When Did You Learn About Macross?

[MacrossMan]

Curious to know how many guys that grew up stateside knew about Macross back when Robotech first came to the states. I knew nothing of it until I started searching for a Jetfire toy after Christmas. I kept seeing these high priced "versions" of Jetfire that was not Jetfire. Out of curiosity I checked them out which. This eventually led me to start looking for Robotech gear which eventually led me here. Since coming here I have learned how Robotech came to be. I had no idea watching Robotech as a kid that it was concoction of the Japanese cartoons dressed up for the states.

[Warmaker]

As a kid watching Robotech, I knew there had to be a Japanese version of it. I just thought it was a straight translation, even going so far to think that Robotech was originally one big Japanese show.

What confused me later on was that my friend who frequented San Francisco's Japantown made mention to me about a "Macross movie" and described it. I still vividly recall his description of "Max & Miriya's" fight which was alot different from the Robotech form.

What didn't help anymore was this great birthday present my Dad got me from Japantown... a 1/55 "Hikaru" Strike VF-1S. I sure as hell didn't know who Hikaru was or where this "Strike" armor came from, but it looked great.

Fast forward. Only sometime after 2000 or 2001 after doing a search out of the blue for Macross did I come across this website. Only then did I "See The Light" of Macross Truth at MW I learned of all the cool things from Macross that were held back from release here in the USA. I learned of the differences of SDF:M to Robotech & the Macross Saga, especially after getting the Animeigo DVDs. I finally learned of and saw the bootleg DVD of DYRL? and wondered, "Why in the h*** didn't I get to see this movie long ago!?!"

I'm happy to be a Lying Macross Purist

[MacrossMan]

As a kid watching Robotech, I knew there had to be a Japanese version of it. I just thought it was a straight translation, even going so far to think that Robotech was originally one big Japanese show.

What confused me later on was that my friend who frequented San Francisco's Japantown made mention to me about a "Macross movie" and described it. I still vividly recall his description of "Max & Miriya's" fight which was alot different from the Robotech form.

What didn't help anymore was this great birthday present my Dad got me from Japantown... a 1/55 "Hikaru" Strike VF-1S. I sure as hell didn't know who Hikaru was or where this "Strike" armor came from, but it looked great.

Fast forward. Only sometime after 2000 or 2001 after doing a search out of the blue for Macross did I come across this website. Only then did I "See The Light" of Macross Truth at MW I learned of all the cool things from Macross that were held back from release here in the USA. I learned of the differences of SDF:M to Robotech & the Macross Saga, especially after getting the Animeigo DVDs. I finally learned of and saw the bootleg DVD of DYRL? and wondered, "Why in the h*** didn't I get to see this movie long ago!?!"

I'm happy to be a Lying Macross Purist

I must admit that after reading the stuff on this website, my Robotech memories were burst. I'm currently watching the ADV versions of Macross with English translations. It's almost like having someone remove a blindfold from your eyes while watching it.

I'll always dig Robotech, but it does make me feel like Robotech bamboozled us guys stateside by changing up the "real" story.

I too hope to become a lying Macross Purist some day.

[MjrMisaHayase]

From both Robotech and the internet.

(Ducks upon mentioning the "R" word.)

Edited February 19, 2008 by MjrMisaHayase

[Mr March]

Almost ever since I was an anime fan I saw/heard/read hints of Macross. During the dark days of anime fandom in the 80s my friends and I would often pick up bits and pieces of Macross and other animes like Gundam through the anime fandom. Someone with a VHS of taped shows from Japan would play it and we'd see Macross commercials or I'd buy an import magazine with advertisements for DYRL or Flashback 2012 (the titles of which I was completely unaware) and by amazed at all this "Robotech" stuff that never came out here in North America. Strong images I can still remember to this day were the impressive DYRL uniforms, all the strange Zentradi organics and Milia's red Q-Rau. These were probably the first hints that Robotech wasn't what it appeared.

