David Hingtgen

Hmmn. Ch 11. I think I'm going to need to grind for like, ever. I can take on the flans at least...

18~ mins into the final episode. Right after "Macross ATTACK!" is yelled. One of the few attacks so awesome that Ranka and Sheryl started up a duet again just for it... (they were silent in the preceding scene)

If anyone wants to know, I played around with saving and reloading just to see how they looked, and transformed the Blaze Fire and Gladius: Flamberge looks pretty identical to Blaze Fire, just with an orangey blade with gold edge----flame-themed colors, but no actual "flames". Helter-Skelter I think is a bit longer, more curved, almost scimitar-shaped than Gladius. but still shaped very much like Gladius overall. Black blade, gold edge.

Ok, ROTF Dirge is every bit as neat as they say. Is Mindwipe equal? Looks to be a simpler transformation from what I can see. Don't really like his tonfa-blade things either---it looks like they can rotate back in robot mode, but can't really hide/retract. PS--ROTF Dirge has a slightly purple canopy, pretty much exactly what I've tried so hard to achieve on my VF-25 kit. So Bandai has no excuse. PPS---Dirge is very Thundercracker-esque in coloring IMHO. He's a greenish blue, not pure blue. Almost in the Seacon-teal range. G1 TC is ever so slightly greenish, but G1 Dirge is pure blue. The one on the packaging is pure blue though, that would have looked better and more G1-ish. Also, black tailfins are a TC thing. Though I'm not sure how they should be painted, as he only really had wing endplates in G1, and all-gold fins would look tacky on this mold. Red shoulder intake interiors are a nice G1 homage though. A bit of red on the feet or knees would have been good too for the same purpose. I'm seriously considering repainted the yellow bits over with gold--I really wonder if it's a factory mistake----lemon yellow in 2 random spots, when EVERYTHING else is gold?

Hobby Master's new diecast F-22, with open and closed weapons bay options, gear up or down options, and removable drop tanks/pylons: http://www.thediecasthangarpub.com/viewtop...f=23&t=1303 That is the first one anyone has gotten to review and photograph, sent direct from the manufacturer, so any you have seen previously are much inferior models. I plan to wait for either a 27FS demo plane, 94FS, or 525FS. Lowest-price place I know of that is reputable that still has some pre-order slots left: http://www.aimhigherjets.com/HA2801_F22_Ra...ad_p/ha2801.htm

Is ROTF Lockdown news at all? Saw several at Target yesterday when I stopped right after lunch.

Hey, I posted the link so that the 45-sec uber-lame Top Gun homage was skipped... (I really hate videos where the intro is like 1/3 of the entire video)

P-40! I was trying to think where that nose was from.

Well, since the first good diecast and plastic 1/72 F-22's both just came out this month or so, it might be a while.

Well, so F-35 costs have doubled (it's made the "real" news at this point, not just aviation sites). Super Hornet sales are looking good though---Denmark is seriously considering it, and Boeing has just said they'll let Japan license-build them, if they buy some.

Common misconception. 99% of the photos of a vapor cone you see are SUBsonic flights (though often technically transonic). All you need is a good drop in pressure to cause it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prandtl%E2%80...ert_singularity

The top 10 low (and I mean low) high-speed passes of all time:

I thought he sound very Cam Clarke-ish too, but figured it wasn't him. Lightning's voice actress should be evident to Bioware fans--if you don't recognize her yet, you will in Ch 5, when she has a "long quiet talk" and she sounds rather different. If you just want to know, it's

IMHO 5-star rewards are only slightly better than 3/4 star rewards. I don't think anything is "5-star-only", it's just more likely. I have gotten rare drops from 3 and 4 star battles---just not often. Whereas you fairly often get "rare" drops from 5-star battles. You're not really missing much, if anything, by going slower. I don't think CP rewards are affected at all. PS---when are people here using summons? I really only find them useful for "normal yet tough" encounters. They just aren't powerful enough to be useful for most bosses---they reset the stagger-chain bar, and if you stagger the boss prior to summoning them, your party could probably do more damage. Also, once you get "renew", a 2 TP technique, that quickly becomes VERY useful, and probably a better use of TP than any summon. Of course, the fact that a dismissed summon casts like raise-all and curaga and dispel-all makes it useful as a last-ditch "save us!" option.

I didn't notice until they were freeze-framed, but those Vipers are like 50% F-18 parts. Squished and morphed, but they artists were definitely using the F-18 for reference, or already had a CGI F-18 and modified the heck out of it.

I keep thinking that the V2 VF-1S visor would look much better (not so dark) if the backside was painted silver--but a bit of poking and prodding didn't reveal how it opens up. Is it glued everywhere? Any way to open it up without damage?

Never go by battroid mode for measuring valk scale. Varies too much due to transformation and anime magic. Use fighter mode.

Big revelations at end of ch 9. Ch 9 boss was long, but not hard IMHO. Only got a 3-star rating though (but I beat it the first try). My party was Light/Vanille/Fang---I think Light/Hope/Fang may have been better. As for money---I quintupled my money in ch 9. Maybe more than that. Prior to this, upgrade just with what you have. Just make sure to not use any "good" components until you've got a 2x multiplier. (wait until you have the cash to spend on good organic points to get a 3x multiplier) (and I'd suggest not using the BEST components unless you've got 3x). Ch 9----grind and farm!

Or reading the inverse of that: Since most TF planes don't need cockpits, landing gear, full-size engines, intakes, weapons, flight-capable wings nor tailplanes---it's sad that they STILL can't find room to put the robot parts anywhere but hanging out in the open.

Yeah, but only some have it consistently...

I boosted the Blaze Fire saber from lvl 1 to 16 in one shot, just because I got so sick of seeing/using Gladius. Seriously, as their final str stats aren't THAT different in the end (and likely easily made up for with accessories) I will literally go with whichever one looks cooler when transformed. Early on, Gladius has a big str advantage over Blaze Fire. But at the very end it's at best 1/6 or 1/7 more. And if Lightning is EVER a ravager, Blaze Fire may end up being the best all-round weapon at the end due to having triple the magic of Gladius. (if you have a PURELY commando Lightning all the time, apparently the "Haute Claire" path is probably the best for that---but it's way to early to know end-game party/paradigms)

Assuming the servos for battroid mode are electrically powered (or something similar) some of the size/space should also be for large engine-driven generators and the like. Even modern day aircraft are needing more and more accessories mounted around the engine to draw off power, air, etc. May need inverters too, etc. Whereas we assume a reaction engine can more or less "directly" provide power for battroid mode, energy conversion armor, with everything having been designed from the start to interface.

Here's a quick test for kibble: Try to split the robot and plane apart. I took my Jetfire apart a while ago for some tweaking. You can have about 95% of a Jetfire robot, and 95% of an SR-71, standing next to each other. You can do this with many Transformers. Try to do that with a valk.

Uh, yeah. Have you ever seen a F-14 or Su-27 or MiG-29? Their intakes/nacelles are nigh-identical to a valkyrie's. I mean yeesh, the VF-1 *is* an F-14 in nearly every aspect, excepting the thicker beavertail to fit the arms---and a VF-1's arms still allow for a belly tunnel, it's just shallower than an F-14's. This'd make a perfect set of legs/feet for a valk: http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2258/mig29lw003web.jpg

They should be able to do the best Alto ever in that case.