Skull Leader

-"Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu" (The jungle was great, until Guu came). Available on DVD in the US now. Watch it. Laugh your ass off. Flaunt your chest hair whenever Chuoru flaunts his, Then wait patiently for Jungle Deluxe and Jungle Final OVAs to be released here. -"Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of a Heroic Knight" I must be the only person on this planet that preferred this to the original series. Parn was a little less of a pussy, Deedlit was still hot, and the SD shorts at the end of each episode are comic gold. -"Casshan: Robot Hunter" Can we say "Rockman X"? Maybe he isn't, but that's sure as heck what he looks like to me... and he's fighting a robot army to boot! I always liked it.

Saw it in theaters and loved it. Admittedly I was pissed to see my second favorite transformer (Prowl...after Skyfire) offed by a single shot Megatron (in the hands of Starscream... adding further insult to injury) I remember that point in my life I had such a defined concept of good and evil that when Optimus Prime was initially brought back to life, and tried to kill most of the Autobots, that REALLY wigged me out. ("man, Prime just isn't supposed to be shooting at good guys..."). I didn't mind the direction the series took in season 3... I had lost my two favorite autobots at the time (Prowl and Skyfire, who was nowhere to be seen) and gained Metroplex, who was my new favorite (and unfortunately didn't get much time in the spotlight). It's been forever and a day since I watched anything from season-3 and on, but didn't a number of original transformers later re-appear? I can't remember.

I was a diehard watcher of the show back in the 80s (I still remember watching when the first episode came on), and I pretty well enjoyed the film. Yeah, watching those guys pretty much get disintegrated by those .50 cals was something to behold (and probably not unlike how they work in real life). I think Farrel and Fox did a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of the original while at the same time giving enough of themselves to breathe new life in to it. The firefight scenes did a good job of providing just enough confusion that you weren't always sure who was shooting at who. I confess that a small side of me was hoping to hear a remix of some of Jan Hammer's stuff somewhere during the movie, although the soundtrack provided was quite adequate for the job. I'm not so retarded as to think that the movie was total horse excrement without it. (after all, Miami Vice MADE Jan Hammer.) ending was a bit of a letdown... certainly left open for a sequel. I got the feeling that Mann was trying to end the movie much like he would often end an episode of the old TV series (the whole "life goes on" feeling). It works fine for a TV show in which another episode will be airing in a week, but the artistry in it is completely lost on a scale like this. That was my only gripe... everything else rocked.

Which one did you get to see? I was at the Whiteman AFB show and we saw 3. 2 did flybys and then landed... the other was on static display.: -The "Spirit of America" (the prototype-turned-production type. Hard to believe this plane was flying in 1982...) -The "Spirit of Kansas" -The "Spirit of South Carolina" (this was the static display jet) (I took pictures of it, but I don't have any hosted online, and I'm too lazy to dig the Whiteman photo CD I compiled out...)

Will DEFINATELY be picking up an X (maybe 3!) What I *really* want is a Double X, followed closely by a Leopard and MAYBE an Airmaster... (and screw the Gundams the Frost brothers used... they were just damn ugly... was it the Virsago and the Astron?)

Errr, don't suppose you have something to back that up? The name is in keeping with the USAF's tradition of using a Bird of Prey to name their fighter jets. I doubt some sudden fad on the part of the offspring of an over-paid, desk-flying, armor-in-the-form-of-medals-and-campaign-ribbons-wearing, checked-his-common-sense-at-O3, know-it-all could seriously be considered as good cause for naming an aircraft like that.

Space Ghost and the Brak show were about the only really good programs to come out of AS (with Harvey Birdman coming in at 3rd). Family guy I can watch just about anywhere else (read: on my computer), but everything else just sucks these days. I really hate to say it, but I miss the days when a gundam series of some sort was frequenting AS, instead we're stuck with InuYasha (I could think of SOOO many better shows they could be airing). Personal taste, I'm afraid... CN gets almost 0% of my extremely limited TV time any more.

A shame that pilot couldn't be killed once for every crewmember's life he endangered or KILLED in the tenure of his career flying like that. It's one thing to take one's own life into their own hands, but when they involve an entire crew, that's a whole different ballgame.

I don't know how his engine would get enough air unless he drove windows down... and to top it off, the noise would be pretty harsh on the ears in that proximity... would ear protection even help at that range? Waste of a good engine on a pretty sh!tty car if you ask me.

The very shape of the F-104 lends itself very poorly to an Air-Superiority role, but perfect for the high-speed interceptor role. Having never seen an F-104 fly (even airshow demos from the german ones), I couldn't say for sure, but just from looking at the wings, I'd hate to be in one when it came down to a turning fight.

I absofartinlutely LOVE this game. I can't wait for the second installment to come out

Perfectly happy with my original DS. I've played a DS lite at the store and didn't find it different enough to justify the change. It's nice, I'll give it that, but I kinda like the heft of my regular DS. I have large hands and the DS lite would pretty much dissapear in them.

Umm, VFX2 was NOT a failure. In fact, it is arguably one of the best Macross games made to date.

