jenius

That's the word on the street. Yamato was looking for a different solution to the shoulders from the all POM approach they allegedly tried on the Ghost release.

Pretty sure that info is wrong. The original Japanese dates were Stig in November, Ray in March with no dates announced for the other two. Since then Stig has been delayed two months so it's quite possible Ray will also be delayed. Since Ray was all but done he may still hit the March target but I can't see a way in which Yellow would somehow be released before him... Yellow requires quite a bit of retooling.

Actually, a 100% mark-up on toys isn't at all uncommon and pretty much in line with what we should expect.

Just an update for those of you waiting on my review. I think my order didn't actually ship until today... and even then it may have shipped at the very end of the day. That probably means I won't get it until Thursday at the earliest. I had planned to drink heavily and not be around much this weekend so it looks like my review might not be up as quickly as I had hoped (I was really hoping I'd be taking pictures tonight). I did pull my superposeable out of storage and I have my CMs Tread handy so the review looks like it will be pretty complete as soon as this thing finally makes it to me.

No, HG will not lose control so long as they remain a company and don't sell the rights. Licensing agreements for anime have become a lot more sophisticated but back in the days when HG made the deal with Tats they were pretty informal. The HG license is probably something like "HG can use everything Macross. Domo Macek-san." written on the bottom of a cocktail napkin after a late night and a handshake.

I whole heartedly agree, and I don't mean to sound pro-HG by any means (or pro-BW or anyone else for that matter).

Uh, your post makes no sense. Not once did I say that HG has the intellectual rights... in fact I make it clear in EVERY post they own the rights to the original SHOW and merchandising rights for it. They DON'T own the intellectual rights, the characters, the story, etc. They can't remake Macross, they can't make a new valk that looks just like the VF-1, they can't have characters that look like they're straight from Macross in another show, etc. They have no rights to derivatives like MacII or Mac+. They never had THOSE rights because Tats could never sell them THOSE rights, they DO have the rights to the show and the merchandising. HG TRIED to exercise rights they didn't have until a Japanese court gave them the smack down. They then copyrighted the name "Macross" creating more problems. They claim they are no longer standing in the way of Frontier etc. and none of the recent events disprove this. All they did with BBTS is tell them to drop bringing in stuff from the original Macross (although they may have said "any Macross merchandise" due to that move with the copyright).

Do some damage to whom? What would we be suing for? HG has the rights to the show and the merchandising for it, a Japanese court even recognized that in the judgment that made it clear HG owned no derivative or intellectual rights.

Pete, your entire argument can best be summed up with the words "epic fail." The lawsuit being referenced, IIRC, affirmed Tats' ability to sell HG the rights to the original Macross as a film, not an intellectual property. That means that it is easily within HG's rights and ability to stop Japanese imports that don't pay a proper licensing fee. I also see a fair amount of hypocrisy going on here. If any of the members of this thread purchased the rights to something they would want those rights to be honored but yet here they all are saying we should support the gray market and ways of circumventing a rights holder. Granted, we do this because we're not fond of the rights holder but I think you'll see the hypocrisy if the shoe was on the other foot.

No, it's not. It's somewhere between the two if measured by soldier mode. It's like 1/40 if measured in fighter mode (because the legs don't collapse enough... but no Alpha/Legioss toy has ever accurately pulled off the tiny dimensions of fighter properly.

If no one answers the superposeable question I can try it out when mine comes in.

HG has the rights to the original Macross show and merchandise outside of Japan. That means there are official channels to sell things in the states (licensed merchandise) and unofficial channels (imported goods). Everyone in the states who sells imported Macross goods is engaging in the "Gray Market" and should realize (although some may not) that HG has the right at any time to issue a C&D. The thing about issuing C&Ds is that they're cheap and easy. HG has clearly been extremely half-assed in their efforts to back up their own license though and that's why the gray market is thriving. I'm not at all surprised that once anyone says "Prove it" they disappear because they're not looking to spend money to stop little shops from selling foreign toys, they're looking to have those shops voluntarily respect the rights (the cost benefit just isn't their to actually bring in a lawyer beyond drafting the C&D). Having Toynami actually be successful (I can't believe I just wrote that) gives HG a weapon now to use so they can avoid lawyers that much easier with the simple threat to choke off supply. Any remaining legal issues beyond this have to do with the intellectual property rights, derivatives, the name Macross, etc. There's no dispute as to HG's claim to the original Macross footage and the associated merchandising. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was pretty sure that the last concrete ruling we had affirmed BW's intellectual ownership and limited HG to just the footage and the merchandising (ie. no sequels, no returning characters, nothing new that appears to have its roots in Macross).

