Uxi

I wanna see some specs on the Metal Siren!

I guess having everyone brained drained by Sharon Apple at the same time didn't help. Still, Protoculture forbid some Zent Ace or rogue faction don't possess any advanced stealth and come to drop a reaction weapon on Macross City.

What are you basing that claim on? I did 8 years as a tank commander and gunner in the USMC on the Abrams MBT. We have a M2HB .50 cal as the commanders weapon. It's a great weapon and one of my favorite as a tank commander, but the 2 x 7.62 M240 on the tank are far better suited for clusters of infantry and soft skinned vehicles (trucks, cars, etc). The .50 is versatile and certainly be used against infantry but that's not it's forte on almost any mount you see today or likely to be employed (especially if it's not on a stabilized mount), but it's qualities (mostly size and weight) don't make it as suitable for a primary anti-infantry weapon. The weapon choice, as well as the positioning and mounting don't seem conducive to anti-infantry employment but the additional range would certainly make it's positioning on the head a non-factor as the inconvenience in forcing the Tomahawk to do sweeping motions turning it's whole torso to engage micron infantry (analogous to moving the turret on a tank with a coaxial weapon). Anti-aircraft/anti-vehicle seems the most likely purpose to me. Any of the Tomahawks bigger weapons are likely to cause alot more collateral damage. I'm guessing anti-infantry is a secondary role in the same way that the machine guns on an MBT are capable of engaging aircraft. It's a possibility, especially in a confused combined arms environment that's had the fog of war descends on a chaotic situation in far from optimal conditions, but extremely unlikely to be used in most circumstances. IOW, the Destroids probably intend to use their own infantry. What are standard infantry going to use against a Destroid anyway? Hand held rockets perhaps. Without more crew, weapons anywhere else on the Destroid would be difficult to control. I could see a remote controlled 7.62 on legs, crotch, or hips, being far more effective for primary infantry engagement. We saw the wheeled cannon vehicles in the 1st ep of Frontier, so those and their own micron infantry are likely the primary tool used against micron-sized opponents/vehicles.

Good stuff

lol love Roy's pompadour

They said the poster is accounting for the shipping box difference? The poster is included inside the box inside the gigantor box, so I have a hard time believing that... I was idly speculating with a wish list earlier, but I'm surprised there's no Tamashii exclusive/add-on for the Brera. The Fold Booster from the Gallia set would be perfect but the speaker pods not so much. VF-27 doesn't attach any missiles or anything, so a standing Brera fig and a Ghost V-9 (minor re-tool on the Luca Ghost, adding a cannon on the top with a new paint job) sounds like the best possibility. One would think Bandai has plans to re-use that nice Ghost mold, at least. Is the Gallia set still available on the Tamashii site or was it limited time? Not so clear from the Google engrish I get with the translate tool.

The galaxy is 3D, of course, but most of the arms especially are on a relatively "flat" plane, especially in comparison to the galactic core. Fold space pretty much puts you where you want, anywhere, right? No way of "interdiction" like say, Star Wars has in hyperspace, is there? Other than the naturally occuring Fold Faults (which don't bother the Vajra, of course). Space is pretty big... It's generally blind luck (or misfortune, depending on your POV) that ASS1, regardless of it's Meltran or Supervision origin, crashed on Earth. Pretty astronomical odds... why didn't it it go to Proxima Centauri or Sigma Orionis or 40 Eriadni? If it did come into this system, why not Mars or Venus or one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn? Security by obscurity would lessen chance encounter with wondering Zentran, Meltran, or Supervision forces than sending out colony expeditions, much less wondering into icy caves holding the dormant Evil series.

Could blind them, especially if they're going faster than 300fps. 12.7mm is a square peg for a round hole if the target is meant to be micron-sized "personnel" barring some magic OTM changing it's properties. Whoever made that decision doesn't know ground combat like Kawamori knows aviation.

Is it definitely stated that the 12.7mm is meant for antipersonnel? That's .50 caliber and both US/NATO and former Warsaw Pact use those weapons for anti-vehicle (unarmored) and light air-defense. 7.62 is used by both for anti-personnel...

Pilot looks pretty cool. Looks like they didn't two tone it with white shoulders and helmet on tan body but pretty close. Is this the fixed one Graham? What were they going to do originally?

