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Thus the quotes. If anyone can come up with a better term than "magic" which concisely expresses the concept of "freaky stuff that looks like magic but can be (and sometimes is) explained as scientific phenomena based on principles that current science can barely guess at", it would be helpful. Because the debates clearly fracture along the lines of a) Is the "stuff" we see in MZero and M7 "magic", "supernatural", "hypertechnological", or what? b) Does that "stuff" appear in SDF Macross/DYRL/M+ ?

A little bit, but not much. Compare (this is apparently from B-club): http://www.gearsonline.net/macross/bclub/val2.jpg The main similarity I think is having guns built into the front of the packs, but the VF-1R I think just has one barrel/pack, while this thing has tri-barrels. And the extra doohickeys near the back of the packs are pretty different.

The animation error is on this page, along with a version of the "concept art" we've been talking about: http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/mecha/viewmecha.php?id=57

"Magic" in SDF Macross/DYRL and M+ is highly debatable. (Evidence: the debate we had upthread.) Just about every Macross has some kind of romantic triangle, although MZero's ended up being quite weak. Most Macrosses have an antiwar theme, and a high percentage also have the concept of an entire city travelling in space.

What I meant was, are you saying that the Spartas got a protective shield/roof/cover/canopy at some point?

http://southern-cross.ath.cx/tasc-02-scf.htm http://www.artemisgames.com/robotech/Resea...ha/Auroran.html

I'm willing to cut it some slack but...no, since the Spartas is a one person vehicle, there's no comparison with the Abrams machine gunner. In the latter case you have one man out of four-person crew who is sitting in a vulnerable position; if he's injured, he can be rescued by other people sitting in the same vehicle, and the vehicle as a whole isn't placed at risk by his loss. What's this about a "cover"?

Here's the answer I got... Based on this the next place I'd look if I had the materials is B Club Magazine and the Red/Blue volumes 1&2 of TIAS. But I don't have any of them. The site owner added:

There were also a lot of self-proplled arty designs that were open-topped in WWII, e.g. the M7 Priest. It's true these were made for indirect fire, so the walking cannon isn't a perfect analog. I don't know if snipers were the big problem with open-topped designs or enemy HE artillery. Anyway, I'm willing to cut the SC Spartas a lot of slack; I find the design reasonably attractive and I enjoy the series quite a bit. Not so crazy about the GMP mecha and some of the others which are far more guilty of the "angular esthetic" (they remind me of Bizarro); I know everyone hates the Logan so I won't say any more about that one. Rather surprised at the popularity of the Auroran--I guess it's mostly from the looks in battroid mode since I the helicopter mode really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Well the VFX-4 gerwalk is signed by Kawamori, though I'm not sure where it came from. There is a plane with an unfamiliar profile in the background of that picture; it's almost Legioss-like, but also admittedly very small and sketchily drawn. I sent to a note to the GEARS site owner, maybe I'll get an answer.

Also not in TIAS 5 or 7, or the mecha art portfolio. Not in the Macross Model World Hobby Handbook. The overall style reminds me of the watercolor sketches on pp. 89-98 of TIAS 3, but I don't think it's the same hand.

Doesn't it say "Studio Yune" in the bottom right? I.e., it's just a design by Steve Yun [Edit--make that Tommy Yune], with Japanese text for reasons known only to him. The 3-laser Valk seen in a Macross episode is different from the YF/VF-1R, especially in the faceplate, which isn't hexagonal but is simply a VF-1A faceplate.

I wonder if mine still has that Millia... last I was there it was 50, and I dodn't want to pay that. Someone has been selling the vol 5 Miriya (or whatever they call her in RT) along with vol 6 VF-1R on eBay with prices starting at $50 for the pair and it seems quite a few auctions have gone begging for lack of bidders, while others simply sell for $50. Personally, I wouldn't mind at least temporarily owning a vol 2 just to give the design a workout and, if it's not too horrible, to have a Kakizaki without having to customize or build a model. But the prices are currently still a little above what I'd be willing to pay including postage.

http://www.gearsonline.net/macross/misc.php It's the top picture (which you can click to enlarge). I doubt it's fan art. Any idea of source and subject? The packs are definitely nonstandard, and there may be some details of the Valk itself which aren't standard to the original VF-1.

According to these sundry threads, the non-HG/non-animation mistake VF-1R is in some of the early Macross games for PC Engine. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=9476&hl= http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=5817&hl= http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=4848&hl= http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=3358&hl= In other words it's non-canon but semi-official design (in the sense that it appeared in Big West-sanctioned products), something like the VF-1SOL. Also see http://www.gearsonline.net/macross/2036.php

With the proper tools you could convert it to a size that will fit on a CD-based format and/or split it across multiple CD's. (E.g., VCD, SVCD, or depending on your DVD player, mini-DVD.) And of course with the right tools you could also watch it on your computer. See my signature for some suggestions. But I'm sure I found it somewhere in a file that was already less than 1 gigabyte.

