Mr March

Fantastic! I look forward to them.

There's plenty of great british entertainment and I've never had trouble enjoying it or british humor because I'm Canadian. Just like I adore japanese anime, my love for film extends to many parts of the world, mostly Europe, Australia, and South America. Monty Python and the Holy Grail remains to this day one of my all time favorite comedy films. Snatch, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and a host of other examples are great english films. I'd love to see The Office especially since I've heard so much about it.

A somewhat vague description, but it sounds similar. The Pages of Now and Forever is one of the best Star Control websites ever created, which you can visit to learn about the original Star Control game by following this link: http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/sc1/ I played Star Control on both the PC and Sega Genesis/MegaDrive. Star Control II is actually a fantastic sequel that is far better than the first. In fact, Star Control itself is like only one small portion of Star Control II. Without doubt SCII is one of the best PC games of all time, definitely up there with Half-Life, Fallout, Jedi Knight, Quake II, Doom, Starcraft, X-Com, and Wing Commander. I can't recommend it enough.

LOL! I love bloody gun

star control 2??? I have my genisis because of star control 1. Granted I can also play SC1 on my dreamcast and x-box. ten years my butt... X-box is doing 90% of it right now. Friend has one with a 200 gig sporting damn near every rom and emulator up to gamecube and psx1. I was playing nes river city ransom on it a few nights ago LOL. It was cool enough having every nes, snes, sega, and genisis game playing on the dreamcast... but x-box handles so much more so much better. And to think that for less than $400 you can have more games than eiher of those rooms stored on 1 shelf! Even without a super huge hard drive you can fit every 8 bit game ever made on one dvd. Most importantly... you can have every game... even those unreleased and imports you never had the chance to play. I need to do my system soon. Yeah, Star Control rocked. It's funny but not too long ago our computers we're using right now would take up entire floors of buildings. Man, tech just flies.

The thread is under your command. Give the word and I'll stop defending my original post. That is still what I'm doing right?

SWAG isn't in the same category? The Cheyenne is also based on a diffrent design than the Phalanx, Tomahawk, and Defender, which all share a common leg/body assembly. And it DOES look far more lightly armored, based on the animation. I'm talking armor on mecha, not the barrier systems. SWAG is defined by the anime and literature as an armor, not an energy barrier. There goes that anime and literature agreeing again. Damn them So the armor strength of the Cheyenne is based it the design of it's legs and because it "looks" different. Oh yes, this is much better. We're definitely making progress... Well, how about we go into splitting hairs like what you meant by "massively". In return, I can tell you what I meant by "superior". Round and round... Except for the fact neither Zentradi nor Valkyries show any particular resistances/weaknesses to ballistic/beam weapons over one another. Nice theory, no basis. Actually, it's more like saying "A valkyrie can smoke a destroid" but your milieage may vary. Do you even know the difference between mass and size? I used specific language and the point has yet to be contested, so I'll wait until it is. Going again into unknowns. We know the SWAG works in battroid and that a variation is used in VFs after the VF-0. Sounds simple enough to go with that unless we're making up stuff again. I've already dealt with the silly "look" theory, so we'll skip this one. I'm assuming able to survive a nuclear blast at close range means superior heat resistance and structural strength but not invulnerable to DIRECTED penetrating attacks from mecha scale weaponry. And wouldn't you know it, it jives with what we see in the anime. It makes no sense for a self powered cannon to have a smaller and more powerful reactor than that of the mecha upon which it is mounted. Why wouldn't the mecha itself be using this more powerful, more space efficient reactor in the first place? Maybe it's an exotic reator? Maybe it's got limited power generation? Maybe it's not a reactor at all? Maybe...maybe...maybe... Valkyrie seems superior to me based on it's capabilites against all other mecha it fought in the animes, destroids included. It also sees more use and development (Super, Strike, GBP, EW, etc) than the other UN Spacy mecha in the animes, destroids included. I continue to await a better method of analysis that states it is not. Could a Cheyenne possibly move faster than other destroids because it has...wheels? Naw, that can't be it Or wrong, depending upon what you ignore. Or that the Spartan wasn't even hit. Exactly, no need for destroids, hence why they were abandoned. I couldn't agree more. This was refreshing.

