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F-ZeroOne

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  1. F-ZeroOne
    Well, it seems a Prime Minister called Dave has decided that if the UK is going to have a plane called Dave - sorry, I mean, the F-35 - then its going to be the "B" variant after all. Just make it work, chaps, what?
  2. F-ZeroOne
    Turn-A is, by some accounts, the series that let Tomino finally overcome his decades-long battle with depression - this is why some of his earlier works are up and down like a yo-yo. Its still got some of his trademark narrative jumpiness - Tomino never can seem to let things sit still - but its probably his most balanced series since the original Gundam TV series (which I'm currently watching on DVD - isn't Bright just awesome...? ). Its a fantastic series overall, and really deserves to be known for being more than "just another Gundam series"... Tomino has always been a genius at creating worlds; one of the things thats striking me about the original series compared to things like SEED is just how detailed the setting its taking place is in, especially compared to other anime of the same vintage. I enjoyed SEED and Destiny (mostly, theres bits that made me despair for mecha fandom... ), but one gets the feeling that the reason UC stuff is so popular is because its setting is as solid as... well, an asteroid fortress.
  3. F-ZeroOne
    I got to visit the place a couple of weeks ago; this is my take on it (this was originally written for friends in e-mail so is a little more "Rage on!" than I would normally post here... ). GUNDAM FRONT SPECIAL REPORT! Not often one gets to be right at the beginning, or at least the day after the beginning. The giant Gundam statue - quite possibly the physical manifestation of Japans *third* religion - now resides in Odaiba, a bayside development which is perhaps the best place it could possibly be, because Odaiba *already* looks like a Star Trek set made real. Its now "part" of a shopping complex called "Divers City". Theres six floors of shopping, a couple of amusement arcades, the Gundam FRONT exhibition hall, and - for some inexplicable reason - a Maid Cafe (burn it with FIRE!). After taking several shots of what is as close to a religious experience as I am ever likely to get, I went to have a nose round. Theres a free display of Gundam model kits, and when I say "kits", I mean I think they have pretty much every damn Gundam model kit ever made, and then some. They even had the Flat from Turn-A Gundam and kits from Gundam X, and *no-one* remembers Gundam X. There was one exception - don't recall seeing any G-Saviour kits (Bandais ill-advised attempt to make a live-action Gundam movie), probably because Bandai is trying steadily to erase G-Saviour from existence. There is also a high fashion Gundam clothing shop. Yes, you heard that correctly and no, no-one appears to recognise the contradiction in terms. The rest of the attraction you have to pay for. Did I pony up my 1200 yen? No, I went to the Maid Cafe instead and let a maid write my name in tomato sauce across my food. LIKE HELL I DID. It starts with a movie in a panaromic dome. If you're not a Gundam fan, this will make no sense at all, consisting mostly of clips from the various series, plus some CGI recreations of famous Gundam battles. Theres an impressive sense of movement but one can't help but feel they could make more of the opportunity - a specially created short, for example. The exhibition hall itself, like most specialist Japanese exhibitions is fairly small. Theres a life size model of the cockpit section of some Gundam from Gundam SEED (it doesn't count), a wrecked Core Fighter, a model of space fortress A Baoa Qu, and the chance to get your photo taken with the Gundam character of your choice. I probably *should* have picked Loran Cehack from Turn-A, just to remind Bandai that it exists (I WANT MY DVDS, you... you... company!), but, you know... CHAR! CHAR! CHAR! More interesting are various articles from Gundam production, including opening storyboards for Turn-A Gundam (given all I've said about this, yes, well done but rather a bizarre choice - perhaps no-one will miss them?), Chars Counterattack (in which Amuro has such a different hairstyle compared to the final movie that I didn't actually recognise him at first), and most interesting of all, production sketches of the original designs for the iconic White Base, Zaku II and Gundam (before Tomino changed the design at a late stage and single-handedly nearly destroyed the Japanese toy industry - and not for the last time, either... ). There was also a frame signed by various Gundam staff, including a certain Kill 'em all Himself. And thats about your lot. The local UniQlo seems to have a nice line in Gundam exclusive t-shirts there (update: not that exclusive, I've now seen them at other UniQlo branches). Oh, theres a branch of the Gundam cafe there as well, but they only sell pre-packaged goods like cookies and some very nice-looking beam sabre umbrellas. Charmingly, their logo states Established 2010 until Universal Century 0079, which rather suggests a) they have a far-seeing business plan and b) perhaps they have some advance knowledge about the Republic of Zeon and its habit of dropping space colonies on people. Is it worth going out of your way to visit? Maybe not. The overall impression I got - especially considering that Bandai Sunrise must be sitting on a mother lode somewhere - is that a bit more could have been expected. The Gundam statue (prototype?) is definitely worth seeing though and if you haven't been to Odaiba before easily done as part of a trip (and at the nearby Decks shopping plaza, hidden on the fourth floor, is a gloriously 80s mini-Japanese retro arcade). The rest of it... well, I guess it depends if you find yourself NewType... F-ZeroOne. HASSHIN!
  4. F-ZeroOne
    IIRC, it was a gachapon like collectors/trading item. Thats one heckuva collection, Shaorin!
