Knight26

Crazy enough, sure, head trauma seems to be a job requirement there. Stupid enough to think that Big West would allow/play that game, no. But you're right, the way they handled even the notion of protoculture would ruin that possibility. You could, possibly, rewrite the Masters as an offshoot of the OG Protoculture, but their whole insistence that Protoculture was a fuel source, nope that really doesn't sell, given that Macross has always said that the ships were powered by fusion reactors.

Good point, I was thinking the EU when it restarted under Tim Zahn. I had also forgotten that Daley was involved.

I had forgotten that. But they started writing those before the Star Wars EU became a thing. Still, the whole notion that the SDF-3, which was built from parts of the destroyed SDF-1 and 2, plus extra parts, was sent back in time to become Zor's Battlefortress, which was then rebuilt into the SDF-1 creates a bootstrap paradox of such massive proportions it would take all 13 iterations of the Doctor, plus Doc Brown, the Enterprises, the USS Nimitz, Time Rider, Jean Claude Van Damme and every other time traveler ever to rectify it.

Basically at this point, they are getting ready to break the circle, or time loop they created back when the coke was flowing in the Sentinels writing room. Whether that is a good thing or not, who can say. I will admit to reading the McKinney books back in the day, early-mid 90s when I had only an inkling of the truth about RT, and getting righteously pissed off. In those pre-internet days the only way to express ones rage was to write a letter to the publisher and author. Which I did. The whole timeloop thing they created in those books was beyond drivel and drove me to write even more. So, yes I think they are getting ready to break the time loop, and in doing so attempt to erase the mistakes of RT past, and collapsing all the alternate realities where things like Sentinels, RT3K, Shadow Chronicles, Antarctic Press, etc... exist. This "Restoration" of the timeline will still be a righteous mess however based on the previews of their next planned series, which at least appears to have better art, that, from the looks of it, will steal heavily from Mac+ and Mac7.

He's a poster over on Robotech.com forums who is the only person there posting in the thread for the comic, and all he does is these spoiler posts.

Why? Reeves has a strong career without dipping back into that well, and unless I'm remembering wrong didn't he and Carrie's characters die at the end?

I like that head sculpt, a good mix of McGreggor and Guinness.

I, Jedi worked so well because it was a better version of the Jedi Academy trilogy. Yes, I went there.

For a peacetime mission, sure but I would hate to take one into battle. As was shown many times, they are glass cannons.

Whenever I see the Ent-D with the lifeboats so prominently painted it just reinforces that the Galaxy Class was never meant for combat, survivability, or long range exploration. It's like a modern cruise liner, the sides stacked high with obvious lifeboats. Then there's the overabundance of windows, an issue with most Trek ships to be honest, a pretty ship but seriously vulnerable to attack.

