Retracting Head Ter Ter

Isn't the vertical velocity the more important component? Does the horizontal velocity put as much of a stress on the gears as the vertical drop? Tyre stress aside.

I really wanted them to un-dust the YF-23 for so long, I can't quite believe that they are seriously considering bringing it to production status after 14 years. The 120 engined version to boot!!! Gawwdamn! They going to put the GE engine back on track too??? Sounds too good to be true. I WANT it to happen. But I ain't getting my hopes up. If they did crank it out as a stealth bomber, how hard would it be to make an interceptor version? And wouldn't that upset the F/A-22?

I remember seeing the bunny on the SR-71 too. Whats the story behind it?

BAHAHAHH I totally forgot that one. What really got to me is when emperor palpatine says "my best legion of troops are guarding the facility" then not a minute later they are getting killed by furry creatures. Man if this was the best the empire had to offer..... How about the time when an unarmed space smuggler charges at a full squad of fully armoured and armed Storm-Troopers, the most elite of the Empire ground forces and said elite troops run away!

THEY ALL SUCK!!!!!

How much leeway does the CO have when it comes to paint schemes?

IMHO, the fact that your GF's bro _might_ not want them anymore is not the main point. If you sold this haul on ebay, they are worth over a 1000 smackers. These should be his money. This stuff is highly liquid. Its like buying a Picasso painting from some old lady who didn't know its value for $50, then selling it on for big bucks. If some guest in your house looked at your wastepaper basket and said, hey I collect stamps, can I have that one in your basket? You let him have it, then find out one week later its some rare shitz and he sold it for $1500 to a collector. You would wanna kick his nutz for not telling you right? Taking something valuable from the owner without his knowledge isn't very ethical. At least give the guy a call! If you already did or if anything else I didn't know about before typing my rant. Mea Culpa!

Look at it from certain consumers' view-point. Some people like the idea that they have something exclusive. They don't want something every other tom dick and harry has. If a company release a limited run of 1 or 20 or 1000 I think its fair enuff. Free market economy, nobody forcing anyone to buy it. These are luxury items, not water in a desert. What irks me slightly for its chutzpah is when they do the _limited run of 67,345,222. Congratulations! You are the certified owner of serial no. 23,555,341 out of 99,999,999 limited hand-crafted exclusive treasures.... But fair enough, Caveat Emptor, buying suckers should learn how to read and do simple statistics. What really irks me is when they promise a limited run of say 500, then proceed to add a red paintdot somewhere on the underside or change the smallest detail and proceed to crank out mass production runs after the limited run is sold out. Case in point is the damn Renault Clio Williams. Bastards! No I didn't buy one.

I really like the DX Msia series (the big 12 inch ones). Cheap (about $30) for such a big monster (esp the Sazabi). Really hope they'll do more UC mecha for this line. Kaempfer....ooooohhhh

I disagree--if American voters had direct input into military gear it would probably LOOK post-Aliens badass. Whether it would work any better than GAP/Old Navy stuff is an entirely separate question. Probably not. If you let the fanboys choose, the troops will be carrying Katanas, the SAW would have 6 barrels and the gas-masks come with 2 red LEDs.

Just random thoughts. Gatling gun : Makes Predator (first one) a cool movie. Marines with Pulse cannons/Grenade Launchers/Gyro Stabilised MG-42 clones : Made Aliens great. Wonder what firepower we will see in AvP. Or screw all that. If we want aliens and guns and marines and general all round ass kicking, just make a dang Starcraft movie already. Get the WWE guys in as the Terran Marines.

actually...it's a little taller than a 1/48 Bulkier too. If they wrestled, the Valk would have its nosecone kicked off and the head laser twisted off.

I know 60% dry and full afterburn would waste fuel. But I was thinking of situations when the aircraft is flying on 30% dry thrust when an emergency requires power_right_here_right_now and the engine would take 5 seconds to spool from 30 to 100% dry thrust. Wouldn't hitting the afterburners in such a situation help? Even if its only 2000 or 4000 lbs out of the engine's potential 30000? I think the throttles are designed such that the lever has to be pushed past the full military power setting into the afterburner zone right? Are they designed such that if the pilot slams it all the way forward (when the engine is at 20-30%), the burners stay unlit until the engine spools up to 100%? Or does the burners ignite once the lever is slammed past the full military power mark?

I never flew a bird with afterburners outside a PC sim so.... Can afterburners be engaged before the engines have reached full static/dry thrust? If an engine is 20000 dry and 30000 afterburning, can the pilot hit the burner button when the engine is still spooling up at 5000 dry thrust and get 15000 ASAP? How are these things rigged up?

There are several levels of pricing mark-up from the time a toy ships from the manufacturer's warehouse, travels to the distributor then perhaps to a wholesaler then reaches a retail store. Just because a 1/48 retails for ¥14,800 does not mean that Yamato makes ¥14,800 on each toy. From what I understand in the Japanese toy business, most manufacturers only get something like 25% of the retail price. Graham Exactly. I am sure this whole valk business, while profitable to Yamato, aint exactly a huge cash cow for the company. Some pizza joints probably make more money. BTW, where and how was the stats collected? I never submitted any info. Not that my 8 valks makes a difference compared to the Yamato Customer of the Millenium aka Sithlord.

Just think of it as an ancient alien relic with anti-grav generators hidden inside the totem covering if it would make you feel better.

He is asking how many of them can be re-activated if an emergency happens (e.g. Atomic monster attacks the east coast). I think he knows that all the Iowas have been de-commisioned. IIRC the Iowa has not had the turret repaired since the accident although the materials to do it exist. I think 2 of them can be re-activated in an emergency. But the problem is not with the hardware. These ships need a crew of well over a thousand. The navy does not have that kind of people on standby. Thats also the main reason why they were retired. If they took 200 people to operate, I am sure the navy would like to have those 16inch rifles hanging about on the order of battle, but the cost of keeping 2000+ crew on the payroll for each BB is quite prohibitive.

The VF-1 airbrake looks small for the aircraft's size. But the VF-1 is pretty light for its size too. So there is less mass to slow down. But with all that OT, the damn bird doesn't need airbrakes! The VF-1 seems to have no AoA limits or whatever, just stand the bird on its tail if you want to slow down while staying in fighter mode or slam the lever to G and fly backwards if you want! Oh, and I think the primary mission for the VF-1 was space fighting? So reverse thrusters would be deemed more important. The airbrake is probably just an extra unecessary frill put there for style.

I don't even collect Voltrons but I seen the Giant one you guys are talking about and its quite a good deal for $60 IMHO.

$62k +$140k + $170k = $370k total. Lets say retailers and shipping costs take up half of that (I think they take up more), so Yamato's revenues (not profit, just revenues) is about $180k. I am not sure how much MW members (who reported their toy stats) account for the total sales, but if you factor in their R&D and licence and marketing and financing costs and everything else, I don't think Yamato is exactly making big buckets of moola from this whole enterprise.

Write in to the papers already man!

I think the 'Kai' means 'modified'.

25 bucks? You were hosed! It should have been $15.

They seem to think that just because Yamato gets away with selling out their 1/48 stock at $120, they can get away with that standard of pricing too.

I am one of those that think its hard to wrap everything up easily in 30 more mins. This ep did not have enough mecha! Too much natives dancing around the fire!!!