jenius

ha, I was editing when you replied. Yes, it sounds dated and lame, but a lot of stuff sounds dated and lame and is still successful. Call it R-Tech, or some fancy name and then put "from the Robotech Sagas" somewhere down below. The name is still the only thing that HG has that they can market. Imagine them going somewhere and trying to pitch a totally NEW and unproven series. They'd be laughed out of the room.

If the story is going to be set in the Robotech universe (even if it's a different era in that universe not directly affecting the original cast, or even an alternate version of the universe) and the story can be told in such a way as to be inviting to new fans then it wouldn't really make sense to ditch the name Robotech. Even if the fans are a tiny niche they're obviously quite dedicated so why not take advantage of that? Heck, they even have a voracious appetite for merchandise, that's not the kind of thing you turn your back on. The "ditch the name" campaign only works if you really believe that more people will be turned off by the name then will gravitate toward it. Since the vast majority of new viewers wouldn't have heard of Robotech they wouldn't be turned off by it. Just so were clear, I'm in the "I don't think the name matters so much so keep it (even though it sounds really dated) but do move Robotech in a direction where it is completely unhindered by the first three wars and Sentinels." I think the Shadow series should be a necessary cleansing for Robotech to wrap up all those loose ends and give the fans the send-off to the characters they want. Then, a future Robotech show can just be any futuristic military show featuring transformable crafts. Heck, at that point the "Robotech" brand can just be used as a vehicle to import dubbed Japanese anime again.

Why not stop now? Protoculture needs to go... and it essentially already has gone by the end of the first Shadow Chronicles movie. Eliminating protoculture from Robotech also serves as a fantastic reason why all new mechs would have to be made and new mechs are really the name of the game when it comes to sequels.

Seeing as Tommy essentially told the crowd "I'm just trying to make as much money as possible with Shadow Rising" I'm going to have a hard time accepting any theories that involve WB having an opinion on that Shadow story arch. Indeed, I find it entirely more plausible they simply don't care about it. Transformers is the the ball that got this rolling and it's been reinvented a billion times and still qualifies as an 80s cartoon. Beast Wars and all that jive didn't stop anyone from advertising that LAM via nostalgia.

Tommy said at Comic-con that Shadow Rising was sitting in pre-production because he's hoping that WB will make the Robotech brand more widely known so he could get better sponsorship deals. He didn't mention anything about WB not wanting to make the movie. It seems to me that it's in WB's best interest if Robotech isn't just the answer to some 80s trivia when the LAM goes into production. Exosquad is good and is on HULU for those who haven't seen it. The animation is bad. The first three episodes are ruined by the show's intro (it's really stupid). After that though things kinda pick up and it's fairly mature as far as cartoons go. Lots of people die, there's some enslaving going on, entire shuttle crafts full of prisoners are flung into the sun... pretty entertaining.

Shadow Chronicles should conclude Robotech as we know it. At the end of Shadow Chronicles the Robotech universe should be brought entirely back together, Earth should be at calm, and everyone should be happy and rebuilding. Then, if Robotech continues from there, it should have a fresh start free of everything that ever existed in the original show. Since Tommy is sitting on Shadow Rising until there's more developments with the LAM I suspect this won't be the case. I think they should have used the Shadow series to keep fans interested in Robotech during the development of the LAM. A new RT animated film every year and then boosh, the LAM and the Robotech universe is cleaned up of the shadow arch and ready for a new tie-in animated series to go with the film.

That's why the scout should come in a 1/10 and 1/55 gift set. The other mechs should come packaged together as a different gift set. Then there should be a Corg gift set (featuring the blue eye and damaged scout). Then there should be a scout in 1/55 gift set featuring three of those mechs with snap on parts including space booster.

Just got my box, here are the contents: 1) VF-25 Michael 2) VF-25 Alto 3) VF-1A Kakizaki 4) VF-1J Max 5) VF-1A Max 6) VF-1J Miria (MacrossTV) 7) VF-2SS VF-19K Basara 9) VF-19P 10) VF-19F 11) VF-19S 12) VF-0D

Shouldn't be snooty and mispell the name of the planet

I do remember reading that somewhere. I believe Ray's bio also included mention of budding pyschic abilities (which I think was supposed to make him more in tune with his surroundings than the others). So it seemed there was supposed to be an intimation that the humans were becoming more Inbit like while the Inbit were becoming more human.

I definitely can not make it, I will be in Los Angeles that weekend.

Robotech re-wrote the scene. I haven't watched in a long time but I believe the animation shows sand blowing across the desert before Ray falls. In Robotech the sand was said to be "spores from the flower of life" and it's breathing the spores that give Rand his dream more than it is the dehydration.