Hehehe, cool, rough little animation

The fellas with the Valkyries have to get together with the fellas who have the Regults, Glaugs, and Power Armors to do some really nice 1600x1200 wallpapers

I had the same fears. My sister and I absolutely adore the books. Last christmas we had the opportunity to explain the new movie to my parents and they were totally unimpressed (and they like Lord of the Rings, go figure). The books seem popular enough among fandom and most of the pop culture underground, but aside from that, most people would look at the film as a MIB clone than something original and daring that the books were.

I like the flame effect and the metallic finish. Not so crazy about the design, but it's not terrible either. Too OCC for me, but it's whatever is popular that sells

Hehehe, babylon 5 quote. That was funny I mean, what?

Gawd! I'm both stunned and seriously concerned at the same time. And here I thought I was weird because I still own my SNES, Dreamcast, and X-Box, as well as Star Control II for my PC When I think about it, it may have been quite possible for the owner of that collection to purchase most of his games for quite cheap. There are deals going on all the time online and at video stores to liquidate old stock. I wouldn't be surprised if he purchased dozens of games for only a few bucks at a time. Sad thing is, in 10 years that whole collection could probably fit on the hard drive of a palm pilot

I will agree that any fan analysis is based as much on opinion/interpretation as any analysis of the anime continuity or official numbers. Regardless, based on what I understand of the "rules" of the Macross universe, I'll stand by my opinion of the capabilites/limitations of Macross mecha until I'm confronted with a better and certainly simpler theory. I'm sure any debate is healthy regardless. When discussing weapons in Macross (or any fictional universe) I'll stick to some basic assumptions to avoid introducing unknowns as much as possible. There are hundreds of factors that could be considered in an analsis of weapon effects. You'll often see me use phrases like "all other factors being equal" in an attempt to keep any debate from spiralling into discussion of minutiae. Most of the details cannot possibly be verified or explained with the limited information available for Macross Mecha. We can only guess what goes on inside the barrel of a GU-11. Lacking such information, I'll stick to the basics.

Most impressive. It would be nice to see Yamato come out with such a 1/48, but I'm still just praying for the GBP.

Moment of impact was GERWALK and if anything, being in mid-transformation during a crash speaks even more highly for the structural durability and armor strength of VF without using SWAG armor than a lack of it. Not too mention the numerous examples of such crashes outside of battroid mode that I've already posted. It's getting fun repeating myself endlessly

