the white drew carey

Yeah, we should start naming them after Ikea furniture. The USS Smolsgub Bookshelf (in white, black, or tan) has a nice ring to it.

I agree. I also think that Naval vessel should ONLY be named for states, naval battles, and Naval personnel. I'm glad that Carl Vinson did a lot for the Navy, but he never served so, IMHO, he shouldn't have a ship named after him (and an aircraft carrier, no less).

Well, see, this is the best part about Moore's work: as someone (forget who) mentioned earlier in the thread, he left a lot to the reader's imagination. Most of the recent discussion is not speculation, but what us, as reader's see as a possible epilogue in our own imaginations.

Nice review. You hit it pretty much on the head.

Although my collection is a bare minimum compared to many, and I definitely don't have the money or the space for many of the odd items out there, I would love to see a section on "obscure" collectibles and collections.

I highly doubt it weighs that much. Thanks for the tip. Was looking into reading this one, on your review, I think I will.

Man, am I bummed. This is like the only movie I was looking forward to next year, except for The Road. I don't need to "boycott" the Wolverine movie, as I wouldn't go see it in the theaters anyway. But maybe I'll say that I am?

#1, baby!!! I got a friend who is half Filipino and his family back home always sends him homegrown movies. He hates them. I have to ask him if he's received this one yet!

Nice disclaimer!

I got the Nausicaa Watercolor Impressions book. I got the complete Freedom Project blu-ray set. I got the complete Space: Above and Beyond DVD set. I got the Neverwhere novel by Neil Gaiman. I got Bioshock for the PS3. I got Little Big Planet for the PS3. I got a second Dualshock 3 controller. I got a book of recipes for cast iron cookware. In my stocking I got turkey jerky, teriyaki jerky, Sour Patch Kids, and pistachios. And a co-worker got me a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Wow.

I'd have to agree. Although I almost went and saw 10,000 BC with a bunch of anthropologists, but I couldn't decide whether or not that would be fun, or annoying.

Nope. Don't have to give it up if I don't want to. I haven't broken any of MW's rules, so it's fair discussion. If I have a dissenting viewpoint I am entitled to say it now matter what a noob like you says.

Ummm... he could rest it, or his wings could as well. I never said anything about rollerskates (although that would be funny). True, but it also had enough thrust to actually fly upwards. He doesn't. Yeah, I already remarked on that. With style. He didn't "fall" but he also didn't completely fly.

Ummm.. there have been many, many, planes in the history of flight that launch using a detachable undercarriage that drops away once airborne. So you're first point is moot. He stays airborne but, except for quick maneuvers, constantly drops. Every "sensational" article you read yells out "Man flies!!!" But articles that are a little more realistic will also describe how far he goes vs. how for he drops. Also, the reason for the parachute is because he has no way to land. Like you said, he has no undercarriage, so he can't land on his feets, and if he cuts out the thrust he drops like a rock because his wings do not provide enough lift to glide. That is why he parachutes down. If he could carry enough fuel to keep going, he would eventually ht the ground no matter what because he is always descending. With that in mind, I'm not implying that this guy doesn't have balls of steel, and what he does is truly awesome. It's just that what he does doesn't constitute as true flight. Like Woody said, and Lord_Breetai reminded us, it's more like falling... with style.

No, it's not. His jets and wings do not provide him with enough lift to launch from thee ground, nor do they do enough to keep him airborne. Even under powered flight he still heads down regardless of the thrust being provided. Now if the jets provided enough thrust to keep him up until they ran out of fuel, that would be different. But that is not the case here.

Damn! I knew that reminded me of something!!! Thanks!

Yeah, but he's not really flying. He falls from a high elevation and the jets give him enough speed to go far. He may rise a bit in altitude at times, but his general direction is down. Still neat, though.

Hmmm... I didn't try, but then again they aren't nearly as long as RoR. Also, you have control over your individual soldiers, so you have a bigger role in their actions when they attack. RoR's animated battle scenes were terrible. They were fun at first, but when it started taking 4-5 hours to finish a battle (with no chance to save until it was done), it got really obnoxious. Did you try the demo, yet? If not, I suggest you take a stab at it and see what you think.

Played the Valkyria Chronicles demo. Pretty good! It's like what Ring of Red should have been. I put it on my Amazon Wishlist and if I don't get it for X-mas, I'll pick it up myself.

I never said we didn't know. I'm assuming you were referring to my statement about the legal status of the product. What I was referring to was the status of HG/Macross. This is only a guess, but I think FASA's mistake was assuming that, since they had purchased a license to release the model kits, they may have thought they had rights to the images as well. The question here is, does HG have the same false thinking? I'm guessing they do.

Thanks for the info.

I recieved a response from Joel at BBTS. Well-worded and fairly straight-forward. While I disagree with the decision, at least the president was willing to respond directly. What got me, though, was this sentence: I may be out of the loop, but don't recall hearing about this before. Also, in response to JBO's assertion that this is old news because HG has been throwing hissy fits for 15 years is grossly incorrect, and is also part of the impetus for this isue in the first place. The many reasons for scrutiny and disbelief in HG's claims goes back to Macross II and Macross Plus. During the early to mid-nineties, both products were actively licensed and distrubuted in NA without HG's permission. The argument that "no one was minding the store" at the time and, hence, certain licenses got past them fails for two very serious reasons: 1) HG was actively licensing the Macross product in the form of, mostly, comic books and the N64 game Robotech: Crystal Dreams. So, if the company was active in managing their product, there obviously was someone minding the store. The statement that MII and M+ slipped under their radar is also suspect, as both were highly anticipated products in the market. 2) The fact that Tatsunoko actively licensed Macross-related products outside of HG. Case in point is the Battletech kits (which were repacked Nichimo kits) which were sold via First Century Imports (?) and licensed from Tatsunoko in the mid-80s. HG and FASA eventually came to closed agreement on the usage of the Macross-based designs much later (90's, 00s?), so we are still left in the dark about the legal status of the product. I've followed this issue for quite a long time and, through it all, I'm of the opinion that HG's rights to Macross are limited and, possibly, vaguely worded. Except for the FASA incident, they have yet to back up their legal claims with any hard evidence and are probably using the threat of legal action and C&D orders in the hopes that no one will attempt to force their hand. The one best example (SpideyJerusalem) of someone standing up to HG ended with a whimper as HG quietly faded back into the woodwork. I tell you, if I ever win a large lottery, I will challenge HG simply to get this whole thing resolved.

That's a good idea. Here's the e-mail I just sent to them:

Yeah, they kind of do. I never said it was charity, and its fairly obvious what my statement meant- Sony needs to start selling getting PS3s into homes and playing games a lot better than they've been doing. Their marketing strategy has not been very affective and they're sales have not been improving like the Wii and 360 have. Also, there have been plenty of companies in all fields who had millions and millions and still plummeted. Look at the financial or auto industries lately?