kajnrig

Yeah, anyone know if those are planned revisions to be included with new Armored VF-1 kits? IIRC something similar happened with the Regult recently, something about the joints being updated?

The reviews of Black Adam would suggest they haven't been. I have a feeling Cavill is the one hope this film has at being a success. Maybe he takes on an executive producer role and can dictate some of the creative decision-making.

It's kind of mildly infuriating how there's been more information about this release, two weeks or so after its initial announcement, than there has been about ANY of the supposedly incoming American box sets in what feels like half a year.

Unfortunately, super glue cures into a hard plastic not too dissimilar from the ABS/polystyrene/whatever types that are used in toys and model kits, etc. Super glue remover works by dissolving the super glue... and if the super glue and plastic are made of the same/similar material... yeah... You might - MIGHT! - be able to mechanically break the bond. Super glue has good tensile strength - ie hard to pull apart - but very low shear strength - ie easy to snap. Depending on what's glued and how, you MIGHT be able to twist the joined parts apart. But I have the feeling that's not possible in this situation.

I went with Macross Frontier, Gundam Seed Stargazer, and a bit of Revolutionary Girl Utena myself, for the first episode (well, first episode and prologue) anyway. Second episode was a bit aimless and general world-building, so I've reserved further judgement until episode 3... which I'll get to in just a second and get back to my updates in the MSG thread. I admit I haven't bothered watching G-Rec, but somehow I know it's an apt comparison anyway. IBO is a bit more... nihilistic... from what I remember, but the mecha designs are obviously similar (same designer IIRC), and the pacing maybe? I get some of the same nagging issues from WfM's storytelling as I did from IBO before I dropped it, which doesn't necessarily bode well...

I've seen the kit occasionally pop up on YJA. I know you'd probably rather not have to buy a whole kit just for some spare parts, but if I come across any in the near future I'll post them here. Is it possible to do as Chronocidal said and basically scratchbuild replacement parts for that section?

Both? You mean the YF-29 we saw is actually a husband and wife time-share and they each get to use it every other month out of the year? Or they purposely spent their savings buying the YF-29 so they could fight and bicker over it?

Okay, I was starting to worry that I misremembered parts of Frontier. As for "ignorable," that's my go-to strategy for most things Delta. That's right, I forgot she was supposedly head of Xaos. For being fairly unreliable on most things Macross, that fan wiki is pretty accurate about Delta lore. I suppose that's just owing to it being naturally easier to document modern events than shows/games/etc. from the previous 40 years.

Did Lady M play a role in the goings-on of Frontier? I don't remember her name being uttered in the show or the movies, but some of the comments here suggest she did...? The closest that might be inferred was Richard Birla/Belra holding onto the photo of Minmay. Did Delta retroactively imply her influence on the Vajra events?

Honestly, I'm surprised they've gone this long without advertising it yet.

