F-ZeroOne

My mistake - I have a Zeta Gundam artbook which features a very stylised Bound-Doc which I thought was credited to Nagano, but having just double-checked I must have got it mixed up with another design... possibly I was thinking of the Queberley in the first place.

I have to ask - which Ark Royal...? Theres been more than a few...!

Also in case you're wondering, Mamoru Nagano, the creator of Five Star Stories - while superbly talented - may just be nuttier than an explosion in a peanut butter factory. He also did some designs for Gundam Zeta ( including, I think, the bizarre Bound-Doc ), Heavy Metal L-Gaim, Brain Powerd, and if I remember correctly, has a background in fashion design, which may well explain a lot!

I think I said - its not so much him I'm worried about, its what his mother might do to me if she catches something she doesn't approve of...! I'm not used to being a role model... How do you MWers with your own kids manage it, huh...?! Thanks for the comments, though - I've found a couple of websites ( through ToyBox DX, actually ) that hopefully will fit the bill. If not, I could always send him a Beginners Guide to Japanese...!

I considered that, but Toybox DX is really a bit too hard-core I think, and a touch too adult in tone ( not that way, but I think you'll see what I mean... )

Quick request, please! A 14 year old friend of the family wants to know web-sites where he can find out whats hot in Japan toy-wise at the moment - things like Beyblade or Yu-gi-Oh! [1] Problem is, I also know his mother and don't want to get into trouble if he clicks on the "Gainax Babes" section of HobbyLink Japan or something...! So, anyone know some relatively safe sites for anime-related merchandise I can direct him to? Thanks...! [1] Whatever those are. Back in my day, we had to be happy with Battle of the Planets and, if we were lucky, noticing that there was a Japanese animator who worked on MASK. Kids today, don't know they're born, mumblemumble...

At the time, no it wasn't obvious. At the time, however, I was 7 years old... Now, of course, its rather painful. Mind you, even at that age, being a bit of a space-cadet, even I knew there was something wrong with Jupiter having blue skies and open-air colonies on a rocky foundation...!

One word: "DARLING!" But in the background: Briareos ( Appleseed ), Max Jenius, Captain Goto ( Patlabor on TV and the absolute coolest leader under pressure of all time ), Yomiko Readman ( Read or Die - boy, do I know that "doesn't notice anything at all when reading" thing! ), and special honouary mention to Bloody Mary ( aka Commander Makara in Star Fleet/X-Bomber )...

In future, a post like this may be better off in the "Other anime & SF" section. Meanwhile... Were they perhaps from this line: http://www.toyarchive.com/Megaforce/Megaforce.html

I haven't seen anything of the original Orguss series, but I would very much like to. Its got an interesting premise and wonderful mecha design. The original Takatoku toys are, by the way, very cool and although some of them can be very fragile, going by my experience, with one or two exceptions, they are generally cheaper to buy than Takatoku Valkyries, and sometimes easier to actually find too! Orguss 02 is probably one of the most under-rated - heck, its possible its only so because very few people have seen it! - anime around. Though the mecha designs are inferior to the original, and I can't compare it to the original series either, I found it much better than I expected to be and one of the main characters ( though not the young lead, who has "plot device" written all over him ) is superbly scripted and very, very likable, despite his devious manner...

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.ad...108053709990007 "NASA today denied that the first communication with the Spirit Rover following its mysterious radio black out over the past two days was "I'm sorry, Dave, I cannot do that."

"NASA today denied claims that, shortly before communications with the Spirit rover were lost, it transmitted a picture of what appeared to be a large, featureless, completely black free-standing structure... " At least your (astro)-boy got to Mars in one piece. My own nations effort, designed as usual on the back of a postcard and built from spare bits of string and loose screws from DIY furniture kits, only managed to achieve a very limited terraforming experiment... ...its pretty likely it drilled itself a new crater on the surface... Still, at least the ISS is in good hands - Michael Foale survived the Mir, I doubt he'd be fazed even if someone tapped on the outer airlock cover muttering "Ackackackackackack... "

I suggest we all catch colds in one big hurry... I told ya the Martians were coming... ...the chances of anything coming from Mars were a million to one, they said... ...but still...

Its not just the canopy frames - notice the landing gear tow-bars?!

At the moment, my Yamato 1/48 VF-1S with the Strike pack. The first Japanese mecha I was ever introduced to, with the bonus of added firepower. It scares me silly every time I try to transform it ( its not so much thats it difficult - with practice - as I'm just afraid that being a klutz I'll break something ) but it looks wonderful in all three modes. I think Gerwalk is my favourite, but fighter is close behind... ...but what i would really, really like is a half-decent Takatoku Big Dai-X diecast. I have a rather battered, small-ish one but would love to find one of the bigger ones in better condition on my next visit to Japan. I realise I could possibly find one after a lot of searching on e-bay or by begging round the toy collectors market, but getting one in Tokyo would just be fantastic...!

But this was in the period before the F-14 got up-engined. Once the F-14's got F110's, it would appear that the advantage narrowed. I'd also suggest messages 33, 45, and 47 of this thread. An air force pilot and an F-14 pilot exchange some interesting information, with a good deal of courtesy and mutual respect, I might add. If you do check that thread out, note the comment about the A4 Skyhawk and the F-15. I've also read that a pair of RAF Jaguars once "shot down" a pair of Eagles on a training mission, which raised a few eyebrows at the time. I don't think anyone disagrees that the Eagle and the F-15 are both great fighters. Like all aircraft, they have their advantages and disadvantages. One point which I think has been missed is that the Tomcat is a naval fighter and has to carry quite a bit more weight than an equivalent land-based fighter ( this generally applies to most navalised aircraft ); it would probably also account for the extra expense of the Tomcat. And if two aircraft are pretty fairly matched, as these two seem to be ( not in all areas, but one planes disadvantage in one area is probably made up for in another ), like Chuck Yeager always maintained, it then just comes down to the pilot... Edit: so its just like Macross Plus after all!

