Major Johnathan

This sounds pretty preposterous to me. Like Cap'n said, when it comes to military planes, they are as public domain as anything. Even civil aircraft manufacturers would see model makers as ants not worth their lawyers time/money. And it is great free advertising. Surely some 'brave' company will put out a 1/35 Striker and see if they get sued. IF that happened, maybe Fine Scale Modeller, or someone, could set up a legal defense fund. And then we could all write hate mail to whomever would be stupid enough to file a law suit.

It's news to me, I never heard of Brough Superior but according to google they were real, so I'd guess the Mospeada writers were maybe playing with the name a bit and made there's Blowsperior (I think that's how they spell it... ) Certainly the names are too close to be a coincidence?

I'm doing the same thing, finished on normal, trying to get through on Hard. The guards are a hell of a lot more aggressive, and numerous. I tried my usual trick of hiding on a rooftop while they're searching, quite surprised to have a rain oh hand grenades blowing me off the roof... I had trouble fighting 'The End' too, I could only really get him with sniper shots. I just couldn't get close, the old bugger always runs away. I wanna try that trick where you snipe him in his wheel chair before the battle ever happens. (not very sporting ) Then the stage where you would have fought him is supposed to be filled with Ocelot's men instead.

The tree climbing is curious. Even if you equip the tree bark camo, once your up the tree you stand out like crazy. That camo is only good if you stand against a tree. Every time I try the hanging with one arm and shooting with the other, the soldier/target sees me. (Interesting to hear Anavel Gato and Snake's voice is also William T Riker... I gotta see Star Trek in Japanese. )

Well I know this is an ancient topic, but after playing and finishing this game, I first have to say it's extremely fun and cool, my favorite PS 1 or 2 game. Hideo Koijima is a bit whacky in his political imagination, but the characters, setting and style more than compensate. Some really great music to go along with it, I just got the sountracks, I've been playing the main theme (track #2) over and over. I have a question: I remember in the first clip released on the web many moons ago, they show cut scenes of snake running through the woods being chased by soldiers and dogs and it ends with Snake dramatically yelling as he leaps off a water fall to escape them. Where did that scene go? There is a stage with a water fall (the battle with 'The End') but you never leap it. Then there's a scene where Snake jumps out of a storm drain like Harrison Ford in the Fugitive, but that's not in the woods. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Maybe I'm just remembering wrong... Lastly, after playing the demo disc over and over, I wish I could play the game in it's original Japanese dialogue. The English cast isn't too bad, but the original always sounds better. (Is Snake's voice the same guy that did Anavel Gato in 0083? Sounds like him.) I wish there was that option in the game, I may have to buy a Japanese PS2 just for this reason.

Yeah, I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far. I gotta get the DVD's... I guess only the Japanese DVD's have the paper models. But I don't think in every volume. From the completed pictures I've seen, it's hard to believe they're just paper. Isn't there a Last Exile 'know it all' around here somewhere?

Hi all, I'm a newbie at Last Exile, so I was wondering, where do you get those nice looking paper models of the Vanships? I know some of the Japanese DVDs had them, but which? And do the U.S. released DVDs also have them? How many differnent releases are there? So I far I count 4 Vanships, 3 of which look very similar other than paint scheme and I saw a Silverna. Where do you find the Silverna? (And do they make any other of the big airships?) Also, why do they pronounce it Silvona in the Anime? But spell it Silverna? Thanks for any help.

This whole debate is similar to the Abrams. There's a whole movement to get rid of the Abrams. Why? Because it's expensive, high maintance and weighs a ton, many tons in fact, so it's a pain in the ass to deploy. The thought is to replace it with light weight armor that can be flown into theater in greater numbers, ideally with wheeled vehicles since urban warfare is the order of the day. The Striker is the new toy for the Army and it was sent to Iraq to 'save the day' because it was made for urban warfare. Wheeled, fast, agile, great electronics, optics and very light, easy to transport. But in reality, it's armor is tinfoil compared to the Abrams, it's main gun a pea shooter to the Abrams 120mm. One RPG or IED/Mine will do in a Stiker and the crew has big troubles. The Abrams on the other hand can shrug off all but the biggest IED/mines and only a 'golden BB' or torrent of many, many RPG's can disable an Abrams, the crew is VERY likely to survive any attack even if the tank is lost. They wound up redeploying the Striker in more open terrain, cities are just too dangerous, too many places for an ambush. This of course defeats the great billing of the Striker. The Abrams on the other hand was predicted to be more of a liability, convential wisdon says tanks are bad choices for urban warfare(big,slow,akward and easy targets), the grunts on the gound disagree, when they get in trouble or need a tought nut cracked, the Abrams get's cheers when it arrives on scene. Strikers and even Bradleys just don't get the same reception. Economically and logistically speaking, the Striker or Bradley are definately the way to go. To actually win a battle, you want the Abrams. I see similarities with F-14 Vs. F-18E/F debate. The F-18E/F is nice, but if you want to win in a fight, I like the F-14's chances a lot better. (At least until they make a worthy successor, and I agree it high time they find one.)

