ewilen

October 5, 2009 (just the inner planets):

Next, October 5, 2009:

(Ignore this post, I screwed up.)

Hm. We can calculate where the planets will be at the time of SDF Macross. I'd be surprised if it turns out that they'll be lined up in such a way as to make efficient "way stations" on the road home to earth. This is useful: http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Solar We don't know exactly where the SDF-1 folds to at the beginning of its journey--somewhere around the orbit of Pluto, I believe, but not necessarily near Pluto's current position at the time. We do know the SDF-1 flies by Saturn on April 3, 2009, lands on Mars at beginning of October, 2009, and reaches Earth around mid-November. (All this from http://macross.anime.net/story/chronology/...2009/index.html ) Here are the planets' positions at those times, based on the web-based calculator above. First, April 3, 2009:

In the end, I don't think they animated any of it. Did they ever show a VF-1S with the seat emerging from the neck in the TV series? I know they showed a VF-1D.

The SDF-1 is big. It may or may not be credible, but I think the basic argument regarding propellant for the Valkyries is going to be that there was enough onboard the SDF-1 at launch, plus whatever was scavenged from Macross City and stored on the Prometheus and Daedalus (or ARMD platforms, in DYRL), to supply the Valks. Also regarding the Valks, I doubt they they would have intakes similar to a conventional jet if they didn't use air for thrust in an atmosphere. In space, DYRL has them always using the Super/Strike FAST packs, which may imply that the FAST packs are where the space propellant is kept. However, the Compendium sticks with the TV show development chronology, with FAST packs being deployed 11 months after the beginning of Space War I. I also think we have to accept that the SDF-1 carries enough reaction mass for its own maneuvering. Perhaps we could hypothesize that some reaction mass was taken from the gas giant planets on the way back to Earth, but I don't recall that ever being shown or discussed.

How are you all able to tell that the 1/100 Valk is a bootleg? I saw a 1/100 Valkyrie toy of that general quality (might have been a Takatoku, or a Matsushiro, or a Roboticjet--see below) for sale online without a head. I can't find the page anymore. (I'm now pretty sure the Roboticjet was the first Valkyrie I ever had, based on the weird gun it came with. Mine was stolen back in 1986. )

No, the fastpacks on the VF-1J are different from the DYRL fastpacks. I forget if it's just the sculpt or also the color. I think those in the know have stated that the optional hands come with the 1J. It may still be up in the air whether the VF-1J will be bundled with fastpacks or if they'll be sold separately. The information may be in one of this thread from the old forum: Click here Graham's post on page 5 of the thread is most informative, but it may not be the latest information. Call me crazy, but there's just something about the 1/48 head that I don't like, especially compared to the 1/60 VF-1J. The "chin" seems to stick out too much, making it look like a goatee.

But if you have four hands you could theoretically achieve an animation-accurate transformation with the 1/60...well, closer than anything else.

IF ANY MOD SEES ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE INFORMATION IN THE FOLLOWING, PLEASE LET ME KNOW In an effort to provide some pointers for Mac (and other non-Windows) users, let me offer a few links. Some of these links are useful for Windows, too. http://www.mpegx.com/cat.php?dcat=VideoCodec Video codecs and tools for various platforms http://www.3ivx.com/ Source of 3ivX codec and DivX Doctor II tool. (Among other tricks, the latter can sometimes recover the sound on .avi's.) Apple Support information on Codecs Has links to Indeo Video Codecs (Mac OS Classic only, unfortunately) and explains how to determine the sound and video formats of a given movie. Note: the IV50 video format is a version of Indeo Video. If you want to view a movie in that format, you probably need to use the Classic version of Movie Player. UPDATE 1/19/06: See below on flip4mac. DivX Macintosh page Probably useful on its own, but especially so in conjunction with the AC3 codec (next item). www.insaneness.com The AC3 codec available on this page can be used in in conjunction with the DivX software to hear AC3 tracks in Quicktime. Another decoder that might be worth looking into is ffusion. I don't use it so I can't comment on it. To sort out codec/decoder confusion, this FAQ might help. I've read that 3ivX may be superior to DiVX for watching certain movies in QT player. Frankly, I don't know how the player prioritizes decoders, but if you run into trouble you can selectively remove the decoders from the :Library:Quicktime folder (OS X) or the Extensions:Quicktime Extensions folder (Classic). mAC3dec (search Google for it) is a Mac Classic and OS X utility which can convert AC3 audio to AIFF or MP3. May be useful if you can't get the AC3 codec to work. (E.g., DivX Doctor strips out AC3 audio and doesn't convert it, but it saves it to a file. If you're desperate, you could convert the AC3 to AIFF, open in MoviePlayer, and then play the video and audio simultaneously in separate windows. Primitive, but it works.) The tools at http://www.videolan.org/ come highly recommended from another MW user. Chief among them is VLC, a multiplatform video player. Direct link to the VLC page here. I don't know if it requires any of the codecs mentioned above (I already had them installed before trying it.) VLC offers a number of advanced features not available in QT Player, including slo-mo and (if you fiddle with the advanced preferences) the ability to adjust contrast/brightness. (These don't adjust "on the fly"--you have to stop playback entirely, make the adjustment, then restart playback.) ffmpegX is a powerful tool for converting audio/video files. The installation instructions explain how to install several necessary ancillary tools, so once you've finished you may have all you need to watch most downloaded video. I've barely begun exploring it but it looks like it can be used to (help) create VCD's and even DVD's out of video files. BitTorrent Introduction BitTorrent download page including direct links to Windows and Mac OS X installers. Excellent, multiplatform BitTorrent FAQ: FAQ-o-Matic format Traditional format Another tool is mldonkey, a multi-platform, multi-network P2P client. This will get you started: http://www.nongnu.org/mldonkey/ For questions on burning DVDs and VCDs, some good places to start include: http://www.afterdawn.com/ (note there are also forums linked off the main page) http://www.videohelp.com/ http://www.doom9.org/ Finally, note that WMV3 files are not playable on Macs, except possibly if you use Virtual PC. Look here for lots of discussion and info. UPDATE 1/19/06: flip4mac may have changed this. See below. Flip4Mac has a player and plugins for playing WMV files in OS X. The plugins work with Quicktime-enabled software. It's possible that they allow playing WMV3 and/or Indeo Video files, but I haven't tested. In any case, with this software you can now avoid Microsoft's crappy Media Player for Mac (which MS is discontinuing). More info: MS Windows Media Player Page and Microsoft's Flip4Mac Page. They have a link to what they call "Windows Media® Components for QuickTime" but I think it's the same thing as Flip4Mac.

