F-ZeroOne

Although I think as well that the character is just wearing a typical Chinese dress, Gainax have been known for their Macross love - look at Otaku no Video, or the design of Captain Nemo from Nadia for examples!

So, what have they replaced in the cockpit? The BDI system? Oops. Wrong universe. Very interesting news. Whatever the benefits of the YF-23 vs the F-22, theres no doubt it was the most futuristic looking. Heres hoping Northrop get some good news for a change; they always seem to get messed around.

In case you're wondering, we in the UK don't know how to pronounce this guys name either! When I first saw his name linked to "Reed Richards", I thought "Mmm... ". Hes best known in the UK for being the title role in Hornblower, based on the naval warfare book series of the same name. He looked about 18 years old in that! However, there was a picture of him in the newspaper today, and I have to say, he does actually look quite a bit how you'd imagine a younger Reed Richards to look - Richards in his late 20s or mid-30s. If they're planning a fresher "take" on the series, in looks at least I think he looks the role. Wait a minute... hes British. Why isn't he playing Dr. Doom? I thought only British guys could play movie villains!

The Area-88 manga actually has Mickey, in flashback, remembering being deployed to 'Nam, I believe with F-14s. I can't remember if he gets involved in dogfights for sure, but I seem to recall him getting sad over losses or something.

Also not anime, but perhaps more on-topic than most: the most inept military has got to be the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force, in every Godzilla movie ever made. I thought it was very nice of them to lend some real tanks for filming the last Godzilla X MechaGodzilla, after being shown getting generally stomped, crushed, and melted for 50 years...!

That front landing gear - F-111, maybe? Those guns are in an interesting place - just right to ruin the pilots night-vision when fired! I don't think its an overly bad design for a "movie" fighter, but its various bits just don't fit together well - the tailplanes look very out of place. It could have done with a much more "blended" look.

I think you have something there, Graham - I used to have a giant poster of the F-91 and there is something odd about that GFF version. Unfortunately I don't have the poster anymore, but what it looks like to me is that they ran out of space to get in all the head "shape"...

They've retired the Blackbird, Concorde no longer graces the stratosphere, the F-35 needs a diet, and the Typhoon thinks its on the ground when its in the sky... ...so I think its time for some good aircraft related news. Thanks to a grant from the UKs National Lottery, its going to be possible to restore the legendary Vulcan bomber to flight status! http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/j_falk/vulcan.htm (link for info on the Vulcan only) Some of you might remember the Vulcan from its appearance in the 007 film Thunderball. When I was younger, I was lucky enough to see one of these take off. Its an awesome sight; a real demonstration of delta-wing lift and raw power over gravity. The damn thing seems to hang in the air...

Its long been a tenet of air combat that superior numbers is an advantage against superior technology. It might not be much of a comfort to the eight planes that get shot down for one F-22, but one F-22 can only carry so many missiles... The RAF has practiced a tactic that, at least on exercise, worked quite well - a single Tornado or Phantom would act as a "controller" for three or four Sidewinder-armed Hawk trainers. Being smaller, the Hawks could often sneak up on an enemy which was distracted by the larger aircraft. One of the best ways to establish air superiority is the one the Israeli Air Force used in 1967 - don't let the other guy take off in the first place!

FASA, the original BattleTech publishers, somehow acquired the use of a number of Macross designs in BattleTech - these included, among others, the Tomahawk, various Valkyries, and some Zentraedi units (also some mecha from Dougram and Crusher Joe as well!). Originally, the designs used were almost identical - the Warhammer/Tomahawk/Excalibur on the cover of the early BattleTech box sets was almost exactly the same as the Macross/Robotech versions, but as time went on and FASA published its own Technical Readouts, the designs were altered in many small ways, hence the differences in the above figures from the Macross designs. Irony alert - FASA got entangled in a dispute with Harmony Gold over the use of the original Macross designs, and they were removed from later editions of BattleTech - somewhat to the annoyance of BattleTech players, as these designs were some of the best-loved in the game (I myself will always have a fondness for the Shadow Hawk... ) This wasn't the first time FASA got into legal problems with BattleTech - the original version of the game was called BattleDroids, until the Lucas Empire threatened to send a few Star Destroyers FASAs way... (I sometimes miss those days - little escaped-Japanese oddities like this were fun to find out about!)

An F-14 about to blast a F-18E? I think that one was just for you, David...!

Not just a story - the Germans thought the British Army had far more machine guns than they actually did because of the rapid rifle fire. Unfortunately, this was largely a result of pre-war training and skill like that did not long survive the terrible attrition of World War I...

