Valkyrie Driver

You're right I did say that. My tone didn't really translate the way I had intended. I had intended it to sound sarcastically rhetorical as in to imply "of course they are dummy, it would be the same without..." I'll try to phrase my sarcastic comments better, so we don't have to repeat this exercise.

By staple I meant the noun use of the word meaning basic, chief, or principle element. Meaning pretty much what you said. Love triangles being a principle element (staple) in Macross. Also can be used as an adjective. I know they're integral to the plot, and character development, I didn't mean to trivialize it. Even though I enjoy the Dogfights much more than the awkward [mostly]teen romantic drama...

I went after it again because it was bugging me, and guess what. It went on. Not smoothly, there was a fair bit of fiddling, but I got it. Leg needed another click at the knee. It's a royal pain in the butt, and never before has a toy made me throw my hands up in the air and give up (after gingerly setting the toy down of course). I got it, now I just need to get those silly boosters on... edit/ As usual the right side is giving me trouble. The right booster will not lock in place. Which is a bit frustrating.

Aren't love triangles kind of a Macross staple? I mean the only series I can think of that didn't really have one was 7, unless you count that thing with Gigil liking Sivil but Sivil and Basara being into each other... But that's not really a love triangle, more like a couple with an awkward third wheel...

Man, now I want some tornado parts and a YF-25...

OK, so I just tried to put the super parts on, they went on fine in battroid and gerwalk, but on mine in fighter mode I just couldn't get everything to line up properly, I have not had many toys with super parts (VF-1S Roy V2, and the VF-11C are the only two, my SV-51 if you count the wing boosters and MY VF-0 if you count those conformal parts), but these legitimately made me want to scream. The only parts that aren't a pain are the ones that go on top of the shoulders. But they're kind of a pain unto themselves because it's easy to forget about them, and leave them on. Granted that's minor, but still. I didn't even get the YF-19 base parts on because I couldn't get the knee and gerwalk joint to move in unison. I'll keep trying, but damn that's a bit upsetting. I did see the gappiness y'all were talking about with the leg parts, and that's kind of irksome, but I can get over that if I can just get the thing together in fighter mode... Besides, aside from that one part in Macross plus that we all remember, and the silly boosters in M7, when do we ever really see the 19 with super parts...

I just need more VF-1 in my diet...

True, avionics do drive the cost up. I think you're missing the point though. Textron has built a fully mission capable aircraft capable of performing the same mission that the reaper drone performs, but with a better safety rating (i.e. it'll crash less, meaning we won't have to buy as many, as often), and thus cheaper overall operating costs (It's only 3 million dollars more per unit). It would be a perfect for airborne FAC, and low threat close air support. The other benefit is that Textron built it with off the shelf parts, and made its capabilities expandable. Also, you need to check again on the A-10, last I heard the latest attempt to remove it from service was shot down. The F-16 and F-15 do not do the CAS mission better than the dedicated A-10. They never will. The F-16, and F-15 are satisfactory, but the A-10 is superb. When given a choice the boots on the ground want the A-10, because it scares the hell out of the enemy. It's also one of the few aircraft in the inventory that can be rebuilt. It can be taken back to zero time, A-10 mechanics have told me this. I'm sorry but your argument is flawed. The F-35 was designed by committee, it has far too many design compromises to make it effective at all the roles. I'm not saying that the F-35 isn't a valuable addition to the inventory, but it is not something you can build an air force on. An update of the F-20 tigershark would make a great replacement for the F-16 in the national guard inventory, while the Textron Scorpion would be a great replacement for the A-10 in the same way. Both airframes would make valuable additions to the Regular Air Force inventory supplementing the current aircraft. I'm not sold on the necessity of a main stealth fighter, beyond the first week of conflict. After that it pretty much becomes a conventional fight, and you don't fight BVR anyway, so stealth will get you inside visual range, and then it's useless, because the enemy can still see you. I'm not sold on drones for anything other than dangerous, dull, and dirty missions. I will tell you that I think the procurement process really screwed the pooch on the F-35 and F-22. They are plagued by problems, and are egregiously over-budget. I'm sorry they could be the greatest planes in the world mechanically, but their cost, is too high to make them viable. Noyhauser, you're advocating a position that is part of why DoD funding is always on the chopping block, because you're advocating the latest and greatest shiny new toys, when good enough is more than adequate to fill our needs.

Did you see her in the leather outfit earlier in the movie? Yeah, still not that flattering. I must confess, though that I have a specific hatred for that uniform (Nobody I ever met liked wearing their blues...), so I don't think it looks good on anyone... I think it's more of a case that the uniform looks better with her wearing it, than her looking good wearing the uniform...

Just so we're on the same page, I was talking about the ones that go on top of the shoulders, not the ones that go on the end.

Nice find on that retro valk.

I want to get a VF-0S and VF-0D, but Bandai's offerings just fit in my budget better and they're making a lot of things I like. Sure I'd love to have an Arcadia YF-19 to go along with my Bandai and Yamato 19's, but it's not that big a deal for me. The Big things Arcadia is making that I want are the VF-1J GBP set, the VF-0D, VF-0S and armor, and the VF-0A (eventually). I'd also really want an SV-51 if they do one, and a Max VF-1A. If they released an updated VF-22S in Max and Milia I'd want those too, but Bandai has all of those frontier valks that I love so much, and their price point is so much better. I'd hate to see Arcadia go out of business, and they have a market, it's just really small, so they need to charge more to make that profit. That's really their own fault though, as they priced themselves into that market to begin with. Still I hope they're turning a profit and can keep the doors open. I picked up my VF-19 Advance for about $266 shipped NIB, which is really good considering some of the prices I've seen for it. That put me into a Y/VF-19 toy for less than half of what I've seen Arcadias go for (up to $900) with much of the same advantages over the original Yamato 1/60. Wow, I'm sorry you had to pay that much for it. I don't think I'd have paid that much, but I guess it was worth that to you. Great toy, I've not had mine even 24 hours and it's already my favorite.

