Graham

Ya' mean like dey stuff the leaves up the tubes or sumtink like dat? Dons bullet proof vest and ducks for cover. Graham

OK, As this is no longer a new or hot item, I'm going to unpin the topic. Graham

Ya' know, I'm beginning to wonder if the blue glowing thing is actually the AFOS head or something else, perhaps something ejected from the AFOS head. For a start, it looks too small and is the wrong shape in my opinion to be the AFOS head. Graham

Yup, you are correct, I just re-watched the scene and it does show a total of 8 x SV-51, not 5 as I previously stated. Graham

When do you see a VF-0 or Ghost coming up behind Nora? I've just rewatched the whole attack on the Asuka scene again and didn't see this? Are you sure you are not refering to Shin's VF-0D later on? Graham

I imagine that a Destroid Cheyenne is tough enough that it could probably withstand a few hits from an SV-51's 55mm gunpod, but remember in episode # 3, those Anti-UN variable amphibious destroids are shooting at the Cheyenne using what appears to be a powerful large bore beam weapon. I don't think there is any actual source that confirms that the Armor of a Destroid is actually tougher than the armor of a VF. While Destroids certainly look bulkier and appear to have thicker armor, their armor may just be made of convential materials and they may lack the SW-AG energy converting armor of a VF. Also, the VFs armour is likely to be OTM hyper-carbon or other OTM material. Remember, the VF-1 is rumored to cost 20 times more than a Destroid and part of this cost could be the SW-AG system and OTM armor. Graham

Them's fightin words, saying the lovely armored VF-0S looks like one of them ugly Gundam thingamybobs.

An Alien quadrilogy must be a figment of the imagination, as everybody knows that there are only two Alien movies. Now everybody repeat after me "there are only two Alien movies". Graham

I'll have to have a look again tonight, I didn't notice another VF-0 or Ghost coming up behind Nora. I think at least one other SV-51 made it through as we only show two being destoryed, although nothing is seen of him again. Perhaps he's off shotting up the other ships. Graham

I strongly doubt that. I don't think they would have failed to show such a major event. Anyway, if all the other VFs already launched, why was Roy the only one left behind? Graham

Milia's kill in DYRL, when she uses her Q-Rau's arm guns to shoot that poor Zentradi point blank in the face. Graham

Heh, one of these days I'll work up the courage to attempt an anime download, but all this talk of codecs and bittorrents sounds awfully complicated (and scary) for a non-technical old-fart like me. Graham

Could be, but that would mean that flares can only be launched in battroid mode, as the chest holes are covered up in fighter and gerwalk modes. Graham

So WJ, any theories as to what the two large holes (muzzles) on the SV-51's chest are, as they are clearly not related to the hip guns? As I mentioned above, if you study the fighter mode line art of the SV-51 and look carefully at the position of the hip guns in fighter mode and the placement of the large bore chest muzzles, they are clearly offset from each other (although the chest muzzles are hidden from view in fighter mode). Graham

I hope Shawn is still coming, but I'm not sure. It's quite difficult to get in touch with him these days Graham

Yes, when you see the Ghosts launch, there are VF-0s on deck, but later in the episode when the flight of 5 x SV-51's attack, the Asuka II's deck is completely empty. So maybe all the VF-0's apart from Roy's launched immediately after the Ghosts to go on a mission somewhere else. Even if this is true, it is incredibly stupid of the UN forces to leave a multi-billion dollar battle group consisting of one aircraft carrier, several Aegis cruisers and other ships(?)so lightly defended with no air cover, when you know the enemy is in the area and has Variable Fighters. Whoever is in command should be court martialed and shot. Graham

Actually, was that Nora in the enemy destroid at the end. I'd just assumed it was another female Anti-UN soldier piloting the amphibious variable mecha. Graham

