JB0

YES! MORE M&M! Heck, I'd settle for just booting AnimeFiend from their first date/marriage and getting a REAL animation team on that episode. *shudders*

If the digicam is named Reflector I just might have to buy a movie toy...

On the other hand, I seem to recall Misa battying at him before his first launch about full throttle being bad for the engines(at least at a standstill in atmosphere). Makes a strong argument for a variable amount of heat transferred into the engine. A flying battroid in and of itself is a serious power expenditure. I would assume high throttle is the norm for GERWALK and flying battroid just on principle. If I recall, the verniers use a separate propulsion mechanism than the main engines(it certainly makes more sense than routing heat transfer devices all over the places, especially through the wings), so the foot thrusters are dedicated to hovering and primary acceleration. The verniers probably(but by no means are guaranteed to) use a standard propellant/oxidizer mixture similar to the modern space shuttle. Or something fun like hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst. That's how the current "rocket belt" works. Pump hydrogen peroxide over silver plates, and it rapidly decomposes into oxygen and steam. It expands violently when this happens, resulting in a burn-free rocket. Of course, hydrogen peroxide isn't exactly the most efficient of propellants, but I'm sure you can find chemicals that will work on the same principle and yield better performance. Actually, blue exhaust just implies really hot exhaust. The glow is generated by simple heat, not an exotic EM radiation effect unique to fire.

Me. Among other things, it's too small.

I think the "can't see HD unless you have a big screen" argument is crap, personally. I can see the difference between 640*480 and 1024*768 on a 20" PC monitor, why should a 20" TV be any different? (aside from historical issues with poorly-focused and overly-bright CRTs that are no longer valid)

Not really. Just keeping an old 386 cool is a major undertaking while you're in the sun. Surface temperature on the Moon in the sun is something like 240 degrees F. Mainly because there's no atmosphere absorbing or deflecting the sunlight like on Earth. Admittedly, it's easy to radiate heat in the dark, and a fusion powerplant should have no problem keeping things warm enough. But you can't assume you'll only operate in shadow. In sunlight, things get toasty fast, and getting rid of that heat is a batty.

But they're already using the wrong color. What's wrong with using another wrong color? I'm still waiting for the animation colors.

There's no strict requirement for combustibles in a rocket. And the Valkyrie design strongly implies that the only "combustible" on board is the fuel for the fusion reactor. Which isn't exhausted. There's no need for any chemical reaction. If you can't get enough air, you just inject some of the mass you use for space travel into the engine core. The reactor will be running at a constant temperature. Always. It's a fundamental aspect of the fusion process. If by reactor you mean the core of the "jet", that temperature may very well be variable, but there's no reason at all to assume there's a serious thermal stress involved given the vehicle was designed for space operation and unassisted atmospheric re-entry. Both situations will be VERY thermally stressful on every component. It's very difficult to cool anything in space because there's no matter around you to conduct the heat away. Your exhaust will provide your most significant cooling for your engine, since every particle that leaves the back of the vehicle has pulled heat out of the engine. And since you can't use the effects of air flowing over your control surfaces for anything, changing your velocity in ANY direction requires thrust from the engines, including slowing down along your current vector. Which obviously puts the engine under more stress than the equivalent job in an atmosphere. Re-entry should be self-explanatory. So I'd argue thermal issues are a non-issue just from the design goals. Even without factoring in the overtech hyperalloys, structural reinforcement fields, and whatnot that allow you to crash a jet in freefall and mid-transformation through a building without utterly destroying the vehicle, then use your exhaust nozzles as feet for a 50-foot robot without damaging them significantly.

That's the likely operational concept. Essentially, the "fire" in a standard jet engine has been replaced with a heat exchanger tied to a (very) small star. Reaction mass = whatever you throw out the back to make your ship move forward. In an atmosphere, this is the air you suck into your jet. In space, it can be something you burn, something you just spray out, something you mix for a non-flammable expansion, or even something you throw about with your hands(the metal tanks Hikaru uses when he's "fishing" are reaction mass, albeit a very simple one. The term's usually only applied to space travel as far as I know, since reaction mass in an airplane is pretty much by definition the air around it. The Valk's hybrid nature makes reaction mass come up in a field where it normally doesn't. I admit to having very little understanding of jet propulsion, but I don't really see how an afterburner is going to work on a Valk. Certainly not in space, since it seems to me that they won't work worth crap without the confining pressure of the atmosphere holding the exhaust together while your afterburner fuel burns(and as previously noted, injecting cold reaction mass into your exhaust stream will be nothing but detrimental). I always liked the argument that the afterburner setting was an anachronism included mainly for the comfort of pilots from the unification wars. It's simple and logical.

Use the 'torrent, Luke!

Does he NEED to get worked up over everything? His record speaks for itself. A shrug is about what accusations of fecal-ness deserve. It's a blatantly absurd accusation, and not worth a response. He acted like a complete fool between his random date request(which wasn't exactly the height of cool) and the actual date. He was a nervous wreck BEFORE Millia attempted to disembowel him. Of course, his official bio says he has good luck with women, so... maybe he was just overly excited about the prospect of scoring the town's hot gamer chick? And he wasn't exactly the ONLY person fighting through the restaurant. Or even the one that threw the first punch. He kicked ass in self-defense. Just like Hikaru, only more effective(and if Captain Jenius was castrated, then Hikaru was a woman). Or even Kaifun. But he struck me much the same in SDF and Mac7. A laid-back, easygoing complete badass.

