Retracting Head Ter Ter

Don't worry about the Yamato valks from HK. As far as I know, there are no bootleg Yamato valks in HK. i.e. there are no valks that look 90% like the Yamatos and are bootlegs. If the ebay pic shows something that looks like a real Yamato valk/box, it is real. I got most of my yamato's from HK sellers. No problems so far.

I see your Buick Sport Wagon and raise you an Audi RS2. And on the subject of X6s and Co. I FR3$G1N6 HATE EM ALL!!! Takes up so much space on the dang road, normally driven by slow-pokes! @#$#@%!!! Roadster, Hatch, Sedan, Estate (ok Shooting Brake for you landed gentries going for your fox hunt) and 4x4s like the Cherokee/Landcruiser/Discovery. Thats it, we don't need crossovers, sport activity vehicles, metroactive lifestyle wagon, fusion sport intelligent active (you wait, the Japanese will come up with something like this sooner or later). And lastly, 4000lb+++ hybrids mated to v8 turbos or whatnot trying to 'promote' ecogreeness. WTF?!? Its like I made a nuclear weapon with 15% less radiation fallout and suddenly I am GREEN and ECO Friendly.

Haha, anyone ever checked what was the max number of pages we went on an Aircraft Super thread without complaining about the YF-23 losing the contract? Just like the I-185, MB5, TSR2, XB-70 etc, we enthusiasts need some 'forgotten' aircraft to bitch about now and then.

You forgot the Japanese credit card and shipping address in Japan only! Tsk tsk!

Hmm, they got rid of the winglets?

Looking at the reference to 1942, I assume the show's title is a reference to this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Angeles

What is a brake over-ride feature anyway? Throttle closes when brakes are hit? In any case, unless your car has way too much power or your brakes are crap, slamming on the brake pedal even with the accelerator floored should still stop the car.

Too expensive I guess. If you just want to test their handling of 'mechanical grip with no nannies', just slap some overweight (for a kart) production engine with 150-200hp to a go-kart and let them race. That should be fun to watch too. On that same note, got this off Jalopnik: Feds find majority of Toyota unintended acceleration cases were people hitting wrong pedal By Justin Hyde, Feb 8, 2011 05:01 PM The U.S. government's ten-month probe into Toyota validates the initially unpopular argument we at Jalopnik put forth at the start of this unintended acceleration witch hunt: This was a case of people pressing the wrong pedal. In every way, this was Toyota's beige-ification of cars biting them back, and hard. The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA scientists examined 280,000 lines of Toyota software, 3,054 complaints of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles and several dozen individual vehicles. "There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. Period," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. (The NASA team did find one theoretical way for a Toyota's electronic throttle control to screw up and open wide even when the brake was depressed. But doing so requires two inputs at a precise electrical resistance; any variation and the car's warning lights come on, and NASA reviewed Toyotas own warranty data and found no evidence of any such faults.) NHTSA officials said the causes were the ones they suspected all along — bulky floormats, sticking gas pedals and driver mistakes. "We found that when a complaint alleged the brakes didn't work, what most likely happened was pedal misapplication," said deputy NHTSA administrator Ron Medford. Yet the proposed solution? More electronics and more regulations. NHTSA officials say they'll now push forward with three new rules for vehicles, requiring brake-override software, electronic data recorders and new rules for keyless ignition so that people don't get confused when they have to shut down a car by holding a button for one-Mississippi two-Mississippi. NHTSA will also study pedal design, to see whether vehicles need to be designed with podiatry standards in mind. In the heat of the recalls last fall, everyone who complained of sudden acceleration had the benefit of the doubt, and even today, LaHood tried to claim that "nobody up here has even insinuated the term 'driver error.'" Why not? We know what Toyota did wrong: it's mechanical and business mistakes led directly to four deaths and several injuries, and it faces hundreds of lawsuits and a dented reputation for ignoring defects. We know what's wrong with Toyota's software: Nothing. Why avoid discussing what many drivers did wrong — mistake the gas for the brake? Human nature suggests some of those who claimed sudden acceleration problems without a defect will likely go on believing the government just overlooked something rather than admit a smidgen of responsibility. New rules for safety technology will take several months, if not years, to put into place, while the technology on vehicles will require several more years to filter into production. Even then, it will only protect those who buy new models, not the ones on the road today. Where's the call to improve American drivers? Where's the charter to make driving an essential skill rather than a chore which should be handed off to computers as much as possible? If part of the Toyota imbroglio stems from people becoming disconnected from driving their vehicles, part of the answer should be to restore that connection — rather than making every vehicle as somnambulant as the worst Toyota.

