Mr March

That's a big twinkie I'd assume the missiles inside the Ghost X-9 are simply smaller versions of the high maneuver missile. Perhaps even micro-missile versions. There is also the possibility that the scale of the Drone Fighter and it's missiles are simply way off. They never even really decide on a size for the Drone, just some brief artist note of 10-12 meters, which almost sounds more like a guess than a thoughtful design choice

None. I've never heard of it.

This is probably old news but the directors commentary to District 9 has Neill Blomkamp referencing Macross (through his familiarity with Robotech) when discussing the style of the missile swarm launched from the Prawn Exosuit. Nice little Macross fandom affirmation

I appreciate the ugliness of the destroids in all the Macross productions. They make for a nice contrast to the beautiful and sometimes un-military/overly-stylized look of the Valkyries. Most military machines are ugly and thus the destroids often feel more real. Regardless, Macross gives us the best of both worlds, so it's all win. Hopefully more ugliness and beauty will follow

Nice pictures. This new black Vajra looks much more insect-like.

I think such worry as this is terribly exaggerated. But truth be told all we can do is wait and see what results. I think we've got more reason to be hopeful than otherwise. Precisely.

An order of 10 episodes IS a "full season" of HBO programming. HBO series are typically 10-13 episodes per season. Also keep in mind an HBO episode is typically 55 minutes per episode, not the 42 minutes common for broadcast television. They don't waste time in the average HBO series; every episode is relevant story. If you've never seen an HBO series, know that an HBO series episode covers a lot of ground. I think we should be optimistic HBO is doing this series. If A Song of Ice and Fire displays a high level of quality like The Wire, Deadwood, Band of Brothers or Rome, the results will be spectacular. I've never read the books, so short of injecting one into my already full plate of reading material I can't think of a better way to bring the series to television than for HBO to do it.

I really hope they provide some new insight on the VF-4. That would be nice.

"There's that word again, 'heavy'. Is there something wrong with the Earth's gravitational field in the future?" I watched a long demo for this on game site Giant Bomb. It looks very high concept but also very good.

Thank you all for your support. I'm glad you're happy to see the site up and running properly. I've fixed a few minor problems and made a few corrections: Megaroad-01 profile updated Macross Galaxy updated with Chronicle information (as was initially advertised in the update notice, but not completed) uploaded missing animations in the "For Fans Only" section Updated AIF-9V (V-9) Ghost Fighter As time permits, I'll update the M3 with as much Macross Chronicle information as is available. This will be the priority for the next while.

