The Original Ad for the US Macross Release

[Gubaba]

So, every issue of Starlog Magazine was posted on the Internet Archive recently, and I searched through the issues from Summer of '84 for this ad... This was when I first heard of Macross, and the Takani art totally fascinated me... I ended up cutting it out and pasting it on one of my school notebooks.

(But man... FORTY BUCKS FOR THREE EPISODES...? And people complain about Japanese blu-ray prices...?)

[SchizophrenicMC]

Man that description has me hyped for some Macross, I tell you what.

[Gubaba]

Man that description has me hyped for some Macross, I tell you what.

I know, right? "MIND-BOGGLING INTERSTELLAR ADVENTURES"!!

[Gerli]

What's a BETA Format?

Edited December 21, 2014 by Gerli

[JB0]

What's a BETA Format?

I think it's a pre-release copy.

[Nekko Basara]

You're kidding, right?

Sorry, it's the internet and sarcasm is tough to read!

[Gubaba]

You're kidding, right?

Sorry, it's the internet and sarcasm is tough to read!

I'm 99.9% sure JB0 is being sarcastic, since he often is. Gerli, I'm not as confident about.

[JB0]

I was definitely kidding.

I ASSUMED Gerli was, and was playing off that presumed-fake confusion, dragging the ad further out of time into a modern interpretation where Beta is very much NOT a home video format.

And now the joke is dead. I killed it with words.

[David Hingtgen]

"If you have to explain the joke, then there is no joke!"

---The Joker

[terry the lone wolf]

I remember seeing the ad in Comico's Macross issue 1 on the very last page..

Not trying to steal your thunder Gubaba I just wanted to share this. I bought Elementals issue 2 back issue and I saw this on the final page..

Edited December 21, 2014 by terry the lone wolf

[Gubaba]

I remember seeing the ad in Comico's Macross issue 1 on the very last page..

Not trying to steal your thunder Gubaba I just wanted to share this. I bought Elementals issue 2 back issue and I saw this on the final page..

Interesting that that ad calls it a "popular Japanese animated series," whereas the ad for the video tape makes no mention of its origins at all. Just like some of the Robotech promotional material obscures where it comes from (and that it was three series stitched together) but other material highlights that fact.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Gubaba

[Gerli]

I was definitely kidding.

I ASSUMED Gerli was, and was playing off that presumed-fake confusion, dragging the ad further out of time into a modern interpretation where Beta is very much NOT a home video format.

And now the joke is dead. I killed it with words.

Hahaha yes, I'm 35 years old so I know that (Never had one, only VHS)

Just kidding

[Cypher]

I sent away for that video. Believe I still have it too.

[Roy Focker]

$40 for a couple episodes was pretty average back then. VHS tapes of normal movie theater releases use to go for around $100 or so. Majority of people rented movies. It wasn't till later they figured out they could make more money by lowering the cost and sale directly to the renter. Anime tapes brought stateside remained at those prices for even longer.

[Hoptimus]

I paid $40 for one OVA Episode of Bubblegum Crisis in 1993 so that was not bad. Anime did not get mass market cheap till right before DVD dropped and then it got real affordable till it bottomed out....

[HannouHeiki]

I remember in the late 80s and 90s commercials would often quote videos as being "priced to own."

When that eventually became the norm Blockbuster did its best to get DVDs as times exclusives.