Ok, I got bored and decided to do it. Star Wars Episode 7 Fixes The recent discussion got me thinking about Star Wars Ep 7 could be fixed. Overall, TFA is not a terrible movie, it is just typical of its director, slapping a shiny new coat on something that came before. While it obvious that Star Trek 2009 is basically the original Star Wars with a Star Trek skin, it is even more obvious in TFA, which many described as a paint by number remake of Ep-4. Though to be fair Ep-1 also hit many of the same points as Ep-4, just differently. To start, the biggest issue with the new Trilogy is the First Order. They come off as Empire Light. A bunch of wannabe Imperials in Cosplay who are taking it too far. Instead, establish, in the opening crawl that they are a terrorist organization. They have crawled their way out of the rim planet by planet, taking over planet using terror tactics, before enslaving their populations and are funded by some mysterious backer(s) (Snoke and maybe others). Also establish in the crawl, again, that Luke’s new Jedi academy was destroyed from within, forcing him to reevaluate what it means to be a Jedi and how to train the next generation. So he goes to look for the OG Jedi temple. We then move into the first scene, the attack on the Jakku Camp. First off, make Max Von Sydow some character we already know by name, even if they are obscure or from the EU, throwing the EU fans a bone. For now, I will call him Jansen, former member or Rogue Squadron and someone Luke would trust. We here commotion outside of the tent, Poe and Jansen look out to see a DoomTrooper, an FO Storm Trooper packed with explosives dragging along a hostage. Jansen starts to head out but Poe stops him and points up. “You can’t save her, this is how they always begin.” Then the Doom Trooper explodes (not Disney friendly but establishes on screen their use of terrorist tactics). The village goes into a panic and the troop ships arrive. The rest of the scene plays out largely as before, with FOST rounding people up and some dying in the process, along with the flame troopers lighting buildings, and some people on fire. When Finn’s buddy dies insert a couple of second flashback of someone else dying in a child’s arms, also smearing a bloody palm print on them. This will come into play later. The next few scenes play out largely the same. But, show some subtle force usage, unconscious, on Rey’s part. When she swings, she swings just to far, or a gust of wind just helps her a long. When she’s looking at two panels, she stops, leans back to think before opening one to find her prize on the first try. Then when she turns in her salvage have her talk to Uncar Plut (sp?) and ask to rent the heavy lifter to pick up a big piece of salvage. Pan over to show the show it and a tarped up familiar shape on edge of frame. Plut agrees, makes comments about how she always returns it the least banged up, but it is booked for the week, and how she’ll have to do the maintenance on it after as part of her rental fee, and he might even let her play around in his special ship to help him find an annoying bug in it. Doing this establishes several things: First, she is a scavenger and knows her way around imperial tech (they did this well in TFA and used it later in the film as well). Second, she has some innate, if untapped and untrained, force ability. Third, in two to three lines of dialogue we’ve established that she knows how to fly and maintain ships. The final bit gives a hint of how the Falcon is found so easily. When Phasma talks to Ren and Hux about the FOST she mentions how the mental conditioning might be breaking down in some. Hux says this is impossible, that his mind wipe and imprinting has been flawless. This sets up how the FO has grown the ST corp so fast, they are basically wiping the minds of people on their captured worlds and reprogramming them into whatever role they need filled. The Finn and Poe escape plays out largely as before. But add in how Finn has no idea how long he’s been in the FOST Corp, and has been having flashes of a life before it. THen when they crash, show them eject, even if it’s just Poe grabbing the ejection handle and yelling. “Been nice meeting you Finn, if we survive this, meet me at the nearest spaceport!” The next scenes again can remain largely untouched, but when Rey and Finn escape, have a quick couple lines about where they are jumping. Rey can point to a readout and say, “Plut has an emergency escape route already in the nav computer, we just jump and wait before we head back.” Remember, jumping into Hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, so in the event of things going sideways Plut would likely have a hide out to head to. While in hyperspace have Rey notice they are transmitting, and it is coming from the Hyperdrive. This leaves them distracted as she tries to root out “the bug,” and is what allows Han to find them. The scenes aboard Han’s freighter are good world building, they can