Super Macross Mecha Fun Time Discussion Thread!

[cheemingwan1234]

I have quite a morbid curiosity regarding the Zentraedi power suits. Logically, since they are power armor, I'm surprised that we never seen then being bashed to death or dismembered (with blood and all) since they have (relatively) more of the pilot inside the limbs compared to a Variable Fighter or Destroid.

Perhaps caused by an unfortunate run in with someone infected with Vars.

 

And speaking of Zentraedi power armor, wonder if they are still being made by the NUNS. General Galaxy could be perhaps be one of the contractors there.

[pengbuzz]

53 minutes ago, cheemingwan1234 said:

I have quite a morbid curiosity regarding the Zentraedi power suits. Logically, since they are power armor, I'm surprised that we never seen then being bashed to death or dismembered (with blood and all) since they have (relatively) more of the pilot inside the limbs compared to a Variable Fighter or Destroid.

Perhaps caused by an unfortunate run in with someone infected with Vars.

 

And speaking of Zentraedi power armor, wonder if they are still being made by the NUNS. General Galaxy could be perhaps be one of the contractors there.

The Male ones, perhaps. The female power armors... er, nope. Not really happening.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, cheemingwan1234 said:

I have quite a morbid curiosity regarding the Zentraedi power suits. Logically, since they are power armor, I'm surprised that we never seen then being bashed to death or dismembered (with blood and all) since they have (relatively) more of the pilot inside the limbs compared to a Variable Fighter or Destroid.

Zentradi (and Meltrandi) Battle Suits aren't true powered armor.  Officially, they're described as being something like a hybrid of powered suits and a battle pod in the sense that they are humanoid in configuration but the operator's body is situated almost entirely in the battle suit's torso and head and the limbs are mostly controlled indirectly.

As such, you wouldn't see any blood from damaging the suit's arms or its legs below the knee because none of the pilot's body is in those parts.  They're entirely mechanical.

You probably wouldn't see blood from one even if you did hit the pilot, though.  The cockpit's pretty close quarters but not skintight and the pilot inside it is also wearing an armored space suit.  So if the pilot is injured, blood is likely to end up either inside their suit or inside the cockpit rather than leaking out of the battle suit itself.

The one exception that sticks out in my memory is from the opening of Macross Plus, where Isamu is fighting against rogue Zentradi and stabs one of their battle suits with his VF-11's bayonet.  That gets a LARGE amount of something reddish-orange that might be the pilot's blood.

 

1 hour ago, cheemingwan1234 said:

And speaking of Zentraedi power armor, wonder if they are still being made by the NUNS. General Galaxy could be perhaps be one of the contractors there.

There has been no word on if the New UN Forces have captured a factory satellite that manufactures the Nousjadeul-Ger battle suit.

The New UN Forces must have at least a few that are still in good working order, though.  The in-universe version of DYRL? was shot with real ships and mecha to an extent, so several Nousjadeul-Ger battle suits were likely used in the filming of the movie c.2030.  New Edwards Test Flight Center on Eden seems to have at least two working Nousjadeul-Ger units that we see used in simulated combat testing with paint rounds.  Whether they belong to the base proper or were borrowed from a squadron stationed nearby for aggressor duty is never stated.

We do know that the New UN Forces captured factory satellites making the Regult battle pod and Queadluun-Rau battle suit, and that those facilities have been used to develop and produce improved versions like the Regult Type-104 and Type-106 and the Queadluun-Rhea/56.  The gradual breakdown of the New UN Spacy's captured Queadluun-Rau suits was supposedly part of what prompted the mission to seize and restore the factory satellite that had been making the Queadluuns for the Boddole Zer main fleet.  (This also led to the development of the YF-21 and VF-22.)

[PixelatedShinobi]

With an upcoming Macross M3 translation on the way, I've been thinking again about the game's "Final Weapon" - the, to my knowledge, unnamed Zentradi combining robot that appears as the final boss of M3. the Only art I've ever been able to find of it is a partially-lost split-up scan from "Nanashi's Information Group", a group that actually appears to be defunct and whose scan is as old as I am. This is the only mention I've ever seen made of it on the internet, and I'm curious if we have literally any other information related to it - I have no idea where the scan even came from.

[TG Remix]

17 hours ago, cheemingwan1234 said:

And speaking of Zentraedi power armor, wonder if they are still being made by the NUNS. General Galaxy could be perhaps be one of the contractors there.

Not exactly what you're asking for since Seto already answered, but the NUNS additionally has the Neo Glaug in their arsenal for their giant pilots as well, which is a transforming battle pod (and a variable attacker for miclones,) which not only has its own convoluted history from the Anti-UN Variable Glaug, but is said to be high performing that no one other then a small Meltran could tap into its full power. Between that and the Queadluun-Rhea, I'd think the giant grunts could use something akin to the VF-171, a workhorse that probably won't melt like butter the moment a VF crosses arms with it.

 

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

We do know that the New UN Forces captured factory satellites making the Regult battle pod and Queadluun-Rau battle suit, and that those facilities have been used to develop and produce improved versions like the Regult Type-104 and Type-106 and the Queadluun-Rhea/56.  The gradual breakdown of the New UN Spacy's captured Queadluun-Rau suits was supposedly part of what prompted the mission to seize and restore the factory satellite that had been making the Queadluuns for the Boddole Zer main fleet.  (This also led to the development of the YF-21 and VF-22.)

