Tuesday, December 17, 2013

From GregB: 1/200 Scale Regult Tactical Battle Pod Mechas (24 points)


Greg opens his run up the points roster with this pair of Battle Pods from the Macross animated series.

From Greg:
This submission is a pair of Regult Tactical Battle Pods, the main mecha used by the Zentreadi aliens from the anime series Macross (recognized more commonly in North America as "Robotech").  These are 1/200 scale multi-part models sold under the "Nichimo" brand many years ago, now available these days in isolated Ebay lots.  Six or seven years ago, long before any Kickstarter panhandling, I started piling together enough of these kits to play games of Macross with the gaming group here in Winnipeg.  They are not great models - they have to be screwed together (WTF !?!) so you have to fill those holes with putty.  But they look the part!  These models are about 4 inches tall.
I've loved the Macross series - complete with its bonkers notions, whacky plot with rather large holes, and terrible, terrible "pop music" - since I first saw a few scattered episodes as a teenager. Back then "GI Joe" and "Transformers" were popular cartoons, and in those shows nobody ever got hurt.  Along came this show with very cool animation, amazing mecha, and a plot that routinely killed off major characters (and also half the earth's population, ultimately). It was quite a contrast!  While of course the premise of the show was (and still is) preposterous, the themes in it still resonate (and echo into the current time through shows like Battlestar Galactica, which shares many attributes with Macross, although fans of that show will hate reading that).  I will toss a few episodes of the show on when I'm painting from time to time.  And although Macross fans rightfully take many barbs for the awful pop music angle to the show's plotline, I don't take them too seriously.  Especially from people who in turn believe any comic, cartoon or show with a character like "Wolverine" is somehow good for anything.... :)


The alien mecha from Macross are beautiful. With the reverse articulation in the legs, artful curves, the Regult pods fit the bill perfectly for alien bad guy soldier mecha.  They are armed to the teeth, elegant, maneuverable, funny-but-cool-looking, and easily blown away by the dozen by the heroes of the TV series!  In the series, these pods were about 70 or 80 feet tall, piloted by 50-foot-tall expendable soldier-clone Zentreadi soldiers. The aliens would attack with an approach that made the Red Army appear spartan in comparison, and clouds of these pods would lead the assault, getting mowed down by the ace human pilots in their own super-cool variable fighter mecha.

It was a lot of fun to collect these models from Ebay and paint them. I haven't painted one in years, and these two had been sitting forever, primed black. I figured I would clear them off the pending desk (I literally had to dust them off) as a way to recognize the expansion of the Analogue Challenge into the sci-fi realm!

Wonderful work Greg! These things always kinda make me scratch my head... but Greg's a great friend, so I nod and smile indulgently as he enthusiastically describes the impenetrable storylines and various bits of whacky technology laid out in the series. God bless him. ;)

These two Battle Pods will give Greg 24 points. Great to have you on the board, Mr.B. Now you need to get some Victorian stuff in the hopper to face-off against Michael and Phil!

21 comments:

  1. I insist on more mecha. Because these are cool, of course. Do I spy another lurking in the background half painted?

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    1. Thanks! The one you see in the background is in fact a previously completed model. It had been so long since painting them, I used that one as a guide.

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    2. I went looking to buy a nice mech to use for the vehicle theme. But good God, the prices!

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  2. Some great looking models will be interesting to see more

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    1. Thanks James - not too sure I have many of these left to paint, but we'll see. As Curt says, I need to get to my pile of "proper" toy soldiers :)

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  3. Very nice work Greg!

    I like the kickstarter dig too.... :-) Firmly aimed my way for picking up the Robotech kickstarter , that may or may not ever show up....

    So, while I wait for figs that may never show up, want to put those bad boys into action over the holidays and do a Robotech game? Not sure what you use for rules, but hey, a game is a game :-)

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    1. Thanks Byron. While my loathing of "sheep-starter" is well known, if you ever actually receive any of those figures I'm sure they will be great and much nicer to work with than these models are!

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  4. Good lord, look at all the mecha fan-boi's coming out of the woodwork! Who knew... (curmudgeonly rolls eyes and shuffles back to painting 'real' toy soldiers) ;P

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    1. Now, now Curtis, it was after all your idea to open the floodgates to include allow genres! Anyway who does't like shiny robots, especially when they look this good.

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    2. It was my 'idea' only to serve as a cunning ploy to smoke these heretics out. ;>

      Seriously, I actually really like this stuff. I missed out on the whole Macross/Robotech craze while I had my nose in the books at uni so I'm really just jealous. That being said I did play a bit of Battletech back in the day, so who am I to point fingers (other than its good fun).

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  5. Great to see the mecha fans emerge!! Thanks guys!!

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  6. Nice to see something a bit different and very well executed. I don't envy you with the screwing together part I must say...

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  7. Very cool looking and I like the colour scheme a lot

    Ian

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  8. Afraid I've never heard of them, but they look pretty cool!

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  9. Awesome work - reminds me of old school Battletech!

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  10. they look amazing great paining , you'd never know they were so small

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  11. They look good. I know Battletech but not much about Robotech really.
    cheers

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  12. I didn't know these models before buit they look excellent. And the paintjob is great as well.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)