1st Border Red Devil

Hehe....need you have asked?

Let me know if you need more pics as I have numerous. Like the Spartas models, the Ajax can be differentiated most easily by trim colouration - orange for enlisted/nco and red for officers. Unlike the Spartas, there appears to be no differentiation that can be discerned at this time between head models.

Ok, the technical specs are as follows (copied from the Rt.com infopedia file): FIGHTER MODE Length: 9.0 m Height: 3.0 m Wingspan: 6.9 m HELICOPTER MODE Length: 9.0 m Height: 3.2 m Wingspan: 6.9 m Rotor diameter: 7.1m BATTLOID MODE Depth: 2.5m Height: 8.9m Breadth: 2.8m Rotor diameter: 7.1m I am making the assumption that people want the Ajax either in Battloid or Fighter mode and not Helicopter (for those that dont know, there IS a difference between the Fighter and Helicopter configurations).

According to some friends of mine over at Zombie Squad pointed out, there was more than one monster. Apparently pics on one of the viral websites linked to the movie show the military fighting one of them offshore. That explains why there was such a rapid response by the Army to these things taking a hunk out of New York. Supposedly, it starts at an oil rig out in the Atlantic. The Navy gets initially involved before calling the Air Force to send F-22s and A-10s. Maybe the sequel will include the story of how exactly these things came to attack New York.

I loved it. I had to laugh my ass off when they showed the douchebags looting the electronics store for hi-def televisions and such. Morons. I LOVED ROAR, the Cloverfield Overture. Definitely great pieces. Never got queasy at all during the movie and I ate popcorn while watching. Probably gonna go see it again tonight after work. And I am definitely thumbs up for a sequel and/or faux television documentary. Perhaps we will luck out and get one on the DVD release like they did for Dawn of the Dead '04. Now all we have to do is wait for Diary of the Dead to get our next TEOTWAWKI documentary-style movie. I will say that this movie simply reinforced my belief in having a Bug Out Bag, specifically one with a couple of flashlights. And, of course, why NOT to live in a big city like Manhattan.

That top one of the Beta in storage is also in Mospeada Colour Grafitti. I'd post a scan of my copy, but I leant it to Palladium last year at Open House.

Kevin personally assured me at Palladium Open House (and again on the Space Station Liberty podcast) that Peter Simon's artwork will not be in the new edition of the Southern Cross sourcebook.

Heh, you got hosed. I spent $35 for it in 1991. And yes, to bitch about $25 for 25 episodes is the height of stupidity. Its already as cheap as it could possibly get. Sheesh.

No, SDF-04. That was from the actual Robotech Tv series. The Sentinels materials indicates the SDF-05 series were the Ikazuchi's, the SDF-06 series were the Garfish and the SDF-07s were the Horizonts.

Yea, it can hold upwards of 750k colonists and presumably enough supplies, vehicles and so forth to have a sustainable colony. I would have lowered the colonists to 250k at the least, considering a long range colony may have to be on its own for the better part of a decade or more (if not cut off altogether) due to the supposed hostile nature of warfare in the post-Tirolian Empire galaxies.

Ok, I recently got The Art of Shadow Chronicles which has a short blurb on the Ark Angel-class Colony Fortresses. They are basically long endurance, heavily armed colony starships. The idea being that the older Angel-class Colony Ships (which used the Spacefold/Reaction Engine Booster of the Neutron-S Missiles) were either underarmed or unarmed totally and some had fallen prey to Space Pirates, Rogue Zentraedi or other menaces. The older ships were therefore deemed unsuitable and their use was discontinued (I'm guessing sometime before the Invid Invasion). Armament x40(?) tri-barreled anti-ship beam cannon turrets x1 Synchro-cannon mounted in the bow ~ 1000(?) fighter mecha (balanced between 3 Battloid Launch Hangars and numerous C/VSTOL bays/landing pads) While it is true that Macross 7 owes as much of its storyline to SDF Macross, which in turn could be said to be inspired by Battlestar Galactica, they are all (in one way or another) basically a retelling of both Homer's The Odyssey and Virgil's The Aeneid. All in all, thats not necessarily a bad thing, but I have this sneaking suspicion that the UES Ark Angel will be leading a colony fleet of humans from Earth (trying to escape both the damaged planet and their REF 'overlords') on a long distance exploration/colonization mission into the galaxy well beyond the periphery of UEEF colonized space. Given that Shadow Chronicles came off as a bad Star Trek episode anyway, I just have this bad feeling that either Shadow Rising or a spin-off anime (maybe a comic book series) will simply be Robotech meets Macross 7. There is nothing wrong with a series telling of colonization, but why the addition of a big Macross-style gun on a freakin colony ship? Why have lots of armaments and mecha? If the galaxy is THAT hostile, a fleet of warships would have to accompany any colonization mission and it would be required to be a one way trip. While its fairly certain tha the Ark Angel-class cannot transform, its still bothersome to me.