I dunno about you guys but although that guy is in shape, I always imagined Thor to be more of 80s Arnie proportions.

I think they tried this in the past. Put F1 drivers in WRC cars and WRC drivers in F1 cars to see how they coped. The WRC guys coped better.

When done properly. On some crappy auto-boxes (yes the torque convertor sort, not the DSGs and SMGs) where th put in paddle shifters, the damn things react about 1+ seconds after user input. Dumb @!#$%s. I belong firmly to the stick and clutch faction. Damn DSGs might be faster but I miss the fine control and the clutch down free-rolling...

Come to think of it. It is not even known if either of the prototype J-20s can even supercruise.

First thought : Cherry 2000!!!

I was watching a CCTV military channel and the guy on it was claiming that the lack of the afterburner flame on the test flight take-off was proof that they had managed to mask the IR using conventional looking nozzles.....

I WANT the Nupetiet!!! Not in 1/3000 scale though! 1/10000 to 1/12000 is fine. DYRL version. Needs a gimmick like the Hull Splitting main gun.

Hmm, thinking of the WRC cars which run pretty long races and in real dusty conditions. What would they use?

I am more curious what the reaction of the girls* will be when they see that we bought doll clothes for our robots. Anyone? *those that have not watched Macross.

Aliens 3 and 4 and resurrection or whatever (I stopped counting at Aliens) all need a remake. I would support a Return of the Jedi remake if they cut out all that Ewok crap and flimsy SSD bridge shields plot too.

General automotive question. Given the plethora of aftermarket intake filter mods ranging from drop-in filters to open pods with metal mesh or paper or those HKS 'mushrooms', what kind of filters (if at all) do race cars use? e.g. on The WRC cars, do they use the stock intake box, a modified box but still a 'box' like thingy or open pods? F1 cars?

Chill and wait for the inevitable re-issue. Or better still, Ver 1.1 with stand. . . . and mini valk set. . . and couple of 1:3000 HWR Monsters to pose on deck

Hope Yamato gets the idea that this toy is sold out at least partly because the reviews are good, the shoulders are not exploding out of the box, the joints hold their poses and position and things sit flush (not like my YF-22's #$@#in^!! belly plates).

Think it is about 1:55 to 1:60 from what I hear.

Insect hater! Repeat after me "Killing is bad for kharma." I was in the shop 1 hr ago. I held the box in my hands (slightly lighter than I expected by a wee bit). I cradled the damn thing for a couple of minutes (couldn't open it, sealed with Yamato factory tape I think). Price was about US$410. Was very undecided. Then thought along these lines: 1. This one is sold out, backordered on HLJ, reports (see above) that no more in Yamato warehouse 2. Everytime Yamato sells out a standard toy, they re-release it. 3. Maybe I'd get a weathered version. 4. Maybe some small improvements in the Ver1.1 or Ver2. or I get a stand with it. 5. OK OK, US$410 is not small sum, I'd take my luck and wait it out. Now I am back home in front of the PC and still sort of 40% regret not buying it because I'd be zooming it around by now making main gun charging noises.

Yeah, this makes the SDF-1 seem pretty expensive. Given the number of articulation points and detail on this zoid (check out the springs and shock absorber detail on the legs), I am inclined to think that the design is at least as complicated as the SDF-1 transformation. I would have picked it up if it was 1/72 and in scale with the rest of my Zoid kits (HMM and motorised). If they made an Iron Kong or Deathsaurer, I would buy it even at double the price. Ligers just aren't my fave design.

You #$%^!! now I really want one!