Valkyries Third Sortie - and it's in English!

[nexxstrait]

most of Tenjin's illustrations for the various recent releases are in the book....one notable omission (for me at least) was his VF-1J illustration from Macross the First.....luckily I have the calendar!

It's in Second Sortie ;-)

[jvmacross]

It's in Second Sortie ;-)

LOL....I need to dig the first two up again! thanks!

[no3Ljm]

LOL....I need to dig the first two up again! thanks!

And here I was thinking you the MacMook 'マクムック' Guru. And you missed that one. j/k

[jvmacross]

And here I was thinking you the MacMook 'マクムック' Guru. And you missed that one. j/k

Getting forgettful in my old age...maybe I'll make up for my memory lapse by posting a ton of pics from the first 2 Sortie books!!!

[Save]

Tenjin will be at the Wacom Technology Booth: 444 during New York Comic Con. He will be doing one-hour live drawing sessions three times a day during the convention (check booth for his schedule). While he's not doing any formal signing make sure to stop by and say hi.

[This Confuses Gamlin]

Do you have any further information on that? Wacom's info page on the NYCC website is infuriatingly cut off.

[NZEOD]

Ahhh I finally have the 3rd Destroid drawing!

[This Confuses Gamlin]

I found Master Tenjin.

If you're at NYCC, he's doing the drawing demo at 4 PM through Saturday.

Edited October 6, 2016 by This Confuses Gamlin

[sh9000]

http://www.hobbylink.tv/valkyries-third-sortie-tenjin-hidetaka-artwork-collection-by-koubunsha

[VF-18S Hornet]

Just got my copy today, yay.

[Raptor One]

Any VF-31A illustrations in this one?

Edited November 12, 2016 by Raptor One

[hachi]

Any VF-31A illustrations in this one?

As far as I can tell, none. The most attention for Delta goes to the VF31J and only for a few pages. The rest are mostly from Frontier and SDF Macross. You'll have to wait for the 4th sortie book five years from now.

I have to say the illustrations are really nice, and if I had money to burn I'd buy a 2nd one and cut some out to display on a wall or something.

[Podtastic]

On ‎2016‎/‎09‎/‎15 at 10:35 PM, spanner said:

Nice! happy reading! or should I say ogling! (at all those lovely pictures!)

even though mine has arrived in Sydney and passed through the sort facility, it hasn't been marked out for delivery as yet and its 630am here.. so im now doubting I will see it today..

Thinking of getting this book but not sure if it is worthwhile.

What quality Zentraedi pics does it have? Any such clean pics from the covers from Macross Chronicle, like say issue 42?

[Master Dex]

1 hour ago, Podtastic said:

Thinking of getting this book but not sure if it is worthwhile.

What quality Zentraedi pics does it have? Any such clean pics from the covers from Macross Chronicle, like say issue 42?

Does Macross Chronicle use Tenjin art for its covers? If not then none. This book is entirely artwork by Hidetaki Tenjin (most of what he does for Macross is used for model kit box art).

[Seto Kaiba]

5 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Thinking of getting this book but not sure if it is worthwhile.

What quality Zentraedi pics does it have? Any such clean pics from the covers from Macross Chronicle, like say issue 42?

Offhand, I don't recall any Zentradi pics in it unless you want to count the Queadluun-Rhea in the background of a group shot.  There are a few pictures of ships and destroids, but the majority of the content is devoted to Valkyries (as one might surmise from the title).

 

3 hours ago, Master Dex said:

Does Macross Chronicle use Tenjin art for its covers? If not then none. This book is entirely artwork by Hidetaki Tenjin (most of what he does for Macross is used for model kit box art).

Tenjin Hidetaka was responsible for much of the new art in Macross Chronicle, including the covers.

[Podtastic]

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Offhand, I don't recall any Zentradi pics in it unless you want to count the Queadluun-Rhea in the background of a group shot.  There are a few pictures of ships and destroids, but the majority of the content is devoted to Valkyries (as one might surmise from the title).

 

Tenjin Hidetaka was responsible for much of the new art in Macross Chronicle, including the covers.