  5. F-ZeroOne
    Just another small point about "banning" "cutting-edge technology" - World War II fighter aircraft were, by and large, cutting edge technology at the time. In fact, some pilots of the era used to complain about the new-fangled gadgets like retractable landing gear and cockpit canopies that they didn't need in the good ol' days... At least one historian has argued that this sometimes had a detrimental effect on aircraft design, when pilots in some countires were able to exert an undue amount of influence (the example used was Japan, where the pilots preference for light, agile fighters meant sacrificing armour and firepower, though its no doubt more complicated than that as available engine power was another factor... )
  6. F-ZeroOne
    This is a little late - I've been away - but recently the Sinclair ZX Spectrum celebrated its 30th birthday. The humble "rubbber-keyed wonder" is widely credited with having created a nation of both gamers and games programmers in the UK, some of whom are still very much active today. Heres to tape loading, "BEEP" and colour clash!
  7. F-ZeroOne
    We probably wouldn't do much better than the late-model WWII planes, I think. If you ban jet engines you could well be banning turboprops - which are, essentially, a jet engine with a propeller...! If you still allow CAD at the design stage, then there might be some interesting designs allowed and also if you allow composite materials and computerised flight controls which may have a significant effect on weight and handling. Electronics are in everything these days, so fuel effiency might be better due to electronic engine controls, but if you don't allow that - well, the late war fighters were pushing the limits of conventional prop design (arguably, the P-38 with its compressibility issues was doing that in 1940!), which is why everyone started moving to jets in the first place. Regards UAVs in movies: actually, Sidewinders being used against ground targets is not completely unrealistic (leaving asides the fact that no current drone I know of mounts them); early Sidewinders reportedly often locked onto ground targets due to reflected heat, while recently the US carried out trials with the latest model 'winders for use against ground targets...
  8. F-ZeroOne
    When did the F-22 get a fold booster...?!
  9. F-ZeroOne
    "Macross" was one of the key "intro" series to anime for me, and probably many others (in whatever guise that may have been) - a great legacy he leaves behind.
  10. F-ZeroOne
    I think how I discovered "Macross" was through the "Robotech" RPG; pen-and-paper RPGs being one of the things I was into at the time. "Battletech" was also a bit of an influence. I also remember arguing with a friend of mine that there must be some reason why the "Jetfire" toy didn't look anything like its animated counterpart, even if I wasn't to discover the reasons for that for a very long time... This would all have been in the very late 80s/early 90s. I had a little inkling that some of the animation I watched as a kid was "different" due to shows like "Battle of the Planets" and "The Mysterious Cities of Gold". The first "Macross" I actually saw was either the "Clash of the Bionoids" version of "Do You Remember Love", or "Macross II", ironically enough. There were a couple of near misses, various cheap-and-cheerful VHS releases of various "Robotech" items were available in the UK but being a nipper I didn't have the pocket money... ("Robotech" was also shown on early UK satellite TV but I had no way of accessing it at the time). At some point, probably on a rare visit to "Forbidden Planet" in London, I picked up the first three "Robotech" novels. It was probably the high-quality (for the time) "Anime UK" magazine that started revealing some of the "truth" for me, and "Macross Plus" was probably what cemented things (the wait between volumes was agonising). It wasn't until the AnimEigo DVD releases that I actually saw the original TV series for the first time!
  11. F-ZeroOne
    "May require cement"...?
  12. F-ZeroOne
    He was doing what Char does: leaving stashes of gold bars around and hanging out in bars, picking up girls.
  13. F-ZeroOne
    Its around episode 20, though it might be best to think of it as getting "better". Basically, when Bright stops being straight man to a bunch of meddling kids, that'll be about when.
  14. F-ZeroOne
    He would probably have given up and given the Air Force its money back. But it was a different time and the Skunk Works sometimes had their own problems, some of which proved to be nearly as or just as intractable as any modern aircraft program.
  15. F-ZeroOne
    Your round, then.
  16. F-ZeroOne
    I've got a quid [1] in my pocket - anyone want to form a bidding consortium? [1] Ancient British form of currency.
  17. F-ZeroOne
    Anyone got Yoshiyuki Tominos phone number? I need to unleash him!
  18. F-ZeroOne
    Now if I can just find the other million or so parts, I can make my own never-produced naval stealth attack aircraft! http://www.ebay.com/itm/McDonnell-Douglas-A-12-Avenger-II-Canopy-Only-one-Private-Hands-Unobtainium-/150718532486?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2317864b86#ht_9829wt_1344
  19. F-ZeroOne
    I had a Pioneer DVL-919 for a while (thats the European model number, I don't know if it was different in the US. I don't know about quality, as I never had anything else to compare it to, but it does have a practical side in that it could also play DVDs as well (though its the size of a small house in comparison to modern players!).
  20. F-ZeroOne
    Ah, please delete/ignore, didn't notice dates on original posts...!
  21. F-ZeroOne
    Theres some speculation as to whether thats the drone or not. I'm in the "I don't think so" camp, on the grounds of size - drones maybe unmanned, but they can also be surprisingly large. Wikipedia lists the RQ-170s wingspan as approx. "20 metres" (at least), and while its always difficult to judge scale accurately without a measure, assuming Mr. Iranian Air Force Guy is of average height, that whatever-it-is looks a bit undersize to me. Its also been pointed out that the drone would also weight quite a bit - which suggests thats one hefty desk they're propped it up on...
  22. F-ZeroOne
    I've seen it as well. Honest opinion? The trailer is the best version...
  23. F-ZeroOne
    Guys? I think we might need to update our official paint schemes guide...
  24. F-ZeroOne
    The "amulets" I remember, Sayla and Amuro exploring the size of his beam sabre, no, I don't recall that either - though its been quite a while since I read the books.
  25. F-ZeroOne
    There was a cartoon once where Amuro and Sayla are in bed together but Sayla cries out at the crucial moment...
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