Radd

Hey guys, question, I don't really do the model building scene. I've got my 1/3000 Macross sitting here, but I've yet to attach any of the pieces. I've got some KrazyGlue right here, would that be fine for attaching those pieces that need gluing (like the ARMD thrusters) or should I hold off and get some modelling cement?

Most of my collection is still away in boxes, but pretty sure DYRL is far and away the majority of my collection. Frontier is probably a close second, followed by Plus. Once my finances are in order again I hope to give my Mac7 collection a big boost with the 1/60 VF-19 and the upcoming VF-17. I've already got Gamlin's VF-22. Ooo, I'd also love to get the VF-11C. The Mac Plus VF-11 is still one of my favourites.

I'd so grab a VA-3, finances willing. Still underemployed, tho, so I haven't been able to even consider ordering the VF-19Kai yet, let alone hope for newer, more awesome releases. That said, as much as I really, really, really want the VF-17, I'm going to be very patient over pics and a release date. Hopefully before the summer is out I'll be back in good shape.

I'd been disappointed, but resigned to not picking this up due to my current financial situation....but now seeing those photos, it hurts a lot more and makes my old 1/60 YF-19 look a whole lot sadder.

I'm pretty open minded. I can deal with a Conan movie without Arnold. I heard they were trying to make the new movies closer to the books, which is an idea I like. But the teaser and trailers I've seen look pretty terrible. Bad special effects, bad acting, and what the #$^& is up with the music? Conan is high fantasy, that pretty much requires an epic orchestral score, not bad summer action movie guitars. At the moment, until something convinces me that it's just a case of bad marketing, I've no interest in the movie. I do gotta say, tho, I like the costume design and look of the actors. If all I'd seen so far had been still images, I'd probably be pretty hyped for this movie.

I'm guessing that means it's been selling well then?

Oh, I definitely still love the Quarter, and the posable turrets and additional articulation are definitely great fun, but it could have used a couple more ratcheted joints. Mine can't even hold up the gun or flight deck on its own anymore. Still, if Bandai decide to put out a 1/3000 Battle Frontier I'd nab that in a heartbeat. Or maybe we'd have to look to Yamato for a 1/3000 Battle 7 now?

I'd so pick up that pack. Also, even tho I'll have to pack it up for the trip back home tomorrow I broke down and pulled my 1/3000 out of the package, attached the ARMDs and transformed it. This is easily my favourite toy ever. I wish the Quarter were this solid in all modes.

Pssst! I think Gui was making a joke!

Apologies for the poor quality. Camera phone, room with poor lighting.

I finally got my 1/3000 Macross when I arrived in my old hometown, to the friend's whose house it was delivered to. I was disappointed that one of the antenna on the bridge was bent, but other than that it seems pretty much perfect. Already planning to set side some time soon to do the "some assembly required" bit, but I completely forgot to bring my knife with me. I'll have to get ahold of one and other tools to properly cut the bits off the sprues. I'll likely go back through this thread and see if anyone has mentioned anything I should be aware of before that.

This has always bothered me. That videogames and comic books are considered "merchandise" and not in the same category as films and television series is an indication of an extremely broken legal system regarding intellectual property.

I'll finally be getting my hands on mine in the next couple of days. I pre-ordered mine, but when it shipped I had just moved. The shipping address I gave was for a friend's house, where I had been staying in between moving out of my old apartment and moving out to my new place across the state. It arrived at their house just hours after I left. I wasn't even at my new place yet, was still on the road! But with spring break upon us, I've got some time off and I'm heading back to visit family and friends, but mostly to pick up my Macross!

Still my favourite Valkyrie design. Would still pick up one in a heartbeat, of course. It I get this job I've got lined up for later this year then I'd get at least three. Possibly four. Three to display (one in each mode) and one to play with and maybe display at my desk at work.

Who called it? 3DS confirmed at $249.99 for the US launch. Still, I'm eager to see what Sony does. The way I see it, a big part of the DS's success was that it was much less expensive than the PSP, and had significantly better battery life. (Of course, the DS games library taking off much earlier than the PSP's, not to mention the DS riding the success of like a decade or so of Nintendo handheld dominance were also factors.) If Sony can bring a PSP2 to the table with better price and battery life than the 3DS it could be a big advantage for them. On the other hand, it's Sony. The rumours right now are that the PSP2 will have graphics comparable to the PS3. I can only imagine a price tag to match and a serious hit to battery life. Still, could be interesting. I'm looking forward to what this generation of handhelds brings.

Er...I said the 3D was "astoundingly well done", as in, "it looked fantastic". This is pretty much the opposite of "not really ready". I did not experience any headaches or eye strain in either Avatar or Tron, the two most recent 3D movies I've seen. In both movies I pretty much forgot I was even wearing the glasses while watching. I have experienced both in older 3D movies. I don't put much stock in anecdotal arguments, my own anecdotal experiences included, it would be interesting to know what percentage of moviegoers did experience these issues.

Irrelevant to my point. I'm really not sure I follow you here. The only thing I won't complain about with Avatar (which I thought was a terrible movie) was the 3D effect, which was astoundingly well done. I had no problem looking around the screen away from the central focus of the shot, in fact there were shots I thought that took amazingly good advantage of that. 3D doesn't rely on you having your focus drawn to a specific place on the screen, the sense of depth is enhanced by looking around and it can be used to great effect by toying with the viewer's peripheral vision, which Avatar did well.

