Zinjo

I sooo want those!

Kinda like a role reversal to SW 1...

Maybe the throttle flip is for GERWALK and depending on the button or toggle pushed the fighter transforms to fighter or battroid?

I noticed the "lame" found little resistence there... It is possible that a 45 degree angle change and then back down initiates GERWALK and a full 90 degree angle change initiates the full battroid or possibly a simple toggle button on the HOTAS stick. Since all the pilot is doing is a partial transformation. Keep in mind the initial Valks had sliders to initiate transformation not integrated HOTAS sticks.

I've ordered mine with the binder. We'll see if the Seattle Kinokuniya store will be carrying them though.

I'd like to see a story about the remnants of the SA. I've always like the idea of them waking up one day after the PD were sealed and realizing that they had no home anymore and what was worse they were fighting for their survival against a vastly outnumbering enemy. Everyone "assumes" the Macross era SA are the agressors. Why? Because they are the enemy of the Zentreadi? It seems a bit hard to believe that they'd still be brainwashed after a half a million years when the Megaroad crew could be snapped out of direct mind control of the PD by the persistent singing of one rock star. Maybe they woke up and some chose to fight for their lives while others took a more agressive path? They are as much an enigma as the PC are...

I tend to agree. With SDFM in a legal limbo, it may have become somewhat expendable as far as the definitive story about SW1 is concerned. The notion was first floated out there by the mention of a SW1 TV drama in the CD sleeve notes of the first OST. The 1984 movie is not the same one that inspired Basara to become a singer as SK has stated. I consider it to be how SK describes it, a historical war movie about SW1, with all the liberties filmakers take with such subjects. When the film takes place in the chronology or if the 1984 film is even a part of the chronology is a bit dodgy. I'd beg to differ. Mac7 was popular to be sure, but really doesn't hold a candle to SDFM. There is more merchandise produced for SDFM on a yearly basis than has ever been produced for Mac 7. As a follow up TV series to SDFM it did very well, but the original has always out sold Mac 7 in merchandise and the reality is, that is what sponsors look at. If anything would be more popular than SDFM it would have to be DYRL since the film still holds up today and thus far there have been how many releases of this film on how many different media? Wow how dismissive is that? I get the definite impression that Frontier has the spirit of SDFM with the contemporary feel that Mac 7 had. Great compelling SciFi drama coupled with the silliness that comes with teenage life. Be honest a grim drama week after week becomes depressing without a little levity... It would be unfortunate if some old school fans dropped their fandom over Macross Frontier, but just as with everything sometimes people or things outgrow each other. My biggest fear was that Frontier would become another Mac 7, catering to the target demographic as opposed to presenting an engaging story. I am grateful my fears were unwarranted.

The man's got a point.... Besides, this universe is so vast that there are dozens of stories that could be told in each era alone...

I would guess that any Megaroad with a battleship would be designated "Blah Blah-SDF-XX", thus possibly indicating it was accompanied or had attached to it (ala Mac 7) an SDF type battleship. We've only ever seen the Megaroad 01, so we really don't know if these ships were built bigger or differently from the first. The Megaroad's refit was also limited to the design of the Megalord's superstructure, similar to how the Macross was to the ASS-1. Unless a new show is produced that shows a 2nd Generation Megaroad colony ship, we'll never know if anything did change or not. In the new Macross Chronicles scans, I noticed the first time the Megaroad's name was ever published without the SDF-2 class code following or preceeding it. It may mean nothing, but it was notable. I expect the reason why the Global was transformed was because it takes up less of a footprint (no pun intended) on the landscape and it also makes it much easier to launch VFs from a horizontal position on the ARMDs rather than their vertical cruiser position.

Yes we do... The Global is in no way a carbon copy, the details are different. Is it an SDF, by the words that make up the acronym? Yes. Is it the first and original SDF or duplicate of it? Hell no! That baby sits in a lake in the middle of a metropolis on Earth for all to admire and remains one of a kind... I'd suggest even Kawamori wouldn't allow her to be touched...

