Apollo Leader

Dave, here's what a Dauntless looks like (it's not a seaplane like the Kingfisher). And just to add some additional comments: 1) The Space Shuttle on display is Enterprise. 2) IMO, the X-35 should be at the Air Force Museum in Dayton. 3) IMO, Enola Gay should be on display here in southeast Nebraska at the Strategic Air and Space Museum since it and Bock's Car (which is at the Air Force Museum) were built at the Martin bomber plant which is today the facilities used by the 55th Recon. Wing at Offutt AFB. (I got to meet Paul Tibbits and Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk (the last two surviving members of the Enola Gay crew) three years ago). 4) That particular SR-71 is the last Blackbird to set a speed record when it set the new LA to Washington DC speed record back in early 1990 (that was its last flight).

Yep...quite a gap! Also, read the article accompanying the vote results: TOTY. Seems like Transfans are getting the blame for shifting the vote so much this year? Sound familiar fellow MW'ers? Check out the pie chart of the voting results break-down HERE Toybox DX Nazi's like "Occasional Fan" (or as I call him, "Occasional Troll") will probably come here and blame us "Macross Purists" for stacking the vote in Convoy/Prime's favor. Though I am a "Macross Purist", I didn't "blindly" vote for Yamato's Super VF-1J... my vote went to Convoy/Prime. BTW, when is Masterpiece Prime going to hit US store shelves since Big Bad Toy Store already got their's?

I was at a Super Target this evening and I saw that they had two Smokescreens (they also had several Gundam Arch Enemy Wing Zero Customs and Tallgeese III's... this is the first time I've seen these at a department store other than Toys R Us). This incarnation of Smokescreen is one of the best looking Transformers I've ever seen... both the car and robot modes look great. I just might have to get one...

Because of the mainstreaming of anime, we all have a better choice of what we can buy here domestically and at lower prices. Using Gundam as an example, who would have thought 3 or 4 years ago that many of the Gundam toys and models that were exclusively in Japan and Asia would be sitting on the store shelves of places like Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart, etc? This is definitely a unique time in our hobby's history so I say enjoy it while it lasts.

Oh, did I mention that some have already sent in their sets for the fixed dsic, only to recieve another set with the exact same problems in the exact same spots on the 4th disc, plus a disc loose & scratched during shipping? Doh!

#205. After watching the ADV Southern Cross DVD set, I would have to say the series has grown on me. It's too bad the ending had to be rushed (I'm still confused if the flower's pollen being released in the end will result in all of Gloire's population turning into Zor or not). As for the flaws on disc 4, I sent my set to ADV a month ago. I've been told that it should take about 4 to 8 weeks from the time they received it before I should expect my set back, so here's hoping the problem's been fixed!

It just turn midnight here in the Midwest (Central Time Zone) and it's sounding like a warzone outside! Happy New Year to everyone here at Macross World!

I've been sitting on this for weeks, but I finally got it scanned in this evening. The company I work for recently added this Korean made flip-down monitor into stock (the company I work for specializes in audio and video entertainment systems for busses, tractors, etc.). Since I had to make a set of mechanical drawings of it, I had the chance to read through the instructions and they are a riot! The page below has one of my favorite examples of Engrish (highlishted in yellow). I wish I could have successfully photo copied the bottom of the unit itself since some of the funniest Engrish is actually on the product itself!

For those interested, I saw at a local Target over the weekend that their remaining Unicrons are now being cleared at $29.95. Though I haven't collected any Transformers in many years, this seems very tempting (along with the 20th anniversary Prime toy).

I mainly got a bunch of movie DVD's, including the Indiana Jones boxset (widescreen, of course!). I finally got Soul Calibur II for my Gamecube.

People Against Goodness And Normalcy - I saw the 1987 Dragnet movie, too. Anyway, a Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year to Shawn, Graham, and everyone else here on the board! Also, this month marks the third year anniversary of the Macross World Forums, so Happy Birthday to the MWF!

Again, the problem with the MPC VF-1 is that it is a copy of the HCM VF-1 of old. Since Toynami was a new and upcoming company that had never made a large transforming toy before and since they probably didn't have the money to invest into the proper amount of engineering to create a VF-1 mold completely from scratch (George Sohn is said to be a big HCM fan, too), that's probably why they heavily "borrowed" from the HCM. Here's hoping that the Legioss/Alpha turns out good.

After I rethought things, I remembered about Jack activating that homing beacon and that it would be unbelievable for Jack to unknowingly have himself sent back to Mexico. I meant to repost my comments, but this thread had fallen far enough back. Didn't get to watch the new episode tonight, but I did tape it and will watch it sometime this week.

Awesome work, Jung! Your work proves that Yamato's 1/48th scale Valk is basically a preassembled Perfect Grade model... put some time into it and you will have a true masterpiece. Hope that this gives Yamato a hint to do a CF VF-1A.

I just watched the trailer. I can't wait for July 2004!

My brother-in-law says these 2 F/A-22's (there was another one there as part of this deployment) had come up from Nellis AFB, though that doesn't necessarily mean they are based there.

The red buttplugs are so that you can't see what the interior of the engine looks like. I think it's because they don't want David Hingtgen to put his camera up the tailpipe of the F/A-22. Usually red plugs like these are for preventing foreign objects (ie. birds, insects, dust, etc.) from getting into the engines from either the rear or the air intakes. Since these plugs match the shape of the thrust vectoring nozzles in the first place, I would have to say the primary function is to prevent the entry of foreign debris, but it might be serving the dual purpose of keeping prying eyes from any infrared or RCS reducing applications... to this day, whenever a B-2 Spirit is to be put on a ground display at an air show, the back side of the aircraft is blocked from public viewing because certain aspects of its exhaust system are pretty classified.

1) Besides the F/A-22's being used as part of the test program at Edwards, Tyndall down in Florida has received a few starting back in September... Tyndall is where Raptor pilots will be trained. The first full blown fighter squadron will at Langley... first Raptor to be delivered there in late 2004. 2) The production run is currently set at 339 aircraft. I don't know when the peak production rate will be reached.

Last pic.

Pic 3.

Pic 2.

My brother-in-law, who's stationed at Langley, took these pictures of this F/A-22 Raptor that was briefly at Lanley on its way to the Kitty Hawk air show (the 100th anniversary of the Wright brother's historic flight is on Wednesday). Late next year, Langley will be receiving its first Raptors to form the first operational Raptor fighter squadron. Does anybody know which AFB uses "OT" on the tails of its aircraft? To my knowledge, only Edwards (ED) and Tyndall (TY) are the only bases that currently have the Raptor.

I don't have an exact link to where it will be viewable (I presume the movie section of Yahoo's website), but the teaser trailer for Spider-Man 2 will be debuted on Yahoo on the 15th (in just two days).

Cool! Looks like I can hold off on buying the import.

It looks like the Area 88 series is taking a fresh start since Rocky appears to be alive and well. Since Shin is flying his Crusader once again, I wonder if this means that this new series will be set around 1979-1982? Also, is it me, or does Shin look like Roy Focker's long lost brother?