Skull Leader

You do realize that pointing out the obvious in a condescending manner while failing to answer the fundamental question destroys your intellectual credibility, right?

Gubaba and Azrael have done a lot more in clarifying the question. In summary: because it's based (wholesale copied?) on a 1984 Doujinshi that wasn't considered canon and despite having Kawamori-san's approval, it shouldn't be taken as canon at face value.

yeah, well... acting like a know-it-all and determining for everyone else what is canon and what is not doesn't help your disposition either, slugger. Only two parties have the right to determine what is canon and what is not. Those are Shoji Kawamori and Big West.... and you, my little bottle of sunshine, are NEITHER.

[edit:] Ok, to a lesser degree, Studio Nue has some say-so as well.

The bottom line is this: People have brought this book to us because no one else saw the need to. It's perfect for fans in almost every way and covers details that any aircraft enthusiast would readily want to know about their favorite jet. WHO CARES if it's canon or not? Big West hasn't shown any interest in releasing an "official" guide to refute it, and no one's forcing you to buy the book. Project Phoenix has gone through the trouble of donating his time to go through and translate some of what this book says (for those of us who speak very little japanese and read a damned sight less of it). Instead of shooting the messenger like you have, Sketchley, you could at least thank him for donating his time.

-Jeremy

(who can't believe he logged in just to jump into an internet argument)

I am surprised at how many want the macrossII valk.

Umm, why?

Canopies are over-rated.

"Right Now, the Tomcat does not currently come with a rag-top"

The mods have been at this for a while... I trust their judgement. (going back to lurking mode)

I'll drink to that. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of my DS, and 90% of it was from playing old-school SNES stuff.

Definately best experienced in subbed japanese. The american voice actors need to be lined up and shot.

I'm impressed. Can't wait to see more!

Started playing FF12 finally. Its pretty good.....spent 1s hour watching cinematic....then walk around no fighting....zzzz....then fight abit....cinematic....fight abit more story...not too bad.

About Vaan....zomg....he's freakin gay lookin....his character reminds me of Disney's Aladdin. Heck he's even a "street rat" sorta character.

And princess ashe....wtf...she going clubbing or going around killing baddies? Everyone wants to wear full plated body armor but she goes on and wear that sad excuse for a pink skirt.....metal underwear beneath?

... you question the short skirt? NEVER question the short skirt

My local best buy had 3 60gb units on-shelf yesterday. They're getting more in sooner than they thought, evidently.

Su-30MKI?

Yes, the Indian Air Force version of the Su-30. One of the few aircraft the USAF/USN respects enough to fear.

Also, the only Su-37 in existence ceased being a 37 (it was converted back to Su-35 standards) before it crashed.

I honestly don't see why Macross "needs" to continue. If Kawamori gives us one final bang-up movie, OVA, or series to wrap things up, I'd be quite happy.

It's a rare moment when I agree with something Keith says, but this is one of those times. I don't see that there's really any need to tell any further story. If there were to be something else, I'd want it to be the end-all-be-all finale to leave Macross fans laying sweaty in bed smoking cigarettes (or so good your NEIGHBORS need a cigarette). I could be perfectly happy knowing nothing else macross related was going to be made though. It's made it's impact... it's had it's time in the sun, and bowing out while it's still on top of the game could very much be a good thing.

I disagree on the concept of new blood being a bad thing for Macross though. Fresh ideas could be a very good thing for the series if they were employed in the proper way. "AU garbage" is hardly a guaranteed end-result from new writers.

Development began in the late 1970s. Maiden flight was in 1980 or 1981 I believe

F-117's days numbered? With the F-117 celebrating 25 years of flight and service this year, it sounds like the F-117's responsibilities will be handed off to the Raptor and i would also guess the Lightning II. Has anyone heard on an exact date or time frame for the Nighthawk's retirement?

They've already begun phasing them out. I spoke with a "stinkbug" pilot at Nellis this past weekend, he says they're looking at sending their last ones "to the hangar" (these won't be stored at Davis-Monthan, at least not outside) by the end of next year or early 2008. Those frames they've already retired this year (about 10 I think is what he said) will stay at Holloman as parts cows until the rest are retired.

This is already doccumented (in english, WITH pictures) in the "games" section of Macrossworld

Rumors are true. The Key West det of the VFC-12 "Fighting Omars" is standing up as their own squadron, VFC-111 "Sundowners". The sunburst on F-5 tails? I guess we'll see!

I picked up on the star-wars similarities pretty quickly (you forgot to mention the presence of a "cloud-city", lol) I agree though, it's not over done.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this one so far... they even have the presence of mind to tell you when you're saving that it may be a bit before you get back to a free-roaming time again, which is good to save on a second slot (until you complete that section)

LOL, to be fair, blitz-ball was one of the few things I actually enjoyed about FFX (you know it's bad when you play FFX more for the blitz ball than just about anything else)

yeah, the squadron is the VF-103 Jolly Rogers (Now VFA-103 since they converted to the Super Hornet).

That picture was taken on their 2003 mediterranian cruise, I believe the two MiG-21s are croatian, but I cannot remember for certain.

