BattleTech Plastic Model Kits from Twentieth Century Imports
If you’re unfamiliar with the history of BattleTech, here’s a quick overview of what happened:
- Fasa licensed giant robot designs from Twentieth Century Imports, using those robots as the basis for a new boardgame, BattleDroids.
- Lucasfilm had a problem with the use of the word “droid,” so Fasa re-released the game as BattleTech.
- BattleTech took off big, and within a few years had novels, comics, and many game expansions.
- Things went sideways in the nineties, and Fasa ceased using those designs that launched the game.
There’s a lot more to it, but that’s enough to explain this ad for BattleTech model kits for designs that look like they’re straight out of RoboTech. They were. They aren’t now. It was weird, yes. Still, this ad from a 1987 issue of BattleTechnology magazine was too good to leave hidden.
These model kits were my absolute favorites! It’s how my group got into playing Battletech in the first place. The original Battledroids box came with two of these models – Shadowhawk and Griffin. We never used the lead/pewter mechs so these additional model kits were great. Each kit came with a scenario featuring the two mechs in the box. This advertisement shows the first eight, but there would eventually be twelve altogether. Luckily, I have all 12 scenarios as they’re pretty hard to come by now.