Mr March

So the Battle Frontier/Macross 25/Frontier is NOT a New Macross Class vessel?

Hehehe, someone was reading my posts Most innovative valkyrie design? Probably the most radically innovative valkyrie was the original VF-1 Valkyrie. It was certainly the biggest technological leap forward from previous non-variable designs and definitely stood as the benchmark for future variable fighter craft all the way up to (and including) the VF-25 Messiah. After that, I'd choose the VF-5000 Star Mirage as a major innovative valkyrie design. The Star Mirage was the first variable fighter to use internal micro-missile launchers, a trend that would become popular in most of the variable fighters that followed. The VF-5000 also became the model in what was a new standard for lightweight variable fighter design. After the VF-5000, nearly every valkyrie was 8-10 tons in weight and any fighter around 13 tons was now considered a heavy variable fighter (like the VF-17D Nightmare). Least innovative valkyrie design (technology-wise), I'd have to say the VF-3000 Crusader. It's basically an upscaled VF-1 Valkyrie; take the VF-1, double it in size, and you get the Crusader. Sounds pretty uninspired to me and the actual visual design isn't all that interesting either. Plus the official literature makes it sound like a lemon with those slipping joints. Only good thing to come of VF-3000 was it apparently served as partial design inspiration for the Star Mirage. Probably "inspired" the engineers not to screw up so badly next time Most ambitious valkyrie design, definitely the YF-21. Everything about the YF-21 was pushing the edge of what was possible for a variable fighter craft. The unconventional brain direct control system, the unorthodox design and transformation, the dual gun pods and forward/rearward beam guns, the "morphing" composite material wing, etc. Can't think of any other Valkyrie that incorporated so many fringe technologies into one design.

TheLoneWolf Yes, it's actually fortune that Macross II section exists at all. I managed to quickly sneak in the MIIsection just before Frontier really started to get going, but it's difficult to work on due to the lack of official trivia and my own disinterest in the show. I used up a lot of my patience for crap building the Macross 7 section Still, I promise I will build some more profiles. Probably going to do the Zentran/Meltran Battle Suits next and some more capital ships. No, I didn't get any resin kit line art for the VF-4 (though I am adding some digital photos of that line art set; fan submissions). But there is some good VF-4 stuff coming which I'm sure fans will like d3v Not sure what it looks like. The only variable Mardook mecha I'm familiar with is the Zentran fighter. Probably won't be much of anything new in the Frontier section, except a screen shot or two and maybe a rudimentary profile for the Macross 11 since everyone keeps asking about it

Was that Laiza in the Teal colored VF-17D Nightmare? I think you're right. I'd forgotten about that.

Macross II isn't a priority at this time, but I'll try to build some more content for that section. I'm currently working on additions to the "For Fans Only" section and some small updates to the "Game & Advanced Valkyrie" section. There are also more miscellaneous revisions coming up for the SDFM/M0/M7 sections and a rather important revision for the Flashback 2012 section (VF-4 fans, get ready). I'm not really sure what mecha you're referring to in Macross II. Do you have a link to the video you're using?

Everything is I agree it is nice to have Macross back in the public eye but I'm more pleased at the fact that Frontier has provided a springboard for the Macross Chronicle. It's about time we had a definitive universe guide for this franchise. It's certainly big enough that it demands one.

I'm surprised something like the EX-Gear didn't occur sooner in Macross. Valkyrie concept artwork for the original SDF Macross series was basically a suit of transforming power armor. They've also had miniaturized robots of all kinds, from trash disposal bots and motorized cameras to Soda machines and idol singers. It's not like robotic augmentation is a stretch of any kind for the technology level shown in Macross.

He's looking sharp in that suit. Smokin!

I'm really comfortably ambivalent either way. I'll never pay for anything Robotech (much like Metallica), but I really don't care if it's made or not. All I care about is Macross. As for Shadow Chronicles, I can confidently say with total honesty that show has much more serious problems than any kind of predisposed hatred the entire Macross community could ever hope to generate. IMO, there is so much to criticize in Shadow Chronicles, being a Macross fan is really quite irrelevant

Well, you asked what I used in the "chart", not what I used in my calculations. For my actual calculations, I converted everything into kN and then plugged them into the formula from there.

