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Ready for panel liner and wash. Then final assembly with a few small pieces on the back of the legs. The photos look blue but it’s a deep purple scheme.

In some of the line art, it looks like that case might almost be large enough to hold one of the drums... but we don't actually know that the drum is the laser machine pistol's magazine, or where the magazine is. Pretty much, yeah. The 6th Generation prototypes veer heavily towards Gundam-style Super Prototype territory heavily enough as it is. The main thing keeping them from actually getting there is that they're held in reserve as an 11th Hour Powerup for the story's climax rather than being the main mecha, and that in-story the developers absolutely intended to mass produce them as-is instead of watering them down into a much weaker production machine.

I don't know if I'd rate it that low, but otherwise I agree with this take. It very much felt like the sort of plot that could have been a multi-part episode of the Justice League. It wasn't bad, I'd go so far as to say that I wound up liking the casting a good bit, but it lacked any real nuance (my wife even complained that even if she could buy that Luthor was that much of a megalomaniacal villain, she couldn't believe that all those people working for him would just go along with his scheme), and it was lacking in a cinematic, summer blockbuster feel that The Avengers movies had.

There is one, but on a different style https://tamashiiweb.com/item/14041/?dmode=pc&wovn=es#

They're officially non-scale, but are roughly slightly larger than 1/144 scale, same as the regular Robot Spirits line. IIRC they target an absolute size of around 5-6" or 12-15cm and scale loosely amongst themselves. (Smaller MSes like Wing are smaller than usual, bigger ones like Nu are bigger than usual, etc.) Metal Build and Chogokin are indeed bigger and tend to map more directly to 1/100 scale, though IIRC they too target an absolute size of 7-8" rather than a strict 1/100 scale. Currently, no. I don't remember if the Granddaddy has even been made in MB/Choogkin/etc. The Robot Spirits Ver ANIME figure might work for you, but like the Metal RS you linked, it also is in the smaller scale. Bandai did release a version of the MG Perfect Gundam without its "Perfect"/"Full Armor" parts, which might work for you: https://p-bandai.com/us/item/N2559803001006

AKA Gundam.

I could see something like that for the movie version, since it’s not clear how the ammo feeds into the pistol, but the drum on the tv version appears too big for the pack

According to Macross Chronicle Mechanic Sheet SDFM TV Zentradi 03A "Nousjadeul-Ger", it's a magazine case meant to hold reloads for the Nousjadeul-Ger's handheld weapons like the laser machine pistol it normally wields. One would presume the UN Marine Corps would be primarily naval infantry, with armored and aerial support as appropriate... though we have almost no way of confirming that. There are precious few sources that actually mention the UN Marine Corps. The oldest, the Sky Angels VF-1 Valkyrie tech manual, mentions that there were a substantial number of Marines stationed aboard the SLV-111 Daedalus. Not as Destroid operators, but as a naval infantry force supported by a number of marine aviators to man the helicopters, fighters, and support craft carried aboard the ship. Sky Angels also asserts that there were UN Marine fighter and fighter/attack squadrons using the VF-1 Valkyrie. Macross Zero does show one UN Marine Corps soldier named Katie training with the VF-0 pilots and indicates she's going to be training on a VF-0. Official media does mention the Marine Corps had a purpose-made VF-0 variant of their own (the VF-0C). Hasegawa did a model kit for it back in the day, and the markings they chose to give it were those of UN Marine Corps model conversion training squadron VMFAT-203 Hawks. The Hawks are noted to have been a Hawaii-based squadron that had a number of aircraft stationed aboard SLV-111 Daedalus in 2008. The Hawks transitioned to the VF-1 Valkyrie in 2009 and trained Marine Corps aviators on the fighter for a brief time before being transferred to being a Spacy Marine Corps squadron under the designation SVFM-31 (probably supposed to be SVMF-31) for a period of about two years until they were again reorganized by the newly established New UN Forces and became a Spacy squadron as SVF-31. I wonder if the regular Marine Corps simply got absorbed by, or is interchangeable with, the Spacy Marine Corps past a certain point?

After checking Roy again, I do think it's the "tabs way to the rear" that slot into the top of the chest plate near the airbrake---as in, the ones the KO really needs to have sanded down or it's nigh-impossible to transform without cracking/snapping something. So now I'm trying to "thicken them back up" with nail polish, to find the perfect balance of "holds it down a bit better in jet mode" and "can actually transform to battroid mode without making terrifying bending and cracking noises". Of course, a genuine Roy does both right out of the box... I think the KO's tabs are too TALL (and need sanding down), but also too THIN (front-back mainly) and need thickening. Which creates problems in both modes...

