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.

[Seto Kaiba]

4 hours ago, TG Remix said:

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.

Either that or someone's been digging around in that storage facility where Quamzin got his.

IMO, the stealth pods in VF-X are almost certainly Human-designed and built.

 

4 hours ago, TG Remix said:

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.

Well, it was used by a predominantly Zentradi anti-Latence faction (Black Rainbow) so it would make a certain amount of sense for it to accommodate a giant pilot.

Doubly so given that it seems to be built as a four-legged battle pod and shares a lot of design similarities with the Golg Gants Charts heavy attacker.

 

4 hours ago, TG Remix said:

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.

Oh, no there's only one of the Quimeliquola factory satellites in Human hands as far as we know... which was placed in orbit of Eden, and restored by General Galaxy in the 2030s to satisfy the New UN Gov't demand for a way to maintain its Queadluun battle suit units.

[Big s]

On 11/24/2025 at 4:17 PM, 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.

As Seto said, the arms are in the body area. But in dyrl, things were pretty gruesome, like one of the Nousjadeul Ger suits being torn in half and a head getting smooshed. Recently there’s the artwork for Max’s Queadluun Rau model kit where in the lower corner you can see one very unfortunate Nousjadeul Ger taking a catastrophic hit to his nethers sending his legs off into the void

That leg might be orbiting earth for a few decades 

Edited yesterday at 10:14 PM by Big s

[sketchley]

10 hours ago, TG Remix said:

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.

I think the dimensions of the Glaug Kai/Stealth Glaug from Digital Mission VF-X should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said, the "stealth" pods being produced by the Zentrādi on Planet Elysium shouldn't be counted, as they are a rather unique case.  If memory serves, the "stealth" pods were all unique creations both designed by and produced locally by those Zentrādi in manufacturing plants on the surface of Planet Elysium.

I can't remember if those manufacturing plants were destroyed in the course of the game missions or when the buried Zentrādi Mobile Fortress launched.  Even if they weren't, and the Unified Forces seized the manufacturing equipment, as the planet is "in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy on the edge of the galaxy", it's doubtful that someone would bother mass-producing the "stealth" pods to be transported to Earth on decade-long transport runs*.

* This says more about how fast and loose the game creators were playing with continuity than anything else.  I much appreciate that the creators of VF-X2 paid more attention to continuity, and set all the game's missions within a more realistic in-universe travel time to Earth

it's also rather telling, from the creators' perspective, that the only mecha newly-created for Digital Mission VF-X that reappeared elsewhere is the Pheyos Valkyrie...

 

10 hours ago, TG Remix said:

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.

It's most likely a one person vehicle piloted by giants.  The lineart indicates that the cockpit is the domed structure on the top with the sensor eye at the front.

As it shares a lot of design similarities with the "Zentrādi APC" that appeared in the SS/PS1 Macross Do You Remember Love?, it isn't too much of a stretch to say that the Gjagravan-Vy uses the same chassis, and that they could be similar in size.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, Big s said:

As Seto said, the arms are in the body area. But in dyrl, things were pretty gruesome, like one of the Nousjadeul Ger suits being torn in half and a head getting smooshed.

Not a lot of blood in that scene though, all things considered.

That probably owes a bit to the fact that most of the violence is inflicted with laser weapons.  Most sci-fi tends to go with the idea that laser weapons cauterize the wounds they make because lasers inflict damage by burning the target rather than piercing it with kinetic energy, though this is not entirely realistic...

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Not a lot of blood in that scene though, all things considered.

That probably owes a bit to the fact that most of the violence is inflicted with laser weapons.  Most sci-fi tends to go with the idea that laser weapons cauterize the wounds they make because lasers inflict damage by burning the target rather than piercing it with kinetic energy, though this is not entirely realistic...

I get a feeling that it was more of a missile to the balls and just exploded it out. Lots of smoke and flames probably just made it hard to see the blood. Not to mention that the blood may have been a bit much for a model kit box. I think they got away with quite a bit there hoping no one would think about that dude’s lower body being in there.

Kinda makes you wonder what Zentraedi did about extreme injuries. I know a few are shown with one eye and usually it has some kinda cybernetic looking replacement. Did they have a medical facility and doctors, or was there some kind of automated medical station? Or was it, you lost an arm, we’ll just recycle you?

[TG Remix]

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Well, it was used by a predominantly Zentradi anti-Latence faction (Black Rainbow) so it would make a certain amount of sense for it to accommodate a giant pilot.

Doubly so given that it seems to be built as a four-legged battle pod and shares a lot of design similarities with the Golg Gants Charts heavy attacker.

Huh, I can see the similarities. Wondered why we never saw the Golg Gants Charts after the movie, or most of the DYRL only designs.

 

11 hours ago, sketchley said:

That said, the "stealth" pods being produced by the Zentrādi on Planet Elysium shouldn't be counted, as they are a rather unique case.  If memory serves, the "stealth" pods were all unique creations both designed by and produced locally by those Zentrādi in manufacturing plants on the surface of Planet Elysium.

