David Hingtgen

Rubber has an amazing ability to "eat" other substances. Certainly plastic, but don't know much about paint. But paint and plastic can be quite similar chemically, so... (FYI, the tires on LEGO wheels will often partially dissolve the wheel, if you let them sit there long enough)

Exactly---by trying to follow the incomplete instructions, you'll actually get messed up---you assume they're right, and so blindly keep trying "their" way. Doing it yourself is a lot better in that case.

Let me guess: shoulders/arms, mainly the wheels? Yeah, there's a couple very USEFUL steps in the Binaltech instructions that the US ones simply omit. You cannot physically do how the US ones show--you have to do the entra arm/shoulder rotations that the JP ones have. If you fiddle around enough, you'll figure it out. But it'd be a whole lot easier if that part wasn't omitted for the US release. You can get scans at BWTF.com to compare.

For a while I thought Hiro had gotten to New York really quickly (teleported most likely), and Peter was unconsciously using the power---then Future Hiro appeared.

Radd---yup, that's why I'm passing on Prime. BRIGHT red and BRIGHT blue and "knock-off bright yellow" does not a good Prime make. Looks much better in the RiD Magnus colors. Lately Hasbro seems to have a 16-color Crayola palette--super bright basic colors and nothing more. If Prime was deep red and blue (say, like a US flag) he'd look great. (I thought MP Prime would have looked a lot better in G1 toy colors--deep blue legs) Anyways, Hot Rod is really good, as he's a deep kinda fuschia-red like he should be, and the flames are gold paint, not yellow. (Cheap, thin gold, but gold nonetheless). But his waist accents are still bright yellow, and don't match.

I've noticed that some US Alternators have "abbreviated" instructions compared to the JP Binaltechs (Smokescreen for sure)---which leads to problems---you simply CANNOT do it how the US instructions show---it's obvious the guy who re-did them just looked at them and THOUGHT that eliminating a few steps to save some paper would work--but it doesn't. I wouldn't be surprised if MP SS was the same, since MP Prime had such long, detailed instructions--they probably edited the instructions at the end to save some paper, and eliminated some useful steps in there.

Shawn just announced he found some more stuff from 2002. Might be some in there.

Thanks

Just to nitpick, but the Rafale's much older than the F-22. It was flying the 80's. I think the Rafale is the record holder for "longest gap between flying prototype and service entry". And isn't the MiG-29S now the MiG-35 officially?

X-02 has the outer half of the wings swing INSIDE the wingroot. When the wing tips are retracted, the wings are identical to the YF-23. (the leading edge splits open to allow the tips to go inside). Canards---just write it off to "close-coupled in the extreme". Pure wing airflow control, rather than pitch control.

If we did, you can be sure that's NOT what we'd see on screen. Hollywood has no clue what a barrel roll is. Common Hollywood aviation myths: 1. Decompression lasts more than 1/10 of a second, pulling people out of the plane minute after minute. 2. Moving the stick over and rolling 360 degrees is a "barrel roll".

If it was designed today, it probably wouldn't have swing-wings. Interestingly it'd certainly have thrust-vectoring nozzles.

And yet there's still people who think the X-02 was NOT based off the YF-23... (the second photo is made from about the most famous photo of YF-23 #2--I can post the original if anyone cares)

I just bought a cheap F-14 solely to paint red, and test panel-line techniques, before I try anything on my $200 Milia. Being pure red brings its own problems---black or dark grey panel lining on red tends to give a "purple" effect. But light grey or white gives pink of course. Maybe rust or brown. Going to try pencils (both grey and silver--chipped/worn paint effect), washes, dry-brushing silver, thinned gundam markers, and maybe even my "airbrush-only metalizer with a brush" technique---works great for ceramic-lined exhaust nozzles. And of course wm cheng's oil wash style--but I have to try out other techniques just to find what colors will work best though---oil paint gets expensive pretty quick if you don't know exactly what colors you need. Thankfully I won't need any cadmium yellow...

SXRD's have 2 component and 2 HDMI? I was starting to think no TV had 2 of both. (They're all either 2 comp and 1 HDMI, or 2 HDMI and 1 comp) Still, SXRD is way out of my price range. (my HDTV will be a 26in LCD, maybe 30in---if there's still a 27in out there by the time I buy, I'll want that) If 26-30in plasmas existed, that's what I'd really like.

Kind of ironic---removing the tailhook fairing is not only more accurate, but allows better posability for the feet. "Hack away in seconds with a saw what Takara so carefully molded and designed"

I'm still trying to figure out "who'll get it first--and can ship it to me first". Saw one person say Neova I think, for being close to Yamato's factory. Price isn't much of a concern--it'll be around 200 bucks regardless, +/- 10 bucks isn't worth a week or two of waiting for an ultra-fan of the YF-19 like myself.

Found all of the Classics at Target and Walmart yesterday.

