links
T.net SETI
NHMK
Joke The Monkey
Evil Avatar

Yamato rebirth Wed Feb 3 10:14:32 2010, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] No, not the movie one.... In the wake of the awesomeness of the Yamato live-action trailer, I've gone through a Matsumoto revival. (Matsumoto is considered a creator of Yamato, despite not being the actual originator of the idea. It was his art and ideas that really made it what it is.) His other well known works (relatively speaking) are Galaxy Express 999 and Space Pirate Harlock. Way back when I was a kid, in the early 1980s, while I was in Japan visiting, one of my relatives, I think it might have been an uncle, got me a toy Yamato. This one: Click to embiggen Now, almost thirty years later, mine is looking so mint as this one. Mine was played with hard. It's gotten broken pieces, and lost pieces, and plastic chroming has worn away. At some point in the past, I sprayed it with hair spray. I think it was an effort to preserve it as it was starting to discolor from sunlight. That, in turn, made a thick THICK layer of dust and gunk accumulate. As well as continuing to discolor. It doesn't look thrashed by any means, but it's certainly seen better days. I don't have any pics of it now. But, yeah, I would not call it a sterling example of its kind. I suppose, though, it's pretty amazing that it survived my childhood. (Ask OMC, he'll tell you I had a knack for breaking toys). And, I even still have it here with me. It's been in a box. Largely because it looks all crummy. I've made some half-hearted attempts over the years to clean it, but whatever is coating it now is pretty stubborn. With my Matsumoto revival, I've been kicking around the idea of attempting a restoration of the toy. I've got some model-building/painting experience under my belt and better ideas about what need to be done. My dilemma is what exactly to do. Do I just go the route of disassembly, washing, scrubbing, and minor repairing thus leaving the toy largely in its original form. OR do I try the route of all that PLUS modifying/painting to try and make the Yamato closer to its namesake then to a toy. Go back and look at the pic again. I'm proposing that I'd disassemble the toy, remove the toy controls, seal and putty up the non-canon things like the dual-opening space yacht things. In reassembling it, I'd be permanently joining pieces together, like the bridge wouldn't pop off anymore. I'd give it a new paintjob, keeping the original color scheme, of course, but using metallic and matte paints. In all, I'd be attempting to take it close to looking along these lines (but limited, of course, by my skill and the basic starting form): Click to embiggen I experimented last night with removing, disassembling, and washing/scrubbing throughly the bridge section and it's a HUGE improvement over the crusty beginnings. I'm pretty sure, with the examinations I've done so far, that I could throughly disassemble and reassemble the thing. I guess where I'm torn is, will I be destroying the toy to make it something it's not (and thus, technically destroying it's value). I've been researching the restoration subject a little and trying to keep the thing as close as possible to its original form appears more desirable then bashing it into something else. I think I'd enjoy the challenge as I'm burned out on Gundam models for now. I just don't want to feel like I'm committing some sort of toy crime by doing it.   When motorcycles aren't extreme enough Mon Feb 1 06:21:06 2010, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Downhill wheeling Only criticism I have is the guy can't stay in his own lane   Domino's "New" Pizza Fri Jan 29 06:10:41 2010, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Anyone had a chance to try Domino's since they've changed their pizza? I gotta admit, I'm really curious to try it out myself, even though it's weird cause it's Domino's and they're "crappy pizza" (I like Dominos myself, though my favorite pizza is from a local chain called The Pie). Guess it's because I grew up with them and Pizza Hut. I ate a lot of Domino's when I used to go to Japan. They had one on the first floor of my uncle's condos. It's where I saw my first tuna and corn pizza. Yeah, that's about as weird as it sounds...   Best LOTR adaption yet Thu Jan 28 07:41:36 2010, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] It helps if you're also a D&D fan... DM of the Rings   Hawaii Trip Pics Mon Jan 25 07:54:22 2010, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Here we go, the whole shebang:   Greetings from Hawaii 2 Wed Jan 20 06:03:00 2010, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Seriously, I want to live here.   Second Clash of Titans trailer Thu Jan 7 14:25:42 2010, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Yeah, there's a Kraken Sam Worthington's getting a lot of work these days I guess.   Happy New Year Thu Dec 31 05:18:23 2009, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Be safe everyone and hope everyone has a good one. I'll be BBQing up a few racks of ribs and taking them over to our friends house where we'll do an early Soapie-friendly New Year of dinner and sledding. Yea, Dredd got it right. I got old. :D   MERRY CHRISTMAS Fri Dec 25 05:25:12 2009, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Lots of holiday wishes from all of the immediate family here in the house to our extended family of all of you out there.   