RavenHawk

Now to figure out how to get my hands on one...

I use the Comixology or Kindle app on my phone (Note 10+), but that's usually too small for me for some comics, so they I plug my phone into my 13" Huion tablet and read on that.

Thank you both.

A few questions for anyone who might be more in the know than I am: 1) Has anyone heard any updates on the Arcadia Hargun? Seems quiet from them on that front, since pre-Covid. 2) I came across the military coloring Garland on HLJ, supposedly a preorder due now, but don't recall seeing anything anywhere else, ever. Does anyone know if this is anything other than HLJ jumping the gun? https://www.hlj.com/1-24-scale-megazone-23-die-cast-model-garland-autonomous-army-color-ver-acamrk821566 3) Does anyone have any leads for buying an Arcadia Proto-Garland for a reasonable price? Another one of those items I thought I pre-ordered, but then somehow missed. The usual sources seem to be sold out or asking excessive amounts... but I haven't seen Arcadia doing re-releases.

I read everything on Kindle (or Comixology). While you can convert the PDFs to Kindle's format, you don't have the guided view. It gets annoying having to zoom in to read text on your phone or tablet). That is literally the only reason I didn't buy this bundle. Other than that, it seems like a great deal, and I'd love to read the Blade Runner stuff, the Sherlock stuff (and even the latter RT stuff, enjoying it for the weirdness that it is and not thinking of it with its relation to the source material).

There's not a ton to it, from what I recall. I have it, though I'd have to dig it out. It's a cool little book, and I think it had some decent concept art in it that I liked, but unless you're a completionist (like me) then I don't think you're missing much not having it. I lucked into a copy for fairly cheap online a couple years back, so it was worth it, but I wouldn't recommend settling until you find a good deal.

Seriously tempted to order from HLJ, but once I add in over $100 in shipping it's hitting a pain point for me, since this is really going to be a standalone piece.

I agree that, first blush, it doesn't look like what Arcadia showed in its prototype. Honestly, I'd love to have both. This is one of those designs that I wasn't tremendously impressed by when I first watched Megazone all those many years ago, but it has steadily moved up over the years to one that I love and REALLY want to add to my collection (as opposed to the non-transforming figs of this on my shelf).

That looks excellent!

The lucky few of us whose one moment of foolishness left us alive to learn from it...

I think that you're correct. I haven't looked at the Imai Files in a good long while, but between those and the various official Japanese books that I have, I'd agree that (to my memory) there is no new art here. However, some of the translations here were new to me and interesting to read (though, again, they may have been in the Imai Files, where there were some translations pasted over the text, and I simply don't remember them).

I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say a "Garland style motorcycle" and then talk about trikes. The front wheel of the Garland splits in two for transformation (same with the Bubblegum Crisis motoslaves), but it is still just a two-wheeled bike, not a trike. The Tri-Charger in Zillion is a trike, however. As for real life, trikes with two wheels in back have been around for a long time. They're better for stability when going slow or not taking fast corners, but not so great at high speed cornering. The bikes with two wheels in front (like the Yamaha Niken) are a bit newer, within the last twenty years, since previous attempts at having steering and active suspension in front with crazy heavy bikes met with mixed results, and are very stable, but still haven't gotten as popular as just a basic two wheeled motorcycle. Some of it is weight, some of it is the excitement of being able to lean a two-wheeled bike a lot more, and some is just image.

Respectfully, I disagree. I just got my copy of the MOSPEADA one and, despite owning all of the other ones you mentioned and the Imai Files, I still am glad to have it on my shelf. There was artwork in there that I don't recall being in the others (only the Imai Files), so I'm glad to have it in a nice "sit on the couch and look through it" format. Additionally, and I very well may be wrong, but I believe there were translations in there that were not in any of the others. At the very least, I don't recall seeing them in the others. One which comes to mind was the pictures of the bikes in different poses, turns, skids. To my memory, I had though they were just references of different views and dynamic positioning, but the translations showed notes from Aramaki about which ones would lead to flipping the bike, in what way, and proper positioning for the riders per actually riding techniques. And... if you're a completist like me, then getting it when it's on a temporary sale is hard to pass up.

😲😲😲 I'm not sure I've ever seen those words written together anywhere outside of RT.com message boards before... and I haven't been on there in 20 years...

I suspect that the licensing agreements have more to do with what characters/mecha/designs fall within the license, for what types of items, and rights to audit the quality of the products and records of production/sales. What figures, and in what order, actually get release likely has nothing to do with the licensor, but is just up to the licensee. The licensees are probably pretty much always looking at things like: - Where can we recoup the most of an initial investment? Make Stig, and the Ray, since they have reasonably high popular and we can reuse 95% of the molds while getting two characters out of it. - Make Yellow, since it's an almost-guaranteed hot seller, while reusing 80% of the molds that was already paid for. - If we REALLY need to make more profits before we can afford to invest in new designs/molding, then make Dark versions of the above, since there is some risk as to popularity, but 100% of the molds has already been paid for. - Make Houquet ONLY if sales are strong enough to believe a perceived less popular character will sell, and we can only reuse around 50% (or less) of the molds... and we need to do brand new designs and testing on smaller joints, limbs, connectors, supports, etc. It just comes down to costs of entry, in my opinion. That said, as I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago, the fact that Sentinel now has access to the new female synthetic human figures as a basis, reducing brand new design and testing work needing to be done, does seem to improve the likelihood of getting a Houquet this time.