Mr March

You DO mean RED, dont you? I mean blue. VF-19

One of my friends hasn't stopped playing CS since it was released. THe guy always cuts me oof on ICQ because he HAS to play CS. Personally, I never thought Half-Life's multiplayer was that great. Quake II, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Jedi Outcast, and a few others had much more interesting online play. However, Half-Life single player was second to no one (very ironic, since most people don't seem to care for the innovative SP...oh well, Half-Life 2 will show them why it rocks..again). I think the thing about CS (as far as I can tell) is the huge mod community. Half-Life has one of the - if not THE - biggest mod communities for a FPS. Lots of different stuff to try, new classes, new guns, new maps, new complete games, etc. But again - for me personally - mods are what killed the online gaming for me with most of the FPS. Too many cheats become available over time, too many bored kids with nothing better to do than play a game they are bored with like asses and team kill/server crash/spam games, too many keyboard scripts used by morons linking the deadliest of combos and cheaps, and quite simply...virtually nothing of the original game remains. Sounds good if you want to spend you life at it. For anyone else who already has a life, late life online gaming always sucks

The same thing happened to me also. During HLJ.com's first Yamato sale I ordered a Hikaru 1/60 and they sent me a Hikaru 1/55. Oh well....they wanted me to send it back but I figured it'd take too much time. Hmmm, something tells me HLJ should wise up a little. I was quite mad when they did that. Everything since then has been great, but they should feel lucky they didn't lose me over that. I've been known to walk over lesser circumstances.

Personally, I beleive it's the VF-22 Sturmvogel anyway, regardless of whether we use YF or VF. I also very much dislike the changes made to the YF-19 when it was put into mass production. Those wings are just terrible, the head is over-stylized, and the ankles/engine covers look way too blocky compared to the YF-19. On the flip side, the VF-22 looks every bit as good as it did in Macross Plus. Sometimes I even like the cockpit more in the VF-22 than the YF-21. 'Bout the only thing of the VF-19 they got right over the YF-19 was the color, which happens to be my favorite...blue

I've ordered many times from HLJ and the only problem I've ever had is they sent me a Bandai 1/55 VF-1S when I was supposed to have a Yamato 1/60 Strike. They corrected the problem and I still shop there. I pre-ordered my Yamato 1/48 VF-1J with FAST Packs today, so I'm expecting everything will go well as it usually does.

Good ol Shao Kahn I loved cheesing him out with Reptile

Unbelievable! I gotta hire you to do mine too

If this is is the Invid from New Generation versus the UN Spacy just after episode 36 of Macross, the UN Spacy has very little to work with. Unless the 100 Zentradi ships are all filled to capacity, manned, and ready to fly, it's unlikely the UN SPacy would be able to field any significant resistance against another large scale war. The Macross is in pieces and would take too long to repair to be of any use. None of the other UN Spacy ships will be ready until Flashback 2012, and I don't think there's anything usable from the Grand Cannon. Sure the Spacy has rebuilt a noteworthy portion of its forces in the two years since the Bodolzaa Fleet was destroyed, but based on the last nine episodes of the series there sure doesn't look like much of a military. I'd say the Invid take it. Afterwards, who knows what can happen. The humans of Macross sure do have the means to escape from the Invid and they possess superior technology than in New Generation. If the Invid tried to invade the UN Spacy in 2040+, they'd have their crab asses blown out their mono-eyes and into the nearest supernova. By this time the UN Spacy would outnumber the Invid by a larger factor, they control multiple star systems, plenty of OT equipped captial ships like the Macross, lots of reaction weaponry, highly advanced variable fighters, and quite frankly just the planetary defense network around Earth would be enough repel the Invid on its own.

Well, the pictures could be much better, but I do love size comparisons. Cool stuff.

Wisdom doesn't follow any particular moral mindset. The Stalin quote is really a relavent point, despite the man himself.

That's the thing I think a lot of Macross fans seem to misinterpret. The Earth is not vacant. Looking at Flashback 2012 and Macross Plus, it's clear that while there was massive colonization in other star systems, Earth is in one of the most heavily populated systems in the UN Spacy. Macross City was enormous, a much larger city than anything else we've seen elsewhere. Also, the Sol system is still the holding point for the majority of the UN Spacy's war materiel. There's the shipyards they have, the Zentradi Factory Satellite, and the bulk of their forces. WHy not protect it. Also, given the past vulnerability of Earth against huge fleets of hostile aliens, is it really any wonder the UN Spacy went overkill on Earth's planetary defense plans?

Cool stuff!

Just got it about half and hour ago and I'm watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. I haven't seen this film in years and I never owned any of the Indiana Jones films on VHS before now. This is gonna be great!

Thanks for the link Super O! I've always wanted to try one of these programs for years, but no way I was going to pay the money that was being asked. This is great. I'm gonna give it a try.

