ewilen

Just to add to Graham's answer, in fighter mode the head probably functions as a "turret" for the anti-missile lasers. Not unlike what's being considered for a future laser weapon in the JSF. As well, it may be useful to be able to pivot the sensors even in fighter mode.

I kept seeing this thread near the top of the "new posts" list but I always skipped over it until today. So sorry to hear about your loss.

The Compendium states regarding the QF-2001: A few notes... 1) "Ghost" is more likely a generic term for a series of UCAVs, rather than a nickname for a specific model. 2) The QF-2001 may well have been on its way out and we're seeing it being used just before the more advanced QF-3000E came on line. I'd say there is a very high likelihood that the QF-3000 has a fusion engine, since it is used in space. My proof is that although we never see it after the 1st episode (as far as I know), there is a reference to Hikaru escorting or leading a Ghost group in one later episode in space. ("Miss Macross" IIRC). 3) Related to above, the Compendium states about the QF-3000E, So in addition to probably being more advanced than the QF-2001, the QF-3000E fills a slightly different role: it operates in space, and is based on ARMD's and SDF; the QF-2001 operates off of aircraft carriers. In US service, at least, it's pretty normal to have entirely different aircraft filling the same roles but operating in different services/environments. E.g., in WWII, the Corsair was contemporaneous with the Hellcat but was mainly used as a land-based fighter. Or more recently you have the Eagle vs. Tomcat. Most likely there were no QF-2001's on the Prometheus and Daedalus, though--at least that would retroactively explain why they're never mentioned in SDF Macross. So I would speculate that the QF-2001 was indeed superseded by the QF-3000E. Of course, in real terms Kawamori just wanted to have a neat new design.

That's me, the one "not seen" vote so far. I saw a bit of it on TV once. Not enough to form a judgment of the movie itself. My impression from years of secondary exposure is that it's an action movie dressed up as science fiction. I agree that Alien(s) is more of a science fiction movie with lots of action. As for influential, I don't know. If you exclude the big franchises (SW, Trek, B5), I think both Alien(s) and Terminator loom large in modern (post-1975) SF. Blade Runner is also probably influential as a portrayal of near-future societal decay, where previously the future was supposed to be clean and utopian (or clean and dystopian like in Logan's Run). The Mad Max series was perhaps the best of the "modern" post-civilization movies. There's a lot of other stuff out there both before and after 1975 that I'd call classic or at least great, but this isn't a "greatest SF films" thread so I won't post a list. Anyway, as has been pointed out elsewhere, Predator does have the distinction of launching (or at least furthering) the careers of two future governors: Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger. What's next? Governor Carl Weathers? Senator Predator? Don't worry, A1--Predator is now officially on my "to rent" list.

And William Shatner and Martin Short and... Heck, just look at these sites: http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~terning/Canadians/ and http://www.canadians.ca/

In very rough terms, the Skinnies are either the Vichy French or the Italians.

Again, I think it's good work, but I don't think it looks like Misa. You should definitely finish it, regardless of what I or anyone else has to say. I think it looks kind of like Kim-Basinger-as-Misa right now.

I don't mind the small amount of part-swapping and leg-moving on the 1/60 VF-1's, but with the amount of swapping on the VF-0, I agree. If they can't get "anime accurate" transformation out of the VF-0 and SV-51 in a given scale, I'd rather have separate figures. Maybe they could just have a battroid and a fighter which transforms to gerwalk.

The pilot definitely is never "in" the head. When exiting a Valk in battroid mode, the pilot's seat elevates upwards while the head tilts, so that the seat comes out the neck. Normal piloting position while in battroid is somewhere in the cockpit or chest area (which is the bone of contention in this question). The DYRL scene where Roy dies shows that the pilot is in the chest/cockpit area.

