Biomaster

46 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Well... when I built my custom valk, it was a Zeta Plus that was the basis for the framework (I modded the daylights out of it):

Dang, didn't know a Zeta Plus could make a valk this nice! Regarding transforming mecha in Gundam, I usually found them pretty odd tbh. The best looking plane modes for me were always the Zeta Plus series and the Airmaster from X (which is one of my favorite alternate universes). 

9 minutes ago, captain america said:

Or enough customer sales. No hovercraft required for the Spartas, so a bit less sculpting and more engineering tweaking. I'm also thinking that because it's a hero mecha, that it may be a bit more popular. Maybe.

Hope the Bioroid succeeds Cap, you're literally the first one to do anything related to the mecha of Southern Cross. The Spartas kinda had a release as part of the R. toyline by Matchbox but damn did it suffer for the lack of a hovercraft mode. (And yes even though I didn't watch SDC I researched the mecha, I always do that before I watch a show) A full hovercraft -> cannon -> robot transforming Spartas would be an absolute blessing, I love that design. 

Hey, this looks pretty dang good considering Southern Cross rarely gets any love! (BTW, how's the anime? Heard it had a ton of production issues but the concept of a girl trio is very interesting) Could we expect anything else after the Heme-o-roid? A fully transforming Spartas maybe? A Logan? Or maybe the space chopper? 

22 hours ago, Bolt said:

Gundam Thunderbolt please

Hopefully not. The Netflix movie needs to be a brand new universe period. No chance of ruining existing characters and they can still recycle ideas from previous Gundam universes. Hell, Sunrise does it all the time with their alternate universes. 

4 minutes ago, electric indigo said:

Yeah, I still have to recover from the genderflip in RDM's Galactica – when they gave Apollo a male haircut...

lol. 

22 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That said, I'd argue that the "pointless gender and race flips" are a borderline nonevent for Gundam anyway.  Between the mukokuseki animation design and the fact that many of the franchise's spacefuture settings are frequently far enough removed from modern concepts of nationality and race that it's difficult if not impossible to assign an actual national origin and ethnicity to most of the characters, it hardly feels like it matters.  (So much so that this is an acknowledged issue for spacenoids, many of whom are two or more generations removed from any kind of Earth nationality and no longer identify in those terms.)

I agree about the mukokuseki point, but I simply do not like the name of a pre-established character being attached to a character that was race or gender flipped. (Maybe if it was a small nod like having the same surname or nickname but otherwise being a different character - I'd be okay, but what Netflix does is a big no-no in my book.) This is particularly noticeable in the cases of "remakes". It simply hurts when you are attached to the original version of the character and then that happens. That's why I have always advocated for original characters rather than piggybacking off nostalgia and then stabbing the audience in the back. But alas, most of the present day writers are hacks and I do not think they will be able to come up with a competent story. 

1 hour ago, Knight26 said:

Who cares about a RoboCrap BD release?  Let's get a stateside Macross BD/streaming release based on the Bandai masters. 

Well as long as R gets releases it means HG gets royalties. Apparently there will be 2 discs that will have OG Macross on it, and if nothing else we will also get the very first release of SDC Southern Cross on BluRay anywhere in the world, because even the Japanese forgot about it. 

Very much not a fan of this, especially given it's Netflix doing it. The only excuseable variant would be to do a completely separate alternate universe because there simply is no way to adapt 0079 without losing something. And the constant pointless gender and race flips are hideous. Make your own female/black/Asian characters for goodness' sake, don't piggyback off established characters! 

4 minutes ago, TMBounty_Hunter said:

The only financially viable path to go is VTubers 

:P

 

 

Well Sharon Apple is kind of a VTuber as well, considering that Myung also does the mocap for her... 

Where do you think Macross can go next after the second Delta movie hits theaters? What can Shoji Kawamori even tackle in a future story? I mean the entire question why music carries such power has been answered in full thanks to the fold receptor concept tying everything we previously knew, and the Protoculture will almost certainly remain a complete mystery. 

For me personally, I'd like the next protagonists to be complete music haters, for the story to feel far more inclined towards the mecha like how Delta leaned towards the idol side. The music naturally would need to be there, but I'd rather another SDF arrangement, where music becomes important roughly halfway through the series rather than from the start like 7, Frontier and Delta were. Preferably do something like a major "opening up" arc where the protagonist realizes his bullheadedness towards song. Adress the question of the New UN and the growing corruption. If it is in a reasonable timespan, bring back Berger and Epsilon. I want that fella's motivations cleared up beyond the usual "war brings profit" stuff I've seen all too many times in fiction. Like why is he even interested in Protoculture stuff anyways? 