Damn, loving it. Good pics, man. You gotta get that lower heat shield closed, though. Must resist.... whoever that was with the 1 valk a month rule has got me subscribed. I want 2 of these.... And I've got the next 3 months already booked.

The other extreme from full militarization or rats abandoning the ship is to lay low and go to ground and hope noone stumbles onto you. Sneak around, careful recon, unmanned probes, lots of stealth, tip toeing around. Reality would be somewhere in between all 3. I think I find the Macross II the most plausible with limited emigration and bumping noses with other zentraedi fleets. My biggest hope for another Macross series is another gigantic Zentran fleet. Maybe give shades of DYRL and Fleet of the Strongest Women with both Zentran and Meltran fleets... Still, I'd like to see a remnant of the Supervision Army, too... maybe a Meltran Fleet fighting an SA fleet. With a love triangle and probably another Macross colony fleet involved. One of the New Macross ships left Eden on an apparently intersecting vector with Megaroad 1. While I think it would be best if they leave Megaroad 1 a mystery/macguffin, that fleet could hear hints of it, etc.

I still think it would look a bit better if the shield was the tail, but they're being true to the anime and design. Yeah, I'm using the inner latch. I think it has more to do with the angle on the clip and a bit of play even when the latch is there. Do you have full clearance when your landing gear or down or does the tip drag?

I've had the same issue with the Gunpod. Sometimes it's good and other times it seems angled and I can't really fix it.

That was one of the objectives. It was still a general colony fleet, as well, wasn't it? Otherwise it would have been more like a "Long Range Survey" fleet or something like that, no? Sheryl was a singer there so while the Compendium says they didn't have news or amusement facilities, they had to have somewhere for Sheryl to perform (VR /Internet equivalent I imagine). Mylene's reaction seems more consistent with what I would expect: severely outnumbered, though not outgunned if one considers Battle 7. I took UN Spacy HQ reaction and Max's past tense usage to mean that they may have encountered others, but had been able to culture shock them (though Exedore's "without Lynn Minmay" comment would have to put that between the end of SDF:M and the launch of the Megaroad (possibly they heard of the Megaroad 1 meeting and culture shocking another fleet on their own). well, the Protodevlin and Vajra both seem to one-up that thread by my thinking. Protodevlin either destroy them or create another Supervision Army... Vajra numbers are difficult to conjecture but from the last couple episodes of Frontier sounds like they might have the edge on numbers.

Megaroad 1 would have still launched in 2012 on that timeline, no? Macross II always seemed more of a sequel to DYRL than to SDF:M. No I specifically had that in mind when mentioning Megaroad 13 and Galaxy and provoking what they're intended to avoid. Fleet of the Strongest presents an interesting dichotomy wrt this argument. Max and the rest seem surprised that there's still such a large fleet out there... UN Spacy HQ seems convinced it should be trivial to wipe them out. Milia's reaction isn't that they'll be defeated but seems predicated on avoiding a massacre of the Meltran.... I'd to think SOME of the MII timeline should still be valid, maybe telecoped in closer to 2020s and 2030s.... doubt SN is too keen on that idea, though. Very true. I don't really think it would be an all-or-nothing scenario, but 55 expeditions would be alot harder to justify than say... a dozen. A few Megaroads then a few NMC's. Let them clone and spread out how they will, but moving blindly too far, too fast, is just as likely to provoke something into trying to wipe out the species (see Protodevlin), assuming they don't get too arrogant or ambitious (Galaxy). Still, Earth's defenses in Plus don't seem particularly impressive... Isamu is able to come right in. Ah yeah, quick dirty arithmetic flub on the NMC number. In an "all defense" posture, I'm thinking at least some portion of the Megaroads would have been SDFN instead of Megaroad with that number. Even so, the official timeline isn't mutually exclusive with more than a few NMC Battle-carriers (or a suitably altered design) that aren't attached to an Island. Even moreso, there's the "monitor" concept. Leave out FTL, etc. Of course, the ultimate would be the Macross Cannon's from Macross II.

