theplasticwerks

Wow, is your 1S really that yellow? (Looks at chunky 1A in the background)

And here seems to be another in-joke...do I see an Alien reference there?

Here's something that I really want to do next time I get my hands on a VF-1A toy. It's a Skull Squadron scheme initially inspired by Alto and Ozma's VF-25s. Whenever I get around to doing this, I'll print up custom labels and such. I redesignated Max as 003 to stay in line with Mikhail's fighter. I apologize for the crummy job on the lineart (I'm awesome with Photoshop, I swear!), but I really, really wanted to get this scheme out on paper (such as it is). I'm not gonna prettify it, since it's going to end up on a toy of some kind in the future. (And yes, the skulls on the tail fins are crooked ) (P.S. - I can do other squad members on demand if you want to see.)

You know, it would be incredibly cruel if he was killed in the next episode...

The first pics we saw of Ozma's unarmored Valk just looked weird, but what is presumably the 1/100 with his personal logo on the fuselage is the business! I'm a fan now.

I could care less about the 1/55 1D...I think I spy a 1/100 TV Max! GBP Armor (apparently also in brown)! A REGULT!

I freely admit I am not an authority on the Unseen designs and was typing from what I remembered, or thought I did.

I actually have a theory about that - her hair is dyed in layers. The bottom-most layer (closest to her head) is blonde (maybe natural), the middle layer (the biggest portion) is platinum blonde (nearly white), and the very top/outer layer is a light pink, with maybe some silver mixed in (I don't know if you can actually dye your hair silver, but there are temporary hairsprays and such.). That would explain the color shifts in various lighting conditions. (/hasn't had every hair color [except metallics!] under the sun...at once)

Hell, BattleTech lifted the entire variable fighter concept - Land-Air 'Mechs (LAM). They even have gerwalk (LAM) modes.

Yep. There are pretty nice nods to the original designs, too - the Stingers (as you can see) have antenna that face like VF-1A head lasers, the Wasp actually has divots molded into its ankles where the yellow dots are (the legs on that 'Mech in general look very VF-1ish, especially the feet), there are raised panels where the heatshields usually are on all the designs (and the Stingers have "air brakes!"). The Stingers also have extended elbow bits, the Phoenix Hawk's backpack looks like a pair of inverted FAST packs (and the legs have strong FAST Pack influences as well)...wonderful tributes all around. You can check out all the Project Phoenix redesigns here: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Technical_Readout:_Project_Phoenix

I'm not sure if this qualifies as toys or models...yes, I painted them, but MechWarrior minis are preassembled... Anyway, as you just read, I took some MechWarrior: Dark Age/Age of Destruction minis and painted them up all Macross-like. You often see things such as Yamato Jetfires, or Nichimo Macross kits used as miniatures. For the uninitiated, virtually every mecha design from the original SDF Macross series appeared in the earliest version of the BattleTech game as visual imports. Eventually Harmony Gold caught up, things went down, and all those designs were lost. The visual designs were recommissed with Project Phoenix, which produced the Reseen versions of these designs. MechWarrior minis are cheaper than ever, so I grabbed up three Stingers (the redesign of the VF-1A lineart), a Phoenix Hawk I (a downscaled redesign of the Super VF-1S), and a Wasp (the redesign of the VF-1S) and painted them up in tribute: These guys are still works in progress, but I was excited to show them off. Unfortunately there wasn't really a VF-1J analog in BattleTech - the Reseen Valkyrie looks closest to a redesigned 1J, although the Unseen Valkyrie was also a VF-1S analog, and sadly, the Valkyrie was never produced in the Dark Age scale - I could go and reproduce everything in Classic scale, but minis are still $8-$12 apiece - Dark Age minis cost about a buck each these days for common units. If you want to donate, I'll gladly accept At some point, I'll get around to doing CF and TV Max/Kakizaki Stingers. Maybe a Hikaru and Max Phoenix Hawk[i/] as well. Enjoy.

I was probably free-associating too much. Brera's callsign is also Purple-1. Brera may have something to do with the Vajra. It's been theorized that Shin has something to do with the Vajra, therefore I'm speculating that Brera might have something to do with Shin and Sarah...

Thread's dying down, but I had some random speculation that might belong here. Shin's callsign at the beginning of M0 was Purple-1. Hm...