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

When the ancient Protoculture created the Zentradi to fight their wars for them, several measures were taken to ensure that the Zentradi wouldn't - or couldn't - turn on them.  They thoroughly indoctrinated the Zentradi to limit their thinking to matters within the strict military hierarchy created for them and instill obedience to the Protoculture's directives.  They also deliberately limited the education available to the Zentradi to the training needed to fulfill their military role and also forbade them any knowledge of (non-military) culture and creative/productive pursuits.

This left the Zentradi dependent on the Protoculture at the top of the chain of command for their literal and figurative marching orders, and on the factory satellites created for them for every aspect their logistical support from troop replacements to production of fresh weapons and ammunition.

You could say that the so-called "Lost" Zentradi who have not yet encountered Earth's culture see their technology as a series of black boxes.  They know that it works, and they know how to work it, but beyond that they have no real understanding of how it works or how to repair it when it breaks down.  To them, "it just works".

So even if the Zentradi were to actually examine their factory satellites and clap eyes on the "blueprints" for what it was making, it wouldn't mean a thing to them because they lack both the basic knowledge and frame of reference to properly understand what they're looking at. 

Now that I think about it, it was indeed the latter of the two options I mentioned in the TV series. Thanks for the memory rundown. 

4 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

Speaking as an engineer: you use the same design everywhere because it works and designing a new one is a pain.

Exactly. Even I, a non-engineer, know that much. You go for commonality and easy replacement. Now what is really baffling is the fact we know the Zentraedi actually knew next-to-nothing about mechanics besides operating their spaceships and power suits. Hell, the small enclosed room Britai used for the first two thirds of SDF never got repaired after the big breakout of Hikaru and co. So either the earlier Zentraedi actually knew about mechanics, designed every single pod and forgot about them, or the factory satellites run off pre-existing Protoculture blueprints the Zentraedi never bothered to examine. 

22 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Unfortunately, the VF-171 is getting the same treatment the VF-11 got... where we were only introduced to it as its eventual successor was entering the final phases of testing.

To a certain extent, it's understandable that we're seeing a lot of it nevertheless since Delta was the second series in a row where we were introduced to a PMC that'd been hired to do operational evaluation testing on the next-generation fighter before it entered mass production and began to be phased into military service.  The VF-25 entered military service in the mid-2060s and the VF-31 is set to enter military service in 2069 or 2070, and even then it'll take YEARS to phase them in as squadrons undergo model conversion training in their respective local defense forces.  

All in all, the VF-171 is indicated in print materials at least to be an effective and highly versatile Valkyrie that balances respectable performance against impressive ease-of-use, so it's not surprising it's an attractive option.

Completely agree, though I guess the VF-11's presence didn't really become tiresome because it was introduced in the long time span between SDF and Plus, so by the time of 7 it was already reaching it's end of service in the NUNS. Frontier and Delta are, on the other hand, separated by just 8 years of time so it was kinda expected for the NUNS to keep using the 171 (hell, to once again reiterate on the "workhorse" parallels with the F-16, that sucker is approaching 50 years in service and there has been yet another avionics upgrade recently in the form of the block 70/72). From a variety standpoint however... Delta is severely lacking. We only got, what, the Kairos, the Siegfried variants which all are essentially the same fighter (because of the exchangeable modules thing) and the SV-262. We even didn't get the Svärd model from that one flashback photo in Battroid form. 

54 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

So... the official Macross website and the Bandai Mecha Colle model kit for the VF-171s in Macross Delta refer to that type as the "Remote Sector Specification" or "Frontier Sector Specification" (辺境宙域仕様).  The English text on the mecha colle kit translates that as "Rim World Model". 

One thing that was introduced around the time of Macross Frontier was the idea that when individual governments build VFs locally under license, they will sometimes modify the specs of those VFs to accommodate locally-available technologies or just better suit their perceived needs.  Depending on the severity of the changes, this led to either an all-new local variant (like the VF-19EF Caliburn) or a local specification of an existing variant.

The Delta VF-171s appear to be a local specification based on c.2055 VF-171 Block II.  (It's a reskin of the base VF-171 model from Macross Frontier.)

 

 

 

Similar coloration, but not the same.  The VF-171EX type is white, not khaki.

Also, being equipped with MDE weapons isn't a requirement of the VF-171EX specification.  Just the modifications to the aircraft itself like the adoption of the VF-25's ablative anti-beam coating, the improved engines, and cockpit retrofit to adopt EX-Gear.  In the Macross Delta gaiden manga Macross E, we see a Xaos branch operating VF-171EX Nightmare Plus EX's without the MDE weapons package.

