A short video I put together showing some fun stuff with a Latin beat. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/gFwluebUCiY
Same me, different spelling!
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
of
American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
Brilliant! Made my afternoon!
(And helped calm my pre-club meeting jitters!)
Fifey love mambo!
Oh, right! The meeting! I forgot!
fifedog Fifey love mambo!
Thanks! Did you see my Jolly Roger? it's during the end credits. Interesting vessel. We (my dopey brother and I) got it as our big souvenir on a trip to Puerto Rico and Saint Thomas in 1977. The ship is called "The Most Blessed Trinity" and came with a tiny booklet proclaiming it as Blackbeard's ship. But the only ship I ever heard of being connected to Blackbeard was the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Flintlock76 Brilliant! Made my afternoon! (And helped calm my pre-club meeting jitters!)
Great show! Shoes! "I went to York and all I got was a pair of shoes! But they do run!" Go to the Virginia Train Collectors Association and watch the meeting I just watched on Facebook Live and see some great trains too!
This was a treat to watch Becky! The pretty blue 8E I expected to see, but you caught be by surprise with the Japanese PlaRail. I saw a lot of that stuff back in winter when I was prowling Yahoo auctions looking for some japanese tinplate equipment to buy.Am I mistaken, or did I catch a glimpse of some EVA characters in there? I haven't watched the show but my older brother's seen it and he enjoyed it.-Ellie
"Unless bought from a known and trusted dealer who can vouch otherwise, assume every train for sale requires servicing before use"
Good Eye! Yes, I had A LOT of Tomy trains! I bought
them in 2005 and 2006 on trips to Thailand. They
were manufactured there so I got them at very good
prices. Both trips I had a spare bed in my 5 star $30
a night hotel room, and since my Lionels were 10,000
miles away, well, I had Fun!
EVA, for those who don't know, refers to Neon Genesis
Evangelion. One of my favorite Anime series. And yes,
there are NGE figures along with Ghost in the Shell,
Appleseed, Gundam and Star Wars scattered about.
I didn't bring my 1:48ish Unit 1 with me, but I may end
up building a new one. He's the big purple monster
in these photos of my old layout.
https://link.shutterfly.com/eWwlR7qHaqb
pennytrainsGreat show! Shoes! "I went to York and all I got was a pair of shoes! But they do run!"
Thanks Becky! Curtis was a riot with those sneakers!
Ah! GITS! My brother has the manga, I'm interested in reading it at some point. I haven't seen the anime, but I'm a fan of its director Mamoru Oshii and I've seen a number of things he directed. His films for the Pat Labor franchise are all really good (so are the episodes he directed for the TV series).My big brother is far more traveled with anime than me, but we share interests and he gives me reccomendations sometimes on things I might like to watch. I'd probably be into more shows if I just felt like trying more new things! That's wicked cool about the Tomy trains, a friend of my mother's used to have a set of some american ones which were in disrepair but the whole system had my interest... unfortunately some time ago she moved and at the time I didn't think I could win my parents over with letting me keep them. Bet I coulda fixed em up if I had em now!I really love that Tomy layout, makes me feel really nostalgic for that blue plastic track.I've been wondering if that's the same company as Tomytec, who make a lot of Japanese N scale models and power drives.-Ellie
Lost me folks. My knowledge of anime' ends with "Astro Boy" and "Speed Racer."
Back then we called it "Japanamation."
I feel so old...
Ellie: Yes, it is! The same Tomy company makes both the battery operated toys and the scale detailed N Gauge.
Ghost in the Shell has always been my favorite since I got the Manga issues back in the 90's. But beware, there are 3 feature films, 2 26 episode series, 1 extended length 4 episode miniseries and, the one that's currently running in Japan. But when last I looked it doesn't have a US release date yet. Which will probably take a few years with the dubbing and all.
But it's awesome stuff! If you want a good idea, see the original 1995 film which, by the way, was THE first feature film edited entirely on a computer. It has what at the time were mind blowing animation effects. Then watch 2004's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and see how far animation technology had come in just 9 short years.
I also love Appleseed, Shirow Masamune's other great work, and the films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. And I've been watching Evangelion for years and I still don't get it!
