jvmacross

Nice pens... Guess stationery merch isn't as popular as it used to be...newer merch seems to be scarce

We're the prices marked up or MSRP?

Kawamori Expo K-40...VF-1 Battroid Design T-Shirt

yep

https://www.dcfilmsinconcert.com/

Since the Macross Boxart book has confirmed the existence of lineart specific for the toys...it would make sense that the extra hinge that allowed that movement would have been depicted in the lineart for the 1/3000 SDF-1 toy...at some point the extra gimmick was scrapped as it did not make it onto the final product.... Takani was producing illustrations based on more than just the lineart and he seems to capture more motion and thus, more of the gimmicks/articulation possessed by the mecha he was working on....so that was probably why he painted the shoulder cannons the way he did...as far as he was concerned...it was a cannon thing that the SDF-1 could do... Takani also painted a "green/Olive" Tomahawk....so I think that demonstartes that he was working on his paintings based on the info he was being given.... The only illustrator that didn't care what was cannon for any particular Macross valk, destroid, etc was Masami! LOL

yeah...but why would a kid want action figures over a 1/55 transforming VF-1? LOL Anyway, I guess the closest thing to action figures would have been the vinyl and rubber toys from Takatoku and Ohsato...

Not to derail the OP's post further...but one final question....when did the conversation finally occur between Big West, Kawamori and their licensees that made the VF-1 finally fall in line and start being designed with a "backpack" with vertical slats? From memory, I believe the Hi-Complete Model from the 80's still was depicted as a detail-less hole....the 1/55 re-issues all continued with the "original Takatoku design"....I wonder if that move to "vertical slats" began with the release of the Yamato VF-1 Version 1?

I should have taken the f'ing blue pill 40 years ago!....

The only lineart attributed to the Takatoku 1/55 VF-1 found in the Boxart book is this one.... Surely a drawing must exist showing the part in question locked up in BigWest's dungeon!

I pulled out the BIG GUNS of the available Macross art and reference books.... ...in terms of lineart from the SDFM/DYRL era...I could not find any "lineart" that details that specific area/part of the VF-1.... However, there were a number of "illustrations" that do have some interpretation of what that part looks like.... ...I do not think the illustrators working on the boxart would have been privy to these art pieces, they probably only had access to the lineart that is printed in several of the books above... Oddly enough, the only illustration I could find that had a clear view of that part of the VF-1 was found in the recently published Macross Variable Fighter Designers Note...it is used on the cover ...as it appears within the book... ...this specific drawing does not seem to appear in any of the DYRL books released during the premier of the film in 1984....with that said, it is unlikely that even if the illustration existed at the time, it would not have existed during the time that Takani and Suzuki were working on their ARII and IMAI boxart illustrations... So maybe that part of the VF-1 was not much of a concern for Kawamori at the time? At this point, I will go with your theory about Takatoku's design influencing how that part of the VF-1 was illustrated by the artists at ARII and IMAI...perhaps there was a lineart for the 1/55 Takatoku VF-1 being passed around at the time.... I forgot to check the Macross Boxart Book...I thought it had some illustrations specific to Takatoku...perhaps the smoking gun is there?...

Can't recall off the top of my head....if there is such a drawing I'd imagine it would be in the Macross Perfect Memory book or any of the SDFM era resource books....or probably in one of the newer Kawamori lineart books...will take a look when I get a chance

Nice observation... The illustration was commissioned by Arii to Artmic who then had one of their staff illustrators, T. Suzuki, handle several of the Macross boxart...unlike the boxart created by Takani...most of the boxart done by Suzuki was based off of the lineart...Suzuki would take the lineart then add his colors and "details"....based on the info provided by the recent Macross Boxart book...the finished art was often created several months prior to the product release or even the series premier.... I am guessing that the original lineart just has an empty black space and Suzuki decided to add some "detail"...lol The same "error" is duplicated on other boxart illustrations... Even Imai has some... Even Takani joined the party!