David Hingtgen

Praise be to the Celtic gods of lift, the F-35 hovered for the first time on St Patrick's day: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=454...c=AME&s=AIR

At the moment, I'd suggest that if you want gil (or good components)--grind in ch 9. Grinding in ch 11 will get you lots of CP, but not much else.

Yamato YF-19 is too tall in battroid mode IMHO. Lower torso's too tall, hips/thighs are too tall (because they don't split), etc.

I'm in the annoying position of being able to upgrade Blaze Fire to the point of transforming it---yet lacking the mineral to actually do so. I could buy it, but it'd cost 50% of the money I have. I think I'll wait until I just find one. PS---you'd never guess, but Hope has the best "summoning yell".

Mike---the real question is how much did you like FF X? That's your answer for if you'll like FF XIII. The short version of the battle system is really "picking roles for the AI party members". You can't control them directly, but you can direct them to attack, defend, heal, buff, debuff, etc. So it's more involved than XII, but not as completely controlled as X. It is the fastest battle system ever though I think. You can of course directly control whoever is the team leader. (it'll take a while before you can choose who that is though)

A little bit of paint and the 1/250 could look just as good I think. I plan to paint my 1/250 Grace at some point.

Hmmn. Ch 11. I think I'm going to need to grind for like, ever. I can take on the flans at least...

18~ mins into the final episode. Right after "Macross ATTACK!" is yelled. One of the few attacks so awesome that Ranka and Sheryl started up a duet again just for it... (they were silent in the preceding scene)

If anyone wants to know, I played around with saving and reloading just to see how they looked, and transformed the Blaze Fire and Gladius: Flamberge looks pretty identical to Blaze Fire, just with an orangey blade with gold edge----flame-themed colors, but no actual "flames". Helter-Skelter I think is a bit longer, more curved, almost scimitar-shaped than Gladius. but still shaped very much like Gladius overall. Black blade, gold edge.

Ok, ROTF Dirge is every bit as neat as they say. Is Mindwipe equal? Looks to be a simpler transformation from what I can see. Don't really like his tonfa-blade things either---it looks like they can rotate back in robot mode, but can't really hide/retract. PS--ROTF Dirge has a slightly purple canopy, pretty much exactly what I've tried so hard to achieve on my VF-25 kit. So Bandai has no excuse. PPS---Dirge is very Thundercracker-esque in coloring IMHO. He's a greenish blue, not pure blue. Almost in the Seacon-teal range. G1 TC is ever so slightly greenish, but G1 Dirge is pure blue. The one on the packaging is pure blue though, that would have looked better and more G1-ish. Also, black tailfins are a TC thing. Though I'm not sure how they should be painted, as he only really had wing endplates in G1, and all-gold fins would look tacky on this mold. Red shoulder intake interiors are a nice G1 homage though. A bit of red on the feet or knees would have been good too for the same purpose. I'm seriously considering repainted the yellow bits over with gold--I really wonder if it's a factory mistake----lemon yellow in 2 random spots, when EVERYTHING else is gold?

Hobby Master's new diecast F-22, with open and closed weapons bay options, gear up or down options, and removable drop tanks/pylons: http://www.thediecasthangarpub.com/viewtop...f=23&t=1303 That is the first one anyone has gotten to review and photograph, sent direct from the manufacturer, so any you have seen previously are much inferior models. I plan to wait for either a 27FS demo plane, 94FS, or 525FS. Lowest-price place I know of that is reputable that still has some pre-order slots left: http://www.aimhigherjets.com/HA2801_F22_Ra...ad_p/ha2801.htm

Is ROTF Lockdown news at all? Saw several at Target yesterday when I stopped right after lunch.

Hey, I posted the link so that the 45-sec uber-lame Top Gun homage was skipped... (I really hate videos where the intro is like 1/3 of the entire video)

P-40! I was trying to think where that nose was from.

Well, since the first good diecast and plastic 1/72 F-22's both just came out this month or so, it might be a while.

Well, so F-35 costs have doubled (it's made the "real" news at this point, not just aviation sites). Super Hornet sales are looking good though---Denmark is seriously considering it, and Boeing has just said they'll let Japan license-build them, if they buy some.

Common misconception. 99% of the photos of a vapor cone you see are SUBsonic flights (though often technically transonic). All you need is a good drop in pressure to cause it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prandtl%E2%80...ert_singularity

The top 10 low (and I mean low) high-speed passes of all time:

I thought he sound very Cam Clarke-ish too, but figured it wasn't him. Lightning's voice actress should be evident to Bioware fans--if you don't recognize her yet, you will in Ch 5, when she has a "long quiet talk" and she sounds rather different. If you just want to know, it's

IMHO 5-star rewards are only slightly better than 3/4 star rewards. I don't think anything is "5-star-only", it's just more likely. I have gotten rare drops from 3 and 4 star battles---just not often. Whereas you fairly often get "rare" drops from 5-star battles. You're not really missing much, if anything, by going slower. I don't think CP rewards are affected at all. PS---when are people here using summons? I really only find them useful for "normal yet tough" encounters. They just aren't powerful enough to be useful for most bosses---they reset the stagger-chain bar, and if you stagger the boss prior to summoning them, your party could probably do more damage. Also, once you get "renew", a 2 TP technique, that quickly becomes VERY useful, and probably a better use of TP than any summon. Of course, the fact that a dismissed summon casts like raise-all and curaga and dispel-all makes it useful as a last-ditch "save us!" option.

I didn't notice until they were freeze-framed, but those Vipers are like 50% F-18 parts. Squished and morphed, but they artists were definitely using the F-18 for reference, or already had a CGI F-18 and modified the heck out of it.

I keep thinking that the V2 VF-1S visor would look much better (not so dark) if the backside was painted silver--but a bit of poking and prodding didn't reveal how it opens up. Is it glued everywhere? Any way to open it up without damage?

Never go by battroid mode for measuring valk scale. Varies too much due to transformation and anime magic. Use fighter mode.

Big revelations at end of ch 9. Ch 9 boss was long, but not hard IMHO. Only got a 3-star rating though (but I beat it the first try). My party was Light/Vanille/Fang---I think Light/Hope/Fang may have been better. As for money---I quintupled my money in ch 9. Maybe more than that. Prior to this, upgrade just with what you have. Just make sure to not use any "good" components until you've got a 2x multiplier. (wait until you have the cash to spend on good organic points to get a 3x multiplier) (and I'd suggest not using the BEST components unless you've got 3x). Ch 9----grind and farm!

Or reading the inverse of that: Since most TF planes don't need cockpits, landing gear, full-size engines, intakes, weapons, flight-capable wings nor tailplanes---it's sad that they STILL can't find room to put the robot parts anywhere but hanging out in the open.