Chronocidal

Yeesh, that looks crazy.. now I wish they'd add those standard hardpoints to all the planes so we could put missiles on them like that without the clips (and having to shell out for Bandai's exclusive nonsense). Btw, one quick question about the new forum design.. is there a way to restrict the way attachments display to a certain maximum resolution? I really like the new gallery system, and how it lets you click between images, but it also bypasses the normal zoom in/out features of the browser, and won't let you fit the image to your screen. You can still open the pictures in a new tab or window, so it's not really essential, and it's usually not a problem. Just, occasionally someone's really big picture will explode out the side of the message board, and leave the entire screen taken up by something like a wing, or sometimes a single screw.

Very true, I forget that too often. I guess what puzzles me is that the only other time I've gotten FedEx from HLJ, it was during another free shipping sale. It probably has something to do with EMS being 20% off at the moment, but since it was free shipping I didn't look at the rates when I ordered. Either way, it's almost here, and then my V2 1/60 collection will be complete!

Only problem with that is midi's will usually contain every instrumental part for the song, many of which would sound odd on a piano. Doesn't always work that way, but most midis of the song I've heard are of the sung version at the end of DYRL. What you really want is a version like what is played after that, or elsewhere in the movie. I know there are interludes done on piano, and from what I remember of them, they would probably sound very good at a wedding, but I don't know those segments contain the entire song. I'll have to check the complete soundtrack to see. On the other hand, there are multiple versions of Ai Oboete Imasu ka out there. In fact, I'm not sure, but I think the "Bless the Little Queen" track from Frontier is primarily in piano, and might make for a good start. There's also the version in the pilot episode's end credits, not to mention the Mylene version, and probably a few others. Edit: Looking through Amazon Japan, it looks like this book might have what you're looking for. It'll need someone who can read Japanese to be sure, but the web translator I ran it through did mark "love you have remembered or" with an asterisk, indicating "* Publication music is arranged in the one for piano solo." I don't know which style the song might be arranged in though (I would assume the "Queen" version). Macross F Sheet Music If that doesn't work, you might try looking up some of Yoko Kanno's own books. She has done a sheet music book or two with MacF material, and from what I read her books tend to be her own arrangements, not dumbed down in any way for consumers.

See, that just annoys me. I know I clicked the FedEx option, and they still went with EMS... maybe it got mixed up since they charged me for shipping, then removed it again. Oh well, this is actually the first time they shipped EMS directly to LA instead of San Francisco, so it might get here a bit quicker now that it's in the country.

Btw, as whimpy as Shin may have been at first, remember, he did manage to evade a swarm of micro missiles in a 30 year old fighter design. That has to count for something. As for any further debate, I give you these two words: supersonic culbit. Or, whatever you can call that crazy maneuver he pulled on Nora in the final episode. It started as a cobra... then turned into a thrust-vectored, high-alpha, flippity vertical pinwheel of death.

Seconded, thirded, and however many more times it takes to convince them. Although, they did come out with 3 planes from each side in Zero, so it would unbalance things a bit if they do just a VF-0D. In other words, they need to make another SV-51 version to keep the balance. I vote Dobber's splinter version.

Oy, those dingbats.. I specifically requested FedEx for that order I made from HLJ, and now I finally get the shipping notice.. by EMS. *facepalm* No wonder it's been taking so long. Guess I can't complain about it being free, but the last order I got from them by FedEx reached me in two days flat. This one's already hitting a week.

Bleh.. what I want to know is why my free shipping order is taking so long. It was ordered in the middle of last week, and they still haven't sent it out.

True, he even put go-faster stripes on his and Milia's VF-22s! No wonder they were the only ones who could dodge all those Protodeviln space tentacles.

Actually, I don't think I would worry about that tab on the 21/22. In fact, I considered filing those tabs down on my YF-21, because they got in the way.. they're just too big to let the belly plates rotate easily to unfold the legs. With all the pressure on those when trying to pull the belly plates out, I'm not surprised they would get stressed, but I don't think they're absolutely necesary for anything. The plates attach in several other places, and they're held in pretty firmly.

Lol.. well, planes do get dirty, even in space. Mainly I mean I like the details seen in other series better, but I admit colors are a factor. I mean... Yes, it looks fancy. But why on earth would a real aircraft have gold chrome intake covers? Or barring chrome , even yellow? Every other valk in every other series has some shade of gray for those intake covers. They looked mechanical. Even being solid blue, Max's VF-1J still had the usual markings, intake warnings, ejection seat symbols, formation lights... and details that looked like something on an aircraft. Bright gold plated panels are just not a feature you see very often on military aircraft. Anyway, yeah, I'm just picky Been scarred by too much gold chrome plating in that other robot show.