Thanks for the feedback. I think there is The Glaug pic but one or two pics aren't enough to justify purchase.

Wish they would do a Zentraedi first sortie or something.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Thanks for the feedback. I think there is The Glaug pic but one or two pics aren't enough to justify purchase.

The Zentradi Army hasn't really been a significant presence in Macross stories since Macross II: Lovers Again's timeline... or Macross 7's "Fleet of the Strongest Women" if you're willing to consider them being used for laughs.  They're mostly background antagonists now, like how there was a rogue Zentradi fleet menacing one of Windermere IV's neighbors in Macross Delta Gaiden: the Black-Winged White Knight.

 

9 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Wish they would do a Zentraedi first sortie or something.

Tenjin Hidetaka's Valkyries series of artbooks is a collection of the art he's done for things like model kit box art, magazines, and design work he did for Macross shows for the most part.  He isn't doing a lot of new art for the books, so the title's more a result of the content than vice versa.  Valkyries are, after all, the go-to mecha for Macross since Destroids are basically obsolete cannon fodder and the Zentradi Marines are relative newcomers to the main continuity's animation.

[Podtastic]

14 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The Zentradi Army hasn't really been a significant presence in Macross stories since Macross II: Lovers Again's timeline... or Macross 7's "Fleet of the Strongest Women" if you're willing to consider them being used for laughs.  They're mostly background antagonists now, like how there was a rogue Zentradi fleet menacing one of Windermere IV's neighbors in Macross Delta Gaiden: the Black-Winged White Knight.

 

Tenjin Hidetaka's Valkyries series of artbooks is a collection of the art he's done for things like model kit box art, magazines, and design work he did for Macross shows for the most part.  He isn't doing a lot of new art for the books, so the title's more a result of the content than vice versa.  Valkyries are, after all, the go-to mecha for Macross since Destroids are basically obsolete cannon fodder and the Zentradi Marines are relative newcomers to the main continuity's animation.

 

I just wish Macross had the same respect for its bad guys that Star Wars has.

Even though Imperial Stormtroopers only appeared in the original trilogy, we can still expect to see them in their iconic armour in upcoming films, comics, games, artwork etc.

Imagine if all you could get for Star Wars was variants of X-wings and dolls of Sy Snootles. 

 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, Podtastic said:

I just wish Macross had the same respect for its bad guys that Star Wars has.

... and just like that, you've lost me.

Star Wars has respect for its bad guys?  What Expanded Universe book was that in, because I simply must have missed it.  Obi-wan's generous exaggeration of their abilities aside, Imperial Stormtroopers are literally synonymous with villainous incompetence and the old EU extended that to the entire Imperial military via the Thrawn trilogy by revealing that the only reason the Imperial Navy was an elite fighting force was because they had the Emperor using his crazy space magic to coordinate them without their knowledge.  Everything I've read and seen to date suggests the only reason the Sith aren't extinct is the Jedi only have one alignment (Lawful Stupid) and the Republic is perennially left holding the Idiot Ball to enable them to be any kind of threat at all.

Macross, on the other hand, has plenty of respect for the Zentradi Army.  Only the revival of the Protodeviln was able to knock them out of the spot of #1 threat to galactic civilization, and that was only temporary.  The reason they're not a recurring antagonist in every series is because the New UN Gov't knows full freaking well what happened in 2010 was a one-in-a-million lucky break and that fighting anything larger than a branch fleet is essentially suicide for any emigrant fleet or planetary defense force.  Even a branch fleet is a threat that generally requires reinforcement from multiple neighboring fleets or planets.  Even the Macross II timeline, where the Zentradi ARE recurring antagonists, still treats them as SERIOUS BUSINESS and the UN Forces get clobbered even by the smaller fleets that aren't really trying for the first couple decades... and even then they only really "win" by exploiting standard Zentradi tactics calling for retreat and regrouping if a battle group's flagship is sunk.

Valkyries get the focus in Macross because they are the common denominator of humanity's defense forces.

