Mr March

The unknown fighter from the opening has an almost identical forward nose/fuselage silhouette to the VF-25 (with the exception of the quad canards), so I don't think the Galaxy Fleet fighter is the same. In fact, I'm not getting much of a "fighter" vibe from this ship. It feels a lot like a scout or transport ship, in the same vein as the transport that carried Sheryl to Frontier.

After four episodes of adventure, small character moments and establishing cast, Macross Frontier episode five focuses at last upon the three central characters Ranka, Sheryl and Alto. Taking a break from the action up until this point, episode five concentrates on building up the story for both the characters and the drama yet to come. Several discoveries about the new Macross universe are unveiled. The broader world of the Macross Froniter fleet is shown as Sheryl and Alto travel among the various areas of Island One and find entire areas where full-sized Zentradi live. On Island Three, Leon reveals some interesitng facts after examining the Vajra: they are advanced bio-mechanical weapons possessing the same energy converting armor as a Valkyrie fighter but controlled by a very small, limited brain. The big question remains who controls these creatures? Back on Island One, Sheryl pursues Alto in an attempt to locate her missing earing. She seems determined to find it, but is also welcoming the opportunity to be with Alto. For all their arguing and clashes, Sheryl seems to value the fact that Alto doesn't gush over her like nearly everyone else in her life. Alto too is slowly learning that the same drive within himself is also found in Sheryl; Alto wants to fly and pursue his dream and Sheryl works hard for her singing. The two have more in common than either care to admit, but it's clear they have a connection. Meanwhile Ranka runs into trouble with her brother Ozuma. Seems Ranka's performance at the Miss Macross Frontier contest got her suspended from her puritanical private school. Ranka is beginning to understand what sacrifices she has to make to pursue her dreams. With some hard-to-swallow advice from Mikhail, Ranka puts on a public show of her singing, determined to overcome her shyness. She almost falters, but one of Alto's paper planes flies overhead and she's swept up in her emotions for him. Singing proudly to no one in particular, Ranka attracts a crowd with her melodic voice. While definitely a slower paced story, this episode is filled with great character moments. With the players in this tale firmly established, it was well past time to delve into the love triangle between Sheryl, Alto and Ranka. Macross Frontier is doing a great job pacing itself without repeating and without ever becoming dull. The audience is invested and the writers are determined to deliver. Next up, episode six. Deculture!

I love Roy with Ozuma's do

Aha! Westlo, you bastard, is there any forum on the internet to which you don't belong? I love Sheryl too. I'm not sure where the hatin' is coming from, but I think she's definitely an interesting character. I can't wait for subs on episode 5 because it looks great. I've been savoring a strong character development episode since the show began and episode 5 looks set to deliver.

Iron Man (2008) Genre: Live Action Film – Action Adventure This summer movie season starts with a surprisingly strong comic book adaptation from director Jon Favreau and starring the unlikely Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. This time Marvel Studios offers up one of their lesser known super heroes but like his namesake Iron Man is a near bulletproof film that leaves recent offerings from bigger superheroes like Spider Man and Superman coughing on his contrails. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark, unscrupulous weapons manufacturer and charming billionaire ladies man. Stark runs afoul of terrorists armed with his own goods during a sale in Afghanistan, who then kidnap Stark and force him to build more weapons. With help from fellow captive Yinsen (Shaun Toub), Stark builds a crude armored suit to escape, but Yinsen dies aiding him. Once safely back home, Stark becomes a changed man and has a mind to refine his armored suit for more noble purposes, but neither his witty assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) nor his executive partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) are happy with the consequences of Stark’s new found conscience. Iron Man may not be the smartest or most believable super hero film ever made, but it’s easily one of the finest. Director Jon Favreau was wise indeed to rely heavily upon a well-paced script, gut-pleasing humor and a strong lead to position his comic book film far above the competition. The special effects are well-crafted rather than innovative and it is this diligent filmmaking appearing in all aspects of the production that ultimately makes Iron Man a success. The film can feel a bit predictable and a little contrived at times, but who even cares when a movie is this much fun? Fortunately, Iron Man also benefits from a lead as finely crafted as the mechanical suit itself. Robert Downey Jr. completely owns his role as Tony Stark, aggressively devouring the moral repulsiveness of the character as equally as he does Stark’s drive and professionalism. The charm and humor of Downey’s Stark draw us into what is an initially despicable character, but it is the unapologetic ambition of Stark that allows the audience to appreciate his flaws that in turn prove to be virtues. Helping Downey along the way is an impressive cast of actors that all add strong performances in each role, including a lovable turn from Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes (and a not-so-subtle nod to Rhode's future role as War Machine). The film remains a wonderful thrill ride with plenty of laughs from start to finish and is never dull despite running a little over two hours. Rating: 4 out of 5. While Iron Man sometimes offers what we’ve seen before, it offers what it has with a proficiency few films have dared attempt. Within that small group of the best cinematic super hero adventures, Iron Man is proudly counted among them "Can" you feel it?

