Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0

Surprised David didn't post this, but Dragon-models.com has NEW PICS of the VF-111 F-14A. Tal about underarmed, it just has sidewinders!! TWO~! Either way a nice mold and though some say it looks toyetic, definitely looks more modelish than the FOV version which was panellined to death with a smudged sharpie marker. The panel lines are molded into the dragon one and are only apparent in the 2nd pic. It's got TF-30 cans, and the small IR sensor rather than the TCS, so from what I know it looks accurate as far as being an F-14A. Lets hope we can mount sparrows and phoenixes on that sucker. Decals are cool but the red makes me want a VF-1 wolfpack version even more now.

Speaking of canada, What are they going to replace their legacy hornets with?

You know regardless of whether a threat exists or is not as active as it was before(lord knows it can turn drastically overnight it has in the past numerous times), we should ALWAYS have the best air superiority planes just in case. I don't think any military servicemen would like going to war knowing he doesn't have the best he can have, just something good enough or so. For example. My home country the philippines(actually I was born here but ehh yea anyways thats my ancestry homeland). The PAF only has F-5's and even then only 5(last I read these were bought from thailand discounted). In that region, do you think my people even have a chance of fighting off an invasion simultaneously attacked by air and ground? Hell no! Heck vietnam could take us down and look how badly their military was affected by the nam war way back, but heck in SE Asia they got a good fighting force. Fact of the matter is this. Will we face the flanker in the future? Most likelly no but noone envisioned the 5th largest airforce and pro american IRIAF become taken over by fundementalists and turned against the USA. So there is a possibility that one day one country could fight us and use flankers. Slim chance but heck the chance is out there. And.... In terms of capability what does the F-15C really have against the Su-30MKI? It's known that sukhoi flankers are relatively cheaper than eagles, which is why sukhoi is quick to export the brand outside of russia. Which increases the chances of us encountering them. They have IRST, a longer range missle(AA-12 adder) and along with the high AOA, thrust vectoring. Can an F-15 pilot 1v1 defeat a flanker? Possibly. is the F-15C virtually outclassed by the MKI? I'm reluctant to say this but yes. Th flanker has come a long way. but the MKI definitely has an edge not to mention a 2nd crewperson. So SA aside from the bad behind view of the cockpit is increased. What in the US inventory is better than the F-15C in A2A and yet also better than the MKI? The F-22. EF-2000 avionics to my knowledge is only 2nd to the raptor and is a lot cheaper. Who knows it could be used by a potential enemy. A F-15C doesn't stand a chance against a typhoon either. ANd the typhoon has passive IRST as well. The F-22 has all the good qualities of the MKI plus stealth and does it better. Except 3d vectoring. And to me it would be stupid not to implement A2g capability into the raptor. If it can be built in by all means implement it. It worked on the so called "not a pound for a2g eagle"

Yea bringing the VF-1 into this thread would make it more "fake aircraft" and would end up becoming a VF-1 vs yukikaze thread. So to be fair, I think that is why none of us bring it up. Not to mention aside from thust vectoring, it has only spoilers and flaps as control surfaces so I figure it really wouldn't be that manueverable. But anyways thats on the border of OT relatively speaking & would belong more in the tv series thread. Nied, I agree with the raptor replacements making up for the total force of eagles with half the raptors. The capability of the raptor is exponentially greater than that of the eagle, and even externally, can carry a lot of missles as well.I know internally the limit is 8, but outside I think the limit is 8 A2A missles as well making for 16 missles altogethere, and since the one engine has 2x the power of F-4s(read this in a book), then that would lead me to conclude that 8 missles and drag associated would be compensated by the large amount of thrust.

