Macross, You & Days Before the Internet

[Protoculture]

While others get their 1st taste of Macross via RT, mine was a different story.

Being in Malaysia, we're damn lucky to get Malay-dub Japanese anime / sentai / tokusatsu series imports shown on national TV.

Back in late 1980s, I get my 1st taste of the original SDF: Macross alongside GC: Mospeada soon after shown on national TV. Hell, I remember bugging my dad to buy me a transformable VF-1S ROY FOCKER & VF-1J HIKARU ICHIJO .... (which I deeply suspect now, Korean bootlegs). Those are the days .... le sigh ....

Then there's RT which showned in early 1990s, which at the time I seriously though as an English adaptation of both SDF: Macross & GC: Mospeada. When RT Masters (aka Southern Cross) segment kicked in then I realised this reincarnation are not the original series I watched earlier, but simply heavily re-edited & totally different version of the original anime. Sufficed to say, it satiated my crave for a while until mid 1990s, in high school, I fervently collected imported McKinney's Robotech novel series (hard to come by, only available in major bookstore at the time .... a tad to pricey too).

Back in 1997 ... YEAH, the INTERNET BABY! I was in college back then, marveling in the wonder of free information, perusing thru porn ... uh ... Internet wonderland .... until I key in MACROSS .... thanks to Dave Deitrich (of Macross Mecha Design), bcos his site enlightened me on Macross-verse again. Of course, yeah, there's tons on RT info too.

Bcos of internet, I search fervently to add my Macross collections. In 1998, I buy a Macross II OAV alongside Macross Plus together with Macross 7 the Movie. Of all those early Macross collection I got, Macross 7 the Movie that actually kickstarted my Macross obsession (& J-POP craze phase) ----- BOMBAAAAAAAA!

By early 2001, I stumbled onto Macrossworld, mostly becoming a lurker. I've to admit, MW is the main motivation for me to feed my Macross obsession in actually over the years to complete my Macross collections (original SDFM, Mac 7 series, Mac 7 Dynamite OAVs, Mac 0 OAVs, Mac DYRL & Flashback 2012) & adding on my GC: Mospeada .... strangely though, thanks to a quirky thread on MW years ago regarding Orguss, I hunted that little treasure trove & get myself the quirky & entertaining SDC: Orguss series.

Of course, now's there Macross Frontier, thanks to MW & Youtube. Now I'm 29 years of age, my Macross journey has being a thrilling ride! Thanks Shoji Kawamori & Haruhiko Mikimoto for SDFM. Thanks to Dave Deitrich for reigniting the Macross fire in me (BOMBAAAAA!!!!!) & thanks to MW, especially Shawn & Graham whose online forum & informative Macross info driving my passion for all thing MACROSS!

[Mechinyun]

In the 80's being a kid I had randomly got a rip off vf-1 toy, really small scale, all brown color that could semi transform, a bit later I got to see robotech on at odd times, it the TV station would randomly not show it constantly so I never got the full thing. I remember it being different than other cartoons, a bit more serious and complex, somewhat threw me off as it was so different than say the simplicity of transformers. I got jetfire one day as a gift, I dont seem to remember connecting it to robotech but I knew this transformer was the BEST one, still have it sitting on my desk as I type.

Around the same time I had a older friend who was a really good modeler and had many of the robotech models, like the robotech factory series which I thought was UBER cool. He also had the art of robotech books (again this was in the late 80's) which I use to carry to school and read instead of doing real work. From the books I semi got the full story of robotech that I had missed years earlier. I even tried to do my hair like rick hunter for a while I started building models too and my hobby shop out in BFE strangely carried alot of imported models from japan, many from starblazers and quite a few macross models. I figured out robotech was based on a japanese series, but didnt really care.. at that point i just assumed they were the same.

Then I got into high school and my toy/cartoon/modeling interest faded, as girls and friends took over into high school and even more so into college. After college and into the working world in the mid 90's I started surfing this internet thing to waste time at work and started exploring old passions, starting out with robotech which then lead to all the details of robotech vs. Macross and ultimately here around 2000. Was sorta in and out of the macross scene for the next few years until 2005 when the bug really bit me and I have been full macross nuts ever since.

[Hiriyu]

I feel very, very lucky to have grown up in Los Angeles, where even stores in Pasadena had Japanese imports coming in. As such, I had some Macross stuff even before Robotech aired, and thus I always knew there was something a little fishy about RT ("This says 'Valkyrie,' not 'Veritech.' And who the hell is 'Hikaru Ichijo'?)