These too were examples of some Robotech fans I encountered. They were disturbing, but not really on the level of discussing Macross. In fact, I dare say that Macross/Robotech wasn't really the issue with these fans at all, even if they didn't know it themselves. If I could make an analogy, I'd say they were like encountering a real, dyed-in-the-wool racist. The kind that hopes the next Denzel Washington or Will Smith movie will fail so they can keep on hating blacks. The hatred itself comes from something much deeper. It may just be something as pointless as hating a Macross fan who really pissed them off and they've been shouldering a grudge for decades. Whatever it is, the hatred has taken on a life of it's own for these fans. But I have to reiterate, these types of Robotech fans, while certainly loud and obnoxious beyond their importance/influence, were rare. Most Robotech fans I encountered left me with nothing but memories of fun discussions about how much we all enjoyed Macross Frontier. Being a die hard Macross fan, the largely positive reaction was doubly surprising to me, since I was expecting far worse. An unexpected but welcome surprise.

On the issue of Robotech fans, I have to say that overall, my experience with Frontier in the Robotech fan circles has been very positive. I joined an RPG site after checking referrals when monitoring the Macross Mecha Manual in it's infancy. I joined the board to answer member questions about my fansite and ended up staying around for a while until eventually Macross Frontier started. When that happened we opened a topic that went on and on. There has been one or two insanely jealous and ardent Robotech apologists who went after Frontier with a vengeance. And as the series got better and better, it only infuriated them more. But they were definitely the minority; by far, the vast majority of Robotech fans I encountered loved Macross Frontier. There's a huge topic on the board and the response was almost universally positive. Granted, it's not Robotech.com (which I would never join anyway), but I just wanted to comment on the subject and give credit where credit was due. Also just to add, the Robotech fans who have sent e-mail to me regarding my website have been quite pleasant. Particularly when I explain that the M3 is Macross only and will not feature Mospeada or Southern Cross, they have largely been understanding and appreciative in any case. So it's not all doom and gloom

Are you aware what message board you're on? This is MW; of course there's criticism Seriously, I don't think too many folks are touting Macross Frontier as some kind of SDF Macross, Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion or Ghost In The Shell. As good as the series is, it's not a cultural event nor is it a landmark anime title. But then again, it never made any pretense at being so. If I could make an analogy, the easiest and most obvious one that comes to my mind is this summer's Iron Man. Like that film, Macross Frontier offers little new beyond surface details and style. It's not innovative in any manner as a story or concept nor is it all that original. But like that super hero flick, Macross Frontier is just plain entertaining. It's exceptional only in the the amount of fun offered for what it is. It's genre entertainment only, it just happens to be a very good and highly entertaining example of genre entertainment which subverts expectations more often than not. The one thing notable about Macross Frontier beyond it's quality as genre entertainment is the extensive high quality CGI work. I gave the show a solid 8 out of 10 and after absorbing it post-broadcast, that rating is holding steady. Macross Frontier is definitely one of my favorite Macross productions, but it can't beat SDF Macross or Macross Plus (to me, very little can). But it doesn't have to, it just has to be good Macross, which it most certainly is.

The figure for thrust-to-weight is a ratio, not a unit, and is thus an abstract parameter. The ratio's purpose is to serve as a figure of merit in the most simplistic sense, to compare one vehicle to another. Thus, the higher the number, the better (like 10 dollars is better than 1 dollar; it's really that simple). If you need to break it down more than that, just remember the better the T-W ratio, the more thrust a vehicle produces comparative to it's weight.

Don't have any information on the Macross 11 so far. I could post the screen shot from Frontier, but that's about all I have.

