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Did they mention the release date for the Metal Build Barbatos?

Still don't understand why this feature was not given to us in this GBP!? After all the normal colour GBP even came with an extra head! so it wouldn't have broken the bank! Only thing I thought it might be a problem is that it wouldn't fit, but that not the case either...😢 So Roy has a special message for Bandai! 😱

I thought the fold quartz particle source would still get expended from constant firings. The way Frontier always had it, it ended up being a bit of a finite resource. I'm now wondering if the Master File writers also had that belief about the MDE particle guns, and sorta followed up on that with the ammo-dependent particle gunpods. In the case of another Vajra problem you could just swap your magazine types, instead of getting hard-locked into an MDE-spec weapon. If traditional PBWs are funneling excess plasma from the reactor, it could be that there are some issues with trunking that stuff from the engine, through the hand hardpoint into the gunpod. Before Frontier the energy gunpod was a one-shot attachment for the Nightmare. The magazine system might also be a way to avoid that engineering choice.

The kit is up for preorder. It actually looks pretty cool

It’ll make a heck of a poster

Just be happy you get an extra large boxart.

I'm not sure how laser weapons work in Star Wars, so I can't say much about that. Generally speak, though, since many lasers depend heavily on mirrors to collimate the beam you wouldn't want a laser weapon to be so powerful that it can damage itself with its own output. When it comes to particle beams, the beam never touches the interior of the accelerator because doing so would be akin to the structural failure of a gun's barrel during firing... it'd wreck the weapon. By definition, yes. Well, yes and no. As I touched on in my previous post, the explanation(s) we've gotten about how most (non-dimensional) energy weapons in Macross work presents them as weapons that can be operated indefinitely as long as the mecha's reactors continue to run. They get any charged particles or plasma they need from the reactor itself. That's why Mirage's comment in the novelization is so odd. It implies the VF-31 has a beam weapon (the gunpod) for which that is not true. That's a whole different animal. Two, really. You're potentially conflating two different weapons. MDE shells and warheads are essentially a miniaturized version of the Dimension Eater bomb that destroyed Gallia IV. They use fine particles of fold quartz to create fold waves that "activate" the super heavy quantum in the shell/warhead so that its immense gravity tears adjacent matter apart as a short lived pseudo black hole before it drops back into fold space. MDE beam weapons use fold quartz as a catalyst to generate super heavy quantum and manipulate its gravity with fold waves so that the weapon fires a particle beam made up of short lived pseudo black holes that pull the matter they come in contact with into fold space. As far as we know, the beam version doesn't consume any fold quartz. True... as the actual definition of "optical weapon" implies the weapon is firing collimated electromagnetic radiation, which particle beams aren't.

You're too kind. All good things to you and yours this holiday season!

*exiting discussion due to health issues with family*

Yeah, we have another MECH month, with the release of the release of the B-ATM-03 FATTY... Another unit I'm really looking forward too! I wasn't disappointed with the Bloodsucker and I'm sure that this unit has the same class of movement and poss-ability as the other V.O.T.O.M. mechs released so far in the Hi-Metal R series, plus we get a new pilot figure! Also very interested how the box-art looks, another part of the series which is done very well! Hope Bandai releases it very soon so I can enjoy it for Christmas! 🤗

On second thought, I may be misreading the situation. My own frustrations with Japanese bureaucracy may have led me to the wrong conclusion. 🤔 Hatanaka's belligerent behavior may actually be a cry for help. Note his body language in particular, the way he brays like an animal in amazement of the engineering being demonstrated, yet he's not even looking at his people he's reacting to, much less the product being presented. This strikes me less as insincerity, and more like outright rebellion. While Hatanaka's onscreen attitude suggests he's the one in charge, that's probably not the case. I assume there are company executives and directors advising him on his behavior in front of the camera, and he may be so frustrated with their demands on his performance that he's deliberately overdoing it. He's probably so sick of acting surprised about products he knows all about (and has likely lost interest in) that he's secretly trying to sabotage the whole enterprise. I imagine he's reached the point in his career where acting like a drooling fanboy on camera is so embarrassing, he wants us to know it's all an act... and he's performing it under duress. Blink twice if you're being held hostage, Yuichi!

A particle beam would still be throwing matter at a target, albeit extremely minute amounts at very very high velocities in collimated beams. So it sorta does make sense that it has a magazine, if you think of it as more of a tank of elemental gas. This would be in line with how the MDE Beam Matrices worked before I guess, as you would be loading up particalized fold quartz bits to use as your plasmified matter. My contention really was with the terminology of 'optical munition/stores', as peebees don't work like that. And yes, if we go by this assumption we shouldn't need to have a disposable capacitor cartridge to be our particle beam ammo

If only the Kai had as good-looking a head . That green translucent visor really makes it stand out.

I imagined that so much focused energy through the energy weapons (I know solid ammo doesn't do that) would degrade them, much like in Star Wars, the laser tips on the X-wings have to be replaced every so often for that very reason.

Wear and tear on the gunpod's hardware wouldn't be considered "ammunition", and thus wouldn't fit the dialog of the novel. That's not to say that it's not a concern, though. Macross's Valkyries need maintenance and have parts that require inspection and/or replacement at specified intervals the same as any real world aircraft. Keeping on top of those inspections and scheduled replacement intervals is the ground crew's job, but no component would have a service lifespan so short that it can wear out mid-sortie and anything near end-of-life would be replaced (if possible) by the ground crew before takeoff. Laser and particle beam weapons have few if any moving parts so they seem unlikely candidates to have significant part degradation. After all, humanity copied the technology from the Supervision Army and Zentradi and theirs hold up basically forever. Conventional gunpods and railguns are going to suffer barrel wear from the explosive propellants and/or the ablation of electromagnetic rail material under high currents and voltages and will need periodic replacement. Master File mentions the GU-11's barrels were rated for replacement around 20,000 rounds. Since the gunpod could only hold 200 rounds at any given time, it wasn't in any danger of wearing out mid-battle.

