RavenHawk

2 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

MAAS Toys was, according to their last newspost, attempting to get away from using crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter to finance their projects.  They tried essentially running their own crowdfunding/preorder campaign without a third party to collect funds (and take a percentage) and as of their January news update it seems to have backfired and resulted in a financial shortfall for the project when 38 backers and 5 retailers failed to honor their pledges and 3 backers had Paypal refund their money.  They may have thought that that approach would be good enough to satisfy Harmony Gold, since it's basically a glorified preorder.

Mind you, I've suspected for a while now that this sudden surge in Robotech licensing right before the end of their license is Harmony Gold once again just selling a license to anyone willing to pay and finding only small-time indie outfits willing to bite.  (So like the 90's, but with toys and statues instead of comics.)

First thought in my head reading that: *** hmmm... naked licensing can be a basis for losing your trademark... ***

Not that it really matters.

20 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Huh... I wonder if they've run aground on Harmony Gold's insistence that their licensees not use crowdfunding sites for their projects?

Ever since Palladium Books came clean about having been lying about the state of its Robotech Kickstarter's finances for three years, resulting in the project's failure due to inadequate funds Harmony Gold has been death on anything to do with crowdfunding.

It's HG, so anything is possible (especially laziness), but I don't know how you can get in bed with MAAS Toys and NOT know that they're going to do a Kickstarter. That's been their business model for at least the last couple of years.

On 2/1/2019 at 7:53 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Like the ONA, the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt manga is relentlessly dark to the point that it quickly becomes relentlessly dull.  It'd probably be a pretty good action series if only it were possible to get invested in the characters.  The problem is that the series is so thoroughly committed to gritty grimdark grim darkness that the cast is mostly made up of complete bastards.  It's not like Yazan Gable's often-comedic sociopathy, these are just unapologetically sh*tty human beings 24/7/365.  TL;DR it's a Gundam manga that really wants to be Attack on Titan written by Buckets-of-Blood guy.

The art quality is consistently excellent though.  The only thing I can really complain about there is that the Atlas Gundam is one of the most hideous Mobile Suits I've ever laid eyes on and the character art style makes many characters (esp. Claudia) look like they were supposed to be in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and wandered onto the wrong set.  I don't know about you, but seeing a Federation division leader unironically trying to rock a pompadour takes me right out of the story.

Thunderbolt vol. 1 came in the mail yesterday and I read it last night. Since there are still 3 volumes to go in the English publication of this series, I guess it counts as "current".

I wouldn't say that I loved it, but I did enjoy it. A bit grim, but, at least so far, not too grim. Sort of what I would expect out of a book trying to show war in a more "real robot" light... very much like a war movie trying to show war a bit more realistically and less glorified. Speaking of movies, chapter 5 seemed to be virtually lifted directly from Starship Troopers (maybe I just canceled out my whole "realistic" argument?).

I've enjoyed the writing so far, but I have mixed feelings on the art. The mecha and combat are well drawn, though I find Gundam mecha designs in general to be a bit boring (at least the ones that aren't overly "cartoony"). I guess, design-wise, it's par for the course with Gundam, but, since this is my first really foray into this universe, I was hoping for some more dynamic designs. That said, the artist does a good job of conveying action and using very cinematographic framing and transitions. What I don't like is the way that humans are drawn. They just seem too rushed and cartoony (I can't believe I just used that word twice). They remind me of the character artwork from some of the worse Robotech comics.

Overall, though, I liked it enough where I ordered a cheap copy of vol. 2.

As for other manga I'm currently reading, I've been picking them up on the cheap, so there are a number of starts and stops while waiting for the next book to come in from slow eBay sellers or Amazon resellers, etc.

I just read the first two volumes of Aldnoah Zero season 1 (looks like season 2 and the Twin Gemini spin-off have yet to be translated, and are unlikely to be). I liked it, but only really because of a ton of affection for the anime. The books themselves are adaptations, and it shows... its's a lot like the Marvel MCU prelude comics, which takes scenes and dialogue from the movies and put them into comic format, but it ends up feeling disjointed and like too many transitions are just skipped due to page count. It's fine, and good enough to pick up for a few bucks, but definitely isn't worth cover price.

Finally, I read Knights of Sidonia volume 1. I have all but 3 of the 15 volumes, but of course I'm waiting for volume 2 to show up in the mail, so all I can comment on is vol. 1 so far. I have to say that I like it a lot so far. Granted, I'm a big Tsutomu Nihei fan, and I enjoyed the anime, so there's no real surprise that I liked it, but still... The story is told well, bits of backstory are mixed in appropriately, the artwork is surprisingly clear and easy to follow, and it's nice to get more details and things that the anime couldn't go into.