I'm not certain this is a rational opinion. If the audience, even those looking for it, cannot tell when they see the final product how can one justify calling it cheap? Especially when it's an extra, and costly step in production or used to achieve some effect not otherwise possible? Let's step back a few decades and replace a few words. Yes, 3D is a gimmick to get people into theatres for an experience most cannot get at home, but so was colour, so was THX, etcetera. Done well, colour has added much to film making. Done poorly, well look at a lot of the early colourized stuff, where colour was put into films not originally created in colour. These movies often look worse than the black and white originals. When something originally recorded for mono audio is turned into full surround the end result can sometimes be pretty bad, too. Roger Ebert has had many questionable opinions over the years. This is the man who said videogames could not under any circumstances be considered "art". He has settled firmly into the "grumpy old man stuck in the past" set. A lot of the opinions he expresses lately remind me of the 1927 quote, "Talking film is as little needed as a singing book." If Ebert were an old man then I'm sure he would have agreed with that statement.

The book was much better. Anyways, the year itself? Finally got out of a dead end job in a dead end state and moved to someplace I should have moved a decade ago to try and get a job that matches the degree I got back then. Things are going well so far, 2011 is shaping up to be a helluva year.

Actually, this is done more often than you might think. It can be done really well, too. Chances are, if you saw the movie before reading this on wikipedia you probably wouldn't realize. Yeah, I'm with you on this particular point. The risk you run when explaining things that had been left up to the imagination for decades is that what you come up with isn't as powerful as the unknown. Fair points. I haven't seen a Ridley Scott film since Gladiator, which, while definitely no Blade Runner, I thought was pretty good.Although, on Lucas himself, the man did give us Ewoks, the Star Wars Christmas Special and Howard the Duck, so the warning signs were most definitely there.

The problem with this perspective is that there is never at any point in the first two movies where it's confirmed that the Notromo is the first group of humans to encounter these beings. In fact, the very idea that Weyland-Yutani has a built in protocol that will not only stop a current mission mid-stride and send the crew out in search of possible alien life and that there is even an android on board that will prioritize this over the crew's life seems to indicate that corporation has good reason to halt a profitable mission to go chasing little green men that probably don't exist. It's like people crying "Retcon!" when the ruins of the Global were revealed in Macross Frontier. Sorry, no, incorrect. That does not contradict what we know, it fills in the gaps of things we didn't know. DIFFERENT. And yes, don't take this wrong but there is some fanboy rage going on here. You're making assumptions about a movie that we haven't even seen a trailer for which seem to fly in the face of the facts. Despite the fact that we're getting the director of the original classic back you're saying it's going to be another typical modern Hollywood action fest. I'm not quite sure how you've come to the conclusion that the director of Alien and Blade Runner is going to make a sugar hyped Matrix style MTV video. I'm not saying we're guaranteed some good movies here, believe me I'm cautiously optimistic here at best, but I'm just not seeing Ridley Scott giving us something as bad as AvP.

Which would make the concept of humans encountering space jockeys and xenomorphs not a retcon, so long as it's handled right. (Like no one survives, or WaylandYutani covers it all up before creating their priority directive for employee ships to check out any possible indication of extra-terrestrial life.)

That really depends on your definition of a "retcon", the more narrow definition is that a "retcon" is when you go back and change an established fact, directly contradicting the existing material. There are plenty of ways to show humans encountering xenomorphs and space jockeys decades before Ripley and the crew of the Nostromos without contradicting anything in the first two Alien movies (and quite honestly I'm perfectly fine with them contradicting whatever they feel like with the Alien movies past those). The broader definition of a retcon, that anything changed or added to the timeline whether or not spelled out explicitly in the existing material, is..well quite honestly so broad a definition that the term "retcon" becomes meaningless. Anything showing new information about a backstory would be considered a retcon. Darth Vader being Luke's father would be a retcon made in Empire.

I feel generally positive about this. We're getting Ridley Scott and H.R. Giger, this feels more like a return to form than a quick cash-in. We'll see, tho. On the Red October topic, yeah...I kinda hated the way they handled the Russian characters. I'd have preferred they stuck to Russian dialogue, or at least had Russian accents. I kinda doubt the movie will be lacking any human characters, tho. Space is big, and in the Alien universe communication isn't instantaneous. I would suspect we're going to see humans encountering xenomorphs and space jockeys and probably lead right in to the original movie.

You know, I haven't really been watching much anime lately. Nothing really stands out for me. I haven't seen the Frontier movie yet. Going to go with Tron Legacy. Inception was good, but after I left the theatre all I could think of were the inconsistencies. I enjoyed it, but I had more fun with Tron. Never been much of a tv person. There were a lot of great games this year. Minecraft and Fallout:New Vegas both stand out, but the highly underrated Infinite Space on the Nintendo DS was hands down my favourite game this year. I'm still playing it. Nothing I got. I'm still waiting for the 3DS. There's a few contenders, but I'm going to wait until my 1/3000 scale Macross arrives to give a definitive winner.