David Hingtgen

They change what the A350 is every week... PS--you want artisic airliner shots? This is the best one in years: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1088680/L Now THAT is a contrail! Plus quite clearly defined wingtip vortices--which will eventually lead to what you see in the shot above.

I bought many of the early Alternators, but quickly thought "they're just slight re-hashes of the same transformation". There's a few "new" ones, but there's really only 2 or 3 transformation schemes. Saw Mirage, and it looked really nice, it just looked to transform exactly like several others I already had, only with fender-shoulders. Smokescreen was the first, and still the best IMHO.

Regardless of how you see the YF-21 belly sides as being shaped, I think you'll agree it's quite unlike how the arms look in battroid mode.

Surprised Apollo Leader hasn't posted in this---PM him if he doesn't show up soon.

I'd be surprised if the club isn't Japan only, so having non-Japanese across the web wanting to join won't bring in any money. And Takara won't see any money from Japanese auctions. "Helping people in Japan who sell on Ebay make easy money" probably isn't one of Takara's goals. Also---having high demand for a small-run exclusive won't help sales of the regular one. If EVERYBODY wants the exclusive, that means 90% of the production run will be unsold.

Not IMHO. Napoleonic violet has always struck me as being a very EVA-01 color, if you want a ready-mixed substitute. There's always the actual EVA color sets, but they're always in and out of production.

VF-22 doesn't have the morphing AFAIK, but transforms the same. It can fold the wings and tailplanes for highspeed mode, but that's it. I still think it's all about the belly plates, that's the key--either they "wrap" around the arms, or they have smaller panels deploy to cover the arms--because I think Kawamori wouldn't resort to "pure" anime magic to transform round segmented arms into flat smooth panels---he may use anime magic to tweak proportions and shapes a bit, but never to completely change something into something else.

As stupid as making "how he actually looked" MP SS an exclusive? Yup. Current word is still "Roller only available with the club exclusive version of MP-04". Remember---the trailer should have been available with MP-01! They're going to make you wait and pay for every little thing. I'm surprised they're giving us blue stripes on the trailer at this point, figuring that'd be an optional $20 sticker sheet...

Just like to point out that the most advanced fighter in many years is also the overall boxiest-fuselage fighter in many years, the F-22. It's an angled F-15 and little more, shape-wise. Aircraft designers finally discovered something ship (and locomotive) designers did a while ago: boxy shapes have more internal volume, and are cheaper to make. Avionics determine an aircraft's future and usefulness more than its aerodynamics do nowadays. The Legacy Hornet isn't being phased out for age/aerodnyamic/engine reasons, it's run out of room for avionics! It simply can't be upgraded any more, because there's no room inside. (The F-14 actually got too old, it has room for some more electronic gizmos inside--but it would have been gone a decade earlier for avionics reasons if it didn't have that room) The Super Hornet has like half of its avionics space empty when it leaves the factory, to allow for the inevitable needs in the future. What are the new big LERXs on the Super Hornet used for? More electronics space! They're packed with them. Bigger, boxier fuselages also allow for more of another critical factor: fuel. More fuel is always good. Final comment: I do think the F-22 is kind of "against the trend", and is mainly boxy for stealth+internal carriage reasons. Go look at the YF-23---as un-boxy and 3-dimensionally complex as can be. (And stealthier and sleeker overall). The YF-23 was the future of aerodynamic design, the F-22 is "what Lockheed's lobby accomplished". Maybe in another 20 years we'll see planes that equal the YF-23. Gotta wait for the future to catch up to the past. PS--going with sketchley's comment---it's pretty common to design someting classified system-by-system, with almost no one knowing how it'll all come together until the end. (just gotta make sure it fits--also why military design is slow, expensive, and inefficient--hard to design stuff when no one knows what's going on) F-117 was done exactly like that. Wouldn't be surprised if the VF-1 hand-articulation team had no idea they were doing anything other than something for industrial factory robots, and that the VF-1 "eye sensor" team had no idea it was actually to be installed in a head, not some new type of submarine periscope.

Leave it to Kawamori to make the most complicated transformations the least documented... (it's obvious he has every step of every valk's transformation carefully figured out, he just doesn't write them down that often) I still want a more detailed explanation of the YF-21's shoulder transformation---the Design Works doesn't help much, I actually like the SHE instructions more! (but that's simplified and inaccurate--but far better than Yamato's)

The VF-1 has the F-14's gloves/bags/fences, intakes, overall wing design (especially the control surfaces) and beavertail--that's a LOT of the F-14's design cues, and utterly "not needed" for transformation or battroid looks--they're pure F-14 parts. He may not have been going for an F-14 to start with, but he sure ended up putting a lot of "looks exactly like the F-14 and nothing else" parts on it by the end. Basically agreeing with sketchley's last sentence.

Personally, I think it's an advanced form of a "self-healing" cutting mat. It's just "self healing tarmac". (The question isn't how it structually holds together--flightdecks are armored solid steel on par with battleship armor--the question is how does the asphalt on top survive almost unscathed)

While the Design Book has the VF-9's transformation, it's your standard "3-step process with 500 arrows all over, showing "before and after" Kawamori drawing." Even with labeled diagrams, it's still up to your own brain to figure out how the pieces GOT there. I first "noticed" the VF-9's transformation because of M3---I'd sit there looking at it transforming, basically thinking "WTF is it DOING?" It's one of the few asymmetrically-transforming valks (arms separate front/back, not left-right), which adds a twist. (literally) Flip and rotate, rotate and flip...

