Chronocidal

I have to say too, the more I hear of the end theme, the more I think of Cowboy Bebop.. the intro to the song is more strings, but the second half picks up that same kind of swing/jazz-ish groove that the Bebop ending (Real Folk Blues) has, only even better. I love when Kanno does jazzy.

Sorry bout that, forgot that wasn't common knowledge yet. Fixed now.

Oy, I knew Klan-what'shername's giant blue hair reminded me of someone. I apologize for this, but I was bored waiting to watch, and couldn't help myself.

Not really a spoiler, no. But the pic itself gives away quite a bit (in more ways than one). And thank you for that awesome gif. I give it ohh... maybe 15 minutes before we have a leekspin rave version on youtube.

Don't know if this will help any, but now that I think about it more, I'm pretty sure I swapped the gun barrels around between wing mounts.. like, I tested all four gun barrels in each of the four mounts. Inconsistencies in molding mean that even a bent barrel may wind up straight if the locator tabs in the mount are bent the other way. I swapped barrels between mounts until the guns were all mostly straight. I also might have just heated them up with a blowdryer, and set a dictionary on them to straighten them. Btw, you're right, the lights/sounds would've still worked. I really just like the empty one because it's perfect for customizing. I can take it apart and reassemble it without fiddling with the wires and circuit boards. The FX version is such a wiring disaster inside, you can't take it apart without cutting wires.

Ummm... wow...

Well, with an action figure in the cockpit, I wouldn't expect much cockpit detail. Improvements to the wings would be great though, and I hope they bring back the sharp nose. One thing I'd really like to see is for them to fix the rear portion of the engines.. they're supposed to be mounted a bit higher, and that's always bugged me. Course, I'm just funny that way with little things.

Hehe.. I beg to differ- it's a big empty accurate toy, at about 1/3 the cost (the original FX cost upwards of $75 new). I didn't mind the lights/sounds so much, but the stupid flight handle/missile launcher gimmick bugged the crap out of me. Aside from the fubared nosecone, I really prefer the fuselage details on the saga versions, not to mention the removable pilot/astromech. Here's my custom job waiting to happen, personally I think it's pretty when it's all cleaned up.

You know, every time I see these types of pics, I wish Yamato had just blanked out the insides of the intakes. No supersonic engine would have a fan that visible.

I can confirm about the T-16, my brother has one still. The wing mechanism is really very similar to the new "clicky" joints used in the Star Wars Lego sets, but the ridges meant to add tension to the pivot are far too small, and they eventually wear down. The plastic is also rather soft, so the ridges will eventually break down under the stress of moving the wings. I've always displayed mine the same way, sitting on the engines. Keeps the stress off the wing mounts. I can definitely say though that the all the parts are identical between the versions, even going back to the original FX version (save for the altered nosecone and redesigned fuselage for the saga models). The non-FX ones still have the same assembly for the engines, right down to the clear lenses (looks goofy with no lights in there ). I've taken these things apart thoroughly (and I mean very thoroughly.. as far apart as I could get without breaking pieces in general, and sometimes beyond that ), and the cause of the droopy wings is the way they're mounted, not necessarily the materials. The soft plastic obviously doesn't help since the weight of the guns will warp them over time. But the wing mount is just plain loose, and the internal wing mechanism is utterly slopply (completely unlike the older stubby midget X-Wing vehicle toy.. the one thing it DID have was a nice sturdy wing mechanism). The wings actually flop around in the socket, since pressure is only applied to the tabs from one direction. If you ever flip the ship upside down, you'll notice the wings suddenly droop the other way. Btw, I discovered a few tricks to straighten the guns. If you unscrew the gun mounts, you can see that the soft plastic barrels are an insert that get placed inside and sandwiched, with a couple of plastic ridges to attach to. I found I was able to make the guns decently straight by swapping bent pieces to the opposite sides, and making sure the barrels were aligned correctly before screwing the guns back together. It's not perfect, but it's leaps and bounds better than out-of-the-box condition. If anyone wants, I'll take a few pictures to show what I did. I keep the stripped model out on my desk for kicks (and the occasional computer model reference). If I ever get to eventually modifying it like I want, I'll try to remember to keep a record of what I do.

You should play the game Chrono Cross, or just look up the character Nikki. Not necessarily because of low pants, but Brera looks postitively manly by comparison.

Glad to see someone make a thread about this stuff, it's fun to see (even if I can't afford it). I'm gonna have to keep tabs on that new a-wing. I like the new engines on this one, probably have to get one or two eventually (About time I got something to go with all my ginormous x-wings ). As far as movie accuracy goes, I think this one even tops the large scale X-Wings. Personally, I've been on a crazy quest for a detailed x-wing, without the ridiculous cost of the movie replicas. I've got 4 of the large scale x-wings sitting disassembled in a box: 2 red leader versions, one good FX version, and one incomplete FX version for spare parts. I was happy to get the incomplete FX for about $5 (wanted the pointy, non-child-safe nosecone ). My eventual hope is to rebuild one of the red-leader versions into a decent display model. It's already been stripped of stickers and some paint, and the nose swapped to the accurate one. I may leave the rear greeblie deck alone, but I really want to rebuild the wings/engines some. I've always hated how the wings constantly droop on the large x-wings, hopefully I'll find a way to fix that, even if it means building new wings from scratch.