Isamu thanks for the thoughtful answer!! To be honest I am a casual fan, don't got a job yet, just at school. While the japanese saint seiya figures look AWESOME, I just don't got the money for them. I watched some on tonami but it was a bad dub, nonetheless if that crappy rendition was GOOD(least I thoguth so) then the subbed untouched series must be tons better. Toonami really gave that and gundam seed the shaft. Saint seiya rules. THe manga is cool too, the creators artwork being much more detailed than stuff I am used too. All in all if KB toys has some figures left I mineswell pick them up. 3 10+$ toys for 10$ is a steal. I guess these can be the gateway toys and later on I well get some of the high quality japanese gold saints or black saints(if they make them). I stayed away from the smaller 4 inch figures since they were made from PVC.

GUys, forgive my ignorance. I know most of what Bandai USA puts out is low quality and such and have a habit of really bad marketing. However over at KB toys, I found a sale for the 8 inch knight of the zodiac figures(the ones with vac metalized armor and 8 inch articulated figure). They are 3 for 10$. Which is a steal considering they were usually over 10$ a piece and are 7.99 if you just buy one. Are they worth it? Anyone have reviews or pics? hows the quality?

To follow up on what Nied said, From what I read the Saudi's also have tornado F3ADV(few on loan from UK) and some tornado IDS. Sure the tornado is not much in a knife fight, but it sure can do BVR, and heck it's also got AMRAAM.(newer ones upgraded). Don't the Saudi's also have F-15S's?(F-15E export to SA). If I recall correctly, the DPRK also has some flankers too. Though not the super special ones the indians have, nonetheless flankers are highly capable. History repeats itself. If we think stealth and precision strike is everything, then we are putting ourselves in the very minds of those in the late 50s who thought that BVR was going to rid the world of dogfights. It didnt work then and it doesn't work now. The Israeli's had sparrows during the bekaa valley incident and yet what scored the most kills? Sidewinders. Same with the gulfwar. And yes sure the attacks against us are unlikely but as many of us have said, the A2A threat STILL exists regardless. I wouldn't want to fly a B-2 deep into enemy territory without any type of escort, and at least with raptor escorts I know they could hit the enemy fast and before they even realize how they got blown out of the sky. Sure the premise of aerial warfare is to controling the skies but you can't control the skies without any fighters reigning high overwatching the ground troops.

Now that coota Brought up copters.... Ah-64 vs Commanche We know the commanche was cancelled but how well would have it faired? AndAH-64 vs MI-24 HIND I always thought HINDS were awesome. Armored troop carriers. FLYING ones too!!

That's exactly the point I was trying to make to my dad (and in this thread). At this point it wouldn't cost much more to build new Raptors than it would to build new Eagles. We're going to need to build new somethings pretty soon (our Eagles are going to reach the end of thier airframe life in the next few years), why not build the better somethings instead of the worse ones. I agree!!!!! Eagles, though very powerful and capable, are going old, and at least if the F-22 is replacing it, it will be replaced by something better than it in every which way not inferior to it. It's like comparing the Israeli F-4 Kurnass to the F-15I, sure the eagle is more expensive but its also a lot better than the kurnass.

Even so, if dogfighting is not needed, we would still need ideal fighters that could maul arse in ACM. Otherwise, we could just make missleers or put long range AAM's in B-1B's converted to launch such missles. There have only been a small number of BVR engagements between the US and its allies against enemies years past in comparison with a lot more dogfights. Most of the kills in the lebanon war(bekaa valley) were atributed to sidewinders, and well at least in israeli experience, almost all fighter battles ended up being close in knife fights with exceptions being few. If I am not mistaken, most of the gulfwar kills were with the winder as well, and in iranian hands, according to the book David bought, the F-14 scored most kills with the sidewinder as well. Though the AMRAAM is the almighty missle to beat, I still think dogfighting will always remain a very important aspect of aerial warfare no mattter how advanced missles become. Or radars and fire control systems. Stealth does give a great advantage however,well if it works anything like it did in the TAW sim I. (though I do imagine much of the raptor's EMCON systems are highly classified and access hard to get, Even if TAW provided only a small glimpse of what EMCON in the raptor can potentially do, it is a VERY devastating weapon system indeed).

