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Some Assembly Required Episode 06 - Crotch Thrust and Generation Gap

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45 comments posted
Nice! Where'd you guys get

Nice! Where'd you guys get that DX banner in the background? :P

Dre2Dee2's picture
Posted by Dre2Dee2 on 5 February, 2010 - 09:51
That was an interesting

That was an interesting argument you guys brought up.

I didn't grow up with chogokin but I did with other 80's things, mainly Transformers (even Beast Wars), Gobots and Power Rangers.

I like both the static pose and crotch thrust.

I'm still collecting robots but I can't be bothered with the high end stuff anymore because that stuff is getting too expensive. I've mostly been going with Revoltech and figma for the most part.

Hmmn, I guess for future suggestions. talk about the modern otaku market of moe figures and your opinions on them.

VZMK2's picture
Posted by VZMK2 on 5 February, 2010 - 10:18
"talk about the modern otaku

"talk about the modern otaku market of moe figures and your opinions on them"

You really and truly are an idiot.

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 5 February, 2010 - 11:05
Fine, stay in your time

Fine, stay in your time capsule cave.

VZMK2's picture
Posted by VZMK2 on 5 February, 2010 - 11:08
This is why Sanjeev is not

This is why Sanjeev is not in politics.

------------------------------
CollectionDX Admin

JoshB's picture
Posted by JoshB on 5 February, 2010 - 11:44
Amen, brother. But for those

Amen, brother.

But for those confused about my vitriol towards the above comment, this topic (moe) has been brought up *numerous* times on TBDX...despite the requests of the site owner and moderators NOT to discuss it...and yet Vincent continues to troll the topic back up wherever and whenever he can...

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 5 February, 2010 - 12:15
But if you want to talk

But if you want to talk about what the modern Japanese toy scene is, you really can't avoid the topic. I'm not forcing you to like it but your aversion to it is what compels me to continue to feel that yes, it warrants some discussion outside of the usually "I find it morally offensive" position that you and others on TBDX pull. I'm I making sense?

VZMK2's picture
Posted by VZMK2 on 5 February, 2010 - 12:39
The problem

there Vince, is that you've been told by the site owner that the topic is off-limits. It doesn't matter what your opinions - or our opinions - of the topic are. It's not a site for that topic, period. To be honest, I'm absolutely amazed that your account hasn't been frozen and/or deleted at this point. And this is coming from someone who was something of a defender of yours for a while there.

fujikuro's picture
Posted by fujikuro on 16 November, 2010 - 08:29
No Gap

I was born in 1971. I was also fortunate enough to grow up with the vintage toys. No gen. gap for me, but I still dig both styles. The vintage mixed with S.O.C. littered with Revoltech thrusts!

Grandzinga....

Grandzinga's picture
Posted by Grandzinga on 5 February, 2010 - 10:59
I saw the screenshot for

I saw the screenshot for this video and thought to myself "NO DAVE, DON'T BREAK THE REVOLTECHS!" Is it bad that I can see him doing that?

Dkun's picture
Posted by Dkun on 5 February, 2010 - 10:49
The Gap....

I certainly say there is one...it doesn't have to be there for every one, and for some it's not. But it exists. However, why does the "Thrust" define the newer generation? (I'm 19, by the way.) I have some revoltechs and yeah, the thrust happens, but I have other toys, very much of my Gen, that don't. You'll never be able to find a Kamen Rider that thrusts on Neutral.

Mechaninja's picture
Posted by Mechaninja on 5 February, 2010 - 10:51
Humping Robot

And my folks used to make fun of my Gundams for some of their huge crotches... Its only a matter of time before Kaiyodo makes a Humping Robot from Robot Chicken that comes with a crotch thrustable washing machine!

-------------------------
Rob
The Gundam Model Guy

Gunpla Rob's picture
Posted by Gunpla Rob on 5 February, 2010 - 10:58
Guys, the show was great!

Guys, the show was great! Totally loved it, and wish I coulda been there. (It was movie-night at my buddy's place--sorry!)

Anyway, we all know how I feel about the crotch thrust...just check out the poll thread. It's an interesting discussion.

