Chronocidal
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He's talking about the YF though, not the Fire Valk. The Fire Valk, I think is going to just be physical proof of how little the YF-19 and VF-19 actually share in terms of design. Yamato/Arcadia did a good bit of work to get both out of molds that share as much as they do, but I don't know if Bandai will even bother to make those changes. It'll be a nice looking fighter I know (and I would LOVE to own a Bandai VF-19S/F/P) but I'm not expecting much out of the battroid modes.
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Maybe, but I'm going to say now that I don't think Bandai's battroids will come anywhere near Yamato/Arcadia's in looking like the animation. I really wouldn't mind having more YF-21s, but given how skinny Bandai made their "YF-19" already, I'm not sure anyone who wants a chunky YF-21 is going to be happy with what Bandai comes up with. I do think the Bandai VF-19 has an edge in fighter mode just from how skinny it is, but they took a few liberties with the design that I don't think work as well as the Arcadia's overall look in all modes. I also wonder if they'll even bother to make any changes to the VF-19 Advance to make it into a true Macross Plus YF-19. The easy thing is the markings, but implementing the correct canopy will take a significant rework of the nose, and they made some large changes to the backplate. On the other hand, maybe we'll get lucky, and they'll delete that ugly bulge in the plate under the neck.
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Glad to see that the legs look absolutely nothing like the 1/72 model. Those knee joints were just terrible. Also, looks like this size is actually large enough to fully conceal the thigh hinge inside the intake, which is nice. Hopefully they can even do moving intake covers. Looks pretty good, possibly even a shadow of side covers under the chest. I'm reserving any judgment until we see it in fighter mode though. All those fancy features mean nothing if they can't pull that off at least as well as the 1/60ths. Have to agree about the lights though, I really don't care much about those, unless they go the distance and throw in actual landing and formation lights, and I pale at the thought of how complex that would be, and much the price would climb to if they did that.
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Macross Δ (Delta) - announcement thread
Chronocidal replied to renegadeleader1's topic in Movies and TV Series
Judging solely by the pilot uniform shown in that cockpit closeup, I'm pretty sure that red-haired Zentraedi looking character is going to be a pilot in one of the VF-31s. Doesn't look like the same character or colors, but the shoulder pads look similar. I did just have a hilarious thought though... What if these idol singer characters don't even actually exist? What if the entire premise of the show is that a bunch of vocaloid AIs like Sharon Apple wind up getting uploaded into a bunch of valks, and have to be taught to actually fight in combat? Calling it now... the weapons pods are actually deployable mecha hairstyles. -
Well, remember that 1/48 VF-25 that got teased years ago? Yeah, no one else really seems to either. To be fair though, a 1/35 VF-1 is still pretty small compared to a Gundam. It's only going to about 18 inches long in fighter, which is perfectly manageable for an aircraft model.
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Ugh.. well, the Fire Valk looks like a chop-job at best, slapped together from bits of plastic and the VF-19 Advance mold. Least they got the canards right. Seriously, my biggest problem with the Yamato VF-19 mold was that I always thought the leading edge extension went too far forward, and that one looks exactly the same, if not worse, since you can tell how far back the intakes are. They really need to decrease the sweep angle of that section, and push the leading edge back under the canards. In any case, I don't see any possible way they're going to pull a decently proportioned Fire Valk battroid out of that mold. Maybe they don't really care, but it's going to look horribly awkward next to the Yamato/Arcadia when that one went to such great lengths to look like the animation.
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Maybe in that big of a scale, the backpack joint will actually be made beefy enough to fully support the packs on its own? The 1/48 got close, but after the reports of the backpack hinge breaking, I never trusted it fully (though I know it wasn't the actual cause of the breakage).
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Funny question, what were the hip guns on the VF-25? I know the ones on the VF-19 were supposed to be lasers, but it's getting hard to tell the difference in this universe. And even if the arm cannons are projectile weapons, I still bet they'll have a gunpod of some sort to carry around. Otherwise, you can't have those cool sakurahime poses!
