Chronocidal

So if you look up the original Ideas site for the Saturn V, you can see just how much the design evolved. The original was much more a straight up bottom-to-top build. Still had some rounded plates on the outside, but the majority of the rocket wasn't as round as the final model. One of the updates also shows them using gray brick fins, with the ABCD stickers included. The designers' "deluxe" treatment also upped the level of detail on a lot of the features, including a complete inner structure of all the fuel tanks, and it included the separate ring between the first and second stage. I think the final build wound up a lot sturdier, and was a huge upgrade in aesthetics overall, but it sacrificed that internal detail. It is really fun to read the development updates on it though. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/3519b723-c59a-43b4-81be-eeb99b631627

If it grows anymore, we're gonna be approaching Spaceballs levels of camera panning. Though... it's actually not.. that big? I don't know why they're playing that up when it's no where near the size of the old SSD, let alone any of the other monstrosities the Empire's built.

Man, I've missed their choral/orchestral soundtracks so much since AC0. AC6 had a few tracks that were decent, but it felt a lot heavier on the synthesized stuff, and I never heard anything that impressive out of AH or the online one's trailers. Also, I might be imagining things, but I want to say the plot is giving me a sort of Endless Waltz-ish feeling? Maybe it's the princess character giving me Mariemaia Khushrenada vibes. I'm not sure which faction the player is fighting for in this game though, so it's tough to tell whether they're intended to be a hero or villain, or even just a puppet.

Eh, I guess I'll reserve one at HLJ just in case I feel like I have to have one next spring. Still not sure I want to spend that much, but we'll see how next spring works out. Also, the thing with NY's boxes.. they love taking bigger boxes and cutting them down, then folding over the sides to make a new "top." They're generally pretty sturdy, but the construction is also really sloppy, and you often get really lopsided looking boxes because they're making those folds against internal corrugation that's going the wrong way.

Thank you, that's precisely the part I've been missing in this. I knew Tatsunoko never had the power to give HG all the things HG claimed it licensed from them, but my understanding of the cases in the 2000s was sketchy at best. I'll go check that old post out now.

That's really my main thought, the travel times involved. Assuming emigration fleets are launched in wagonwheel-ish spreads from colonized planets like they show in the intro, I'd be extremely surprised if the case of Frontier and Galaxy being within reasonable travel distance is common amongst the various fleets. Sheryl's flight between fleets looked more like a commercial airline than something you'd be spending months at a time on. I get the impression that information is really the only viable commodity that fleets can exchange on a regular basis, in terms of entertainment, research data, and design specifications.

Thanks for the heads-up, I went and ordered a set as well. I'd been meaning to earlier this month, and completely forgot about it.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to that, in terms of finding out if Robotech can actually stand on its own. Being deprived of any existing material to fall back on will be nice test of HG to see if they have the capacity to possibly produce something original.

So, I'm looking over this, and trying to come up with the TLDR version to explain to some friends, so let me see if I have the gist of the situation correctly. 1. Old history - Tatsunoko gave HG the license to animation, and HG claimed ownership of a lot more than that, etc. etc, which is beside the point for this particular issue. 2. Mid 90s - Big West and Tatsunoko were legally engaged over licensing issues, some of which included the rights HG purchased for Robotech, and the rights FASA purchased for MechWarrior designs. If I understand correctly, Tatsunoko was trying to legally defend its actions in those license deals? (I'm iffy on this, and need to re-read.) So the impression I've gathered is that these legal proceedings were technically in defense of the licenses HG claims give them ownership of everything associated with Robotech. 3. Recently - Tatsunoko finally decided to request financial assistance from HG for all the legal fees incurred trying to defend the licenses that HG has been milking. HG counter-sues, and the arbitration is basically that HG is actually owed money from Tatsunoko for the cost of the arbitration proceedings. So, HG essentially just spat in the face of the only company that could renew their license come the expiration in March of 2021. My understanding right now is that, even if the original license was flawed, and HG shouldn't have claimed ownership of what they did, it'll all be moot anyway if the license outright expires. Did I miss any key points there?

