Jolly Rogers

What other reason would there be for a 1:1 scale anime girl?

A New Dawn... for the machines I hope.

Is it anatomically correct?

from this pic, the box seems to be the same size as HGUC Dendrobium

Man that's nuts. I think I won't be pre-ordering this thing and just wait until my buddy goes back to HK and have him haul one over for me. Street price in HK will probably drop to $100 or less a few months after release like how the HGUC Dendrobium dropped to below US$100 within 6 months.

Scouring of the Shine will definitely not be in ROTK. Peter Jackson mentioned that already when FOTR came out over a year ago.

You are assuming price is the only factor.

If you buy the legit release and get a bum copy, you can always take it back to the store for an exchange.

If you buy the boot and get a bum copy, there is no recourse. You have to eat the loss yourself.

Let's say you buy a 2nd bootleg copy hoping to get lucky, only to find out that the boot's master was screwed in the first place (not that uncommon - there are HK bootleg releases that have the episodes out-of-order, and even missing chunks or entire episodes, however many don't know because they've never seen the series before), then you've lost 48 bucks and not gotten a good copy at all.

wanna know your thoughts people, should I be a loyal HLJ customer and wait for them to accept pre-orders or be a traitor and run off to BBTs, I mean I know BBTs is a great place and all as I have heard so many overwealmingly positive responses towards it. Anyone know why HLJ isn't accepting pre-orders yet?

Go with BBTS. They have better service (esp. aftersales service - they care even after they got your $$$) and response time than HLJ anyway.

Seems to be standard practice these days for HLJ to close preorder for a popular item so it builds up demand and fan paranoia when they reopen order for it. Anyone remember how that was the case with the SOC Eva-01? Everyone got so fearful that it'd be sooo limited, even people who otherwise wouldn't have bought one went and grabbed it the moment HLJ reopened it for ordering.

Actually, VF4 is now a GH release for only $19.99.

And we've all seen how fast Battlecry dropped to the bargain bin.

I've played the demo and felt it was pretty much the same thing as Soul Calibur for DC, which I have. So I don't really mind waiting. I am sick of paying 50 bucks for games and then see the price drop within mere months.

How long do you guys think it'll be before the game is priced down (e.g. PS2 Greatest Hits edition)?

This is how low Francis Ford Coppla has sunk to... from Godfather to producing cheap horror flicks.

Bummer Medicom never made new Koubu F and Nishikis for the series... these are way better than the model kits Wave is making.

Good luck, I've been looking for these 2 to complete my collection too. I've seen Sakura's on eBay for about $40 from time to time, but never Ogami's.

If you are lucky, you can find Ogami's on Yahoo Japan auctions, but be prepared to pay through the nose for it. Usually it's sold with the rest as a complete set, or with a couple other Koubu Kais. The winning bid is always at an insanely high couple hundreds of dollars.

I'll go to fry's or Best Buy since they are always cheaper.

I just saw the Fry's Electronics ad...it's $49.99 (but I gotta wait until 4PM for pickup) plus you get a shirt and poster. How much is it going for at Best Buy?

I'll take a guess that Best Buy's is 49.99 too. They don't discount video games like they used to.

You can get a $5.00-off discount coupon when you put money on a Best Buy gift card (which you can use towards the purchase of the game itself, on top of the $5-off coupon), so you can get the game for $44.99 + tax there.

Target offers a $5.00 gift card when you buy the game there, but you can't use the card until a later visit.

I doubt one would be in any kind of condition to watch ROTK without dozing off after 6 hours straight of extended FOTR and TTT...

Wonder how much a seat will cost for this marathon... 25 bucks?

Didn't the company that distributes Kaiyodo/Xebec action figures in Japan, go bankrupt recently?

The US distribution is unaffected, since it's a different company (Diamond Distribution). You should be able to find out more through your local comic book store or any store that orders from Diamond. Previews magazine should also have info that keeps you updated on future releases.

The DC port of Fed vs Zeon was as close as you can get to the arcade original.

The PS2 port's graphics looked really bad.  The transparency was bad, so were the effects.  Its only redeeming qualities were the dozens of missions and extra MAs that you get to unlock.

Effect: if you thought Journey to Jaburo was good (it plays more like a Ford Pinto), you ought to pick up Lost War Chronicles.  The idiots at Bandai America decided to release that lame-o "Gundam Battle ASSault 2" instead of this gem, which plays like a Porsche compared to J2J.  Having 0083 mecha like the GP01 and Xamel you can unlock as playables sure doesn't hurt any.  There were also tons more stages/maps compared to the 3 in J2J's Tactical Battle mode, plus a bigger cast of original characters instead of the same briefing officer you see in J2J.

