F-ZeroOne

Thanks, David - I've just noticed I fell victim to forgetting that cases aren't bullets myself! A lot of pre-war US planes fired through the propeller, but most of the later generation either had guns in the wings, or put the propellers in the wings and the guns in the nose (P-38)!

A few decades ago, back when Warhammer 40,000 was still subtitled "Rogue Trader", GW did actually release some female space marine figures. Presumably they've since realised who their target market is...

Possibly its because Valk pilots follow what I believe is official US Army policy on what to do when confronted with a skilled melee fighter. Shoot them. ( the exact origin of this method of tackling sword-waving maniacs is not known for certain, but many make reference to some legendary figure known only as "Indy"... )

Spent shell fragements from AA fire was a fairly serious problem during WW. II, though generally speaking people tried not to be outside much if there was an air raid taking place! AA fire also tended to be towards the larger calibres, whereas many WW. II fighters used rifle or .50 calibre rounds ( or 20 - 30 mm cannon - and yes, I know about those monsters with 57mm guns and the like! ) I believe there have been modern reports of injuries caused by people firing AK-47s and the like into the air to celebrate one thing or another. Shell casings in space could actually be a big problem, if you take into account the damage that can be done by some very small objects to modern spacecraft if travelling fast enough! Though with energy-reinforced armour this might not be so much of a problem for the average Valkyrie pilot... "So, how'd do you get shot down, buddy?" "Bloody Valkyrie technician left a screw loose on my flight leaders Valk!"

So which one of you customisers is going to be first to build Graham a Baby-pod for his personal Valkyrie, then?! Good luck, Graham!

Ooh, can't resist this one! In no real order: 1) X-Bomber (X-Bomber/Star Fleet). Possibly just a touch on the small side, but a major part of my childhood. 2) Bloody Marys/Commander Makaras flagship (also X-Bomber/Star Fleet). Not sure if it actually has a name, but a very nice, seemingly fish-inspired design. 3) Narn battlecruiser and Omega-class destroyer, Babylon 5. One of the B5 designers said that Narn equipment was made to have a very industrial look, and it would seem they decided to give the Narn the space-going equivalent of a Russian tractor! Omega-class destroyers just "look", as we say in England, "well 'ard!", though it remains to be answered just how they actually turn! 4) Culture General Systems Vehicle. Iain M. Banks endeared himself to many a SF fan when he came up with the idea of calling his multi-kilometre long, sentinent spaceships, each one fully capable of laying waste to a solar system, names like "What Are The Civilian Applications?" 5) Culture Rapid Offensive Unit Killing Time (Iain M. Banks, Excession). Not only a brillant pun, but steals the show in the last part of this excellent book by taking on an entire battle fleet single handedly.

Am I the only one whos beginning to think that Yamato don't actually have any Japanese customers, and they only say they do for tax reasons or something?!

The Centauri have artificial gravity; in at least one episode Star Fury pilots are given a briefing on Centauri tactics and thats specfically mentioned. I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe the vessels of the "Hyperion" class [1] don't have gravity, as I think we always see the crew strapped down in them. I don't think its ever stated for definite that the Narn have artificial gravity, but as we usually see them strapped down the assumption would be no. And Haterist... I think this is relatively mild, comparatively speaking. I used to hang out on a UK B5 newsgroup, and long, heavily involved, complicated discussions on physics was pretty much another way of saying "hello" on that...

The aviation buffs probably know this already, but the Swordfish II is almost certainly a tribute to the original Fairey Swordfish, an aircraft that was about 30 years out of date when new but still managed to put the fateful torpedo into the Bismarck, and actually outlasted at least one of the aircraft intended to replace it! Mind you, I didn't get the reference until I saw the Cowboy Bebop movie, in which an original Swordfish makes a cameo...

Carefully. By the way, do you mean "wing-folding" or "wing-sweeping" - they're somewhat different, folding being used to reduce the space an aircraft takes up in a confined area (typically an aircraft carrier), while sweeping allows the wings to swing forward or back to alter the aerodynamics of the aircraft - we know the YF-19 can do this but I haven't seen anything to suggest it can fold its wings...?

When I think of Macross in general, it has to be "Voices" and "Information High". Yoko Kanno is a goddess who walks this Earth, and long may she grace us with her divinity... For Macross TV, "My Boyfriend is a Pilot"; I'm not even sure its a great song, I just always think of it and Macross TV. For Macross 7, Holy Lonely Light. I just love the screaming over the intro...!

Don't know if it's true or not, but I read somewhere about British pilots referring to Tornados as 'the Flying Coffin'. Graham yup...took heavy losses in Desert Storm along with the 15E's It should be noted that, IIRC, most of those losses occurred while flying some of the most dangerous missions of the first Gulf War - runway denial attacks, flying across or even down the runway releasing cratering submunitions from an underfuselage cluster-pod, at low level. I believe most US anti-runway missions were instead carried out at medium altitude using Durandal anti-runway bombs. We've learned better now, and I believe the RAF now uses a cruise-missile style dispenser or glide-bomb. The RAF has always liked low and fast - the Tornados predecessor, the Blackburn Buccaneer is rumoured to have flown so low on one occasion that it returned with a tumbleweed hooked on the nose!

Add another Gunstar fan to the list...! I like the Y-Wing from Star Wars, for some reason. Not strictly speaking a fighter, but the enemy fighter carrier from Star Fleet/X-Bomber is one of my all-time favourite designs.

