Penguin

Wow, you guys are really hard on the 70s sci-fi. Bet you'd even talk smack about "Battle Beyond the Stars" or "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone". I still enjoy watching the classic BSG. There is a charm and optimism about the original that I continue to find appealing. The re-use of footage became a fun touchpoint for the series. e.g. "Don't ever fly in the middle of a 3-raider formation"; "Look! Zack's viper! He's back from the dead!" Part of the acceptance of that was naturally based in the scarcity of that level of special effects in a TV show, so it was just cool to see something that even approximated "Star Wars" effects every week. The actors grew into their characters somewhat over time, although the writing remained thin, especially in comparison to the new series. Nostalgia does play a part, but many of us continue to enjoy it in spite of its faults, and not just through the lens of our 8-year-old selves.

Y'know, I don't even care about Robotech news... I just drop by this thread once in a while 'cause posts like these give me a great laugh. (Deepest sympathies to whoever that was reviewing that Toynami Veritech... but then again, he volunteered.)

Didn't take until 2001 for that. Roleplaying gamers were importing Macross stuff into Robotech fast as they could, starting with the Palladium Macross II game in the early 90s. I started seeing RPG stats and fanfic pulling Macross Plus into Robotech practically days after Manga released the first VHS tapes. Cannibals are defined by consuming their own kind, so Robotech fans feeding off Macross wouldn't apply. Living off of the vitality of others would more aptly describe a fungus or parasite.

As someone who works in a field that generates intellectual property, I'm pretty scrupulous when it comes to minding other people's rights. I will admit to owning bootleg DVDs for DYRL and Macross 7, due to the region difference and no North American release (and no region-free DVD player for that matter), but I did go to the expense of buying the R2 DVD releases even though I can't watch them, just to make sure I've reimbursed the original IP holder (though also supporting the bootleggers, which I'm not entirely happy about... Macross addiction is a weakness). I've always bought original CDs, and since Blu-Ray I've been acquiring the official Japanese releases for Zero and Frontier and just downloading some translations to read along. It is expensive (I try not to think about the accumulated cost of all the Frontier discs), but in my humble opinion, disagreement with asking price or inability to afford it does not confer a right to acquire someone else's IP illegally. I certainly wouldn't accept that as a rationale for someone stealing my IP.

Don't mince words... tell us how you really feel! District 9 easily blows away those so-called blockbusters of the summer. Edit: Well, I guess they were blockbusters, since they made tons of cash... but who said box office was a mark of quality?

That shot of bomb-laden VF-1 over the mountains is freakin' sweet!

I did quite a bit of wargaming with the Mechwarrior: Dark Age clix game, and the 1/200 are about the same size (granted, they were a lot bigger than the superhero or mage miniatures). The stands they come with are about the same size as the 'mech dials. I guess it depends on the scale of battles you want to have. Squadron-size battles, the 1/200 should be fine. Fleet battles, then the tabletop might get pretty crowded.

Not that I ever saw.

I've only got 1/144 and 1/200, but here they are. The ones on the top are Yamato's 1/200 line. The bottom are Happinet's 1/144 Chara-works. I agree with everyone else. The 1/200 are the way to go. Right now, they'll be easiest to find and have a great assortment. No villains, though, but those are pretty rare in the first place unless you can find old Nichimo models... which aren't impossible to dig up on eBay.

This is what's starting to get to me. Remakes don't bother me so much. Hollywood's been doing that since it started. Look how many Dracula adaptations there have been, for example. It's just that the films being remade aren't all that old, and many (IMHO) don't qualify as enough of a classic to warrant a remake in the first place. Giving a 30+ year old property like Star Trek a face-lift is one thing... but 19? And Total Recall? I'd say that Arnie was responsible for more of that film's business than the film itself. It's an entertaining action flick and Arnie vehicle (Michael Ironsides and Sharon Stone don't hurt either), but as sci-fi it's only mildly engaging as it shies away from the real mind-bender that the original Phillip K. Dick story followed. Classic? Hardly. But what do we expect? Hollywood is nothing if not formulaic. With the success of reboots like Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek, they've convinced themselves there's built-in audience for every vaguely popular property from the past 30 years. It's like the 80s-90s are being viewed as some "golden era" of hot properties begging to be mined for remake material. *sigh*