I like the story behind the -19 he flies in Wings of Goodbye. It's not actually his old YF-19, but a highly illegally modified ace custom of an ace custom production-model VF-19. Its official model number is VF-19EF/A (the DX toy called it either VF-19ADVANCE or VF-19 Advance). The VF-19EF "Caliburn" was developed by Frontier/SMS as a special forces VF prior to adopting the VF-25. Isamu, now part of SMS, wanted his VF-19EF to perform more like the YF-19 he tested some 20 years ago (which is to say: better but wildly), so enlisted the aid of Jan Neumann to source legacy VF-19 (and maybe even YF-19?) parts. Much of this retrofitting would have been illegal due to an export ban that had been placed on the VF-19, but apparently they smoothed things over politically by making their pet project an official "modernization program." (IIRC in-universe the reasoning for the ban was to keep superior tech in the hands of NUNS and Earth (which is why you see the same thing happen with the Y/VF-24 where lower-spec plans are sent to the various emigrant fleets instead of the full design specs), but the meta reason was because Kawamori thought the -19 looked too much like a hero design and didn't want to see it used as cannon fodder ). As part of the modernization program, the affected VF-19EFs were returned to the higher performance specs of the YF-19 and VF-19A variants, and IIRC introduced some technologies from the new VF-25 as well (EX Gear cockpit system, VF-25 engines, and support for the VF-25's Super booster unit), and re-designated the VF-19EF/A. If Max had gone to the same lengths to retrofit a legacy favorite of his, imagine what it could have been. A "VF-22MAX," maybe? An Armored VF-11, finally rendered in 3D? Or maybe even a super customized VF-1? There was the VF-1EX from the early episodes of Delta with the new EX Gear cockpit system... I'd imagine there's only the single YF-30 prototype from Macross 30... which makes it hilarious that IT saw a production VF descended from it and the YF-29 with anywhere from 3 to 6 prototypes didn't. tl;dr - YF-29 was designed to use infinite energy to power and/or enhance basically every facet of a VF. YF-30 was designed to operate in a really specific, really wonky environment while wearing different backpacks. As Bolt says, compared to the YF-29 it's not as capable, but it IS a fighter with fighter roles in mind. I remember being confused about this as well and asking about it some time ago. You'd think it's newer, it's the protagonist's super prototype versus the antagonist in yesterday's model, it MUST be better, right? Makes sense to me. But once it was explained to me and I drove down into the details, I kind of saw why that wasn't really the case. The YF-30's main "fighter-specific innovation" is the modular weapons pod... and that's kind of it. Everything else about it, besides the "Fold Dimensional Resonance System," seems pretty standard VF weapons technology - gunpod, knife, secondary lasers, etc. Even the FDRS, which is supposedly an enhanced version of the YF-29's Fold Wave System, doesn't seem to translate directly to better fighter characteristics. It seems almost to have been simply in the right place at the right time (or could only really exist/be developed in/for one specific location): It resonates/amplifies song energy, and it allows one to navigate fold faults... and the planet Ouroboros where the YF-30 was being developed(?) was doing really funky things with fold space and song energy, to the point of warping characters and singers across space and time to it. The YF-29, on the other hand, is kind of all about DA STRONGEST OFFENSE and DA STRONGEST DEFENSE. I forget the specifics, but there's something about its guns shoot compressed space and/or matter, its big dual-gun shoots out miniature black holes, it has tons of internal missile launchers (IIRC two on its shoulders, two larger ones on its lower legs), and so on. It has the best energy conversion armor ever, and its Inertia Store Converter can store more G's than ever. Its four engines are supertuned past what they "should" be able to sustain. All of this stuff takes a lot of energy, and it gets that energy from the tons and tons of fold quartz integrated into almost every major component and the Fold Wave System, which generates infinite energy and also allows the YF-29 to disrupt fold communications systems like those the Vajra use. I suppose with that in mind, it makes sense that the -30 would get production models and the -29 wouldn't. Kind of hard to mass-produce perpetual motion machines, not so hard to adapt a hinged backpack mechanic.

Gah. Of course. Thanks for the correction.

Right? You knew it was a 4070. We knew it was a 4070. You didn't believe it when you said it, we weren't fooled when you said it. Just change the name and charge what you want to charge for the obvious reasons why and just let it be what it be. You're already dead set on this strategy, you don't get to try and claim any sort of value crown either. Stop trying to have your cake and eat it too.