In my early 20s I had the opportunity to watch Robotech again. This would be the first time I'd seen the show in many years and obviously my first exposure as an adult. At the time I was just starting to get into film in a big way and learning all about the nuances of script, pacing, narrative, editing and so forth. I remember still enjoying Robotech, but I was definitely turned off by something. I watched it a few more times, but was really disturbed by the editing and especially bothered by the jarring dialog, which at times seemed to come out of nowhere. I decided not to buy it and instead just kept copies of the show on a few VHS tapes. Eventually I taped over them (with X-Files, as I recall).

Very shortly afterward, I discovered Macross Plus released from Manga Ent. To paraphrase Churchill, that was the end of the beginning.

From there I sought out all kinds of Macross merchandise, obtaining import CD soundtracks, more VHS tapes (which eventually became DVDs), books and toys. At some time in the late 90's I got a hold of the internet and went even more Macross crazy. The rest is history. I haven't touched anything Robotech in over a decade.

Edited February 20, 2008 by Mr March

[Beltane70]

I learned about Macross the day the second episode of Robotech was aired on TV back in 1985. A year later while I was at a science-fiction convention in New York City, I discovered DYRL and became hooked on anime in its original format and never looked back.

[DJ Loe Kee]

i grew up on macross 'cause i was a HUGE transformer fan so robotech and voltron appealed to me naturally. robotech was my older brother's show and transformers were still my favorite.

i found out about macross 'cause i wanted to buy some robotech vhs tapes but they only had TWO episodes on each tape. actually they had FOUR episodes per vhs tape, it went like this: robotech ep. 1, macross ep. 1, robotech ep. 2, macross ep. 2. but i didn't buy them.

i wonder if anybody else has them (watch somebody come on and say that that was the bootleg... i'm always findin' bootlegs on the net... i bought ring/ringu on vcd but my bank refunded my money once i complained about them bein' bootlegs... i still have the bootlegs, my uk versions of the dvd set and the u.s. release of ringu, all with subs of course)???

[TehPW]

I think the first thing i saw of macross was it's model kits. At Wing's Hobby Shop in Lakewood, Oh I saw the 1/72 Battroid VF-1J. Saw some of the other 1/72 scale Destroids (perhaps the only time, too since then i have had only seen the various repackagings of the 1/100 scale lineup). I was a welp, put it together and probably destroyed it just as quick. that was in '83 or '84...

Then i saw two items, that did wonders to me. First was the Robotech line by revel, Axoid and Vexar (the 1/72 VF-1J & S Varible kits, the gold standard for all model kits of coolness). Not a clue what they were actually (i didn't make the connection with these kits and the previous 'white toy'. I think i also got theses from Wings...

BUT. on a rare chance to Toys-R-Us or some other toy store brand in Great Northern Mall in North Olmstead, i saw the 1/200 scale Pitabans. Totally cheesy but it was the ARTWORK, Gorgious artwork. I was always going there when i had a chance to see if new ones were on the shelves in the back...

It wasn't until '86 when Robotech began airing on WUAB-43, back when it was more local, non-network. they aired the good stuff like The Ghoul Show and such. Wow. I was soooooooo hooked. and see the fighters and looking at my pitabans and Robotech models, i started to see a pattern...

pretty much after that, i started to learn more about it...

but that's another story.

Round Two. Fight!

[Randalt]

Back when Robotech was airing in Atlantic Canada in '85-'86, I was hooked on that soon enough, not knowing its history as the three different anime series. I found out when I bought the Robotech RPG, and there were appendix notes on the "Supervision" and "Inspection" armies of the Protoculture, how Kamjin scavenged three Glaug pods from a forgotten weapons depot, and lots of mecha notations. "Wow," I thought, "there's a whole story that's been hidden here. I must know more. More!"

Then I found the Macross Compendium online, catalogs of anime model kits, a 3rd-gen VHS Hong Kong-dubbed DYRL movie, and so on. The Robotech Art 1 book explained how Carl Macek hammered/mutilated the three different series into something with 65 episodes for TV syndication. I loved finding out about it all.

[Morpheus]

I first saw Macross TV series back in 1993 and got hooked with it, previously I collected several mini Macross plastic kit (not realizing it was Macross stuff), my personal favourite is the airplane with leg (aka gerwalk mode ).

