Valkyrie Driver

7 hours ago, BlackRose said:

I definitely disagree that they were well thought-out.  It was super obvious that Macross Delta was a minimum effort sequel that just copied characters from Macross Frontier for most of its cast but didn't develop them at all past basic traits.  Mikumo is just Sheryl in her ice queen mode from early in Frontier.  Hayate is Alto without the family issues or ambition.  Freyja is Ranka without her extreme doormat tendencies.  Arad is Ozma minus the family connection.  Messer is Brera minus the family connection. Etc. Etc.

I mean I can see that. I'm trying to evaluate Delta on its own, though, since Frontier was undeniably good (even though even it was kinda tropey). I mean humanity at this point has written every character and every basic story permutation, and it's all retreads with new window dressing. But comparing Delta to Frontier, yes, Delta is incredibly disappointing. In almost every category. The two categories that stick out to me that Delta didn't fail hard on, were the Music (I kinda dig the sound of Walkure), and the Mecha (even though they didn't get enough screen time). 

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

>implying Mirage got development.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to. Mirage, as a character had so much potential, and they didn't do enough with her. 

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The writing was just an absolute fiasco, start-to-finish.  It's not so much "they wasted a perfectly good character" as "they wasted a perfectly good cast".  Kind of a bad idea to require the whole audience to buy a manga side story to even figure out what the enemy's motivation is.

So in your opinion, having read said side story, does it improve Delta at all? I do feel that the cast of characters was solid, maybe needed some polish, and then a story treatment that actually developed them. I'll freely admit that Delta suffered from some abhorrently lazy writing. But between the weight of trying to follow up Frontier, and with Kawamori leaving halfway through... 

Anyway, perhaps It was lack of sleep, combined with a desperate wish that Delta had been as good as Frontier, that I was unable to articulate myself.

I love lego. It's definitely a great thing for children. When I have kids its one of the things that I plan to share with them. I talked about UCS sets earlier and how I'd have a hard time justifying getting one. If I had a child to share the experience with, that could be worth it. For now I'll stick to the other sets, and I've kind of hit a wall, because of the sets I want to build in the Star Wars line, most of it is new trilogy stuff... Also I'm running out of places to display my toys...

Well, recently valkyries and their pilots tend not to spec pew pew as much as they used to. 

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

They're talking about whacking Mirage, not Freyja.

I did say the only other... Mirage and Freyja were the only two female characters with any sort of real development. Granted it's not much.

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Only a handful of them actually had backstories... and most of the ones that did had only the most cursory kind, with barely one bullet point's worth of information.  Hayate's dad had more backstory than almost the entire main cast, and he was a posthumous character!  The backstory for the main frigging character was "he's a shiftless space bum who moves a lot because he can't keep a job".  Some of them, like Makina and Reina, have a "backstory" that's entirely Informed Ability that's not actually in evidence in the show.

Maybe I should have said character concepts. Anyway, Delta tried to make us care about these characters. It failed, and frankly I think that was a disservice to the character they created, which could have been so much better.

7 hours ago, BlackRose said:

Not to be rude but what show were you watching?  Most of them don't even get back stories and most of the ones that do have so little it'd be one line on a Trivial Pursuit card.

I actually think that the character concepts were decently well thought out. The writers didn't follow through though, and so what was left was so much wasted potential. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I tend to think that the characters had those nuances that we want, but because of crappy story writing the characters didn't get to show it. I could be off base, but that's how I see it. I'm not disagreeing that Delta had issues, but I don't think the characters were the core of the problem. 

5 hours ago, Lord_Of_Tetris said:

Heh. I think the arrow is just pointing to the wrong thing at "Air intake."

Actually from everything I've found out, those slits on top of the main air intake, are supposed to be a ram air intake for the purposes of creating high speed air for use in a boundary layer control system. Using high speed ducted air to keep air flowing over the wings at high angles of attack. The slits on the pauldrons serve the same function, in creating boundary layer control over the fuselage, since in the 19 design the fuselage is as much a lifting surface as the wings. 

Unless of course you're referring to the picture of gerwalk mode, in which case they clearly labelled the foot as an intake, which is of course wrong. 

7 hours ago, jenius said:

Mirage should die... It would topple the order to kill off a Jenius.

I'm sorry, but you can't kill off the only other female character with any sort of personality. Also, Mirage is probably one of the only characters to get any sort of growth and development in a meaningful way...

