Chronocidal

Goofy thing that may have been asked before, but I don't remember.... Where did the red tail stripes come from?

Those models are still rough casts, I wouldn't worry too much. I would almost put them down as hand shaped, from the irregular surfaces. The parts are completely without shine, and completely unlike any kit I've ever seen bandai produce. Unless someone did a craptastic job painting the thing with a giant brush, that's still a rapid prototype version (looks almost like it's carved out of wood ), and not anything like what an injection molded kit will look like. The sheer amount of small details missing on the kit is kind of a giveaway.. for example, no upper intake vents, top leg details in fighter mode, or other fine details like rivets, scribed lines, etc, something I've never seen a bandai kit have any trouble with.

lol.. oh that's interesting.. looks like they forgot to flip the wing texture over on the VF-171.. the logos are backwards on one side. As for the backpack... I honestly don't know, but it kind of reminds me of one of the fighters we haven't seen in a series.. maybe the star mirage? Actually... now that I think about it, it looks like one of the advanced valkyrie designs... here we go, I would swear it's this one, right down to the engine mounted tails and jagged wing shapes. again for comparison

Ok, time for a bit of screencap editing... First, the wing logo. It's not so strange for aircraft to carry a logo on upper an lower surfaces of each wing... US military only does the top of the left wing, and bottom of right, but many others place an insignia on all 4 surfaces. The logo here is clearly the NUNS one, and the whiteout I used makes the diamond shape around it visible as well. The nose logo.. actually looks like another NUNS logo somewhat. It's got a wide blue diamond shaped patch, with a lighter blue circle-ish thing in the middle. I would say it's VERY close to the NUNS one, except the circle is bigger than the background patch. What I want to know is what these leg markings are. They look like letters, but nothing like English.. to be honest, they remind me of the computer screen text you sometimes see in Star Wars. Anyone have any ideas? I didn't see enough of the legs to know what this might be. Now, just for kicks, it was pure chance that I noticed this shot, but it's the exact same logo as on the wing. I guess the question now is where Ranka got her backpack from. Btw... I can't watch Bobby firing the macross cannon without thinking to myself "oh no, he crossed the streams..."

I had thought this earlier.. but after looking at it I'm not so sure... this might be a different logo than the one you're thinking of though.

There's a couple shots a few pages back that clearly show a NUNS logo under the wing, it's the same logo you see on Cathy's shoulder patch... it's the shot from under the VF-27 while it's in mid-fold. You can just make out the logo under the wing, at the very top of the screen.

Huh... while the NUNS logo looks clear as day on the underside of the wing in that shot... the nose logo reminds me of something else. Back in previous episodes, wasn't there some sort of blue logo that looks roughly like a planet with rings, or something like that? I'll search for it, but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere... Edit: Meh, found the original pic I had, but after seeing it, it's not quite like the logo on the nose after all. Besides, it's a Frontier logo, so it doesn't fit. It's the one with a small yellow ufo shaped center, surrounded by blue and green swirls. Now, whether the other colonization fleets had similar logos is anyone's guess. I do think that there's some sort of conspiracy brewing though.. as vague as everything is, the ship certainly does have a NUNS logo on the wing. They behave extremely alien (way the ships fly and all)... but unless the logo is a pure animation snafu, there has to be a connection. I wonder if someone behind the scenes is pulling strings to set up a confrontation between NUNS and SMS... or between humans and the vajra, or trying to find links to the protoculture, etc. We just need more info at this point.

Let's hope so, I've been itching for some Mac+ style VF vs VF action for a long while.