Later when I got internet connected, I started roaming the web for more Macross material, finding Robotech, Macross 7, Macross 2, and Macross Plus. The RPG website also help alots also with the Compendium and later I found this forum (my first forum on the internet ).

[Vegas]

i watched it on tv (1982) dubbed in english

[deadghost]

I was a annoying rug rat when I was a early child and I caught my brother watching DYRL, ever since then I was stuck watching it, my parents would even make me watch it so I can be quite, and so I would stop screwing around. I remember saying to myself "why am I watching this transformer crap, optimus prime out of my toy box and into my trash can'' It was also the first time I watched a naked women (minmay shower scene). Ever since then I was love struck until macross plus came along then macross zero, then macross F. ah good flashback

[taksraven]

Not trying to brag, well I am bragging really I guess, but my first knowledge of Macross was BEFORE Robotech was shown in Australia. About a year before its broadcast (broadcast in 1987 in Australia?) our next door neighbour gave my brother and I model kits of the Mk X Defender and the Mk II Spartan for birthday presents knowing that we were SF fans.

I thought at the time that the time that the designs were truly unique (although I did wonder why the Spartan appeared to lack weapons, little did I know.)

I was stunned a year later when Robotech appeared on TV and our model robots featured in it. It didn't take me long to find out that Robotech was made up of three unrelated series joined together. It did have me fooled for a while though, especially the way that the main mecha in Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada all had Gerwalk (Guardian, give me a break) modes.

Channel Ten Sydney originally bought the rights to only the first 52 episodes of Robotech, meaning it took a long time to see the rest of the "series" properly. (Nearly ten years later on a different network.

An interesting footnote was that during the 1990's a group of "concerned mothers" got together in Australia and targetted the television networks with a hate campaign to get "violent and offensive" programs taken off childrens morning television in Australia. As a result of this campaign the Australian Broadcasting Network (The ABC, Australia's national broadcaster) pledged to never again show Star Blazers and Battle of the Planets, Channel Seven agreed to never show Robotech again, and Channel Ten had to move Ren and Stimpy from mornings to an "adult" timeslot. What a bunch of bitches.

Taksraven

[taksraven]

Not trying to brag, well I am bragging really I guess, but my first knowledge of Macross was BEFORE Robotech was shown in Australia. About a year before its broadcast (broadcast in 1987 in Australia?) our next door neighbour gave my brother and I model kits of the Mk X Defender and the Mk II Spartan for birthday presents knowing that we were SF fans.

I thought at the time that the time that the designs were truly unique (although I did wonder why the Spartan appeared to lack weapons, little did I know.)

I was stunned a year later when Robotech appeared on TV and our model robots featured in it. It didn't take me long to find out that Robotech was made up of three unrelated series joined together. It did have me fooled for a while though, especially the way that the main mecha in Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada all had Gerwalk (Guardian, give me a break) modes.

Channel Ten Sydney originally bought the rights to only the first 52 episodes of Robotech, meaning it took a long time to see the rest of the "series" properly. (Nearly ten years later on a different network.

An interesting footnote was that during the 1990's a group of "concerned mothers" got together in Australia and targetted the television networks with a hate campaign to get "violent and offensive" programs taken off childrens morning television in Australia. As a result of this campaign the Australian Broadcasting Network (The ABC, Australia's national broadcaster) pledged to never again show Star Blazers and Battle of the Planets, Channel Seven agreed to never show Robotech again, and Channel Ten had to move Ren and Stimpy from mornings to an "adult" timeslot. What a bunch of bitches.

Taksraven

[jenius]

i grew up on macross 'cause i was a HUGE transformer fan so robotech and voltron appealed to me naturally. robotech was my older brother's show and transformers were still my favorite.

i found out about macross 'cause i wanted to buy some robotech vhs tapes but they only had TWO episodes on each tape. actually they had FOUR episodes per vhs tape, it went like this: robotech ep. 1, macross ep. 1, robotech ep. 2, macross ep. 2. but i didn't buy them.

i wonder if anybody else has them (watch somebody come on and say that that was the bootleg... i'm always findin' bootlegs on the net... i bought ring/ringu on vcd but my bank refunded my money once i complained about them bein' bootlegs... i still have the bootlegs, my uk versions of the dvd set and the u.s. release of ringu, all with subs of course)???

