Lynx7725

C'mon pple, this ain't too hard. I'll wait another 12 hrs..

For a minute, I thought someone would put C as their answer. The ball's on your court, Lynx7725. Yeah well, Henrietta doesn't carry a taser, or I might REALLY have chosen C.. Continuing the Gunslinger Girl thread, what colour is Elenora Gabrielli's little notebook? Bonus Question #1: How many tabs does it have sticking out at the top? And what significance does this have? Bonus Question #2: Where does Elenora keep the little notebook? Answering the main question is sufficient, the bonus questions are just that - bonus.

I guess I fall in the 1/60 support group.. never had the need or urge to pick up the 1/48 (mainly due to size and cost issues), and as of right now 1/60 offers more possibilities. (For one, I'm fairly sure that a 1/60 Glaug would be offered eventually -- it's a signature mecha. I cannot imagine a 1/48 Glaug.. that would belong in a child's playpen.) Sigh. No 1/60 FAST upgrade, and the 1/60 GBP has been delayed. Yamato must hate me for not supporting the 1/48. The sad thing is that I would instantly pick up 1 more CF and 3 FAST packs without hesitation if they are offered. I have a Strike-1S, a CF and a 1D. The purchases I mentioned will make a full flight with FAST packs, great for a display. Backed up with the two GBP I already pre-ordered, that's quite a bit of money into Yamato's coffers.

I've been following this thread with somewhat of a morbid curiosity.. I think I can sum up the key for and against points of the arguments here. On one side, we have the pro-F22/ F-35 crowd, who (justifiably) seems rather enthusiastic about the new technology being brought into play. On the other, we have a very pragmatic bunch of F14/ F15/ A10 lovers, who likes nothing more than to see the fleet size maintained, if not increased.. also justifiable. The thing is, both sides are right. <ducks> When the excrement hits the ventilation device, and a war must be fought, lives are at stakes and nobody wants to put their lives in the hands of newfangled planes which might not work. Not to mention that these newfangled planes cost 1.5 to 2 times that of an existing airframe, which means I have half the numbers using tools that might not work! That, I believe, is the major concern of the "proven technology" crowd.. they want to keep using F14/ F15/ A10, because, rightfully, they worked. It's proven and the troops know how to make the fullest use of these tools. But bear in mind that because these tools are proven, the enemy also knows what to expect.. and knowing is half the battle. Counter-strategies can be thought of, new counter-weapons can be devised, etc. etc. You absolutely need the new technologies that the F22 and F35 are bringing into the services.. they may not be needed now, and maybe not even needed in 2010 or 2020, but sooner or later you would need them. The F22 and F35 are mere precursors to a new generation of fighters using new technologies and new tactics. Yes, you can probably retrofit some of these technologies onto existing airframes (F15 ACTIVE, Super Tomcats, F16XL all are fairly good examples) but at some point in time, a completely new airframe is needed to test the sum of all the disparate technologies. And, IMO, that's really what the F22 and F35 is doing. The problem here is budget. You can't afford to maintain both a ready fleet of aircraft -- even proven aircraft -- and still look into these new technologies, not with the lack of a clear and defined enemy and the ever-shrinking budgets that every nation seems to prefer. R&D is always expensive, either in monetary terms or otherwise. And there's always cost overrruns in projects. With smaller budgets, R&D is likely to get a massive cut in funding, but visionary leadership understands that there is a huge need to bring new ways of doing things into the field -- or risk stagnation and ultimately replacement/ extinction. Essentially, what has happened here is a huge gamble.. The US military is gambling on the remaining political and military influence that the US has would keep the status quo, at least till 2010, or if lucky, 2020. If the status quo can be maintained, the US military truly would not need that extensive an air armanda -- pure intimidation, flexing a few muscles, etc. would keep rogue nations in line. All the while the US military is retiring old airframes and bringing new technologies online. After 2010 or 2020, if prevailing conditions, well, prevails, the US influence may not be what it is currently. But it is irrelevant to the US military, because they would have a fleet of new and improved multi-role aircraft with which to project the US influence. It may even be sufficient to restore the US influence on world matters. The huge risk here is getting caught by a two-front war between now and 2010/ 2020. It's akin to getting caught by a punch in the groin with your pants at half-mast. Painful and potentially crippling. As for the issue of whether stealth or not, gunpod or not.. Stealth is illusionary. Stealth merely indicates an ability to avoid current sensors. Just as plate armour and devastating cavalry charges spurred the development of pikes and black powder weapons, current stealth technology would spur better detection technologies. It's simply a matter of time before someone somewhere would find a way to detect these newfangled stealth planes. Gunpod-wise, it may be true that the war in the future may be fought at BVR. But that's not the way the wars today are being fought -- at least, not some of them. An integrated gun is probably a bad idea if the BVR warfare comes to pass (extra deadweight in an airframe...) but you also can't ignore it. The gunpod is probably a good idea -- theortically. If you need it, mount it. If not, skip it for more ordnance to dump on the enemy. However, the F35 execution of this idea smacks of afterthought rather than forethought. Personally, I find the F35 somewhat asethetically pleasing but absolutely horrendous in terms of battlefield role -- it does nothing particularly well. If it were up to me I'll kill and burn and bury that project. It's not unredeemable, but I see very little value in that airframe.. too little payload to be like the A10, too normal to take the place of the Harrier, and too puny to be an interceptor or Fleet Defence (which it isn't supposed to be). The F22, that's another story. The sheer number of missiles it can carry is somewhat pleasing. Now, if we can turn it into an A22 with wing-mounted ordnance (I know the internal bays are fairly small), it may be quite interesting.

