Master Dex

The 25 looks just as good as the others to me. Maybe it is personal bias, do you not like the 25 by any chance? Or it could be that is still seems new to you. Everyone has known and loved valk designs such as the VF-1 and the YF-19 for at least 10 years (more than that for both really). The 25 is still new but it is already one of my favorites (from many standpoints). If I was able to play this game ever I can see myself replaying it so many times just to try the different valks but the 25 would be one of the first I'd probably try. Then the 19, the 22, 1, 0 even. Hell I'll use the SV-51 (it always looked weird to me but it is still intriguing).

The 1/48s are perfect transformation, I saw a video detailing the transformation of one once so there is no detaching. I can't help with finding super parts but I think the 3 pronged stand you are referring to is a special Valkyrie stand Yamato makes that can hold any of their valks depending on how you set it up. Again I am not the person who can help if finding it but I think I saw it at toywiz.com. However I'll let people more in the know tell you if that is correct or the right place which to go.

I don't know you at all. Since that is a fact I naturally would have to assume you are just not up to speed about this model so I told you what we know about that detail of it so far. Simple as that.

The only time I see gaps like that (in the latest pic I assume you mean) is in the shot of it with the super parts. That is most likely due to the addition of the super parts and I have a feeling those are just as prototype as the rest of the figure so your probably right in that it is because of it being a resin prototype and it will be fixed before final production.

Dude you quote a comment from page 3? It's been well known for a while now this is a perfect transformation model, as in variable. I think though there will be differences from this model and the DX toy (besides scale). I think the DX toy will be sturdier and tougher than this model.

This toy looks quite on target, I am still positive. I can live if the 12600 yen price if it is just the bare bones VF-25 and I have to buy the Fast Packs separate, but I would love it if that price did include the FAST packs. Thing is I hope they make the Super parts in colors for both Alto and Ozma, because I want Ozma's VF-25S with Super parts the most.

I see then, simple misunderstandings, they happen all the time. I think I saved myself trouble by not looking at that above mentioned dating sim game.

Ensign is a commissioned rank in the Navy... well it is here anyway (US), like I said it is all I know. As for the debate on what the show uses, it doesn't bother me what it is actually using for it's rank system, I was just comparing it to what I know so that bit is done. I wasn't so surprised to see non-coms in SDFM, however I think your right, non-coms generally aren't pilots. You could argue though that the Macross has a shortage or personnel and were taking anyone they could get (and got lucky they got Max... and Kakizaki).

Well it is said it will have a lot of different mechs, and we've seen pics with VF-1, 0, 19, 21/22, 25 (most important in my book) and who knows what else (hopefully VF-11 and 17 will also make there way in, maybe even 171).

Like I said, I didn't forget that it is a Japanese show or that it is a Japanese ranking structure. I was just pointing out originally what I believed the rankings in the series to be similar to based on US ranks since those are what I know best, and also since they are so very similar to other ranking structures, including Japan's, for the reason you just gave azrael. That is all I was saying there. I only elaborated on what I was saying so I wouldn't be considered to be someone who believed everything is intended to be like the US because I thought it was so great or some such nonsense. Probably no one thinks that but I'd hate to be misunderstood in any case. Now that this is all settled and we all understand each other I believe this discussion has deviated from the thread topic quite enough, we should continue with Frontier news... of which I have none at the moment, until then.

I don't mean to be biased, the ranks just all seem the same as ranks used my many different countries. I don't know Japanese, so that doesn't help either. However I understand exactly what your saying and I know it is a Japanese rank structure in a Japanese show. However the ranks are so similar anyway that I would just assume that the ranks were thought up based on rank systems from nations all over the world, which I did say in my last post, I just used US for an example. When I say that I mean if it were a real life situation (it could happen...), I know show creators just use a common Japanese rank structure because that is much easier than coming up with a hybrid of multiple nation's rank systems, especially when not a lot of people watching are going to bother to think about these things (excluding people like us on Macross World who love delving into these things hence why we are talking about this now).

I actually had an HD raw (used an .ass file for subs) so I guess missed it (will go back to see it), but it looked like a real sky. Still that doesn't mean Alto wasn't born planet-side, and it makes sense for him.

Eh, semantics. As far as it being a Japanese show indeed, but in a real situation with a United Nations space military they are going to go with a rank structure that has been tried and tested. Although the rank structure is already similar to that anyway it seems obvious that the set up in US militaries is something that works (while in a UN environment it would come from multiple nations usage but truthfully they are all really the same in the end anyway, it is just how they sound).

Very likely I believe. The flashback still showed him throwing paper airplanes and it didn't look like a dome. Having a love for flying and then moving onto a ship with a 2000 ft sky limit. It is like being a regular beach goer that moves to Alaska, or a city person that moves to a farm.

Actually what is common in Sci-fi when they do space militaries (each story uses its own name for them) is they use navy rank structure for the people commanding the battleships and carriers since those mirror Navy ships of today. Hence you'll see the commander of a ship being called Captain which the highest commissioned Navy rank below Admiral. How fighter squadrons and the such it seems common to use Air Force rank structure because it appears similar to that so then you see Majors and Colonels. SDF Macross seemed to use AF structure more than anything but Global was still a Captain somehow. In Frontier though we see Ozma is a Major and Mikhail is a Lieutenant (either 1st or 2nd, hard to say). So SMS being primarily fighter squadrons uses AF ranks except for Captain Wilder who probably has the same excuse as Global, whatever that may be. NUNS seems to use Navy ranks as Cathy was said in ep. 6 to be a Lt. Junior Grade which is a Navy rank equivalent to 1st Lieutenant in AF ranks. (Note: There seems to be inconsistancies with some peoples ranks in Frontier based on who's subbing it, in one sub Cathy was labeled Lt. Junior Grade but in Shinsen's sub of ep. 6 she is just called a Lieutenant which could mean AF or Navy rank version).

