Takatoku SDF-1 Prototype Picture and Yoshiyuki Takani Art Mystery Solved!

[Shawn]

 

Ok...here me out...

Over on the ToyboxDX Facebook page (register your favorite robot as a Valkyrie of course) Matt Alt posted a picture he took of the 1/3000 Takatoku Prototype SDF-1 which is owned by a former Takatoku exec (for full pic go to ToyboxDX facebook)

 

This prototype was used on the Takatoku box (courtesy of @xstoys)

 

 

ok, so this is where it gets weird.

Look closely at those Shoulder Cannons.
They are on a swing hinge.

Now in your mind...place the Toy in Cruiser mode and hold it in flight mode (horizontal)
And now imagine a loose fitting floppy prototype shoulder cannon hinge...
and lastly mix in this little thing called GRAVITY...

 

and then we have (ladies and gentlemen)

 

I've ALWAYS wondered why Takani drew it like this with the guns pointing down. My guess is that someone at Nue had the prototype lying around for whatever design approval or something, picked it up, took a picture of it in flight mode, and sent it to Takani. who did his incredible picture based on the floppy gun prototype.

 

(disclaimer this is my crazy personal theory and not actually validated by any means whatsoever)

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Wait, so...it WASN'T aliens?

[tekering]

It would certainly explain the awkward proportions and the foreshortened prow...!

Excellent observation, Shawn. 

[Mog]

I actually have that pic on my DVD box set of Macross.

I thought it was a cool pic before, but now I can't unsee how odd the proportions are.

Thought maybe the pic on the box set was stretched out or had better proportions. . . . nope.

Oh well, guess I'll keep displaying the Hik' and Misa side of the box instead.

[seti88]

Yes!

 

[tekering]

I actually put some time and effort into trying to correct the proportions, to make the SDF-1 look more like the animation model and less like the vintage toy...

Forgive my blasphemous sacrilege. 

[derex3592]

I've always loved that pic. Good job on the detective work @Shawn!  I always wondered why the cannons were pointing down as well!  @tekering- nice job! looks good! 

[vladykins]

Ha, Nice find, Shawn!

[jvmacross]

11 hours ago, Shawn said:

 

Ok...here me out...

Over on the ToyboxDX Facebook page (register your favorite robot as a Valkyrie of course) Matt Alt posted a picture he took of the 1/3000 Takatoku Prototype SDF-1 which is owned by a former Takatoku exec (for full pic go to ToyboxDX facebook)

 

This prototype was used on the Takatoku box (courtesy of @xstoys)

 

 

ok, so this is where it gets weird.

Look closely at those Shoulder Cannons.
They are on a swing hinge.

Now in your mind...place the Toy in Cruiser mode and hold it in flight mode (horizontal)
And now imagine a loose fitting floppy prototype shoulder cannon hinge...
and lastly mix in this little thing called GRAVITY...

 

and then we have (ladies and gentlemen)

 

I've ALWAYS wondered why Takani drew it like this with the guns pointing down. My guess is that someone at Nue had the prototype lying around for whatever design approval or something, picked it up, took a picture of it in flight mode, and sent it to Takani. who did his incredible picture based on the floppy gun prototype.

 

(disclaimer this is my crazy personal theory and not actually validated by any means whatsoever)

That prototype is also on the Takatoku Toys promo posters.....

https://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/46734-takatoku-toys-and-bandai-macross-promotional-materials/?tab=comments#comment-1522350

 

 

 

What I'd like to see is the Miyatake line art showing that the cannons can extend that far....all of the available lineart just shows the cannons either pointing stright or at 45 degree angle....I am sure the gimmick was probably cancelled due to the floppiness concerns you mentioned, but what if it was actually deemed not "canon"....sort of like the VF-1C...

 

 

 

 

[nightmareB4macross]

11 hours ago, Shawn said:

 

Hard to believe this is still out there intact and as beautiful as ever.

I wonder I this same collector has the original wooden VF-1J from promo pics.

[Bolt]

11 hours ago, Shawn said:

I've ALWAYS wondered why Takani drew it like this with the guns pointing down. My guess is that someone at Nue had the prototype lying around for whatever design approval or something, picked it up, took a picture of it in flight mode, and sent it to Takani. who did his incredible picture based on the floppy gun prototype.

That sounds like a solid theory @Shawn   It's also know Takani had few other references as SDFM was still in production when this was painted. So references were scant. Hence the VF in Gerwalk mode with its arms tucked in.

Iv'e always loved his early Macross paintings.

[Mog]

12 minutes ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Hard to believe this is still out there intact and as beautiful as ever.

I wonder I this same collector has the original wooden VF-1J from promo pics.

Well it does have one busted shoulder, but I guess that’s par for these toys after all these years! 

Moggy’s not holding a grudge about getting a SDF-1 with busted shoulders! 

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, derex3592 said:

I've always loved that pic. Good job on the detective work @Shawn!  I always wondered why the cannons were pointing down as well!  @tekering- nice job! looks good! 

Well, if you think about it: gravity would be pulling on those guns and the actuators/ motors to aim them would be under constant strain to keep them pointed forward. Perhaps the artist felt that the captain would order them pointing down to relieve undue stress on those motors.

[Shawn]

2 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, if you think about it: gravity would be pulling on those guns and the actuators/ motors to aim them would be under constant strain to keep them pointed forward. Perhaps the artist felt that the captain would order them pointing down to relieve undue stress on those motors.

