Apollo Leader

Here's the X-31 flying with its tail removed and using thrust vectoring instead:

The F/A-18 is Northrop and McDonnell Douglas' navalized version of Northrop's YF-17 Cobra which lost to the F-16 when competing to be the lightweight fighter compliment for the F-15.

Actually, X-Men came out on DVD, in the US, before Christmas of 2000, so it was 2 and a quarter to two and a half years between the releases.

For those who are interested, there are already several web stores popping up that are selling the first Robotech Remastered boxset for as low as $17.42. http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=...Type=video_dvd& The Right Stuf is selling it for under $23. http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/ca...tem/61595/4/0/0 If I had bought any of the individual DVD's or boxsets that came out during 2001-2002, I would keep the Extras discs (if I had bought the triple boxsets), sell/trade the TV series DVD's, and then get the remastered sets. It's possible to get the remastered sets without spending too much more money. But again in my case, I already have the Macross, Mospeada, and Southern Cross DVD sets along with the Robotech Extras discs that have the English pilots for Macross and Mospeada, so I'm already set.

When Keith said "zoomed out", he meant that Animeigo used more of the outer edges of the Macross film then did Robotech. Otherwise saying, you literally get more of the picture with the Animeigo Macross DVD's then you did with Robotech.

I've been checking a number of online sources and the range (depending on who you go by) of the F-15E, with CTF and the three extra tanks, ranges from 2,400 to 3,400. The F-16XL is stated as up to 2,800, though I can't find any details on if that is in clean condition or itseld carrying any tanks or weapons. But still, that is some impressive numbers for what started as a light weight fighter, but the numbers that count are the range, amount of fuel for said range, and the weapons load that either the F-15E or F-16XL would carry into combat. Of course there were the issues of commonality of these two aircraft with their predecessors and which one is the better cost savings, too. What would have happened to the XL's performance and RCS if it were carrying LANTRIN pods? (David, let me know what you think of Rocket Challenge )

Damn! I'm only now about to pay for my Hikaru VF-1S and now this hits the market! As for me, I plan on just getting the Super VF-1J set, but we'll see what happens in the next few months.

At least one good thing has come out of this Robotech "remastering" and that is the lower costs for the Mospeada and Southern Cross boxsets. They could have easily gone for over a $100 each if ADV hadn't split the development costs. I look at it this way, when those Robotechies go out and buy their "remastered" Robotech DVD's, they are paying for part of our Mospeada and Southern Cross DVD's.

Though the F-16XL (or E/F if it had gone into production) would have been neat to have seen gone into service, this is just like the competition between the F/A-18E and the Super Tomcat... the larger, air superiority fighter already has the capacity, range, and power to be turned into a long range strike aircraft. In the case of the F-16 and F/A-18, they are light weight, short range fighters not meant to do the work of an aircraft like the F-111. Also, the F-15E has the extra security of having two engines instead of just one. I'm curious how the XL was "better" then the F-15E. As for the F-16XL variant being an ATF substitute, considering all the reflective surfaces from its weapons and pylons, it would only have a slightly lower RCS from the front. From any other angle, like GD's ATF entry, it would stand up like a sore thumb. The F-16 and XL probably have a slightly lower RCS then their contemporaries, but only when completely clean. Psuedo stealth does not cut it.

Yes that was CG done for the instruction booklet for the Super Famicom/SNES Scrambled Valkyrie.

General Dynamics ATF proposal failed because they ended up having to go with a single tail in order to get their design to work (resulting in a much larger side RCS)... two tail versions of GD's basic design ran into a whole bunch of aerodynamic problems because they tried to put the tails out in the midsection of the wings.

I know Firefox's F-16 is fictional and Nied's F-16 was a proposal that Lockheed had proposed for the international market (I believe it was specifically for a Middle Eastern country), but these kind of RCS reductions are a joke. The 90 degree angle resulting from the single tail and weapons hanging on pylons and at the wingtips would pretty much destroy whatever RCS reduction was achieved.

I think Tommy and company should be "reaching out to fans of anime today" by promoting their Macross, Mospeada, and Southern Cross DVD releases instead of butchering the 3 series a second time over... but hey, that's just me. Looks like Animeigo's restored Macross footage is being used afterall so my speculation was wrong there.

After some more thought, I remembered that Southern Cross had some of the animation actually altered so that the second sun in the background was deleted, so this probably means that they won't use the remastered Southern Cross footage. Also, they would probably have to negotiate with Animeigo to utilize its remastered Macross footage. As for those who are comparing this DVD release to other US DVD releases, there is little comparison. With LOTR, for example, the extended version boxset was known in advanced. Also, there is TONS of added materials making this purchase worthwile. Hell, there is even a rebate offered for those who bought the DVD's that came out in August! In the case of the Robotech "Special Editions", it will be a step backwards. The only "improvements" are a slight clean up of a poor media format, reincorporation of a few scenes which you can see in much better quality on the unedited DVD's of the originals of all 3 Japanese series, and "new" opening and closing sequences are being used. There will be no extra materials like with the original boxsets. For those who have seen the poor quality the original Robotech DVD's were in, there should have been no excuses back then and they should have done it right from the get go.

Just to add a few more thoughts: 1) According to Toyfare, the Zeta toys will be released as early as next spring, though the main concentration will be SEED (gag ). Since the Toyfare article pretty much let the cat out of the bag, I will say that this has been the whole reason for the delay of the Zeta series and related merchandise - those Gundam Wing lovin' fruit loops over at Cartoon Network refusing to show Zeta. 2) I've been told that the Arch Enemy Gundam and Gelgoog will be released in the spring... I will definitely buy two of each! 3) As for MSIA's on the decline in the US, it's been those silly G Gundam figures that are hurting sales. At the stores I frequent, it's mainly the G Gundam figures (regular and Battle Scarred) that seem to be collecting dust.

Any more commercials, Shawn?

I was scanning through www.gundamofficial.com during the last few days and made the discovery that they have a picture of a MSIA of the FA-78 Full Armor Gundam. Does anyone know if this was ever released in the US yet or is this figure still sitting in the same limbo that the Zeta figures are sitting in (a 2004 release)?

Picked up my Extended Set this evening and will probably watch this weekend. My precious!!!

From what I recall, Robotech couldn't be remastered, at least not easily, in part because most or all of the footage was on tapes instead of regular film and it would be very expensive to recut Animeigo and ADV's restored footage of the original series into "remastered" Robotech footage. If I was a Robotechie I would be steamed if I had either bought all the original discs separately, bought the original 7 box sets, and/or bought the 3 box sets (without the extras DVD's). At times like this I'm glad I'm a Macross/Mospeada/Southern Cross "Purist" who didn't waste his money on Robotech DVD's.

My question is are the sizes shown (ie. L, XL, etc.) going by US standards or Japanese standards... "Large" in Japan might be different then "Large" in the US!

I believe Gamestop has it for a December 30/31 release.

Based on the previews for next week, I hope Jack brought some soap on a rope!

BoB, if I was still doing the Gunsight 1 newsletter, I would be posting your art every issue. Nice job!

If I'm right, there is suppose to be a special Gamecube bundle that will have the original 2 NES Zelda games, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask all on one disk! This may be available at just Kmart righ now, but I would check around. As for me, my current GC lineup is: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (I also have the special preorder disc which has Ocarina of Time and the souped up version) Metroid Prime Rogue Squadron II Ikaruga Future games I plan on getting: Soul Cailbur II (I know I'm a few months behind! ) Mario Kart Double Dash (this week!) Mobile Suit Gundam (if the US release does indeed happen...) F-Zero

What!?!?! Triple H didn't get the belt back!?!?!