Yup, you can grab a few Zentradi ships, the size you can snag doesn't show up that often though---there's more multi-screen-long ones in the game than the smaller ones! (I can never keep Zentradi ship classes straight) But when you get them, they rock.

Now that this is the horizontally scrolling SHMUP thread: Thunderforce V is probably my fave of all time. Originally played it on the Saturn, but didn't beat it until I got the PSX version! Neither version is graphically perfect, each one omits some things. I prefer the PSX overall, but the Saturn does Stage 3 SO much better, it's like a different stage. Gradius V: I turned on invincibility and STILL couldn't beat the final extra stage! That convinced me I'd never beat it normally, so sold it. Gradius III is the best in the series by far, and among hte best shooters of all time. R-Type Final: usually just play through on easy to test out ships and weapons. "Future World" is a fave of mine, for both colors and weapons. Actually like it more than Delta I think. (Delta had better ships though--with fewer options, they seem to have tweaked them a lot more)

R-type Final has plenty of weapons that do the "mimic in trail" thing. Thunderforce 5 is actually the one I was thinking about, as the best weapon (never remember its name, but it moves opposite of you and is like a green vectoring laser) is also another really good way to get used to the "moving in trail" weapons, just in a different way. Gradius has the trailing options, but rarely use them like that--for Gradius I usually like stuff spread as much as possible.

M3=Max and Milia colors for lots of valks! Like the VF-4 and 11. Not the 19/22 though, disappointingly. Still, M7 has more valks and colors than DYRL. DYRL sure has a bigger fan base, but there's really not that many valk/schemes in it, especially with the overlaps from the TV series. I suspect Yamato just doesn't like M7--it's frankly too important of a license to ignore THAT many valks and schemes. I'd love a Jamming birds VF-11D.

Final stage, Max in gerwalk mode. That weapon alone makes Max the easiest to win with IMHO. If you've played enough R-type or Thunderforce you should be good at using that sort of weapon. Milia's battroid has the most firepower, but the rate of fire is so poor you'll die many times waiting for the next shot to go off. I think Hikaru probably averages out as the best as having no real weakness, while Max and Milia each have a weakness in one mode that counteracts the usefullness of another. But since Max has the best gerwalk, and its most useful in the final stage, it is thus easiest to win with him.

I don't recall seeing Max's VF-1J ever. As I recall the DYRL-esque sequence only ever showed Basara's VF-19---which is AFAIK the only time we've seen a VF-19 with its wings swept back to the intermediate position. (Which looks pretty cool, but is impossible to do in a transforming toy)

For "lesser known" valks I'd like (in order) the VF-4, VF-5000, or VF-3000. For sheer transforming bliss/complexity, the VF-9. That has SUCH a complicated transformation if you really analyze it. Like the quadruple-folding wings that make up the chest... No other valk forms half the battroid chest from the wings.

You have to join the club to get Roller. That's Takara's new strategy--want the version everyone wants/expects in the first place? Have to join the club and pay extra. Only way to get G1-colored MP Starscream, and Roller. It's completely backwards from how it should be. The clear/black/etc versions should be club exclusives, not the "right" versions. Next, they'll make whatever the new Prime is blue, and red Prime will be the exclusive...

Tried to post earlier, MW wasn't working for me for a while. Level select: (I never actually tried it I think, as I'd won by the time I found it) "When the Zamuse screen appears, press up, then go in a 360 degree counter clock- wise motion twice, then press L, R, L, R. Go to the options screen and if there's a Stage Select option, then it worked." I don't know if rolling or tapping out the d-pad works better. Minmei effect: if you stop shooting, a yellow glow will surround your valk. Touch an enemy with it. The power of Minmei's singing will bring them over to your side. You'd be surprised how powerful of an enemy you can get.

There is a level select, though I never used it. Game is definitely easiest with Max (especially last level), hardest with Milia. Last level has some of my all-time favorite SHMUP music. Be sure to use the Minmei effect to snag a Zentradi cruiser as often as possible, they are far better than any other of the "helpers" you can have.

Also, Springer kind of sucks in all 3 modes, whereas Astrotrain was the best triple-changer by far. (I'm a huge Bliztwing fan, but admit has a worse robot mode than Astrotrain---and jet mode is rather blocky, even accounting for the MiG-25 itself being rather blocky). Of course, there's always Octane... I love airliners, and I like tanker trucks. And don't forget Doubledealer, even though he's more remembered for being a double-powermaster and allegiance switcher (like Punch/Counterpunch). He was a very fun toy with an awesome vehicle mode, one of the better G1 bird modes, and a decent robot. (Standard G1 brick, but what wasn't during that year?) Decepticons had better triple-changers than Autobots, hands down.

Re-titled and moved. You're mean, Exo. ::edit:: And closed, especially since the main thread on this is still on the forum's first page.