Have to agree there. The only reason I picked up a Fire Valk was because it was on sale, and I was already grabbing a fairly large order, so the small box wouldn't add much to the shipping cost. When I look at my V2 1/60 VF-1s and realize that I got most of them for around $70 before shipping (I almost always wait for sales, I think the only V2 VF-1s I bought at full price were my M&Ms), I have a hard time paying the same for something so small. That being said, if I see this on sale, and/or it's convenient to add it to a larger order, I probably will grab one. Have to admit, I've never been a fan of the stylings of the various valks in M7. M7 is the only Macross I know of where the aircraft really didn't look or behave like aircraft. For a perfect example, compare scenes of the YF-21 in Macross Plus to scenes of the VF-22 in M7. It's the same difference between the VF-17 and VF-171. The little details that add realism, markings, panel lines, etc.. I don't remember a single M7 valk having intake warnings or ejection seat/pod markings printed on them. Those little things make a big difference Now, if I could get a VF-19 styled like the ones in the new Master File book, I'd be all over a full squadron of them. But the cartoony super-robot styling of M7 is so prevalent, you just don't get the same feeling of realism from the aircraft as you do in other Macross series.

If the plastic didn't completely shatter, you could potentially fix him by gluing the hinge and making new pins.

Gah, I knew this would happen. I caught myself thinking earlier, "Watch, they'll have a Yamato sale as soon as the free shipping runs out." In hindsight though, good thing I got the Hikaru+ then.. it's already backordered. Actually... considering it's only 20% off.. or about $25.. the free shipping might have been a bit of a better deal, since I also got a TV CF-1A, and that one's not on sale. In fact, I think most of the discounts on VF-1s are about the same as free shipping. The good discounts are valks that are more expensive to begin with, like the VF-0 and VF-22s, especially Gamlin's. That deal on the Super Hikaru 1J isn't bad either, I'd jump on that if I didn't already have one. I'd kind of like to get that VF-0S... but I've gone back into savings mode, so I shouldn't buy any more stuff until my job is completely secure. I took exception for the free shipping, but I need to not be spending any more for a while.

I got that same "specially processed" message too, dunno what it meant. The trick was my original invoice did include shipping, which just got refunded a day or so after processing.

Same here, got the billing agreement set up long ago, it's basically a one-click buy for me now. By the way, panic mode off, no rage necessary. I did get the email mentioning free shipping as well, but the initial Paypal charge included shipping anyway. This morning HLJ sent me a refund for the shipping, so everything is back to how it should be. I actually wondered if this might happen, and fortunately held off on sending them a rant. What surprised me initially though, even ordering at 3pm their time, I got a notice that the order wouldn't be entered until the next morning. I imagine that had something to do with the mixup, since the order apparently wasn't processed until after the sale ended. This just makes me wonder what their working hours are though, 3pm seems a bit early to me (granted different country; I work 8-5 most days).

I just checked HLJ yesterday, and they seem to be all in stock again, although I don't think any are discounted at the moment.

THOSE FREAKING BASTICHES. I just got the Paypal invoice, and they charged me freaking $60 for shipping. I placed the order way before they ever announced them killing the free shipping deal, around 11pm PST on tuesday, which would be 3pm JST on wednesday June 9, with the 16 hour time difference. The sale ended at 6pm. WHAT THE HELL?? I'm gonna be sending HLJ a nasty complaint letter tonight.

Thing about that area is it's not quite as space limited for fixes, and there's a lot more plastic there to work with. You might be able to fix that with some type of glue, probably thin stuff that will seep into the crack easily. Just make sure to keep rotating the joint while it dries to make sure it doesn't freeze up. I actually just replaced the hinges on my Hikaru 1A last night, my fixes are finally failing after about 8 months (my Roy is still going strong though). One crack I glued before eventually split again, and my replacement pins (paper-clip segments) were too small, and kept falling out of the joint. I'll probably re-glue the crack, glue the pins in at the ends, and save the joints as a backup set.

