rapierdragon

I've re-drawn the scans into an oversided bitmap. Did anyone want a copy?

All you need to do is open it in windows paint, then go to file > page setup and set the print size to 23% of normal.

Well here's repro's reply:

I'm sorry to say that at this time we're not taking custom request. We've just done a release and are already working on the next one as well preparing for TFCON 2012.

TFCON = TransFormers CONvention. Sometimes known as "bot-con"

I'll take a look around the web later today and see if I can find another company that does this sort of stuff.

I've sent a copy of the sticker scans to www.reprolabels.com which is a local company that specializes in reproduction stickers for Transformers toys.

I also managed to dig up a set of the SDF-1 (Takutoku version) sticker sheets. They have many of the same stickers, but also have many others that came "already on" such as red-lines on the feet/engines and dozens of small arrows and such.

If you want a copy of the Takutoku-version stickers, let me know.

I've no idea when reprolabels.com will have the SDF-1 stickers ready for sale. Hopefully I'll hear back within a few days as to an estimated release date and estimated release price.

I guess since Benson13 asked first, he gets the first chance to buy them if you have the stickers.

Before you sell them though, please put them in a scanner and scan me a copy!

I can always laminate a printed copy, or maybe take a copy on a memory-stick to one of those places that makes you custom stickers.

I'm also looking for the sticker sheet for the large 1985 Matchbox SDF-1. (The big transformable one, you know, which is like 15 inches long in cruiser mode).

Would also accept a good-quality scan of the stickers.

Would even accept a good-quality scan of the stickers for the small 1985 Matchbox diecast non-transforming SDF-1 (cause I can up-size them to print at about the right size/quality to match those needed for the larger Matchbox SDF-1 transformer).

I've also heard that about half to 3/4's of the stickers can be found in a smaller version for the 1985 diecast SDF-1 (which is like 7 inch tall and fixed to battloid form. I think its true, I used ot have the Matchbox SDF-1 diecast as a kid, and I think I still got it packed away somewhere - just not sure where cause I moved last summer.

Oddly, I seem to recall someone saying that the larger transforming Matchbox SDF-1 has TWO sticker sheets. Don't remember reading if that's cause there were more stickers or just that since the stickers are like double-sized that it took too sheets to get them all.

Anyways, if you have scans, or know a link to someone who sells reproduction stickers, email me.

Matt Shokoff

matsho@sympatico.ca

I have one of the long shoulder guns but it's a little yellowed. Let me know if you are still interested.

Yeah, I'm interested. How much for it and how much for shipping?

I recently managed to buy a mostly-intact transforming 1985 Matchbox SDF-1 on ebay.

For the most part, other than yellowing of the white plastic, the toy is in pretty good condition.

I would like to find some parts though to fix it up. (see attached reference pic at end of this post). I may add on to my wants list after it finally arrives (other than the boom tips, its a bit hard to see how off-white the body/bridge area has gotten).

1985 Matchbox SDF-1 parts wanted:

- at least one of the four "long shoulder guns" (these typically are broken on used SDF's). If you have more than one, great, I may be willing to buy the others so that I have spares.

- an unused sticker/decal sheet (or a good scan of it)

- the white forward parts of the main gun (each has two tiny little pointy bits. I would like them intact.) OR if you can't remove those parts (or don't know how) then I can just as easily buy the whole boom.

- the "front wheels door cover" (underside of main body).

PRICING

I've no idea if there is an existing guide for prices on the parts or not.

I figure the more rare the part, the more you could probably ask for it. I'm hoping though to find the parts cheap.

I would be using paypal to pay for the parts.

SHIPPING

Obviously I'd be paying to cover shipping. I'm in Canada. Given the small size of the parts, you can probably bubble-wrap them into a small box (like an empty matchbox or bandages box or something) and then mail it in a bubble-wrap envelope (which you can buy at most dollar-stores and most post offices, usually for under $3.00 USD)

funny idea I just came up with... maybe someone here can draw it...