stay. As can the bits on Maz’s world up to the destruction of the New Republic Capital. But here is where things change. Starkiller base is just that, a base on a capture FO world. The actual super weapon is built into a Star Destroyer. While Hux talks to this troops, he transmits to them, and breaking into the holonet, every other world, the destruction. Back to Terror tactics. The bow mounted super laser doesn’t destroy the planet, it is a crust cracker. When the laser hits it shatters the planet’s crust causing the mantle to boil over and consume it. We cut to people running in terror from oncoming lava, collapsing buildings and mountains, basically 9-11 when the towers fell. This shocks everyone watching to the core, except the FO, as this is a highly mobile weapon. But Finn comments that it’s a bit of a glass cannon. The main gun can only fire so many shots before they have to replace the Kyber Crystal at its core, and that is done at Starkiller base. The FO then shows up, they have the battle on Maz’s world where Rey is captured. Biggest change here, is that TR-8R is actually Phasma. This gives her character more to do, and also intimidates Finn more, plus it explains what she does later better, she is already hurt. Leia and the Resistance show up and that is when Finn reveals the issue with the new Crust Cracker super laser to them. They decide to mount a two pronged attack. Han with Chewie, Finn and a Commando team go after the Kyber Crystal mine on Star Killer base, as well as the shield generator that the Star Destroyer is within while making repairs. Meanwhile Poe’s squadrons (yes with multiple fighter types) and starship backup standby to take out the Star Destroyer, or are set to protect the Resistance base while the Star Destroyer comes to attack it. During Rey’s interrogation by Kylo we hear Luke’s voice for the first time. “Remember, when you open a docking port into someone’s mind you leave yours open as well.” Rey reacts like she hears this and resists Kylo’s mental attacks. When he leaves we again here Luke’s voice. “And don’t forget to close it when you leave.” This is a subtle thing, but it helps to justify where Rey learns all these force powers so quickly, she went tromping around inside Kylo’s memories, not deep, but just into how to use the Force, and this can explain her motives in the next movie on how to save him. She felt the good within him. The show downs on Starkiller can go as before for the most part. When Han, Chewie and Finn attack Phasma, she is already injured, and show Chewie hurting her more and actually cracking her helmet open slightly. She lowers the shields and they get access to the crystal mine where they can deploy charges. Rey is rescued and Kylo confronted, Han killed, etc… In orbit the Resistance goes up against the Star Destroyer. It deploys its super laser killing several ships, but they notice that when it does the forward shields drop. They lure it into attacking again and that is when Poe Strikes. He dumps his whole load of Proton Torpedoes into the super laser as it prepares to fire, shattering the focus and causing it to explode and the blast to glance against Starkiller base. The Star Destroyer gets knocked out of orbit as a result and falls towards Starkiller Base. Rey, Finn and Kylo have their lightsaber battle. Finn gets his butt handed to him immediately, but make Kylo’s wound far more obvious, though the thing with him pounding on his side was a great touch. When Rey gets the lightsaber we have another brief series of flashbacks, of it in use, in Anakin’s hands, Luke’s, and even see some of young Kylo Ren’s training. They engage in battle, but we here subtle whispers in multiple voices (Luke, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palp, Vader, even Kylo and Snoke) “block up, block down, swing up, forward strike.” Have these so low that you wouldn’t really hear them in theatre, but it is the saber, and the door into Kylo’s mind. He realizes the latter and moves to shut the door, closing his eyes. That is when, loud enough for the audience, we here “DO IT!” and she strikes his face, knocking Kylo back, disabling him. And yes, the ground is still breaking up due to the exploding mine and Star Destroyer crash and super laser near miss. The end goes as before with the mini-celebration at the Resistance Base, Hux picking up Kylo to take him to Snoke and then Rey heading off to meet Luke with R2-D2. Subtle changes, and while it still is basically Ep-IV it is following the trilogy opening style established by Ep-1 and 4. But, we have established the FO as a real force to be reckoned with, more so than in the original. We have made Rey not a Mary Sue, but a quick learner with skills that she had already developed, but needed to be honed. We have shown how Death Star Tech has been developed into an even more terrifying and mobile weapon, though still with some serious flaws. We also get to actually hear Luke, even if we just get a glimpse of him at the end.

