Skull Leader

JBO, there was a Metal Gear in snake eater ("The Shagohod") I believe the time would be right for remakes of the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear: Solid Snake (and may anyone who WANTS to remake "snakes revenge" get firmly kicked in the nads). There is an entire generation of gamers who haven't had exposure to the two original metal gear games, so remakes with the newer graphics engine might be appropriate. maybe throw in a minor plot twist or two just to cement the continuity. With the exception of "snakes revenge" (which isn't even officially in the Kojima storyline), I've yet to play a Metal Gear game I didn't like.

Any report is going to be nebulous at best, but there have been several magazine articles that have declared that they have the means of producing many of the spare parts they need to keep planes in the air. of the original 69 or so they had, I imagine 7-10 are probably still being used, with the rest either as hangar queens or mothballed. I know several of their planes were rendered inactive long before their airframe times were used up. I imagine they're sitting in a Hangar somewhere waiting for parts or just a reason to be re-armed. As of the Iran-Iraq war, the only things they could not produce indiginously were the tires and brakepads they needed for the mainmounts, although I believe since then that has been remedied. Of the total airframes that were sold to Iran, I would predict 20-30 still exist in some repairable form. I SO need to get Osprey's "Iranian Tomcats in Action" book. I'm sure many more details are laid out there.

-Iran -China Both have a great deal of diversity in their aircraft. both in capabilities and abundance. Flankers, Tomcats, MiGs, (other) Sukhois, even Phantoms and Tigers... I'm sure the list goes on. Both air forces are well maintained and armed. In Iran's case, you also have pilots who have been trained by those who were blooded in the Iran/Iraq war... so a degree of ACM experience is being passed down. Also, although to a much lesser degree, I'm sure North Korea has enough airpower to defend it's interests at least over home plate.

I would say the existence of Iran's still-viable airforce would be a wonderful reason for Israel to seek out a new Air-Superiority fighter. They fly a wide variety of aircraft and aren't an air force to be snuffed off. Don't forget... they have Tomcats. They may be A models, and they may be 30 year old airframes, BUT... they've been experimenting with implementing russian technology of different sorts in there to upgrade them (I remember talk of testing some flanker engines in one, but I don't know if that was just a rumor or what... I know they were also seeking a Russian-made equivilent to the AIM-54 Phoenix... they used up all the ones we sold them back in the Iran/Iraq war). What's more, they've learned to manufacture their own spare parts. So long as they have 10-30 flyable airframes (and they may somehow still have more than that, though I imagine most of them are parts-cows now), they're a force to be reckoned with in the air. Then there are the F-5s and F-4s, still used worldwide... I think that's good enough justification. I also agree that Japan should consider altering it's constitution. They've kind of backed themselves into a corner with their current policy on military hardware and troop deployments... although, no one else seems to adhere to any rules regarding national guards... why should Japan? Rulers have been using loopholes in national guard numbers and deployments since Prussia in the french revolution (Napoleon had told Prussia that they could only have 250,000 active-duty soldiers... they countered this by having soldiers spend a mandantory time in active duty and they would then be relegated to the "national guard", which became quite a large force before it was said and done... using their active military as a "training" cadre basically)

They didn't. It's all a vast conspiracy to convince us that armageddon is coming. Now, it all makes sense! All we have to do is prove the Illuminati link, and we're in business! we... I mean they had nothing to do with it *whistles innocently*

