CoryHolmes

14 hours ago, JB0 said:

We can blame slavish cartoon accuracy for that one. It is the way Sunbow drew the toy(I hesitate to say "consistently" given the show in question).

 

With the market trending towards "exactly like the cartoon or no sale", spending more to do him right will likely only be punished with reduced sales, as disappointing as it is.

I'm not like that, though.  I want good engineering solutions to the transformers question.  Like the Dinobots, for example.  Ever since MP-08 introduced the 'tail folds into the boots' gimmick, most if not all 3P and Masterpiece dinos went that route.  It was great the first time, but I want something new and original.

Same thing with the upcoming James/Bond from X-Transbots.  Punch is my absolute favourite transformer and I want to better engineering than just "flip visor, twist shoulder pads, bend knees the other way".

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Good point, especially the way FT likes to overdo it on diecast.  There's already speculation that a lot of the holdup on the last Stunticon is because it's supposed to come with all the combiner parts, but they're having trouble getting the combiner parts to work because their Stunticons are so heavy.

After seeing those new 3P combiners with no extra parts, the hands and feet and whatnot are contained within the limbs, I refuse to even consider anything else.  Most Menasor's are the worst, with the limbs basically being shin and arm pads.

8 hours ago, Dynaman said:

Strange Machine must be REALLY bad.  I don't think Palladium has a game system - suggestions of one at best.  Though my quick look at the rules for the miniatures that came out a few years back looked good.  Not good enough to buy anything but good.

The mini rules are a distillation of the last 30ish years of Palladium's system.  It helps that the system was originally meant to ape Battletech.  But the PnP version isn't very quick or clean at all.  Combat takes forever, and the rules for non-combat activity aren't that great.

But I've been playing with them since TMNT & Other Strangeness came out, so I'm used to them for better or worse.

4 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Game mechanics are wonkier than a first-gen Chinese fighter jet's engine manifold.

PB or SMG mechanics?  I think I'm just so used to PB that it seems natural.

10 hours ago, Tober said:

Was their Mactoss book any good if you don't play tabletop RPGs? I liked the Palladium books for their line art etc, but never played the game.

9 hours ago, tekering said:

I enjoyed the game, but never liked the Palladium books for their line art. 😅

Hah!  Fortunately I enjoyed the books for both the game AND the line-art 😁

Ugh, Kickstarter   Got turned off it from my last experience, also Robotech-related, but some of the bonuses they're offering are almost too good to pass up

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Nah... just a strategic adjustment for the lower level of fan/audience interest in the latter two Robotech sagas.

From a certain point of view, it makes good game sense in the context of the Robotech setting.  There wasn't really anything going on between the Macross Saga's end (2014) and Masters Saga's beginning (2029).  There was a brief but furious war that almost immediately segued into resistance against the Invid occupation, so combining those two into one book (Homefront) is actually a pretty good decision that would facilitate a campaign flowing directly from one into the other.  Consolidating both stories into one book also means they don't have to try to pad two separate books with stats for background mecha or unused concept art that 99% of their audience doesn't give a flip about the way the Palladium RPG did.  Sentinels and Shadow Chronicles are an even easier combination since they're the beginning and the end, respectively, of the same story arc and can just run as a sort of adventure manual by putting up the unused-in-the-animation setting materials and calling it a day.

And with most of the rules in the first book, this would help bulk it up without shipping two skinny books.  Lookin' atchu there, Palladium

Ooooooh.  I didn't treat myself for my birthday, so this seems like a good thing to splurge on 😁

If I've said it before, I'll say it again: I'll never not be impressed with your ability to take wacky drawings, extrapolate them into 3D shapes, and then a bit of work here and a touch of stuff there and BAM physical parts in hand.  I work with people who do that on the reg and it always blows my mind.

10 hours ago, captain america said:

I don't even think that the containers were designed to support the extra weight of fully armed fighters, to say nothing of the fact that they don't fit despite my oversizing them and the ship.

Phooey.  At this scale, about how big would a person be?

21 hours ago, tekering said:

 

Well, they weren't deployed that way... and it wouldn't make a lot of sense, would it?

I meant for transporting from place to place.  But I guess it doesn't make much sense, even if IT would be cool.

12 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Maybe one of those Hunter-seeker thingies that look like a flying syringe?

Or how about your very own Dune™ Harkonnen Heart-Plug Kit? Easy to install in 5 min--

Er...on second thought, skip that one...