That's it for me at the moment. Hopefully some other folks can comment on what they're currently reading, and what else is worth checking out.

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Not a peep on their official website since 16th January.

Looks like they haven't responded to any comments on FB for about 3 weeks now, either (including ones asking if the Kickstarter was still a go for February 1st).

7 minutes ago, JB0 said:

I expected, in true shady chinese fashion, a 4GB card that only holds 256MB.

(I have a flash drive like that. I bought it because it turns into a poorly-articulated Ravage with a blue decepticon logo. I threw it out when the leg snapped off. Possibly the worst legally-distinct converting robot toy.)

I almost bought that toy! Good to know I didn't miss out...

9 minutes ago, captain america said:

So basically, they don't :P

Exactly. They act like they do, but in reality they only respond to feedback to tell people that they already made their decisions because they know best.

1 hour ago, Mazinger said:

^ this 100x's. 

From what I've seen, they listen, but they've already made their decisions and don't tend to change their minds.

I know I haven't read the last few issues, but in the summary,"The fight led to Miriya... unleashing Invid warriors on Macross City as a distraction..."

Huh?

1 minute ago, no3Ljm said:

From Arcadia site:
Megazone 23 display on the upcoming WonderFest 2019 Winter event.
- 1/24 Proto Garland
- 1/24 Hargan
- 1/24 Transporter

 

Here's hoping for some good pics (and that the Hargan and transporter are looking close to finished)!

3 minutes ago, jenius said:

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I will probably add a couple fighter mode line art comparisons when the video review is done (birds eye and side profile). I'll wait until Rick gets released to do the battloid comparison I ussually do. The problem with battloid is that most the line art is pretty dynamic in ways that aren't very easy to recreate for most toys.

Usually this information has been included in a scale comparison picture like this: 

but I'll start making sure it's also included in the text. When the video review is done I'll be adding pictures similar to the one above to the review as well.

Thanks for giving it a read guys, I'll be following this thread to see if any other issues pop up.

 

You realize you're just making me wish that Kitz Concept would tackle the Alpha/Legioss that much more...

Finally watched the first episode (you need to be a member to watch the second).

I'll start with this: I absolutely hate this animation style... hate it... but the dogfights looked pretty good (except for g-forces apparently not being a thing and stray gunfire not taking down buildings...).

With that out of the way, I actually thought that the writing was pretty good. The story was decent, and is admittedly the type of storytelling I tend to enjoy. There were flaws, and I have my nitpicks, but overall I enjoyed it. The dialogue was actually a lot better than I was expecting.

As for the mecha designs, I liked them. I thought they looked pretty cool and are nicely designed (especially the fighters, enemy mecha, and enemy soldiers). I agree that the designs are nothing groundbreaking and we've seen plenty of similar before, but I think that's largely because these types of designs have that "realistic believable" scifi look to them.

Let's not forget the most important thing:

David Tennant!

Yeah, I'm on board.

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Lately I've been re-reading some old favorites like Kaichou wa Maid-sama! and B Gata H Kei, mixed in with some newer stuff including Kaguya wants to be confessed to and the 4koma spinoff We Want to Talk About Kaguya, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Overlord, and the re-release of Macross the First.  I recently finished re-reading Blame! thanks to that lovely new edition that came out over the last year or so.

I've been looking for recommendations to broaden my reading list, so I'm glad you made this thread.  I hope to glean many useful recommendations from it in the future.  

 

I have... though my opinion of it is not high.  

Like the ONA, the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt manga is relentlessly dark to the point that it quickly becomes relentlessly dull.  It'd probably be a pretty good action series if only it were possible to get invested in the characters.  The problem is that the series is so thoroughly committed to gritty grimdark grim darkness that the cast is mostly made up of complete bastards.  It's not like Yazan Gable's often-comedic sociopathy, these are just unapologetically sh*tty human beings 24/7/365.  TL;DR it's a Gundam manga that really wants to be Attack on Titan written by Buckets-of-Blood guy.

The art quality is consistently excellent though.  The only thing I can really complain about there is that the Atlas Gundam is one of the most hideous Mobile Suits I've ever laid eyes on and the character art style makes many characters (esp. Claudia) look like they were supposed to be in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and wandered onto the wrong set.  I don't know about you, but seeing a Federation division leader unironically trying to rock a pompadour takes me right out of the story.