Edited August 25, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[kajnrig]

I think he means as far as merchandising goes. There are new Valks, new Destroids, but the Zentraedi don't get more than slight variations on the same designs. It would be awesome to see a variable Q-Rau...

[Seto Kaiba]

30 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

I think he means as far as merchandising goes. There are new Valks, new Destroids, but the Zentraedi don't get more than slight variations on the same designs.

Why would they?  The original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series established that the Zentradi were not given the technical knowledge base necessary to make significant repairs to, or improve upon, the technology the Protoculture developed for them.  Multiple titles also established that, barring battle damage, Zentradi overtechnology is incredibly robust and will run pretty much indefinitely (and in many cases has been for hundreds of thousands of years).

That said, we did get new Zentradi mecha in several previous titles... the new battle suit type in Macross Plus, the Feios Valkyrie in Macross VF-X, the Queadluun-Nona in the DYRL? game for Playstation, the Neo Glaug and Variable Glaug from Macross Plus: Game Edition and Macross M3 respectively, and the Draug from VOXP.  At least three of those are pre-human intervention designs.

 

30 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

It would be awesome to see a variable Q-Rau...

Been there, done that... and on no less than three separate occasions!

The first one was the General Galaxy YF-21/VF-22 Sturmvogel II from Macross Plus, which was even built out of the same factory satellite as the Queadluun-Rau and Queadluun-Rhea.  The second one was the Feios Valkyrie used by anti-government forces in Macross VF-X and Macross VF-X2, which is the love child of a Queadluun-Rau and a captured VF-11.  The third was the Queadluun-Alma from Macross the Ride, a fusion of a Feios Valkyrie and Queadluun-Rhea that was the most advanced weapon in FASCES' arsenal.

(Design inspiration-wise, the case could be made that there are actually four... though the VF-XX Zentradi Valkyrie from Macross II actually incorporates overtechnology from the Nousjadeul-Ger battle suit instead, as do all the other Macross II VFs.)

Pretty sure there are YF-21/VF-22 pics in Third Sortie, so it counts!

[kajnrig]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

snip

I don't count the YF-21/VF-22 because regardless of its similarities to a Zentraedi battle suit, it's still a VF. Plus what I meant was a variable fighter designed by and for full-sized Zentraedi. So a Q-Rau mixed with a Gnerl, maybe. Robust technology or not, lack of knowledge or not, it's reasonable to expect scientific exchange to be a two-way street. And I'm sure Kawamori et al. could have contrived some sort of scenario to justify its existence. They've done so for less logical purposes.

I mean, besides being reasonable in-universe, it would also just help to vary things up a bit. We've been seeing the same old Regults and Nosdajabaplaba... Nosejob-Gers since the very first Macross. A "VF-4" Regult would be appreciated, is all.

[Seto Kaiba]

33 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

I don't count the YF-21/VF-22 because regardless of its similarities to a Zentraedi battle suit, it's still a VF.

It was derived from, and shares parts with, the Queadluun-Rau... including the Inertia Vector Control System.

 

Quote

Plus what I meant was a variable fighter designed by and for full-sized Zentraedi. So a Q-Rau mixed with a Gnerl, maybe. Robust technology or not, lack of knowledge or not, it's reasonable to expect scientific exchange to be a two-way street. [...]

I mean, besides being reasonable in-universe, it would also just help to vary things up a bit.

Eh... there's no denying that scientific exchange is a two-way street, given that practically every new development by rebel Zentradi groups has involved enhancing a current-gen VF with a lot more Zentradi overtechnology to produce something equivalent to a next-gen VF performance-wise.

That said, cockpits are almost invariably designed with miclones in mind because a variable fighter with a giant-scale cockpit would tend to result in a prohibitively large mecha and the pilots themselves would be an incredible drain on resources for a terrorist group with limited logistical support.  It's really not reasonable in-universe, especially since these groups are trying to be covert and the Zentradi Marines in the New UN Forces are mostly malcontents looking for that familiar Zentradi Army military lifestyle, so they'd prefer something a little closer to home.

