Chronocidal
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Everything posted by Chronocidal
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Now that we've got premium M&Ms, I really just want a premium TV super VF-1S to go with them, and maybe a premium Hikaru 1J release with super packs. It'd be cool seeing a premium GBP-1, but I'm not a huge fan of it personally, and would rather see a separate premium 1J release.
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All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!
Chronocidal replied to Keith's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I WILL play this game. FINALLY.- 7114 replies
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I'm still waiting for Bandai to get with it, and sell TV-style fast pack sets for all their VF-1s.. they've got enough of them. As a side note though, a good number of the HMR VF-1s need some work on their nose striping. The M&Ms have the stripes properly done, but all the others cut off just behind the upper lip of the intake. Those stripes should go all the way back to where the nose section ends, like what you can clearly see on Max's valk in that screenshot.
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I'd say the one good thing about the whole mess is that the calf armor is a pretty simple block of plastic. Depending on the tolerances, it might be easy to get a Shapeways replacement made.
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Solo: A Star Wars Story, in theaters May 25, 2018
Chronocidal replied to Dobber's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
So, an interesting comparison to make here would be actually looking at the wide variety of quality that came out of the EU novels. There were a few good one-shot stories, but the core of what many people considered "quality" stories came from a few authors who generally communicated well with each other, and worked together to make sure characters felt consistent across their separate entries. Criticisms of the individual novels and character portrayals aside, Zahn, Stackpole, and Allston tended to keep tabs on each other's characters so they could dangle plot threads that spanned between their separate books, and that sort style is what makes certain other books feel so jarring in comparison (ie the entire Callista storyline, or the Jedi Academy books). The funny thing that happened though was that some of the books got so bad that some of the authors did (not so) sneaky fix-it stories that retold events from other angles to make more sense. It didn't fix all the flaws, but it tied things together a bit better, and made some of the questionable character and story decisions maybe a bit more tolerable. The scary thing is that Disney is doing that preemptively now, and in alternative media formats. Instead of focusing on telling a coherent story in the prime format (movies), they're releasing books that are nearly required reading to make the movies tie together, and explain all the missing pieces that they decided to leave out. I think part of the reason the EU books worked in the first place was because the characters and events of the original trilogy left people wanting more over time. The situation now though is that everything is being thrown out at the fans at once. Instead of devoting time and effort into making a cohesive story with compelling characters that people will want to learn more about, it's just assumed that everyone will want to know everything about everyone, and people are bombarded from all angles with side stories and additional information before they even have a chance to ask for it, let alone develop a desire for all the extraneous information. It's just oversaturation. The whole process is stacking a pile of carts in front of a horse, and hoping the horse has the strength to push them all. You have to give time for the fanbase to develop a desire for all that information you're throwing out at them. Otherwise, it's like browsing for a specific item online, and being so overwhelmed by pop-up ads for things you don't care about, you give up, and decide you didn't need that thing anyway. -
I think the bigger flaws get more obvious on repeated viewings, while the first time you see it, the tension over what's going to happen next is a fairly good distraction. While I think the slow pace is a literal consequence of the main plot being a slow speed chase to run the Resistance out of fuel, it does pick up rather quickly (if jerkily so) once they arrive on Snoke's ship. To me, that's the turning point where the movie starts getting decently fun to watch, because you can kind of handwave the string of terrible decisions that led the plot to this point, and pretend something that makes sense happened instead. Your second point though is a larger issue that spans the entire new trilogy. The New Republic dies in a spectacular CGI washout, and no one responds?? We never got a great scope of the galaxy in the original trilogy, but the prequels made every effort to make up for that, showing us hundreds, possibly thousands of representatives in the senate, showing just how big the universe really is. Now you're telling me that the New Republic was so incredibly inept at ruling that every single New Republic military asset was destroyed in the single attack from the First Order? Was the New Republic just that ineffective that no one cares that the seat of government over the galaxy at large disappeared in a puff of smoke? TLJ just kind of continues that narrow view of everything. Now we have the single cruiser supporting the Resistance being pursued (badly) by what looks like the entirety of the First Order. It may not be, but if they had more ships, why not divert something to blockade the single ship they can't seem to catch up with? Is the rest of the First Order busy conquering the rest of the galaxy now that the New Republic is gone? But the opening crawl would seem to imply that the First Order already took over, in the single digit number of days since the end of TFA. The overall impression I have at this point is that the galaxy at large doesn't even care about the First Order or the New Republic, and are content to just spend their days gambling in luxury, profiting off of the two whiny kids down the street who keep buying bigger and better guns to shoot at each other with.
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So, I've personally been waiting patiently to see if NY will ever deliver the pair I ordered on the first day of preorders. After all the non-answers NY has given for people requesting updates, I've actually decided to wait it out until they cave in one way or another. I see this happening one of two ways. Either they ship me my order, or they tell me they can't do it. If they ship it, great, but if they can't? I'm not going to give them the satisfaction of cancelling on me for anything other than their own failure to deliver. I'm in no rush. If it turns out they can't fulfill the order, I'm letting them come to me to apologize. Maybe I'm too hopeful, but right now, I see this as the most likely route to a full refund, only because I doubt they would have the gall to offer me store credit in apology for their own failure. After all, what good is store credit if the store can't be trusted to deliver?
