When did you first realise how cool Macross is??

[Gubaba]

I saw this too... in 1984 right? LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. But man you remember more of it than I do. I vaguely remember a different OP theme: SU-PER SPACE FOR-TRESS!... MAAAACROSS!

It had THAT song?

Just a pile of rust was all they found on that isle...

That no one expected to see...

Ten years later, Super Fortress Macross would rise!

Guardian of you and of me!

Is that the one?

[Einherjar]

Unfortunately, I came into anime a bit late, in the mid 90's with Gundam Wing, which sucked because I didn't have cable until I went to high school. For me it started back in high school when a friend of mine brought a VHS of the first Robotech episodes for a bunch of us to watch . I vaguely remember someone mentioning that it was 85 episodes and made from 3 separate series as if it was a positive thing. He let me borrow the video and after doing some research for it I wanted to watch the rest of it but he didn't have copies of the rest. Unfortunately, there was only one comic/anime store in my town at the time and it was hard to get anything there. Then I got side tracked with real life until a I saw Macross Plus on the Starz Action Channel that I really got interested. This was about the time the Macross Animeigo box sets were coming out and I jumped at the chance. Minmay's songs were catchy and the planes that turned into robots were cool (and they were actually vulnerable to crap too). From then on I tried to follow up with the other series and OVAs that came out until real life stuff sucked me back in.

The truth is when I read the first announcement about MacF I just skimmed through it and really didn't give it any attention at all. Guess I have to admit, back then I really did forget about love.

Thankfully, that show totally made 2008 awesome for me.

[MilSpex]

Saw Robotech as a kid in the States in `85 where my Dad had a 3 year posting. I had 0 interest in Transformers (still do) but got my parents to get me Jetfire for Xmas because I knew he was really a "veritech". Returned to Australia and told other kids about it but they didn`t believe me, kids in Australia were still nuts about G-Force then. Then RT came on in Australia in around `87 (??) and I was like "I toldya that people die in this one!"

In about `93 I found out about books Nippan/US renditions (ha that name has a different meaning these days!) and Macross II/Gunbuster from the back of comic books/anime `zines of the time (I was heavily into American comic books). Stuff like Protoculture addicts or even Animerica filled me in on how Robotech was the bastardised version of 3 different Japanese shows. Was into role playing games too (full geek in high school) and read about DYRL in the back of one of the Robotech Paladium rules books. I remember it said something like "This movie was never official and was a flashy and shallow money making project by big film studio executives.." or something LOL. I`m pretty sure this part was written by Macek himself? I also vaguely remember going to the public library and desperately photocopying the line art pages of my friends` brothers copy of the Robotech RPG in like `89 or something..

Joined a local anime club in `95 or so and borrowed a tape of DYRL. Then found out about the subbed Macross series being released. Got all those tapes via mail order in the days of slow ass money order payment. A whole new world opened up.

I might have some years wrong here but please correct me if my memory is wrong.

Edited April 15, 2009 by MilSpex

[kung flu]

I'm from the UK, but never seen robotech, though i've since learned it was shown on satelite tv here, which i didn't have. I first got in to macross when a relative visiting from Hong Kong told me about it and promised to get me a model kit the next time he came to visit, but he got me a gundam kit instead (1/ 60 Zeta Gundam), so Macross always comes second to Gundam for me.

Edit:- oh, that was back in 1990 btw

Edited April 16, 2009 by kung flu

[VFTF1]

It's very hard for me to say that there was some concrete "moment" that I fell in love with Macross. If anything, it's been a process.

1. Never had Robotech on TV growing up in the east coast. However, we did have role-playing games and hobby shops. I loved the Palladium Robotech role playing games for the mecha, the sophistication of the plot possibilities and the general imaginativeness that playing evoked. That was love-pan number one.

1 point 5: I bought a copy of Robotech Art III and read about the Sentinels movie. I also bought Zendradi Rebellion by Mckinney and thought it was the greatest story ever. These are very VERY vague memories because I didn't spend a lot of time on either of these two books - but they cemented in my mind a picture of what Robotech was.

2. I found Macross Plus at a rental place in Michigan one summer. I recognized the SDF-1, but wondered what it was doing in a movie called "Macross" (I didn't recall that Macross was the name of the SDF-1). I also wondered why it was called "Plus" and not "Two" (I didn't know about DYRL or Macross II). Finally, I wondered why it was so short? I deliberated whether or not it was the same as Robotech because other than the SDF-1, I couldn't find anything similar. No Rick Hunter or Invid or Alpha fighters like in my Art III book. Hmm... Went home and watched it and had mixed feelings. The animation was excellent, the story was rather compelling, although also somewhat unclear.

I convinced myself that Macross Plus was kind of like an adventure in the Robotech Role Playing Game universe; where everything looked realistic and serious - and I wondered why they made this movie instead of Sentinels?

3. Many millions of years later, roaming Bigbadtoystore.com, I came upon Macross products from Yamato as well as the Masterpiece Robotech products from Toynami. I looked at the prices. My head exploded and I never looked at those products again.

4. One or two years later, Transformers Armada/Energon/Cybertron was in full swing. I don't know whether it was some time around the fifth black and red repaint of Armada Hotshot or whether it was seeing Power Ranger Fatimus Prime - but at some point I must have started wondering why I was spending all this money on all these ugly Transformers? I went back and took a look at those horribly expensive Macross products from Toynami and Yamato. I started to count. Hm. A 1:60 Elint seeker from Yamato cost pretty much the same as 6 or 7 random ugly Transformers.

Suddenly I realized this WAS affordable. I bought a number of Yamato and Toynami products.

Then I decided to go a little bit crazy. I got my first 1:48. It was Roy Fokker. It completely totally blew the "Masterpiece" Robotech toy out of the water in so many ways that it was crazy. I sold the Masterpiece Robotech toys vowing never again to be duped by Toynami.

Then they came out with 1:100s.

I bought the first wave of three.

The head snapped off of one of them. All of them couldn't stay stable on their stands because the cones kept snapping, and the fighter modes looked...bad.

I vowed never again to be fooled by the "it costs less" argument.

I also decided to watch Macross, thinking that maybe it must be really good to inspire Yamato to make such amazing products.

5. I watched SDFM TV on Youtube - or at least I watched some of it. It was great. I decided to put my new laptop to the test and spent a week downloading the entire series with english sub titles.

Then I spent one month eating pepperonni pizzas and drinking beer into the dead of the night watching SDFMTV.

Then it was on to Macross 7 and Zero.

Believe you me folks: I will again spend a month or two drinking beer and watching Macross round the clock

When Frontier came out - I was hooked lined and sinkered.

And then I saw Tengenn Toppa Gurren Lagann, Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelon...

In short - a whole new world opened up, and it was good

But Macross will always be the first.

Pete