I love finding Robotech geekery in the most random places. Miguel Valenzuela from Norway has been getting a lot of fans lately for his geeky snow sculptures. Miguel was the man responsible for the AT-AT Imperial Walker and taun taun snow sculptures that went viral recently. Considering everyone was covering the news on their sites, I refrained for adding to the clutter, but I couldn’t resist when I came across this bitchin’ snow sculpture of a Valkyrie VF-1S (Roy Folker custom) in Battleoid mode equipped with a 55 mm gunpod from ‘Robotech’!
It’s a sculpture of a Valkyrie VF-1S R.Focker Custom Snow Sculpture from the Robotech Macross Saga, a cartoon I watched as a kid. Maia is standing in front of it for scale. It’s painted with non-toxic finger paint and I shot it in the morning as the sun came up over the horizon. There are no build instructions for it but I ended up using a broom stick in the torso after the thing fell over twice while I was in the middle of making it. There is a stick for the gun since it hangs over so much…
The sculpture may seem pretty crude to you, but I dare anyone to make something this awesome out of snow. The thing that really impresses me is the sheer size of the sculpture. The VF-1S eclipses Miguel’s two children. As cool as I think this is and as much as I would love to know and see how this was made, I don’t care to find out how the “yellow snow” was created.
Hit the jump for more pix of Miguel’s awesome Valkyrie snow sculpture!
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For any old school anime fans, you will know and appreciate Macross (also known as Robotech in the States). For those of you that don’t know what Macross is, Macross is a long running series that has been airing on and off since 1982. Created by Shoji Kawamori, Macross’ popularity has stood against the test of time. Over the years, the Macross franchise features 9 television series/mini-series, 3 movies, and 2 graphic novel collections. The name “Macross” refers to advanced fighter mecha spacecrafts that were created from reverse engineered from an alien starcraft that crashed on an island. Mechas in Japanese animation is a very common thing like Gundams and Voltron, but Macross featured beautiful “variable fighters” that can transform the mecha in three forms. The three forms that these variable fighters are capable were fighter (fighter jet mode), gerwalk (part fighter jet/part human form), and humanoid (human form). The many different stories that were featured in the Macross series spotlighted the many pilots that flew these incredible machines.
One of the most popular characters from Macross was Rick Hunter (also known as Hikaru Ichigo/Ichijyo). His weapon of choice was his signature red and white VF-1 Valkyrie. Over the years, there has been an abundance of Macross related collectibles and toys and some of the best ever produced was from Japanese toy designer and manufacturer, Yamato. Until now, we have always seen various action figures in many different scales, but one thing that alludes us (the Macross fans) was a replica of the cool helmets that they pilots wore. Fortunately, thanks for Yamato, we get something to satisfy our craving for more Macross collectibles. Introducing, the Macross Motorcycle helmet! Designed to look like a replica of Hunter’s Skull Squadron type helmet, these bad ass helmets were not made to just sit on your shelf. These helmets were designed to be worn with the rider’s safety in mind.
Yamato is planning to release this helmet in the first quarter of 2010. Based on couple images that Yamato released of these helmets, it looks like this won’t be the first or the last Macross helmet they produce. Hit the jump to see a turnaround of this cool collectible!
Where to Buy: Big Bad Toy Store $459.99 (It’s expensive, but it looks soooo bad ass!)
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