F-ZeroOne

Its alledged that one of the reasons Key-Op in BoTP communicated in whistles is because the original Japanese character was so potty-mouthed they couldn't dub it properly! I'm really looking forward to this - BoTP was a big part of my early growing up. I'm curious as to whether it will see a UK release, though - the Battle of the Planets version is already on sale in the UK...

Yes, but... The designers of the Ingram did not intend for it to take on a whole fortress full of berserk Labors. At the design meetings, it probably never occurred to them! The only reason Section 2 found themselves in that situation is because their Captain got them into it - they couldn't give Shinohara Industries a ring and ask them to provide them with a high capacity Labor-shredding weapon because they weren't supposed to be there!. They had to go with what they had - and what they had was revolvers, and shotguns (which I believe weren't part of the original specification either - they were designed by one of Section 2s members. You may recall, from the TV series, I think they only ever use the shotguns once, and thats because they're going up against the Griffon). I can't remember if there are more Police Labor sections for the second movie; the original Section 2 were pretty split up by then and only bought back together by Captain Goto. Section 2 still seems to exist, but with new equipment and presumably new members (you may recall it getting shot up by the gunships... )

Theres a number of reasons. Styling is almost certainly the first consideration - it wouldn't be a Police mecha without a revolver. For more practical reasons - if you accept the 37mm calibre as being suitable for grenade launching (with apologies to those who have pointed out, quite rightly, the differences in shell types), a revolver is good for carrying mixed loads of riot rounds - baton rounds, tear gas, rubber bullets etc. The next reason is that, for the most part, its simply not neccesary - these are Police mecha, not tanks. They're for dealing with out-of-control civilians who don't know what they're doing, not hosing down the neighbourhood. Its not Section 2s fault that their captain keeps poking their noses in where they doesn't belong... Police officers also have to account for every bullet fired (okay, except for Ota!). Japan is not, generally, a very gun-centred culture...

In my totally amateur, non-plane-buff, bassed on Oh My Goddess and Strikers 1945 opinion, the top right one is a Shinden. I like the Hellcat, Corsair, and Tempest girls, personally. I'd actually bet money it is supposed to be an Ohka: http://www.combinedfleet.com/ijna/mxy7.htm look at the dual vertical stabs, the bulbous nose, the color, the cherry blossom...the only thing that doesn't work well is the wings. The green one in the top right corner is a Shinden. The second right most-one (white colour) is definitely an "Ohka" (Allied codename: "Baka"; one of the very few instances of an actual Japanese term being used for a Japanese aircraft!). Awesome work. I love the Tempest girls trench coat! Would there be any chance of an edited version putting a little more, um, clothes (aircraft?!) on the Me-262 and P-51 girls, as I'd love to use it as a desktop background but am worried about the family implications...

In one episode of the comic, Destro indeed storms his own Scottish castle (to save it from an imposter) in a "borrowed" World War II glider with Flint and Lady Jaye in tow. Its guarded by his own regiment of Scottish Highlanders. I'm sure it made sense at the time...

That I own - my Takatoku DX Big Dai-X toy. Basically a block of die-cast, an extremely non-childsafe sword and one of the goofiest transformations I've ever come across - made even more so by the fact that the mecha didn't transform in the TV series it came from! That I would like to get - a Blitzkreig Combination Big Dai-X. The next step up from the DX. That I have been trying to get: Microman Rescue Force M-272. I thought this would make a nice present for my brother, as the figure has the same name as him (all Micromen have names as well as numbers). Unfortunately, it turns out to be just about the rarest Microman ever made...

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Shoji Kawamori worked on some of the early designs that eventually wound up as Transformers (not just valkyrie/Jetfire) - however, I cannot confirm this and may well have gotten mixed up with something else. Edit: I suspect that Omega Supreme and Shockwave are there because they were both originally designs by other companies - like Jetfire - that wound up under the Transformers banner.