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This just begs the question of how all the people with half a brain wound up under the command of someone with all the tactical capability of a bran muffin. I honestly felt really bad for the commander of that dreadnaught. I know that look of frustration well.. it was like a more dire version of the expression I see all around me when our IT department manages to break our network again. That feeling of "just for once, I'd like to expect the worst, and be wrong."
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I hope they don't cheap out on the assembly or packaging this time, and go with the full set of trays the other Calibre releases get. The packaging on my Hikaru 1J version left the nose gear all broken apart because they packed it with the extended gear mounted, instead of retracted like all the other versions (no broken pieces thankfully, but the gear had to be glued together again), and the QC was nowhere near the other releases I have from Calibre. Gappy assembly, chipped paint, bent-upward wings, and parts without enough glue. It's not terrible exactly, and still displays nicely, but it's a large step down from the quality level of my VF-1 and VF-142 F-14As. Makes me curious if the Robotech releases are using a different factory.
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Solo: A Star Wars Story, in theaters May 25, 2018
Chronocidal replied to Dobber's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
For me, the new movies have actually put me at the exact same point though, from an entirely different direction. Even without knowing the ending, TLJ made me actually dislike so many of the characters that I kind of don't care what happens to them. But in both cases here, we already know the end point. With Solo, you know exactly how the movie ends. With Episode IX, you can also assume that the good guys win, in one way or another. When you have a stationary end point, everything depends on the journey being entertaining, memorable, and enjoyable. Now, I haven't seen Solo, but in TLJ's case? I'm feeling like Poe's frustration about the ship running on fumes with no clear plan is getting dangerously close to tearing down what's left of the fourth wall. -
What I had to do was trim down the blocky tabs on the boosters and make them square again, give them hard edges. Mine looked like they'd been melted.
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That was the Yamato one, I believe. The Bandai problem was that the process for actually attaching the leg fast packs was multi-step, and you kind of had to slip the pieces in during transformation, or the legs didn't fit right. Also, the booster packs on the wings had a very common issue where the locking tabs got mis-molded, and had to be reshaped before they would keep the packs locked on.
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Those are covers for an invisible screw that you can't actually access after assembly is complete. I think they go inside one of the large hinges in the main central hull. Also, there's no real reason to screw on the bridge, the fit is plenty tight to just press it into place.
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Yuuuuuup. Though, the whole foot is actually too thick. It looks mostly fine in battroid, but the center of the foot is too high, and it throws the whole thing off. Also, those are older photos, from before Bandai went and photoshopped the correct colors on the lower leg fins.
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Honestly, the only really sturdy points of contact for the F-14 that I like are either mounted inside the sparrow alley down the center of the belly, or inside the exhausts. Provided the fin recesses are deep enough, you could even make a stand that replaces the missiles themselves.
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The most recent releases come with a different type of stand like the ones shown in promo photos of the Robotech-branded releases. They're a common type of F-14 stand (I think I've seen them referred to as "Witty Wings" stands?) but I'm also hesitant to use those because of how they support the plane. They clip around the back portion of the speedbrake area, which on most 1/72 diecast F-14s should be fine, but the Calibre releases have that section made of plastic to allow for the opening speedbrakes. I'm not a fan of supporting the entire plane that way for long periods, so I've mostly just stuck to displaying mine on the landing gear.
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I think the wing glove pylons need a bit of work to fit snugly. The tab and slot don't quite match up, so I actually coated the tab on my pylon with glue, then sanded it down to fit better. This was one of the earlier releases from Calibre, and the more recent ones have fit better.
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Kind of, but that one was open longer, and people wound up getting cancelled after orders went through, so maybe some sites are being more cautious about how many they offer to begin with.
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Yeah, I actually had HLJ on two screens, refreshing alternative search terms. By the time I completed the order in one, the other screen showed order stop.
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Got a confirmation email with HLJ, so looks like it went through, but I'm not counting on it after that quick a sale. If I do wind up getting it, I might sell my original Messer here, and make a set of shapeways brackets to use, possibly modified to keep the underwing hardpoints intact, since it looks like the Bandai design just keeps them occupied.
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I'm wondering if this one got heavy demand from scalpers who intend to resell it to people who missed the first release.
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Cracks knuckles. Looks like I'll have to dust off the 3D printer and make some brackets.
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I'm not too concerned about finding out HLJ can't fill my order, but wow that was insanely quick. Maybe they're setting their pre-order quotas lower after the YF-19 cancellations?
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Up on HLJ now for those interested! Edit: Holy cow...it's gone. HLJ just hit order stop after I got my order in.. it lasted all of a minute or two.
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The bracket basically locks into the underside hardpoint on the outer wing section, wraps around the wing and provides a different hardpoint on top of the wing, and then braces the outer portion against the underside of the inner section of the wing so it won't fold all the way down. I have a sneaking suspicion it won't actually prevent the wings from folding up straight, but the drones will collide with the tails unless you fold them inward.