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Totoro242

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    Welcome Macross Collectors

    in Collectors

    Posted

    Hi, sorry if it's not good topic but i've just asked if somebody has Mospeada LD box?

    Could someone give us details ( LD, booklet, poster?) ?

    i wonder about booklet.

    How many pages does it contain? Does it have some rare artworks or just common linearts, is it interesting ??

    Of course, pics are welcome.

    Many thanks for your future responses, guy!!

    akim.

    I would definately be interested in that too :)

    I've been thinking about picking it up myself and it would help if I knew if there were any good extras like the on the DVD's :)

    Robotech and HG license debates

    in Hall Of The Super Topics

    Posted

    *looks over at Totoro242*

    I was wondering how long it'd take the Robotech apologists to get here and start picking nits in my post with all the speed and frenzy of an amphetamine-fueled chimpanzee... it took longer than I thought.

    I'm not apologizing for anything. I just cant stand to see people present obviously incorrect information as "fact". Now you have the real facts.

    Interesting that you would resort to insults rather than acknowledge that you have been corrected.

    Robotech and HG license debates

    in Hall Of The Super Topics

    Posted

    Sort of yes, sort of no...

    After work on Robotech II: the Sentinels was aborted in 1987, Harmony Gold more or less gave up trying to make new material on their own, so they attacked the only area where they showed a consistent profit... comic books. Of course, if you know anything about Harmony Gold's history... you'll know that they even managed to cock that up pretty badly.

    In 1988, Harmony Gold handed the Robotech license to Malibu imprint Eternity Comics. Malibu proceeded to pick up the Sentinels story right where it left off in the animation, and turned out a series of extremely poor comic books that didn't sell very well. They made a brief attempt to milk the Macross side of the story for cash with Robotech: Return to Macross. When Marvel bought Malibu Comics in 1994, they shut down the Eternity imprint, and the Robotech license was picked up by Academy Comics.

    Academy Comics, an independent publisher, unwisely attempted to pick up the Robotech II: the Sentinels comics right where Eternity/Malibu had left off, and managed to do an even worse job with the art and writing than Eternity did. Many of their comics, including Robotech: Destroid, Robotech: the Misfits, and Robotech: Mechangel frequently contained art blatantly traced from Macross animation, products, and publications. To give you an idea of how bad it was... Robotech: the Misfits blatantly traced the VF-4 from Flashback 2012, but rebadged it "U.S. Spacy", and also borrowed several characters from Macross Plus, including Captain Higgins. In 1996, after several writers jumped ship when their projects were canceled, Harmony Gold revoked Academy's license, causing the company to fold in short order.

    The next idiots to be given the license were perhaps the worst offenders prior to Tommy Yune... Antarctic Press, who had the Robotech license from 1997 to 1998. Antarctic had the unpleasant tendency to treat contemporary movies and TV shows like a free idea bucket. Much of their mecha art was blatantly traced from DYRL product boxes and artbooks, and many of their characters were traced from popular movies. One of their worst titles was a two-issue series called Robotech: Wings of Gibraltar which stole most of its mecha designs from DYRL, and most of its character designs from Independence Day (going so far as to TRACE Brent Spiner's character). These comics were received so poorly by the fans that there was actually jubilation when several titles were canceled early into their runs. Many of their titles were blatant attempts to milk the original Macross series for more money... and had the lamentable tendency to promise the moon with action-packed cover art, but incredibly boring and poorly drawn contents. Harmony Gold revoked their license in 1998 and never bothered telling them why.

    In 2002, when Harmony Gold decided to have another stab at comics, they contracted with Wildstorm and put Tommy Yune in charge. Naturally, with Harmony Gold having tighter creative control they stuck to what they knew would sell, endless retreads of Macross events, and side stories based on the Macross original series. In this case, the powers that be apparently were watching Macross Zero, because their first title was a prequel comic that was set during the development of the VF-1. For two miniseries, they milked Macross, then decided to have a stab at an artbook, then went to suckle the teats of Mospeada in preparation for the eminently craptacular Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles.

    Starting in Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles, the last of Wildstorm's Robotech comics, an odd trend started with regard to Macross intellectual property... it started to disappear. Many of the Robotech equivalents of Macross characters either died, went missing, or were totally remodeled to the point where they bore no resemblance at all to their Macross origins. In the span of the five-issue miniseries, Breetai (Vrlitwhai), Exedore (Exsedol), and possibly Dr. Lang (SDF-1's chief engineer) were all killed, Lisa (Misa) was critically injured and spent most of her time uninvolved in the story, Rick (Hikaru) was completely remodeled to the point where he looks like Hideo Kuze from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd gig, and Max and Miriya (Milia) mysteriously failed to appear. Minmay made a brief appearance, but was obscured from view in all but two panels, both of which were in the last issue.

    This odd trend of avoiding Macross intellectual property at all costs has led more than a few people to suspect that the powers that be at Harmony Gold might have been gently encouraged to stay the hell away from the character designs and other intellectual property from the original Macross series in their ongoing works. Either that or the powers that be at Harmony Gold have decided on their own power to avoid a potential lawsuit and accusations that all they know how to do is milk Macross to death by getting away from Macross.

    So yes, in terms of intellectual property usage... it's only very recently that Harmony Gold has loosened their death grip on Macross. Most of their toys are still either blatantly relabeled copies of Macross merch, or stuff they themselves have imported.

    (PS: If you actually read all that without needing to stop and take a breather... bravo...)

    The Sentinels comic picked up within months of the last issue of Comico's The Macross Saga #36. Its even announced in TMS #36. HG never "gave up" and "attacked" comic books, the comics just kept going.