X RAY VISION! Thu Dec 24 10:09:47 2009, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Well, I got Lasik done yesterday. It's one of those things that I'd always thought about doing in the back of my head but never really considered seriously, because, well, I don't like the idea of things coming at my eye and then slicing it. Call me funny. Anyway, I got a flyer in the mail advertising Lasik. Several of them actually. I guess end of year people with flex spending health accounts are looking for places to burn money and Lasik is happy to help. There was a coupon attached and because I'm a sucker for a coupon. I went in for the evaluation and was told that my corneas were thick and perfect for Lasik. Apparently, my friend went in and was told his corneas were too thin for the procedure and they'd have to think about something like implanted contact lenses or something if he wanted. The procedure itself it painless. A breeze, really. Today I got tested as part of the post-op treatment and I'm seeing 20/15. I had requested X-Ray vision, but 20/15 is not so bad either.   Got a spare 70 minutes? Sat Dec 19 12:01:06 2009, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] This is without doubt, the best review and analysis of The Phantom Menace... EVER. 70 Min Review of Star Wars Ep 1   Hooters girl rodeo Tue Dec 15 10:56:10 2009, by Testcase [Email]    She also does the windshield... Mon Nov 16 04:52:16 2009, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Who said kids aren't good for anything.. Here's lil Soapie deicing Daddy's car:   County fundraising Fri Nov 6 07:21:36 2009, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] Got a letter from the county today that the deck in my backyard (not visible from the street) is apparently in violation of building codes and I got a month to tear it out. This is a deck that was there when we bought the house. Five years ago. We called the inspector. Said she was just driving around looking for violations. So she had to stop, get out of her car, walk to my backyard fence, and then peek over it. Thank God for astute civil servants protecting the community from people's decks that no one has ever complained about. We told her what the story was and she said if we could prove that the deck is older than ten year, we could get an exception. That costs 300 dollars. The funny thing is, we don't LIKE that deck. Our long-term plans ARE to remove it entirely and reclaim the ground as grassy backyard. We just didn't expect to have to do it in less than 4 weeks. As winter is coming. *sigh*   A valuable life lesson Tue Nov 3 08:24:20 2009, by Testcase [Email]  [Discussion] I learned something. You know those little kiosks in the mall that sell things? Things like cell phones, skin lotion, plants, cell holsters, diet tea, head massagers, wigs, head massagers with wigs and built in cell phone holsters, etc. Yeah, they're kind of annoying. The folks working there alternate between bored-looking young folk texting on their cells to over-zealous sales-types that call out to passerbys in a half-hearted fashion. Yeah. Turns out, there's something they're all just waiting on. They're waiting for a solitary male to wander by, holding a Victoria's Secrets bag. I was just such a man recently, out shopping for Peaches' birthday. I got her a gift card at VC. It came in a tiny bag. A tiny pink bag. One which I innocently carried down the length of the mall. Remember that scene from Airplane where the air traffic guy gets into a kung fu fight with all the charity solicitors? Yeah, it was like that. Except no kung fu. Literally, the kiosk folk would beeline straight through whole crowds of people holding tons of shopping bags to get directly in my path and talk to me. They blockaded my travel. "What does your wife do about skin care?" "Did you know that a head massager makes a great gift for your wife?" "Can I ask you a question? What does your wife do for her hands?" "Dry skin" "Something something" "Hi, I'm an incredibly flaming gay man from somewhere vaguely European, what does your wife do for skin care of her hands?" I had to duck into Sears and get a shopping bag from there to hide the Victoria's Secrets bag. Even then I didn't reenter the mall proper. I hid out in housewares. I waited till the mall closed and emptied before budging from my spot behind the popcorn air popper. I could hear the kiosk wolves howling for my blood and credit in the moon-lit landscape. I had to kill a man to escape. He might have been a man. On further reflection, I think it was a mannequin wearing a Structure shirt.

There is a secret message here. There are secret messages everywhere on this site. Trust no one. That SUBMIT button may only be a clever ruse that actually is attached to the Nielsen's Survey system that will deviously use your click to register yet another vote for ANOTHER year of V.I.P!!! STOP THE INSANITY!!!

 

...Fear The Room...