Geez. I can't help but think that someone in the DoD just has it out for naval aviation, or at least it's traditions. Either that or someone really hates the Super Hornet and wants to make sure it's always going to look worse than the Tomcat.

give it a few years and all those regs will be reduced or withdrawn completely. A guy I know who was in VF-84 when they transitioned from F-4Ns to F-14s told me they had some restrictions in place about what they could and could not paint on also. An example of this was the fact that originally, all squadrons had to paint their jets control surfaces white... however by the time VF-84 transitioned, they were already starting to ease up on that (hence the all-black tails) he went on to say that by the very late 1970s, those regs were already being turned a blind eye to, which is, I believe why the white dissapeared from gull grey paintschemes all together. It happened again in the very early 1980s when they began to make the switch to low-visability paintschemes. There was a year or two in there where NO color-birds were allowed in the squadron, this was, of course eventually backed off of.

I guess it's just a cycle!

I suggest you set a gambit for one character to steal from an enemy when that enemy is at 100% HP, that way that character will steal from the enemy then the other characters will deal damage to it thus ending that gambit for the stealer. You will build up a lot of drops and hence money this way.

... that's a good idea! Never thought about that one...

that is one huge mother#$cker....

Well, i'm just about 10 levels in now, and not really liking the License Board. I spend way too much time staring at it instead of playing the game. The only clear choice I've made at this point is not to put points into any weapons or armor until I have them or can buy them. I haven't put a single point into magic yet, and I haven't needed it. Between Fran's Cure, Balth's First Aid, and the never ending stream of Potions, I've done just fine. I end up sitting on chunks of LP for long stretches of time because I just don't know what to do with it. I really miss well defined characters.

I don't think there's been a really "set and defined" character in FF since FFIV. Starting with FFV, some or most abilities are entirely interchangable between characters. (FFVI tried to fight this by giving each character specific unique abilities, but all of the characters (except for Umaro) could still carry ALL of the espers and learn ALL of the magic... by the time I reached Kefka for the final battle, I had literally every character slinging "Ultima" like it was cheap magic... this totally broke the game, as the fight was over in no time)

Ever since, it's been up to the player to define the character roles. I guess that could either be a good or bad thing. I choose to look at it in a good light, because I think it provides a great degree of flexibility and a considerable amount of replay value. However I can also somewhat see Duke's point, it does kind of homogenize the characters (unless you set your own goal to keep each character with certain capabilities only). It also takes away some of the challenge. In this particular case, beyond the fact that some characters come and go, play-wise there is nothing to distinguish one from another (MAYBE that they start with different stuff on their license board...). I can see it being a small sticking point to some, it doesn't really bother me though.

Hey speaking of VX-9, does anyone know if/when we'll be seeing an all black Vandy 1? Seems strange one hasn't appeared yet. Strange that we haven't yet to see any signs of a VFA-31 Super Hornet too.

Surprisingly, I had a chance to talk to the XO of VX-9 during the Black Lions Bash/Key West night at the O-club on that thursday. I asked him the very same question. He mentioned that a few of the higher ups would like to see another all-black jet, but evidently those with the power of "yes/no" were not in favor of it. They were also very upset to see that the Vandy-one F-14D (now a gate guard there at Oceana) was repainted from it's all black paintscheme. (When it was first set on display, it wore VF-143 Pukin dogs markings, now it bears VF-31 markings on one side and VFA-211 markings on the other)

VFA-31 Superhornets already exist in the form of VFA-22's F/A-18Es. They're getting 22s E models while VFA-22 is transitioning to F/A-18F models. Myself and two friends are going out to Nellis AFB for the airshow next week, and one of those friends is taking a side-flight to NAS Lemoore to see if any of 22's F models have been delivered yet or if any of 22's E models have already been repainted in VFA-31 colors. (I don't believe the squadron has been officially re-designated yet though)

I was looking for you in the show last night. Do you remember seeing any camera guys or crew from the History Channel there? It was a good show. Still hard to believe that the Tomcat is gone. The last of Grumman's US Navy "cats" is now history. Also hard to believe that it was 20 years ago in late October 1986 that I went and saw Top Gun twice during that week!

LOL, got your phone message, I was actually out with my buddy in the USAF at McConnell AFB skulking about the flightline... a pair of VFA-32 Super Hornets stopped in for fuel and dinner (we took them out to eat some local BBQ). It sucked that I didn't have my camera with me!

There were a ton of camera guys there at Oceana... I'm not sure I could pick out any one specifically from the History Channel though. Most of them were up on top of the hangars. During the ceremony itself, while most of the talking was done, I was standing almost directly behind the band. (which, in turn, was almost directly behind the static F-14 with all the weaponry arrayed around it. I loved this because I was well forward of the crowd line, and no one seemed inclined to tell me to move.

During the warm-up of Bandwagon 102, I was sitting underneath the nose of the new VFA-213 Black Lions Super hornet. After the taxi-out, I moved out next to the rear of the VX-9 Super Hornet. This is where I stayed during the flyby.

Since I already have the "Modern Marvels" on DVD and I was actually there for the sunset, I saw no need to watch this one. It is definately worth watching if you've never seen it though!

"since the days of the harrier"? It's still in prominent use today, lol.