Ewilen, I don't think that the USAF post 1990 envisioned ever replacing eagles 1 by 1. Of course they did want to, but realistically I don't think it will ever happen. The US of course likes having the best weaponry for the nation's defense, so while not all eagles would be replaced by raptors, having a good number of raptors would be good enough and better than none at all. Especially with all that money the USAF put into it over a 2 decade period. And we will always need air superiority fighters. Sure the thing to do now is to make a multiroler, but if strike were the most important thing we could just retire and cancel everything but the B-52 and be satisfied. But if it can't defend itself..... Hey guys, lets sy the USN or USAF wanted an all new fighter by 2015. BUt lets also say stealth by then was irrelevant since there is a way to detect stealth aircraft by then(this is purely hypothetical). Would a all new air superiority bird WITHOUT stealth be much cheaper than any of lockheed's stealth planes now?(F-22, F-111&, JSF)?

1000TH POST IN THIS THREAD!!! Nied, I agree they should definitely build the F-22 rather than keep building eagles. ATF was started what during the mid 80s? All that money to replace the eagle and 20 years later NOT build the successor? THAT would be a total waste of money to me. Hikaru, the part about the raptor slaughtering eagles and falcons close in was from a post on another board about the raptor during training. I wonder just how good its low speed manuverability is. Could it out alpha the super bug?

I think the slammers could still work on the nacelles, maybe ASRAAM too since it has small fins. I also meant to ask. Ok so I got the gijoe thunderwing, and that adds to my growing gijoe airforce of an A-10(rattler repaint from 97), X-30 conquest(99 reissue), PTE F-18, and skysweeper along with a mangled dismembered carcass of a night boomer(black skystriker TRU exclusive from 88). I use my X-30 as a day fighter(70s ADF), and thunderwing as a multiroling bad ass....since the X-30 is based on the X-29 and the thunderwing is obviously a 2 seat F-22 I wonder..... X-29 vs F-22 ACM. Close in knife fight, winders and gun,AIM-9L,M no super X winder. People say the F-22 is greatly awesome close in and slauighters eagles and falcons close in in mock fighting. But how well does an FSW compete? *BTW guys ever notice how we are 6 posts away from the 1000post mark?!!!! yey the thread lives!!*

MIlkmanx, I believe gfxartist.com can host your art as well. Polykarbon is a good site but you need a hosting site to post your art in there,

but still with somehwta inferior performance compared to the legacy right? I actually think the super bug looks better aesthetically than the legacy. But the YF-17 is just damn sexier. So sleek. Wouldn't mind a transformer alternator of that! Hopefully the black knights go back to actually using black instead of gray. That and tailcodes on rudders. For the sake of aerodynamic comparisons.....sans avionics... YF-17 Cobra vs F/A-18F super bug discuss!~! Which performs better in the arena of A/A and has better cruise, speed, handling, stuff like that and all that jazz.

NOt bad!! Lets hope the navy moves the tailcodes to the RUDDERS later on though. It would make for a larger knight. Anyhoo, is the super bug more of a mcdonnal douglass plane without northrop or did northrop provide any help at all before the MCD merged with boeing?

When I went to the BX last month, all they had were the can-do models, and 3 1/72 F-16s. Mine is the 50th FW one. Canopy is like you say, loose but flush, heck I think mine are a little too loose for that matter. Overall I am happy but the airbrakes fall out a LOT, to the point where I keep them off, and sometimes the nose gear door likes to fall off too. I changed the way I hold it now so most of the time the nose gear door stays on now. I really do wish they had the F-15s, but I think those might be in series 2. I read on the F-16 box that the 3 falcons I saw were all part of series 1. They had no pics of the eagles at all, further confirming to me, that the eagles are perhaps series 2. Funny for langley not to have them especially when their premier bird is the F-15C. BTW price for my falcon was 17.95 but due to some sort of x mas discount was really only 14.00$. the can-do models were 2.95 and they had a F-15D and A-10. I don't go there much, I just hop along every now and then with my family. Rarely there though. I checked the NEX to see if they had any hornets but as it seems I think only the BX's are getting dragon models, and I fear they will only get air force planes. The only difference in packaging is that there is a 5 star collectibles orange sleeve over the box, the box underneath is a dragon warbirds box. But for the F-15 it is different, its a straight up 5 star box with no folding cover flap I believe. I sincerely HOPE these are not for christmas season only since that would diminish my chance of ever getting a dragon F-15 for cheap(flying mule sells them for 40$)>