Like everyone else, I would go to Books Nippan Ripoff when I could (and yes, I joined the "Japanimation" Fanvclub as well), and sometimes to Pony Toy-Go-Round in Little Tokyo, but even Karl's Toys in the Pasadena Mall once got a HUGE shipment of Macross, Dorvack, and Orguss models that they were selling for $2.99 each. Likewise, there was a place called The Model Works across from Pasadena City College that had (for a while) a huge selection of Macross, Southern Cross, and Mosepada models. And getting an Arii 1/100 Hikaru Type Strike Battroid in 1985 was where I first heard about DYRL.

Dude!! The Model Works?! As a twelve and thirteen year old kid living across the street from CalTech in 1985, I used to walk or bike up to The Model Works whenever I had a little money (rare for me in those days), and pore over all of the imported model kits. Occasionally, I could even afford to buy one or two of them - in fact the only two models which I built back then that are still with me today are ARII 1/100 VF-1S Super and Strike valks I got there. I really loved that place.

From about '83 on, my friends and I were really into model building, and we started building mecha with the Revell RT model line before there was a show. When RT came on the air, it was so much the better. Then, we started coming across all of these really cool imports with strange names, beautifully gritty artwork, and a deep sense of mystery. How did these fit in with the show? What the hell was a Regult? Who was this Ichijo guy? It didn't matter, because the models were kick-ass.

The influence of the Macross model kits got me into other imported lines too - Dorvack and Orguss chief among them. Karl's was terrific in that regard, because as you've mentioned, they had a huge amount of those models for just a few bucks apiece, and for even less when on sale. I frequently entered their model contests and got to have my models displayed in their big glass counter/display. They even had all of the Gakken and Takatoku stuff, which I used to lust after, but could never afford (I spent one entire summer saving up to buy a Ride Armor, but by the time I had the money, I had grown out of my desire for it ) .

By mid '86, I was into other things, though some of my friends had educated me on some of the finer points regarding DYRL, and RTs relationship to SDFM. I never did see the movie back then though. Essentially, through the dark ages of Macross, it fell completely off of my radar, though I still had a few trinkets stored away. It wasn't until '02 or so that, completely by chance, I stumbled upon some new-fangled Valkyrie toy on Ebay. Looking up information on it brought me here, where I lurked for a while and read up on the real history and developments in the franchise, and which ultimately lead me down the path to my current valkaholism.

In my case, if not for the internet, all I'd have were those early memories (and a lot more cash).

[JGrizzle]

Wow! I just had to post on this topic, it made me really think back about a lot of fond memories. I would have to say I came to understand Macross in late 1997 because of Robotech on Toonami. I did know about Macross before that..I guess early 90's because of dyrl and I had some catalog that sold random anime, and there was some cool pictures all over it some of which were macross. I grew up more of a Transformers fan in the 80's and my brothers were big Robotech fans..I guess since they were older and the kissie stuff was more their speed. With their love of Robotech came a few random toys which I never touched mainly for fear of death. I did happen to come by some when I was interested in my transformers again around the early 90's which prompted me to watch Robotech.Being the only thing I could find was DYRL which I just thought was the super rad Robotech movie. Now back to 97 cartoon network aired Robotech I sit down all excited then I said..."wait what? These are not the same people from clash of the something or others!" So I got my little fingers to working on my parents computer with our super cool internet and found out that the movie I watched was called Macross and that Macross had some pretty wicked toys. So I began scouring for ways to get toys and one thing led to another and I found a catalog that had tiny pictures of Macross toys at my local Grocery store. I ordered a Myria Bandai Variable Model Kit and two action figures that seemed like they took forever to come in. I guess I was content with what I had and my knowledge that I might not ever get to see the Macross tv series dubbed, so I just went on my happy little way. A few years rolled by and high school came around and let me mention I grew up in a small town in Louisiana called Farmerville. Anyway I was a prob. 11th grade then and I see this guy in a shirt...that has the U.N. Spacey logo and something that says Macross Plus?!?!? This is a school with barely 500 people and how did I not spot this guy? He begins to rant and rave about Macross plus and how its in English and I need to see it and blah blah blah and thats when I became hooked on it for good. Things went downhill after that I found Ebay and then fan sites..and ...oh..how different my life would be with out this..this...addiction!

[Anon]

Well, like valkyriepilot above, I too had grew up in Asia (Taiwan more specifically). Being a former Japanese colony, even with a Japan hating martial law government in charge of Taiwan at the time, a lot of our entertainment sources came straight from Japan (the other half being the US), japanese anime pretty much made up most of my animation watching days growing up.