I'm sure Scand is right. As for if there are other sets, aside from the K&M set #1, there are also three sets in a similar size by Bandai, and one set by Kaiyodo. Note I said similar size, not similar scale. Because the figs are basically non-scale--some of the figs in the various sets would have to be much bigger if they were to be in scale with the Valkyries (not all of which are the same size, either). Anyway, I have the K&M set #2, like you, and I think it's really nice. So is the Bandai #3 which I have. It includes two Zentradi Mechs: a Glaug (officer's battle bod) and a TV-style (Green) Queadluun-Rau (female powered armor).

They look cool. How about some wider-angle shots so we can see more of the Valks? Where did you get them?

To further assist comparison...

Because people are picking up on details that you might have missed. First, let's get the picture in front of us so we can see what we're talking about... Differences off the top of my head: Weird red circles on the front of the back FP "Fingers" at tips of back FP similar to Macross cannon Large rocket engines on leg attachments Some kind of crossbar thingy on back FP (Edit) Arm attachments seem to be missing

To be honest, you've captured the hair style, and overall it's a fine glamor picture. But it's not Misa in terms of either the pose or the features.

Not exactly. Essentiallly the same design has been used in several places, including one of the famous Daicon videos. In some cases (including some or all incarnations of the toy/model) it is only labeled "powered suit" without any reference to SST. Perhaps as a way of avoiding licensing/copyright issues. Look under 9/21/01 here: http://www.toyboxdx.com/rumble_archive/rum092101.html

She looked kind of tired in most of the scenes, and her acting was horrible in the first half, even given that she's supposed to be playing a cold fish scientist. She improved slightly later on. Best part of the movie, in my opinion. I don't remember the original book very well, but I remember it well enough to know this wasn't it. I was all set to hate the movie. (I only went because a friend insisted.) So maybe I was primed by low expectations, but I didn't think the movie sucked. It was entertaining. I did think it was cliched and shallow in many ways. I also thought there were several opportunities for truly interesting plot twists which were never capitalized on.

Coota0, you might look at the document links I posted in the YF-23 revival thread. I think this is the same link as one of them--it's a very good rundown of the pros and cons: http://www.fas.org/man/crs/RS21848.pdf Basically, the Air Force (and James Roche, Secretary of the Air Force) are saying it would be used to strike time-critical targets in a heavily-defended environment. One example is enemy leadership whose position may be known for a brief period. Another is mobile weapons. However, the report points out that a fast, stealthy, medium-range bomber isn't necessarily the best answer to this need. Shin--going back to some of the things that I've said before about the Tomcat vs. Superbug history, it's apparent that the Navy wanted something to replace the A-12 program. The "F-14 community" might have had a chance at that point to push the Tomcat as the answer, but they missed the boat and only got into bombing after the Super Hornet decision had already been made. In effect, the Navy was looking for a strategy get to a new tactical aircraft, and they realized they needed to emphasize bombing; the Tomcat folks weren't interested, so the Navy put all it's weight behind the Super Hornet.

The 12"-scale fanliner was never made. Toyarchvie has the dope here and here. They were also thinking of making a "Chinese Restaurant/Bedroom Playset". Probably the fanliner was seen as a "romantic" prop for Minmei, so it fit in the 12" line marketed to girls, along with the Macross love triangle and Dana with her hovercycle. The small action figures all look pretty bad, but out of the 6" figures, the Armored Zentradi Warrior is pretty nice (I have one) and Dolza doesn't look too shabby, either. I also like the 7" destroids and Regult/Glaug toys, all of which are reasonably close to 1/60 scale.

Yup, that's what I think is going on. Which is why I don't think the YF-23 is going to get very far in this RFI. The "public" reason for the RFI is to produce a regional bomber. The "real" reason is to promote the FB-22, as a way of supporting the F/A-22 program. There may also be a constituency either in Congress or the service for UCAV bombers. I doubt there's still much of a constituency for the YF-23 (outside of aviation enthsiasts), so Northrop Grumman is going to have a real tough time selling the idea. But I can certainly see them having a chuckle over the chance to rain on Lockheed's parade.