I've been holding off building mine since it's meant to be a birthday gift for a week from now, but it's getting difficult to restrain myself. In the meantime, I've been rocking back and forth with anticipation to see if the Ideas shuttle set will hit 10k before the next review window, and considering how to build it myself if it doesn't get accepted. What I should do is go grab the digital model for the Saturn V and start tweaking the fins to see if I have the right parts to replace them.

This might be a non-issue due to advances in fold travel, but just out of curiosity.. how exactly does that type of economic system work, even in-universe? Shouldn't each emigration fleet be self-sustaining? Sure, communications can get back and forth, so I guess in that sense money can change hands between fleets, but digital money is not going to keep a fleet running by any stretch of the imagination. Are the individual fleets kept close enough together that they can support each other economically? I mean, maybe that's the entire point of the problem, but I haven't read up on the Musiculture material at all, so my limited understanding isn't helping.

I've built up two of the Ba kits, but I have to say that the color molding on that version was pretty disappointing. I get that they didn't want to have to rework the entire molding to get the same level of detail as on Keith's, but they cheapened out. There were quite a few common parts that were gold on Keith's, and should have been silver on the Ba, but they ignored them, and went with a single color for almost everything. Also.. the Hs's head is boatloads more sturdy. The itty bitty panels around the pope head pop off if you look at them funny, and that whole interlocking mechanism is a mess of fragile parts. I'm halfway convinced that the head is most of why we haven't seen a DX version of this one yet. That said, it's still a fun kit to put together and transform, and I love the shape of the delta wings on it. I've actually considered doing some kitbashing, and putting the Ba wings on the Hs. If we wind up getting white versions of both, I'm going to be mixing and matching all over the place.

Or, from the 1/72 kit, which has the locking mechanisms for the wings located all along the outer surface of the legs, so the wingtips pivot freely.

If you look at the comments section for that build, he does show similar builds of a couple other ships (the Eagle being one of the better looking ships in the game), but the scale becomes an issue. The ships in that game's universe are fairly massive, and while there are some smaller fighter-ish ships, most of what you spend your time flying around in are closer in scale to something like the Millennium Falcon, with dedicated living space, and cargo holds. The Sidewinder is one of the smallest ships, and, for better or for worse, one of the most recognizable, if only for the fact that it's what you start in, and also what you get dumped back into if your ship gets destroyed, and you can't afford to repair it. There are so many Ideas sets I'd love to just get the instructions for honestly. Even if they never get produced, I'd hope the designers can release the designs for others to build.

I figured that's what it amounted to, since I wasn't familiar with the whole smart post tier of service, but I admit, I was tempted to drive down there and just ask them to give it to me directly if they were going to sit on it for so long. The more shuffling a package goes through, the worse its chances get at arriving intact. It's not the only thing that this has happened with though, it's just the worst example. Going through that region of California tends to add at least 2-3 days and several facility hops into any package's route. I miss when my HLJ packages came from Oakland.

