Phyrox

HAHA, I like "Poliotron." Besides the legs, his scope/bazooka seems far too large to me. It may be the size that it is in real life, but it looks goofy. How is he going to lift that arm? The design is ingenious, sure. But not that hot looking.

I don't have my books with me, and I don't remember the official designations... But the Nato "Hind-F" replaced the chin 12.7mm with the fixed 23mm because of the realization that the older, smaller gun was no longer sufficient. The fixed arrangement on the "-F" was always a stopgap. On later models a new turreted 23 was standard, which I believe was retrofitted to some of the earier models. I've been out of the modern aviation world for a few years though, so that's all I remember.

I think these are the best looking transformers to come down the pike in a long, long time (excepting the MPs and some of the Alternators). I don't think they thought "screw aesthetics" as much as they did "screw tradition." And that, to me, was a good move. A lot of transfans seem to think differently however. They still take a pretty convincing humanoid robot and turn him into a pretty convincing car/tank/whatever. That is the essence of a good transformer. I'll wait for the movie to see how much "magic" is required for these movie designs to go from robot to alt, but at the moment I'm liking them.

M+ is great if you want a short story and not an epic adventure. I personally felt engaged in the Isamu - Guld history and animosity, so I can't agree that the story is a weak point. As short and as relatively simple as the story is though, the movie is a better take on it, with its being able to dump some of the more extraneous elements (although the fight at the beginning is sorely missing). Like was mentioned though, it isn't very "macrossy" though. This doesn't bother me much, as if all the stories told about a particular universe had the same feel it would really limit the scope of that fictional universe. That's just my take though. As a stand alone movie though, I can say my anime-averse girlfriend thought it was pretty good, for whatever that's worth.

I don't watch much anime, so I'll just list the few that I really enjoyed in no particular order: Evangelion (total entertainment, I loved the art direction, loved the action, loved the story, loved the characters) Gundam 0080 (least "action" Gundam = best Gundam...maybe someone shoulda taken note of that) Macross Plus (I can't really put my finger on this one, nothing really stands out, but it feels really good) Jin-Roh (watched it on a lark and couldn't get it out of my head for a week, nice dark character drama) Porco Rosso (I love Miyazaki's settings, how his worlds always look so...pleasant. Nothing captures this like Porco Rosso's Aegean Sea) There are others I enjoy simply for nostalgia or the mecha or the "could have been great" stories like Mospeada, DYRL and Gall Force, but the ones I listed are the best in my opinion. edit for spelling

I had that. Was fun, but like others have said...hardly a transformer. I think at least a few of the little plastic guys that came with it were L.Gaim knockoffs, or at least I immediately thought of them when I first saw real L.Giam mecha.

This doesn't seem worrisome, this seems ideal. I like Macross, I like DYRL, since then the Macross name hasn't produced anything really worthy of fandom besides M+, and that apparently didn't even start out as Macross. I am a big fan of putting things out to pasture before they overstay their welcome. With the fairly boring M2, the inane M7, and the flashy but forgetable M0 I'm not at all sad to say Macross is done. Its best years are behind it, which happens to all good things.

All I know about those pyramids is whenever my archeology friend saw a book about them in the book store he would grab it and reshelve it in fiction instead. Randy Sasaki did not brook nonsense...no he did not.

I don't have much to add here, except to say that I too prefer Macross 2 to Macross 7. Mac2 is decent, fairly derivative, but not bad. Mac7 is a disaster. I suppose sensible people can disagree about it...I suppose.

Odd, I like the back's character, but it is the nascar-like front that kills it for me.

I think if you are going for practicality, you are gonna want more clearance than that. And, engine pods? Why engine pods? Especially right where the combat egress hatches seem to be? And a top mounted turret? I would think you would want suppressive fire for the lower hemisphere above all else. A top mounted turret doesn't seem worth the weight penalty. Those are just the things that jump right to mind from a practical point of view. From an aesthetic perspective, I'm still not feeling it...but I think we just don't have the same taste.

It just looks...I dunno, boring? Nothing catches my eye and makes me want to look at it. Aesthetics are highly subjective of course, but it just looks kinda generic, like the kind of thing you might see in a "made for sci-fi channel" TV movie or something. It's like a professor once said to one of my buddies in seminar, "there's nothing really wrong with your paper, except the topc." Alternatively, my girlfriend finds it "interesting" and "kinda neat," so go figure. Specifically she likes the texture and the mandible-looking parts.

