JB0

Personally, I don't really think Mac2 should count. The franchise creators, who are currently in charge, say it doesn't, so it doesn't. I just find it an amusing exercise to try and make it fit. I'd actually assume they're using fusion instead of fission. It's much more powerful, usually cleaner, and doesn't require a bomb be made out of radioactive materials. From that perspective, fuel density and efficiency SHOULD be the biggest factors. Overtech lets you increase the fuel load by discarding the fission "starter" used in modern fusion weapons. But that doesn't gain you a whole lot, really. Big gain would probably be a containment field to keep things together longer, or a more evenly distributed reaction. Most of the mass of a conventional fusion weapon is wasted because it gets blown clear before it can fuse. Beyond that... we get into "so advanced it looks like magic" territory. Maybe it actually collapses the fuel down into a singularity? If nothing else, the subsequent evaporation of the black hole back into normal matter would release a good bit of energy(if I recall, there's believed to be a large energy release once a black hole becomes too small to remain a black hole). It's SORT OF like fusion... Unless you hit something prone to going kablooie inside the ship. That was what the Robotech(eww) novels (EEWWWW!) proposed. It's probably not a viable plan unless you're SURE you can get a line of sight on the thing, and the missile "cloud" implies they COULDN'T see anything really explodable. Yah. I never saw any real numbers, but I knew it was obscenely overpowered.

Oh, I understand WHY. And I know that Japan's a tad touchier than everyone else, what with being the only nation they've been used on. It's still a tad silly in-story. Remember, this is in the middle of space. There's nothing to irradiate. ... Except during Operation Stargazer. And rendering a portion of an (almost) uninhabited planet uninhabitable(especially an underground cavern) is a small price to pay for the extermination of a highly antagonistic group capable of destroying all life in the galaxy. But it also raises a serious question... If the reaction weapons are an escalation BEYOND the Battle 7's cannon(which is presumably more powerful than the original Macross' cannon, and that demonstrated a silly power level in the boobytrap firing)... exactly how powerful ARE overtech nukes?

So it's Mac+ mind control? They WERE the first thing fired in the original series... and were subsequently hoarded until the final battle of the Space War. The transformation and Daedalus attack could've both been skipped entirely if they'd just thrown a few nukes at the zents when the cannon broke. And logic and reaction weapons don't seem to go together. Like I said, they should've been lobbing nukes at the protodevlin for some time in 7. Instead they shot ONE bomb AFTER exhausting all other options(including a dangerous stunt where they used Sound Force to restrain a protodevlin so they could hit it with the cannon). And they had to call across the galaxy to get authorization for THAT. The refit could've been done at some point in the past, when the Macross WAS durable enough to withstand it. Then the ship rotted away sitting in a puddle until it couldn't be fired anymore. Then they tried to fire it again anyways in 2. I always thought the SDF bridge was better than DYRL's, aside from the low-tech look. The DYRL one has a seriously cluttered feel IMO. But that's just my take.

Heh. I wish his classics feet would tilt forward some more. I tried to put him in a sort of feral crouch pose, but his feet won't let him lean forward enough for a proper "wild" look.

Mind if I play devil's advocate for a moment? I think some of these CAN be poked at. It's been a LONG time since I've seen Mac2, so I can't take TOO good of a shot at this, but... -No reaction weapons UN Spacey is historically hesitant to use them, even when they have a ready supply on hand. Max had to call home on the other side of the galaxy in Macross 7 to get authorization to use them against the protodevlin. An enemy that had ALREADY proven itself capable of destroying entire planets, and according to zentradi history destroyed a supremely advanced civilization spanning most of a galaxy, was a controversial target. If that doesn't justify a well-placed nuke, then I don't know what does. It's entirely possible they have reaction weapons and just won't consider them, or that their entire nuclear arsenal has been phased out by Mac2. -No Fold boosters -No Pinpoint barriers equipped fighters What if they actually evolved the technology to the point where the barrier only activates right at the moment of impact, conserving the vehicle's energy resources by minimizing the barrier time? It'd LOOK like there weren't any barrier disks, but they WOULD be there. It's also a logical upgrade. We already know the PPB isn't invulnerable, so cannon-fodder fatalities don't really contradict this idea. They just imply that the Marduk weapons overpower the barrier disks. Admittedly, this is stacking assumptions, but most VFs tend to suffer from firecracker syndrome regardless of their official durability. -No Earth defense network Perhaps it was never rebuilt after Macross Plus? Guld and Isamu proved it to be somewhat ineffective. And Sharon proved it to be a serious security risk. (At least, it's a serious security risk if you go installing un-inspected foreign computers in the heart of your defensive computer network... MacPlus' sysadmin should be shot. Or the politician that over-rode his objections.) -Macross II's Macross has TV colors, which doesn't exist in any continuity but its own Fresh coat of paint? It wouldn't be the first time the Macross got overhauled between franchise entries, and the ship ended DYRL in need of some major work anyways. (It ended the TV series in even worse shape, but Plus clearly establishes that refit as the DYRL design). -The Bridge in II is more similar to the TV bridge than the DYRL bridge See above refit argument. -YF-19/YF-21 far outclass the VF-2J, VF-2SS, & Metal Siren. -Leg & ARMD cannons???? Refit. Arguably even a useful one, since it increased the size of ship you could successfully ream, and it's unknown how long the Macross was a major part of the Earth's defense before the Macross Cannon ships were operational(the additional guns indicates it WAS a major part). -Eden was one of many relatively close proximity colonies, don't you think said colonies would have detected the Marduk approach, alterted Earth, & sent backup? Only if the Marduk approached from EXACTLY the right direction. Space is vast, and it's REALLY easy to miss someone, unless you're expecting them and know EXACTLY where to look. Needle in a haystack doesn't even begin to cover it. Maybe needle in a planet... -Hologram technology in II isn't even remotely up to Plus's level. Turn-A proves Macross is part of Gundam!11111

