sketchley

I think it's easier to say that there are atmospheric de-icing capabilities built into these aircraft, and those capabilities also work in outer space, and leave it at that. You are not wrong (ie if the temperature is below the material's triple point, and there is enough of it for some deposition/de-sublimation action to happen on the exposed surfaces), it's just something that most people don't associate as happening in the vacuum of space. And that is despite there being places in the atmosphere, like the thermosphere and exosphere, being the destination of most real world space flights to "outer space".

Road Macross Trip July 2015 Arriving first, I was surprised to see quite a large crowd of people waiting for the museum to open! One of the reasons why we had planned to go so early in the morning was to beat the crowds of Kawamori fans, hungry for signed goods. Turns out that they weren't there for the "S.K. The Henkei" exhibit, and were most likely a university art class on a field trip! (Note the lack of people in the exhibit pictures later) This was my second trip to the Tezuka Osamu Museum. The first thing that I noticed this time was the changes to the walk-up to the entrance - the 3-way traffic light in front of the museum is in the process of being changed into a 4-way light, and they've moved all of the statues and so on to make way for the new road. The changes make the building more photogenic, but the loss of a wall of foliage to screen the sun is a high price to pay in the summer months! The exhibit was on the second floor, in the same space were "The Macross Museum" was held a couple of years back. The plethora of statues and so on from many of Kawamori's projects was quite impressive. Not the least of which is the impressively modelled VF-1S that greets visitors! It's extremely detailed! I love the reflections that are somehow perfectly framed in this shot. Alas, not a week after its unveiling, some of the decal-stickers were already starting to peel off of the gun pod! Yours truly providing a nice scaling object. Note the stuff on the red wall in the no photo section of the exhibit proper. More on that later. And the view of the VF-1S from the opposite side of the atrium. On the left side of the VF-1S, there was a TV running shorts from some of the more popular of Kawamori's projects. I'm sure you all recognize the one on screen Behind the VF-1S was an Arcadia VF-1S display. And a signed Strike VF-1S blow-up. And more signings... "Yak Deculture ☆ The Transformation" And some comments and introductory blurbs by and about Kawamori san. To the right of the VF-1S was something from "Nobunaga The Fool" And behind the VF-1S... And that's the end of the sections that one is allowed to take pictures in. I snuck the following pictures from the safe zone for my personal collection, but am including them here in blurred form to help give a sense of what the lions-share of the exhibit entails. The majority of the exhibit is composed of sketches (some fairly complete, some quite rough) and finished designs that Kawamori-san has created for a wide range of shows, movies, games, and commercials. There are also a fair amount of colourized designs and finished pieces of artwork for variety. The exhibit is mixed up with sections devoted to particular shows (ie: Macross Plus), and not by overall series (ie: the Macross related artwork is spread throughout the exhibit, and not all together in one go). There didn't appear to be an order to the distribution of the shows. I'd like to say that it was chronological, but some of his very first designs -one's that predate SDFM- appear in the last third of the exhibit. As the exhibit is more or less on the design process (that meaning of "transformation"), there is a LOT of stuff that I've never seen before. And this is coming from someone who has a fairly extensive collection of Macross related books! If you have the "Kawamori Shoji Design Works" book from quite a few years back, you'll have a general sense of the exhibit. But with an order of magnitude more content. What I found most fascinating, and you can kind of get a sense of it from the image above with the red wall, is Kawamori-san's design process. In many cases (especially with designs that transform in some way), it starts with Lego. Lego that's been modified with (gasp) a knife. There were many examples on display that had not only some of the Lego-branded knobs on the top of the bricks shaved off, but they were also whittled into new shapes. On top of that was anything from folded up card-stock paper, to paper-mâché, to bits and bobs from a sports car plastic models (!), all adhered with Kawamori's second material of choice: clear tape. The third item covered in a plastic dome (in the red wall pict) is the legendary Lego SV-51. On the wall behind that are pictures of the VF-11 Lego transformation. Wow. The exhibit contained quite a few other wow moments, and more than a few surprises. As a fellow artist, one thing that I took away from the exhibit is: Kawamori-san is a prolific artist, who uses a mechanical pencil (HB or some other mid-range lead) on both sides of A4-sized paper sketchbooks (the thickness is close to that of standard copy paper - there were many sketches on display that had been scanned, and the sketches on the reverse of the original were slightly visible in the reproductions). Aside from using the aforementioned Lego based tools in the design process, he doesn't appear to use a ruler or other straightedge! Sadly, some of Kawamori's notable designs from such things as Gundam 0083, the Patlabor movies I & II, and the (1st) Ghost In The Shell movie were missing. Nevertheless, the exhibit covered a greater amount of floor-space than the "Macross The Museum" exhibit, with a heck of a lot more artwork - stemming from most pieces being A4 sized. Alas, the gift shop didn't have very much merchandise related to the exhibit (Macross or otherwise), but the book about the exhibit is priced most excellently (￥1,000, tax included). After the gift-shop, there was a small display in the lounge area, that included the flyers for restaurants in the neighbourhood with "The Henkei" related theme menu items - the items in the display case indicate which theme... And tucked away, next to the elevator is the last piece in the exhibit: The exhibit book does a fairly good job of capturing the essence of the exhibit. With quite a few colour reproductions in the book. The Doulis campaign artwork is a nice thing to add to the collection, but I'm finding the alternative designs for the Aibo quite interesting (and glad to have so much of the artwork that appeared in the exhibit to poor over slowly at my convenience!). And that's not to mention such things as the coloured original VF-25 Super and Armour Pack illustrations (not pictured). There are lots of Kawamori's rough designs that heretofore haven't been published (note the Battroid form of the VB-6 rough). The most surprising was something that he was working in 1980: a girl-doll that transforms into a teddy bear! The book includes Kawamori's comments on each series, and closes out with an expanded interview. All in all, if you like such books as "Kawamori Shoji Design Works" or "Shoji Kawamori Deisng Works", then this exhibit is a great one to visit, and going that extra mile to pick up this book is a great thing to add to your collection. Perhaps the only negatives about the exhibit are the entrance cost (￥700, though no where near outrageous as far as Japanese museums and galleries go, it is still a bit on the pricey side for me), and transportation costs to the museum itself (if you're already in Osaka city, they're not bad. But if you're coming from somewhere beyond (the other side of the Prefecture, elsewhere in Japan, the rest of the world!), they quickly overwhelm the entrance cost - if you know what I mean. So, I'll end on that note: come to the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe area. There are lots of great things to see and do. And eat. "The Henkei" exhibit would be a great addition to any trip here, but it's not quite worthy of a trip here in its own right. Until then, I hope you can live vicariously through my collection of pictures and description here.

