Seto Kaiba

Oh, that one... yeah, someone brought that one to my attention the other day. It's just pathetic that even now they're trying to find hidden meaning in insignificant trash out of some misguided belief that Robotech's 25th Anniversary isn't going to be the damp squib everyone with a brain knew it would be from the start. They just can't bring themselves to accept that Harmony Gold put the brakes on all future development in favor of sitting on their collective hands and waiting for Warner to convince people that the franchise isn't a complete waste of time and money. I see Maverick_LSC is out there to help the idiot speculation along. It's highly probable he's the originator of this latest crackpot theory. The worst thing to come from Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles isn't the childishly bad story, the bargain-basement animation quality, or the nail-in-head awful voice work, it's that the only thing it actually accomplished was convincing the self-deluded in the Robotech fanbase that this was the franchise's glorious rebirth... so now they're hoping against hope that this doesn't become another Sentinels and plunge them into another releaseless 20 years.

Y'know, I'm fairly certain that there was some B&W line art of Wendy out there, but most of her reprinted line art is the colored-in line art in This is Animation Special #5: Macross II. There was a fair bit of art for her, so I can't imagine that they made a decision to omit her based on art availability. IMO, they probably just ran out of space and had to prioritize what they'd fit into the last few issues. I know they're covered, albeit briefly, on the Mardook worldguide sheet. I think they might've also shown up on the "People of the Mardook" sheet in brief too.

Not quite the same type of conversion job, since the US-3A COD Viking was a utility cargo hauler that could use some or all of its cargo space to take passengers, while the VB-25J Mitchell and the fictitious VC-19V are dedicated VIP/staff transports built for the sole purpose of shuttling around bigshots and their attendant swarm of minions. Not surprising... though I found it interesting that the VF-19's engine-mounted verniers are using diverted engine exhaust instead of propellant tanks. I wonder if that applies to the vernier ring too?

I'm pretty sure the word for your condition is "masochism", not "nostalgia". Damn, and I thought I was cruel.

And now for the part they didn't tell you... probably 75% of those are spambots. Of course, most of the die-hard Robotech fans are so dense it's virtually impossible to distinguish between a living contributor and a badly-coded Russian or Chinese spambot.

Indeed it is... though I'd say there's rather more to the complete absence of Shadow Chronicles cosplayers than the simple fact that the movie isn't even close to being the runaway hit Harmony Gold would have the fans believe it is. Part of the problem is, I think, that quite a few of the more vocal Robotech fans maintain the perplexing insistence that Robotech is not anime. I dunno if they're just idiots, or if they believed Carl Macek's lies about the show's origins, but some of the vocal Robotech fans out there genuinely believe that a show composed of three unrelated anime titles is not, itself, anime. That bizarre belief ties into the tendency to find the original shows (and often anime in general) offensively foreign that many of those fans exhibit. To that part of the fanbase, cosplay is something they see as being beneath them because it's something anime fans do. It's pretty much a given that what's causing most of the more sane Robotech fans to refrain from cosplaying is the simple fact that the average Robotech fan is a man in his early 30s. They're at the point where they see themselves as too old for that sort of thing, and probably the conventions too. Among those that would attend a con, I doubt there are many, or any, willing to wear something as cruelly unforgiving as those skintight sprayed-on jumpsuits everyone wears in Shadow Chronicles. The uniforms in the original Macross and DYRL are something you could conceivably wear without grossing people out even if you're not in the best shape. Nobody but a bodybuilder could pull off those RTSC jumpsuits without inducing nausea almost as effectively as Man-Faye, and even then it's kind of iffy. Macross fans are a bit more willing to cosplay because Macross is much more popular, and Macross Frontier has a good bit of appeal with younger viewers and/or younger event organizers/participants who are still fit enough to pull it off. It does, doesn't it? Tommy's been approaching Shadow Chronicles (or should we call it the "Shadow saga") like he would his own personal Robotech fanfic. What he's doing is a fairly transparent attempt to keep people interested in a continuation of the Shadow Chronicles garbage by teasing them with the whole "are they dead or aren't they?" bollocks that use all the time in the comic book industry. What he's doing there is trying to maintain interest in the dead-end Shadow Saga by teasing people with the idea that he MIGHT not have killed off 99% of the remaining Macross characters.