You should've seen the manhandling when I brought Screenzilla home. Old 32" Mitsubishi CRT. Over a hundred pounds. Took 2 people and a dolly. Max res of 800*600, but it takes composite and s-video feeds as well as RGB*, so it's got a bunch of game consoles hooked into it. *But DOESN'T have a standard VGA connector, so I had to make a semi-custom cable to hook my PC to the thing. Mainly because I was too cheap to pay what people were asking for a VGA->BNC cable. Next step: Build or buy a component->RGB converter, so I can get my XBox onto something that supports progressive scan(the XBox HAS RGB outputs on the system, but they're intentionally crippled to 480i only... bastards). That or get un-lazy and build an RGB cable for my Genesis. Composite sucks, and RGB is easier to get from a Genny than s-video is. ... Too bad soldering irons hate me. Every time I warm one up I get burned somehow.

YES! And let's be honest here, all the Valks were REALLY good for was clearing the way for a Daedalus attack. Seriously, I like the idea. but given the destroids were restricted to operations on or within the Macross and the zentradi units were all spaceflight-capable... The only ones I think were REALLY effective during the war were the Defender anti-aircraft guns(which were almost perfectly immersed in their element) and Phalanx missile drums(which were jury-rigged hacks intended to support the Defenders). The Monsters weren't fast enough for anti-mech combat or numerous enough for anti-ship combat, and the Tomahawks and Spartans were geared too far towards ground combat. But with the animators focusing on the VF dogfights, there's no real indicator of how effective any of them might have been. Heck, we never even got to see the Ghosts, and they should've been out dogfighting with the Valks.

YES! And let's be honest here, all the Valks were REALLY good for was clearing the way for a Daedalus attack. Seriously, I like the idea. but given the destroids were restricted to operations on or within the Macross and the zentradi units were all spaceflight-capable... The only ones I think were REALLY effective during the war were the Defender anti-aircraft guns(which were almost perfectly immersed in their element) and Phalanx missile drums(which were jury-rigged hacks intended to support the Defenders). The Monsters weren't fast enough for anti-mech combat or numerous enough for anti-ship combat, and the Tomahawks and Spartans were geared too far towards ground combat. But with the animators focusing on the VF dogfights, there's no real indicator of how effective any of them might have been. Heck, we never even got to see the Ghosts, and they should've been out dogfighting with the Valks.

I heartily approve of this theory!

Best. Fireworks. Ever.

I don't know exactly how, but I'm pretty sure this news rapes my childhood.

At least you poured your blood into a seeker capable of standing on his own. The leg wings REALLY help Ramjet's balance.

I'd take the donation happily. ... As long as I imagined it being ripped out of his still-living body Mortal Kombat-style.

No, because HG will throw a hissyfit over anything with the Macross name.

If I recall, Kawamori's actually stated he's never SEEN Macross 2, so he has no opinion on it. So it certainly wasn't banished because he didn't like it.

I've seen them for sale. I have serious doubts as to their effectiveness, as well as noise level. 'Sides, with a passively cooled VGA card, you'd want the slot cooler bringing air in and blowing it over the video card heatsink.

I've seen that box all over the place for a while. Pretty sure Prime's supposed to have windows. I've been mildly tempted to pick the box up. But only mildly. And it's not exactly going anywhere, so why rush?

Exactly. So what happens if they DO revisit Basara, but rewrite him to be some stereotypical angst-ridden twit instead of the Basara we all know and love(or at least love to hate)?

I still haven't seen a second Jetfire. Prime is EVERY-F'ING-WHERE, though

What if they rewrite Basara so he's all angsty and paints his Valk black while crying about how no one understands him?

See the HG license debate thread in general anime. General consensus is that Tatsunoko has distribution rights for the original TV series. Maybe DYRL too. Harmony Gold argues that it was international rights for the entire franchise, which they got from Tatsunoko, so HG owns Macross outside of Japan. So redesigning everything won't fix anything, since HG will make it unprofitable to bring over regardless of legal standing. I'm mildly surprised they didn't sue Bandai because Gundam Wing had robots that transformed into jets and therefore fell within their Macross license.

:'(

Saw an Ultra Magnus/Skywarp package. I picked it up, just because I like how Skywarp looks. I was tempted to leave some twist ties wrapped around Magnus after I got him loose. The clipped remnants were hanging in such a way that it looked like he'd ripped them apart while breaking out of a prison or something. But then they started falling off. I may do it on my next 'bot. This concludes today's episode of "Fun With the Box in Spite of Hasbro." Seriously, how about they use a third the twist ties and put the money they save into more paint apps?

I thought the monsters had a 100% survival ratio. They only had 3 of them in the first place, and I'm pretty sure they hauled more than one out for the final battle against the bodol fleet.

Well, that depends... will I be assigned to one of the 3 destroids that get blown up AGAIN AND AGAIN every time the zentradi attack the ship? Seriously, it depends on WHICH destroid. I'd take a Monster assignment in a heartbeat. They aren't even deployed most of the time, and they have enough armor to withstand more of a beating than just about anything else. But if it's a Defender, I'm placing better odds on the Valk.