It actually is really close to the anime proportions, I've just never cared for the shape of the nose on that YF-19.. just looks too flat on top to me, and the black part on the canopy looks too long, making the nose look kind of like a duck's bill from the top... the red sensors on the side are kinda wonky too. The Hasegawa 1/72 kit is another animal entirely, since it was made with absolutely no regard for the battroid mode, making it as sleek as it could possibly be. It's these sort of design compromises that make all the YF-19 iterations look so different from one another, Yamato's included. Now, what I'd like to see is what sort of battroid that 1/48 kit would make into (provided someone would sacrifice a good kit to try that ).

Aha! I KNEW I heard "dissociative-something-or-other" in that conversation. lol Didn't catch amnesia, but after her reaction to seeing him hurt, I figured they meant some sort of mental problem. Great, so the cute one has mental issues. What next? Is she gonna go berserk at some point and start whomping on the vajra in battle with crazy voice powers??

Looks awesome I just hope you don't have to pull those cords too far to get the fingers to move.. adding gears or something to scale the motion of regular fingers up might get complicated.

Actually, who says the body wasn't still intact? My apologies for the gory analogy, but you can squeeze all the juice out of an orange, and you still have the peel and insides there.. they're just smaller in volume (which would explain the armor falling off). My guess is he was just.. well, deflated somewhat, like a hot water bottle with a leak. No reason they couldn't fill him back up with stuffing to make a proper burial.

Hmm.. maybe she's actually bald, and has a Gubaba on her head?

A good pic of the fast packs was in another thread a while back, I don't remember quite where. From what I recall, the boosters don't attach directly to the backpack, but are actually connected across the rear of the back plate. I think the connection between them serves as the mount, and clips around the base of the backpack hinge. So, they may rest up against the backpack, but I think they're connected pretty solidly to the back plate. Edit: found the right page in the other thread finally lol older thread Based on these pics and the one a little further showing just the fast packs, the boosters definitely look like they're connected, sort of like the old 1/55 ones were, but without the shell over the backpack. Looks like the crossbar runs directly underneath the backpack hinge, and I think there are a couple of tabs that actually lock the backpack in place between the boosters. Also to note.. the little goofy backpack latch isn't used in those pictures.. so I'm going to guess that means one of two things. Either they forgot about it (not too likely considering the range of poses shown), or the boosters don't rely on the backpack at all for support (my sincere hope). Anyone have a rear view of the battroid to confirm this?

Crud.. well, I swore I'd wait for the sub, and caved within 5 minutes of doing so. The awesomeness continues.. even without dialogue, I'm loving the way the characters interact. Ranka keeps getting cuter, and I love where the music is going. The ending section with the song felt just like Plus (sad, sincere, and dream-like all at once), glad to have some more Kanno goodness in there. I'm gonna have to watch that a few more times I think.

Well, the one thing that has me waiting for this the most is the fact that I only bought 1 1/48. I'm waiting anxiously for employment before I start giving in. While I don't care so much for the new style of the legs, I don't think they're too bad (yet, have to see them up close to be sure). And despite the new backpack latch, there's one place the 1/60 wins hands down: the fast pack attachment. Every time I put the fast packs on or off my 1J, I'm afraid the back will just snap off. The 1/60 design has the fast packs wrapping around the entire backplate, looking MUCH sturdier.

lol.. I think looking carefully at the title of that pic should explain the size of the legs. Apparently, this one got some bad 'roids.

You know, if you really put a lot of design into it, you could probably get every finger to move independently. I remember seeing toys that do that as well, mostly around halloween. They'd have a ring for each finger (usually one for ring/pinky together), and a handle to grip. The thumb was always a fixed pose. I looked over a couple halloween sites (they usually appear in stores around then), but couldn't find the one I'm thinking of. The trick was though that this design had the fingers directly in-line with the pull-rings.. this might be too different a design to pull that off.

1. Music was great, although repetitive (didn't hear Holy Lonely Night often enough I think). 2. M&M VF-22s. Boo-fricking-yah. 3. Gubaba. Nothing beats a living psychic hairpiece. 4. Okay, I take that back... maybe the ICBS. My personal favorite moment in that entire series was in "Fleet of the Strongest Women" when they launch what I like to call the Inter-Continental Ballistic Subwoofer. The expression on Chlore's face when the music started blasting through the bridge was priceless.