Mr March

Damn double posting

I know exactly what you mean. I have to stare at my 1/48 VF-1S with FAST Packs at least once every day. I've tried several times to transform my Battroid mode into fighter again, but I just can't bring myself to take away the current display setting. It's just so solid and aesthetically pleasing. One of the best ideas I ever had was to purchase a Yamato 1/48 scale Valkyrie from Macross.

Macross has been a part of my enjoyment of art since I was young. Since I owe much of my appreciation for good story and well written science fiction to shows like Macross, I felt that it would be fitting to have a memento of a long cherished series. Hence I purchased a Yamato 1/48.

Where can I get those great looking plastic stands being shown in all these photos? I'd definitely like to pick one up.

I sold my 1/60 Scale Yamato VF-1S Strike Valkyrie. It was a fine product, with good articulation, a fine scale, and plenty of great features. Problem was, there was simply something better. That's all it comes down to. About the only thing I miss about the 1/60 is the smaller scale. Generally, I enjoy smaller models. But that's about it. So I guess the answer is yes, the 1/48 Yammie did indeed affect my appreciation for the 1/60 Yammie.

LOL

was looking at the small part that helps cover up the gap for the fast packs and thinking thats not just a great part for added support astheticiy that covers up the big gap behind the neck. Who would like to see yamato produce a special parts set, extra hands, improved side panels and such as add on parts, not needed parts but parts to aid in the look of the over all apearence in battroid.

I'd be thrilled to see something like that. I too now use the FAST Pack reinforcement attachment even when I'm not placing FAST Packs on my 1/48 battroid. It makes the battroid mode mode solid and greatly helps with the appearance (look ma, no more gap!).

As a big fan of the VF-1J hands as shown in the pictures, I must say I want very much to persuade Yamato to release the hands in some sort of accessory pack. At the very least, add both "series hands" and "DYRL hands" in the next FAST Pack sets. At worst, include both special hands sets as part of the GBP-1 Armor set for the 1/48 (which I'm hoping is on the drawing board at least).

As far as other additional aesthetic accessories, I'm not really sure I'd enjoy all too many added parts. A few might be nice here and there, like the improved hands and the backpack gap, but too many gets a little cumbersome. The side covers for the left/right underside torso in battroid mode would be nice, but I'd prefer them to be small and cover up just the essentials. No need to have them run along the outside chest plate. That would ruin the 1/48's profile and make the battroid mode look too box-like.

*snip*

2) There are two square holes at the back pack made for boosters to attach (where the metal pegs of the boosters are inserted) . The holes on the left hand side are fine, those on the right are a bit too tight, I can not put the metal pegs all the way inside these holes. I don't want create any damage by forcing it too much.

Anyone FPs' owner is experiencing similar problems? If so, any suggestions to solve these.

Yes. Now that I've had a much longer time to examine my set, the backpack slots for the FAST Pack prongs are a little too small on the right hand side. I can fit the FAST Pack booster on jkust fine, but it won't go all the way in (mor like 90% of the way in). The other side is indeed fine, but this left hand slot is giving me some trouble.

Maybe I'll just be forcefull like nosch and hope my 1/48 doesn't break under pressure

No, no bloody mess from being exposed to a vaccuum.

One link here.

Great reading. Thanks for the link ewilen

I admit, I have many fond memories of Three's Company. I'ts sad to see people dying so young. For all our medical advances and our increased quality of life, we still see far too many people dying in their mid-life.

ACK! Two of the same avatars! I thought someone was talking to themselves

I just got my fastpacks yesterday, 2 of them (thanks Toywave...) and I just have to say these things are truly amazing. The plastic used is heavy, snaps together perfectly, the painting rocks. I have to say that I am TOTALY satisfied with these. I just can't imagine my valks without them anymore.

As Graham said, they are quite heavy with the fastpacks on. Also, I need to say that I've ween MPC fastpacks this weekend in a Toronto store and I kinda feel bad for Toynami now that I saw both.

If you hesitated to buy a standalone 1/48 VF-1 now you should consider ordering both together in a single order, I bet even Sandpebbleone would love these...

Thanks Yamato

(runs back to play with kick ass valk...)

I couldn't try to post better praise. I too am very impressed my the FAST Packs for my 1/48 scale VF-1S. THey look perfectly proportioned, the detail and color are just right, and the 1/48 looks even more amazing with the packs (which I hadn't thought possible).

Deployment would be a huge reason (if not THE reason) to continue to improve and develop a ground assault battroid mode for the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie is its own ground assault unit that can be instantly deployed anywhere. Better still, the valkyrie is it's own delivery vehicle, one which is also a air/space superiority weapon. The Valkyrie can even leave orbit on its own. I can't imagine any reason why the UN SPacy would choose to abandon the battroid based on that one fact alone.

