Valkyries, etc. (Final)

OK, Kawamori also designed the add-on GBP-1S heavy armor system for his Valkyrie. Well, a fairly accurate verison of the Armored Valkyrie made its way in to the Garbage Pail Kids card series. That does it for now, so here are a few nice pics of the Armored Valk. :)

Valkyries, etc (Pt. 4)

If you look closely at the pic of Misa and the model Valk (see previous entry), you will see another smaller plane model on the desk. That is a model of the VF-4 Lightning III. The Vf-4 isn't even in the movie that screen is from! Its only animated appearance was in SDF Macross: Flashback 2012 . Flashback 2012 was a sort of music video/epilogue to the Macross movie. Anyhow, above you will find a few pics of the VF-4.

I don't have any proof of this, but I speculate that the nickname "Lightning III" was used in reference to the P-38 Lightning
and the F-22 Raptor . During its development, the F-22 was referred to as the YF-22 Lightning II. If you look at both aircraft, the (fictional) VF-4 has some characteristics that could be traced to both real-life planes.

(one more on this topic to come)

Valkyries, etc. (Pt 3)

So we can see that clearly the VF series physically resembles the F-14. But why the name "Valkyrie"? Well, I read an interview (I can't recall where now) where Kawamori stated that he felt one of the most beautiful and amazing looking planes ever was the North American XB-70 Valkyrie . Now, Kawamori snuck in a little XB-70 reference to the 1984 theatrical movie Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? In the (bad quality, sorry!) screen above, you see Misa being surprised. But also, you can spy a XB-70 on the desk in the right side of the pic!

(continued...)

Valkyries, etc. (Pt.2)

So, Kawamori designed the beloved Valkyrie. But where did it he get the idea from? Well, it obviously bears more than a passing resemblance to the Grumman F-14 . (See above for some comparisons)

Kawamori, the Valkyrie, and the Valkyrie (etc.)

Shoji Kawamori is a well known mecha designer and director. Probably his best known creation is the VF Series Valkyrie transformable mech as seen in Super Dimension Fortress Macross . You may also know this as the first part of Robotech .

(1st pic is Kawamori and I. 2nd is the Valkyrie of course)