In fact, one of the earliest memory I have of my childhood was watching Macross on TV at my grandfather's house, where Hikaru and Misa talking onboard SDF Macross. Macross was a definite obsession of mine growing up, and would doodle various mechas in my textbooks in school (to include a series of fruit-based battlepods, hey, I was in first grade, I thought that was cool!). Got the songs on cassette tapes, and have posters and various toys littered about my room.

After moving to the US shortly before M+ came out, my friends and family and Taiwan would still mail me VHS and VCDs of shows that they know I would like, and managed to keep up my fandom that way. Also got exposed to Robotech on Sci-fi... Not knowing english at the time, I just watched it religiously because I didn't have the original Macross with me, with a WTF factor slowly creeping in as I learn more engllish. Also went and got the Robotech books too, which is actually the first recreational use book I've read in english. Once again, the WTF factor slowly creeping in as I learned english lol.

Watched and rewatched my M+ and M7 VCDs, and also went and bought the english M+ VHS when it came out in the states.

Also remember the days when they used to carry some Macross models at the local Michael's/MJ Design shops (pretty darn cheap too thinking back... less than $20 a pop, cheaper than VHS), I went and loaded up on the various destroids that they have available, due to the fact that I was nitpick about the VFs not being able to transform...

When internet first became available to me I would stand around searching for Macross related stuff online. Also made a now defunct Geocities site devoting to Macross, and participated in some of the old Yahoo! Group RPGs about mechas, choosing the VF-17 for my character and throughly confusing the heck of the other players that would use "Alpha VT Fighters"... those were the days, and I feel freaking old. I was actually born the same year the Macross originally came out, so everytime they have an anniversary of some sort, aside from reminding me of the good ol' days, also serves as a reminder of my age

[AcroRay]

I feel freaking old. I was actually born the same year the Macross originally came out, so everytime they have an anniversary of some sort, aside from reminding me of the good ol' days, also serves as a reminder of my age

I was born in 1969. All this wonderment came out when I was in high school, so I feel even OLDER when there's another Macross anniversary.

I can still remember my "What the heck?" when I saw a game called BATTLEDROIDS (during a rare visit to a game shop at the Century III Mall near Pittsburgh) with a Destroid Tomahawk on the cover...

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Oh how blessed art thou computer who has given thy self Macross

Remember the old days? Before high speed connections, before YouTube, before the Internet? I think we take these tools for granted. If you want to know or obtain something go online and you're quickly on the way to finding it. This wasn't always been the case. In days past there was no Internet or it's use wasn't common. I have bunch Macross books and toys (Macross & Others) thanks to it. I have seen Macross that would never reach my shores thanks to it. I already knew that Robotech was made up of three other animated programs. I learned was left out & the original stories thanks to the Internet.

Before you went Online how big was your Macross Universe?

My first exposure like many was through Robotech. During the first airings (1985 & 1986) I was living in Orange county. Grandparents lived in Hollywood. Every visit to Grandma house we go included a trip to the Golden Apple. There I could obtain Robotech books, toys & comics plus a few Macross imports. The stuff from Japan looked nice but I didn't understand it. This wasn't just from a lack of understanding Japanese but from things like owning a DYRL book without seeing DYRL? Is this for a new Robotech Movie or something?

After a family move to the rest of America I was cut off nearly entirely from Macross. Go a speciality store and you could find a few Robotech items. Extremely rare occasions you stumble upon Macross items. My first contact with a non Robotech version of Macross was a copy of the CLASH OF THE BIONOIDS. Rented it from a 7-11 on a country road in the late eighties. That's how it was back then. You really had to depend on your local Asian community. If you didn't have that it was the comic books stores. Things improved in the 1990's. National chain Video stores & Rentals started including anime. I learned about Macross II through the RPG books. I learned of Books Nippon. Got their catalog and catalogs from other mail order places. Paid for over priced products. Then waited 6 to 8 weeks. Saw all of Macross Plus by renting Episode 2 & 3 at one store, mail ordering the 4th Episode and buying the 1st Episode at an other store. Now you can just go online and purchase the entire OVA for the price of one VHS back in the day. Hardly knew anything of Macross 7 before the Internet. Once I got online it open a whole new world of Macross knowledge and product to waste money on. You kids have so easy being to young to remember the dark ages.

The internet is awesome. I read a british games magazine which had a lot of focus on anime and japanese culture as well as the usual video game culture. And in it was lots of info about different series. Although I read about stuff from japan on macross in it (like macross 7) I never bothered to try to watch anything and find subs for me to see that show.