It is done. New address of the Macross Mecha Manual I've tested several pages in all the sections to make sure everything is working and I'm happy to say the website appears to be functioning normally. There may be left over bugs or the odd missing image or two, but most of it looks good. If there are any problems, please feel free to send me notice. Again, I apologize for any inconvenience. Hopefully the new server functions well and the updated material will serve as a compensation for any inconvenience. Thank you. Note: I still have yet to go through my PM box and answer all the messages people have sent me. Once I get the chance, I will do so. Most of the message appear to be many months old, but I will briefly respond to each message anyway. Special thanks to again to Seto Kaiba as well as Uxi and Ignacio Ocamica who generously offered their help Major Update Macross Mecha Manual is now on a new server Welcome back to the new home for the Macross Mecha Manual. I apologize to any worried fans regarding the brief undeclared shutdown of the Macross Mecha Manual that happened just recently. We have had to switch internet providers and our old site went down a little faster than anticipated. However, thanks to Seto Kaiba we have found a new home on the internet. While I haven't been actively working on this website for some time, I did complete a significant amount of work last year prior to my extended absence. This update to the Macross Mecha Manual features 12 new profiles and all previously unreleased work. Very special thanks go out to Uxi and Ignacio Ocamica of the Macross World forums for graciously offering webspace for the M3. And of course, thanks again to Seto Kaiba. This previously unreleased material was a major housekeeping effort, featuring extensive revision of colored art and replacement of uncolored line art pictures with revised art. In the past I have often gone to excess with vivid colors, a bad habit which has accidentally produced an almost strobe-like glow for some of the more colorful palettes. To correct this, I have desaturated and/or darkened many colors schemes, especially those using a majority of red or yellow. These revisions also help to differentiate like-colored mecha while producing an appearance more true to the animation. The VF-17 Nightmare profiles will be the most recognizably corrected art as part of this update. In the non-colored portions of the website, I have deleted hundreds of individual pieces of black and white line art that were terribly sub-par. These old pictures have been replaced with superior quality scans and the art has been collected into far fewer pictures per profile (in some cases, only a single picture for each entry). This method of presenting line art is more efficient, saves space, makes navigation easier and permits fans to examine/compare vehicles from multiple angles on a single page. Unfortunately updates have been few and demands of life have called my attention elsewhere for this past year. I will make every attempt to continue revising and updating the Macross Mecha Manual. However please be aware at this time I am still unable to prioritize the M3 and future updates will appear infrequently. I'd like to thank you all for your concern and support during our recent technical troubles. Your continued interest in the Macross Mecha Manual makes the effort worthwhile. Macross 7 Section Transport Craft (2045) Macross Frontier Section Beatrice Macross II Section Destroid Defender EX Destroid Giant Monster Destroid Phalanx Custom Destroid Tomahawk II Mardook Fleet Flagship Mardook Scout VF-2JA Icarus VF-2JA Icarus Red VF-2JA Icarus Missile Pack Macross Game & Advanced Section VF-1J GBP-1S Armored Valkyrie Macross Chronicle Information CVN-99 Asuka II Aircraft Carrier Auerstädt Submarine Aircraft Carrier HWR-00 Destroid Monster Mk II Revised SLV-111 Daedalus Revised CVS-101 Prometheus Queadluun-Rau Queadluun-Rau (Film Version) Meltran Gunboat Meltran Gunboat (Chlore) VF-17 Nightmare (all variants, including VF-X2) VF-22 Sturmvogel II VF-22S Sturmvogel II VF-X Ravens Queadluun-Rhea EX-Gear Macross Quarter Class Variable Space Carrier Macross Class SDFN-4 Global Macross Galaxy VB-6 König Monster VB-6 König Monster (SMS Type) VF-2SS Valkyrie II VF-2SS Valkyrie II SAP Additions/Corrections Added 3 new Macrosspedia entries (AHEAD, Colonization Fleet, Mass Production) Revised the Acknowledgements Page Revised the Master List of Macross Mecha Revised the For Fans Only Section (revised Battroid Size Charts, Valkyrie size charts, new fan art with new directories) Revised Height of the Zentradi and Meltrandi with Mecha Revised Macross Zero Index Page Revised Macross Plus Banner Revised Macross Plus Index Button Revised Macross 7 Banner Revised Macross 7 Index Button Revised Macross 7 Index Page Revised Macross II Index Page and all Macross II Profile Pages with a new background color to facilitate easier reading Revised Macross II Index Button Revised Macross II Banner to adjust for change in background color Revised the Macrosspedia Line Art Added to For Fans Only Section (Size Comparison Chart Macross 7 era (AD 2045) Varauta Space Craft) Line Art Added to Quiltra-Quelamitz Class Medium-Scale Gunboat (Kamjin's Gunboat, buried and damaged) Line Art Added to VF-17D Nightmare & VF-17S Nightmare (Spiritia Absorption Pod) Line Art Added to Fz-109F Elgerzorene (Prototype Heavy Blaster) Line Art Added to Macross Galaxy (Carrier and Attack mode pictures) Line Art Added to Queadol-Magdomilla Class (Assault Module, Gallia 4 Base) Complete Revision of the Meltran Gunboat profile Complete Revision of the Meltran Gunboat "Chlore Fleet Command Ship" profile Revised ALL VF-0 Phoenix profiles Revised VF-1A Valkyrie (All Colors, fighter line art, vernier line art) Revised VF-1A Valkyrie Max (All Colors) Revised VF-1J