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mpchi

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Everything posted by mpchi

  1. mpchi
    If I am not mistaken, you actually already got a HD version. Just that yours is the stand alone HD version without the MS Cage. Everything else should be the same (at least from the look of the images that came with it). Like mine with MS Cage, yours has the same darker metallic grey parts (ver. Ka is lighter), blue parts now have metallic flakes (ver.Ka is a plain blue), lighter grey weapons (ver. Ka is darker), white parts are actually light grey, with a more glossy coating (ver.Ka is plain white plastic), and you also got all the articulation improvements (waist & knees bend better). And the beam saber should be blue (pink for ver.Ka). Stickers/decals are also different (ver.Ka got much nicer stickers). One little trick I find in building my Unicorn to tighten up joints is that, have some thin food wrap/plastic packaging bag handy(not the crispy bags the sprues came with, those are too hard or crispy). Where ever you feel like a joint is a bit loose, cut a small piece of those clear plastic wrap and slip it into the hinges or joint connection (like wrapping the stem or rod with the plastic/food wrap before connecting the halves), as a way to thicken the peg/rod of the hinges just a tad to add more friction. If one layer is not enough, you can fold the plastic wrap in 2 folds or 3 folds, to make it thicker. So you can adjust tightness you want by how thick you make the insert. The wrapping will be locked in place for good once the halves are closed up or the hinges are snapped together. But very reversible if its not tight enough or too tight, not like superglue trick, and works really well on this MG kit, as the ABS connections are pretty snug. It just need a little more thickness to get it perfect. Just make sure don't make it too thick to overly stress the joint hinge to cause stress mark or breakage, as the thin ABS can only take so much torgue on the joint. But that should be able to tighten a lot of the joints there, making your MG Unicorn very sturdy and stable on the key articulation points (ankles, knees, waist, elbows, neck...etc. Give it a try.
  2. mpchi
    Amen to that!
  3. mpchi
    I bet there is some accuracy issues, as shown on the Mark V. Saw the toy, thought it was pretty cool and picked one up. Panel lined it and awesome looking. Then went to look at the new Ironman 2 trailer, and saw the real thing in the movie...then go "Wait! thats not the Mark V I bought?!"
  4. mpchi
    Thats almost double the price I paid at amiami getting the Brera's version. While I do like the green color a bit better, I think I'll be content with the 'pink' one.
  5. mpchi
    Just go Amazon and preorder the Blu-ray. Its on discount right now. And looks like Unicorn is an Amazon exclusive.
  6. mpchi
    I tried. They told me they couldn't separate it based on the way they are packed, even though I would prefer to not have the poster and ship my VF-27 in the smaller box with SAL. So it cost me another $10-15 to ship it with my freebie...some freebie.
  7. mpchi
    Had followed the FSS manga for many years, but not much else to follow when there is no new story coming out. I think the last volume I had was vol.12, and got a couple of the guide books back then to help me track down the timeline and who is related to who. Love the details and complexity of the story, and of course, the mecha design. Too bad there aren't much pre-built toys or gokin worthy of mentioned, besides the model kits. I am all for that, if they make some. Though my brother still have the gigantic Twin Tower Jagd Mirage kit sitting in his closet un-built. Huge green box with gazillion parts. But he haven't touched his FSS stuff for a few years now. Wonder how he had the guts to buy such a thing back then.
  8. mpchi
    Yeah, that part was a great sub-plot. Its stuff like that that made the first Gundam show very human. Its also in the movie compilation. I find a similar thing going in the 0080 series as well. These are elements that made some of the earlier Gundam shows great. Just good human drama in interesting situations complimented with cool mechas.
  9. mpchi
    Does look good. Hope the story delivers as well (but having sold a lot of copies of the novel, it can't go too bad...I hope). As long as its a quality show, don't mind getting all the DVD releases. Heard its released worldwide at the same time. Wonder how much a pop for the U.S. release in March. I am feeling the hype already. More and more toys and model kits coming out. Even a transformable diecast GFF Metal Unicorn will come out in March as well. Can't wait for some U.C. goodness...
  10. mpchi
    More like Chirico had a team of 'lucky' guys that are pretty formidable in battles, as they aren't the real deal of 'abnormal survivors' like Chirico is, even though they started thinking they were. And I agree, to make the point of the story, they can survive as much as they should, but at least take some good damage or replacing beat up ATs every now and then. They got some seriously retarded pilots in all those Fatties and Chubbies to have wasted so much ammo without landing a single hit. The first chapter with the big river battle was cool, as you see a more realistic side of an epic battle. Dudes get killed left & right, even sometimes by mistakes or by friendly fire. Then its kind of cool to start seeing more action from the main team. But after a while, something is not right. When they get hit (if ever), its always a scratch. But when the enemies get hit, they explodes. Its not until the last episode or two, when the supporting cast needs to die off (its about time), THEN all of a sudden they die easy...felt very staged. Just not the same realistic Votoms I was familiar with from the earlier TV & OVA series. Hope the production team of the new series can do a better job at this and show us some very cool, but more believable battles and drama.
  11. mpchi
    Nice to see a comeback of Votoms, especially when the old characters like Vanilla, Gotho & Cocona will show up. But not sure if I am all that excited about it anymore, as I felt burnt by the Pailsen Files a bit. It didn't turn out as good as I hoped for, and almost regret spending all the money on the DVD set. Start out great at the beginning, then didn't really build up a lot to the end. Even the action scenes became a bit cliche (even though its intense) when Chirico & co. became pretty much invinsible machines, taking down hundreds of enemies with no sweat while the enemies always misses. Votoms was realistic and never like that in battles before. As much of a PS as Chirico is, he can still be overwhelmed by enemies' firepower when the odds are high (same with Fiana & Ypsilon). So Pailsen Files felt very unrealistic in the battle scenes, while the drama doesn't have much to add to the franchise. The old TV series & OVAs are much better, even though they don't have the flashy 3D animations. Hope the new series will be better. But I am sure I won't be jumping into the series buying the DVDs like I did. Don't want to be disappointed again.
  12. mpchi