I'd just like to point out here that Germany didn't intially try to attack British cities deliberately (and I'm speaking here as a Brit) - the list of targets for the Battle of Britain were originally restricted to military installations or production facilities - or at least, tried to; the technology of the time and the unavodable cock-ups that war brings resulted in quite a few incidents of what are now called "collateral damage". Hitler, in fact, respected Britain and actually wanted a settled neogiation. He was rather surprised when Churchill, effectively, raised two fingers to him... It was only in the latter part of the Battle of Britain that attacks were switched to London, in an attempt to do enough damage to break the will of the British government to resist before the autumn weather came in and made a German invasion impossible (theres quite a bit of evidence that such an invasion was pretty much impossible anyway, the German surface Navy at the time being almost pathologically awed by the Royal Navy). The night "Blitz" was a different matter; by the end of the Battle of Britain, the gloves of the various combatants were coming off in a big way. The RAF, on the other hand, had strategic bombing in mind even before the outbreak of World War II, and while it took a while to learn some very painful lessons and build up Bomber Commands effectiveness, once it reached that effectiveness, it "sowed the whirlwind" in a manner even Hitler probably didn't believe possible (this in contrast to the Luftwaffe, where tactical support of the Army was mostly its purpose, and strategic bombing a secondary function - and the Luftwaffe never did produce a successful aircraft in the same class as a Lancaster). Please note that I am not trying to defend German actions, just to point out that, at least to start with, Germany wasn't actually trying to wipe out Britsh cities as a deliberate war aim.

I dunno about that... the ISDs in Star Wars always seem to miss an awful lot (My personal gripe on Sci-Fi: In an age of shields, ion propulsion, and laser cannons, nobody has the brains to invent a slightly better targeting system???) Blame it on the World War II-era fleet and air battles things like Star Wars took their inspiration from; the USAAF, for one, found that being able to drop a "bomb into a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet" only worked if you didn't add flak, fighters, and worst of all, European weather, to the equation...

Okay, for the record: I am yet to be convinced that any mecha - with the possible exception of multiple-legged "spider"-like designs - is a plausible combat platform. This is despite the fact that I have "mecha" engraved upon my soul and Patlabor on TV is my second favourite anime TV series. I find even Patlabor fudges the issues. Having said that, I am no longer as certain as I used to be that we never see humanoid mecha either in civilian roles, or in as-yet-unknown combat scenarios. Honda - among others - have literally made great strides lately with bipedal robot designs. So, my choice goes to: The Black Magic M(Marionette)-66 from the Masamune Shirow manga/anime of the same name. Shirow even says he made it female because it would cause pyschological hesitation in male soldiers...

You're welcome, MechaMaster. However, you're not alone in being caught out; while a remake of Captain Scarlet has been in the works for a while, it seems to have escaped the general press [1]. Also, the air date was pushed up to February from a planned autumn 2005 date; even Gerry Anderson seems to be a bit surprised and so, I imagine, are the various merchandising concerns, as it seems product lines will be appearing in the autumn (now to tie-in with a second season). Oh, also from the website, one of Gerry Andersons aims was to make a CGI show with a much more rapid production schedule than was the norm previously... [1] You can almost write the headlines yourself - "Captain Scarlet is Back - No Strings Attached!"

Mr Anderson would be terribly hurt to hear someone say that - he apparently never really liked puppets, and finds CGI characters who can actually run, jump, dive etc. much more to his liking. Graham - I find it a bit strange also. I was a bit amazed to find that the creators of Team America were - rather obviously - inspired by Thunderbirds, but that they hadn't actually seen any episodes until relatively recently. It might be due to the TV set-ups in the UK, Japan, and US at the time; in the UK, you either watched Thunderbirds or you didn't watch anything except the Open University on BBC2...! Japan, it really speaks for itself, though - cool mecha...

Is back: http://www.captainscarlet.com/ As per usual, thanks to typical British childrens broadcasting times, I haven't actually seen this yet, but the website has some pretty cool stuff on it. And be sure to check out the section on the interceptors - especially the attached dogfight clip. Methinks someone has been watching Macross Plus...