There's also the improved Super Glaug that the 130th Independent Marine Battalion also had, presumably in lesser numbers because of its role as a commander battlepod. And huh, I was under the impression that there was only one factory satellite that was seized by that time and the UN Queadluun stock was running out because they were working with the very few they acquired from the defectors after The First Space War was done with.

 

1 hour ago, PixelatedShinobi said:

With an upcoming Macross M3 translation on the way, I've been thinking again about the game's "Final Weapon" - the, to my knowledge, unnamed Zentradi combining robot that appears as the final boss of M3. the Only art I've ever been able to find of it is a partially-lost split-up scan from "Nanashi's Information Group", a group that actually appears to be defunct and whose scan is as old as I am. This is the only mention I've ever seen made of it on the internet, and I'm curious if we have literally any other information related to it - I have no idea where the scan even came from.

It's unfortunate and kinda weird how we don't have any "immediate" source for this machine tbh; not only there's not a single sourcebook trying to explain it's mechanical stats or history where Mkyatake's designs from VF-X2 did, but from the scan you can garner that it was drawn by Kawamori, yet it's not present in any artbook that catalogues his concept art for the franchise.

 

The most I can gather from it is what's presented from the game itself; it's piloted by 3 giants, specifically Moaramia clones that were cloned(?) to test the natural body functions of Zentradi...Whatever that means.

[Seto Kaiba]

4 hours ago, PixelatedShinobi said:

With an upcoming Macross M3 translation on the way, I've been thinking again about the game's "Final Weapon" - the, to my knowledge, unnamed Zentradi combining robot that appears as the final boss of M3. the Only art I've ever been able to find of it is a partially-lost split-up scan from "Nanashi's Information Group", a group that actually appears to be defunct and whose scan is as old as I am. This is the only mention I've ever seen made of it on the internet, and I'm curious if we have literally any other information related to it - I have no idea where the scan even came from.

Macross M3 gets almost no coverage in art books and the like outside of Kawamori's designs for the VF-3000, VF-9, and VF-14.  I don't think I've ever seen the line art for the game's final boss mecha published.  It must be in some doujin or some game magazine from the period.

The game's old official website on shoeisha.co.jp does not credit any other designs besides Shoji Kawamori but AFAIK it's never been covered in any of his official art books.  Which is doubly odd, since he does acknowledge the other Zentradi mecha he's designed in them.

 

2 hours ago, TG Remix said:

There's also the improved Super Glaug that the 130th Independent Marine Battalion also had, presumably in lesser numbers because of its role as a commander battlepod.

Which was rather surprising, given that the factory satellites producing the Glaug were destroyed 280,000 or so years before the original series... making them quite rare as a result.

One has to wonder if the so-called "Super Glaug" in Macross Delta is a modified First Space War-vintage Glaug chassis or a Human-made reproduction.

 

2 hours ago, TG Remix said:

And huh, I was under the impression that there was only one factory satellite that was seized by that time and the UN Queadluun stock was running out because they were working with the very few they acquired from the defectors after The First Space War was done with.

Oh no, there are lots.  The mission to capture a factory satellite that we see in the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series was just the first of many.

Macross Chronicle's Mechanic Sheet for the Factory Satellite mentions that "more than 20" factory satellites were seized and relocated by the New UN Forces in the following months.

Exactly when they came into possession of a factory satellite capable of producing Queadluun-Rau battle suits is not clearly stated, but seems likely to have happened somewhere in the early 2030s given that General Galaxy was commissioned to restore the facility in 2035 in response to the New UN Forces diminishing stock of Queadluun-Rau battle suits.

[TG Remix]

18 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

One has to wonder if the so-called "Super Glaug" in Macross Delta is a modified First Space War-vintage Glaug chassis or a Human-made reproduction.

Since we've seen a few of them in games like M3, VF-X2, and 30, it can be safe to say that someone in the galaxy has been reproducing them since. Not sure if I want to count the Glaug Kai/Stealth Glaug as an upgraded unit due to the sheer size of it and the other stealth pods in Digital Mission VF-X. They make even the Monster series look tiny.

 

On the topic of game only Zentradi units, I always wondered what was the pilot accommodation of VF-X2's Gjagravan-Va, since there doesn't seem to be any official stats of it. I assumed it was like the VB-6 where there was a pilot and two officers handling communications and other weapons, but Kodachi seemed to think that it's able to be piloted by giants, as Laplamiz was in control of one in the 30 novelization.

 

19 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Oh no, there are lots.  The mission to capture a factory satellite that we see in the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series was just the first of many.

Macross Chronicle's Mechanic Sheet for the Factory Satellite mentions that "more than 20" factory satellites were seized and relocated by the New UN Forces in the following months.

Exactly when they came into possession of a factory satellite capable of producing Queadluun-Rau battle suits is not clearly stated, but seems likely to have happened somewhere in the early 2030s given that General Galaxy was commissioned to restore the facility in 2035 in response to the New UN Forces diminishing stock of Queadluun-Rau battle suit

Oh I meant like, I thought there was only one Queadluun-Rau factory satellite instead of two; one they got from the 20 and the other one they got in 2035, unless I'm just getting myself confused again lol.