Valkyrie (All Colors) Revised VF-1J Valkyrie Styled (All Colors) Revised VF-1J Valkyrie Max (All Colors) Revised VF-1J Valkyrie Milia (All Colors) Revised VF-1S Super Valkyrie (line art) Revised VF-1J GBP-1S Armored Valkyrie (all colors AND all line art) Revised VF-1 Atmospheric-escape Booster (line art) Revised Destroid Defender, Phalanx, Spartan, Tomahawk (line art) Revised Power Up Glaug (line art) Revised Queadluun-Rau (fan service) Revised Fulbtzs-Berrentzs Class Mothership (line art) Revised Gnerl (line art) Revised Re-Entry Pod (line art) Revised Salvage Ship (line art) Revised Zentradi Shuttle (line art) Revised SLV-111 Daedalus Class (line art) Revised CVS-101 Prometheus Class (line art) Revised APC (renamed color pictures and line art) Revised Ambulance (line art) Revised Avenger II (line art) Revised Boom Lift Truck (line art) Revised ES-11D Cat's Eye (all colors AND all line art) Revised DL-88 Centipede (line art) Revised Comanchero (line art) Revised F203 Dragon II (line art) Revised EC-33B Disk Sensor (all colors AND all line art) Revised GN XM-3002 (line art) Revised SF-3A Lancer II (line art) Revised M-299 (line art) Revised VC-33 Mom's Kitchen (all colors AND all line art) Revised Refrigerator Truck (line art) Revised Sea Sergeant (line art) Revised Spiderbug (line art) Revised SC-27 Stargoose (line art) Revised Karyovin (line art) Revised Fan Liner (line art) Revised Fan Racer (line art) Revised LH-2000 (line art) Revised VF-1J GBP-1S Armored Valkyrie (Film Version, all colors AND all line art) Revised SDF-1 Macross (Film Version, line art) Revised Nousjadeul-Ger (Film Version, added screen shot for rare 6-pack missile type and revised line art) Revised Queadluun-Rau (Film Version, All Colors) Revised Golg Gant Charts (line art) Revised Light Transport Boat (line art) Revised Shuttle (Film Version) (line art) Revised Meltran Gunboat (line art) Revised VF-4 Lightning III (Battroid and Fighter) Revised Megaroad-01 Class Super-Long Range Colonization Ship (all colors AND all line art) Revised VF-11B Thunderbolt (all colors AND all line art) Revised VF-11B Super Thunderbolt (all colors AND all line art) Revised VF-11B Thunderbolt Booster (all colors AND all line art) Revised YF-19, YF-19 FAST Packs, YF-19 Fold Booster (All Colors) Revised YF-21, YF-21 FAST Packs, YF-21 Fold Booster (All Colors) Revised Macross Plus & Macross 7 - Guantánamo Class Stealth Carrier (line art) Revised Macross Plus & Macross 7 - Northampton Class Stealth Frigate (line art) Revised Macross Plus & Macross 7 - Uraga Class Escort Battle Carrier (line art) Revised Drone Fighter (line art) Revised Ghost X-9 (all colors and line art) Revised SB-10/10 Starwing (all colors and line art) Revised Civilian Helicopter (2040, line art) Revised Sports Car (colors and line art) Revised Sport-Tour Motorcycle (colors and line art) Revised Ultralight (line art) Revised Zentradi "Enemy" Battlesuit (line art) Revised VF-1J Milia (2040) (all colors) Revised Az-130A Panzerzorene (line art) Revised Fz-109A Elgerzorene (all colors AND line art) Revised Fz-109F Elgerzorene (all colors AND line art) Revised VF-11C Super Thunderbolt (all line art) Revised VF-11C Super Thunderbolt Aerospace (all line art) Revised VF-11C Thunderbolt APS-11 Protect Armor Pack (profile, colors and line art) Revised VF-11D Thunderbolt Jamming Bird (all line art) Revised VF-14 Vampire (Macross 7 P*L*U*S Version) (all colors) Revised VF-17D Nightmare (all colors AND all line art) Revised VF-17D Diamond Force (All Colors) Revised VF-17D Teal (All Colors) Revised VF-17D Nightmare Fold Booster (All Colors) Revised VF-17D Nightmare Radome (All Colors) Revised VF-17S Nightmare (all colors AND all line art) Revised VF-17S Nightmare Milia (All Colors) Revised VF-17S Super Nightmare (all colors AND all line art) Revised VF-19 Excalibur Custom (All Colors) Revised VF-19 Excalibur Custom Sound Booster (All Colors) Revised VF-19P Excalibur (Profile and Stained Colors) Revised VF-22S Sturmvogel Milia (All Colors) Revised VF-22S Sturmvogel Gamlin (All Colors) Revised Varauta Fleet Flagship Space Carrier (line art) Revised Varauta Large Battroid Transport Carrier (line art) Revised Varauta Large Battleship (line art) Revised Varauta New Giant Carrier (line art) Revised Varauta Standard Battleline Battleship (line art) Revised Varauta High Speed Raiding Space Cruiser (line art) Revised Varauta Vanguard Frigate (line art) Revised Budoukan Concert Ship (line art) Revised Hollywood Amusement Ship (line art) Revised Mark Twain VII Resort Ship (line art) Revised Neo Nupetiet-Vergnitzs bis Class Stealth Fleet Command Battleship (line art) Revised Northampton Class Stealth Frigate (Zentradi Type) (line art) Revised Riviera Resort Ship (line art) Revised Sunnyflower Agricultural Ship (line art) Revised Three Star Factory Ship (line art) Revised West Point Class Macro-Training Base Ship (line art) Revised New Macross Class Colonization Ship (Macross 5, line art) Revised Limousine (2045) (line art) Revised Sports Car (2045) (line art) Revised VF-11MAXL Thunderbolt Custom "Sound and Fold Booster" (color) Revised Queadluun-Rau Chlore Fleet (All Colors) Revised Meltran Gunboat Chlore Fleet (line art) Revised VA-3C Invader (All Colors) Revised VA-3C Invader Custom (All Colors) Revised Destroid Cheyenne II (Colors) Revised All VF-25 Messiah profiles (Macross Chronicle information) Revised VF-25F Messiah (All Colors) Revised VB-6 König Monster (line art) Revised VF-19A Excalibur (All Colors) Revised VF-4 Lightning III Max and Milia (All Colors) Revised ALL VF-2SS Valkyrie II profiles (colored stripes) & SAP (All Colors and line art) Revised VF-2SS Woman's Battroid (directory and HTML changed from "striped") Revised Gigamesh (Feff Type, line art) Revised Meltrandi Powered Suit (Color) Revised the Macross 25/Macross Frontier to the Island Cluster Class

