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Other than this? http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models...124valkyrie.jpg

Ah, yes, the Naval Division. I like how they have NAD written across the crotch.

Just the smoke trail from when it crashed to earth. The lack of the ASS-1/SDF-1 per se is one reason why I think Bandai & Big West could conceivably bring M0 over to the US with a name change, if they decide it's not worth fighting HG over the Macross trademark.

There was a large 3' cardboard (nontransforming) Macross. It wasn't a promotional item. It comes up on eBay from time to time, and in threads here as well. A picture of it can be found at the Valkyrie Factory.

All you have to do is look at the wildly different reactions to various film remakes to see that Keith is all wet on that point. Consider Planet of the Apes, or if the redone story isn't close enough thematically, then how about the various Draculas, Frankensteins, Dr. Jekylls, and giant-monster-terrorizes-a-city films? DYRL vs. MII? Havana vs. Casablanca? In many cases, the remake tells the same story yet it's atrocious. In a few cases, the remake improves on the original, sometimes by a wide margin. (It's rare to find a remake of a truly bad movie, although sometimes there's a bad film of a good book, followed later by a good film.) There's far more to a good movie than the overall story or theme.

For all the "no step" stickers, couldn't you get away with using extras from another 1/72 jet kit? And if you don't have any UN Spacy logos left, don't we have some people on MW who make decal kits in various scales? Don't scrap the kit whatever you do. What decal setting solution did you use--so the rest of us can avoid it.

Yes, someone was working on making it transformable. I had a link to the page(s) in an earlier thread. Maybe you can turn it up with a search. Right now, the best I can do is http://web.archive.org/web/20030306125915/...customvalk.html Some more pics of the unmodified toy, with its box and accessories: http://www.toyarchive.com/Robotech/st4/vehver.html Apparently there was more than one production run, with the first (?) having more of the transformation construction intact (though not transformable).

That would certainly simplify the transformation process. But it might make designing toys kind of tricky. Unless they make them out of play-doh.

Ah, sorry. I partially retract my funny then. Going back to the Vagabonds Crusader pics in the article I linked, I think the fin accents look fine. What I object to about their treatment in the Super Hornet pictures linked at the beginning of thread is that to me they're a major component of the "Hornet cosplaying as a Tomcat" effect.

On a similar note, I'd recommend both Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada. SC gets dissed a lot for various reasons; personally I wasn't very crazy about the Robotech-ized version of Mospeada. But both are much better in their original form. You might try Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I've probably only seen about a dozen episodes, but it was pretty good stuff and I know there are people around here who will recommend it. But--it's very long, and acquiring a complete set could be pretty expensive (if/when one is available in the US). This might also be useful: Recommended Anime

Thanks, guys. These are things I've been thinking about for a while. One other fictional example I'd like to add, regarding the "cellular consciousness" concept: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the ending of the original book; won't go into detail to avoid spoilers). Also, rereading my post, I think I may have given the impression that is only a concept from fiction. Of course, these ideas are also found in a number of religions, some of which undoubtedly served as inspiration for Kawamori's portrayal of the Mayans. Also note that, depending on your interpretation and the fictional/philosophical/religious context, "ghost"="soul"="consciousness"="spirit".

