Cyclone Trooper

*sound of crickets chirping*

That's still nearly 3 times larger than even the Megaroad Class! Granted, we're talking about an alternate universe here, but still!

Going back to the Macross Cannon... The information I have on these ships is that they're only 488 meters in length, making them not much bigger than the Macross Quarter. It seems a tad off that these ships would dwarf even the Vrhitwai Command ships by 2000m...

Man! It's only been a month since the announcement and we're already bashing the hell out of it for being the DYRL version. I dunno if some of us are doing this as a possible justification for not purchasing such an exhorbitantly priced item or if its just a general hatred of the more military look. Personally, compared to the DYRL version, the TV SDF-1 has a definite late 70s Voltron or Gundam White Base vibe to it: plain and blocky with super-smooth hull and eye-catching blue and white paint job with bright primary yellow pinstriping. Maybe its because I'm one of the few holdouts who never bought into the "DYRL is a movie-within-a-series" explanation that Big West pulled out of its butt during Macross 7, that I don't have a problem seeing the two SDFs as being nothing but alternate versions of the same ship that exist outside of one another. People who absolutely HAD to have All-Things-Macross fit into some sort of cohesive (if you want to call it that) form demanded Kawamori and Co. to explain away the inconsistencies between the TV series and movie...and having those inconsistencies show up in later series, etc., are the ones who seem the have the most problem with the DYRL organic design. The way I have always seen it, DYRL did the same thing that any other sci-fi series being made into a big-budget feature film has done. Many elements were simply redesigned to have a much bigger "bad-ass" quality to them as well as being given a slightly more realistic look...plain and simple. A good example is how the original USS Enterprise from the 60s was redesigned into the 1701-A model for the Star Trek movies. For all intents and purposes, it was instantly recognizable onscreen, yet had a completely different updated look from the original. The same thing was done with the SDF-1 for DYRL. According to the Gold Book, the DYRL SDF-1 is actually a crashed Meltrandi destroyer...not the Supervision Army gunboat from the series. So that explains the distinct "chisled out of rock" organic look as opposed to the smooth metallic look of the TV version. It also makes it slightly more believable from the standpoint of the SDF-1 being a rebuilt ALIEN craft by retaining a look similar to its original Meltran configuration. In contrast, the TV SDF-1 looks like a 100% Earth design with its gleaming hull, defined 90-degree angles and bright colors. Original Meltran Destroyer aka: Alien Spaceship-1 (service date: unknown, though sometime prior to 1999) Super Dimensional Fortress-1 Macross (service date: 2/7/2009) Why Kawamori and Co. decided to start mixing design elements from both the movie and TV series is the stuff of epic speculative discussions...but at the end of the day, the most common answer will probably be "it just looks cooler than the old TV version of insert ship or mecha name here. In this respect, its a lot like George Lucas changing things in the original Star Wars trilogy to accomodate the prequels...for no other reason except that he can. Many old-timers on here would prefer the throw-back "vintage" SDF-1 for nostalgic reasons, I get that (to quote our President). But for whatever reason, DYRL seems to be the prevalent version of Macross that Yamato likes to launch any new Macross toy line with...and touching on the TV versions at a later time. Will we see a 1/2000 TV SDF-1 at some point? If the Valkyrie line is any indicator, the answer is "absolutely," but I have a feeling that it will also depend largely on how well the DYRL version sells.

