David Hingtgen

I'd be surprised if it was anything but HEI.

Nitpick: The Intrepid has an A-12, not an SR-71. There actually are rather few SR-71's on display, 9 out of 10 "SR-71's" are actually A-12's. Even otherwise "accurate" museums will proudly put up a big "SR-71" plaque next to their A-12, figuring nobody would notice, and since the A-12 has almost no name recognition. And don't think it'll ever move, it was a heck of a job to get it on board in the first place. The only real true SR-71 on display I can think of right now is the one that was at Offutt, and is now roughly in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska. Maybe the new Dulles part of the NASM has one. (Actually I think they do, probably the one that did the final record-setting flight).

I would absolutely postively make sure to see the carrier Intrepid. If you're going to the WTC, it's not too far away AFAIK. Intrepid's collection of planes rivals that of the Smithsonian IMHO for "coolness". http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/

If you want a hot ninja, buy Nightshade. In addition to being an awesome game in its own right, Hibana's one of the best video game females in a long time, IMHO. And after you win, you can play as Hisui.... And Nightshade/Kunoichi is easier than Shinobi, thankfully.

Guessing: Cobalt blue with blood red. That's an incredibly "red" shade of purple. Do not dare add any sort of "bright" red for they are inherently orange, and orange+blue=brown=drab, and you need an intense color. Use pale blue (watch out for greenish-blues) to lighten if necessary, or even pinks/magenta. Actually, royal blue plus hot magenta might work pretty well. Insignia Red is probably the brightest "non-orange/scarlet" red there is. Best paint-mixing book I've found is "Yellow+Blue DOESN'T make Green" or something like that. Because it's very true because pigments are not "pure". Depending on differences between paint/monitor/what you want, you may want to try EVA-01 purple. On TV (at least mine) EVA-01 is pretty "neutral" but a lot of models/paints of it lean towards the reddish side of purple.

Worked for a little while. Now forums and threads are ok, it's reply and quote that keeps refusing me.

Sea Harriers are 1980's, nothing later. I have the Matchbox F-104's, due to there being no other 1/72 F-104 to get. Nice enough, and for $12 at Target, hard to complain. The bare-metal F-104 is actually two different shades, not simply "silver all over".

Back on topic: Clearing out MW's cookie seemed to work (for the moment), but I won't know until I click through a few dozen more sub-forums etc.

F-16 tanks are F-16-specific. Most drop tanks are. The only one I know of that isn't, is the later-style F-4 centerline tank and the F-15, they use the same 600-gallon tank--it's a "standard large tank for large twin-engine MDC fighters". Bombs should fit on the DW F-15E wing pylons, don't know for certain. On the other boards, they only like DW because of the lack of screws and paint IMHO, if you really look Dragon accuracy is no better than any other brand, despite people constantly talking about Dragon's "accuracy". I think "small engraved details and thin, fine panel lines" are a more accurate term than "accuracy". I own all the Corgi's you mentioned, here's my comments: Tornado: very nice, best Corgi there is. Main gear doors very difficult to position correctly in the open position though. Wings swing with a movable section to fill the gap! Only model plane I know of where "wings forward" won't leave a big hole behind the wing. Phantom: only accurate for an F-4C and possibly a UK one. Do not buy a US Navy one, it will be horribly inaccurate. As an F-4C, very nice, Tornado seems a bit better. Harrier: I only have Sea Harriers, but they're pretty nice, if a bit more "simple" than the others. Movable nozzles, canopy doesn't open, speed brake doesn't open (that's important for Harriers). I often go by the weapons, as Corgi weapons are permanent, and some are painted well enough, others are simply pure white. Landing gear/doors is very much like Dragon, but I always spend more time "scraping paint" etc to get the posts in the holes on a Corgi than a Dragon. Mainly I think because Corgi just puts a very thick layer of white paint on the gear.

Also having issues----trying to click on a FORUM often says I'm not logged in or not allowed (either through the clickable links near the top or through the window menu near the bottom), but direct links to a THREAD are ok. And it "remembers" I'm logged in like every other click, so I don't need to "log in" every time, it just kind of auto-logs-out then auto-logs-back-in every other click. Happened in the last 24 hours. Doubt it's a cache issue, it was cleared out just this week.

News(not really): http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12500282-1243,00.html JSF over budget and behind schedule. USD$125million each now. (they seem to switch between Austrailian and US dollars often in the article) Boy, I'm glad we're buying those instead of EXPENSIVE planes like the F-22... PS---RN also not happy, retiring the Sea Harrier starting to look like a bad idea, since there's now going to be a several year gap that the Gr.9 simply isn't going to be able to fill. And not that the latest RN carrier design has been going well either...

I bought the JP version almost purely because of the stacks. I know trucks (not nearly as well as planes, but enough to know stacks) and the US version's stacks are just plain "stupid" IMHO. It'd be like an F-15 with v.stabs only half as tall, or an F-14 with 5,000lb thrust engines, for the aviation guys here. It just looks wrong due to small size. Of course, my main gripe with Prime is that truck mode was heavily sacrificed for both robot mode sculpt, and gimmicks. G1 Prime is a much more accurate truck, though of course robot mode is only 1/100 as good as MP Prime's.

Prime is the best toy I've ever owned, period.

But there's no way the ENDING of Kotor 2 could be put into Kotor 3. This isn't a planet, scenario, villain, etc. This is simply the ending and it really wouldn't fit into another game.

