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Robotech and HG license debates


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If we live long enough to see a RTLA Movie:

• The designs will be updated but we'll all be able to recognize what they are.

• We'll love some of the updates and be disappointed with others. Depends on the person. Reading this post its easy to tell who'll hate everything.

• I see why Jenius says to start with the Mospeada portion, but he's all caught up in the legal issues. Let's dream a little dream instead:

(take a deep breath, ease down the negativity for 5 minutes - even though much of it is warranted through the failures of so many that held your precious dreams and so massively crushed and botched things up in the past for you)

A. They start with Macross and get it perfect. PERFECT. Skull-1 is the coolest Skull-1 we could ever imagine, updated design based on some of the later Macross series VFs and some sheer Hollywood talent. Tobey M turns out to be the fan we can trust. We're so stoked we pee ourselves.

B. They change the name from Robotech to something else so we're not embarrassed to urge our co-workers on at the water cooler to go see it. And sadly for some, no transforming SDF, at least not into a robot with boat arms. Maybe the main parts do move around so they can fire the main guns, but into something else cool - something updated just as well as the previously mentioned Skull-1. We all love it and agree they did the right thing. Means different toys anyway - right?

C. The first movie is massively successful worldwide, we each see it 5x. There's so many new toys and models we can hardly track them all. They're understandably scared to go into the Masters plot line with Dana for the second film. But hey - they're not constrained by the animation and can finally do the gap fillers we've always dreamed about . . .

D. SDF-3 rolls through the screen, we get to see all our favorite Macross heroes run into the Invid while out searching for the "Masters" as the second movie opens. Meanwhile back on earth, ATAC and TASC and the rest are awesomely cast and are all piloting DESTROIDS, VFs and old Zentradi mechs when the Masters arrive! As they should have been. We love the new characters and get to see Tomahawk and Monster squads do battle like the first movie didn't get to show. Angelo Dante is definitely a Monster Captain.

E. We all say -"Now if the Bioroids were like that in the Southern Cross I would have been a HUGE fan" - The Bioroids make the Zentraedi look like playground bullys and the earth quickly must develop new mechs just to keep from total destruction. "This is nothing like the Southern Cross I feared" we shout! We're so relieved they didn't mess it up we pee ourselves again.

F. The hovertanks are rolled out o do battle with the Masters (perfectly updated, closed cockpits of course, we finally get our Toynami MPC line based on these updated designs). We all (almost) universally agree on MW posts that they're just as cool as the Skull-1 and SDF Hollywood updates. No other SC mecha are even shown - Horaah! But the individual body armor of the 15th Squadron turns out to be very cool and a logical step towards the protective suits that eventually bare the Mospeada ride-armor designs.

G. The Mospeada story line sells itself for the 3rd film, just like Jenius stated earlier in this post. But our Macross heroes simultaneously fight the Invid Regent across the distant galaxy so we get our fix of all the characters we love.

--Someone want to take it from here, I'm beat . . .

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If we live long enough to see a RTLA Movie:

• The designs will be updated but we'll all be able to recognize what they are.

• We'll love some of the updates and be disappointed with others. Depends on the person. Reading this post its easy to tell who'll hate everything.

• I see why Jenius says to start with the Mospeada portion, but he's all caught up in the legal issues. Let's dream a little dream instead:

(take a deep breath, ease down the negativity for 5 minutes - even though much of it is warranted through the failures of so many that held your precious dreams and so massively crushed and botched things up in the past for you)

A. They start with Macross and get it perfect. PERFECT. Skull-1 is the coolest Skull-1 we could ever imagine, updated design based on some of the later Macross series VFs and some sheer Hollywood talent. Tobey M turns out to be the fan we can trust. We're so stoked we pee ourselves.

B. They change the name from Robotech to something else so we're not embarrassed to urge our co-workers on at the water cooler to go see it. And sadly for some, no transforming SDF, at least not into a robot with boat arms. Maybe the main parts do move around so they can fire the main guns, but into something else cool - something updated just as well as the previously mentioned Skull-1. We all love it and agree they did the right thing. Means different toys anyway - right?

C. The first movie is massively successful worldwide, we each see it 5x. There's so many new toys and models we can hardly track them all. They're understandably scared to go into the Masters plot line with Dana for the second film. But hey - they're not constrained by the animation and can finally do the gap fillers we've always dreamed about . . .

