It's the milage!

As Indiana Jones once said, “It’s not the years; it’s the mileage.” My body is older but my mind hasn’t aged a day over twelve. That sounds bad; so, let’s say seventeen. Yeah, that still sounds bad too. Let’s say, I have the wisdom of a middle age man but have the sensibilities of that young teenager. I still get excited to run to the comic shop. I sill lay in the floor to flip the pages of a Teen Titan comic. (It’s the getting back up that’s hard.) I run to the toy isle first, before buying groceries at Wal-Mart. I pretend to be Jedi when the automatic doors open at the Target. And I relive Saturday Mornings by watching my Challenge of the Super Friends DVDs. It was life’s adventure that wore my body down not the passage of time.

“I’m a Toys R Us kid and I refuse to grow up.” I refuse to grow up if it means I can not relish the joy I had when I wore a Fireman’s helmet and rode along with the guys in Emergency 51, or when I ran in slow motion singing nah, nah, nah na na na, or pretended my bike was an self-aware vehicle like KITT on Knight Rider, or using a ruler in substitution of a Stormtrooper blaster, or swinging Grandma’s yard stick as my Katana sword against Storm Shadow.

Every December my mother attended a Shoe Show Convention in Albuquerque. It was an exciting time. It usually meant that my Grandmother would drive to Roswell to watch me for a few days. But that years, Grandma couldn’t make it. So I stayed with my Mother’s friend Donna. I recall not being too excited about staying with Donna. She felt more like a stranger than family. She had a small apartment and I slept on the couch. Yet, it was that seventh birthday week when I first peeked at a Playboy because Donna’s boyfriend happened to have a coffee table filled with them. He invited her over for a small gathering of friends at a BBQ. Sneaking glances as the adults walked into the kitchen or onto the patio. I opened it up; right to the staples. The odor of newsprint and cheap cologne samples. I remember feeling naughty and confused. I just remember the big dark patch of hair below Ms. November’s tummy. It was the ‘70s after all. Fur was in!

When my mother returned to pick me up I ran into her arms. I exclaimed, “what did you get me!?” She pulled the Toys R Us bag from her purse. Toys R Us had the really cool toys. Roswell, being the tiny hole in the dessert it was, had no cool super toy stores, only the pathetic toy aisle at K-mart and ALCO. I reached into the bag and pulled out the Kenner Micro Collection Darth Vader Tie Interceptor! It was freaking awesome. The wings pulled off, and the back opened to show a tiny Darth Vader seated in the cockpit. I had never seen such a toy before in person. Toys R Us had the toys that I could only dream about in the Sears Wish List Catalog. (I still have the tiny tie fighter in a box in the garage.)

The last Shoe Show that my Mother would attend would be when I was a Sophomore in High School. I recall asking her if she was going to stop by the Toys R Us. She said I was too old for Toys R Us. I said, no I’m not! I refuse to grow up!

TRON, Not in my Pants!

Twenty Eight years ago, a movie debuted with cutting edge computer graphics, unique filmmaking and centered around an alternative computer generated world. Long before The Matrix, TRON did it first! Now, after so many years, the invention of the internet, handheld digital music devices, e-readers and tiny mobile computers (ala iPhone), we get the TRON sequel. Like 1982, the toys are in stores, video games retell the story and everywhere you turn there’s some kind of TRON promotion. Now, I remember the original. I remember the day I sat in the theater watching the kick-ass special effects. I saw it at the Plains Park Twin Theater by the ALCO. It was within a bikes ride of our apartment. It was the new theater, being built in 1980 or so. I watched them build it. The babysitter’s son and I rode our bikes to the site and threw rocks into the wet cement of the sidewalk. When the contractor came around and caught us hovering over the pebble strewn section, we swore it was some kids on skate boards and we chased them off. He believed us and we talked and watched him fix it. We asked if we could put our initials in the soft concrete and he politely denied us the opportunity.

Actually, the first movie I ever saw at that theater was The Fox and the Hound. My mother and I went on a Sunday afternoon and found that it was sold out. We asked about the next showing and it was sold out. We returned the following weekend to find it also sold out. After weeks of trying, we finally got in and saw it.

If memory serves correct, I think a group of friends and I rode our bikes to the theater on a hot July day and watched TRON at a matinee screening. After the movie, we rode over to ALCO. It was that fateful day that we all got caught stealing TRON figures. The guys took several figures over to the garden center and began opening them and putting them down their pants. For the record, I personally never opened any nor physically put any of the figures down my pants. Yet, when a diligent employee spotted us, ran to our location and shouted for us to freeze, the guys ran. Except me. They hopped on their bikes and were gone. Except me. I stood there. Why? I don’t recall. I don’t know if I was a deer in headlights or figured I hadn’t actually done anything wrong. The only problem was my ten year old mind wasn’t aware of a little legal vernacular called “accessory” to said crime. They took me in the back and called my mother. She had to come down to the store and oversee me home. The few things I remember after that was her loading my bike into the back of the car, the silent car ride home and the lonely time spent in my room. I don’t think I got into any real trouble from the store as we really hadn’t stolen anything. Outside of opening merchandise, none of us made it out of the store with any toys. Because when the employee spotted us, everyone ditched the figures under bags of fertilizer and ran. I remember this as the manager had all the toys in the office when my mother arrived. It’s sad really that I have such a bad memory along with such good memories of TRON. (for karma, I bought several of those figures in the weeks following the event.)

For the good memories, that was riding our bikes over to Kathy’s Arcade and spending a week’s allowance of $2 into the TRON arcade game. The Light Cycles was my favorite and the hardest. Shooting the spiders with Tron’s arm was the dreaded part. I think that game stayed at Kathy’s, along with the Star Wars Death Star Trench Run, until Junior High.

To think I was ten when the original debuted and now 38 when its sequel will premiere. Yet, I still feel like that ten year old and that’s the best part!

My Grandmother

The first week of December always reminds me of my grandmother. Her birthday is December First. We shared December birthdays; and when hers came around, I knew mine wasn’t too far off. December birthdays aren’t the greatest as Christmas is right around the corner and usually celebrations get overlooked in the hectic rush of holiday shopping and decorating. Yet, I never minded. I can luckily state: I never got a crappy birthday gift. It actually made December an exciting time in my childhood. From Thanksgiving to New Years were always happy times. Yesterday got me really thinking of my grandmother and how I miss her. She was a second mother as she practically raised me alongside my hard-working single mother. I didn’t have two sets of grandparents like most kids. And I didn’t mind. It was just Grandmother. Grandfather had died in 1966; long before I was born. Yet, I often stared at his photo on our dining room cabinet and Grandmother’s bookcase. They would tell me stories of how he was a gruff ex-Navy man and was very old school strict and disciplined. I definitely wish I could have met him or talked with him. There were the stories of how he went to the neighbors house with a rifle, told the man if his dog chased my 7 year old mother to school again, he’d shoot it! Or the time, when he was displeased with how my mother, uncle and aunt washed the supper dishes, he made them wash every dish in the house, emptying out cupboards and the china cabinet. From that moment, they never did that chore half-assed again. I felt sorry for Grandmother as I think she missed him terribly. Yet, she was not some tea sipping granny either. She managed rental properties; she pumped her own gas; she went to the Sears to haggle over a washer; she went to church every Sunday in a 1966 green Rambler; she went to the newsstand every week to buy my comics; she watered and mowed her own lawn; and, she had an opinion when provoked. I remember when I bought my first suit in High School. It was one of those hip Miami Vice inspired suits that was an olive green and had the waist jacket that crossed in the front. She looked right at me and said, “the color looks like baby shit.” I think that was the first time I heard her cuss. I was shocked I didn’t know whether to be discouraged or laugh out loud. I respected her opinion that day but I still bought the suit. I even got my Senior Pictures done in it! I should have kept it just for that memory. Most of my memories of Grandmother are her clipping coupons on Sunday morning; me reading comics in the floor with her oscillating fan blowing on me; her taking me to TG&Y to buy a Star Wars figure and her shock that they cost $2.49 each. She would exclaim, “highway robbery!!” But she still bought them and took the time to ask if I was missing any ones I wanted. She was a great grandmother. She was my Grandmother. She died in 1999, just months before the birth of my daughter. I miss you. And I love you, Grandma!