They were, yes. The manual explicitly states that the enemy aircraft are Zentradi weapons improved with Earth technology and amongst it's engine and armor improvements, were given a polyhedral structure to increase its stealth capabilities.

 

11 hours ago, sketchley said:

I can't remember if those manufacturing plants were destroyed in the course of the game missions or when the buried Zentrādi Mobile Fortress launched. 

Mission 7 has you trailing one of the stealth scout pods towards the mobile weapon factory that they were made to destroy it's manufacturing capabilities and to save Freesia, so it definitely was. The buried fortress, which was seemingly disguised as an island, also launched in the next mission after saving Violeta.

 

11 hours ago, sketchley said:

Even if they weren't, and the Unified Forces seized the manufacturing equipment, as the planet is "in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy on the edge of the galaxy", it's doubtful that someone would bother mass-producing the "stealth" pods to be transported to Earth on decade-long transport runs*.

* This says more about how fast and loose the game creators were playing with continuity than anything else.  I much appreciate that the creators of VF-X2 paid more attention to continuity, and set all the game's missions within a more realistic in-universe travel time to Earth

it's also rather telling, from the creators' perspective, that the only mecha newly-created for Digital Mission VF-X that reappeared elsewhere is the Pheyos Valkyrie...

The stealth pods are 100% just them making the easiest things to model for a 3rd party budget game for the Playstation, since they were completely focused on making the Valkyries look good with the skills the 3D modelers had instead of just making the SDF designs as is. (I'd go far as to say the same about the Feios, since there's details that don't match with it's official artwork, particularly the head.) It's also petty telling when we got VF-X2, they went right back to the regular designs for Black Rainbow, barring the game specific ones. Frankly I'm wondering how come they never popped up in Macross Chronicle, since the Macross Digital Mission VF-X Official Program book has all the concept art for the game, including enemy designs.

 

Honestly that's only one of many examples of the game's shallow priorities. It does not care for anything except advertising the Variable Fighters and cute idols, to the point that in the game's manual it emphasizes how Milky Dolls had prolific actresses portraying them then anything about the game itself. To this day I still can't fathom why they couldn't even bother to give Captain, Enemy Commander, Rival, and You (yes you, the player,) proper names when all of the female characters ae given such and quirky personality traits, none of which are presented in the game. Did you know Powan Howan has a stuffed animal named Picotin she carries around, and Freesia and Violeta were twins? Me neither! If it wasn't for Miho's actress reprising her role I genuinely wouldn't even notice that a pretty frequent character in Macross 7 was even there.

 

The story is as barebones as it gets for it too. For one there's no explanation on why colonization efforts on Elysium were abandoned despite being very developed as is, since there were 4 pretty sizeable cities built with a huge military base accompanying one. It's only set dressing to have giant city arenas. And it's already bad enough that the plot is just "Rogue Zentradi #3447 is acting up and you need to stop them," but you'd think with them kidnapping the Milky Dolls would mean something in the grand scheme of things, since they were a source of income for the UN's Sound Project and that'd absolutely go against their plans for warring over the galaxy. But it turns out that they were just regular hostages to build time for Commander's mobile fortress to fold to Earth. That, honestly broke me, it's one thing to have a basic, even undercooked story, as I'm pretty forgiving for most of Delta's fallings. But this can't can't even do the bare minimum with easy to connect plot points. It's fascinating how VF-X2 is the sequel to this game, with it's plot it genuinely feels like it was written as a response/challenge to Digital Mission's by the books story.

 

Spending three long days during Ramadan MTL'ing the game with YouTube's auto subtitles (Not realizing I could've just used JollyRoger_Macross' Spanish translation as a reference months later,) and going through VF-X2 and M3 before is definitely influencing my feelings on the game, but there's nothing else in this franchise that infuriates me with how much it doesn't even try to do anything that pushes the envelope. Well, aside from Macross 7 Trash, but that's its own can of worms.

 

(Tangent aside, it would really be nice to see more Zentradi mecha built with earth technology incorporated instead of having reheated SDF leftovers...)

 

11 hours ago, sketchley said:

It's most likely a one person vehicle piloted by giants.  The lineart indicates that the cockpit is the domed structure on the top with the sensor eye at the front.

As it shares a lot of design similarities with the "Zentrādi APC" that appeared in the SS/PS1 Macross Do You Remember Love?, it isn't too much of a stretch to say that the Gjagravan-Vy uses the same chassis, and that they could be similar in size.

Not at all. However the Feios Valkyrie also has a similar dome structure with an eye sensor as its cockpit, so maybe it's just a Zentradi thing to not have a open canopy on either giant or miclone mechs.