I noticed in episode # 3, when D.D. Ivanov forces his way into the Asuka II, he uses two guns mounted on the hips of his SV-51 Battroid to shoot the crew inside the hanger. Prior to watching episode # 3, I'd thought that the SV-51's internal gun(s) were mounted in the battroid's chest and that the parts on the hip were only the flash hider/muzzle break assembly for fighter mode, not the actual gun itself. However, unless it is an animation error, episode # 3 has clearly shown us that the whole gun is actually mounted on the hips and due to the small size they are obviously designed for anti-personnel use against ground troops rather than against enemy VFs. Also, today after studying the line art of the SV-51 battroid and fighter more carefully I noticed that the two large bore muzzles in the SV-51 Battroid's chest do not line up exactly with the hip guns when transformed into fighter mode, so they are obviously independant of each other. Of course, the large bore muzzles in the chest might not be guns, they could be verniers for reverse thrust in battroid mode. Anyway, the evidence of two hip guns clearly shows that the stats given on the Macross Compendium are incorrect as they only list one internal gun, a 12.7mm minigun. Although to be fair to Egan Loo, he is only translating from Japanese source material, which is probably incorrect. Anyway, the compendium says: - ARMAMENT: One fixed Gsh-231 12.7 mm mini-gun. One standard Gsh-371 55 mm gun pod with 120 rounds and one standard spare magazine stowed in unit's special aft gun pod rack. Six underwing hard points with two micro-missile launcher/auxillary tank composite pods (with 18 Turopov SA-19M I/IR-guided micro-missiles) mounted on wingtip hard points. Capable of mounting most former Warsaw Pact military standard aviation weaponry. Graham

IMO, the 1/48 VF-1J looks far better without any FAST packs. The FAST packs from my VF-1J Super have already gone on my VF-1S Focker. Graham

Does anybody else think that the UN forces displayed amazingly bad tactical sense in episode # 3. I mean the Asuka II and it's support ships are operating in an area where Anti-UN forces are known to be operating, but they do not keep any VF-0 on standing Combat Air Patrol. They should have had at least 2 VF-0 in the air at all times. Neither where there any 'ready' VF-0 on deck for immediate launch. Was the UN fleet so complacent or just overconfident that their air defences of Destroid Cheyennes and Aegis crusers would be able to stop an attack? Well, they did manage to shoot down 2 out of 5 of the attacking SV-51s, with the loss of one Aegis cruiser, several Destroids and minor damage to the Asuka II. We know from the Compendium, that the SV-51 has active stealth, so I'm guessing this was how they got so close to the fleet before being detected. Hmm......I'm wondering does the 2008 era active stealth work against Cyclops radar or only conventional radar? Anyway, just where were all the other VF-0 pilots when the attack was taking place? I mean if Roy had time to get into his VF-0S, why didn't any of the other pilots? Or were they off somewhere else? And what happened to the 2 Ghosts we saw launching? I'm curious as to where they were headed. Anyway, despite the UN's tactical blunders, this was still a fantastic episode. Graham

Nice job as usual. Graham

As we know from the Compendium roughly how many SV-51 (30 units) and how many VF-0 (34 units) have been manufactured, somebody should try to carefully watch each episode and keep a running count of how many units of each type we see destroyed each episode. This way, we can keep track of how many units each side has remaining by the end Graham

Next year is technically less than a month away Although IIRC, I seem to remember reading somewhere that ep # 4 is scheduled for release at the end of February, which is not too far away. Graham

WJ, hope we can see a page from you soon (today?) of screen grabs of the VF-0S armored battroid. Graham

Great job as always WJ! Very interesting design. Judging from the pics, as well as the large main gun, it looks like there could be a total of 4 secondary guns not 2 as you have listed in your description. Looking at the 5th pic from the top, 2 smaller guns can clearly be seen below and to the front of the missile pod and main gun. However, what could also be 2 additional guns can be seen to the front of the mecha just above the sea surface. Two things I really want now, a TIAS Macross Zero book, so we can have some nice line-art of all these lovely new mecha designs and some toys so I can recreate some Octo vs Cheyenne battles Graham