Yardstick Lightsabers

It's no secret that I wasn't a rich kid. We lived in apartments all my life. Whether it was the RIAC housing, Columbia Manor, Valley Encantada or Saddle Creek, my mother busted her ass to raise me.

When Star Wars blasted its way into my life in 1977, there wasn't a year or day that I didn't think about it or play Jedi or Stormtrooper. One of the coolest weapons from the movies was the Jedi weapon known as the lightsaber. There was a toy back in those days. It was nothing more than a flashlight mounted to an inflatable tube. If you waved it through the air, small air vents would cause a hum noise like those in the movies. I knew of a few friends that had them way back then; and although they were freaking cool, there was still something odd about the toy.

Unfortunately, I never owned one of those toys. So, my creative mind turned my Grandmother's yardstick into my lightsaber. I spent hours running around her backyard in Alamogordo swinging it back and forth. I would generate the hum noise myself and even the spark and clash sounds as it struck obstacles in my path. Now, since my lightsaber was nothing more than a thin piece of wood, it was prone to snap or break. And my Grandmother was usually never happy about it. It would be followed with a scolding, how I should not play so rough and a trip down to the TG&Y to buy another one. I would be told not to play with it as it was used to measure things. Yet, that wouldn't last too long and before my Grandmother knew it, I was outside fighting Rancors and Imperials.

Oh, I never owned the Kenner Stormtrooper Blaster either. But, a ruler held between the thumb and forefinger worked well enough. It was long enough that I could even grab the base with my other hand and pretend I was shooting Rebel Fleet Troopers or Jawas. Although, I wish I had the official toys, I got by just fine with a few measuring sticks and my imagination. And there's not a day I regret swinging my Yardstick Lightsabers...

Refills .39¢

Discovered that Circle K has fountain drinks for .79¢, any size, everyday. The nicer stores have a whole wall of brands and flavors. And you can add a squirt of cherry, vanilla or lime for free. The largest drink size is only the 32oz. Yet, like the side of the cup says, The Thirstbuster, it does quench those late day thirsts. It's definitely the best value of the summer. McDs has theirs for a buck. 7-11 sells theirs for $1.19. Now, the real kicker that I think time has forgotten is the affordable refill. None of those deals include a refill. Except 7-11 and they offer a $1.49 refill, any size. What if the drink is only a $1.19? The only drink that the $1.49 refill is even a better deal on is the Super Big Gulp which runs $1.69. For .20¢, its almost not worth lugging the cup back to the store. So I have yet to ever do a refill at 7-11 and I continue to fill landfills with unwanted Super Big Gulp cups.

Summer 1989. Sophomore year at Roswell High had ended. Still hadn't gotten the drive to get a summer job. I worked down at Chewnings doing some of the odd jobs for some pocket cash, once or twice a week. I wouldn't find a job until Junior year summer. Yet, it was a great summer. And for movies. Sitting in the air conditioned Cinema 4 (at the Roswell Mall- the most modern of Roswell's three theaters. I think the first movie I would see at that theater was Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo) watching Batman with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, Cinema 1 & 2 watching the Last Crusade (the last the original Indiana Jones movies). I was able to drive to almost anywhere, anytime as I had my first car - 1979 Ford Fiesta. It wasn't much to look at yet I got me places whole helluva lot faster than my 10 speed. So, I went to the movies often. I went to the Tastee Freeze when I wanted. But the best thing that summer was my Sun Country Mini Mart drink bottle. One would buy the bottle (a 32oz tube with a straw) for $1.99. Then, every refill, anytime, any Sun Country Mart, anywhere was only .39¢! I would get that thing filled up sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. That was a value! Just a quarter, dime and three pennies (with tax). There was a Sun Country at the corner of Sunset and Poe. This was the one I would visit the most. I would be sitting at home watching MTV (with real music on it) and I get a thirst. I would hop into the Fiesta and drive down the road. Within 5 minutes I would have my cold 32ozs of Coke. The deal would continue for summers after too. Eventually, I think I had about three of the bottles. So if one was dirty, I would have a couple backups.

Oh, I wish I could get .39¢ refills today. I guess I can't complain too much about a .79¢ drink. It is 22 years later....

Stormtroopers, Dark Lords and Jiffy Pop!

1977. I was five. One movie. Changed my life forever. Star Wars.

I still remember the first time I saw Star Wars. Well, I saw the first 30 minutes.

My mother and her boyfriend took me to see it at the Drive In somewhere in Roswell. I remember my mother telling me to get my PJs on and grab my pillow. Although the memory has some blurry spots, I think he (mother's boyfriend) drove a station wagon. I don't recall us owning a station wagon. Now that I think about it, I think my mother was driving an 1971 VW beetle at the time. The following year she would buy a 1978 AMC Pacer. It had door handles that looked like luggage latches. (straying...)

I knew very little about the film going into it. But I had seen some of the TV commercials. By the time Star Wars got to Roswell it was late 1977. I want to say it was September or October when we went. As the PJs were the nice fuzzy kind with feet. I had my pillow and my blanket. We parked and had our snacks. We had brought Jiffy Pop Popcorn that my mother had cooked before we left. I remember her letting me break the foil and being the first to scoop some out. Then, the movie started. The theme squawked over the tiny speaker box. The humongous star destroyer. Chomping jiffy pop. Stormtroopers burst onto the rebel ship. Frighted by the Dark Lord of the Sith. The droids escape. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I couldn't look away.

Once the action slowed down and the movie transitioned to Luke's home and his adventure in the cantina, I felt my eyes getting heavy. I don't remember when I faded out but I don't think I got past Han and Millennium Falcon escaping Mos Eisely. I remember Walrus Man loosing his arm so I know saw that part. I sorta regret falling asleep but it was past 10 o'clock at night and I was only five.

I don't remember the next day clearly, but I know I pestered my mother to know how the movie ended. And she probably told me. Within the next few months, I had the picture story book and all of the action figures. I've told the story before, but my great uncle Wade bought all 12 figures early 1978. Even had the vinyl cape Jawa. (he was lost a few weeks later, sad to say.) I played Star Wars on the playground of Valley View. I never wanted to be a Stormtrooper (not until I grew up), instead, I wanted to be the rebel guys at the beginning of the movie that had to defend the princess's ship. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from a Star Wars lunch box - the metal one, with the star field and X-wing on the drop down door. (I have a mini replica sitting on the self near my computer as I write this.).

I don't think I saw the movie in its entirety until late 1978 or early 1979 when the movie was on its third or fourth re-release and it was playing down at the Cinema I & II. And of course every time CBS would broadcast it - not until the mid-80s I think. But Star Wars shaped my life and I'm glad it did...

Earliest Memories

One of my earliest school memories is from Child Garden, near Hobbs and Main. I attended Kindergarten there in 1978. I remember playing on the playground during a solar eclipse. The sky got incredibly dark for the middle of the day. Darker than when the sun goes behind a cloud. Although I was only five, I don't recall being scared or mystified. Perhaps teachers had told us it was normal? I just remember climbing the hot metal ladder to the wavy slide and continuing to play. Beyond knowing I attended the school, I have no memory of teachers or the other children. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.

