Mr March

Well, technically Basara never flew a YF-19. He flew the VF-19 Excalibur Custom and the VF-19P Excalibur, so the YF-19/VF-19A/F/S remain untainted

Nice work so far. This reminds me to work on new colors for the VF-11 gun pod

Revoltech Predator. Hells yeah!

Personally, I think the poor state of anime dubs has far more to do with the fans and the industry itself than an excuse like budget. Whenever the subject of dubs come up, it seems that by far the majority of anime fans support them. What's worse, it seems most dub fans ardently defend dub quality if for no better reason than to oppose the "elitist snob minority" favoring subtitles only. On the other side of the product, the English anime distribution companies seem unable to take constructive criticism in any way, shape or form. Industry hides under a comfortable cover of fandom approval, a fandom that accepts whatever afterthought dubbing effort is tossed at them. Any detractors are dismissed as the ever-easy-to-marginalize "vocal minority". The result...a state of dubbing mediocrity supported by the consumer majority that in turn creates absolutely ZERO incentive for anime distributors to improve the status quo. And as the comparison of the original Robotech dub to the new ADV shows, dubbing has persisted in a healthy state of abysmal quality for over 20 years There is no dub culture developing in North America at all, no improvement and no incentive to realize either. So what good will another decade do? The state of English anime dubbing is a tragically hilarious vicious circle that leads back to a rather anticlimactic conclusion...anime should just be subtitled and not dubbed. If what we get are less than a handful of merely good but unspectacular dubs for all the thousands made, why bother? But of course, that's the point. Anime companies DON'T bother themselves producing good dubs. Dubbing is no bother at all and seen as just a throwaway feature to perhaps grab a few more sales from the less-than-discriminating English-exclusive consumer. So we get what we deserve

I remember a few years back someone here posted the first episode of the "new" ADV dub either just before it was released or just after. It wasn't the worst anime dub I'd heard, but damned if it didn't try it's hardest to be. As far as anime dubbing in general, I will say that the lack of improvement over the past few decades is both rather telling and rather alarming. In the case of SDF Macross, here we have a "new" ADV dub which by most measurements is pretty much at the same quality level as the original Robotech dubbing. Yet one production was done over 20 years before another. It appears anime dubbing is mostly a sea of terrible productions puntuated by a rare good quality dub that mostly have "crossover" appeal to thank for the cast putting in good work (Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, etc). Contrast anime dubbing in the last two decades to something like, say, video game dubbing over that same period (yes, BEFORE the huge budgets and the Hollywood talent). The difference is quite astonishing, showing video game dubbing as markedly improving as time goes on while anime dubbing is either sitting still or it atrophies. As a result, I don't have much hope for anime dubbing ever.

Hells yeah. I'd love to have those sexy schematics on my site

I've been a very happy owner of an HD monitor for almost two years now (Samsung SyncMaster T240HD running at 1920 x 1200 resolution) and I can't sing it's praises enough. If you have the means, I highly recommend owning one. The only thing better would be TWO such monitors

Wow, these really suck Just kidding. These are great. Always good to see more HD wallpapers.

When it comes to depicting energy weapons, Macross is much like the vast majority of science fiction. That is to say that functionally, one Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) is much the same as another. Unless the plot demands it ("Stand by, Ion control"), a beam gun, a laser gun, a blaster, a plasma gun, a phaser, a disruptor, a super-dimension-energy cannon, a wave motion gun, or turbolaser functions identically to every other DEW. The only real difference from one DEW to another is the sound effects and the visual effects I've not read much from the official Macross literature that even describes how the DEWs function. Maybe the Macross Chronicle might describe something about DEWs in more depth, but I doubt it.

Looks like the questions have been mostly answered. I will add that the despite the infrequency of their use, the Valkyrie head lasers were clearly implemented as anti-mecha weaponry. In addition to the aforementioned scene in which Roy destroys a Reguld with the VF-1S Valkyrie head turret, Max Jenius also uses his VF-1S Valkyrie to damage Milia's Queadluun-Rau in DYRL? So head lasers have always been originally envisioned as capable of damaging and destroying enemy mecha. Only Macross Zero showed the lasers as ineffective weapons against mecha with Energy Conversion Armor, but this is both a commentary on the limited power generation capability of the VF-0S Phoenix (without reaction engines) AND to visually show the audience the many impressive virtues of Energy Conversion Armor. The reason we see the head lasers more often used as point defense than as anti-mecha is because such use provides the animators a reason to use the head cannons in a dramatic fashion. Which leads into the problem with the almost-never-used beam weapons on the Valkyries from Macross Plus and onward: the animators simply haven't found a dramatic use for those additional guns. Small-to-medium bore beam cannons have been present on virtually every Valkyrie since the Macross Plus era (YF-19/VF-19 Excalibur, YF-21/VF-22 Sturmvogel II, VF-17/VF-171 Nightmare, VF-25 Messiah, VF-27 Lucifer, etc) yet we've seen them used on screen ever so briefly if at all. Macross Plus probably has the record for briefest use of a Valkyrie's beam guns, showing the YF-19 firing it's wing root cannons in a flying-toward-the-camera transition scene in the Macross Plus OVA that lasts about 2-3 seconds of screen time Basically Kawamori and Co. have an erection for ballistic weapons, especially the gun pod. Aside from missiles, the Gun Pod is by far the darling of the Macross universe. Directed energy guns in Macross, while represented as useful and practical weapons, are largely shown as second place to the gun pods or as situational/special weapons (VF-1S Strike Valkyrie double beam cannon, YF-19 FAST pack arm armament unit, VF-17 Nightmare beam gun adapter, etc). When the gun pods did face the danger of obsolescence, Kawamori and Co. simply introduced a more powerful gun pod like the VF-11C Protect Armor high-piercing-round gun pod used by Kinryu in Macross 7 or SSL-9B Sniper Gun Pod for Mikhail's VF-25G Messiah in Macross Frontier. Then later all the gun pods in Frontier were refitted with anti-Vajra munitions and it's back to heavy metal mayhem