With macross it was RT that started it and at the time I knew something was different but made do with robotech as a kid because I didn't think there would be much difference to be worth wanting to see the japanese series. Although I had seen DYRL later and that was when I realised I got to see the original SDFM to feel complete.

The internet is great because now you get to see stuff uncensored, unbutchered, and the access to the toys and models is a lot easier. I can say without the internet I probably would not have a collection of macross toys right now. I hope whatever money is made from the merchandise they can continue to grow the fanbase. I didn't even have a chunky munky or jetfire toy as a kid, just the non-transforming models. Now I've got all those cool things that I wanted as a kid but couldn't find anywhere.

One thing about robotech and battletech and mechwarrior though, is that it's not just the damn valkyrie that gets all the love. Destroids and those slow robots get attention as well. One thing I've noticed is that in macross the chicken-legged mecha are extinct. You had different types of robot in SDF:M: the reguld and glaug would walk around on the ground, and the zentradi fighter pod would fight in the air and space. Right? You had space-use robots like the QRau. And on earth humans/army had the destroids. Now I'm not trying to take anything away from the valkyrie, but I feel like in robotech and all that, they respect the ground robots as well. (by having ties to southern cross and mospeada which means 3 form transformation is used in other robot types)

Even gundam makes sure not to only make the space robot the only thing to focus on. You had the amphibious robots, and the ground gundams in 8th ms team etc. You had those treaded robots, and even custom robots with street fighter-like special moves in gundam wing. Macross hates anything that can't fly.

Edited October 4, 2008 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Beltane70]

Even in the days before the internet, my Macross world was pretty big.

Like quite a few people here, I got my first exposure to Macross through Robotech. For me, it was only about a year after Robotech aired that I was exposed to Macross in its original format through a bootleg of DYRL. I remember seeing the opening battle in DYRL at a convention in NYC during Thanksgiving of 1986. I recognized the mecha, but not the actual scene taking place.

I don't even remember how I found out about Books Nippon's mail-order catalog. Thanks to that, however, I ordered probably about 80% of the Macross books that I own.

For the next couple of years before I had internet access, I was able to keep up with Macross thanks to sci-fi conventions in NYC and a friend of mine that made frequent trips to Japan. Even today, I still get quite a bit of my Macross stuff from my friend's trips.

[akt_m]

Before the internet, it was Me, my memory of the SDFM ("Guerra das Galáxias" on Tv, pfffff...) and a lonely PS1 game in japanese...

It was sooo sad...

Same here, at least they kept the original songs and BGM at CNT.

[Britai 7018]

Before the internet, I thought there was only Robotech. And that was mostly through the novels, RPG books and a few pre-owned rental tapes. The closest I got the Macross was through the Macross II RPG books and a Clash of the Bionoids VHS. Both of those I thought were just butchered sequels to Robotech.

Then one day I went to the LAPL and went online for the first time...

[Vile]

My first exposure to Macross was in the form of the models. Sometime around '83 they exploded into British toy shops in vast numbers. I had never seen anything like them, having been brought up on a diet of WWII aeroplanes, mostly. Then, just as suddenly, they all dissappeared again and I was left wondering "what the hell was that ...?"

I didn't come across Macross again until '90 when I saw DYRL on laser disc. That was when everything clicked, and I was hooked again.

Luckily, I didn't actually discover Robotech until a couple of years later, through the Palladium RPG. Skimmed the book, once, so I still can't really say I've discovered it.

[MilSpex]

This is fascinating to hear stories from the early days. Even though its easier to get stuff now don`t you think it felt more satisfying to procure something back in the bad old days? I mean anything Macross you could get your hands on was really special back then, now its a little less exciting.

My Macross Fandom went like this:

1st Stage:

I`m Australian but my family lived in the US from 1982 to 1986 and I saw Robotech on TV then. I cried after the final episode (sure I was 7 but I had a big emotional connection to the show) On a trip to San Francisco Chinatown I saw a Takutoku Super Valkyrie with weird text on it and thought it was so so so cool. When I went back to Australia I`d tell my friends about this great show with transforming planes and with people dying and stuff and they didn`t believe me. Then it came on TV in Australia about `87 or `88 and all my friends were hooked.

2nd Stage:

I walked into a comic book shop in Melbourne around 1990 and found a pile of Hobby Japan magazines. I begged my mum to buy one and spent days staring at the pages of indecipherable text and fascinating pictures, including mecha from Robotech. I knew then for sure that Robotech had Japanese roots. I wanted to know more..but information was scarce

3rd Stage:

in 1996 I joined the Anime club at the local university which showed DYRL and I found out the full story from some of the members.

