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Chronocidal

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Everything posted by Chronocidal

  1. Chronocidal
    You know the trouble with writing reviews like this? I really kinda want to play the game now to experience this nonsense first hand.
  2. Chronocidal
    Bandai might do this, but for whatever reason, there's a long and varied history of HIkaru's 1J getting packaged with the TV super packs. What I'm hoping is that we'll get one release of the Skull 1 VF-1S with a TV Roy pilot, and then Bandai will release both the TV supers, and DYRL strike packs, and include the proper pilots with them. I honestly don't care one way or another about the yellow/black arrows on the DYRL/TV version head, I'm not bothering with two separate releases.
  3. Chronocidal
    Coming this fall to a screen near you! PLANES: CLOSE AIR SUPPORT
  4. Chronocidal
    I... need to do something when I get home, because I don't have photoshop at work.
  5. Chronocidal
    A more apt comparison would be the Weird Al version: "Gonna buy / That vintage chunky monkey / Gonna buy / Destroids, Battroids and Zentraedi / Gonna buy / That lifesized doll of Lynn Minmay! / They haaad it, on Eeeebay."
  6. Chronocidal
    Wouldn't it be entirely possible for Tatsunoko to even pull their Southern Cross and Mospeada rights from HG once the expiration date passes? I was under the impression that expiration applied to everything Tatsunoko was licensing to them. That's not to say Tatsunoko might choose to let them continue using those properties, but I wonder if their relationship with HG has soured enough to put a complete withdrawal of any licenses on the table.
  7. Chronocidal
    Yeah, I had to go read a summary of how the original story went to clear up my understanding. The original was less about untapped/bottled-up massive mental powers, and more how Jean let a mysterious cosmic space chicken spirit boost her power level to help her rescue her friends from getting cooked by a solar flare. The "locking away" was done after that, by Jean herself, I think, but of course, her overpowered personality became an exploitable plot device, and people began twisting her. All that culminated in the space chicken reasserting itself, throwing her across the galaxy in the cosmic spirit equivalent of a late night "I've got the munchies" run, and she winds up eating a star and killing a planet's worth of people. The remainder just centers on whether Jean deserves to be executed for her actions as caused by the firey bird renting out her mind, and what sounds like an adaptation of some Star Trek episode where the only way to determine guilt or innocence is via a massive battle for honor. Of course, Jean loses control again during the battle, and kills herself with a handy plot device she finds laying in a corner of the moon, saving everyone the trouble. And then they revealed it was never her in the first place, and when the phoenix took over her body in space, she was sent into another person's body entirely? Granted, yes, I never read these when I was younger, and I'm viewing the whole thing through a heavy dose of cynicism. For characters that've built up relationships over more than a hundred issues, having this sort of thing going on was no small twist. Unfortunately, in the following decades, the "character turns evil and superpowered" subplot has been done so many times as to make it seem pretty cliche in hindsight. Now, granted the trailer shows the bit with the space shuttle, so at least that scene may remain intact, but since we've already seen hints of the Phoenix in Apocalypse, I don't think they're going to go with the cosmic entity version of the Phoenix from the original comics, meaning we're probably not going to get the "It was never Jean in the first place" twist. Might be we're just going to get that event as the trigger that awakens her potential, or possibly even pull a Fantastic 4-ish bit of mutation brought on by the solar flare itself.
  8. Chronocidal
    Having played both this and the Macross 30 game, I want to say this plays about like an early test build for 30. I remember the controls not being as refined or functional, and I think the camera/transformation controls got a little frustrating? I would have to try it again to remember exactly. I probably wouldn't buy it as a stand-alone game, but it's a nice pack-in bonus for the DYRL box set, which I wasn't going to miss out on.
  9. Chronocidal
    Thanks for that heads-up about the Swordfish on CD Japan, just picked one up there. Demand not too insane apparently, they should have 4 left now.
  10. Chronocidal
    So, for all you people planning on a fun family vacation, you should all go the week before any new stuff opens. Park will be the most pleasant you'll ever see it.
