Lynx7725

5 min Photoshop job, so don't complain too much. Her colour is accurate to the original pic, I just tone the background down.

Again, the Chinese caption reads: "There is a switch in the back (or was that shoulder?), which lights up the Matrix. It's very bright!" So no, not Photoshop. In the other thread I believe someone posted that the Matrix does light up.

For the benefit for those of you who do not understand Chinese, the caption at the bottom reads: "If the old does not go, the new will not come. Ho ho!"

D@mnit Dri, I knew I saw those photos before somewhere, and not at your current site; some years back in fact. As for the Command Gundam, I actually had the SD version -- very cute.

Orion's a bit wacky. IMO, you need a bit of knowledge of the Shinto religion -- or Chinese religion -- to have a better understanding of the story, but it's not essential. The story's okay but not quite Appleseed level. Art's early Shirow.. a bit busy and/ or weak at places, but still better than the overcluttered CG look nowadays.. Shirow is and will be one of the better artists that I look up to, and his stories are always thought-provoking and interesting. His mechanical designs shows a truly creative mind -- when did you last see a human-sized mecha with a master-slave control agreement? The one to come to mind is Bubblegum Crisis and even then it's a mecha within a mecha. But I have to say that I think he's lost sight of one key element -- that the art is only a medium to transmit the story. It seems like Shirow's caught up in experimenting with the medium (CG art) rather than telling the tale... what he is doing in CG is actually rather interesting (if you are a CG artist) but it really distracts from the story. Oh yeah.. if you think Shirow's stories are mind-twisting, wait till you read the Yamamoto Yohko manga. The time-travel theories there are truely mind-twisting.

To be honest, I like a bit of fan service every now and then. Too much is not good, of course. What really starts to turn me off is his overreliance (IMO) on CG and other computer-aided techniques. He's good but not that good -- anyone who has seen a Tenjin would really appreciate the art that goes into making something CG looks so real. Shirow really does his best work, IMO, in traditional black/ white works. His early Appleseeds were a bit primitive, but around Book 3 it got quite good.. that's his watershed, I think. The original GITS manga was a bit rough in areas but it was really good. I don't really have a favourite piece per se.. or more accurate, I can't recall one. I'll take a look through my Intron Depots to see if I can think of any.. EDIT: Just to add: I'm expecting EXO any minute now.

You're taking the photo under bright sunlight -- normally that throws the colour off by quite a bit. You might want to check your exposure settings too. I know your custom is a darker blue, I just don't know darker by how much.. like the following pic? EDIT: Stupid me, forgot to adjust the picture size.

Well, think about it. After he stole GP03, he was the only flag officer that we know of who did anything worthwhile vs the Delaz Fleet. Hard to execute someone for that, right? Dishonourable discharge or reduction in rank I can see, but execution...?

My bad folks, it wasn't on my copy either -- went back to look through. However, the Synapse execution is fairly well known from the liner notes, so that shouldn't be a major problem. Why was Synapse executed? After General Bowen (who's fate is AFAIK unknown) Synapse is probably the next EFSF officer most familiar with the GP Project. My guess is that to preserve continuity he has to die...

Warm Topic I know Mod Roy is watching, but the other mods may want to take note. Three or four people getting hot under the collar there.

Accumulated answers. 1. The ZZ Dublin Lawn Dart was practically the peak of NewType powers -- some Gundam fans still grumble about it. Only Amuro's bouncing of Axis may exceed this.. 2. There really wasn't a need to show who the new captain was, as the Albion, AFAIK, did not take part in Zeta -- possibly because it was scraped? Although it may be interesting, but ultimately not very useful either. 3. IMO, 0083 sucks in story and continunity, but excel in action. If you really want character development, study 0080 -- it's still really good after so many years. 4. 08MST has its plotholes but at least they were obvious yet somewhat explanable; 0080's plotholes were more subtle but harder to explain away. 5. 0080 was about the only Gundam show to use "UN Spacy". They have since rewrote things so that the "UN Spacy" refers to something different and coralled 0080 back to "normal"... 6. Synapse's execution was, IIRC, in 0083 animation, as a 3-5 second on screen description, something like "XXXX 0083, Synapse executed for Treason". Blink and you'll miss it. That's what I recall, but I may be wrong here.

Agreed. I can't seem to recall a single instance on Macrossworld where a movie spoiler is posted and nobody panned it. Not. A. Single. Instance. The movie's going to come out whether we like it or not. Listen to a good review source at that time, then vote with your wallet.

Thank goodness they refined it. I hated the bug-eyed look of the Barzam -- this is way cooler.

Planned is one thing, but the psychological impact of having a colony-sized lawn dart striking your HQ is still going to be hefty. Sort of the way Yamamoto felt about the Doolittle raid on Tokyo: I have not watched ZZ, but if you are referring to the Dublin Lawn Dart, I have to quote "NewType Powers" back to you. Yes, the original "Sydney" cylinder did take substantial damage, some of which are battle damage IF I recall correctly.. the EFSF wasn't THAT idle. But they screwed up and it caused quite a bit of collateral damage. Then why show him? He must be a character of fair importance for him to be shown in such "dramatic" way. Closure, really. I think it's meant to show us the fate of the rest of the crew. We know Kou, Keith and Nina are happily at the American base; Synapse is six-feet under, but we won't know what happen to the leecher Monsha et. al. if it wasn't for that clip.

The Barzam is more of a mass-production (or a limited production) run of a modified Gundam Mk. II, used only by the Titans. To be honest though, the original Zeta designs sucks really badly. However, the Gundam FIX figure was very nice and apparently so is this conversion kit. FIX Figuration Pics: The Barzam is the MS with the Mohawk.