I'm not sure if anyone's actually dug into it and done a detailed translation of the bit about the VC-19V "VIP-calibur". From what I gathered while skimming the book a few hours ago while chatting with Talos, the VC-19V is derived from the either the Block 17 or the Block 20 version of the VF-19C as a dedicated (probably non-transformable) official-use light transport for high-ranking military and government personnel. It can seat five in the passenger compartment, and a crew of two in the cockpit. This is actually something that's been done before in the real world, though it was done with bombers instead of jet fighters. During WW2, the US Army was using a derivative of the B-25J Mitchell bomber (designated VB-25J) as staff and VIP transport planes. Two of the six VB-25Js produced ended up as the personal transports of General Eisenhower and General Arnold. Y'know, I haven't bothered to check... I doubt it's ELINT or ECM, given the way that the pod is mounted. Might be photo-recon. Kinda reminds me of the FFR-31MR/D Super Sylph from Yukikaze.

It's been ages since I read the novels, but I think he was murdered by his "evil" counterpart Dr. Lazlo Zand, who also incidentally shows up in Prelude.

Not necessarily a bad thing... the need for absolute realism goes out the window once you start telling a story about people using giant robots to fight spirit sucking evil magic monsters with the power of rock. If the transformation doesn't quite work out the way the series shows, that's no big deal... it's the magic of overtechnology at play. It does say rather a lot about the Master File's writers that they went to such trouble to find ways for "overtechnology magic" to be carried out by relatively mundane means. But, with the exception of what is now Macross's parallel world continuity, we DO have the one guy keeping the canon material straight and largely deciding what's what in the Macross universe... Shoji Kawamori. What started the whole discussion about a potential retcon of the VF-19's specs was sketchley noting that Kawamori was listed as a "supervisor" on the Master File and that the alleged retcon lined up with material which had been published in Macross Chronicle. Macross has had this kind of "tech manual" book before too, and just like the tech manuals for Star Trek they were always considered non-canon. True... though the reason the whole bruhaha started was because the alleged retcon/typo changed the stats of the version seen in the animation. Specifically, the VF-19F/S used by the Macross-7 fleet's Emerald Force and produced locally by the fleet's Three-Star manufacturing ship. You're spot-on that performance will be affected by whatever the local atmospheric conditions are, but that's not what the debate was about. Large image is large, scan previously posted earlier in this thread.

Possibly. The VF-1D is the same basic design as the other VF-1 craft and is a trainer (which would likely include Super and Armor training). But since we always must be wary of using common sense over adherence to the letter of an as yet unidentified canon law, we cannot say for certain that a VF-1D can be equipped with a GBP. As for the toys, I've seen pictures of a GBP equipped VF-1D Yammie, but that doesn't mean anything official To expand on Mr March's answer a bit, we can say with some certainty that most of the standard variants of the VF-1 Valkyrie (-A, -J, -S) can use the GBP-1S protect armor packs. Obviously, the -J model is shown using them in the TV series and DYRL, while the video game adaptation of Macross: Do You Remember Love? (PS) shows the VF-1A and VF-1S using them as well. In the official timeline for what is now the parallel world continuity of Macross II: Lovers Again, the OVA's creators explain why the VF-1J was the only variant shown to equip the GBP-1S. As part of their answer, they state that the packs were initially only compatible with the -J, the other variants were later modified to interface with them as well. So, while it's not strictly applicable to the main timeline, there are some official sources that establish that the VF-1D can use the GBP-1S protect armor. EDIT: There's also a black VF-1A shown using protect armor in episode 27 of the TV series.

Despite all of the obvious contradictions in the dialogue that establishes its existence, Harmony Gold maintains that the SDF-2 does exist in Robotech. They handwave aside all of the contradictory theories and Comico's nonsensical depiction of a second ship in the lake standing back to back with the SDF-1 with an explanation that boils down to "We don't know either... but that poo's still official". Oh, no... that internal monologue about his gloves is entirely the work of the comic's author(s). After all, there's no such thing as a faithful adaptation of Robotech out there. Every author who's ever gotten their hands on a pre-existing Robotech title has had a bizarre compulsion to present how they would've done it rather than how it actually happened in the series.