It's not known that zentradi used any form of defensive overtechnology. And Valks VS destroids? Only instance I can think of is MacPlus, which was an exotic weapon to start with. But I intend to leap to the defense of the oft-slandered destroid here anyways. On the contrary, not only must Zentradi mecha use some form of defensive technology (what sane military would build top-tier hardware with no more protection than your average Jeep), but a Zentradi mecha was shown partially resisting fire from a GU-11 gunpod (Max vs Milia). Mmm, forgot that sequence. I always figured Max just missed the important bits. As for it being insane to not use defensive tech... it assumes they have it. Remember, our barrier system completely mystified them. They were SURE the omnidirectional barrier was some sort of weapon. While we're on the subject... The zentradi reguld platoons seem to operate on the principle of overwhelming numbers. I'm not entirely sure it's top-tier equipment. Let's keep the irrelevant parts to a minimum please. I'm not talking barriers, I'm talking armor and have not deviated. The point stands. The Cheyenne is no oddity just because it was given wheels to operat on the deck of a battleship in an anti-air role. Nothing has been stated in official literature nor seen in the anime that suggests the Cheyenne is any less/more armored than other destroids. All that is known without running off and creating my own set of standards is that the SV-51 destroyed a Cheyenne; a destroid. Precedent established. Never said Valkyries were "massively superior" to destroids. Return to sender. There is no precedent or established rule for the Macross universe that states beam/ballistic weapons enjoy more penetrating/destructive potential over one another. Any attempt to say so is pure speculation. Exotic or no, the weapon remains within the realm of established Macross OT. Until we see a GU-15 gunpod's effect on a stationary Monster, no precedent has been established for comparing magnitudes of weapon yeild. You argued it was an unrealistic expectation and I said it was not. If you're not calling the theory into question, don't waste time reiterating facts you don't want to debate. Point remains. SWAG specifically states "battroid mode" which would certainly NOT provide a reason for survivability of a Valkyrie under such stresses in fighter or GERWALK mode. Again, assuming the destroids use SWAG is not known and wouldn't increase their armor strength any more than a Valkyrie. Near misses and fine point peneration are two entirely different things and would make all the difference in a discussion of the Monster's armor strength. Much of a weapons destructive potential lies in the amount of force DIRECTED at the target. Explosions, even near misses, inflict mere fractions of their damage potential while a beam or projectile inflicts zero to maximum based on a hit or miss (keeping all other factors equal). Does the Monster's armor enable it to survive a one kiloton blast from a distance of 100 meters? How about a 100 megaton nuke at 1 km? What is considered the vague description "nuclear" and "close range"? Again, we are brought back to knowns rather than unknowns amd vagaries. To place the optional weapons pack of the YF-19 at the same level of a nuclear blast is ludicrous given the known limit of mecha mounted beam/ballistic weaponry and the power generation ability of Valkyries in the Macross universe. Working off the animation, official literature, and basic application of physics to the fictional Macross universe is all we have. If we don't use that, than what better method do you propose by which you intend to debate why my opinion that a Valkyrie is already an Anti-armor unit within the confines of the Macross universe true or false? I can sit here all day and come up with any explanation I want for everything I see so it supports a whimsical theory (light armored Cheyennes, lightly armored mecha, massive firepower disparities between otherwise comprable mecha, beam/ballistic disparities, arbitrary definitions of near and nuclear, et cetera, ad naseum), but I won't go anywhere but in a circle. Basing an analysis upon what has been seen and what is written is all we have. I can say destroids have strong enough armor to repell gunpods, only to be proven wrong by events in the anime. I don't then make an excuse or come up with speculation to support my theory that is clearly wrong based on the facts; I take what is known and established, then work from that KNOWN ESTABLISHED base. Destroids could have been seen in numerous occassions in later shows, but were not. M+ could have used them in the base, on the Macross itself, et cetera. M7 would be too numerous to list. But they were not seen. A trend towards fewer destroids has been set, regardless of the speculation I came up with to describe WHY they are not in fashion any more with the UN Spacy military.

Oh no I had such high hopes for this film. Regardless, maybe this helped to lessen my expectations and go into the film in a more calm, objective mood. I'm still going to see the film, but this review has got me down a bit. Maybe my regular review sites (filmcritic.com and MontrealFilmJournal) will have something good to say. Maybe...

I've often thought about that scene myself. But at the same time, it doesn't even appear that the Zentradi even hits the destroid. The shots hit mostly the ground and area around the feet of the mecha. The possibility that the shots were repelled remains a valid interpretation. The scene may also have been (and this is the most sensible interpretation I've yet heard in any discussion) an attempt to dramatically portray to the audience the great disparity in arms between the UN Spacy forces and the malcontents. The episode wanted to show that once Hikaru and other mecha showed up in force, the Zentradi were badly outgunned and out of their league. Hence the scene attempted to describe this visually rather than weigh down the scene unecessarily with a lot of verbal exposition (a very wise choice creatively).

I would disagree, but I hope I've provided enough evidence in my previous post to give you some food for thought. I've always felt the advantage of the Destroid over the Valkyrie lies in weapons diversity, far greater ammunition payload, and economy of design. Even in the original SDFM, the Destroids were far more numerous than the Valkyries. Although it seems that the UN Spacy abandoned destroids years later (probably because construction of Valkyries were perfected and engineering methods were refined), they do have a place as a more dedicated ground/surface unit. I've mentioned the SV-51 against destroids above and I agree. There may be some "unknowns" that would describe why the Cheyenne was easily toppled by the SV-51, but that's too much speculation. I prefer to work from as many knowns and examples in the actual animes as possible...and they don't prove favourable for the destroids.

