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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal
    Urgh.. I know it's cheesy, but these trailers always make me tear up. Looks like I'll have another AC soundtrack to pick up as well. I'd been holding off picking up a PS4, but this might push me over the edge, if I don't see news of a PC port right away.
  2. Chronocidal
    I think the thing to keep in mind, and what will make that kit really difficult, is that even if you can polish the seams, you will have seams on the inside too. I'm thinking that the only way you'd ever truly be able to get rid of seams would be to physically melt the parts together, and then polish the seams on both front and back.
  3. Chronocidal
    Oh, you're absolutely right, the studio may have absolutely no part in any sort of diversity agenda. It's just that the moment the issue is mentioned from any direction, it eclipses any civil discussion about any other aspect of the series. You can be making all the relevant points in the universe about good and bad aspects of the storyline or characters, but once the diversity beast rears it's head, no one will be able to hear any of it over the screaming match between people who have nothing better to do than turn the situation into a platform for their personal take on the issue. I'm not going to pretend it's not a political issue, but much like a parent trying to control a room full of screaming children, the concept of who's right and who's wrong dissolves beneath the weight of the noise, and all they really want is QUIET.
  4. Chronocidal
    That's the messy paradox of the world we live in, I think. Trek has never had a diversity problem. It was one of the founding aspects of the series even. But now, it's a forced agenda that people both for and against won't shut up about, and it drags the entire franchise through the mudslinging. Same thing that happened to Star Wars, I think. I think the biggest problem though? It's not even related to diversity itself, but the overall quality of the material just isn't there. Whether that's related to the diversity is irrelevant though, because no matter what the actual reasons are for the show having issues, it's going to be pegged on the diversity angle, because it's the biggest and most obvious target. "This show is all about diversity.. and it's terrible. That means diversity must be terrible!" It's kind of like covering a tank in stuffed animals, and then claiming that the countries shooting at your tanks must have an unbridled hatred of plushies. No, seriously, it has nothing to do with that. Holding anything in front of you as a shield means it's going to be the first thing in the line of fire. Trying to hide behind a hot-button issue like diversity is like hiding in a bunker made out of thermite.
  5. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    That makes me curious now... does the super part fighter adapter we all have bunches of work any better, even without having any arm armors mounted?
  6. Chronocidal
    Oh absolutely, I don't think those are actually traced. But it's clear that they're at least using actual VF-1 references, which is a huge step up from whatever fan design they seemed to be using before. What does make me laugh a little is copying toys verbatim though. It'd be like using a Figma as a posing aid, and then giving a human being ball-jointed ankles.
  7. Chronocidal
    So, yeah, I have to say wow. That looks like they went from drawing robot and airplane parts over humans, to tracing stuff out of Tenjin's books, or even drawing posed valk toys.. In fact, the proportions and details of that battroid look like they're drawing HMRs.
  8. Chronocidal
    I always kind of figured that the Vengeance was JJ's attempt to further turn Star Trek into Star Wars. Between the bloated ship dimensions, rigid aesthetics, and color scheme, that thing would fit right in with the First Order. Sad thing, it's still a better looking design than any new ship designed for the new trilogy.
  9. Chronocidal
    Is there some vague interpretation of the Geneva Convention that would qualify this comic as a war crime? If not against the readers, than at least against the characters.
  10. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Given the crap people ordering the 31A have had to deal with, I'm thinking the old reliance on exclusives being easier to snag is gone. I'm not going to trust Bandai to produce enough anymore, so I'm probably going to start ordering from multiple sources from now on.
  11. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Glad to see some continued progress. I'm really trying to imagine what went wrong for them to be in this situation, and the only thing that seems to fit is that they were flat denied a portion of their orders, and they're having to pick these up on the secondary market. It doesn't excuse the lack of communication, but I have to wonder if they're taking a huge financial loss trying to fill the orders.
