Robotech Memories

[taalismn]

Saw the first ads in Starlog magazine when it was simply known as Macross....the picture of the SDF-1 rising from an island, surrounded by (to me) incomprehensible) fighters of different shapes, blew me away.

Several years later, coming home after school I turned on the TV for afterschool entertainment instead of rubbish-cartoons (Voltron) or the four o'clock monster movie, it was Episode Two of Robotech. Came the shot showing the Battlepod blowing the snot out of some luckless brown-shirt VF pilot(and no explaining that away as 'just a robot' as Voltron was fond of dubbing in), I was in love with a program that didn't insult my intelligence.When the SDF-1 appeared in all its glory, I recognized it immediately.

Forward several years and the Tisbury Street Fair in Vineyard Haven, on Martha's Vineyard, when trying to escape the jampacked main street and displays I'd seen before full of high-priced junk, I came across a little hole-in-the-wall comic store that had just started that year. I went in and saw...Palladium Books Robotech RPG! I seized it, bought it, escaped up the street to a small park overlooking the harbor and proceeded to devour details and art I'd only seen in rapid glimpses. A wonderful evening, especially when several other young teens saw the book in my hands and wanted to know where I'd gotten it(I was glad to direct them). The rest of the summer, my friend, Damon Shavers, who'd introduced me to the greater world of anime, competed to collect the store's orders of, in rapid succession, the RDF Field Guide and The Zentraedi!
That store didn't last a year, but oh, the memories!

[Alrik Vas]

Impatiently waiting for Voltron to be over so I could find out whether or not Rick would wake up from his dream about getting shot down while attempting to fly a magic bicycle.

[Colonel Wolfe]

I was first exposed to Robotech as the RPG... it was awesome.
I loved the Mecha and the Aliens...
My buddy had a single Robotech Tape, it contained the Episode "eulogy" where my name-sake Jonathan Wolfe is introduced and dies...
I was amazed at the depth of the plot, the fact someone seen as a hero could be doing such a terrible thing, but at the same time he was saving lives...
years Later Robotech Played on Toonami in the afternoons... I couldn't get into the Macross Saga... with the Bar of story set high, I felt the vapid love-triangle and indecisive "hero" Hunter was to weak and pathetic to be anything but laughable... not to mention the Terrible singing by minmie...
The 1st era had a few "okay" episodes, but most were not up to snuff, the Middle Chapter had the coolest Tech, hover cars and a Hover-Tank... but New Generation will always be my favorite.. even if I think Scott should be on medication...

[taalismn]

The 1st era had a few "okay" episodes, but most were not up to snuff, the Middle Chapter had the coolest Tech, hover cars and a Hover-Tank.....

I was turned off at first by Southern Cross(and I was turned off by the 'airhead' Dana and Leonard 'the Blimp'), but I've come to love its variety of Armies and gear...like knights of old, or Samurai factions. And with power armor, now? Oh yeahhhh....Still gotta fit proper enclosed cockpits as standard to those Hovertanks, though.

[Sgt Anjay]

"Half Moon" was the episode I came in on.

I thought the hoverbikes actually looked like something a military would use, utilitarian, while still being hoverbikes (cool).

Contrasted, of course, with that brightly colored, pseudo-european but japanese-styled armor; those are design aesthetics not often blended, usually its one or the other. Good stuff.

Transforming tank cavalry. Yes please. And that Dana v. Zor Prime duel...heck yeah.

And the interplay in the 15th--
Angie:"When do we attack my proud beauty?"
Sean:"Undaunted, we advance, to serve the principles of freedom."
Louie:"Forward, through shot and shell, here we go into the mouth of hell!"
Dana:"Hey stifle it, whattaya think we're on here, a maneuver or a Shakespeare festival?!"

I was in.

years Later Robotech Played on Toonami in the afternoons... I couldn't get into the Macross Saga... with the Bar of story set high, I felt the vapid love-triangle and indecisive "hero" Hunter was to weak and pathetic to be anything but laughable...

I had a similar experience. By the time the sequence came around again to Macross, all I could think was "That's the great Admiral Hunter?!? Booo."

[taalismn]

And the interplay in the 15th--
Angie:"When do we attack my proud beauty?"
Sean:"Undaunted, we advance, to serve the principles of freedom."
Louie:"Forward, through shot and shell, here we go into the mouth of hell!"
Dana:"Hey stifle it, whattaya think we're on here, a maneuver or a Shakespeare festival?!"

I was in."

They were grunts. They were ARTICULATE grunts. And while other programs were trying to impress with rainbow coalitions (usually w/ dumb animal mascots) cleaning up the world, here was a mixed-bag, swearing, sweating, combat unit led by a woman-warrior in full body armor and laser rifle, about to go to war.

[Alrik Vas]

Yeah, that's one of my favorite bits from the Southern Cross series. It's what made me keep watching the whole thing. That and the hospital episode.

The third series...Annie is worse than everyone's most reviled singing sensation, but Scott had some great moments with awkward humor.

[Colonel Wolfe]

I was turned off at first by Southern Cross(and I was turned off by the 'airhead' Dana and Leonard 'the Blimp')

I had the problem wiht Rick being a love-sick twit... Lisa being Pathetic and Minmie committing Incest that is Illegal in 49 states... and Gloval was a near sociopath in his methods that lead to the near annihilation of the human race...

[Arnie100]

I have the first VHS tape of Robotech II: The Sentinels, LOL. AND; yes, I still have a player that still works!

[taalismn]

Yeah, that's one of my favorite bits from the Southern Cross series. It's what made me keep watching the whole thing. That and the hospital episode.

