The Nighthawk

I am so sorely tempted to buy a TV Kaki. I have just enough, but it means I can only spend about $20 on this "last hurrah" weekend before my work gets crazy-busy...

Since the sale appears to still be going, I just bit the bullet and ordered the Kakizaki Super Skull. LOVE that color scheme; I've been wanting one in 1/48 but this is even better!

Man, you won't be disappointed. I think it's easily the best VF-1 in my whole collection; I still have 5 of the original V1(?) planes, 2 1/48's and a 1/100 Toynami. This blows the V1's away! I've been leery of buying a V2 due to the shoulder issue, but this was one I couldn't pass up. I am SO happy with it! Took me 2 days of playing with it before I did my usual ritualistic application of the stickers. Same with the Gamlin. Man, the 22 is one sweet plane! And speaking of stickers, does anyone know of someone offering actual stickers for the OD Tomahawk? Mine only came with waterslide decals, which I just can't stand putting on toys I play with. I don't know if they ever included stickers with the Destroids or not. *Edit--Does anyone know how the shoulders are on the Grey Goggle Hikaru J? Being a late 2010 release I would assume it's safe, but I'd like to know from someone who has one.

Same here. Ordered, acknowledged 3/14, received 3/21.

Just got my order today, EMS is FAST!! I totally LOVE all my stuff. The TV Max is awesome sauce!

I can understand this. Maybe it's selfish justification but I see it as putting some extra money into their economy during a tough time.

Thanks to Uncle Sam's refund I'm picking up Gamlin, the Max TV A and the weathered Tomahawk (been wanting a Tomahawk so freakin' bad!). It eats my ACEN budget but it's more than I could have afforded there anyway, assuming of course I could even find half this stuff....

I'd go for a highly-detailed and articulated Glaug, with a Kamjin figure, in a heartbeat and shell out $150 for it in 1/60 scale. Regults, I wouldn't be so keen on unless they were cheap enough that I could army-build.

Well that bites. Dooku's saber is the only one I really wanted....

My group would be UN Marine Squadron VMFA-6023, the "Outlaws". Plane markings vary according to assignment; usually they would use the different "Low Viz" and "Stealth" color schemes such as Yamato has produced, depending on the main environment where they're fighting. All fighters in the squadron have black-painted heads regardless of the primary camo scheme (to represent the "Black Hats" worn by villains in the classic Westerns). Their insignia is a waist-up black silhouette of a gunfighter, with red eyes, and silver guns in hand crossed over the chest, all inside a dark purple circle. Essentially these guys are an elite UN Marine group who do everything from aerial interception, to scouting out jungle targets for precision strike, to street-fighting in frontier cities, to clearing damaged alien ships of surviving enemies. They're trained in Special Ops, Destroid piloting, and multi-environment survival and are just as dangerous on the ground as they are in a Valkyrie.

Is there any news about a 1/60 YF-21? I've seen a couple people mention such a thing but can find no solid info. Is this something that's actually confirmed to be in the works, just a speculation, what? 'Cuz I'd sure love a larger-scale version with better tooling than the floppy 1/72 FP mess I have now. A 1/60 VF-11 would be nice too (seems to be a good scale for standardization). And has Yamato ever, or are they ever going to, acquire the Macross 7 license? I really, really need a 1/60 VF-17.

I have a Revoltech Griffon, and frankly, I don't care if these don't TF--Revoltech is an awesome line! I hope for a YF-21 and a repaint as Gamlin's VF-22....

I only have 2, the Roy 1S and Hikaru 1A, both opened, stickered, transformed regularly, and proudly displayed; Roy is in Battroid with Strike Packs and Hikaru is currently in Fighter with FPs.

I'm betting it wouldn't be too hard to mod a 1/60 YF-19 into a VF-19P. Much easier than, say, converting to a M7 VF-19S.

Here's a thought: What if something like the Anti-UN, but on a galactic scale, existed? Perhaps recruiting disgruntled Zentraedi, ex-UN soldiers, and other alien races to their cause, like the Confederacy in the Star Wars prequels? There's plenty of potential for variable fighter combat, new designs, re-tooling of old designs, a little something for everyone. And what if, in the end, they turn out to be the good guys?

It's built into the gunpod. I would assume it's a spring-loaded winching system not unlike the cordons some places use, where you stretch from one post and it clips into another.

