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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal
    Yeah, that's the main one that comes to mind. The "landing gear" were broken. Which.. ok, great.. they weren't broken when they took off.. and they hadn't been in any combat since the time they escaped the star destroyer.. when did they break? And yes, the "landing gear" being broken should have absolutely zero effect on the ability of the ship to hover.. so... why did they slam into the countryside of that (not the same) moon of Endor? On top of this, if the landing gear are having trouble extending, real aircraft have a manual hydraulic handpump to address that exact problem. Are you telling me that technology in this universe is so blasted reliable (except when it isn't) that no one has ever had this problem and needed an emergency backup system to address it? Even if you can hover, functionl landing gear are kind of important. Unless we're in this odd universe where a ship can just collide and bounce off the landscape willy-nilly and have no ill effects... except when they do, because of reasons.
  2. Chronocidal
    I mean, even within this movie, it's constantly broken.. in completely inexplicable ways.
  3. Chronocidal
    Pretty much. The theme of this movie seems to be that all the tech in the Star Wars universe has reliability rivaling Zentraedi tech, and ships can sit dormant in deserts, survive their hangar exploding, falling through the atmosphere, and landing in an ocean, and survive underwater for literally decades, and still function with absolutely no trouble. Heck, they don't even seem to need... fuel...
  4. Chronocidal
    Wow... I would buy a second, if they would fix the borked up stupid spring-loaded wings. No one wants their collectibles exploding.
  5. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    I mostly picked this one up to customize, and for the alternate head. The HMR VF-4's parts are pretty easy to swap in and out, so I might mix and match components with the FB2012 version.
  6. Chronocidal

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    Chronocidal replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    In all truth, a snapped head laser is one of the easiest out-of-the-box fixes you can wind up with. I believe there are replacements available from Shapeways (or other 3D printing services), or if you have a pin drill, a paperclip, and some glue, you can fix it to almost brand new condition (and stronger!) with a little effort. If you have larger issues with things breaking, I'd absolutely look into returns, but I don't think returning it for a broken head laser is worth the effort, especially as these get harder to find.
  7. Chronocidal
    Bottom line: Bring back the Action Fleet line. There's literally nothing between Micro Machine and derpy 1/18th-ish scale at this point (except for LEGO, which, what do you know, the only toys that actually seem to sell..). On the other hand.. Hey.. Bandai.. you know that little line of small-scale toys you have? I think they start with an "H" or something like that.. Price-wise though, while LEGO kits are great, the best bang for the buck may be the model kits at this point. The Bandai kits are amazing, and the Revell ones are basically built to be toys anyway, with just as many lights and sounds as the bigger figure-scaled ships.
  8. Chronocidal
    I would put this at slim to none. I think the best we're going to get is them including a spare skull logo piece with his 1A, since that will fit into the existing packaging.
  9. Chronocidal
    Yeah, I would definitely contact them to check on it at this point, but I suspect it's because they're still looking for copies to cover all of their orders. It might depend on how soon after the initial pre-order date you placed your order, but it's worth checking to make sure they still plan on shipping it. If so, all you can really do is wait.
  10. Chronocidal
    Fair, haven't had the time to watch that yet. Honestly.. regardless of the quality or popularity of anything, one of the first things they need to do here is hire someone competent to actually make marketable merchandise. This overlaps with storytelling to an extent, because without compelling action scenes and characters and vehicles, no one is going to want to re-enact them by zooming toy spaceships around the room. But to be entirely blunt, let me sum up my thoughts on sequel trilogy merchandise. The only things I have felt even even the smallest interest in buying were the LEGO sets, because they contained parts I could use to build better OT ships. Let me say that again: The only reason I bought any new merchandise was to kitbash it into the old designs. That's absolutely my personal take though, because I hate that instead of attempting something new, they just reworked OT designs to hell and back. On the other hand... given how the new designs in TLJ worked out, I'm not sure which is worse. To be fair to the sequels, they did at least try to make the battles in TFA and TROS compelling (not even touching TLJ here). But apparently writing good space battles is hard, so we got the largest fleet-based staring contest in cinematic history, punctuated by shots of fighters zipping around on fire, and closeups of Poe regretting his life choices. I'm going to stop myself before getting into a rant about how Endor was so much more interesting to watch because the ships actually moved. If anything, that final battle will provide a wonderful example for future generations of how to stuff so much bloat and fluff into a spectacle that it collapses under the weight. But nevermind, it's not like the giant fleet to end all fleets was there for anything except displaying just how stupidly overpowered Palpy was when he singlehandedly disabled the -entire- -freaking- -fleet- via deus ex wtfaretheysmoking.
