ewilen

For capital ships at constant scale, visit Jeff Rusell's site, http://www.merzo.net/ Many Macross ships, mixed in with ships from other series (Star Trek, Star Wars, B5, etc.) and even real-world craft. I don't know his data sources, but I'll bet his numbers are pretty close to official Macross, even if many come directly from RT sources. Macross Perfect Memory also has a small chart with the various ships drawn to scale.

I hate to be harsh, but you should stop there while you're ahead.

A Max and Millia (both MIB Bandai reissue) just recently went for over $170 each, so I don't think that's too excessive. I do think this is excessive: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=16467

1) We don't know what will happen in the election... 2) Why should it matter--my impression is that politicians of all stripes have bought into the F-35. (And if they haven't, I'm sure Lockheed has a nice subcontract for their district...) 3) Best to steer clear of political specifics and political predictions on MW.

TWDC, Exo...I concur. But I really prefer all the designs from the TV series except possibly the fastpack design and the cockpits. (And really don't like what was done with the Nousjadeul-Ger. I prefer it fat, flatfooted and clunky! The revised version is too gangly IMNSHO.) Am going to hold off a bit since Graham also seems to agree...or at least he's noticed the demand for a green Q-Rau and I assume he's told his Yamato contacts. Now, about Millia's butt. You have to remember that this is an impression of what it looks like when squeezed into a Q-Rau cockpit. But I do like the idea of getting one of those standing figurines. I see somebody's already requested one in the Wanted forum.

Hmmm... Max: "Nice chest cannons!"

Just want to mention, now that the Yamato Q-Rau is out, it looks like my data/measuring points yield an "accurate" Valkyrie-to-Queadluun Rau comparison. Notice the relative heights of the Valkyrie head and the Q-Rau chest cannons. Also, I goofed in another thread. Just to put it all in one place: Sizes based on Macross data and my interpretation of "height overall". Sizes based on Robotech data (same sizes as Jeff Russell's page). Mecha comparison page from TIA #11 (DYRL book). Mecha group shot from Macross Perfect Memory. Some day I'll get around to cleaning up the Zentradi, adding a female Zentradi and a miclone, and rationalizing the directory structure...

What issue is Europe going to fight the US over? Is a falling out of such a magnitude going to be so unforeseen that we won't be able to build up in response? But yes, I suppose that if our political leadership is as inept in statecraft as has been claimed in regards to its arms procurement policies, we should be arming ourselves against our closest allies as well as the rest of the world.

You can also look here and here.

What about skipping both and shifting the billions in savings to upgrading the F-15 and F-16? (Granted, we're now fairly committed to both the F-22 and the F-35--I don't know at what point we basically have to regard both programs as "sunk costs" and start thinking in terms of flyaway costs.) Graham, I'll have to see what I can find about the EF vs. prospective F-15 upgrades. imode, I'm pretty sure the numbers alone will tell the story. How many front-line fighters do we have? How many could any conceivable combination of adversaries put together? I think this is certainly the case if you're talking about an aircraft flown by a member of the armed forces of virtually any country outside of the G8 (probably minus Russia) + Israel . Then you can factor in the likely numerical superiority, and for a typical scenario we have how many excellent US pilots in their fighters, per hapless third-world pilot in his? Finally, let's keep in mind that the main purpose of tactical military aviation is (a) delivering high explosive and other mayhem to the enemy on the earth's surface (b) preventing delivery in the other direction. How much of these missions are going to be handled by missiles, UAVs, and ground-based anti-aircraft weaponry as time goes on?

Thanks...most of the work was done by Jeff Russel...to whom I'm also grateful for permission to use his images and layout. (He did the "paper doll trick", not me.) I just resized the mecha, tossed out the non-Macross stuff, did a little relabelling, and drew the Zentradi...need to clean him up a bit one of these days. There's a bit of ambiguity about the measuring points for calculating scale, so there's a different version at http://www.sonic.net/~ewilen/Macross/scale...izes/index.html Also, Jeff's original is here--using still different size data.

