VF-XS precursor to VF-2SS

[Firefox]

I decided to start a project on VF-XS. It's a little bit ambitious to say it will be a transformable model/toy. As of now, I'm collecting some info on it. Basically I know VF-XS is just a temporarily name for the then VF-2SS. The original designer was changed after the initial design is completed and other designer stepped in to refine it to become VF-2SS. The picture is all I have for the VF-XS. I have only the front of the super pack battroid. I vaguely remember seeing one that shows the back of it. If anyone has it, could you share it here?

There are a number of differences between VF-XS and the fdinal VF-2SS:

- VF-XS has the smaller chest plate in battroid mode

- The panel lines are different in the chest plate, legs and arms

- It has a different gun

- There are two air brakes on top of the body in fighter mode

- The are at least two air brakes in the legs instead of just panel lines in VF-2SS

- The main landing gear position are different in jet mode

- The nose gear is different and seems to be in different position as well

- The back jet pack in battroid is different

- The head is different

Edited May 6, 2014 by Firefox

[Mommar]

I didn't know about this. Where is it from?

[charger69]

I didn't know about this. Where is it from?

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=1130&p=18574

[Seto Kaiba]

I didn't know about this. Where is it from?

It's from an old issue of Animage, IIRC, which touted a bunch of promotional art for Macross II when it was still in development. A few of the art pieces were printed in other places as well. I'm pretty sure I have all the publications that covered it.

This was the original concept for what became the VF-2SS, back when it was an all-regime fighter with a more traditional Super Pack. The design was polished into the VF-2SS, and the basic concept entered into the lore as the original VF-2, the all-regime fighter whose -S variant was modified for maximum space performance to create the VF-2SS in 2081.

It's worth noting that "VF-XS" was also applied to the design that became the VF-2JA after they settled on a name for the VF-2SS.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Seto Kaiba

[Mr March]

IMO, the VF-XS gun pod still stands as the far superior design for any gun pod from the Macross II anime. I'd even go so far as to say the gun pod looks good even by the benchmark of all gun pods, the broader Macross franchise included. It's a damned shame this design was lost at the concept stage of development because it was a fantastic looking weapon. If I ever get a hold of high resolution scans for this mecha and the gun pod, I'd build a proper colored version for the M3 site.

I hope you find the images you're looking for. A model of this craft would certainly be interesting and most definitely a unique fan project. No one's ever built one to my knowledge and few Macross fans even know it exists.

[Seto Kaiba]

If I ever get a hold of high resolution scans for this mecha and the gun pod, I'd build a proper colored version for the M3 site.

... and the to-scan queue gets a little longer.

[Zinjo]

I totally forgot about these scans. I might even have a copy of the mag in my piles o' Macross media. Finding it might be a bigger challenge though...

Edited May 6, 2014 by Zinjo

[Firefox]

One small step... made the seat. I borrow the pilot from VF-0S

Edited May 8, 2014 by Firefox

[Mommar]

I think that XS is way more cool then the final 2SS design.

[charger69]

I think that XS is way more cool then the final 2SS design.

Prototypes are always cooler

http://valkyrie2.cloud-line.com/vfxs/drawings/

Edited May 8, 2014 by charger69

[Mommar]

Looking closer at the VF-X-3 design I kind of get the feeling Kazumi Fujita started off with that as the base for the SX.

And looking at the lineart for both the XS and 2SS I do, very badly, wish Arcadia would make one. I think it has the same sort of cache the VF-4 does where a lot of people really love the fighter mode and would buy just for that even if the said animation it came from wasn't wide known or popular.

I can't wait to see what you come up with Firefox.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Mommar

[Seto Kaiba]

Looking closer at the VF-X-3 design I kind of get the feeling Kazumi Fujita started off with that as the base for the SX.