First Grade is a blur. I have the class photo and I recognize all the kids. Even remember most of their names. It was 1979. Yet, I struggle to remember any important events. Nothing stands out. If I think of the year, I mostly think of times at my cousins house on Saturdays. I don't necessarily remember those as fond times. I was there cause I had to be not that I chose to be.

Second Grade was an event year. I noticed girls. I remember sitting in Mrs. Carrol's class with JM and K- flanking either side of my desk. They kept looking at me and whispering and giggling. They had decided I was to be their boyfriend. At first, I was embarrassed and confused. But flattered. In the end, it didn't last long. I think our torrid affair lasted a week. Then the two girls magically forgot the events ever happened. Women!

Third Grade, now that was the year that was the foundation to friendships that would continue through Junior High and High School. That was the year I became a latch key kid. My mother had the brilliant idea to put the key on a chain around my neck. Simply put: I lost the key the first day. Day two: it was on a key chain in my pocket to which I never lost a key again. Girls were more attractive and crushes on EF and SP started. Blonds. Dimples. SP was like a little Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers. Who could resist? Neither shared my feelings. If anything I was just the dork. Shy. Misunderstood. The geek who daydreamed more than he achieved.

Couple Only Skate

So the wife and daughter went on a mother-daughter outing yesterday to the Skate City. After, my daughter runs in to tell me how "mommy fell only a few hundred times" and how she is "totally a good skater." To which I believe it all - both statements. One, the wife is sporting a few hum dinger of bruises on her knees. Two, my daughter never tells a lie. Unless she's trying to get a new pair of skinny jeans from Justice. (story for another time) My daughter tells me the whole tale from their two hours of skating. The only question I could think to ask, "was there a couple only skate?" To which she replied, "No, Dad."

Remember, back when the last week of school was for having fun? Making crafts. Going on field trips to the zoo? Or having parties? with cup cakes? Those were the days of early Grade School. Not anymore. Times change I guess. Budget shortfalls hamper the fun stuff. But I remember that the last week at Valley View in the third grade meant going to the Skating Rink! I don't remember the name of the rink but I do recall smell of the burnt popcorn, the beeps and boops of the Galaga machine in the corner, the disco ball and anticipating and fearing the couples only skate.

Before that time, we (the dudes - CB and SM) would empress both guys and girls alike with daring stunts. Who could skate backwards? Who could skate faster? Who could skate the longest without face planting?

Most of the time it was just us skating in circles to I Love Rock N' Roll by Joan Jett or watching the cute girls skate as Centerfold played by J Geils Band. We (the dudes) dared one another to skate up to one of the girls and purposely run into them. Bonus points if we knocked them down. It wasn't to be malicious or reckless. It was just our way (int those prepubescent years) of getting close to the girls we all admired from afar yet thought of us as dorks and icky boys. I look back now and still get a bit of the shaky knees thinking of knocking EF down. I realize now how childish it was. I do regret it. Yet, I can still feel the nervousness of that moment. Apologizing with utmost sincerity and helping her back up. Taking her hand into mine. Knowing that in a half an hour the dreaded Couple Only Skate would take place and I would be parked on the bench by the foosball table. Girls like EF and SP wouldn't dream of skating with the kid with a Star Wars lunch box and a Teen Titans comic in his backpack. Or so I thought back then.

Thinking back now, I do recall skating in that Couple Only Skate. I think JS grabbed my arm and pulled me into the rink. Perhaps she felt sorry for me. Or maybe she liked dorky boys. Once the fear and anxiety left, it was kinda cool. The dreams of EF or SP doing the same thing next year never happened but I was happy at that moment - in those days. Disco ball casting flickers of light along the floor and walls. Girls and boys skating hand in hand. All trying to act cool. In 1980s irony, I think the song for that skate was Physical by Olivia Newton John. (Hey! it was different back then...)

Robotech Memories: Stand By

I have kinda allowed the memories to come to a halt. I will table the memories for now but I will not forget them all together. Stand by for some more Robotech tales in the near future. Until then, this blog will return to my other stories and memories. My goal is to bring the blog back to a daily update. Wish me luck!

Robotech Memories: The Miniatures

This was the theme I used for my Squadron. I just liked the colors and paint scheme.

Robotech Memories: The Miniatures

The only miniatures I still have are the ones I kept. Yet, I did paint several - about 6-8 - that Rob or JM bought and kept in their personal collections. No idea if they are still around.


But I thought I'd share the ones I own. The following are actually the very first ones I painted. I look at them today and think the paint jobs suck. I was only 15 years old and didn't know how to thin paint nor how to shade or line. Nor were the paint schemes canon or very characteristic of the TV show. Let's say, we had a lot of creative license with the "squadron colors".


This one was always one of my favorites. I really liked the miniature and the pose.

Robotech Memories: RPG III - The Miniatures

Speaking of the RPG sessions we had. There was another cool item that JM had used during our game that Saturday afternoon and those were miniatures. We used them on this huge table sized hex map. They weren’t just any miniatures - markers for our Veritechs or the ememy Battlepods. No! These were Robotech Miniatures. Okay. They weren't really Robotech Miniatures as there was nothing like that at the time. But they were perfect little Battleloid miniatures! There was ones that looked liked RDF Destroids. One that looked like the Zentraedi Command Battle Pod. I made a comment that there wasn’t any standard Battlepods but at the time I wasn’t aware there wouldn't actually be one. Asking where he got them, JM stated he got them from M&M Hobbies over on 3rd Street. I do remember buying a few there but Greenspray Books also carried them. The miniatures were actually robots from a miniature line called Battletech from Ral Partha . It didn’t matter. The miniatures were dead on to the Robotech Mecha. Within weeks, I started painting miniatures for the first time. (I still have all of those miniatures. And I laugh at the quality of the paint jobs. No shading, nor shadowing - just flat paint, never thinned and no lining.) I bought the Ral Partha paints and tiny little paint brushes. I remember filling our living room with toxic fumes one afternoon as I tried to seal the miniatures with the spray armor coat. Later, I would figure out that it was best to do the final lacquer coat outside. I found I had a good talent and patience to paint them. I even would paint them for Rob and later do some special camouflage ones for JM. As I got more into painting the miniatures, I eventually bought them directly from Ral Partha mail order. Those days you had to write for a catalog, then send in a check with the order and the order would show up a couple weeks later. Pre-Amazon it could take a month or more to get a order of a half dozen miniatures. How would we survive today? I get an order from The War Store in about 3 days. I think some of the last ones I bought were from a new comic book store called Fantasy Five at the corner of 2^nd and Main - in the old Radio Shack location. I hoarded them as I heard they were discontinuing them because of the new Lead scares. They wouldn’t actually be discontinued for a few more years but the Lead would disappear and be replaced with some tin-like metal. I still have a half dozen still sealed in the original Ral Partha packaging. I think I will go dig the miniatures out...

Robotech Memories: RPG II

After my first gaming session over at JM’s house, I immediately wanted to get my own copies of the books.

Flipping back through my high school memories, going to JM’s was not my first exposure to the Robotech RPG. He definitely introduced me to it. But I revise my memories to say I know I saw these books prior but disregarded them thinking they were too expensive and telling myself I wasn’t really an RPGer. In efforts of turning the pages back, I realized it was Greenspray Books where I first saw them.

Just a few weeks before this, not sure when, but very much hand in hand, I had stumbled upon a new bookstore in the Plains Park Shopping Center called Greenspray Books. I usually add Comics to their title as they did carry some comics and gaming supplies although they weren’t a comic shop per se. Thinking back, I would have discovered it while riding my bike home from the Blockbuster video store. It was a nice store. Simple yet clean. The front was devoted to magazines and racks of paperbacks. The back was the geek section with comics, role-playing games, supplies and T-shirts. Eventually the magazines would disappear and with a year, the store would disappear.

