1/1 LowViz Lurker

That was a movie within a movie don't forget So it can't be considered realistic depiction of the valk strength. hehe Probably that speed is better in GERWALK. Like if you are a damsel in distress and the robot can grab you and run on its feet (battroid mode) or hover to safety (faster). The GERWALK version is faster because the backpack thruster points behind you. And the wings let you get a bit of lift. When hikaru had to save Misa in SDFM in the mars base, he had a strict time limit before the base was going to blow up. That is probably one of the best uses of the GERWALK in the show but how many times do we get reminded that hikaru would have been better off putting the girl in a cockpit of the two-seater variant of the VF-1 and then just turning into fighter mode and flying away? You could achieve the same thing as GERWALK and not expose the girl to shrapnel or get their hair messy! Why carry the girl in the hand? So again. I think GERWALK is a half mode. Therefore gets less respect. But without it, the valk isn't as good overall. eg Maybe you want to shoot your wing mounted weapons and shoot the gunpod at the same time onto a single target for example? And not suffer the consequences of the Battroid mode's slow speed to get to the target in time? In Fighter mode you could probably shoot the gunpod at the target and wingmounted weapon on the target together too, .....but the gunpod only fires in one direction. The GERWALK lets you spread your fire around like the battroid mode but without the disadvantage of not being able to use the wing weapons. GERWALK however is probably less comfortable to spin around quickly than battroid mode since you are at the extreme edge of the mecha and it will make you sicker. lol

It's meant as a special ops valk and to replace the VF-11 as the main fighter in future. The fold lets them get great distance without needing a big ship. They can get deep behind enemy lines and do special missions like protect hostages and stuff which are more sensitive mission types that involve a bit of sneakiness. You'll note in the ova there is a scene where guld and dyson are involving in a target practice test and the bad guy targets have innnocent civilians in front of them as shields and Dyson shoots the innocent ones. (maybe not the best idea to have hot-head pilot for that test which requires a more cool-headed person) But he saved the girl in the end so who gives a sh!t. It's an anime.

I agree with the whole "people give them an easy pass because they spent a lot of money on it". But the company went belly up so that might have something to do with it too. People are generally afraid no future releases from yamato/arcadia. Unlike Bandai they are a small company. However.... A lot of people who say I will only get one are usually full of crap. They say that about 1/48. Then ended up getting as many as they could afford. If you can afford it (whether or not it is worth the money) it is usually wise for smaller company to set a high price first, sell out, then create more, release it at lower price for those who didn't pay the high price on the first release, etc than to just price it low and then overproduce. This way it creates demand from the collectors who feel that the appeal of the toys are in getting things nobody else can have. The quality on mine is problem-free. It looks better than the vf-19 (I am not a fan of the cheap shiny plastic and the super robot look of macross 7 valks except the vf-17 and vf-11c - I don't care how much japan loves it and how great they think basara are I have better taste :-P ) and is a big enough improvement over the old yf-19 that it does justify the price ....to me. It is like comparing the Optimus Prime Masterpiece to the new optimus prime masterpiece. just look at the f*cking articulation. (to me this is a major improvement for robot mode fans. But for those who feel the build quality isn't good enough I respect that. But you guys need to stop paying for stuff if you think it was crap. What that does is it sends a message to the company that you will still cave if they are lazy. And then they leave it at high price. This is the way you talk: with money. If you bought one, you basically lost their attention because that is all they care about. The money. People like me can afford it because we don't own many different toys so I guess they are aiming for the desperate people first and working their way down to the least desperate. It is interesting that you mention the yf-19 is on the level of the vf-11 because I actually thought the VF-11 was awesome. It is a shame it didn't sell well. What parts about the VF-19 that you think are better that the YF-19 is worse at? Apart from chunkier feel (due to the mecha design itself - the yf-19 has less overall meat on its legs for instance) to it, I really don't see what the difference is. The only thing I see is how the wings can get loose because of the hispeed mode. Perhaps people are complaining in the hope it goes down in price rather than the existing people going easy on it because they spent a lot on it? Those who spent a lot on it agree it is overpriced for them. But those who are complaining are not giving the examples needed for arcadia to address the issues they have. I don't have any loose parts, cracked pieces or quality control issues on mine. Hopefully those who are not happy with it can do a detailed review of all the things they do not feel satisfied with on the toy. Rate it out of ten. I do agree about things like lack of tampo printing. There is no excuse for that. These are supposed to be premium. Why don't they do that stuff? It's not a model kit. It's a toy. I hate having to add stickers/decals on toys and they will eventually come off anyway. Just do the printing ffs. Then maybe later on release a plain unpainted version of the toy for those who want to make a custom paintjob that is non-canon.