The main concern with the F-2 is price. Make no mistake, it's a badass little fighter (although larger than the standard F-16 in almost every way), but for a similar price, the JASDF can buy 2 or maybe 3 F-15Js that can do the job pretty much as well. Really the project had shot itself in the foot before it even got off the ground. The "Defensive" nature of the Japanese self-defense force prevented the F-2 from being able to carry the ordinance it needs to maximize it's potential. Besides their ASM and AAM missiles, they're pretty much restricted to dumb ordinance. They use the same pylons as a standard F-16, so they *could* carry smart ordinance, but they lack the software. To top things off, supposedly (and I can never seem to confirm or deny this) the F-2 cannot refuel in mid-air (again, percieved as an offensive posture, hence it was deleted), but they all seem to have the IRP doors on the spine. I guess you could say the F-2 was in the wrong place at the wrong time. An F-2A or B with a fully realized offensive potential would be a SERIOUS air to ground threat (or even air to air)... Those extra pylons and extra fuel (the wings are much larger and carry much more fuel) provide a wealth of opportunities. Still, the only time it's speed/maneuverability advantages really shine is when the plane is in a "clean" (unloaded) configuration. I believe their final count was at just under 100 planes (approximately 1/3 are As, I believe the rest are Bs) with the 6th squadron at Tsuiki being the last to get theirs in 2004. 3rd Squadron at Misawa received theirs first back in 2000 while 21st Squadron at Matsushima picked theirs up in 2003. (disclaimer: thats IF I remember correctly and if I still understand how to read the tailcodes on JASDF fighters). I don't believe there are any plans to provide F-2s for any more squadrons. Although being that they've paid so much for them, you can bet they'll make as much use of them as they can. As F-1s and F-4Js are phased out, I believe they plan to go with more F-15s If they wind up selling of whatever "still usable" F-4Js they have, some 3rd world country would do well to snap them up... they've been modernized as much as they can I think and are very much still airframes to be respected. Having said that, I'm sure each one of those F-4s have gone WELL past their reccomended flight hours.

I was miffed at this for a while too... now I just think it's funny. Remember when only an "elite few" were allowed to look at his site? Unless I'm very much mistaken there was a time when you even had to have a password or some such nonsense to access his site. All because he was so incredibly scared that someone would steal his precious artwork and use it for themselves (he disabled the rightclick function, failing to realize that anyone with the smarts to use their "printscreen" button, or an updated form of IE could still get the pictures). It's not like his site was some sort of Big West-officially sanctioned website or something, in fact I doubt I could find anything on his site that I couldn't find in one of my sky angels books. Quit trying to get a handle on things man, you're no more special than the rest of us... just because you have a vivid imagination to make stats up and the free time to waste making a website no one can look at. Time to open a window, bud. Yes, it IS his site, and he can feel free to do with it as he pleases, but it's very much against what we, as a unified fanbase, stand for. I would call it a "back room"-politics way of running things, but if he wants to be shady, that's his business.

that's pretty painful... but I must admit the RT.com logo completes the look

ditto on the FFVII nonsense. thinking about the title of this thread: "Macross live action definately do-able" never equate the word "do" with "should" Just because we CAN produce a live action macross doesn't mean we should... we certainly have the technology to produce some visually breathtaking CG scenes. What we lack is the ability to make a decent 2-3 hour storyline out of it (As much as DYRL is my favorite macross, even I admit that a non-fan would be more confused than anything). If you take the Macross storyline as a whole, there are too many key-concepts that have to be elaborated on to be effectively displayed in a standard film to a first-time viewer to fully comprehend what's happening.

Well, I will say I think you've said some pretty dumbass things before, but then we all do. With only minor exceptions I find you pretty easy to get along with (and to hear you talk, people would think you're the only guy on the west coast with a third "leg" and a fetish for doorknobs!) . Besides, if no one disagreed about something here, what fun would the site be? I think we've hit on one of the key reasons why we don't have M7 debates on this board. It's near impossible to keep it civil. Especially when there are newbies arguing about something they know absolutely nothing about.

yeah, too dark to see the VFA-103 birds really ooh well, it was still cool

They're all the same... they just have a different shape (I've seen dreamcast ones, N64 ones, N64 controller ones, etc) they should all have the same games on them.

nevermind.... didn't read all the way before I posted...lol. Nice custom. Did you pull the styro from a trashed Takatoku box? or Get it cut brand new? Al and I have been looking for someone to cut some styro for our custom boxes for a while.

At least that picture finally puts to waste the worry over what color the heatshield was on Max's VF-1S... no motion errors to worry about.. one solid picture just standing there. it's blue. I've known it all along... (I actually looked for this picture a while back so I could show "non-believers", but I never could.)