Outstanding! I hope you and the family are well, sir!

Nice start with the mods, @Chas.

The only thing I can think of is that one or more of the components degrade per shot (as a "consumable" with a specific lifetime where each use uses it up until it is finished), and need replacement back at base during rearming/ refueling.

Everyday a see the reissue of the Ostrich further away

It's definitely not the same, but my thought is mostly on the side of how much return they can expect to see on their investment. Without going too deep into details I don't know a ton of, I've always been under the assumption that Yamato's success with the VF-1 funded all of their more expensive ventures (VF-19s, VF-17s, and VF-4), but there wasn't enough demand to keep up with the higher production costs, and the VF-1 market got entirely saturated, so they couldn't use it as a reliable funding pool. In terms of Macross7, I think the only Yamato release to get multiple production runs was the Fire Valk (not counting bundle re-releases for the VF-17 packs). It's also the only one Arcadia reissued, and it made sense for the Japanese market, because yeah, it's iconic for that series. In Bandai's case though, making another Fire Valk at this point feels like a bad one to start off with, especially if they're interested in actually selling to international markets. There are just so many factors working against it: - Both Yamato and Arcadia have sold multiple runs of that specific valk in that same scale, so the market is fairly well saturated in both regions - There is so little difference between the two different products that probably only hard-core collectors are going to think "I need both" - Macross7, Basara, and the bright red and yellow scheme are all what I'd just call "acquired tastes." On top of that, they're actively sabotaging their own releases, by selling the HMR version so close. Throw in the tariff situation, and you're going to lose even more customers, because at least some existing fans who would otherwise happily gobble up duplicates are probably going to just convince themselves their old Yamato/Arcadia is good enough. Like, I get it, the Fire Valk is the icon of the show, so not making it first would feel dumb too. But trying to sell it again feels like a bad bet to make. I would love Bandai to start offering up more polls to see what people want, but I also don't think they have the mentality to make those polls effective on the international market. If I'm remembering correctly, we did have a poll long ago to help decide what the first international releases should be, but I think all it really covered was which series people wanted products from, not anything as specific as characters or paint schemes. I think that was one of the factors that led to the weaponless YF-19 re-release. (I also think this was before the licensing fiasco was "settled," so a lot of people blew their feedback comments on wishes for SDFM/DYRL products that we still can't get.) I will say though.. the Kairos getting a reissue is a wild card, and I'm really surprised they would even consider it. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I would love someone at Bandai to make the mental bridge between cool transforming aircraft and military aircraft collectors. People gobbled up the Kairos, and the prices stayed sky high from the get-go. I would love them to experiment that way with the VF-19, or pretty much any other Macross product they can sell here.

More of a Rock /Metal guy personally. Gotta have some rough music to keep me going on the rough roads or dealing with the chaos of the highway once I get down the mountain. Also gets the adrenaline going to keep me awake for the drive home. And takes me to another world while clipping out parts and sanding nubs. some cool mods here, love seeing these built up. Looks like a lot of work, but it seems to really be paying off

Okie-dokie, copied this over from the Macross Delta novelization topic so I can answer it without derailing that other topic too badly. So... yeah, as noted over there it's a bit odd that Mirage would use such a specific term as "optical weapons" to refer to her Valkyrie's energy weapons. What's weirder and more out of place is the implication that beam guns have finite ammunition. Most energy weapons - lasers, particle beams, plasma guns, impact cannons - are built into the mecha and are able to draw power from the mecha's internal power distribution system. It's all buffered output. The various power generation systems tied to the reactor (the thermoelectric converters and MHD generators) supply power to a network of energy capacitors that then distribute power locally to various systems. Laser weapons like the "head lasers" of Battroids are powered by an energy capacitor in the Battroid's head that is replenished by the energy from the generators in the engines. Particle beam guns are said to get their charged particles from the reactor itself and the energy for their operation comes from the capacitors. Plasma guns are implied to be in the same boat. Because of this setup, a beam weapon of any stripe ought to have essentially infinite ammunition as long as the mecha's reactor or reactors continue to replenish its energy capacitors and provide charged particles or plasma for relevant applications. Mirage and Hayate's VF-31 Siegfrieds only have two types of energy weaponry equipped: the ROV-127E laser cannons on the monitor turret and the LU-18A charged particle beam gunpod. So apparently Mirage is implying that the LU-18A has a finite internal ammo source. Kodachi must be referencing Master File for that one. The VF-31 Master File's explanation of the LU-18A describes it as getting the necessary electric power for its operation from the Valkyrie but having an internal magazine of "beam cartridges" that are vaporized and ionized to produce the charged particles the weapon fires. (This is a bit odd, in that it seems to go against what previous titles suggested about beam gunpod operation, with the YF-27-5 drawing what it needed for its beam gunpod to run from a third reactor mounted on the wing, suggesting it COULD get its charged particles from the mecha.)

I definitely agree, just hoping the shipping cost isn’t affected by the size

You'd think they'd just say "beam" since Macross Chronicle uses that as the umbrella term for pretty much all non-dimensional energy weapons. "Optical weapon", at least as it is presently defined, only extends to lasers... though it would be on brand for Mirage to be pompously using a technical term for no real reason. Not really? I'll explain this over on the Mecha thread so I don't derail the thread.