So, it's not just UPS.. it's seems like it's anything going through that area, and not just from imported goods. Earlier this summer, I ordered an oversized Starscream MP-03, and it was shipped through that area via FedEx.. Let me copy the shipping timeline here for reference. (apologies for the size, but the formatting is being a pain to edit) __________________________________________________________________________________ Date/Time Activity Location 6/05/2017 - Monday 4:28 pm Delivered MOJAVE, CA Package delivered by U.S. Postal Service to addressee 6/03/2017 - Saturday 1:51 pm At U.S. Postal Service facility MOJAVE, CA Accepted by U.S. Postal Service 9:24 am Shipment information sent to U.S. Postal Service 6:49 am In transit MOJAVE, CA In transit to U.S. Postal Service 6/03/2017 - Saturday 3:45 am Departed FedEx location FEDEX SMARTPOST CHINO, CA 6/01/2017 - Thursday 6:04 pm Arrived at FedEx location FEDEX SMARTPOST CHINO, CA 5/31/2017 - Wednesday 11:52 pm Departed FedEx location BLOOMINGTON, CA 5/30/2017 - Tuesday 3:27 pm Arrived at FedEx location BLOOMINGTON, CA 2:47 pm In transit RIALTO, CA 5/29/2017 - Monday 7:52 pm In transit RIALTO, CA 7:51 am In transit RIALTO, CA 5/28/2017 - Sunday 11:01 am In transit RIALTO, CA 5/27/2017 - Saturday 2:36 pm In transit TUCSON, AZ 4:34 am In transit SWEETWATER, TX 5/26/2017 - Friday 4:30 pm In transit NEWTON, MS 5:29 am Departed FedEx location CHARLOTTE, NC 5/25/2017 - Thursday 7:37 pm Arrived at FedEx location CHARLOTTE, NC 6:41 pm Picked up CHARLOTTE, NC 4:26 pm In FedEx possession CONCORD, NC Tendered at FedEx location 3:32 pm Shipment information sent to FedEx ___________________________________________________________________________________________ For visual reference, this is what it spent doing for the period highlighted. IT SPENT AN ENTIRE WEEK MOVING LESS THAN TWENTY MILES. Like.. I could not comprehend this at all. I could have walked faster than that. And I only live about 2 hours away from any of those locations. It even took a twelve-hour round-trip from Rialto straight back to Rialto. But no, the box got shuttled around between three FedEx buildings within 20 miles of each other for an entire week. I didn't get the package until the following Monday afternoon, because they putzed and piddled with it playing hot potato. I wasn't in a huge rush to get it, and the seller was offering free shipping so I didn't actually pay for it, but come on.

On a different sort of space-related subject, I was surprised to see this pop up on the main Ideas page earlier. Someone actually built the Sidewinder from Elite: Dangerous. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/10783699-7488-4e36-82db-78803dfeea9b/comments_tab I've got mixed feelings about it, but it's an impressive build, with tons of details and functionality. Unfortunately... while being an amazingly accurate representation of the ship in-game, the ship itself has all the elegance and class of a rubber doorstop. It's the base-model starter ship from the game that you get for free, and it's pretty much the epitome of what happens when you design a ship around "realistic practicality." It's just a fugly, blocky lump with engines. I'd love to see more designs done in this style, and he has a couple others done of some of the less boring ship designs, but they're beyond the scale of what can qualify for an Ideas set.

So, I'm flat baffled.. I got my shipping notice on my pair of Defenders from CDJapan at around 1:30 Monday morning.. they were dropped at my door yesterday afternoon. I didn't even use EMS, I just went registered air mail. I was really confused at first, since not only did it arrive in two days, but both Defenders fit into the same size box as a single HMR VF-1, so I thought CDJapan had mixed up their orders.

That's actually my biggest concern, that they already have something either in stores or in progress that would disqualify this design from the process. It's different enough from the 3-in-1 set that I'm sure they could exist side-by-side, but it's been a while since we've seen a full shuttle, and they might have one waiting in the wings. The designer is blown away by how fast the support is coming in though, and it makes me wonder what the record is for reaching 10k. It just topped 8k, and he's posted an update with shots of a physical build-up (with some color substitutions). He meant to post them at the 5k mark, and is playing catch-up.

Actually, looking at that prop plane set, I'm already a little surprised/disappointed in the propeller assembly? I come to find out it's not rigged for mounting on an axle, but it's hard-mounted to a metal shaft that's connected through a 1x4 technics beam to a geared flywheel with an offset cutout to mount an early Technics piston assembly. Because of that, the whole propeller is mounted permanently off balance, and isn't really useable on other aircraft without working around that gear. So.. not sure how to feel about that. I might try and replicate it in 3D, and send it off to Shapeways to see if I can't make a more usable version with a standard axle mount. Anyway.. so that Ideas Shuttle design just topped 7000 votes this morning while I was reading the comments, and it was only submitted July 18th. I don't think it's going to have any trouble hitting 10,000 in the 765 days it has left. I just hope Lego doesn't pass over it because it's another NASA themed set.