And you Super-bug lovers ( ) seem to have ignored what I posted about the Tomcat's kick-ass bombing abiltiy. It was ALWAYS designed to be 'multi-role', it just so happens it's a stunningly good fighter/interceptor. It's bombing abiltiy, in terms of much more time to loiter over the enemy's heads and to drop much more payload on their heads make the Tomcat quite a superior 'Multi-Role' fighter/interceptor/bomber. Geez, this multi role nonsense is hardly ground breaking. In WWII, when Wildcat's and Hellcat's cleared the sky of fighters, they came back with bombs and rockets slung under the wings and pounded the poor saps on the ground. About the only improvement people site for the Super Hornet is it takes less time to maintain. So the F-14 is a Ferrari and the Super Hornet is a VW Beetle... I'd stick with the Ferrari. (Only this Ferrari has better gas mileage and more cargo space than the Beetle)

I remember a quote from an F-14 pilot where he said something like the F-14 looks dangerous just sitting on the ground. The Hornet lacks that aura severly. As far as replacing the Tomcat with nothing, well, without a superior replacement, I'd order more F-14's to replace the old F-14 airframes. Namely F-14D's. It would have been a hell of a lot cheaper to do that than to totally redesign the Hornet into the Super Hornet and mass produce them. Also, the F-14 was developed with the ability to drop bombs way back in the early 70's, multi role is not a new concept. The 'Bombcat's' used in Afghanistan and Iraq did exceptional in that role. When special forces needed air strikes in a hurry, the F-14 could get there quicker, it could drop more bombs and it could loiter over the area much longer than any F-18 could dream of doing. The guy's on the ground noticed that and even went so far as to request F-14's when possible. (They even ground based some Tomcats for this role). The F-18 isn't just an inferior fighter, it's an inferior bomber to. I really do wonder what it's good for.(Besides Boeing and they're congressmen) Oh, and it's blasphemy to see the Jolly Rogers on the tail of the Super bug... makes me ill. Just like seeing Black Aces etc. on their tails... who do they think they're fooling?

Well, I'll watch anthing, I feel TV is Sci-Fi starved. I like that Mark Hamill might be invloved. Obviously, he's a tad older than he was in 1985... so prequels are out. I hope it is in that time frame as oposed to episodes 1~3. Fat chance Harrison Ford would have anything to do with it. Every vibe I ever saw from him since the late 90's is that he wants nothing to do with it anymore. He's a 'serious' actor and would never lower himself to TV or Star Wars. Anyway, hope it's good...

Actually, the poll is the crux of the arguement, How is the Super Hornet really more modern? That would infer it's more advanced or in some serious way it performs better than the Tomcat. Maybe the Hornet carries XM sattelite or something? Or maybe it has a built in Game boy? Besides, the Tomcat is beatiful and the Hornet is fugly.