Well, wanted to update the page to let everyone know that Troll Lord Games has their 12 Days of Christmas Special Sale still going. For those that don't know of this company, they produce the kick-ass 'd20 Old School' RPG called Castles & Crusades, which includes Gary Gygax's Castle Zagyg setting (Castle Greyhawk in all but name)! I just got my order in today: 2nd Day of X-mas Special - SIX Castle & Crusades adventures. The modules are DB1, DB2, DB3, I1, I2, and I3. Also included is a Free Subscription to The Crusader magazine. 4th Day of X-mas Special - 4 Players Handbooks, 1 Monsters & Treasure, 1 Screen (no Module), 1 Aihrde Setting Folio, U1 Shadows of the Halfling Hall, U2, Fingers of the Forsaken Hand, U3 Verdant Rage and C1 Mortality of Green. Also included is the official Troll Lord Games Coffee Mug for FREE!!! 10th Day of X-mas Special - Castles & Crusades Collector’s Box (White). Also included is a FREE subscription to the Crusader Magazine, an original C&C miniature All total, cost me $150 w/shipping and handling. I absolutely cleaned up this season on RPGs. Haven't done this well since White Wolf had their 666 Halloween Sale (to promote Demon: The Fallen and to end The Old World of Darkness). So get out there and do your part to support this cool company. The 4th Day special is absolutely a STEAL for any potential GM wanting to get up a game to run.

GAH! To quote Achmed the Dead Terrorist 'SILENCE! I KILL YOU!'

Actually, they could conceivably make it part of the Anti-Unification War in the mid-Zero's, to show the fall of the Japanese government before the UEG comes in and 'sanitizes' the situation. It would allow for the whole 'OMG, a motorcycle that transforms' bit, before a coverup occurs. They could retain the original idea of BD Edwards = TR Edwards as planned. But dear God, drop the Mark is a cousin of Rick Hunter. Not everyone in Robotech needs to be related. They would only need to remove the Southern Cross footage, redo the dialogue and alter the placement of some footage. Maybe as a 'cheat' show the footage of the SDF-01 by compiling the battle scenes in space to go at the very end after the credits with a 2009 marker along with the SDF-01. This way you get a Robotech moment.

Ummm.....the sequel to The Hobbit is The Lord of the Rings. How the f&ck can they make a sequel?

Thats probably leftover dialogue from when Robotech The Untold Story was supposed to be set either during The Macross Saga, not long after the SDF-01 disappeared. The move to make it part of the Southern Cross era was really a bad decision, both because the technological disparity between the two and the fact that the footage simply didn't match in any conceivable way.

I thought the damn battle/riot armour helmets from Shadow Chronicles looked vaguely familiar! Its rather similar to the helmets the soldiers guarding the fighter are wearing. I used to have a videotape of MegaZone 23 Part II from way back when I bought The Sentinels on tape (circa 1989) and I remembered thinking this was a cool opening because they used Led Zeppelin for some of the music. BTW, if you look at BD in MegaZone 23 Part I, you can see a somewhat resemblance to TR Edwards (originally called BD Edwards, since it was supposed to be The Untold Story's BD), minus the 'half cowl' and blonde hair the latter is sporting (since that was the original idea of how he got fragged up was at the hands of Mark Landry).

Well, if we're doing 1/72nd, throw me down for another kit.

