Black Spiral

Not exactly poses I know, but I'd thought I'd share some of my fave 1/48s with you guys before I pack 'em up to move to a new base posting. Enjoy!

I'd have to consider SDFM as my all time favorite as well. In terms of story, characters, character development, mecha and overall cool factor, this show delivered the goods. Before the Valkyries (and their somewhat retarded, earth-ridden Destroid brethern), most 'mecha' were more along the lines of Voltron or Ultraman or some other boring, unimaginative piece of junk. Macross captured an entire generation of fans that has endured to this day. The fact that this very Forum exists today, more than likely owes its sole allegiance to the VF-1 and characters like Roy, Hikaru, Misa and...god help me, even Minmei. SDFM did have some seriously cool follow-on material however, albeit on an extremely limited basis IMHO at least. DYRL looked awesome but in the end is only a high production value take on the classic SDFM. Without DYRL, we wouldn't have the Strike Valkyrie...imagine that if you will. Macross Plus gave us another high production take on the evolution of the Valkyrie through the 19 and 21. I also very much enjoyed the characters of Isamu and Guld and the realism of their rivalry / friendship. Those two I believe, could easily carry a series of their own. Macross 7... <sigh> I did not enjoy Mac 7 at all. In fact, I found it to be absolutely ridiculous. Isamu barely kept a grip on the YF-19 and now you're trying to tell me that some hippie can fly one while playing guitar and singing at the same time??? IMHO, Macross 7 should be banished to the seventh level of Hell. And you wonder why Gundam fans snicker at Macross fans...it's 'cause of Mac 7. Macross Zero could have been great, had they abandoned the great potato head thingy in the sky and focused instead on the back story between the UN Spacy and the Anti-UN Alliance. Think about it. We will probably never see the Anti-UN fleshed out to any degree of depth. What a waste. On the flip side however, the Valkyrie dogfights were extremely top notch. Macross Frontier? Remains to be seen. Here we are 25 years after Hikaru took that VF-1D for a spin and from what I've seen of Mac F thus far, tells me that we have a real shot at getting the Mac series that we've ALL wanted since SDFM. A great story, combined with state of the art combat scenes all topped off with interesting characters with potential room to grow. SDFM was and is the most solid of all the Macross series. Perhaps Kawamori realised this too after 25 years. A quick look at the new VF-25 (especially the Roy and Hikaru color variants) could very well be a clue to this realisation. The rest of us however, will have to tune-in to find out for sure. I for one, have got my fingers crossed for a return of that certain SDFM magic. I'll get off the soapbox now...rant ends.

I totally agree with 'KingNor'on how military aircraft and any serialized military kit in general is ultimately recycled; regardless of whether or not the original user of which died using or not. But... my original comments were for Roy's DYRL Skull 001, which was completely destroyed along with him, deterring it from being handed off to anyone. The TV series Skull 001 of course, was indeed handed off to another pilot after Roy stubbornly flew it home despite his wounds. War is certainly hell and the general public don't tend to pay as much attention to the loss of their own troops as much as they should perhaps. Soldiers differ radically in this regard I can assure you. Soldiers...unlike the general public in some unfortunate cases, definetly notice the loss of their friends. Believe me, I've had enough of my closest friends come home in a box from Afghanistan to notice. In the end, I was simply voting for Roy's Skull 001 as my personal choice for ultimate Valk. To each his own of course.

Speaking as a first time member of MW, but a long, long, seriously long time lurker on this board...I'd like to shout out a big time hello to all the other Macross fans. What lead me to MW? I like most kids of my generation, grew up with Robotech although I only really cared for the Macross saga back then and now. And like most kids, I had the TF Jetfire. In it's defense, Robotech was probably my first real anime (other than French reruns of Captain Harlock, lol). I loved Macross all my adult life and even aided in my decision to join the military / airforce later on down the road (I just thought the UN Spacy dress uniforms rocked I guess!). Later on I discovered crappy version of DYRL...the ungodly dubbed 'Clash of the Bionoids' and realized the awful truth behind Robotech and HG. Fast forward many years later, when I stumbled upon on of the original 1/60 scale VF-1 Super Hikaru's in a tiny 'anime' shop somewhere outside of Toronto. At the time (and with my Jetfire long since gone), I thought that it was the absolute best looking Macross valk representation that I'd had ever seen. That was just before the new 1/48 line came out I believe. After returning from a tour in Afghanistan, I went looking for a Yamato display stand for that valk and then stumbled on the fact that there were now 1/48 versions available...which to say the least, rocked the #$%@ out of the now silly looking (IMHO) 1/60 line of VF-1's. I was instantly hooked like crack with the 1/48's and quickly sold off my now somewhat inadequate 1/60 VF-1J Super. I replaced the little guy with 1/48s: Hikaru 1J +FP, DYRL Roy 1S +FP, Stealth + Stealth FP set and two of the new 1/60s: YF-19 and the Zero-S. I'm currently waiting for the new YF-21 like most of you guys. Now, lol, like the rest of you guys it seems, I'm hundreds of dollars in the whole and haven't been happier. I do a great deal of free writing on my own time (trying to get published someday), one story is Macross based after the departure of the Megaroad. Having my 1/48 Roy +FP next to my laptop helps in writing this fledgling saga that much more. -Clear skies all!

I'd have to go with the DYRL version of Roy's Skull 001 as my all time fave valk, which IMHO was 'the only' Skull 001. I wasn't a big fan of how they tossed the 001 squadron coding off to Max and then Hikaru after Roy's death...to me, it seemed to take away from Roy's death. A close second to Skull 001 would have to be Isamu's YF-19. I mean seriously...this thing was so overpowered and agile that it actually killed and or mangled like what? 4 of the original test pilots before Isamu? I mean come on, it took a lunatic's raw piloting skill just to get this thing under control let alone sorted out for testing against the YF-21. A distant third would have to be the Mac II, VF-2SS SAP Special with all five of it's accompanying 'squire' drones. Firepower? 'nuff said.