Present:

I live in Japan and collect up what books, toys and models I can but Macross competes with my other hobby of collecting old Air Jordans and vintage Levi`s, unfortunately a far far more expensive hobby than Macross!!

Edited October 5, 2008 by MilSpex

[protogarland]

Oh how I remember those days before the internet. I too was exposed to Macross through Robotech in 1985. I grew up in a very small town roughly 3.5 hours north of Los Angeles. We were lucky enough, however, to get L.A. stations and thus I was able to see Robotech's first run in 1985.

In 1987 I was hanging out with this kid who was into Robotech and had an uncle who was big on Japanese animation. Through his uncle I was able to borrow a VHS tape taped from Japanese TV of the Macross movie. That totally blew my mind and my world changed forever.

By the time I was in high school (1989-1992) I was driving down to Santa Barbara to go to a monthly anime club and thus started my anime collection.

[DHX]

man... it's like Robotech was a gateway drug.

[Windrider]

My Macross world was pretty similar to valkyriepilot since I also live in the Philippines. I was first exposed to SDFM sometime 1985-86 which was aired in one of our local channels though badly dubbed in english. I was an 8 year old kid then and watched it like most cartoon show. It was much different from the other robot shows that I watched and was pretty found of it. When Robotech aired here a few years later it confused me being the same show as Macross. It took a good friend of mine in high school to point out that it wasn't.

I first watched DYRL on a chinese movie channel in the early 90s but I couldn't understand it much til I rented a subbed version. In high school I got to watch Macross II OAV on VHS which was pretty good during its time then 2 years later Macross Plus. My mind was totally blown away after that and rekindled my love for Macross. I anticipated for the next Macross series unfortunately the release of Macross 7 didn't appeal to me. Many of the songs were cool but the 7's story and Basara just didn't click for me.

Despite having no internet those days anime wasn't to hard to get here. But acquiring certain information on the series as well as pictures were much harder to find since they usually were on magazines and official art books.

Edited October 5, 2008 by Windrider

[ShadowValkyrie]

Robotech and Starblazers got me interested in anime when I was elementary-school. Being in the rural southern-USA it wasn't exactly easy to come back movies or episodes of ANY anime other than the "safe" stuff shown on the local broadcast channel. When I was in Jr. High I found a rat hole comic/magazine/magna/sports-card shop a couple of towns over. The owner was a complete a-hole and you had to dig through boxes and shipping cases to find anything, but I didn't care; would spend tons of money in there every month on indie comics and magna.

First real exposure to the "community"-- ie fandom-- was my 2nd year of highschool when I was hunting down a indie comic and discovered a, now defunct, small comic/indie rock store crammed off in back of an alley a couple of doors down from a porno-shop/theater. Absolutely amazing shop and was the place I was first introduced to undubbed Anime. Didn't get to go out there much-- it was a 90 minute drive each way-- but when I did, man was it fun.

Some days I miss the old "primitive" days. There was a fun to be had in swapping tapes, hunting down shops and comics, and meeting new folks by pure accident, that is hard, if at all possible, to find on the internet.

[Gubaba]

This is fascinating to hear stories from the early days. Even though its easier to get stuff now don`t you think it felt more satisfying to procure something back in the bad old days? I mean anything Macross you could get your hands on was really special back then, now its a little less exciting.

Some days I miss the old "primitive" days. There was a fun to be had in swapping tapes, hunting down shops and comics, and meeting new folks by pure accident, that is hard, if at all possible, to find on the internet.

Missing the old days? Hmmm. Sure, there's the thrill of the hunt in finding a Macross Gold Book (I never did, but some of my friends did) or some rare toy or kit, but for actual anime and music, I much prefer now. Would ANY of us have the "Suite Macross" album or "Snow Falling in the Milky Way" if there ere no internet? Some of us might have a smattering of Macross Frontier episodes recorded off of TV, but getting the entire series would be tough (believe me, I know...one of my friends painstakingly collected all 50 episodes of Zeta Gundam, one by one, in the '80s). It might still be easy to find bootleg Macross stuff (with horrible HK subtitles) but think about something like Shin-Getter's fansub of Zambot 3. If you like '80s anime, there's a lot to satsify your cravings now, and if it's chase you like, there's still a lot that isn't online (WHY HAS NO ONE FANSUBBED XABUNGLE YET???). And even a blocky, 175MB file is better than an old copy-of-a-copy-of-acopy video tape, where it either looks like everyone's under water, or the screen fuzzes out any time something in the show explodes.