If a phantom (ANY variant) tried to turn against an F-15C, he might as well punch out and save himself the grief of getting his ride shot out from under him. Phantoms are horrible turning jets (as discovered to our dismay in 'nam). His power is in the vertical with the ability to maintain a higher rate of speed through a climb. That said, I'm pretty sure (without looking at any stats, just off the top of my head) that an F-15 could still outclimb a phantom. His best bet would be to crank to 100%mil and just keep on going. Outclimbed AND outturned? Not a fight I'd care to be on the losing side of. The Tomcat would probably be much better in the dive/climb than the Hornet. While it's VG wings give it pretty impressive maneuverability in a turn (especially at slow speeds), I'm pretty sure the wing design of the Hornet would allow it to turn better than the Tomcat.

I love the look, feel, and even the smell of old comic books. I've read the original TMNT line (have almost the whole lineup, minus 2 or 3 later issues), and Uncanny X-men (I stopped collecting after issue 380 or so... I was getting tired of them switching artists like some people change underwear). The earlier stuff just seems so much more quality to me. More thought given to the storylines (unless it's intended tongue-in-cheek stuff by the writers), and just a better presentation of the "larger than life" attitude that was so important to comic books. I never once read comics for any sense of realism. I read comics as an escape from reality.

best addressed in the newbie forum, but I'll give a brief reason why here. Most of the PC98/Super CD games are alternate-timeline material. They don't have any emphasis on the canon plot, but relate more to Macross II. The Macross: VFX series takes place sometime roughly after Macross plus and before/during Mac 7.

Ehh, it would pretty much be the same thing as happened with F-4Es vs MiG-21s in Vietnam. The only real "later" models that didn't see service in 'nam are the F-4G and the F-4N/S, which probably would've performed near identical to the late F-4E (with the slatted wing... and the F-4Ns didn't even have that) So the end result is the same. The F-4 would be better in the climb, and the MiG-21 would be better in the turn. The only real thing that would be different is that the later-issue J-79s were classified as "lo-smoke" versions which would leave less of an identifying trail across the sky. No J-79 is ever completely smokeless though.

Taken last september at the Little Rock AFB airshow. I know one of the pilots, Frank Romaglia (ex KANG Phantom Driver... did a couple of tours in Vietnam out of DaNang). For 10 grand, you can take a ride in it I think. I think it's only a matter of time before we see civilian-rated pilots of new-generation warbirds. The collings phantom guys, for example, are all ex-phantom drivers themselves and a few of them are FAA qualified to rate each other. I'm sure at some point, civie-rated F-14s (Snodgrass is still working on it!), 15s, 16s, and 18s could be possible with enough funding.

Actually, the Collings Foundation owns it's own F-4D (it's an ex- Kansas ANG jet no less), they are a civilian group. While it's not ONE person, it goes to show that they can be bought with enough money.

Good photos, David! Kinda sucks with the cameras limitations, but you certainly seem to have handled the situation well! Spent the morning out on the flightline at McConnell AFB before work... a B-1B from Ellsworth had an IFE and spent the night here. A crewchief and a bunch of techs drove down overnight to work on the jet... the parts they needed are evidently so hard to find that when we left, they were awaiting permission of the base commander to go rob the needed parts off the bases museum jet! We walked the flightline and shot photos of all of the KC-135Rs. Got plenty of good shots, here's a small sample. A couple of the B-1B Lancer The Stratotanker flight line. There were about 30 Tankers on the ramp this morning, although the squadron has over 50. One of the 184th ARW Kansas ANG jets taxiing out. They were packing loaded duty bags when we saw them boarding, so they were heading somewhere for an extended stay!

Well, it can drop most JDAMs and CBUs.... that's the lions share of what the USAF seems interested in dropping these days. I understand that there's other stuff though.

The Iranian Air Force made lunchmeat out of the Iraqi airforce, and Tomcats saw surprisingly little of the frontline action (they worked mostly hand in hand with their E-3 as part of an early-warning net) Pretty much every encounter at the border led to the Iraqi MiGs running back across the border in hopes that they could lure the Iranians into SAM traps. It was the Iranian's ballgame for the entire duration. What's more, the Iraqis finally decided that their air force was too precious an asset to lose, and so moved their entire MiG force to the western side of the nation at ONE airbase (H-3). The Iranians promptly sent a flight of Phantoms to level the place, pretty much reducing most of their MiGs to so much scrap metal.

you're forgetting F-4Es also. Iran is one of two nations left in the world flying F-4Ds (South Korea being the other) They never sold a tomcat to Russia, and the rumors about an Iranian pilot defecting with his plane were later debunked. We have no reason to believe Russia has any tomcats. They have tinkered with a number of indigenous upgrade programs, even one with the possibility of implementing a full-glass cockpit (digital displays), but nothing has come of it yet. Their tomcats are VERY well maintained and shouldn't be discounted so easily. They have learned to produce most of their own spare parts, but evidently a few things still elude them. Also, I'm very leery of anything written by Tom Cooper. He's the only one who can claim to have any evidence backing up his theories (such as the infamous 3-MiG kill by one phoenix missile). While I believe US estimates of their tomcat strength are possibly on the conservative side (an intelligence briefing held on January 1st cited approximately twenty working tomcats with possibly another dozen airframes that are being switched out with some minor parts swapping), I don't think Tom's estimate of 50-60 tomcats is any more accurate. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

yes, you are the only person who enjoyed this movie. But you are from Wichita Kansas and that explains a lot. Lord K. 404795[/snapback] Actually, I'm not. I've only been here since 2004, and I'm not sure what the correlation would be anyway?

in the past year alone we've caught at least 10 people/companies trying to smuggle parts to the Iranians for their Tomcats. It's still a huge concern.