VFTF1

Well - I would prefer it if they built a life sized android of Misa, mass produced it, and have each Yamato Valkyrie delivered by her - and she would stick around for at least an hour to play with our valks. Pete

PM sent Pete

I had first edition Ivanov and he was a floppy mess. My new "later editin" Ivanov is solid and tight. Nora was always solid and tight. I'll be getting more Noras, Ivanovs and the CF Alpha scheme later this year. Definitely one of the best offerings from Yamato. Pete

I've seen that ass before... That's a 1/48 right? (just testing my ability to differentiate the two ) Pete

Good. Very nice. But no Misa Bummer I want Misa Pete

I think the paint scheme is not 100% anime accurate, but I'm still buying it. Oh wait - it's not a Yamato Pete

Well, it sounds like I'll be a very happy Grimlock owner in a couple of months Thanks for the review Pete

I can understand how sometimes people get frustrated but: a) there was a reasonable answer given to the question of why he was temp banned b) he was also unbanned after 10 days c) Roy Fokker explicitly asked that any further discussion of the subject be held over PM. I know from my own experience when I got a warning that the Mods made lots of effort - over PM - to explain themselves. Hurin wrote tomes of justifications. So this thread is just being assish. Pete

No. To summarize: there was an explicit reason given - namely that AFTER the mods wrote "next person to go off topic gets banned for a while" and those people just happened to be you guys. Then there was a request to please continue the discussion with the mods over PM. Prickly Pete

Dag. Reading some of these posts is really gutt renching - not heart renching - just gutt renching. That is to say; it sounds like the USA is just coming apart at the seems and there's no end in site. Here in Poland, unemployment is 10%, which is like, 2% higher than it was last year, but people still remember when half the country was unemployed and the other half had jobs that paid money which was worthless the next day. I guess, given these circumstances, people here are more psychologically resilient to the crisis. Dag, I mean, there were tanks in the streets and people getting shot up in 1981 - so I guess until that happens again, people in Poland are not going to go bonkers over a little recession or even a larger depression. That said, people are annoyed. It's like - finally, after hundreds of years of war, occupation, war again, in-fighting and stagnation, these last twenty years have seen the country grow in ways that - honest to gosh guys - it's like living in Boston or Detroit circa 1995 or something. There are some problems, but basically it's a modern European country with cute girls, good food and...did I mention cute girls? I remember when I moved here for keeps I wondered whether I wouldn't have been better off staying in the USA. But slowly "the USA" came here - in the sense that really just about everything I could get in the States I could get here... I dunno... I can't complain. There are problems, but I don't think I'm suffering. Maybe I have low expectations? But it's wierd to hear all of this bad news coming out of the States... Now - here's a funny bit of trivia: I remember when I was still teaching english in Poland, and I taught business students - that is to say, working professionals who were learning english. We had these text books with business articles from various press sources, and one of them was about AIG. I never heard of them before. The article basically said that AIG was the biggest hugest insurance group in the whole world, and the article focused on how AIG expanded into Asia. And it was all about how their main strategy was to become friendly with government ministers and people in power who would in turn grant them licenses and permits to do business on their territory. And I thought: "Huh? That's it? They just cozy up to people in authority and get licenses and permits to do business (thereby exluding competitors)? That's IT?! I thought "no wonder I have never heard of AIG. It's not a real business. It's just some company that lives off of lobbying for privilages from various governments rather than actually making anything productive that people would want to pay for out of their own free will rather than via government privileges and handouts." And I didn't think about it at all after we finished the chapter. Fast forward to now. Jeez. How pathetic. What peeves me off is that rather than read about YOU GUYS loosing your jobs, I would prefer reading about those retards at AIG loosing their jobs since unlike you guys, those guys never actually did ANYTHING except kiss up to people in power and live off of other people's work. I really hope things turn around cause it sucks to think of the USA going down the drain Pete

Those little Takas look very organic - not at all like mecha, but rather like either techno-organic thingies or animation errors. Pete

I just wanna get back on topic for a minute and also point out that, insofar as we members might sometimes be frustrated by mods modding us, imagine how frustrating it must be for mods and admin when members open topics like this with a salvo of allegations and then up and walk off without even waiting to see whether there will be some positive action or response taken to placate them? I still find it funny that this topic is now 4 pages long and basically totally off-topic, because the original poster never followed up. Pete

Yeah - whether it's gas, the price of foreign currencies or any other factor - this is really what's making it hard to get ahead in this kind of economy: namely, the uncertainty. I mean - how are you supposed to draw up a business plan and determine whether you're doing well or not if ALL of your variable change so radically? Naturally, variables like prices are always in flux and profits are usually fairly marginal as a percentage of turnover, but when your variables are swinging so wildly - heck - the numbers could make you think you're doing fine when you go to bed, and the next day you're bankrupt and everything is going to hell and the next day you're back to doing fine. I have my theories about how to remedy this - but that would be out of bounds so I'll just leave it at this Pete (who will start paying attention to the price of gas more accutely as soon as he finishes his drivers ed, gets his license and buys his...FIRST CAR! wooo! )