We were checking out some lesser films available on Amazon yesterday and found Heads of State with John Cena and Idris Elba. It’s a very basic kinda idiotic predicable buddy action movie where Cena plays the U.S.president and Elba is the prime minister of the U.K.. The plot is easy to figure out and things explode way bigger than justified and you gotta really suspend disbelief, but if you can just switch off your brain, it’s a pretty fun one. Elba and Cena practically play their usual cookie cutter selves, but even though it’s a tired premise, they kinda play off each well enough for the movie to barely work. It ain’t winnin an award or even coming close to being a runner up for a nomination. Bassically, if you don’t have to pay to see it and you got some popcorn and can watch a movie with the intelligence levels turned down, it’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon or evening.

Here's a idea about the UNMC: Are they supposed to be ground-based ie Destroids and Regults?

Not sure if it’s a question that’s been answered, but was wondering about the pack in the right hip of the Nousjadeul Ger armors. Seems to be a similar pack with both the movie and tv show versions. The one in the left hip seems to be a simple armor piece, but the right side looks very different. Just was wondering since recently there was a build of the old Imai kit of the tv version in the workbench section.

I wonder if there’s also way to stow B2Five’s ride armor into Pose+ Legioss. That would be cool.

yeah, same for me. Sits in my private warehouse. I had the plamax basara and mylene as well as the VF-11 with booster shipped, or at least paid to ship, but it didn't ship yet. HLJ is moving to a bigger warehouse and has a new shipping process and it isn't working properly now. I'll wait until they managed to ship my plamax and vf-11 stuff. Then I'll let them ship the rim world vf-171.