[Dervish]

Before the internet became widespread, I satiated my Macross fix at Kinokuniya (in Yaohan) and some small store within a larger room filled with stores in Yaohan shopping center. This was in Edgewater, NJ. I later rented some Macross II at a local comic store, but for some reason, I was not into it. Sadly, I figured Macross were sequels were not for me, so I missed out on seeing M7 until just a couple of years ago. By the time I was able to buy an imported version of DYRL for the PS1 at an import store in NY whose name escapes me, the internet age was upon us.

[Beltane70]

It was probably Pony Toy Go Round, Dervish. I got quite a few of my Gundam models and the one Macross II model from there.

Sadly, Yaohan, now Mitsuwa, is not what it used to be. Sure, there's a store that sells toys and models, but their prices are way too unreasonable. I remember seeing one 4800 yen MG model going for around $200.

[striderhiryu]

This topic has brought me back lots of memories of my pre-internet days. Back then in the 80's the only anime i could get to see were a few series like mazinger Z, saint seiya, dragon ball, etc. also on some video clubs manged to watch some movies that could not get to see again like hi no tori 2772. the only way i could get any info on new series was by talking with friens in school. also in the early 90's internet rental in mexico was quite expensive (like five dollars an hour back then and it was on dial-up). it was really a small world for my macross in those times.

basically this is how i remember getting hooked with macross:

1985 (fisrt contact): while visiting relatives in the city of lazaro cardenas, michoacan i saw only the latter half of the robotech version of the "good bye mars"episode.

1996: bought the ninja scroll movie, in the previews watched some scenes of macross plus & decided to give it a chance & never regret it. I eventually ended up getting the movie edition & learned about macross II which i also bought, however i ended feeling something was not right until a friend told me about kawamori not being involved in that project.

1997: while in high school a friend showed me an ad on the wizard magazine about an american release of the toycom YF-19. i started to save money & when i was almost set to preorder was enraged to know that a certain studio claimed some copyright BS & felt very

1999: while making a search about macross i ended up here, been a lurker for quite some time until i officially joined some years ago. 99% porcent of all macross things i know are thanks to this wonderful site.

2008: the first time i actually followed a macross series within just a few hours of it being aired

certainly the internet has made the world a smaller place but it also made my macross world so much more vast...

[taksraven]

I think that the pre-internet days is a time that most of us would like to forget. There was fun, but it was NOT the same as now.

Taksraven

[Graham]

My first exposure to Macross was through the Imai and Arii plastic model kits were imported and sold in UK toy shops in 1983. I loved the mechas designs and Takani box art and bought as many kit as my meagre pocket money at that time would allow.

From my time spent in HK in the mid-to-late 70s', I knew the mecha were from a Japanese cartoon (hadn't heard of the word 'anime' back then). I promised myself that I would one day, somehow find and watch this cartoon.

Fast forward to 1986 and I'm back in HK for a holiday and I catch my first episode of Macross on TV and was blown away. Moved back to live in HK one year later in 1987. In 1988 IIRC, they showed DYRL at the cinema during the summer and I watched it several times. That was were my present love for Macross, that continues to this day truely started.

From then on, I spent vast amounts of time and money, searching for little out of the way hobby shops all over HK, trying to track down whatever Macross merchandise I could find.

Ah, the fun dark days before the internet, trying to track down my holy grail of the 1/55 VF-1S Strike Valkyrie.

Graham

[Major Focker]

as i've learned, even with the internet, HK toy hunting is still pretty much as graham as described. hardly any of the shops maintain an online presence, and those that do almost always transacted exclusively by post and do not have any retail shops. it's fun though, i always feel like a kid in the proverbial candy store whenever i transit through HK. i even managed to set up a routine: leave LHR late afternoon>arrive HK 7am>shower in lounge>buy same-day return train ticket>causeway bay in the morning>lunch at my favorite japanese curry place>wanchai early afternoon>mongkok until early evening>back to central and check in a big box (which cathay pacific is always ready to provide) of toys/models>train back to airport and catch flight to manila at either 8 or 10pm. must've done it about half a dozen times since late last year, and it's like clockwork

anyway, my intro to macross was via RT being shown on local tv in the 80's. i remember having to fight the help who kept switching the channel to a soap opera. i was a little kid, with a big crush on minmay. i didn't see DYRL until i was highschool in the early 90's and that was when i really got hooked on macross, though at the time i thought RT was the original. i can't remember how many times i rented the Betamax, as without the internet it was nigh impossible to find out where i could buy one. by sheer luck found one at a grocery (of all places), but tragically my kid brother was to mistake it for a frisbee just a few days later.