Holy sh1t... I do.... (Skull Leader, who plays "Ardan Sortek" on TV....)

well, I certainly know who got the better end of THAT deal Thanks for loaning the use of your paypal account, Sze

"The Sword and The Dagger" was the first Battletech novel ever made. Strangely enough it was also the only one of the original novels never reprinted. The author of this book (Ardath Mayhar) has not written any battletech books since, and I can't see any reason (so far at least) for WHY it was discontinued, but I guess you could say it's rarity is predominantly what sends fans after it. The book regularly fetches a price of $50-$75 on ebay, so when we saw it listed from the UK with a BIN of less than $2.50 (US dollar equivilent) I immediately jumped on it. I figured if I didn't enjoy the book (which so far I am), I could turn around and make a profit on it probably if I wanted to. I've always wanted to read it, but the book was only pressed one time... back in 1987. I didn't really get in to battletech until 1990-91, and by that point the book had dissapeared from bookstores, and the joy that was the Internet had not yet fully manifested itself. I'm also looking for things like the "Sorenson's Sabres" suppliment as well as the 1st edition of Mechwarrior. (I have the second)

I have most of the deck plates for the USS Flagg packed away at home. I pulled them out when I first started collecting 1/60s and it seemed that those or 1/72s would be the best fit (of course, this was ages before I got a digital camera). I really suppose it depends on what type of carrier you want to emulate. It would look just about right for 1/48s or 1/55s if you were trying to emulate one of the older Forrestal-class carriers, while it's good for 1/60 and 1/72 for a Kitty Hawk or Nimitz class carrier. That's a rough estimate though.

to my knowledge (and I could be wrong), ROC publishing did not touch any of the early Battletech line. Unfortunately most of my collection resides in a box in my hometown at the moment.. and they're all "newer" books (IE, with the new style logo they've been using ever since the 3050 Technical Readout came out). I've got some printings of most of the books I mentioned previously, I'm looking for the earlier printings (with the older, more military style logo on them, like the one I'm holding) for their cover-art. The Jade Phoenix trillogy is SOOO worth the read! Since so far as I know, it's out of print, you should pick it up when you get the chance. As far as battletech is concerned, anything Robert Thurston and Michael Stackpole touched turned to gold. Those guys didn't know how to write a bad book. Loren A. Colemen and Blaine Pardoe aren't bad either. Anyone else is pretty much hit and miss.

"The Sword and Dagger".. nabbed off of ebay for LESS than $5 US (although it was bought out of the UK, with the help of MW member "Project Phoenix"). The book seems to typically fetch a much higher price. This is the first in my attempts to pick up the first printings of many of the earlier B-tech novels (the "Warrior" trillogy, "the Blood of Kerensky" trillogy, and "The Grey Death Legion" Saga.) THE supposed treasure amongst battletech novels, and in pretty good shape no less! The story is decent so far.

They would probably have a hard time finding judges and jury members (well, the male ones anyway.. and the occasional female) that didn't build some sort of model in their youth... or have family members that did. The law is, I suppose, technically on their side, but this would be one of the worst cases of low-blow entrepeneurship the world has ever seen. Model companies would likely realize that their kits would not be able to sell for their "new" MSRP and collapse all together. The model industry would become VERY select, if not dissapear entirely. Looking at it from the other side... if the companies had a higher say-so in the models being produced, maybe they would be more accurate? Chrono, N/G isn't just out the Tomcat (which they've not received any hard money on in a long time), but ever since the Intruder has gone, and the twilight of the Viking and Prowler is neigh, they're losing just about everything they had staked in the modern carrier deck. All they really have left is the E-2C Hawkeye/Hawkeye 2000... and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Boeing comes out with an E/F-18 or some such nonsense. It kind of goes in cycles... Grumman had a lot of planes on carrier decks during WWII, but they pretty much faded away during the aftermath. It wasn't until the 1960s (with the advent of the A-6A Intruder and the E-2 Hawkeye) that they really became a promient company again. Now they're fading out once more. I'm sure it's only a matter of time until they make a comeback.

I got the RT GBA game just for the SD Max VF-1A figurine that came with it, and I "returned" the game about a week later. Harmony Gold truly IS reaching new heights.. I didn't know one company could fit so much SUCK into a tiny little cartridge!

neither. It was early concept artwork. No official variant or armor pack.

Well, a site existed that contained the entire soundtrack in MP3 format, but it has since been shut down (I was lucky to grab the whole affair before it went under)

Yeah, all it tells is the same story Genette tells in English "When history ("historia") witnesses a great change, Razgriz reveals itself ("revealati sum"). First ("Primo"), as a Dark Demon. As a demon it reigns death upon the land, and then it dies ("Morde"), but after a period of slumber ("Moritum"), Razgriz returns, this time as a great Hero" I'm working on an aftermarket set of "Razgriz" markings for an F-14A (I'll probably throw the different stuff on there for a B also, there not very different), I should have them worked out by the end of February.