http://www.monkeybacon.host-ed.me/MCindex.php There you go. Links with a lot of the content translated into English.

Happy Pluto Day!

Alright, finally worked may way through a major hurdle in my stats website, and it's high time I got back to making fresh translations (the 'updating' past translations project is still firmly on the back burner. First project: "SDF-1 Macross: A Thorough Analysis" - that 1/2400 papercraft book.

It could have been that the main keep took 5 years, and the total restoration project itself took 10.

I was tempted earlier to say something about it, but held back. Now that you've posted that request... Re: the legality of filming other people in Japan: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/01/25/how-tos/its-ok-to-film-people-in-public-in-japan-if-the-conditions-justify-it/#.VZqqO1K8TCE http://naruhodo.jp.net/why-all-cellphones-camera-in-japan-shipped-with-shutter-sound/

Just rewatched the sequences in question - in the OAV he isn't shown bleeding. It's just his long hair (had to watch it twice to confirm, as it's almost a blink-and-you-miss-it moment ).

Re: Himeji Castle restoration: it was a 5 year project. Agreed that Himeji is better, but when it comes to convenience... also, if you have a couple of hours to spare, a walk around Osaka-jo Park is a good way to temporarily escape from the urban jungle.

Character movie explanations to other characters have to be taken with a grain of salt. It's possible that they were deliberately misinformed or are passing along someone else's assumptions (if memory serves, it was the T-800 character giving that explanation - the misinformation possibly coming from Skynet, or the assumption coming from future Conner). I fully agree that in lesser movies the audience has to take what the characters say at face value, and not apply critical thinking to it. In this case, I don't think it's so much a question about T2 being a movie with great writing or not, but if it continues in the "it's a nightmare come to life" theme of the 1st movie. And in that sense, the touch-boot-able-to-copy scene works. The mercury bot torturing Sara doesn't make as much sense in the theatrical (DVD?) cut. It makes a bit more sense in the Criterion (original) cut - which has a bunch of additional cuts that show the T-1000 starting to break down (or not working properly after being turned solid, shattered, and reforming). I think the only part of that that remains in the theatrical cut is copy-Sara's boots in a blink-and-you-miss it double Sara shot. Maybe it was no longer able to make instant copies of victims by that point of the movie?

He *may* have also used a 0.3 mm (or smaller) mechanical pencil on some of the lines. Of all the options, that's probably the easiest to do, and the easiest to clean up if you screw up.

I *think* I caught the last half hour of that on Movie+, and, well, I was expecting something like "Social Network", a car-crash-in-progress-that-you-can't-stop-watching type of film. It was nothing like that. I just felt like I had watched an extended commercial for Apple, and felt quite cheated at that. I found "the '80's" documentary series on the Natgeo Channel far more interesting (historical accuracy being beside the point I'm making) when it came to presenting the founding and fortunes of the company.

Well, they were running out of money, and I've seen a documentary where Arnold and Cameron reminiscing that by the end of filming, it was just Arnold (doing his own wardrobe and makeup) and Cameron (doing everything else). If memory serves, they were talking about the scene were the Terminator punches a car window in in broad daylight in suburbia. So, from that point of view, it does make sense that when they were doing pickup shots, they had next to no money, and they had to make do with next to no funds for the post tanker explosion climax.

