Zinjo

Those fast packs seem like step backward from the ones actually used on the Valks. Having a hinged joint similar to the strike canon would give the same result, but with much more of a missile load than the GBP type IMO.

LOL, true enough... However, the suggestions are simply that. Take 'em or leave 'em that's your choice. If you wish to take them as criticisms that is unfortunate as they are not meant to be. We are only suggesting ideas to make your already good wallpaper a bit better, in our opinion. What you choose to do from this point on is your decision, but as one who's received suggestions on my work, I choose to carry on and take the suggestions I think are valid and ignore the ones I don't agree with. If the community wishes to download my walls great, if not, that's fine too. That's me though.

Has that been actually established that Varuata was the home base of the SA or was it simply the planet the Anima Spiritia soldiers trapped the PD on? If the former is the case, then the Mac 7 fleet would have run into the SA far before ever seeing the PD, as the army would have staked out the planet while trying to figure a way to revive their leaders. As for Mac II, I tend to suspect the Marduk were intended to be the SA, but were given an actual name as opposed to just the SA. It was poorly executed and I'm sure most fans didn't make the connection between the two. Though much of the Marduk concepts must have been taken directly from SK's notes about the SA from SDFM as they are far too similar to be conicidental. Using the AFOS situation as a basis, I tend to think that considering how highly complex the bio-engineered craft the AFOS was, that it was not just some tangent faction within the PC that left it there. These supposedly peaceful beings were prepared to wipe out an entire world because it didn't conform to "their" definition of peaceful. Smacks of PETA on steroids to me.... Then there is question of why did the AFOS loose it's head to begin with? The PC were waiting for mankind to have the ability to put the two halves together so they could judge them in abstentia? Seems like a stretch to me. If the PC were actually benevolent beings then the AFOS would have been left behind as a protection device, not the "hammer of god"... Now to argue it was done as a galactic protection measure by a race who'd realized it's mistakes is another stretch. At the time of the genetic alterations of humanity the PC were in a state of civil war with the SA. Hardly a reason to leave a device behind for the expressed purpose of destroying the "crop" as it were, if it grew wild. It just seems a bit "porous" to me, but then again SK doesn't believe in being locked into his own continuity, so it tracks from a production point of view, I guess.

If all this speculation is indeed Kawamori's direction, I can't be the only one beginning to believe that the Protoculture deserved to be wiped out! To actually be pompous enough to set little "traps" to "test" sentient beings throughout the universe smacks of a serious god complex that needed to be taken down. The fact it was by instruments they themselves created, only adds to the poetic justice of it all. Now maybe that is the ultimate message SK is trying to convey in this universe, similar to Ron Moore's BSG, that "Eventually you can't run from the things you've done".

I'm making a point, if it is in opposition or complimentary to anyone else's point, it wasn't directly intended. As many have pointed out, RT doesn't deserve any "watershed" credit for the modern anime genre in the West. The fanbase we currently enjoy was created by the sweat and stubborn persistence of it's fans when the genre was still in it's infancy here. When the only way to see anime was to have connections to Japanese fans who would supply you with copies of existing vhs tapes or laser disc transfers. Where there were no distribution machines churning out 30 titles a year for the market, but groups of fans translating and subbing the shows for their local fan clubs and trading these tapes around the continent. Those fans are to be credited with building the genre and the fanbase that exists here today. They exposed others to the genre and cultivated the market until it could stand on it's own.

Nice! You may want to add some blur to the Earth and to the moon respectively to give the illusion of depth and distance. I'd suggest loosing the distant sun as it makes it seem as though there are two suns in the image. The one shown and the other shining the light on the fighter and planets out of frame... Some background stars might help as well. Just a few suggestions to consider. Great work though...

That is going to be one sexy ship when she's done!