The MAs are unlockable in the DC version of the game. The only thing missing was the Mission mode that was only present in the PS2 version.

Oh really? So which MAs are unlockable in the DC version, and how do you unlock them?

Destroy them on normal mode, and something else. It worked when I destroyed the Elmeth but didn't when I destroyed the Big Zam. Which ones? Beats me, I have only seen the Elmeth and the Big Zam so far.... I don't know which ones are in the game.

What do you mean by "something else"? The MAs appear in the game but they are not unlockable as player-controlled units in the DC version. If this were true, it'd have been documented in the FAQs posted at GameFAQs.com.

Went in and they're not getting it til tomorrow.

I got the GC one.

On the plus side, I do get that art book. I'm stoked about that.

Does the game come with an art book or is it one of those big fat ones you bought from a Japanese bookstore?

What's the lowest price you guys have seen for the game? I haven't seen anything less than $49.99.

That's a good price. It's not even worth driving around to find a better price with our gas hikes in L.A.

Luckily my brother will get this, so I can wait forthe extended version.

1 more day!

I was comparing the advertised prices from the Sunday paper ads. Brought Circuit City's ad to Best Buy today and got them to match the price, plus 10% off the difference. Less driving for me, yay.

Pick up the current (Sep 2003) issue of Dengeki Hobby Magazine.  It comes with an exclusive Ultimate Operation figure of the Titans GM Kai featured in Advance of Zeta.

Heh, heh, that's not the currant issue any more, the latest issue is the October 2003 issue which has been out 3-4 days already.

Graham

Hey, september isn't even out over here yet. It's wierd, too, because our kinokuniya gets its magazines at the same time as the ones in Japan. But I'm always hearing about the two months later isue coming out before I find the next month's one.

I was speaking to the folks over here in California. We are a month behind compared to Japan because they send the magazines by surface to reduce shipping cost. Subscription by air shipping would triple the cost of the magazine. September issue was out last week - got mine as of last Tuesday. If you don't see them chances are it's sold out already.

The DC port of Fed vs Zeon was as close as you can get to the arcade original.

The PS2 port's graphics looked really bad.  The transparency was bad, so were the effects.  Its only redeeming qualities were the dozens of missions and extra MAs that you get to unlock.

Effect: if you thought Journey to Jaburo was good (it plays more like a Ford Pinto), you ought to pick up Lost War Chronicles.  The idiots at Bandai America decided to release that lame-o "Gundam Battle ASSault 2" instead of this gem, which plays like a Porsche compared to J2J.  Having 0083 mecha like the GP01 and Xamel you can unlock as playables sure doesn't hurt any.  There were also tons more stages/maps compared to the 3 in J2J's Tactical Battle mode, plus a bigger cast of original characters instead of the same briefing officer you see in J2J.

The MAs are unlockable in the DC version of the game. The only thing missing was the Mission mode that was only present in the PS2 version.

Oh really? So which MAs are unlockable in the DC version, and how do you unlock them?

Pick up the current (Sep 2003) issue of Dengeki Hobby Magazine. It comes with an exclusive Ultimate Operation figure of the Titans GM Kai featured in Advance of Zeta.

The DC port of Fed vs Zeon was as close as you can get to the arcade original.

The PS2 port's graphics looked really bad. The transparency was bad, so were the effects. Its only redeeming qualities were the dozens of missions and extra MAs that you get to unlock.

Effect: if you thought Journey to Jaburo was good (it plays more like a Ford Pinto), you ought to pick up Lost War Chronicles. The idiots at Bandai America decided to release that lame-o "Gundam Battle ASSault 2" instead of this gem, which plays like a Porsche compared to J2J. Having 0083 mecha like the GP01 and Xamel you can unlock as playables sure doesn't hurt any. There were also tons more stages/maps compared to the 3 in J2J's Tactical Battle mode, plus a bigger cast of original characters instead of the same briefing officer you see in J2J.

My vote goes to ADV... they did a pretty good job with all the Sakura Wars titles they've licensed.

Bandai would have gotten my vote if it weren't for their inability to provide stores with a decent stock of their current/new titles.

LOL... maybe someone made an improved version. Back then you couldn't do that without basically getting out of the entire armor.

Where did the guy's thign armor go in that photo above? He did take the torso armor off, which was visible in the picture.

I'm still trying to convince my Chief that our entire department should switch over to Stormtrooper armor!

Just as long as you don't plan on getting out of your cruiser. Take it from me, that stuff is ok to walk around in but sitting is not an option.

Neither is taking a leak really an option once the armor is on...