David Hingtgen

Well that's weird. They clearly open the other way in Ep 2.

Chest armor hatches still open the wrong way. ::mumble grumble::

Due to having such massive differences between their empty and loaded weights (and the 747's triple-slotted flaps) they can go VERY slow when light. A 747-400 can actually carry more than its own weight in fuel alone. Also, the C-5 is famous for its very unique-sounding engines. They are the world's first high-bypass turbofans.

Still waiting for final, final, final version pics. (at the very least, they better add in the missing striping on the "face" that the first sample pics had, that the last 2 we've seen lack)

Low-level flight, always a fave. Many pics I'd not seen before: http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/325/language/en-CA/Lower-than-a-Snakes-Belly-in-a-Wagon-Rut.aspx

But I do have a strong preference for the evil TV version. Flightsuit Grace>Shower Grace. (and only the TV version flies a VF-27 after surviving an assassination attempt by killing all her would-be assassins bare-handed)

WWII planes launching off a nuclear carrier? Awesome. F4U, B-25, and others on the USS Carl Vinson, circa 1995: Protip: Additonal awesomeness at 9:15.

Hey, it wouldn't be MW without knee-jerk reactions! We all have to do our part you know. Anyways, about what stage of production it is---if it comes out in January, and it's now mid/late November---it COULD be pretty darn close to final, color-wise, assuming they're going to start making them in December. It is certainly later than the original pics we saw. But true, some head details are missing (which is weird, since they were on the first pics we saw---and the lettering on the gear doors has been re-positioned) Also---if there's more details to be added, I'd request more around the cockpit--there's additional SMS logos, modexes, etc on a small scale:

On a related note, the painted Ozma prototype seemed to have very good color-matching. (likely because it was entirely painted) As it is, I'm seriously considering cancelling my pre-order. I do NOT like the pale blue underside bits. If anything, Ozma's valk has a warm grey, not a cool grey.

Yeah--the plastic parts are ok (could be a TOUCH lighter) but the legs/shoulders are more of a minty-green color, and slightly darker too.

The knee joints don't match the rest of the "leg internals". (I'm being serious here---the knee is light grey plastic while all the other "mecha" bits are a dark grey---looks weird) Is it just me, or does the leg paint simply not match the belly paint well? The leg paint is very blue, compared to the other "light grey" underside parts. Look at the bottom pic, and compare the hips to the crotch/nosecone. Less obvious is main gear door color (molded) to the area surrounding it (painted). Personally I think all the "light grey" should be lighter, and it should certainly match itself better regardless of painted vs molded. The 1/72 kit had much more contrast between the light and dark grey parts. (Yamato is THE best at paint matching---a lot of people don't even realize how much of a Max or Milia VF-1J is actually molded in white, but painted red and blue---the paint color match with the colored plastic is THAT good) I really like the foot color though.

The blue plastic looks metallic in that shot. (or it could just be grain in the pic)

I think the width of the cockpit sidewalls are the main issue with most toys. They are MUCH thicker than they should be. (party to have a working canopy in this scale or rotating seat gimmick). Another point is the depth of the cockpit-----generally, the cockpit floor is the top of the nosegear bay. Making working gear takes up more space than scale gear would, in effect pushing the cockpit up---which reduces headroom for the pilot so he has to be made smaller to fit. So overall, the pilot is being "squished" in every direction by the 'edges' of the cockpit being too thick/high.

Thing is, in the most-common/first subs for the 2nd movie, you HEAR Godunwa but the SUBS say O'Connor.... (thus, a bad translation)

Anyone else think Krell's lightsabers were the coolest-sounding ones of all? Somehow they just sounded "choppier". More "flutter" to them. In an awesome way.

Hey, the real-life F-104's wings have extremely sharp edges. To this day they are STILL covered up when on display in museums etc, to prevent people from killing themselves...

Yes, but that's still vastly inferior to say most Bioware games, where the button will actually switch between 2 favorites. It seems pointless to have a button that is only "equip healing spell" and not "alternate between healing spell and preferred weapon". Since the left/right don't re-equip the previous item, the favorites list has to be pretty big just to be able to re-equip all the stuff left/right keeps replacing.

I thought ep 4 was the weakest by far. A bunch of blah with a few moments of awesome mecha action. It went from the typical Gundam-esque "we must understand mankind's heart to end war" commentary being in the background, to being the only thing said and oft-repeated for about 40 mins straight...

That'd explain the extreme pixelization/compression---they're intentionally hiding it.

White's common for anything that has a strategic nuclear role. "Anti-flash white" is specifically designed for that.

Those posters are shopped/airbrushed a lot, even for movie posters. EVERYTHING looks more plasticky, including actual skin.

There's a "more foreboding" variation of one of the main themes that is played in ep 2 that is RIGHT when Ranka has her first flashback, when Ozma's fighting the vajra. It's my favorite cue in the whole series, and it's not on any of the released CD's AFAIK. It has more "pipe organ" in it than the other versions. ::checks:: Starts right at 3 mins in, peaks at around 3:15.

Gondunwa, depending on how it's translated. O'Connor has always been just an alias (at least that's the impression I get).

Hmmn. But we now have "VF-25S super parts" coming, which weren't mentioned at all.