    For anyone who actually reads the comics, The Sentinels and The Invid War are considered the best comic books of the entire run. If you know your comic history, the art and story are consistantly as good as any other independant American manga produced during this time. Also if you know your history you will know that the entire comic book industry peaked and began a massive decline in the middle of 1994. By 1995 volumes of comic titles were being cancelled and every comic saw declining sales. The Robotech comics dried up as interest in the original series waned, interest in comics took a nose-dive, and HG lost interest and gave the comic book companies free reign. All of these reasons contributed to the decline of Robotech comics.

    The Eternity Sentinels comic restarted the story based on the original scripts, the McKinney novels, and their own added elements.

    Sentinels Book One sold extremely well for an independent title, warranting second printings of the first two issues. A comic book series that ran for 75 issues for eight years and produced a myriad of spin-offs must not have been "poor" and must have sold well. That the Sentinels partially weathered the comic book crash of 1995-1996 is a testament to this point.

    As far as “milking Macross for cash”, the comics explored just about every aspect of all three TV series, not just Macross, so I don’t see the point you are making.

    Marvel bought Malibu to acquire technical staff and skilled colorists. They decided not to acquire Eternity which was heavy with licensed titles and B&W independent flavorings. Not really Marvels cup of tea. The Robotech staff simply formed with another company, changed the name to Academy, and transferred the license and titles to the new company.

    If you talk to any of these artists that used DYRL designs you will find that many of them are huge SDF Macross and DYRL fans. One artist is even a regular on these boards. Their choice of using these designs was because they liked the art and wanted to pay homage. At this point in the comics history, HG was hardly monitoring the license and the artists and writers went with what they felt was right. This was also the period where Macross II and Plus were released. No harm done.

    No writers "jumped ship" to cause HG to revoke the Academy license, but rather Ben Dunn (who had made a bid for the Robotech comic license back in 1988) made a stronger pitch for the license when it next came up for renewal. He offered better sales through his distribution, flashy CG covers, more money, and a color format; and HG fell for it.

    Cant argue with much of your criticism of Antarctic’s run. Ben Dunn is an admitted DYRL fanatic and felt obligated to use those designs. I'd hardly call that "attempts to milk the original", but rather, he thought he knew what the fans wanted and failed miserably. He really dicked up what was left of the comics license. Its painfully obvious by what you stated above why the Antarctic license was revoked. No one in business revokes a license without giving a reason and of course Antarctic knew why the license was revoked.

    There were 4 titles, one of which was a prequel (obviously since Macross comes first it involved many Macross characters), one was Macross based, another New Generation, and the last bridged the Sentinels with the Shadow Chronicles series. I'd hardly call that "endless retreads of Macross events".

    Robotech comics have a long history of prequel stories starting with the original Graphic Novel in 1987 to Return to Macross to The Legend Of Zor. Return to Macross also chronicles the period during the VF-1 development. No one saw Macross Zero when those were planned.

    The Mospeada derived mini-series was in support of the (albeit terrible) Invasion video game, not a lead-in to Prelude.

    Its no secret that HG cannot make animated sequels to Macross. Its no great revelation that the Prelude comic didn’t dwell on any Macross characters. Maybe you were surprised by this, but the rest of us saw this coming a mile away. Everyone knew it was a lead-in to an animated sequel, which could not have Macross characters in it.

    If anyone really wants to get a good idea of what a well-informed opinion of the Robotech comics looks like (the good and the bad), please check out Ravenhawks MW post:

    http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=28822

    "Robo War" Picture

    in Movies and TV Series

    Posted

    Pretty sure that's among the paintings for Macross model kits/video releases/et cetera that got recycled a million times, possibly one of the Toshimichi Suzuki ones. Suzuki is probably better known as the president of Artmic.

    Its too nice to be Suzuki's IMO. The original My Anime poster is signed "SToshi" not ARTLAND like the Robotech posters.

    "Robo War" Picture

    in Movies and TV Series

    Posted

    Anyone know where it originated from and where I might get a really high rez scan of it?

    Thanks

    -Star

    This was originally a poster and was found in the issue of My Anime, December 1982. It is a jumbo fold-out poster and there's a little bit more at the bottom than previously seen on Robotech posters. Scanning it would be tough since its a fold out poster and has lots of creases. There are a few collectors that have the poster, I am one. If I can find a good technique for photographing folded poster, I'll get you a nice big pic.

    Macross posters thread can be found in the Collectors section: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showforum=42

    Best Anime Ever

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted

    The obvious answer is the movie, Crystal Triangle.

    But seriously, if I had to pick one anime, hmmm... I guess I'd pick Nausicaa.

    My fav's are...

    Macross Plus

    Bubblegum Crisis original series

    Mospeada

    Area 88 original OAV

    Awesome list! This would be my top 5, though in a slightly different order :)

    Official Macross posters

    in Collectors

    Posted

    That should be about right. Some DYRL posters are more expensive due to the rarity. For example, the SDF-1 space poster has been re-issued twice so its value isnt as high. The Hikaru and Minmay poster is fairly common, so it only go for a little more. The Minmay poster is really rare and will run you $75 - $100.

    Battlestar Galactica Discussion III

    in Hall Of The Super Topics

    Posted

    Awesome. The show wrapped up as perfectly as I could have asked for story-wise. I would have liked a bit more tension and extended battle scenes, but in the end the characters are what drove this show, not the graphics, so the creators decided to spend the last 45 minutes tying up the characters stories. I'm cool with that.

    Months ago, I actually thought they were going to end the show this way, "colonizing" our Earth, but when they discovered Cyclon Earth earlier in the season, I threw that theory out the window. I was pleasantly surprised to find that idea again :)

    Was it the best ending to a show ever? Not quite for me, that mantle belonging to Avatar The Last Airbender, but I really did enjoy it.

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