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.