What were the original use of the stubby arms on the SDF-1? I was watching Boobytrap and noticed that the stubby arms meant to attach the ARMD’s to are on the ship before it hits the Earth. Did Zor use them for the same thing the humans did? Did they serve some other purpose?

as far as I know they were just a sort of side sponson of sorts.

They served the same function as in the rebuilt SDF-1, docking ports.

they are located in a section between the cannons that can rotate and face different directions, I’d be willing to bet those were the original launch/recovery apparatuses for mecha.

The idea of attach something to it is from human design, for the recovery of the CVS and the SLV ships transported in the transposition of Macross island. I didn’t belive Zor would think on that… Would be a suspicious coincidence…hum.

Well, if you look at the original line art, post refit the pods serve as landing bays when not attached to another space ship.

Since in the original series, the Macross looked almost axactly the same right before it crashed, I think we would be safe guessing that the pods were used for the same purpose.

...were constructed after the SDF1 crashes Earth. Maybe the original purpose would be to attach ARMD spaceships/platforms as seen on the diagrams of the SDF2 for the Robotech:Do you Remember Love movie. also as seen on Macross II: Lover’s Again which story starts 80 years after the Remember Love movie… I dunno.

The SDF1 is modular, I assume it was before it crashed on earth. we probably only saw it in flight mode, change it around a bit and you have a very different ship. remember firing mode for the SDF1, well with Zor’s battle fortress, in this mode those little side things look kinda like mini reflex cannons.

Let us not forget that the original fortress looked more like a zentraedi cruiser.

These stubs may not have even been and were added by the human designers specifically for the purpose of docking.

As far as for the recovery of fighters if you watch the show closely in the first couple episodes you will see the VFs landing in compartments on the side of the bow (front part of the ship).

Let us not forget that the original fortress looked more like a zentraedi cruiser.

Not quite. That was a later revision that give the ship a more Zentaedi like appearence. The ship during the crash sequence dosen’t look that different (aside from the darker hull color, and lack of the bridge structure) then the post rebuild version. The Zentraedi-esk version was created for the Robotech: Genesis Graphic Novel, put out by Comico. It was the reasoning for the the SDF-3’s original appearence.

I stand corrected.

If you watch episode on hulu and pause it right after the SDF-1 defolded in earth space (about 2 minutes in on Hulu) you can get a fairly clear view and it does not look like a zentraedi battlefortress.

There is however, no side arms or stubs either.

So these must have been added by earth design.

I have put a photo of it in my photo album on Meetup.com (link below)

http://www.meetup.com/Richmond-RPG/photos/1207644/

There is however, no side arms or stubs either.

At the 2:15 mark, the stubs a clearly visible as it begins planet fall.

So there is not stubs when it defolds but they appear as it falls to earth?

Weird.

It’s because of the angle of the ship as seen, and the dark hull color, that you don’t see the stubs at first.

That picture I posted a link to clearly shows the ship from the side and there were no stubs.

But they are there regardless when it crashes.

Maybe they have something to do with atmospheric flight and are deployed automatically as it moves through Earth Atmosphere. Possibly they are just for boarding and deboarding and are deployed because of damage. This adds a new wrinkle as they are not there then they are.