I watched that yesterday. Starscream's coronation was funny for other reasons. Like the Constructicons playing trumpets. In space. Despite the fact that three of them don't even have mouths.

A. Quit being a hypocrite. B. If you have a point, make it. Using facts. Insults are cheap and of no actual value to the discussion. Click here if you need an example of how to effectively use facts in a debate with an intellectual inferior. I would've thought you'd have the decency to at least not immediately call me an idiot after that last beating. And I highly doubt you're advocating the use of ANY mocap-controlled CG model as you seem to be implying with the phrase "scanning tech that ANYONE with a computer & digital camera can do", since you specifically cited the latest and greatest. You're right in that the major difference between the CG in Pirates 2 and prior applications of the technique was level of detail. And you're ignoring the fact that increased level of detail requires increased talent and technology. ILM has more CG talent than probably anyone else. And a much bigger hardware budget, since they tend to be the guys making the cutting-edge works. Hence, ILM's latest work couldn't be done by a lesser company a year earlier.

Ugly robot, ugly vehicle!

Translation: Hey, they should've done ILM's latest and greatest a year earlier with a lesser company! Seriously, Thing worked nicely. Unless you're just feeling the need to bashing every single aspect of the movie because it wasn't a perfect film.

And then there was the Jazz reissue, with the mangled twisted face. Hasbro doesn't always have quality standards.

I see no reason it can't be a computer. Particularly as it's not shown to have any cognitive ability(though the PC should certainly be capable fo artificial intelligence, if their computers are up to par with their biotechnology). OR! It could have been intended to be accessible by redeemed zentradi. "Well, I guess those dang zentradi finally realized they ain't worth nothin' and settled down so we could do what we wanted with 'em..." Of course they have a god complex. Let's look at the evidence... The zentradi were an entire race of beings created explicitly as slaves, so that the PC wouldn't have to do their own dirty work... and supplied with enough firepower to sterilize entire planets. They were altering the genome of native animals on planets to cause them to evolve into something resembling their own species... probably so they'd have slaves when they got around to colonizing the planet. Heck, they named themselves "first culture." That's exceptionally vain for a species that never made it out of their home galaxy. Seems like a pretty open-and-shut case to me.

Sadly, it's not likely we'll ever see an official release of any of the anime crossovers here. It's just too much of a nightmare to work out all the licensing rights. Even without Harmony Gold having a reason to stick their noses in, it's a mess. Hmmm... I wonder if there's a Gaogaigar/Golion tag team attack... 6 robot lions are better than 5, right?

Courtesy of Insert Credit http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/001492.html Title: Super Robot Wars W Release date: March 1. Mech list: linked to a japanese list. I think I see Gaogaigar and Getter Robo. I KNOW I see Gundam Wing Endless Waltz and a few Seed spinoffs. But they're labelled in english. The only one actually translated by IC for your viewing pleasure is GOLION! You may now praise Banpresto for adding Voltron to the roster.

REgarding MacPlus: IMO, the movie is a far more cohesive story than the OVA. The scenes added to the OVA to extend it and generate cliffhangers* leave a few points where my suspension of reality failed, and I was just left going "What the hell? That's insane! It makes no sense!" Pity the movie DVD sucks. The OVA transfer is good... except it's way too dark. *Yes, I know the OVA came out first. But the movie is the story as originally written. The OVA was created to generate hype for the movie. http://macross.anime.net/fallacies/index.html#Story

You've been greatly mislead. The "invisible cloth" was basically a projector screen. There were cameras behind the people feeding projectors in front of the people. We're still a long way away from real cloaking devices.

Yeah, but there were some physical issues with that relationship. If you can use her bra as a bathtub, they're a bit too big.

And yet, MOST of the anime fans from my generation seem to start talking about Robotech at some point. And, of course, there's the modern toy market. The superposables wound up damn near everywhere. SOMEONE thought they'd sell. I remember it as being moderately successful. But then... I wasn't exactly old enough to judge. Marketing failure certainly didn't hold true long-term, though. And I'm not praising RT as a pioneer or anything of the sort. I'm just saying it was a generation's first real exposure, much like Sailor Moon or Dragonball Z(neither of which is exactly great company to be keeping). Indeed. I COULD go on(I loved MASK, didn't care for Spiral Zone, have memories of Bionic Six as "that show that was on after Robotech went off", to name a few), but... why? Which I never argued against. I didn't say "Speed Racer sucks, Robotech rules!" I was saying "Robotech is relevant because it introduced a specific generation to anime, and it's already being exploited, so no one needs to be told it has any historical significance." It's no more niche than Evangelion is, and there's a movie based on THAT in production. So clearly Hollywood DOES see that niche as large enough to exploit.

Because kewl is too X-treme for the board.

Because they'd been married for 40 years, raised 7 kids, and were starting to annoy each other just a tad.