Ok I got a screen of the fold in DYRL mentioned in my above post. It is the fold after Roy's death immediately after the Meltrandi attack the Zentradi and which results in Hikaru and Misa becoming stranded on dead Earth. The fold actually happens as the ship glowing for a few secongs and then is sort of speeds off with a bit of a warp effect and disappears in the distance as this pink glow flashed out from the point where the ship vanished. Fold Gateway? The picture is just of the purple glow at the end of the fold after the ship has disappeared so you can no longer see the ship. Still it has me wondering since it looks so similar.

Indeed, although you have to account for people who are just born on colony ships. Alto I think came from Earth or Eden though (or many another planet colony we don't know about) as the flashbacks don't look under a dome.

Something to think about on that though. In DYRL at one point, I don't know the time index off hand sorry but I could look it up, Breetai's ship does a fold and some point where it seems to glow then stretch out into a line and zoom off before vanishing. However right before the vanishing part there is a pick circular glow that reminds me a lot of the gateway apertures of the folds in Frontier. I'll look up where it is in DYRL and screen cap it, in the meantime though I have to wonder if that was any inspiration for SK on how he made the folds in Frontier (most likely he just picked this method because he decided he wanted the appearance of the space fold to be consistent for once).

On the subject of how Grace could talk to Leon without appearing to physically talk, all cyborg ways that can be done aside I have another option that could explain it. First off I do now believe Grace is Brera's commander, I just wanted to wait for more proof but I was getting convinced after ep. 10. Anyway, this is something from a Star Wars book. In Republic Commando: True Colors the members of Omega Squad have these implants that were put into their jaws somewhere designed for silent communication. They basically work by the commando moving his jaw ever so slightly in a way similar to how it would move if he was actually speaking and those movements are translated into what he is really saying and sent through the com-link like a normal transmission. The purpose of this being so one can contact the other in a situation where they don't want to be heard (if there is someone they are hiding from) or if they are supposed to look inconspicuous while talking on the com-link. Knowing Grace's cyborg nature and love of implants she could just as easily have an implant like this (assuming it isn't something equally as sci-fi like transmitting her thoughts into speech over the com-link). One thing that makes me think she is speaking to Leon there is how she is holding her hand to her temple while she is trying to look like she is asleep or resting. It seems almost identical to how she held her hand to her head in ep. 6 when she received the call about Galaxy being attacked on her implant phone which is in her head.

Like I said like 5 posts ago there was a big debate about that in the original mecha/technology thread and it was settled that the armor pack can fly in atmosphere but it probably can only do Gerwalk because it's wings are completely covered and it has no other lifting surfaces. The reason the super pack probably won't work is that it is too much thrust and speed. It's been said that a VF-25 with Armored pack has the same top speed as a VF-25 with no extra add-ons, but a VF-25 with super pack is much faster than both. The reason for this is the armor pack adds a lot more mass but the big boosters compensate for that, however it only allows it to maintain up to its original speed. You may remember in ep.1 when Ozma couldn't keep up with the red Vajra but Gillium was able to catch up to it easily (only to be later squashed by it, but that is a different matter). The Super pack adds mass but not nearly as much and its boosters give it a lot of extra thrust. It is just too much power for atmospheric flight.

Yeah, it has been apparent for a while the aesthetics of fold travel have been changed as well as the sound. I kind of like this newer form though, makes more sense to me with the idea that comes to mind with the words Space Fold (despite the official explanation in the compendium of it being more like a Space Swap or displacement).

The fold booster for the 25 was the classic fold booster we've seen in Plus and 7. However the VF-27's external fold booster was different and has colors matching Purple-1. It would seem it doesn't have internal boosters after all as it is being equipped with an external or the internals are broken now for whatever reason. Or perhaps they are only for short range jumps (the battle in ep.7 was said to have taken place only 12 light years away and was said to be a short range fold).

Not really, while all the armor and the boosters would create more drag to counteract the lift, the wings are there enough for lift and the extra thrust from the boosters should be more than enough to compensate. The real problem is I think the super pack for the 25 is meant for space use only (hence a lot of extra thrust for more speed) and the boosters would make it too fast for atmospheric flight, such that the drag that is caused would rip the Valkyrie apart at those speeds possibly.

No, the 1/60 DX is the only toy from Bandai. The 1/72s are models from Bandai as well but they are perfect transformation.

Although this isn't the place to talk about the VF-25 from Bandai, I will say quickly that I advocated from the start that we couldn't judge until the final product, I stood by and said I thought it would get better when we had prototype pics of a horrid canopy hinge and a misshapen battroid, those have all gotten better so far and it still isn't done so I think it will turn out just find. Bandai has had a lot of time to get things right and they are well experienced. So I think it will turn out ok. Enough of that though back on topic, but I've given my thoughts on the 1/60 Yamatos so I think there isn't much more for me to say.