F-ZeroOne

I had a look at Japans military on Global Security the other day. They actually have a military that in some respects is much more powerful than the UKs...! I think its part of a typically Japanese contrast - a country that expresses peace but which carries a big stick. They do have a lot to be paranoid about, though; they're surrounded by a lot of countries with whom their relations have been, shall we say, uneasy...?

I thought it had been established that all computers in SF shows have sexy female voices... Ulyssees 31 would also be my guess, but theres a number of things in Grahams description that don't fit - the crew of the ship in that didn't have any special powers (except for the little girl), and they were almost always flying through space - no volcanoes. One other guess might be Gatchaman, but I suspect you'd be familiar enough with that to get it right off, Graham. SilverHawks, maybe? Or one of the Force Five shows?

If you want a post-Karekano project, look for something called Ebichu Minds The House. I've seen it. Believe me, I've seen it. I will never, ever look at hamsters in quite the same way again...

Funny. I was wondering what Anno was going to do next. I thought that after His & Hers Circumstances he'd quit animation for a bit, and last I'd heard, had made a live action movie. Is it just me, or is there something slightly Rei-ish about Honey there?!

Truth is it's not likely we'll ever again see air-to-air combat. The Russians can't pay their pilots, the EU is chicken I feel I have to quote here from one of the most famous politicians of a certain EU member country which is, in some parts of the World, in it as much as yourselves: "Some chicken!"...

Prices in some vintage toyshops in Tokyo can range from 20,000 yen to up to about 40,000 yen. (between 120 - 240 UK pounds). Thats in good condition, boxes, all the little parts, decals unapplied. The VF-1S Hikaru seems to be the most pricey, and the VF-1A the least.

"Gunpod? Nah. This is a Gunpod!"

Theres a report on the Anime on DVD website that the Region-3 version does not have English subtitles. Not sure how definite that is just yet, but... Nuts.

Rats - I didn't have the image to hand so couldn't check the tail. Pity, because it seems so close otherwise. It could have been based on one of the "background" planes that occasionally crop up in Macross TV (eg in the first TV episodes), possibly?

My guess is that the odd one out is the LVT Avenger II: http://www.anime.net/macross/mecha/united_...r_ii/index.html

Finally - I can believe in the sign of Zeta, somewhere beyond the time! I will see the tears of an era!

Any poll that doesn't list The Last Starfighter doesn't count.

Zoids. Combining every kids two loves - dinosaurs and giant robots. Some of the newest stuff even looks quite tempting. Transformers, the original line, were the toy when I was younger, though from an adult perspective its easy to see where the faults are. I just can't get used to the new stuff, even though some of it looks quite interesting. Sorry. Takaras latest Micromen releases look incredible in pictures, and bring the original action figure line bang up to date. But I have a couple, and they do tend to have little niggles... And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the greatest action figure hero of the 70s and 80s - Action Man! (for some reason, Americans keep referring to him as G.I. something-or-other... )

Well, first thing I thought of is for people who have either lost them or have toys that had these parts missing...?

Good grief - are people still allowed to break the sound barrier that low these days?!

Yes, the B-24 was Consolidated (I have to admit, I had to go and check it!). Another great plane, made in absolutely ridiculous numbers by modern standards, especially considering the USs relatively late entry into the war. Mind you, B-17 pilots did use to claim that a B-24 formation nearby was the best escort they could get - because B-24s couldn't fly quite as high as B-17s, German fighters tended to go for B-24s first!