Well, the VF-17D seems to have them as well; Gamlin uses some kind of small manipulator in M7 (can't recall the ep#, I believe it's 13 or 14?) to grab a fragment left behind from City 7 after the Protodeviln hijack it. I'd guess they were built-in somewhere, though exactly where I'm not sure.

Thank you kindly Time for me to get back into it and keep up methinks!

Man, the things I miss after being away for a few months. In order to save myself the pain of 41 pages of commentary, can someone lay it all out for me what's going on? Please? I understand M7 and M+ are being remastered and re-released, does that mean better subs on M7 as well? And what's the new series?

Myth: Lynn Kyle is a douchebag. Fact: Wait. Actually, he IS a douchebag. My bad.

Well the Zero is okay... but what I really, REALLY want is the SV-51!!

Sounds like a pretty stupid game... I lived it, why play it? Yet another Rockstar game I won't be wasting money on. *goes back to playing Zelda*

Dangerous it may be, but one of the big problems with the space program is its big fat public profile. Back in the late 40s and through much of the Cold War we killed untold dozens of test pilots trying out rocket planes, VTOLs, lifting bodies, what have you. Sometimes planes were having static engine tests on the ground and just blew up, killing the people working on them. But no one made a big stink about it and there wasn't this public outcry we see when NASA has a boo-boo, partially because there's a different perception in the public when it comes to the space program. The public expects it to be better, to be safe, to be perfect every time. When it isn't, the media jumps on it and people on both sides of the aisle start going "Harrumph" and moaning about what a waste it is, and the public, being sheep for the most part, play along. I guess what bugs me is, when 1,000 people die wearing Army uniforms, there's a bit of an outcry but a lot of people just say, "Oh well, that's war, they signed up, and that's just what happens." Seven people in NASA jumpsuits die, and it's like the entire program should be scrapped. They volunteered too. They knew the risks involved and faced those risks bravely. And that fact they did it in the name of science and humanity, in a peaceful mission, I think, means more than getting car-bombed in a pointless battle over oil and petty revenge. Not saying the sacrifice of our soldiers isn't noble, just that it's ultimately pointless and we have better things we could be doing.

Actually the idea of a US-built Energia isn't a bad one. In fact, we could build a second-generation Shuttle using the same general size and airframe design, but simplified by eliminating the main engines and using the Energia and its side boosters to provide all the thrust--that's exactly what the Russians did with Buran (which also had conventional jet engines for controlled atmospheric flight, rather than a controlled fall/glide... they did design the thing partially to be a bomber, cuz that's what they thought the Shuttle was at the time). Results: Weight savings for missions that require a heavier payload, or, extra fuel for orbital maneuvering on maintenance/repair/recovery missions. Could even use that weight and space savings for more powerful orbital maneuvering engines, allowing for greater orbital altitude. As for the reentry problem, I believe that problem has been licked. Just slow down enough before you enter the atmosphere and you won't build up the heat. Works for Rutan.

You must be Bush voter. And since I'm a Democrat I have no choice but to take it as a shot across the bow. There are plenty of bean counters on the Republican side of things too, my friend. Remember back in '94 when the GOP took over the House on the platform of a balanced budget? How they forced welfare reform down our throats, and now millions are either unemployed or underemployed? (yes I know they say unemployment is down BUT-since you only get unemployment for 5 years max, once you drop out of the system you're no longer counted, and that skews the numbers.) Yes, we want to feed the poor, yes we want to take care of our planet because it's our HOME and it's the only one we have. And yeah, I even want some kind of universal health care. But you can't blame this stuff only on why the Shuttle program is in shreds, and the space program along with it. Money IS still an obstacle, because despite your rather childish description of how procurement works, there's still a whole huge process involved in making the federal budget work. Who gets what, who does without, and who has to do the same job with less or no money. Right now there's a big fat energy bill being passed that hands billions to big oil, nuclear power, and some of the world's worst polluters, that will have NO effect on gas prices or our dependence on foreign oil. Our only real solution is alternative energy and we're abandoning it because YOUR bean counters need their kickbacks from their wealthy and powerful friends at the tops of these companies. If you want NASA to be effective they have to be funded properly. And despite this president's big ideas about the Moon and Mars, that funding still ain't there. Since YOUR boys on the right wing are in firm control of all three branches of the federal government right now, maybe you should ask them why???