Destroids...

[RedWolf]

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!

Taksraven

I read that as SOYLENT IS GREEN PEOPLE!!!!!

[Seto Kaiba]

I like the design for the Defender EX in Macross II. The arm (laser?) cannons look menacing. And from the description from Mr. March's site they're fast too because of rollers.

Um... those aren't beam cannons on the Defender EX's "arms", they're double-barreled railguns. In fact, they appear to be similar in size and design to the anti-ship railgun on the VF-2SS Valkyrie II's Super Armed Pack. That being the case, and the animation backing up their impressive range and firepower, it's likely that the Defender EX could serve double duty as an anti-aircraft platform and a mobile light anti-ship turret.

The mechanical designers working on Macross II seem to have had a minor love affair with railguns. Just about every VF gunpod is a compact railgun, the Defender EX mounts four large railguns, and the Tomahawk II carries a pair of smaller railguns underneath its "forearm" beam cannons. I also know of a few sources that label the Giant Monster's (erroneously dubbed "Monster II" by Macross Chronicle) six main cannons as heavy anti-ship railguns as well.

Oh, so that's where they got the idea for the Destroids with wheels.

Well, wheeled ground mecha aren't exactly unique, so Kawamori and co. might've been inspired to use wheeled feet on the Cheyenne by another, more recent, show like Blue Gender... but they are the first instance of destroids using wheels to get around faster in Macross.

[Einherjar]

Um... those aren't beam cannons on the Defender EX's "arms", they're double-barreled railguns. In fact, they appear to be similar in size and design to the anti-ship railgun on the VF-2SS Valkyrie II's Super Armed Pack. That being the case, and the animation backing up their impressive range and firepower, it's likely that the Defender EX could serve double duty as an anti-aircraft platform and a mobile light anti-ship turret.

Hmm, even better.

Well, wheeled ground mecha aren't exactly unique, so Kawamori and co. might've been inspired to use wheeled feet on the Cheyenne by another, more recent, show like Blue Gender... but they are the first instance of destroids using wheels to get around faster in Macross.

I'm just glad it didn't just appear in Zero suddenly like the other concepts introduced there, that's all.

[anime52k8]

Eh, swapping the paired gun clusters out for something a little more versatile and, more importantly, a bit closer to the target... like the groin-mounted Gatling gun on the French C3-5 Mistral II arm slave from Full Metal Panic (bottom left mecha in the image below), or the chin-mounted antipersonnel machine gun on the MSER-04 Anf in Gundam 00. There are more examples of this, I'm just too lazy to dig them out. (EDIT + NB: The nominal destroid and "Poor Man's Valkyrie" known as the GERWALKroid has the same sort of chin-mounted cannon arrangement as the Anf... they even look somewhat similar...)

Oddly enough, the Tomahawk's 12.7mm antipersonnel machine guns are mounted on top of the head where they won't do a damn bit of good against infantry at close ranges. (Can you imagine the Tomahawk running around bent almost double trying to sweep infantry with that thing?)

OK, small bit of backtracking but I just noticed that the Cheyenne II has an AP machine gun on it's crotch.

also since the Cheyenne I is described as having an anti-personnel machine gun, does that mean it's got a gun on it's crotch too?

[sketchley]

OK, small bit of backtracking but I just noticed that the Cheyenne II has an AP machine gun on it's crotch.

also since the Cheyenne I is described as having an anti-personnel machine gun, does that mean it's got a gun on it's crotch too?

See post from 5 days ago in this very thread: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=833510