Skull Leader

Not necessarily so. Rumor has been around for a bit that they've pulled at least one of the prototypes (or both? I can't remember) back out for more testing, possibly in a strike fighter/bomber role. I can't seem to find anything in print on the 'net about it, but given that David is the YF-23 Super-fan, if anyone knows where to find it, it's him (outside of Tomcats, Viper Zeros, and Su-22s, I'm out of my area of diehard interest)

I must be the only X-men fan in the world that really enjoyed this movie. You guys are starting to have me convinced that I somehow have terrible taste in film or something. (then again, the list of "accepted" films worthy of praise on this site reminds me again why I don't pay any attention to you guys when it comes to finding movies worth watching) Did it have it's flaws? Of course it did. Could they have done a lot more with the storyline? Surely, the same could be said of pretty much every book/comic-to-movie franchise. Nevertheless I thought they did a pretty good job considering the script they were handed. Further to the point, Comic-dynamics 101 pretty much mandates that no death is ever permanent. Every X-men character on the roster has died more than once during the series' run. That's the beauty of being a comic book fan. Even if your favorite character goes down in a blaze of glory (or in some cases, an incredibly cheap metaphorical shot to the back), you can expect that said-character will probably be back within the next 10 issues. This rule isn't concrete of course, but that's really how it is in the marvel universe. If there *is* an X-men 4 (and the title is licensed, I believe), you can bet the family farm that anyone who died will probably return... and those who have seen X3 have every reason to believe this is a possibility. I do wish they'd spend more time wrapping up storylines than introducing new ones (say, had they stuck with the "days of future past" storyline for the second movie, instead of going into Wolverine Issue #50) Things *I* enjoyed: -the brief cameo of a Sentinel robot -More screentime (however brief) of Colossus and the use of the "fastball special" -Iceman finally "icing up" -"I'm the Juggernaut, bich!" (google it. It was a reference/homage to a web-comic done about the Juggernaut) -a REALLY naked Rebecca Romjin

I don't understand what people's beef is. Raiden moved in the same way, used the same items, and pretty much performed the same as Snake did in the first chapter. If you don't like the dialogue, switch it to Japanese and use the subtitles.

Something tells me there's a lot more to that scene than what we've been shown. I find it difficult to believe that Snake would just commit suicide right there in the middle of town

You're wasting everyone's time. Obviously you don't like the series so you really have no reason to be in on this thread.

I don't see any confusion. I only see what will be a kickass conclusion to an excellent series. Maybe this new re-invented Raiden will be more acceptable to the masses (I thought he was just fine the first time)

If, by that, you mean the lantirn pod, it's worth noting that The F-14 wasn't the only aircraft to receive this upgrade. Both the F-16 and the F-15E (long considered ground-attack mainstays) also got this...

Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar. My old F-22pro/TQS combo finally gave up the ghost so I figured it was time to upgrade. And speaking of doing a good VFA-103 re-paint, does anyone know what the Navair rules are for where you can put tailcodes on the horizontal stabs? I know you can't put them on the rudders but are there any other restrictions? I'd like to try and paint something that's as close as possible to something that could actually fly. 398711[/snapback] The going rule so far that NAVAIR has mandated is that tailcodes are to be aft of the formation light. A number of squadrons (103 included) are pushing to get the rule changed so they can put their tailcodes on the INSIDE of the tails (like many tomcat squadrons had them). What one of the pilots was telling me was that once they go to sea, there's really not anything the high command can do about their paintjobs. So if there are any changes they want to make, it'll probably happen then (Mango mentioned that 103 had plans to paint the tails of the linejets Euro I grey like they had on their Tomcats as soon as they leave port.)

It's not that bad. It's not a Tomcat by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still an impressive aircraft. (here's a pic I shot at the the Ft. Smith airshow... me and some of my friends took the crew out to dinner... I got the WSO's number, she's cute!

We've had a guy track the tail (I tried to when the story first went public... of the 4 airframes I *thought* it might be from, it turned out to be from none of those, someone else had the skinny on it). It was from an VF-101 F-14A that crashed off of Key West back in 2002. It's been on one hell of a journey.

Why does Mr Katoki want to mess with the MSV Sniper design the original design was cooler 398267[/snapback] This design FAILS.

Shhh... you're shattering the foundations of popular belief!!!