I'm totally with you on the Blu-Ray, but if the first release is anything less than the BD equivalent to the full 9-disc set I'll wait. At least with the DVDs, Fox has been good about releasing full-featured sets first, then slimmed-down packages afterwards. Hopefully they'll give us the same respect on Blu-Ray. I've seen way too many BD releases that are bare-bones when there are full-featured DVDs already out. I liked AvP:R too. Simple, dumb fun, and a step up from the first AvP which was kinda a yawner. Then again, I'm fairly lenient as a judge. It's damn hard to equal Alien and Aliens, let alone top them, so I'm pretty tolerant. Thinking back, the quadrilogy was what triggered my first DVD player purchase. I had resolved to buy a DVD player once Star Wars, Macross Plus, or the Alien series came out on DVD, and Alien was the first. Personally, I really liked the menus on that first set better than the ones in the 9-disc set, especially the hidden personnel profiles on the Alien disc. Then again, as my first DVDs, they totally blew me away anyway. I'll never forgive Fox for not releasing the Alien Head quadrilogy case in North America, though. Had to pay a pretty penny for an R2 version from Amazon UK.

I hear it's not going to be a remake (thank the many and varied movie gods), but a prequel directed by Carl Rinsch, who is a protege of the Scott brothers (i.e. Ridley and Tony). That's enough for me to be extremely cautiously optimistic. Barely.

Here's my experience with the wonderful world of GFF. 1. They are in 1/144 scale, more or less (at least, they seem to be the same size as my HGUC model kits). With all the extra hands, weapons, and add-on pieces, there are lots of little parts to keep track of. 2. They are all plastic. 3. I do not have any of the transforming ones, so I can't comment on them. However, most of them have parts that can be swapped out, and the fit is probably similar. My experience there is hit and miss. Some fit snugly and stay together even while you pose them. My GP04 Gundam is like that. Really nice in all configurations. Some fit together so tight that you need tools to pry them apart, so be prepared to get out a knife or file to get a better fit. Lastly, some are so loose that they fall apart routinely. My Shin Musha Gundam falls into that category. I can hardly pose the beast with some of the armour pieces falling off. 4. Value for price is kinda subjective. I'm a model guy mostly, so I usually only buy GFFs of things are even more expensive as models (typically as limited release resin kits). So, for me, it does tend to be worth it.

Compared to my AV-0s, I'd say the AVS-98s are even better quality. Nothing has fallen off and none of the joints have separated. Basically, they're just plastic molded versions of the die-cast Ingrams, with a few mods. There's even the detachable backpack where the coin battery goes on the Ingrams, but on the AVS-98 it just gives access to the little lever to raise and lower the pilot in the cockpit. Not as many features as the Ingram (no opening leg holster, cockpit doesn't fully open), but I'd say they're solid quality. Best of the plastic line yet (just not as stylish as the AV-0).

Here's my CM's spread, perched atop my CD case. It's not all of my CM's collection... just a select few for a fun little stage. Ohta spins a tall tale for Takeo and Shinshi while Asuma and Noah look on. Alphonse in repose. A Tyrant 2000 drags Ohta's Ingram back to its feet. An old police MPL-96 waits in the wings, behind Takeo and Asuma's command cars. AV-0 Peacemaker, comin' thru! Goto and Hiromi relax in front of Goto's car. The SV2 maintenance team (or at least a couple of them) work on an AVS-98 Mark II as Shige and Sakaki "supervise" as per usual... Shige shouts in his bullhorn while Sakaki scowls from behind his sunglasses.

Personally, I prefer the CM's. The cloth covering on the joints makes for better poseability, and there are LEDs for the shoulder light bars that are powered by a coin battery. The plastic coverings on the WAVE bunch up and reduce the ability of the joints to bend, and the Ingram is too skinny for my taste. Plus, I love all the stuff CM's has put out to support it. The non-poseable vinyl background labors are a nice touch, and the two gashapon collections they released have in-scale characters, command cars, and Gotoh's car. For me, it's Patlabor fan heaven. On the downside, CM's all-plastic labors have been a little more troublesome. The under-arm pistol "holster" on the AV-0 doesn't stay closed unless the pistol is inside, and one of the legs on one of the two I have likes to fall off all the time. I really didn't like the Brockens. I got the OVA and TV versions. Poseability is good, but the legs on both fall off all the time unless they're standing (the weight of them pulls them out of the plastic joints). The arms often come out of the joints as well, which is where the cloth covering is less useful. You can't see inside to put them back together, so you gotta feel around to get them put back in or else slit the cloth (which isn't so bad if you do it under the shoulder armour. The armour add-ons are hit and miss. The shoulder parts are a ball-and-socket connection that's so tight I had to pry them out with a screw driver to swap in the armour parts. The chest pieces are better. The weapon selection is nice (couple of SMGs plus the big machinegun). I've had no problems at all with the plastic AVS-98 variant releases that just came out, which is nice. When I get home tonight, I'll post some pictures of the little CM's diorama I've got set up. It shows off several of the die-cast, plastic, and vinyl labours plus the gashapon characters and cars.