 

If you want an oddly lighthearted, charming Gundam manga, I highly recommend Developers: Mobile Suit Gundam before the One Year War.  It's about the team at a little engineering subcontractor that developed the first Minovsky reactor-powered prototype for the MS-05 Zaku I.

I'm going to confess my ignorance, but I don't know any of the manga you mentioned in your first sentence (except Macross the First). Google machine, here I come!

As for Blame!, I just read it about a week ago and enjoyed it quite a lot. However, you can definitely tell that it was his first work (well, except for the virtually unrelated short Blame (no exclamation point)). I liked it, and the world building, and the visual style, but some part of me is surprised that it has remained as popular as it has. It deserves to, don't get me wrong, but Nihei has gotten so much better since then!

As for Gundam Thunderbolt, I can definitely see the issues you mentioned about the characters getting in my way of caring for it (as well as, let's be honest, the pompadour). I decided to chance it on the cheap, and ordered a used copy of vol. 1 that I found for a few bucks.

Now, I don't usually go for the more lighthearted stuff, but Developers: Mobile Suit Gundam before the One Year War sounds interesting. I'm going to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

Has anyone here read Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt?

I tend towards the more scifi, especially with mecha, but have never read any Gundam manga. This one seems to have solid reviews though.

21 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Hmm, how do I convince mama bear that this is definitely a Valentine's Day movie we have to see? 

My solution: Have kids who have had no choice but to develop the same taste in movies that you have.

Nine times out of ten, the movies that my lady doesn't want to go see are the same ones that my son is suggesting that we go see.

11 minutes ago, Vifam7 said:

My rought summary : Lead heroine Ayako and her class of 40 girls are suddenly transported to an alternate world/dimension where they must fight Nazi zombies. Led by an alternate world fox-girl Saki, they try to find a way back to the real world. Like a videogame, the each girl has a certain amount of 'lives' per day.  Running out of 'lives'  means they actually die for real. Ayako and her classmates are each given roles that are seen in army squads/platoons (such as rifleman, sniper, medic, etc.) and they are equipped in WWII-era US Army style (thus M1 Garand, M1903 Springfield, Thompson SMG, BAR, Willys Jeep, etc)

Thank you!

1 hour ago, Vifam7 said:

Houkago Assault Girls (Afterschool Assault Girls) - Kinda like Sword Art Online except with a WWII D-Day theme going.

This one sounds interesting to me, but i'm having trouble finding much out about it online other than actual sites with scans that look slightly sketchy. Can you say anything else about what it's like?

Since there's an excellent thread about what current anime people are watching, and we have a lot of manga readers on here as well, I thought it might be informative to have a similar thread for that.

Largely, this is selfish, since I never really read much manga (though I've been watching anime and reading comic books/graphic novels for decades), but stopped into a little shop in Boston on a recent visit and decided to pick something up to support the small business.

I picked up Aposimz vol. 1 and really enjoyed it. I immediately ordered vol. 2 and flew through that one as well.

For anyone not familiar with Aposimz, it's by Tsutomu Nihei (Blame!, Knights of Sidonia), and has a lot of the same elements that you would expect from him. There are things called gauna and heigus particles, though they're not the same thing as in Knights of Sidonia. This is typical of him, as he recycles the same names and a lot of the same concepts (like seed ships in at least three of his works), but they're always slightly different. Sadly, no Toa Heavy Industries, which I always enjoy seeing pop up in his work.

On the other hand, the art looks very different. It is set on an ice planet, and everything is very white (apparently at the urging of his daughter). Story-wise, it's a quick and entertaining read (so far), though it feels more like a video game premise than a scifi manga epic. Without giving much away, the main character has to travel taking on lower baddies, building up to the bigger ones. It feels like levels of a game initially, but he puts some twists in it that make it entertaining and unexpected.

That's it for my "current" manga reading. For older stuff, I'm now in the midst of a Nihei kick, so just read through Blame, Blame!, Noise, Abara, and am halfway through my second reading of Biomega (read it once years ago, and am now taking my time and enjoying the second reading). It's really entertaining, if you read his work in the order that he created them, to see his artwork and storytelling evolve, though they're always definitely his own style and have a lot of common elements.

Biomega is by far my favorite manga... but I really haven't read much.

