JsARCLIGHT

Mine came with all the FAST pack armor attached to the fighter in the box. The only parts loose that you would easily miss would be the manual/stickers on the back and the rack of micro missles. If your arm armor pieces were not attached to the toy and not loose in the bottom of the tray the toy came out of I'd look into having a talk with your supplier and getting those parts sent to you.

OOOOOOOOHHH!! KEYS! Aaaaaaah haah haah haah haaaaaaa! Meee likey bouncieeeee!

Those who have said that homosexuality was common in the "early times" are 100% right. Almost every culture had some element of it that was "socially acceptable", most of the time in the elite military units and upper class male society. And for those who asked for sources: Watanabe, Tsuneo - The love of the Samurai: A thousand years of Japanese homosexuality, which says: The people of the West are not aware that there once existed in Japan a cultural tradition of homosexuality comparable to that of ancient Greece. During a period of time in which the traditional civilization of Japan reached its perfection, the homosexual love was considered a passion more noble and more gracious than heterosexuality. Over time, this tradition of homosexuality would quickly become discouraged, and eventually it was kept so hidden as it was thought to have disapeared altogether. also check: Leupp, Gary P. Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa

... and let's also not forget the Samurai's notable rampant homosexuality that most historians to this day go out of their way to not talk about... [sienfeld] ... not that there is anything wrong with that... [/sienfeld]

I can manage to shoot one more... after all, it is sitting on my desk right now, in the requested mode anyway. Here ya go. Oh and more praise for Kev at Valkyrie Exchange. I get all my Macross stuff from him.

Being someone who works in a production environment I know the point you are making, but movies (games/books/tv shows/plays/music/etc.) always revolve around the lead character's actor, no matter who they are. If the lead is weak, or in the case of Tom Cruise not liked by some people, then the movie will suffer on some levels with those particular people no matter how good the crew/supporting cast/production team is. You can produce the hell out of something but if it has flaws in the main elements it will be a flawed endevor. I have no issues with historical accuracy (as most hollywood movies are about as historically accurate as a puppet show rendition) or the visuals or the crew or the script... my issue (as I said before) is with that half-wit sawed-off terrible actor that for some reason people like named Tom Cruise. And when he is the crux of the movie I don't want to waste my money on yet another "Tom Cruise movie" in which I will be subject to the same lame-ass Cruise acting style and manerisms. The man has two acting levels: fake shock and fake anger with the same deer in the headlights look on his face... second only to the George Clooney "bob head, smirk and deliver your lines in a monotone smart-ass fashion" acting style. If this movie had starred anyone else but Cruise I would not be having this problem... well, anyone but him or Clooney.

And the other shot, with my red-tipped TV missles in place.

Here are a few shots of my VF-1J without it's armor on (the armor is going on a reissue Roy 1S when I get it to make the TV Hikaru 1S):

I'm new to this talky here but I have a thought on Mao: she is a female member of an island tribe. Is it not uncommon in a lot of tribal societies in this day and age that very young girls pair off and being having children. Outside of the "love stick" thing we don't know a whole lot about this tribe's way of doing things... and if you recall in the first episode you see two teens about Mao's age participating in the "love stick" ceremony. Mao might just be at the "right age" in the tribe to be put on the market (so to speak) and she might be making her play for Shin. Then again it does not take a rocket scientist to look at today's world and notice that young girls are maturing faster and faster in this modern world of ours. Edit to add: oh and on the breast thing, artistic variation could explain it. After all, we are talking about drawn characters here and not real people.

(asking this question to those who have seen it) I generally loathe Tom Cruise and dislike most of the movies he is in that I have seen, does this movie at least do a decent job of covering other characters than Cruise so if I were to go see it I would not get "over Cruised"? I really want to see this movie... sort of... but my hatred of Tom Cruise is keeping me from walking out and seeing it. Let me know if it is a worthy flick.

My all time favorite is DYRL followed closely by the original TV series and Flashback... everything else after that is a shallow imitation or a rehash of previous greatness in my humble opinion. I win no friends with my feelings on Macross but as soon as it left the '80s it lost a lot of what made it special to me.

I was always under the impression that both the Cat's Eye and the Elintseeker did the same thing: monitor enemy positions, communications and patterns. I was also under the impression that they were in effect the "head of the spear", meaning all the information they gather is routed back to the SDF-1 for specialists to decipher and analyze... sort of like a spy plane in effect. The episode Bye Bye Mars seems to support that thinking in that whatever the Cat's Eye scans gets filtered to the bridge in real time. But conversely in DYRL the rear seater of the Elintseeker seems to have unique viewing of the data they intercept and calls the position of the Zentradi ship out to the bridge more like a FAC (forward air controller) radioing in positions for the following ships to take out. Seems that those two units act like several real world recon and survalence planes... I guess the VF-1 series is just so darn versitle that they can do that.

If HL2 and Doom 3 are as good as the hype is saying they are (how many times has that not been true) then I will most likely be lulled back into it for a few more years... Man, fitting into these peter pan tights is getting harder and harder...