I agree. TFA was at least fun and you walked out of the theatre on a nostalgia high. TFA broke down when you started to think about it and see that it was a carbon copy, and not a great one, but one that had serious potential. TLJ I nearly walked out of and when I left I had to justify whether or not I liked it. Even the kids left with WTF looks on their faces. It just didn't feel right, yet you could see that there was something good hidden behind all the RJ crap.

This preview page about says it all. I think that foreground valk is straight off of an old Hasegawa box. And Iknow we've seen that Super Valk in a million other places.

While the ship designs were interesting, and kind of cool. I only really liked the ones that were purpose built ships. I've never liked the UGLY concept. Sure, swapping parts, engines, etc... on a car or boat works, but you can't really Hot Rod an aero-spacecraft like that. The design requirements and G loads would make them rip apart.

Well, the latest issue of this abomination is out. And well, yep old school Robotech tracery comics are back, and really badly too. But there is one bright note. The last page ended with the following words: TO BE CONCLUDED This horrid series is about come to an end. Though it does give birth to the latest atrocity first.

I think you are on the right track here. What made the OT timeless was that it was just that, timeless. While it harkened back to the classic era movies and WW2 Nazi-ism there wasn't anything about it that screamed 70s/80s (other than hair and effects). The PT came out at the end of our last bout with Outrage Culture, hence the backlash against Jar Jar and Neimodians being racist caricatures. But, look at it this way, it was harkening back to even earlier cinema and pre-WW2 aesthetic. The problem with the New Trilogy is that they are pandering to the Outrage Cultural group and losing the rest of the audience. I had no issue with a female Jedi lead when it was first announced, but when they Mary Sued her, yes I had issues with how she was written. Black Storm Trooper, who might also be a Jedi, seriously, only OC people had issue. Unlike, say Marvel, who has a great pulse on the fans, the makes or the SW-NT have no idea what the fans want. What movie did we react best to? Rogue One. And why? Because it was Star Wars, no BS modern politics, a diverse cast of interesting characters and a coherent story. Had the makers of the NT wanted to make a more modern Star Wars then their take on the First Order is all wrong. The FO in the NT is Empire Lite, a bunch of wannabes and Neo-Nazis. Make them the Terrorists this time, backed by some mysterious benefactor (Snoke and others) that are wreaking havok through the Galaxy. But they pull off a successful 9-11 in that they destroy all those worlds and plunge the galaxy into chaos. We never get the real impact of what the FO did in Ep7. We never see the Galaxy in chaos after all that destruction. Also StarKiller Base was just plain stupid. IT would have made far better sense to have it be some kind of Eclipse type Star Destroyer that was a mobile ship capable of busting a planet. And to drive home the terror angle, not to blow up a world, but to crack it open, shatter the crust and expose the mantle, people die screaming in panic and fire and that all gets transmitted as they hit the next world, and the next. That really brings it into the modern world. But again, OC would be against that as being too much of a 9-11 allegory and anti-muslim. But the rest of the movie could have been left, largely, unchanged, though do some things to tone down the Mary-Sue. Star Wars, the new trilogy especially, could really do with some inner voice stuff going on to explain things, especially how Rey grasped using the Force so quickly. I could go into that more, but only if people ask.

That got me thinking about how Hyperspace Jumps are shown in SW. In the OT, most on screen jumps seem to take place over several hours, with exception of Sullust to Endor, which makes sense as Sullust was the staging are for the Endor attack. In the PT, I would again say that most, not all, jumps take several hours. Pilots carry relief bags in modern fighters so why wouldn't Jedi? Also Jedi could meditate and sleep while enroute to places. In the ST, We have a definite scale issue. EP-7 keeps to the hours or less jump time for the most part. Ep-8 due to the timescale issues already in place, yes hours or less, in some cases the jumps feel like they last for minutes. Overall, I'd say most SW hyperspace jumps are hours to days in duration depending on distance travelled. The on-screen evidence typically goes along with this; characters having training, multiple convos, eating, changing clothes, sleeping. That would still keep it in the realm of human endurance for pilots on solo-jumps, but they would likely launch attacks from staging points/carriers in nearby systems. By Contrast: Prime Trek has always established that Warp is limited and takes a great deal of time to get anywhere, with hard limits on how fast you can go with normal warp. JJA and his writing crew didn't like that so, they cheated and made pretty much everywhere in the Alpha Quadrant reachable within a few hours or less. They are more concerned with speed of plot then the actual writing, speed of plot is easy, keeping to set speeds and standards is harder. ST:B might have tried to correct some of this, but given the limited warp travel seen in it, one long jump at the beginning, it is hard to tell. But then Pegg is a better writer and would do better to keep it within established canon.

