Graham

I'd love to see this. The toys are really cute. Graham

IMO the rear part of the over the shoulder cannon on the Powered Suit toy resembles the rear part of the Double Strike Cannon on the VF-1. Graham

There's no English subs for the Japanese dialog on the R2 version?!!! Arghhhhh!!!!!! Oh well, I'm gonna have to order an R1 version as well then so I can have English Subs for the Japanese bits, then pop in the R2 disc when it's time for the big fight. Oh well, that means I'll have bought a R1, R2 and R3 DVDs in my quest for the perfect Kill Bil vol.1 home viewing experience.......sigh Graham

Actually, the TIE would only have extremley limited upwards visibility as the are only a few small vision slits on the top. Forward visibility is also hindered to some degree by the canopy framework. Graham

OK, just gonna stick with Hollywood ships for this post. I'll cover anime starfighters in another post. I'm quite partial to the starfighter from the 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century' TV series from 1979 starring Gil Gerard. Also like the GunStar from 'The Last Starfighter'. The Colonial Viper from 'Battlestar Galactica' is another of my favs. The X-Wing also gets a mention, as does the Y-wing. Never liked the A or B wings at all. Thought the 'A' was too small to be a starfighter and the 'B' too ugly While TIE Figters look cool, they have piss-poor visibility in nearly all directions, so they get no marks from me. The Star Fury from 'Babylon 5' is probably the most realistic portral of a Star fighter, although like many Sci-Fi ships it suffers from poor rear and side visibility. Graham

I'd have to say that the olive color scheme is my favorite, although I love them all. I've noticed the build quality on the boxed versions seems to be slightly better than the blister pack versions. In fact one of my tan suits came with the left elbow joint glued imobile. Luckily I managed to fix it. I don't have the blister pack olive version. I have three of the Japanese 'large box' olive version. Is there a difference? Kanto Hobby had the boxed version reduced to HK$59 recently, so I snapped them all up I've also got one white and two tan.....whoops, guess that means I have 6 not 5. I'm planning on buying one more white as well soon. Now I just need some good bug figures for them to fight. I just wish Kaiyodo would buy the license to make toys of the Studio Nue designed Powered Suits from the 1988 anime. Although the design is very close, I slightly prefer the anime design. Hmm.....wonder how the Powered Suits would look with the gun from this MSiA? Graham

I was originally thinking of buying these, but need to save money this month Anyway, glad I didn't buy them. I saw the Max VF-1A battroid on display in a small hobby shop in Causeway Bay yesterday and it looked like crap. Wasn't really impressed by either the sculpt or the paint job. These seem to be available in branches of UML, but are very expensive. Haven't seen them in Animate yet. Anyway, both my office and home monitor tops are chock-a-block with Macross gashapons, so I don't have space for more anyway. Graham

I may be remembering wrongly (memory's getting fuzzy with age), but there may have already been an official Big West Macross Zippo lighter. Graham

Yep, it was done purely to get a lower rating. I don't mind B&W if the whole movie is in B&W, but to change just a small part of a movie to B&W for censorship reasons is just crass stupidity on the part of the censors IMO. Graham

Personally, I doubt that UAVs/UCAVs will ever completely replace manned aircraft in every combat role. I'm only a layman on this stuff, but there are a few things that concern me about UAVs: - The time lag it takes for the control signal to travel from the operator in his control room to the UAV. Even though it is very short, I would guess that there is still going to be some delay in response, compared to a pilot who is actually 'there'. Reduced situational awareness. I doubt the UAV operater sees nearly as much flying using a computor monitor, compared to a fighter pilot with his nearly 360 degree bubble canopy. Susceptibility of the UAV's control signal to enemy jamming? While I think there is a definite use for UCAVs for reconnaissance/armed reconnaissance and perhaps SEAD missions, I seriously doubt if we will ever see UCAVs in the air-to-air arena. Graham

That's one ugly plane IMO. Is it real or a Photochop job? Graham

Err.....didn't you review this already, or am I getting mixed up? Graham

The VF-0B is now shown on Hasegawa's site. Only a small line art pic at the moment though Graham

Nope, don't own one and no plans to buy one either. Not a fan of transforming trucks and cars. However, I will admit that is a very well designed and engineered toy, definitely the nicest of the Transformer toys IMO. Graham

Here's some good info on the Tornado GR1 losses during Desert Storm: - http://www.raf.mod.uk/gulf/loss.html And some good basics on the air campaign: - http://www.cdi.org/iraq/gulf-war-I.cfm Graham

IIRC, the RAF lost 6 Tornado GR1(?) in Desert Storm. Graham

Don't let Sebastian fool you. He is not really a low grade manager. He's actually like one of those James Bond villians who desires to rule the world, complete with a huge secret base on a deserted tropical island. Graham

Bought one when they first came out, but only one. I'm not a big fan of TV colors, so I won't buy multiples. It's a nice toy. No flaws on mine I'm happy with it. I keep it mostly displayed in fighter mode without FPs. When Miria's is released I'll display her in battroid, without FPs. Graham

Heh, I noticed Drifand replaced the Kaiyodo Powered Suit's "Hair Dryer" hand flamer with what I'm guessing is an MSiA GP-01 beam rifle. I love the Kaiyodo Powered Suit toy (currently own 5). I've also been looking for a better looking hand weapon for my Powered Suits. Oh well, I sold all my MSiA toys last year, so can't use their guns. Graham

you make is sound like b&w is bad? Personally, I think having the fight against the Crazy 88s in full color is far superior to the black and white version. Maybe it's just because I saw the full color part 1 first and saw it on the big screen. Or maybe it's just because I hate needless censorship. Anyway, I didn't see the neutered black and white version until last week when I watched it on DVD at home. Actually, I couldn't bear to watch it, I switched it off and the next day gave the DVD to a friend. Luckily my Japan R2 DVD of part one just arrived today, so I will once more be able to watch it in full color. Graham

Oh well, hopefully, the HK & Japan theatrical release will be 100% color like vol.1. Graham

Don't know if it's true or not, but I read somewhere about British pilots referring to Tornados as 'the Flying Coffin'. Graham

Argghhhhh.....still havent seen part 2 yet. It doesn't open in HK until April 29th Are there any black and white bits this time or not? Graham

Found the old Macross Zero ad that shows the 2-seat VF-0. It was on a flyer that IIRC came with the Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Hikaru. Graham

And locked as there is already and existing 12 page topic on the 20th Anniversary prime here. Graham