... a reverse Klan-Klan...

its a huge (8 foot?) tall "adult" her as her miclone form (so as a miclone she looks like macro-Klan but is "too tall" or at least above-average height standing a good foot taller than Michel and is banging her head of door frames (like Gloval when he enters the SDF-1 bridge back in the first or second Macross ep and stuff)

and then when she zentraedi's up she becomes a Zentraedi-sized version of chibi-Klan (so her macro form looks/acts like chibi-Klan)... can just see her throwing a kid-fit "I WANT an ICE CREAM!!!" at Michel who is now 10-times more scared of other Zentraedi (can you imagine? They don't know she's adult as a miclone and think she's a kid and then she mentions she's sleeping with this guy and all the Zent's start thinking he's a pedophile so he's like running around hiding behind signs and garbage bins while at the Zentraedi Mall)

thanks for naming it... managed to find it by that name on youtube (which I can hopefully extract to an mp3 for my mp3-player) ... hoping to find lyrics translation somewhere too

Anyone know the name of the song that Ranka sings at the end of (I think its ep 19) just prior to the credits (when she's running up to meet Alto on the roof only to find Sheryl in Alto's arms) and then you hear it again in the first 30 seconds of (think its ep 20) just prior to the Lion OP when they're flashing back to her on stage and then running up the stairs to meet Alto? (same concert where you see a fake Vajra in the crowd waving its eyeball-tentacles back and forth to the beat).

You can somewhat hear it in the background as Alto and Sheryl are talking to each other on the roof and the camera angles down so you see Ranka down performing on stage.

Only line I really remember offhand is "dakun dakun dakun" (not sure of spelling...) she's singing bout hearing her boyfriend's heart and how its a wonderfull sound and a pleasant sound... guessing the "dakun" is kind of the japanese way of describing teh sound a heart makes when its beating. Kind of like "doki doki" is sometimes used as a text for the "heart beat" in some other J-pop lyrics or games, or "ka-thump ka-thump" would be similarly used in an english book (like a romance).

I've checked sites like AnimeLyrics.com and there's no mention of the song, and its not on the Macross Frontier OST-1.

I've looked around in the lyrics for other Macross series but don't see anything like it there either.

I'm guessing there's no real reference because in total you only hear like a total of maybe 20 seconds of the song/music just prior to Ranka being shown running up teh stairs (which is when it you hear her thinking "Alto-kun! Alto-kun!"). Roughly the same 20 or so seconds of music/vocal is used in the opening teaser while they review the ending of the previous episode. (and then after the Lion OP you get the dozens of small Vajra showing up, followed by Ranka singing Aimo (but failing cause her emotions are sad) thereby triggering the arrival of thousands of tiny flying Vajra from under the ground.

Would post the episode # but I'm just doing a quick post before bed. If no one replies by tomorrow I'll do a search through my downloads to see if I can pull up the episode #'s (think its end of 19, start of 20, if I'm remembering that 21 is where Michel dies at the end. If Michel dies in ep 20 then its heard at end of 18 and opening teaser of 19).

rapierdragon

LOL I am Michel, of Borg?

LOL ya... "I am Michel of Borg. I will sleep with any hot-chick I can fool with false flattery. Your technological and biological data will be recorded in my little black book of chicks I've sleep with. Resistance to my charm futile, providing your IQ isn't less than your age (which it rarely is). Klan will then slap the living daylights out of me."

http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=37gu1.jpg

And the answer is: Ai-Kun

-quoted from Shaka_Z-

I've posited elsewhere that miclone chambers probably work in a similar fashion to jump-clones in EvE Online, with the exception that the body being cloned from is likely destroyed in the process, and the range of the consciousness transfer is limited to the chamber itself. I do beleive however that eventually macross tech will overcome those issues eventually, since we humans are somewhat more inventive than the zentraedi were.

-end quote-

Consciousness would be limited to the chamber, yeah, but at some point during the transfer from small to big (or vice-versa) I'd guess the brain would be shut-down to allow for safety. No idea if they'd just use some kind of stasis field or if it would just be like falling asleep for a few minutes into a dreamless sleep. Stasis would be my guess after reviewing teh scene where Klan changed size while thinking about Michel (in the ep where his sniping ability is questioned).