Thought I might dust this off, my thoughts no how a simple rewrite of Ep-8 could have saved it. The Last Jedi Fixes There is nothing quite like a good Shrimp burrito, when all the ingredients are there in just the right proportions and combinations it is a flavor explosion that cannot be beat. But, when the cook doesn’t prepare it right, using days old fillings, or the tortilla that’s been sitting just a little too long you get just a taste of the greatness, but not the whole experience. That was the taste left in my mouth by The Last Jedi. I’m not saying it is a terrible movie, at it’s core it was good with great potential, but it was mixed with stale ingredients, the wrong spices and wrapped up with tired cliches. The scenes involving the Jedi were great, though sometimes a bit odd, but those were the core of the story that kept it from being terrible, though even they could have been better. It could have been saved though, one more story revision and it could have been near perfect. Here’s how I would saved it. The biggest issue with the movie is one of timing. The movie takes place too soon after the last and over too short a period of time. It is a common misconception that in Empire, Luke was only on Dagobah for a few days, however it is established in canon that he was there for months as the Millenium Falcon trudged its way up to light speed and back down again on its much slower accelerating reserve hyperdrive. The movie just does not make that clear, something a single line of dialogue could have fixed: “We’re almost out of supplies too Lando, that reserve hyperdrive takes weeks to get you into hyperspace.” The problems with the timing are massive. The last movie ended with the Galaxy in utter chaos, the Republic capital has been destroyed, billions dead and its fleet scattered, this is bad for our heroes. The First Order isn’t much better off, their capital has been blown away as well, but as a smaller overall force, they would be able to rally faster. So give them a few months, 3-6. The Republic will still be in disarray, and skip the evacuation of Resistance base, instead start with the pursuit. The pursuit is 3-4 months on, the Resistance is haggard, down to just a few ships. They have been unable to call for aid, unable to resupply, refuel, rearm, rest, think the episode 33 from the NuBSG. Pilots and crews are all exhausted and the First Order is able to bring in its ships from throughout the galaxy to pursue them, each one coming with fresh crews as they track the Resistance through some unknown means. In a desperate gambit, Poe leads a bomber force against a First Order dreadnaught, but not the stupid B-17s in space we got in the movie. Instead we get the new gen B-Wing (or its replacement) making torpedo runs with one final bomber, piloted by a good friend (or lover) of Poe making a suicide run into the soft spot of the ship. But the bomber force is still devastated, giving Leia her excuse to demote Poe. Meanwhile (3 months earlier) Rey has her meeting with Luke, he still tosses the lightsaber and refuses to train her. Cut to a montage of her waiting outside his hut for days on end before he finally opens the door to start “Training” her. This plays homage to the old Kurosawa Samurai movies that also inspired Lucas. Much of what happens from here on can remain relatively untouched, but maybe show a bit more training actually happening. This takes us back to the Fleet battle. Leia has been injured and the Admiral (in a proper military uniform, or keep Ackbar/the new general from Ep7 alive for Force sake) has taken over. She/they reveals their plan (you know, respecting the intelligence of her troops instead of keeping them in the dark) that they are heading towards an old, disused base on the rim with a transmitter that can reach the remains of their allies and the scattered republic forces. But, they only have so long they can wait to get there due to their dwindling supplies. They need to lose their First Order pursuers and have only a few days to do so before they either run out of fuel or take their chances. So, she order Poe and the newly revived Finn to find a way through the shields of the First Order flagship to destroy the tracker, sending them off on their sidequest. Boom, we just deleted the second biggest issues with the movie, the Rose and Mutiny storylines. Instead we get Poe and Finn off doing their buddy cop thing from Episode 7 more, developing and maybe rocking that friendship some more, no forced love story, no criminally bad fan service. Now let me explain that Fan Service. Rose is the worst kind of fan service, she is a fan replacement, a fan of the film in the film. Her hero worship of Finn makes no sense in the timeframe of the movie as it stands, Finn would be little known at this point, especially amongst the lower level crew. At most, they would have heard about the First Order defector who helped destroy Starkiller base, but not much else in a day or two. You could also cut most of the slave/animal abuse angle. Star Wars has always been for kids, yes. But, the first two movies did so with minimal pandering, The Last Jedi pandered to the kid audience hard in those scenes, and it didn’t need to do so. The character of DJ, a wasted performance, did not need to happen or turn traitor. He could have been a legit ally, but what would have been better is this: Have it be Captain Fasma instead. We’ve never seen her face before this, so, while the audience might be in on her being coming betrayal, the characters would not. Or have it be that he was working for her the whole time, and it was all a trap or setup to wear the Resistance fleet down, capturing Finn is just the icing on the cake. The rest of the movie can play out largely the way it did, the hyperspace ram (most awesome scene in the movie) can still happen as a last ditch effort to get the Resistance planetside when the other plan fails, but keep the Admiral alive, an astromech could have piloted the ship at that point. Rey can still show up when she does, the scenes with Snoke could be expanded, but would remain largely intact, as well as the fight between projected Luke and Kylo Ren, as it was the most Jedi thing ever for Luke to do. But have Luke use Vader's lightsaber in the fight. Imagine: he ignites the red saber, Kylo demands it and tries to grab it. Luke just looks at it, shakes his head and "concentrating" turns the blade to blue or green, enraging Kylo even more. Even have there be minimal response to their call, but add one last thing, a rescue by the shattered republic. Instead of only a few dozen people making it aboard the falcon, have it be a hundred or so crammed into a handful or dropships getting cover by a squadron of advanced X-Wings. This gives us a bit more hope for the future, and maybe even a cameo by the real greatest pilot in Star Wars, Wedge Antilles, and even Lando. Imagine: Leia the other arrive at the Falcon with hundreds of survivors and start to lose hope because there is no way to fit them all on the Falcon. A TIE swoops in only to explode and a T-75/80 X-Wing in Republic colors swoops by. Everyone whoops in joy, cut into the cockpit, it's WEDGE MOTHER F'N ANTILLES "watch how a real pilot flies kid," clearly aimed at Poe and his Rogue Squadron holds off the 1st Order forces while numerous transports land to pick up the survivors. On the lead transport the ramp descends and the suavest man in the galaxy, Lando, walks down to great his friends. "Sorry it took me so long, had to pick out the right cape." Leia, seen only from behind, then collapses in his arms (dealing with the loss of Carrie IRL) and they rush her aboard where she dies. We then cut back to Luke on his rock, he disappears, but just as we are grieving the loss of Leia and Luke a hand, a right hand covered in skin, slaps onto the rock. Have there be a faint shimmer, like a force ghost, but solid. The movie could even close on the slave kid using the force, a clear sign that Jedi still exist and are being born. Overall I think that covers the biggest story issues with the movie. Does it address all the fan complaints, no, but it doesn’t need to. The identity of Rey’s parents was fine, they didn’t need to be connected to the rest of the movies because it shows that anyone can be a Jedi and opens up the possibility for a huge number of Jedi in the future. Snoke being a bit of a glass cannon was fine, though his identity should have been fleshed out, it showed that Kylo Ren was a real force to be reckoned with that he could fool his master in such a way. As it stands, Episode 9 will have a very weak base to stand on after these last two films. It has a lot of issues to address, the biggest of which is real life death of Carrie Fisher, something this movie should have fixed in reshoots. I do not feel that the franchise stands on solid ground at the moment and with Abrams coming back to helm Episode 9, I do not have much hope. Rogue One left me on a Star Wars high, Ep8, has dropped me back down, but I didn’t have my hopes high to begin with.