I'm working hard. The site is ready for presentation, I just need a few hours to upload it. Should be tomorrow at the latest. As always, I will post the latest news promptly. Btw, please be sure to be courteous once the M3 is back online. Seto is graciously providing hosting services to me at no charge. It would be terribly bad manners to burden him with high bandwidth should a bunch of people start extracting the entire website once it's back online. This is doubly impolite if you continue to do so after each new update as well. Rest assured that even if I'm not working on my website, I intend to maintain the M3 online indefinitely so it will never just "disappear" permanently, at least not without my knowledge. I may not be around every day, but I am very aware of it's status and I will answer visitor e-mails sent directly to me even if I'm absent from message boards and not able to answer PMs. If some visitors are adamant that they need a copy on their hard drive, let's talk about alternate arrangements. For now, please no site extractors. Thank you.

Thank you for the warm welcome back everyone. Also a special thanks to all that offered help. I will properly thank and credit you all soon. Bad news first: the website isn't back up yet Good news: I've accepted an offer for server space from Seto Kaiba. I've tested some uploads and the server is functioning well. As soon as I upload the website again, it should be good to go. The M3 was left a work-in-progress the last time I touched it, which was about 8-10 months ago. So I'm in the middle of performing many housekeeping duties to make the site presentable prior to upload. I'm not doing any more new material than what was previously completed as unreleased updates, just removing all the "work notes" within profiles, finishing the writing on new Macross Chronicle trivia that was left halfway done and correcting a few links/pictures. All I need now is time to work on it. I might get a chance to finish and upload the whole website today, but we'll see. Regardless, please be aware that things are moving quickly and within a few days at most all should be back to normal. I apologize for any inconvenience and thank you all for your patience.