  11. Chronocidal
    I don't know if I ever attributed that much thought to it. I thought it was treated fairly well in X2, before they ran over the concept repeatedly with a bus in X3. I'd have to review the original comic story to remember for sure, but the entire mess sounded like a 30-cliche pile-up even in its original form. I don't think the space alien angle ever helped it. At least as the movies have portrayed it so far, isn't the whole thing just a sort of alternate personality in Jean that Professor X locked away through some sort of mental jury-rigging? Frankly, that's enough of a compelling plot on its own. The space alien twist just sounds like a half-assed effort to save the character after her repressed Mary Sue personality went on a temper tantrum and killed a bunch of people.
  12. Chronocidal
    I feel like that should be a setup for a sequel. "Captain Marvel vs Predator" comes to mind.
  13. Chronocidal
    I want to know why Mystique suddenly looks like a Star Trek alien of the week.1 I don't remember the makeup looking that cheap/terrible before. That's like Fantastic 4 reshoot wig-bad. Is it because they've entirely ditched any makeup, and are just doing it digitally? Even that shouldn't explain that mop of neon red hair.. she looks like a smurf dressed up as Raggedy-Anne. (1. Maybe it's the uniform? )
  14. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    A fair point, and I'm having to ween myself off of the convenience of using Paypal for those sorts of things. I'm just personally baffled that such policies can exist with what should be your own money. Basically, once they have your money in their account, you are entirely at their mercy for how it gets applied to anything in their shop. Not being able to spend it on shipping is particularly frustrating when combined with the "have to spend it all at once" caveat, considering the original amount refunded was partially spent on shipping to begin with, so you actually have to order something more expensive than your original order, before they'll let you redeem the credit they owe you.
  15. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    I honestly don't think they ever got their orders from Bandai, or we would have been getting them in the original shipper boxes. That's been all kinds of suspicious from the get-go, because this was the only item I've ever seen that happen with. What I think actually happened is that they took all those orders, and then, since their policy is "NO REFUNDS", they sat on the orders, with the intention of "getting around to them someday, if we can acquire the goods and still maintain a profit." The jacked up price they have now looks like a straight-faced attempt to recover their losses for all the ones they had to acquire at a loss to fulfill the orders people didn't want to cancel. One way or another, everyone who ordered a 31A from them gave them an interest-free loan. In the end, I asked about getting a single one shipped, because I didn't trust they would ever deliver. I still take issue with the fact that they just went ahead and cancelled one with no mention of all the ridiculous restrictions on how they allow you to use your own money if it gets converted to store credit, but such is life. For those unaware of how many hoops you have to jump through to get your money back once they've issued you a credit: 1. You cannot purchase anything less expensive than the entire amount. 2. You cannot apply store credit to shipping. 3. YOUR CREDIT EXPIRES IN A YEAR. Yeah. Caveat emptor in the worst way I've ever seen from any store anywhere. I have to question whether it's even legal, or whether any other shops have such policies. So yeah. Bottom line? DO NOT ACCEPT NY STORE CREDIT. It's not worth the cost to you. In the end, I bought one of their marked up VF-31Es with the credit from my cancelled 31A. The ball is back in their court to deliver, so I'm curious to see if they'll actually come through, or try to throw some other type of restriction in my face.
  16. Chronocidal
    I'd be more concerned about the risk for mid-air collisions with friendly drones. Granted, the combat spread of modern platforms is getting wider, but throwing AI-controlled players into the mix will clog the airspace fast, and those things will need to be interconnected to all friendly aircraft to prevent friendly fire incidents.
  17. Chronocidal
    Part of me wonders why they need to recast (almost) everyone, and couldn't just make a 3D/4K remaster of the original, using the entire original soundtrack and voice recordings. I don't want to dump all over the movie, because I'm sure it'll be amazing, but at the same time, I can't help but think "Hmm.. did Disney hire Todd Howard as head of marketing?" Like, why should they work on writing new movies when they can just churn out upscales and remasters of all their greatest hits?
