Graham

OK, I got the Miyatake Design Works (MDW) book yesterday. It's 113 pages long, which makes it slimmer than the Kawamori Design Works (KDW) book, which had a page count of 157 pages. Paper quality of the MDW book is also different, being rougher than the more glossy pages of the KDW book. Contents are as follows: - Pages 3-14: Macross. Pages: 15-30: DYRL. Pages: 31-46: Macross Plus. Pages 47-80: Macross 7. Pages 81-94: VF-X/VF-X2. Pages 95-109: Orguss. pages 110-113: Interviews. The Macross & DYRL sections of the book feature mostly lineart of ships and destroids. As with the earlier KDW book, both conceptual drawings and finished production lineart is featured. However, in these sections there was very little art that isn't already published in a dozen other Macross art books. Things start getting a bit better with the Macross Plus section, which features some never before seen conceptual art of the Renegade Powered Armor, Ghost X-9, Guld & Isamu's flight suit designs and also early designs for the first Macross Plus poster. Location settings and buildings also feature. For some strange reason, the Queadluun-Rau is included in the Macross Plus section, rather than in the Macross or DYRL sections! Moving onto the Macross 7 section, we get a lot of never before seen conceptual art of the Battle 7 ship as well as a lot of production line art of the other ships in the Macross 7 fleet and also the Varauta ships. This ship art is mostly the same as featured in the TIAS Macross 7 books though. Other highlights of the Macross 7 section include art of vehicles, mecha and buildings from Dynamite 7. Art and conceptual art of some of the Varauta mecha, lineart of Emilia's custom Q-Rau from D7 and some protodeviln and creature art. The next section features ships and enemy mecha from 3 Macross console games (VFX, VF-X2 & DYRL). Included is some never before seen conceptual art of the Macross 13. The next section covers mecha and ships from Orguss, followed lastly by an interview with Miyatake and Kawamori (in Japanese of course). Not quite as good as I thought it would be and certainly not worth the 5 year wait IMO. If you have a large collection of Macross artbooks, then you will have most of the art collected here already. While there are a few gems of previously unseen conceptual art included, there's nothing really mindblowing, at least to me. I was hoping that art of the City 7 Police Mecha from Macross 7 and the combining enemy mecha from the end of Macross M3 (Dreamcast game) would be included in this book, but perhaps they were not designed by Miyatake. And before anybody asks, there is no Macross Zero artwork featured in this book. Also, there are no color pages, like there were in the Kawamori book. It is however, quite interesting to remove the slip cover and see the DYRL SDF-1 art underneath. Graham

Visually, the BloodRayne character design is a complete rip off of the vampire bounty hunter character 'Durham Red', who first appeared probably about 15 years ago in the weekly British sci fi and fantasy anthology comic '2000AD'. As for the movie, I have only two words to say, 'Uwe Boll. Graham

Saw Batman Begins last Friday. Before the movie, I didn't like the new Batmobile design, but now I've watched it, I do. But I gotta ask what's up with having to lie flat on your belly in order to use some of the systems. I thought that was pretty silly. I guess it's one of those things that the producers or art director (or whowever) thought looked cool, but didn't really think it through carefully. And Neeson was Qui Gon (perhaps a darkside Qui Gon), but Qui Gon none the less. During the training swordfight on the ice, I kept expecting him to mention the force, especially when he started giving his speach about anger. I thought the begining set up explaining how Bruce Wayne became Batman could have been a bit shorter, by say 20-30 mintutes rather than take up half the film. It would have been nice for batman to have a bit more screen time. As for the fight scenes with Batman, I understand why they took the close up approach, but it would have been nice to have at least one major fight where we actually get to see Batman doing some moves, rather than just a flury of blurred movement and shadows. overall I did quite enjoy it and hope the same director and main cast members get the greenlight for a sequel. Graham

When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth. Graam

Will pass on this. Just like Dawn of the Dead, the original Day of the Dead is a classic IMO, which does not need to be remade. And just for the record, I hated, the remake of Dawn, with it's Olympic sprinter zombies. Graham

Amazon.co.jp said my two copies of the book were shipped by DHL last Friday, so I expect they will be here on Monday. Graham

Seeing it in about 2 hours, together with Blackaces and Valk009. Graham

If my friggin' computer was working properly I would, but after installing a USB Bluetooth dongle last week both Outlook Express & Internet Explorer crash on opening. So at the moment, I can neither web surf or check my email from home. Tried uninstalling the bluetooth dongle, but the problem still exists. Damn Windows 98. While I can do some limited web surfing at work, I can't really scan and post pics. Graham

Just got shipping notice from amazon.co.jp that the book has shipped. I should have it in a day or two. Graham

I also never really liked the show or the Hammerhead design. I agree it's pretty silly that they had the characters being fighter pilots one minute, then ground pounding grunts the next. I'm pretty sure that it costs a lot more to train a fighter pilot than it does an infantryman. Graham

Good luck with getting a subscription to B-Club as they stopped publishing it about 5 years or so ago And as far as I know, Character Model magazine is also dead. There hasn't been a new issue published since Spring 2004. Graham

Just say 'NO' to cgi spaceships. I want them to use actual physical models, looks much better IMO. Graham

SW OT should be left the hell alone, with the possible exception of complete removal of the Ewoks from ROTJ, replaced instead perhaps by Wookies. Oh yeah and that pussy bounter hunter Boba Fett should scream like a schoolgirl (or girlie-man) as he plumets into the Sarlac. Graham

Weren't real Raptors actually supposed to be much smaller than they were portrayed in the movies? Anyway, if I had to defend against Dinosaurs and was limited to civilian firearms. I'd probably carry the following: - One of the DSA Inc. semi-auto copies of the FN-FAL 7.62mm rifle. A pair of S&W 500 Magnum revolvers, the short barrel versions, as they are quicker to get into action than the long barrel version. A 12ga shotgun, either a Benelli M1 or a Remington 870 with slug ammo. And of course lots of ammo for all the above Graham

Give me a Benelli M1, M3 or Remington 870 anyday over a SPAS 12. Too many damn knobs, dials, levers and buttons to operate on the SPAS 12. I'm suprised that nobody has suggested the M79 or M203 40mm grenade launcher as a solution for taking down dinosaurs. True it's only single shot, but if it hits, the dino is down. Graham

Not including Michael Jackson and a great many members of the clergy of course. Graham

I'd like one, even though I won't be attending. Graham

What, bestiality is more acceptable? Woof! Or if you are from New Zealand or Wales.....Baa Graham

Bah, blasphemy. Lunamaria is far cuter. That new character looks like a man. Graham

Well, I can confirm that I prefer women in their 30s. Graham (35, but still not sure if I'm mature or not )

[Han Solo] Watch your mouth kid, or you're gonna find yourself floating home. [/Han Solo] Graham

Why don't you look at the toy section on the main site. Lots of photos of the 1/48 heads there in the toy reviews. Well the VF-1A and VF-1S Fokker heads anyway. For the 1/48 VF-1J head (if you also want to see it) and the VF-1S Hikaru head (same as Fokker head, just different color arrows) you can either browse the magazine section, especially the Dengeki Hobby and Hobby Japan mags, or just use the search function in the forums and I'm sure you can find lots of photos. It's pretty easy, all you gotta do is spend a few mintues looking for yourself, rather than complaining how nobody is helping you. Graham

Nah, that would be Robotech fans. Graham

You were doing what to Manga?.....Eww Graham

Never heard of Banner of the Stars. What's it about? Graham