David, I assume the dragon F-15C still can't take on sparrows or AMRAAM on the nacelles? Either way I plan on buying it whenever I see it at the langley BX. Though it would be dissapointing not to be able to load stuff on the nacelles, as long as it has some armnament, I guess I would be satisfied. Hopefully the canopy on the eagle stays shut unlike the dragon 50th FW falcon I got, awesome paint job, good armnament, HORRIBLE canopy locking mechanism. To spark up another debate. How many of you think that buy 2020 or 2050, that the human pilot will cease to exist and most of our military will be flown strictly with UCAVs or AI within? Me personally I would hate to see this happen but it looks like the military is going in this direction. I don't agree with that decision at all, but how many of you think it will happen?

That sucks. But I guess that's just what we gotta deal with,. Coould be worse. BTW any F-104 fan here? Just heard over at gpxd.n3.net that the 1/18th scale XD F-104 is set for SPRING!! with a better pilot figure than previous releases(being that BBI is steadily getting "up there", it's about time 21st century starts pumping out better product. And speaking of the F-104 has it ever scored any kills in combat?

this sounds SO much like mcnamara and his wizkids!!!! I was watching a show on history channel the other day and it turns out not only did they think the F-111 was a GREAT dual service plane, they also meddled with the M-16 and such. Military officials with combat experience should be making the decisions not the "pencil pushers". As for the FB-22, great concept, but ugly as hell.

Hmmm. How confusing!! Looks like the JSF will be the mainline fighter of the USAF in the 21st. At the same time its like making the LWF replacing the FX back in the 70s/80s. GUess thats the only thing to do with a tight budget.

Well whichever fighter the chinese were working with the iSraeli's with and ended up looking a lot like the LAVI. From what I heard the project was still a go, with a 2 seater showing up just recently. I'm surprised china hasn't ordered the SU-30MKI.