Yeah, they had something like that in one of the more sci-fi episodes of The Outer Limits (2002 or so) where instead everyone physically travelling the whole way they "sent robot ships" and would put a body into stasis to scan it and use tachyon-communications or some such to beam the scan info to its destination where it was rebuilt.

Or as they say in the DragonTails Online (comic): "What's teh difference between a transporter and a (other)" and the smart one says "One converts you into energy and PHYSICALLY SENDS YOU there to be turned back into matter. The other essentially makes a scan of you to sends non-living data to build a new you over therE. The former is plenty safe as its like flying there, the latter is more like an INCINERATOR."

-quoted from 'theplasticwerks'-

...So it IS like resizing in Photoshop!

Do ya think everyone has their own macro/micro chamber (this seems to be the case aboard the Quarter) to reduce "contamination" or to preserve cellular matter (for lack of a better term)?

-end quote-

Well in the few scenes where we see them it looks like they're not far from the SMS veritech parking bays and Q-Rea parking bays (which makes sense... no point having macro zent's walking halfway around island-1 just to park their war machines).

Looks like 4 or 5 machines together in one row along the wall, and I'd guess there would be a similar row along the opposite wall (which we don't really see from the camera angle overlooking the raised ledge/platform where Alto was standing during that chat with Klan where she told him bout Michel's sis.

In all chance they share the chambers with some kind of tissue-destroying radiation or cleaning-fluid-cycle being used after the chamber has been emptied out to clean it of any leftover microbes/loose-hair/whatnot.

That or they only have the one row of machines and the Q-Rea parking area is along the opposite wall for quick asscess. I mean if operation time was under 10 minutes it would be nice and handy for the Pixie's to get from the chambers to their mecha really quickly. I STRONGLY DOUBT THIS THOUGH as despite the ease of access it wouldn't take much more than a damaged mecha, injured pilot, or what not to overshoot during landing or accidently crash into a resizign chamber (which would kill anyone within it if it were damaged that badly during use).

---overall imagined process---

(regardless of upsizing or downsizing)

(1) -several seconds- person enters chamber (naked it woud appear). If they have an artificial arm/eye/etc it must be removed prior to entry as the chamber can only upsize/downsize ORGANIC matter. (possible tech upgrades due in future?)

(2) -several minutes- both chambers fill with liquid (some kind of breatheable stuff like what babies breathe while in their mother's womb)

(3) -several seconds- pre-transfer security checks, integrity checks, system checks, anti-contamination checks

(4) -several seconds or less- contents of the "occupied" chamber are placed into stasis/sleep/whatever (to prevent thrashing around or movement or brain-damage)

(4b) -several seconds- possible "healing" cycle (scrapes/bruises only... missing eyes/limbs/etc are not replaced)

(possible tech upgrades due in future? perhaps a left-arm could be copied and reversed to replace a missing right arm?)

(5) -several seconds in Macross Frontier- high-speed scans via (techno-babble) occur to get a quantum-level scan of the person within (this step possibly took several dozen minutes originally back during/before Space War 1)

(5 note) in all likelihood this is the step where Klan's problem occurs when downsizing... some kind of "age" gene must partially misread like a fragmented file or crosslinked file on a computer... then when upsizing the the gene is incorrectly read again, however this time the error in reading it somehow translates back into it being read correctly... sort of a case where two wrongs make a right... kind of like if you flip a "b" it turns into a "d", and if you flip a "d" it turns back into a "b" (or you can rotate it around... p > d > p ... the error somehow self-corrects)

(6) -several seconds in Macross Frontier- transfer of particles and addition/subtraction of additional matter (depending on if upsizing or downsizing) (this step possibly took 30 minutes to 12 hours back during/before Space War 1)

(7) -several seconds- post-transfer checks are run (similar to step 3, except with checks for transfer errors to be corrected also being done)

( -several seconds or less- person within chamber is taken out of stasis (or regains consciousness / wakes up from sleep)

(9) -30 to 120 seconds or so- chamber is emptied, possible "rinse" and/or "drying" cycles occurs

(10) -several seconds- chamber opens, person gets out, closes door behind them

(11) after confirming that the chamber is vacated the computer runs a rapid "cleaning" cycle to remove any bio-residue (loose hairs, dead skin cells, sweat, etc). Chamber is then ready for next person to use it.