You must have seen a totally different version of Kill Bill than the rest of us did. Hehehe, oops. Wrong city there

Oh yeah, I'm so getting this DVD set. 28 Days Later is coming out tomorrow as well? I missed that show during its theatre run and was pissed off about it. I really wanted to see this film. The reviews were fantastic. I think I might pick it up on DVD without even renting it first.

There is no reason to go to Robotech.com. Thus I've never been "booted" from that place.

Well, I went to see this film with my friends (I knew I would). As expected, it was a typically Tarantino piece and as one of the few non-fans of his work - and it looks as though I'm the only one here - I really didn't think much of it. However, because nearly all my friends adore his work, I'm now once again honored with the mantel of having seen all of QT's films. Since I haven't done one in a while, I felt like writing a review. Enjoy...or not. Kill Bill Volume One (2003) Genre: Live Action Film - Martial Arts Action After almost four years on hiatus, Quetin Tarantino returns with his fourth film as director in Kill Bill Volume One. Split into two pictures for Tarantino's wish to keep the entire film uncut despite Miramax's urging, this first of two is undeniably "Tarantino" which is sure to please die hard fans of the independant director. In truth, Kill Bill is a jumble of classic action/martial arts film influences packaged as contemporary filmmaking. Kill Bill follows the tradition of the martial arts action film, albeit a film which once again features Tarantino's merging of late era film styles and modern techniques. Uma Thurman plays the role of The Bride (her name remains unknown...occasionally masked with audio censor bleeps), a former assassion who, while pregnant, is nearly murdered on her wedding day. Four years after the unhappiest day of her life, The Bride wakes from her coma and begins a blood-splattered journey of revenge upon those who nearly killed her, most of whom are former associates. David Carradine stars as the ominous and as yet unseen assassin leader Bill, Lucy Lui plays assassin and Tokyo mafia queen O-Ren Ishii, and Vivica A. Fox plays killer-turned-housewife Vernita Green. Once one watches the film, there is little left to guess when asking “What is Kill Bill?” The film is an homage to the martial arts action film genre...and it shows. While some audiences may be lost, it's hard not to recognize the obvious lineage of Kill Bill from kung fu films of the 1970's to fast paced anime (japanese animation). Indeed, Tarantino is so obvious with the inspiration for Kill Bill, a sequence by japanese anime company Production I.G. (Ghost in The Shell, Blood The Last Vampire) is dropped into the middle of the film, jarringly injecting the childhood history of O-Ren's character in an animated gore-fest. To say Kill Bill is violent and graphic is to understate the presentation, but the film's violence is so outrageous and over-the-top, it's comical. In one of the movie's dud scenes, the last of a few dozen vanquished foes falls from the second floor only to land in a pool filled with blood (get it...blood-bath...uh yeah). Limbs are severed regularly, at which point entire septic tanks of blood spew from the dismembered victims like a fire hose. The influence for these blood fountains is clearly derived from stylized action animes and asian kung fu/crime films, but these displays are ridiculously silly rather than an entertaining homage. The plot, such as it is, grabs for as much style as it can get, but the film never makes any pretense. If you've seen the trailer, you'll understand Kill Bill is action/revenge flick and it takes no prisoners. Kill Bill is enjoyable because of its vibrant and sympathetic heroine played wonderfully stoic and emphatically emotional by Thurman. The deadly deeds done by Thurman's Bride are brilliantly played against the terrible tragedies she has suffered. The action present in Kill Bill is a fan's dream, culminating the great anticipation of the preceeding scenes into kinetically powerful duels. While the many fights of the film are again derivative of the genre (think Hong Kong wire work), they indeed feel beautifully flawless and wildly chaotic at the same time. The problem with Kill Bill is its own nature as an adulation to the martial arts/action genre. Kill Bill is so flashy, with homages so flaunting (that yellow jumpsuit is a dead give away to Bruce Lee in Game of Death), the film is made paltry by the fan boy-esque style. Most of the cast is given so little to work with that the film must indulge in grandstanding to craft the characterizations. Even Tarantino's normally interesting retro influences and vintage musical scores are overplayed here, escalating the films already tacky palette. Kill Bill may be a film that knows what it is and what it's meant to be, but that doesn't excuse its faults. Expect a violent, pedantic, post-modern homage to kung fu films and you'll enjoy Kill Bill. Expect any more, you can expect to feel cheated. Rating: 5 out of 10. An average action movie made notable by the direction of retro violence king Quentin Tarantino. Knock yourself out.

Very nice looking!