for a brief time i got pulled into Dungeons and Dragons, and thru Dragon magazine learned of the RT RPG. i basically had to beg a cousin in the US to buy it for me and bring it when he visited. far cry from the one-click spoilage i now get from amazon. so understandably, all this time i thought RT was the original one, until i had half-japanese girlfriend in college whose brothers showed me the light. i ended up using DYRL (and Windaria) as thesis for a speech elective class: Animation for Mature Audiences. i aced that sucker.

without the internet though, my macross fanboyism did not prosper. well, except for the love triangle bit which i'm ashamed to say happened a little too often during my college days and early working life. i stayed off macross for many years, my only link being a lone yamato VF-1J someone had given to me a present. a few years ago when i relocated, unboxing that VF-1J from storage rekindled my love for macross and i went online to hunt down a VF-1S, and some months later stumbled into this forum.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Before the net (around 1999-2000) i held onto my beloved VHS copies and previous to that what was in the vid store to rent.

I had some VHS's that i taped some RT on, but usually i missed out on taping alot coz it played before i got back home from school.

But anyways, i LOVED the palladium RT/New Generation Role Playing books, during high school that was the most of re-living the

excitement. But it was hard to get some good games in, with lack of interest from my mates, and the fact they wanted to play RIFTS

more. >_> But it all changed when Manga entertainment brought out a ton of great anime, DYRL? and then Macross Plus came out...

Macross Plus, was... just f'n awesome. DYRL? just changed EVERYTHING. It was from the heavens! i then became a Macross purist.

RT.com viewings got less frequent, i started to track down oringal ST's, artbooks (Goldbook and TV art).

And then i saw MII, and then it was the Plus movie, and by that time i was already on the serach to get myself some

Valkyrie toy/collectable goodness, something that was lacking in my childhood apart from a couple matchbox crappy merchandise and

knockoffs. I was always dissapointed as a kid with the quality of Robotech merchandise, and never had the opportunity to experience

the chunky monkey, but even then i would have been dissapointed as i had high standards as a kid. (hated trannys coz the legs were

usually just back and forth and no side ways stance ability i.e. Soundwave, Opt, numerous others.) is it freakish having high standards?

OF course i started out with Robotech, and spent a year or so on RT.com (ryzui) and made some nice pals there. But then i started

making good money, EBAY came into play. Bought my VT-1 1/60, and then MacrossWorld and the rest of my collection followed,

the rest is history!

*TV morning Showings of RT Macross saga as a kid

*VHS

*Role Playing books (Palladium RT & N/GEN)

*RT.com

*VHS releases of DYRL?, Macross Plus, MII, Macross Plus the movie

*Soundtracks and Artbooks

*VT-1 1/60

*Macross World

*dvd & toy collections.

Edited October 7, 2008 by ruskiiVFaussie

[Gubaba]

...i can't remember how many times i rented the Betamax...

:blink:

BETA??? Man, that's kickin' it OLD school!

[Major Focker]

:blink:

BETA??? Man, that's kickin' it OLD school!

hehe, what can i say? beggars can't be choosers. we were one of the few countries where beta arguably won the format wars. then again, it's not surprising considering how 8-track persisted for quite a while here.

to be fair, when i was doing my anime thesis and creating a video montage i ended up still using beta even though i had vhs available. the newfangled superbetas then had visibly sharper video and beat the vhs in still frames.

fortuitously, i layed off macross for a while so i didn't have to suffer through the VCD era. if only internet shopping arrived earlier and macross LDs more available, i wouldn't have had to go on a macross hiatus. it's really no wonder i ended up being an early blu ray adopter.

[AcroRay]

Tbut Macross competes with my other hobby of collecting old Air Jordans and vintage Levi`s, unfortunately a far far more expensive hobby than Macross!!

You collect old shoes and used pants? Wow....

[Mr March]

Ever watch the Antique Roadshow? Humanity at it's most embarrassing

[Ginrai]

I found out that Macross existed independent of Robotech through the Comico comics books. Issue one was called Macross #1 not Robotech: The Macross Saga and actually talked about the other exciting series they were going to put out, Mospeada and Southern Cross. I found out about Macross II because I was scouring comic stores for Robotech back issues when one of the store guys asked if I wanted to preorder Macross II #1 and I had no idea there was a Macross sequel coming out. I also got DYRL by way of Clash of the Bionoids in a Suncoast when I was a kid. I remember it was just sitting there in the (then very small) anime VHS section and and I was shocked when I saw the SDF-1 there and realized Macross was written in tiny letters. Also living near San Francisco as a preteen and teenager there were lots of places that had Japanese import crap so I got Macross model kits and such. I was definitely aware of Macross indepedent of Robotech since I was probably 10 at the latest.