Just to clarify a few things concerning Macross City inside the two SDFs... All the line art and diagrams I have of the TV SDF-1 suggests that Macross City is literally in the "belly of the beast." The entire city is inside the main body...while most of main engineering is stuffed into each leg. At least according to Entertainment Bible 27, that is. However, DYRL and the DYRL Gold Book clearly shows "Downtown" Macross City to be inside each leg, with a huge "driveplate" engine block at the rear/foot. But some of the material suggests that Macross City is split up into 3 sections in the DYRL SDF-1. Shopping centers, red light district (Motel Persian Love), restaurants, manufacturing centers, observation windows, etc. are in the legs, while residential areas and open-air parks are located in the main body. Can anyone else confirm or deny this particular layout? While this may sound like it belongs in the TV/Movies forum, I'm asking because I'm wondering if Yamato will be faithfully recreating the city inside the ship, since the massive viewports on the legs have been molded as hollow cutouts. This suggests that there may be SOMETHING viewable inside the SDF-1's legs...unless the idea gets scrapped sometime between now and 2010. If the entire city ends up being faithfully represented, then I'm wondering if the parks, foot bridges and residential blocks will also be thrown in with a flip-up panel on the main body, sort of like the panel on the 1/3000 SDF-1. At the very least, a micro-diorama of the concert stadium should be made since it was in the establishing shot of Macross City as seen through the viewport windows.

No idea where you'd find one in any kind of half-decent condition in this day and age. However, now that Yamato has announced that it will be releasing the 1/2000 DYRL SDF-1 next spring, you'll probably find the WAVE version (original and movie paint schemes) going down in price somewhat. We Macross fans are notorious for dumping a current favorite for "the next big thing," causing prices to tank a bit on the older or "inferior" stuff. Incidentally, this version of the SDF-1 featured a darker paint scheme that looked better than the nearly primary blue that the 1/3000 Takatoku/Matchbox version had. The first release version of the WAVE SDF-1 has a similar paint scheme as this old toy (bluish arms and main cannon booms), so I sometimes wonder if this was one of the inspirations for that odd choice of colors.

I had one of these as a kid too. I got this at a flea market back in '85 when Robotech had just started its initial TV run (yes, I got hooked on Macross from that bastardization). It was around this same time that I realized that my "Jetfire" from Transformers was just a repainted VF-1S...and the rest was history. This knock-off SDF-1 was pretty straightforward in its transformation...even it if wasn't completely anime-accurate. The proportions are a little off, but strangely gives it a nice "beefy" look in Storm Attacker mode. Hell, I wish that the $150 WAVE SDF-1 had the same completely transformable arms that this $5.00 knock off has! The only real glaring transformation "defect" was where the main cannon booms are concerned. The front tips of each boom was just molded plastic, so you couldn't rotate them...and the back of each boom was hollow, so if you looked at the SDF-1 from the back, the main cannons looked kind of cheap. In SA mode, each boom attached to a peg on each side of the bridge via a small hole. The plastic itself, if memory serves, was very sturdy and the main body actually pulled out to elongate the overall height of the SDF-1 in SA mode...just like the larger Takatoku/Matchbox version could.

Unfortunately, Yamato will probably never get the license to Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (I'm assuming you're thinking in "Robotech" terms, where Macross, Southern Cross and MOSPEADA are all part of the same "universe"...which they aren't), so no Legioss nor Tread will be made...however, there ARE companies like CM and Beagle who do make really nice (read: insanely expensive) MOSPEADA mecha and ride armor.

That settles it! I'm not going to be satisfied until Yamato makes a 1/1 scale SDF-1...where all members of MW get to live on board for free, DAMMIT! And I don't care if the price for it would pay off the US national deficit three times over! But then we'd all fight over who gets to be Captain based on how many posts we each have or something...

Too...small?! Not big enough unless it requires 4 people with good upper-body strength and a small crane to transform it, eh? lol See Yamato? You should have just gone ahead and made this thing in 1/60 scale like all the Valkyries!

Are these all Bandai-made toys or finished model kits or what? Er...nevermind, CF18 answered my question before I could post it. lol

DAMN! And I was bitching about the $500+ price of the SDF-1! Yamato IS too rich for my blood! For that price, it better transform on its own, as in with full robotic autonomy...and a cup holder!

Well said, my friend...well said.