About that-- given how Zentran macronize, since their brain is then 5x larger, shouldn't they be SMARTER than micronians, too? o_O

Well atomically you can't just take a hydrogen atom and pull the electron into a 5x orbit (cause that much of a distance difference would mean the magnetic property of the protron/electron wouldn't be strong enough to keep it in orbit, so the electron would go shooting away).

And I highly doubt they can magically make the proton 5x larger and the electron 5x larger and so on. (cause again then their magnetic properties would be magnified too in all likelihood.) Even if you did you'd have to recalculate teh proper distances for the electron orbital shells for various atoms and such, and any mistake would rapidly turn a zentraedi into a living pile of radioactive material which would either rapidly break down and/or die.

So I'd guess, since we know they are heavier when they are macro-size, that additional atoms are added into them as a filler. I can't really imagine individual cells being magnified to 5x normal size, but as to whether they actually use those atoms or those atoms are merely used as spacing and linkage blocks around other cells, well, no idea there either. They don't seem 5x smarter, so obviously they don't really have 5x the brain-cells, which suggests that eiher the cells themselves are bigger or that two adjacent cells are moved apart and then a bunch of "spacing" cells are placed between them, kind of like putting extra support-spans into a bridge to extend it.

AB

CD

wold turn into (+ being the "spacing cells", some active if in the lungs/heart etc, others more like non-active fat cells or bone-tissue if in the brain or something)

A++B

++++

++++

C++D

So when a Zentraedi down-sizes all that extra matter/mass must be removed and stored somewhere, and then when they up-size back up they have it re-added to them. (its possible rather than store it as physical matter in like a pool that the machine stores it as energy, but I doubt it would be stored as energy as the usual e=mc^2 would apply, so even a small leak in energy storage would be like a big nuke going off.)

But that's all OFF-TOPIC from what I asked.

I'm asking, when Klan Klan (or another Frontier-era Zent) gets into the machine, how long till she comes back out?

-Is it like 50 seconds?

-2 to 5 minutes?

-15 minutes? 30 minutes? 60 minutes?

-90 minutes?

-2 or 3 hours?

I did a fully-transformable one (earlier this year) which you can print out, fold up, and stand for display

and its available for download here:

http://www.savefile.com/files/1623117 (free download, no login/registration required)

Its completed size/shape is based on the original 1987 transformable toy (which I wished I had but don't, so I had to rely on like a dozen high quality pictures from one I once saw on ebay for like $400+ US dollars)

Actually there's a great completed model for downloading over on teh zealot paper-model / card-model forums. You can even print it out (over like 5 pages small version, 10 pages large I think) and then fold it up and presto, you've got your own FULLY TRANSFORMING model of the SDF-Macross (though its listed under robotech on teh forum).

http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php...4958&page=7

there's one by getter1 on like page 4 or so, but it was his first version and a number of areas are mis-proportioned (and it wasn't really meant to be transformable. He's working on an updated version using the corrected sizes from mine (which are based on the original 1987 transformable toy).

Actually there's a great completed model for downloading over on teh zealot paper-model / card-model forums. You can even print it out (over like 5 pages small version, 10 pages large I think) and then fold it up and presto, you've got your own FULLY TRANSFORMING model of the SDF-Macross (though its listed under robotech on teh forum).

http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php...4958&page=7

there's one by getter1 on like page 4 or so, but it was his first version and a number of areas are mis-proportioned (and it wasn't really meant to be transformable. He's working on an updated version.

I also did a fully-transformable one (see pictures of the quick-build on page 6 and 7) and its available for download here:

http://www.savefile.com/files/1623117 (free download, no login/registration required)

Here's a good question someone with one of the RPG manuals might be able to answer for me.

The resizing chamber ("micronization chamber" or whatever you call it).

How long does it take for a Zentraedi to go from macron to micron or vice-versa?

(trying to get info for an RPG me and a few friends are doing here).