  18. Chronocidal
    Nice, I don't keep up with transformer stuff enough to have been aware of those KFC molds. Will be interested to see how they turn out.
  19. Chronocidal
    Yeah, I don't get why they couldn't make the entire thing a single piece, and had to do the pod in so many segments. Far as the engine block goes, they did the kit a disservice by having such a huge flat plate sitting against another flat plate. The main engine block or intake should have had some kind of collar to neatly seal around the opposite part, but there's literally nothing to stop it from leaving a gap wide enough to see through. Unfortunately, it also doesn't help that the pegs on the front of the engine block are oversized, and don't let the intake seat well. I had to file mine down, and due to the way the engine block is built up, I had to remove the exhaust assembly and reach inside of the hull with a flat wooden dowel to apply direct pressure to the back side of the intake block to press it into place. Honestly, you may be better off cutting off the mounting pegs, sanding both the back of the intake and front of the engine block perfectly flat, and just mounting it with glue. That whole assembly was a pain.
  20. Chronocidal
    Looking beautiful so far! Keep in mind the gaps that might need filling on the B-Wing, mainly the back end of the cockpit pod, and around the big intake on the front of the engine block. They're completely uncharacteristic for Bandai's kits, but those seams are eye-sores on the one I built.
  21. Chronocidal
    You know, for as much as Silverbolt always winds up being a plane with a giant box of kibble underneath, why hasn't anyone tried using the XB-70 Valkyrie as the alt mode? It's literally a big long slender fuselage and tails slapped on top of a giant delta wing, with a huge blocky intake and engine box underneath. You wouldn't be fitting the entirety of the body in a properly scaled underside, but it'd be better than using a design that's supposed to have nothing down there. I'm still waiting for someone to attempt an MP-style Dreadwind combiner.
  22. Chronocidal
    The ordnance pylons are all interlinked to keep them pointed forward, yep. Panavia Tornadoes do that as well. It gets complicated in real life, because those pivoting pylons need to adapt to the airflow around the wing at multiple angles. The ones on the Tornado look like they collapse to stay flush with the underside of the wing as they move. One more reason variable geometry wings have fallen out of favor as a design feature. They just add far more complexity than they tend to be worth, once you factor in maintenance and design compromises.
  23. Chronocidal
    You're still talking about a plane that needs to do this to land. Variable sweep only does so much. Just from a "feature" perspective though, the missiles look close enough to the wings to flat out restrict the "movable flaps" from even moving downward. They'll probably get a little motion, but it's not like the flaps move accurately anyway.. It's just another drop in the bucket of "this would never work on a real aircraft, and Bandai either doesn't know any better, or just flat out doesn't care." It's not like it detracts from it being a toy, but it's one of those little niggling issues that will bug people who know a lot about aircraft, and can't not see it when they look at it on a shelf.
  24. Chronocidal
    It makes sense for them to use the base Yamato design for the hardpoints, no sense in reinventing the wheel. They just have to make sure to change the measurements just enough so you can't possibly use the Yamato weapons on their valks. Sheesh, it's like Apple redesigning all the connectors for their phones all the time.. What I think might be a viable option for a lot of Bandai's hardpoints would be to forego the locking bits entirely, and just rely on pegs to hold everything. Makes the tolerances easier to deal with, and maybe has a lower chance of damaging the stock hardpoint. Anyhow, I look forward to seeing how the progress goes! I'm planning on a 3D printer upgrade this year, so I might get deep into the pylon/weapon production business. I've got a long list of things I want to try out in terms of valk add-ons, but my current printer is a few generations too old to get the consistency necessary.
  25. Chronocidal
    Ugh.. Now that I look at the pylons closer, I'm kind of hoping the missiles can be removed from them. I would guess that Bandai understands even less about external ordnance mounts than they do about landing gear. Those missiles are all too close to the wing for the control surfaces to even work. You'd think after making the effort to specifically include that feature, they'd be more aware of things like that... I wonder how hard it would be to kitbash the pylons with the Hasegawa set..
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