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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 4, 2009 21:35:15 GMT
Yes, have heard that from other Amazon customers. Cancel it, tell em play have them when you cancel it and head over there
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 5, 2009 7:31:55 GMT
Nah, both sites still show the same release date. I shan't swap until Play says 'in stock' or one of you guys actually gets your set. Plus, Play costs a penny more.  Martin |
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Post by legios on Feb 5, 2009 12:59:46 GMT
Nah, both sites still show the same release date. I shan't swap until Play says 'in stock' or one of you guys actually gets your set. Martin I shall report in promptly once it has arrived aboard SDF Karlross. Karl |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 5, 2009 15:40:15 GMT
And it's away ! Might still get it Sat.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 7, 2009 15:16:50 GMT
Stand down from red alert!
My order has been despatched from Amazon. Whew! I would have wasted a penny if I'd listened to you guys.
They must be from the Montgomery Scott school when it comes to estimates. You dinnae tell them when it's really going to arrive if you want a reputation as a miracle-worker...
16-21 Feb. indeed. I expect to receive it on the 8th.
Martin
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 7, 2009 15:46:38 GMT
Mine didn't show this morning but the post office aren't venturing up to me at the mo
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 8, 2009 20:13:20 GMT
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Post by legios on Feb 8, 2009 20:55:37 GMT
Mine are still lost somewhere in the asteroid field between Play-Base and the SDF Karlross fleet's current position. They must have run into some Imperial Fighters, I'll have to see about scrambling a patrol of VF's to bail them out...
I kind of expected that the quality on this would be a bit iffy. I'm a bit amazed that the English language masters still exist at all if I am honest. Interesting discovery from that review that there has been a Japanese DVD release of X-Bomber, that passed me by completely. (Given the pedigree of the series I guess I shouldn't be surprised though)
I do, however, have a strong sense of nostalgia about the show and the extras don't sound too bad - they have at least gone to the trouble of rounding up some thoughts from Go Nagai which should be interesting to hear.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 8, 2009 21:15:49 GMT
Yeah the Japanese release was a few years back but the price was so vertical (£120+ iirc) that I didn't bother. It's got one of the UK compilation videos on it.
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Post by legios on Feb 9, 2009 22:21:15 GMT
Yeah the Japanese release was a few years back but the price was so vertical (£120+ iirc) that I didn't bother. That is the thing with Japanese DVD's the retail price is generally frighteningly high. They do alright in the CD stakes, but DVD's can easily cost twice or more what they would go for over here. It is what put me off getting the Macross movie when it finally got a DVD release - wasn't sure I wanted to pay forty quid for it.... To get back on track, my Star Fleet dvd's have arrived safe and sound. The set itself is ok for what it is - a cardboard digi-pack with some postcards and a poster shoved in that I will probably forget the existence of in a few months. More thoughts when I have had a chance to watch some of the episodes.... Karl |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 9, 2009 22:35:35 GMT
You're lucky. No post here since last Tuesday.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 10, 2009 18:29:56 GMT
Hurrah! Here it is, in perfect condition.
I can take or leave the poster (I don't like posters that have folds in them... or creases, for that matter). Nice set of six postcards, particularly the Barry Hercules one.
Shiny 56-page comic booklet in full colour - all the characters have orange skin, and the black & white versions would have been preferable. However - 56 pages, with lots of words - plenty to sink your teeth into, compared with many modern comics that can be read in five minutes.
The 16-page collectors booklet is also lovely and shiny and contains lots and lots of text - full episode, character and ship guides. Possibly the best guide book I've seen in a DVD set.
Can't wait to start watching the episodes. I'm sure the quality is a hundred times better than the nth generation video copies I'm used to.
Edit: The comic took me a good hour to read in the bath. Not bad getting several quid's worth of comic (at today's prices) free. What's criminal though is the lack of credits, particularly art credits.
Martin
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 10, 2009 21:21:11 GMT
This a reprint of the Look-In strips ?