I believe you're talking about the "Perfect Edition" Tapes. I think the plan was to release the entire Robotech series with matching original episodes but I don't know how far along they made it. They might have completed it but some other member would have to answer that. Thank God for DVDs huh? Now we can all own the entire original series, remastered, and Robotech also if you wanted to, for a fraction of what it would have cost to get copies back in the day. Anyone remember renting the FHE tapes???

Similarly, I was a huge Transformers fan and my brother was a huge RT fan. I became a huge RT fan also and in middle school I sought out more Robotech stuff. I found the RPGs and would use them to help me draw (we were an anti-comic family). In some of the RT stuff I found, probably the RT art books or something, I found mention of the original series. My brother bougth the Animeigo set when it was released and that's when I saw Macross in its original form for the first time.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

As a little kid growing up watching astro boy, voltron, speed racer, starblazers etc I knew watching robotech that this was based on a japanese anime for obvious reasons, but I didn't start wanting to know the real unbutchered story until about the time macross II came out. I had seen DYRL before this though, and loved it, but really had no intention of trying to gather up info on macross and the differences between it and RT until about the release of plus. From there I read about macross 7 (from games magazine that had coverage of anime) but never cared much to want to watch it. About the the year 2002 I then decided that I would start trying to track down dvds for rt for nostalgia and this got me into the quest for toys from the RT/macross universe which I searched for on RT.com. After that the rest is history as I was led here. (getting more info than I could ever need)

I think HG needs to acknowledge that RT and macross are two different things now and (with the popularity of anime now) try to make an *"american anime" mecha show that really seperates itself from the macross universe as much as possible to avoid confusion. It's the only way forward since many don't necessarily think RT itself is a bad "version" of the story just not as good as what the originals were that it was based on. I didn't thnk SC was as bad as people made out, just pretty ordinary. As for future toys: please concentrate on the QC. Perhaps re-release the alphas as mospeada legioss MPC with new packaging and fix the problems.

*cartoons that look like they are in the style of anime but aren't really

Edited February 20, 2008 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Randalt]

Channel Ten Sydney originally bought the rights to only the first 52 episodes of Robotech, meaning it took a long time to see the rest of the "series" properly. (Nearly ten years later on a different network.

Wow, that happened to you? The local network where I lived only bought the first 80 episodes, so it was frustrating to go through the whole cycle hoping this time the final five would be shown, but no, start over again with the 1st Macross episode, "Boobytrap." I bought those episodes on tape later and showed them at a con's anime room, saying "10 years ago we thought this was soooo cool." I suppose I should be thankful they were broadcast in order...

[Isamu test pilot]

Well, Here in Mexico I watched Robotech in 1886 for the first time (I was 8 years old), but only 4 years later a Japanese friend told me about Macross, and from that moment my heart is only for Macross

In 1992 I watched Macross II and started to collect all Macross products I could get until now, man I really love Macross jeje

Edited February 20, 2008 by Isamu test pilot

[Master Dex]

I knew Robotech first, and at the time I didn't know that the other side was any different. Ironically the way of learned of Robotech was unique.

I saw information and stuff on the game Robotech Battlecry which looked really cool to me at the time (in retrospect, I see now how it kind of sucked, but it still holds a place in the heart). Before I ever bothered to get this game I was a fan of all Science Fiction and mecha like things like Gundam. I went to the Robotech site to read up about this show and I was hooked on it. Then I bought that game and played it through. Eventually I learned through the internet that Robotech was in fact an Americanization of 3 Japanese anime. The interesting thing is however that I only really liked the Macross saga portion of Robotech, I could never bring myself to watch the rest, it seemed to not fit, I now know why. I eventually bought the remastered DVD's of Robotech the Macross saga, which I quite enjoyed.