Cool pics. That guy really captured the color in bright lighting. Most of the pics made think the stripes and accents were white so didn't quite understand when Graham said the 'lilac' got scratched (I was thinking he was talking about the base color), but now see that is a good description (or lavender). Ah, I see you're right Negotiator. I had only taken the right gun hand out so far, but put that on and seemed to transform fine. I used a splayed left hand (to cup the gunpod) and can only see a bit of thumb when transformed. That takes off a point I was holding against it, though it could back with a fury if they warp from being transformed. I'm kinda doubting it, though, we'll see. Don't get me wrong, eugimon, I am concerned about the paint, but to avoid looking like I've turned into a Bandai partisan, I will say that all my Yammies have far more fine detail and this will probably remain my only DX for awhile (unless I see an Armored Ozma for a reasonable rate - but even then most of the complaints about it have me hoping there will be a movie refresh that doesn't deviate too far from TV schemes and will feature VF-27 improvements).

I've alway thought the VF-0 was more than a little anachronistic. It just doesn't fit as a precursor to the VF-1 but looks like it could be a valid competitor for the VF-20 project. As far as the VF-51, it was redone though... it's called the VF-27.

In the HG/Robotech thread, I mentioned possible reasons why the SLRE strategy might not be as pertinent in the Macross universe. Has there been any other attacks to validate that strategy? How is the continued use of resources sending all these colony expeditions full of civilians being justified? The costs of launching one of these expeditions must be staggering... at least to get it off the ground since the colonies at least of the Island-cluster type in MacF appear to be fully self-sufficient... if not one of the older Macross 5/7/11 type fleets. I am speculating the Megaroads would also be self-sufficient, but far more spartan. Have there been continued attacks to justify these? One could easily imagine the political argument today over launching the equivalent of a Nimitz carrier battle group with a fleet tender, and a bunch of cruise liners attached to it, along with all the able bodies. Without continued attacks, it's easy to imagine someone could say "hey let's beef up Earth's defenses instead of sending New Macross 26." Think of all the defenses Earth could have instead: at least 29 Megaroads (Macross 7 was the 7th New Macross Class expedition, right?) up to the 25th (Frontier) as of 2059. That could be 29 SDFN-class ships and 25 New Macross-class Battle-carriers defending Earth instead. In fact, not only am I not aware of further attacks (though I imagine I'll be corrected post haste, if there is evidence of such) these expeditions have caused a bunch of problems, as well. Megaroad 13 waking up the Protodevlin and causes the massacre of Macross 5 and the near destruction of Macross 7, and Macross Galaxy (NMC 21) stirring up the Vajra. Discuss.

Can't really use game mechanics to illustrate that point. Guld had great difficulty with the Ghost X-9... I still think the most sensible solution would be for Guld and Isamu to double team the Ghost then go save Myung together...

VF-1 is probably too extreme of an example. VF-19 and VF-22 should be able to compete far more ably with VF-25 and VF-27 with the suitable tech upgrades, though. Ultimately, the newer craft are likely more capable, but the logistics of a war between a fleet primarily manned by VF-19's with VF-22 special forces could be far more effective than one with VF-171 and VF-25 special forces. Most likely for cheaper, too. I'm specifically thinking of F-15 Active versus F-22, Super Tomcat versus Super Hornet, etc

Going through the transformation of the VF-27 again, and possibly cause it's my first DX, it really strikes me how sturdy everything is. Easiest transformation to Gerwalk since the chunky monkey. Battroid is a bit more challenging, but I gesticulate my VF-22, VF-19 far more. I guess the VF-11 is comparable in ease of transformation, too. In general, this is making me think of my Yamato Valks more like prepainted and pre-assembled models while this has a distinct Toy-like feel to it. Anyone else have issues with Gerwalk elbow holding the massive gunpod up? Don't seem to have the issue with Battroid but the elbow definitely starts to droop in Gerwalk but it might be the poses, too. My only real beef is annoyance at the fixed posed Judo Chop hands that are required for transformation. Wish I could at least stow one gunpod gripping fist inside one of the intakes or arms or something, if they're not going to do the flip out thing.

Any Max's missing their kneecaps or just Miria? Considering getting a Max.

There are two little nubs towards the front of the cockpit. Difficult to see but easier to feel. Opens for me there, every time.

Forgot it was after the credits. Last run through I stopped watching when the credits start rolling.