Hello again everyone. I can see from all the unread Private Messages here in my inbox and activity in this thread that many have questions and concerns about the Macross Mecha Manual during my absence. I'll try to answer as much as I can, but please be patient with me during this busy time. Firstly, I'm definitely interested in maintaining the Macross Mecha Manual online. The whole point of the site was, updated or not, the content was to remain up as an online archive for as long as I was alive. I was aware that my current home for the M3 was going offline this year. However, I was told I had until the end of this month to find a new home. It appears the domain has expired much earlier than the end of February and the site has gone down faster than I had anticipated. As a result I'm being flooded with e-mails and e-mail notices from concerned visitors on forums all across the net. I suppose I'm to blame for initially advertising the M3 as widely as I did, lol Nonetheless, the response is nice to hear and I'm glad everyone cares this much about the website. Second, I have been sent notices from several people offering to host the M3. Thank you all very much for the offers of support. I will definitely be taking one of you up on these offers. Discussions are currently in the works and hopefully this will result in the M3 returning online sooner rather than later. Thirdly, I am of course aware updates to the M3 have slowed. This is due to my real life demands (awaits inevitable collective groan). However, there is a silver lining. Before life demanded my attention elsewhere I had created a substantial amount of new/updated material to add to the M3 (which a few of you were already aware). I just haven't had the time and/or motivation to update the M3 website. If I can arrange a new home for the M3 online, it will come back online WITH all the new material from the postponed update included. The majority of the update includes new material for the Macross II section and a site-wide revision of virtually ALL black & white line art (improved scans, collated pictures in fewer files, previously unreleased line art and other improvements). The update also includes new Macross Chronicle trivia and numerous color corrections/revisions to existing mecha. Lastly, I'd like to ask you all to help spread word about this post of mine to any concerned fans. It would really help me if we could distill all the e-mails and notices with questions/concerns to a few threads like this one on websites such as here at Macross World, the MAHQ or Gearsonline. Sadly I've been gone from all those forums as long as I have been from Macross World, so I might not post there. If I can locate my passwords for those other forums, I will log in and re-post this notice. Digressing, if you can help me funnel all the online communication into a few designated spots, it would really help. Right now there's simply too many e-mails for me to respond to in a timely fashion. Thank you again for all your help and interest in the Macross Mecha Manual. I'm working to get the M3 sorted out as soon as I can. With luck, it'll be back soon and better than ever. During this transition period, I'll be visiting Macross World regularly again and will post in this thread with the latest information. So please make sure to check this thread first for any news about the current situation with the M3. Thanks again.

Yeah, The Hurt Locker was a really good movie. Great character study. Most of the best films so far this year were off the radar, like The Hurt Locker and District 9. Star Trek was the only good big budget film and like I said, it was good fluff only. Last summer's big budget films kinda spoiled us, with The Dark Knight and Iron Man. I figured this summer we'd pay for that indulgence with the big movies

No, the robots just have everything to do with style which has always dominated the substance of Macross. If Macross 7 is parody, it wouldn't matter how many shows are like it, how many mooks are blown up or how much footage is recycled: the cannibalism of itself for parody would make it all a pointless endeavour for any other reason. Like I said. Wow, this is coming as a revelation. I gotta take note of this for the Macrosspedia.

I think the distinction about Macross is more fundamental. The whole purpose of creating a military fighting robot is to fight. A story which denies your military fighting robot sabotages the entire endeavour of creating a military fighting robot story. The whole crux of the story then becomes functionally impotent. It's like sex without an orgasm. Should there by any wonder why audiences scream bloody murder? Of course not.

There's no solid information on the Supervision Army, so no one can say much for certain. All we know is that the Protodeviln were defeated. Thus, many of us assume their Supervision Army, while still a formidable force, was on the losing side. Now that situation might not mean much given the scale of this massive war and the hundreds of thousands of years during which the war has been waged. The ebb and flow of the war might have turned back and forth thousands of times. Either way, it doesn't really matter all that much. Whether the two factions are still equal, or the Zentradi have the upper hand, the way the fiction is described can obviously support either interpretation. And the end result is the same. If the Zentradi Army = Supervision Army, then the fact that the war hasn't ended for hundreds of thousands of years means neither side is gaining. If the Zentradi Army > Supervision Army, then there's so many ships and so much territory that the war is still ongoing for hundreds of thousands of years. Either result, on any reasonable time scale, is an effective stalemate.