We all have to keep in mind that this is also just their prototype. This thing could turn into vaporware just like the 1/60 Monster if the economy doesn't reflect a good time to dump something this big/expensive onto the open market. Making it some sort of exclusive/limited item would further jack the price up, so again, that'd be a case of Yamato shooting itself in the foot. Or... As a prototype, this may NOT be the final size/scale and Yamato may very well rescale it accordingly. This used to be a common practice with American toy companies, at any rate...at least before everything started being roto-cast or done in CAD. If this thing isn't even scheduled to hit the streets until this time NEXT YEAR, then that tells me that Yamato hasn't even begun to tool up to start any kind of mass-production of this beast. Even the box its supposed to come in is nothing more than a mockup at this point. But until we get more info or confirmation from someone at Yamato, everything and anything we discuss about the SDF-1 is going to be pure speculation. As for the projected MSRP of 50,000 yen, that was started based on a comment that was made by a Yamato rep during the unveiling of the SDF-1---saying that they'd like to keep it in the "neighborhood of" 50k yen. Whether this is going to be the final price, we have no idea at this early stage, and neither does Yamato...yet. Hell, it could be cheaper or more expensive, depending on all the extras and gimmicks Yamato decided to cram into it. And we MWers probably won't help that situation much either: if it doesn't come with everything including light-up Main Cannon Effect, a soundchip able to play the entire 6-and-a-half-minute DYRL? song DYRL to TV color-change paint job and built-in cupholder, we'll gripe about it not having enough gimmicky stuff to warrant the price; or it'll be loaded with so many gimmicks that most of us will consider them outright cheesy...and therefore will pass on it for that reason alone. lol I'm just going to sit back and ride the wave (no pun intended) of speculation until we get some concrete info.

The price is around $535 US...and shipping will probably be close to $60...so once everything is said and done, you'll be shelling out close to $600.

Sources at the event are quoting around 50,000 yen...so at the current exchange rate, we're looking at around $535 US. But as unpredictable as the world economy is right now, there's no telling how much this thing will skyrocket in price over the next year (release date is Spring 2010). It could end up costing as much as $800 or as little as $300...

I had pointed out earlier that those same windows seem to have panels on the top that look like they could slide down to simulate the fortress going into "safety lockdown". And it also comes with a half-dozen 1/2000 scale VF1s and/or Destroids too. That could be the extent of the gimmicks this thing will have. I'm just glad Yamato was able to fix the main cannon issue that the WAVE version suffers from. There are no open areas on the booms in cruiser mode with this version.

Well...at least we have a whole year to save up for this thing. Otherwise I'd have to live vicariously through everyone else who is able to get one right out of the gate!

*rimshot*

Economic factors ARE something to take into consideration. I was thinking about what Vifam7 said...and he may be right. We're all naive to think that something this big is going to be a mass-production item. A two-foot SDF-1 is most likely going to be a limited-edition item with a hefty price tag. EXO's also right. If this thing ends up being ridiculously cost-prohibitive for those who don't live in the Pacific Rim...then we have two options: 1) get a 1/1000 WAVE version; and/or 2) forget the Yamato version even exists. But before we all panic about how many of our first-borns we'll have to sell into slavery to get one of these...let's wait for The-Powers-That-Be at Yamato to quote an MSRP on this monster...

Approximately double the price of the WAVE SDF-1? That's definitely do-able! Twice the price for twice the size!

By the way...take a look at the tiny Valkyries placed in front of the SDF-1...They look like they may plug into the various launch bays on the ARMDs! 1/2000 scale Valkyries! WOOT! Now, where's my jeweler's glass so I can actually SEE the damned things...

You are correct. This is indeed the DYRL version (as stated in the thread title). Easiest way to identify it as such is looking at the "arms" of the fortress. The DYRL SDF-1 features ARMD platforms instead of the Daedalus/Prometheus combo.

1/2000 scale would be just over 2 feet long in cruiser mode...slightly longer (taller) in Attack mode. That's roughly the same height as my two-year-old!

Is it me, or does anyone else notice that the Macross City viewports may actually have movable armored shutters? I just hope this isn't another case of Yamato Vaporware like the 1/60 Monster several years ago. We get to see the prototype...and that's all we'll ever see.