1985 MATCHBOX ROBOTECH SDF-1 BATTLE FORTRESS MACROSS
Holy Mountain Toy Vault
By: Daniel T
No television show changed things for me more than the original U.S. run of Robotech. Sure Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) and Tranzor Z (Mazinger Z) both played pivotal roles in introducing me to giant robots and the Japanese animation style but Robotech changed everything. Not only did Robotech further introduce me to Japanese animation but it hit at just that right time in my development as a young person with things that were completely foreign to me.
The serious take on war, survival, an ongoing story spanning generations and the introduction to romantic elements at a time when my brain was just starting to take an interest in such things was all intensely different than anything I had experienced up to that point. Robotech was the gateway to much more advanced expectations of my entertainment and a broadening of my world view. Nothing was the same after watching that show and to say I was obsessed with it would have been and is still an understatement.
I watched it religiously when it originally aired, revisited it numerous times over my life, read and collected the comics, owned it on numerous formats and have obsessed over the toys, which is what brings us here today. For my money, the SDF-1 is the king of all large robots and transformable ships. I mean aside from being a giant ship the damn thing had a city inside it! It was not only a space cruiser but a giant robot and home to an entire city of people.
As a kid, I can tell you I fantasized about what it would be like to live on the SDF-1 and to be a mech pilot like Rick Hunter, Max Sterling, Ben Dixon, and Roy Fokker. This incredibly detailed and beautiful toy made by Matchbox is one of my most prized possessions. Simply holding it immediately transports me back to that same place of wonder and awe that it did when I was a child.