It's confusing because the Aoshima product has the Toynami stamp on it and is very similar to the Toynami MPC but they are different enough that they should be thought of as two different products. Anything that looks like a Toynami MPC in a non-Robotech box is actually an Aoshima Legioss. For more on the differences visit my post here.

I believe you mean to say: "I'm seeing blue Aoshima Legiosses on eBay for around $60 to $70, but only one Scott MPC for $160."

That kind of thinking might just blow your mind.

Blue is out. If Toynami follows their usual pattern they will probably put out a new repaint every 3 to 6 months.

I'll bet their answer would hinge on whether or not the people who paid for their services were left with useless pieces of broken plastic and little else to show for it...

I thought Kevin shut down Valk Exchange to focus on his family... could be wrong though. And didn't the Blasto guy steal a bunch of people's money from the board allegedly to fight HG and then disappeared? Typically companies don't come right out with a lawsuit, they send you a C&D. HG is within its rights so this anger seems unfounded. The one thing I really hate... and don't know who to blame... was that the Jokemachine 2.0 project got shut down. Those things looked sweet but something happened with someone that shut it all down.

and some couches transform into beds. Couches 2, Q raus 0.

Why is this complicated at all? Tatsunoko, a Japanese company acquired the rights from BW for helping finance the Macross TV show. Tats then sold those international rights to HG to recoup their investment. There's no evil international henchmen here... it was a pretty straight forward business deal that granted HG international rights to Macross. EDIT - it's kind of ironic in a thread about the greed of a Japanese company (and whether or not they are greedy) to infer that HG is evil and greedy and that Macross should fall under "fair use" laws. None of it adds up. There's still clearly money to be made on the license, licenses that are fairly owned both within and without Japan.

That's an old Gakken 1/35 Legioss and the Tread is 1/55. It's an apples and oranges comparison that's causing your visual confusion. If the MPC Alpha was present you'd see the Beta towering over it.

If you lived in Japan you would probably get your parts directly from Yamato (like US people did when the Garland broke). So if you're getting your stuff through Overdrive the service isn't really comparable. Pete, Robotech exists because HG got the "international" (meaning not in Japan) rights to the original Macross series. This means anything from the original Macross series outside of Japan should fly the Robotech banner. This part of the story is just about the only thing that isn't disputed. All of the court cases and such that have happened since revolve around things like derivative works, concept rights, etc. and those cases have shown that HG had no rights to any concepts or derivatives(sequels) of the Macross universe. All the litigation angered all parties so now they refuse to work together. Still, anything from the original Macross series is now, and has always been since the invention of Robotech, a license of Harmony Gold outside of Japan (although if you wanted to be a real litigator bad ass you might argue they've asserted their right inconsistently in some regions...).

The hip bar actually can be lowered and articulation is improved significantly... but still not completely unhindered. I'd qualify the Destroid toys as being fairly fun to pose... much better than the QRau

Ugh, it's really come to this old debate. No one disagrees that HG holds the license outside of Japan for merchandise for the original Macross. That means it's totally in their rights to insist people include them in any profits made on Macross merchandise outside of Japan (again, related to the original show). To sit their and make it sound like they're bad guys for insisting they get what they paid for when they acquired the license is wrong. The reason this is affecting you is because BW and HG can't come to any sort of agreement. HG would love to have all that merchandise in Japan being sold here under the Robotech name but BW refuses to work with HG (for valid reasons). Where HG screwed up, and created the hostile environment with BW, is when then started claiming all derivative Macross works as falling under the original agreement. That was a ham-fisted, bone-headed, and greedy move... but it doesn't suddenly invalidate their rights to the original Macross show and merchandise. If all they're trying to do is get BBTS to stop selling original Macross show toys then that's something BBTS should have always known could happen.

No flash, just in a well lit area.