Nope, Shin, stealth is a factor. The Super Hornet isn't as stealthy as a true stealth, but it has a much lower rader cross-section than a Tomcat. http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/electronics/q0168.shtml Although the F-14 doesn't appear in the chart at the bottom of the page, you can bet its RCS is at least that of an F-16, which is five times that of a Superbug. For a bombing operation, reduced RCS means fewer lost and damaged planes, and thus more aircraft available over an extended period. It also means that planes have more options for their route to and from the target, thus the potential of shorter round trips, and therefore less fuel needed for sustained operations. The converse of your comment is that advanced electronics don't do a plane any good if it's stuck in maintenance. Faster maintenance again means more missions per time period. And cheaper maintenance in peacetime means a larger fleet can be available in case of war. More planes times faster turnaround = more bombs delivered courtesy of Uncle Sam.

I bet I've seen that exact item since I was at a used toy store in Alameda a year or so ago and saw a 1/100 1J there. You can't quite tell from the picture but the face plate sticker is a little messed up, not that I think it would seriously affect the value. I agree that $40-$60--or more--is a reasonable price for one that's in unbroken condition with the box.

Agreed that this is a replacement for the F-15E. However, the expected use may be slightly different. I gather from the "regional" moniker that the request for information is designed to meet a need for strike systems which can be based far from the reach of enemy land-based weapons (typically, ballistic missiles) which could be used for access-denial. In other words, the Air Force is concerned that if we had to fight Iran, say, we couldn't base our bombers in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia because the bases would be in danger of being knocked out by nuclear or chemical-tipped missiles. As well, even if Iran lacks WMDs to use in access-denial, the Air Force may not be comfortable with its dependence on regional allies for bases, given risks of instability and/or growing hostility to the US in many countries. While B-52's could fly from Diego Garcia or even farther afield, they of course lack stealth and so would be vulnerable to SAMs. The current B-2 fleet is too few and too expensive. It's interesting that the F/A-22 is already being marketed as an answer to the stealthy deep-strike mission--even though the project budget doesn't answer how it's going to achieve full capability in that role, and even though its unrefueled range doesn''t quite put it in the "regional" category. I also wonder where we're going to get the money for a major new aircraft to appear in the 2016 time frame, assuming both JSF and F/A-22 are bought according to current plans. In any case, I don't see much likelihood of an FB-23 coming out of this. Note that the initiative from the Air Force is simply seeking a regional bomber solution. Northrom--err, Northrop Grumman--are the ones who've allegedly dusted off the YF-23 to be one candidate among many. The USAF "is interested" could mean practically anything. It could just mean they're listening politely and haven't rejected the idea out of hand. With very little information to go on, I suspect that the Air Force really wants the FB-22 to bolster the F/A-22 and/or replace it if it gets cancelled, but other factions inside and outside the service are pushing UCAVs, or in any case are skeptical of the request to build a bomber variant of the Raptor. So the answer is to develop a conceptual need somewhat tailored to the FB-22, then cast a wide net (or at least give the appearance of doing so) looking for solutions. Some background on the regional bomber concept: http://www.fas.org/man/crs/RS21848.pdf (PDF file about the FB-22) http://www.house.gov/hasc/openingstatement...3-03bolkcom.pdf (PDF file--some interesting data in a chart comparing F/A-22 and F-35 range/payload)

According to the thread, "he did it on purpose".

What happened to her knee?

Art Scholl. From what I can glean on the web, he died while filming the movie, but not while flying an F-14. He was flying his own plane, a Pitts S-2A, equipped with cameras--I'm guessing to capture the spin scene as viewed from the inside of the plane. http://www.airventuremuseum.org/collection...k.asp#TopOfPage http://www.artscholl.com/FinalFlight.htm http://artschollaviation.com/asa/index.php Added: Take a look at this thread over on F-16.net. It mentions the accident which you're probably referring to (occurred during F-14 testing), but more important it has some very cool screen caps of Tomcats dueling Zeroes from The Final Countdown. I can't believe I still haven't seen that movie. Looks like it was recently released on DVD.