Gah, it seems I completely misremembered the various YF-29 releases and missed out on one. So as far as toys go, thanks to anymoon.com (I forget... is it you, @seti88?) there are: Alto's YF-29 Durandal 30th Anniversary/Roy Focker's YF-29 Durandal Isamu's YF-29 Durandal Ozma's YF-29 Durandal (forgot this one) Rod's YF-29B Perceval Max's YF-29 Durandal I'm assuming that the only "real" Durandal variants are the Alto, Rod, and Max variants: Alto and Max because they were animated, and Rod because he's the main antagonist of Macross 30. IIRC, the 30th/Roy is a "what if" scheme, and the Isamu and Ozma ones, while they appear in Macross 30, I'm assuming are also non-canon "what if" type designs. The 31AX are weird custom variants of custom variants. They're the VF-31J/C/S/etc. Siegfrieds repaired using VF-31A Kairos parts. I honestly don't know if they deserve to have a whole new designation based on that fact alone, but it does at least help to differentiate them from the regular Kairos and Siegfried versions, if not from each other. I think I'd have preferred something like "VF-31AJ," "VF-31AC," etc. Right, I just meant which ones actually exist as far as the canon is concerned. As explained above, I'm fairly certain the Roy/Isamu/Ozma variants are just "what if" designs thrown into the Macross 30 videogame for fun. So if, officially, there are only three YF-29s in existence, then it makes sense that there wouldn't be a mass-production VF-29 yet or ever. If, however, there are officially 6 YF-29 variants in existence, then it kind of makes a compelling argument to start mass-producing VF-29s, unless the YF-29 was never meant to actually be mass-produced and was only ever a technology test platform.

Something that irks me is how they bother to give it the ol' robotic doll facial animations and the non-moving hands, but then can't bother to make its full-body animations more robotic as well and instead just have a regular person moving with a mask on or composite the face on or whatever. Certainly doesn't sell the illusion quite as well as

It's not Goodsmile's fault Khara are letting everyone and their mama take a turn on the town bicycle at a model kit. I will say it would be tons of fun to compare all the various kit renditions, see the different engineering decisions that go into depicting the same thing.

Despite the number of toy variants aren't there only three official variants so far? Alto's YF-29, Rod's YF-29B, and now Max's YF-29. (I don't think Isamu's is an actual thing, and I know FOR SURE Roy's isn't an actual thing, unless they've introduced the concept of time tra--) Three prototypes all intended (IIRC) to test out different technologies? Seems plausible to me. And it's not uncommon for prototypes to not make it to full production status... What if they pull a fast one and reach back to something "retro" instead? Let's see, what numbers are available... VF-0 Phoenix VF-1 Valkyrie VAB-2 VA-3 Invader/VF-3000 Crusader VF-4 Lightning II VF-5000 Star Mirage (VB-6 Konig Monster?) 7 8 VF-9 Cutlass 10 VF-11 Thunderbolt 12 13 VF/A-14 15 16 VF-17/171 Nightmare/Nightmare Plus 18 VF-19 Excalibur 20 YF-21 VF-22 Sturmvogel II 23 VF-24 (Evolution?) VF-25 Messiah 26 VF-27 Lucifer 28 YF-29 Durandal/Perceval YF-30 Chronos VF-31 Kairos/Siegfried ...to say nothing of the SV series of VFs, and maybe some other obscure Protodevlin variants Imagine the next show introduces the YF-15, collecting dust at some long-forgotten boneyard on the remote edge of the galaxy but restored with VF-11 parts or something back to functional order. Given how crazy rare and expensive a YF-29 is supposed to be, they may as well have given him a VF-24. Am I remembering it right that NUNS developed the YF-24, produced the super-performative VF-24 from that for their Earth fleets, then sent out monkey model specs to the various emigrant fleets, from which the 25 onward were developed? And of them, only the prohibitively expensive YF-29 matched (or is estimated to match) the VF-24's performance? But yeah. Would have been a really nice way to further distinguish Max from other elites AND finally show what the 24 looks like. It wouldn't even have been very hard to model; just slightly modify the 25 model they already have on hand.

So... I take it that Lady M is generally disliked by fans? I mean as an overarching narrative device, she holds far too much power. I don't see future entries in the franchise being able to build upon the (admittedly vague and hand-wavy) "galactic canon" while ignoring her the same way older entries have been able to casually dance around each other. The only way to ignore her role in the wider galactic goings-on would be to ignore the wider galactic goings-on entirely and severely limit the scope of the next Macross story... which, frankly, wouldn't be a bad idea anyway.