Watch the re-dubbing Macross talk on these boards, you're likely to be chased away with torches and pitchforks. HG doesn't have to worry too much about making a live action movie, all they did was sell the rights to a live action movie to Warner Brothers. Now it's up to Warner Brothers to assign producers who will try to find enough money to make the movie actually happen. They're also trying to draft up a script. At this point, it seems very little progress is being made. You can probably think of it as this: "Wow, the economy is going so well we can make money even using obscure niche market ideas! Check it out, I just spent some of my gobs of money on this old 80s cartoon's rights." > "Crap, the economy took a dump, toy lines for that old 80s cartoon are drying up, and I don't think I can make gobs of money with it any more." Meanwhile, Tommy has stated that Shadow Rising is staying in pre production until WB can make a splash with the Robotech name. This could mean that HG took a pretty big financial hit of their own and they just don't have the money to make a second film (Isn't HG a holding company of some sort?). Of course, it could also mean that Tommy is just really optimistic there will be a WB movie made... but if he's trusting word from movie studios I pity him.

Argh, I was doing the male section and I got to Shin and was like "Man, that guy sucked" so I picked him. Then after I submitted my vote I saw the Basara option... argh, too late.

I don't know if it's a hated anime but I watched it on Stars and thought it was alright (some bad animation): Vandread. It seems to have some very Macross themes to it. Beyond that, Votoms... friggin' great show but I think adults might appreciate it more than children as it is pretty bleak.

I have the Aoshima Tread... I'll have something up on it hopefully sooner than later. There's no ways about it, quality of the Toynami/Aoshima Alpha/Legioss products is pretty bad overall but the Beta/Tread offerings are much better. The CMs was astronomically over-priced for what you got and while the quality is in a whole different league from Toynami's piddly efforts the overall design leaves a lot to be desired.

If Robotech wasn't a story being told, and was a factual depiction of a real world series of events, then yes, future Robotech products would sensibly have very little to do with The Macross Saga. As Robotech is instead a fantasy world with The Macross Saga being by far its most popular product it would make no sense, could they do so, for them not to use some aspects of it in future shows. There should be fan winks around every corner, flashbacks, and all the stuff Macross sequels have done to remind the viewers they are watching sequels to Macross.

I still can't get my annihilatrix working...

You'll be amazed at how quickly you'll come to understand why they're marking things up so much. Once you calculate the costs of rent, overhead, staff, etc. it's pretty easy for the price you charge to escalate rapidly... especially when everyone is desperately seeking out overseas sellers directly online. That's not to say these people are reasonable with the astronomical price tag you saw, I'm just saying that you'll probably view things a bit more sympathetically.

You're crossing streams again. It could not be in Shadow Chronicles because BW owns the intellectual property rights, not the merchandising rights. Like Seto pointed out, HG has sold Southern Cross merchandise before. I have no idea how the Southern Cross rights work though, never cared to look.

This causes a lot of confusion because Tatsunoko didn't win "author's rights" as most people know them. Tatsunoko won "related rights" in regard to the actual production of the series, think of it more as "maker's rights" while SN/BW retained the intellectual property rights that would commonly be associated with an author. This is a blow to SN/BW though because, since Tatsunoko has these related rights Tatsunoko does have a right to the name. This is why Tatsunoko and HG get to continue to block Macross Plus and Macross Frontier merchandise (well, not "Block" but rather demand a cut of").

Can Bandai just use Yamato's favorite excuse, "That's how Kawamori wanted it"?

Occasionally I look for old trophy cases on Craigslist so that some day I can put out my Mospeada collection. That's going to have to wait until I buy a house though In the meantime it's good to see your collection Gilermo.

That argument is definitely true of Robotech games and comics where the mechs can appear and do whatever they want but the Battletech/Mech Warrior series have nothing to do with Robotech or Macross so I wouldn't be surprised if that creates an issue. Also, and again, due to the legally hostile environment HG must be vigilant about asserting its rights lest it open itself to more litigation.

Do you think HG HAS to sue to stop this? Here's my thinking: BW/SN own the intellectual property rights to the mech in question. Tatsunoko/HG own the merchandising rights for the mech in question. Therefore, so long as the mech in question is being used to support ROBOTECH then HG can pimp it however it wants. However, if HG were to say, ask for a cut for this mech showing up in a game that's not directly related to merchandising for ROBOTECH, HG then would be infringing on BW/SN's rights. That said, if HG does NOT sue to stop the game makers then they are not adequately defending their merchandising rights which opens them up to a whole different legal world of hurt on the BW/SN side.