There are two designs that meet your criteria, though.  One is the Mardook variable weapon that went unnamed in the Macross II: Lovers Again OVA which had kind of a half-arsed variable design.  The other is Macross M3's Variable Glaug, which was designed for a giant pilot but due to size constraints the pilot had to be on the small side.  It was later retrofitted for a lot more sensible and roomy miclone cockpit.

 

Quote

We've been seeing the same old Regults and Nosdajabaplaba... Nosejob-Gers since the very first Macross. A "VF-4" Regult would be appreciated, is all.

Funnily enough, the Variable Glaug is based on a VF-4.

('s this one of those name problems like that whatsisname actor Sticklebrick Cumberbund?)

Still, we won't see a "new" Zentradi mecha because we know the uncultured Zentradi don't develop new weapons and the cultured ones tend to use VFs.

Edited August 25, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[Master Dex]

Though didn't we see a new type of Regult in Delta ep.1 that had arms on it?

[kajnrig]

7 minutes ago, Master Dex said:

Though didn't we see a new type of Regult in Delta ep.1 that had arms on it?

I believe it had Glaug arms attached.

 

[slide]

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Still, we won't see a "new" Zentradi mecha because we know the uncultured Zentradi don't develop new weapons and the cultured ones tend to use VFs.

I'm just hoping for a little more variation between Zentran fleets depending on where they get their kit...

The Zentran suit in Mac+ is clearly a design iteration/derivative/blending of the Quadluun pattern and Nousjadeul pattern suits [at least when looking at the art, the artists themselves may have something else to say, but from an on-the-face design view: the similarities are more than significant], maybe they come from a Construction satellite that was built later, with a more streamlined/amalgamated/advanced models and makes of the standard Zentran arsenal.

 

 

also, more Zentran takes on UN ships/designs would be welcome.

I want some Northamptons, both the Human pattern and the Zentran pattern on my shelf... and my walls of nerd art...

 

come on Mr. Tenjin! do some Capital ship works for us in the next book!!!!

[jvmacross]

On 8/23/2017 at 3:40 AM, Podtastic said:

Thinking of getting this book but not sure if it is worthwhile.

What quality Zentraedi pics does it have? Any such clean pics from the covers from Macross Chronicle, like say issue 42?

 

[Seto Kaiba]

20 hours ago, Master Dex said:

Though didn't we see a new type of Regult in Delta ep.1 that had arms on it?

We saw a couple new models of Zentradi hardware used by the New UN Spacy Marines in Macross Delta but those were all human-made.  That new model of Glaug, and two new models of Regult.  The one you're thinking of is, IIRC, the ZBP-104 which had a pair of Queadluun-Rhea arms grafted to it.  Maybe if they ever give the new Zentradi mecha a model kit or two we'll get some more Zentradi art from Tenjin.

 

 

8 hours ago, slide said:

I'm just hoping for a little more variation between Zentran fleets depending on where they get their kit...

The Macross II timeline's probably more your speed on that front... the different main fleets in that did have some major variations in kit, including differently-shaped mobile fortresses.  The Neld and Burado main fleets had a new model of Glaug and a large number of battle suit variations.

Production in the main Macross continuity is more standardized.

 

8 hours ago, slide said:

The Zentran suit in Mac+ is clearly a design iteration/derivative/blending of the Quadluun pattern and Nousjadeul pattern suits [at least when looking at the art, the artists themselves may have something else to say, but from an on-the-face design view: the similarities are more than significant], maybe they come from a Construction satellite that was built later, with a more streamlined/amalgamated/advanced models and makes of the standard Zentran arsenal.

Your supposition is on the mark, more or less.  As Macross Chronicle has it, the Zentradi battle suit from Macross Plus is essentially an economized Queadluun-Rau used by the Zentradi Army... presumably to get around the problems with the actual Queadluun-Rau (cost, complexity, handling) that necessitated the Protoculture developing a better grade of pilot (female Zentradi).  Chronicle's writers conjecture that they might've originally been developed during an insurrection on a Protoculture colony world independently of the normal R&D process.