You're no expert. No, I'm not, and I never claimed to be. On the other hand, the information about the Hayabusa is directly taken from accounts from P-38 pilots. If they're not qualified to comment, who is? The Spitfire information has been gleaned from several different sources, one of which is The Most Dangerous Enemy, a book by Dr. Stephen Bungay - who is currently a consultant for the UK Channel 4 programme "Spitfire Ace". The point I am trying to make is that any poll of that kind can be highly subjective. Edit: didn't mean to quote the whole discussion first time round.

I'm sorry, but I can't let that one go. Anything with "expert opinion" like that is going to rather subjective. If theres one thing I've learned from reading about air combat its that no one aircraft is entirely superior to another. For example, take the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa ( "Oscar" ) of W.W. II. BY late W.W. II standards, it was obselete - slow, poorly armed and very lightly built. Yet pilots flying such heavily armed, fast and sturdy aircraft as P-38 Lightnings learned to be careful when taking them on, because the agility of the Hayabusa, even by late war standards, and in the hands of a skilled pilot, made it a very difficult target. Theres a number of accounts of a lone Hayabusa dancing around four or more US aircraft. Or take my favourite, the Supermarine Spitfire. If you take the Spitfire story as a whole, although I think the P-51 was a superb fighter, I think the Spitfire just edges it simply because the P-51 was designed with the benefit of two years combat experience. When Reginald Mitchell designed the Spitfire, he didn't have that benefit. Yet from its very first engagements, the Spitfire was proved to be "right" in almost every respect ( there was, of course, a couple of years of "fine-tuning" pre-war. There probably has never been a military aircraft that has been perfect from the word go ) - so right, that it stayed in production all through the war, the only Allied fighter to have been in production from before the war started to the end. Yet, of course, the Spitfire had its weaknesses - the early models were at a disadvantge in a dive compared to the Me-109, and it had a much shorter range than the P-51. But then, the Spitfire had been designed as a defensive fighter... ...like I say, its all rather subjective...

Chrono, what you're describing sounds a bit like "compressibility" - you'll have to forgive me, as I've only read about it and most of it went way pass my head, but I believe this is where the airflow passing over the wing begins to exceed the speed of sound and locks up the control surfaces. However, I've only ever heard about aircraft experiencing this in a dive, not a climb ( it was a big problem for prop driven aircraft during W.W. II ). I believe Chuck Yeager also encountered a similar problem when approaching the speed of sound in the Bell X-1 - perhaps the game is modelling the same effect...?

Was it one of the following: Theres a Gamers store right next to the "Electric Town" exit from Akihabara station? The LAOX Hobby just round the corner? Directly opposite the "Electric Town" exit there is a multi-story building which has K-Books on its 3rd or 4th floor, and then a couple of floors up theres this huge place that has all sorts of toys, kits, models, and dolls? Just curious, really...

I saw a similar programme about Spitfires a little while ago. All TV producers repeat after me, "Hurricanes are not Spitfires, Spitfires are not Hurricanes... " Repeat!

The "cast of Mary Poppins" costumes worn by background people using the moving walkways when Guld is saying goodbye to Myung at the spaceport in Macross Plus. No, I'm not making that up... I've also often wondered just what great moments in Macross aviation history are recorded on the wall of Col. Millard Johnsons office at New Edwards...

I'd just like to point out that my original comment about the YF-1Rs "stealth features" is not meant to be yet another attack on the MPC - I don't really have an opinion on the MPC ( at least as a toy - I don't personally like the proportions as shown in pictures, which seem to be a bit "off" ) one way or another, though its obvious its based on older designs than the Yamato Valkyries ( of which I do have a couple ). I've only ever seen a MPC, curiously enough, at a Japanese convention, and never held one in my hands - I trust other MW members judgement on what they might be like, but I won't have a final opinion on one until I actually handle one, which is going to be pretty unlikely given my geographical location. However, this doesn't mean that I agree with the history of Harmony Gold, either... Having cleared that up, having been interested in military aviation for a while, I just felt I couldn't let that description pass without comment. I think this is one problem HG are going to have by not having access to Japanese source material; Shoji Kawamori was an aeronautical engineering student, or at the very least, was considering it, and understands the issues involved. I'll admit that Macross stretches plausibility very, very thin a lot, but I would like to think that Kawamori wouldn't have come up with a comment like that as he probably knows better... which also moves us onto the issue of "lightening the armour". This is not wholly implausible, though again, even if it did increase speed by a truly significant amount, still does not equal stealth. And again, the licensing issues come into play, because Macross Zero has revealed that Valks are equipped with some form of energy reinforced armour and that increasing engine power is probably going to have far more effect on speed... ( I suppose you could probably strip a Valkyrie down completely - as the US and USSR used to do with Eagles and Foxbats in order to gain aviation records, but you'd end up with a fighter that could only down an enemy by colliding with it )... ...but then the argument can go that Veritechs are not Valkyries... ...so, er, have I sat on the fence enough to satisfy everyone yet?!

Ah, now we know what the "R" in "YF-1R" stands for - Relativity!

I have to admit to having a chuckle over the idea that the VF-1Rs speed somehow makes it stealth capable. Ask a SR-71 pilot sometime about that idea... ( speed certainly makes you difficult to intercept, but its not the same as "stealth!" )