7 hours ago, BlackRose said:

It would upset the order of things to kill a good Jenius.  Mirage is basically a mauve shirt.

I'd like to see her get fair time in the love triangle in the movie but I'm not going to hold my breath for it.

While I'll grant you that Mirage isn't as well loved as our Classic Power couple, or Mylene, or Emilia, she's still a Jenius. She's also every bit as good as her lineage suggests, though she's a bit too by the book. 

Because of the glaring issues Delta had, everyone is really quick to dismiss all of the writing. The characters were well thought out, and had some interesting back stories. The Characters were good, and more nuanced than people want to give credit for. But because of the lazy story writing, all of that character design was for naught. The lazy story writing pulled each nuanced character into a trope. Not that tropes are necessarily bad, but when your writing relies on them...

There is one trope that they could have used, and didn't. Well, at least not to it's fullest and most useful. Delta Platoon was perfectly set up to be a five man band. And with Delta Platoon you could have subverted the trope a bit, because the various members had some overlap. Hear me out though:

Arad- Leader, while Arad is not the main protagonist, he is unquestionably the leader. He's also the mentor figure for Hayate. In this case the leader is the supporting foil for the Lancer.

Hayate- Lancer, He and Arad highlight the different character elements for each other. Hayate is passionate and inexperienced, while Arad is even tempered and seasoned. 

Messer- The heart, I know, Messer's a jerk. But he's not. Sure He's aloof, and he's got the whole tragic backstory thing, but he essentially knows his days are numbered. So he's trying to make the team the best he can before his time is up. His death, and it's aftermath, are what actually bring the team together, as they realize that he was pushing them all to be better. 

Chuck- The big guy, He's the loveable oaf, but also the dependable one. He's the team's fixed point of reference. He's also one character that can't be kept down. Granted that's not the classic big guy, but, that's hard to do in real robot type shows. 

Mirage-  The smart guy, She's technically proficient. She's skilled, and knows the book inside and out. But because she's all brains, she doesn't feel her way through situations. She's quick on the uptake, and knows her stuff.

Now, this dynamic was underutilized even though it was present. Unfortunately, We knew that Messer was fated to die, from the third or fourth episode. They even gave us an episode to try to make us like him, before he eats it. It's just unfortunate that Messer was of the GySgt Hartman school of training.

Seto has probably said some of this in other threads, but I felt that it needed to be brought up here. Messer is still the only member of Delta platoon that needs to die to bring out the team's potential. 

As for walkure? Serious injuries could do just as much to break walkure as deaths. I think putting Reina or Makina into a deep coma, removing them from the rest of the story would be as good as a death, but also keep things varied enough so that death isn't overused. 

56 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

I can't remember, did the VF-19ADVANCE have an option for a second seat? because I can see one on the YF-19.

The VF-19Adv did not have provisions for the second seat. The whole nose section right up to the sliding joint would need a redesign in order to be a true YF-19. And Bandai would be remiss if they did not update the mold for the YF-19, because simply giving us a Repaint would not be a smart move. They would alienate a lot of fans if they did that, especially given how premium toy collectors demand screen accuracy. 

Here's a bit of an odd question, when the advance packs were created for the VF-19EF/A, why didn't it get the upper chest missile packs like so many other frontier era fighters?

49 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Is everyone forgetting the main thing to fix is that giant non-anime gap that's formed when you have the leg packs attached?

No. We just think that one goes without saying.

2 hours ago, Mommar said:

Cracking where???

You can barely see it, but there is some minor cracking along the leading edge of the outbaord section of the intake shroud. It happened when I tried to move the hip, and apparently I didn't support it well enough (when the toy was more or less brand new, A bit of superglue, a bit of loosening in the joint, and tender handling have prevented further damage). 

10 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Not a fuel source, but a fuel catalyst.

When used in a fold reactor, the fold carbon or fold quartz is part of the Gravity Inertia Controller in the reactor core.  It produces the heavy quanta that the GIC system uses to catalyze thermonuclear fusion in the reactor's fuel and to contain the resulting plasma.

Yeah, I know, I had to massage my words a bit, so that the "Diamond but also plutonium" analogy would work... 

I have completed a couple of sets:

4 hours ago, General Rasp said:

If Bandai adds the ratcheting hips from the VF-31 that would one-up the Arcadia. Those new VF-31 hips are so nice. 