So, I'm going to bump this back into the nostalgia bin for a moment. Back in the late 80s/early 90s, I got a lot of Lego catalogues. Being about 6-years old at the time, I could drool all I wanted, and I did get a few of the nice space sets, and the original airport, but when it came to the early Technics stuff, one particular set I always wanted was far out of my parents' price range, and probably beyond my ability to build. From what I recall, this thing was around $50, which when it was released in 1988, was a whole lot of money. By the time I was old enough to be saving that kind of cash for toys, this set had disappeared into the sunset. I eventually got into the Technics line pretty heavily, and the next time a similar aircraft was released, it was the rather pitiful (by comparison) #8836 "Sky Ranger", which was literally about half the size, and functionality. Still a fun set, and easier to play with due to the smaller size, but only one seat, no pilot, and the stick only moved the ailerons. I also wound up disconnecting the propeller from the piston engine, because I wanted it to be free spinning, but I had a thing for spinny bits. Fast forward.. oh... 25 years. I never really bothered to look for that bigger set, thinking it would be a collectors item. Well.. I checked eBay the other day.. full set, shiny near-pristine box, $70. Not a bad markup for a kit nearly 30 years old. Don't know if it has the inner box, and the instructions are a bit wrinkled, but it's in good shape, and should be arriving by next week. Looking back, I probably have all the parts to make the thing anyway, but just being able to find it so easily on a whim really surprised me. I never even realized that the stick is fully functional in pitch and roll, running both the ailerons and elevators. And I don't think anything before or since that set has ever used that large three-bladed propeller. Anyway, I'm just thrilled to finally fill that little gap in my collection. I never really felt a desperate need for it, but I also never expected it to be that relatively easy to acquire. They just don't make them like this anymore.

If Delta's "triangle" winds up playing out as was predicted, it might actually wind up as something entirely new.. we get a new twist on murdering the hypotenuse, when the "winner" of the triangle keels over in their mid-twenties due to old age, and Mirage gets to run in and pick up the leftover pieces. That is, if she's still even available. Heck, I don't even know how Zentraedi genetics even work, it might be really freakin' weird if Freya passes Hayate off to Mirage when she looks old enough to be their mother.

Wow, that's cheap.. I have to wonder if the description is badly phrased, and hope it's not actually broken.. I'm still waiting to see the green pope version though. The lower prices on these make me worry that it didn't sell that well, but the demand at release seemed to be pretty decent. I would really hate to see Bandai just abandon the green version. Have they even teased a display of one yet?

One thing to consider about the VF-1 that makes the coating make sense though... the canopy glass isn't just canopy glass. At least in the DYRL versions, the glass is also acting as the HUD, with everything projected onto the inside. So, the best analogy is probably the green-tinted glass of early model F-14s, who used that thick center plate as their HUD, and projected directly onto the canopy. Obviously, this doesn't apply to the TV versions that had a normal HUD in the cockpit, but it does have a real life basis of sorts. I can also vouch that polarized sunglasses do this, since that's all I use. The glare reduction is just amazing, and I can immediately tell the difference in normal tinted lenses. The real wackiness though is when you happen to see a polarized tinted window while wearing polarized glasses. If the polarization doesn't match, you'll see all sorts of weird speckled and striped patterns in the glass tinting, which will change when you tilt your head. The downside is that you also have to tilt your head to read LCD displays, since they seem to be polarized in some way. Far as the cracking goes, I've definitely had at least one of mine slowly flake away over time, I believe it was my first edition stand-alone Roy. I cleaned it out at some point with a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol, but without removing the canopy, it's pretty difficult to get it all out, and there's still a bit in the back corners.

I have the suspicion it wouldn't be that simple though. If the canopy gets longer, it's either going further back, requiring a new chest plate design, and likely giving the VF-1D the same "popped collar" look that all the other VF-1s got, or it's pushing the nosecone further down, which, unless you redesign the length of the swingbar and its mounting point, is also going to require pushing the nose further up and popping the head higher. Alternatively, you could just let the nose hang lower, and extend the swingbar to reach, but that means designing a new underside backplate with a new pivot point, and possibly changes to the other backplate components and backpack mechanism. And then the torso gets longer, which isn't going to look right in battroid mode. Like, I want to think it could be done? But I also feel like if it could have been done in a cost effective way, Yamato would have done it that way in the first place.