I think all that the "until allotted stock runs out" bit means is that the offer is only good for items currently in stock, ie, if you order something that's waiting for a restock, you won't get the shipping deal once it's back in stock again. I finally broke down and got myself a 1/60 TV cannon fodder, as well as the Hikaru VF-1S+ version, bringing my collection of VF-1s to what I'm going to call a perfect 10, and stop. I was kind of planning to get a TV stand alone Roy, but considering I've already got the DYRL one, the only thing I'd really be getting was a new pilot. And, since separate DYRL-style strike packs seem to have vaporized into thin air, this was probably the only way I'd get a second set. In the end, I did get a second VF-1S, which is what I'd planned for to begin with, and just traded a tv Roy figure for strike packs, and markings a little more different than a change of head arrow colors. Aside from that though, I stocked up on a few modeling supplies I'd been hearing a lot about in various build-up threads. Picked up enough Tamiya masking tape to last me a good while, some Mr Mark Softer and Setter, Mr Surfacer, and a few Tamiya paint supplies (bottles and colors). This free shipping deal apparently drained their selection severely, but I still got a couple important colors (for a heck of a lot cheaper than my local hobby shop to boot). Sad, I almost convinced myself to buy an armored Ozma kit too, but I think I'll wait for a sale on that one. It's impressive to be sure, but not $90 impressive, and I've already got 8 other Frontier kits to build from their previous sale.

I just read the ad on HLJ about them selling them and couldn't help but laugh... it's nice that they're giving a gurantee that someone outside Japan will get a few, since they specifically say the sale is only good outside the country... but then I read the bit about HLJ getting a grand total of 3 to sell. The process to order it is a bit crazy as well, it's first come first serve, via confirmation emails only.

Sounds like it'll be in scale with the models rather than the DXs, it's advertised as being 1/72 on HLJ's listing.

Oh boy I could go into sooooo much detail for this. A lot of it comes from flight simming, since I'll often substitute that for flying a physical plane around (bonus for the lack of a hand holding the plane, and actual flame effects in the engines ) Note, a lot of these tracks cross over into my own personal label of "eargasmic." 1. "Flight to Neverland" from the movie Hook. I picture this one a lot for aircraft test flights, and if I ever get a pilot's license, I swear I will be either playing or singing/humming this during my first solo (regulations permitting). 2. "Ride the Dragon," or "Escape from the Dragon" from the Shrek orchestral score, used a lot for YF-19 flights in Flight Simulator. (Also of note: in my own head, I always hear "Escape from the Dragon" when watching the attack run on the second Death Star in ROTJ.. Sheesh.. There's even a roar sound that would synch up nicely with the explosion wave forming...I get chills just thinking about how well that would fit. Pacing is a little different, but I want to do a recut with that music someday.) 3. Northern Cross is a fun one. The fast paced lyrics in that one are like the vocal equivalent of a barrel-roll laden, Itano Circus massacre. Same for Lion and Infinity to an extent, but I associate those more with high-G dogfights and aircraft carrier punches than with crazy missile swarms. 4. Voices, Aimo, or .. whatever the name for the Mac0 end theme was that Aimo replaced in MacF, mainly for just smooth sailing, like sailplane flights, or Alto's cloud cruising. 5. If I had a CF to fly around, it'd be "TNT" (watch me explode! ) 6. For anything Mac7 related, it's usually "Holy Lonely Night" (for me, one of my favorite parts in the series was when that song got first used in battle, just because it was new and different ), although, I'm really starting to like some of the Fire Bomber tracks not used in the series like "Diamond Calling" and "Tread the Lightless Night." 7. Thanks to Forrest Gump, I'll always picture destroid (especially jungle) warfare accompanied by "For What it's Worth," or maybe "Fortunate Son." There's so much more too.. The Origa/Kanno tracks from GITS, the entire Macross Plus soundtrack.. Heck, even Yackety Sax (the Benny Hill high speed slapstick music) works well for missile barrages. It's like every track I listen to has a flight equivalent. Actually, I think it's something my brain does.. I don't know why, but I tend to associate pitches (notes on the scale) with angles, or motions. It's not always consistent, but it's like converting the whole "do-re-mi" bit into roll, pitch, and yaw angles.

Oooooh... Just got word that HLJ is having another Paypal-related free express shipping sale! I've held off ordering anything, maybe now's the time to get a couple more kits and Valks.

Heh.. bet if you could get apart the leg it'd be simple, but the VF-0s come from Yamato's, "Screw it, we'll just glue the whole darn thing together" phase. The YF-19, VF-0, and SV-51 are all nearly impossible to get apart to fix without breaking them worse than they started.