The amount of foreshadowing certainly doesn't help. But even with all that, there were ways for the movie to handle that plot thread with... not necessarily subtlety - soap operas don't exactly deal in subtlety - but certainly with more elegance than it did. Knowing the ending isn't necessarily an issue so long as the getting there is well executed. And boy was it not well executed. I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice that. Lots of Flanderization going on, which on the one hand, is a half-decent way to reduce the narrative workload. You simplify side characters down so you can focus on the characters, relationships, dramas, etc. that really matter. But on the other hand, if you simplify side characters down BUT THEN FOCUS ON THEM ANYWAY... I actually really kind of hate what transpires between her and her grandfather, because it shows not just that the writer fundamentally misunderstands her, but that he fundamentally misunderstands Max Jenius as well. It's double the character assassination per scene! What a steal! Oh, my bad. The general tenor of the comment made me think you were on the younger side. (Which I mean, compared to most of the guys here, I'M on the younger side, so... ) I know WHY baby can sing. Doesn't make it any less creepy or uncanny. Like others have said, the action was so quick and schizophrenic that I could barely tell who was doing what. The CGI profiles from magazine scans looked nice enough. What it really needed was a good long lingering daylight shot. For the whole movie it's nothing but a dark neon-striped shape against dark backgrounds; is it any wonder you can't make it out, much less remember its shape? This is one of those criticisms that I level against the Frontier movies as well. It started with them, and only got faster and faster/worse and worse with each Delta iteration. I wonder how many of y'all did slow down the movie during those sections - and/or replayed them multiple times, etc. - to appreciate what was going on. Me, I just barreled through them at regular pace the way a theater audience would have had to, and... yeah. It's hard for these geriatric eyes of mine to keep up. I will say, I enjoyed the Bird Human-esque look of the Astraea. I don't know if it was intentional--heck, I don't even remember it being consistent, just there being a couple shots that instantly registered to me as "Oh hey! A Macross Zero reference!" I was surprised at his inclusion, but then not TOO surprised, and then it was just one of those nice glimpses into the lives of characters past. It's nice that they've stayed friends this whole time. That was neat. Speaking of characters past, though, I am now firmly of the opinion that "Lady M" was a mistake. It should not have been introduced into the overarching story the way it was, it should not have had the outsized influence on the universe that it does... I dunno. Thoughts? I don't mind the idea of the Megaroad-01 being stuck in a fold fault, but otherwise, the intergalactic influence a single colony ship has managed to exert from a position of almost complete isolation... it strains credulity.

Frontier did it first is the thing, in this "revival era" of Macross. It was a great remix of the DYRL? formula, the music rocked, the characters were great. Everything was in sync with everything else. Delta was a by the numbers copycat of Frontier, with not enough of its own attitude to stand on. And then the second movie doubled down on the formula for no reason whatsoever. I never expect this type of comment here. It's good to know the franchise is continuing to draw in new blood, and not just us old-timers in perpetuity. To your point, I did, in fact, end up seeing it to the end, and before that, I did, in fact, assume that it would have a bittersweet ending. That much was fairly obvious the moment it was established that her singing caused her to age. The ending doesn't at all change my opinion of the movie. I'd go so far as to say that the ending doesn't feel earned at all. Like I said, there's twelve other movies stuffed into this one, and none of them get to breathe enough that I actually care when they get to their respective conclusions. I'll say, the subplot trying to retcon Kaname into having an unspoken love with Messer continues to irritate me to no end. That it simultaneously discards all setup between her and Arad is doubly irritating, and that it decides it suddenly wants him to be fleet commander material is triply so. The movie's idea of "good leadership" in general made me roll my eyes. Frantic micromanaging (and pointing! Lots and lots of useless pointing!) is apparently what NUNS is looking for. Enemy Baby enjoying their singing was a neat idea (but again gets so lost amongst everything else etc. etc. etc.). Enemy Baby belting out perfectly-clear song lyrics at the age of what seemed like two was creepy as frakk.