[Podtastic]

On ‎2017‎/‎08‎/‎25 at 4:49 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

... and just like that, you've lost me.

Star Wars has respect for its bad guys?  What Expanded Universe book was that in, because I simply must have missed it.  Obi-wan's generous exaggeration of their abilities aside, Imperial Stormtroopers are literally synonymous with villainous incompetence and the old EU extended that to the entire Imperial military via the Thrawn trilogy by revealing that the only reason the Imperial Navy was an elite fighting force was because they had the Emperor using his crazy space magic to coordinate them without their knowledge.  Everything I've read and seen to date suggests the only reason the Sith aren't extinct is the Jedi only have one alignment (Lawful Stupid) and the Republic is perennially left holding the Idiot Ball to enable them to be any kind of threat at all.

Macross, on the other hand, has plenty of respect for the Zentradi Army.  Only the revival of the Protodeviln was able to knock them out of the spot of #1 threat to galactic civilization, and that was only temporary.  The reason they're not a recurring antagonist in every series is because the New UN Gov't knows full freaking well what happened in 2010 was a one-in-a-million lucky break and that fighting anything larger than a branch fleet is essentially suicide for any emigrant fleet or planetary defense force.  Even a branch fleet is a threat that generally requires reinforcement from multiple neighboring fleets or planets.  Even the Macross II timeline, where the Zentradi ARE recurring antagonists, still treats them as SERIOUS BUSINESS and the UN Forces get clobbered even by the smaller fleets that aren't really trying for the first couple decades... and even then they only really "win" by exploiting standard Zentradi tactics calling for retreat and regrouping if a battle group's flagship is sunk.

Valkyries get the focus in Macross because they are the common denominator of humanity's defense forces.

No I think you probably misunderstood me. I meant as in we fans being able to get our hands on all the classic Zentraedi stuff in the form of merchandise (figs, models, new comics, new anime featuring the classic Zentraedi designs) with the same ease that Star Wars fans are able to get their hands on all the classic Imperial stuff.

Can you think of any Star Wars Imperial vehicle or trooper that you cant get in some form or another?  Is the same true for the Macross Zentraedi?

As to the book that gave the Imperial forces respect, I think that would have been the West End Imperial Sourcebook. (No need to respond with a "That's no longer cannon" because my hobby attitude to "cannon" is whatever I like goes and whatever I don't doesn't.)

 

Edited August 30, 2017 by Podtastic
Added point.

[Podtastic]

On ‎2017‎/‎08‎/‎27 at 2:33 AM, jvmacross said:

 

Thanks. I might have to reconsider.

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, Podtastic said:

No I think you probably misunderstood me. I meant as in we fans being able to get our hands on all the classic Zentraedi stuff in the form of merchandise (figs, models, new comics, new anime featuring the classic Zentraedi designs) with the same ease that Star Wars fans are able to get their hands on all the classic Imperial stuff.

Can you think of any Star Wars Imperial vehicle or trooper that you cant get in some form or another?  Is the same true for the Macross Zentraedi?

When you get right down to it, that's a false equivalency.  The Macross metaseries introduces a new antagonist and new setting in every major installment.  Barring a couple of the Expanded Universe, the Star Wars metaseries has always used the same antagonist faction that just gets a change in pseudonyms and minor facelift between trilogies.  All the "classic Imperial stuff" is more readily available because Star Wars only has the one antagonist and they use the same gear in multiple titles.

Macross mixes it up more, and kind of has to since the Zentradi are kind of an impossible enemy to beat on any realistic scale.

[anime52k8]

On 8/24/2017 at 11:54 PM, Podtastic said:

 

I just wish Macross had the same respect for its bad guys that Star Wars has.

Even though Imperial Stormtroopers only appeared in the original trilogy, we can still expect to see them in their iconic armour in upcoming films, comics, games, artwork etc.

Imagine if all you could get for Star Wars was variants of X-wings and dolls of Sy Snootles. 

 

 

 

The key difference is that star destroyers and stormtroopers are cool. The Zentradi ran around in eggs with legs and had giant zucchini for spaceships.