When RT aired it was competing against GI Joe in the Regan 80's. GI Joe was like Mac 7 where no one really died only the equipment was destroyed, so when HG kept in the whole death of Kakizaki, many parent's groups were outraged by the portrayal of war as "real" and that made it controversial for it's day. RT didn't "open the door" to anything except expose Western fans to the outstanding story of Macross (even the original MS Gundam hasn't been broadcast on any Western TV channel AFAIK...) which is the main reason fans watched the show past that "chapter" of RT, endured the middle and were rewarded with Mospeada at the end. The "door" was already opened, what most current anime fans fail to realize or appreciate that it was avid fans back in the past who kept pushing and through grass roots methods continued to "grow" the fan base of anime, through friends and family to even raising their kids to appreciate the superior Japanese animation art form over the wester shlock that was on the air. Passing on to the future generations of fans their insistance that anime should be dubbed with the same story it had back in japan, no "adaptations" or "re-scripting" would be tolerated anymore. In so doing they "built" the market that is now coming into it's own with merchandising and respectfully dubbed shows. Anime is still an niche market, but it has become a profitable one, which means the product is now self sustaining, something that wasn't the case back in the 70's and 80's. What we appreciate today was built by fans over the decades, not some magic bullet program that saw 1 1/2 seasons on the air back in the mid 80's. Many on these boards can attribute their first exposure to Macross & Mospeada via RT, but that is the most that show had accomplished. The reason why they did the sequel based on Mospeada is that it is wholey owned by Tatsunoko and HG with no legal challenges by the actual creators of the show. Macek tried to do a sequel to the Macross part of the show called the "Sentinels" and even that had heavily modified mecha and character designs to the point of having little resemblance to the original mecha. It would be nearly impossible to to do the same now as the current Macross legal challenges in Japan would tie up the project for years as well as the fact that HG has no legal basis to claim any post SDFM shows, dispite it's erroneous claims. Then there is the fact that the Mospeada portion of RT was left with an open ended cliff hanger as to what happened to their SDF-3, which as it turns out is a perfect spring board into a new story. Now I am not dissing the show, I like it for what it is and particularly am glad the "sequel" is based on Mospeada, however it had more profound personal impact on Macross fans as opposed to a large impact on the anime genre in North America itself.

Dude would it be possible to get the VF-1A all in white? That way we could use Photoshop to make up color schemes whichever way we like. Keep the off colored panels and such, but using a white texture instead of brown... Thanks for the awesome work so far!!

Ah yes the tired old dismissive about Mac II.... Kinda like saying Mac 7 is total crap because it's nothing more than J-pop fluff devoid of any real perils akin to the GI Joe shlock of the 80's... Both statements are empty generalizations for both shows.... I'll believe that whole "copy"/"adaptation" argument as soon as I get a definitive arguments to prove the statement, which to date has not yet happened... Similar in parts yes, not an adaptation of DYRL, since it was based on DYRL and the game Macross 2036. It is by no means perfect and story threads are obviously truncated, but certainly no carbon copy or adaptation of DYRL... Time to get a new tune to play.

Well the VF-1D was a ECM equipped aircraft and I suspect may have been used as a bomber (though no record of such activity has ever been published). Being a 2 seater would make it a natural choice for training deployments and it was used in such a capacity as shown in SDFM. The VT-1 is obviously a derivative of the VE-1 airframe which was a purpose built aircraft being a variable equivalent to the "Cats Eye" recon aircraft. Having a variable aircrafts that utilizes the same parts as front line fighters makes the most economical sense to Spacy. Since both the VT and VE used the same parts in the majority of their systems as the VF series of aircraft they are economical to fly and maintain, eventhough their building costs may be close to the fighters. Now we know the VT's are armable in a pinch it is supported in documentation and in DYRL by Hikaru's comment. So therefore with the evidence we are supplied with, we can reasonably conclude that the VF-1D and the VT-1 were both used in both training and potential combat roles in the Macross universe. I do find it amusing that so many like to consider the "costs" in terms of US examples when the Macross universe is dealing with Global governments and global economies. If a fighter costs $1 Billion to build or even 1/4 of a billion to build, in a global economy for planetary defence I suspect ther budget would not be all that limited. To put things into proper perspective, in a mere ten years the global UN government managed to build and man a Mars base and a moon base, build a fleet of space warships, build countless squads of destroids and at least 10 air wings of Variable fighters and reconstruct the A.S.S. into the SDF-1! That's a lot to accomplish in 10 short years, but when mobilized on a global scale, one could argue that 10 years was a bit long for all that. As well, they simultaneously constructed of the SDF-2 at the Apollo base ship yards where they must have been constructing more ARMD carriers and other capital ships. So in terms of "cost" the VF fighter was probably one of the cheaper items on the military procurement agenda...

I didn't take it as such. Of all the designs of Mac II, the VA-1 Metal Siren (saw the alpha numeric designation on a Japanese macross fan site and liked it enough to adopt it... ) seems the least thought out and the most boxy. It reminds me of an artist's Gundam designs from New Type magazine stories in the 90's with the clear cockpits as opposed to the view screens like the series Gundams. The MS was the same way. having a clear bubble canopy for the pilot in battroid mode. I really didn't like that idea and several others in the design. The pinpoint barrier nose lance was innovative, but not much else for a state of the art fighter in a story taking place some 70 years after SW1. The idea was unique, a space based fighter capable of attacking capital ships was intriguing and I liked it, however I didn't care much for the final execution of that design. Much like the Macross Cannons, it was a great idea, poorly executed. Some are Kawamori minions who sincerely believe SK is the only one capable of coming up with a good Macross idea. Let's keep in mind that Mac Plus was not as well received in Japan as it was here, so he is capable of doing not so popular shows too. Personally I think the man should explore the other non-macross stories he has in mind. Be a consultant with the talented new writers brought on board to pen new stories and direct the odd shows. As I said before, Lucas didn't write the fan favorite SW movie, he only wrote the general outline of it. Roddenberry did the same with ST:TNG in several instances and was more of an active participating producer than the writer/creator he started out as in the first series. Essentially a Producer or Supervising producer role. Most producers have input into what they are producing, whether it be a movie or series. The director has final say, but ideas are often exchanged between the two.

