F-ZeroOne

Most UK fans would probably agree that the VHS release of Gunbuster is in fact better than the DVD release - partly because no effort appears to have been made at all, and partly because the bath scene was was edited in such an unsubtle manner they'd have been better off using a rusty nail scratched across the masters...

Those of you who have, um, "issues" with the Yamato Milia rendtion might be interested to know that they're planning, er, certain features to be available in variable sizes... 

Cool, variable asses!

Actually, the variable features I have in - cough - mind are more "up-front"...

Hey, maybe someone can try to customize the Kicker figure into a valkyrie pilot.  Wish I have the skills.

Not a bad idea. I think it would make a great plug-suit Shinji custom (Evangelion) too.

Takara did "blank" Microman figures as a Japanese Toys "R" Us exclusive a little while back. Apparently they sold out really fast, so they might be quite difficult to track down, though.

I believe there is going to be a female "blank" Microman ( -woman? - ette?! ) release later this year. Those of you who have, um, "issues" with the Yamato Milia rendtion might be interested to know that they're planning, er, certain features to be available in variable sizes...

One aspect I'd be interested to see explored is how much of an effect the Transformers version - the famous Jetfire - had in helping create a following for the 1/55 in non-Asian territories. I was first astounded and then greatly amused to find out that the Transformer I always wanted actually originated from somewhere else, but I grew up in a time and place where original 1/55s were not easy to find, and I wonder if the 1/55 is as popular as it is because of Jetfire, purely because of the Macross connection, because it was more easily available in the US, because its simply such a classic, or a combination of those factors... (I suspect the last one, but... )

Actually, I think the RX-78 is like a samurai. It has a samurai style head, plus the two swords (beam sabers) thing going on.

Anyway, I've watched all the UC Gundam stuff years and years ago, except for ZZ, which I gave up on half way through.

My favorites are 0080, 08MST, CCA and V. I don't actually like 0083 much as I find Kou and Nina too whiney and annoying. I also find Z to by very over-rated.

Even though 08MST is more realistic than most, I still hate that they are taking these bright white, red and blue robots into jungle and desert combat. Talk about standing out like a sore thumb. At least the Zions had the sense to paint their Zaks green

Graham

The show Tomino worked on previously to Gundam was Zanbot 3 which has a very samurai-like design ( it was also a combiner, with elements similar to the combined Gundam from the TV series - something largely excised from the movies).

Funnily enough, Tomino also doomed one of the biggest toy companies in Japan by changing the Gundam design after Clover produced toys based on early Gundam designs...

Its possible to argue that as as Gundam centres around close combat, camoflauge isn't quite so important - perhaps W.W.I style dogfights were more of an inspiration than Vietnam style conflicts?

However, having seen the "mecha & realism" arguement go around various newsgroups and forums for years, I think the only way you can really rationale any giant combat robot is:

Because it looks cool. [1]

[1] Up until a couple years ago, much as I loved mecha, I never believed there would be a practical piloted model. Recent developments by Sony and Honda have convinced me otherwise, but I still have yet to see any completely convincing argument as regards combat suitability...

I mean come on, real dinosaurs maybe pea-brained, but robot dinosaurs can be smart with adequate hardware and programming - and yet he made the Dinobots stoopid. Tell me what does an astute leader do with a subordinate like Wheeljack and the comrades who helped him build the Dinobots?

Can it just be pointed out - again! - that Grimlock was only dumb in the US version and the TV series. In the UK Transformers stories, Grimlock was pretty damn smart; in fact, he even answered the letters page, including letters asking why he was stupid in some comic stories but smart in others...

I believe Simon Furman, who scripted some of the best UK Transformers stories, has kept Grimlock intelligent in the recent Dreamwave comics as well...

Wild shot in the dark - is it Optimus Prime? I seem to remember one of his many incarnations was a small car robot type...

So, do I have the touch or am I merely touched?

Its taken me three seperate viewings of Evangelion in order to come to an accomodation with it. Everyone has their own opinion on it; I've seen lots of people who love it and I can understand why; on the other hand I once heard someone completely demolish the series with their criticism and I could agree with a large part of what they said.

More than perhaps any other anime, what you think of Evangelion depends on you. However, while I'm not entirely in the "like" camp and not entirely in the "hate" camp, I do think its a classic anime. Very few anime have had the impact Evanegelion has; perhaps one or two a decade. I haven't seen anything quite like it since I first saw it, despite many attempts by others to emulate it.

One thing I do find odd is how rarely I see Evangelion regarded for its mecha show elements - my personal opinion is that Hideki Anno completely deconstructed the mecha show with Evangelion, to an extent thats made it very hard to get away with the old formula since - though someone had a very good try with Gundam SEED...

The dual-400 mm howitzer stat is also at http://macrossmilcomnet.net/sdf1.htm But I don't know where they get their info.

400 mm howitzers are awfully big for AA purposes.

It could be that someone got a bit mixed up and meant "40mm" originally ( or they just scaled up from that ); the 40mm Bofors was pretty much the standard Allied naval AA gun and was also used by the Germans as well.

Alternatively, I guess it depends if you class a Zentraedi vessel as an "aircraft"...

Or it may even be a tribute to the absolute biggest AA guns of all time, which were the 18-inch guns mounted on the Yamato and Musashi...! ( really - an anti-aircraft round was designed for use in these guns, but it never worked very well and I believe the Musashi was actually damaged by its own shells when test-firing...! )

Uh oh:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3520636.stm

The chances of anything coming from Mars were a million to one... he saiiiddddddd!

Hmm.