Eh... I doubt we'll see much more of Master File beyond a possible VF-25 Messiah book which, as you said, should be a slam dunk in terms of sales if they release it around Macross Frontier: the Wings of Goodbye's debut. Odds are they'd go the safest route and just lump the YF-24, VF-27, and possibly the VF-171 in there as well. As much as I would love to see this, it's unlikely it'll ever happen since only two of Macross's main characters (Hikaru Ichijo and Mahara Fabrio) have ever flown them in any prominently-featured fashion, and even then it was only briefly. Plus, I'm a bit leery about the idea of Master File's writers doing what they've done for the other two books and coming up with a bunch of new variants and even new super parts. I'm uneasy about the prospect of any more Macross II-isms (like the U.N. Spacy having two different main VFs, one optimized for space and the other for atmosphere) leaking into Macross's main continuity... and a VF-4 with Super parts and/or a S-type head pretty much tops that list.

Oh, indeed... this is one of many subjects I've discussed with the Harmony Gold employees responsible and come away wondering if, instead of doing a piss-poor job of keeping their franchise afloat, they're doing an incredibly poor job of running it into the ground. As I've been informed by no less a person that Kevin McKeever himself, the reason that they don't update their website is that every single news piece to be posted on the site needs to go through an approval process (presumably involving the company lawyer at some point) before it can be posted. Any proposal to actually improve the content or features on the website itself is immediately vetoed by senior management, who see the site solely as a means to facilitate sales in the store and regard anything Robotech-related which doesn't directly earn profit as a waste. Many suspect that the only reason Harmony Gold sprang for a new server for Robotech.com a few years back was because the old one'd been so far out of its depth that it was starting to affect the point-of-sale system that the store used.

Eh... it's been ages since I've bothered to put in a Robotech DVD and give myself a proper "shitsux" headache, but it's probably close enough to the actual narration found in the show to pass muster. Robotech's narrator was a chatty little bastard, that's for sure.

Not until you pointed it out... no. It's barely discernible just below and to the left of the '2' in '2050'.

Yeah... It's a bit of a mystery how those things should connect. One would imagine they would latch onto the same contact points the VF-19F/S's do, and stand upright on the end of the shoulders. It looks like there IS fuel storage in there... a pair of long, narrow tanks running the entire length of the pack... so at least they're not ALL missiles. EDIT: My copy came in today's mail... so no more mooching off Talos's copy for me!

Actually... there are a few things that could potentially fit that description that we haven't covered yet... there's that ducted-fan type helicopter-looking thing, and the utility cargo ship the Varauta troops were going to use to transport the civilians they captured out of the fleet... but other than that, there's nothing remotely like a troop transport plane. But, as I said on MSN, given the variety of aircraft sitting around at New Edwards, it could just as easily be a vintage plane like a "Mom's Kitchen" or a "Tunny", which may even still be in service in 2040. The thing immediately adjacent to the SB-10 Starwing is clearly a EC-33B Disk Sensor unit... Didn't the idea that it was piloted by Zentradi turn out to be a translation error? If memory serves, the description is meant to be read "8-engine all-wing anti-giant(s) bomber".

Oh ho... so it's an extension of the usual penis fixation most of Robotech's most vocal defenders seem to have. That explains rather more than I think I wanted to know. Doing that sort of thing as a bit of harmless fun is all well and good, but is this all they can think of to commemorate the 25th anniversary? Pretty much nothing from Harmony Gold as far as the 25th anniversary... and the fans seem to be emulating their example. About all they've done is a handful of "anniversary edition" podcasts, the majority of which are either just synopses of various parts of the story, or attempts to kiss Tommy Yune's ass and badmouth people. No fan art. No websites. No fan films (though that may be Harmony Gold's fault). There's a definite feeling of anticlimax and failure hanging around the subject of the Robotech anniversary.

Let me check my Macross Chronicle binders... if there is, and we haven't covered it, odds are we will at some point in the near future. Macross 7 isn't my area of expertise, but I don't recall seeing anything like an infantry transport helo/tiltrotor. I'll check Chronicle when I get back from dinner and shoot you a PM.