Ack, I'm way out of my league with this one

me too, Mr. March. i majored in history!

LOL!

Finance for me

I should have phrased my angry response better...

Babylon 5 did not "play the game" like Star Trek is doing right now. They never did and aparently have not been given another chance. They are popular on DVD because that is about all their fans can get right now. When it comes to things made for and broadcast on network and cable TV in this day and age they have to fit a certain market to even get a green light for a pilot. Notice how much trek has changed over the years. The last preview I saw for Enterprise was more about the vulcan chick getting naked than about the story. Trek has fallen victim to sensationalism because they know they have to do that to gather the viewers as their sad stories are all refurbished hand me downs from the other incarnations of itself. A sad token fanbase of viewers is not going to keep a show on the air, shows need to put up "the numbers", the "demos" and prove to their backers that they are money in the bank. That is what makes television nowadays. In your own direction of reasoning: Trek needs to take a page from the Babylon 5 playbook. Write their show from day one with the end in sight (or at least make it seem that way) and then rest on their laurels by releasing several direct to video movies.

My point however remains the same, Sci-fi on broadcast TV or cable is a very weak market in the US and there is no room for "special" shows or "unique" shows any more. Heads of broadcasting companies are not willing to risk the bucks on a "substance" show any more, it all has to be tits and guns, death and cussing, fast cars and faster women. Trek needs to die for right now and figure out what to do in a few years when the market changes again. And if the market continues the way it is going when Trek comes back it will be a porno on a network channel.

I suppose that's true. But then again television will change as did film. One of the reasons independant film is becoming such a lucrative marktet now is because it was a direct response to the change in Hollywood. Hollywood used to produce box office fluff and all the old films with story like what the independant market does now. As Hollywood changed and started doing almost all fluff, the other markets (like independant and foreign) ran ahead to make up the difference. Now you see independant titles and foreign films in mainstream release.

Television is seeing a similar shift, with specialty channels. As time goes on, they'll get better and more people will stop watching the regular crap on prime time as the specialty channels begin to win over veiwers and they become easier to obtain.

then that might explain the infamous aging problems of the Macross crew (Max and Millia, specifically). i don't remember much of my physics class, but i understand that the faster you go, and closer to c you get, the slower you age. even if the Macross only manages .2 C, we can assume that future ships go even faster, maybe even .5 c or faster. thus, a 50-60 year old Max ages slower.....

Hmm, thats interesting. Although I beleive (I'm going out on a limb here) that time dilation and such stuff doesn't really get noticeable until you get up to velociites like .75 c and higher. I think red shift/blue shift only begins to occur at .5 c or higher. Also, as I understand relativistic travel (going out on another limb...it fun out here), time dilation doesn't take place until the return trip. People on Earth age the same as people in space as long as the people in space are moving away from the Earth. The moment you start going back, then time dilation and relativity become a pain. However, since the Macross didn't actually travel relativistically away from Earth (they used the Space Fold), I'm not sure if that theory applies. Ack, I'm way out of my league with this one

Still, maybe the speed might be high enough to do something to Max. I'm not that sure.

Just my 2 cents on the matter.

Speaking of cents, get a penny going fast enough and it'll go through a battleship

Probably not too long.  I mean yeah no fold drives, but basic engine tech would still be far in advance of our modern tech.  I imagine it could at least achieve double the speed, possibly faster.  Remember it took Macross nine months or so to go from beyond Pluto to Earth.

The mean distance from Earth to Mars is 78.3 million kilometers. It's so far it takes light 4.35 minutes to travel from Earth to Mars.

Historical records indicate the return fleet departed Mars in August and was destroyed September 8, 2005. So the Mars Return Fleet took roughly a month to return to Earth (assuming the Tsiolkovsky attack occured in Earth space and assuming the Mars Return Fleet departed August 8th). To travel 78.3 million kilometers in one month would mean that the Mars Fleet would need to traverse 2.6 million kilometers per day, thus was travelling at a velocity of 30 km/sec (or .0001 percent of light speed).

Indeed faster as you've suggested, but actually much faster than double the speed of our current tech. As it is, it takes years for us to send stuff to Mars.

If the Macross took 9 months to return from Pluto to Earth, it would have needed to travel 21.2 million kilometers each day. (246.5 kilometers per second or 8.22% the speed of light). However, the Macross was never travelling in a straight line nor was the journey uninterrupted. In the series it was stated the Macross was forced off course by the Zentradi several times and the Macross actually made stops at Jupiter and Mars during that nine month period. Hence the Macross would need to be capable of a much faster velocity. Many unofficial sources state the Macross as capable of 0.20 c. That's probably a fair estimate of the maximum velocity of the Macross.