Oh God yes. Furthermore, adding an extra swivel at the knee, and a rotation mid bicep would be welcome too. I'd also like to see Die cast at the intakes as well, considering that I've seen cracking on my Advance around the intake. Also a simpler sliding mechanism for the intake roots would be nice, so they don't lose alignment. 

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

  It's like conflict diamonds, only worse.

Except if the Diamonds were also plutonium... 

Not only is it a pretty and rare gemstone, but it's also a super efficient and rare fuel source, that is also the core of WMD's...

I really hope it's not just a repaint. It would be nice if they remolded some things, and fixed some of the issues. 

I'm also curious as to why the VF-171 had such a radical change to the nose of the fighter? Also why the change to the transformation in that particular section?

3 hours ago, chyll2 said:

Bandai sending us to frenzy

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even if it is a repaint. 

43 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Really, there'd still be a few things to change about the VF-19 Advance to get a YF-19 out of it, so unless they decide to cut of corners, it really can't be just a repaint.  Things like the cockpit arrangement especially, aside from all the changes they made to the spine details, and other assorted bits. 

I mean, I'd be hoping for more of an area-ruled forward fuselage (that hourglass shape the YF-19 has from the nose back to the main fuselage), fixes to the gaps between the shield and legs, and that gun pod... Of course all the other YF-19 bits too, the two seat thing, a Yan Neumann co pilot, the split canopy...

Don't get me wrong, I love my VF-19Adv, and I wouldn't get rid of it, and given that Aradia's entry has been noted to suffer the same problems as the Yamato VF-19's (that super stiff gerwalk joint and the floppy ankles for instance) I think that the VF-19Adv is the better toy (in terms of play value) for the money. I think that Bandai would be missing an opportunity to improve on both designs and produce something that the fans really want. I would also be hoping for a YF-21 at some point too...

51 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

That's not to say they wouldn't do it anyway to save time and effort though.  

I know, but one can hope, right?

53 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

It's still nearly identical, but I'll grab multiples just to have actual missiles to mount on everything.  I just hope they use the Arcadia as a model, and don't cheap out on the missile designs like they did with the 171 (ie, paint them please..  )

Let us pray...

22 hours ago, azrael said:

I don't think the VF-25 and VF-31 (or the VF-24-family in general) count in that list anymore because they have a dedicated 2nd seat built-in. Dedicated 2-seater variants (unless they remove the fold-down seat with EX-Gear) seem deprecated these days. 

I was under the impression that the rear seats in the VF-25's and VF-31's were jumpseats, similar to the YF-19's, rather than fully functional cockpits. Also, fully functional rear seat cockpits are generally only common in trainers. Mostly, the back seat is a more specialized role. There are flight controls in the back seat in many aircraft, but fuel management, engine startup and shutdown, is all absent. Single set fighters are the norm now, and would be in Macross, with the rear seat likely fulfilling a specialized role, similar to the way the F-15E operates. 

5 minutes ago, Mommar said:

I'm betting it's a repaint.

That would be a shame. Though if they re-packaged it, minus the Advance parts, just had the M+ Supers, and the scads of missiles, I could be happy...

How do PO Mirage Parts?

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!... Am I hyperventilating? I think I'm hyperventilating... guys....

Seriously though, this is sick news. I do hope it's not just a minor repaint of the VF-19Adv. I hope they really go for the throat and knock arcadia out of the park. Making the YF-19 with a better gun (one that can do the shield storage gimmick, and doesn't need to "break" in the middle), a bit stiffer swing wing mechanisms, and more line art accuracy from all angles. Basically if they take everything that arcadia did right, plus what they (bandai) did right, it would be one hell of a toy...

12 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/russias-military-modernization-plans-2018-2027
Looks like the Su-57 is encountering difficulties around getting the proper engines.

I'm kinda glad. For now the US keeps the edge in Stealth fighters. 

7 minutes ago, mog_kupo said:

This may not be the right topic but.......

Nope. This is the VF-31 thread, you would be looking for the VF-25 Renewal thread.

9 minutes ago, mog_kupo said:

Reissue of the VF-25F? Or is just a showcase for the original realase date?

As the Thing at the top of the Display clearly says 2011, which was the year the Renewal VF-25 launched, I'm going to say it was the original showcase.

Very nice work!