The Hangar

Loyal subjects of the Imperium, upon the many many stars of our great galaxy, it is I, The Emperor Of Mankind. I have seized this forum thread from the heretic known as 'Dougver2' temporarily, in order to spread further my noble doctrine unto the citizens of this land. I have uncovered an ancient relic of great prophetic power from the origin world of man-kind, in the form of a small data-carrier disc known as a 'compact disc'. Upon this disc, there is...

Hey everyone, today I was hoping to do something a little different with my newest column. While I'm not necessarily talking about airplanes or robots, 2008 film "The Hurt Locker" remains one of my favorites of all time, so I wanted to post a thesis I wrote about it. Hope you enjoy!

Katheryn Bigelow’s 2008 film “The Hurt Locker” is without a doubt, one of the most unique war films ever created. The unwavering suspense, in spite of the very few actual explosive battles in the movie, the staunch refusal to take any political stance on the Iraq war, something still all too fresh...

As of two days ago, the world suffered the passing of a legend in the anime industry, the mecha genre in particular, Noboru Ishiguro. The esteemed director of the original SDF Macross, as well as the legendary (and aptly named) Legend of the Galactic Heroes, passed away at age 73 of a lung infection. While he'd certainly seen his share of years, I can't help but feel the man was taken from us all to soon. It's a criminal injustice that a legendary and talented man such as him has died, while...

Jump in the cockpit and start up the engines, because it's time for another edition of THE HANGAR! As promised, I'm back with something a little more positive. Now that we've seen the best and worst that aviation has to offer, perhaps it's time to consider the soundtrack one would want to implement for your own dogfight. Have no fear, my friends, for I come today bearing the solution to said quandry, with the top 10 songs for fighter pilots! Below, I've compiled 10 songs to fit all of your aerial combat needs, or to just make you feel...

As I said before, airplanes really are beautiful machines. Our mastery of heavier than air flight is a testament to the advancement of human technology, and a beautiful one at that. Many aircraft have some very unique features, coming in all shapes and sizes, built for all sorts of roles. Each different flying machine is beautiful in its own little way, much like ourselves.

Well..... not all of them. Like us humans, there are just some that are so absolutely shitty that they shouldn't have even existed in the first place (like...

Hello everyone! It's time for another issue of the Hangar! You know, while we perhaps don't have REAL combat mecha in our society (yet), we do have some stunningly badass machines that come quite close to filling that same niche that a gundam might fill. What we have are airplanes, specifically fighter planes. And really, it's not hard to see why I make the comparison when you realize that the VF from the Macross series was based on the F-14 Tomcat...

"At one with my machine am I, Filled with Fear and Hate!"

It's probably a true statement to say most of us here are avid and passionate fans of music. And there's music tailor made to everyone's interest, no matter how strange you are or what you might think. Mecha fans are DEFINITELY no exception, with many underground and even more mainstream bands like Megadeth writing songs about robotic killing machines. Hell, there's a whole arsenal of music tailor made for kicking ass with giant robots. So, let's review...

So, if you're like me and you've watched any degree of gundam, you've seen a plethora of giant mechanical killing machines known as mobile suits. Mobile suits have a wide array of designs depending on function and era, as well as the universe they are from. Each series and universe has its own little quirks in mobile suit design, and each has that something that is so iconic of their series. Gundam 0079 had the classic 'zaku' mobile suit, which is one of the most memorable mobile suits in gundam to this day. Now, gundam has been around...

Evenin' folks. You know, the world of mecha is a wide one, full of interesting ideas and various influences that help form said ideas, which bloom into some truly fantastic and creative concepts and designs. Influences can come from anywhere, from age old armor designs and concepts based in ones own cultural heritage, to modern military weaponry, to wildlife and plants found in nature. As a result, there are many different series and franchises, ranging from the old Star Wars movies to the Armored Core video game franchise, that each...