Folks, there's no contradiction between #1 and #2. #1 (the idea that Sharon is an actual living entity) is also a science fiction trope, and closely related to issues in philosophy and the study of artificial intelligence. If you aren't aware of the notion that "conscious life" can be a characteristic of machines (and the implicit notion that the human brain is a biological computer), you should read more Stanislaw Lem, Philip K. Dick, Douglas Hofstadter, etc. But another issue that goes along with this idea is that there's no way of really knowing if another entity is endowed with consciousness, or if it only shows the outward appearance of consciousness. A standard scientific approach to this conundrum is pure positivism in the form of the Turing Test (which see): (roughly speaking) if you can't tell whether the entity on the other side of a conversation is a machine or a person, then it can be considered an intelligent being for all intents and purposes. Now, this does contradict some common metaphysical/religious beliefs about life, or humanity, being somehow special and distinct from "inert" matter. But very few of us have any direct evidence of the existence of consciousness apart from our own. The few who do have evidence are those who might claim to have ESP or to have had mystical experiences. Many people would look at these claims with considerable skepticism (and in any case, coming from other people, i.e. entities outside our conscious minds, they're no more reliable, as evidence of external consciousness, than the Turing Test). But the idea of direct contact with the consciousness of other individuals is a common one in fantasy & science fiction, so that, in those fictional realities, the metaphysical proposition that "other people are just as conscious as I am" is definitively true. Furthermore, there are alternatives to the notion (metaphysical in our world, "real" in some fiction and many religions) that each human individual is a unique and distinct consciousness. As I've alluded to above, fantasy and science fiction often propose that not only humans, but animals, aliens, and even computers and other nonbiological entities may be endowed with "consciousness". And it's common (in SF at least) to propose (implicitly or explicitly) that the mechanism by which consciousness arises is neither divine nor supernatural, although it may be "mysterious" in the sense of being beyond the ability of the human mind to fully comprehend. As well, one sometimes finds the notion that "consciousness" is not necessarily restricted to individuals: two consciousnesses can not only come into direct contact but can even merge. (See e.g. the ending of Ghost in the Shell.) As well there may be "meta-intelligence" endowed with "meta-consciousness": entities composed of multiple individuals functioning as cells, who may themselves be perfectly unaware of belonging to a larger consciousness. Again, no "supernatural" processes need be involved. These issues relate to Macross in various ways. In M+, Sharon may be conscious, or she may simply be mimicking consciousness; there's no way of knowing. The moment when Isamu hears Myung singing is subject to multiple interpretations, only some of which might suggest there's something special about biological consciousness as distinct from electronic mimicry. Both M7 and MZero imply the existence of "higher powers", but they also strongly imply that all the "magic" is really no more or less than "supertechnology" (Clark's Third Law). This isn't to say that there aren't spiritual overtones to both shows. There are. But because the "magical" elements of the shows are presented as "scientific", the shows don't necessarily advance a supernatural or divine form of spirituality. Instead, M7 & M0 can be seen as offering a "positivistic spirituality" which acknowledges the limitations of our understanding, values life and humanity (in the broadest sense), and argues against the arrogance of power.

I thought the VF-1 MPC was based rather closely on the Bandai HCM (though scaled up from 1/72 to 1/55), while the Alpha MPC was based on the Imai 1/48 Legioss. It's been noted/claimed that the Alpha MPC isn't even really 1/55, but 1/48, just like the Imai.

Just keeping things in perspective. (In answer to your question, though--what about Saturday morning?) Back in the 80's, I was watching in the afternoon timeslot in Baltimore during the summer, then at the early morning timeslot during the school year in Connecticut. Ridiculously early, given my usual schedule. I had to go from one dorm to another that had cable, usually trudging through snow, to meet up with the other Robotech geek on campus... (...and my toes would get all frostbitten and fall off like icecicles, and I'd go "Oh no, I lost another toe" while I was watching Robotech on a tiny black and white television with a scratchy speaker. And that's the way it was and I loved it. Couldn't get enough of it. ) Anyway, my point (in response to Prime's comment, mainly) is that we're not exactly talking about The Simpsons here, or even a Saturday morning cartoon--it did well in a syndicated kiddie timeslot against rather weak competition, a long, long time ago.

You make it sound like these are made out of polystyrene. Maybe that would be a good idea. Super-light, and I'll bet it has a negligeable RCS. Switching gears, the F-8 schemes were really more "Vagabonds" than JR, n'est-ce pas? As for why they're sticking (at least temporarily) with the F-14 scheme, I suspect it points to an ossification of culture. That is, what started as a grass-roots initiative bubbling up from the ranks has been institutionalized. In that vein, hey, why not go back to the F-8 scheme for inspiration and put some flames on the nose? Then have the stripe on the back or wings and the skulls on the tails as David says. Personally, I'd get rid of the yellow fin accents as much as possible.

All the ratings stuff is from the 80's, back when I was watching it. Note the time slots: early morning and mid-afternoon, right after school.

He was head of Toycom when they were working with Yamato to make Valks under BW's license. When HG objected to the Valks being sold in the US, and no deal could be worked out, Sohn sold Toycom to Yamato and founded Toynami to make Robotech stuff under license from HG. There's an article about all this somewhere on Valkyrie Exchange.

I don't know if the Bandai Channel is cable, satellite, or something else, but apparently M0 is being distributed/shown on it this month. http://bb.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/news/7360.html Use your favorite web translator or wait for someone to give us a summary... Significance? Does this mean anything in terms of how well the OAV did? Will it significantly increase the visibility of Macross?

