JB0

3 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

I always wondered why Phantasy Star IV was so damn expensive compared to other Genesis games upon its release.  This podcast with Victor Ireland (Working Designs) gives a reason: Ireland wanted to publish the game, and Sega US did not want to, thinking RPGs are a bad idea.  Sega Japan asks Sega US if PSIV is such a bad idea, then why does Working Designs want to publish it so badly?  Sega US then releases the game and jacks up the price so high, thinking the price will tank the game, validating its anti-RPG stance.  The game proceeds to sell out.

A big thank you to Bernie Stolar (head of Sega US at the time) for allowing me to play one of the best 16 bit RPGs (albeit at an outrageous price).

Man, every time I think I've heard the dumbest story out of 90s Sega, someone find a new one. If Sega Japan isn't trying to sabotage Sega America to make Sega Japan look good, Sega America's trying to sabotage Sega America to make Sega Japan look bad.

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Meanwhile, I'm getting emails from Amazon telling me mine's delayed.😒

Hopefully the delay is because they're expending some effort packing it for shipment.

So I got a shipping notice e-mail from Amazon. Weird, since I hadn't ordered anything recently. I'd just forgotten about that one Knight Rider Transformer.

...

If I were a mint in sealed box kinda guy, I'd be absolutely livid. They threw it in an oversized box with a single small piece of brown paper.

You can probably guess, but...

They only BARELY missed crushing the actual toy, and abrasion on the box window at the point closest to the toy tells me they tried really hard.

7 hours ago, Spacenumber1 said:

Does anyone know what kind of DVDs Animeigo used to make this set? Did they use rewritable DVDs (DVD+/-RWs)?

You're thinking completely the wrong era. DVD writers were pretty rare at the time, and no self-respecting publisher would be caught dead using them anyways.

They were pressed disks. Single-layer DVD5, just to emphasize the time frame. The company they were using for production hadn't yet upgraded their equipment for dual-layer disks.

12 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The closest we can reliably get is emigrant planets that already had a native alien species living on them, like Windermere IV or Ragna.  Though Macross being Macross, "not so different" is almost always in play and even these alien cultures end up being more like Human culture than they are different.

Understandable, given the protoculture's hand in seeding all those planets. We haven't seen a civilization that isn't built on the protoculture as a foundation, really.

The vajra and space whales aren't descended from the Po, and they're too alien to have a human-recognizable civilization.

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

and an orange plug for his gun barrel.

Clearly the most important accessory. MP quality right there.

52 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

I'm a little surprised Countdown comes with him, I thought that microbot was a Zone character which would been those base sets....I could swear I had this rocket base he came with. 

I think you're right. Micromaster shuttle base or something.

But hey, Omega turns into a rocket base, so it isn't a completely random packin.

5 hours ago, Axelay said:

I absolutely agree. Having these in hand, it's almost undeniable that making Mixmaster and Scrapper be arms instead of legs just makes good sense.  They make for quite interesting looking arms, and I always thought that they looked kind of odd as feet. From photos on TFW, I am under the impression that Hook and Long Haul may be coming next, so it will be interesting to see how these turn out and whether they have any particular innovations.

I like how Mixmaster looks as a leg, the cab-as-foot is a nice design feature. But yeah, Scrapper's always looked like they just... forgot to put a foot on down there.

And getting Scavenger off the arm is a great change, his bucket arm won't just dangle awkwardly off the shoulder now... it'll dangle awkwardly off the shin instead! (Nah, it'll probably secure flat.)

I actually find it interesting that they're shaking up which bot forms which limb, and admit to being very curious what led to that decision.

I've made my affection for new takes on old characters known in the past, this is just a surprising change to legally-not-Devastator's basic layout.

Man, I expected more of a redesign for Dinoking, not just "dinobots in the wrong colors". I no longer hope for a Monstructor version.

Man, every time someone puts out a new "Nintendo 64 controller, but better-designed" I am just reminded that what Nintendo 64 fans want is actually just the Saturn 3D Controller. This 8bitdo one is the most obvious yet.

Just accept it, guys. Embrace perfection, and quit pretending you actually want what Nintendidn't.

10 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

I'd be shocked if this actually got made. 

It's only been in development for twenty years. That's basically an eyeblink.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

But so many stores quit selling them.

Yeah...

