Daetrin

2.5 year ago I got tired of watching my kids do karate and stepped out on the dojo floor for the first time. I had just lost my step-father to heart disease and realized how short life could be. Last night my wife and I achieved the rank of ichi qu - meaning one degree below black belt and the highest belt rank we can achieve before that milestone. I am 52 years old. Making the jump from 3rd degree brown belt to black belt is a very big step. We are now expected to practice daily at home for the next 4 months in addition to class time, and that's just to be able to interview for the prep course (10% of people who do not take prep course earn their black belt, 80% of people who do, earn it). The prep course is a 2 hour weekly class from 7am-9am where you don't learn anything new, but they critique you to polish what you know to black belt level, and is 10 weeks long. We will have to refresh and perfect 4 katas we learned along the way and master one new kata (seems easy, right. Ha!). Plus we have to master 8 standard bunkai, develop our own 4 new bunkai, plus 26 partner techniques both as attacker and defender, for 52 total partner items. All of this has to be able to be performed perfectly, on demand, from memory. Students thus put in usually 4 hours a week of class time minimum, plus usually another hour a day especially as things get closer to test time. I have no idea if my wife & I will be able to achieve this level of performance in 6 months, or 12 months, or even 2 years. But one thing is for sure I will keep plugging away until I get there! I say this to help encourage those who tell themselves "I'm too old" or "I'm too out of shape" that these don't have to be excuses, or stories we tell ourselves that just aren't true. Never give up on a dream, not ever, and don't let negative self-talk get in the way. There are many days I really don't want to go to the dojo and would rather stay at home in front of the TV with a beer. It is also true that I never once regretted getting my ass out to the dojo and taking a class. Does anyone else have a story like this? It would be great if we could share them and help motivate each other.

Only the ANH-Hero has bubble lenses, both ESB & ANH-Stunt are flat.

Awesome - and I'll copy it to a TIP/HOWTO with your names on it. Wish I had thought of this when I was starting out - would have made things simpler.

In short, the "sellers list" we have is not intended to be the only place where you can get armor - you are free to get armor anywhere you like - however it does capture vendors who have a proven track record of quality product and integrity in selling. As always, caveat emptor

That is one sexy helmet

Well, based on det charter it should either be BSN as it's a scout type trooper or SpecOps as it's non-standard TK armor. Our charter is standard clean white troops only, and they don't fit that category.

These are just the FISD ones. I also have a bunch of MEPD, IOC, CTN, garrison and Legion ones, plus one-offs that I have received from places special to me that I have visited like China and Hawaii or from people special to me like Bolivia. Also, I've given away probably 50% of what I have as gifts throughout the years as thank-yous and tokens of friendship and appreciation. I tend to prefer to keep a few coins for myself, but the rest are for gifts.

OK, here is what I have as best I can tell: v1 - 1ea v1.1 - 3ea v2 / v2.1 - 10ea, but I can't tell which version I have TBH. They all look the same. I'm guessing they are v2 v2.2 - 10ea v2.3 - 10ea FOTK silver - 6 Riot - 4 Phasma - 3 5th Anniv - 4 10th Anniv - 8 2018 Command - 12 (bronzed) 2019 Command - 1 (purple) Attache - 6 Attache Gold - 2 Pride - 0 Large OTTK - 6 Large FOTK - 4 Large Antique - 10 FISD/MEPD Joint - 0. I used to have a bunch, they are now lost somewhere. Whew - took me 30 minutes to sort through it all. The ones I really want are then some more v1 as spares, a some v2.1 so again I have some for me & the archives, a pride coin, probably 4 MEPD/FISD joint. I'd also like a gold of each type if I can get it. I have a few that I acquired in trade, but ideally I'd have one each.

Thanks Glen - this is a good reminder that I need to resubmit my ANH Hero & my ESB to my GML as I can now re-activate those versions, esp. as I prefer trooping in ANH-H or ESB vs. ANH-S. It would be good to see these over time, and I hope that @Dark CMF can bring back that data, as it would be interesting to see where the growth has come from last year, etc.

OK, here is what I was able to find in my bin, but I'm missing a baggy or something as there are coins I know I had several of but can't find anymore. What I'm missing and can't seem to find - Joint MEPD/FISD Coin What I'm missing and never had - Pride - 1.1 Silver (3 knuckle) - 1.1 Gold (3 knuckle) - v8 gold (FOTK version) I have like 5 versions at least that say "1st" or "First" of the regular coin, but at some point should educate myself on which is which in terms of "version" numbers. I think I'm missing a certain version of gold EI too, but am not sure which. I have easily over 100 coins, so have stock to trade for what I'm missing, though as you might imagine some coins like the gold ones I only have 1 each and they are not up for trade, nor are my 1.0 coins as they are super hard to find.

Great to see a new R1TK coming to life

Yeah, I'm guessing that may be it. I need to take better care of my armor...

Awesome shots

Thanks Andrew - that is what I feared as it almost looks like it's been absorbed in to the plastic.

I will sticky good replies as even for me the search doesn't always work, and the TIPS and HOWTO area hasn't been updated in ages. I have brown stains on my belt and am trying to figure out the best way to get them off. Seems almost like makeup or something. Maybe novus, but would a magic eraser also work?

But if you are talking how many total FISD coins, I think I have quite a lot. Dozens...

I have most of these, but not all. I'll have to check my bin this weekend and see, as most are stored away.

Wow - glad to see this thread still chugging! As noted it's a great way to get to know each other

Way to go @Sly11 - glad to see you in the big chair.

All things considered it's pretty good. 418 TFA/TLJ costumes approved considering A, How expensive the kits are compared to OT B. How hard these kits are to put together compared to OT - it's many times harder C. How hard to find these kits are compared to OT The fact that it's the #2 TK type is really impressive.

Well, didn't notice that at the time...

After watching this video on what was supposedly the original storyline for ROS, TBH I think it would have made a better movie. What do you guys think?

And, here it is. I'm the black pauldron wearing TD playing tight end on the right. We ended up playing 4 downs or so before we were called back. Wish someone had a video...

Now the fun begins - build threads are always fun to read

LOL yeah, I need to move it. But you have to admit it's been some fun feedback.