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This is a pretty valid concern. Now, 1/35 isn't too huge for this to be a big problem I think, because this will really only wind up as big as one of the larger Gundam toys. The transformation will probably be the hardest part, but it should be easily doable with enough ratchets. I made a working VF-1 in Lego at about 1/30th, and that was just on the bleeding edge of being too heavy to be stable, but by nature, Lego bricks are bulky, and heavier than a manufactured plastic toy. The part that concerns me? It's Bandai, making a large scale aircraft. It's taken them years to even get to where they can make passable looking landing gear for valks. People who like the VF-1 for the aircraft mode are probably going to be expecting detail at least on par with the 1/48 Hasegawa kits, and I don't think Bandai even has a clue how to accomplish that yet. People are going to be expecting all the trimmings that go with a high quality aircraft, like boarding ladders, cockpit instruments, correctly retracting landing gear even. I'm not sure Bandai can even wrap their head around such things yet, when they can't even be bothered to color the instrument panels of a 1/60 valk, or even paint the landing gear something other than bare metal.
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If they go the extra mile and rework the VF-19 Advance to have the correct canards and canopy? I might bite. I'm just a sucker for that airframe, even in McDonalds form. I'm not sure what Bandai hopes to accomplish though... are they just trying to adapt Macross as a second cash cow to supplement their domination of Gundam? With all the improvements they keep making, they still don't seem interested in making aircraft, so much as mecha that coincidentally transform into flying machines. I'm being incredibly picky I know, but when are they going to actually start painting their landing gear white? Yamato did that from the start, and Bandai not doing that just winds up making it look like they really don't care, despite all the other effort they put in. I can't help feel like they actually cling to certain inaccuracies as if they're a trademark.
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I wouldn't expect that prototype to look anything like the final product, it looks barely half finished. Looks like a quick paint-up using 3D printed components, and possibly chunks of previous valks. Those arms really are tiny though.. like, skinny little stick arms. The only thing giving them any bulk is the chunk of wing attached to them. The final version will probably be very different, and include the hardpoints and features that everyone has come to expect. As far as the missing pod goes though, I'm actually expecting something a little different than the helicopter one on the YF-30. Watching the trailer, and the silhouette from the battroid at the end, it looked more like the pod flipped around, extended, and possibly split into two over-the-shoulder cannons, which is a huge improvement over the stadium light mount. Aside from that though, as much as I like the VF-31 overall, I wish they would just ditch the stupid pod system. I don't know if it's just lazy, or what, but the implementation as of now looks like ass. It really looks like they just jammed that pod in there without a second thought to even trying to blend it into the design. I took a look at the teaser poster from a couple months back, and it looked nothing like that, completely smooth like the YF-30.. maybe it was just early concept art?
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The fact that they're doing the VF-1J makes me think it's probably a market test to see if they can make it profitable. Same way they approached the Hi-Metals, if I recall. I wouldn't be surprised if every add-on pack or alternate paint scheme is a web-shop item (which really isn't a huge issue anymore, considering they're easier to buy than the standard releases ). I don't even want to think about the price of something like this though. Bandai seems to have become fully aware of how deep the pockets of the Macross fanbase are, and decided to dive in headfirst. While Arcadia can't really take any huge risks, Bandai doesn't share that particular restraint, and I'm curious to see how high-end they'll be willing to go. As far as the design itself is concerned.. I don't know why they couldn't just go 1/32 and be sensible, but it's not that huge a difference. I do get the feeling that this is how big the VF-1 will need to be before the anime-accurate leg transfer panels will actually be feasible to implement. It's going to take some massively strong joints to make it reasonably poseable though.
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So I take it this is just an evolution of the entire Jamming Birds concept then? Hmmm....not sure if I'm excited or skeptical. On the other hand, it probably means that that red-haired Zentraedi-looking girl is likely one of the pilots for this group, with a backseat backup singer. So we might get some female pilots after all, possibly on both sides of the whole conflict. As far as the design is concerned... it looks really unfinished at best. It's got engraved details for the front gear, but nothing there yet, and no sign of rear landing gear at all. Also, the implementation of that pod thing is terrible in fighter. It's not even as streamlined as the YF-30's, and it's like they made no attempt to blend in where it attaches. It honestly looks like they used the backplate from a YF-29, but left the shield off, so you have that weird jagged attachment point at the back. I mean, I like the overall design, but this is clearly far from finished.
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I'm perfectly ok with a 25 style torso really (except I've never liked how unstable the head mechanism is on all the recent valks). The YF-30's torso was kind of just a mess of folds, and if that's what it took to get the missile pod to fold away nicely, I'm all for it.