But a fantastic piece of fiction it is, regardless of what Brown or anyone else says. I don't believe a lick of it (this from someone who has his eye on becoming a mason someday if God wills it). But it's fun as hell to read about and enjoy! (I liked both DaVinci and the prequel, Angels and Demons). Looking forward to the movie in a couple of weeks!

I guess its an age thing. Those of us who saw them in the theaters, who grew up knowing them one way, want to be able to see them that way again. For us, the SE films detract from the experience, not add to it. 398027[/snapback] I beg to differ. The only one I didn't see in the theaters was ANH. I still prefer the new DVD versions.

I'm rather fond of them, but then... I'm like that with most swing-wing designs

You're fired.

I agree. Admittedly though, we pay them to be in movies, not spout about religion, politics, or anything else (that said, I rarely notice when an actor/actress steps up and says something not movie-related. I just ignore it)

Why not? At slow speeds it's got those wings stuck way out there to catch more lift, single, centerline-mounted engine, just like the F-16... probably has a pretty similar roll rate. In fact, I think I'd rather have the MiG than the F-16 in a turning fight. Pretty much ALL of Mikoyan's jets are reknowned as superior turning fighters, and the MiG-23 has a lot of power behind it in the engine to quickly recover lost energy. (David, you're usually better at analyzing stuff like this than I am, wanna jump in here?) I'm not saying Falcon 4.0 isn't flawed somehow, but rather that in real life, a Flogger vs. Viper encounter at knife range would definately not be a walk in the park. But then, I'm nothing more than an armchair pilot... so my thesis could very easily sink

That is incorrect. Studio Nue had no involvement with Macross II. http://macross.anime.net/fallacies/index.html 397718[/snapback] My bad, meant Big West.

I could easily see a MiG-23 keeping up with an F-16. Early F-16s(A and B models) can only just barely clear Mach 2 in a dead sprint descending (with no loadout), and the heavier later models I believe are only good to about 1.9 mach, while the MiG-23 can punch up to something like Mach 2.3 in a similar configuration (Russian engines are known for their raw, unadulterated power... especially that Soyuz R-35-300) As a side note, I recently "found" a copy of Falcon 4.0 AF and I'm still learning to fly. I just recently got to where I can bring the plane back to the ground in one piece... I'm a long way from learning to use the radar or anything like that, much less flying into combat.

Arcade joypad is an oxymoron, unless you're playing on a Nintendo Super System cabinet. But I AM baffled as to how you can get any reasonable reaction time out of an analog flight stick. Arcade games tend to assume you have a digital joystick, and a rather tight one at that. But then, I'm baffled as to how anyone can think a gamepad is a better weapon than a joystick too. 396929[/snapback] I guess it just depends on the game?

Wow. I really liked this movie. I was pretty happy about that. At that point we already saw them get out pretty tight spaces within buildings that I didn't really want to see another similar sequence... they literally just cut to the chase. 397652[/snapback] I hadn't thought about it like that... I guess the object in question was such a high-point in the movie I figured "getting it" would justify more space on the movie reel. Ah well, as I said I still enjoyed it a lot!

To further add on to what JB0 said, Macross II is not considered part of the "canon" Macross universe because Shoji Kawamorii didn't write it. It was written by someone else and produced by Studio Nue. As another example, about half of the Gundam series out there are not part of the canon Gundam universe (only those featured in the "Universal Century" timeline are): Gundam X Gundam Wing Gundam SEED G Gundam G Savior and so on are all considered non-canon.

saw it this afternoon with the girlfriend. Most enjoyable! Not every movie has to be perfectly "down to earth" with stuff... I think a lot of people are forgetting to suspend their belief of the real world when they watch a film like this. Bonuses: -Hot chicks everywhere. Sometimes with guns. -Cool use of an armed (computer generated) Predator UAV drone -Tom Cruise doing high-level calculus on a window with a grease pencil while holding a casual conversation -Philip Seymour Hoffman as the calmest badguy to ever almost get thrown out of an airplane Question and spoiler.... . . . . . . Did anyone else think it was a giant cop-out that one moment, Ethan (Cruise) was swinging/jumping to the building to get the "rabbit's foot" and the next thing you know "hey I've got it, here I come" (so to speak)... that was the only scene that really drew my ire, and I still didn't mind it so much.

the short track answer to the question is this: If the UN Spacy MINDED pilots having unconventional hairstyles and colors, would Max Jenius have it? probably not.