Skull Leader

Also, unless I am mistaken, most Zentraedi mecha had but the most basic radar, weapons aquisition, and tracking capabilities (probably point and shoot... MAYBE slightly more advanced, but not much).... meaning that once a valkyrie was out of their line of sight, I bet they were more or less forced to rely on their comerades to get what they don't. It seems to me that it took a far BETTER Zentran pilot to stay alive against the UN spacy than a UN pilot against the Zentraedi. They were dealing with extremely inadequate hardware. Also, they probably hadn't encountered the type of precision warfare that the UN was bringing to them before... not to mention the UN (capital ships and fighters alike) tossing nukes like they were going out of style.. In my opinion? If it had just been Breetai's fleet against the Macross with it's Mecha Support, Kamujin (Khyron) or no, I don't think the Zentraedi even stood a chance....I mean, do YOU honestly think you would stand a chance piloting a Glaug Combat pod vs. your average VF-1A? Arrogance might say yes, but prudence would say "you win". The only thing that might've pitched the battle in the Zentraedi favor was the length of the fight... the longer things drew on, the better the odds became for the zentran (who seemed to rely more heavilly on beam weaponry, as opposed to ballistic ordinance)... The combat effectiveness of a battlepod probably doesn't deteriorate much over time (that's granting NO damage occurs) while a Valkyrie will eventually be reduced to head-laser(s) and hand-to-hand combat. Not to mention loss of maneuvering fuel might reduce the nimbleness of a VF-1. There's probably a mathematical formula for it somewhere, but I wouldn't know.

These kits are really great for the money. They're really small (1/144 scale), but they pack in a surprising amount of detail. I've done the VF-11MAXL kit (although my paint skills can't match up) and it was a fun set of builds (for those who don't know, the kit comes with two models... one fighter and one battroid) They're easy to put together, and you don't even have to use glue. If I had one gripe about the fighter models, you can't build them with the landing grear doors UP without serious modification. They're cheap, they're fun, and best of all, for the amount of detail, they take up very little space on your shelf! I think it was WAVE (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that put out a number of resin upgrade kits for these models. They featured various sorts of fast pack equipment or Gerwalk mods... but they're RARE and EXPENSIVE.

Umm, Graham is more or less a "Quality Control" agent for Yamato. He handles most of the Macross prototypes long before we ever see the production variants. He's only allowed to tell us so much though, and sometimes he isn't always told everything. Just spend a little time scanning the old boards (there's a link elsewhere, I don't know where it is now) and you'll find almost a complete list of what Graham has been told is being worked on. I know they have plans for a 1/60 Monster and 1/60 Quaedelun- Rau.... beyond those, the 1/48 VF-1S Hikaru and the 1/48 VF-1J hikaru, I don't know what else is currently in the works. I could mention what ideas have been tossed around, but I won't start that in this thread (it's not what the topic is about)

I was referring to both actually (I was trying to not give too much away for those who might be waiting to read the books, I suppose it's just as well) I think both the war for the shire and the exodus into the west are two key points in the story... and given how much they have to tell (since they idiotically left the Shelob scene to the last movie) there is NO WAY they can be faithful to the story and tell everything there is to tell in 3 hours. They probably will end up doing like the animated version and just basically recap what happens afterwords (something to the effect of "The rise of the halflings") and leave it at that. I was pretty upset that Tom Bombadill got left out of the first one, although he's more important to the middle-earth realm altogether than he is to LOTR... so I let that one slide. Then ELVES at Helms Deep??? Faramir all of a sudden becomes an a-hole (in the book he was pretty fly for a white guy)? He let Frodo and Sam go in the woods in the book, they never even set foot near Osgiliath. I do believe Halbarad and the Grey Company will recieve, AT BEST, a brief mentioning... something in me wonders if Peter Jackson will not set the 3 companions through the paths of the dead alone. No, my friends.... something important, indeed MANY things important will be left out of this story. Somehow Aragorn and Arwen will recieve a "happy ending" no doubt (for those that may not realize, in the books, what Elrond foretold is daughter in the second movie DOES come to pass)... I just shudder to think what damage could be done... let us hope that Peter Jackson doesn't hack it up too bad.

