David Hingtgen

Red Baron movie coming, trailer sure looks fun: http://www.pixomondo.com/web/showreel/index.htm

Looks nice, but is there headroom for guys over 5'6?

AFAIK, motors rarely die on Trypticon, but the connection/gears often do. Omega Supreme has motor failure. Anyways---I rented the TF movie game for the weekend, and find it odd that every menu/command/screen/instruction book page uses the term "convert". "Press Y to convert to/from robot mode" "Try to convert between forms if you get stuck". Are they just stupid, or is there some reason they specifically don't use the term TRANSFORM? I mean, not using the term that is the very definition of what they are and they are named for...

I really want reissues of the big TF's. Omega Supreme, Trypticon etc. Now, Trypticon had a release in the 90's with a few mold changes, but none of his all-important accessories. It could be that they're gone, but probably Takara was just cheap---as the Seacon release then also omitted all the individual weapons etc, but the Universe reissue will include them.

I've thought for years that they come up with the acronyms first and then try to fit words into it.

Wow, that might be the first package I've ever seen for a system that's actually good.

BestBuy had "PS2 test drive packs" for like 30 bucks at launch. It included the DVD remote, and "The Matrix". And they sold insanely fast, I'm sure it outsold any game for the first few weeks. It was the first DVD player for a lot of people, at least around here. (Including me)

I don't know why Bonecrusher is a shelf-warmer either. No obvious flaws in the toy, actually appeared on-screen (and heavily featured in trailers). Maybe he just makes up like 60% of the case assortment?

Bonecrusher is the worst shelf-warmer I've seen in years. EVERY store---from 2 to 10 Bonecrushers, and nothing else. Was like that for weeks.

I recall getting a PM from you a while ago asking for VX-9 logos---did anything I send help?

I like plasmas better in almost every way. But they simply don't make them small/cheap enough for what I need. If there was a 26-32in plasma ~$1000 I'd buy it in an instant. But there's not. There are plasma's smaller than 42, but no store around here carries them, and they cost 3x as much as LCD's of equivalent size. Small plasmas are so cutting-edge they actually cost more than larger ones in a lot of cases. Also--viewing angle means nothing. It's the "GOOD viewing angle" which matters. And it can be less than 40 degrees on a lot of LCD's. Good viewing angle----angle at which brightness and color is consistent across the screen. There's many LCD's where if you stand dead center ahead of it--the brightness is uneven top to bottom, just from the angle change your eye makes to view it all. Plasmas are much better in that category. (I think mainly due to the actual "pixel" glowing/emitting light like a CRT does, whereas LCD's are backlit)

The multi-colored piece process is known as "color injection". Bandai's done it for at least a decade, maybe two. And most companies still can't do two colors on the same SPRUE, much less the same piece! I've built a Gundam or two that had a 4-color chest piece (white, red, blue, yellow)---neat stuff. Though the failure rate is fairly high---not uncommon for a piece to end up with colors that "bleed" into the wrong area. Part of the reason you don't see it often---costs a lot to do, doesn't always work. They do 2-color stuff all the time, sometimes of different types of plastic even---very common on PG kits. But 3 and 4 color seems to be much more difficult. There's also "single color, single plastic, but multi-layer" injection---seen on MG and PG fingers for example, to create working joints within a single piece during the molding process. Bandai just blows away anyone else when it comes to making plastic.

Looking good, and looking right, are very different. They could have made Nora's in all blood-red with black stripes. It'd sure look good, but it wouldn't be right. The metallic wouldn't look so off if it wasn't so DARK and orangey-brownish. Metallic yellow and metallic dark gold/bronze are very differnet colors.

Gamepro is still around, still as bad. I always took it as a sign of a bad game if they put on the box that GAMEPRO gave them like 4 out of 5 stars---it means no magazine with a decent opinion/reviewer had anything good to say.

Yes, but there's very little chance they'd bring some out of storage, re-certify the crews, and refurbish them to get them flying, just for a movie.

A few days ago Wal-Mart restocked. Ultimate BB, Dreadwing, that's all I saw.

