Mr March

It's really good to see that now with a special edition being released, they are doing it up big time. This has been a long time coming.

Hmmm, a valid concern I suppose. I'm not sure either way. Still, I'd be willing to take a chance on detachable limbs for the new YF-21.

It wouldn't surprise me if the space colony "bunches" were a tip-of-the-hat to Gundam. It makes sense.

Welcome to Macross World Hayabusha! I'm really hoping for detachable limbs as well. Not as part of any transformation, but just as an added feature for recreating the anime action. I agree it would make for a fine addition and would be quite simple to achieve. I'm not sure micro-missile bays would be a likely feature, but I too am hoping for a fully detailed cockpit with pilot figure. It would be very cool if they also had that bracing apparatus on the top inner side of the cockpit that would restrain the pilot figure when the cockpit is closed. That would be great!

Glad I could help.

Perhaps, the Macross Mecha Manual can be of some assistance

Some fine-tuning is in order, as you say, but the overall shape looks really good. The proportions are dead on as far as I can tell. Keep up the good work.

Whoa, somehow missed this thread the first time around. Nice models. The proportions look good.

No prob, man It's a very small detail, which I missed the first few times around too. I actually didn't notice until watching the movie edition DVD a few years back. Damn "Mangle" version of the Macross Plus OVA is soooo dark, you can't see jack

You're welcome rusky Yeah, I gotta get it too. I'm just borrowing right now

I'd love it if they did cell colored CGI for Macross 25, like the mecha in Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. That is by far my favorite type of modern CG anime technique.

Awww, I'm too late and missed the video

This is not the best picture, but it does clearly show the YF-21's cockpit windows are covered by solid blue hull, which means there are small heat shields.

Those were included in the count. In the several hundred thousand to one million count they include three Grand Cannon installations that survived, the Apollo Base on the Lunar Surface where the SDF-2 is constructed and space colony clusters which the compendium describes as "bunches". So everything outside that count (SDF-1, UN Spacy Fleet, Zentradi remaining from the Adoclass Fleet and defectors from the Factory Satellite) would modify the survivor count significantly. All things said and done, the survivor count is likely to be at least two million, two thirds of which are likely human and another third Zentradi.

Ack! Hate teasers. I NEED more

All the Valkyries rely on virtual environment cameras, way back to the VF-0 and VF-1. They use cameras to create exterior views on large internal flat screen monitors for battroid mode. As far as I know, the use of cameras only increases in the later Valkyries. The YF-19/YF-21 and the VF-19, VF-17, VF-22 et cetera all use what the compendium calls wrap-around imaging monitor screens which would be camera based. Rather than just the usual large monitors, large sections of the cockpit are simply walls of monitors, which would require a lot of cameras. Yeah, that's the one. This Is Animation the Select: Macross Plus Movie Edition. Pages 40-43 cover the YF-21 (cockpit pictures are on 42, like Jedi Knight said). Here's some big pictures of the VF-22 Battroid Mode Cockpit:

I actually really like these aspects of the mecha design. The hip holsters for the wings on the 19 and the bay doors for the legs on the 21 really free up the designs so they don't have to transform with those parts as solid pieces. They can remain outside the body and still look cool. I also really like that both the 19 and 21 look far more mechanical and less humanoid than the old Valkyries. I'm really bored with all these mecha that look like giant armored suits (Gundam is very guilty of this, but FMP and other mecha anime are just as bad). Some of the best mecha designs in the last ten years have been those that move away from strict humanoid conventions while still remaining humanoid. Such as the obviously emaciated EVAs from Neon Genesis Evangelion (despite my dislike for the show itself), or the highly mechanical YF-19/YF-21 from Macross Plus, or the disjointed mecha of Escaflowne. Look at older mecha with scale taken away, and they would look like humans in sci-fi armor suits if you didn't know better. When you look at the examples above with scale taken away, they are undeniably non-human robots because their dimensions couldn't accommodate a human form. And I love that. It's very hard to achieve that kind of design while still creating a humanoid robot form, but it's something at which Kawamori and other innovative mecha designers excel, IMO.

Oops, guess I was late Yeah it appears in TIAS and the SK Macross Design Works (page 89). Either or is good, though the TIAS pictures are bigger.

Hell yeah! Preach it brotha!

Ooops! I made a mistake. Survivors were several hundred thousand to one million. Still, I suppose at least a couple million total humans surviving is not unreasonable. There's roughly 60-100 thousand people just on the Macross (depending upon personnel levels) not included in the count. There was the UNS fleet of six ARMD vessels and 125 Oberths ships (plus squadrons and support personnel) not in the count. Then you have all the Zentradi in the 100 ships and all the defected Zentradi from the Factory Satellite. So I think there's quite few.

Oh, I really hope Blue Ray wins. I really think it's more of a true next-generation format than HD-DVD. When I finally get my high definition player, I'm getting a Blue Ray. Please win Blue Ray!

Oh yes, here it is (to be part of the next update for the M3):

This has been in the wire for a long time. I've been following it for over a year, mostly thanks to The Digital Bits. It's finally nearing reality. At last an edition worthy of this great film.

Whoa, you've got to be kidding me! I am SOOO glad I never sold my originals. To think, the day has come when fiction based on far superior films are dumped just to satisfy the continuity of far lesser films. This kind of policy is a well proven formula for franchise destruction and eventual loss of income for the owners (Trek anyone?). Some studios never learn.

As Duke Togo recently said, "egg-xactly"