F-ZeroOne

We British will do whatever takes the longest, costs the most and makes the least sense...

Glad to hear you're okay, Mappy. Incidentally, if a 55,000 ton radioactive monster knocks on the door... ...er... ...not much you can do about it. I feel I should explain, by the way, for those MWers who live in Tornado Alley and can't walk down the street for a newspaper without being picked up and thrown into the next state... Mappy and me are English, and for the English, the weather is a subject of a national obsession second only to the subject of tea. This is despite the fact that, compared to just about every other country on the planet, on a scale starting with hurricanes, we don't actually have any weather...

Graham, have you tried the "these are not the toys you're looking for" trick?

How far?!!

There is apparently a 1/60 vinyl Python kit: http://www.comet-miniatures.com/special.php?spo=31& I'm also pretty sure that a Python was part of the "Cloth Gear" toy-line, along with an Ingram - these were Bandai toys with an "inner" frame to which plastic armour pieces were attached.

Mappy doesn't believe in Gojira - he doesn't think that a 55,000 ton radioactive monster can be "cute". I believe that finding a giant footprint where his flat used to be will convince him otherwise...

how much you pay for it? 8,000 yen, plus shipping - I felt that was a reasonable amount (it even had the original batteries!). They don't appear to be all that common; I've only ever seen one missing some of its parts in Tokyo. I also liked the manga; I wish Viz would re-consider publishing it. Its just seems to be Patlabors fate in life, that it seems to be rather ignored by the Western anime fan community (other than the movies).

"The next greatest misfortune to losing a battle is to gain such a victory as this." - Sir Arthur Wellesley, The Duke of Wellington, commenting on the aftermath of Waterloo.

Want help keeping awake? Well, Tokyo is hit by devestating natural disasters or fires so often (on a geological timescale) that the residents used to call them "flowers of Edo". The Great Kanto Earthquake in the 1920s pretty much flattened the entire city. They get one like every 80 years or so. Yes, that means they're rather overdue... One geologist has called Tokyo "the city waiting to die"...! And thats of course forgetting the rogue ESP experiments, cross-dimensional tears in space/time, military prototypes going berserk, cat-girl invasions, mecha invasions, demon beast invasions, and, of course, the English...

If you're good with a Sharpie that's not too much of a problem, I was able to put a nice blue tint on mine. Knives and my fingers don't mix... I was lucky enough to score a nearly perfect Bandai Ingram battery-operated toy a few weeks ago. I like it, though I'm still wondering whether to apply the decals - it looks a little plain without them. Also, compared to modern toys, its about as poseable as a brick, but it has a certain presence about it...

All I will say is give Macross 7 a chance. It suffers from a very slow lead in, rather poor space battle scenes, and is at least ten episodes too long, but there is a rather under-rated series lurking under there. Honest.

Patlabor is my second favourite anime series (after Urusei Yatsura). The bandai MG kits are pretty good, but theres one thing that niggles me if you're not into painting - the visors are moulded in clear plastic, not green. Ingrams just don't look right with clear visors...

Almost certainly the Korean bootleg Gundam Mark. II. Basically a super-sized Bandai High Compact Model from the 80s.

Er... theres a reason for that (where do you think FASA got the designs from in the first place?)

"Skull leader, that new Zentraedi that crushed Skull Two is still behind us! Can't we go any faster?!" <Skull leader thinks> "Hmm... landing gear up = more speed?"

It's now become a regular haunt of mine. And there's an izakaya down a back street litterally around the corner that I found where I am now famous for my rendition of Hotel California! Mappy - thats it, you've finally fried my brain!

Thats the one - very nice place indeed!

sleddogg83 - thanks for the corrected link, I thought there was something odd about it when I entered it...

My apologies if I panicked anyone - Japans reputation for being expensive is probably a result of thes 80s boom years. I was trying to imply that its not exactly "cheap" as people usually define the word, but it doesn't have to be very expensive either - especially if you cultivate contacts over there, as Mappy has done, and who very generously allowed me to take advantage of the hospitality they gave him. Mappy - sorry to disappoint you, but there already are specialised tours. Of course, if you need some advice on how to get into the back offices of the Studio Ghibli Museum, I'm your man (you'll need a limited edition Kiki portrait and a dodgy credit card, though...!). Still, a specialist mecha fan tour... hmm... ("...and this is Tokyo Tower, destroyed in Mecha Death Gun Machines I, II, II + and Zeta... ") As for presentations, all I can say is... "CHEERI-O!" (sorry, everyone - very private joke shared between me, Mappy, a nice American exchange student and a class of Japanese schoolgirls... ) Knowing some Japanese can be a great help - its not strictly speaking necessary, I've done Japan twice without being able to speak a word - but having certain people around who can is a big help, even if they insist on involving you in the great Hello! Kitty conspiracy...

Well, theres some hope. I still have some optimism, but the initial character designs are a bit foreboding. The redesigned Buster machine could work; once I got over the shock I felt it had at least some potential...

No anime images, but all the toys you could want here: http://www.toyboxdx.com/data/takatoku2/ima...nav_credits.gif

Although Japans reputation for being expensive is slightly exagerrated (you don't have to sprinkle gold on your coffee, after all... ), I think it is safe to say that if you're worried about economy measures, you should perhaps be thinking of going somewhere else...

I've only met her once, but yes, she does seem to be a very nice girl. Your opinion may or may not be affected by what she wears to work... Mecha pilots don't slobber, we suffer weeks of angst and indeciveness before being shot down, getting captured, being interrogated, having to explain about this whole "where-human-babies-come-from" thing, and then blasting our way out in the enemys hot prototype with their equally hot ace-pilot-turned-defector. The slobbering is reserved for those unfortunates in the Roy Fokker Memorial Mecha Pilots Hospital... Ah, Hello Kitty... I should have known... Edit: white drew carey: you don't know the half of it. Mappy has an extraordinary ability to get to know nice girls like this...

There is a three disc Collectors Edition of Spaced due out in the UK shortly: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...2480229-2079647 Season Two is more of the same, only even better! Keeping up my habit of my favourite bits of various things I watch being the things that aren't actually in them (er... its like this... for example, my favourite episode of Kimagure Orange Road is the "Giant Monster Jingoro Attacks" one, which is a summer special parody, not really part of the "proper" series), the scene I liked the best from Shaun of the Dead is the "The Man Who Would Be Shaun" segment. Nick Frost does an uncanny Sean Connery... Oh, and cricket bats. Its about time someone made a film featuring this most lethal of all melee weapons...! I want a Cornetto.

Oh my God, they let him into the country. There goes Tokyo... You didn't tell me about this place before, did you? And, as I've argued before, mecha fans get on very well with members of the opposite gender - its just we have a bit of trouble trying to stop them gunning us down with their ace mecha piloting skills to start with! Edit: "Didn't know she was working in a bikini?" I bet...!