Some B-25s had no less than eight .50 guns in the nose, plus the two turret guns, plus up to four sidepack guns. Needless to say, you didn't want to be standing in front of one when it opened fire. The first B-25s modified in this way were done by a USAAF officer called "Pappy" Gunn. When he was asked if the extra guns upset the B-25s centre of gravity, he replied that he'd thrown the centre of gravity away to lighten the planes! Later B-25s were factory fitted with the guns (rather than field modifications), and some B-25s actually had a 75mm gun, for anti-shipping use. Mitchells were widely used in the Pacific, especially for making low level bombing and strafing runs, and were generally regarded as being much more forgiving of pilot error than the high performance but very "hot" B-26 Marauder. The plane with the open torpedo bay doors is a Grumman TBF Avenger. I'm afraid it wasn't torpedo bombers that did the damage at Midway - it was mainly the dive-bombing "Slow But Deadly" SBD Dauntlesses. Five of the six Avengers which took part in that action were destroyed, while the even less fortunate pilots flying Douglas TBD Devestators were almost wiped out. Also, its a sad fact that American torpedoes for at least the first three years of the war were defective and often failed to work properly. The torpedo bombers sacrifice at Midway wasn't in vain - their approach drew off the Japanese carriers Zero fighter cover, which allowed the dive bombers to attack almost unopposed. Having said that, the Avenger went on to have a long and successful career for the rest of the war, and also served with the Fleet Air Arm, who I believe at one point considered renaming it the "Shrike"! (the Britsh often renamed US planes this way - the Wildcat became the FAAs Martlet, while it was a British suggestion that gave the P-38 its famous name, rather than the originally chosen "Atlanta!"). Edit: by the way, the Mitchell is a North American design, not a Consolidated make...

Good grief. Does it come with a Landmate as well?!

Puppet sex, now that's a scary thought. Wouldn't be the first time. You may wish to investigate the early career of Peter Jackson (yep, that Peter Jackson). British TV viewers also always did wonder about Troy Tempest and Marina, too...

Funnily enough, I'm just reading a book by Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics, at Reading University, UK. His team were the first to have one robot programme another with skills it had learnt over the Internet (effectively "teaching"!). Professor Warwick also recently had a computer chip implanted in his arm that allowed him to control a robot arm through his own nervous system. Also, up until a couple of years ago, Robot Wars was a very popular programme on BBC television, and although many designs were of the "dustbin on wheels with an axe attached" type, some, like the awesome Razer, were very elegant. The main advatange enjoyed by the Japanese is a rich history of robots in popular culture, backed by large development budgets - hence the Honda Asimo and Sony robot, whose chief designers have stated they were inspired by Astro-Boy! Speaking of which, the guy in some of the images that looks like your favourite uncle (well, if you're Japanese!) - thats Go Nagai. Yes, that Go Nagai...!

I don't have any pictures myself, but this link should tell you all you need to know: http://www.harrier.org.uk/history/history_p1154.htm One description I've heard of it is that it would have been a "Harrier with Phantom capability". This is an interesting tale from someone who has apparently had some experience that I found while looking for the other link: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=1&c=1&t=17694 If you follow the pages, note what this chap has to say about his choice of fighter... Something else I forgot about the Harrier - the original design team was led by none other than Sydney Camm - designer of, among others, the Hawker Tempest and Hawker Hurricane!

I believe Argentine pilots during the Falklands Conflict referrred to Harriers as "Black Death"... (though it should be pointed out that both sides were operating under rather less than ideal conditions and the Argentine pilots did pretty well, considering... ) One of the big mistakes made when the Harrier was introduced to US service was people thinking "Hey, its a jet that hovers - like a helicopter! So lets get helicopter pilots to fly it!" - a decision that apparently caused a lot of accidents... Hawker-Siddley had plans for a kind of ultra-Harrier at one point - a twin engined, afterburning, supersonic metal dragonfly from Hell - that unfortunately got cancelled, though there were doubts about whether it was technically viable at the time - apparently, twin engine VTOL is a tricky one...

I always understood the Harrier (any Harrier) was subsonic except in a dive, but David probably has much more up to date information than I do! I wasn't being serious about ASRAAMs on helicopters - it was intended as a comment about the state of the UK defence industry... latest story doing the rounds is that some of our military "kit" is going to be procured from China!

Having recently been introduced to Mamoru Naganos wonderful high fashion mecha saga, Five Star Stories (English version), I'm hoping someone can help me get hold of some more! Back-issues seem to be a bit thin on the ground, and I'm trying to obtain volumes 4 - 8. I would prefer a UK based supplier if possible, but am prepared to look to the US if necessary. Any help would be apprieciated!

What we always do... cross our fingers and improvise in the meantime. Wonder if one can fit ASRAAMs to Sea Kings...? Edit: one other thing about the Harrier - for its size, it must absolutely be the noisest aircraft on the planet!