It's not known that zentradi used any form of defensive overtechnology. And Valks VS destroids? Only instance I can think of is MacPlus, which was an exotic weapon to start with. But I intend to leap to the defense of the oft-slandered destroid here anyways. On the contrary, not only must Zentradi mecha use some form of defensive technology (what sane military would build top-tier hardware with no more protection than your average Jeep), but a Zentradi mecha was shown partially resisting fire from a GU-11 gunpod (Max vs Milia). Valkyries vs. destroids has been more than shown. Macross Zero showed the weaponry of the SV-51 easily dispatching destroids. Zentradi mecha of all types dispatched Destroids with ease (SDFM). To assume Valkyries could not do the same is to suggest Zentradi mecha enjoy a large firepower advantage over the Valkyrie. This is obviously not so based the comparable combat performance of vehicles on both sides as shown in the anime. To extend the thought further, to assume Valkyries are invulnerable to each other is absurd. Even if we put aside the fact that M+ more than proves this is not the case and Zentradi using GU-11 gunpods against Valkyries succesfully (SDFM), no offensive dedicated military hardware yet created is invulnerable to weapons fire from another of its type. I was wondering, where's it written the YF-19's optional weapons pack is some "exotic" technology? As far as I'm aware, it's not known whether the weapons pack is officially a beam or projectile weapon. Even if we did know, to assume the weapon is some one-shot, exotic new design that sprouts from some previously unknown area of technology is more than a logic leap. I disagree. Mass and velocity are not only important factors in ballistics, they are THE factors considered when ultimately designing a projectile with more penetrating power. Everything the military does with ballistics is to get a more massive and faster projectile to fire accurately and reliably from a gun. As an example, Tanks exist today that fire projectiles as large or larger than that of an Abrams, but the Abrams uses a projectile with greater mass (DU) and utilizes a combination of technologies to fire the projectile at 1,700+ m/s. Unrealistic to expect mass and velocity to be the deciding factors? Quite the opposite as I understand it. Impracticality of any of the crazy feats that Valkyries do in the many animes should be more than ample proof that manuvers impossible for modern craft are not only possible with OT, but the norm. Many examples exist of Valkyries firing gunpods at ranges and speeds ordinarily out of the question for conventional projectile weapons. Not only that, flying through bridges in GERWALK mode (DYRL?), crashing into the ground in fighter mode (DYRL?, SDFM, M+), and all the other ridculously high damaging impacts that Valkyries have survived in ALL THREE modes prove they have superior structural strength and armor. Any aircraft yet would shatter to pieces under such stress. The SWAG doesn't even need to be brought into the equation except to drive the point home. Eaten alive is a good term to use against any Armor that engages a Valkyrie, tanks and destroids included. Might as well argue that Stormtroopers have great aim

Customs range from $200 on up depending on what you want. For exactly what you see here, $200 each. That's not bad! I was expecting it to be more expensive.

I'll provide some thoughts. The basic technologies of variable fighters already make them far more advanced and combat effective than any dedicated anti-armor hardware. Macross Zero established that the armor of a Valkyrie is as strong as any tank. Since the 55mm GU-11 Gunpods are more than capable of penetrating the armor of Valkyries and other OT mecha like Battlepods, Powered Armor, and Destroids, every Valkyrie is anti-armor capable by default. In addition, the Destroids would already be more powerful and versatile than any comparable tank, so a dedicated anti-armor aircraft would be totally unecessary. Comparing conventional mecha of the Macross era, the Destroids have been shown as no match for a Valkyrie (even the mighty Monster), so as it stands the Valkyrie sits comfortably on top of the military hardware food chain in the Macross universe. Keep in mind, muzzle velocity and kinetics. Get a penny going fast enough, and it'll go through a battleship. The actual size of the round being fired is less important than the mass of the projectile and the speed at which the gun can accurately and efficiently fire those projectiles. A 55mm round fired at 3,000 m/s is going to have more penetrating power than a 105 mm round fired at 1,500 m/s (assuming the masses involved are the same). Fire a round from a gun mounted on a Valkyrie already travelling at Mach 2 and you can see the kind of kinetic energy involved.

Sticking with a website for 10 years is a big accomplishment. In the age of the internet, websites come and go faster than fashions. Good to see some people can stay the duration. Congrats Egan!

Excellent link. Thanks Graham. I'm really looking forward to this book.