Cause in original macross it seems like it took a day, if not a good 6 to 12 hours, for one to down-size or be sized back up to full-size. (Trying to remember how long it took for the three zentraedi spies to be shrunk down so they could go spy within the SDF-Macross).

Seems the tech has been seriously updated by Macross Frontier (some 45 years later). Klan Klan seems to go from full size to micron in something like under an hour to as short as under little (no joke intended) as two minutes.

What about an "emergency reverse" feature? Say a Zentraedi gets in and is getting reduced to micronian size, and there like 10% switched down, when suddenly the ship comes under attack. Would they be stuck finishing down-sizing and then have to macro back up (leaving them out of the battle) or could some technician hit a reverse button and get them back to full macro size soon enough for them to possibly get out into battle? Or say they wanted to save the warrior within the chamber but needed them out sooner than planned cause there was a severe need to conserve power?

Frontier References for Klan Klan's sizing:

Like she's macro when she's out testing Alto (episode 2? 4? I forget) but then like later that same evening she's chibi when she shows up at the restaurant with her Pixie Squad... which has to be like 2 to 3 hours later cause the Miss Frontier contest was on when Alto left to go fight but the contest is already over by the time they meet in the restaurant (Alto: "who let the kid in here?" Klan: "I am not a kid! I am Captain Klan Klan!" Surprised Alto: "Klan?" Michel: "Klan's genetics are complex! For some reason she ends up like this whenever she turns into a micronian.")

I mean look at episode, uh, I forgot the number... the one where Michel's sniping ability was in question... it shows her in the chamber and you hear her thinking about him (cause he went out and didn't return) and then in like 10 seconds she's gone from small to big. (though that fast a change may have just been to speed the story along and suggest more time had passed).

Think I figured out the whole debate over a few of the Sheryl and Ranka things...

(1) First one experimented on: Sheryl Nome. Yeah, she says her mother gave her the earings, but it was probably because they couldn't incorporate fold-quartz into a living person at that time. Result: one often-sick child who (for a while) ends up living on mean the streets of Galaxy because her mother is dead and Grace fits that mad-doctor+b!tch role.

(2) if Ranka is a Vajra or was merely "experimented on" by grace and her mother and all that...

I think its a mix. Take one captured, semi-dead Vajra (see the pic that Klan Klan pulls up in her research) and Ranka's mother, and mix some DNA in a dish and a few months later Ranka was born. Then the 117th fleet gets ambushed and from Grace's perspective Ranka is lost/dead so she instead works with the older, existing human/vajra hybrid who needs the Fold Quartz earrings to be the slightest bit effective.

(3) Sheryl / Ranka as sisters

Not full-sisters, but maybe half-sisters (different mothers, same father as it were). A few years after Sheryl is born they realize she's got some genetic problems so they ship her from 117th over to Galaxy for treatment, and advancements have been made in the research showing that if they use some Zent DNA they can get a hybrid kid with the Fold Quartz in them. So rather than use Dr Nome for a DNA source they use Ranka's mom.

(4) Not long after the 117th gets attacked

Grace goes home to Galaxy to find that those over-corporate b@st@rds have thrown Sheryl out on the street cause her mother is missing/dead and because the hybrid project was kept secret they just didn't know any better. Meanwhile the young Ranka gets saved by Ozma and suffers Dissassociative Amnesia and all that (what kid wouldn't if they were this bizarre human/zentraedi/vajra mix). Obviously her Vajra side is so low that its mistaken for Zentraedi DNA (that or Frontier's lesser cyberbiotic and health-care tech's don't even identify it, or someone hides it).

(5) Most recently (ep12 to 17)

The ever adaptive Vajra figure they're gonna send some cute little Ai-Kun green legless squarrels over to Frontier to grow up exposed to Ranka's singing so they'll be immune. It was probably part of the reason teh secret-group arranged for Ranka's capture too... so that the Vajra mother-queen could learn of her half-daughter. (and while the queen gets killed, at the end of ep17 or whatever when the whole Frontier fleet is in fold we see what I'm guessing to be the ship of the Vajra Empress (mother of the other queen-mother's).

Question is, are those Vajra who hatched while being raised right under the collective Frontier noses be wild, or cultured like post-war Zentraedi, or maybe wild but loyal to Ranka, or what?