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 10, 2009 21:44:09 GMT
This a reprint of the Look-In strips ? Yep. I've just watched the documentary on disc 3, which I found fascinating as I knew nothing about the series' history. The first ten minutes were so-so, with Go Nagai, the creator of X-Bomber in Japan, going on for ages about how he wished he could have done more with it if he had a bigger budget (including an evil opposite number for the Dai-X, which I think would have been a mistake as it's not primarily a giant robot show), interspersed with cameos from Gerry Anderson that tell us nothing. I have a nasty feeling Go Nagai would like to re-do X-Bomber in CGI. THEN they get to the UK production side. I had always thought of Star Fleet as just an English-dubbed Japanese series. It isn't. London Weekend Television got it without any soundtrack, and did all the sound effects themselves as well as the music and voices. They edited the episodes to the length they wanted them to be, so the pacing is completely different from X-Bomber, and re-scripted it rather than attempting to translate it. Star Fleet is a Japan-UK hybrid. I'm a fan of Star Fleet. I have no idea if I'd even like X-Bomber. I loved the bit where they cut back to Go Nagai, and he described how he found them playing Brian May's Star Fleet music video on a music channel and he wondered, "Why is he singing this?" Also fascinating that London Weekend Television were prepared to finance series two, if a fire in Japan hadn't destroyed all the sets. Star Fleet is the only show that I loved in my first ten years of life that I have bought on DVD, that's how highly I rate it. Martin |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 11, 2009 20:45:11 GMT
Brian May and Eddie Van Halen's music video is amongst the extras on disc 3, with sound quality not to be found on YouTube. It's music of the week in Martin's house.
Martin
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 11, 2009 22:33:07 GMT
Still not my copy. Postman said they weren't bringing out any packages at the mo in an effort to deal with the backlog..... well I'nm expecting this, a trade and another book !
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 12, 2009 8:34:36 GMT
Many erroneous instances of "it's" in the collectors booklet, dammit.
Martin
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 12, 2009 10:33:38 GMT
Martin, can you verify if episode 2 is complete ? Is the sequence where Shiro & Hercules provide covering fire for Lamia's drive to X-Bomber in there ? It's missing from the US compilation DVDs
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 12, 2009 13:18:57 GMT
My set is here, and the sequence I describe is intact. Happy
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 12, 2009 20:09:47 GMT
Hurrah!
Martin
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Post by legios on Feb 12, 2009 21:12:26 GMT
Excellent!
I am looking forward to getting a chance to sit down and have a watch of this at the weekend. As things have gone this week I haven't had much of a chance (and haven't been in the right frame of mind) to do much other than watch the first episode just to see what the picture quality is like. Hopefully I will have a chance to bite of a big chunk of it over the coming days.
Karl
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Post by legios on Feb 15, 2009 20:34:36 GMT
I plonked myself down to enjoy a couple of episodes yesterday evening, and found myself working my way through the whole of disc two in a single sitting. Something similar happened today when I ended up watching far more than I intended. But having got as far as seeing Caliban introduced in the next episode trailer I felt I had to see his first evil scheme put into action, and then after that there was the Death Ball to look forward to.... Only three episodes left of the series, and then I shall tackle on the special features.
I do love the pace of some of the episodes, they can cover quite a bit of ground - one in particular leapt out at me today. Most series would be satisfied with a hostage crisis or a duel to the death in one episode. Not Star Fleet, it manages to fit them both into twenty minutes and still have time to catch the audience up on important continuity points that they might have missed.
(I still think that Star Fleet has some of the most fantastic spacecraft that Space Opera has to offer. The angry space Catfish that is the Alliance Battlecruiser is the very definition of a big chunky formidable looking evil enemy space dreadnaught)
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 15, 2009 21:53:35 GMT
What's the AV quality like? Worth trading up to from, er, the yarrrrrrrr that was doing the rounds?
