Zinjo

Nope, Edgar LaSalle (M0) & Claudia LaSalle (SDFM), Max Jenius & Mylene Jenius...

Actually were there any VF-1J's in DYRL??? I don't recall now....

Well the inclusion of vertical stablizers in GERWALK mode was something that was conspicuously missing from earlier fighter designs and I'm sure SK had to admit that it made the fighter somewhat unstable in that mode. Now that you pointed them out, I see the various elements... My GAWD we need hi res scans!!!

VF-22? Yes, dispite the silly bubble canopy.... VF-17S Millia Red Battroid? Yes Vf-14? Meh... Emilia? Yes, but as hot as she was, not hot enough to forgive them for Basara... Noooo, don't make me choose!!!!

Love the character designs! I was hopeful when I read Yûichi Takahashi, who worked on Eureka 7 & Ergo Proxy, was one of the designers working on it. I agree with Marchy, nice new Valk (love the designation of "VF-25", nice nod to the anniversary without being blatant), nothing too radically different from established designs and definitely a newer application of the main VF-19 fuselage. Considering that the events of Mac Zero would have been released to public knowledge by then and it would be fairly common knowledge, I am intrigued as to how they'll do it. It leads me to wonder if they are going to show a first contact with either the PC or SA? WOW, 10 mil people! That's 10 City 7's worth of colonists... I wonder if that includes the military escorts? Yes higher res designs would be greatly appreciated! Which month of Japanese Newtype is it?

Hah! My Valk eats your lumbering monsters' breakfast...

Oh yeah? Well you're bald and your eyes glow blue... There, I said it... Why don't we make up wild and baseless accusations about Macross 7? Oh wait then that'd be like a debate with keith over Macross II.... Nope, that won't do either....

Not to worry Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum, the mods are pretty good about such things for the most part, so long as both parties are not flaming, they tend to let the debate burn itself out. The only exception I've seen recently was the Macross Ethnicity thread which was locked because the mod didn't appear to like it....

Is that before or after we get in a circle and sing Kumbaya?

There is no argument that Mac II was a corporate attempt to cash in on the persistent Macross fanbase, because it was. Artistically it stayed within the established Macross universe of the day (with a few exceptions) as well as the established tone of SDFM and DYRL. Unfortunately it didn't have the same caliber of complex storytellers found in the Studio Nue stables. The writers of that show failed to engage the audience at the beginning and frequently dropped the ball throughout, which ultimately killed the show's popularity. Mac 7, was indeed Victor's vehicle to sell Yoshiki Fukuyama and Chie Kajiura music and it worked very well. As I've already stated, SK's story could have been told in a regular 26 episode season if all the repetitive music was removed and condensed to the same levels that Mari Ijima's music was in SDFM. I suspect SK only wrote 26 outlines for the series, not 49. The "corporate" aspect is how much the sponsors interfered in the show, as in wanting more music featured to sell more albums of their contracted artists. After the obligatory number of music episodes were reached the producers could get back to SK's outlined story. This is often where the show would get interesting again.

As a parody with the intent to sell music it works completely! It becomes quite a ride, but as March of the Penguins put it, it will never garner the same timeless appreciation that SDFM enjoys. SDFM being a show that remains appreciated for all it's elements despite it's painfully dated animation. One could argue Macross 7 is a corporate sequel to SDFM, not so much an artistic one...

Too Late! That depends entirely on the title being produced. Such a blanket statement is very misleading, however in Keith's case it depends on what shows he is attracted to watching... They may contain "elements that are rampant"... Many have gone the direction of serious SF drama, while others were more juvenile in their approach. Mac 7 was a successful attempt at merchandising music with toys and model kits as secondary items. On Yahoo Japan, the show's most prolific items are invariably the music and the VF-17 & 22s typically. If the music elements were removed from the series, you would have to cut the episode count in half, since much of the first season was nothing more than excuses for the audience to be exposed to the music. They didn't get into the meat of the story until well over half way through the series.

I got the VF-1J & 1S over the weekend and pre-ordered another S & the new 1A. Though with how quickly they seem to be selling I'm a bit reluctant to modify my 1S into the Hikaru or Max until I know they won't be releasing any. I considered painting a couple of 1J's into the Jenius' but am going to wait and see for now... Would love to see more Macross battroids and mecha get the Revoltech treatment, however that requires the sales to merit the continuance of the series...

