Mr March

Uh, that's the point my good man. Klan is a scale problem. There's no way she can fit inside her Q-Rea. Like I said, her and Kamjin are definitely funky when it comes to height

And to think, such a size-adjusting capability goes to waste in a culture where the men and women don't mix

Bri Yet Kamjin's Glaug is shown in accurate 16.55 meter scale to scale with Hikaru's 12.68 meter VF-1J Battroid in Episode 8. The two mecha even rip off the arm of the other, which matches at their official heights. Yet the Glaug is actually larger than a Reguld, so episode 12 shows the VF-1J incorrectly. See, it's all about taking in each example and coming up with a happy medium. Which is why the stats make the most sense. When in doubt, they come in handy as steady benchmark. Kamjin and Klan are definitely the two big scale problems for the Zentradi. Everyone else can be explained with a bit of variable scale and dramatic effect, but those two are nothing but a problem when comparing size. A 10 meter tall Zentradi could fit into the Glaug with a very snug fit, but not a 12 meter tall Kamjin. With Klan, there's no way she's fitting her Super Dimension...assets...into a Queadluun-Rea, UNLESS the Q-Rea is far larger than a Q-Rau (but that doesn't seem the case, given that Alto's VF-25F Battroid appeared almost as tall as Klan's Q-Rea when they double-teamed the Red Vajra) Anyway, I've attached a few more goodies. Digressing, as JBO has said, the only REAL explanation is that scale floats. A Zentradi size comparison chart makes a good baseline, but it's clear the animators will adjust the Zentradi size as needed, much like Kawamori with continuity Personally, I think that's a stretch. Even a 10 meter Zentradi is packing it in really close in the Glaug, with no room to wiggle. Kamjin? He's way too big. Though perhaps he uses a micloning chamber prior to every fight

Hmm, that Omni-Stryker system is an interesting twist on Macross technology. Not a bad idea. But you definitely don't want to deploy that thing in squadrons The passive camo is kinda cool too. I made a weird variant called the VF-19 Stalker which used a Direct Light Camouflage as part of the energy converting armor system. The DLC basically canceled light that hit the hull, resulting in an opaque hull which made the craft ideal for space-based low-visibility. I always thought one of the best ways to go when building new Valkyries would be to play with real world adaptations to the fighters using the Macross OverTechnology. I like ideas like the Omni-Styker, the VF-27 Beam Gun/Beam Grenade, the fighter-sized Pin-Point Barrier/Fold Booster and the Electromagnetic Rail Sniper Rifle. I also still like the funky idea of fold missiles

hobbes and JBO I think that's one way to rationalize Klan's height (she's simply a commander type descendant) or simply accept that Klan is drawn bigger than she should be for creative/dramatic purposes. After all, a lovers quarrel between Klan and Mikhail's VF-25G Battroid isn't going to work if Klan is scaled at the Milia's 8.55 meter height the way she should be (she'd look like a midget in comparison to the VF-25G). Especially when the animators are trying to sell the idea that Klan is a large adult when a full-sized Meltrandi but only child-sized as a miclone. I can see why the animators made her larger But digressing, there's no real solution that works. Klan just has to be accepted as a "dynamic scale oddity." Why? Because the problem that arises when the mecha are brought into the equation. At 12 to 12.5 meters tall, poor Klan is simply way too large for her Queadluun-Rea to accommodate her, a problem that Kamjin also suffers with his official height of 11.85 meters, which leads us into... Bri Kamjin and his Glaug is a problem. At 11.85 meters in height, Kamjin is simply too large to fit inside his own Glaug, which is only 16.55 meters tall (NOT including the cannon). The way the line art shows the pilot situated inside the Glaug cockpit, it could at best accommodate a 10 meter tall Zentradi. Kamjin is one of the first scale problems when measuring the Zentraid. Much like Klan, we just have to accept that he'll be sized differently on the fly without any concern for continuity.