Seems that way, yeah... though it is worth noting that one of the most imbecilic retcons found in Tommy Yune's rebooted Robotech continuity was his decision to change the neutron-s missiles from purpose-built weapons of mass destruction to a hastily-converted series of colony ships the UEEF repurposed as an ad-hoc delivery system for the neutron star matter warheads. Except for one ship, all of the incomplete spaceframes for the new class of colony ships that would've replaced them were lost when Vince Grant detonated Space Station Liberty's entire stockpile of neutron star matter warheads. Since all they did was get their asses kicked over and over again, it doesn't look like the inadequate fold drives they had access to were that much of a hindrance to them, since they only rarely got a chance to use them. Under normal circumstances, I'd be thrilled to see the sane members of Robotech's fanbase doing SOMETHING other than trying desperately to convince each other this latest example of Tommy Yune's staggering incompetence proves the franchise is still viable... but seriously, another "VS" contest? Is this really all they have left? Are they honestly so short of things to talk about that their attempts to commemorate the show's 25th anniversary have to include the same sort of hypothetical fight threads which now comprise roughly half of Robotech.com's rapidly dwindling activity? This is no reason to get excited... watching them scrabble around for something to talk about besides fandom drama is just depressing. For the same reason that a person interested in basking in the "awesomeness" of urban decay doesn't go out and bring home a case of syphilis... nothing good could possibly come of it. "possibly last"?! I didn't see anything in there about that... Tell me... when has any Robotech sequel or product appealed to anyone who wasn't already a die-hard Robotech fan? Of course Tommy Yune WANTS to use his story to bring in new fans, but his work has always ultimately been stuff targeted to people who were already fans by an author who is a fan himself... and a fan OF himself for that matter. In true Robotech form, Prelude has no originality... no subtlety... no pacing... no characterization... nothing for anyone who whose expectations were higher than "something with the Robotech name on it that I don't already own".

Just out of curiosity, what's that Windows Sidebar app you've got running in the upper right corner? Looks a helluva lot slicker than the resource monitor on my system's Windows partition... Any chance you could be persuaded to post that Ishtar art in the Character Art thread?

It's... complicated. Yes, I am talking about the red & white set of alternate colors for the VF-2JA on the Macross Mecha Manual. The odd part is that while its first and, as far as I can tell, only actual appearance is a piece of cover art done for the second issue of Viz Media's Macross II: the Micron Conspiracy, a non-canon sequel to Sukehiro Tomita's official Macross II manga adaptation. Bizarrely enough, while Micron Conspiracy was "100% Made-in-America", the red and white color scheme it put on the VF-2JA seems to have gained some approval from Japanese artists, as it's cropped up in several later pieces of art like this one, which I'm told came from a Japanese-market Macross calendar: Depends which of the Macross II manga titles you're talking about. The original Macross II: Lovers Again manga, which was translated and released as a ten issue comic series in the US, is the official manga adaptation of the OVA. It was written by Sukehiro Tomita and illustrated by Tsuguo Okazaki. Viz's five-issue Macross II: the Micron Conspiracy miniseries is licensed stuff, but produced by American authors in the employ of Viz Media and not really intended to be official.

True... but from what I've heard, it doesn't really address the majority of the issues I'm talking about here... (I've yet to see for myself, since my final order only cleared customs yesterday)

Yeah, I know... the whole "subspace field" thing is a macguffin added to warp drive as a means of helping viewers who didn't major in physics understand how the technology works, and sidestepping the question of how to maintain a bubble of normalized space to contain the ship and generate the forces necessary to distort the fabric of space and move that bubble at superluminal velocities... something modern science still hasn't quite figured out how to carry off. Of course, exactly how the "fold bubble" malarkey in Robotech's "original" series, novels, and comics works is anybody's guess. The explanation for the version seen in the Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles movie is Star Trek's warp drive in all but name... with the only appreciable difference being the use of "fold bubble" in place of "subspace field" or "warp field". (The relevant data can be obtained on page 40 of the Shadow Chronicles artbook)

Here are the first three in my rotation of 25 on my main machine's Windows partition...