The engineer and his robots

Every collection has an origin story. Marco's began in Peru, where giant robots, American movies and one conversation with his father eventually shaped a career in engineering and a collection that brings those childhood memories back to life.

Tim San Fillippo (left) and Marco Lopez have shared a passion for science fiction, movies and collecting since meeting at the University of New Orleans more than three decades ago.

When I first met Marco more than thirty years ago at the University of New Orleans, it didn't take long to discover we spoke the same language. Science fiction, giant robots, comic books, movies and collecting filled more conversations than I could count. Over the years we've attended conventions, toy shows and countless movies together, and today it's been fun watching him share many of those same experiences with his wife and children.

When I began building POP nakaro, I knew Marco would be one of my first interviews.

Stepping into his display room, my attention immediately settled on the towering VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross. Around it are shelves filled with Transformers, Back to the Future collectibles and the giant robots that first captured his imagination as a child. I've appreciated the room for years, but this time I wasn't there to photograph the collection. I wanted to hear the story behind it.

That story begins in Lima, Peru.

The VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross became one of Marco's first major collectibles after he began his engineering career. Today it stands alongside the science fiction heroes that inspired him as a child, reminding him how far that journey has taken him.

Discovering a bigger world

For Marco, television became a passport to places he had never been. Japanese animation dubbed into Spanish introduced him to Mazinger Z, while Transformers, Robotech and Back to the Future opened the door to stories that captured his imagination. Looking back, he remembers them less as separate shows and movies than as one continuous adventure. They were filled with giant machines, futuristic technology and characters who made impossible things seem possible.

The television programs were only part of the experience. Marco also remembers watching the American toy commercials that aired between them. Kids transformed Optimus Prime on their living room floors, flew futuristic aircraft through imaginary battles and played with toys that he had never seen in person. Like a lot of children, he wanted those toys. Unlike many American kids, finding them wasn't simply a matter of asking his parents to stop by the nearest toy store.

Whenever his family was shopping, there was one specialty store he always hoped to visit. Every trip carried the possibility that an imported toy might have arrived. Sometimes there would be something from overseas sitting behind the glass. Sometimes there wouldn't. That uncertainty became part of the excitement, and Marco still remembers walking through the aisles wondering if this might finally be the day he found something he had only seen on television.

Mazinger Z and Dr. Hell's Mechanical Beasts remind Marco of the television series that inspired him to become an engineer.

The question that changed everything

One afternoon, while watching Mazinger Z, he turned to his father with a simple question.

"What do you call the people who build robots?"

His father answered without hesitation.

"Engineers."

Marco smiled as he remembered what came next.

"Then I'm going to be an engineer."

Plenty of children dream about what they want to be when they grow up. Marco never let go of that one. The giant robots that filled his television screen didn't just entertain him. They gave him a direction. They inspired a young boy in Peru to believe he could build the kinds of machines that had captured his imagination. That dream eventually brought him to the University of New Orleans, where he earned his engineering degree. Next to three decades later, he has built a successful career, raised a family in Louisiana and watched two of his own children attend the same university.

Looking around his collection today, it's easy to see giant robots, spaceships and superheroes. Marco sees the stories that inspired the life he built.

Marco's fascination with time travel began with Back to the Future, making Marty McFly and Doc Brown a natural addition to his display.

Building the collection

Marco's collection grew as life finally gave him the opportunity to buy the things he had spent years dreaming about. During college, an engineering internship gave him disposable income for the first time. One of his earliest purchases was a Macross VF-1 Valkyrie, the kind of transforming fighter he had wanted since childhood. At the same time, Transformers: Armada was arriving in stores, introducing him to something he'd never experienced growing up in Peru: walking into Walmart, Target or Toys "R" Us and discovering the newest Transformers on the shelves. For the first time, the excitement wasn't just watching the commercials. He could actually bring the toys home.

From there, the collection expanded into the characters that had stayed with him. G1 Transformers, Voltron, Gundam and other Japanese robot lines gradually found their way onto the shelves. Marco never felt the need to own everything. He collected the stories that had shaped his childhood.

Years later, after earning his professional engineering license, he celebrated by buying a Soul of Chogokin Mazinger Z. That purchase carried a different weight than any of the others. Decades earlier, Mazinger Z had inspired a six-year-old boy in Peru to ask his father what engineers do. Now it stood on his shelf as a reminder that childhood inspiration had become a profession.

For years, these G1 Transformers existed only on television. Today they fill the shelves of the display room Marco dreamed about as a child.

Looking around the room

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Marco what he sees when he walks into his display room.

He didn't start talking about Transformers or Macross. He talked about gratitude.

Growing up in Peru, he watched those stories unfold through a television screen, knowing most of the toys existed somewhere beyond his reach. Today, every shelf reminds him not just of the characters that shaped his childhood, but of the opportunities that followed. A career in engineering. A life in Louisiana. A family of his own. The chance to finally bring home the pieces that had lived in his imagination for decades.

Then I asked him one last question.

"What would six-year-old Marco think if he walked into this room today?"

Marco laughed.

"He'd be freaking out."

He's probably right.

A little boy who once dreamed about giant robots would finally get to pick them up, transform them and relive the adventures that first captured his imagination. But I think he'd notice something even more remarkable. Standing in front of those shelves would be the engineer he promised his father he was going to become.

Some collections preserve memories.

Marco's preserves the dream that made the memories possible.