Is anyone else looking foward to ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (out this Friday). I'm not the biggest fan of Robert Rodriguez' work, but this movie looks like it'll be pretty damned good. You can't go wrong with Johnny Depp and Willam Dafoe was potential bad guys. Too bad I can't say the same about ol' Enrique Igesias (you KNOW he's gonna do major damage with that briefcase of his), not to mention the very yummy Salma Hayek and Eva Mendes. B)

Oh yeah. I'm going to see it opening night. I've both El Mariachi and Desperado. Gotta see Once Upon a Time in Mexico as well

My thanks JBO. It was actually pretty sad. Assuming no one was using fold drives, it must have taken the Mar Return Fleet a long time to get back to Earth. Then they finally make it and are destroyed by ANti-UN forces in one of their own starships.

No Batou, what you originally said is that the UN Spacy pilots lacked any space flight experience...a total fabrication. You suggested this lack of space flight experience would affect their combat performance...obivously not true based upon the fact that losses in space were never stated at any time to be greater than losses on Earth.

2.) The Zentradi were especially more accustomed to fighting in deep space, whereas this was completely new to the UN Spacy pilots. Flying a fighter in space has to be tough enough even for experienced pilots (no drag from atmosphere, nothing to slow you down, all that inertia that doesn't bleed off on turns, etc, which all means you pretty much have to un-learn all of your fighter-pilot instincts as they will now get you killed in Zero-G), much less having to juggle two different flight modes (Gerwalk, Battroid). I'm assuming they had some pretty effective flight simulators for training the newbs, but nothing compares to the real thing.

UN Spacy pilots certainly had experience flying in space. I'm not talking about what you claim to have written, only what you did write. This point, as originally stated, has been proved false.

Next point, the VF-1 Valkyrie is not vastly technolgically superior. The Valkyrie and the Regult are very similar in performance and technological sophistication. They had similar manuvering capabilities, they used the same power sources, they were closely matched in velocity and acceleration, blah, blah, blah. The Valkyrie simply enjoys many elements of practical design and versatility over the Regult, resulting in several advantages. In no way does this result in a gap that's "vastly technolocially superior". That cannot be said even of the VF-11 to a Regult.

Next point, the UN Spacy had a larger presence in space as far as military vehicles than all the Valkyries on board the Macross. A single ARMD had 78 MANNED Lancer Fighters, flown by pilots who knew how to fly in space...a direct rebutal of your original statement. There were also an unknown number of MANNED CF Valkyries stationed aboard the ARMDs who would know how to fly in space as well. Each ARMD also had 270 unmanned Ghost fighters and other space craft. That's 156 manned fighters (yes, pilots capable of flying in space), 540 Ghost fighters, and two capital ships just in orbit. There was the large-scale Apollo base under construction on the moon. There was the large-scale (again note the words LARGE and SCALE) manufacturing station at L-5 in lunar orbit. The permanent Mars base was built. Construction of the Oberth space destroyers at L-5 and construction of the SDF-2 at Apollo. Test detonation of reaction warheads on the lunar surface. Test flights of the VF-X1 in space. The Tsiolkovsky incident (yes, actual SPACE COMBAT).

Not much of a military in space? There was more military activity going on in space than the whole of South Ataria island.

Finally, there are many points you raise that were never in dispute. The Zentradi pilots being more capable in space than an atmosphere, hence irrelevant to my rebuttal. The choice to recruit pilots in space used by myself as a successful rebuttal, hence irrelevant to further debate. Et cetera. If you have anything more to the original point without sidetracking the discussion, then please present them.

Any possibility of that blue YF-19 wallpaper to make an appearance in 1280x1024 resolution?

Alien Director's Cut

I wonder how well is this movie gonna age...

I'm very eager to see this film. I loved the scenes on the special edition DVD. I think the film aged very well. The special effects for the alien suit was way ahead of its time. There are plenty of animatronics and aliens even on the latest episodes of Stargate or Star Trek that don't look nearly as good as the Alien.

Why does everyone keep calling on the dead spirit of Babylon 5... it lasted 5 seasons, so what? It's round about the ONLY Sci fi TV show other than Star Trek that didn't get cancelled by it's third season... wait, other than the new Star Treks as the original did get cancelled. And what's with the "leaves fans wanting more" thing? EVERY show that goes off the air leaves it's fans wanting more. I know people that are still pissed COP ROCK got the shaft. A lot of shows "write themselves out" rather than get cancelled all together. Look at Space: Above and Beyond. When their writers and producers found out their show was getting the axe they slaughtered everyone off in a "if you're pulling the plug then we'll see to it we never come back" fashion. Babylon 5 is not unique... so then... why did Babylon 5 supposedly "succeed"? Because it's creators where smart enough to know when they're show was not going to amount to anything more than a trek clone with a sparse fanbase they pulled the plug and chose to "write the show out" before their thin non-network backing ran out on them. What has Babylon 5 done lately? A bunch of sad made for TV movies that aired all of once (if at all) on Sci-Fi network. Pretty pitiful for such a "popular" series... If you want to talk "non-trek sci-fit TV" longevity, Babylon 5 is the weakest of examples. What about Stargate SG1? It's in it's fifth season now and still supposedly going strong. SG1 was going to get the axe but someone picked up the reigns and saw to it that the show soldiered on... SG1 runs on what, one cable channel now and is in syndication on two major networks afterhours? At it's height Babylon 5 was on UHF stations in select markets... and the last two seasons got dropped from a lot of those stations that carried it so they could run Hockey and Baseball games instead.