Greenspray Books will play additional pivots to my Robotech obsession. More to that later.

Seeing the books for the first time, I remember thinking they were incredibly cool but why get them if I don’t have a group of friends that would like to play. Yet, once I knew that there was a small group of guys that could play the game, I went directly back to Greenspray to get mine! I believe Rob did the same, as I have this feeling I had to beat him to the store incase there was only one copy. Yet, fate was on our side as there was two copies on the shelf.

I put my name on my book via a name sticker just so I would get my book confused with someone else’s.

Palladium and Kevin Siembieda produced all the books. The books covered every generation of Robotech and later the sequel The Sentinels. With The Sentinels, new manuals would include the REF Field Guide, Return of the Masters and specific adventure campaigns centered around characters or events.. Some we dare to forget like Lancer’s Rockers. I bought the core rule book and the RDF manual on the spot day one. At the counter, I bought some cool sparkly dice from the display case and raced home to start my character building. I would return later and grab the Robotech Southern Cross book and Invid Invasion supplement-which had just recently been released around that time. The books weren’t cheap for a high school freshman but I managed to drop the $9.99 and $6.95 respectively. Thus, I remember Rob and I would share the cost of the campaign books as he would buy Zentraedi Breakout and Ghost Ship while I got the RDF and REF field guides. It’s funny how I think back on these things and wonder where I was getting my money back then. I want to say it had to be allowance. I had no job. No credit card. By this time, I’m guessing I was getting 20 bucks every other week. Either way, it didn’t stop me from getting what I wanted most the time.

I would ride my bike down Pennsylvania and over 2^nd Street to get to the Roswell Public Library (3rd and Penn). They had a Xerox machine and I could make copies for a dime. I must have dropped $10 in that copier from 1988 through 1989. Making copies of the character sheets and the stat trackers and weapon guides. JM had his Mom make copies from her work. Rob did the same. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a parent with easy access to a Xerox. I did mine at the library and I have a vague memory that I may have used Roswell High’s at one point. Thinking or planning Robotech RPGs took most of my waking hours. I would race home to scribble stories. I used the school’s Word Processors to write scenarios. I drew maps on graph paper. I created my own squadron and color schemes for my VFs. I was a nerd. I bound the scenarios in report folders – had a file system for all characters sheets. And the sad thing was: we only played a dozen or so times. It just felt like when I wanted to play, the guys didn't or we'd plan on a Saturday only to have parents say we couldn't do it. Oh well, I still cherish all those memories regardless if I played the game or just prepared to....

Robotech Memories: BREAKING NEWS!

Carl Macek passed away on Saturday, April 17, 2010 of a heart attack.

Most known for his creation and producing of Robotech in 1985. He would later found Streamline Pictures and begin the new modern era of Japanese Anime to America.

I support anyone reading this to go to Robotech.com and read more: Carl Macek


This is a sad time as we have marked the 25th Anniversary with tragedy as well as preservation.

Robotech Memories: RPG

I must admit that my first exposure to Robotech: The Role Playing Game was from a Junior named John Mark. I was a Freshman. My friend Rob had an elective with JM and the two had met and shared their interest in Robotech while in class one day. JM had already been playing the RPG and he had invited Rob over to his house to play a scenario. Rob had kept me in mind and asked if I could also join the group. JM had accepted and on a nice Saturday afternoon, we journeyed to JM's house. I had not played a RPG since Craig had bought a D&D bundle from some dude back in the early days of 1982. It was now spring 1988. I was anxious but not at all nervous. Arriving around noon, we had the rest of the day. The plan was to play about 6+ hours. The dining room table was turned into our battlefield and JM had given both Rob and I a crash course on rules and game play. We used characters created by JM and JM was the game master. Additional players was Chris P (JM's best friend) and Matt (JM's future step dad). Even though Matt was like really old (something like 37, the age I'm today), he was really cool and didn't look on us as a bunch of kids but peers.

We commanded our Veritechs and fought Zentraedi Battlepods. We were on a rescue mission. Destroids were cannon fodder. Hand to Hand combat was raged by Battleloids and 50-foot alien giants. Damage points. Missile counts. Attack bonuses. We played for hours. To create a mood JM put the Robotech soundtrack on his parent's stereo as we ventured through the scenario. The nostalgia of that soundtrack was that it was released only on vinyl and he had dubbed it down to Memorex cassette tape. I would beg him for a copy which he gladly gave both Rob and I. Outside of a couple breaks, we didn't stop. We were having too much fun. Even Matt got into the game.

JM's mother was very generous and had left a plethora of snacks and New York Seltzers. I think it was the most content I had ever been while enjoying Robotech. Here we were playing the coolest cartoon I had known in the form of a role playing game, I was enjoying awesome creme sodas and root beers in tiny glass bottles of New York Seltzers and the outside world had been forgotten.

When the warm evening rays of sunshine had disappeared and the table was lit by the artificial tungsten bulb of the overhead lamp, we knew that our adventure had to come to a close. Overall we had not completed our task. We still had not recovered the protoculture matrix nor the abducted doctors. But JM had said not to worry. We'd pick it up the next Saturday.

In reality, we didn't get back to our game for another 4 weeks and when we did, we had to play in JM's room and it just didn't have the magic of our first session. At least we had some New York Seltzers as refreshments. Boy do I miss those little drinks. Yet, while scanning JM's room and bookshelves, I would see something I hadn't seen before. It was a large picture book called Robotech Art I...

Robotech Memories: the books!

The year 1987 was the next big year for Robotech. Yet it would take the year 1988 for me to realize how big a year it was. Thus, 1988 was the year I discovered the Robotech novelizations and the Role Playing Game. As 1988 began, I was in the last few months of my 9th grade year. Robotech had not been on television in any form of a broadcast in over a year. As I mentioned, my VHS dubs became my Robotech best friend. If I wasn’t watching the afternoon line up of Thundercats or Silver Hawks, I was watching a VHS of Robotech.

I remember my best friend at the time, Rob, had discovered Robotech as well. He’s the one that help me record episodes while I was out of town way back that one summer. Now that I look back, I could have just used the timer on the VCR but I think I do recall that I couldn’t because my mother was recording General Hospital at the time. Yes, GH. And I wanted my Robotech episodes on their own unique Robotech tape. So I knew he could assist even though his parents regularly recorded Jeopardy. Yes, Jeopardy. Long story. Yet, he could come home after school and put in my tape, record Robotech and then switch out the tapes for his parents etc. This was all back in the summer of 1986. It was around 1987 that I learned how much of a fan he was. I thought he would simply be recording a show for me. Little did I know that he was actually recording the shows on his Beta Max machine in his bedroom. Not only was he recording the KTTV episodes but he had tapes of the original KCOP broadcasts. So, from time to time I would love going over to his house to watch Robotech via his little Beta tapes. Thus, this leads me to how the books tie into this story.

It was a nice spring day (possibly March or early April) in 1988 and we went to his room to watch some of his Robotech episodes (he had several 1st and 2nd gen episodes I did not). As I plopped down on his bed and begin to watch the episode, I look over to his head board to find two novels sitting there. Each bookmarked and looked to be well read. The spines read, Robotech Genesis and Robotech Battle Cry. Sitting before me was two Robotech novelizations. Like my discovery of the comic books, I was like, “there’s Robotech novels!?” I was amazed. I quickly asked to see them and flipped through them. I asked him where he got them. His response was very dry and matter of fact – some bookstore in Alamogordo … or was it Albuquerque? My attitude was complete and utter joy as if I found some long lost toy. After my inspection, I found they were not new tales but a retelling of the show like the comics. It didn’t matter. There was so much more information and detail in these novels than either the show and comic lacked. I was hooked. My only complaint was that my best friend hadn’t volunteered the information. I was surprised I had to discover them in his room vs. him saying, “Dude, I found Robotech books!”