  11. Chronocidal
    I don't think we need that by any means, because it really isn't fitting to the tone. It would be interesting to see maybe, but I feel like the closest we'll get to that level is along the lines of Rogue One.
  12. Chronocidal
    Bleh.. I caved to impatience, and just grabbed a pair of packs from a reputable ebay seller. Really not much of a markup, all things considered, and they're already shipping, so I'll have something to play with while I wait until sometime in 2021 for NY to get my other four sets to me. I made the mistake of not diversifying my purchases from the get go, but I wanted more than four anyway, so no real loss.
  13. Chronocidal
    Keep in mind.. the "Prime" universe is not the "Canon" universe. "Prime" is the moniker they've tacked onto everything written under the alternate post-divorce contract language that declared everything had to be different from the original Trek series and movies through Nemesis. All this series is going to amount to is alternate-universe fanfic that happens to use warped versions of characters we remember in new and probably disrespectful ways.
  14. Chronocidal
    I honestly don't think it's impossible with this mold though, for a few reasons. Ankle weirdness aside, I think they've nailed the legs, and done it within a very passable looking fighter mode. The largest problems I'm seeing are things that should not interfere with those large legs for the most part. - The belly plates have to lay flat underneath everything, and I don't know why they can't be longer, rather than making so much of them part of the backpack. - The arms have no reason to be so short and stumpy when there is a boatload of space alongside the back end to extend them, and make the tails either larger or farther back. - The nose is too short, but much like the VF-11, it plays no part in the rest of the transformation, and simply lays down over the torso. You can just extend it, or make it collapse like the Yamato. - This one is extremely nit-picky, but the cockpit is just shaped wrong. I get that maybe it's just an aesthetic choice on Bandai's part, but that doesn't mean it isn't wrong compared with every other source I've seen. While I don't like it, it's also not going to keep me from buying it. The rest of the choices with the design don't really bother me. The big honking bulky engine nacelles aren't my favorite feature, but they don't look that far off a lot of the art, and I understand the need for that space for the legs. I think the core structure of this YF-21 has a good shot at being very good in all modes, they just need to fine tune the bits surrounding that core.
  15. Chronocidal
    It really is a beautiful piece though. I think my one nitpick is that the headlights need some work to black out the light bleed. The lights look good, but the way they are piped through the lenses lets a bit too much leaking into the red plastic around the lights.
  16. Chronocidal
    Or you could do exactly what Yamato did on their v.2 1/60, and just put a clip under the backplate to hold them up. They nailed it, and for as much as Bandai managed to copy it, they also somehow flubbed some of the most structurally important features of the design. There was literally zero reason to use a vertical press-fit peg fighting against gravity to hold up something that was going to be carrying more things in the future. Literally any sort of locking mechanism whatsoever for the arms should have been an absolute no-brainer.
  17. Chronocidal
    Actually, depending on if the pegs are long enough, it might work to file a notch into those lower pegs that go into the elbows. Since the arms slide freely forward and back, you could just slip them over, and then pull or push the arms to lock them, depending on which side the notch was cut on. Would also depend on the plastic around the hole not being too thick, but it could be an alternative to beefing up the pegs. Still ridiculous that they thought those were sufficient and that we get do do their engineering work for them.
  18. Chronocidal
    I really hate to find out that my very first concern pulling the VF-1J out of the box has been confirmed. Freakin' Bandai. Guess I'm going to be giving all those pegs a coating of super glue while I wait for NY to get off their backsides.
  19. Chronocidal
    That's specifically what's baffling me, actually. The curved panels covering the hands on the Bandai version are nearly as long as the entire arm. Are the legs truly so honking huge that they can't trade any of that space on the inside to give the arms a bit more bulk? It's going to be an interesting compromise to see either way, I just hope the final product balances out the design better than that early prototype, and gets closer to that Hi-Metal promotional image from years ago.