47 minutes ago, Mog said:

^^Other than cancelling the service.

Which still leaves you without the media.

Buy disks, watch forever.

11 hours ago, Mog said:

And no explanation of where the series may show up again? 🤷‍♂️

Kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a streaming service, if they keep removing content.

I'd say it validates the purpose of a streaming service. You don't own it, they can change or remove it at any time, and you have no recourse.

22 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Dang, I should have waited before I bought 4 of them.

Look on the bright side. If you get a fifth to make Metalhead, it will be cheaper!

4 hours ago, Big s said:

I know Macross has hurt you. Macross has made many promises over the years and hasn’t apologized for letting you down. You’re not alone. Macross may come home one day when Macross is ready, hopefully you’ll be able to forgive Macross when it happens and allow Macross into your home, just gotta give Macross its space for now.

Macross went out to get cigarettes when I was little and never came home. Probably because there's no smoking on the bridge.

1 hour ago, Old_Nash_II said:

RPG with a touch of nostalgia.
I used to play a lot with a friend at a rental store, on a PS1. Since it was in Japanese (and we didn't know any Japanese), we based ourselves on the rule of "always select the 1st option" when there were options.
Of course, that's why there were some annoying but also hilarious situations (Jessica's bath...).
Good times of my youth.

I wish they'd quit remaking the remake. There were some huge narrative changes in Silver Star Story that make it significantly less interesting than The Silver Star was. I miss my badass triple-crossing Nash.

On 9/21/2024 at 10:29 PM, mikeszekely said:

Excuse the crappy quality of the pics, but this is all I got so far.

I don't know jack about Monster Hunter, but this looks like an extensive retool of Airazor to me.  The general consensus is that this is already much better than the Godzilla collab.

I hope they use a Primal head instead of a Prime head, because this screams Beast Wars.

43 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm going to do something a little different than normal, and I'm first going to point out the box.  Because, boy, is Fugu brazen!  They've designed the box to be as close to the original G1 toy as possible.  The artwork is ripped straight from the original, and uses all the same names and logos.  Fugu just removed the barcode, added a "Fugu FG-01" after the "Autobot Air Guardian Jetfire," replaced the product photos, removed the Hasbro and Tatsunoko marks, and stripped all the faction symbols from the art. 

You know, I often use the term "legally distinct converting robots" instead of (the dishonest and misleading IMO) "third-party Transformers", but damn. Fugu does NOT give even a single crap about being "legally distinct".

5 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

The vibe is sort of techno-organic stone... almost like something the Protoculture might have cooked up.

He's got some Guyver vibes to me.

...

And that whole series is ALSO "things the Protoculture might have cooked up and then irresponsibly discarded somewhere".

It's kinda sad, though. I think Quintesson has a more credible jet than... pretty much any Transformer that is supposed to turn into a jet in the last decade.

5 minutes ago, Jasonc said:

pretend I'm some posh Macross collector that only listens to Macross LP while sipping some SDF-1 whiskey (geez, I just pictured that, LOL). I

While smoking an officially-licensed Captain Global pipe.

21 hours ago, kajnrig said:

I figured some of the older heads here would like to be aware of this. Anandtech closing down: https://www.anandtech.com/show/21542/end-of-the-road-an-anandtech-farewell

Yeah... it's sad, but in honesty, Anandtech's been dead for years. This is just the period at the end of the sentence. Their owners also own Tom's Hardware, and didn't see a point in paying to staff two tech news sites.

21 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

*happy noises*

 

I love this much-maligned minature mecha more than most.  It's great to see it getting some love.

Yeah, I think the Logan's an adorable little piece of fictional machinery too.

8 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

For Diaclone X Transformers: if it were my call, I would do the Diaclone figures as human-researched copies of Cybertronians that were built to fight the "alien invasion" (Autobot/ Decepticon forces). It would have to be like Marvel G1, where the Autobots were mostly in hiding while the Decepticons did what they wanted, and the government studied them clandestinely with surveillance during their skirmishes. Once enough intel was gathered ( and perhaps some captured specimens to work from ), they then start buildign their own forces to counter them.

I'd arrange a Decepticon/Waruder alliance.

With both sides intending to betray their allies and seize Earth's freezon and energon for themselves once the Autobot and Diaclone forces are defeated, naturally.