Ok, several companies have recently slashed prices rather drastically to clear out old stock and so forth, and some are also offering yearly grab bags. so I figured I would pass on some of what I know to others. Fantasy Flight Games is having a sale on a number of items, all priced at a convenient $5. I picked up all 6 of the Blue Planet RPG books myself. Some of you may want to look at the d20 Mechamorphosis book. For those that are Lord of the Rings fans, they have 2 of the expansions for their Lord of the Rings boardgame as well as The Hobbit. Palladium Books is having their annual Christmas Grab Bag sale. You can get more than a few goodies for a mere $32, including some stuff that may be out of print or in low numbers (After the Bomb supplements etc). Kenzer and Company, after it was announced they were not renewing their AD&D license slashed almost all their books involving the HackMaster system by 75%. Most items are about $5 on average. I decided to pick up all the 'Hacked' versions of the classic D&D/AD&D modules I could find and am only missing Quest for the Unknown, Tomb of Unspeakable Horrors and The Temple of Existential Evil. Kenzer also offers a series of HackMaster grab bags in varying price ranges. Eden Studios, of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Angel/Buffy and Witchcraft fame, is having a $5 dollar. Mostly they are clearing out their Angel/Buffy RPG books (I picked up the entire set they had, plus a dented/scratched copy of the Buffy Revised RPG corebook), but they also have some AFMBE, Witchcraft and various d20 products. So far, I've blown almost $300 on RPG sales in the past 2 weeks. So go out there and get some great deals on RPGs!

Actually, considering you are the one to have started this the burden of proof is yours, not mine. You lampooned the idea that a VF-1 could be defeated by an Auroran, starting the chain of argument. Considering you just asked for an opinion, yes I do think the Tristar's are one of the best anime ship designs....

Well, thats not a very convincing counter-argument. Why don't you offer something other than an opinion?

Ummm, all things being equal, an Auroran could defeat a VF-1 in space combat. - They both have vernier thrusters built into portions of the airframe - They both have medium range missiles of the same amount (12), so thats not really an advantage either way. - The Valkyrie has between 1 and 4 lasers plus a 200 round gunpod. - The Auroran has a single barreled rapid fire beam cannon in the nose, a dual barreled beam cannon mounted on its right side/arm and a single barreled beam cannon on its left side/arm. The Auroran can stay in combat longer than the Valkyrie, and since we don't know the actual delta-v capacity of the Auroran, we can only speculate.

I thought it was rather dumb. Sorry, but I've gotten to the age where I cannot simply suspend disbelief when it comes to the kinds of arms/armour and other accoutrements (not to mention architecture) that movie makers routinely crap all over. The fact none of the Geats are wearing anything to protect their extremities from the climate was among the most patently absurd things I had seen in a long time. This is not Conan the Barbarrian and Beowulf was very much a human, however much he was the 5th/6th Century Anglo-Saxon Warrior personified. Heorot looked like a Roman ruin, which is rather absurd as it was supposed to be the typical period timbered hall. Ah well...

$350 isnt out of my price range, so its fine with me.

Actually, its more like Kevin wants more attention paid to Southern Cross so as to make it more profitable. He seemed genuinely intrigued at Palladium Open House by all the Southern Cross artwork I leant him for use in the game. There were some items he had never seen before and had only become aware to those of us in the fan community relatively recently (such as the Cities Defense Unit's Unicorn Battloid). I'm a pretty big Castles & Crusades fan myself. I think its an elegant system that takes the middle ground between AD&D 1stt/2nd Edition and D&D 3.X (D20), combining the best aspects of both. Its also pretty fun to play as I discovered at NecronomiCon last month. I ran a Gnome Illusionist in Shadows of the Halfling Hall (shoulda listened to that little voice in my head that said I should play an Elven Druid, damnit!) and had a blast. Actually, its not really going to be a reissue as supposedly a total revamp. Alot of missing stuff (should) get catalogued. Although I hardly consider myself a fan, even the Macross era books will likely have stuff that didn't get in the last time, like the VEFR-1 or VF-X-4 and maybe all the 'Movie Meltran' ships that appeared in Force of Arms.