You see? This is why Mr.K needs to give us videos of the transformation with proper commentary. There are going to be people who know they did something wrong but because parts are tight they are too scared to pull and push too hard for fear it might break something that was not meant to be treated roughly. What a video does is show everything moving in motion. So if you do have a very tight piece you can take satisfaction that you've seen that part move before in the video and not guess. There are also things videos may show that might not even be in manuals. Oh well.

It basically looks bad for some valks. For instance the vf-11 I find kinda ugly in gerwalk because it has a thin layer of kibble hanging off its butt that doesn't really look nice at all. The VF-1 on the other hand has a backpack that folds up with some booster things on the back of it. It looks like it would be useful. Sometimes it is not a good looking mode for practical reasons. For instance the yf-19 has the wings behind the arms which actually restricts its movement. I suppose it also looks funny because the pilot is in more danger in that mode by having himself be exposed. Robot mode is way better thought out where you are protected by a robot armor. (Battroid adds extra powered frame to the vehicle by transferring energy not being used in the thrusters to the body of the machine so it can withstand impact better. This allows you to crash into buildings and not get yourself killed as easily. At close range you don't want to make the pilot dizzy so the pilot being right in the centre of mass makes a lot of sense. All valks in battroid mode are required since the whole idea of killing giants (the original purpose) was to use robots to compensate for humans lacking the physical strength to match the zentradi 1-to-1. The best part of gerwalk is it makes sense to land in that mode in the absense of a landing strip. You can descend anywhere and then transform into a robot. To me it is best thought of as a transition from fighter to robot but not a really useful mode by itself. Since being a robot makes you stronger at close range, (you can still skate on the ground like GERWALK) and being a fighter gives you the speed to catch up to a fast target and lock on. But the GERWALK is really not strong in either of those two things. It's just really a safer way to slow down imo. I suppose in space the rules change however and perhaps GERWALK is better than a fighter because you can see around you easier but turn te gunpod around much faster because it is not fixed to the plane itself. Think about that from a defensive perspective: when you need to turn quickly in fighter mode you are restricted to shooting the close range gunpod in one direction only. But in space you slide around all over the place to it is not a ideal way to fight using the weapon when the enemy is close to you. Having a arm holding a gunpod lets you swivel the weapon quickly from side to side. But even then battroid mode in space can do this too. But maybe being able to look right and left is a little bit quicker when you look out the window of the cockpit canopy instead of the battroid camera in the head? (more awareness visually of up close objects?) Small targets won't appear on the radar. So perhaps the GERWALK offers this one advantage. For instance lets say I attack you from above in space battle. You won't see me as easily in battroid mode because your headt turret is looking forward all the time. But in GERWALK you can see me coming by looking upwards from your cockpit canopy. There are also other things about GERWALK that might be still useful like having the ability to fire wing-mounted weapons which you can't use in battroid mode but yeah overall I think it much more like a half mode that acts as a transition to get to the other modes. Not a mode by itself. If a valk did not have a GERWALK mode it wouldn't suffer as much as if it didn't have the battroid mode or fighter mode.

Have you guys played a videogame on playstation 1 called einhander? That what I think should be put into macross universe where you have mechanical hand that can take various weapons and use it against whatever enemy you kill that drops the weapon using the arm to grapple the dead guy's gun. All kinds of things like rockets, miniguns, beam weapons, long range cannons etc can then be used according to whatever is needed. Just let the arm gimmick attach itself to the weapon identify how it is supposed to operate it and then it becomes part of your attacks. I think the idea of a hacking robot that steals weapons takes over the systems of the enemy and uses it against them is cool. Sort of like a mech that yang newman would invent so he could hijack the controls of things heh

There is a transformation vid in the transformation instructions thread. One guy did it, but the sound was taken out. Did yours have loose ankles? Mine are a bit looser now but can easily hold gerwalk with knees bent without falling forward.

The quality of animation is great. It's only 26 eps I think? But it crams a lot into that time. Not as much repetition as macross 7 imo which is a good thing.

Love doesn't necessarily mean sex. You can love something about another culture without frakking the people. Eg the model kit sellers in sdfm liking the feeling they get hearing music and realising it is something they never have experienced before and wanting more of it by telling all the other aliens about it back on thier ship when they report what they've seen in the hope they can go back. The bridge bunnies probably were about to do em though at the rate they were going having a chance to mingle. Sex is part of it but not the whole thing.