Really love the GG1! Very nice.
I have a few of the Tomix N guage trains from Japan, all my Shinkansen. But now they are all obsolete because Japan continuously upgrades their equipment. It doesn't stay the same for very long....
Paul
Wayne: Astroboy is considered the genesis of Manga (Man-Guh) and Anime. I've never seen the Astroboy but I do have the movie Metropolis which was made using Osamu Tezuka's original Manga. Manga, by the way is comic books, graphic novels, comic strip etc.
Tezuka never wanted his Astroboy based story to see the light of day. After he died, his staff of apprentices and protégés made the movie. As you might guess, Tezuka's story was based on Thea Von Harbou's that Fritz Lang made into the iconic film in 1927. So it's easy to guess that Tezuka probably worried about being sued if his Metropolis ever saw the light of day!
The anime "robot" is a bit more kid friendly than Brigitte Helm's Yoshiwara dancing vamp!
https://link.shutterfly.com/qVFamZSjdqb
The Kino DVD is the ONLY version of Metropolis
worth owning. It has as much of the missing footage
the restoration group could find, uses stills
to show what something would have looked
like if no film exists, and, most importantly,
they found the band master's copy of the sheet music and were able to reproduce the original musical score!
Anyhoo. That's some fun trivia for you.
My! Sounds like there's more GITS animated stuff than I thought... I will get to the manga at some point. It looks very, very cool. All I gotta do is borrow it from my brother, and he's home all summer so there's no time like the present.I grew up with a lot of the Ghibli films that Miyizaki directed... I was watching Nausicaä, My Neighbor Totoro, Laputa (Castle In The Sky), and Spirited Away from a very young age- I don’t know which I saw first. I remember being shown Princess Mononoke for the first time when I was 8. It's a wonder I wasn't scarred by that one! In recent history I've gotten very into the soundtrack composer Miyizaki chose for his films from 1984 onwards, Joe Hisaishi. He's a symphony composer now but he made very cool synthesizer based music during the '80s and '90s. He even sang some of his songs! I've seen that version of Metropolis, it's great! I had a lot of fun watching it. I discovered later that an artist I'd been introduced to, Toshiyuki Honda, was the person who did the soundtrack! I really like his "radio club" albums.I'm trying to reign myself in, but it's hard not to geek out a little. I wouldn't say I'm into a lot of popular or classic things, but I've seen and read things here and there that close friends and family have talked me into. They usually know what I like! Some of my favorite anime series include FLCL, Windy Tales, Nichijou, Gozenso Sama Babanzai!, and Girl's Last Tour. A few of them were adapted from manga which I have an interest in reading.As for anime films, ignoring what I've already mentioned a fondness for, I have to put Night Is Short, Walk On Girl as a fav- Roujin-Z is an absolute delight. I never really got around to watching the TV series proper, but Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer is fantastic and also a big fav.My heart aches for the majority of forum members who must have no idea what the heck we're talkin' about. Like Becky said, it's comics (manga) and cartoons (anime).Honestly just pretty thrilled to learn I'm not the only person here who's into the stuff!-Ellie
Another good movie to search for is Perfect Blue. It's a Hitchcock-esque horror film. It centers around a J-Pop star who quits the band and performing to go into acting instead.
Ah! Satoshi Kon! I haven't seen Perfect Blue, been debating if it's going to be a bit much for me or not. I've seen Milenium Actress.In general horror is a little intense for me. I do really enjoy the short "Chicken Man and Red Neck" from the anthology Robot Carnival, which is sorta horror. It's so whimsical though that it's hard to be scared!-Ellie
Perfect Blue is a bit bloody. But of course, it's only red ink.
Check it out, homies!!!
I'm da O.G...
I grew up with Astroboy, we loved it. Early '60's. I remember the Helms man coming by with his wares(. Foot note: the Helms man was a delivery truck that would deliver baked goods from the Helms bakery. You would put a sign up in your window that was a drawing of a ship's helm). At one point they advertised on T.V. That the helms man had some pictures of Astroboy for sale also. Life in suburbia, So Cal in the early'60's. The Helms man is long gone...