Does anyone have any theories as to what the additional shoulder pieces on the VF-19 Advance super parts are supposed to be? Some thoughts are that they're missile bays, but they look a bit shallow to be that.

The USAF and USN used to use a clearcoat on the natural metal finish, but it was hard to maintain and increased radar reflectivity, we stopped doing that in the 60's, after that we moved to a gloss white. Paint is mostly for corrosion resistance, though the low vis grey that we started using in the 80's replaced the Lizard schemes. The reason for matte finishes over gloss finishes, is matte paints are more forgiving. Gloss paint makes it hard to get an even finish, and the gloss paints we used were incredibly toxic. Matte paints are less so. Light and radar reflection and ease of maintenance are the big reason why we use matte paints now. Just as a note, the Gloss white paint we used in the 60's to the 80's was an Isocyanate base, and it was a hard and resilient surface, so it provided great corrosion resistance, trouble is, it was highly toxic as I noted before. So there is precedent for Glossy fighters.

I'm ok with that. I mean it's unrealistic, because no female uniform ever looks good on a pretty woman...

My dad and I are huge proponents of supplying the Air National Guard with inexpensive aircraft for several reasons; 1) The Air Guard doesn't should be for defending the homeland so they don't need to have the same aircraft that the REGAF does. 2) Proper national Air Defense requires numbers, you can't do that with expensive aircraft. 3) Drones are great for Dangerous, Dull, and Dirty missions, but they cannot and should not fly Air Combat, the operator is not invested in the fight, and doesn't have the situational awareness because of the camera. 4) The National Guard (Army and Air) are second line troops, they need the best equipment for the job, but that doesn't mean it has to be the most advanced, second line doesn't mean second rate. I'm not sold on the F-35, at all. I think we need to replacing the F-15, F-16, and A-10's with aircraft designed to replace them individually. The F-15 is a big, fast, maneuverable dogfighter, designed to kill enemy aircraft. The F-15E was optimized to drop bombs, but is still a capable F-15. The F-16 was purchased to supplement the F-15 with a more numerous and less expensive fighter, that could outperform any other aircraft of similar type. The A-10 was purchased and designed to kill tanks and provide Close Air Support, something it does exceedingly well. The F-35 was supposed to be able to do all of this, but I know it lacks the payload to perform adequate CAS duties like the A-10. The F-15/F-16 can't do CAS quite like the A-10 either, because of their speed and lighter payload. While the F-35 has the capability to carry external stores, I highly doubt they will ever equip it in such a manner, because that will spoil the stealth characteristics. Internal bays necessitate a larger aircraft, and the F-35 certainly is larger than the F-16 it's supposed to replace, which means with all that expensive material it costs way more than it would if it was the same size as an F-16. I'm not saying we shouldn't buy it, I agree with Grig on his point about us purchasing a less than finished product, but first it needs to work. From what I understand it's a maintenance nightmare. It's not reliable yet, since I've also heard it's plagued with problems, that have driven cost per unit up. You cannot build an air force around stealth fighters. You can't, it costs way too much, and the return on investment is very low. We need to focus on making Generation 4.5 type aircraft to fill the gaps in our fighter fleet. Honestly, I'd love to see the Air Force buy the F/A-18E/F, because it's still in production, it should stay in production, and it's a great and versatile aircraft.

I second that emotion Spanner.

Thanks! As soon as I got the toy it was one of the first things i had to do. Though VF5SS did do it first, and I think he managed it better in his text review on Collection DX: But that's probably because he's had more than 30 minutes with the toy and has more than just his coffee table and a camera phone...

I can probably scan it, I'd feel very uncomfortable detaching the arm on a brand new toy. I don't have a scanner so I'd have to take it into the university. Would a high quality photo work?

SHORYUKEN!!! Not original, but I had to...

That Double plus head is looking fantastic, I might have to get one for my VF-1S. The VF-19 Advance definitely has that muscle-y bulge in the forearm near the elbow. With a counter contoured piece it could work, but that seems really complicated. I'll see if I can get some calipers to get some measurements, but without the right contour it'll probably be almost impossible.

After I trimmed that super tight upper rear tab on the right wing, Yes. I haven't really messed around with the advance packs yet, just a little in battroid mode. Very nice. I really like it, almost exactly like I pictured it.

Lookie what came in the Mail today! My pretty girl: I'm so happy with this right now, so all I'm waiting for now is my Master File Book. Also, people have noted that they don't like the slim gun pod, but I kinda like it, it doesn't look so massively out of scale. Anyway, I've already experienced the tight tab on the right wing root, so I need to shave that down so I don't have to pry it out again. that was nerve wracking... Love this thing so far, and I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite and center piece to my collection. Edit: I shaved down the offending tab, and it works beautifully.

Except for this, only in Roy Colors: Wouldn't that be sweet!