Prime, thanks for your reply. I think we are roughly on the same wavelength. But your answers to my "mechanism" questions really don't amount to much more than "it's Protoculture technology...and stuff", do they? To me, that isn't much different from M7, where Spiritia and Sound Energy are presented as natural phenomena which aren't well known or well understood (at least until Dr. Chiba gets a handle on them). In neither case, ultimately, is there anything truly "supernatural" in the sense of "divine" or coming from outside the natural world. But at the same time, like M7, many of the phenomena in M0 are only tenuously connected to current science. Speaking to someone mind-to-mind, the way that Mao does with Shin in the final episode, has no concrete explanation even though it might be reasonable to see it as a manifestation of "ultra technology". Compare the "unreal" aspects of Macross. (BTW, I agree that Minmay's effect on the Zents isn't one of the unreal aspects.) Antigravity generators, space fold technology, force fields, thermonuclear reaction engines--none of them exist today, but the principles behind them have all been explored to a greater or lesser extent in serious scientific speculation. That, and the fact that they're all well-accepted science-fictional conventions grounds SDF Macross in the "hard SF" genre. Now you might reject the notion that there are degrees of unreality. Perhaps it's purely a matter of convention and cultural conditioning by which we consider one fictional element to be SF and another to be fantasy. Even so, in order to sustain disbelief and be comprehensible to the reader, "realistic" fiction must have a rules that it sets and adheres to. Otherwise, literally "anything goes". Consequences do not follow from actions. Plot complications become meaningless and arbitrary, as do plot resolutions. If you accept this thesis, then the "problem" with MZero is that it introduces such vastly different rules as to make it incomprehensible and unbelievable to many fans of the earlier series. The same of course applies to M7, but M7 also turns some people off in other ways. My earlier example applies: you can be a fan of The Godfather and the Exorcist, but still be turned off if the rules from one story are suddently imported into the other. For the record, I like all the Macrosses I've seen, which is all of them except MII.

Treatment, my point about psychological warfare, etc., is essentially the same one that CoryHolmes made about people getting pumped up by a rock band. This is somethat that happens in the real world; mob psychology and hypnotism/suggestion are also well-known phenomena and therefore hardly supernatural. But since we've been back and forth on your conception of "magic" and related terms before, I'll just say that what's "so obvious" to you isn't obvious at all to many of us.

Treatment, what's the difference between "supernatural" and "magic" in your definition? Are psychological warfare, disinformation, and propaganda unscientific and supernatural? What is the mechanism by which Sara's willpower controls the Aphos? What mechanism allows Sara to see Mao kissing Shin; how does she make flowers bloom and plants grow; what allows Mao to project herself to Shin in the final battle? How does these mechanisms differ from the Sound Energy and Spiritia of M7?

[spelling flame]It's "deluding", guys.[/spelling flame] Keith, I wonder what order you originally saw the various Macrosses in?

Lack of imagination, partially, but also keep in mind that some of elements "must" be there for the Jolly Rogers, while others are particular to the aircraft. David can probably separate them better than I can, but one example: You might think that the diagonal stripes under the cockpit are just optional trim. OR you might think that the color/placement of the stripes was mandatory. Neither is true: the stripes carry on a tradition from the old VF-84 Vagabonds, but they looked a lot different on the VF-84 F-4 Jolly Rogers scheme. On the F-4's, they were on the back, and in some versions they were yellow stripes with black chevrons. http://www.almansur.com/jollyrogers/jollyrogers.htm (Look at "hijacking" and the following item.) Also http://www.jolly-rogers.com/airpower/f-4.htm I wonder what it would look like if they returned the stripes to the back of the Super Hornet? Or even spanning the wings in a big chevron?

It'd be interesting to know how many kills the Iranians claim for their other planes. I'm not discounting the information that been repeated here about the Iranian F-14's but on the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if there was some inflation in their reporting. Are the Iranian F-14 kills corroborated by Iraqi reports?

The information I've found in the F-16 CFT's claims they have a minimal effect on performance. I remember something like 1% increase in drag, still able to do 9G's, pilot can't tell if they're there without looking over his shoulder. Now, maybe it's all lies, but that's what the official line is.