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

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm happy to say that the LG don't have a problem when the Super Armor isn't installed, so I think I'll leave things as they are and maybe pick up a stand at some point. How did your 1J get cracked hips? Anything I should watch out for during transformation?

I also voted for both. Balance and ease of handling is important. I think the Yamato 1/60 has an excellent balance in fighter mode, but the legs are a bit too heavy relative to everything else in Gerwalk and Battroid modes. The 1/48 has a decent balance with relatively little diecast; the Takatoku/Bandai 1/55's have very nice balance in all modes using a moderate percentage of diecast.

Especially nose lasers.

Yes, and there are a few analogies in the way the British enjoyed tactical advantage due to the German fighters' short range and consequent lack of loiter time, so the German bombers were relatively easy prey for the defending British fighters. As well, the Germans eventually chose to attack cities instead of the British airfields and radar installations, which was a mistake analogous to trying to capture the Macross before the Valkyries were sufficiently worn down. Finally, I have read that the Germans put themselves at a disadvantage due to improper escort tactics (putting the fighters in close formation with the bombers) and suffered as well from the inferiority of the Me 110 fighter in dogfights.

It's a 1/60. (Box design gives it away.) The high bidder has a zero feedback and recently registered; the other guy only has a 4 feedback and may be relatively inexperienced. Considering that the nonstrike version usually goes for about $30-$40, I hope the bidding is because nobody else in Australia has one for sale and not because they think it's a 1/48.

Well, yes. But if Bodolza didn't want to enter an alliance, did he expect the humans to just take orders, or did he hope to just learn whatever he needed--and then did he plan on disposing of humanity, or would he have just let us be? (Note: I'm talking about SDF Macross, not DYRL.) Anyway, the more interesting question in this topic is what the Supervision Army was fighting for at the time of SW1. My impression is that the Zentradi themselves may have partially forgotten how the SA came about and why they are fighting. Probably the most we see of this is what is revealed in episode 31 "Satan's Dolls", but I haven't yet viewed the original version and I can't trust the Robotech version. A summary of the Macross version is here. Note that at the time of this episode, the information is recently discovered from Exedol's perspective. (But Global seems to know a lot of it already. Has he had access to the top-secret discoveries from the AFOS in Macross Zero?) Also note that this summary implies an origin for the Supervision Army which is slightly different from the (presumably Macross 7 derived) information in the Compendium. That is, it suggests the Zentradi and the Supervision Army were produced by opposite sides in the PC's civil war and have essentially continued that war. But the summary can also be construed as meaning that Zentradi-type giants were created in the civil war and that (consistent with the Compendium) some of the giants were incorporated in the Supervision Army when the Protodevlin appeared. I don't know if these giants were from one side or both. It may even be possible to further reconcile the accounts by positing that the Supervison Army was originally the army of one side in the PC civil war--the side that developed the Evil series of giant humanoids. When the majority of that side was possessed by the Protodeviln, "Supervision Army" became synonomous with the forces controlled by the Protodeviln. In any case, at the time of SW1, Bodolza seems to know more about the Protoculture than anyone else, yet he is still quite ignorant. He certainly isn't loyal to the Protoculture at all. The Chronology has this: From all this, it seems that a.) The SA included miclones, at least at one time. (Or the Zentradi would never have had trouble with the prime directive.) b.) The SA must be as clueless about culture as the Zentradi. c.) The SA may be mindless zombies set on "attack", but they could also be more like the Zentradi--a fighting force, which though freed of its former masters, retains the general goal of conquering known space and specifically of defeating the Zentradi.

