Godzilla

[scott]

Jet Jaguar was awesome, that's why he had a spin off movie. ^_^

 

Yes, but can you sing the MST3K "Jet Jagarr" fight song?

[cteno4]

Yes, but can you sing the MST3K "Jet Jagarr" fight song?

 

LOL never saw theirs, great!

 

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

That video is a riot!! I'm still laughing as I type this!  :D :D

[Guest ___]

I posted that on my LJ a few weeks ago. I must've confused the hell out of the 25 Filipino chicks whop regularly read it. they had no idea what Jet Jaguar was.

[Bernard]

I didn't want to start a new thread but I saw this and thought of Jeff......there is a new Astro Boy Movie coming out this summer. Here is the trailer:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTMl4-oPHgc

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

thanks, but i guess im old and crotchety now and have a hard time with these remakes. love the old b/w and simple animation! something is lost in the modern translations (pun intended). nice that astro boy still has the draw to get nicholas cage!

 

thanks

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff - I remember when I was a kid watching Astro Boy on b/w TV. When I saw your Avatar, the Astro Boy theme song immediately went through my mind. ;)

[cteno4]

ok i have now found what JRM needs for our shows...

 

http://www.absolutehollywoodpromotions.com/godzilla_balloons_cold_air_rooftop_inflatables.htm

 

might overshadow the layout a bit though...

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Well, no one would miss where your layout would be located! That is an interesting website I didn't realize what those balloons cost. I don't think it comes with the blower though but.... you could save some money if everyone in the club took turns blowing it up. :D

[cteno4]

LOL its always the joke who is going to have to blow up goji at the shows. luckily ken usually brings his little electric air pump and that does the trick pretty quickly.

 

BTW i saw one on ebay a couple of years back that was 40' tall and came with a trailer to haul the whole thing, it was like 400lbs!

 

Could not convince my wife that it would be a great halloween thru xmas display for our front yard!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Could not convince my wife that it would be a great halloween thru xmas display for our front yard!

 

What! Where is her sense of style! She could be THE trend setter of your block. All the neighbors would envy her. And why limit it to just Halloween thru Xmas. Leave Godzilla out for all the holidays and dress him accordingly. On Easter he wears a Bunny Suit (like in Christmas Story) President's day, a beard and top hat like Lincoln's. On Australia Day he could dress up like a Koala. You could even rent him out to Union workers on strike where he would replace the inflatable Rat. Or even rent him out to Weddings, guests would never get lost trying to find where the reception is just look for a 40' Godzilla. 

And the only reason I'm passing on these great ideas to you, Jeff, is because there is no way of Earth my wife would left me buy it!  :D

[cteno4]

LOL thanks for trying to get me to get in trouble so you can live vicariously! Think im in the same boat as you!

 

Believe me, if i were wealthier you would not catch me in any fancier cars, clothing or house, but there would be a few toys like this around!

 

I can just think of the new stories if this showed up in our DC suburb front yard! Neighbors would probably take shots at it!

 

Would look grand on our property as its a big lot and lots of trees so he would be marching through the forest! then we need the 60' wingspan mothra to hang in the trees also!

 

I was thinking that each holiday he would munch on the character of the event, xmas - santa, easter - the bunny, australia day - koala, etc! If you are going to go for it go all the way! goji on the layout gets the most laughs when folks realizes he is usually eating a truck. have a bandai 205 car i have been meaning to crack apart (you know the thing you did when you were a kid to make a blown up wwII tank!) and have some people falling out of it so i can put it in goji's mouth!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

My new hobby for the year is looking more and more like robotics. One of these days I may just make a robotic one if I can convince Le Trung to build it for me :P.

[cteno4]

you would love this! i have drooled over it for a long time!

 

http://www.flyingelfbooks.com/si/p3494695065757757.html

 

enjoy!

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

you would love this! i have drooled over it for a long time!

 

http://www.flyingelfbooks.com/si/p3494695065757757.html

 

 

Yeah, I've seen the Tokyo-Murai version before, I know places to get it for two hundred less than that one on the link. We have a 20k version called Coastie we use in the Coast Guard. It's a radio controlled robot that looks like a tug boat used education. I'm a certified operator though I haven't ran it since I crashed it in to Admiral Gardner herself (damn non-self centering control yoke) Anycase havin been inside Coastie, it's no more complicated than an RC car or plane.

 

I wish I got in to RC cars more when I was younger. I tried several times but it was cost prohibitive when I was a kid, and as I grew older, I grew less interested in RC cars. However, it' not that difficult to fabricate a chassis drop in servos and accumulators, then places the appropriate receives to control each device. The only real tough part is making a decent looking Godzilla covering to go over the frame that doesn't look like felt.

 

It's not really a complicated thing to do, and I expect if I had better electronics skills, I could build one for under four or five hundred.

[cteno4]

Yeah, that was way overpriced, just the first example i found a link to easily. There is another that is closer to 1m and i have seen as low as $400. i was sorely tempted as it looked fantastic and had many features that operated via the remote.

 

Yeah, i cant see where the $20k went in coastie. some custom molding and such, but nothing that looks like it should cost that much! basically an rc car and a few simple animation actuators.

 

its the articulation of limbs thats really tough. trick with articulation is your machining skills. did a bunch of exhibit prototypes way back to show various types of critter limb articulation. the trick to make something function and also hold up at all was very careful machining of the parts. i could mock stuff up quickly with wood, metal, rods, wire, etc, that functioned by hand, but it was only good enough for proof of concept. to make anything that would function smoothly, especially with servos and actuators we had to go to machined parts. was great as we had a full machine shop, but even then it required a lot of care and usually a few attempts to get it perfect to get the desired effect and make it work via a servo or actuator and also last at all. pushed my limited machining skills to the limit and luckily there was an old german guy that volunteered in the shop a few times a week and he would help me with the tough parts that were over my head.