That is a good looking version of the Spinner. Very impressive.

Damn. Well, it's too good a gift to pass up. It'll be a late Christmas gift

Are those skeletons going to be available before Christmas? If so, I just found the PERFECT gift for a friend of mine. Thanks for posting ruskiiVFaussie

Second episode of Unicorn is out? Cool. I rather enjoyed the first episode. This should be a good series.

If it's strictly a VF to VF comparison and doesn't include conventional technology, I think the question is a bit disingenuous since we have the benefit of a complete future history from which to draw. The Macross Plus era pretty much included all the most innovative performance and technological leaps between eras and the era also included nearly every major Valkyrie advancement that defined the order of battle in the Macross franchise from then onward. Most likely this major leap ahead was created to reflect the incredible shifts that took place during the early colonization era, an era likely to include the greatest strides in growth, industry and economy. The anti-projectile shields, the pin-point barriers, far more lethal munitions, the fold booster, wrap-around imaging, the BDI/BDS, T-W ratios, and more were all introduced during the era. Can't think of any other eras where Valkyrie progress was so markedly contrasted to another. So the YF-19/VF-19 Excalibur and YF-21/VF-22 Sturmvogel II would be the poster children.

What the hell? Since when is combat beyond-visual-range a rarity in Macross or limited to reaction warheads or space fleets? Virtually every Macross production features several premiere set piece sequences with mecha vs. mecha battles beyond-visual-range. One of the greatest battles in the original SDF Macross is Hikaru in his VF-1J Armored Valkyrie vs. the Zentradi Theatre Scout, which is nearly all radar combat. The DYRL film opens with a classic beyond-visual-range missile attack against hordes of Zentradi Regulds. The X-9 Ghost engaged Guld's YF-21 and Isamu's YF-19 beyond-visual-range for both the initial attack and again during subsequent attack runs. Macross Froniter opens with squadrons of VF-171 Nightmare Plus valkyries firing beyond-visual-range upon the Vajra. In fact, if we look at how often Ozma uses his missiles, Canaria uses her rail guns and Mikhail uses his sniper rifle, Macross Frontier might even feature the most fighting beyond-visual-range in any Macross production yet. And these are just the examples I can think of off the top of my head. I'll grant that more significant portions of Macross mecha battles are dogfights (for obvious visual and dramatic reasons), but battles beyond-visual-range are hardly seldom or neglected events in Macross. Battles beyond-visual-range are presented time and again as grand set pieces in the Macross productions and have been a recognizable staple of the franchise ever since the original series.

Great work Talos! The pictures look excellent. Definitely looks like the artists for thew VF-19 book properly researched the gear. They look very close to the screen shot I posted.

I hear ya. Can't wait.

Um, what? WOw, this was nowhere on my radar, but it is now. Sounds amazing. Course, I still have to pick up the VF-19, but I want this baby too

As always, excellent work. Speaking of gun pods, I rescanned the GU-11 and slightly revised the colors for the next update. Check it out.

The two missiles variants are likely just additional equipment for the standard unit. The Scout might be considered a standalone version specially manufactured apart from the standard Reguld simply because it has so many exterior/interior modifications and equipment. The Scout cockpit is shown as different from the regular Reguld.

Using the VF-19 Custom as a template isn't a bad idea, but the front landing gear is slightly different on the prototype. I've scanned a picture from the TIAS book and I'll attach it here.

That is simply beautiful. I'm sorry to hear it's going, but thankful your art could be enjoyed by others for so many years. Well done!

I agree with Rabidweezil. Let's be careful how we use statistics; especially how we present them lest we abuse them. I clearly believe there was no rape in Macross Plus and my original post was meant to describe the difficulty with uniform interpretation. In the end, this debate all comes down to the limitations of human communication; something means one thing to some people, but means something else to others. That is part of our existential tragedy and isn't something that's going to be solved by debating the flashbacks of an animated head-case in Macross Plus, especially when Kawamori revels in promoting just that kind of ambiguity. He loves messing with the audience, which is likely why he became a storyteller

Well, let's be honest, the posters are always better looking than the animation. Not even Macross Plus can look as good in any given cell as the cover of the TIAS book