I was hooked by the kits at the same time as you. I was on vacation in Pheonix Arizona. There was a hobbyshop in a mall that had this huge pile of Macross kits. I only had $30 and it took be 45 minutes to pick the three that I liked the most.
Those three were;
1/72nd scale Armored VF-1J,
1/72nd Destroid Tomahawk,
and 1/100th scale Regult.
I found out about Robotech from some friends with cable after describing the SDF-1 to them.
Then my local hobby shop started carrying them. I have been in very bad finacial shape ever since.