KingNor

the VT-1 w/o a gun is anime accurate in that the one and only VT-1 ever depeicted in macross didn't happen to be carrying a gunpod. The point here is that the VT-1 is capable of being armed. Capable. That isn't its default load out. I mean obviously if it has hands it can carry a gun pod. If it has valk wings it should have hard points. Now since it's a trainer what you mount on those hard points and what you put in it's hand is totally up to the trainers and protocol. The problem people have with the idea that the VT-1 is a dedicated trainer to the point that there woudln't be any way to put live ammo in it is this: 1) it's pointlessly expencive to make an assembly line for the MUCH less in demand trainer serise, when you can just slightly modify a normal war machine for training 2) training by it's very nature is all about getting the trainee ready for combat, the more like the real fighter the training fighter is, the better. The trainee needs to be familiar with fireing and flying with the real live ammo on his vehicle. 3) there is generally very little precident of purpose build dedicated and un-armable training variants of real world fighting machines in the world today. when you ask "why woudln't they make a dedicated trainer" think about real aircraft. yes they have dedicated trainers, but they come off the same assembly line as the normal fighters, and dispite the fact they are 100% for training, almost always they are 100% the same as the combat variant. So basicly it boils down to: if you think they are making a stand alone, unarmed and unarmable, valkyrie for training, its YOU that has to supply why it would be cost effective to a) manufacture 100% identical yet completely nonfunctional parts b) train technitions to maintain two seperate types of machines dispite the fact they're more or less the same. (they would almost certainly require diffrent maitenence specs) c) train pilots in a vehicle which mimicks, yet isn't really the vehicle they're training to fly d) explain why contemporary military practices of training pilots in functional battle ready vehicles now-a-days is ineffective enouogh to warrent the change in the near future.

the sun operates by gravity. its so big and heavy and massive that fusion happens inside. what exactly could stop that from happening is beyond me, and further more what could be contained on a tiny ship that is going to "restart" the process is even further beyond me. It would be like sending an ant to go inject a brick with orange juice to make it glow. If they have some really good ideas about what the heck could be wron gwith the sun this moive could be great.. with any luck we can just ignore that part of it and enjoy the psycological stuff.

only if it has perfect transformation

this is the first step in the right direction in the last two posts.

this van allen belt stuff is kinda rediculous. yeah there are belts, but from what i understand its the kind of radiation that you ban block with basicly tinfoil. it's not a big deal. and no, modern computers are definately not to fragial to survive trips into space. all of our gps satalites and communications satalites are not built out of 1970's hardware to make it into space. www.badastronomy.com

That was a wild ride.

Don't blame NASA for these things. They're on such a rediculously tight budget they probably had to sell their floppy discs to afford fuel. Our space and science programs are so under funded it's not even funny.

man i don't get why this guy flipped out. did you do his hot robot daughters?

i agree, you can't get much simpler than this.

i'm fairly sure i can do this, given that it is possible in the first place. :-)

Hi guys, this weekend i'm ordering a big shipment of ball joints from HLJ and gonna hit a swap meet to see if i can find 4 or 5 bootlegs. I've been dieing to get back into this and i REALLY want to find a fix for the feet. I'm gonna get lateral movement out of these legs once and for all :-)

****spoiler warning**** in some ways i think it's left ambiguous wether or not the fantasy world was real or not. in the end she was left with a choice of which to choose and she had to deal with her choice. on the other hand, i think it is far more elegant to think the fantasy world was entirely fantasy. it fits the theme of the story better i think. In the final confrontation, i think it was meant to look like she had to choose to either confront reality or keep running away, she didn't have a choice really though, she HAD to deal with reality. so she did, and reality was harsh indeed. ultimately, having dealt with the real world she finally gets to indulge completely in her fantasy kingdom. the way it is cut though, i wonder if she's meant to realize "i'm not living in a magical kingdom, i'm dieing" before she finally dies when the camra switches from her world back to spain. it's hard to tell, but it would make a big diffrence on the ending. The fact that the mother is holding a baby (who isn't dead) is a bit telling, since it would be reasonable to think she' wants her mom and brother to be together. It's a sad ending to a very beautiful movie. personally i find it compelling though.

