Robotech - The Macross Saga - Complete Collection

Robotech: the Complete Macross Series
One Boxset: 6 disc

Sells for around $60-$65
Nothing special, picture quality is not great, but bearable. Comes in one compact boxset with all the disc in it. Would not reccomend getting this edition unless you just want a copy of the series and want to spend the least possible amount of money.

Robotech: The Legacy Collection: Macross Saga (Collections 1-3)
Three Boxsets: with 3 disc in each
Sells for around $40 each boxset, entire set around $120-$130
Same picture quality as the above set, but with addtional features. Comes with the most extras out of any current sets, but even then, they are so-so. I would actually recommend getting the above edition as I was not impressed with the extras, some were interesting, but it definately didn't justify the price. Your paying almost twice the price.

Robotech Remastered: The Macross Saga (Volumes 1-3)
Three Boxsets: Two disc each boxset
Sells for around $25 each boxset, entire set around $75-$80
Remastered picture quality superior to both sets above, sound quality much improved. This is the set that I would recommend. The price is affordable and well worth the extra money compared to the first set. Also includes a few bonus footage.

Macross: Super Dimensional Fortress (Sets 1-3)
Three Boxsets: Three discs each boxset
Sells for around $60-$70 each boxset, entire series around $180-200
Macross is the original Japanese series of the Robotech: Macross Saga. The storyline is slightly different with different music and sounds. When it was brought to the US, Harmony Gold added the Macross material with two other Japanese series to make Robotech. Macross is more "mature" and includes several scenes taken out of Robotech. Picture quality is even more crisp than the Remastered Series. I would reccomend only to die-hard Robotech fans. It's pretty expensive and lacks really any real extra features.


900 Minutes of Animated Bliss   September 27, 2002
Volkswagen Blues (Chico, CA)
36 out of 36 found this review helpful

What you see here is pretty much what you get, and I'm not complaining. It's not elegantly packaged or loaded with extras, but this collection of Robotech's Macross episodes (all of them, 1-36) has one of the most addictive mixes of character, plot, and outright action ever to grace after-school cartoons.

I bought this 6-DVD collection just days ago to scratch a lingering itch for a show that I was obsessed with when I was 9 or 10 years old. I'm 29 now, but Robotech still hasn't lost its ability to suck you right in: A spaceship crashes onto a small island and the world comes together trying to figure out how to restore it; aliens come after the ship and intergalactic hell breaks loose, leading us on a space-epic of whose emotional detail and energy Tolstoy or Hugo would definitely have approved. You've got a rising pop chanteuse, the boys who love her, the prissy administrator who'll charm you later, the fighter jocks, the Star Search moments... Ah, it's grand. Yeah, of course, it's kitschy, and in a way no 9 year old would have grasped, but it's still hours (about FIFTEEN hours, if you can handle it!) of fun.

The only annoying thing--but some might not find this annoying--is that the commercial-break announcements are still there. It's nice that the commercials aren't, but they're still distracting, as are the credits at the beginning and end of each episode. Since it's a DVD, you can of course punch your way through it with ease, but it would have been nicer just to be able to float in one seamless 900-minute stream of Robotech.

If you're a hardcore fan, you might do well to buy the more completely and minutely detailed Legacy Collection box sets. I've got one of them, and it's nicely packaged and full of extras (like technology sketches, plot outlines, etc.), but I'll likely be selling it now. What got me addicted to Robotech in the first place, back when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, wasn't the planes, it was the people. This Complete Collection has everything I need: 900 minutes of sheer anime bliss, at a great, compact price.


DVD quality, here's what to expect.   January 9, 2003
36 out of 38 found this review helpful

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I was hesitant in buying this due to the many similar reviews complaining about DVD quality. Here's what you will (or will not) expect from the Robotech DVDs:

1. Do not expect high quality DVD video or audio found in remastered movies like Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
2. It is a little grainy (but sharp) with a lot of artifacts (dust and such).
3. Color quality is somewhat "light", as if a little too bright.
4. Sound quality is TV quality.
5. In short, if you watched it on TV back in the 80s, then expect similar 1980s TV quality. In this aspect, it is similar to watching a VHS recording of your favorite prime time show.
6. If you have seen HK DVD bootlegs of 1980s anime (like Kimagure Orange Road -KOR), I'd say they are pretty much of the same audio-video quality.
7. Would I still have bought it? Now that I have seen it for myself?

YES SIREEE! Overall, the quality is still acceptable (to me at least): It is TV quality. Just imagine, you are watching a TV show as you were back in the 80s. It is still better than my old Robotech VHS from F.H.E.


One of the greatest action cartoons of the eighties   January 4, 2003
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

The box set contains 6 discs with all the episodes (48) of the macross saga of the robotech series. It also contains various previews for other anime movies of note. The picture quality on the dvds is not great for todays standards but still very watchable, the sound is also lacking but this is all secondary to the fact that the story line and the action on most of the episodes is ultra involving and is still fresh and original. Episodes like 'battle Hymn' are unforgetabble and will be watched again and again. I am a big fan of the series but still believe that even those who have not even heard of robotech would enjoy this dvd box set wich is one of the jewels of my DVD collection (expanding some 200 DVD)