I've done these tests before. I can actually see both directions of spin. I see counter clockwise at first glance but I can see clockwise if I concentrate for a few moments.

Ah, more cleanup work for me

LOL Cool little remix. The Ranka picture is funny too. I think I have just enough confidence in Macross Frontier to find that picture amusing without worrying about the potential consequences of it

I seem to recall someone already pointed out that the knife attack not only hurt the Vajra but bled it out. In contrast, Mikhails sniper rilfe destroyed the Vajra's head, but effectively cauterized the wound, allowing the body to continue functioning for a short time. Also, since the Vajra are biological in some manner, perhaps pain played a part.

Warning: The following are ten-minutes-after-looking, raging fanboy reactions. The following opinions do not necessarily reflect a consumer who actually owns these figures The Good The VF-11 is the best sculpt and the YF-21 is pretty good as a sculpt with sufficient menace and proportions. The VF-11 could possibly pass for a Revoltech sculpt. The articulation of the Yamato figures appears to be much better than I had once feared. The Yamato's look to have good ankle movement and there appears to be multiple points of articulation within a single joint. These production versions also look WAY better than those awful painted things we originally saw. We were told the production versions would look better and I'm glad that was proven right: these look much improved. The Bad I don't like the joint gaps and stick joints. They don't look good and they don't appear to offer high articulation. I understand that many have complaints about the Revoltech ball joints and feel they are too much of an eyesore (particularly on the VF-1 shoulders). I agree to a degree and acknowledge that criticism as a legitimate complaint. But given the choice, I'll take the eyesore of Revoltech's ball joints over the eyesore of Yamato's joint gaps/stick joints under the confident assumption the Revoltechs offer a far superior articulation-to-eyesore trade-off. The Ugly That YF-19 sculpt is absolutely horrible. While the Revoltech YF-19 has gone somewhat overboard with their stylized sculpt (though still quite attractive, IMO) Yamato has somehow managed to produce the dullest, ugliest and most uninspired YF-19 battroid toy I have ever seen. Even the YF-19 1/60 scale transformable from Yamato has a more interesting sculpt in Battroid mode, despite being less ideal. Also, those hands are a major disappointment (dare I say it?). None of those hands are shown properly holding the gun pods in anything approaching a cool or interesting pose, nor do they appear capable of doing so. Lastly, it does not appear the Yamato figure articulation is even in the same league as a Revoltech. These Yamato figures are being sold as competition for my articulated figure dollars but they aren't making the cut. It appears Yamato is willing to significantly sacrifice articulation in hopes of selling their figures on the virtue of no ugly ball joints. But in my opinion, high articulation IS the whole point of a non-transformable figure. Otherwise, why bother?

I hear that UN Spacy's picture is the VF-4 taken from the missing pages of the Flashback Graffiti book. I recently got four pictures of the VF-4 from another member, one of which is that one posted above. They are low quality photos, but you can at least see the details. Sadly it's unlikely I'll be able to obtain high resolution scans from anyone with the book, since it's so rare.

Well, looks like it's best just to ignore the VF-X-11 designation. Looks like a dead end, a concept designation that was tossed out, like you say. Cool. Thanks fellas.