Even if the YF-21's foot thrust was somehow enough to hover in GERWALK---it'd still have a massive disadvantage compared to the -19. It sure couldn't climb as fast etc. So, even if "only to match the -19's abilities" a -21 needs a good chunk of lifting thrust from the main engines, via the louvers. It may be able to hover as well as a VF-1 on foot thrust alone, but it's trying to win a cutting-edge competition against a plane with far more foot thrust, so it's going to need something else. As for the intake duct---simple, they curve upwards immediately after the intake lip. The engines are mounted higher than the intake lip. Similar to the YF-23. Lots of planes have the engines higher than the intake lip, with the intake curving up to the engine---A-7, F-8, F-16, F-18. I think a good bit of the nacelle is actually just ducting on the upper fuselage, with the engine themselves being quite short and only occupying the extreme rear of the nacelle. There's of course anime magic, but Kawamori didn't completely eliminate the air path.

Ok, if nothing else, the -21's foot thrusters (if there are any) certainly aren't anywhere near as powerful as a YF-19's, so to have even comparable speed/power/agility in GERWALK mode, it'd need another set of engines or something to help it hover. If may have foot thrusters, but that alone isn't enough to hover with. Thus vectoring the main engines' thrust out through the slats in the fuselage. (since we've seen every other valk requires basically full power of the main engines to hover in GERWALK mode)

Tampo printing is simply a method of application, as opposed to spraying or brushing. It works exactly like ink pads and stamps. You dip the tampo pad into the paint, then stamp it on the toy. Doing multi-color things (like a UN kite) requires multiple pads and multiple applications---and applied carefully so all the colors line up. PS---one more political post and there would have been some major pruning of the thread.

Vic--the opening louvers are for GERWALK mode---it's so it can hover---the main engine nozzles still point aft in that mode, and the feet have no thrusters (unlike all other valks)---so it needs some way to stay up in the air, thus it has thrust vectored from the underside of the fuselage. The louvers may be a cascade, but I'm not sure that term applies to the "large and slatted" variety of vectoring vanes. It's *very* similar to the F-15S/MTD's thrust reverser assembly.

I'm still just waiting for confirmation/final pics of Nora's scheme. Magenta and yellow, not purple and gold...

Yup, he's about the only comic relief I've ever liked. HK-47 rocks. Blue Dragon has everything I hate about NPC's (or movie characters, like say, Jar-Jar) all rolled into one of them.

Going a bit OT, but I recently read a book that had a part where in the early 80's an American guy had a chance to meet some of China's top aviation scientists while visiting there. During a brief time where the guard/political overseer left, they quickly asked if it was true that Americans had landed a man on the moon, and asked when it'd happened. They'd been kept that isolated over the years, and all their references were carefully edited---but one little mention in a bibliography about the "American Apollo moon landing mission" had made it through. Sad---the top aerodynamicists and engineers in the nation, unaware that rockets even existed that could travel such a distance, etc.

Ah. Interesting, never noticed that. Center rear fuselage goes under center mid fuselage, nacelles slide over/above. The trailing parts of the wing just outboard of the nacelles stay fixed. The forward movement of the undersides of the rear nacelles/nozzle area closes up most of the gap left by the removal of the forearms. It basically looks the same before and after---very nice touch by Kawamori. You don't really notice anything's moved because everything arranges so well there's no big gaps or missing pieces.

Sumdumgai--it's not actually the nacelles sliding up. The entire back half of the plane moves. The nacelles stay attached to the rear fuselage. The split line is complicated---it goes along the front half the nacelles, but then goes straight over between them to incorporate the "flattened tailcone" area (called the beaver tail on the F-14, I'd call it a duck tail if anything) Everything aft of that moves up and over, basically sitting on top of the wings. See here: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/_...yamato_yf21.htm Third row are instruction book scans. Specifically, look at the center picture of this one: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/toys/y...ionsinside2.jpg The nacelles/rear fuselage are moved into the "forward" position for both GERWALK and battroid.