Since I'm an engineering buff, I was looking up for more information on the Veritechs (bear with the word people, it actually makes a bit of sense as an acronym), and I eventually started seeing a lot of stuff on Macross Valkyries from many of the OVA's, movies, and series. This led me to eventually rent the dubbed version of Macross Plus the movie edition. Ever since that day I was an official Macross fan. I from there looked up more information and such. I've wanted to buy the DVDs of the English dubbed Macross series but I've always come short of actually doing it.

The thing for me is, despite Macross, which I agree is better than the Robotech version of the story and makes a lot more sense, I still like Robotech (Macross saga only though) and truthfully I still think of those characters by their American names a lot (Rick Hunter and Lisa for example, and I still like to think of Global/Gloval as Russian rather than Italian). So I walk the line as a fan of both versions while knowing Macross makes more sense and I now mainly favor that side, Robotech will still always be there in some form.

[misterryno]

Funny that I watched some Robotech when growing up, but I was mostly into TF's and GI Joes, and I did not learn about Macross untill just before I joined this site. I don't even know what turned me onto it actually. Really weird that I can't remember only 5 months back. I was not in a good place then and did'nt want to remember prob.

[Exsedol]

In 1985 there was a quick "afterschool cartoon" look in to the making of robotech right before a commercial break and I learned about the 3 japanese shows.

[bsu legato]

It would have been in about 1987 when I got my copy of Robotech Art and learned the shocking truth. I'd built the "macross" model kits beforehand, including one or two from the movie (without understanding why the mecha and uniforms all looked so different) but reading the whole story blew me away. To my 13 year old mind, it must have been a shocking revelation on par with the end of Sixth Sense.

[Rhapsodyred99]

I was a huge transformers fan growing up. I knew there was thing called robotch, and i remember scanning past a few of the toys when I was a kid, but never paid much attention to it as I di dnot have cable and never saw the show.

I knew the jetfire mold was based on another show from Japan but it never really occured to me to follow up on it.

Flash forward to this past year when I was buying the classics from transformers and I started loking at the old g1 jetfire I had never been able to get as a kid. Low and behold ebay was full of all kinds of "updated" jetfires as well as the classic jetfire.

I then saw an awesome custom Jetfire made from the VF-1S 1.48 that had me drooling. I bought a 1/48 VF-1s Hikaru and then fell in love with the toy so much I could not bear to customize it.

I wanted to see the animation the toy came form so wnet to my local video store and found a copy of Robotech the Macross saga on DVD. They did not have a subbed anime version.

After watching the series I liked it, but being familiar with Anime and how dubbs generally suck I went looking for the orriginal.

After watching it I was hooked. I now have seen MacZero, SDFM, DYRL, 2012, Plus movie, Mac7, and the first episode of Mac Frontier.

I have also bought a ton of Yammies

I love Macross, my wallet hates it though lol

[Macross007]

When I watched Macross Plus for the first time 7,8 years ago. It was my real first anime.

[Skullsixx]

Dude... somewhere in the early 80's it all hit at once... Macross was waaay cooler than RT, and HG was a steaming turd!

[Gubaba]

Before Christmas 1984, the little, flimsy "Parade" magazine that came with the Sunday edition of the L.A. Times had a story on Japanese robot toys, helpfully noting what anime each came from, and one of the showcases of the article was Hikaru's VF-1J. I devoured that article over and over again, so when Robotech debuted, I recognized the Valks right away.

Later, I found a model shop near my house that carried the old Imai / Arii kits, and they suddenly got a bunch in that had the "MACROSS '84 SUMMER" seal on them...and that's when my love of Robotech became merely a gateway drug into the far headier world of import model kits and nth generation VHS copies with no subs...

I believe you're talking about the "Perfect Edition" Tapes. I think the plan was to release the entire Robotech series with matching original episodes but I don't know how far along they made it. They might have completed it but some other member would have to answer that.

Nope, they never completed it. They got out eight Macross tapes and seven each for Southern Cross and Mospeada. I remember going to Anime Expo in...'93? '94? and the guy from Streamline said the next volumes would be out "in a few weeks."

Lying jerk.

[Randalt]

I was a huge transformers fan growing up. I knew there was thing called robotch,

Oh that's accidental genius! Robotch!