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!
