Chronocidal

I'd say it does make some sense for larger scales to make things easier, but that all goes out the window when Yamato starts throwing in cockpit transformations, retractable gear, and other stuff like that for the larger scale. Also, in terms of physics, the Hi-Metals have a very large structural advantage. They're so small and light, the joints don't need to be beefy to hold poses, or snap into place correctly. There are several mechanisms in the HM VF-19 that are key to the transformation working out so well (the sliding hips come to mind), but duplicating those mechanisms in 1/60 scale could possibly lead to a floppy mess that doesn't hold together because of the increased weight. Bigger scale is a double edged sword.. you can add more detail, but the weight penalty you pay for the size requires you to beef up the structure considerably. It's the same reason why my 1/18 Lego VF-1 never could support itself, but the 1/32 version holds together fine. I still have hope for the 1/60 VF-19 too, but to me the Hi-Metals have pretty much nailed the necessary mix of proportions for a good battroid and sleek fighter in the VF-19.

I remember those, though I only got the old Janes sims through the multi pack, Fighters Anthology. That was awesome for it's time, but the graphics were dated even by the time I had it. What I really wish we could see is more stuff on the same level as the late Janes sims.. in my opinion Janes F/A-18 Superhornet sim is the pinnacle of computer sims, just for it's completely interactive interface, depth of detail, and ridiculous accuracy. I've had the chance to fly an actual military Superhornet sim, and it was almost identical. The guy who got my brother and I in there was pretty surprised when I hopped in and started hitting all the right buttons without him saying anything. Hawx though... frankly, I can't believe these types of shovelware keep getting pushed, while Microsoft canned it's Aces team in charge of MS Flight Sim. I just got Afterburner: Climax for my 360, and spent a while with it.. before I realized something really really depressing. The models in AB:C are good. Maybe not Ace Combat good, but very close, and beatifully rendered... but they leave Hawx in the dust. I sat there and my jaw dropped as I realized that they actually animated ALL of the F-14's control surfaces, and even gave them appropriate reactions. The spoilers pop up to roll, the slats drop, and when the wings are out the flaps will even drop to the maneuver setting just like the actual aircraft when you pull hard turns. Is there just some cultural gap here? Both Ace Combat (Banco) and AB:C (Sega) were made by Japanese game companies, which seem to excel at putting fine details into their games. Hawx on the other hand... well, let's just say they lack try. I'm sorely tempted to post a rant to the Ubi forums that if they want to know how a plane is supposed to fly, they should go play Afterburner.

AHH! The screened decals! THEY BURN! I always have liked the mouth markings better, but for a while those decals were tempting.. not anymore. That one's been through a lot.. paint chipping everywhere, broken nose turret, scraped off decals.. they even had to prop up one of the guns with something to keep it on straight. Sheesh, what did they do, hand that thing over for QC testing by a 5 year old? All it's missing are spaghetti-o smears and crayon markings. Actually, after looking at it closer.. that might be a resin one. There's a good amount of brown paint chipping with white underneath too.

More accurate sure, but of all the problems the 1/60 YF-19 has, I would think the color would be at the very bottom of that list.

Ok, I might have to pick up one of these, especially since it comes with the stand. I'd rather have the white striped version, but I kind of doubt that would be an easily obtained version even if Bandai does make it.

Nice. First one is new I think, second is a better picture of what we saw before. Looks like I was right, they did get the upper hip plates to pull back away from the legs, and even got the legs to swing higher up to shorten the torso. I'm gonna anxiously await some fighter mode pics, but so far this is looking promising, at least as far as battroid is concerned.