(future)

I'd like to see Sheryl live. Seems to me she survived on teh meds fairly well up until she met Ranka, so in all likelihood some part of their shared vajra heritage is what is making Sheryl all sick and dying suddenly, so maybe some Ranka-exposure (or maybe a partial blood transfer from Ranka to Sheryl) would cure Sheryl?

As cool as it is to see a Viper flip around and fly backwards on its inertia while the pilot shoots at the craft following him/her ... its just really very stupid flying. One good rock or anything (like an enemy mine or missile or a tiny nut having fallen off another ship) would zip right up your momentarily-offline exhaust/thrust vent and breach something, and the moment you turned your main thrust back on you'd blow up.

Only exception would be if there was some kind of camera on the rear of the Viper so that the pilot could still safely stear by watching where the ship was going while targeting the enemy at the same time. Even then it would still be extremely risky of getting smaller particles wedged into critical engine parts.

Think about it. Its why they keep runways and stuff so clean... you might not think a half-packet of peanuts is dangerous to the inner workings of a F-17 or whatever, but they easily get sucked in and accelerated to a velocity where they can puncture thinner structures (or jam them). And if that's just a few peanuts, imagine what harder items like some space-pebbles or spent anti-missile flak would do.

Its pretty obvious to me...

(top left) Alto + Sheryl

(bottom center) Alto + Ranka

(top right) Alto + Michel (possibly after Michel acting yaoi to Alto) so Alto is kicking Michel in the privates

Got to steal this one from Animesuki, its damn cute

Actually I think I goofed in the reference... I meant to refer it to (roughly) the same class as the VB-6 Konig Monster (in terms of usage and rareity on the battlefield). I mean its not like you'd see an entire wing of these things around, especially in space combat.

So while it would have the semi-full fighter/gerwalk/battloid transformation, the transformation itself would be far more basic than most veritechs (almost jokingly so).

Size would be larger than the VF-25/VF-25-super/VF-27, but smaller than the Konig Monster (which has 4 rail cannons and 6 missile launchers). This would put its stats roughly between the two I think.

Quoting the sizes from new-un-spacey.com

Dimensions:

VF-25

Battroid Mode: height 15.59 meters (includes head lasers).

Fighter Mode: wingspan 15.5 (fully extended); height 4.03 meters; length 18.72 meters

VB-6 Konig Monster

Shuttle/Bomber Mode: wingspan 24.42 meters; height 6.77 meters; length 29.78 meters.

Notes on weapons:

I was thinking the long-range beam weapon capacity would be a pair of something like what the VF-27 carries: each being a cross between Michel's sniper-rifle (listed as VF-25G "rail-sniper with target assisting balancers" except without the balancers) and the large quantum beam gun pod (Brera Sterne's VF-27 weapon).

Not sure if they'd be fixed to the arms in battloid form, but certainly be fixed across the top/back when in fighter and gerwalk mode (maybe a bit like the super pack thrusters from VF-1 but much smoother and more integrated into the design, only popping up "above" the fighter/gerwalk when actually firing. (lol: firing them in their "parked" position would probably shred the upper half of the fighter off).

I will have to see if I have lego parts to make something akin to what I'm talking bout.

Having the head turn into part of the chest would make it look too much like certain other VF's (not to mention a number of tranformers).

Don't forget, the four-legged gerwalk form is this thing's long-range sniping form, but being a dragon (with talons, fangs, horns, tail, etc) would also means this VF makes for some really cruel up-close-and-personal type action (for when the ammo runs low)

Plus, a dragon-style head in battloid offers extra abilities... like...

(1) sinking your fangs into an enemy...

(2) head-butting them (head is extra armored unlike typically weak VF heads ... so a move like this would probably damage if not destroy the typical VF's head)...

(3) course, if that top horn could tilt/angle forwards the head-butt would also be a physical goring move (as effective and

deadly as penetrating the enemy's chest/neck/head with a long-dagger or short-sword)...