The third series...Annie is worse than everyone's most reviled singing sensation, but Scott had some great moments with awkward humor.

To her credit, though, Annie does lampshade her own annoyance ability when Scott questions her ability to stir up the crowd at Lancer's concert.

[Seto Kaiba]

What memories do you have of the first time you saw RT?

Being that I'm a lot younger than your average Robotech viewer, my first run-in with the series didn't come until I was shown a home video release of the series by a friend in the late 90's. My friend had seen the show's abortive return on the Toonami block of Cartoon Network's schedule, and it really blew his mind, so his parents helped him track down some of the old tapes. I was already vaguely aware of anime at the time, but my family didn't have cable, so all I'd really seen were an inordinately bad dub of Dragonball and some other random gibberish. I watched part of the Macross Saga on a travel TV with a built in VCR, and thought it was pretty cool. The later sagas didn't really thrill me or my friends though... Dana's antics were just sort of off-putting, and we were old enough to notice something badly awry with the pacing and writing of the Masters Saga (an artifact of its early cancellation in Japan).

After that, we sort of got the ball rolling on a short-lived Robotech RPG around the time Robotech.com went live, and that spun itself off into my 7 year Macross II game and my entry into the translation hobby around '03.

[Alpha 11]

I remember seeing Robotech episodes in Japan, while we were stationed there, with my family. (They got recorded shows that were several months behind at the base we were at.) Then moving back to the states and my parents buying an old VF-1 toy(fighter mode only). It really reminded me of Japan, so I kept going back to the show. Got the first 3 episodes on VHS. Found the abrige version of the Macross series in a near by video rental place, along with some Southern Cross episodes, and the whole New Gen. series. Then seeing the first RPG book in a hobby store, and that's how I got into RPG's and Palladium. The rest, is history, as they say.

[camk4evr]

I saw it when the show first aired which I believe was in the mornings on weekdays (I think later it aired in afternoons so it kind of runs together in my memories). For some odd reason another network aired it on Saturday mornings (two episodes at a time) at about the same time as it started and watching it with my Mom (it was one of the few cartoons that my mother liked to watch).

[Alrik Vas]

You're lucky, Cam. My ma' wouldnt' stop shaking her head and laughing everytime there as a "Huh!?" fest on the SDF-1's bridge.

[jaymz]

The RPG ewas my first real exposure. I'm a mecha head. Finally watched it a bit later. GOt a copy of the series on tape from friend. From their I got into Macross and Bubblegum Crisis.

I already had a unacknoledged love of anime due ot seeing Yamato (Starblazers), Force Five and Battle fo the PLanets when I was a kid.

[ShadowLogan]

I know I watched it in 85-86 school year, and it was on at 7:30am just before school started (usually taped it). I did get some Robotech stuff around that time, but really did not get into Robotech until I discovered the Novel adaption (#1-12) at the local library (1990) and later introduced to the RPG in 1995 in high school.

[thorr-kan]

RPG all the way. No cable or satellite in my neighborhood growing up. STILL not any. Read the novels as a way of getting back story.

Any time I see Robotech on TV, it's the Genesis Pit episode, even when the guide says otherwise. Every. Single. Time.

[MilkManX]

March 4th 1985. I think I may have seen the Code Name Robotech the friday before but I know for sure I caught the show right as it started. I was hooked on Anime/Japanese cartoons from early on with G-Force/Transor Z and Voltron. They just had a look and style and Robots/Mecha that I dug. I remember the preview for Robotech as it was the same station that showed Voltron.

I was hooked from the first minute of Robotech ep 1 Boobytrap. Unlike most folks I also continued to watch and was fascinated by the generation change to Southern Cross. I loved tanks so that may have helped! Now when New Gen started I was even more taken with the show as I dug Motorbikes even more! I think in my area the whole 85 episode run went 2-3 times.

Fast forward to 1989-1990 or so at a good friends house and a new friend we met showed us the Robotech RPG book 1. I was enthralled! The same friend would later show me the Sentinels VHS and also he copied me the original series from his broadcast recorded tapes! We played for years in various campaigns until we all graduated high school and went seperate ways.

Now I have been running a Palladium RT 2nd edition game recently and it has gone pretty well.

[Alpha 11]

March 4th 1985. I think I may have seen the Code Name Robotech the friday before but I know for sure I caught the show right as it started. I was hooked on Anime/Japanese cartoons from early on with G-Force/Transor Z and Voltron. They just had a look and style and Robots/Mecha that I dug. I remember the preview for Robotech as it was the same station that showed Voltron.

I was hooked from the first minute of Robotech ep 1 Boobytrap. Unlike most folks I also continued to watch and was fascinated by the generation change to Southern Cross. I loved tanks so that may have helped! Now when New Gen started I was even more taken with the show as I dug Motorbikes even more! I think in my area the whole 85 episode run went 2-3 times.

Fast forward to 1989-1990 or so at a good friends house and a new friend we met showed us the Robotech RPG book 1. I was enthralled! The same friend would later show me the Sentinels VHS and also he copied me the original series from his broadcast recorded tapes! We played for years in various campaigns until we all graduated high school and went seperate ways.

Now I have been running a Palladium RT 2nd edition game recently and it has gone pretty well.

Transor Z. That brings back memories. Show it also in Japan on the Military/English chanel we had at Yakota were we were stationed at.

[keir451]

I remember watching RT on the afternoon TV when I got out of school (high school that is) in '88 & '89. I loved the story line and just couldn't get enough of it!!