I asked my mother to run out to Hastings at the Roswell Mall (the closest thing we had to a bookstore) that weekend after church. Running to the sci-fi section, I hoped I would find these Robotech novels. Eyes bounced from shelf to shelf. Looking. Looking. Near the bottom shelf, bam! I found most of the books minus a few such as 3, 5, 8, 11, 12. I was lost looking at each of the covers and flipping through the pages. Sniffing them. Yes, I sniffed books even back then. I immediately borrowed on my allowance and got books 1 and 2. (cover price was $2.95!) Went home that Sunday afternoon and started reading book #1 - Genesis. In less than a week had that book read and was tearing through book #2 - Battle Cry. I was so anxious to get the next book even before finishing the one I was reading. I remembered that Hastings didn’t have book 3 last time I was in there. Yet I took a chance. They still didn’t have book 3 but I bought #4 instead. I decided to try the tiny newsstand and book store on 3rd Avenue. Rode my bike down there one Saturday and bingo! They had it. They had a few of the lower numbered books as well. I think through number 7 – Southern Cross. I bought what they had within the next couple weeks, and then called them to see if they had gotten any more in. At the time they didn’t but the nice old lady on the phone said she would be more than happy to order them for me. I quickly had her order all the books I was missing: books 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. She said they would be in within a couple weeks. After I hung up, I panicked. How was I going to pay for these books? I still have this idea it was like a $100 worth of books. Could I even beg my mom into buying them for me? In reality it was only $24 bucks plus tax. Yet it still feels like more than that to this day. Yet, when the nice lady called to tell me they were in, I rode my bike down that weekend and bought all of them as promised. Now I had all 12 books that documented the original 85 episodes of the show. I think I had all them read before school started the fall of 1988. It was a good thing too. Because that summer, the release of the Robotech Sentinels books had begun. I had discovered their release via a new bookstore in the Plains Park Shopping Center called Greenspray Books and Comics. The Sentinel books covered the un-produced sequel to Robotech. My excitement of these was even greater than the others. This was new Robotech material! I remember waiting every couple of months that summer to get the next one. I have precise memories of the last book coming out in July because I had done some extra work around my mothers work and she promised to drive to the bookstore to buy the Robotech book I was saving and waiting for. I had to let her know it had yet to be released and she could buy it then. In all, the summer of 1988 was a summer of reading. I had my nosed buried in those books everyday. As for Greenspray Books and Comics, it would introduce me to another facets of Roboetch. The RPG!

Robotech Memories: the comics

Just for record, I wrote this blog entry entirely on my iPhone. Not bad considering. I am trying to clean it up and fix the misspellings.

I teased that I would talk about the Robotech books next yet realized that it was in fact the comics that happened first...

Late summer 1986, KTTV's run of Robotech ended at episode #27 "Force of Arms". I would not acquire a full library of recorded episodes. I would be doomed to miss episodes "Reconstruction Blues" through "The Trap" on VHS until the show would air via the Sci-Fi Channel (yet I will discuss that later).

Yet, I would bw able to relive these episodes through another media. I'm not sure the exact date or the episode but while watching and reading the end credits one day I noticed the credits listed "Comic book adaption by Comico Comics". What!? There is a comic book of Robotech? I thought to myself. I immediately put this to memory. I vowed to find it. The only hurdle was there was no comic book store in Roswell back then. If the Walgreens didn't have it then you might find it at the newsstand. But the wire spinner rack at the newsstand usually only had the biggies-Spider-man and Superman. So the quest would fade from mind. Until one day I would visit my Grandmother in
Alamogordo. We bought many of my comics at the Yucca Newsstand and while grabbing the latest issue of G.I. Joe I looked up to see three comics with the Comico logo. The white whale had been found and captured. Not only was there a Robotech comic, there was three! Robotech The Macross Saga, Robotech The Masters and Robotech The New
Generation.

It was around May or June 1986. The first issues would be #11 for Macross, and issues #8 for both Masters and New Generation. I wish I could remember the exact date thus I'm using the cover dates of the issues- not sure Comico released issues a few months before their actual cover dates. So my discovery may have been as early as March or
April. Shortly after I added the three titles to my monthly list. (back story: since Roswell had no reliable comic retailer, my Grandmother would go to Yucca Newsstand and buy my comics. Mostly G.I. Joe and a handfull of DC hero books).

I would not miss an issue until the runs ended early 1989. Actually Macross would run to Jan 1989 but Masters would be Apr 1988 and New Generation July 1988. I filled missing issue holes every chance I got. Many from classified ads at the back of comics. Yet a comic shop in San Antonio and QVC would finalize my collections. The comic shop in
San Antonio was called King Arthur's Comics. I was able to buy the last of my missing issues and even accidentally bought a few I already had. Back then I went by memory on the back issues and some of the covers didn't look familar. That was the summer of 1991. Only one issue would evade me. That was Robotech Macross #1! I would learn from Protoculture Addicts that issue one actually had the original Japanese logo of Macross. This was late 1984 when Harmony Gold was originally going to do a straight translation of Macross. Yet the plan would change and since it was released in Dec 1984, not many issues would surface. I did run across an issue in late 1987 or early 1988 at
Greenspray Books and Comics in Roswell. Yet the $30 price tag might have been a brick of gold to a freshman in high school. Thus it was out of my price range. And almost everyone who would come across it. I'm not sure if it ever sold or went with Greenspray when it closed a few months later. Yet, my patience and possibly a higher calling
assisted my eventual acquisition. I am not making this up but Fate played a hand in this comic. In 1994, I awoke in the middle of the night. It was 1 AM. The tv was on QVC. Not sure if it was because I fell asleep while watching a Star Wars collectibles show or if I rolled on the remote-changing the channel. How it happened is a mystery but the good thing was there on the screen was Comico's Robotech The Macross Saga #1! Original issues - apparently a warehouse find. The price was $19.95. Not cheap but as a working college student with a credit card, I didn't care. I immediately bought two copies! Now my Robotech comic collection was complete! All thankful to me waking in the middle of the night and my tv being on QVC. Funny thing, I found a third copy of this issue about ten years ago for $5 at comic show. Ebay usually sales the issue from $2 to $80. Yet I would list the value to me as priceless. Yet realistically it's more like two
dollars.

Robotech Memories: The Books!

Wow! Has it been almost a month since my last blog? If any one does read this thing, I apologize. I went to Cabo San Lucas the first week of March and since then I've been playing catch up at work and home. But I still had a silent moment on March 1st to remember Robotech. I even had a little piece of Robotech with me as I took the Masters Novelization Omnibus. There will be more this weekend. So look out!

Robotech Memories: Drawings II

Here's another sketch (and with color). I do have some memories about this one. I know I drew this in the 7th grade (which would be late 1985 or early 1986). I think its partly traced from a book. I colored it with color pencils and its drawn on regular typewriter paper.




if you look close at this one, you can see the holes where staples had fixed this to my bedroom wall. Its funny what you keep from childhood. I kept almost all of these little pieces of art...

Robotech Memories: Drawings

Let's say I was pretty much obsessed with Robotech from the time of the 7th grade through High School. To be honest, I don't think the obsession ever ended. Yet, during those early years, I not only would watch the show every chance I could get but I would also sketch characters and mecha. Here's a couple drawings. The first one was completed in early 1994. This just shows you that I was still obsessed in college...