I think its mainly to use the last B/D tomcats to the fullest extent before retirement to be honest. Though they did say prices to produce parts maybe a ton cheaper in poland, so who knows. BTW HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! May this year bring great advances in fighter technology so we have more fodder to debate about LOL. But yea this thread has gotten large, and I LOVE it!!! Very informative and we cover a TON of planes. And we got off to a good start in 2005!! heck dragon FINALLY showed a smalll glimpse of their 1/72 F-14 diecast...well at least a schematic. But it IS something!!! More debate fodder. The J-10. I saw a 2 seat version at a chinese defense page. Looks interesting. J-10 vs JSF and block 60 falcon. overall capability debate. F-14B vs A-7E Who is the better bomber? F-14D vs Su-27UB. Better fighter?(not sure if the old flanker was ever compared to the tomcat in this thread). And a question about AMARC.......are alll planes their like the A-6 mostly there in case of a emergency reactivation? And how does a emergency reactivation occur? *edit, more news on tomcat/poland by tomcat traveler over @ARC forums* Tomcat Traveler Posted: Jan 1 2005, 12:18 AM Quote Post Newbie * Group: Members Posts: 3 Member No.: 3,903 Joined: 30-December 04 The mate of mine that sat in on the brief also knows the Program Manager for the Polish parts project on a first-name basis. We stopped by the PM's house earlier today and he gave me a big dump on the program, the Tomcat and the immediate future of the plane. It appears that he has established similar projects such as the one in Poland, with many small US companies that took it in the shorts following 9/11 and kept a few of these companies from going under. It also helped the Tomcat Community with their on-going spare parts problems. I work with another of the Navy’s great war fighters and know from experience that the 275K that he quoted wouldn’t buy much beans (or sausage) even in Poland, but I was wrong and became angry at my leadership when he showed me how significant of a price markup that occurs by the OEM’s on the same part that he is building in Poland that we would have bought in the US. In fact he has teamed three US small companies with the Polish company so that the workload is equally shared and jobs are gained on both sides of the Atlantic. He went on to say that the 275K were just an initial investment and that additional funds were coming. Said something else about setting up an F-14 Project Office in Lublin? I actually asked him is he would be interested in briefing our aircraft PM after the first of the year so that we could take advantage of this good deal too. For the record, the IRST system, which is unique to the F-14D, links a passive infrared sensor with the D’s APG-71 and Phoenix missile systems. IRST was originally fielded in 1985 for the USAF but was rejected in favor of laser cannons and the USN picked it up for inclusion into the F-14D Super Tomcat program. It was fully operational in time for the first Gulf War in 1991. F-14D’s chalked up to missile kills during the first conflict. As of 16 December 04, all USN, F-14D aircraft are scheduled to be retired from active service by November 2007. The F-14B’s will retire in late 2005. The F-14A’s were retired in late 2004. Incidentally, some of the airframes that flew in the USN’s last operational F-14A squadron had some of the lowest airframe hours with only 1245 total flight hours. The Tomcat airframe is good for 11000 flight hours. Happy New Year to all. PMEmail Poster Top David are you 100% sure there were no D tomcats in the gulf war? I remember watching a discovery channel special with a carrier battle group, one of the features was a super tomcat segment in which one of the planes exploded in midair and the crew survived ejection. If I remember correctly the squadron was VF-31 Tomcatters. Had no idea the IRST could guide the phoenix as well. Thats pretty cool. Though I do believe it can be done, I kind of doubt the D was used in the gulf. And the show I watched was way back in 97. So I may have not remembered everything correctl;y

I doubt that. To me AFD lacks depth. Its definitely got eye candy, and the plane selection has always been a strong point, but even in gameplay it is lacking. Ace combat has always been the superior series. Even AFDS for PS2 wasn't as good as AC5, and had a tiny edge over 4 if any, the only thing that AFDS has that is better than AC5 is it's flight modeling.

Aaron Archer later said that the reason the train robot JRX team from RID wouldn't make it back was since they had a lot of clear plastic in them which made them expensive to recreate. Another thing is they would have to be sold in a set as well. If I remember it right but the main reason was due to the clear plastic expenses. Beast machines going downhill was hasbro's fault since they fired the writers of beast wars. Some of the toy design team also left and went onto other jobs,. Archer later confirmed during OFTCC that some of the beast wars design team IS now back in hasbro working on the "new" line. That "new" line is cybertron or galaxy force in japan. Which MIGHT be the reason why the GF figures look MUCH MUCH better than previous releases and is almost up to par with beast wars if not RID. And it is true about different marketing. Aaron Archer, when he was head designer, mainly did concept art and such. The actual blueprinter and toy designer was really Kobayashi in japan. I forgot his first name but he is relatively young, and his first break was car robots speedbreaker, whom I believe is the viper in RID. THis man is responsible for most of armada, maybe most of energon, and the BT/alts and of course masterpiece prime. You can definitely tell which market he was designing for and it shows, the kids stuff lacks everything we know and love about realism that shows up in the BT/alts. And in an interview or booklet, he did say that the bottom of MP prime's foot is the same as bendy prime's in armada. SO there you have it. Different markets, different designs, different appeals. And always remember faults in design do not necesarily lay on the shoulders of one company, hasbro and takara are mutual partners and share expenses, if one screwup is made, it's both their faults, not always hasbro's.