    Wow. This is exactly how I want it to be... very clean presentation, character design that sticks to the root, cool mecha that mixes with old and new designs, no heavy CG but high quality traditional animation, ambiguous return of Char's voice... have been waiting for a UC Gundam show like this to show up for a really long time. As long as the story doesn't suck, the DVDs will be mine. Looks like its almost time to build my MG Unicorn.
  13. mpchi
    Valid point, and nothing wrong with not buying the bay-former designs. But rather than picking ROTF Leader Megatron, take a close look at Leader Prime instead. Just borrow one from a friend to transform it once or twice, to check it out. Aesthetic preference aside, the ROTF Leader Prime is one complex TF, with many moving parts that surpasses the MP line level in complexity. With all the locking panels and tons of ratchet joints (gimmicks too, if you care for those), its getting to the Yamato complexity territory (again, just complexity, not craftsmanship). So, check out the Prime if you get a chance, just to know how its like. Its the one that stands out from the rest of the Movie toys.
  14. mpchi
    As most of you know, ROTF Voyager is a pretty disappointing release. The colors are all wrong, funky deco, and more looser joints due to Ironhide had prior multiple releases of the same mold. But while most of you may skip this release, I find the new cannons and the new head sculpt serve a very good purpose... upgrading your 07 Movie Ironhide. Both the new head sculpt and cannons are a lot more screen accurate than the previous. The head sculpt is spot on on Ironhide's likeness with some nice crooked facial feature. Add a lot more accuracy and personality over the old head. The cannons, while being sized a bit funky with the right one really big and the left one a bit small, and a bit oddly colored with the light grey (thanks again Hasbro!), they look cool on the figure still. The light grey cylinder/barrel of the left one might slide around too much, so you might need to unscrew it and do some minor mod to keep it in place. I even flipped it right side up to make it look more accurate. Not sure why Hasbro assembly it the other way around... The parts are pretty much identical, so swapping arm parts, hands, and cannons are easy. The only tricky part is unscrewing the head, which the screw is located at the bottom end of the neck, and has to half-transform the figure to expose the screw through a gap on the body panels. So get a long enough skinny screw driver and some patience to get the head out. But once thats done, pick and choose any parts of the ROTF Ironhide and swap it with your original. When everything is in place, and maybe add a little bit of paint touch up, Ironhide can look better than ever, thanks to the ROTF Ironhide.
  15. mpchi
    Great Prime toy. More detail and accurate than the old one, but not perfect with some flaws (swords in the way & transformation can be frustrating at some parts) and issues (weird red color bits on neck, back shoulder, toes). ROTF Prime is less stable as previous Prime due to the ankle balljoint not as tight, tend to lean forward or backward sometimes. Didn't wow me as much as the Takara MA-21 did back then, but there are improvements everywhere on a lot of stuff. Probably the best ROTF toy still. Touched mine up a little, but probably not going to paint him up completely like I did with the older ones. Want to keep him more playable and not worry much about scratching paint.
  16. mpchi
    "MGS 5 @ E3, starring Jack the Ripper (prequel of Raiden)", exploring the 'child warfare' aspect of his background can be kind of cool. Some new ground to cover that is not being repeated in the Snake's storyline. With both the MGS franchise & Raiden being fleshed out so well, I don't think Konami will give it up so easily. Snake's story has wrapped up pretty nicely. But there are a lot of room for building up Raiden's past, and possibly future too. Or if Kojima really wants to fool the fans, do a 180 and advertised the next Metal Gear game is MGR, Metal Gear Raiden, then turn out you only play as Raiden in the first 1/4 of the game, and the rest with Solid Snake again. Don't really want the franchise to end, as long as a quality game comes out every few years. Switching to Raiden or someone else is fine.
  17. mpchi
    Me on the other hand can't take the Robotech intro. It feels very American, like I would expect that intro as a nice GIJoe or Transformers animated special intro music or something, but doesn't fit Macross's feel at all, especially when you are familiar with SDFM's music score (which is very awesome to this day). I felt that DYRL could be a better self contained movie, if they gave more time showing how Earth got wiped out (even as short flashback scenes would work), and give more time develop the love triangle, so that we actually know and feel whats going on with Hikaru, and know why he chose Misa over Minmay (not based on our knowledge of TV). As is, it feels like Hikaru just hopped around from one girl to another (and barely know any of them), just because who is convenient to be around at the moment. "Minmay got captured, so I better find someone else.".... "Minmay is back now, but Misa is hot and got a sad story to tell! I'll pick Misa. I don't know Minmay much anyway. Only went out with her a couple times." (Not that Hikaru spent a lot of time with Misa either ).
  18. mpchi
    Got my copy form San Francisco Kinokuniya Bookstore about a month or so ago. They still have a good bunch back then, like at least 5-6 extra copies if not more. While its cool to read Macross The First (2 chapters instead of one), the rest are quite weak. Mostly filler joke comics and some toys ads, and a couple short interview articles and a couple color illustrations. So while its nice to have (at least for the first issue), I wouldn't go out of the way to get it for more than $10, now that I know what its inside. I'll probably just save my money to get the Macross The First's stand alone comics releases later, since that is really the meat of the Macross Ace. Needless to say, paying $71 for it is down right crazy.
  19. mpchi
    I don't know about "You don't need any background info". Some friends of mine saw DYRL without seeing Macross back in college days, and they all thought it was cool and pretty (especially when its made in 1984), but hard to follow storywise. Not like its too complicated, but things happen and change very sudden and drastic, so the flow of the story is odd. As if the viewer was supposed to know more than what is shown...which is exactly the case. A movie made for fans that is already familiar with the characters. For me, I like TV & DYRL just as much, and see them complimenting each other as a whole, so I didn't vote.
  20. mpchi
    Agree. Luca doesn't impress me a lot, but I think he serve good purpose on being there, and contribute a bit to the storyline when his tech knowledge came to good use. While Luca is a bit ordinary, he seems badass when compared to Kakizaki, who constantly making mistakes and eventually got himself killed. But even he serve some purpose with his goofiness.
  21. mpchi