D. SDF-3 rolls through the screen, we get to see all our favorite Macross heroes run into the Invid while out searching for the "Masters" as the second movie opens. Meanwhile back on earth, ATAC and TASC and the rest are awesomely cast and are all piloting DESTROIDS, VFs and old Zentradi mechs when the Masters arrive! As they should have been. We love the new characters and get to see Tomahawk and Monster squads do battle like the first movie didn't get to show. Angelo Dante is definitely a Monster Captain.

E. We all say -"Now if the Bioroids were like that in the Southern Cross I would have been a HUGE fan" - The Bioroids make the Zentraedi look like playground bullys and the earth quickly must develop new mechs just to keep from total destruction. "This is nothing like the Southern Cross I feared" we shout! We're so relieved they didn't mess it up we pee ourselves again.

F. The hovertanks are rolled out o do battle with the Masters (perfectly updated, closed cockpits of course, we finally get our Toynami MPC line based on these updated designs). We all (almost) universally agree on MW posts that they're just as cool as the Skull-1 and SDF Hollywood updates. No other SC mecha are even shown - Horaah! But the individual body armor of the 15th Squadron turns out to be very cool and a logical step towards the protective suits that eventually bare the Mospeada ride-armor designs.

G. The Mospeada story line sells itself for the 3rd film, just like Jenius stated earlier in this post. But our Macross heroes simultaneously fight the Invid Regent across the distant galaxy so we get our fix of all the characters we love.

--Someone want to take it from here, I'm beat . . .

You buy a lot of lottery tickets, don't you?

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Let's dream a little dream instead:

Ok.

Here I go:

Toby Macguire reads this thread and decides to go watch the original Macross. He loves it. He then watches Macross 7 and is photographed in Tabloid pictures running around shouting "Bomba!!" with the headline "Bomba!?" and lots of speculation as to what drugs Toby has been taking. He then moves on the Zero and finally Frontier, and later he is seen giving the Ranka "I Love you" hand sign everywhere he goes.

He announces that he's no longer interested in doing Robotech and the movie is scrapped. He also starts up a peaceful resistance movement that camps outsideo f HG and begs them to just give up and go home.

Miraculously, HG sees the light and stops haggling over legal issues and Macross as it was originally concieved gets to come to America. Just like Hasbro "re-invents" Transformers every so often, it is decided that Macross will be "re-invented."

The new live action movie will tell the story of Lynn Minmey and will be DYRL in live action - DYRL is the screenplay the plot, the everything - it will basically be everything we saw in DYRL but with live actors.

Marii Ijima will be cast as Misa Hayes.

Lyn Minmey will be performed by some up and coming super star cinderella lovely that we haven't seen or heard of.

Shoji Kawamorii will also have a cameo.

Heck - they'll even fly Graham in to play some cannon fodder pilot :)

After the smashing success that is live action DYRL, Yamato is given the license for the toys. They are also given a HUGE war chest of money to guarantee QC.

Following this, we get Macross 7 the Movie!

Yoshiki Fukayama is cast as Nekki Basara and his band is cast a fire bomber.

The movie is such a hit that J-Pop becomes the most popular brand of music in the Western world.

Bandai retains its' license for Macross 7 and finally produced NEW M7 toys rather than reissuing crap from 1980 for the fourty millionth time.

The third installment is Macross: Frontier the Movie.

Alto is played by a real Kabuki actor from Japan.

Sheryl is played by some hunny from Larry Flint's hustler (it makes sense since Sheryl was an artificial idol - a product of grooming on the part of Grace - so we want some amateur booby girl who also gets a couple of singing lessons and gets slung on stage).

Ranka - in the tradition of DYRL live action - is again cast from a list of nobodies and unknowns - she will be the new super star idol of America.

The movie makes more money than ALL of the movies that Holywood has ever put out EVER.

As thanks, the production studio gives all members of Macrossworld Forum free coupons for 2 thousand USD worth of free merchandise from Yamato.

And our girlfriends and wives suddenly want to dress like Sheryl and Ranka and buy us Macross aparel - because naturally Macross fashion makes a big splash and all the big name designers are into it, so the ladies are too.

The end.

Pete

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Whatever happens, Toby Macguire got punk'd into this mess and nobody bothered to tell him or fix it after 25 years.

I'm not exactly sure what that bit of slang means (forgive me, I'm getting on in years) but I'm sure WB and Tobey figured out the situation with the rights before they put any money into the live action movie. (The Watchmen problems aside)

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I'm not exactly sure what that bit of slang means (forgive me, I'm getting on in years) but I'm sure WB and Tobey figured out the situation with the rights before they put any money into the live action movie. (The Watchmen problems aside)

Considering licensing Robotech is a different licensing matter compared to Macross, I don't know why there would be a problem with Robotech.