Well, one more seat isn't going to rescue that many hostages I think it's safe to say Millard was speaking in terms of operational role, not practical function since it's clear the YF-19 is a combat vehicle designed for optimal weapon delivery. Millard was specifically speaking about peace time function and avoiding strategic operations (read: reaction weapons). I'm almost positive Kawamori and Co. embraced these quick convert passenger seats to handle the needs of the plot. As I said, they'd just convert an existing version to two-seater and that'd be enough. No reason to mass produce quick conversion seats in a main variable fighter where 99% of operational roles will see only a single person in the cockpit. Doesn't make sense otherwise, but they need us to suspend our disbelief so that these insta-passenger seats can serve the plot.

Hehehe, I aim to please Thank you.

*drools* Thanks Savvi. You did a find job. May I post your work on my website?

The second seat is totally plot driven. There's no practical reason for a combat variable fighter to have a second seat, especially since dedicated trainers are much better for pilot/passenger uses (and from a production/merchandising perspective, two-seaters mean more toy variants to sell). But a two-seater is extremely convenient when a second character is written into a scene. It saves the production from requiring a shuttle or other ship for the second character and it allows for a much more intimately personal interaction between characters, something very important in a Macross anime.

They look great! Got any high resolution black and white pictures of that VF-25 schematic?

It never showed how the YF-19 converted from single to double seating either. It's not really all that important, just as long as the space realistically exists for a second seat (which it does in both the case of the YF-19 and the VF-25/VF-27).

I think all the VF-27 did was travel alongside a fold capable vehicle, like Mikhail did with the Vajra ships leaving Gallia IV. We all had a tendency to over-analyze Macross Frontier while it was still airing, but I think the "internal fold drive" is just a brain bug that outlived it's usefulness as a legitimate theory. Since the evidence has shown piggybacking in fold space while all fold boosters (normal and super) are still shown at roughly the Macross Plus era size, it's more likely than not the VF-27 has no internal fold drives.

Fold space in Macross Frontier isn't really all that different from fold space up until now, but the execution seems a little different. Granted, all previous Macross shows seemed to handle fold space differently each time it was shown. Space folding in SDF Macross was shown differently in DYRL? which was shown differently in Macross Plus which was shown differently in Macross 7. So really, there is no "true" depiction of space folding, unless you want to write off everything post SDF Macross (which may not work, since space folding is shown in different ways even WITHIN the SDF Macross series) Having said that, in previous Macross shows there seemed to be more displacement in the manner in which vessels folded space; they just "popped" in and out of space. Now this is not to say they didn't have inertia, because both the ASS-1 and the Zentradi fleet that followed in SDF Macross came out of fold space while flying forward. But they always just "arrived". In Macross Frontier, there definitely appears to be some kind of portal or entrance/egress into fold space. In the past, a ship simply entered or exited fold space in a single instant. The shift between the two dimensions was always instantaneous. But Frontier created a "gate" system of sorts, in which a ship slowly passed through a portal-like opening allowing the ship to "sail" or "coast" between fold space and real space. Same displacement, different way of doing it. Fold space itself also looks a bit different than it did in Macross Plus (which was like a rainbow-colored bubble bath) and obviously SDF Macross only showed very little of fold space (which appeared as a landscape-less and bright multicolored realm). The one thing that isn't certain is the nature of that "portal" in Frontier. Is the portal itself in motion or is the ship? Is the portal projected ahead of the ship and then pulled over the vessel by the space fold engine? Or must a ship open the portal at a fixed point in space and then propel itself through the portal via it's own conventional rockets engines? Or is it both? Anyway, that's about it. There still appears to be that audible echo when space folding, which I always liked.

I think the assumption the VF-27 has an internal fold engine was made BEFORE we all understood the way in which fold space was being handled in Macross Frontier. We saw the VF-27 flying around inside fold space and just assumed it needed a fold drive to do so. But we've since seen the VF-27 with a fold booster, so we have to assume the VF-27 requires a fold booster to travel through fold space on it's own, just like all the other valkyries.

That's my cue VF-1A Valkyrie Fighter Mode Length = 14.23 meters VF-0A Valkyrie Fighter Mode Length = 18.69 meters