Glad someone else brought this up. Basically: "Hey, there's a whole lot more backstory for the characters, and a long, satisfying, multi-branching cool ending! We just left it out of the final version, but 99% of it is still on the disc, inaccessible" Read most of it here: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...pic=29764&st=15 4th post, much easier to read than the "raw" dialogue.

Real YF-23's are huge like a Flanker. IMHO most diecast planes are a bit too big for their "official" scale. I'll see what I can find about F-8 gunsights. And yes F-8's can decelerate very well, they have HUGE airbrakes. (As does the A-7)

::long post shortened:: A Tomcat with its wings out is burning a lot of fuel. Throttling back doesn't really help nor does going slower. If it did, the airlines wouldn't be running their planes at 90% thrust for hours on end. If it's a jet, it's going to be most fuel efficient at about Mach .8 and 80-90% power. From a private jet to an F-15 to a 747.

Agreeing with the second part---frankly, nobody "agrees" with me for games, there's little point in going by a score at all. The fact that Suikoden III, Xenosaga, and Xenosaga II all got nigh-identical scores by most reviewers I saw says a lot, since I consider those games to all be vastly different in quality, in different ways.

hellohikaru---while the F-8E's certainly could carry the Bullpup, I can't find any evidence it was actually USED. The hump on the F-8E's back is purely for the Bullpup avionics, but in later ones it's used for ECM instead of Bullpup stuff. If it was used at all, they wouldn't have deleted the equipment in the F-8H/J/K etc.

F-15K first flight today: http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2005/q1/nr_050303n.html Sucky photo, can barely even tell it has GE F110's. Interesting that the nozzles are in totally different positions.

Famitsu is #1 but I have no idea why. The translations of reviews I've read make me think of GamePro or something. I don't trust/give credit to Famitsu at all. If they're #1, it must be because the average Japanese gamer has tastes very different from mine. Of course, not many mags "agree" with me. Gamer's Republic was close though, as was NextGen.

So you want a launch day PS2 controller? They're still around. Here's what to look for: 1. Check Toys R Us, your best bet by far. After that, Wal-Mart (an old one not a Super), K-Mart, Target. Sears? Somewhere that probably has OLD stock that's been sitting around for years. Not somewhere that sells lots and lots of games. 2. How to tell: Old controllers will not say "Black" in a small box, because there were no color options. There are other differences in packaging so minor I can't even remember, but that's the big one. I also *think* the newer ones have a small diagram on the back showing how it hooks up to the console (in case you can't figure it out) and the old ones don't. Not sure. But the lack of "Black" (where others say Blue, Green, etc) is the big clue, since it means it was made before there even were other colors to buy. Of course, a thick layer of dust on the packaging (Toys R Us) is also a good clue. IMHO the biggest difference is the D-pad, it won't register unless you press it harder. What would normally "count" as a light tap doesn't. MMX4 is the best test, the most "sensitive" game I know of. X button also wants a "harder" hit to register, to the point that in AC5 I would often tap the button and not have anything happen. Circle to a lesser degree. Triggers are simply "cheaper" and feel it. If I tap a button, it should register. I even thought start/select felt off. 5 years of PS2-playing makes me pretty familiar with exactly how a controller should respond. New ones want a distinct "press" into the sensor pad, not a mere "click" of the button. I don't smash buttons into the controller as hard as I can, I tap them. Especially menus, etc. AC5's many menu screens are a good test too. (I got my PStwo the same week as AC5, that's about the only game I've tried with the newer cheaper controller)

I've never seen droptanks on an F-8, and only once on a test plane have I seen Bullpups. I own nearly every F-8 book that's been published or re-issued in the last decade. F-14: Block numbers are never changed, no matter what happens to it. Same for all plane, it's part of the serial number. The final F-14 mods were the HUD's for the B's, and GPS/JDAM. LANTIRN was slightly before JDAM AFAIK. Acronyms galore!

Just a few comments: 1. Recent PS2 controllers suck compared to a launch day one. I am not the only one to notice, and it's very obvious to me. I searched for a while to find a "old" PS2 controller for sale to replace the one from my PStwo, and will buy another soon as a spare. And yes I popped them open to compare, and found small but definite differences. Different enough for me to spend 25 bucks on a new controller. Was NOT going to play AC5 on the new sucky one. 2. Hori pad for GC is nice, but if they'd have done SNES style buttons instead of GC it'd rock. The GC button arrangement sucks for many games, especially fighting games. 3. Actually preferred DC controller to twin-sticks for VO:OT. 4. Original US-style Saturn controller is the best I've used. The Saturn controller coming out for the PS2 is either the original JP style or later US style, I can never remember. Shoulder buttons are the main real difference, casing is mainly a cosmetic change. 5. I hate GC triggers. Gotta press them in half a foot before they register, then they "sprong" back up audibly. 6. Xbox S controller always makes my 3/4/5 fingers curl in weird angles, same problem as DC controller---the giant "trigger holder/handholds" scrunch my fingers behind the controller towards the center. I want nothing on the "back" of a controller---PS controllers are much better. If I stop playing due to finger pain, it's because my middle and ring finger are rubbing or pressed against a hand-hold/trigger button area, not due to button pressing.

Hasegawa is 95% planes, 5% ships nowadays. I'm surprised they even made a VF-1 battroid at all. A MG/PG style battroid is basically unthinkable.