  12. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Honestly, at this point, I'd take either. Wouldn't be too hard to scrape off the dragon marking, and then I'd at least have one numbered something other than 3.
  13. Chronocidal
    I actually wonder if it would help to basecoat the model in something that resembles the weird green/yellow/tan panels you often see in assembly line pictures, before applying standard military topcoats. The varied metallic panels honestly make the Streak Eagle scheme look simple by comparison. The color in that pic looks like a slightly greenish titanium, so a mix of standard gray and buffing metallic over a minty green base might actually do pretty well. One of the most surreal experiences I've ever had up-close with an aircraft was seeing a factory-fresh Superhornet. The paint was completely unstained by any wear or tear, and the flat coat was so utterly uniform that the plane didn't actually look real.
  14. Chronocidal

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    I'm still waiting for the FIRST VF-31A scheme. I've been poking NY every week or so about it, and gotten nowhere. At this point, I almost don't care quite as much about the actual valks as I do finding out who to slap for this pile of nonsense.
  15. Chronocidal
    I think they actually just flat out forgot to color in part of his hair there. Also, for being able to see "EVERYTHING", Rick's magical technicolor vision sure is leaving out a bunch of details from the other panels... like the angular hallway they're in.. and the two people walking in front of him.
  16. Chronocidal
    That's decent news then, I might actually be able to get that TIE locally. I might have to track down an Interceptor, they seem to still be available on Amazon actually, for not too ridiculously high a price. I do remember seeing that Y-wing when you first posted pics of it, looks really good. I've found a few detailed photos of the Y-wing assembly, in terms of base shape and greeblies, so I'm actually beginning to wonder whether it would be cheaper to scratchbuild and 3D print my own kit than find a resin one.
  17. Chronocidal
    Ok, I definitely will have to track down one of those TIEs. That's gorgeous. Ditto on an Interceptor, if they do it. I'm out of the loop on SW merch though, where are those available? Given how many of the large scale FX-scale X-Wings I have, I should really go for several, but I've got too much stuff already. What I really do wish they would do is give the Y-Wing a proper treatment though. They managed to get fairly proportional versions of all the other fighters, but the Y-Wing toys always looked rather chibi-fied, and mis-scaled for the figures.
  18. Chronocidal
    Unfortunately, as we all know too well, the work the model division does usually has nothing to do with the DX line, or else the v.1 VF-25 would have never happened. Given how different the Delta models have been from the DX valks, I'd say they still aren't really on speaking terms. I don't think the puffy hands will ever be the default, because they don't mesh well with perfect transformation, so I'd just expect replacements for those. For the cockpit though, I'm curious to see what Bandai does if they do any DYRL versions. Simplest solution would probably be removing the HUD, and just printing a new screen, but I'd be surprised if they go to the trouble of molding two separate designs. The canopy though, I'd never expect to change, since it's a part of the transformation process, and changing the shape would likely require altering how the chest plate and canopy cover fit. Some of the tweaks they can make are easy, like printing different things on the cockpit screens, or just removing a piece like the HUD, but I'd actually like to know what Bandai is working from in terms of what they consider "canon." There have been so many variations over the years, we really don't know what standard they're using.
  19. Chronocidal
    Glad I was wrong then, I just never saw those. Actually, I should mention my searches were limited to what was available on ebay at the time. It seems like all of the ones that were available were always those 6 main schemes. Not sure what you mean about the new VF-1J being a hybrid though? Aside from the non-puffy hands, that looks purely like a TV-style design, and the puffy hands have been ignored for quite a while already in other places where VF-1s have been seen (the updated pachinko machine animation, as well as what I think was some car commercial featuring the VF-1J).
