I have to admit that my heart skips a beat whenever I see these two toys together. One is the Yamato 1/60 VF-1A of Maximilian Jenius, while the other is a Yamato 1/60 VF-1A No Paint Kit that I converted to a fictionalized VF-1A in Milia Jenius color scheme.
In the 1982 Super Dimension Fortress Macross Anime, the love affair between Maximilian Jenius and Miria Fallyna was initially a side story but became a central part of the plot. Maximilian Jenius was an ace pilot under the command of the anime's main protagonist, Hikaru Ichijo. Miria Fallyna was an ace pilot of the Zentradi forces who was taunted by another Zentradi officer, Quamzin, that there was a better pilot than her in the enemies side. This slight emboldened her to seek out Max and defeat him.
Instead of defeat however, she was humiliated by him by her near destruction when she went one on one with him. In order to regain her honor, she volunteered to infiltrate the Macross ship in order to continue her vendetta by hunting Max down.
What happened however was the opposite as the two fell in love and eventually married. Their marriage was a vital political coup for the Zentradi and Human factions that wanted peace between the two civilizations instead of wanton destruction. Their union also produced Komilia, the first Zentradi-Human hybrid that further cemented the premise that Humans and Zentradis can co-exist.
One of the reasons that made the SDF Macross anime great was the realistic storyline employed when the producers decided to tackle the postwar scenario. Here was this alien race that shared the same physical attributes as humans that was cloned for war by their Protoculture masters. Knowing nothing but war and fighting, they had a hard time adjusting to a peaceful and civilian life that the end of the war forced down their throats.
The story of Max and Milia however didn't end their as it was expounded further by producers in the Macross 7 series that came out in the 90's. In the storyline, Max had risen to admiral rank (while still retaining his boyish looks) and commanded the Macross 7 Expedition fleet. Miria had left the military and become the mayor of City 7, the civilian component of the Macross 7 fleet. By then the two had separated despite siring 7 daughters between them. The anime however ended on a positive note with the implication that the two had reconciled.
The story behind my build of the 1/60 VF-1A Miria edition was that I often wondered what Miria's first VF would look like after she defected to the human side of the conflict. I assumed that she would have probably been given a VF-1A similar to her husband's but would be adorned in the red color scheme that she is usually portrayed as sporting.
I had fun with the build of the VF-1A No Paint Kit and converting it to the Miria version. Too much fun in fact that it inspired me to try building military aircraft kits all over again.
For Macross fans who are model kit builders, I would definitely recommend picking up the 1/60 VF-1 No Paint kit series of Yamato Toys. Its cheaper than the completely built up toys but definitely a bit harder than building a regular model kit because of the transformation features that have to be taken into account. I already translated the assembly manual of this into English and you can find it here.
The Max and Miria love story, definitely one of the cornerstone plotlines of the franchise and what endeared it to the fans.