I think your comment about the J model being everyone's favorite is rather flawed.... do you have data to back this up?? Personally speaking, the J ranks DEAD LAST (AFTER the VE-1, VT-1, and the D variant) on my list of favorites. The S model is my favorite. I think you should reconsider your approach in this topic unless you've got some hard evidence to back that up (another poll, I suppose)

I'm there already "and no mistake". I was at the midnight opening sessions for both movies so far and I've not been dissapointed. I'm a huge fan of the books and I hated the way the second movie deviated (seriously) from the book.... but it's STILL an excellent movie. "Return of the King" will likely stray even FURTHER from the book (those that may not know: There is an episode AFTER the saga of the ring that brings closure to all of the characters that still live.... it likely will NOT make it to the movie), but what little preview was on the DVD makes it look too good to miss!

At last.... the one valk has been found......

you just can't let it go, can you???? No one thinks you suck or anything... JUST LET IT GO... don't ask about the pictures, don't say anything about the pictures... on Nanashi's site or anywhere else.....just let it go. If you have to ask Nanashi a question, do it in private. There is no need to reply to this... if you want to appologize, the best appology you can give at this point is to say nothing more on the matter.

Rico, you need to work hard at a couple of things..... Not only have you embarassed Nanashi, but you're making yourself look the fool with all of these rambling replies. You made a big deal out of something that shouldn't have even been brough to public light (any and all discussion between you and Nanashi should've been through private messages) instead, now ALL on the community boards know how you are. Taking the images for your own personal PRIVATE use is one thing (I have the means of extracting pictures from websites that disable right-clicking anyway) ... BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO POST THEIR WORK, WHEN THEY'VE REQUESTED THAT WE DO NOT... fine, put them on your hard drive and examine them in all their glory at least have the decency to not say anything..... if others ask where they can view these, tell them where they can go and leave it at that. Something else that really isn't helping your case is your use of grammar/spelling. If you want to provide a convincing argument, you really need to use correct grammar. Spelling is also a way we define people's character. If you spell sloppily, people aren't going to care much for what you say. You really want to make things better? STOP... don't say another word about it. The world will move on and in time this will be forgotten. The longer you argue and post on this matter, the longer it will be drawn out until the mods lock the thread.

somehow I doubt this one is transformable...... and we're getting ahead of ourselves... We don't know if it's a scratchbuild or not. I SERIOUSLY doubt it's a Yammie proto simply because I'm fairly certain we'd hear from Graham on the matter long before anyone else did. There is a seriously FINITE (read: Bend over so far you stick your head up your own butt) amount of VF-0 models in the world at this moment... unless these pictures were a prototype for the limited Hasegawa release, it almost has to be a scratchbuild... in EITHER case the model isn't transformable and wouldn't be without serious modification and further scratchbuilding.

Strange, beyond more panel-lining, I don't see much, if any, difference in the fighter modes of the proto and the final product.... Battroid mode has some interesting changes though..

I can't get past "Operation: Pinnochio" on Maniac... it's just F-ing hard. If I could use something besides the VA-3 Invader in that mission, I'd probably be alright. "Operation: Singin' in the Rain" was no cakewalk either. You really have to join with Gilliam to see the "real" ending. I think the choice of killing him was designed as the "cop out" or "bad" ending. I mean, that's when the game starts to get really good is after that point.

LOL, Max's resizing project probably worked in more ways than one, I'll wager

Sadly, I knew this kit's days would go down in the west..... IHP puts out some TOP NOTCH work, it's only downfall? They don't establish production deadlines and as such, they can put off projects indefinately as they see fit. I cannot say that I blame them.... they're some busy guys (just how many work for IHP? probably not many)... all we can do is hope and pray. As far as finding a kit already, I was under the assumption that none exsisted on the market... am I wrong?

let us HOPE it's scratchbuilt.... I would hate to buy an injection-mold model with so many tiny imperfections..... if it IS in fact hand made, then BRAVO!

It'll be every bit worth the wait and you know it