Are videogames and merch considered canon to the story though? According to the old DYRL top down shoot em up GERWALK mode of vf-1 can fire miniture sdf-1 main cannon at the enemy in the form of a beam of death. What about the armour pack in mac f? Flying tank much? In battroid mode you are not really meant to fly fast anyway. It's more like you get to skate on the ground on cushion of air and shoot with more accuracy standing still. Although heroes get to do fancy stuff like dodgerolls and other stuff. The average guy seeks cover. See ep1 of plus for an example there. If the QRau can fight with its giant backpack on the ground in corridor in DYRL then I don't see how this can't with shoulder kibble.

Just push the black triangle down. When you do this a lever on the bottom pushes the canopy up for you like the lid of a pedal bin when you step on the pedal to open the lid without touching the lid. Many people forget about this mechanism and try to pull it open but this is a decent-enough mechanism imo.

Macross is always about love between two different cultures though. The priests that use magic and normal humans being in place of human marrying an alien in sdfm. You get used to it. It's not gundam show. Magick is linked to technology. Actually it does help to make aliens more mysterious. Remember that scene in DRYL where the atlantean civilisation's island rose up from the oceans? It's always had an element of mystery. The ship itself at the start of sdfm was not of human origin and wasn't fully understood either. When they tried to lift off from earth the anti-gravity engines rose up into the air without bringing the ship with it and they ended up just using conventional tech. Alien science in macross isn't 100% fully understood. You could say that about floating machines in zero. It's not meant to make sense since these are people who isolated themselves from civilisation to preserve secrets. Not all sci-fi explains how things work. In macross 7 the alternative science are not respected by conventional and they are like mad professors who never get funding since nobody 'gets' them so they have to do things outside the established system. The real life equivalent to this would be nikola tesla, who had great ideas but because it couldn't be made to generate a profit his inventions were supressed and died with no money. That's greedy america for ya.

Zero was probably the best at trying to explain why there were transforming functions in the first place. Yes one of the modes is for killing giants but in this ova it seems that speeds are the main reason. Dogfighting and locking on in fighter mode is the first speed, then gerwalk (hard braking so your opponent who is about to lock onto your tail will go past you and you can shoot his butt) and finally robot mode (used defensively by roy to shoot down micromissile swarms with laser beam from the head turret (great accuracy and swivel speed) and gunpod at close range. By combing the strengths of each mode you can do stuff outside of the boundary that dedicated fighter or dedicated ground robot can do. Zero visually shows the tricks being useful in its one-to-one fights. (much like those martial arts movies where the main character starts getting his butt kicked due to old thinking until his new teacher can fill his brain with new information or ways of thinking to overcome the bad guy who is usually better than him at the beginning of the story) Macross Plus on the other hand didn't do too much with GERWALK mode imo. In Zero the use of drones as boosters made sense. I would like to see that make a return actually. Have the drone be like independent scout in robot mode to scan an area from above so the pilot doesn't have to risk getting shot down himself and can remain in cover on the ground. (by this time in the macross universe the drone are so cheap nobody really minds if they lose them. Does anyone remember that episode where kamjin is hiding in wait on mars to ambush the sdf-1 with gravity mine and they are hidden inside a valley? That could be one trick- send a stealth drone to peek while they sit in waiting. This would be UN answer to the ANTI-UN telescoping head gimmick on the sv-51. Or how about this for space? A remote drone sniper. You don't need to be in the spot to snipe. The drone can fly behind a rock, you see from its camera and shoot your target from remote locations using the drone? Combined with holograms to distract the enemy for a while to make an easy getaway. Perfect for low viz assassin missions.

Me too. Better pilots, hi-speed mode, no ugly pointy shoulders or ankle bracelets. It overall looks like a military weapon to fight with not a super robot for kids cartoon. If the wings just had some gimmick to hold them like the old 1/48 VF-1 wings, it would be better. 1/48 swing wings never got loose. They click into place. Also no magnets on this. Please bring back the magnets for FAST packs like VF-11.