That's true, the Phantom wasn't all that adored. What it replaced was, the F-8 Crusader was beloved by it's pilots and it's very debateable the Phantom was an improvement over the Crusader. The Tomcat is the same way, the pilots adore the thing. Only the best of the best of the Navy's pilots get to fly the F-14, it's a badge of honor. Once the F-14 is all gone, you can expect the U.S. Navy to start getting challenged more brazenly. The Hornet can't carry the Phoenix missle, so there will be no long range air to air missle in the Navy's arsenal. Right now, if you want to send some fast bombers in with anti shipping missles and attack a U.S. Navy ship, you'll have a bad day because the Tomcat will shoot you down from 90+ miles away and the Tomcat is fast enough to intercept just about anything. The Super Hornet is signifigantly slower and carries missles that have a range of only 30 miles and I think that's generous, it might be 20+ miles. There is no answer about the Phoenix missles, it's the deadliest air to air missle in our arsenal and the Tomcat is the only plane that can deliver it, and 6 of them at one time. It's kill rate is exceptional too. I'm beating a dead horse here, but the 'Super' Hornet is slower, has much shorter range and carries less ordnance and did I mention it can't carry the Phoenix? I'm not against progress, the Tomcat is due for a replacement, but the general idea is your supposed to replace the old plane with not just a newer plane, but a better plane.

Hey Valkyrie, thanks for the link. Sadly I'm so broke I can't buy a copy just yet. (you fiends will make this 'sold out' ,won't you? ) Anyway, I was wondering what they cover for Mospeada. Is it just the 3 or major bike/ride armors? Or do they include all the biker punks motorcycles and Rainy Boy/ Dusty Aires bike? I'd be thrilled if they had the schematics for all those other Mospeada bikes that get no attention.

Definitely Cowboy Bebop. I liked Wolf's Rain, though it's not a Mecha kind of show. Last Exile seems cool, but I've only seen a few episodes. The Patlabor series is great, but there are occaisions for comic releif... the first two movies are great. And of course Mospeada rules, but it is old school 80's style. As for Gundam, I like 0080 and 0083.

I just happened to stumble upon the Faye Valentine and Julia figures on HLJ. I didn't even know Yamato was making them. Did I miss any buzz about these figures or something? I know Cowboy Bebop is mega popular and I know Yamato has a ton of fans, especially here on MW... So, "Why in the hell aren't I informed of these things!?" Anyway, I'm impressed with the sculpt and painting, especially for Faye(beats any of the models I've seen of her, IMHO). Does anyone know if they'll make more characters? It seems likely if they'd make Julia, she's sort of secondary. Glad to see Cowboy Bebop still kicking at least in terms of merchandise.

I haven't seen it in about that long too. But I liked it, the Crossbone Vanguard are pretty cool. And Eternal Wind is one of the best anime songs ever. I will have to go buy the DVD I guess...

Anyone know how to pick up other characters with flying mutants like Storm? I know you can do it because I saw it on the Tech TV special on X-Men Legends.

Yup, it's the old 'Not Fair! Not Fair!! Not Fair!!!' complaint. America has to share this technology with North Korea, China and Iran (and France ) otherwise, it's...ummm....unfair. What's funny is this and the missle defense program happen to be non-lethal systems (can't even call 'em weapons), but critics call these things provacative. And it's not like Iran, North Korea and China (or France ) ever do anything provacative.

Geez, it sounds brutal Renato... I only watched the first 3 episodes, the first was a little slow but I thought the 2nd and 3rd really picked it up a bit. I really like the scene with DD and Roy dogfighting in the Ravine and DD and Nora attacking the fleet. Well, do they ever show the VF-0B? I got the Hasegawa kit expecting to see it, and I'm told it's not even in vol. 4.

In one of these threads there's a picture of the box art of the DD's SV-51, there's a 'soldier' (cannon fodder) flying on his wing featured fairly prominantly. I'm happy about this, I wondered what the soldier SV-51's looked like, they're always tiny blurrs in the background. Now we should have decals and a painting guide.

The 1/35 vinly kits I've seen include (besides Ingrams and Griffon), Economy, Saturn, Helldiver, Brocken and Type Zero. I'm not sure if Phantom was ever made, but Brocken was, so I suspect Phantom was too. Oh, and I don't think Python was made, but I could be wrong...

Yep, I got mine this last Monday. Very nice kit, well done Captain America, Monkey-N and Myersjesse. I'll definatly be on your pre-order list for the launch vehicle, that would be the perfect display 'stand'.

Drat! Well, maybe the book for 2200Yen at Mediax is still legit? Someone please keep us posted...

This topic, manned space flight and the beginning of private ventures, seems perfectly appropriate for this forum. It's posts like Final Vegeta's that seem to have nothing to do with the topic and is filled with political propaganda. I'm always amazed to see a bonafide Kim-Jong-Il /Saddam Hussein fan. Very 'informative' indeed.