Even if it didn't, I loved the demo of IL-2, and need to remember to grab the full game. I think part of the problem with IL-2 is that the WWII aircraft genre has been done to death on PC already though, and the people who love those games won't bother with a console version. On the other hand, console players seem to love lots of missiles, jets, and explosions, which Hawx obviously tries to cater to. Honestly, I wouldn't have so much of a problem with Hawx if the game wasn't built so.. well, incompetently. There's no other way to describe how bad some features are. I had to replay the demo to remind myself of how bad it is, and, yes, it really IS that bad. Let me put it this way: Hawx is the only flight game I've ever played that completely ignores the physics of flight in atmosphere. There is no gravity, there is no drag, you can't turn by banking, and a stall isn't a loss of lift that can be mitigated by thrust, it's more akin to your plane suddenly having its wings ripped off just because you slowed down too much. That's not even adressing the interface and control problems. For starters... the artificial horizon is wrong, the speed and altitude units are entirely non-sensical, the scale of everything is completely off... oy. The people who made the game didn't do a lick of research, plain and simple. Seriously, how hard is it to look up aircraft speeds on wikipedia? Even if I put aside my personal pickyness about flight games... when you have an F-15 going 1200 knots at minimum throttle.. it's a very obvious indicator that something during development went incredibly wrong.

That'd be a VF-19 though, not a VF-1. By this point in time, I'm pretty sure VF-1's would be permitted for personal ownership, though obviously minus the weapon systems (wasn't there a specific civilian version available?). While it might be something from that old zent's collection, I have no trouble believing Ozma could have a personal tricked out VF-1 for stunt flying. Actually.. then again, I just had a really, really goofy thought. Since Sheryl seems to get the monster in this one, what if Ranka winds up flying out in this? Probably piloted by someone else, but still, I suppose it's possible. Probably much more likely though that Ozma's VF-25 gets completely trashed in this one, and he pulls out the VF-1 for his gung-ho "I will protect Cathy!" rampage.

Good grief. I can't believe the first one made enough profit to convince them a second game is a good idea. See even with the corny plot/dialog, AC has tons of aircraft eye candy, and is actually fun to play. HAWX didn't even have that, and the PC version was a half assed console hackjob that never worked worth a damn. I'll be cautiously optimistic for now that they will actually listen to their users and maybe do something right this time, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Oh, and one more thing. If Ubi can make IL2, they have no excuse. If those dipwads don't do some research and actually learn what a stall is this time, I will personally go to Ubi HQ and slap all their developers upside the head with my college aerodynamics textbook.

Frankly, the military hasn't had any inclination to paint aircraft anything other than grey for about 30 years now (excepting showbirds and CAG planes). There's no way anyone other than Focker should have anything other than shades of grey on his plane. If this were real, the only accurate valk would be the Low-Vis V1. Macross Zero actually came close to getting this right, the only planes not greyish were Focker and the anti-UN ones, which don't have the same military color standards to begin with. The only way the colors really make any sense is if you consider that they were fighting aliens who's sensors were gonna pick them up anyway, regardless of how they paint the planes. At that point, it makes sense to paint the planes colors you'll be able to see in space, at least a little, if only to avoid collisions.

Ok, just to clarify things: worn edges ARE deformation by definition. The peg is no longer the proper shape. Now that I think about it, that metal bump that seems to be holding the legs in so tightly could have gotten larger over time. A small detail like that would be easy to damage during the process to remove the metal parts from their mold.

Well, from what I can tell about the YF-19, some of the plastic is along the same lines as the explodium used in the VF-0's arms. It's not as bad, but it's still a little fragile, I've noticed cracking around the slots where the hip ball joints plug in, and had to tighten those joints up with glue. Actually I managed to make one important improvement on my YF-19 since I took it apart. I was able to tighten up the wing section pivots on the hips very well, so they stay where I put them in battroid.. that was a really tricky screw to get to. I bent a paperclip with pliers into a short hook, and jammed it into the gap to try and hold the screw in place, then just rotated the wing assemblies to tighten the screws. Also added some glue to tighten the hips up. As for the arms.. they're a lost cause. Can't get to the joints without breaking the arms apart worse than they already are, and can't tighten anything on them. Makes you really appreciate how many screws (uncovered screws I might add) Yamato has used on more recent releases. Really, I'm glad that I like to display my valks on the feet in fighter, because that's the only way the YF-19 looks decent on display to me. It was okay at the time it came out, but Yamato's other Mac+ valks are so far ahead of it it's an embarassment now. It just doesn't compare to anything they're currently making.

Oy, I told myself I wouldn't get anymore V.2s, but I might grab one of these later on. It looks pretty sweet in that white color. I'll just have to come up with one more to get so I can have a full squadron.. I dunno which I would want though. Maybe I'll wait and see if there are any custom schemes that come out later.