As for the show, I got a real kick outta people pronouncing stuff, and I always try to bust Ben's chops about it! Him pronouncing "Revoltech" like revel-tech was classic. But I was actually impressed that he pronounced "Mazinger" and "chogokin" okay (emphasis--or lack thereof--on the right syllables). Oh, and Josh, I think that figure was called "Dix-Neuf", which is French for the number, 19. It's pronounced "deez-nef" or "deez-noof". Heh...three years of high school French!

But as for the generation thing, it's interesting how the "older" guys have very similar experiences, while the "younger" guys in the hobby tend to have more diverse stories of how they got into this stuff. Yeah, I vaguely knew of Micronauts but they were a bit before my time. I was way more into Voltron, He-Man, GI Joe, and Transformers (and, of course, other weird American 80's oddities like Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Centurions, Mantech, etc.). Oh, and Tranzor Z most definitely featured Aphrodite's breast missiles! I remember them vividly! :P

But yeah, I remember Beast Wars being on, and being completely appalled by it. But by then, like the other old timers, I'd "grown out of" this stuff anyway. Girls, drugs, and running from cops occupied my time more than cartoons...until, of course, I got into comics in high school! But, yeah, toys for me are a sort of a way to reclaim the wonderment and imagination I had when I was little. I guess that's why I see modern robot "toys" as being inferior. They're really not toys for children--they're adult collectibles. Even Revoltechs, to an extent. I mean, what little kids in Japan are gonna bug their parents to buy them a Revoltech Grendizer?

The new generation's great. If they love the adult collectibles, it's all good. I'm just glad we have sites like this where we can all meet, discuss our differences, and discover our similarities (and, of course, argue pointlessly about crotch-thrusting!).

Oh, by the way, the commercial break and Veef crotch-thrusting were priceless!

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 5 February, 2010 - 12:43
"I mean, what little kids in

"I mean, what little kids in Japan are gonna bug their parents to buy them a Revoltech Grendizer?"

Nah, they're bugging their parents for videogames I imagine. But then, the population is going down which is why there's more collector orientated toys than those for kids.

VZMK2's picture
Posted by VZMK2 on 5 February, 2010 - 13:03
Thrusting, Aging, and more Thrusting

When I first saw the original Revoltech figures, I really did not like the hip thrust like most. But, it grew on me because it was more of a stylistic choice rather than a blatant disregard for the original source material. Then, I thought how cool it would be if they did a Scopedog. Either way, I really don't see a problem with hip thrusts, just as long as it's a stylistic choice, rather than a end-all-be-all representation of a non-thrusting character.

As a member of the "Beast Wars Era," I think the largest affect on collectors like myself is the new articulation incorporated into those toys. I am talking about the advent of the Marvel Legends and Beast Wars toys. Beforehand, we were lucky to have the 'big 5' (head, shoulders and hips), let alone something that could look somewhat 'natural'. Either way, as a newer generation collector, I am looking for something that can move in every axis imaginable, and do it with style.

Oh and BTW, I have some of the SH Figuarts figures, and they can pull off a pretty good hip thrust.

gerwakun's picture
Posted by gerwakun on 5 February, 2010 - 16:30
stylistic

"When I first saw the original Revoltech figures, I really did not like the hip thrust like most. But, it grew on me because it was more of a stylistic choice rather than a blatant disregard for the original source material."

To me, the "stylistic choice", where Yamaguchi makes everything look the way his own tastes dictate, is one of the weakest aspects of the Revoltech line. It's just not appropriate for a lot of the designs he sculpts versions of.
Fortunately, it's largely moot since they've been using more and more Revoltech joints instead of plain cut joints like Yamaguchi's older "mono-shaft drive" figures had.
It's weird that they haven't done any Revoltech figures of Yasuhiro Nightow designs. He already draws everything in that shoulders back, hips forward pose.

I'd also like to note that before Marvel Legends and ball-jointed Transformers, the real bastion of articulation was the 12" figure, which pioneered many of the techniques we now take for granted on smaller-scale figures. Similarly, there were quintessentially well-articulated small figures, like the 3 3/4" G.I. Joe line, and Microman, lines which have since continued to improve with the times.

recognizer's picture
Posted by recognizer on 5 February, 2010 - 17:35
Haha, great vid guys! It's

Haha, great vid guys! It's always fun to talk toys with other toy nerds like this.