Yes, the "Never Say Never Again" case is a good example of the principles that may be involved. Note that I have said in this thread and others that I believe BW/SN own the story. The entire series outline, including the episode breakdown, had already been created by Kawamori et. al. before Tatsunoko Pro's involvement. This is very similar to the situation with the line drawings. As well, it is noteworthy that in the November 11, 2003 trademark decision in Japan, Macross II, Macross Plus, and Macross Seven were adduced as evidence that the "Macross" name didn't belong to TP, since those works had been released by BW/Bandai without crediting TP at all. One would think that if TP claimed ownership of the "Macross concept or story", they would challenge this evidence on that basis, and if they had a valid claim, the court would reject the evidence. However, TP did not take this route; instead, they merely claimed that MII etc. were earlier examples of trademark infringement. The court rejected this argument. Now, one might say that it wasn't the place of the court, in a trademark case, to rule on a copyright question. That may be, but if so, TP should have pursued a copyright infringement case against BW first, to strengthen its grounds for claiming trademark infringement. In conclusion, I doubt very much that TP believes it has a credible case to make an exclusive claim to the "Macross concept or story". I would go further to say that TP doesn't even have a nonexclusive claim to the story--again, because the situation with the story appears to be the same as the situation with the line art. The reason I expressed some reservations about the importance of owning the story, though, is that the connection between the various Macross works is mainly in terms of "background or setting". They don't even share many characters. I do realize that sequels have generally been viewed as "derivatives" or "secondary works" under the law, but the way the law is written is actually fairly unclear, and the caselaw is thin. Therefore I think it could be argued that ownership of the original Macross story isn't relevant to sequel rights, because you can't copyright an idea, only its expression. I do believe such an argument would face an uphill battle in court. But that's why I included that caveat.

First, I doubt the F-15 is outmatched by the EF or especially the Rafale, especially if it's given upgrades. Second, what we're talking about here is rather like a successful auto racer feeling that he needs buy the latest and greatest formula one car, because he sees some greenhorn out there with a nice car. But the thing is, the greenhorn only gets to practice driving in his car once a year because he can barely afford the gas, and he works two jobs just to afford maintenance. Oh, and by the way, the successful racer will have to cut back on maintenance and training himself to afford the new car.

The long version: read the thread from the beginning. The short version: TP got SDF Macross because they were directly responsible for paying the day to day costs of production. In the court's eyes, they undertook the financial risks associated with producing the cartoon, so they own it. The character/mecha design properties are still owned by SN and BW. It's not entirely clear who owns the "story"--or even if that matters. I believe SN and BW would be shown to own the copyright on the story if that ever became an issue, such as for determining who has the right to "set stories in the 'Macross universe'". Certainly the judgment of last November shows that TP can't use its ownership of SDF Macross and its involvement in DYRL to prevent use of the term "Macross" on trademark grounds. (But the case could be appealed.) That's about it for the situation in Japan. In the US, things are further complicated due to the secrecy of the contract which originally granted TP the exlusive overseas rights to Macross. (Key issue: were these rights to SDF Macross, or was the entire notional Macross "franchise" assigned?) As well, there is the question of whether the Macross "franchise" consists of derivatives of SDF M, or if SDF M and the other Macross anime, manga, games, etc. are coequal creations from a common source material. If the former, then HG can exclude other Macross stuff from its region. If the latter, HG's right to do so would depend on the terms of the aforementioned contract. Finally, there's the issue of U.S. trademark. We've been talking a bit about this over in the forums at Blueforge Games' website. HG has somehow managed to register trademarks on the logo for "Super Dimensional Fortress Macross" and the word "Macross" in spite of several prominent non-HG Macross products being released, without contest, in the US. (M+, MII, DYRL dubs, and MII manga and RPG supplement.) At the same time, BW has tried and failed to register trademarks on "Macross" and "Macross Plus".

If I was buying a 1/48 VF-1J the only reason I'd get it with the FP would be if I was also getting a 1/48 VF-1S Roy, so I could put the TV-style Super packs on it. In my opinion, the charm of the 1J comes mainly from recalling it in the show, and since we never see a Hikaru 1J with FP, I'd rather look at it without them.

