Chronocidal

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.

Wow... I'm kind of flat out blown away that it made it! That other approved set, the ship in a bottle, I might have to grab as well. I didn't even know that many large transparent elements existed. Next review is looking like it has a few fun ones as well. Between the Bluesmobile and Red Arrows Hawk, it looks like some of those should be nice easy builds with not too much shelf space required.

I am hoping they'll highlight the improvements over the old mold, because I'm actually curious what the demand for this will be like. Much like the VF-0, barring any structural improvements, the only thing to really improve visually is the molding quality, and finer details. With the VF-0, we got the VF-0D first, so I feel like the new VF-0A/S were more a byproduct of that. The Sv-51 probably needs some posability and playability improvements (tighter joints, better mechanisms, that sort of thing), but from a display perspective? I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the old and new VF-0s displayed on a shelf, and I feel like this is going to be the exact same way.

Dangit, I entirely forgot the entire interior corridor fight and "drop the enemy into the bottomless pit" scene. Who built this ship, the Star Wars designers?

I think what does it for me with the Ideas shuttle over any of the others is just the proportions, and overall shape of it. I'm still not a huge fan of the curvy plated tip to the tank, but it does more to build the tank up to the proper size, and looks far better to me than any of the existing sets ever has. It also feels more like a display model than the other sets do, which I'm perfectly fine with, since it'd probably be displayed next to the Saturn V set. Judging by the rate it's getting support though, I think the bigger hurdle will actually be getting Lego to approve another NASA-themed design so soon.

To be perfectly fair, the "horrible fanfic" model they seem to be following had a great start with Nemesis. Between the long-lost brainwashed evil triplet hidden in the middle of nowhere and suddenly detected via plot device, the wacky old guy in an armored dune buggy car chase/shootout, the super-ultra-definitely-evil pleather-clad surprise-protagonist-clone villain gallivanting around in an invisible planet destroying WMD, the previously-unheard-of race of space vampire labor slaves finally deciding they want vengeance, the wacky old guy in a dune-buggy shuttlecraft corridor-chase/shootout, the super obvious Chekov's boomerang main character sacrifice (and subsequent complete negation of said sacrifice via insane robot clone logic), and... oh yeah, the "I'm not obviously evil enough yet, so let me just mind-rape someone" scene.. Yeah, there's nothing that's ever going to convince me that the outline for Nemesis wasn't unearthed from the bowels of some poor teenager's long-dead Livejournal account. You can't fill that many squares on a "Bad Fanfic Bingo" board by accident. Anyway... As far as Discovery goes, I have no expectations for anything of any sort of quality or entertainment. If the rumors about Sarek's role in this are anything to go on, I almost want to suspect that they're trying to start a third timeline, so they can be contractually free from any of the licensing nonsense that seems to be overrunning the franchise. Maybe they'll just say that Original Spock went back and eliminated himself from the timeline so Nero never destroyed Vulcan, and now we have a third copy of the universe where somehow there's no Spock at all, and they use that to explain that the main character is Sarek's replacement goldfish.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the single piece cockpit, but in this instance, it actually allows for some interior detail in the correct scale that you wouldn't get otherwise, and it doesn't look bad with the proper markings printed on it.

Holy cow, I'd been hoping someone would make a properly scaled Shuttle after all these years, and that one looks amazing. Will definitely be F5ing that one if it makes it, it's so much better than the others they've made. Honestly though, Lego really needs to get on top of the "round parts" situation. We've needed better/more transitional stages for cylinders for as long as I can actually remember, because the standard 2x2 cone on top of the stubby 2x2 to 4x4 transition segment is an eyesore.

Wow.. I kind of had no idea about the CBS/Paramount nonsense. That's approaching Robotech levels of license shananiganry there, and doesn't speak well for the future of the franchise at all.

See.. you have a good point there, and I hope Arcadia realizes what it's doing to its own sales. I have the regular Miria preordered at HLJ, and I was going to grab a Max too down the line, but I already have the Yamato releases. I just wanted a second set to display in a different mode really, but it's by no means a must-have thing for me. With the premium finish version coming out, are the regular releases going to become bargain bin fodder for things like HLJ's Black Friday sales? I feel like it might be entirely worth just cancelling my preorder, and waiting to see how cheap they go.

So, if I read this correctly, what we need to do now is have the entire galaxy overrun by battling swarms of Whale Probes, and Doomsday Machines. I'm actually rather surprised that with all the universal translation tech that's developed over the years, we never got around to an "I speak whale" moment.

The Sv-51 was shown mounting both two and four pods, at various points in the series. On the other hand, the tan one was only supposed to have one cannon mounted in the intake fairings, but since the D.D. and Nora molds used two, the CF got a free upgrade.