My story is somewhere in between Dave & Josh's and Andrew & Ben's stories. As I got "too old" for this kind of stuff, my younger brother was just getting to the age of getting into all of it (I'm 32, he's 25). So even though I wasn't avidly buying toys for myself, I still made regular trips to TRU and Kay Bee with him to search for Ninja Turtles stuff and then G2 TFs and other things. Plus, in high school I was reading and drawing comics, even though I didn't really get heavily into the toys.

But still, throughout high school and college, many of my toys were never stowed away. Additionally, it was during HS that I discovered anime, with titles like Bubblegum Crisis, Dominion Tank Police, Project A-Ko, etc. So the interest for this stuff was still strong. Also, I remember a friend from HS, in senior year coming over and being amazed at the Matchbox Voltron I had in my room. It was kinda funny seeing him, the captain of the soccer team, with his eyes lit up like a kid again. I truly believe everyone still has it in them, but are too often too afraid to let the kid out.

Anyway, back to the point, although my toy buying and collecting habits may have slowed to a crawl throughout my teens and early 20s, I've definitely never stopped or forgotten about it. Whether I was buying a random Hot Wheels car, or a ToyBiz X-Men figure (yes, I do have a few of those, and I like 'em! lol), I've never quit altogether. It's just that now, with the internet and all, I do believe the hobby has become lifelong now.

Oh, and to agree with Sanjeev, the fembots on Tranzor Z DEFINITELY had the booby bombs/mammary missiles/t!++y torpedoes. I remember because that's what my friends and I used to call them! lol

About the hip, crotch thrusting thing... My take on it is, sometimes it can be cool, sometimes it can be a bit much. Overall though, it's probably a tad over used. Imho.

REX-203's picture
Posted by REX-203 on 5 February, 2010 - 16:40
Can I choose the middle?

35, like my figures dynamic, but not replacing general looks.

Collecting wise I mostly stopped toys due to peer/parental pressure when I was 12, got back into them around 22-23 when I got out of the Navy. It was Beast Machines the show that got me back in. I never had the hate for Beast Wars many Transformers fans back then did, but it wasn't till BM that I went back and gave it a look. And it was GREAT. It started slow with Gundam model kits and Robotech Exo Squad on clearance and just got ridiculous for a long time, though I never did anything 4 figure. Hell, I have only 2-3 times gone into the 3 digit zone, and I feel silly for doing it!

My dull time was replaced with comics, computer/video games, and tabletop hobby games like RPGs and minis war games, and of course anime itself in the VHS days.

I could swear Tranzor Z had the bosom missiles too. (Grew up with channel 56 here as well. CREATURE. DOUBLE. FEATURE.)

Typhus's picture
Posted by Typhus on 5 February, 2010 - 19:06
Geesh! I feel old now, just

Geesh! I feel old now, just turned 41! As a kid I was more into repeats of the Thunderbirds and Stingray. Early gradeschool years every boy was into Evil Knievil and the Six Million Dollar Man. But the summer between third and fourth grade everything changed. Star Wars did a major crotch thrust onto pop culture. And what seemed like within weeks Shogun Warriors, Battle of the Planets, Micronauts and Starblazers burst on the scene...To a midwestern kid this was toy and 'toon mecca...I was hooked deeply, especialy into the 'toons. And got swallowed hook line and sinker into the then newborn anime fandom.

By the time transformers hit the airwaves I had my drivers license. And Already knew full well what Jetfire was basied on and had even seen some of Dorvack too. I was deep into Zeta Gundam at the time and the prize toy of my rather tiny collection was the then new Bandai DX Zeta (purchased through the GTC, some of you "old timers" might remember them and thier B&W zeroxed catalogs in those days before the internet)...I was far more into the anime art books and model kits then (and now). The Playboys have been thrown out, but I still have about two dozen Hobby Japans from back then. :D

By the end of the 80's I sold all the toys I could...except the few Convertors I had (which made up most of my collection, like anyone would buy them from me back then :P ). It wouldn't be until about a decade ago that I started looking at toys again (mainly Braves)...Wasn't until about the first Transformers live action film that I even purchased a transformers toy for its own merit (the 1970s bumblebee camero) :P

As for crotch thrust, I don't hate it completely, and I'm fine with it if thats how the character/mecha was designed. But it does look rather unflattering on many older designs IMHO.

