"A.Griffin" <sample@example.com> wrote

> Or it could have meant a Gundam-themed hotel suite -- sweet!

Coincidentally when I discovered anime back in 1986 in Seattle, I came
across the [then] mysterious word 'Gundam' preceded by the
mistranslated/spelled word 'suite', along with a picture of a humanoid
robot. I thus briefly presumed 'Mobile Suite Gundam' to be a group/suite of
hi-tech moveable/transportable offices or laboratories somehow tied-in with
robots.

Nope.

During that same time I also first saw the word 'Macross' --along with a
different humanoid robot [a Valkyrie, of course]. But likewise having no
idea then what 'Macross' was, I imagined the word to mean a cross between a
machine and a human... a MA[chine] CROSS... and thus 'Macross'.

Nope to that, too.

Sounds funny now, but back then there was no Internet and certainly no
newsgroups. How could most people know anything about anime? Too, there was
no Cartoon Channel and no anime magazines other than Hobby Japan and Animag,
which were both almost impossible to find [if you even knew about them in
the first place]. And mech models were little more than a curiosity,
relegated to a very *very* few hobby or toy stores. The only thing remotely
like them were Transformers, which had just appeared in the US around the
same time. Anime... what was 'anime'... and how did you pronounce it,
anyway?

> I do remember reading about one guy who build his kids a playhouse in the
> form of a Battletech mech...

Right... a habitable 'Mad Cat' figure 12-14 feet tall, welded legs, and
quite detailed. Just amazing.