I'm pretty sure they care at least a little, since they have mentioned the Dancing Skulls in other volumes and the references to the VF-3000's classified deployment to Special Forces units is pretty clearly a reference to Macross M3. That said, I'd assume the Neo York Liberation League probably didn't purchase their VF-3000s from Shinsei Industry and wouldn't be mentioned among their legitimate/intended customers. Of course there is also the possibility that the VF-3000s in Macross M3 are being retroactively identified as PMC craft hired by the Liberation League. Cost-effectiveness was certainly a priority for a lot of 2nd Generation VFs, but I think a solid argument can be made that cost-effectiveness was just one of several shifting priorities which were part of the larger generational objective of developing VFs around the evolving (and at the time poorly-understood) needs of early emigrant fleets and planets. Early 2nd Generation Variable Fighters like the VF-X-3, VF-4, and VF-3000 don't mention cost or ease of manufacture as a primary design objective. The VF-X-3 was lost during the First Space War but was said to have performance exceeding that of even the VF-4. The VF-4 and VF-3000 were both designed to address the shortcomings of the original VF-1 in space operations. Larger airframes with more room for internal propellant tanks and sub-engine systems. Larger and longer-ranged energy weapons to reduce their dependence on limited ammunition. Improved live support systems in the event of the craft being disabled or destroyed, to preserve the life of the pilot as long as possible while waiting for a rescue. Both of those models were introduced around the time of the very first emigrant fleet launches. Those 2nd Generation designs that entered development or service after Humanity started to discover habitable planets are the ones that, surely not coincidentally, are described with statements like "inexpensive" and "easily manufactured on developing emigrant planets". Once emigrant fleets started actually finding habitable worlds that they could start colonizing right away, suddenly the need wasn't just for big Valkyries with high operational endurance in space. Now they also needed something light and inexpensive that they could use for planetside service. Something they could manufacture on the cheap without jeopardizing their development plans for the planet's surface. So from there, we get a bevy of low-cost, low-complexity solutions like the VF-5, VF-6, VF-7, VF-5000, and finally VF-9 that all served as supplements to the VF-4. Both Macross Chronicle and Master File generally agree that the thing that did the most damage to the VF-3000's prospects was the fact that it was essentially Stonewell Bellcom (later Shinsei Industry) competing against itself unnecessarily. The company already had a largely complete next-generation main Variable Fighter program focusing on improved space performance under active testing with the New UN Forces... the VF-4 Lightning III. If Master File is correct the VF-3000 may have served as an important test that the newly formed Shinsei Industry was up to the job of continuing VF development and manufacture for the New UN Forces (the VF-4 having been mostly a prewar program), but the final product was still basically redundant as a competitor to a design the New UN Forces had already decided to adopt. Based on what's said in the Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy novelization, the events of Macross the Ride straight-up created a market for replicas of those old model VFs. Not only are there other cases of replicas being built, there's supposedly a direct causal relationship between the two. In Macross 30's novel version, Leon mentions in passing that the VF-0 Phoenix in SMS's possession - the one Leon gets stuck with in the game version's tutorial - is a replica which was produced commercially to capitalize on the popularity of a particular Vanquish League racer's replica VF-0 from two years prior. The only VF-0 that competed in the league in 2058 was Hakuna Aoba's VF-0改 "Sieg"/"Zeke", so apparently his participation made enough of a stir that someone (Shinsei?) decided to produce replica VF-0s with modern parts (from the VF-1C and VF-5000) for the civilian market. It wouldn't be at all surprising if Magdalena Zielonaska's SV-52γ, which participated in the league for far longer than Hakuna Aoba's VF-0改 did, created a similar stir and demand for a commercially-available replica machine. Replica SV-51s are found on Uroboros in 2060, and someone has to be making them and selling them to civilians. It wouldn't be all that surprising if they were already commercially available before 2060 and the manufacturer was engaged with the film's production as a product placement or something. As far as we know, yeah... the 2059 film Bird Human was the first time the recently-declassified events of the Mayan Island incident were dramatized. I'd assume the films Master File is referring to here are dramatizations of other incidents previously mentioned in Master File or possibly other sources like Macross the First. They don't specify, though. There are at least two other major engagements mentioned... the attack on Grand Cannon III in Africa and the ill-fated plan to attack the UN Forces HQ at Grand Cannon I in Alaska that was almost literally foiled before it could get off the ground. Incidentally, I'm told the remark about the one time the VF-3000 played the role of the SV-51 by being painted black is almost certainly meant to be a reference to Top Gun, which used US Navy F-5E's painted black as the fictional "MiG-28". Very dubious indeed. Epsilon Foundation absolutely has access to the Sv-303 since they make the bloody things, but regular enemies? In Macross Delta: Absolute Live!!!!!! they're presented as a production (or production-intent) unmanned fighter that outclasses even the 5.5th Generation VF-31 Siegfried and Sv-262 Draken III. Even Xaos's VF-31AX Kairos Plus - which Master File asserts are a hasty and incomplete conversion of the VF-31 Siegfried into a experimental/developmental 6th Generation test machine - were only barely able to keep up with them one-on-one. Max's 6th Generation YF-29 was the only machine that really outclassed them... which probably owes at least as much to Max's own over-the-top specs as it does the YF-29's. 😆 Eh... I mean, that was kind of already explicitly the case going the other way from the YF-29's introduction in Macross Frontier: the Wings of Goodbye. Fold quartz in general is quite rare. It does occur in nature, but it's implied that the vast majority of what's out there is synthesized either by the Vajra or the Protoculture. The 5th Generation VFs like the VF-24, VF-25, VF-27, and VF-31 use the stuff sparingly and only where it's absolutely unavoidable. Namely, the Inertia Store Converter protecting the pilot from the incredible g-forces the fighter is capable of. The rest of its systems use high quality synthetic fold carbon. The fold quartz they use is of a size and purity that's common enough to make ISC systems with reliable output in bulk. Presumably it's similar in size to what we see them pulling out of Vajra carcasses... an oblong sliver of gemstone around three centimeters or so long. (Maybe 20 or so carats if we assume a comparably sized and shaped diamond?) In short, 5th Generation VFs can be mass produced precisely because their fold quartz is comparatively low quality enough to be accessible in bulk. The size and purity of fold quartz needed to make a working Fold Wave System for a 6th Generation VF is explicitly borderline Unobtainium, however. The YF-29's Fold Wave System needed four 1,000 carat pieces of ultra-high purity fold quartz to function. Sure, 1,000 carats is only 200 grams, but that's still a gemstone of about the same size as a regulation baseball at a purity level that Macross Frontier says can only be found in Vajra queens. Master File claims that reproducing the performance of Alto's original YF-29[A] is essentially impossible because fold quartz of the requisite size and purity simply does not exist in any accessible form and that all subsequent YF-29s are lower-performance copies of the original due to inferior fold quartz. Even ignoring Master File, such high-quality fold quartz is so impossibly rare that officially only a double handful of YF-29s have ever been built and they're all essentially irreplaceable. Macross Delta's VF-31 Siegfrieds and VF-31AX Kairos Pluses are equipped with an economized version of the FWS which uses less (and lower purity) fold quartz. The required material is still incredibly rare and expensive, but it's at least affordable enough for them to field half a dozen of their FWS-equipped custom VF-31s with reduced performance as the main consequence. (Master File alleges this version of the FWS also needs an external fold wave source to operate.) Eh... I think that still creates the problem of having a unit of invincible godmode sues whose VFs have no limits.

Paid for the TLEAD at Nin-Nin-Game. I was hoping to use my voucher but I think it's only for new orders. I'll just use it by next year.

My Dress up Darling was so good again. Gojou is such a good person.

I have both Fugu versions waiting for some attention right now so it will happen. Working 14 hour days though so slow going on the site.

I've got the 11C, damn thing has yellowed and it wasn't even near sunlight.

The last time it was listed on Mandarake was last year so it was a good opportunity to grab one.

Nichimo 1/200 CF VF-1A Armored Valkyrie.

Great work @jenius! I wonder when you might tackle the drama that is the Fugu and Valkyrie Factory KOs. I'd love to hear bemoan the problems, but also hear your grudging appreciation (if any).

@F18LEGIOSS2 nice!