Remember, Morpheus did say that it's "closer" to 2199 and that no human really knows just how long it has been. In fact - like the architect said (assuming he's truthful) - the Matrix is much older than any human suspects. If the machines permit Zion to start over with only 23 humans each time, it'll take much longer than just 100 years to reach a population of 250,000 people (even factoring infant mortality rates, freeing people from the matrix, and any external enviromental impacts). Assuming the architect is telling the truth...and that's a big assumption. Also, the Matrix always remains. The Matrix was redesigned by the architect twice, but it was not destroyed when the systemic anomaly (Neo and his predecessors) reaches the source each of those six times. The Matrix continues, but the human rebellion and Zion starts over...in that semi-controlled fashion. This is how those rogue programs in the Matrix (the Merovingian, the Oracle, etc) are able to exist for so long. If the Matrix was destroyed each time, those programs would be destroyed along with it. But the Merovingian specifically said he had encountered Neo's predecessors and the architect said the same thing. This is probably as close to the truth as we can get at this point.

I disagree. Naturally, there are inherent advantages and disadvantages to any control system...new or old. However, the point I was trying to make is that while real world logic would tell us the BDS is impractical due to the way the human brain functions, it was obviously not impossible in the Macross universe. In fact, it was not only possible, but it was actually a viable system that had practical applications despite the flaws. Because of that fact, it's very likely (more so than not) that the system could be improved and refined to the point that it would be the ideal control system for the fighter. As for pliot multiple tasking, the BDS may lack some advantages of a less technological aspect like the "walking and chewing bubblegum at the same time" analogy. However, those few disadvantages would be offset by the remarkable response time, input speed, and situational awareness granted by the BDS. In fact, who is to say the BDS system needs control like a traditional system. Think about how the BDS would work. The pilot of a BDS craft may not be required to maintain a course while looking around outside. The BDS may actually maintain flight control until a new command is issued, sort of like a queue system for input. In this case, the BDS would actually be superior in the circumstance you've given. Perhaps the BDS is a little overrated in the great debates here at MW. But it's certainly viable as shown in the series and has great potential.

I'd always assumed the cockpit displays in the 19 were holographic due to the prevalence of that tech everywhere else in the Macross world. I don't see anything in the compendium to confirm this, though, so I might be completely wrong. If they were holographic, the pilot's perspective shouldn't be altered at all. I do think the BDS was abandoned a little too hastily - just think what Max could have done with it in M7 (if they managed to work out all the bugs). For the record I love 'em both, but the 21/22 is my fave. That's a tough one. Anime is inherently depthless (setting aside CGI), so who can say if the Virtual Enviroment Cockpit on the YF-19 was actually holographic or not. I'm not exactly sure what the implications of the holographic system would be, but traditional holograms are still angle dependant. Even simply turning one's head inside the cockpit would be sufficient to offset the proper angle of view for a holographic screen, thus skewing the pilot's perspective of the enviroment around him. I'm actually very split on the two planes. I really like them both so much. That's probably the reason why I enjoyed Macross Plus as much as I did. But if I had to go with one, I'd probably pick the YF-21.

Although I am a huge fan of both planes, I've always felt the YF-21 was more advanced and had more potential. The 360 degree imaging used in the YF-21 would be superior to the virtual enviroment cockpit in the YF-19 because the monitors used in the 19 would still skew perspective and angle. While the Brain Direct System (BDS) was flawed, the prototype was almost practical. The series showed the technology was certainly viable enough to be refined and perfected into a superior flight control system. But the prototype was destroyed and the competition was nearing it's projected close anyway. Also, the variable sturcture wings on the 21 would be an areonautical engineer's dream, allowing the 21 multiple different flight configurations to suit the condition. Go 21!

Do you really think it's worth having both sets? I have a pre-order of the Japanese set (Limited Edition). I don't think I'll be getting the Disney set. Absolutely. Typically, I'm not the kind of fanboy that collects a ton of the same stuff for all my favorite franchises, but Nausicaa is one of the exceptions. Nausicaa is like...Herbert's Dune or Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It's one of those few great stories that I really like to support because they are so rare, yet so great. So I'll get both the japanese and NA DVDs because I'm such a huge fan that likes all things related to those rare series. The North American release also signifies a move toward higher production values for anime, more respect for anime as art, and better treatment of any potential translation. As we all know, while anime products are getting better outside of japan, there is still a long way to go. Supporting the quality treatment of anime sends a message that fans want more respect given to their anime and companies will act according to the market. So yes, I really think it's worth it.

Yep... I agree. In that case, its what we call "pretty on paper, but ugly when animated" or the other way around too. I like the Xi Gundam and other over the top designs, but if I was to seem them animated, I doubt I would still like them (though, some of those over the top designs spend most of the time "floating", so articulation wouldn't really be an issue). Just take the Ex S Gundam. Its an extremely over the top design, but when you look at if, articulation isn't really an issue because the Ex S Gundam is always floating in space. Hehehe, then why bother with arms or legs? Just build a Starfury or X-Wing