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The story begins in 1999, when World War III threatens to destroy everyone on Earth. Then a hugh alien spaceship crashes.   It appears that this ship was locked in a battle against a giant human-like alien race, the Zentraedi. To protect the Earth from an alien invasion, a project is raised to unit Earth into one nation and the UN Spacy (space army) is formed. After a ten year rebuilt,  the reconstruction of the alien spaceship is finished and it's named the SDF-1 (Super Dimensional Fortress) Macross. During the launching ceremonies, the Zentraedi appear and try to capture the SDF-1. To gain a better tactical position, the SDF-1 tries to fold to lunar orbit, but because the crew of the SDF-1 doesn't fully understand much of the alien technology of the ship, the SDF-1 accidentally folds out to Pluto's orbit. To make things even worse, the fold drive vanishes during the jump. Together with the ship, the entire Macross island and all of it's inhibitants were transported into space. The civilians, which were hiding in bunkers during the attack, were taken on board the SDF-1 and the remains of the city are used to rebuild a city inside the SDF-1. With over 50 thousand people on board, the SDF-1 struggles to get back to Earth while fighting the growing Zentraedi army.

The SDF-1

The Valkyries

The VF-1 Valkyries (VF for Variable Fighter), were the basic fighters used by the UN Spacy. They could transform into three different modes: Fighter, Battloid or Gerwalk. In fighter mode the Valkyrie (called a Veritech in the Robotech series) looks a bit like a F14 Tomcat (although it's not meant to be one). In Battloid mode the Veritech forms a 45 foot tall robot. The third mode, the Gerwalk mode, is an intermediate stage between the fighter and battloid mode. Click here to see a picture of a Valkyrie in the three different modes. The transformable Valkyries were produced in several different types and colors to represent the Valkyries of the individual pilots in Macross. There were also several variations in armor: 1. regular Valkyries, with no attachable armor parts, 2. Armored Valkyries, with armor on each body part and two booster packs on his back, in which the Valkyrie could not transform, and 3. the Super Valkyrie, which also had armor on his arms, legs and back and two booster packs, but this doesn't inhibit the transformation.

Takatoku (1982 - 83)

1/55 scale
 

VF-1J Valkyrie	The VF-1J, which I find the most beautiful one, has a triangular eye lens and one gun on each side of his head. Takatoku produced the following versions: - Gray with red stripes. Green eye lens. This was Hikaru Ichijo's (Rick Hunter in Robotech) Valkyrie - Red with white stripes. The Valkyrie of Miria Fariina (Miriya in Robotech) - Blue with white stripes. The Valkyrie of Maximilian Genius (Max Sterling in Robotech).
VF-1A Valkyrie	This was the "general use" fighter in the TV series. It was tan, had one cannon on his head and a green square eye lens.
VF-1S Valkyrie	This Valkyrie was flown by Roy Focker and later by Hikaru Ichijo. It had a rectangular eye lens and two guns on each side of his head and it had a skull on its black cockpit window. It's also known as "Skull One". Its color was light gray, with black and yellow stripes on its chest and had a green eye lens. It was sold in three configurations: - Regular Valkyrie, without armor. - Super Valkyrie, with additional dark gray Super Armor. - Armored Valkyrie, with the GBP-1S Armor. The mold of the Super Valkyrie was used to make Jetfire. The main differences between Jetfire and the VF-1S are, besides the color scheme, that Jetfire had a more rounded nose, and the Macross version could shoot missiles from its gun (which was called the "GU-11" gun pod). The Macross Valkyries also came with a heat shield, which could be fitted onto the cockpit.

Armor
 

GBP-1S Armor

This armor could be bought separately and fitted on any regular Valkyrie, to form an Armored Valkyrie.

1/100 scale
These were the same as their larger versions, except that the canopies were painted instead of transparent, and the hands don't retract back into their arms in fighter mode. The following 1/100 scale Valkyries were produced by Takatoku:
 

VF-1J Valkyrie	Hikaru (gray) Max (blue) Miria (red)
VF-1A Valkyrie	Standard Type (tan)
VF-1S Valkyrie	Focker (light gray)
VF-1D Valkyrie*	Training Type (orange) It's highly doubtful that this version was ever produced.