Yeah, like a "Comparative Study of Updates, Variants and Customs" section would be cool! The width on the VF-11D appears mainly to accomodate the "bubble" pod for the Jamming Birds. In a purely military application, I can't see them wasting materials on a "space bubble" for the rear seat or widening the airframe to accomodate one. Though the thrust vectoring panels on the FAST pack of the jamming birds custom is definitely an upgrade to the typical VF-11 FAST packs.

I can only really agree with that last statement and part of the second, but I tend to see the series on a similar level to Marchy... The ending is increadibly lame. The only redeeming quality IMO was the battle with Max and Millia back in the saddle.... Mac Zero with all it's warts was easier to come to terms with the ambiguous ending compared to Mac 7... Then again SK has typically demonstrated a more Westernized approach to his story telling as a director...

The armored GERWALK get's soo little loving!! It's one of my favorites (once I got past the rather silly looking twin cannons on the turret). My only beef besides the twin cannons, is that for such a system to be effective it would need to be mounted on a VF-1D where the back seat would act as the gunner for the pilot. The idea is sooo cool and I wished it would have been used in the Mars Base episode of SDFM, albeit with several different weapons packages on the turret. That would have been an effective defensive system against the Glaug and Regults...

I knew you'd come around to loving the VF-11D! It is one of those surprise designs from Mac 7 that is truly a work of art! I could see it with the radome or as a 2 man bomber configuration. If you swapped the sound farce boosters with "real" FAST atmospheric packs, it would be a formidable weapon system to be sure.

Dude, I can think of a DOZEN other Macross mecha for Revoltech to do long before the clownish PD!! I'd rather see a painted resin statue of Sivil, than some toy... One of the best character designs from the series....

Yep... Get used to it dude, it's 21st Century anime and it's very doubtful it will being going back...

I suspect the VF-2SS from Mac II was inspired by the VF-3000 designs by SK. The similarities between the two are remarkable.

Huh? Not sure what you are addressing there...? "Super" Valks are typically describing Valks with the FAST Pack micro missile launchers. "Strike" or "Super Strike" is used to describe the Strike FAST pack seen in DYRL "Armored" is typically used to describe the GBP system deployed to enhance the weaponry of Valks in ground operations (they aren't exclusive to that role, but that is what the system was designed for). Every Valk version is able to use the FAST packs, only the VF-1S variant is seen to use the Strike FAST Packs in DYRL and every version of Valk can use the "Armored" or GBP system, but only the VF-1J is featured in SDFM. If I recall correctly other variants of valks were seen to be using the GBP system in "Call to Arms"... Yes Hikaru did take over Roy's gold VF-1S in the SDFM, he was given his own VF-1S (with his own colors) in DYRL. when he assumed command of the Skulls.

The Super Valkyrie was one with FAST Pack missile launchers/boosters. If you mean Strike Packs, then I believer those were only reserved for the VF-1S variants of the Valkyries...

I'm just trying to understand "how" it would work reliably in combat and why it would be developed/deployed in the first place?

I was under the impression that the VF-14 was primarily for the Zentreadi emigration fleets. Considering it borrowed Zentreadi tech as well as OTEC during it's development and thus would be very familiar to the Zent techs. Wasn't the Megaroad 13 fleet primarily Zentreadi as well, which would explain the adaptation of it's fighter compliment into PD tech?

Maybe so, however for the sake of argument, why would a colonization fleet or deep space patrol require an obvious "last ditch" weapon? The Jagd Tiger was a poor amalagamation of a mobile weapons platform with a huge gun and was put into production in the last 9 month of the war. It took too long to reload, was too slow, too often broke down and a pig on gas... This is one of several issues plaguing this paricular "Last Ditch" weapons system. I suspect the TGBPS would suffer similar issues. The system you've created is clearly a weapon designed for a Space War, not a patrol fleet or colonization fleet. The strike canons would require feeds from the nuclear engines to fire repeatedly in combat thus weakening engine output and the sheer mass of the unit would require heavy boosters to allow it to maneuver in any capacity (remember the GBP was primarily designed as weapons augmentation for Variable fighters assigned to ground operations, not space or air). Respectfully, no matter how large the loadout on this weapons system is, it probably wouldn't survive long against a Q-Rau or a squadron of them, not to mention whatever weapons systems the SA might have. It would also most likely require some sort of escort craft to protect it on it's way to the battlefield. Such a system would be ideal in the Gundam universe, but I fear in the highly mobile Macross universe it would ultimately be an easy kill target. Macross II played with a similar idea in the form of the Macross Cannons. They were highly effective in their first volley, but were quickly overun by the enemy before they could get a second shot off. From a purely design point of view, it is pretty...