Zinjo

Yep, it's a stylized Nu character.

I'm not sure of the diamond shape, but the character inside it is the Greek letter "Nu". Not a very good drawing of it, but definitely a "Nu" character.

You know I don't read your posts...

Ahhh, but what is real? The events of series or the detail of the series? The broad events are proported as real, however was Hikaru Ichijo really a former stunt flyer who became a Valk ace or was he just a valkyrie ace who was given dramatic treatment? Those are the questions that I believe Kawamori is raising about the productions. We know the events of the WW2 movie "Valkyrie" are historical fact, but was every dramatic detail in the script real or there for effect? Film stories are formatted to move forward through conflict, whether real or imagined. Kawamori is essentially saying that the Macross productions are like "Saving Private Ryan", "The Longest Day", "Letters from Iwo Jima", "Flags of our Fathers", etc... The historical events are true, but the dramatic details of those films may not be. Prior to Macross Zero, there was no VF-0, only the VF-X and the VF-1. Now there is. In future productions, I suspect there will be more "unrevealed" history in the universe. Personally, I welcome it. I welcome the notion that I don't have to accept Super Basara they way he was portrayed in Mac 7 or the cartoonish way the PD were presented. Exedol looks the way he looks, the differences between SDFM and subsequent series. tend to favor the DYRL appearance. The most consistent version to date is the throbbing brain headed look. We can accept that the Exedol in SDFM was a sanitized version so as not to offend sensitive TV viewers. IMO, it is reasonably plausible. Kawamori could easily state officially that the SDFM TV series was based on the "Macross" historical novels by Eiji Kurokawa. Essentially that would punctuate his point that the series is not to be taken as a canonical historical record of SW1. Much like the "True Blood" tv series is based on the Sookie Stackhouse or Southern Vampires novels by Charlaine Harris... The question is not, "Did SW1 happen?", but more along the lines of "How much of what has been presented, historically did happen they way we've been shown?" Similar questions could be asked of Macross Plus, Mac 7, etc...

What about a Pointed Stick?

My take on the whole destorid fate was that they became relegated to Marine and land based Army units (no official support of course, just a leap of logic). The "Fleet" really doesn't need them since they have the Valks and all the onboard armaments built into the ships. It's like basing a tank battalion aboard an Aircraft Carrier. Not all that relevant to a carrier's mission. Since all we've seen of Macross mecha has been related to "fleet" stories, there's really no need to explain the ultimate fate of destroid squads. Considering Kawamori's penchant for Retcon, there's no reason to believe that the records published in the Chronicle will never change. I tend to feel that Mac II handled the matter better, in that most if not all the destroids we saw were land based units mainly. The redesigns were akin to the Cheyenne series with mobility in mind, since nearly all had wheeled feet. Now you take a UN Marine force, that battles on land as well as the air and you have different equipment requirements entirely. Why risk a very expensive and complex unit like a variable fighter in ground ops when an updated design of a destroid could do the same job? The SW1 era destroids were designed like walking tanks with limited mobility and high firepower. The Spartans appeared to be designed for close combat with the giants, but proved to be largely ineffective without long range weaponry. Put a gun pod in the hands of a Spartan and it becomes a much more effective unit. Ironically the Valks grew larger after SW1 and the destroids grew smaller, if the Cheyenne II is any indicator of where destroid design logic was going. Personally, I don't think we can definitively say that the destroid question has been finally answered. Only that it has been answered - "FOR NOW"! If at some point a UN Marine story is produced, we may well see a return of the next generation of destroids. We simply have to wait and see what comes next...

Kawamori directed all the dog fight sequences for the Valks, since the senior directors on both SDFM and DYRL. He knew best how to utilize the combat abilities of the variable fighter it seemed.

Absolutely stunning!

Yes, by a couple of centimeters.

I'm not sure about the final episodes, since I haven't taken the time re-watch the BD version of episode 25, but there are 3 versions of episode one. The Deculture version (Dec 08), the Broadcast version (April 09) and the Yak Deculture version that came out with the home video release. The principle difference between the three is that the Yak Deculture version includes all the scenes from both the Deculture and Broadcast versions of episode one.

I like the green Basara the best...so realistic.....

That folks is the second limited edition Cover art for the 4 pack case for the last 4 Macross Frontier DVDs and BDs.

WORD!!

Always a pleasure to see your work Poli...

Well then you have a near next generation VF-1 in DYRL explained as a "Block 6" version of the same fighter. Everyone has their own way of doing things...

True, not to mention that the date of Mac II puts the franchise far into the future and is somewhat limiting to the stories Kawamori wished to tell.

Nice! What did you use for the railings?

Here ya go a few to play with: Rapidshare download Macross_Insignia_Patches.zip

After all this there better be a new Mikimoto and Tenjin art book coming out

If you want to compare apples to apples wait until the VF-Hi-Metal VF-1S comes out and then you'll see the difference... Mostly in quality I expect.

Yep! The only way we'd see a VF100 at that price range would be a non-transformable version of the fighter, GERWALK or Battroid. They sold the Tamashii Limited Edition fighters for around 3500 - 4000 at Wonderfest and they don't transform. Georgeous nonetheless...

Reasonable price for a DX IMO...

There is no definitive proof either way of this. As Seto has stated, it is "believed", but not yet proven either way in the produced or published Macross info. We do know that by the majority of the PC civilization was gone.

ROFL!! Well if I can accept Basara (after a fashion) in M7, then I guess anything is possible...

Ah, but copyright is not the same as "trademark". HG owns the copyright only on what Tatsunoko has copyright over, which is the animation of SDF Macross. To further their control over this foreign franchise on US shores, HG trademarked the name "Macross" in early 2003, a few months after BW won the Intellectual Property Rights to the Macross franchise in Japan. In this case "BW wasn't minding the store"... The reality is, that if HG tried to pull the trademark trick in Korea, Taiwan, China, etc... BW would legally b*tch slap them into last year. Since Asia is where most of their merchandizing money is being made. It would take a Western distributor to personally take on the cost to legally challenge the trademark in North America, either in the US or Canada, win and then pony up the cost of subbing or dubbing the unreleased shows here before BW would add it to their BD or DVD discs. Subbing the show into Mandarin , Cantonese or Korean gives them a better return on their investment compared to English. Its the reality of the market. Money talks. The fact that all mention of Macross has gone silent with respect to the live action RT movie is likely a testament to BigWest flexing their legal rights over the Macross property. An RT movie (if ever made) could reach Asian markets and thus confuse Macross customers if the Valkyrie and the Macross were featured in that movie. The last rhetoric on the matter was a "re-imagining" of the RT show for the movie.