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If we live long enough to see a RTLA Movie:

• The designs will be updated but we'll all be able to recognize what they are.

• We'll love some of the updates and be disappointed with others. Depends on the person. Reading this post its easy to tell who'll hate everything.

• I see why Jenius says to start with the Mospeada portion, but he's all caught up in the legal issues. Let's dream a little dream instead:

(take a deep breath, ease down the negativity for 5 minutes - even though much of it is warranted through the failures of so many that held your precious dreams and so massively crushed and botched things up in the past for you)

A. They start with Macross and get it perfect. PERFECT. Skull-1 is the coolest Skull-1 we could ever imagine, updated design based on some of the later Macross series VFs and some sheer Hollywood talent. Tobey M turns out to be the fan we can trust. We're so stoked we pee ourselves.

B. They change the name from Robotech to something else so we're not embarrassed to urge our co-workers on at the water cooler to go see it. And sadly for some, no transforming SDF, at least not into a robot with boat arms. Maybe the main parts do move around so they can fire the main guns, but into something else cool - something updated just as well as the previously mentioned Skull-1. We all love it and agree they did the right thing. Means different toys anyway - right?

C. The first movie is massively successful worldwide, we each see it 5x. There's so many new toys and models we can hardly track them all. They're understandably scared to go into the Masters plot line with Dana for the second film. But hey - they're not constrained by the animation and can finally do the gap fillers we've always dreamed about . . .

D. SDF-3 rolls through the screen, we get to see all our favorite Macross heroes run into the Invid while out searching for the "Masters" as the second movie opens. Meanwhile back on earth, ATAC and TASC and the rest are awesomely cast and are all piloting DESTROIDS, VFs and old Zentradi mechs when the Masters arrive! As they should have been. We love the new characters and get to see Tomahawk and Monster squads do battle like the first movie didn't get to show. Angelo Dante is definitely a Monster Captain.

E. We all say -"Now if the Bioroids were like that in the Southern Cross I would have been a HUGE fan" - The Bioroids make the Zentraedi look like playground bullys and the earth quickly must develop new mechs just to keep from total destruction. "This is nothing like the Southern Cross I feared" we shout! We're so relieved they didn't mess it up we pee ourselves again.

F. The hovertanks are rolled out o do battle with the Masters (perfectly updated, closed cockpits of course, we finally get our Toynami MPC line based on these updated designs). We all (almost) universally agree on MW posts that they're just as cool as the Skull-1 and SDF Hollywood updates. No other SC mecha are even shown - Horaah! But the individual body armor of the 15th Squadron turns out to be very cool and a logical step towards the protective suits that eventually bare the Mospeada ride-armor designs.

G. The Mospeada story line sells itself for the 3rd film, just like Jenius stated earlier in this post. But our Macross heroes simultaneously fight the Invid Regent across the distant galaxy so we get our fix of all the characters we love.

--Someone want to take it from here, I'm beat . . .

I think that when Hollywood execs see how convoluted the whole "Robotech saga" is, plot-wise as well as legally, they will sh!t themselves and drop it like the brick that it is.

Taksraven

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I think that when Hollywood execs see how convoluted the whole "Robotech saga" is, plot-wise as well as legally, they will sh!t themselves and drop it like the brick that it is.

Taksraven

They would have realized that by now, wouldn't they?

I'm with Roger...the higher-ups must know what they've gotten themselves into...you can't own the property for over a year and then suddenly burst out with "I didn't know this thing was 85 episodes long and covered three generations!" Clearly, they know what they have, they know the challenges, and they're probably going to forge ahead anyway.

But remember the tried and true adage of Hollywood studio execs: "Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself." Why bother about things like that when it's much easier just to hire a bunch of writers (most of whom come quite cheap) and say, "Hey you! Take something out these 85 episodes and turn it into a three-act movie structure!" You get ten or twelve people all working independently on that, and you'll probably end up with enough ideas on how to move forward with the project.

Besides, why worry about dumb things like story, when it's the giant robots that'll REALLY drive 'em to the theater. Only losers and lit majors worry about things like story. ;)

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They would have realized that by now, wouldn't they?

You would think so, but look at the legal crap that happened to Watchmen AFTER it was filmed.

Taksraven

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I would like to know at wich point is the rights thing. What rights have HG cos the last thing I knew was that they just had the international rights of distribution of macorss, but not from it's derivates, designs, etc.