BraveMSW's picture
Posted by BraveMSW on 5 February, 2010 - 20:32
I remember GTC

I totally remember those old catalogs, in fact I believe I still have one packed away somewhere. I remember the guy who ran it was named Ron and he was in Overland Park Kansas. Back around 1991 or 1992 I remember saving my dishes/mowing the lawn money (I was about 15 or 16 and had not gotten my first real job yet) and purchasing some old Imai Macross models and even a couple Takatoku Destroids. Neither toys nor models consumed my life in High School but I did buy them (mostly models, only a couple toys). The Macross models were exotic to a teenager in the Midwest who grew up watching Robotech, they were familiar yet a bit alien. The box art was so beautiful and more attractive than the Revell Robotech models that I remembered seeing at K-Mart and Zayres.

Like many of the other "old timers" on here I prefer the static vintage robots. I grew up with Voltron, Robotech, Godaikins, Transformers, Star Wars, Godzilla etc..and I definately remember the old obscure shows like Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. I think it was around 1997 or 1998 when I started collecting vintage Japanese toys (I had previously collected vintage Star Wars toys) and I haven't stopped since, though I must admit I would occassionaly have to sell a few to help pay for various archaeological digs in the Middle East and Japan that I volunteered on. One of those was the Takatoku 1/3000 SDF-1. I still regret it to this day and plan on buying a new one soon.

Jeromy's picture
Posted by Jeromy on 7 February, 2010 - 00:30
Why are people commenting on

Why are people commenting on my story? I didn't say anything about myself.

VF5SS's picture
Posted by VF5SS on 5 February, 2010 - 20:45
I'm 35 and I like my robots

I'm 35 and I like my robots without thrust. Ive always liked my robots to be what they are, robots that are piloted which means when they are not doing anything, they just stand in a neutral pose. Like I Imagine myself sitting inside the robot and I imagine pulling on levers and using foot pedals to move around... If Im punching, Im swinging the levers around, If Im walking Im stepping on pedals or what have you..then when I let go of everything I imagine the robot would stand in a neutral pose, not stand there in a crotch thrust at all, I don't know if I make any sense.. piloting a robot and making it stand with a thrust seems unnatural and nonsensical.. Like whats the point? Like the pilot says ok we aren't moving but Ill adjust these levers around until I achieve a cool crotch thrust..who does that. Its *almost* the robot equivalent of having a car with hydraulics and having it jump, go up/down around while driving then parking it in the street and instead of leaving it sitting there neutral like all normal cars, you leave it with one wheel up and rear jacked. Decoratively pointless.

I agree with the frustration with the revoltechs that cant achieve a neutral pose... I bought a Gurren Lagann with drills revoltech and after 3 minutes of being annoyed at the drill pieces poking my hand and lack of neutral pose I put it away. If you look at my display case all my robots look like they are powered down but ready to be powered up...like at some moment the pilots will jump in and activate them at which point their eyes will light, do the standard clanging of the forearms and punch-the-sky moves I love...not thrust their crotch. Maybe Im old school, but robots are machines first, these weird crotch poses take away that machine feel to them since its essentially an unnecessary movement. Only pose I tolerate is a widened leg stance and a slight one at that with slight outward angle of the arms but if they dont do that, blocky is fine with me. Love my old Dougrams, Votoms and old chogokins.

*Edit- By the way, Im 34, not 35 as I stated in the beginning..thats old age kicking in and making me forget my age

chachipower's picture
Posted by chachipower on 5 February, 2010 - 21:02
I'm 30 years old (so far)

I'm 30 years old (so far) and I'll stop thrusting when they pry my crotch out of my cold dead hands.

As far as what I grew up on,I lived in MA but I never saw Force five,never went to that store everyone talks about,never knew what a Shogun Warrior was till I was an adult.

I liked He-Man,Gobots,DC Superfriends/Justice League,TF,and TMNT. I seem to remember watching Robotech,but I didn't have any of the toys IIRC. Same thing with Godzilla/Gamera.