If you'd put the Ingram in the middle, you'd have got my vote...!

Most UK fans would probably agree that the VHS release of Gunbuster is in fact better than the DVD release - partly because no effort appears to have been made at all, and partly because the bath scene was was edited in such an unsubtle manner they'd have been better off using a rusty nail scratched across the masters...

Cool, variable asses! Actually, the variable features I have in - cough - mind are more "up-front"...

Not a bad idea. I think it would make a great plug-suit Shinji custom (Evangelion) too. Takara did "blank" Microman figures as a Japanese Toys "R" Us exclusive a little while back. Apparently they sold out really fast, so they might be quite difficult to track down, though. I believe there is going to be a female "blank" Microman ( -woman? - ette?! ) release later this year. Those of you who have, um, "issues" with the Yamato Milia rendtion might be interested to know that they're planning, er, certain features to be available in variable sizes...

One aspect I'd be interested to see explored is how much of an effect the Transformers version - the famous Jetfire - had in helping create a following for the 1/55 in non-Asian territories. I was first astounded and then greatly amused to find out that the Transformer I always wanted actually originated from somewhere else, but I grew up in a time and place where original 1/55s were not easy to find, and I wonder if the 1/55 is as popular as it is because of Jetfire, purely because of the Macross connection, because it was more easily available in the US, because its simply such a classic, or a combination of those factors... (I suspect the last one, but... )

Actually, I think the RX-78 is like a samurai. It has a samurai style head, plus the two swords (beam sabers) thing going on. Anyway, I've watched all the UC Gundam stuff years and years ago, except for ZZ, which I gave up on half way through. My favorites are 0080, 08MST, CCA and V. I don't actually like 0083 much as I find Kou and Nina too whiney and annoying. I also find Z to by very over-rated. Even though 08MST is more realistic than most, I still hate that they are taking these bright white, red and blue robots into jungle and desert combat. Talk about standing out like a sore thumb. At least the Zions had the sense to paint their Zaks green Graham The show Tomino worked on previously to Gundam was Zanbot 3 which has a very samurai-like design ( it was also a combiner, with elements similar to the combined Gundam from the TV series - something largely excised from the movies). Funnily enough, Tomino also doomed one of the biggest toy companies in Japan by changing the Gundam design after Clover produced toys based on early Gundam designs... Its possible to argue that as as Gundam centres around close combat, camoflauge isn't quite so important - perhaps W.W.I style dogfights were more of an inspiration than Vietnam style conflicts? However, having seen the "mecha & realism" arguement go around various newsgroups and forums for years, I think the only way you can really rationale any giant combat robot is: Because it looks cool. [1] [1] Up until a couple years ago, much as I loved mecha, I never believed there would be a practical piloted model. Recent developments by Sony and Honda have convinced me otherwise, but I still have yet to see any completely convincing argument as regards combat suitability...

Can it just be pointed out - again! - that Grimlock was only dumb in the US version and the TV series. In the UK Transformers stories, Grimlock was pretty damn smart; in fact, he even answered the letters page, including letters asking why he was stupid in some comic stories but smart in others... I believe Simon Furman, who scripted some of the best UK Transformers stories, has kept Grimlock intelligent in the recent Dreamwave comics as well...

Wild shot in the dark - is it Optimus Prime? I seem to remember one of his many incarnations was a small car robot type... So, do I have the touch or am I merely touched?

Its taken me three seperate viewings of Evangelion in order to come to an accomodation with it. Everyone has their own opinion on it; I've seen lots of people who love it and I can understand why; on the other hand I once heard someone completely demolish the series with their criticism and I could agree with a large part of what they said. More than perhaps any other anime, what you think of Evangelion depends on you. However, while I'm not entirely in the "like" camp and not entirely in the "hate" camp, I do think its a classic anime. Very few anime have had the impact Evanegelion has; perhaps one or two a decade. I haven't seen anything quite like it since I first saw it, despite many attempts by others to emulate it. One thing I do find odd is how rarely I see Evangelion regarded for its mecha show elements - my personal opinion is that Hideki Anno completely deconstructed the mecha show with Evangelion, to an extent thats made it very hard to get away with the old formula since - though someone had a very good try with Gundam SEED...

It could be that someone got a bit mixed up and meant "40mm" originally ( or they just scaled up from that ); the 40mm Bofors was pretty much the standard Allied naval AA gun and was also used by the Germans as well. Alternatively, I guess it depends if you class a Zentraedi vessel as an "aircraft"... Or it may even be a tribute to the absolute biggest AA guns of all time, which were the 18-inch guns mounted on the Yamato and Musashi...! ( really - an anti-aircraft round was designed for use in these guns, but it never worked very well and I believe the Musashi was actually damaged by its own shells when test-firing...! )

Uh oh: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3520636.stm The chances of anything coming from Mars were a million to one... he saiiiddddddd!

Hmm. I love War of the Worlds, the book - I like to think of it as the prototypical mecha series [1] - and though I haven't seen the film for some time, I seem to remember it was pretty good, even if the technology of the time didn't allow for tripods. I've long wanted to see on film Martians advancing up the Thames, but I'm wondering whether they plan on adapting the book, remkaing the film, or something different... [1] If only old H.G. had realised that bacteria aren't as marketable as giant red, white, and blue robot suits...