I'll try to explain some things based on what I knew when I was still on the GML. 1. With regards to Sydney, the hole there was the result from about one of three parts of the original colony cylinder.. the remainder either burnt up in reentry or broke up during the travel through earth's atmosphere. 2. Impact of a colony varies a bit due to impact angle, velocity, etc. etc. But generally the 0083 colony drop was viewed by the Gundam community as one big plothole, as Zeta never showed that big crater where it should have impacted. It is within the realm of possibility that the colony did an air-burst which could possibly have similar effect on the crop production, but let's just leave it as "gaping plot hole".. 3. As others mentioned, it was the food production region that was hit, not just one farm.. using a 80KM diameter cylinder to hit a farm is like using a howitzer to kill a fly. The resultant fallout from such an impact undoubtedly ruined much of the food production in North America, hence increasing Earth's dependencies on the Colonies for food -- as well as the EFSF's paranoia regarding Spacenoids. This sets the stage for the introduction of the Titans and the events in Zeta. 4. There is some speculation that Stardust was either covertedly organized or at least supported by the pre-Titans Federation Earth-supremists. Jamitov's presence during this operation is probably not a coincidence, but that's speculative and has no real proof to back this. Chances are good that the Earth-supremists learnt of the operation, but decided to turn it around to their advantages and magnify the Delaz threat into something more suitable for power grabbing. This however does dovetails nicely with the food destruction angle. Destroying Jaburo won't achieve much in 0083 -- the EFSF just won the OYW, is well garrisoned in most colonies (probable) and has experienced officers who can easily replace the Jaburo high command. Things would be rough but it is likely that any revolts can be rapidly crushed by EFSF, which even with the disaster at the Naval Review should be able to deliver overwhelming forces to trouble spots. (It's only been three years since the end of OYW. Combat strengths of EFSF units should have been rebuilt -- with rank amateurs like Kou and Keith -- but at the same time disarmament would have been progressing too.) Destroy food production, however, would increase dependencies on the colonies, which increases tension between EFSF and the colonies -- the EFSF don't trust the colonies, but they need the colonies to feed them. Increased paranoia would add to this and probably would lead to eventual war. The Titans simply took the situation and rose to power this way. 5. The testing grounds which Kou went to is in North America (Likely place was, IIRC, found to be somewhere in the US) and the grain he picked up is reputedly diseased/ weak and could have been to show that the area is badly affected by the colony drop. FYI, the Gelgoog which Keith was piloting appears to be a captured Gelgoog Marine from Cima's unit. 6. As pointed out, Synapse was executed. No one knows who the new Albion Captain is. 7. The direction twist in 0083 made Nina and Gato ex-lovers. I personally don't think that the original intent was for that to happen, but it was written in later -- don't forget Kelly, the one-armed Wal Waldo pilot, knows Nina. There was some (IMO unconvincing) explanations for why Nina didn't recognize Gato in the hijiacking, but I won't bother to repeat them here. Any more questions?

The funny thing about the Valkyrie in the upper right is that it seems to have extra ribbings which looks like missile pylons on the inner right tailfin. Sorts of reminds me of that Max special with the missiles on the tails..

Scoring is probably the best way to do so, actually, if you are very concerned about not damaging the plastic. Scoring a few times a day and keeping this up over a month.. well, if it doesn't break apart by then it probably never will. If the glue is over a large area, perhaps you can try sanding away some of the dried glue carefully so that you need to score less? You probably would need to work the blade into the cracks between the seperating pieces as some of the glue probably seeped into the cracks. You can try things like thinner or acetone by brush but you have to be very careful and apply a little at a time... the idea is to slowly dissolve the glue, iterative approach vs. big-bang approach. That thing took 15 years to reach that stage and you ain't going to reverse it in 5 mins or even 5 hours.. Not having a JM means I can't say much beyond this as I'm not familiar with the area you are describing -- perhaps a pic? But chances are good that it's a write-off. If the glue worked its way into the joints, the first time you apply force to the joint may break the joint.. at which point you either write off the project or build a new joint. Now you're pushing it. 8 JMs in this condition.. well.

Can you try taking a photo using diffused light? The strong sunlight is making your custom looks lighter than the screencap.

Updated pics from HLJ: Man, this kit is really busy! I don't quite like it because it's so packed with confusing details. Box art looks good though.

No worries there; I can wait for someone to get the 1/48 Hikaru v2.0 and confirm. If the 1/48 Hikaru has the upgrades then the 1/48 Focker would have too. But IIRC, the backpack hinge is still the same design (and hence with the same vulnerability). And no guarantees on the crooked skull either.. I guess we would need to gamble a bit there.

Anyone has any ideas if the re-released 1/48 incorporates the design updates (i.e. nosecone slots, better control surfaces)? Also.. hopefully the 1S tail skulls are on straight. I may get one if so.

Oh, sorry -- confusion. I thought you were referring to the Hikaru Super-1J. The Max and Miria types does come with collapsable gunpods.

eh.. This is strange. I recall the Strike-1S being the first with collapsable gunpod. The Super-1J still came with the older gunpod, which created a lot of problems as the FAST packs pushed the gunpod lower and made it hard to not scrape the ground.

They should be, as they are released after the Strike-1S. IIRC the pictures correctly, they are. These links also shows that.. Look at the placement of the peg hole. Yamato Max-1J Box Yamato Miria-1J Box May not be. If they upgrade the older Valks and repackage with FAST packs, commercially it doesn't make sense to release a stand-alone upgrade packs. Even if they upgrade the older Valks but do not repackage and sell the FAST packs separately (ala 1/48), those of us with older Valks would still be up the creek.. since we need the replacement parts.