Maximum card: Hermann Oberth, one of the three founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics

Hermann Oberth...Tsiolkovsky...Goddard.
Sometimes, it takes more than 1 father.

"Hermann Julius Oberth (25 June 1894 – 28 December 1989), born in Transylvania, România, then part of Austria-Hungary, was a (Transylvanian Saxon) physicist and engineer, who along with the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the American Robert H. Goddard, was one of the Founding Fathers of rocketry and astronautics. The three never were active collaborators, and in fact, never knew one another: instead, their parallel achievements occurred independently of one another."
"In the autumn of 1929, Oberth conducted a static firing of his first liquid-fueled rocket motor, which he named the Kegeldüse. He was helped in this experiment by his students at the Technical University of Berlin, one of whom was Wernher von Braun, who would later become a giant in both German and American rocket engineering from the 1940s onward, culminating with the gigantic Saturn V rockets that made it possible for men to land on the Moon in 1969 and in several following years."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth

Maximum cards: Red Panda / Lesser Panda (Ailurus fulgens) from Taiwan ROC

Republic of China (ROC) = Taiwan.

People's Republic of China = (mainland) China.

The bottom MC (maximum card) is official issue of Taiwan Post - very nice.

The other maximum card was created specially for me, at my specific request, by my good friend S. in Taiwan. Thank you! :)

She is one of the best philatelic partners/friends that I have on 6 continents (nobody yet at a research base in Antarctica - I'm working on it :) ).

Starting with the existing stamp, she found a great image online (just as matching as the official image), then she asked for permission to reproduce it.

Perfect match stamp/postcard: the red panda is eating leaves.

I think those images were already released into public domain, but anyway.

Then she designed and ordered custom picture postcards.

Then she went to her post office and obtained clean local postmarks on such maximum cards. As a philatelic handback, she took them right back and sent me the whole batch in an envelope. One MC from each different design.

I love her custom MCs even more! Besides, there's only 1 MC made in each exact configuration - unless she liked them so much that she created more, for herself :D .

Say Hello, with your foot! Maximum card from Taiwan ROC: Formosan Rock Macaque (Macaca cyclopis)

Like a rock star...

The Formosan Rock Macaque (Macaca cyclopis) is a macaque endemic to the island of Taiwan and has been introduced to Japan. Besides humans, Formosan Rock Macaques are the only native primates living in Taiwan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaca_cyclopis

Republic of China (ROC) = Taiwan.

People's Republic of China = (mainland) China.

This maximum card was created specially for me, at my specific request, by my good friend S. in Taiwan. Thank you! :)

She is one of the best philatelic partners/friends that I have on 6 continents (nobody yet at a research base in Antarctica - I'm working on it :) ).

Starting with the existing stamp, she found a great image online, then she asked for permission to reproduce it. I think those images were already released into public domain, but anyway.

Then she designed and ordered custom picture postcards.

Then she went to her post office and obtained clean local postmarks on such maximum cards. As a philatelic handback, she took them right back and sent me the whole batch in an envelope. One MC from each different design.

I love her custom MCs even more than the official ones, if there are any issued! Besides, there's only 1 MC made in each exact configuration - unless she liked them so much that she created more, for herself :D .