First pic of *edit* full-sized toy props....

[Admiral Buzzkill]

And I definitely see the possibility of the wrong barrel going off and some poor redshirt vaporizing himself.

Because it makes sense to you to assume that all of the power generation is in the rotating barrel, and the entire rest of the weapon is nothing but a handle?

Give me a break. Try harder to come up with a valid complaint. And don't post another link to a photograph of excrement.

 

[number6]

And don't post another link to a photograph of excrement.

Why not?? It certainly illustrates the content of his posts around here quite nicely.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

And don't post another link to a photograph of excrement.

Why not?? It certainly illustrates the content of his posts around here quite nicely.

Particularly his ongoing art threads with very little legitimate content.

 

[Gepard]

And I definitely see the possibility of the wrong barrel going off and some poor redshirt vaporizing himself.

Because it makes sense to you to assume that all of the power generation is in the rotating barrel, and the entire rest of the weapon is nothing but a handle?

Why do you assume a misfire requires the power to be housed in the barrel?

 

[ancient]

And I definitely see the possibility of the wrong barrel going off and some poor redshirt vaporizing himself.

Because it makes sense to you to assume that all of the power generation is in the rotating barrel, and the entire rest of the weapon is nothing but a handle?

Why do you assume a misfire requires the power to be housed in the barrel?

Well, unless this phaser obeys Looney Tunes physics, where Bugs Bunny can spin the gun barrel around and make the bullet shoot Elmer, I don't see this as an issue.

 

[ancient]

I see the moving barrels to be something of a take-off on this real world device that also uses two 'barrels':

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Microscope_Zeiss_1879.jpg

Of course, they're placed in such a way that the unused lens is not sticking off the side of the gun at a weird angle. I don't think this design is obviously more dangerous than any other phaser design (really, I have no idea how these are even supposed to work, they're almost pure fantasy). I assume they won't even go off if the lenses are not in proper position - any basic modern safety feature can do that.

Besides, this isn't too different to the "The Cage" hand lasers, which had a rotating barrel as a setting changer.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

And I definitely see the possibility of the wrong barrel going off and some poor redshirt vaporizing himself.

Because it makes sense to you to assume that all of the power generation is in the rotating barrel, and the entire rest of the weapon is nothing but a handle?

Why do you assume a misfire requires the power to be housed in the barrel?

Because for the "wrong barrel to go off" suggests that the barrel can go off.

If I were trying to gin up a stupid - but defensible - criticism of the design I'd say something like "the barrel being in the wrong position blocking the energy discharge."

To have the "wrong barrel go off and vaporize" someone, though, requires that the source of energy be contained betweent the two barrels.

And that's a really dumb assumption, unsupported by anything we've been shown.

In fact, the design of TOS phasers is dangerous and nonsensical in ways that have already been indicated. If someone actually wanted to sensibly criticize the design of Trek weapons they'd have to acknowledge that the TOS design is as foolish as any. That, however, doesn't suit the agendas of some posters.

 

[Gepard]

To have the "wrong barrel go off and vaporize" someone, though, requires that the source of energy be contained betweent the two barrels.

No it doesn't; all it requires is that the power get piped into the unit that houses the barrels. If there's a fault with whatever doodad controls which barrel gets the energy fed to it...bye-bye redshirt.

Now, if I were designing this phaser, I'd have some mechanical hookup inside there that actually disconnects the rearward-facing barrel so it's physically impossible for it to fire; that seems the safest. But without any idea how its supposed to work, this is all guesswork. At any rate, your assertion that the power source must be between the barrels for CRA's scenario to hold is silly.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

I could really do without the red and blue emitters as well...

Agreed.

 

[Gepard]

If you misassemble a firearm it might explode, but it's not going to accidentally shoot back at you.

...are we talking about different things? I have no idea how that's relevant to a power source.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

Just a stupid gimmick to sell toys.

Yeah, Roddenberry must be reallly proud.

As opposed to a stupid gimmick to sell jewelry?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Just a stupid gimmick to sell toys.

Yeah, Roddenberry must be reallly proud.

As opposed to a stupid gimmick to sell jewelry?

Yeah, there was nothing venial or selfish in Roddenberry's involvement in "Star Trek." He was a saint and a visionary.

We really need a "barf" emoticon.

Actually, Roddenberry proposed the tricorder largely as a way to give the cute yeoman something to do on landing parties and as a "potential toy item for female-type children" (his words).

 

[Gepard]

We really need a "barf" emoticon.

The Trek XI forum would be coasted in vomit within hours.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

We really need a "barf" emoticon.

The Trek XI forum would be coasted in vomit within hours.

Especially when people post links to pictures of excrement.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

How did I miss the excrement? Where is the link?

 

[Gepard]

How did I miss the excrement? Where is the link?

Here. It was an inline image at first, too. *insert barf smiley*

 

[number6]

How did I miss the excrement? Where is the link?

It was a picture first and then someone with some semblence of taste turned it into a link instead. Suffice it to say, the post was full of excrement to begin with.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

Perfect! Why is he not using that as his avatar?

 

[number6]

Perfect! Why is he not using that as his avatar?

He's making a "statement."

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Perfect! Why is he not using that as his avatar?

He hasn't figured out a way to Photoshop it into an admiral's uniform.