I got back into collecting seriously when Transformers RiD and Gundam Wing were out,then I got into superhero figures when the Marvel Legends/DCU guys started coming out,then I started occasionally buying kaiju stuff online.
These days I only grab the rare toy here and there,I'm not actively looking for anything.

And to back up something the Veef said,I own two Revoltechs,Gaiking and Hot rod,and in both cases I bought them specifically because I wanted a Revoltech. In other words,I wouldn't have bought a Gaiking vinyl or diecast. I've only even seen 4 or 5 eps of the show! I just wanted a robot that looked cool and had cool posability.

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 5 February, 2010 - 21:13
Hey Josh, what kind of

Hey Josh, what kind of camera do you use?

VF5SS's picture
Posted by VF5SS on 5 February, 2010 - 21:41
Canon

Canon HV30

------------------------------
CollectionDX Admin

JoshB's picture
Posted by JoshB on 6 February, 2010 - 08:22
Topics for the show!

Hello CDX!

Nice Show, really like it, and see all that great toys behind you!, since i live in South America, where one of the only way of getting a really god deal for a toys, is buying from Eshops over the internet, like Ebay, HLJ, Etcetera, because here on the Local Toy Store, there are not too much stock on toys, and they are really expensive, anyway, it will be good to see you talking about difference between Toys that you considerer toys as it is, and collector pieces, differences like, the plastic quality, paint work, packaging, prices, also, the different types of plastic there is for toys, like ABS, PVC, POM, Etc, there are some of materials i did not know, so will be really good see you showing us all that.

Hope hyou undestand my poor english, Thanks A lot!!!

Cheers!

roboto.cl's picture
Posted by roboto.cl on 6 February, 2010 - 00:27
The only thing that drives

The only thing that drives me crazy, like many others, is the lack of neutral poses for revoltechs! ARGH! :P

The weirdest thing for me I guess is that I never knew watching Voltron and Transformers etc that they were japanese shows! And that japan had robot shows for like 20 years prior! So when everyone kind stop caring about robots, I was secretly having my own love affair with robot related toys.

Then gundam came along sometime in the latter 90s and poop... the japanese robot floodgate opened. Now I got everything from A Turn-A Gundam to Z Zambot 3. :P

Dre2Dee2's picture
Posted by Dre2Dee2 on 6 February, 2010 - 02:22
Great Show

Hey guys, I thought you raised some interesting points about the generation gap. I'm 31, born in '78. My older cousins introduced me to Force Five on WLVI 56. They had all the Shoguns. Waltham was far from us so I never got out to Mr. & Mrs. Big's (but it was great seeing the ad again after all these years--actually drove by there over Christmas to see if it was still there). By the time high school rolled around I was collecting Star Wars toys, and then Power Rangers came out. I though the show sucked but I liked the robot designs and I knew they were in some way the spiritual successor to Voltron, so I started buying the Megazords. Now here I am with a job, and I can finally buy the Godaikins and Shoguns that I always wanted as a kid (and any other classic gokin that has that era's feel to it). Although my wife thinks I've completely lost my mind.

So, in summation, I am very anti-crotch thrust. I love the classic gokin static pose. I want all my robots to look like they have rigamortis! I think the new robots are nifty, and enjoy looking at them, but they're not for me.

Txos's picture
Posted by Txos on 6 February, 2010 - 16:35
A couple more things I

A couple more things I thought of (this was a really good show):

Dave's question to Bob (?) about if he had ever grown out of toy collecting before becoming an adult collector-
I moved like 4 times between the ages of 10 and 12,and since I was already growing out of toys,I ended up getting rid of almost everything.
None of the toys I have as an adult collector are from my childhood,and outside of a couple repros I don't even have any vintage 80's toys.
In middle school/high school I may have owned a couple little figurines of Sonic or someone from Street Fighter or whatever,but you wouldn't call me a toy collector in any way. I casually read comics,and occasionally watched the small amount of anime I came across back then,but I wasn't super into it. I did sometimes watch Beast Wars but I didn't really like it.
I do remember wanting to buy those Trendmasters Godzilla toys,but when you're a teen with limited pocket money,a toy to sit on your bookshelf is pretty low on the priority scale. :(

Josh's question to Bob about if he felt any connection to the toys in that case,since he was so young-

I'm 10 years older than Bob,and I honestly feel no connection to any of that stuff. Before I started reading CDX,my "super robot" knowledge was limited to Voltron,Gigantor,and a vague idea of who Mazinger Z was. The video game "Super Robot Wars" inspired me to check out some super robot ahows,and I ended up here.
I appreciate that a Reideen figure is a cool toy,objectively,but I feel the same about it as I do a Power Ranger toy. Cool,but not something I would spend any real amount of effort/time/money to aquire.