I don't really mind Klan Klang. When her first and last name are the same, it doesn't seem to make much sense. And I think "Klein" has been vetoed, so Klang it is

Just checked Box Office Mojo: Punisher War Zone Production Budget: $35,000,000 World Wide Gross: $8,816,788 Poor Castle. You deserve better than what Hollywood has given you

The new Punisher film had all the pop culture penetration of a good bingo night and was farther off the radar than James Cameron's last deep sea documentary. Given the reviews for Punisher War Zone, I'm not surprised it's no where to be found. "Against the agreement of both the critics AND the internet fanboys, there can be no victory"

He isn't. The Zentradi soldier is shown smaller than Hikaru's Battroid, even in the eye-line shot. Using just one example of scale isn't enough. There has to be some kind of happy medium and consideration for the official numbers to make it all work. Why? Well because Britai is 13 meters tall and if all the other Zentradi are as tall, he couldn't be taller than the others (which he is, as shown in the anime). So why not just up Britai's height and accept 12-13 meter tall Zentran Grunts? Several reasons. One, it throws out the scale of the VF-1 Battroid, two, all Zentradi mecha sizes are thrown out as well, three, all the Kawamori and Miyatake size charts become bogus as well and lastly, the proper scale shown in DYRL? is then superseded by the SDFM episodes drawn by STAR PRO. Besides, no Zentradi 12-13 meter tall is going to fit inside a 15 meter tall Reguld Battle Pod. I'm going to assume creative license for Zentradi height rather than assume the mecha are in error, since the mecha numbers are much more plentiful and more accurate. I'd also rather accept Britai's 13 meter height as correct since the fight between him and Hikaru is one of the scale benchmarks of the series. Exedol might be the smallest Zentradi, but Warera Nantes was also small. If I had to guess, I'd say they were both around 8 meters tall.

Oh, you just reminded me of something. I should probably show you all how I arrived at 12-12.5 meters for Klan Klang. Well, I just extrapolated her height based upon what she looked liked in the scene between her and Mikhail's VF-25G Battroid. Klan stands roughly a head or more below the VF-25G Battroid, which is 15.59 meters tall (including the head cannon). Using the VF-25G for comparison, she's about 12-12.5 meters. A way to double check this is to use the Super Klan line art (thanks go out to Graham for the scans) to scale the Super Pack boosters to the same size as the VF-25G Super Pack boosters. I've sized Super Klan so her boosters are sized at a compromise between the boosters as they appear on the front and rear views of VF-25G Super Battroid. The 3D perspective of the VF-25G Battroid throws off the true size of the boosters, so a little guesswork is in order. But once you do...voila! Klan appears accurate at 12 or 12.5 meters tall in both cases. It's about the best I can do for now.

I'm going to move our discussion to a dedicated thread, found here. Say what? Klan Klang?

A discussion in the Macross Frontier News thread lead to a talk about Zentradi scale, which should probably have it's own thread... I understand what you're saying but the 5:1 ratio is only a vague guide and many of the size sketches by Kawamori and Miyatake don't even follow the 5:1 ratio to begin with. Further, the anime seems to favor a 6:1 ratio, as shown in the Macross 7 prologue (see attached picture). As luck would have it, I'm actually doing some work on a Zentradi/Meltrandi analysis page for the Macross Mecha Manual and I've scanned a bunch of the Zentradi character line art to be used for a size chart. I'm still in the middle of coloring it all, so I'll be using black and white art for this topic. The average human varies from 1.5 to 1.8 meters in height (5 to 6 feet in height), so if we followed the 5:1 ratio in the strictest sense, the average Zentradi would be between 7.5 to 9 meters tall (approximately 25 to 30 feet tall). So the 5:1 ratio doesn't quite work for the 10 meter figure that they seem to like. I also think a lot of those vast size differences between a human and a Zentradi are done on purpose to achieve dramatic effect and are not meant to be taken literally. You'll also note it's the larger Zentradi (Britai, Bodolzaa, Kamjin) who are most often shown clutching humans in their hands. At any rate, I made up a rough chart showing the comparative sizes of the various Zentradi using the 10 meter rule for the typical Zentran Soldier. I've attached it below.

Picture as promised

Letigre The quote is fictional context, so we're talking fictional context. The UN Spacy/New UN Spacy appears to embrace multi-role variable fighters. The VF-1 Valkyrie, the VF-11 Thunderbolt, hell even the VF-17 Nightmare (a special operations fighter) had an ELINT variant. In the case of the VF-27, lack of versatility appears to be the reason why it's not mass produced when more versatile options are available to the UNS/NUNS. Master Dex No problem. I'd say the VF-27 Lucifer simply fulfills a niche role and as such, there's no reason to mass produce thousands of them when there's not the need.

