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Oh, yes, if I understand what you're getting at Mislovrit, that is a very good point. The "pilot" of a single-man tank would really have his hands full trying to maintain it in the field. Of course, one can posit improved field maintainability through advanced technology, but--whatever. At least in real life, I'd expect a platoon of one-man tanks to have to be followed around by a mechanized maintenance group. (Of course, the same would apply to mecha.)

Sundown: yup. As any tank simulator shows, with sufficient automation there's no physical need for more than one crew. But as many sims also show, actually managing all the tasks involved in piloting a combat vehicle while maintaining SA can be rather difficult for an individual human. Whether the platform has treads or legs (or wings) doesn't really affect the basic equations.

It's doubtful if any of the Hobby Handbook is canon. Much of it definitely is not. Let me see if I can dig up the post from Egan Loo... Okay, look at the posts from March 2 onward in this thread.

1/1 Lowviz, why do you think a tank needs more than one person in a world where mecha only need a single pilot? Sundown, you are right, of course. The general rule of anime is that mecha are superior to tanks and infantry, but in real life, they'd be a waste. I don't think anyone has yet mentioned that on open terrain, if not asphalt, their legs would probably sink into the ground.

Part of the armour of modern tanks is glacis sloped to deflect incoming shells. Destroids shown in Macross have almost zip for glacis, so they would be very subsceptible to modern 120mm tank shells (say from an M1A1 Abrams). Sloped armor has been around since WWII, but you need to understand why it does what it does. It all has to do with the angle of incoming shell's trajectory relative to the armor's face. When tanks are duelling at roughly the same elevation, incoming shells will have a roughly flat trajectory and the sloping armor both (a) increases the effective thickness of the armor plate and (b) causes shells to glance off the surface. In the general case, there's nothing unique about "glacis", which is simply the upper part of the forward hull. Saying that a destroid has "zip for glacis" is true, but irrelevant. The difficulty of penetrating a destroid's armor is determined entirely by the thickness and composition of the armor at the impact point, and the angle of the shot. Similarly, as has been pointed out, the "sloped glacis" of a tank ceases to be "sloped" relative to an incoming shot from a higher elevation. The 120mm penetrator of the Abrams certainly has a frightful ability to defeat armor, but it's not infinite. There is undoubtedly a level of armor composition/thickness which could prevent penetration as well as, if not better than what is possible on a modern tank regardless of the angle. I will make an exception for extreme cases such as very low angle shots, where shells would skip off of a thin piece of rolled steel like a rock skipping on water. But I don't see much about a tank's design that would encourage more of these types of hits.

Not getting it. I'm out of room for toys, and I haven't even gotten a Q-Rau yet. And I'm not that much a fan of the GBP, so the 1/60 version is good enough for me. So I didn't vote, but I think Yamato's smartest move would be to sell the GBP both alone and packaged with a Valk that can't be gotten by itself, such as a 1A CF.

Personally, I think part of the logic of the Macross universe (and pretty much all Japanese animation) is that mecha are superior to tanks. Ghost in the Shell is sort of an exception that proves the rule. A possible real-world justification, at least in Macross, is that because they use nuclear ("reaction") power plants, mecha have a lot more power to play around with, so they can still be heavily armored (as much or more than a tank) on a bigger frame. Not that I really buy it, mind you. In the Ogre series of board/miniature wargames, there's a similar justification for why there are giant, 50-meter-long cybernetic tanks.

There are three Bandai gashapon series ("Missions"), two K&M series, and a set of "mecha diorama" figures from Tomy. You can find a lot by searching the forums. There's also some info on the Bandai Mission 2 set on this page: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/m...collection2.htm Some links off of that page show the Bandai Mission 1 set. Many of the gashapon are "around" 1/200 scale, some are spot-on, but the Tomy Monster certainly isn't even close.

I can't speak to the value, but there's a little info at http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models...i/arii_main.htm (lower left). Which in turn links to http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/arii/arii_md.htm

Well, I just saw it today in the uncut, subtitled version at the Lumiere in San Francisco. Visually, it's fantastic. I did notice that the colors are subdued, but this mostly works and results in the film looking like a moving version of certain European comic books. There's incredible detail along with a crisp style, and some of the action scenes work well, particularly in the first half of the movie. However, the story breaks down about midway through, and the visuals start to become just repetitive. The movie does not compare favorably with Akira, or similarly-themed Miyazaki films such as Nausicaa or Laputa: Castle in the Sky. The retro-technology, along with some of the action, also reminded me a bit of Wings of Honneamise, which again does not help. The problems with plot and pacing are actually so severe that for once I wouldn't be surprised if the 20 minutes of editing in the English-dubbed version might do it some good. However, I don't expect to find out unless I get bored enough to rent the DVD. Recommendation: see this at a bargain matinee in a theater with the biggest screen possible, don't worry about sub/dub, and just enjoy the craftsmanship that went into the animation.

Yup, they're all in the models section here at MW. Links to the pics of the instructions, which have images of the built-up models... http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/arii/ar330-60.jpg http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/arii/ar331-62.jpg http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/arii/ar332-64.jpg http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/arii/ar333-66.jpg

Ditto on the VLC recommendation for video. For music, I don't have a lot of experience but iTunes might not be a bad choice. I think it's included with the Quicktime download.