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 6 February, 2010 - 20:56
I dunno who Bob is, but I

I dunno who Bob is, but I have a little Transformers Brawn figure that my uncle gave me when I was real little, and it was the first Transformer I ever got, along with Huffer. Huffer's broken, but still around, but Brawn will forever be one of my favorite toys ever made... I have one of the repro Brawn keychains for my car keys, but that original Brawn is still kicking in my Transformers collection, usually getting a seat of honor when Metroplex is in city mode. I know I've branched in just tons of other stuff, but the Transformers are still my favorite for that attachment. What I really need to complete the old set is G2 Sideswipe.

http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com

Prometheum5's picture
Posted by Prometheum5 on 7 February, 2010 - 17:10
Sorry,I thought he said your

Sorry,I thought he said your name was Bob.

Transformers' current toys really aren't my thing. I feel they're too complex and fiddly,and while the design is OK,it's just not the same. Even though I liked the two movies more than most people (I really don't want to start THAT argument again) I think we can all agree neither one of them was the next Citizen Kane.

That being said,I will always have an interest in Transformers. I loved the original show/comic,and collecting the toys was a really fun hobby for me while it lasted. Who knows,they may go back to the oldschool design sensability again one day and I'll start collecting them again.

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 7 February, 2010 - 18:34
Guys, this is like the best

Guys, this is like the best damn thread EVAR!!

I guess weighing in on the whole crotch-thrust argument was a good enough excuse for everyone to post their "origin of the hobby" stories! I love reading about them!

For the record, I love the original (Toybiz?) Marvel Legends line. Great articulation, spotty QC, but solid figures. The new Hasbro ones have iffy sculpts and are way too rubbery for my tastes. Still, I'm glad the line continues.

So...here's an interesting question: is Yamaguchi like Katoki for Gundam fans?

Anyway, Typhus, amen, brother, amen. Creature. Double. Feature. Did you see that Ernie Boch Jr (yeah, the car salesman!) brought it back for a couple Saturdays a year or two ago?? They aired Godzilla vs The Smog Monster among some other classics!

BraveMSW, no need to feel old! I'm a huge Gerry Anderson fan (Thunderbirds rock!) and Lee Majors was one of my heroes growing up! :P Gotta admit, though, you've got me on the GTC thing. I was a Newtype guy in the early 90's...

kidnicky, for someone who's comparatively late in the game, you sure know your stuff. Fascinating to hear how recently you got into all of this stuff. Anyway, my attitude towards the crotch thrust is softening (heh...crotch...soft). Someone in the video (I forget who now) related it to a "super hero" pose. I kinda get that...and afterall, giant robots in Japanese cartoons is their analog to superheroes in US comics, right? Still wouldn't buy anything thrusting, but I can dig that people do...

Txos, I actually work right by Moody ST in Waltham, and with all the great restaurants there, I go there for lunch pretty often. The site of the old Mr. Big Toyland is now a discount office furniture place, or some such thing. So sad... :P

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 6 February, 2010 - 21:05
Well,I was pretty heavily

Well,I was pretty heavily into Transformers and kaiju from like 2002 to a year or two ago,so it's not like I'm totally new to the scene.

I have a TON of the toybiz Legends. I agree on the quality control. The base for my Iron Man has something like "check" or "pass" (it's packed away right now,I can't check) written in ball point pen on it. Pretty amatuerish. I stopped collecting them when Hasbro took over and OMG EMMA FROST. :0

I was watching Seinfeld tonight and thinking Kramer would make an awesome Revoltech figure.

