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DYRL Superposeables


Ginrai

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I hope this is in the correct place. I'm sure you all know about the DYRL Superposeables by now. I wanted to know why this was okay, so I asked Tommy Yune in the Robotech.com chat room.

Robotech.com chat Feb. 20 2004

<Ginrai> Tommy, is there an official reason for why DYRL Superposeables are okay now?

<TommyBack> gr-yeah, we finally got around to properly getting the license

<TommyBack> it was something HG didn't pursue before

<Ginrai> Tommy, can you tell me if the rights came directly from Big West or if it was from whoever had the video rights tied up in Clash of the Bionoids/Super Spacefortress Macross?

<TommyBack> gr - no big mess like that, though I won't get into it until AX04 remember, the simplest explanation is often the correct one

Interesting.

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The simplest explanation is often the correct one

Interesting.

I wonder where he's going with that last remark. I don't think that his explanation can be that simple. I can't wait for da AX04 when everything (in terms of RT fans) will come to pass. :ph34r:

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I was thinking they were going to wait until AX or Otacon until they say what's going on. Hopefully lots of good news at the cons this year.

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There is no reason why we can't confirm that they have settled with Big West.

"The simplest explanation" for Harmony Gold usually means they just decided they owned the rights to it.

Bingo

Hence my remaining skepticism.

I hope for good news, but why not settle a controversy right away instead of letting it linger for months on end. There are legality questions being raised, most companies would have said something by now.

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Yes, some skepticism is justified. But there could be a reason for the delay...for example, take the scenario I suggested in another thread: BW/Bandai are letting HG have a license to release the superposables, in exchange for HG recognizing that their exclusive contract only covers SDF Macross, stopping with all the trademark shenanigans, and promising not to interfere with BW's licensing of further Macross products in the U.S.

Why wouldn't HG announce this right away? Because it gives them time to sell their crappy superposables before people realize that there's much better stuff on the way. Why wouldn't BW announce this? Because they agreed to keep mum for a "decent interval" and let HG make a little money.

Again, this is pure speculation. It's a possible scenario, but I have no evidence it's what's going on. I'm simply presenting it to show that there could be a good reason why HG isn't in a rush to give details on the licensing situation.

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Yes, some skepticism is justified. But there could be a reason for the delay...for example, take the scenario I suggested in another thread: BW/Bandai are letting HG have a license to release the superposables, in exchange for HG recognizing that their exclusive contract only covers SDF Macross, stopping with all the trademark shenanigans, and promising not to interfere with BW's licensing of further Macross products in the U.S.

But, on the other hand, IF HG actually believed that they owned the Macross license, why would they stand still for this? Unless...something happened to get their patron, Tatsunoko, to back off and ger HG into an agreement... Maybe there was a settlement of the BW/Tat case?

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HG might do this for a variety of reasons. Among them, I might speculate:

a) BW/Bandai are finally bringing out the big guns and saying, "we're coming in, and if you sue us, you'll lose". They might also be threatening to sue HG for unfair trade practices (willfully misrepresenting their rights under the HG/TP contract to interfere with Bandai/BW's business) or even patent infringement (since the MPC's may infringe on the patented Matsushiro transformation method, which is probably owned by Bandai now).

b) HG realizes they've just about exhausted their ability to exploit the Macross franchise, so they might as well use their remaining leverage to obtain a license for DYRL superposables.

And yes, there have been some developments in the Japanese legal situation over the last few months. Take a look at the pinned thread. BW has run out of appeals in the SDF Macross copyright case, and Tatsunoko lost a trademark case against BW/Bandai. The clearer the rights situation becomes, the more both sides should be willing to deal. Put another way, once the courts have spoken definitively on all aspects of the situation, the protagonists have no choice but to negotiate any remaining conflicts.

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I talked to Tommy Yune about a number of other things, too, including the Robotech 2004 series and whenever I asked something he didn't want to answer, the answer was always "wait until AX04". I think the reason for this is not because of any kind of legal funny business, but more like that's when HG has set for official annoucements and they told him he couldn't say more until then. This is probably intended to draw a bigger crowd at their booth at AX04. I think you guys are reading WAY too much into that.

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There is no reason why we can't confirm that they have settled with Big West.

"The simplest explanation" for Harmony Gold usually means they just decided they owned the rights to it.

Bingo

Hence my remaining skepticism.

I hope for good news, but why not settle a controversy right away instead of letting it linger for months on end. There are legality questions being raised, most companies would have said something by now.

Publicity?

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can a HG-made DRYL movie dubbed with Reba West be far behind? Honestly, even that Australian/New Zealand voice actress makes for a better Minmay imho!

she was nto a bad minmei. her voice was the same high pitched stuff we got from japanese minmay. her songs nnoyed you however sicne thy tneded to repeat the bad ones. Also they gave her soem god awfull dialogue in some scenes.

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If they re-cast the roles of Minmay (get Mari Iijima, she speaks english....) and Hikaru, the rest of the voice crew was pretty decent.... I could handle that so long as it was a dub of the original dialogue, not some gimped-up, feeble-minded Robotech dialogue..

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