I'm still waiting to see someone customize the Hasegawa 1/48 kit into a working variable model, or maybe even do one myself. The current YF-19 is.. okay. I mean, it's nice to have it in the same scale as the other 1/60s, but it is just so far behind the current standards of what Yamato is producing. At the moment, mine is laying in pieces, scattered across my office. I'm trying to fix it up, but I just can't get to any of the parts that need work, because the whole freakin thing is glued shut.

True, I'm pretty out of the loop with regards to high definition pricing. I dunno. I could afford it if I save up, but that means I have to choose between that, or the new camera I've been planning to get.

Holy... $300-$400??? How can it be that much? I mean, the whole series costs, what, maybe $100 for both seasons on dvd? I know I saw season 1 for about $40 a while back. Unless this is some ultra-super-extra-special-with-cookies version that includes a complete set of the novels, Haruhi-Chan, a bluray of the movie, and a complete set of SOS Figmas, I almost can't imagine what would make it cost so much. I mean, it's only twenty eight episodes about 25 min in length.. maybe each box set comes with a random real-life wearable copy of one of Mikuru's outfits? Unless of course, this is like the ultra-completist edition, and they include separate copies of the episodes in all the different variations they aired. That would give you... 1. Original broadcast version of Season 1 with Kyon/Haruhi argument teasers 2. Second version of Season 1 in chronological order with Yuki Descriptions and any changes made at that point 3. Second broadcast version of extended season 1 episodes with season 2 interlaced What I almost wish they could do was put all the episodes on one disc, and just let you pick the order to view them in, and which version of the episodes and teasers to watch (original, edited, or rebroadcast). But that'd be asking a llittle much to fit on one disc I suppose. Then imagine the extras they might have... -Sing-alongs for all the songs, maybe karaoke tracks -Dance-along instructional videos (kind of a no-brainer actually) -original and translated commentary tracks -art galleries -music galleries -included SOS armbands/shirts etc.. I suppose they could bundle Haruhi-Chan with it, considering it's due to get a full release too, I think. And come to think of it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to bundle some of the main soundtrack albums with the box set, and I'd be much more likely to pick it up that way, especially if it contains the orchestrated one, "Suzumiya Haruhi No Gensou."

I had a small crossover aneuryism earlier when I discovered that Wendee Lee did one of the original Bridge Bunnies, Vanessa, in Robotech way back when, then went on to do (among a lot of other things) the voice for Haruhi Suzumiya... who is voiced in Japan by Aya Hirano.... who recently did Nene and Mena Roshan (the purple haired Bridge Bunny) in Frontier. Sheesh.. any one of the dub voices in Haruhi (Lee, along with Crispin Freeman, Stephenie Sheh, Johnny Young Bosch, etc) could have an equivalent to the whole "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game.. only you'd probably only need 3 steps.

Bumping this up because yep, it's that time of year again. Who wants to hang up wishes that we get a Disappearance release and the 10th novel this year? There hasn't been much news recently, but the preview for novel 10 is sounding interesting. I can't find the actual text yet, but the summary is enough to get me very interested. Apparently Disappearance has also been playing in a few select theaters, but I don't know where for sure, or how often. Anyone who went to AX hear anything new? On that note, it's probably time I finished watching the second season. I only watched Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, and the first episode of Endless Eight before deciding I'd just wait for it to finish, then marathon both seasons in order. Edit: I think I just nearly had a crossover aneuryism.. I went clicking through voice actor lists in a bit of random boredom... Ok, so... Wendee Lee is Haruhi in the sub. She was also Vanessa in the original Robotech dub. Aya Hirano was Mena Roshan in Frontier, one of the Quarter's bridge bunnies. Mind = blown. So, now have SOS Bridge Bunnies running through my head. Along those same lines though... I now have this sudden curiosity to hear Aya Hirano play Minmay in a Macross: The First anime.

Good point, and I actually don't mind sound effects, or even lights if done well (my Art Asylum Enterprises can attest to that ). It's more the shooting missile type stuff that makes me cringe. I mean, I loved that as a kid. Anything with multiple launching missiles was a must buy, and the more the better.. but I really don't care for that type of feature on something I'd probably put on a display stand next to my MP Skywarp. I'd rather it has something looking semi-real, like the sidewinders that come with the older MP Seekers. Speaking of stands though, do they plan to include one with it?