  20. Chronocidal
    I think what remains to be seen is whether Bandai does pure TV releases, mixes in some DYRL versions, or does more of their weird hybrid schemes like they've done with the HMR sets. So, until I started going overboard and grabbing everything, I had my Yamato want-list filtered down to what I considered the "essential" schemes for the VF-1. If Bandai does this set, I'll buy them all, and be happy: 1. Roy VF-1S 2. Hikaru VF-1J 3. Orange VF-1D 4. Brownie VF-1A 5. Max VF-1J 6. Millia VF-1J Why those particular six? Until the advent of Yamato and Hasegawa, those were pretty much the only VF-1s available in any affordable format that I recall (super rare chunky monkeys not withstanding). All the old styrene kits from Bandai and ARII were of those six. Obviously, people could repaint the VF-1A kits for all sorts of other schemes, but for a long time, those were the only easily accessible VF-1 schemes. I have to assume that the reason those six were continuously reproduced is that they sold reliably. Now, that leaves out the DYRL versions, and I'd love to see those as well, but I'm under the impression that those are not as popular, because until Hasegawa got the license, I don't think anyone released any kits of those schemes. If they did cover DYRL, I'd at least want to include the whole Skull Squadron in some format. Might be a bit excessive to do both A and S versions of Hikaru and Max, but to round out the squad would be between 3 and 5 more releases, or 6 if they do a DYRL-specific Roy version, so we'd have 6 and 6, TV and DYRL. I could live with that. I'd love to see the VT-1 as well, but if they do that one, they may as well milk the mold and do the VE-1 as well, and then we get into the milking phase, and it's back down the rabbit hole. What I would like to see them do is make the marking roundels for the super packs swappable, so you could have either a skull, or the UN kite insignia. If they're going to blur the lines between DYRL and TV style packs, they may as well just make one set that'll cover both.
  21. Chronocidal
    I think they went way past bordering. That plot picked up the line between sense and nonsense, and then proceeded to skip rope with it. Don't get me wrong, it was still an entertaining movie, but nothing about the plot or its associated devices fit within anything previously established about how the Trek universe functions.
  22. Chronocidal

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    Chronocidal replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    It's absolutely a gouge, but I'm not sure I would blame them entirely. Bandai's supply chain shenanigans have gotten the market jumpy, and I fully expect prices to hit that after release.
  23. Chronocidal
    Tie-ins I get, they help make a bigger universe. With Trek 2009 though, it was more a specific problem that can really be best summed up by that old Mona Lisa analogy about the changes in recent years regarding games and DLC. If a story doesn't stand on its own apart from the tie-in, I can't call it a tie-in anymore, and it sounds like a money grab aimed at viewers who want a complete story.
  24. Chronocidal
    Still a lousy way to run a franchise, in my opinion. I have to wonder whether the lure of outside merchandising is just too great, or if people are literally just incapable of writing a self-contained story anymore. It's actually leading me to develop an interesting preference with regard to EU-like materials for multiple franchises. I'm just realizing that I'm perfectly happy calling a universe "done", and disregarding all further additions past some point. With Star Wars, I called it quits after the "Hand of Thrawn" books, and Trek pretty much ended for me right before Nemesis happened. Doesn't mean I won't sometimes be entertained by material that comes after those points.. but I've completely divorced myself from the concept of an official canon, to the point that I just treat everything new as alternate universe fanfic. Everything is a reboot, and nothing has any consequences on previous incarnations, just like comic books have been for decades. Actually has made it much easier to enjoy some of the material, if I don't consider it officially connected to the original. Essentially, comes down to how much mental effort I have to expend on the backend. If screenwriters and authors don't feel like writing coherent stories, I don't feel obligated to do that work for them.
  25. Chronocidal
    The molds have to be old for that to happen, and with the newer Arcadia molds, they were never there to begin with. The panel lines on things like the new VF-0 and YF-19 are so thin, you can barely even get a panel line wash to stay in them. There's a fine line (eheh.) between having panel lines too deep, or too shallow. While the lines on things like the old 1/48 and Sv-51 may have been a bit too deep, Arcadia have swung too far the opposite direction.
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