Before Mecha
The Advent of Mazinger
Mecha on the Battlefield
Assimilation
The Present
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Machine Evolution
The Western Invasion
During the 1970s, the "transforming robot craze" took hold of the West. Toy manufacturers flooded the export market with various transforming toys, which themselves led to robot cartoons like The Transformers (animated by a Tokyo company) and The Gobots. These American-funded cartoons became little more than promotional vehicles for the toys, and did not feature mecha in the strictest sense. Meanwhile, in other parts of Asia, super mecha TV shows like Voltes V and Daimos gained both popularity and notoriety (it was banned in the Philippines during its dictatorship era because it had elements of rebellion and subversion in its plot).
Macross' Valkyrie, otherwise known as the Veritech fighter of Robotech fame, gave the word 'mecha' a new meaning.
Interest generated by Robotech paved the way for anime TV shows and movies, creating an industry that included anime translations and original mecha- and anime-inspired creations such as FASA Corporation's Battletech tactical board-game system, and more recently, Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear RPG. Role-playing games based on Robotech, and more recently on Macross II, Bubblegum Crisis, and Armored Trooper Votoms were also produced by RPG companies like Palladium Books.
In the late 1980s, as more pen-and-paper RPGs were converted to computer games, FASA licensed its Battletech universe to game companies Infocom, which produced Battletech: The Crescent Hawks' Inception and The Crescent Hawks' Revenge, and Activision, which released the first mecha simulator, Mechwarrior.