Apollo Leader

"Yeah, they come to snuff the Rooster..."

Red Devil, you da man!

Many years ago, PT Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute!" In 1985, Carl Macek said, "There's a Robotechie born every minute!" The guys participating in that auction fall in this catagory. I pretty much got most of my MPC VF-1's under $50 (in fact I got two at $29.95). When I decided to add the Rick to my collection a year after its original release, I was able to score it for under $60 (brand new never opened). There's no reason these things should go for that much money already. Maybe 10 to 20 years from now, but by then, a lot of the Yamato VF-1's and the Bandai's and Takatoku's (originals and rereleases) should be on the rebound in value too since the time of 2000-2005 was the true Golden Age of Macross collecting and we will probably never have this kind of availability of new Macross goods again.

And here it was in complete form, ready for its historic flight last May.

Here I was back in July with the payload section and nose cone.

A good shot of the entire vehicle.

Closeup of some more of the artwork.

The Go Fast! artwork which was decaled onto the rocket was the result of scanning the labels from some cans or bottles of Go Fast! energy drink... even the UPC ended up on the rocket artwork! Of course all the fading was the result of the high temperatures resulting from Mach 5+ flight.

The rear end of the CSXT. You can tell where the fin can was originally mounted where there is bare aluminum at the end and no faded decals or paint job!

A close up of the top end of the CSXT... yes this is the top end! What happened was that on its way back to earth, the parachute completely failed (probably 40+ miles up from its 77 mile apogee). It probably augered straight in at some point and hit the rocky, mountain terrain at 400+ MPH. The first several feet were obliterated on impact. The impact was strong enough to cause the screws holding the fin canister to the bottom of the airframe to fail, causing the fin can to shott forward resulting in it being pretty damage and ending up on the other end of the rocket making it look like it is on in reverse!

I spelled it r-o-c-k-e-t this time. http://www.civilianspace.com/ After sitting in Bruce's driveway buried under snow for the past month, the recently recovered bottom section of the CSXT rocket was brought to our meeting last night, and I was there! It will be going up to Ky Michaelson's home in the Minneapolis area later this week where it will be reunited with the payload section which was found a day after its historic flight into space last May (the booster section - motor and propellant, fin canister, etc. - wasn't discovered until months later since it didn't have a transmitting signal). The talk is that a year or two down the road, the CSXT, in its current condition or maybe a little touched up, might go on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in DC.

http://www.diamondcomics.com/ Since Diamond Comics (Previews being its monthly catalog) is THE biggest distributor to comic stores across the US, I would say it's a big deal. Since this was done in colaboration with Diamond Comics and Bandai of Japan, this is pretty much next to an official US release and not just a simple case of one store ordering from over seas.

http://aeug.blogspot.com/ Check through the Gunota archive and there are links to some of the still shots from the first Zeta movie.

At several of the local malls this past Christmas, there were a few stands where they were selling those N64 looking controllers which have a gazillion NES games including the Macross game. I've been very tempted to get one of these solely for the purpose of having an actual playable copy of the old Macross Famicom game (I have the actual Famicom game, but no way to play it!), but I've been too cheap to buy it. Since I've seen these for sale for the last few years, I wonder how legal these are? I would have thought either Nintendo or Harmony Gold may have gone after this company by now.

A few months ago, Previews showed the first few GFF's that would be available as part of Diamond Comics' deal with Bandai of Japan. Since it was just the Wing Gundam and the F90/91 and some other GFF, I wasn't too terribly interested. Today, I was at the comic store I go to the most and they had the latest issue of Previews. Low and behold, there was about a dozen or more GFF's for order! I went ahead and put an order in for the Perfect Gundam (PF-78 - they had a picture of the FA-78 also, but its description indicated that it was suppose to be an RX-178 Mk II!), Hyaku Shiki, Gundam Mk II (with all the extra armor and stuff), GP04/Geberra Tetra, and Char's Rick Dom. I know Previews is a little pricier then some of the existing importers, but I am getting a 20% discount through my store for this purchase. Besides, it helps to show to a major distributor here in the US and Bandai that there is still a Gundam fan base here. A few of the other figures available for order included both Zeta Plus figures, the GP01, the GP02, and apparently both Crossbone Gundams (the pictures only showed the dark one). Also the diecast toys (can't remember the manufacturer) or the Zeta, Titan's version of the Zeta, and the ZZ are also available for order.

Godzilla, you are a god amongst men, or at least Macross Purists anyway. In my case, since I am now concentrating more on pursuing the opposite sex these days, 2005 will probably be the last year that I will be doing any major Macross or Gundam purchases. I plan on keeping most if not all the stuff I have amassed since the late 1990's, but if I'm needing the money to support my future family, family comes first. Looks like I can get a pretty penny for my Low Viz VF-1A and my first production run YF-19.

HEY MEMO! BRING THE MEMO VAN! HEHEHEHE

Looks like I'll have at least one Gundam related release to look forward to this year. Some of the guys I know at a local Gamestop who are mech heads themselves have been telling me for several weeks now that the release of Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam was pretty much a definite and this finally confirms it. Now if only Bandai would get their Zeta MSIA's and 7.5" figures released in the US...

http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=214 I registered this evenining and I'll be staying there at the Millenium. Who else is going to be there?

I don't recall ever doing this, but: Omaha, NE Latitude 41° 14' 1" Longitude -95° 58' 32"

Besides the waiver, the area (not sure how many square miles) downrage of where the rocket was to land also had to be cleared of any stragglers (hunters, hikers, Burning Man fanatics, etc.).

These last two days were pretty intense! I can't wait for the next 20 episodes.

As can be seen, the front section was pretty mangled. Also, the fin canister broke loose and slid to the front.

Grrrr... I see none of the moderators changed the subtitle to my subject. Anyway, the CSXT booster section is currently sitting right here in Omaha, NE as I speak and I will have the chance to see it in person in a few weeks. Here's some pictures that were e-mailed to me a few days ago. This shows how the bottom section of the CSXT was found in the nearby mountains.

***GASP*** Triple-H won the Heavyweight Championship again??? No way! BTW, has anyone read The Death of the WCW yet. I just finished it up a few days ago and it was fun to read just like RD Reynolds' Wrestlecrap book.