 

I always was fascinated by game only vehicles, like Meltradi Assault Plunder ship used in the same game, and the jamming station that interferes with Minmay's "Do You Remember" in the middle of the finale. VF-X2 had a nice variety as well, like the unmanned stealth submarine Roqual, the Annabella Lasiodora in the UN's Ceres Base, and the like. Granted all of these are from Critical Path Corporation and are there to be gimmicky bosses, but it's nice to see some other ship variety that isn't the standard Guantanamo and Uragas. Even without the context of the game, I can see the likes of the Vandal gunship and Hatchet-class destroyer being used in some UN Spacy fleets.

 

8 hours ago, Big s said:

Kinda makes you wonder what Zentraedi did about extreme injuries. I know a few are shown with one eye and usually it has some kinda cybernetic looking replacement. Did they have a medical facility and doctors, or was there some kind of automated medical station? Or was it, you lost an arm, we’ll just recycle you?

Reminds me of a off comment Kamujin made in SDF about retiring an old Zentradi who no longer had a use, I can't seem to specifically remember what he said. But I wouldn't put it past them "recycling" them if applicable.

Edited 6 hours ago by TG Remix

[Master Dex]

I figure they don't bother treating injuries that are severe enough when they can clone new soldiers.

[Seto Kaiba]

5 hours ago, TG Remix said:

Huh, I can see the similarities. Wondered why we never saw the Golg Gants Charts after the movie, or most of the DYRL only designs.

Most of the Meltrandi designs got reused in "Fleet of the Strongest Women".  

Beyond that, there really aren't many designs that are unique to the movie version.  The Moruk Laplamiz mobile fortress is the big one, literally and metaphorically.  The others are mainly little, incidental designs.  Mostly utility and support craft like the Spacy's RC-4E Rabbit, the Zentradi transport, and the Golg Gants Charts light attack craft.

 

5 hours ago, TG Remix said:

Honestly that's only one of many examples of the game's shallow priorities. It does not care for anything except advertising the Variable Fighters and cute idols, to the point that in the game's manual it emphasizes how Milky Dolls had prolific actresses portraying them then anything about the game itself. To this day I still can't fathom why they couldn't even bother to give Captain, Enemy Commander, Rival, and You (yes you, the player,) proper names [...]

Macross has always used its music side as a main selling point so that part is actually pretty logical in hindsight.

Leaving other primary characters unnamed, well... I suspect part of that is to enforce the player projecting themselves onto the nameless ace pilot saving the day since it IS meant to be a simulation game.

 

5 hours ago, TG Remix said:

(Tangent aside, it would really be nice to see more Zentradi mecha built with earth technology incorporated instead of having reheated SDF leftovers...)

That seems unlikely to happen for a couple reasons.

First and foremost, the creative team tries to avoid having any visual confusion WRT who the protagonists and antagonists are.  This has been cited in the past as a reason that the Zentradi's ships and mecha generally do not show up in mixed forces alongside the regular New UN Spacy.

Second, in a more in-universe perspective, the New UN Forces use of Zentradi mecha in the immediate aftermath of the war was a pragmatic decision.  They had a lot of Zentradi volunteers for the New UN Forces and military service was an adequate sort of "halfway house" to help Zentradi who were struggling to adapt to life on Earth make the transition gradually and at their own pace.  Zentradi mobile weapons also fall short in the survivability, safety, and ergonomics areas and so would not be particularly attractive options to a non-clone Zentradi or the New UN Forces brass.  Zentradi born into culture would probably gravitate towards Variable Fighters as well, since those are the iconic weapons of the New UN Forces and prominently depicted as heroic in the media.

Third, well... Earth's technology is great but it's not quite up to the same standards the Protoculture had for Ragnarok-proofing, so Human-made Zentradi mecha aren't likely to be as durable or reliable as the genuine article.  Plus the more different varieties of mecha a fleet has the more complex its supply chain becomes.

 

5 hours ago, TG Remix said:

Not at all. However the Feios Valkyrie also has a similar dome structure with an eye sensor as its cockpit, so maybe it's just a Zentradi thing to not have a open canopy on either giant or miclone mechs.

That seems likely.  Zentradi mobile weapons in general eschew transparent canopies and such in favor of armoring the cockpit and getting by with monitors.

 

5 hours ago, TG Remix said:

Reminds me of a off comment Kamujin made in SDF about retiring an old Zentradi who no longer had a use, I can't seem to specifically remember what he said. But I wouldn't put it past them "recycling" them if applicable.

He doesn't say anything besides remarking about an old hand who's on the brink of retirement, and how "old men" tend to have trouble with their aim.  (His excuse for breaking orders and directly hitting the Macross with what was meant to be a warning shot.)

The only time I can recall Zentradi forces mentioning medical treatment for the wounded even in passing is in Macross 2036, a Macross II timeline game where Quamzin turns out to have been Not Completely Dead and leads a new Zentradi fleet to attack Earth.  (No mention is made of how his injuries were repaired but he does have a prosthetic eye in that story.)