Pencils on 11x14 art paper -


Pencils on 8x11 photocopy paper -


The Rick Hunter was completed in 1990. (Junior Year) I look back on these drawings and really feel nostalgia. I think I remember drawing them. They aren't great and some of these drawings actually have small holes as I remember pinning and stapling them to my bedroom walls back then.

Robotech Memories: Robotech Letters

As I've mentioned in my last post, I wrote letters to KTTV and my local cable provider when Robotech was canceled. I also wrote letters to Harmony Gold. I don't recall what the letters specifically said, but I know it was most likely a fan-gasm sort of letter. While looking through my files and Robotech processions recently, I came across this post card. I thought I would share it here. I've kept it for the nearly 25 years in the front of my Robotech Art I book. I know I wrote several letters to several entities back between 1986 and 1987. According to the post mark on the card, it was sent sometime in April 1988. If memory serves, 1988 was the year Sentinels came out on VHS via Streamline. Like current Robotech projects, The Sentinels, was originally scheduled for a 1986 release yet we didn't get anything until 1988. Yet that's a story in itself.




-more little archive items coming soon.

Robotech Memories: Robotech Returns!

February 1986

-take note that most of the accounts below are that from a perspective of a 13 year old boy from 1986. 25 years have past and much as been learned. Yet, this is what I thought back then. Stay with me and I'll show you how it changed my life...

Or it could have been early March 1986. It was still a very important time. My seventh grade year was coming to an end. The long months of Fall 1985 and Early 1986 with no Robotech was nearly over. In the months prior to March, I had learned to live without Robotech. These were the years before On-Demand or Hulu. Christmas 1985 had delivered us with our first VCR. Unfortunately, Robotech wasn't out on VHS. At least not anywhere I knew. But it wouldn't matter.

While watching a typical afternoon lineup of cartoons, most likely Voltron or Thundercats, there was a fast station commercial and an advertisement for Robotech airing Monday at 4:00 pm. My heart stopped. Not more than a few milliseconds or I would have found myself unconscious on the floor, mind you.

At last, Robotech had Returned!

Things were back to being a great time. I remember talking to Chris Lester in Mrs. Field's English class about the latest episodes. I doodled battles of Hovertanks and Bioroids. All the while it never dawned on me to use the fancy new VCR to record the episodes until one day I was going to miss one due to a school activity. I set the VCR to tape and it hit me like a sock full of pennies. I could tape it every afternoon and watch it whenever and as often as I wanted. The first episode taped: Robotech, Second Generation, episode 10 (46) Stardust. It was then that I started working on my own home video library of Robotech. Everyday I was at the VCR at 4:45 (remember it started an hour later in the Roswell area - LA was an hour behind us) waiting to punch the record button. I remember Gumby was on before it (and I had to watch the claymation while I waited) and Thudercats would start immediately after just as I hit stop on the VCR. Allowance went to blank VHS tapes.

I was so angry at myself that I hadn't started taping it before. I prayed that KTTV would rerun the show at least one more time so I could catch all the episodes I missed (Ep #1 Booby Trap through Ep #45 Metal Fire ). I was so focused on recording the show, I even remember running (literally running) from my mother's work (Chewning Footwear) to our house in under 20 minutes. Not bad for the 2 or so miles. I don't remember all the details but somehow I recall my grandmother was suppose to pick me up around 4 pm and take me home. When 4:30 had rolled around and still no ride, I told my mother, I going to run home. She was so shocked that I literally took off running, she didn't stop me. I remember opening the door with 5 minutes to spare. I loaded the tape and hit record.

I would continue to record and watch all the episodes right up to episode 60 (the 24th episode of Robotech Masters). Then, horror struck. KTTV had canceled broadcast of Robotech. We didn't' even get a full run of the show. My hopes of seeing New Generation to completion had been robbed from me again! I waited thinking it had to be a mistake. Yet, when 1 week turned into 6 weeks and no Robotech had returned to TV, I knew I had to live without Robotech once more. But I wasn't going to like it nor sit quietly. It was this time that I started writing not only KTTV in Los Angeles but my local cable provider requesting, no demanding, the return of Robotech. I told my friends to write. I'm not sure how I got the information (remember the internet wouldn't be invented for another 10 years) but I had heard rumors KTTV had been pressured to remove Robotech from the afternoon lineup due to the realistic violence in the show. Here was a show that taught us that war meant people died. Not everyone safely escaped an exploding Rattler or Skystriker with a pearly white parachute. It was a show that had real emotions, character growth and development and kick-ass robots! I don't have copies of the letters I sent, but I know I sent more than a few. And when all hope was gone, the day came. Robotech would return once again!

By late June 1986, KTTV had won the battles with the Robotech Fans and the mothers that hated it. I even remember the ad stating "returning due to popular demand." Yes, Robotech was back on the air starting July 1986. KTTV had picked the show up right where it had left off with episode #61 The Invid Invasion. Life was good again. Then, I was told I had to go to my grandmother's in Alamogordo. You know, the grandmother that had no cable. So, I asked a friend, Rob, to record the show while I was gone. I gave him a couple tapes and left from grandma's house. When I returned, I quickly took up the duties of recording the show every afternoon. I finally got to see how New Generation ended and a part of my life had been filled. I can still feel the excitement of the last episode when the narrator said, "join us where it all began. Reacquaint yourself with Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes and Lynn Minmei." I bought a new tape and was ready to start recording the First Generation of Robotech. Soon I would have a near complete run of the show. Yet, Robotech disappeared from the lineup once again. Without warning it was gone. Not sure why. But it would not air again on KTTV nor any other channel until the early 1990s (when the Sci-fi Channel aired it).

-The dark times of no Robotech would haunt me once again. But during that time I had something just as good. The only difference was, I had to read it instead of watch it...

Robotech Memories: The Screenplay

The below script is my attempt to write the first Robotech Live Action Movie. I started writing this sometime in the early 1990s. If I remember correctly, I started writing it on an old Brother Word Processor and once I got my first PC in 1996, transferred it into Microsoft Word. Over the next 5 - 6 years, I would add a little or revise it. Like many projects, it was never completed.

Now the below excerpt comes from a much longer version that was re-edited and saved in Microsoft Word sometime in 1998. Although I don't recall working on it past the 1990s, this copy is time stamped as being saved in September 2000. Thus, I must have preserved it into a new document around that time.


Ext. Space-Starfield

We soar through the dark vastness of space and enter a solar system on the
far side of the Milky Way Galaxy. The solar system is dominated by a
large red star, orbiting that red giant is a system of 8 planets. We soar
over the outer three planets and approach the fifth planet in the system.
This is the planet of

Fantoma.

A gas giant with 22 moons. As we soar past, and around the gas giant,
a small blue green moon,

Tirol,

comes into frame.
The moon slowly fills the entire frame, and finally we break the atmosphere
and soar through the clouds. The clouds are a thick milky white.
Eventually we soar through them to see a lush green country side. This
country side is full of Tyrolian trees, plants and grass. Soaring through
the Tyrolian air like a blue winged Lupin, we fly over a large city. This
city is a grand city of fine architecture and culture. Similar to fine
Renaissance combined with Greek architecture. We soar over and pass the
grand city back to the country side, a country side dominated by grassy
hills and rivers. The hills break and we approach a plain, this plain is
dominated with hues of pink and green. As we fly closer and closer, we see
the pink color of the landscape is created by thousands and thousands of
flowers, The Flowers of Life. We fly over a vast field of these flowers,
so close it appears we are just inches above the luscious flowers. Our
flight ends as we reach the edge of this crop and see a lone man standing in
a purple uniform of Tyrolian leadership. His name is Zor. He is the
chief scientist among the Tyrolians and the discoverer of Protoculture and
the inventor of Robotechnology. But today, he is destroying all that he
has built, destroying it in the hopes of redemption and common good. The
betterment of Tirol.