You all missed my favourite part of Genesis (6:4): "There were giant robots in the Earth in those days." I am reasonably open-minded, but one should be careful. For example, those long-headed skulls; I'm pretty sure I've read that certain human peoples do this by wrapping young childrens heads in tight-fitting bandages of some kind - human skulls are softer when we are very young and more mallable (similarly, theres a tribe that uses neck-rings to produce women with extremely long necks). Humans are amazingly adaptive creatures, and we forget that sometimes. Also, there is a mis-conception that "primitive" by todays standards is the same thing as "dumb". Ancient humans might not have had mobile phones, but that doesn't mean they weren't clever. Charles Babbage came quite close to inventing the computer 100 years ahead of the electronics age; theres no telling whether someone else might have had a similar idea 2000 years ago, being frustrated only by the lack of really good MegaLith memory... [1] [1] As one may be able to tell, I'm a big fan of the humourous fantasy written by British author, Terry Pratchett. His character Leonardo da Quirm is a good example of what I'm trying to get across!

Relatively difficult when you didn't expect to be cosplaying at all Oh, don't you wish, Mappy? I'm not absolutely certain, but I think I may have actually taken that picture - I'm not sure because there were so many photos of Mappy in the company of attractive Japanese females, I just wish he wouldn't shove me out the way so fast... (nah, just kidding! ) Mappy wasn't cos-playing, it was just a photo-opportunity. That picture doesn't really do the girls justice - much nicer looking in real life, honestly, and - as far as I could tell through my slightly biased translator, nice ladies too...! (okay, am I done playing the gallant Englishman now? )

That AcGuy - was that at Wonderfest 2003, Winter? I met that "him" too. And an awesome Big "O" too. And the girls. So many pretty girls...

Inconceivable!

I wouldn't mind betting that the automatic rifle version doesn't get used much - the overall XM-8 looks nice, but historically automatic rifles tend to fall between two stalls - too heavy to be easily ported around, but too light for sustained fire operations. There, as ever, exceptions (the BAR possibly being one), but its always been a difficult one to pull off successfully...

Railway commuters - and employees - in Britain might disagree with you there, Agent One... ... Why would they? It has been proven many times over that private industry is many times more efficient than government run industry. Cutting a very long, and off-topic, story short, its generally agreed that rail privatisation in Britain was botched. I'm not saying privatisation in itself is a bad thing, just that it can go as badly wrong as any government run operation. If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, Agent One, please PM me...

Railway commuters - and employees - in Britain might disagree with you there, Agent One... Well done to Scaled Composites, though, for injecting some hope back into us grounded space cadets. I believe Warp One is the next target, yes?

You were a GM, Roy, weren't you?

Two main reasons: one, the D6 system used in Star Wars was one of the most elegant I've ever come across; granted, its wasn't particularly sophisticated or detailed, but it was a perfect match for the Star Wars universe, and the system really encouraged "heroic" gameplay (also, the West End Games sourcebooks provided a good deal of information used by the various Star Wars novels to flesh out the Star Wars universe, though I've never been entirely clear how much may have come from Lucasfilm itself - it would seem even Lucasfilm Games used some of the RPG material in their X-Wing games... ) Two: West End Games did Paranoia, one of the greatest RPG concepts of all time. Along with Call of Cthulu, possibly one of only two RPGs that you knew your character was going to die horribly at some point - not if, but when. The trick was to go out as stylishly as possible, and in Paranoia, take as many of your fellow players with you as you could (and as every character in Paranoia has six extra "lives", you could take quite a few with you...! )

Why do I suddenly have this image in my mind of Minmei in a Valkyrie, with the Queen Alien standing over Hikaru, and Minmei yelling: "Get away from him, you BITCH!" US Godzilla vs Valk: dead Godzilla. Heck, if F-18s could take out the US Godzilla... Japanese Godzilla vs Valk: now this is a Godzilla that knows how to handle fighter jets - fry 'em with your radioactive breath stream!

Don't take that tone of voice with me! You wouldn't know one furry from the next hence, I wouldn't know one giant robot series from the next... And as for Jcat's ridiculous obcession with photography, I'm not actually sure he's taken any photos of anything other than cosplayers I was so embarrassed... And like I said - one of the better hobbies to have! BTW, that jumbo jet the Poke-girl is holding suddenly reminds me of a famous Twilight Zone episode...!

Oh, so you can tell between Gundams now, Mappy?! I've never quite forgotten you going up to a load of Zeta Gundam cos-players at WonderFest and asking if they were from SEED...! The person, J-Cat, that Mappy mentions is a very nice guy who just happens to have one of the better hobbies imaginable...

Uh, oh, there goes the neighbourhood... Hi, Martin! I think you took a wrong turning, the cat-girl forums are over there... (just in case anyones wondering, Mappy is a friend of mine, and has the ever-handy-gift of knowing Japanese girls that like to cos-play. Ah, F-ZeroOne, we meet again This is the only thread on this forum where I can give a positive contribution! ! Next time we meet up in Japan I'm going to take revenge on you for taking me to so many mecha shops in just the space of 3 weeks. I'm now finding myself reading posts about a Q-Rau Bandai and getting all excited! Besides, you know Agent Kyuu now... Mappy, if you can find a Bandai Q-Rau, there will be more than just you getting excited, I can assure you! (sigh... I can't take you anywhere, can I?!) Just so you know, BTW, there appears to be a problem with the links you're posting...? Noriko - very nice shoes. Though I'm surprised anyone noticed, considering whos wearing them...!