I would tend to agree with you if no SDF-2 lineart or references were ever made. However they do and it always seemed odd to me that the Megaroad Colony ships were given an SDF designation considering the term meant "Super Dimension Fortress" with respect to the Macross, which was indeed a battleship. With the loss of the Earth's very first colony expedition, the PR mess that would have caused would have been an enormous blow to the emigration program, unless assurances to the public could be made for their safety. An accompanying SDF battleship in the image of the iconic Macross could very well do that. It isn't a great stretch to consider the that more could have been built, especially with the NMCs in Mac 7 demonstrating that the idea of a transforming capital ship was still very much in vogue with the universe. IMHO, it would have been a greater stretch to accept that no more were built in a hostile galaxy that humanity found itself a part of. I personally never liked the idea of the "transforming" NMC, but have come to accept it as it is. As a carrier with a big gun, I didn't see the necessity. However, Kawamori did and I found a way to appreciate it at least in cruiser mode. The Macross itself is one of a kind, since it's the only SA gunship ever rebuilt. Any copies would have seen design changes, structural changes, etc... since no limitations are put on a scratch build ship as opposed to restoring an existing superstructure. Hence why the Megalord had a similar sillouette to the Macross but was 400m longer... Considering the battle damage of the Global it is difficult to tell whether it looks identical to the original. The Megalord had two radomes on the side of the bridge structure whereas the Macross had one and the Global (from the sillouette) seemed to have none. Essentially the ships looked similar, but not the same to me. That is one of the reasons why I didn't believe it was the Macross, since the details were different, which is where the Megalord and Macross initially differed.

They couldn't. How do you explain a ship that suddenly transforms without reason to fire it's SD Cannon when it wasn't designed to transform (as far as we understand) in the first place? The attacker mode was an effective engineering "fly by the seat of their pants" solution to a very serious problem. It was so effective that it was incorporated into future Macross ship designs. What we've learned in frontier is that to get the term Macross, the ship must transform and have an SD cannon. Such is the case with the Quarter, which is the smallest known Macross type ship in the universe in 2059.

Maybe. The thing that I'm still puzzled about is why did the Vajra attack the Global in the first place? Is this like SAAB where the corporation knew the warnings but sent people anyway?

What retcon? You can't retcon something that's never before been shown or documented... Some people are like a dog with a tennis ball...

SWEET!

We don't know about the yellow hammerheads yet.

It's time to move on....

Folom is gone, OH NO! Where will Sheryl get the fabric she uses to write here songs on? What about her shoe bed? Oh the Zentreadity....

Yeah... I seem to remember this same thing happening a last week... Brila, is somehow involved pretty high up, but his actual part has yet to be revealed...

I am still on the fence about this. I keep thinking Brera is the one to swallow space, but it would be a good moment for Ozma to confess what he knows about the 117th fleet. Who knows maybe both will bite it to save Ranka, one appears to be the actual brother while the other is a surrogate brother... Orrrr, they could make it a story about Micheal and his sister...

Is that the Honnemise logo at the bottom left? I was under the impression that was brand name for Bandai Visual USA, not Bandai Visual Japan which is "Emotion"??

Well if indeed an SDF was assigned to every Megaroad Colony ship (possibly even attached much like the NMC colony ships are) then logic would conclude that the Megaroad 3 fleet had colonized a habitable world and thus over time the need for an SDF for defence was no longer required. If such a thing happend then an SDF battleship would be available for reassignment. The belly's of such ships would make them suitable for a high risk research mission like the 117th because the lab could be located within the ship and be surrounded by a battleship should things get hot. In the Global's case, clearly things got much hotter than anyone anticipated.

A lot depends on their roles. The Macross was the core of the Earth's defenses. The Oberth and ARMD platforms lasted a few minutes under Zentreadi barrage and had little to return fire with, if one excepts the reaction missiles they carried. The Battle 7 was a fleet command carrier with several capable ships to carry out combat maneuvers. The NMC fleets were able to disperse the firepower over a larger area adding to the fleet commander's tactical options. The biggest complaints I have about the NMC of 2047 was the apparent need to transform the ship to fire the SD Cannon. An awful lot of effort to do something the 1st Gen Macross Class ships could do in both Battleship and Attacker modes. To me it would make more sense to have that ability in all future ship designs. The Quarter suffers from the same problem as the NMC's thus far... Actually I'd compare the SDF-1 to the Monster and the VF-22 to the NMC, in that the Macross had pure firepower-it was a battleship, whereas the NMC is indeed a carrier with most if it's power contained within the hull in terms of fighter squadrons, with the exception of the SD Cannon at it's core.