Offhand.. Pupa?

EGADS! you need to take out a small loan to get one You knew only now? FW stuff are high quality, but as with most GW products, excessively expensive. GW mass-production miniatures are still okay as their quality control is quite good, but small scale production items like FW makes it impossibly expensive. And if my guess is right (that some of their molds are deteroriating) it may not be justifiable to pay that much. Frankly speaking, for that cost, I rather scratch build the Titan. I can't sculpt the crew, but the basic mechanical model I can do fairly cheaply.

Uhm. folks.. just in case some of you missed it, there's actually a second page: http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown/2614/s...eview/MRR2.html 55! This guy's insane..

You lucky guy. I got myself a pair of Rhino doors, should be roughly a year apart in terms of casting time. The earlier set had no problem and is quite good. The later set, however, had holes in the doors (!) (of course I meant holes that were not supposed to be there!). I think the molds for this particular set of doors may be getting worn out.. so it may not be a good idea to purchase kits which had been available for a long time.

You probably are missing a lot, but take my word for it -- you don't want to know!

The actual ownerships of the various parts of Battletech is rather confusing. My understanding of the situation is as follows: One, the original tabletop game is now owned by Wizkids LLC. They produce new material which is published by Fantasy Production (FanPro). Wizkids also produce ClickyTech . Two, distribution of (at least) Classic BattleTech material is supported by FastForward Games, especially where online ordering, sales and distributions are concerned. Three, the PC spin-offs under Mechwarrior and Mechcommander are now owned by Microsoft; AFAIK, they can publish new software titiles but probably cannot create new material without Wizkids' consent. I'm not sure about this though. Thus, GobotFool is not totally wrong with regards to MS owning some part of Battletech.. it's just not totally correct either. And MS have been allowing the material to idle for quite some time. EDIT: Messed up some stuff.

From the site you provided, this might be it: Mark 9:23 " 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

The photo is blurry in certain areas so it's hard to see.. It's Chinese, and from what I can read it says something like "Those with faith will #### in all things." I'm not a Christian, so is there a biblical reference similar to the above?

You know what would be truly cute? Getting a bunch of VF-1S and customizing them so that they appear as they did at the start of the Max-Milia fight. (i.e. Hikaru, Max and Kakikaze in formation.) I'm not a big fan of Doyusha Valks (too small. ), but it's a nice change.

Got out. Quite tough, had to search for hints. If anyone needs, can PM me.

From the same seller, this is even better: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...&category=26442 10 Mil starting??

All the more to enjoy the details. Damn, that Viper's almost as old as I am... :blink:

Technically, that's a romanization. A Translation would be "Pervert!"

I'm just waiting for the inevitable comments about fanboys and their obessions to start popping up in this thread. Am I supposed to be worried that there are people who will buy these things, or that there are enough people that will buy these things to create a market, or that there are people who are willing to make and sell these things..?

And this just screams lion to you? I'm not a big Voltron fan, so I'm not as current as to the lineage of Voltron toys as some of the others are, but your pic is presumably that of an older toy. So my question is -- has the manufacturer made any improvements in the new toy over the old? Right now, from appearances/ pics, not much. Mechanically, can't tell till someone buys it and post a review. And if there's no significant improvements, assuming (and a big assumption here) that equal opportunity to obtain old and new exists, what extra incentive is there for me to buy from this particular manufacturer? For all intents and purposes, what I can see tells me this is an 80's toy selling at current prices.. I'm not really a Toynami-hater (since I don't live in the US anyhow, and has decent access to Japanese stuff where I stay), so I do tend to judge based on merit of design rather than point of origin. To date, as far as I am concerned, Toynami's offerings aren't up to standards set by other companies. This toy? Well, I'm not a die-hard Voltron fan, and the design doesn't grab me and tell me to go buy it (unlike the MP Convoy/ OP standing in my cupboard right now -- I'm not a Tranny fan either). Where business is concerned, that's a lost sales for Toynami -- they just didn't do it quite right enough to get me to buy it.

Uhm.. MSW, they *do* have a point.. the combined robot looks okay, but individual Lions look more like puppies than anything feline.. The individual Lion simply doesn't look good, but the combined robot is still okay. Given what other high-quality toys there are out there, I believe it is actually possible to do something better than what is being offered.

It should be TA-25 Super Sprint piloted by Midou Madoka. P.s.: I'm cheating. I've got the manga. Anyhow, it's past the 12hrs limit, so I won't count.

Well, to cut down weight, I would suggest a steel frame with plastic body.. that way you can have rigidity in the structure yet be able to save weight. PVC pipe barrel for sure, although if you want to install working weapons (!) you might need steel. The problem is probably going to be the joints.

The two that had retools at this point is the Hygog and the Zugock-E. In general, they have better detail, mobility and posability, but some design decisions (like the use of plastic-on-plastic joints on the Cold GM) is questionable. In the case of the Rick Dom II, one key improvement is a waist joint. The old Rick Dom II kit didn't have a waist joint. And of course more weaponry -- the old kit only had a single bazooka.

FYI, I would not recommend getting the FIX ALEX unless you are a hard core 0080 fan. Some joints are flaky (the lower arms and left leg keeps dropping off), the design very plain and not like other FIXs, plastered with labels, and it doesn't come with the FA armour. Even in its alternative mode (the Gundam Unit 4), it's only so-so. There are some good points to the FIX model, but not enough IMO.

Dead in the water. Do a search, there's an existing thread on this.