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 6 February, 2010 - 21:49
Mr. & Mrs. Big's

Sanjeev - my dad's friend owns the Italian grocery store over there, and I can vividly remember the last time I was there -- It must have been in '87 or '88, and Mr. Big was showing some guy all of the Gold Lightans. I was blown away, but of course I had no idea what they were, and there was no way my dad was going to buy a $40 robot toy for his near-teenage son.

Txos's picture
Posted by Txos on 6 February, 2010 - 22:08
You don't mean Salem, do

You don't mean Salem, do you??? That's the only Italian grocery store on Moody I know of, but my coworker and I go there ALL the time! I swear, they have the BEST connoli! That'd be hilarious if it's the same spot your dad's friend owns!!

Anyway, going back up to what Jeromy said, "familiar yet a bit alien" hits the nail right on the head for me and makes me think more about this potential generation gap thing. That's how this whole hobby was for me when I was little. I mean, I knew these cartoons came from Japan...but there was no internet, let alone a well-established fandom, to help in figuring all this stuff out.

We had to dig and scrape for every little bit of knowledge. Hell, even Robotech was mostly a mystery to me. I'd watched the show when I was really too young to get how the three generations all fit together. When I got older, I learned about the Palladium Books rpg and the Jack McKinney Del Ray novels...and I was in heaven. By this time, we were going to comic book conventions and whatnot getting umpteenth generation bootleg vhs of various Gundam shows we knew NOTHING about.

Again, everything was fascinating and familiar and alien all at once. No internet, so every little bit of knowledge we could glean from a magazine or whatever was like gold. And that mystery, I think, added to the charm of it all.

I think it's great that there's so much info on the internet and that fans have solid outlets to share today, but I kinda miss the days of "so crazy Japanese toys"...

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 7 February, 2010 - 13:58
Yeah, totaly agree with

Yeah, totaly agree with that. Back in the day you kinda had to be your own Sherlock Holmes trying to solve the mystery of what this stuff was. Information was scarce, the process of discovery was a full fledged process itself. Used to skim through the classifieds in Starlog magazine looking for clues. And usualy when some mail-order company advertised robot toys in those days, the toys in question were of the older wind-up tin variety. It was most frustraiting that when I found Books Nippon in LA, they didn't do mail orders...So close, and yet so far away.

Maybe its my age, but I find I have a love-hate thing going on with the modern era. Its amazing how fast stuff gets shipped to your door. No more mailing off a check, waiting weeks for it to clear before anything gets shipped. But at the same time there is just so much stuff out there now that it kinda feels like information overload at times.

BraveMSW's picture
Posted by BraveMSW on 7 February, 2010 - 15:57
Salem is the one. I seem to

Salem is the one. I seem to remember they make a pretty mean Italian Sub too. Tell Paul, the owner, that Bob's son Eric says hi. Salem was the only reason I ever got to Mr. & Mrs. Big's before I had a license. Wish I got to buy something!

Txos's picture
Posted by Txos on 7 February, 2010 - 17:28
Playing as Gold Lightan in

Playing as Gold Lightan in Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom (Wii) is so awesome,you like tower over the regular dudes.

Hey this is really off topic but I just remembered- Target is selling Ultraman season 1 on DVD for FIVE BUCKS. I assume most of us here probably bought it back when it came out,but for those of you who didn't,here's your chance.

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 6 February, 2010 - 22:17
Actually, I never did get

Actually, I never did get it, even when Atom recently mentioned it was on sale on Amazon for $7, so thanks for the heads up.

"You can't sell it until you get it from him, but you gotta sell it to pay him to get it to sell it".
---Jerilock, talking about me trying to raise the money I need to pay for the toys I already bought....

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 6 February, 2010 - 22:21
Honestly,it probably wasn't

Honestly,it probably wasn't worth the full price I paid on release day. The quality is not the best,to put it lightly. Still,hours of Ultraman on a legit R1 DVD for five bucks is a STEAL. I'm pretty sure it has the one with the rock that grants wishes.

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 6 February, 2010 - 22:45
Sanjeev: No, that sounds

Sanjeev: No, that sounds awesome though.

Sadly here in Connecticut we no longer get stations from Mass. Except for Channel 2 PBS.