Indeed. About the Curtis XF-14C, I have: Specs: There's a picture of this beast showing a profile that's vaguely P-40ish with the bizarre (for a fighter) coaxial propellers, that is, two three-blade propellers one behind the other. (Source American Combat Planes, by Ray Wagner, pp. 402-403.)

Nice scans. Some of them are from the This is Animation Super Dimension Cavalry (note: not "Century"--that's Orguss) Southern Cross, but I don't recognize all of them. What are the other sources, if any?

Kinda OT: How easy is it to mod the newer smaller PS2? I've been wanting to play Sega's Macross like forever. Try forums.afterdawn.com and search on "slimline" or "pstwo". Looks like there's at least one modchip as well as some homebrew modifications, but also some reports of less than 100% success and some risk regarding the laser burning out (which may or may not just be a factor of the PSTwo itself having a lesser-quality laser). Also see: http://www.modchipman.com/newsdesk_info.ph...&newsdesk_id=10 I can't vouch for any of the methods mentioned as I haven't tried them myself. Merely summarizing what I just read.

Sorry, I don't remember where I found it. Quite possibly through mlnet (for which, see my signature). Other places I would look include animesuki and imacross4.

It's very hard to find 1/60 scale anything. The closest scale that's popular among model aircraft builders is 1/72. You can probably get away with this. "S" scale in model trains is 1/64 scale, but I don't know how common it is to find accessories in this scale. Apparently Matchbox cars are also 1/64 scale so maybe someone out there (like Matchbox!) has made figures or utility vehicles to this scale. http://www.thortrains.net/scale1.htm http://www.nmra.org/beginner/scale.html http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/rms_tips/rmsfaq.3.html http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=matchbox+scale 30mm wargame miniatures are also close to 1/60. (With wargame miniatures, 30mm is the height of a typical person, so if 5'10" is about average then 30mm/1.8m = 30mm/1800mm = 1/60. If you use 25mm miniatures the people are a little smaller, so they're either shorter individuals at 1/60 scale or average sized at 1/72 scale. Mixing scales is probably okay as long as you don't put them too close to each other. Looking forward to seeing some WiP and final pictures!

The 20th anniversary disc contains a melange of animation from over the years and various Macross series, including some hard to find stuff like a superdeformed version of the original SDF Macross title sequence and animation from some video games.

One small point: the MPC's are 1/55, not 1/60. Yamato makes (has made) 1/60 Valks in addition to their 1/48's, so referring to the MPC's as 1/60's is more than slightly confusing to the reader. When I first started collecting Valks, I really had no idea which one to get. Fortunately I found this place and the Valkyrie Exchange forums, and I trusted the right people, because even with reviews it's possible to discount various comments as simply arising from bias. Also, until you've been collecting for a little while and have developed an appreciation for the finer points, it's quite difficult to distinguish between several different VF-1 toys. Things that jump out at us now are extremely subtle to the newbie. So unless you have them side-by-side in person--not "side-by-side on the net", not "in person but not side by side"--it's easy to think it doesn't make a difference.

That reminds me of one nice thing about the game...the fact that in many missions, the mecha on your side actually do something. They may do it lamely, and they often get blown up, but they will contribute. By comparison, in SDF Macross for PS2, you often see other Valks flying around but I really don't think they cause any damage to the enemy at all. Same for the secondary weaponry on the SDF-1. It's also sort of nice that the Super and GBP armor add to your hit points and the GBP can be jettisoned. (OTOH, the GBP is only available after being unlocked, and even then it can't be used in missions, only in split-screen-vs.) There are many things that are wrong with this game but in fairness they did a few things right.

After saving Izzy, find a big piece of debris at one of end of the battlefield and hunker down. The Zentradi won't follow you. Instead, she'll just buzz around the opposite end of the battlefield. Wait for the Zentradi to fly out into the center of your view, pop up in Gerwalk, fire all your missiles, transform to battroid, and drop back down behind cover. Repeat until she's dead. If this doesn't do the trick fast enough, then instead of firing all your missiles in Gerwalk, transform to fighter after popping up and use the heavier fighter missiles while flying at the Zentradi. After expending all missiles, hightail it back to cover, drop down, and replenish your missiles. This is also essentially how to deal with her in a later mission she appears in. Needless to say, if they'd designed the AI with enough intelligence to actively press an attack, I wouldn't be able to do this. You might instead be able to use the tactic that I used on the Power Armor bad guy and the final boss, but for those you need a lot of room. Essentially, stay in fighter, boost constantly while rolling and turning, and whenever you get a clear shot, let loose with missiles. Edit: This basically illustrates the problem with the design of many missions. They are extremely difficult if not impossible to beat if you use "fair" tactics, let alone enjoyable ones (similar to the actual cartoon), but relatively easy to beat if you just patiently dork it out.