 

Block IIIF is the Macross Frontier movie upgrade version.  It got the same sensor and engine improvements, but did not adopt the remodeled cockpit, EX-Gear, or anti-beam coating that were present on the EX-type.  The movie-specific writeup to the IIIF type in Macross Chronicle treats the 30mm machine gun and MDE beam gun unit from the EX-type as part of the AAS-171 Armor Pack, describing it as a "composite weapon pack".  The AVM-11R anti-ship missile launcher mounted opposite is the same as the EX-type's as well.

Given that the Block IIIF was a Macross Frontier fleet original development, and that the Brisingr Alliance is... "economically troubled"... I think it's safe to assume that these are local spec versions of the Block II.

Punctual and informative as always. Thanks! Now I honestly hope that the next Macross series (because let's face it, there will be at least one this decade) gives something new to the NUNS 'cause the VF-171 has been already used for two series straight and it's starting to feel boring with it as the main "redshirt" variable fighter. I know it's supposed to be a cheap export workhorse mecha (kinda like how the F-16 is a cheap export workhorse fighter in real life) but for gods' sake, at least give them the EX variant if nothing else. 

Me again, this time with a Delta related question. To which variant do the VF-171s seen there belong? They have the colors of the EX from Frontier yet they couldn't be the EX because they don't have MDE compatibility. I've heard something about a "Block III" which is essentially the EX engine and avionics update but without MDE or EX-Gear compatibility... could these NUNS VF-171s actually be Block IIIs rather than the older Block IIs we see in Frontier? 

21 hours ago, Invid99 said:

I don't know if this was intentionally done. But I notice that almost all the mechanics that are classified as ''Pods'' has a cyclops visior. Except for the re-entry landing craft. 

I believe this reflects the commonality of the Zentraedi mechanics. The Glaug and the Reguld have the same slit shaped camera, and so does the Salvage Ship. Likely the same model there. The Quei-Quallie and the Gnerl have different designs. Now why would they choose a similar design everywhere? Well the obvious answer would be easier maintenance, but the Zentraedi were said to understand very little besides operating them so... we don't know why really. 

18 hours ago, treatment said:

If possible, get the same crew back to finally dub the Movie.

You mean the Plus Movie? I heard Bryan Cranston is really not that fond of anime these days, especially now after he got his big break in Breaking Bad. 

15 minutes ago, Old_Nash said:

 

First view in the Spike, Fye and Jet.

Yoko Kanno confirmerd in the soundtrack

Not too optimistic regarding their recent anime-based outings... but at least Yoko Kanno is Yoko Kanno. This may make her popularity even bigger considering she recently started doing TV dramas over in Japan. But regarding actually watching this? Nah, they can keep it for themselves. 

48 minutes ago, Master Dex said:

Still eager to see that site of yours Seto

This here has intrigued me. Now that you @Seto Kaiba mentioned it, I'm looking forward to it going live as well. 

4 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The New UN Government has rather a lot of captured factory satellites.  More than twenty were captured in the postwar period and several more have been discovered and taken since.

It's highly probable that "lessons learned" from factory satellites WRT automation have been applied to factory ships like the Three Star type.

Hey, sorry for going offtopic, but why doesn't the mecha guide have a Delta section? I always look up the mecha before watching the show and for Delta there's a pretty big... nothing. Well, there's the Compendium but it lacks pictures, which I always thought were a neat feature over on macross2.net. 

24 minutes ago, Master Dex said:

I wasn't aware 2 weeks of inactivity constituted a revival over just another post lol. Guess it's subjective.

You know how it is, some call necroposting when a thread is inactive for just a few days... happened on other forums. 

Time to revive this thread! Is there any official information on how was the Queaudluun-Rhea developed? Does it have any other Zentraedi armor lineage besides the Queaudluun-Rau, 'cause I could swear that shoulder cannon looks quite a bit like the one on the Nousjadeul-Ger. 

P. S. Klan best girl. 

23 hours ago, Dynaman said:

I'm sure she does.  The problem is the few terrible ones post the most and the more proof you give that they are incorrect about something the more they think it is some kind of conspiracy.  That is REALLY frightening. 

Damn right, too bad that what she said could just add more fuel to the troll fire. 

Controversial opinion: I do not hate that show on it's own. It managed to introduce us to Macross after all, and hadn't it been for the stupid 65 episode syndication rule it wouldn't have even existed. And considering it's a hackjob, it's better than some of the later attempts to localize anime in the 90s. However, I do hate the parasites within HG for what they attemped to do with the Macross franchise and how they were just that grubby to actually try to claim the entire damn franchise as their own. 

1 hour ago, Special Sauce said:

I prefer Hikaru's red and black but the first one that I always visualize is Roy's scheme.

I agree, red and black was just more representative of Hikaru. But when we are talking about the VF-1S, it's definitely Roy's color scheme that is better known. As @Seto Kaiba said, it's been homaged a few times, most notably with Ozma's VF-25 in Frontier.