Queadluun Rau (oh no, my wallet)

What anime nerd from the 80's doesn't immediately recognize this mecha as the female power armor from Macross? This has been one of the universal favorites among fans of the show for decades. Want a kit/figure of this girl? Better be willing to fork over a lot of money. Check eBay. Go ahead. Yikes.

Another 80's staple was the paper and pencil roll playing game played with real live filthy humans. Let's face it... computer RPG's back then were a novelty compared to the marathon gaming sessions playing RPG's with actual friends. My nerd buddies and I at Michigan Tech actually played Palladium Books' Robotech RPG. Yeah, I even admit it publicly. I can't say I remember much about the game system, but the idea of the mecha and the setting were enough to be compelling. That same crowd also played Battletech when the best mechs were the ones taken directly from Macross, Dougram and (in at least one case, and so far out of scale as to be laughable) the movie Crusher Joe. Those designs are long past available.... sort of.

Oh, no. Another kickstart. Yeah, all that for the current price of a Queadluun Rau kit. And the stretch goals just a keep on coming. Miria is included in the set, and a squadron of three QR suits is currently a $30 add-on. One upcoming stretch goal is to switch the male version of the power armor (Nousjadeul-Ger... yeah, Zentraedi names are weird) to be included in this pledge level rather than extra cost. I'm kind of hoping that adding QR's to this level is one of the high level goals.

Battletech/Mechwarrior people, do you see the old school Stinger, Wasp, Phoenix Hawk (Hybrid and LAM), Marauder, Ostroc, Warhammer, Archer, Rifleman and Longbow? The Behemoth (Mk II Monster in Macross) is available as an add-on purchase too. The Crusader (Armored Valkyrie) is a future stretch goal. (The "fast pack" upgrade for the Stinger/Wasp/PH aka "Super Valkyrie" is also an add-on.)

Here is the scale compared to something we can all get a feel for... it looks to me like 15mm terrain might work well for them.

I actually own some model kits about this scale (they are really old....) that are about the same scale. You don't want to know what I paid for them. I dug them out of the basement for this photo, taken about 10 days ago. SD Zeta Gundam and Giant Gorg are making an appearance because they were stored in the same box.

I thought these were awesome paint jobs in 1987

Yeah, I need another 50 or 60 miniatures (or a new gaming system for that matter) like I need a hole in the head, but.... actually, now that I'm thinking about it, the benefits of trepanation are well documented. Hmmmm.