do we have scenes of people eating field rations in RT?

[glitterboy2098]

got curious. i don't remember any scenes where it is obvious this happens, but to be honest, with a few exceptions (like when they find the shopping center in "denver") scenes where the characters are eating they are doing that as basically a backdrop of conversations, and i'm paying attention to what they are saying, and not looking super close at what they are eating. at best, i think that rick and minmei had some canned rations from rick's stunt plane when they got stranded in the bowels of the SDF-1.

basically i'm curious as to what the survival rations/military field rations are like in the different era's of robotech.

timeline wise, with MRE's showing up in the 1980's in real life (and them being based on some of the experiments into improved field rations in the 60's and 70's, such as the Long Range Patrol Ration in Vietnam), MRE's should easily be around even with the variant history that gives us the global war in the 90's of robotech.

but when the shows that became robotech were made (1981-1983), the MRE was still only a special issue item, not widespread or well known to the public. (it would not become standard issue till 1985, and didn't really enter public awareness until Desert Storm in 1990.

so odds are good that the makers of the three shows forming robotech used something other than the MRE. given the way that military rations were, i'd guess something similar to the vietnam period Meal, Combat, Individual Ration (MCI-Ration), which was basically a mildly improved version of the WW2 C-rations.

thus why i'm curious.

[ShadowLogan]

Macross Saga (note there are probably more instances of eating regular food than rations in this saga):
-Ep4: Rick & Minemi
-Ep5: not eating per say, but Uncle Max IINM waves around a box that is supposed to feed all 4 of them. Weather it is military ration or not I don't think we can say for sure
-Ep32: Zentreadi (potentially Zentreadi rations)

Masters Saga (I don't think there is much of anything, more drinking than actual eating IINM)

New Generation Saga (I don't think the origin of the food is always clear):
-Ep64: Lancer drinks coffee/mug while waiting at the Alpha for the others
-Ep66: MAYBE, IIRC it might have been game they caught
-Ep72: MAYBE
-Ep77: MAYBE

[glitterboy2098]

i'm starting a rewatch of new Generation (since that is the one most likely to showcase this sort of thing) and will try to grab screencaps of anything i find.

one reason to focus on new generation is the fact that, given how the group gets it supplies mostly through sscavenging, or from trade with towns and resistance organizations (which also would largely be scavenging) anything we see has a good chance to be either ASC or UEEF.. and that is assuming they do not share the same design of ration packs. (which would seem likely)

i will also try and grab shots of the macross saga stuff too, though IIRC the stuff in Rick's fanjet does not seem very military, and the bundle of supplies minmei's family is given is very ambiguous.

[taalismn]

I thought some of the lineart for New Generation showed a messkit(sans any actual food) but I could be wrong.

And for all we know, Lancer could be knocking back straight moonshine in that coffee cup....

[glitterboy2098]

the old REF field guide had line art for some of the contents of the cyclone's survival kit, which included a jerrycan like canteen, and a mess kit with two tray like dishes (one a large single dish, the other a double dish tray) as well as utensils in a case.

beyond that though we don;t have any idea of what all the other stuff in the kit is. though i grabbed a screenshot of the interior as scott reparks it, so i'll try and match it up to the RPG's description. (in the RPG, the UEEF and ASC survival kits have the same stuff.. the UEEF kit is in a hardshell case, the ASC one in a cloth shoulder bag)


edit: doing some research i stumbled over the WW2 Red Cross aid packages.. which seem to be fairly close visually to the white package Minmei brought back to the restaurant. about the same size too.
http://media.iwm.org.uk/ciim5/194/933/large_000000.jpg
http://www.warbooksreview.com/photos/po ... parcel.jpg

those included:
One pound can of powdered milk
One package ten assorted cookies
One pound can of oleo margarine
Half-pound package of cube sugar
Half-pound package of Kraft cheese
Six-ounce package of K-ration biscuits
Four-ounce can of coffee
Two D-ration chocolate bars
Six-ounce can of jam or peanut butter
Twelve-ounce can of salmon or tuna
One-pound can of Spam or corned beef
Six-ounce can of Liver paté
One-pound package of raisins or prunes
Five packages of cigarettes
Seven Vitamin-C tablets
Two bars of soap
Twelve ounces of C-ration vegetable soup concentrate.

minus the cigarettes, and with more modern components, this would fit fairly well as a general humanitarian package.

[glitterboy2098]

i'm at "enter marlene", and so far nothing. any time they are eating in the field it appears to be large indeterminate chunks of meat (or prehistoric fish ), occasionally with what looks like large chunks of bread.

presumably this would be game they've hunted (or Rand hunted, at least) cooked over a fire, with bread they bought in a town days earlier.

perhaps after they leave point-K this will change.

edit: got up to Sandstorm. still nothing. in the secret route they eat at a real restaurant (actually looked like fairly tasty food), while in The Fortress we don;t see them eating, but they did bring out the camp stove thing we first saw lancer using in Survival to make coffee, this time all the guys had mugs of something, most likely tea or coffee would my guess. or perhaps just the regional coffee-substitute.


also, now when i watch Sandstorm, and Rand feeding Marlene that bit of cactus juice, i can't help but think of sokka from avatar the last airbender.