When Macross Plus and 7 started coming out I was all over that, sending people I didn't know money to mail me VHS tapes and going to a local anime club full of creepy mouth-breathing adults with a couple of my friends, carrying VCRs on the light rail train, trying to get high enough in the daisy chain to get decent picture quality.

If this makes me sound super old, I was just doing this when I too young for it to be a good idea.

[Ginrai]

then one day my mom rented what amounted to a clip video from Ritz video(the video rental franchise before blockbuster video hit the uk)

This is probably the Celebrity Just For Kids! thing. I actually ripped a digital copy off of one of those old tapes of it.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

This is fascinating to hear stories from the early days. Even though its easier to get stuff now don`t you think it felt more satisfying to procure something back in the bad old days? I mean anything Macross you could get your hands on was really special back then, now its a little less exciting.

Not for me. I'm happy to own better versions of things from the past. And also things I would never have been able to get like the megazone garlands, and the upcoming mospeada ride armor from beagle.

Good riddance old days. Crappy big hair, pink shirts from the 80s, bubblegum underneath the seats at movie theatres just to piss you off, RPGs had to be played in person with others and you met each other!, crappy PC computers which paled in comparison to the commodore amiga which was cheaper but better, toys with no articulation. (mainly the transformers, GI Joes were ahead of their time though! Much better than the star wars figures)

But Metallica was still good back then!

I read lots of comics!

G1 transformers animated movie was good. Optimus Prime's dramatic death actually made everyone cry for a robot!

But overall everything was crappier in the past. People are just convinced things were better because they are getting old and their standards were worse back then because they were younger. I'm glad we have progressed on from the chunky munky toys for example. Just let go already. It's the past. Now buy the better new stuff.

Edited October 9, 2008 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[AcroRay]

But overall everything was crappier in the past. People are just convinced things were better because they are getting old and their standards were worse back then because they were younger. I'm glad we have progressed on from the chunky munky toys for example. Just let go already. It's the past. Now buy the better new stuff.

Nah! Kids these days! They're so spoiled! When I was their age, I had to work hard, wheel & deal, and spend months to get every little thing I had. And you know what, we loved it! [Cue Weird Al's WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE...]

Now these little whelps just go on the internets, pull out their credit cards & those PAYPAL things, and buy whatever they want & have it Fed-Exed to them overnight! When their not just STEALING it all off that bit torrent thing for FREE!

Kids these days.... grumble, harumph!

Seriously, though - It is great to get more stuff, and better stuff, more easily (my cup runneth over), but there was something more intrinsically exciting about every thing I managed to acquire back then. While I'm still amazed at my new Yammie Q-Rau and can't put it down, I still totally love the little CONVERTORS Zardak VF-1S that's still stayed in my collection since 1985.

So, I get the love of the old AND the love of the new. More for me!

Edited October 9, 2008 by AcroRay

[Funkenstein]

Nostalgia is pretty powerful, especially for adults with unfulfilled dreams. They often feel the urge the regress to childhood where they felt they still had a wide world of paths for life. Of course, the key is to remember that there are always other paths at every stage of life. Nobody needs to live life doing something unsatisfying. But, it's the easiest and fastest way to retirement to live an unfulfilled life.

So nostalgia = desire to see boxy looking VF-1 copycat F-14 fighters. I was pretty upset with the VF-25 fighter design, especially after the YF-21 and VF-22. But, it still looks pretty cool. Id like to remind you guys that the F-14 has been in retirement for about a decade now.

Rant End.

[AcroRay]

Bah! Take the fun outta everything, why don't ya Mr. Freud!

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

When their not just STEALING it all off that bit torrent thing for FREE!

As opposed to people just stealing it through illegally video recording it from tv and sending tapes to everyone?

Old days were sadder, more miserable, took longer to get anything done, your own mother had control over what you were allowed to buy.

Now you are an adult, you can go and spoil yourself, items actually resemble the thing you saw in the shows, they have better articulation, and for those who watched robotech: now you are no longer so reliant on HG. If they want to prevent you from seeing something the internet allows you to see things translated free without them blocking your eyes.

And it's not like you can't still support the makers of the show by buying the original dvds still to show your appreciation.

More options!

And with the age of youtube you can create your own unique dubs of things if you think you can do better than the american dubs of anime.