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I would like to know at wich point is the rights thing. What rights have HG cos the last thing I knew was that they just had the international rights of distribution of macorss, but not from it's derivates, designs, etc.

Not to sound like a sixth grade English teacher, but spelling and grammar should be EMBRACED, not shunned! ^_^

Anyway, it's hard to know who has what at this point, since no one's really talking. We know that Big West owns the designs for SDF Macross, and Tatsunoko owns the actual film. What HG owns or doesn't own is an unanswered question, unless you take their claim that they own everything, and that the Big West/Tatsunoko lawsuit didn't affect them, at face value.

Which most of us don't.

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HG would have done more with Robotech or Macross if it were true.

As I said, most of us don't take it at face value

My thing is that their blanket statement, "We own ALL the rights to Robotech" is very different from saying "We own ALL the international rights to Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada."

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As I said, most of us don't take it at face value

My thing is that their blanket statement, "We own ALL the rights to Robotech" is very different from saying "We own ALL the international rights to Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada."

Still bugs me that if you type "mospeada.com" it takes you to a page owned by Harmony Gold.

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I hope Big West and Studio Nue follow Tsuburaya Production's lead against lies like Harmony Gold is doing.

Ultraman Series licensing rights dispute

On August 23, 2006, Tsuburaya Productions filed a new lawsuit against Chaiyo for copyright infringement and plagiarism (concerning their three original Ultraman characters), and the court case was taken to China. The Chinese courts in Beijing opened "The Ultraman Copyright Study Group" in response to the lawsuit.[1] In April 2007, the Thailand Intellectual Property Court ruled in favor of Tsuburaya Productions, ordering Chaiyo to cease and desist making commercial profits from Chaiyo-produced Ultraman characters such as Millennium, Dark, and Elite. The defendants were also fined THB 15,000,000 (approx. JPY 50,904,959 or USD 428,673.50 c. April 2007) plus interest and attorneys' fees.[2] [3] "Project Ultraman" went on hiatus as a result of the ruling, which implied that although Chaiyo owned the right to some of the Ultraman series, it did not own the right to Ultraman and his brothers, including the design. Chaiyo gained permission to merchandise the original series, but lost the right to create and market its own Ultraman, or even use the original, without Tsuburaya consent.

On February 5, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tsuburaya Productions of Japan after they made an appeal to the initial ruling. The ruling ended the long legal battle by finding Sompote Saengduenchai was not a co-creator of Ultraman. The decision ended Sompote's bid to continue his enterprise, and the court gave Sompote 30 days to stop profiteering from Ultraman. The final ruling saw Tsuburaya Productions as the sole copyright owner. Sompote was also required to pay THB 10,700,000 plus interest at the rate of 7.5 per cent a year starting from December 16, 1997, when the original lawsuit was filed

HG is merely profiteering from other people's work. Their grounds are shaky. Its just up to Big West and Studio Nue to pursue it in court.

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If THAT bugs you, you should try www.macross7.com and www.macrossfrontier.com...

They don't even CLAIM to have the distribution rights to those, do they?

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If THAT bugs you, you should try www.macross7.com and www.macrossfrontier.com...

Wow, they really are full of themselves aren't they. How did you find out about those?

I have to wonder sometimes what is really going on with HG. From what we know, their website hasn't been updated since 06-07, they haven't been involved with anything new for years, new Robotech projects are on hiatus and you rarely hear anything about it and the company except from small blurbs on convention panels every year that reveal nothing and if you visit robotech.com regularly. Unless they're getting boatloads of money from old projects and Robotech fans still, could they be in some financial trouble because it doesn't seem like they're doing anything significant, anything in general. There is still Toynami and Palladium releasing official products for Robotech, but how about HG itself?

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There's a term called "domain parking". I suggest you look it up. (which as Roger mentioned, we did mention somewhere in the many pages of this thread in more or less terms)

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There's a term called "domain parking". I suggest you look it up. (which as Roger mentioned, we did mention somewhere in the many pages of this thread in more or less terms)

I think that the expression "cyber-squatting" is much funnier. Not really the same thing but I love the concept.

Taksraven

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Gubaba:

the higher-ups must know what they've gotten themselves into...

ou can't own the property for over a year and then suddenly

I agree. Higher ups in Holywood are smart. They are just as smart as the people on - oh - say...I dunno...Wall Street.

People like that ALWAYS know what they're getting in to and NONE of them would acquire property that would turn out worthless after a few years.

I'm convinced ;)

Cynical Pete :)

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