Oh, I agree the narrower cockpit looks better. Mostly I was referring to the way the modelers just slapped a new canopy/cockpit on and tweaked the nose to match it. And yes, back to the VF-22s. One thing I kind of wish about them was that the stand mounts were a little more rigid. I got two SV-51s partly so I could have my M&Ms on stands next to my YF-21, but the 51s just look so much better on the stands, and feel much more tightly attached. I'm afraid to pose my VF-22s in too many angled poses because the stand mounts just feel like the planes are rather precariously perched on them, like they're not close enough to the plane's center of gravity, and the planes tend to wobble around a lot. In comparison, the SV-51s always feel rock solid on those stands.

The thing that cracks me up about the VF-171EX... they just grafted a VF-25 cockpit onto it. Makes sense to use the EXgear, but it doesn't match the body as well as the original canopy.

Ok, here's a series of pictures showing what I did to fix my nose droop. Unfortunately I don't have shots from before I changed it, but it's pretty easy to understand what I changed. The first step is taking apart the nose, and hoping Yamato didn't glue it shut. There are three screws you'll need to get to. The first is a small screw that holds down the door that covers the hip bar mount, which removes that door and lets you get to the second screw, which actually attaches to the upper half of the nose. The third screw is inside the landing gear well. After you take out those screws, the nose should come apart with a little bit of pulling. Mine had some adhesive tape near the front that you can see, but it wasn't hard to pull loose. The nose is pretty sturdy, so as long as you're careful I don't think this will damage anything. Note, the insert that holds the main gear doors is just held in by pressure, so it, and the doors, will fall out when you pull the nose apart. Be careful to keep track of the pieces. As a side note, if your front gear is difficult to pull down, this is the perfect opportunity to fix this. The front gear is held into the nose by the screw you see here, and loosening it a little will lessen the tension on the gear. I don't recall how much I turned the screw, but I was able to make the gear easier to extend, while still holding decently in the down position. What you're left with now is the following. It's easier to remove the upper nose with the plane partially transformed, since it moves the chest plate away from the nose, but I was able to get the nose out without taking it out of fighter mode. You really just need to pop the large peg out of the slot in the metal plate, but it's easier to do once the nose is slid back from the front a little. What I did was pull the cockpit shield out from under the lip at the back of the nose, and raise the chest just enough to slip the nose back under it a little. The nose peg popped out of the metal plate without much trouble after that. Now, you've got this: When I first took this thing apart, the large center plate with the track cut out of the center was quite bent. It was bent down far enough that it reached down between the two plates ahead of the intakes. What I did was just gently bend it back up with my fingertips, pressing against the center plate with my thumbs while pulling on the intake plates with my other fingers. Make sure to press evenly on both sides at once so the plate doesn't warp sideways. After a little gentle pressure, the plate should be aligned to look like this: The center metal plate should be parallel to the outer plates, so everything slides in a straight line when moving to battroid mode. Now just a word of caution if you do this... I'm not sure how strong the metal used in that plate is. Die-cast is obviously stronger than plastic, but it's also rather brittle in terms of metal. Don't force the plate to bend, and be very gentle. I probably held my thumbs against the plate pressing it upwards for a good few minutes before it was level. It doesn't take a lot of force, but it does take patience. I really don't want to hear that anyone snapped that plate, and ruined their VF-0. That being said, it really helps the nose stay in place well, and after I did it, I could detach the legs entirely and the nose still stayed pretty level, with almost no gap behind the cockpit shield. Good luck!

Wait, you mean the newer crotch design lowers the cockpit section in battroid mode? I never noticed that, although I admit the collar never bothered me to begin with.

Well.. I suppose you could always set the blue parts for a Max TV 1A out in the sun and hope the blue yellows... Fortunately, the Max and Kakizaki TV 1A's are both the same type of paint scheme, so it's a pretty simple custom repaint to do.

Am I the only one a bit disturbed by the method used to hold on the chest plate?