Macross 7 best eps were when Max kicked butt in his vf-22. All they need to do is clone max, mass produce super aces as special ops soldiers and the galaxy would be at peace. Bring back Kamjin clone again with a army of clone max pilots and have there be a clone war like prequel trilogy star wars. Human vs aliens using humans as brainwashed assassins. Humans get all the blame (rogue zentradi hack communication networks with the help of AI with self awareness which influences the youth into joining them) and this starts space war 2. Mixed race pilots have to choose sides just like gundam shows. And they have to decide who to be loyal to: friends, family/bloodlines, race, or belief system. AI drones and cyborgs are caught in the middle and decided to kill em all for bringing wars back, and they blaming all living beings with the solution being to use brainwashing to pacify everyone under thier control. Think of it like Agent Smith in the Matrix movies. He is disgusted by Human and Aliens warlike behavior and thinks they should just be dumbed down to calm them all to save the environment. (these could represent the extreme green party lol) Three way war. 52 eps but with the quality animation of mac frontier. This could mean end of civilisation and an extinction-level event within the universe. After that, they go all 'Final Fantasy' on macross universe where shows take on a more post apoc feel to it. Shortages of food cause fighting, Anti UN become the new group people trust and we see common usage of older valk tech again due to lack of resources. The reboot of macross then takes place after the new calendar is made post space war 2. Where you have old tech modified and an excuse to update them much like VF0 could be considered like the updated VF-1 in terms of its look. Because of AI able to hack ships and hijack them easily, the humans do not trust machines and only like manually controlled mecha again so skill becomes more important. You might see variants of destroid that have giants synthetic muscle inside them to move it. Like an organic robot encased in armour plating for example. Ie Boomers from bubblegum crisis. And they are like animals that can be trained but occassionally go crazy.

In space it would be fine. I guess it is like FAST packs on VF-1 which were only for space fights. What I would like to see in macross is full barrier system as defense against micrmissile spam. Full barrier wsas what global used in the sdfm tv series to shield the sdf-1 against attacks all over its body. It got overloaded ad kakizaki dies in that ep lol. Like the fold booster it could only be used very sparingly and then afterwards you eject it.

I think if they introduced a giant cannon like the Glaug it would be cooler than the missile thing. Variable Glaug has something like that.

The destroids might sell if the market is not saturated with other toys that transform.

Thanks. I'm going to add that one to the "how to transform valk" thread I made.

Maybe they expect most of us to just display our toys using stands? So they don't really see it as major problem?

Someone mentioned the holes would interfere with the collapsing thing or interfere with a gimmick of some sort I remember. Maybe they should give us two gunpods like how bandai gives two wing sets for himetal?

I'm relying on you guys to help me find it all. Where do you get graham's trasformation videos? I am thinking of putting these up too. I still got to add all the other smaller scale toys like himetal and things like chunky munky and toynami stuff. (they released decent 1/100 vf-1 toys with the skinny thighs I remember) I thik the more expensive stuff should go first though because the whole purpose is to provide a quick reference for complex toys that you know you are too scared to transform because you might wreck it or do something in the wrong order. Small stuff is cheaper and you tend to take risks figuring it out yourself so you won't need a quick reference as much compared to the bigger stuff.

They should re-release VF-11B imo. (add a new atmospheric booster) Then VF-11C with changes that allow you to add Full Armor. Yummy. Maybe by this time they will have to have fixed ankle design to allow for all the extra weight it has to cope with? The announcement of this gives hope for re-releases of other things. I'm waiting for Arcadia to announce VF0S with Reactive Armor. Roy Fokker Ozma has the best paintscheme. Grey tint and black with the high-vis yellow/Gold trimmings.

what macross would be like if they hired koreans to redo the animation (using gundam as a example): Note the pallete swap of char aznable but he fights different people? Fans of macross who claim they would be bored by seeing the exact same thing again would have nothing to complain about as the whole story would be scrambled up and it would be like going into an alternate dimension. You might not even see the vf-1. Peoples hair might look different and Roy Fokker might be a bad guy. Story would be very unpredictable. Ok I'm joking around. But if they gave us redone SDFM with better animations I think a new audience would see it as fresh because assuming they were too young when it came out to see it, the new one would reintroduce them to the series like how you see hollywood constantly doing origin stories for super heroes. And people liked that. Batman Begins was a success. Why can't a retelling of Space War I be interesting? "But they already did it with DYRL" Yeah but that was a loooong time ago. I want today's animation on old mechas.

good thread idea. start it already. Toy prices are going up up up but quality checking seems to be going back down. hehe Mine came out ok though. Transformed it once in to each mode. Have it standing in battroid mode. Hopefully Graham can help us out with replacement parts when they arrive with cracked pieces just like the old days of yamato toys. lol