Don't get me started on the issues with JJ-Trek

It's not so much riding herd on the directors, but the writers. In a TV show they have a show runner, who acts as a lead writer and yes, does ride herd on the directors as well. Take the Marvel'verse Kevin Feige could be called the show runner for that once they decided to make it a giant interconnected universe before handing that off to the Russo Brothers. Star Wars always needed that, a boss who oversaw and approved everything, and while you can say that was Kathleen Kennedy's job, I think she was too far up the food chain for that. She's running Lucasfilm but not really running the movies. You need someone like Dave Filoni to take the helm of the movies and keep them on course. This brings us back to the big issue with TLJ in that RJ wrote and directed and wanted his vision to come to life, not the vision of Lucasfilm, or even Disney. He wanted to throw out all of the old, kill the past, and move on. But in the process he created a giant mess that I have serious doubts that JJA's team of hacks can clean up. Heck, even if JJA had stayed on to keep the story moving in the right direction that could have been better, at least it would have been consistent and moving along a story arc.

I think explanation was actually in the secondary media (a big JJ-ism). The Falcon had some manner of tracking device on it that Han never got rid of, and only started transmitting again once the ship was in space or some nonsense like that.

I would have preferred to see Luke go full on Grey Jedi, embracing both light and dark, but spent years wrestling with how because he did not want to fall like Anakin and Ben. Rey could then have been the lynchpin to show him how to maintain balance, somehow, I would have to think it out more. Though I do have to say that his force projection battle against Ben was the most Jedi thing ever, using the Force for Knowledge and Defense, Never to Attack. On the whole, the new trilogy is plagued my a ton of issues, including a lack of singular vision. Say what you will about the prequels, but with George riding honcho on it he had a singular vision of what he wanted to see happen. Whether that translated properly to screen, and whether it was a good vision is not the point, he kept it on track. The New Trilogy is just a mess and I have little faith in JJA to fix it in the span of a movie.

Dream Theater is bringing The Distance Over Time Tour to Tucson!!! So, I bought tickets to finally see my favorite band in concert. Will be taking my oldest son (12) to his first rock concert at the same time. Should be awesome, lower balcony, front row.

Interesting thought experiment. Imagine you could go back and buy the Robotech or Macross rights from HG. When would you do it? When would be the most opportune time, when HG had left the property stagnant the longest and they might be most hard up to offload a property that garnered them no returns? My first thought would mid-90s, before Mac-Plus came out and Manga snuck it into the US. The issue there is that they were still getting some trickle of money from Antarctic and Academy for their "comics." The next time I could think of would be in the 1998-2002 timeline. Nothing RT was coming out at that time, and they were almost willing to work with Yamato to get the Mac Plus toys on US shelves before they changed their minds and screwed us all. The other time might be immediately following the demise of Sentinels, but they still had the McKinney book money coming in and Macek holding out hope he could keep it all alive.

Except that Macek, IIRC, was the one with contacts that got them in bed with Tatusnoko in the first place.