Unless there was a time machine involved, I don't think so... the VF-XS Valkyrie II concept was published in Animage in 1991. The VF-X3/VF-3 design didn't appear until Macross: Remember Me, Skull Leader, and Love Stories, which were published in Autumn 1993 and Summer/Autumn 1994.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Seto Kaiba

[Firefox]

Another little step. Wish I have more time

[Mommar]

Unless there was a time machine involved, I don't think so... the VF-XS Valkyrie II concept was published in Animage in 1991. The VF-X3/VF-3 design didn't appear until Macross: Remember Me, Skull Leader, and Love Stories, which were published in Autumn 1993 and Summer/Autumn 1994.

Just trying to clarify a few things. By "published in" are you referring to publicly available line-art compendiums?

[Zinjo]

Grebo Guru had an amazing collection of VF-2's including the VF-XS.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showuser=4460

http://grebo-guru.deviantart.com/art/VF-2SS-Valkyrie-II-as-VF-20-330419820

He has a few on is deviant art page, but not all the ones he once posted here...

Alas, he is not doing as much Macross art anymore. He was a very talented line art compositor. He put together some pretty amazing ideas from line art parts...

[Seto Kaiba]

Just trying to clarify a few things. By "published in" are you referring to publicly available line-art compendiums?

By "published in", I literally mean the art was published in a print resource... in this case, it was part of a Macross II teaser article in the hobby magazine Animage, in the #11 issue for 1991.

I wouldn't really call it a "line art compendium", and the VF-XS was not printed in any Macross II art book, but the magazine was definitely publicly available for a whopping 600 yen! (There's a copy on eBay for ten bucks right now.)

Edited May 28, 2014 by Seto Kaiba

[Mommar]

I still think you're confusing the date that the drawings were release to the public with when they were made by their creators. There's nothing to say Kawamori didn't have a ton of production designs/notes/etc... on the VF-4 that were never used in print until a certain point much later, that were part of a body of work Kazumi Fujita had access to behind the scenes when working on Macross II prior to that. Unless there's a definitive "this piece of line-art was drawn on date X" that we can point to. And even still, pre-production notes could have been very similar to the "finished" VF-X-3 and could still have been seen by Kazumi Fujita. We don't really know every single thing laying around and who was allowed to look at what.

[Seto Kaiba]

I still think you're confusing the date that the drawings were release to the public with when they were made by their creators. There's nothing to say Kawamori didn't have a ton of production designs/notes/etc... on the VF-4 that were never used in print until a certain point much later, that were part of a body of work Kazumi Fujita had access to behind the scenes when working on Macross II prior to that. Unless there's a definitive "this piece of line-art was drawn on date X" that we can point to.

No, I don't think I am... I think you're making a conclusion there's a connection when there's no evidence any exists.

Also, VF-4? I thought your point of inquiry was the VF-X3 Star Crusader from Macross: Remember Me. We know roughly when Kawamori designed the VF-X3 Star Crusader... because it's stylistically almost identical to work he was doing for BattleTech's JP release, which was done at the same time he was developing the other original VFs that went into the FamilySoft Macross game series. Late 1992, early 1993. We can point to exact dates for when some of the other VFs from those games had their line art done... the Stampede Valkyrie was November 1992, for a game that debuted about a year later in 1993.

The rough version of the finished VF-4 was dated March 1995... so that's not a likely inspiration either, though he'd roughed out some stuff regarding battroid appearance that Ohata and Fujita either didn't have or didn't care for, because their VF-4 from the Macross: Eternal Love Song game looked nothing like it.

And even still, pre-production notes could have been very similar to the "finished" VF-X-3 and could still have been seen by Kazumi Fujita. We don't really know every single thing laying around and who was allowed to look at what.

Without a time machine? Not likely. Remember, Studio Nue wasn't involved in the development of Macross II, so it's unlikely the concept work of Studio Nue's staff would've been available to the Macross II creators. Likewise, the original VFs designed to be included in the FamilySoft games weren't finished until November 1992 according to the dates on the art in Kawamori's Macross Design Works book, and that's a year after the VF-XS Valkyrie II's art was printed in Animage, and the same month the final (6th) episode of Macross II was released... by which point that ship had SAILED.