If nothing else, they could have copied the 10-minute short's modus operandi and told a story that's in any way fundamentally different from last time. I swear, for being a completely new story it's exactly the same story - musical show plus aerobatics show, attack by mysterious enemy, routed, general regrouping, the finale where the main hero flies their jet fighter from the concert stage to the enemy capital ship with their girlfriend astral projecting alongside them. So much potential for good storytelling here, and so much of it wasted...

I like that finally one of these shows has posited a plausible reason for why the mask. Tying it into cybernetics as a consequence of Mercurian living is very smart, though I suspect that that's just a cover and it'll turn out the mask is really just a funky fashion choice as it is in any other Gundam. That aside, the second episode doesn't really move the barometer in any direction. Still touching on some of the same ideas as RGU. I have some ideas of where certain characters are going; it'll be interesting to see if they have the guts like RGU did to really go places, or if Gundam being Gundam will force them to play it safe. Next episode.

I managed to source a viewing, and I made it roughly halfway through before calling it quits. I might finish it, but boy, do I just not care. At all. I am so ready to move on from Delta, or at least whichever creative voices are responsible for Delta. I had really hoped that this movie would learn from the ample criticism leveled at the show and first movie and discard all excess baggage to hone in on executing the fundamentals. But the first hour of it is just more of the same. There's like twelve movies/shows/OVAs' worth of workable ideas stuffed into this, and it focuses on absolutely none of them. I can't even get excited at the introduction of nostalgia trap Max Jenius when it's just one more of a mass of hastily-introduced plot developments. The only positive of the film is the Yami Q-Ray music, and that's not nearly good enough to save the film.

Yep. If the head crest is the only new thing this release brings to the table - which it seems it is - then they've taken a pretty weak jab at it. It's not even a matter of material choice; Bandai have shown they can get super fine, super crisp detail out of their regular IP technology. If they were gonna spend the money on the tooling, they may as well have made it look, y'know, good, instead of like a saggy, octogenarian face hugger. One source for those resin head crests, if they interest you. (IIRC there are more than the ones listed here, but this was just from a quick glance.) Hazenthley "Goddess Antenna": https://www.shop2000.com.tw/GK-M/product/p36102882 Woundwort "Goddess Antenna": https://www.shop2000.com.tw/GK-M/product/p36102883 Woundwort "Goddess Antenna" (but sharp): https://www.shop2000.com.tw/GK-M/product/p33913385 There's also one for the MG Wing Zero Custom Ver Ka: https://www.shop2000.com.tw/GK-M/product/p42274191 Is the "psycho blade" the head antenna? If so, yes. I haven't seen any of the above links on Ebay, unfortunately. You might try Yahoo Japan...? If the "psycho blade" refers to something else in the pictures, I'm not seeing what it is...

Watched the prologue and first episode today. Honestly, what hooked me was the vague murmurings of a whisper of a promise of the yuriest Gundam yuri to ever yuri. The prologue gave me huge Stargazer vibes, except it was cramming an already lean-as-can-be 45-minute script into less than half that time. Things were happening too fast to be very emotionally affecting. It felt almost clinical, watching it. The first episode proper is one heck of a mood swing: From typical Gundam sanctimony to bubble-gum moe space high school anime. You can feel the not insignificant influence of a certain Macross 25th anniversary TV show here... as well as Revolutionary Girl Utena, unexpectedly enough. The pacing continued to leave little room to breathe, and at the very end of the episode the show suddenly introduced yuri rom-com and battle high school to the dozen spinning plates it's already having trouble balancing. Production values are high, and combat animation is beautiful, even if the show doesn't really do anything new with it. You've got your beam rifles, your sabers, your remote-controlled Bits and tracking missiles, and they're all used and shot and framed pretty much exactly how you'd expect them to be. Honestly, not a lot about the show has hooked me so far. The MC is adorable, but I don't think my desire to see her succeed in life will sustain my interest in the long run. But we'll see. Let's give it a few more episodes to really get a solid idea what we're working with and where we're going.