    Stand Alone YF-19

    mpchi replied to warrhead's topic in Toys

    Actually, the re-release of the YF-19 stand alone has the fixes, the one that came out about a year ago. However, its very hard to determine whether you are getting a reissue or not, unless the seller or shop stated so. I ordered mine from HLJ last year, thinking of getting the re-released (fixed) version after the release date. But turned out I was 'lucky' enough to get one of the dead stock of ver.1 from 2006. So I get all the crooked gunpod and some loose joints. So while you can get a fixed stand alone version, HLJ may not be the best place to go for. As it seems a crap shoot on what you may score.
  22. mpchi
    I like the YF-21 head more, but not a big fan on the colors of it. Ideally, I would have picked Max's VF-22 colors (or Gamlin's but without the yellow strips or red clear parts), with YF-21 head and with its Fast Pack. But obviously, it won't come that way. So after weighing the prices, accessories & the details on the figure, I end up picking up a YF-21.
  23. mpchi
    ARRRRRG! YAMATOED!!! The right elbow swivel disc of my 1/48 VF-1A Max TV just shattered! Just like my VF-1S Hikaru a few months ago. And this one is brand new too, not a 5 year-old figure. The disc shattered from the stem its on into 3 chunks, dismembering the lower right arm at the elbow. Can believe the plastic is so 'tofu-like' that occasional posing on the gun arm for a few weeks can cause it to break. I've only transform the thing like 3 times. This is getting real stupid...
  24. mpchi

    Yamato Toy TV

    mpchi replied to ff95gj's topic in Toys

    Video is cool, but the girl very distracting. While she is nice and cheery, she overreact to every single aspect of anything, especially when she is a Yamato employee and have seen these toys more than once. Does look like Gamlin's VF-22 is really that light of a grey, instead of anything close to black. The yellow stripes are also pretty light and desaturated, not like the bright orange-yellow the YF-21 has. Hope Yamato has more of these videos, as it gaveus a much clearer look on the toy, its color, scale, and the extra info from the developer guy transforming it and showing the new designs & gimmicks help too. Just tone down the girl a little please.
  25. mpchi
    They seem pretty busy lately and are a bit behind on the Macross replacment parts stuff. At least thats what their newsletter says. But I try contact them last week, a month after I placed a request, and they are very nice and confirmed receiving my request the next day. Like others say, they don't normally reply on requests, unless we try contact them afterwards, or when they get the parts we requested. Otherwise, they'll work on it quietly and sometimes takes a couple months. So patience is the key, and Overdrive seems to be run by some nice responsible folks.
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