A large mecha (a mechanized robot of utility or war) flies over the field
and sprays a defoliant over the flowers. In seconds, the flowers wilt, die,
and fade to dust.

Zor's face is cold. He is emotionless. He knows this is for the better.

An aid to him approaches, his name is Cabell.

Cabell: Sir, why are you destroying the Central Protoculture Plant's
primary Flower of Life fields?

Zor: It is something I must do to rectify the past.

Cabell: But, why destroy all that you have founded and created.

Zor: To end the terrorany of evil men. The newly formed triumvirate
council is using this power to enslave and dominate civilizations. That was
never my intention with Protoculture.

Cabell: I agree with you, sir. But perhaps there will be a day when
Protoculture will improve our society once again.

Zor: It will. This must be done now because the Invid are close to
destroying our way of life because of an injustice I committed.

Cabell: I understand sir.

Zor: That is why, Cabell, I want you to continue to study the Flower of
Life. Do not let our research die here. I have prepared you a secret
laboratory under the Grand Statue. Continue our work. And perhaps one
day, Protoculture will improve our society. I foresee a great many changes
in our galaxy because of my actions of the past and of today.

Cabell: I don't understand. What are you-

Zor: In time you will. As we speak, Dolza has carried out my wishes.
The Zentraidi are simultaneously destroying all Flower of Life cultivating
fields on Karbarra, Orion, and Sepheria. The Protoculture Matrix on Haden
has been also destroyed. The only matrix left is aboard my flagship. I
personally make sure it will remain secure until I contact you. Until
then, stay on Tirol and continue the research I have given you. Now go,
Cabell

Cabell: Yes, Zor. May the Gods grant you speed and safeness.

Cabell leaves.

Zor continues to watch as the last Flowers are destroyed by the red and
black mechas.

A landing craft lands behind Zor. Several armored troopers step out and
escort Zor back. He boards the landing craft and the ship takes to the air.

Ext. Space- Super Dimensional Fortress-Zor's Flagship

Zor's flagship hovers in Tirol orbit. The ship is enormous, measuring over
a mile long. The ship has an organic look to it yet the metallic angles are
still present. This is the Super Dimensional Fortress or SDF-1. One of
the first ships in the Zentraedi Fleet to pocess super dimensional
properties. And the only place in the galaxy to have a protoculture
matrix aboard.

Int. SDF's Main Hold

Zor's shuttle lands.

Zor exits and is greeted by several Tyrolian aids. They escort him to the
bridge.

If you want to read the full version of this artifact of my past with Robotech, please go to the Incomplete Robotech Screenplay or http://www.knighthartkastle.com/RobotechMemories.html. There you will find PDF versions of all the Robotech Memories posts and the incomplete Robotech Screenplay.

Robotech Memories: The Original Run - Part II

-take note that most of the accounts below are that from a perspective of a 12 year old boy from 1985. 25 years have past and much as been learned. Yet, this is what I thought back then. Stay with me and I'll show you how it changed my life...

Although I was upset in missing the conclusion of the 3rd Robotech War, I was confident I would see it within the next couple months. Then by that time, I would be consumed by the second season of Robotech. My imagination had already started working overdrive. The story and every generation so far had an enemy of the previous enemy attacking the Earth. So, I could only imagine what the enemy of the Invid would be like. The Invid were the scariest alien to attack our Robotech defenders so far. Thus anything that would be feared by the Invid must be totally horrific. (To note: years later and after reading and realizing that the Invid mentioned in the New Generation that they feared the Children of the Shadow, I figured this would have been the villain of a 4th Generation Robotech had it been done. Funny thing, that was the plot of the Robotech rebirth sequel, The Shadow Chronicles. Now back to 1985!) I thought the Summer of 1985 would be one of me watching Robotech every afternoon, drawing veritech fighters and finally seeing what happened to Scott Bernard. Well, I thought wrong.

As I returned home from my visit to my Grandmother's house, I was informed from my mother that the local Cable Provider had decided to nix two of the four Los Angeles affiliates. I found this very disconcerting. These stations were my life bread of after school programing. Outside of watching Knight Rider and Riptipe and a various few other shows in primetime, I watched KCOP, KTTV or KTLA (I mentioned before that I rarely watched the KHJ [later KCAL] as it played an odd format of older movies and 70s sitcoms.) The only saving grace to this sad news was that the Cable Provider had placed a subscriber poll of which two channels would get the axe. My mother allowed me to pick the channels. So we sent in our ballet with the order of channels (top being the most liked and the last being the least): KCOP, KTTV, KTLA and KHJ. The letter said that the results would be sent out in two weeks. I was confident that my channels would make the cut. Again my confidence was misplaced.

The results were in. The channels staying: KTTV and KHJ. The channels leaving: KCOP and KTLA. So that meant that my afternoon fix of Robetech was ending. The cable provider had placed a the date of the channels departure: August 1, 1985. And this date would arrive much sooner than I would see the 3rd Robotech War rebroadcast. If I could have stayed home in my PJs and only survived on Twinkies and Ding Dongs as my sorrow festered, I would have. Yet, I was only 12 and my mother forced me to get dressed, go outside to play and eat my sustaining dinner every day.

As my anger for the old farts of the Roswell community (as it must have been the retirees that wanted KHJ over KCOP-dang them and their old black and white movies!), I had to cope with no Robotech in my life. This was the first tragedy of my Robotech fandom.

If our Cable Provider had kept the channel lineup unaltered, the original run of Robotech on KCOP would have ended sometime in October 1985. See, I would learn a couple decades later while reading an article on Robotech, KCOP only played the show through two cycles of the 85 episodes. Since KCOP was one of the original broadcasters and they had giving Robotech 150 week days, we in fandom call this the Original Run. It would be months and sometimes years before Robotech would be back on television.

But back in 1985, the 12 year old version of me, was dismayed and disappointed he was missing the second season of the coolest show ever. Just as he never got get closure on the Invid Invasion. My only hope was to find another way to watch Robotech. But how to do it???

-stay tuned, as the tale of how the Second Run of Robotech would magically appear and then disappear....

Robotech Memories: The Original Run

-take note that most of the accounts below are that from a perspective of a 12 year old boy from 1985. 25 years have past and much as been learned. Yet, this is what I thought back then. Stay with me and I'll show you how it changed my life...

March 4, 1985

That was the premiere of the regular run of Robotech on KCOP out of Los Angeles. Three days earlier, I had watch the pilot, Codename: Robotech, in awe and fascination. I feel honored that I can truly say I was there from the beginning and didn't discover this show via reruns or DVD. Years later, and with many, many hours of research (mostly done in the last decade), I found that Robotech only premiered in a few large markets back in March 1985. The two big areas was New York and Los Angeles. Many other stations wouldn't get the show until much later in 1985. I guess I can call myself lucky that I happened to live in a small New Mexico town that transmitted several Los Angeles affiliates on its local cable provider. I still remember the four channels we'd get from L.A. There was KCOP, KTTV, KTLA and KHJ. I recall that I mainly watched KCOP and KTTV. These two channels boasted a large afternoon lineup of cartoons and other after-school shows. KTLA and KHJ mostly played movies and old re-runs of sitcoms from the 1970s.

