Chronicler wrote:Hey does anyone have a complete list of all the mech in Robotech (sans the stuff in the rpg books, I can list those on my own)?
Nope... even Harmony Gold doesn't have a complete list of all the mecha in
Robotech. You won't find any fan who can honestly claim to have one either, for a variety of reasons. The few official
Robotech references are painfully incomplete and even more painfully inaccurate, and
Macross was the only one of the original three shows with reference material that could be said to be comprehensive, though what we have for
MOSPEADA is at least reasonably complete (if lacking in detail).
The proverbial waters are also substantially muddied by the incomplete nature of the reference material for
Southern Cross, inconsistencies introduced by the adaptation process, Harmony Gold's having thrown out large swathes of material, and their having produced more via licensees that is not considered accurate for the official
Robotech universe and many years of fan-produced misinformation and theories which have tried to turn every in-joke, animation error, and inconsistency in the originals into a "secret" design.
To give a few brief examples:
Disowned designs would be things that were once part of
Robotech titles that are not officially part of
Robotech anymore for various reasons. Stuff like the material from
Megazone 23 Part I, which was used in
Robotech: the Untold Story... which Harmony Gold disowned after completion and have since lost the rights to. That'd also cover material from the novels and the old comics that Harmony Gold disowned during their reboot of
Robotech's continuity... particularly the ones that infringe upon copyrights owned by other companies (like the VF-4 that was used in "The Misfits", the VF-19F knockoff in "Wings of Gibraltar", or the many, MANY instances of tracing).
In-joke designs would be things like the Orguss Valkyrie and Haros that appear briefly in scenes from the original
Macross series, which for various reasons probably don't officially exist.
In-series inconsistencies would be things like the mistaken designation of the Condor armo-soldier of
MOSPEADA or the Shrewfield/Sylphid fighter of
Southern Cross as transforming mecha, which is utterly unsubstantiated by reliable sources.
Lastly,
debated existences would be things like the alleged variant subclasses of
Tristar or the numerous other bits of off-model animation that are consistently off-model but lack substantiating evidence or official acknowledgement... and as such every fan has their own take on them while Harmony Gold says and does nothing.
Chronicler wrote:One thing that I've found is that so far the gaps in mecha are VF-2, VF-3,VR-010, and VR-020, and VF-7 I heard was from the comics which I think I do have a picture of in my files.
Most of that is artifacts of the adaptation of OSM specs.
The absence of a VF-2 or VF-3 is an artifact of imperfectly copying from the
Macross OSM... they were skipped because
Macross jumped right from the VF-1 to the VF-X-4 in terms of what showed up in the series proper. Numbers 2 and 3 were assigned to prototypes that weren't mass produced... the VF-X-2 was the VF-1's design rival that the UN Gov't passed on, and the VF-X-3 was the VF-X-4's rival, but the data for the design and the prototype were lost when the Zentradi destroyed Earth's surface.
Robotech copied the numbering system, but didn't copy the explanation for why 2 and 3 are apparently unused. (There are actually very few unused numbers in
Macross.)
Nothing is said for any model of Armored Bike/Ride Armor in
MOSPEADA. The VR-038 Bartley was the lowest-numbered (and apparently oldest) model to ever appear.
If I'm right, the VF-7 you're thinking of is a fan-made transformable version of the non-transforming fighter from
Southern Cross known variously as the Sylphid or Shrewfield... though I guess you could also be referring to the unused design from the canceled
Robotech Academy pilot. Neither of those should be designated VF-7 though, since canon has it that the Beta fighter was designated VF-X-7 for most of its development (until technology problems got it put on hold and eventually redesignated VF/B-9).