Also, " My Friend Totoro" is a Rock Star in our household. Our daughter had many Totoro items, a back pack pencil case, etc...She visited the Studio Ghibli museum in Japan....
Paul, no way! I hear it's increddibly difficult to get a slot there because of how popular it is. Totoro was one of my favorite films growing up, and still is a favorite. Somewhere my brother has a plush doll of the cat bus, about beanie baby size. Me & my siblings grew up watching the 20th Century Fox release... it has a different english language dub (by streamline). I haven't heard the Disney dub, but I hear that people who are used to the fox dub don't like it, so I'm hesitant to try it That story about the Helms man is way cool! I've never checked out Astro-Boy, but maybe some day I'll explore it. There's an awful lot of anime out there, and even more manga... and not all of it is for everyone.My first introduction to anime outside of Ghibli films was a Lupin III feature film that Hayao Miyizaki directed, Castle of Cagliostro. It's a lot of fun, even if like me you went in blind with no prior familiarity with the franchise. Has a fantastic car chase early in the film, for anyone who loves a good one of those!-Ellie
Well, I have heard of this silly Japanese show called "Girls und Panzer," which the YouTube algorithm threw at me one day. Looks marvelously goofy all right!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhgo5QLs7U8
The version of " Totoro" we have is a VHS tape in original Japanese, with English subtitles. We also have a film called " Ponyo". Since they are VHS, haven't watched them in years....
All the Studio Ghibli films have a distinctive look. Just love it!
I prefer multiped weaponry. Tachikoma to be specific. Watch for the 4 legged blue mini tanks in the opening sequence from the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex TV series:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkMzn4et2U
Different song for season 2. These are elite ex military cyborgs by the way working as police officers in a counter terrorism, counter espionage, counter cybercrime and occasional simple bank heist role by the way.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KAE_NL6dhmg
pennytrains Watch for the 4 legged blue mini tanks in the opening sequence
Hmmm, a bit bizarre for my taste. Personally I prefer those Tigers, King Tigers, and Panthers that unlike the real ones actually work reliably!
https://link.shutterfly.com/KiSnMJ2ehqb
I doodled up this multiped years ago using the
3D modeling program Metasequoia. In the GITS
universe, the Tachikoma have artificial intelligence
and the mentality of a pre teen girl (armed with
lethal weaponry). They provide both comic relief
and operational support.
I also built a 1:48 scale model by kitbashing parts
from Gundam models I got cheap at Big Lots. I'll
try to find it.
Wayne- I've heard of Girls Und Panzer, considered watching it but I haven't it seems like a goofy fun show though.Paul- that's nice you folks have a subtitled version. I like the fox dub, but original language & subtitles is hard to go wrong with imho. Who distributed it?My family has Ponyo too, ours is a DVD I think, I forget if it has a subtitled option or if it's english language only. I like a lot of the others more, but it's no slouch, I'm very fond of the mother's zany driving while she's trying to get to work on time (why am I forgetting her name?)Wayne, I wonder what you'd think of the rail tank that makes a brief appearence in Laputa: Castle In The Sky-Knowing Miyizaki, it was definitely at least based on something that really existed. It certainly has the look of a classic 'rail tank'. I highly recommend the film, it's a fun story of adventure and discovery, and old rumors of a long lost, technologically advanced civilisation who supposedly built a city in the sky. I best not say more, lest I spoil something.
Just be sure to watch the subtitled original if you can, Disney flubbed a lot of important lines when they made their english dub (though the voice actors they chose all sound fantastic). The disney version also has a different soundtrack from the original, but both the olriginal and the re-scored soundtrack are good.-Ellie
Our VHS tapes of Totoro and Ponyo were gifts to my daughter from my wife's family in Japan. We are waiting for Japan to lift Covid restrictions to go back for a visit. It's been a while....
LeverettrailfanWayne- I've heard of Girls Und Panzer, considered watching it but I haven't it seems like a goofy fun show though.
It must have been a BIG hit in Japan, it even got the Tokyo Philharmonic treatment!
(By the way, this is the best arrangement of "Panzerlied" I've ever heard!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQKdpDnX2w
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month