I made a point to be on our gold couch every afternoon at 4:30 (I think it was 4:30, I have dug in my memories the best I can so forgive me if that is wrong. I know the show would be on at 4:30 on another network years later). UPDATE: After endless hours of research on the interwebs and finding some old newspaper TV listings. Robotech on KCOP was on at 4:30 pm Pacific, thus it was 5:30 pm Mountain. Roswell was in the Mountain Time Zone. So, deep down in my memories I remembered the announcer and commercials stating it was on at 4:30 – which was right yet it just aired one hour later in our area. Now that I know this, it brings back even more memories of when and where(s) of me watching Robotech. After every episode, I would eagerly anticipate the next one. I couldn't get enough of Robotech.

After watching nearly 36 episodes of what fans would call the 1st generation of Robotech, I had grown quite fond of it. Each day I wondered if Rick would be able to be with Minmei or if he would choose Lisa Hayes instead. I daydreamed about Veritechs. I would doodle large battles between Zentraedi Battlepods and Destroids. Nearly a month and half later, a sad day happened. April 22, 1985. This was the final episode of what would be called the Macross Saga. When the episode ended. I had no idea that it was really the last episode with Rick, Lisa, Minmei and Max. Like the conclusion of Force of Arms, I figured they would leap a few years into the future and we'd see the new SDF-3 going off into the stars. Perhaps this journey through space, like the Vehicle Team Voltron, was some of the mecha and characters I recalled from the opening credits. See after watching those opening credits 36 times, I was starting to analyze every component. There were motorcycles and a lovely blond girl in really cool battle armor pointing a rifle at the audience. I had no clue how these images or characters would fit into the overall story of Robotech.

I was wrong. On April 23, 1985, the first episode of (what we would dub the 2nd Generation) of Robotech began. It was titled, Dana's Story. At first I didn't mind it too much. They had spear headed it with lots of scenes from the previous episode. An unknown speaker spoke of the first Robotech War and how a new generation was ready to defend the Earth. It was Robotech so I watched. By the second and third episodes, I found myself not liking it. I think I was too attached to the original characters of Rick, Lisa and Minmei. Yet, the mecha was cool. I really liked the new samurai looking battle armor. So I stuck with it. (I'm glad I did, because in the long run the Masters Saga would end up being my favorite of all three generations of Robotech. Mostly because of the armor and mecha designs. The show also felt more militaristic vs the Macross counterpart.)

Yet, like all good things, even this version of Robotech would come to an end. The final episode of the 2nd Generation was on May 24, 1985. I remember school was nearly over. Sixth grade was coming to a close. In a few short months, I'd be at a new junior high and in the seventh grade. Yet first I had to prepare myself once again that my show was ending. Except this time, I wasn't so shocked that it had. The end of Robotech Masters had given us the fear and anticipation of an invading Invid army. I was really interested in watching this unfold. Again, at only 12 years old and knowing nothing of the production of Robotech, I thought we'd see Dana and a new band of Robotech fighters go off into space to divert the invasion. Or at least see, the Armies of the Southern Cross defend the earth from the Invid Horde.

I was wrong again. Instead we got a whole New Generation of Robotech defenders. As I said before, I wasn't so shocked that the show had taken another turn and jumped ahead. I embraced it with open arms. Watching Scott Bernard and the 21st Mars Division attack the Earth in a D-Day like invasion to free the Earth from crazy Invids hooked my attention and imagination. Unlike my unwillingness of the first few episodes of Masters, I was ready for this New Generation. Watching a motorcycle transform into a miniature battloid and fighting the crab-like Invid was incredibly cool. I couldn't wait for more episodes.

Then some bad news happened. My mother told me that school was out and I was scheduled to spend a few weeks at my Grandmother's house in Alamogordo. This wouldn't have been the bad news as I took it if my grandmother had cable. Since she didn't have cable, I knew that I would miss over two weeks of this new generation of Robotech. But wait, my mother had mentioned she had scheduled cable installation at my grandmothers. (see the reason my grandmother didn't have cable was she didn't want to pay the $15 a month for it. My mother was offering to have it installed and pay it each month so my grandmother would have something to do and watch.) Now, I was possibly only going to miss a couple of episodes in the time it would take to get there and have the cable man install the channels.

Well, as plans go, they never go as planned. The cable installation was delayed nearly 2 weeks. By the time my grandmother would get cable, the New Generation would be over. Yet, I tuned into Robotech like a hungry dog. I was shocked and dismayed to see they were showing episode 4, The Long Wait. I was now confused. Yet, my 12 year old mind raced to find an answer. The show must have gone back into re-runs because the season was over. I wasn't sure how everything ended but I hopefully would be able to catch up in the next few months. And by then, a new season of Robotech would be on the air for more awesome interstellar combat and transforming veritechs.

Well, not exactly how it would go...

-Stay tuned as I tell you how my life with Robotech would hit its first road block and how I would cope...

Robotech Memories: The beginning

-take note that most of the accounts below are that from a perspective of a 12 year old boy from 1985. 25 years have past and much as been learned. Yet, this is what I thought back then. Stay with me and I'll show you how it changed my life...

March 1, 1985. Codename: Robotech had just premiered on KCOP channel 13. A new era in my life had begun.

For the 12 years before that moment, I had been a kid that enjoyed only one thing more than G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. And that was Star Wars. After Return of the Jedi, had left the theaters in 1984. Star Wars had been forgotten by the coolness of G.I.Joe. By 1984, I had watched two G.I.Joe TV mini-series, rushed to buy the toys and anticipated the next TV commercial advertising the next issue of the Marvel Comic book. Yet, on March 1, 1985 that would change. It was the day that G.I.Joe stopped being my fanatical hobby and the day a new show- Robotech would take over my imagination.

I can still remember the apartment (Valle Encantada on Sunset and Poe). The burnt gold sofa that I had sat comfortably. The old Zenith television dialed to channel 13 (KCOP). Not truly understanding the story unfolding before me, I knew this was the coolest show I had seen in my entire life (of 12 years). Up until now, I would have said the coolest cartoon ever was Battle of the Planets. At 12, I would still contour my arm in a sideways "V" and yell, "trasmute!". The summer before 1985, I would say the coolest cartoon of the last year was Voltron: Defender of the Universe. I would watch it while drawing at the coffee table. Drawing battles between the ships of the Drule Empire and Earth or Zarkon's Fleet invading Arus. But those days were now gone.

The best part of watching Codename: Robotech was the advertisement to tune in Monday for the series premiere of Robotech! The 90 minute special was not the end. Now Monday seemed so far away. After watching Codename: Robotech, I wish I could watch it again. Wished to see more of the space battles. See more of the transforming Veritechs. And to see if I could understand it more with a second viewing. But this was the days before we got our first VCR. We wouldn't get that until Christmas 1985. Until then, I would have to settle on the replay in my mind.

Monday would eventually come and I spent most of the day anticipating the bike ride home. I remember Robotech started at 4:30 right after The Flintstones. Since I had Robotech on the brain for the days prior, I remember being very alert and attentive to the opening credits that first day. At the time, I had no clue this show would span three generations and three sets of characters. So, I had wondered when I would see the other mechs and characters that were in the brief scenes of the opening credits.

I don't recall the exact feelings I had after watching Booby Trap (episode I of the Macross generation). I do know that I was hooked. I wasn't confused anymore. A giant alien spacecraft had crashed on Earth. It contained the secret to Robotechnology. And now some 50 foot tall Zentraedi wanted the ship back. There was a character named Rick Hunter who had rescued a young girl named Minmei. The invasion of Macross Island had started and Rick was left in shock. I know I subconsciously connected this show with the likes of Voltron and Battle of the Planets. Again, I was unaware of the true origins of the show (and what would then be referred to as Japanimation). Instead, I just assumed that the creators of those other shows had a hand in drawing and creating this new show!

-With only a week and 5 shows under my belt, I knew this show had changed my life. It would influence how I would participate in fandom for the next 25 years...