You guys are terrible, starting him on a 1/48. quattroaction: the 1/48 is a fantastic valk, but its not a toy and you gotta be careful with it, AND it's expencive. Imho you should start with a 1/55 bandai reissue. They're fairly cheap, VERY tough. You can play with it, transform it in seconds. Pose it. drop it, light it on fire. They're tough and still look good. 1/55 for beginers. the 1/48 is what you get if the 1/55 doesn't satisfy the hunger!

I'm talking about this guy: is this the "Genx Core body"?

saw it on saturday in SF. Man that is a brutal movie. good stuff though. I'd describe it as Alice in Wonderland meets Saving Private Ryan, with just a little Hellraiser sprinkled in. ***** Spoilers below: BEWARE******

from what i can tell, only the annoying side kick is played by samy jackson. afro doesn't sound anything like him at all. so whoop der it iz

mpchi, just wondering what name would i use to find that body in the hlj pic? i use them for my art classes

hey..... where can i get the bare model from inside this thing? are those available?

there's a diffrence between changing things to make the story work.. (like, ok, maybe megatron can't be a hand held gun.. ) and changing things because you feel the need to change EVERYTHING no matter how well it worked originally and for no real purpose... (what exactly was wrong with prime being a red, flat nosed semi? how does that help the movie obey the laws of physics?) it's hard to "sit back and enjoy" something that is basicly a slap in the face to everything you originally enjoyed about the franchise. things have been changed that don't need to be changed and dont' solve any problems you mentioned. exactly how is ANOTHER telling of the g1 transformers going to be any better than 2 origin storys for the constructicons? how is it not exactly the same as fracturing the franchise even more?

Michael Bay "des?"

That is neither here nor there. Yes there are dedicated training vehicles, but as far as i know, there are no purpose built training f-14's or f-18's that i know of. and even if there are that doesn't mean the vf-1d is a purpose built trainer. the me-262 was a first generation jet fighter and there was no training variant of it. maybe vf line up suffered the same oversight, i mean this is the same manufacturing that failed to incorporate the SDF's anti gravity drive, a stystem already incorporated in the ship my point is that there is specificaly no mention, one way or the other, that the vf-1d class valkyrie is a primary trainer or simply a 2 seat variant for what ever reason. in fact there is no mention what the vf-1d was for AT ALL. literally all we know is: the vf-1d is a two seater valkyrie, and one of them was painted orange and brown. my thoughts are that they needed a two seater for the plot so hikaru could rescue minmay, so they made the 1d with out putting much thought or care as to why its a 2 seater and most of the others arnt. if there WAS a clear answer anywhere in the cannon i'm sure someone in the last 25 years would have refrenced it by now.

that snake is kind of.. very crazy looking.

happy new years, hope we can all stick to our resolutions what ever they are! ***edit*** that gives me an idea actually Post what you're new years resolutions are! Mine are to hit the gym and stick to a regular schedual and travel more and see friends back home.

they don't custom paint ordnance for real world planes. thats an anime/videogame/cartoon thing.

because he said "combat capable" and you took that to mean that trainees are shooting at each other with live ammo and missles. his point is EXACTLY that the plane trains dry, but CAN be loaded with live ammo. This is true of most military traininy machines, in the Marines they have "training" M1 Abrams. the trainee's drive them through the mud and learn on them. when it comes time to do live fire training, they use the exact same training machiens to fire the main gun and machine guns. It doesn't make much sence to waste time and money building special training vehicles if you can help it. you can always just make dummy weapons for the standard combat vehicle to make training less dangerous. To be honest i think the VT trainer from DYRL IS a purpose built training vehicle. I think that is where reality stops and anime takes over. The VT is a plot device more than anything. Same as the VF-1D. But I still maintain that there is really NOTHING in SDFM that implicates VF-1D's are strictly trainers. It doesn't make much sence to build a purpose built trainer when you could just give a standard VF a flashlight gunpod and remove the lenses or what ever from its lasers. It would certainly make more sence than stocking a squadron of training planes on an already stuffed combat ready SDF-1. But like i said, its anime. who needs reality amirite??