An extremely poor but very quick one of my own...

Hey, I think I've eaten in that place! Lucky it was dark, because I might not have gone in if I'd seen that on the banner...! To be honest, I can't be sure if it was the same place, but probably similar - you pay a price for a set time, and then you can skewer as much meat as you can eat and fry it in your very own fat fryer, right in the middle of your table.

I think whats happened here is this: Patlabor was originally an OAV series. It was so successful that a TV series was produced, but existing in a seperate continuity to the original OAVs (thus needing to re-introduce the characters). After the TV series another OAV series was made, this one actually following on from the TV series. A similar thing occurred with Tenchi Muyo!. Possibly the "1st Season" and "2nd Season" are the US distros labelling?

Didn't I see Noa holding a huge-a** bullit in her arms to load into the revolver? Been a while since I've seen Patlabor, but if memory serves me right that shell was at least twice the size you mentioned I've also remembered that in the Griffon story arc, Ota and Hiromi manhandle the revolver cannon, and it is huge - yet 37mm is commonly used by security forces for grenade launchers and the like. However, the Bandai MG model kits have a fairly skinny revolver that seems more in scale. Like I said, I think its not one of the more consistent elements...

The revolver cannon are 37mm - although I personally feel the animators don't always strictly stick to that... (an interesting choice of calibre as well - many grenade launchers and the like are a similar calibre, which fits in with the "police" styling... ) I haven't seen a calibre for the shotguns, though.

Some personal favourites: Kikis Delivery Service (film): anything with the name "Hayao Miyazaki" attached will get an anime fans attention. But as far as I'm concerned, this is the best thing he ever did. The most perfect animated film ever made. I said perfect. Urusei Yatsura (TV, Movies, OAVs): Guy meets girl, girl is alien princess, guy is a jerk, girl blasts guy with 20,000 volts. Urusei Yatsura is not just a pretty funny show, one could also argue its one of the best SF shows of all time. The genius of it is that literally anything can happen, as creator Rumiko Takahasi not only gave herself the whole Galaxy to play in, but also much of Japanese & Western mythlogy as well. On top of that, theres the central premise - lead character Ataru lands himself the hottest girl in his sector of space, and he isn't interested in her. If you don't laugh at the thought of a giant swallow being mistaken for a penguin wreaking havoc, then a) you won't like Urusei Yatsura and b) you're dead. Gunbuster (OAV): the anime fans anime show. Arguably the greatest anime OAV ever made, and conceptual precursor to the even more famous Evangelion. Except Gunbuster has a proper ending ( ) which packs more emotional punch into 30 minutes than some series manage over their entire run. It is one of the great scandals of Western anime fandom that no decent English-language version exists on any format. Read or Die (OAV & related TV): Yomiko Readman wears glasses, is clumsy, is more interested in books than people, and can slice through tanks with bits of paper. Did I mention shes a special operative of the British Librarys covert Special Operations taskforce? Patlabor on TV (TV. Er. Duh.): a delightful blend of comedy, action, character and, of course, giant robots. Possibly the first anime to treat operating a mecha as just another day job. Star of the show is Captain Goto, who can steal scenes just by standing in the background doing nothing. Project A-Ko (movie, related OAVs): If one had to pick one anime that contained more elements of our chosen entertainment medium than any other, Project "A"-Ko may well be at the top of the list. "A"-Ko has pretty schoolgirls, pretty schoolgirls in sailor suits, pretty vacant schoolgirls in sailor suits, pretty schoolgirls in sailor suits with superpowers, giant robots, bloody huge spaceships, mass destruction of property, battle bikinis, oodles of slapstick, and an alien invasion. What makes "A"-Ko so wonderful is that that final element - the alien invasion - is more or less *secondary* to a tale of schoolgirl rivalry taken to Defcon 1. A very brief selection of some personal favourites...