To my mind, the VF-27 Lucifer is simply mono-role or dual-role. The VF-27's high-performance and beam cannon strongly suggest it is a Strike Valkyrie; it's designed to deliver powerful ordnance (beam cannon) against large targets but has the speed and maneuverability to also act as a Fighter. The VF-27 doesn't "need" Super, Armored or Aegis Packs because it's not designed to use them, hence it has low airframe versatility. By comparison, the VF-25 Messiah is multi-role. The VF-27 can function has Air/Space Superiority Fighter (VF-25F), as an Attack Craft (VF-25S Armored), as an Electronic Warfare Valkyrie (RVF-25), as a Support Valkyrie (VF-25G) and as an Interceptor (VF-25 Super Messiah). The VF-25 Messiah would have high airframe versatility, since it's airframe is designed to accommodate all these custom modules with specialized hardware. At least, that's how I interpret it.

That doesn't suggest a brittle hull or frame. If I were to interpret that phrase, it would say: "The VF-27 can't accommodate Super Packs, APS-25A/MF25 Armored packs or AP-SF-01+ Custom Aegis Packs, so the thing simply ain't versatile enough to be mass-produced."

I blame SDF Macros episode 32 for the most part Seriously though, there have been a few scaling mistakes here and there, but animating the Zentradi soldiers equal in height to the Valkyries in episode 32 remains the most significant scaling guffaw in the Macross series. Do You Remember Love? got the scale correct on all the Zentradi and the other Macross productions never showed any scaling problems with the Zentradi/Meltrandi (Exedol or Graham) because a scale sequence never appeared. Klan is the first Zentradi since DYRL to appear noticeably out of scale. If the VF-25 is really 15.59 meters tall, Klan is like 12 meters in height (for comparison, Milia is 8.55 meters tall). Like Kamjin, Klan appears too big to fit inside her own mecha

Never heard of any brittle frame on the VF-27 Lucifer. Everything in the series and the official trivia suggests the thing is just as strong, if not more durable than any other valkyrie. In fact, the VF-27 might be a little stronger, given it's capability to endure Mach 9 inside an atmosphere using the Pin Point Barrier system to enhance it's air friction resistance.

I think RedWolf is on the right track; the way they've described the YF-24 in the translated trivia, there has to be a VF-24. The Macross Frontier and Macross Galaxy fleets were apparently the only ones that changed enough of the YF-24 design to justify a new number designation for their re-designed fighters. This means that the other New UN Spacy fleets and colonies that chose to adopt the YF-24 as their new main variable fighter simply mass produced the YF-24; hence VF-24.

Damn. Thanks anyway. At the very least, I should be able to extrapolate something from the Super Pack line art of Klan Klang. She's been a major problem with scale since the beginning anyway. Another Kamjin in the making

Oh, I think I understand now. It's talking about the gun pod armored casing itself, specifically how the "rear" section of the gun pod opens. This isn't exactly new to the GU-17 gun pod, since several gun pods have sliding armored casings that open in for use in Battroid mode. I'll post a good gun pod picture later today so you can see what I mean.

Could it be this section of text is referring to the ballistics of the gun pod? Perhaps it describes the barrel or the construction of the weapon is improved in some way such that this sturdier gun pod can fire a faster, better bullet? Perhaps?

This is probably one of the most asked questions regarding Macross 7 and the only real answer is you must watch it for yourself to know for sure. Everyone has a different reaction to Macross 7. I watched the first 12 episodes of Macross 7 many years ago and like yourself, I was unimpressed and gave up. I re-watched the entire series just two years ago and I can honestly say I think I dislike the series even more now that I've seen it all than if I had simply stopped at episode 12. It's that bad. But that's me. I will say that if you're on a Macross high, you should stick with it and watch it. You're basically watching the entire franchise anyway, so you might as well finish it up. Then you can critique Macross having seen everything.

Is there a height figure given for Klan, as a full sized Meltrandi? Or can you extrapolate it based on her size comparison line art of her and the other characters?

Birla may not be the official name. The Macross Compendium translates to a very literal standard and might be stuck with Bilrer. The Compendium uses names like Quamzin and Vrlitwhai because they are the official English translations. Best to ask azrael. I use Birla for the reasons Gubaba listed above, but also because it's phonetically easier to say and remember Birla, much like it's easier to say and remember Kamjin and Britai, the names used in the Animeigo subtitles.