Thoughts about Ozma.. he can't die yet, he hasn't been around Cathy long enough to cause any tension between her and foo-foo head. He can't eat the pineapple until they actually reveal more about their past. They only hinted at it in the car ride, and killing him off now would ruin that setup. My guess is that their being on the same ship in the next episode or two is going to bring back old ghosts, and when they come back, Cathy's going to be bounced between Ozma and foo-foo like a pinball. And personally, I'm all for it. We've got a two-girl triangle already, it'd be interesting to balance that with a two-guy version as well... sort of an SDF/Mac+ plot hybrid. Edit: Actually, on second thought, something serious may indeed happen to Ozma on this trip. Still don't think he can die yet, but lets say he's seriously wounded/captured in battle.. So Cathy suddenly goes to pieces, straining her current relationship, and setting it up for a confrontation when Ozma recovers/returns. And on top of that, his disappearance would pull double duty in the emotion department, since it would also throw Ranka into a tizzy, making Alto feel like he should watch over her, to the point of putting Sheryl on the back burner.. leaving Ranka to think that he wants her over Sheryl, when he really might just be worried for her safety, while Sheryl gets ticked that he's ignoring her.... oooh, the circles within circles... My brain hurts now.

"MECHA-SHIVA!! MECHA-SHIVA!!" One of my friends bought the first boxed set, but I haven't seen this show in quite a while now. I forget how it got arranged, but I know we randomly caught the episode with the "Mars the Bringer of War" bit while the henchmen got dressed, and almost died laughing on the spot. The rest of the episode was good as well, especially the parts where Brock killed a guy with a caulking gun, and Dr. Venture's eye pops out of it's socket and starts waggling around, and you actually get to see his perspective on it.

Lol... Ranka wearing

Don't think so... grrrrrrrr. and the waiting begins.. on the bright side, maybe I'll be able to finish my homework before it finishes

*monty python bit plays in head* at least they didn't call it the jehovah *waits to be stoned*

I honestly can't even see enough of her head in that video to tell one way or another, but just looking at the feet, she seems to swap directions on her own regularly, without me even thinking about it. I think it has to do with the perspective... With the natural focal point of the picture in the middle, the feet seem like they should be above you. So, whichever foot is higher looks closer. The problem is, there's not always one foot higher than the other.. and sometimes, the same foot stays above the other. Eh.. I always screw these kinds of left brain/right brain tests up anyway.. I can write any combination of forwards or backwards simultaneously with both hands to begin with. Used to creep my friends out.

My jaw just hit the floor and did a double take at the same time... so it hit the floor twice. O_O I don't want to get too optimistic about this, but this could mean very good things for MacF in the US with Bandai's involvement.. The fact that Toynami has been using the DYRL label for some things recently could mean they decided to go straight to the original source. Now, my big question... I wonder how much this could be related to the idea of a robotech movie that's been bouncing around.. Toynami toys haven't been so mainstream that you can find them at the average walmart (at least I haven't seen any, if someone can correct me, please do).. I remember seeing robotech toys in the past, but outside of collectors shops, I've seen nothing since the 80s. On the other hand, you go anywhere near the Transformers in toy stores today, and you might get bowled over by the amounts of Gundam stuff. So... is it possible that Toynami is looking to Bandai since it doesn't think it could keep up with the production requirements that would go hand in hand with successful merchandizing of a movie? I don't know about anyone else, but if I saw classic chunkies sitting on a shelf in walmart next to a stack of Optimus Primes, I'd probably need new pants. As for them remaining unchanged... well, I don't know how big Toynami is as a company, but I'm gonna bet Bandai could buy them out ten times over and not break a sweat. Any changes by Toynami to the 1/55 would be like a direct slap in the face to Bandai. I don't know what that might cause in the business world, but it couldn't be good for Toynami.

Thank you, that makes much more sense now.

Wow. That was good even without the dialogue, but I can't wait for the subs... stupid old keyboard.. *looks around for a spare F5 key* Btw, someone mentioned something about the plane above the high school not looking quite like a VF-1.. In most shots it's a little distorted, but you can definitely make out the shape and even some markings in the opening.

