Uxi

Maybe not perfectly accurate, but I'm sure they could do better today than they did back in the day! And I wouldn't mind if it was a funky scale gun mode so that it could match up in size w/ the Optimus Prime (and hopefully avoid the wacko anti-toy gun people).

Not bad price at all. You could have done much worse, but think that Toy-Wave (?) site had the best prices I've seen so far...

Um... VF-22. VF-19 "cannon fodders" with older VF-22 Spec Ops and the new next gen valkyrie that will replace the VF-22. Though I'm liking to hypothesize about UN Spacy getting in a budget crunch and deciding to make a single engine less flashy version of VF-22 ala JSF vs F-22 and using THAT to replace the VF-19... all due to budget concerns.

We still may. I don't think it's necessary, though it sure would be nice. Nice pics. I don't think the standard FP color clashes much with the Low-Viz. All about the insignia you use IMO.

Yeah. Wow, I'm reeling from the "devastating" attack (the point-by-point annihiliation of the "devastation" being completely disregarded).

Wow. That makes it sound like the YF-19 is still under design and/or design alterations of its fundamental sculpt. And that seemed to be more than a hint that we'll get the Q-rau first. Very interesting.

It's just a rank thing. I think the M203/M16 analogy is great. I believe rather than being an incredible weapon the strike cannon simply allows the squadron leader to be able to mark targets instead of trying to communicate it verbally or graphically (in the HUD or something)...

The absence of evidence is not evidence in and of itself. A logical fallacy if there ever was one. Besides the fact there was no reason in SDF Macross or DYRL to mention the Marduk as such, which assumes the Zentran would have known or cared about the details of who/what instead of it just being the mysterious and/or hated nemesis: "supervision army." Obviously Kawamori didn't intend for the Marduk to be the Supervision Army but he wasn't driving the bus then and despite what Keith says, the SA have hardly been "fully explained" and "rooted" in continuity. There are a couple vague references to them but hardly anythin definitive. The whole DYRL/Supervision Army origins for the Macross is irrelevent to the stories of SDF Macross, DYRL, and even MII as it's never explored (or even necessary to explore) its origins in those stories. The characters simply react to the actions of Bodolza or Ingus. Ishtar thought the Macross was the Alus, but it obviously was not. Keith is stuck on the Macross in MII having ARMD's as arms when it's clear they're not the same ARMDs from 80 years previously (nor should they be!). And it certainly could be possible and even reasonable to make the modifications (leg and arm extensions) for its operation without knowing the technical specifics for HOW the main cannon operates. VF-2SS vs VF-4 is apples versus oranges. Whether one is better or not is irrelevent. The best piece of equipment is rarely chosen on its virtues alone... things like price, economies of scale, ease of training, etc are all just as important though less than the things that really make the decisions for militaries: politics. Both within the military organization and those outside controlling the military itself (be it democracy, republic, monarchy, or flat dictatorship). As far as VF-2 being "after" VF-4... well... currently the US Main Battle Tank is the M1 and sub models (M1A1, M1A2, M1A1d, M1A2 SEP, etc). Yet older tanks had higher numbers... M-4 Sherman. For that matter there was the F-86 (?) in the '50s and somewhere things got "reset" (F-4 on up). Any colonies would be irrelevent to MII. The whole New Macross thing wasn't invented till after MII so it's not relevant to the discussion. In MII's timeline, without the ridiculous use of overtech (who's enormous ramifications could not be easily ignored like they have been so far in Macross' official continuity), colony ships would be very few and far between... and it's quite likely they would have been deemed wasteful. For all we know, there could have been well under 10 colonies launched in that 80 years if even that many. Even if they hadn't been deemed wasteful, there's no reason the Marduk would necessarily be bothered by them. Nevertheless they could have been under attack at the same time Earth was having the noose tightened during the events of MII as seen in the anime. Humans have never built ANYTHING that lasts hundreds of thousands of years. I really doubt the Megaroad I would be expected to have that life expectancy. Rust is clearly visible in the anime... hypercarbons or not! US insignia has changed within the last 80 years, u can be sure of that. We don't put big stars on our armored vehicles anymore. Low visibility didn't exist. Tiger teeth are not put on interceptors. Even kill marks aren't en vogue anymore. And the US has added 2 stars to its flag in less time than 80 years. The insignia can't change in 80 years to MII without Kawamori because they haven't changed in half that with Kawamori? Nonsense.

They went plain black for the Super version? I figured they would just do bundle ala the Toys R Us thing above with the blue cloud box for the ordinary valkyrie... Anyone have a close up with that?

