Cleaning out an old web directory from my last job, I found the following picture:
The toys to the left are re-issues made in 2003, but the one on the right is an authentic Macross Valkyrie Elintseeker from the 1980's. This turns out to absurdly valuable ($1,300 at the height of the dot-com-funded 'reclaim your childhood on eBay' craze) due to its rarity. This one came to me as a gift from my best friend's dad after a business trip to Hong Kong.
The strange disc-like object is a radar array -- this plane had the task of intelligence-gathering in the TV series that accompanied these toys. When transformed into a robot, it went above the head as kind of a galatic parasol, I suppose.
Note on those interested in stealing my toy: it is in far-from-mint condition, and currently buried under dozens of boxes of books of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
Peter Leonard