As far as the speech around the bridge goes, this even spills over into the episode 1 Deculture edition. The entire comm transmission to the ship with Sheryl aboard starts out in English, then moves to Japanese as the conversation becomes more informal. That's natural though, especially in terms of air/space traffic control. Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, the official spoken language of air traffic control is English, no matter which country you're in. I think it has to do with making sure everyone is on the same page for safety reasons, and other things like that. At the very least, the English alphabet is still sometimes used in communications using the old "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" etc. speech.

My only real complaint about that AT-AT is the size of the head.. yes, I know it's so they can fit a figure in it.. but the crazy proportions of the head compared with the rest of the body make it look like a cartoon.

I'd guess they're both in their late 20's to early 30's actually... say Ozma's 30, Cathy's about 28. Take it back 11 years, and you've got 17 year old Cathy in the Miss Macross pageant, and Ozma's a little older than Alto is now. It could work. I don't think they're that far apart in age. If someone has confirmed how long ago Cathy was in the pageant that'd give a good frame of reference. Making Ozma young at the time he finds Ranka also would help explain why he adpoted her as a little sister, rather than picking up a parent/child type relationship.

I can definitely see it as Alto possibly injuring/killing someone else in his squad. If we really want to screw with the formula, just think of what it'd do to the story if he wound up actually killing Ozma somehow.. I don't think SK would be that cruel, but admit it, it would throw the entire story into the unknown, not to mention toss Ranka's sanity to the wolves. As far as a worst case scenario, I'd say it's possible. What I'm really hoping for this Sterne character is that he doesn't turn out to be a Basara wannabe, with another musical fighter craft.

Lol.. I kind of half-drew it.... I basically took a pic of Konata, redrew her with KK's clothes/hair, and colored it in. I posted the bigger version early in the Ep4 thread.

ROFL. *drools over good tie fighter design* Me likey. I'll have to start looking for one of those once I get my own apartment.

They're all part of SMS, since they've all got the same uniform jackets, share the same facilities, etc.. plus they were all at the same SMS party at the restarurant. With SMS's status as a testing group, it makes sense that they'd have their own recon teams, since they'd need someone to scout out proper testing areas for whatever they happen to be working on. As for them hiring kids in SMS... I'm almost tempted to think they do it for similar reasons to why Willy Wonka wanted to give his factory to a kid. Do it early enough, and they may not be jaded by military rules and regulations. Plus, SMS seems to me like they don't worry as much about strict rules and such, so they probably have more leeway with who they hire. On a side note, it actually doesn't surprise me much age-wise, considering the situation today. Was talking with some navy folks recently, and what people are finding is that the current popularity of video games is producing a bumper crop of people with incredible reflexes from very early ages. I've personally been crazy about flight simulations since about age 8, and while I don't pretend to know jack about combat, I'm pretty sure I could jump in a fighter and fly it if I was given the opportunity (although the aeronautics degree I have would certainly help too ). The earlier you get people into planes, the more adaptable they will be. I'm not saying that we should start recruiting middle schoolers into fighter squadrons, but the ability may still be there that early.

I wouldn't necessarily bet that the Hasegawa battroid and fighter kits are exactly the same proportions, but they'd probably very be close. I've used lots of Hasegawa kit instructions before for modeling, Macross and other aircraft alike. Whatever processes they use for making those schematics usually result in near perfect consistency, making the modeling methods shown in these videos work really well (putting the schematics on a box of appropriate size). I'd be willing to bet that Hasegawa designs all their kits by computer now, and the instructions are made with lineart renders of the models themselves. In terms of the VF-0 though, I'd almost assume that keeping proportions between modes would be a done deal.. since the original model is entirely CG, it would only make sense for Hasegawa to make their molds based on the original computer model. Assuming they didn't use any warping magic with the transformation, that would mean the design itself is completely consistent in all modes... provided Hasegawa used the same model for both kits, it should be possible to make a rough duplicate of the original. Might have to scale a few things here and there, but it's nothing like the inconsistencies that pop up in the VF-1.