-Ralph
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Post by legios on Feb 15, 2009 22:30:36 GMT
What's the AV quality like? Worth trading up to from, er, the yarrrrrrrr that was doing the rounds? -Ralph The quality isn't bad. It isn't the best I've seen but it is reasonable considering that it is a fairly old show, taken from broadcast masters that have likely been hit hard by time. They've clearly done some work to it to bring it up to a decently presentable standard. (Although I would take the "fully remastered" on the cover with a grain of salt. I think it is marketing speak for "we've cleaned up the masters as much as can be justified in terms of the number of units we reckon we can shift) It isn't pin-sharp and perfect but it seems to be reasonable. I'd say it is better than the yarrrrr copy to which you refer, as far as my memory serves, but I'm not in a position to speak as to a direct side-by-side comparison. There maybe other folk out there who can advise better there. Karl |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 16, 2009 7:26:28 GMT
(I still think that Star Fleet has some of the most fantastic spacecraft that Space Opera has to offer. The angry space Catfish that is the Alliance Battlecruiser is the very definition of a big chunky formidable looking evil enemy space dreadnaught) True, though the Dai-X fighters are pretty rubbish from the perspective of a TF fan (a flying head, a flying torso and a flying pair of legs that combine into - shock! - a robot man!). But the X-Bomber and Imperial fighter carrier are excellent, and best of all is the Skull - a ghostly sailing ship in space - and why not? (The sails collect solar energy and what-not, apparently.) The Skull also has That Music every time it appears, which helped keep Star Fleet uneasily floating Skull-like in the back of my consciousness all my life. Seriously considering getting the limited edition soundtrack if it materialises. Episode 22 is just crazy, and the final duel in episode 24 is hilarious, and so embarrassing for the great Imperial Master. Martin |
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Post by legios on Feb 16, 2009 13:07:56 GMT
True, though the Dai-X fighters are pretty rubbish from the perspective of a TF fan (a flying head, a flying torso and a flying pair of legs that combine into - shock! - a robot man!). I will grant you that the fighter forms of them are a bit poor, but I tend to let them off as they combine into such a fantastic Super Robot. (I mean, it even has a PA system that plays a large growl to intimidate folk, that well and truly satisfys the Rule of Cool) (I also have this thought in my mind that the fighter forms were part of an attempt to slide them past the accountants back at EDF Headquarters. After all, docking points for special astrofighters would probably raise fewer eyebrows than it the design proposal had come with a large clearly marked "Bay for Super Robot" :-) ) The thing I love about the Skull is it feels like it hews to a completely different set of rules to everybody else. All the other ships are big lumps of hightech and rumbling engines, whilst the Skull is a graceful old-fashioned sailing ship. It doesn't even move like anything else - it is far more agile than its size would make you expect and it can turn on a dime in a way that even the fighters can't. It gives it a certain unreality which is very striking. I am seriously considering that myself. There are some really good music cues in the series. The Skull's one is nice, and I have long had a soft spot for the Imperial Alliance's theme. Karl |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2009 18:44:19 GMT
I must get this at some point. Star Fleet was one the shows I watched as a kid that stand out the most from that era in my mind. I've got the US video compilation episodes on DVD and I downloaded the Look-In comic strips from the official Star Fleet website so getting the official DVD series is a must for me.
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Post by Kingoji on Feb 24, 2009 21:24:44 GMT
Again I'm pleasantly surprised by you guys. I spent most of my life with only my brother confirming that I didn't dream Star Fleet, as none of my friends had heard of it...
I have this set, just finished the first disk while I was inking my Optimus Prime. I love this series real bad, can't wait for the afforementioned CD soundtrack, and the X-Bomber is the single greatest space-faring vessel to appear in anything ever. Fact.
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Post by Benn on Mar 2, 2009 13:36:12 GMT
and the X-Bomber is the single greatest space-faring vessel to appear in anything ever. Fact. QFT. Nothing more needs be said. |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Nov 24, 2009 19:07:05 GMT
E-mail received today. I'd completely forgotten about this!
Martin
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