1/87 (to terrorize HO scale train setups)? Actually, to add the list just above, even though I'm not a modeller, I'd love to see someone else's efforts for the MiM-31 Karyobin and (especially) the FL-200. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=1555 http://nanashino.macrossmecha.info/aerospcraft/fl200.html I'm sure I also wouldn't mind seeing this thing realized in resin: http://www.mahq.net/mecha/macross/sdfmacross/recoverypod.htm

That Tranship Robo version has shown up before. Possibly by Matsushiro. Reports are that it does indeed have the firing mechanisms like the Takatoku. If I were a hardcore collector, I'd probably pay more for it than the Matchbox version, but less than for the Takatoku.

Hurin, where's the Kawamori interview you've been talking about where he talks about the songs? Are you sure you aren't thinking of the Ishiguro interview? Nice posts, Sundown. The same critique applies to nearly all pop music from the last 40 years or so. Sometime around 1965, people began to obsess over "authenticity", with an emphasis on writing your own songs and one-upping other performers over who could be more "genuine" and who was a phoney. When really, all performers are phoneys, so just enjoy the act.

Thanks for the recommendation, NERV. Who has released the movie in the US?

I seem to recall that Kawamori, in an interview which was mainly about how he designed the VF-0, said that the in-story justification for the size of the VF-1 is that it was expected to be able to infiltrate and fight inside of enemy warships. In other words, the VF-1 is meant to be "size compatible" with the Zentradi enemy--bigger than a typical Zentradi, to be sure, but able to maneuver in the same environment as a Zentradi soldier. Now, why Kawamori et. al. didn't just scale up the Zents so as to get a plane that's the size of the F-14, is a mystery. Obviously for aviation enthusiasts, the F-14 was an object of interest at the time, so why not arrange things so that the VF-1 would be as close to a "variable Tomcat" as possible, instead of making it the size of a Hornet? If they did that, and Takatoku kept their toys the same size, the Taka 1/55 would really be 1/72 scale. (Tomcat is 18.9 m long; Valk is 14.23 m; 18.9/14.23*55 is roughly 73.) Which is interesting, since 1/72 is a much more "normal" scale, especially for airplanes, than 1/55. But 1/100 is also a popular scale--especially in Japan--and if the Valk was bigger, then the smaller variable Valkyrie toy would have to be bigger in order to be 1/100, or somewhat smaller to be 1/144. So maybe, just maybe, the size of the Valkyrie was dictated by Takatoku's desire to produce a big and a small perfect transformation Valk at sizes that it believed were marketable. This is just wild speculation on my part; maybe I'll post over at Toyboxdx and Zinc Panic to see if anyone over there has any insight into why the 1/55 scale was used by Takatoku as the licensee for a number of series.

Some of these recommendations need to be taken with a grain of salt. Otaku no video is only entertaining if you already know a fair amount about anime and otaku culture. And familiarity with Ghibli movies isn't sufficient introduction. Project A-ko is also questionable on these grounds, but maybe not if the viewer is willing to go with the general flow of zaniness. I'd recommend Wings of Honneamise--completely self-contained story, humor, action, depth, good animation, etc. All you have to say at the beginning is "This story takes place on an alternate earth with mid-20th century technological and political development." The original Ghost in the shell movie is also pretty self-contained, although again I'd recommend a brief introduction about how the Major is a full-body-replacement cyborg, and what a "ghost" is. But if he didn't like Akira, this might also be too serious. I think that DYRL may not work well without knowledge of Macross TV, but, again, a brief intro could at least make it more comprehensible at the beginning. Lupin III movies are a great idea. Personally, I wasn't too crazy about Megazone 23 Part I, but it meets most of the criteria.

Terrence Stamp is doing fine work as Jor-El in Smallville (though only as a rarely heard voice--but he's got the looks anyhow). I'd vote for him or the other two over this "solution". And I wonder, if there were legal problems with using the Brando footage in Superman II, how have they been fixed now? Of course, it's possible that Brando was irreplaceably brilliant. (Then again, maybe not.) Edit: Ah, I see a small problem with Stamp is that he was General Zod in the previous movies.

Some info on that here in Renato's post: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...80entry214886 (look for "Extra Feature") I think that Bandai may also have a web site devoted to the OAV, which may have a section showing the VA's, so if you run the whole thing through a translator you might figure out who is who.

If that's true, then the JSF is dead, dead, dead, and I'll dance on its grave. But the story itself has problems, such as saying that the JSF's price has increased "23 per cent to $125.5 million each". If that were so, then the previous price would be $102 million. Maybe they're mixing up the JSF and the Raptor. Checking further, nearly all the reports are from a reporter named Ian Ian McPhedran. A report by Mark Forbes clarifies Lockheed's side of the story: (Source)These stories show that the GAO report in question was actually critical of both the Raptor and the JSF programs: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/11041813.htm http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0305/030705cdpm1.htm http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/n...on/11045397.htm The actual report can be found at these links: Highlights in PDF format Full report in PDF format Full report in text format (no graphics) I'm going to take a look at it right now.

I came across a picture or two while hunting for info...let's see, I found this "Run-Valam" via http://www.coolkits.de/ I think it looks pretty cool, at least in this pic.

Or maybe try any browser or computer other than the one you usually use. That should pretty much tell you whether it's an issue with your MW account or an issue with your computer environment.

Nope, I don't see it. If anything, the mysteries and questions at the end of MZero are what make it complete, because one of the themes of the story is "No matter how much we think we know, we don't have all the answers."

I didn't say it was a complete violation of Big West's rights, just that the modified battlepod would probably be considered a derivative of the Regult. But there are a bunch of reasons why a lawsuit wouldn't be clearcut, especially nowadays. You've mentioned at least one of them; another is that we really don't know the precise rights that were granted to TP in the memorandum between BW and TP, nor do we know exactly what TP gave HG--since all of that is in contracts whose exact wording remains secret.