Okay, so I get the whole history about the VF-9 Cutlass and VF-3000 Crusader created by Kawamori for a Bandai model product line that never came to be. So Kawamori reworked the designs and they became Valkyries for Macross video games. Wonderful. Which brings us to the VF-X-10, which as I understand it was the designation for the Cutlass fighter before it was moved over to Macross and became the VF-9. Am I still doing okay here so far? So then, why does the 1986 line art of the VF-9 Cutlass have the designation "VF-X-11" written on the wing? How does the VF-X-11 fit into this?

Remember those threads in which people would say Macross wasn't popular in Japan? Seriously, this is good stuff.

Maybe Claudia is from Louisiana. New Orleans is Sinking Gawd, I love that song

Thanks for the pictures kresphy and azrael. This is some good stuff. Looks like were in for some character dev between Alto and Sheryl. That's certainly going to be interesting

Hahahaha. Red Dwarf indeed. Perhaps even an accented pilot. Macross Scouse!

Radd and I answered that in the other thread. He's a link http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?s=&a...st&p=588072

In Macross Zero, Sara's last name was Nome. She wasn't french AFAIK, she was some south pacific island native. Hahahah, "Flench" That's hilarious. I'm not sure if there is the french equivalent of engrish. Based on the help of other members, I've written a entry for "Deculture" to add to the Macropedia. Deculture (de culcha) A Zentradi/Meltrandi expletive statement often spoken to communicate the feeling of shock. Included within the books for the Macross: Do You Remember Love? limited edition remastered DVD set, there's a list of Zentraedi/Meltrandi words and their Japanese/English translations. "De culcha" is translated as "stupid thing" or "terrifying thing". By themselves, "de" means "no" or acts as a negative prefix, and "culcha" means "wonderful thing". The closest english approximation would be the phrase "What the hell" in response to experiencing something shocking or bizarre. The phrase can also be used in a positive context, often spoken as a catch phrase for advertising.

Ah, I found it. I like it. There's also that sexy fans art of a giant size Klan Klein making the rounds

Damn, it looks like most of them have been lost. We should have saved them

On the subject of colony fleet movements I imagine that most of the time spent traveling in a colony fleet is searching star systems for possible habitable planets. These are vast unexplored areas and every new solar system they explore has to be scouted and searched thoroughly before moving on. Plus, these aren't just military warships traveling in haste. These are civilian fleets filled people who are not used to fold travel. Remember fold sickness they mentioned in episode 1? The Macross Frontier fleet probably makes short jumps inbetween star systems and then spends most of the time searching the systems it discovers. Or as Radd has suggested, perhaps the Frontier fleet acts as a hub for dozens of exploration groups that operate out of the Macross 25. Shun Q-Rau's were never rare. They've always appeared readily available. The only rare mecha ever mentioned was the Glaug (Kamjin's Battle Pod). grss1982 As Graham has mentioned, it's all about the Darth Vader costume from Star Wars Episode Three. A massive, legendary debate was waged between some MW members about the size of the hands on the new Darth Vader costume, primarily due to some studio phototgraphs that were released of the iconic costume. I kid you not. Ever since then, "small hands" has been a running joke to describe any debate over minutiae which should be a non-issue Speaking of tech minutiae, we need statistics on that damn knife

That sums up my opinion as well. It's an unfortunate reality. I watch almost everything subtitled.

Hard to say. The way Miyatake Kazutaka has drawn the Q-Rau, the hands are closer to the "viewer" than the rest of the mecha (to give a sense of depth and angle to what is normally a 2D drawing). The Q-Rau Lambda is done in the CG model so it doesn't feature that. Plus we don't yet know if both mecha are exactly the same size. Ack! No answers! Actually the picture you posted a while back shows Klan Klein in a sitting position when the Q-Rau Lambda cockpit opens, so we know it's quite different in a few ways from the old Q-rau. But it wouldn't work quite the same way as a Regult and it doesn't look nearly as cramped. There's quite a few differences in the new Q-Rau Lambda. It's definitely a significant redesign. Still has all the good stuff, but it's quite nice to see an update.

I blame the liberal definition of "fan service" that is being thrown around. Many of the scenes in Macross Frontier labeled as fan service are actually nothing of the sort. But we're into the fifth episode now and Macross World Minutiae Mayhem is now in full swing and raging, so best of luck to us trying to throw around an equal amount of perspective