone else know that 7eleven is going to be selling Fanta Apple slurpee's in Domo cups? SWEET! ) :edit: by the way, is that some Mortar headd in your avatar seto?

my credit card is crying, but I'm happy on the inside.

I just got mine and... the head falls of ugh... the head form my VF-1S fits fine, so aparently the neck of the VE-1's head is f*cked up. when I push the nead down all the way onto the peg coming off the body, the neck springs back up about a millimeter then tilts to the left or right. at this point any movement at all will make the head fall off. as far as i can tell, the hole in the bottom of the neck is tapered such that it's too wide at the opening then too narrow inside, causing it to push itself off the peg until it doesn't have enough friction to hold in place. anyone else have this happen to them? I ordered mine from HLJ, but I've sent inquiries for new parts to both HLJ and OD already. but I'm going to try and figure out how to make the existing head work. any suggestions would be nice

I just got my VE-1... and the head won't stay attached. has anyone else had this problem? does anyone know how to fix this?

god damn son of a bitch! still nothing...

uh... no. The VA-3M is a float plane derivative of the VA-3. The VA-3 first shows up in "This is Animation Special: Macross Plus" as a final design which itself originated as the A-9b from Air Cav chronicles. and the A-9B is based loosely off the A-6 intruder. V V V

most likely will. I wonder if the DX VF-27 is going to be this shitty or not. considering the 27 is basically all new molds they have the option to do a major overhaul and make it good, but I've got a feeling they'll just half-ass it like the rest of the DX line. too bad.

gerrr... still nothing. hopefully it will be here tomorrow.

looks like the head is still there, but the fin needs to be removed. does anyone else think bandai would be cheap/stupid enough to not include a stand with a jet toy that doesn't have landing gear?

even stuff from Macross II?

I could beat it but I'm not willing to disclose such info publicly.

I always pictured you with a monocle and a pencil mustache maniacally wringing your hands every time you log on to RT.com or MW.

no, an adaptation is when you take one persons original work and use it as inspiration for your own original work. taking 3 shows and cobbling them together with a rushed, poorly planed dub in order to make one show long enough to syndicate is called a hack job. :edit: fly-by-night... I like that. wish I had thought of that...

of course, protoculture powered ovens are self cleaning!