I agree but I find as I grow older (I'm soon to be 34 next month) I like gaming less and less and have taken to my other hobbies more and more. Perhaps it is because I grew up with games... from the dawn of Defender and Pac Man to the first home consoles to the birth of computer gaming to the next gen consoles and back again... I've seen it all, played it all and have (much like a junkie) developed such a super high level of tollerance for the gaming drug that it takes a huge ground-breaking, genre busting title to make me even wake up from my corner and take notice. I have all the time in the world to play games as I can make time... I just have little interest any more. I thought I did and I upgraded my home computer into space to prepare for the new titles that are coming out but the more they get pushed back and the longer I languish in the doldrums the less I want to play video games. Jo jo dancer, your life is calling.

That would explain why I am not playing any games right now... I'm "gamed out" for the next few months.

I turned 10 in 1980 and enjoyed pretty much everything decent that came over from Japan to the american airwaves. I watched everything I could... growing up in Nevada in those days there was not much to do after school but to go over to my friend's house and watch cartoons. I got one of the first VCRs for my birthday in 1982 (an RCA Selectavision... if anyone remembers those fake wood panneled pieces of crap) and I started taping everything and watching it when I had time. I admit that later in high school and college in the later '80s put my priorities elsewhere but being a pre-teen in the days of the boom of american animation (thanks to the "no toys from a TV show" law being put to rest) and what I consider to be the birth of anime in the states was boss. Oh and it was a great decade to be a teen in, too... if you know what I mean...

Looks like some people looking for a fight took my comments in the thread (which were intended to be a joke, hence my use of the universal " " I'm being goofy emoticon) as a bid to fire up the old chainsaw. Areaseven, I apologize if my often misalligned humor snowballed that thread.

I got mine today from VE and all I can say is: Damn. This is what a near $200 toy should be like. Yamato really took their time with this guy, several things have been beefed up since previous 1/48 releases... most notably the paint quality and build quality. I've always loved the Hikaru VF-1J the most and now I have a toy I can be buried with. Edit to add: Hey did anyone else notice the sticker sheets? Could there be a 1/48 Max/Milia, VT-102 or Brownie in the near future? Here's hoping. I also love, love, love the meaty hands. Nice big rubbery mittens that look perfect. No more limp-wristed DYRL narrow girly hands for me!

Sooooo... he basically did what the Oscar Academy does every year and chose a bunch of winners that in no way reflect most of what popular choice was? Then again all awards are heavily swayed by the people judging unless it is a popular vote sort of thing... which most awards are not.

That's the trick... I don't want teamwork or group fun with a bunch of strangers. I want it with the guy sitting next to me so we can bark back and forth about what is going on and what to do next rather than having to use some stupid abreviated command system or by trying to type in "stop shooting me" while being shot by someone on your own team. I don't like internet gaming sam I am. I not like it with a fox, I do not like it in a box. Give me my single player FPSes with good stories and good action that have LAN capability as a secondary feature (NOT a key element of gameplay like today's games) and I'll be happy.

I'm with Graham. Online massive multiplayer shooters and FPS games suck. LAN is the only way to play. Games are meant to be enjoyed with friends, not played over the net against faceless people... to me, the fun of multiplayer is being near the people you are playing against and joking around or having fun as a group. IMHO internet gaming has ruined games, now everything has to be "internet multiplayer compatible" and it has come at the sacrifice of story, design and single player depth. There are a lot of times that I do not want to play against a bunch of braggarts, the occasional cheater, slow connections, the "I ownz" people and kindergarteners on the internet. I'm really hoping that HL2 and Doom 3 usher in a new age of the development of the single player story based game. Seriously, how many different ways can you play "get a gun and shoot the other guy before he shoots you" before you get sick of it? Guess what... I'm sick of it.

I think just to stem the obvious anything shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000 should automatically be voted as a bad movie... this way everyone constantly naming movies covered by Joel and the Bots (and Mike, even though he sucks) can be satisfied.

oh and someone pah-leeze tell me this game is not going to have the same old tired ass lucasarts star wars FPS weapons... they have ILM artists and King George on their speed dial and all they can do is recycle the same damn guns for four games... if it becomes five I vow to never buy another Star Wars FPS again.

I myself never said it would suck... (though the odds be against it)... just that it is so "last week" in concept and scope. I'm still waiting for Lucasarts to make something cool and original again... but then again they lost all their money making "cool and original" so now they just boost someone's game engine, star wars it up a bit, slap a super high price tag on it and rake in the moolah. Pretty soon you'd think they'd have the coffers full again and attempt another original 100% in house game... and with the jury still out on KotOR with most people I know that day may never come in my lifetime.

I'm late to the party... but does this Star Wars:Battlefront sound to anyone else to be a big "apology game" for all the people that bought Galaxies expecting run and gun? <_< I have not seen it yet but I personally am sick to death of team/army based arcade FPS games... (checks callendar to see if Doom 3 or Half Life 2 have been pushed back again)