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They've even got glaugs and battlepods making appearances in there, I wonder if they'll be marketing the new Hi-metals under the Delta logo?
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Or an added character who joins the group mid-way through the series. Also, I (fortunately) miscounted. It looks like the Draken squad is in classic Diamond Force colors, one with yellow/gold stripes, the rest with white/silver.. fortunate because there's actually 6 of them. Looks like 5 on the VF-31 side though, and I expect those will all be unique. This is going to be a serious struggle for people who like elaborate displays. Oh, small note.. People were debating whether the wings on the VF-31 were forward swept or drooped.. looks like a combination of both, judging by the lighting in those clips. They look like they fold in half at the mid-point.
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Loving the aircraft, but I'm getting really curious what sort of story this is going to be... It literally looks like something out of Ace Combat Zero, what with the themed squadrons facing off. Also, while I'm glad to see more female pilots (finally), I'm worried that we've basically got a singing aerobatics demonstration team showdown in the making. I mean, it might be good? But we all remember what happened last time we got a singing pilot... On a more wallet stabbing note, I love how they're building the mold milking into the show from the beginning. That's already TEN distinct paint schemes that we'll probably be seeing hitting the shelves.
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STAR WARS Merchandise Episode - 2
Chronocidal replied to Black Valkyrie's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I don't think there's any design there to ruin, it looks like an 80s cell phone with fins and a cockpit attached. Doesn't look even slightly like a fighter, if anything, I'd assume it's some extrapolation of the "let's put the cockpit on one side" design philosophy used in freighters like the Falcon and Outrider. -
Given what the poster showed, I think the tails are much more incorporated into the wing structure this time, it looked like the tail roots stretched nearly the entire chord of the wing, so there's going to be no stupid spinny-pin-hinge tails this time. At best, they'll probably fold flat. Now, if they can just get those hand covers to look a little more streamlined in fighter mode. The YF-30 ones weren't terrible, but they didn't blend in very well at all when the hands were inside. Also, I'll be interested to see a new take on the gadget copter launcher, hopefully this one actually has the option of folding away.
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One of my co-workers and his wife both love unique names, and he offhandedly suggested Revan as a half joke, but she actually liked it, even after telling her where it came from. On the other hand, Ewing actually is a name... I know if I ever met someone named that, I'd have a very hard time pronouncing it correctly.
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Put in an order for one at HLJ, but may not keep it depending on how the holidays go. I mostly just want a spare to customize.
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STAR WARS Merchandise Episode - 2
Chronocidal replied to Black Valkyrie's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Ohhh, they actually have one of the collapsing cloth ones? I've got the foil folding version, but that one's plastic gets so hot in the sun I can't even touch it. Also, I've seen a reverse angle one looking at the backs of their heads going into hyperspace for the back window. -
I've always just assumed that you could shape shields in whatever shape you needed, so the surface the air interacts with would just be a big smooth aerodynamic bubble. And as far as design lineage goes, they did show a bit of that in the later designs from the prequels, especially where the shuttles are concerned. Get into the Clone Wars, and you've got the "original" Y-Wing, which I thought was a fun take on why the ones in ANH looked so bare. For VTOL functions though... all Star Wars tech just runs on upsidaisium. All ships are actually just lighter than air, and carry around ballast tanks that they fill with heavily compressed atmosphere to become heavy. Pay no attention to Luke's ship sinking, he forgot to blow his ballast so the ship would float.
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STAR WARS Merchandise Episode - 2
Chronocidal replied to Black Valkyrie's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
If the scales are correct, it'll be half the size of the Fine Molds 1/72 one, so about 8 inches long, and 7 inches wide, I think. -
Laws of physics might be able to be broken, sure, but that doesn't change the fact that the design still looks horribly lopsided and unbalanced to me. If you ignore the physics, yeah, it's just aesthetics, and I just think the change to the wings is the ugliest thing ever done to an X-wing. I can't come up with any reason whatsoever that that would have some sort of benefit for the design, even in-universe, and it just feels like it was done for the sole purpose of changing things to make them look different. Like.. I would love it if it was the original concept. I've loved that design forever. This thing just isn't that design. But anyway, back to actually discussing things more people care about. Bottom line, more kits and toys for people who actually like the design, since you won't get any competition from me.