Those creases don't look much "harder" than these:

That Battlecry game...was a bit of a disappointment. I for one loved how it looked, and liked the controls for the most part. But the super low ceiling, and the missions really hamstring it. Quite a lot of the missions are challenging, but few of them are actually fun. I did enjoy it more than the VFX games, but that isn't saying much.

No sir, I don't like it.

Hmm, I was expecting a HGUC Messala to be announced, I guess they are done with the Zeta for a while then. Too bad.

Hard. And by hard I mean impossible. There is a lot more to aircraft and aircraft design than basic airframe and engines. Besides, by that time no one in the West was building high and fast bombers because they didn't want them, not because they couldn't make them.

I agree, but they'd rather spend money on cramming more "entertainment" into the seats than less people into the tube. I suppose it's wise business, but if anyone could come up with a business model that could sustain an airline with no frills but truely comfortable accomodations the world would beat a path to their door. I know I would.

I'm rolling on Dreadmist because it is a cool set. I got the idea after I ran scholo nearly a hundred times trying to collect the Deathbone set (which was pally-fied and stopped dropping for horde as far as I know). I ran the place to help out lower buddies, or guildies, or just for AD rep. I had everything a warrior could want from Scholo, so when with the guild I started asking for some dreadmist peices...after I got a few, I decided to make a mission out of it and collect the whole set (or at least collect enough that it looks complete). That's why. I've been in some noobass UBRS pugs though, and it sucks. All the way to Drakk and the hunter couldn't figure out how to kite him. Unfortunately all my buddies and guildies are pretty beyond needing scholo (except maybe for rep), and UBRS so it's all PUGs from now on. On another note, I'm about 2 days away from Revered with the Steamwheedle Cartel. I hope they get some rep rewards in the expansion. I play the game mostly to hang with friends, ruin lowbie rogues, and do fun stuff like get goblin rep and collect dreadmist. Prevents burnout.

I understand that the movie isn't really about Iwo Jima so much as about the men in the famous flag raising photo. Based on the book of the same name. My biggest complaint after seeing the trailer is the toned-down color saturation. I thought it was a cool gimmick on Band of Brothers, but it doesn't need to become convention. The audience will still know it's the past if the film doesn't look like a 60 year old photo.

Some of the best nights of my life were me and my roomies staying up to all hours of the night in never-ending Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 64 tournaments. Truely a great system with some phenomenally fun games. Not a great single player system (which is why I had a PS1), but for what it was it has still not been surpased.

You'd be surprised how often I hear this...as if by level 60 I haven't learned that I don't need +intel + stam cloth gear. Amazing. That's why it's so hard, of course I don't need it for christ's sake. I try to find groups without a 'lock, or with warlocks who have dreadmist or better...but like I said, it isn't that easy. It's just for fun, but man, it's getting tedious.

All this "2D can't be perfectly translated to 3D" talk aside, while the texturing of the OP battlepod is really nice, the shape sucks. Rodovan's model, and Captain America's resin kit show that a far more accurate 3-D representation is quite possible. Even the 1/200 Nichimo gets most of the basic shapes right. I'm not trying to put anyone down, but the original model needs a bit more modeling work, even if it is destined to always be imperfect.

Lucky dog. I've only ever seen the damn thing drop a few times...and you would not believe how hard it is to get a group (even an all-guild one) to let a warrior roll on Dreadmist. Especially in a 10-man. I'm starting to think I'll never get one. Just got the mask from Scholo. though, so just the robe and shoulders to complete the look.

Not even if they paid me. But that is the hardcore fan talking. Aviation, and world war one avaition in particular isn't just one of my passions, it's one of my areas of study (almost done with my history MA). I have been hoping for a good Great War aviation movie for quite some time...and this thing comes along and looks like more of a slap in the face. Aviation movies live or die on the realism factor, at least in my eyes. And this movie looks about as much like WWI aviation as Armaggedon looked like modern space travel (ok, more than that...but it doesn't look too good). That's it. I've said my peace. Ohh, and I hate that Franco guy or whatever his name is. Maybe there is a touching story somewhere in the movie, but I'll be damned if they are gonna get me in to find out.