Nope, this was just covered in the pinned Newbie section. Or are you kidding? Here's a link: start of Supervision Army/Varauta discussion for Newbies. Edit: it's about 2/3 of the way down the page.

Nope, I don't remember. But this has gotten way past the Q&A format for which this topic was intended...

This discussion should probably be taken out of Newbie Questions, but then again I'm not a mod. However, I just posted the beginning of a related discussion over here.

Let's get this out of the Newbie topic. It may be interesting to speculate on what kind of attitude the Supervision Army would have taken toward humans, had they contacted Earth at some point before or during Space War One. Consider: 1) Space War One (as I understand it) was initially a big misunderstanding--the Zentradi just wanted the Macross, but the humans thought they wanted to conquer the Solar System. 2) Later, Bodolza briefly wanted to study the humans for their technological prowess. (This from the Compendium. See the sixth and seventh paragraphs of section 5.2.2 here.) Not clear how this affected the overall Zentradi attitude to humanity. (Did they just want a few specimens? An alliance? Did they want to enslave all the humans?) 3) Finally, Bodolza realized the humans were a threat to the Zentradi Way of Life, and became implacably and unambiguously hostile. Now, depending on how smart the Supervision Army was (mindless zombies of destruction? intelligent ex-Protodeviln slaves fighting for their survival?), if they'd come into contact with the humans at some point before or during this sequence, perhaps Earth would have seen them as good guys or allies. But after the defeat of Bodolza, with some surviving Zentradi and humans having formed an alliance, they would probably be seen as bad guys. Or would they? I think it would be an interesting line to pursue if there's a future series.

That one can't be all that absurd since two MW members (and one other person who seems to bid all the time on RT/Macross stuff) are fighting for it. Good luck, guys!

Midway: I don't see it at all, but I don't want to go into details as that would take us far off topic. Malta: I don't know anything about it. Battle of Britain might be a better analog, albeit in a very general way.

I don't know if this is something that that Shawn & Graham can control, but for a while certain parts of the world were becoming increasingly walled off from access to American (and probably Western European) Internet sites due to the prevalence of spammers and other miscreants using computers in those areas to send spam, host sites advertised via spam, or engage in hacking, and the lack of response of system administrators when complaints were made. The trend (in walling off) may be slowing or reversing, but Brazil, China (not Taiwan or HK in my experience), and South Korea are still pretty bad in this respect. (Note that most of the miscreants probably aren't from those countries--they're just taking advantage of lax policies and poor maintenance which are more common there. As well, due to language barriers and the slight technical complexity of discovering the source of spam, etc., complaints aren't as likely to get through.) As well, some countries block access to sites outside the country whose political views don't match the party line, or which have stuff which is considered immoral, but I don't think that's the case with Brazil, Taiwan or South Korea. Anyway, if you have trouble accessing MW, you might try using some kind of anonymous browsing service. Here's an easy interface to a few. http://anonbrowse.cjb.net/ or http://www.space.net.au/~thomas/quickbrowse.html The idea is that the anonymous service may be accessible from wherever you are, and MW may be accessible to the anonymous service. You will probably have to tolerate some ads, and you might have to pay a fee depending on which service you use. A web proxy might be another way to go. I've never had occasion to use one, but here's one link: http://www.openproxies.com/

In other words, 1/48? Wise guy. If I had to decide between 1/48 and 1/72 it would be a tough call. I don't think I'd want to pay for a 1/48, but I think that may be a more appropriate scale than 1/72 for the reason given above and because a VF-4 toy may have limited appeal outside hard core collectors. If that's Yamato's target market, Yamato might as well give them a 1/48 since they'll gladly pay for it. If it came in both 1/72 and 1/48, I personally would be more tempted to get the 1/48 than I would if it came in both 1/60 and 1/48. But I think Yamato's decision is likely to come down to 1/72 or 1/60 at first. They haven't done anything in 1/48 that wasn't already done in a smaller scale. (Other than a couple special paint schemes.) So if they ever do a VF-4, I hope they make the right choice and do a 1/60 for compatibility with the other SDF:M/DYRL toys; then, if market research justifies it, let them to a 1/48.