Great Mechanics G: Summer 2015 Macross/Kawamori content roundup: Pinpoint Mechanics returns, this time, focused on the VF-1 Armoured Valkyrie. No new pictures (if memory serves, the rough design appeared in Memory Perfect, no?), but the article is followed by an interview with Kawamori-san about the Armoured Valkyries (VF-1, VF-0, VF-25. That is followed by an article/interview about the Hi-Metal R Armoured Valkyrie (interviewees are two staff member from the Bandai Collectors Division). ... and a 1/6 page mini-review of the VF-1S/A Strike/Super Valkyrie being released in mid-July by Hasegawa. Lastly, there's Kawamori-san's column: Listen to Kawamori-san! The topic this time is "The Technology Near Oneself (or myself) and the Changing Era". Comes bundled with a pict from Aquarion (should I mention that there's an article on that in the mag, too?), and closes out with something on "The Transformation - Kawamori Shoji Design Works Exhibition" at the Tezuka Museum. http://tezukaosamu.net/jp/news/n_1673.html (basically all the info in that link, but without the production list).

I've had better luck using Google to search for things in MW than with MW's own search function. Have you tried that route?

Doing a little delving into it - memory serves wasn't quite accurate. It wasn't a camera eye, but a "Hybrid Sensor" (presumably includes a camera). As for a source, one or all of the following: Macross Perfect Memory. Tokyo: Minori Library, Oct. 1984 "Macross Plus Game Edition." Shouji Kawamori. PS1 CD-ROM. Takara, 2000. "VF Evolutionary Theory." Great Mechanics.DX 9. Tokyo: Futabashi Co., Jun. 2009. "Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie." Tokyo: GA Graphic, Aug. 2009 "Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Space Wings." Tokyo: GA Graphic, Dec. 2010 For kicks, google VF forearm hybrid sensor and see what other VFs come up.

The one on the forearm is a camera.

I disagree. I really liked the winks at the camera and the other things that they did that broke down the 4th barrier. In many ways, it also predicted some of the changes to the main series that were later introduced (budget strapped Q-branch, etc.). The director was also one of the better ones for a JB film. That's the problem these days - they're not producing enough of these films, fast enough. Not like the '60's and '70's... what was it, a Bond film every other year?

I think it's more the mentality of "it doesn't exist until it is part of the official setting (aka canon universe)" mentality. The Macross RPG playing community has used AVF technology upgraded VF-11's in their games since before 2000 (real world time). Most of those stats have disappeared, but you may have better luck than I did by searching for the VF-11E, VF-11F, and VF-11G variants.

Ultimately... Avatar is forgettable. Phantom Menace is memorable (our reasons? That's a debate for another topic). 'nuf said. Back to the topic - the helicopter dive bomb in the trailer took me by surprise. Hopefully they'll have more unexpected, imaginative things like that in this movie - and we haven't been shown all the best parts in the trailer!

Doesn't the SR-71 use inlet cones to slow the air to subsonic speeds? Shouldn't there be something similar on the VF-1 in "ramjet" mode? I know Macross always has the "OTEC" get out of physics problems trump card to play, but it still begs the question about the physical constraints stemming on how the VF-1's engines are actually depicted. Compare the lower leg engine sections in these cutaways: http://zarco-macross.wdfiles.com/local--files/wiki:vf-1x/VF1cutaway.gif http://d20macross.site90.net/web_images/vf1guardianschem.gif to the SR-71's engines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird#/media/File:SR71_J58_Engine_Airflow_Patterns.svg

Maybe he's happy that someone finally got around to depicting the time travel device? If memory serves, he wanted to include a scene with it in T2, but had to cut it due to budgetary limits. Nevertheless, the trailer makes the movie look fun, and I think we all can agree that the writers have taken the series in a new direction (and that's not even taking the major plot twist revealed in trailer into consideration!). Maybe that's what J.C. is happy about? A new interpretation and direction?

That 'feature' is right up there with some of the other really bizarre purported abilities described in the Master File books. In short, the legs are semi-deployed and the knee-joint opens up - so that the air flows directly into the lower engine nacelle (the 'hot' part), and bypasses the intake fans that are in the upper part of the leg. So, yeah, it's totally not a ramjet/scramjet engine as they exist in reality, as those fan blades in the hot part of the engine have no place to be packed out of the way...

... and we're back, on a new host. (well, same one... anyhow) Must have hit one of the lower limits or something as they gave me the boot about 4 months earlier than expected... Anyhow, all your favourite Macross Translations and RPG stats, now dripping in groovy monkey bacon drippings! Translations: http://www.monkeybacon.host-ed.me/ RPG Stats & more: http://www.monkeybacon.host-ed.me/Stats/index.php Kudos to George Yamamori for spotting the host's shenanigans.

? We already got one in the game "Macross M3" (the 'final weapon' in this post: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=34229&page=15entry940289 ).