No more 56 here. (Not that I even have full cable or satellite anymore. Can catch the few shows I want online, or just wait for the DVD set and save 70 a month on TV fees. Wouldn't even have basic cable if I wasn't required to for cable internet!)

We used to get a WIIIDE variety of stations here in the 80s. Got Channel 9 and 11 out of New Jersey and New York. Once Fox came in, it was all down hill after that. Some regulatory thing came in where local networks got show priority for a region if they showed the same thing even at different times. When every station basically became some form of affiliate for some network (UPN, WB), there was no really NEED for distant channels and local ones came in to fill the void.

They all show the same blasted things outside of the odd weekend open slot timeframe anyhow. And I work weekends sleep days so I don't have time to watch the few syndicated shows left anyhow. (Plus I have DVDs. Watch lame syndicated shows or ones of my choosing? Gao Gai Gar or something that makes The Love Boat look good? TOUGH CHOICE I KNOW.)

All the station's free time airings are now mostly Montel Williams/Jerry Springer type talk show pablum.

No more Movie Loft, Creature Double Feature, Casper & those superhero babies (you 56 viewers of the early 80s know what I am talking about!), Bozo, various shows designed to sell toys, half from Japan, BOB ROSS, Great Space Coaster, nothin.

The few syndicated comedies are just still on the air repeats of crappy network junk. (Im sorry, Jeffersons, All in the Family, Barney Miller, Good Times, Laverne & Shirley, WKRP.. they might have been network shows into syndication, but they were worth watching. Some of Happy Days too. Now we get endless Seinfeld reruns, that show with Charlie "my pimp hand is STRONG" Sheen, Raymond, and maybe extremely watered down repeats of South Park & Family Guy plus the awful seasons of the Simpsons and not the cool episodes like Scorpio and the one where Homer smokes weed.)

Cartoons are pretty much NIL now, leaving Cartoon Network, Toon Disney, and Nickelodeon to show them when they decide not to try to make more live action stuff. (Did we REALLY need tween versions of half of Discovery and Sci Fi network's programming? And its not even Mythbusters, which could be appropriate for the gun toting MILF Kari now that she be a mommy. Less explosions might be better for her now that she has a wee bairn. And we need a replacement for MR WIZARD. Might as well be a hot redhead. Itll be a show for kids AND their dads! For almost entirely different reasons..)

I'm gonna stop now because its becoming nostalgia central here, and close to complaining about corporate America making everything samey, mass market, and suck, with no real choice to be found anymore, especially if that Net Neutrality malarkey happens ruining the last cool thing for semi independent thinkers. :(

Typhus's picture
Posted by Typhus on 8 February, 2010 - 21:32
All I'll say is word up,

All I'll say is word up, man.

Oh, and..."those superhero babies"...you're not talking about Ralph Bakshi's "The Mighty Heroes", are you? I mean, there was Diaper Man, but he was the only baby...

That show kicked much ass...and you can get boots of most of the episodes pretty easily...

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 9 February, 2010 - 12:29
Well im 31 and I remember

Well im 31 and I remember Force Five was my drug of choice. I remember my dad had taped a few episodes of Starvengers and then actually recorded the starvegners movie and thus "thrusted" me into the world of the old classic robots. Ever since that I remember voltron, and all the other shows that followed and I was always telling friends abotu a show called Starvengers and Gaiking and Dangard Ace, yet everyone else would always mention Voltron. Anyways from there I went into tranformers and what not and it wasnt until my early teens that I got a job at TRU and was actually collecting more mcfarlane stuff and what not, because I never really knew how to get a hold of the prized possesions of imported figures and such. Plus money was always an issue for that kind of stuff. Then into my late teens and early 20's I started to pick up a few random figures here and there and I remember the US release of MSIA did it for me. After that and with the help of the internet I started to do alot more research and rediscovered my beloved Starvengers in the form of Getter Robo G and that the rest is history.
As for the crotch thrusts, I think as noted in the video, I think it works better for some characters than others depending on the design/sculpt. I dont really mind it but at the same time if the character can stand straight up is good also, cause I usaully pose my figures in that heroic 3/4 stance pose. So overall, i cant say I love it or hate it as long as I can put the figure in other poses besides that.

NEOGETTER's picture
Posted by NEOGETTER on 8 February, 2010 - 23:22