When you think about it, every variable fighter with engine nozzles for feet should have some degree of thrust vectoring in all dimensions, regardless of whether they are designated 2D or 3D. Lateral ankle movement is a must for the Macross Battroids, so it follows that engine thrust from nozzles that double as feet should have the same freedom of movement in fighter mode as they do in Battroid, the VF-17 Nightmare included.

That's not a bad explanation. I could follow some logic in that. I do consider Ranka a poorly written character, so maybe shes viewed as more poor than the rest. But again, I find it hard to distinguish her weaknesses as a poorly written character compared to other female Macross characters by such a degree that others do. Perhaps that might be because Ranka, by virtue of being created for Macross Frontier, is fresh in everyone's mind. I also very much enjoyed Macross Frontier as a series, so I suppose a lot of the typical complaints one experiences on message boards really rolled off while I was watching it. If I'm surprised by the Ranka hate, I'm going to take that as a good sign and I'm certainly not going back to re-read a lot of fanboy vitriol for fear of "missing out" on it (LOL ) I suppose I might also have to take into account the demographic of the voters. Ranka, despite my feeling that she's written roughly on par with other less impressive female Macross characters, might seem far more annoying to newer fans than to myself. Hell, after 25 years, Minmay still annoys me

Plot can be abused as a crutch for justifying even the worst characters. After all, each are heroes according to plot. I just don't understand the Ranka hate and I don't find it consistent at all. Ranka is as annoying as Minmay, but certainly no worse. Plot doesn't have Ranka doing anything overly offensive. Her character design is passable. She's not written extreme enough to inspire any devoted love or venomous hatred. Ranka is not written to be polarizing; she's written to be mediocre. I could understand hatred against Myung or Sheryl more than I can understand hatred against Ranka. People are obviously reading something more into Ranka than what is on the page. Maybe it's her link to moe or some such. But taken within just the context of Macross Frontier, I'm not seeing it. I mean just look at the votes: Ranka is categorized as the Basara of the female Macross characters. WTF? Anyway, I suppose it's really no big deal, but I just find myself curious why Ranka attracts so much hate for such a thin, forgettable character.

I can understand hate for Basara, Shin, Sara and Hibiki. I might not agree with some of those characters being labeled "worst", but I can understand hate for them and why some would vote against them. What has me baffled is the storm of hate against Ranka. Ranka is a weak character for certain, but she is more a non-entity than she is anything else. I've not a clue what Ranka has done to somehow justify a level of hate typically reserved for the Worst of Anime Alumni (Basara, Shinji, Heero, etc). She's marginal at best, neither developing in any particularly praiseworthy way nor committing a crime so serious as to condemn her character. Ranka's crime is breeding indifference or a dislike due to apathy that a weak character like her typically invokes. But this landslide voting result has me surprised. I guess I'm just not seeing it.

Since the issue of weight distribution has come up, it's probably worth mentioning the VF-1 Valkyrie is also described in the official literature as a Control-Configurable Vehicle (describes those aerospace craft specifically designed such that the distribution of the vehicle mass provides maximum maneuverability).

The official literature states the VF-1 Valkyrie has two-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles and these have been shown in subsequent animations. The predecessor craft to the VF-1, such as the VF-0 Phoenix, also have thrust vectoring. It's also a very likely conclusion that any variable fighter in which the engine nozzles are also the feet would also feature thrust vectoring by design.

I wouldn't go that far. District 9 is definitely superior to the big budget summer films this year. It's safe to say District 9 is definitely the biggest standout success for genre film so far this year. But best film out of ALL films this year? The jury is still out on that one. The Hurt Locker and the The Hangover were definitely as good if not better than District 9 and if one only cares about pure, fluff entertainment, Star Trek was the film to beat. There's also Up In The Air, Surrogates, The Road, The Lovely Bones, Avatar and Sherlock Holmes yet to be released, all films that have potential to be the best of the year.