 

cool thing is that the electronics are getting simpler as there are lots of different more plug and play systems now for doing robotic control and rc has really blossomed!

 

you could do the parts for under $500, but your time would really add up and have to throw in the cost of a nice little machine shop!

 

Cheers,

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

Well, keep in mind part of the 20k for Coast includes the trailer, plus note it also two way voice communications so the RC operator has a head set with voice changer, water gun and so forth, nothing I can't do on my own. Note the robot is trailable.

 

I just looked at the link from the builder, and they are selling the bot itself for 10k, plus 5k for the trailer, so IDK what the other 5K went towards as it's been two or three years since USCG certified me for it.

 

The funny thing is that the Coast Guard actually put them on the official facilities roster as a light endurance cutter, despite being under the 80' minimum length requirement to be classed as a cutter. WLEC-class

 

http://www.robotronics.com/products-topmenu-26.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=2779&category_id=60

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmC1dSOCJ08

 

Coastie' Specifications

Length: 44"

Beam: 30"

Displacement: 125 lbs

Dry Dock:  Robotronics' Shipyard, Springville Ut

Power Plant: Two Independent Electric Motors

Range: Apr. 2 miles or 2 hours   

Max Speed: 3.5 knots on level ground

Armament: 1 12 Volt Water Squirter - range 25'

Date Of Construction:  2000 - current

Primary Mission: Youth Boating and Water Safety Education

 

Yeah, that was way overpriced, just the first example i found a link to easily. There is another that is closer to 1m and i have seen as low as $400. i was sorely tempted as it looked fantastic and had many features that operated via the remote.

 

Yeah, i cant see where the $20k went in coastie. some custom molding and such, but nothing that looks like it should cost that much! basically an rc car and a few simple animation actuators.

 

its the articulation of limbs thats really tough. trick with articulation is your machining skills. did a bunch of exhibit prototypes way back to show various types of critter limb articulation. the trick to make something function and also hold up at all was very careful machining of the parts. i could mock stuff up quickly with wood, metal, rods, wire, etc, that functioned by hand, but it was only good enough for proof of concept. to make anything that would function smoothly, especially with servos and actuators we had to go to machined parts. was great as we had a full machine shop, but even then it required a lot of care and usually a few attempts to get it perfect to get the desired effect and make it work via a servo or actuator and also last at all. pushed my limited machining skills to the limit and luckily there was an old german guy that volunteered in the shop a few times a week and he would help me with the tough parts that were over my head.

 

cool thing is that the electronics are getting simpler as there are lots of different more plug and play systems now for doing robotic control and rc has really blossomed!

 

you could do the parts for under $500, but your time would really add up and have to throw in the cost of a nice little machine shop!

 

Cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Our next door neighbors had a garage sale and my wife and I thought we'd be good neighbors and go over. Pam couldn't find anything worth buying to help them out but I told her not to worry because right in the middle of the table was the perfect item for my train layout.

And even though the town might look a little European in appearance it's really the European Embassies that are locate in Tokyo.

[Mudkip Orange]

That's beautiful.

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

nice addition! a disturbing trend is happening...

 

hey is that the heljan highrise (hospital that is actually marked HO scale, but would be like 6' per story if it was) - the center white tall building? if so is that a 1x kit? i have been looking at mine thinking of supersizing it by mixing a few kits together and have not gotten yet to the point of cutting out the walls and taping things together to play with ideas.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

I still want to see Godzilla fight it out with an RX-78 Gundam.

[Bernard]

Here is a video of Godzilla attacking the city on my layout at night. Why at night? It's easier to hide.

It towards the end of the video:

[cteno4]

Ok for those of you that want to get serious about your goji on your layouts heres a more to scale and more correct in detail vinyl godzilla kit!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360197580993&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_3834wt_804

 

i finally broke down and bought one this weekend after the cherry blossom festival and seeing how much the crowds loved seeing goji on the layout.

 

$80 aint cheap, but looks like a nice casting and at 22" high that puts him at 84m tall, pretty scale for a mid life godzilla. our current one is at about 14" tall or 53m tall and is not perfectly accurate in his detail.

 

i also have a fairly un-accurate one at 16" (no real back fins, just bumps, embarrassing for goji!) that has a sound box in his head that does the goji roar that i hope to transplant into the new goji. probably have to make his head removable to change the batteries (suppose i could do an induction charger in his belly but would still need surgery if anything went wrong and rechargeables dont last for ever...)

 

would be super fun to animate the goji via remote control, that would really give the crowd a kick! i may use a little rc car remote i have to remotely activate the sound box.

 

i have a couple of extra old bandai star train 205s which i want to mangle (and have people falling out of/hanging onto) that i can put in the big goji's mouth. it was a bit too big for the old goji's mouth. actually for his size goji's mouth is not all that big!

 

i have always dreamed of the 0.5m rc godzilla models, but would need to sell quite a few trains to finance them!

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WkuZf_3TcU&feature=related

 

just think of the fight you could have with these two!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

ps we are still working on a goji suit idea for aaron to walk around the shows in. i now want to add a 2' long shinkansen car made out of foam with JRM on the side for him to carry around as a sign board as well.

[Guest ___]

I want that suit to wear, so I can do the Curly Goji Shuffle.

[cteno4]

I want that suit to wear, so I can do the Curly Goji Shuffle.

 

from the looks of watching the guy build his on youtube it would be a larger project than doing the layout i expect! would be extremely cool though! then make you some scale foam shinkansen cars to carry around as well and beat on people with!

 

cheers

 

jeff