I don't think the Acguy is ugly - I think it's cute. As for Grace - I guess she isn't ugly... I just don't like her clothes... Hm... Devastator from the Transformers Movie... yeah... but... m...hmm.... It's really hard to actually settle on an ugly mecha. Some people find Turn-A-Gundam ugly... I know one thing: I do find Fwtsigzler and Gselgbierpopper (new SOC Man-Horse and his rider) ugly. Pete

On the subject of moderating - I would like to point out one interesting, IMO, thing. Thus far, in my life on the net, I've been banned from two forums. Surprised? Want to know why? Because the moderators didn't moderate. What do I mean? Simple: If there are no strict rules that are strictly enforced, or if the moderators are wishy washy in enforcement, and basically let "pals" off the hook while coming down hard on other people - then nobody knws what's ok and what isn't on a forum. Needless to say, I'm expert at stretching the bounds of good taste, interpreting rules etc etc. I'm the kind of forum member who needs moderators to know what their doing and why. I authentically hate forums where the moderators are wishy washy and the rules aren't strict and simple because then stupid things develop and all decision are basically ad hoc. Yeah, sure, it might sting for 5 seconds when a thread is locked on MW, but at least you know WHY and at least it happens to everyone (just about). It would be much worse if things weren't as clear cut - because that's when people really legitamitely get upset because they had no clue when or wherer they crossed the line because no body ever bothered to draw those lines. Pete

Well... it kind of depends on her mood I guess. I showed her Alien, and she was really terrified- I mean - she was sweating and couldn't sleep and actually couldn't watch the rest of the movie (she stopped watching and asked me to turn it off when Ripley was the only one left of the Nostromo and was trying to get to the escape ship, but the Alien blocked her path)... I've never seen anybody so frightened of that movie. I think part of it is that she has never been to the United States and she grew up under communism in Poland - so really, the ENTIRE horror/action/sci-fi genre that has been developing in the west for quite a few decades now is totally unknown to her. Also, her interests and inclinations are very domestic and womanly; so - for instance - she is very familiar with western cinema just as long as it's suspense, psychological thrillers, romantic comedies...chick flicks if you will... she hasn't even seen Star Wars (ANY of them).... She did managet o make it through MadMax - all the way to the end - although she was horrified at the stuff in that movie too. It's amazing to watch her react to these movies, because it's kind of like seeing how people reacted "the very first time" - imagine watching something like Alien or MadMax for the first time back in 1979 or whenever it was that it came out in theatres? Nowadays, stuff like that is par for the course. Heck - there's even an Aliens vibe to one of the episodes of Frontier - and we recognize it as such. It's hard to "scare" us or authentically shock us anymore. So - I consider her lucky - there's tons of stuff she hasn't been exposed to and when she is - she is scared It's fun Pete

Sweet - Go Shogun is another super robot that I've got my eyes set on As for Mazinkaiser - just get the new one - Bandai's really done a great job on the poseability from what the pics show. Pete

Grace Pete

That is a great idea! Pete

Went to see Marley and Me with the Girlfriend and kids and there was a Dragon Ball Z trailer. My girlfriend got this really worried look on her face like "oh no! Please God, tell me he's not going to drag me to see this" ... since I did drag her to see Transformers and will drag her to see Terminator Salvation and TF2 - I reassured her that I wouldn't take her to see this... My impression? Well - I was kind of pleased that people still make BAD movies, that it's not something that doesn't exist any more. It's just a typical B-type movie that sucks with a lot of ka-pow! action. I actually might see it - just need to get lots and lots of pop corn and be in the right (aka brain dead) mood for it. Pete

I wouldn't be surprised at the lack of the crown. It was only used in the Marvel Comics if I recall correctly. Pete

Ahhh!!!!!!!!! You LUCKY lucky man! I've dreamed of Getter Poseidon ever since his starring role in the online Super Robot Soap Opera comic "As Cybertron Turns" He is on my must have list Pete

Yeah, the bend is completely not Yoko. There are girls who can bend like that - but Yoko isn't one of them. Skip. Pete

Thanks, but it wasn't "mine" - it was excess inventory I still have mine and love it very much As for what I really want to see... Gurren Lagann! With transformable Gurren and Lagann that can seperate and a whole butt load of awesome gimmicks. Technically, Bandai could make it so that Gurren Lagann can be converted from Full Drilled to Arc Gurren Lagann even. As long as they ignore the scale problem, and just load the set with all of the proper pieces, they could make them attachable/interchangable. Oh - but Arc Gurren Lagann would have to also transform Hmm.... In any event - that is my DREAM SOC at this point. Pete

That would be a great idea Pete