Next up, I plan on working my way through Knights of Sidonia (closing out the Nihei phase, since I can't find Snikt! for a reasonable price, and enjoy reading hardcopies of comics and manga), and then reading Aldnoah Zero season 1 (I just watched the anime for the second time and enjoyed it a ton, so I figured I'd see how the manga, which I believe was based upon it, and not the other way around, holds up).

What are other people reading?

8 hours ago, Dobber said:

Personally, I think what Verhoeven did to Starship Troopers was an atrocity. Such a shame people associate that movie to the book. 

Chris

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I find the movie entertaining every time I watch it. The two are two completely separate and unrelated entities to me.

15 hours ago, tekering said:

I was just thinking exactly the same thing.  

I'm so disappointed that this project has derailed your 1:48 Southern Cross plans that I may actively boycott MAAS Toys (rather than simply ignoring them).

Don't boycott them for tackling a less-popular figure that some folks have been asking for for years. Boycott them for trying to sell people on a lazy design.

8 hours ago, sh9000 said:

This one too.

https://www.meptoys.com/wipblog/the-dreaded-red-bioroid?fbclid=IwAR0MXHtYFNOUw9-2aelE6TgAiAbBm4iCAkOrubNauAHUMwh9G1KHlPr-m28

I'm not familiar with MEPToys. Has this person put anything out before? From the "shop" link, it only shows a Breetai listed as "coming soon". The sample looks pretty nice, but the transformation on the Logan looks very amateurish (that said, it may just be a very early "let's see how the parts need to most basically move" kind of thing).

15 hours ago, tekering said:

Actually, it depends on who you ask...  

https://www.kent.net/robotech/mecha/invid/enforcer.shtml

https://robotech.fandom.com/wiki/Invid_Enforcer

http://digitsweb.com/UG/RPG/Palladium/Robotech/invid/igna/mecha/ie.html

 

They can't even keep their own names straight...

I stand corrected, and apologize for my (good-natured, really) correction.

2 hours ago, teckno viking said:

Enforcers would be another perfect 1/12 option as only a wee bigger than the Sentinels for that 7ft look.

I think you meant the soldiers. Weren't the Enforcers big ones, same as the Inbit Garmo/Gamo?

I think that Sentinel is using the same basic figure design as 1000Toys does for all of their 1/12 stuff (if someone knows otherwise, please correct me). Considering the variants that have been put out, modifying that basic design to fit Blame!, Biomega, G.I. Joe, and assorted Kamen Rider-style characters, it doesn't seem like a stretch to use it for a few different color variants of the soldiers/Protect Inbit, too. It just depends if they believe there's a market to justify the new add-on pieces.

11 minutes ago, teckno viking said:

Oh don't know about Matchbox being super available. Have a gaggle of Both and happy to sacrifice a few for 1/12 Scouts.

 

Didn't know about the Breetai though. Only recall the one a few years back custom made.

Give it a try and let us know how it works out.

In my personal experience, kit bashing makes sense if there is a specific part that you are looking to use on something different, or if there is a frame that you are going to remove parts from and replace with your own parts. In the case of the Matchbox Invid, it's pretty much all shell pieces that are screwed together. Since it looks like you're talking about replacing something like 3/4 of the shell pieces, I suspect it makes more sense just to do a new one from scratch.

Something like a Kotobukiya frame with custom parts attached to it might be a good starting point.

1 hour ago, easnoddy said:

Just a personal annoyance, I always though the Toynami looks stubby in armo soldier.  The ET doesn't really look very close to lineart, but i like the look.  The Sentinel looks highly stylized.

I don't think we will get a good, accurate Legioss (or Spartas) until Bandai or a Bandai subsidiary tries it.  Perhaps Arcadia could do it closer.

I could see Arcadia doing it, but it seems unlikely to me that Bandai would tackle it without some reason for significant new and increased interest in the property.

I'd love to see Arcadia take a stab at it, and think even Kitz Concept could do something interesting, in a relatively small scale. Personally, from what little we've seen, I actually like the stylized Sentinel approach.

4 minutes ago, Mog said:

 

Always always love the way the two look attached together...

13 minutes ago, JB0 said:

What? But that's completely insane! 

I mean, if that was all it took to be a toy designer, then I've got some old notebooks from when I was little...

 

BRB, applying to MAAS.

The annoying part is that some of these designers (not all, by any means, but some of the ones that I've seen interviews with) take themselves very seriously, and think that they design robots and know how it's REALLY done... but, in reality, they're very talented CAD artists, but don't know any engineering at all.