That's the spirit!  You get a spot on the marketing team!

21 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Think about what a Crys-knife is.

If it has a uniquely crafted shape I can understand. But if it's just a sharp jagged shard - how could you suspend disbelief that you just bought a sharp jagged shard of whatever.

Meh, if they can make and sell lightsabers as toys, they can make and sell Crys-knives as toys.

9 hours ago, Podtastic said:

On another note Dune also seems somewhat lacking in collectible assets. It has some interesting things like the ornithopter - and a proper ornithopter would be something - but is sadly lacking compared to some other franchises.

How about a Crys-knife?  Or a weirding module? 

I know I'm probably going to regret this, but how much would it cost to get some in-scale Battloid mode figures?  Even at a minimum of detail, I think it'd be a great sight for the interior of the cargo pod to be lined with Battloid Alphas 😁

1 hour ago, JetJockey said:

I heard Southern Cross was cancelled but it still feels complete to me in Robotech. I just watched this video from a Megazone 23 post.

I'll continue to say my favorites in Robotech are Southern Cross and New Generation. I need to hurry up and watch Orguss.

Agree on the favs.  My own Robotech tastes are contaminated by my love for the RPGs, but Southern Cross and New Gen are my favourite eras to play in.

That transport pod is so nice, I might have to built mine with one hatch open!

15 hours ago, Podtastic said:

I decided that back in the 80's.

Yeah, but I'm a glutton for punishment.  I always hoped for the best, and dug my heels in when the Internet told me I was wrong.

1 minute ago, Podtastic said:

Changing the Zentraedi walking sound was unforgiveable.

The walking sound, the gunpod sound, the theme music, various incidental sound effects... ugh

Between HG and PB, I've decided that the best Robotech is the one in my mind.  The actual products* can go take a hike!

*KitzConcepts toys/figures excepted

Hey, Cap'n!  I've got a really dumb question for you, that you might be best suited to answer   Given your research and extrapolation of the shapes and sizes of the Horizont dropship, about what sort of volume do you think each container pod holds?  Back in the day, my friends and I always argued about how much stuff could be fit in one 😁

I'm tempted, but I prefer my Alien to be more Alien-like and less Aliens-like.  I like my scary, solitary hunter more than I like cannon-fodder zerg rush Aliens.

18 minutes ago, captain america said:

The plan and side diagrams of the Legioss/Tread in image 02 are reference drawings that the animators used: everything that was drawn for the anime/publicity art was based  on that standard. Even the toys and resin models reproduce that gap, so I'm not quite sure what you're referring to.

Oh, just some fanart I saw on the webz, I guess.  I thought the design was to be flush, but now that I look at my Masterpiece Toys they also have the gap.

I'm surprised the lineart left that gap between the fighter and the bomber, when they're combined.  Some of the other art has the wings flush against the bomber/booster unit.

I just... I mean... I tried to watch this movie, I really did.  But the Rebuild series and I parted ways since the second movie, and this didn't bring me back into the camp.

Truthfully, I've realized that I really only like the first 3/4 of the tv series.  The beginning had everything I liked as a subversion of the usual mecha anime.  The pilot falling into the cockpit as a trope, and then failing miserably to even make the robot walk.  The Omniscient Council of Vagueness trope, balanced by the niggling idea that they and NERVs leaders don't really have humanity's best interests at heart.  Showing the constant stress put on these child soldiers and watching them crumble instead of magically being perfect at everything.

The end of the series wasn't to my taste, End of Eva just went too Far Out There (tm), and the Rebuild movies just went waaaaay too far against what I enjoyed about the series.  It does look mightily pretty, though   The Rebuild fight against Ramiel is a thing of beauty, watching as this Alien Thing cycles through its shapes and realizing that it probably exists in more than just three spacial dimensions, plus the power of it's main weapon on display was gorgeous.  I kinda miss the Space Shuttle Shield, though

But I'm glad that others are enjoying it and it works for them.  Not the first time (especially on THESE forums ) that my tastes don't jive with the majority.

8 hours ago, tekering said:

Hey, show a little respect.  If it weren't for @Podtastic, we wouldn't have our glorious 'Lloyds... and the demand for a scale Hovertank is now that much bigger, thanks to his commissions.

B-but...!  Yeah, okay, fine grumble grumble grumble.