I must say after doing some reading, my enthusiasm for the JSF has waned considerably. But not in relation to the F-22--rather, the JSF program is looking bad to me as it increasingly comes to resemble the (costly, largely unneeded) F-22. Maybe I'm reading too much stuff by (and influenced by) Spinney and Riccioni. Anyway, about the F-35 as an F-117 replacement. According to this page it can carry bombs internally, thus preserving stealthiness on Day 1 of a campaign. Furthermore, the size of the bomb bays enable it to carry larger weapons internally than the F-22. Also (according to the same page) the external gun pod for the Navy/USMC versions is designed with stealth in mind and "should allow the aircraft to maintain low observability".

I may be mistaken, but I believe the F-35 is intended to do the job of the F-117 as well as other stuff.

Over in the Yahoo Japan Auctions thread, somebody said that Egan Loo just snagged something. Hopefully that's a sign he's okay and getting ready for another update.

Miria will be cherry flavored gummy, Max will be blueberry, DYRL CF will be grape, and TV style (if it's ever released) will be lime hard candy.

I agree, the small mecha in posts 1-4 are probably from the kits that FASA imported and distributed in the early days of Battletech. The small Macross ones would be 1/200's from Nichimo. (TWDC has posted more detail as I write this.) Pic #4 is from left to right (a) one of many toys/models of the stealth fighter which were made before there was any unclassified information on it, (b) an F-4 Phantom II, looking kind of late-modelish due to the pointy nose, © a bunch of Saab Viggens (d) some passenger jet--ask David Pic #5 has several F-104's (really stubby wings), several X-29's (forward-swept wings), some SR-71ish looking things (wings all the way at the back with engine nacelles in the wings), and I believe some F-4U Corsairs (propeller planes with "gull wings"--the kind used in "Baa Baa Black Sheep"). Pic #6 has F-4 Phantom II's and I think Mig-25's (fuselage of the latter is almost rectangular from the bottom). The prop planes with radomes are E-2C Hawkeyes, I think. Pic #7 I agree are designs from the Starfleet Technical Manual. I think I even see one of those freight containers that the tug was supposed to haul. BTW, I think the tug design or something very similar appeared in the second ST movie, but they didn't identify it as such. It has no secondary hull, just two underslung nacelles and a "tow pad" under the saucer. Not sure if there's one in the box. Most or all of those ships look like Destroyer/Scout class from the Manual.

Okay, I know that spelling flames are lame, but this sentence has me imagining the start of a typical day on the USS Ronald Reagan something like this: F-35: "Good Morning, Mr. Hornet! My, don't you look Super today!" F-18E: "Why, thank you. Here's a dollar, kid, go buy yourself some fuel." http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=compliment http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=complement Kidding aside , nice post, imode.

As a painting, I think it's great. I do wonder what type of VF's those are supposed to be, though.

When did Graham rule out 1/60? I do vaguely remember reading somewhere that Yamato had let it be known that they would concentrate on 1/72 scale in the future, but I can't recall details or the source.

Where are the data to support the claim that the JSF wouldn't do as well as an F-16 in a dogfight? I'm talking primarily maneuverability, but feel free to bring up the armament/avionics/etc. Consider that turning may become less important as helmet mounted sights and off-boresight missiles become prevalent. Besides, the JSF's primary role is not interception or air superiority. The real question is, between now and the early part of the JSF's service, will we have sufficient aircraft in the interceptor and air superiority roles to meet our needs? I think we do, and if so, we don't need to sweat the JSF's air-air abilities much more than the A-10's or the B-52's. (I also think that the most important element of air supremacy for the foreseeable future will be suppression of enemy air defenses.) I'm also wondering about the comparative ranges of the JSF and F-16 with equivalent strike payloads. Feel free to trade weaponry for external fuel tanks as needed on either platform.

There was never a super deformed macross series. Here's info on the SD intro you saw: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=5432