I watched robotech here, in Chile, around 1987, I really liked the show, until a couple years ago it was aired every year, I watched the series everytime, and I even recorded it in VHS.
It was in 1998 when a new friend (he was like 5 years older than me, and we met when I asked him about his awesome macross shirt) explained me all about the merge of the three series (where I found why the second generation "southern cross" was so boring).
My friend showed me his valkyrie models and mangas, and lend me some of the music and movies, and when I bought my PSX (playstation one) the first thing I did was buying Macross VF-X and later VF-X2, Plus and DYRL, with this, me and my brothers started to like the valkyries even more (whenever I let them play a macross game they always say "OK, were's the excalibur").
Since then I love Macross with all my heart.
Now my wife watches the series with me and 2 year old little daughter loves to "play" macross triangle frontier with my PSP.