Very true, I had Aelia (still best non-plot VP character ever) go like 6 "deaths prevented from survival" in a row alone once. Actually my biggest disappointment in VP2 is rather minor: Jobs are gender specific. I wanted a female heavy fighter (like Aelia) and mage (like Yumei or Mystina). Plus the lack of spears/halberds. (again, Aelia--she just rocked) (there is one character with a halberd, spoiler, but obvious) Also, there's really only 2 options for "the character who'll go third" in a special attack chain: Rufus, or someone with a 68pt great magic. Sure there's "heat up" but that sucks up 4 skill points--usually means you have to omit psychosoma. (which just ROCKS for Alicia and Rufus, they're about the only fighters with high magic) There should be a bit more people who can do 60pt specials---there's so many "58pt" ones at the end it's annoying--there should be a LITTLE variation in there, especially considering who/what the attacks are. (trying to avoid spoilers)

R_deckard---don't know if you planned it, but where you snipped the tailhook fairing halves off the ankles is the exact place where they should be snipped if you're going for the F-15E look. Looking at the pics you posted, I think removing the conformal tanks would be impossible, due to the screws in the wings etc---they'd interfere majorly, and would likely stick out above the surface of the wingroot/fuselage blend. I've been trying to see how the original mold did that area, and it almost looks like the wingroot underside isn't present--just a gap hidden behind the cannons in fighter mode. That or it folds away somewhere differently than the production mold does it. However, permanently removing the intake kibble and putting it back on the wings should be possible. That plus the "hip kibble on legs" mod would be enough for me to buy one (in good colors, of course). (Though I want to try to mod the exhausts' ball joint so there's not that big gap around them in fighter mode--that gap really bugs me--plus the fact that Takara did a really bad job replicating the look of a featherless exhaust--should have stuck with a feathered exhaust, like the G1 toy had--simpler and looks better)

Have a few, but not enough to make the entire party nigh-invincible. Though I am definitely going to go for defense next attempt--I was doing enough damage. Might try the "splitting the party up" trick, though I've never really done it before. Also, I just kinda feel it to be cheating to use "amazing" combos of certain skills+accessories. Though it seems some bosses NEED that---the two magicians in chapter 4---no amount of magic defense was enough, I had to use toughness and first aid and all that---then had it easy. When I beat it (hopefully tomorrow) I plan to finish Okami, and then try to finish my "started like a half-year ago" half-done playthrough of VP1 before FF12. Don't know why I never finished it, I never "quit" a replay of a game--and was planning on beating it to be "ready" for VP2.

Sound test is apparently unlocked when you beat the game. Kinda like FFX, you have to buy the songs individually. They're cheap though. I stopped Okami to play VP2. I'm at the final boss, but stopped for the night--lost to the first form 2 times before beating it, and lost to the second(and final) form once, but didn't feel like trying again. First form isn't hard, just long and annoying. I actually found it quicker to do it the "wrong" way. PS--for anyone playing, you will want the mage-slayer skill by the end of the game. Lots more magic enemies at the end, and final boss is very magic-based. (But being a boss, also has high physical attack and defense--but mage-slayer is about the only skill that'll help). I only had like 1 person with it, and they are annoyingly not available for the final fight. First aid is also the most useful skill, period, especially combined with the Lifeforce Blessing sealstone. Toughness is so useful it's almost cheating, but if you're really getting beat on, equip it.

After Xenogears, I consider Valkyrie Profile to be the greatest game ever. Coincidently, I also rank XG and VP as having the two best soundtracks ever. And in probably the "longest wait for a sequel" ever, we have Valk Profile 2. And it's really good. VP2: Silmeria takes a little while to really get into the plot (much like the first--chapters 2 and 3 were almost filler in the first) but gets really cool, at an ever-increasing pace. And it does something I haven't really seen since FF IV: Major characters come and go. Some good twists and surprises, and never "just for shock value"---always good and thought out. Music---starts out rather generic RPGish (still very very good), but becomes more and more 'VPish' as you go---and you start finding remixes of VP1 music--but they're so remixed you have to REALLY listen and think, it'll never be an obvious "copy". But you'll remember a bit here and think and wonder where you heard it before. Lots of boss battle music--probably 5 or 6 different ones, many for specific bosses. However, none are the hard and fast style of VP1's battle themes. Most lean more towards the "ominous/foreboding/strings/choir" category of boss music. Anyways---links to VP1 aren't that many at first. You'll certainly get more out of it if you played Lenneth, but certainly not necessary. Oh, and it certainly considers the "good/alternate" ending of VP1 to be canon. But the later you go, the more it refers to VP1, especially its ending. The game certainly stands alone, but could have used just another paragraph or two to explain a certain someone's motivation if you hadn't played the first one.

While that is among the most accurate paint charts I've ever seen on a computer monitor (most are so off they're utterly worthless) it's still not dead-on. I've bought most of those paints, and in real life they're all a bit brighter. If I had a Hikaru, I'd give a suggestion. Italian red is "Ferrari red" though. Guards red is "Porsche red". I like Chrysler engine red myself for a bright red---no other "hue" in it. And while we're on the subject--I asked before but no one answered: Is the white plastic used on Max and Milia the same as a Hikaru? (1J for all)

KingNor--but if it were, make sure to use the totally wrong shades. Replace the deep blue with a lavender-cobalt blue, and the yellow with orange, or maybe lime-chartreuse.