I love War of the Worlds, the book - I like to think of it as the prototypical mecha series [1] - and though I haven't seen the film for some time, I seem to remember it was pretty good, even if the technology of the time didn't allow for tripods. I've long wanted to see on film Martians advancing up the Thames, but I'm wondering whether they plan on adapting the book, remkaing the film, or something different...

[1] If only old H.G. had realised that bacteria aren't as marketable as giant red, white, and blue robot suits...

As far as I know, there is no Bandai VF-1D.

Actually, according to toy expert Matt Alt in a Cool Japanese Toys website article from way back, there is a 1/55 VF-1D - at least in prototype form. It was obviously never released, and is only known from a catalogue picture. It is very probably a mock-up, but at least one may still exsist somewhere...

Graham

YOU twisted british....

Again making us suffer.

You should know by now, we make the best arch-villians...

So true.... it's because of the fake accents....

Case in Mr. Pointy:

"If every vampire who said he was at the Crucifixion was actually there it would've been like Woodstock. I was at Woodstock. I fed off a flower person and I spent six hours watching my hand move."

Lucky James Bond is aorund to save the World all the time, though, isn't it?!

Graham

YOU twisted british....

Again making us suffer.

You should know by now, we make the best arch-villians...

Didn't someone point out a little while ago that whatever they're made of, it tends to blow up really easily...?

I have seen it; great fun if a bit dated now and probably best seen when you've been into anime for a while but not so long that you can't laugh at yourself anymore...

My favourite was the foreign guy who really likes Lum. Boy, did they nail me to the wall with that one...

Its better if you just click the links

don't analyze too much-its just fun stuff

Zentradi attack:

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/nob/co/tamaki/top47b.htm

"What is... this... Protoculture?"

"Nope - BUSTER BEEEAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!"

According to "the rules" anything that can reach space, isn't a plane, it's a spaceship. Thus they won't give the X-15 most of its records. YF-19's can go in space, so they're not a plane.

"Hey, mister, those darn well better not be hands I can see up this fuselage!"

Thanks for clearing that up, David.

Macross toys are not exactly rare in Tokyo, but theres no doubt which product line has the higher profile.

My experience may be a bit tainted as I've been fortunate enough to be in Japan at the time of release of the 1/60 VF-1A, 1/48 VF-1S and around the time of the Bandai re-issues, so Macross products were perhaps a bit thicker on the ground, but with the exception of the M & M Bandais, I had little trouble finding most Macross-related toys.

Even rarities like the Bandai E-lint Seeker aren't utterly impossible if you know which shops to try looking in.

It should also be borne in mind that many Japanese hobby shops have limited floor space and would appear to have a relatively high product turnover. Macross isn't just up against Gundam, its up against every other popular anime & manga in the country, and I'd say it gets a reasonably fair amount of exposure compared to that.

Rolling Thunder ?! isn`t it that old action/spy arcade game by NAMCO on the NES and it`s sequel on Sega Genesis

If you want to go Across the Tube... A Rolling Nucleus Smashed the Neuron.

Er... don't mind me, brains somewhere else...

For a legal international air record, clock starts at brake release. (Of course, the YF-19 wouldn't legally be a plane according to their rules)

Okay, I'm curious - do their rules specifically mention "no transforming robots!"...? Or does two wings, a couple of engines, and a fuselage not count as sufficently airplane-shaped enough by them...?!

For the record, BTW, I've always assumed Isamu was talking about 48 seconds from a low altitude, not the ground.

I'm always available if you need clarification/explanation of aeronautical terms. Ailerons and tailerons are totally different things, and I actually know what a "convergent-divergent" nozzle is...

I bet you even know how to set your VCR timer, too...

I think theres room for both, really. I enjoy reading Nanashis site for both the pictures and the wonderful text descriptions, and Egans for its incredible comprehensive-ness. After all, what are fans for if not for arguing over obscure points of imaginary detail...?!

What do you expect from a journalist? As if they have much experience firing automatic weapons? lol...

I know that fully auotmatic fire is not a good way of hitting a target myself, it was just the most visual demonstration I've yet seen of the point!

As for the 10 sec firing time being enough and the comparisions to WW2 fighters.

Well this is a valk, its gonna be outnumbered 10 to 1 at the least.

Anyway, a simple beam weapon would have sorted it out. But running out of ammo is a nice plot device to have anyway.

There are actually numerous incidences of RAF aircraft during the Battle of Britain engaging formations many times stronger. Although there is almost certainly a good degree of exaggeration to many combat reports (which should perhaps be forgiven... ), there are a great many accounts of squadrons of twelve RAF fighters - or even flights of four - engaging upwards of a hundred or more German aircraft.

(of course, the problem for the Germans was that there were those twelve, then another twelve, and then another twelve, all the way to London, until the total the RAF threw at them somewhat exceeded the famous "last 50 Spitfires... ")

The RAF tried big formations during the Battle, and found that aircraft tended to get in each others way (leading to false claims and friendly fire) and that the groups took too long to get organised and up to altitude. Its noticable that "Big Wing" tactics were usually only employed by 12 Group, whose airfields were further back than the vital 11 Group, and who had more reaction time.

I alos believe that being outnumbered is traditionally referred to as being in a "target rich environment"...

I didn't intend it to be an exact match, just an example - I just happen to know those figures better than any others.

Regards the AK47, there was a recent programme on BBC Television where a journalist opened up a AK47. Its no wonder they don't break, theres noting in the thing! I swear I saw a piece of string in there...!

The same presenter also fired a clip on full automatic at a van standing no more than 50 yards away, as a demonstration of the AK47s muzzle climb.

It was untouched...

So... we need someone preferably British, good with guns, and who is used to working undercover to get insider information on top secret projects.

So, tell me, how do you feel about vodka martinis, shaken not stirred, Graham?