The Marduk not being in SDF Macross or DYRL doesn't make their appearance a contradiction. SDF Macross and DYRL didnt' say the Marduk didn't exist (neither do M+ or M7, for that matter). The religion of the Alus is something the Marduk had, so would be with them. There's no reason the VF-4 couldn't have been in service and already retired to make way for the Valkyrie 2. Or they could have all been sent on the Megaroad(s)... or it could have had the F-22 Raptor treatment and had the orders continually downsized (though a bit more excessively towards where none were left). VF development was very... under-developed (heh) until AFTER MII was released (indeed not until Studio Nue came back into the game). Nothing saying there WEREN'T long range colonization programs. The absence of evidence is NOT evidence by itself. That's completely illogical. The same with talk about the Protoculture that wouldn't have been relevent to the story being told. It's 80 years later. There's plenty of time for differentiation in the insignia! Um... you need to check your eyes on the Zentraedi ships in Earth's Fleet. There are numerous scouts ships and destroyers visible in Episode 5. As far as Culture Park, they could have been replicas recreated for the express purpose of maintaining human culture... while more than a little far fetched it beats physically moving things like the Flavian Amphitheatre! As far as the destruction itself, look at the Earth Defense Grid thread and SEE the actual bombardment locations visible on Admiral Hayase's screen. It's not as thorough on screen as we were led to believe (and are still being told). Slower rebuilding is tied without the ludicrous use of overtech like mass cloning. Without being able to tell us HOW the Macross' cannon works (and what upgrades and/or variations of that technology would be possible with 80 years or research) you're not qualified to tell us if the leg extensions make snese or not or the deal with the random firing (which is pointed in a safe direction anyways). Do we KNOW that removing the giant head kills the ship? Or that Ingus didn't have a technique to build the ship for HIM (he was wired into at after all as we saw on screen)? Or that it is NOT possible to surgically "transplant" Ingus in place of someone else? Nope. You should keep going. MII has its weak points but you haven't mentioned them yet.

That doesn't make it crap, though (at least not by itself). This is a problem inherent from SDF: Macross, and MII didn't propose to be answering that question. It's a sequel to DYRL, not SDF Macross and DYRL is the gigantic mother of all things thrown out without explanation unless you have SDF: Macross as a reference (or has explanations that leave you going when they outright contradict SDF Macross for no apparent reason - the origins of the ASS, for example, which isn't relevent at all to the progress of DYRL),

Hell it comes off when you don't want it to! If I get a Hikaru 1S, then I'll probably just keep mine red. Doesn't really bug me much though I DO like the black one more aesthetically.

5 minutes? More like 3. Still better than the 1 it looks like Lucas originally pitched... They could do it an hour with commercials and all (so about 45 min) a night and people would still like it. Ah well. Look forward to getting all this on a single DVD hopefully later (and will probably be ok with internet version until then... ).

Heh. About what I was expecting... though I think it's more appropriate to be on the Two Towers EE. Hopefully that will get fixed if/when they're released in a special set (Super EE?) sometime...

Well so far, my Max and Roy 1/60 are ok... well not counting the Roy's leg stripe chipping...

Well as Keith said, the Evil WERE the prototypes. Still an intermediary test "mecha" or two could be interesting, but the AFOS/AIPHOS was probably something else, though also also probably not "conventional" (by Protoculture terms)... still with what we have to go on so far, that's as good a theory as anybody... I just expect Kawamori has something else up his sleeve. The crew of the ASS is an interesting subject. It's supposed to be a Supervision Army gunship right? Just a coincidence that it headed to Earth? Or is there enough room for them to have been up to something? Aside from Zor coming back to Earth? <_<

Probably not, but you gotta admit an Alternators Jetfire based of the 1/48 Hikaru Super VF-1J has a certain appeal to it.

Hey funny. The Governator hits pretty hard but still made him tell me "I'm a cop, you idiot!"

Or both. Don't forget the DVD format IS capable of branching. Yeah but someone has to want to do it, first. And it would be contrary to everything they've said up to this point. It'd be nice, but I don't expect to see anything other than the SE or an "improved SE."

It's different? Aside from shoulder pads and tv colors? I'm kinda diapointed... maybe it's the dark colors that make the Low-Viz pilot look so good...

Yeah, I'm sure it was more like "what did *I* do?"

Sucks to be him. That's the one thing about the end of M7... "yeah you guys have killed probably billions but since you can enjoy song now, have fun!"

BDI/BCS please.

Err, almost all (if not all) of the stuff MII has problems with is the stuff that came after it (after MII was consigned to an Alternate Universe)...

Yeah but lacking evidence, is it really any more logical that they would have enough of a vector to descend into the atmosphere instead of just saying in orbit (much less being blasted out of orbit)? And of the ones coming down to atmosphere shoudln't most of these have been in slow decaying orbits instead of meteoric descents?