The 1/60s look awesome by themselves, but Ozma's '25 just looks weird without the armor pack!

We already know that, we're just thinking about what happens between then and now

Well, NUNS knows who he is, what he does (for the most part), and have fairly regular contact with him. Surely he wouldn't be allowed to live the way he does if he disobeyed an assassination order, unless the entire NUNS command is in on this. At the very least he'd have been arrested and locked away until Ranka was taken care of. If he outright refused the order and resigned they could go lighter on him, but if so he was still allowed contact with a target of an assassination, living in what seems to be an unsecured apartment in a good part of town, and they allow guests/strangers (Ranka's manager). I'm actually half expecting Mikhail to be the one to bite it. All of the characters are currently closer to him (Ranka notwithstanding) than they are to Ozma, so it would really have that blow to morale that losing Roy would have had. And do any of us really care at the moment if Ozma dies? He's uttered a handful of important lines and shown us that he's a badass in an armored VF-25 (and yet, it's been proven that he is fallible in the cockpit). What if Luca shows his true colors (get it?) and pulls a Kakizaki? So what? What if Mikhail gets knocked off next episode? Not theorizing that he will, but just hypothesizing. Rockstar pilot-sniper at the prime of his career with a chip on his shoulder (not necessarily a Roy-type trait), second-in-command of Skull Squadron, brother figure (and he is the one responsible for Alto's training), and a fairly popular character to boot. His death opens up a command position for Alto, assuming Ozma is still around (although it'd just be them and Luca unless SMS comes up with a new pilot to fill out the roster - it'd be fun to have a named CF pilot), giving way to the responsibility that such a position demands. Ozma isn't as connected to the other characters as Mikhail is - Mikhail even has a Claudia in Klan Klein. Mikhail won't go down like Roy, though (at least not like he did in the original anime). He'll get overrun by massive numbers of Vajra and go down in a blaze of glory in some epic battle between the middle and end of the series (even the final battle). I'm probably dragging this a little off-topic, but I was going to say it somewhere at some point, may as well be here

Yes, yes, foldildo and all that...

As to shipping costs, you could just estimate using another Revoltech. They're all about the same size and weight, the VF-1J's cost shouldn't differ too much.

Yeah, I'm calling on this. We'd have seen a few prototypes by now. EDIT: Well, okay, maybe not prototypes. But 30th anniversary or not, that's a lot to put out in a year. How long did it take Yamato between mere repaints?

Well, Culture is to be feared for a reason...

I like Gerwalk the best. It's unique (what other robot looks like it?) and versatile (it can fly distances and stop on a dime to do some CQB!).

Toynami 1/100 VF-1J "Inverse Max": http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435830829&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435847149&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435847147&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435850372&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435847203&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435850486&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435830749&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435850490&size=l http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435866176&size=l

I found Max by himself on Amazon for $24 plus shipping. Although for that price you may as well get the set.

My favorite mode is Gerwalk. It's more interesting to look at to the common eye (to them, a Battroid is just another humanoid robot, and the fighter is just gaudily painted). However, I hate how the 1/48 looks in that mode; stick with fighter.

What's that descending from the heavens? It's the Inverse Max 1J! Straightforward custom. It's Hikaru's 1J with blue replacing the red (thus, the Inverse Max), just a what-if concept. I may get another to make a Kakizaki 1J that follows this scheme (seeing as an inverse version of his TV 1A would pretty much be a CF). I dipped the tip of the nose into some Tamiya Deck Tan (like many real fighters have), and decided I liked the subtle contrast to the off-white the Hik 1J comes molded in that I added other tan details. The blue is Games Workshop Ultramarine Blue (and the blue used for the lights and special addition in the paragraph below came with an AMT/Ertl X-Wing) I also added Max. I took a Master Grade Gundam pilot figure (this one being from the Kaempher), amputated him at the knee, and sanded his butt down until his head cleared the canopy, then painted him in an appoximation of Max's TV flightsuit. I didn't bother sculpting the helmet visor, since the canopy's not clear enough for you to tell if it's there or not. I may go back and add in the forward console and back of the pilot seat, but given the level of detail on the Valk to start I may as well leave the cockpit as it is now. It's a toy, not a replica More pics on my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/81944050@N00/ Enjoy!