The legality issue is very real, however the "risk" of legal action is much less as both the publisher and the property owner are not likely to engage legal counsel for a digitization of their out of print work outside of Japan. If they licensed the work to a Western publisher for distribution there would no doubt be legal action. The remote likelyhood of legal challenge to the project doesn't make it "legal" as JsArclight has pointed out and would indeed be considered a "bootleg" release of the book on digital media. If anything it would fall into the grey area that asian bootlegs currently exist in. Since no legal action is being taken against the publishers and retailers they survive in the legal void of indifference. That being said, I would still support it as the original publisher and property owners are no longer profiting from the publication and have no apparent interest to sell it in the West. Thus with full knowledge and understanding if the legality of the project I still would like one.... I do agree with JsArclight that to charge for that specific comodity will be exposing yourself to undue legal risk should there ever be a legal challenge made against your work. How you recover any costs associated with the project should be recovered by NOT directly referencing the Gold Book project.

I see no copyright issues as it is out of print and the publishers have made all their money already (in Japan, where they sold it). I support this idea for all OOP Macross books, it only helps the community. True collectors, me included, will always fork over for the physical books, but some just want the info and I see this as a good project for all Macross fans.

Well everyone's entitled to their opinion...

Sure, that would be cool!

Love the new text graphics very appropriate, however maybe changing the color scheme under each fighter like having a blue to pink gradient under the YF-19 and a pink to blue gradient on the text under the YF-21... Another thing is that the text seems to overpower the background art. Is there anyway to maybe increase the hue saturation on fighters to bring them out more? Just a suggestion.

To each their own...

You could put them against a blue sky with vapour trails and exhaust as if they were flying over each other in formation. However the drop shading would have to be softened enough to give the illusion of distance or the creation of a silloutte shadow over each plane http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.a...qNum=4&rl=1 Then caption it with, "Macross Evolution" or simply "Evolution" That would look cool IMHO. They seem rather dark to me, which is why I suggested a blue sky or even a grey one if you prefer, but that is my opinion...

Well one can't argue with logic like that! Sure, what the hell. make 'em all!

Are you referring to line art of model pictures? Not sure what hasegawa pix you are talking about...

Now the Metal Siren is a variable fighter I'd love to see Kawamori re-design! A purely space based fighter with uber-firepower... He could completey gundamize it and everyone would love it... Now as for fugly battroids, the F-4 is right up there...

Well you could stick to both Roy and Isamu since Roy flew the VF-0 & VF-1 and Isamu flew both the VF-11 & YF-19. Is this hires enough? http://members.shaw.ca/zinjo3/Index/Pics/V...ineart-0001.jpg

NICE! When you are finished that one, the wip image you posted has inspired another idea. Have the VF-0 like it is with the interlacing, then have the VF-1 layered on top with the same type of interlacing lines, but a different color, then the VF-11 again interlaced with a different color, then finally the YF-19 on top like you have in this one, with the caption underneath... "Evolution!" Possibly on a black background or a black starfield, maybe. Whatya think?

Yes it's called: Space-Time Wars Dir: Shoji Kawamori For the Genius Party Anthology series currenty in production... There are no references to it being in the Macross universe (which is not surprising as he's had many non-Macross projects he's wanted to do for quite some time). “10 leading Japanese Animation creators of today come together to offer a stunning visual feast of cutting edge imagery and artistry. 10 geniuses, 10 completely new works. In production NOW!†Dimension Bomb Dir: Koji Morimoto Twilight World Dir: Shinichiro Watanabe Nayorani Dir: Mahiro Maeda Space-Time Wars Dir: Shoji Kawamori Dream Machine Dir: Masaaki Yuasa Genius Party Dir: Atsuko Fukushima Moondrive Dir: Kazuto Nakazawa Touni Dir: Tadashi Hiramatsu Limitcycle Dir: Hideki Futamura “Wanwa†the Puppy Dir: Shinosuke Harada I am of the hope that we may finally see some Mac II Valks or even some of that series' destroid models or a 1/72 scale Valk II...