That reminds me - the Bf-109 was also available. A lot of combat aircraft of World War II were used simply because they were there and ready. I seem to remember that the FW-190D9s had a total production run of a few hundred , probably no more than a thousand or so, while the Ta-152 was limited to just over two hundred - against a total FW-190 run of 20,000, and BF-109 run of well over 30,000 (though most of those after 1943, when German aircraft industry kicked into high gear - for much of the early war years German aircraft output lagged behind even that of Britain, which is why the Luftwaffe kept running into the famous "last 50 Spitfires" during the Battle of Britain... )... ...the history of the German aircraft industry in W.W. II is littered with "might-have-beens", which is one reason why it holds such interest for us aviation fans...

The general opinion I get from the various books I own is that up to the E and F models, the Bf-109 was a pretty good fighter - certainly one of the top three of the early war years. However, the later models onwards went for power above handling. The Bf-109 also had better high altitude performance than the Fw-190, which is probably another reason why it stayed in production so long. F4-U vs Me-262 - well, the Me-262 wasn't invincible. Granted, if it saw you coming, you couldn't out-run it and you probably couldn't get the jump on it, but a number of Me-262s did fall to piston-engine fighters (though mainly on take-off or landing - the early jet engines didn't accelerate too well, so a prop fighter with a head of steam that got the jump on a Me-262 had a chance). It was also possible to out-fly a Me-262 - one of the first Allied encounters with a Me-262 involved a photo Mosquito (just about the fastest thing around up to that point), which managed to get away eventually.

WETA Digital were doing the effects, and they're the FX house Peter Jackson set up for the Lord of the Rings films. AFAIK, thats as far as his involvement goes.

My money would be on the P-51 - the P-38 was a great plane, but it was never really a true "dogfighter", which is why it had problems in Europe. In the Pacific, it could use its speed and dive ability to jump Japanese planes - a P-38 that got into a true dogfight with a Zero was a P-38 in trouble. I don't think its really fair to compare the P-40 to the others as it was an older generation of aircraft. Seafire/Spitfire - probably depends on which mark, especially if going up against a P-51 (mind you, that would depend on the P-51 model as well - a late model Spitfire would probably eat a P-51A for breakfast... ). Its probably going to balance about evens, though it should always be borne in mind that not only did the Spitfire have a Merlin engine right from the start, it was also an older design than the Mustang - but thanks to continual development it was able to keep up, and even surpass the best of the rest - all the way throughout World War II. The Corsair would probably do well if it kept its speed and altitude up, but I don't know how well it would handle a turning fight against a Spitfire. As for the Shinden - you don't mean Shiden, do you? (the Kawanishi N1K1?) By most accounts that was a pretty formidable fighter, though again, its performance would probably seem a bit low compared to a very late model Griffon-engined Spit (one pilot describes such Spits as "beasts" ). The Shinden only made one or two flights, and going by its configuration and the the problems other nations had with pusher props, it might have made a good bomber interceptor but possibly a poor or average fighter. One thing many veterans will say is that any fighter could be dangerous in the right hands...

I suspect - being a touch of an aviation buff myself - the rationale goes something like: 1) In 20 years, all anyone will be flying will be F-22s or F-35s or variants thereof. Bor-ing! [1] 2) No-one makes interesting aeroplanes anymore. [2] 3) Except Russia. 4) SV-51 = evil love-child of Valkyrie (most-loved transforming anime mecha of all time) + Su-27 (most-loved kick-butt Russian fighter of all time). 4) = Yaaaayyyyyyyyy! [1] Please note that is not a reflection on the merits or otherwise of these aircraft. [2] Cue flood of French/British/German/Swedish/Outer Mongolian interesting aircraft suggestions...

If you do decide to buy one, be warned that they have a reputation for fragility - although mine survived a drop off the top of a PC once (its since been relocated... ) - I've also seen them broken in their boxes. The main problem is that the arms have plastic-on-plastic joints. On the other hand, they're nicely detailed for their size, and the body is almost all die-cast metal. They make a nice addition if you already have Orguss toys in your collection. They do tend to collect dust in hard-to-reach places, too, so display them enclosed if you can.