I always tried to use that as my reasoning for the oddness in the painting (what else could it be thinking logically), but the prometheus and daedalus are also just hanging back without any real support...and they are much much heavier than a hollow cannon.

but then again, if takani painted those hanging straight down too to alleviate joint stress due to gravity we'd see all the destroids bulging against the daedalus front door and valkyries falling out the flight elevators strewn across the landscape...or maybe that already happened and that is why the valkyries are flying up from the ground as they fell out of the nest.

 

[Sanity is Optional]

Realistically, when you have things that big moving around they probably have locks or brakes to hold them in place.

[jvmacross]

4 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, if you think about it: gravity would be pulling on those guns and the actuators/ motors to aim them would be under constant strain to keep them pointed forward. Perhaps the artist felt that the captain would order them pointing down to relieve undue stress on those motors.

The SDF-1 busts thru the enemy ship....unscathed...I don't think everday strain would be a problem....lol

 

[Bub]

On 5/4/2021 at 1:04 PM, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Wait, so...it WASN'T aliens?

It was. 

[Mommar]

On 5/4/2021 at 3:36 AM, tekering said:

I actually put some time and effort into trying to correct the proportions, to make the SDF-1 look more like the animation model and less like the vintage toy...

Forgive my blasphemous sacrilege. 

That's actually a damn fine effort.

[jvmacross]

[Mommar]

52 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

What is that, the Michael Bay version?

[jvmacross]

8 hours ago, Mommar said:

What is that, the Michael Bay version?

I knew someone would eventually say that! 

I wonder if that would be considered "different" enough for a "Robotech" movie?

[Darth Mingus]

4 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

I knew someone would eventually say that! 

I wonder if that would be considered "different" enough for a "Robotech" movie?

Michael Bay presents "Zack Snyder's Robotech" in 4:3 ratio black&white, starring Shia Lebeuf as Rick Hunger, Will Smith as "Maxium" Sterling, Emma Stone as "Minmei" (asian, of course), Zendaya as "Misa" Hayes, and Gina Carano as "Miryia".  With Dave Bautisa as "Ben" Dixon.

[jvmacross]

1 hour ago, Darth Mingus said:

Michael Bay presents "Zack Snyder's Robotech" in 4:3 ratio black&white, starring Shia Lebeuf as Rick Hunger, Will Smith as "Maxium" Sterling, Emma Stone as "Minmei" (asian, of course), Zendaya as "Misa" Hayes, and Gina Carano as "Miryia".  With Dave Bautisa as "Ben" Dixon.

This casting would have been half-way believable...until you got to Gina Carano.....no way she would be cast in any kind of big budget movie ever again...lol

[pengbuzz]

On 5/3/2021 at 11:55 PM, Shawn said:

 

Ok...here me out...

Over on the ToyboxDX Facebook page (register your favorite robot as a Valkyrie of course) Matt Alt posted a picture he took of the 1/3000 Takatoku Prototype SDF-1 which is owned by a former Takatoku exec (for full pic go to ToyboxDX facebook)

 

This prototype was used on the Takatoku box (courtesy of @xstoys)

 

 

ok, so this is where it gets weird.

Look closely at those Shoulder Cannons.
They are on a swing hinge.

Now in your mind...place the Toy in Cruiser mode and hold it in flight mode (horizontal)
And now imagine a loose fitting floppy prototype shoulder cannon hinge...
and lastly mix in this little thing called GRAVITY...

 

and then we have (ladies and gentlemen)

 

I've ALWAYS wondered why Takani drew it like this with the guns pointing down. My guess is that someone at Nue had the prototype lying around for whatever design approval or something, picked it up, took a picture of it in flight mode, and sent it to Takani. who did his incredible picture based on the floppy gun prototype.

 

(disclaimer this is my crazy personal theory and not actually validated by any means whatsoever)

(Yes, this is a necropost)

If you think about it though: it would certainly save wear on the canon mount motors to simply let the guns hang down rather than constantly trying to fight Earth's gravity,

[jvmacross]

Since the Macross Boxart book has confirmed the existence of lineart specific for the toys...it would make sense that the extra hinge that allowed that movement would have been depicted in the lineart for the 1/3000 SDF-1 toy...at some point the extra gimmick was scrapped as it did not make it onto the final product....

Takani was producing illustrations based on more than just the lineart and he seems to capture more motion and thus, more of the gimmicks/articulation possessed by the mecha he was working on....so that was probably why he painted the shoulder cannons the way he did...as far as he was concerned...it was a cannon thing that the SDF-1 could do...

Takani also painted a "green/Olive" Tomahawk....so I think that demonstartes that he was working on his paintings based on the info he was being given....

The only illustrator that didn't care what was cannon for any particular Macross valk, destroid, etc was Masami!  LOL

[Knight26]

9 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

(Yes, this is a necropost)

If you think about it though: it would certainly save wear on the canon mount motors to simply let the guns hang down rather than constantly trying to fight Earth's gravity,

Not really.  You wouldn't want free-spinning gears going while your ship is lifting off.  Besides that, due to their size, they would most likely be on a hydraulic system with multiple locks to keep the cannons in their stowed position.  Smaller turrets would, for sure, be moved electronically, but then they would likely be held in place with fail-safe brakes, like on big trucks, that lock when power is removed.