Is it just me, or does the signing of a barely-known actor to the lead role just scream "we have no confidence in this script"? When they're pretty sure they've got a good thing, they cast high profile names (not that it's any actual guarantee of success *cough* Affleck *cough*). Of course, he could pull a Hugh Jackman and turn out to really do the role proud. Just seems a little squiffy to me. Kenneth Branaugh is directing, though, which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. I'd really like to see a high-level synopsis of this film. I kinda liked something I read once about an idea to do the film a la Lord of the Rings, i.e. epic swords and fantasy, that would end with Thor's punishment by Odin to endure a human life... segue into the Avengers movie and his appearance on Earth. Not likely, though, since I've also heard that Sam Jackson will appear as Nick Fury again, which would place the film in the here and now. From some of the plot ideas I've heard, sounds like they're focusing on Thor coming to grips with the fact that the world just ain't the same ol' Midgard he remembers so fondly. Another quote mentioned the approach as an Old Testament god learning to become a New Testament god... however you want to interpret that. Still, if they crib some ideas from Ultimates as they've done for some of the other films, there could be some really great moments. I enjoyed the Ultimates approach where no one was really sure if Thor was a god (or rather, no one really believed it), and having Loki play on that to get the world turned against him. Ah well. Just have to be patient.

Ask and you shall receive - WAVE and CM side by side. The WAVE is on the left.

That'll look simply smashing next to my Hasegawa 1/48 YF-19!

Speculate, speculate, speculate... If the Gamlin VF-22S is indicative of Yamato having the MD7 licence, I'd love a VA-3 (I know, I know... I'm indescribably odd). Especially the VA-3M from VF-X2. (Which has nothing to do with an MD7 licence, but as long as I'm dreaming why bring logic into the equation?)

I've got to put my vote for the TV series. To me, the movie is very pretty but very empty. Characterization suffers greatly in DYRL, and I very much disagree with the opinion that the DYRL version of the love triangle was somehow better than the TV version, or that it was somehow a more mature storyline. Almost every character except Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay are reduced to paper-thin backdrops in DYRL. Scenes such as Max and Milia's duel and Kakizake's death have no resonance or impact at all, 'cause you never know these people. They're included simply as homage to the TV series. Even Roy's death, while marginally more involving, is flat as he's reduced to an obnoxious, borderline misogynist drunkard instead of the seasoned mentor and friend that he is in the series. As for the love triangle, it's the TV series that gives it all its depth and emotion. You watch Hikaru grow and mature as a person as he evolves from his crush on the self-absorbed Minmay to a deeper emotional connection to Misa. And it's the post-final-battle episodes that really make it all pay off, as Minmay finally starts to grow up too, realizing what she's lost. Rather than seeing the last episodes as the "slow down", for me those are the episodes that make the series worthwhile, rising it above a simple action story to a real character drama. While it boasts better animation and some better songs, DYRL just can't hold a candle to the series.

Y'see, I have a hard time nominating anything as a movie I wouldn't want to see, notwithstanding just listing comics I don't like. Even then, I've enjoyed movies made from novels that I didn't particularly enjoy, so the same could happen for comics. Any story, including something as involved as Sandman, could be fertile inspiration for an excellent movie, given the involvement of talented creative minds and performers. What concerns me more is how rarely we get the aforementioned talent. So, for me, it's not a matter of comic book movies I do not want to see, but rather comic movies I do not want to see Hollywood completely screw up. Green Lantern comes to mind. I'm a huge GL fan. I'm looking forward to the animated film, 'cause I've really enjoyed DC's animated films so far (for me, a proven track record). As for a live action one, I'm sorta cautiously hopeful-slash-fatalistically skeptical.

I definitely picked up that issue. I can remember the damn-near interminable waiting for the very first Aliens mini series, and I loved Dennis Beauvais' airbrushed art for the second. They got a little staid towars the end, but the first ones were a lot of fun. Same for that first Chris Warner Predator series and the first AvP. I still maintain that would have made the best AvP movie.

Apparently, there are two different post-credit cookies. Edited: after a little research

Air superiority blue is a fairly light blue, with a little grey in it. See the little image attached. The only manufacturer I found that actually sells air superiority blue is Life Color... but their paints are often pretty awful (I've gotten several paints from them that were completely dried out). I got a fairly close approximation of this colour by taking Dark Ghost Grey (FS36320) and tinting it with a very small amount of light blue until it matched. Once you've got that mix, you can combine it with cobalt blue normally.