Sci Fi on TV is weak at best and it's only chances for market share come in syndication, like Star Trek found out. Here in the midwest, TNG put up better numbers running in late night syndication than it ever did first run on the network. If syndication had not exsisted the original Star Trek would have died and been buried long ago, along with Gilligan's Island, I Dream of Jeanie and Lost in Space.

Turn on the gas, let Trek slip under and then put the drano in the IV and let nature take it's course.

I'm backing out of this thread because I am now feeling real anger towards Trek and that is unhealthy.

Babylon 5 is not dead, nor even close. Just because product isn't on television doesn't mean a franchise is dead. Star Wars had one of the largest followings for well over 15 years before another film was made....over 8 years from the release of ROTJ before a novel or comic book saw store shelves. Every time a Babylon 5 DVD season is released it stays on Amazon's top 100 list for over a month in the upper ranks. Babylon 5 ran it's full five year run and finished. It was never written out. JMS had the telepath crisis and the fall of centauri prime planned for 5th season every since the commencement of the series first season. The only thing re-written was the EA civil war for season 4 as opposed to 4-5 crossover. And Babylon 5 was written as 5 years...total. No more, no less.

And I said the audience was begging for more...not fans. Fans cry for material whether it's good, poor, or sucks space dust. Trek's continuation of crap product for decades is proof positive of fan appetite for any garbage with their favorite label. Sit down a non-fan to watch Phantom Menace or Voyager and they'll most likely murder you before 10 minutes are up.

Babylon 5 didn't appeal to a mainstream television audience. And it shouldn't, because most television veiwers would rather watch Temptation Island or Days of Our Lives. The fact that Babylon 5 broke every convention of television production and managed to stay on the air and complete an entire 5 year story is nothing short of a miracle. I'm not defending Babylon 5 as an extremely popular show or a prime time success. However, you can downplay it's longevity in a instant gratification industry all you want and you won't make its "ghost" go away. If people want to constantly point out why Babylon 5 worked despite everything against it, they have every right to do so.

Batou I'm not really sure now what it is you're trying to suggest. Originally you suggested the UN SPacy pilots were complete newbies without any sort of space flight ability at all. Now you seem to be suggesting the Valkyrie pilots may have had some space experience but they were totally inadequate against the ability of the Zentradi pilots in space.

Either way, both explanations make no sense. The degree of superiority in the Valkyrie fighter is not significant enough to allow totally inexperienced pilots to defeat the Zentradi warriors in Regult mecha. My analysis shows tactical advantages of the Valkyrie over the Regult and several combat conventions favour the Valkyrie over that of the Regult. It does not show superiority to the degree of total battlefield domination. Nor does the anime show the UN Spacy Valkyrie forces being totally wiped out in either space or atmosphere by the Zentradi Regult forces. In fact, it was only once stated that the Zentradi were noticably better in space than planet bound, but nothing that would suggest the Valkyrie forces were outmatched in any way.

The UN Spacy was operating manned Lancer II space fighters and Valkyries all stationed in space. It's ludicrous to suggest these craft had no pilots or those pilots operating them had little to no experience in space. ANY kind of military operations in space would require the UN Spacy to have qualified personnel piloting shuttles, operating space-operable construction equipment, patrolling UN SPacy supply lanes, escourting UN Spacy military assets...the list goes on.

You simply cannot run an air force without pilots capable of flying planes. THe UN Spacy cannot run a space force without pilots capable of flying in space.

The only thing one could argue is a lack of space combat experience, but certainly not any total abscence of it. Historical records of Space War One don't mention specific battles of Valkyries fighting this and Valkyries fighting that...but they did. Arguing semantics isn't enough to overraide the facts of operating a military in space.

On the final point, the newer pilots like Kakizaki, Max, and Hikaru were trained during war time. When war breaks out of course there isn't the luxury of training pilots for years and years. Use some common sense. However, even during the war it was clearly shown in the series that Hikaru was given training in space...while piloting a Valkyrie.