1/144 scale
These were non-transformable diecast versions of the Valkyries in battloid mode. The following were produced:
 

VF-1J Valkyrie	Battloid Hikaru
VF-1S Valkyrie	Battloid Focker

Bandai (1984)
In 1984 Bandai released a number of Valkyries for the Macross movie, "Macross: Do You Remember Love?". They were
modified versions of the Takatoku Valkyries. Bandai also sold a number of models, which were highly detailed.

1/55 scale
 

VF-1A Valkyrie	The Bandai VF-1A was white, with black and red stripes on its chest and had a green square eye lens. This Valkyrie was flown by Hikaru Ichijo in the movie.
VF-1S Strike Valkyrie	White, with black and red stripes on its chest and a green eye lens. It came with dark gray strike armor, which is basically the same as the super armor except that one of the boosters has a double barreled cannon on the front and the other booster can be opened to show the engine inside. It also had a pair of missile pods that could be fitted underneath the wings.
VE-1 Elintseeker	This version had a large radar dish on its back in fighter mode (a la AWACS). It was gray, with black armor and a yellow nose in fighter mode. In battloid mode it has a round eye lens, no guns on his head, carried the radar dish above his head and had a sort of radar device attached to each arm.
VT-1 Super Ostrich	This was a two seat trainer version of the Valkyrie. It didn't really have a head, but it had a radar dish were the head would be. It was white with salmon colored strips and super armor with shortened booster pods.

1/100 scale
 

VF-1A Valkyrie	Hikaru
VF-1A Valkyrie	Max

High Complete Model Valkyries (1/72  scale)
The high complete models were a line of toys from many different series. They were more aimed at the collectors world and featured much more details. The high complete versions of the Valkyries had for example jointed fingers, rubber tires on the landing gear etc.
 

VF-1A Valkyrie	Standard
VF-1J Valkyrie	Hikaru
VF-1S Valkyrie	Hikaru

High Compact Series
These were small "super-deformed" versions of the Valkyries, complete with Super Armor.
 

VF-1J Super Valkyrie	Max Miria
VF-1S Super Valkyrie	Focker
VF-1A Super Valkyrie	Hikaru Movie Type Max Movie Type

	VF-1A HIKARU other pictures: Battloid side, Gerwalk, Fighter 1, Fighter 2, Fighter 3
	This is my VF-1A Valkyrie, made by Bandai. Unfortunately it doesn't have any of the original accessories, but I had an extra Jetfire gun, so I used that one as gunpod. Due to the immense popularity of these toys and the high prices they go for these days, I was happy enough to find one that I could afford.

	This probably the earliest version of the catalog that came with the Takatoku Valkyries.
	A second version of the Takatoku catalog that came with one of the Valkyries.
	This is the backside of the catalog that came with my Dorvack Mugen Calibur.

Model catalogs
 

	Besides the toys, which are treasured by many Japanese toy collectors, there were also several models of   the Macross mecha. Although not as popular as the toys, there are several models of Zentraedi mecha   and ships that were not sold as toys.
	The backside of this catalog.

Miscellaneous
 

	Before Macross was introduced in the US as part of the Robotech series, Revell sold several models  of various Japanese mecha as part of their Robotech model line. Because Revell already owned the right  to use the Valkyrie design, Harmony Gold was only allowed to air Macross if they would rename it to   Robotech. It has however nothing to do with the series otherwise. The Robotech model line also included  mecha from others series like Dougram, Votoms or Orguss, which have absolutely nothing to do with   Macross or Robotech. On this scan you can see several models of mecha mostly from Dougram, which   were originally designed by Takara.
	On the top left you can see the Revell version of Orguss, and further three different Valkyries. Note that   the names and colors aren't true to the originals
	The Robotech factory, were damaged mecha can be repaired.