(4) mouth could always double as a hiding compartment for a plasma-based flame-thrower or plasma fireball blaster or something (course, with the pilot up in the brain area behind the eyes, any kind of backfire or misfire would probably kill the pilot)

Gah... starting to sound like this thing was designed for fighting the Vajra (or possibly design-inspired by them)

I'd say I'd put a set of swords on this thing except ... "Macross VF + swords = gundam wing"

A dragon-veritech is partially designed for extended physical combat beyond its running out of ammo, but it's armor and weapon layout put it more into the role of the Beast-mk4's (cannon VF's)... it makes long-range sniping attacks as a 4-leg gerwalk then serves more as a defense destroid. It isn't loaded with the tons of missiles as most other fighters are.

It CAN go fully offensive, but with its long-range beam weapons low (or out of) ammo it would have to constantly switch from fighter (to get to an enemy) to gerwalk/battloid (to gore/rip apart the enemy) and back to fighter (to seek/reach its next enemy).

Its lifespan as a defensive unit is high, but while its still quite deadly as an offensive unit it's lifespan would shorten tremendously as other enemy units could simply try to stay back and attack it from a safe range (which once its out of ammo, would mean anything further than an arm-length away would keep you safe from it).

Slightly off topic, but funny point about piloting a VF:

In one of the Robotech novels they talk about the absolute need for teh "thinking cap" (the helmet with brain-scanners or whatever the Macross version is called)...

Why?

Just think about it as you read these tidbits:

-Early WW2 fighters has what, a dozen controls and dials in total?

-By 1970 the average fighter had over 30 switches + a dozen dials + other controls.

-By 2000 the average fighter (f-15 thru F-21 or whatnot) has over 50 switches alone... nevermind the over five dozen or so dials, and dozen or so controls... (ever been in a 747's cockpit? or a space-shuttle's cockpit? or seen a movie with said cockpit?)

Last I checked, humans only had two eyes, two hands, and two feet.

Hell.... you'd be lucky if you could find the "start" button within the first twenty minutes of searching.

Mind you, the tail hasn't been started, and most of the "gray" bits (namely just below the knees and the hands) are going to probably be redone. The connection between the red knee-block and the bit below it is flimsy (was running short on good parts) but I think if I can get another "EXO-force Deep Jungle" (spider) lego set that I'll have the blocks I need to stablize it nicely (as is the lower-legs fall off if you pick the veritech up by the body)

I was originally going to have those three-fingered things for both hands and feet (with an 3-unit long angled block to form the "thumb" on the hands and the "heel-toe" on the feet, but I managed to find some nice little talon-like bits in the "EXO-force Deep Jungle (spider) set. I'll be looking for another set like it tomorrow (in-town place was all out) which means I'll have some really nice pointy talons (which I can open and close) for the hands too!

First set of pictures (sorry if they're a bit blurry... taken them at night in my room with lousy bedroom lights on... next set I'll try to take during the day when I've got better lighting)

soon there will be some

I've been trying to build one out of lego... using these sets

Mega Bloks (old set) of red dragon + black ninja (ninja can tf into helicopter/chopper)

-got it 2nd hand for bout $3.00 Canadian ($1 Cdn = $1 US)

-mainly using the dragon-head, feet, small red wing pieces, and 3-claw hands

----bought the box 2nd hand and it had 2 sets of the 3-claw hands so I'm adapting one set to serve as feet

-and the main spine/waist joiners

-and lots of black blocks and lots of red blocks

----they don't hold together 1/10th as well as lego

----so in a few places I had to put a drop or two of dollar-store super-glue so the parts don't fall apart

Lego (new mars-mission set: ETX Alien Infultrator)

-lots and lots of black blocks

-curved wings for the main part of the jet/dragon wings

Lego Creator 3-in-1 (green locomotive aka train engine : appx $6)

-using some small parts for jointers and details

Lego Exoforce : Deep Jungle (appx $10)

-black parts, orange detail parts, small joints/hinges

PROGRESS:

-Figure just needs legs/feet joints to be done and then overall armor/appearance (inner TF spline done)

-figure will be capable of Fighter mode, a 4-legged Gerwalk mode, and upright Battloid mode

-looks pretty good so far (maybe it'll inspire some more realistic designs here)

PICTURES:

-coming in a day or two