  20. Chronocidal
    Mnnn... a little yes, but by that same logic, the arms should be gorilla arms. The Bandai ones are just tiny. The hands are clearly placeholders, which isn't helping anything, but the entire arms really look unfinished. Hopefully they'll get updated.
  21. Chronocidal
    I still think one of the most impressive details on that version is how Yamato actually went to the trouble to paint the wiring on the gear. For all of Bandai's obsession with tampo, I'd trade all the "NO STEP"s in an instant for painted gear.
  22. Chronocidal
    I'm still just baffled at how microscopic the arms look. They have all that freaking room behind the hand in fighter, because they made the back end so long, and they couldn't use any of that to give it arms that look in-scale with the rest of the battroid? That angle does benefit the fighter a lot though. With the nose tilted away from the camera, the perspective hides the fact that the nose is so short, and how the bulk of the design is so front-loaded. Still disappointed that they somehow are so blind that they can't shape the tails correctly, despite there being literally no reason for them not to be... though on the other hand, being so simple, it would also be really easy to just replace them with scratch-built copies that ditch the rudder (because seriously Bandai, WTF is that for? ).
  23. Chronocidal
    I think the main piledriven stake in the coffin in this case is that despite CBS and Viacom re-merging, STP is still operating under the alternate universe contract that spawned STD and the Kelvinverse. This isn't a post-TNG series, it's a post-"Countdown" series... which sadly makes even less sense in that they apparently forgot that Data was alive and well for the destruction of Romulus via the Not!Spock Not!GenesisPlanet resurrection through B4. I think they've already stated that this series is going to connect with STD anyhow, through whatever temporal shenanigans they plan to introduce in the third season. Though, the worst thing by far may just be the attitude they're approaching it from. They keep insisting on dragging the bright hopeful future that the Federation used to represent through the grimdark mud, because how dare we presume that humans can ever achieve anything good and wholesome? As a side note, I didn't watch much of Voyager, but I still think my favorite episode was the one involving the Hirogen taking over the ship and rigging it into a massive flying holodeck to reenact scenarios from WWII. I'm not going to argue it was a good episode by any stretch, but watching the ship overrun with scaley aliens wearing SS uniforms was a freakin' hoot.
  24. Chronocidal
    If I'm being honest about the background for how lightsabers work, while the idea that the crystals are sentient and attuned to the user is interesting, I'm not sure it was a good idea to shoehorn that much lore in after the fact. I'm not even saying it was a bad idea exactly, but it came so late in the game that it's hard to work it into even the existing movies, to say nothing of all the EU material that may or may not directly negate it. When you introduce that many "required" steps to the creation of a "proper" lightsaber, you also introduce inconsistencies via the fact that Luke probably got to do literally none of that. He may have gotten instruction via Ben and Yoda, but where was that crystal cave? Was there more than one? Was that what was being mined on Jedha in Rogue One, and the padawans had to visit that temple to pick a crystal? Or were they mined in bulk and stockpiled at the Jedi equivalent of Ollivanders' for the young students to go and pick out a crystal? I've never watched most of Clone Wars or Rebels, so I'm absolutely missing out on any material or explanation there, but it feels like the whole kyber crystal explanation was introduced too late to fit in well as a whole. I won't say it's not a "fun" idea, but it also leans far more on the fantasy side of things, and makes lightsabers a lot more mystical than just a projected plasma cutting beam.
  25. Chronocidal
    This is true, but you also don't go painting and chrome-plating the suspension and transmission components, or other things intended to absorb a lot of wear and tear. That's about as useful as gold-plated sandpaper. The weathering is going to wear off if you transform this thing or handle it a lot, that's just a given. It's just the nature of turning a toy into a display model. It's the same reason I hate heavy die-cast content or painted plastic in toys with lots of moving parts. If you can mold something in color, do it. Don't cheapen out on the molding and make entire parts in the wrong color just so you can guarantee that the paint used to cover your design flaw chips off from minimal use. I get it, molds cost a lot.. so do them right the first time, and use the right color plastic from the start.
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