terry the lone wolf

Okay guys, here's a little secret:

Harmony Gold isn't what you'd call a "real" production company by any Hollywood standards. I say this as a true Hollywood professional of over 12 years. And I don't say that to brag, but rather drive home the point that HG is literally nothing in Hollywood.

In the 1980's, Frank Agrama was an entrepreneurial businessman who saw the value of buying international rights to American TV Shows and movies and then sell them overseas. And he also imported, like Anime, which many other companies had started doing. He wanted Macross, it was too short for the American syndication market, thus Robotech is born.

But over the years, with the syndication market dying down, no one in Hollywood gave a crap or knew who Harmony Gold was. Frank Agrama continued to make his money from international sales, later in real estate, and a private theater he owned that was rented out for special events. And there's some shady dealing with Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi that have been investigated, but I'll let you do your research on that.

But he always owned Robotech. It made money through some licensing deals like Comics in the early 90's, got a boost in the Chinese market around that time, and it continued collecting checks.

When it came time for them to try and make Robotech big again, it was headed by a number of people who hadn't worked in entertainment in years, or never really at all, but more importantly, it not really willing to learn.

When running my Shadow Chronicles blog, the one thing I was told by multiple professionals who dealt with HG was the sheer amount of ignorance that came from them. Well intentioned as they may be, they just really had no idea what they were doing, or how to go about things. This point was only driven home to me with the amount of question I personally was being asked by the HG staff on how to handle certain things.

And honestly, that's why I love reading and ranting about HG's lack of professionalism on obscure message boards, because most of it is right.

But what is Big West? They handle advertizing on anime related projects not create them. They own Macross but the don't create they farm back to the original creators...

No, "Pot calling the kettle..." is suggesting hypocracy in the intended subject's statement. "Ignorance is ignorant", is simply stating the obvious.

He's the guy that joked on Carl Macek's passing on the day it was announced. If that's not ignorance I don't know what it is..

Ignorance is ignorant

That's the pot calling the kettle.......

I dunno. Looks just as funky as Macross 7....

Do you still have the link?

Thanks for the correction Lone Wolf. Did any of the board members attend the Macross DeCulture panel Friday night like me?

Vintage Macross items like original illustration by Haruhiko Mikimoto (9,100 U.S.) and a Noboru Ishigoru signed SDF-1 toy (2,100 U.S.) raised big money for the victims of the great earthquake disaster of Japan at the Otakon.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-07-31/otakon-2011-attendance-2012-date-and-locale-announced#gallery_top

You do realize that you've unleashed the biggest spoiler ever. Now that we know Rick Hunter will be in the sidequel, all of the HG staff will hunt you down for spoiling their ace card.

Tony wouldn't confirm what his part in the sidequel will be..I tried but that's still a secret but I suspect he'll be voicing some character.

I went to the Otakon this weekend; I missed Noboru Ishiguro but I caught the Macross DeCulture & Tony Oliver panels. Macross Deculture was like a Macross for Dummies panel for newbies. Tony Oliver was a real nice guy and I found out he is going to be involved in the Robotech sidequel.

Don't forget that the delay of the sidequel is due to HG ordering more MINUTES of animation. Hopefully it comes out right after my wife gives birth so I can watch it in between feedings. I gotta agree with your remarks about how HG loves visiting this forum. McKeevie does so all the time which he pointed out just before I got banned on rt.com for making him cry by blowing holes in every outrageous comment he posted. It's really surprising to me still that a production which is supposed to be smaller than Shadow Chronicles is taking so long to be completed as adding more minutes of footage shouldn't require 6 to 8 months of EXTRA production time to complete. That's why it makes sense that they were, at one time, planning to use LLA footage but scrapped the idea after everyone on this forum blasted the idea.

There's a lot of SPECULATION on this thread that people try to pass off as fact. HG never confirmed they were going to use LLA but reading this thread it was going to be spliced three ways to Sunday & be such a massive task to add it to RT. I don't see it being a big deal to add LLA to RT because it features the RT: NG characters and the video hasn't a specific time frame that can hamper it's addition into RT. Now, I would hate that LLA was the main part of the side-quel because it's a music video that doesn't have a lot of story. I can see it as an extra on the DVD featuring Michael Bradley's music just like it was packaged for the Japanese fans as a goodbye to the NG cast.

You had me with extended 70 min. Macross pilot....

I remember seeing MOSPEADA toys in Toys R Us back in the early days. In fact, back then, Toys R Us had quite a lot of anime robot toys back then. I remember seeing robots from Dorvack, Dougram, Dunbine, and a few other robots that I don't even remember the names of. Hell, I remember even seeing a Dancouga toy in a Kaybee, too.

I could kick myself for not pressuring my parents to buy me that large scale Scott Bernard with Cyclone armor when I saw it at Toys-R-Us. I did buy the green Alpha fighter before New Generation aired on television. Does anybody remember the miniture Macross models sold at Kay-Bee toys? They were the 3 transformation of Valkyrie in DYRL style painted white. I bought the fighter mode but both Gerwalk & Battroid was available.

Did anyone else notice in video 5, Tommy asked by show of hands would they want to see Robotech the Movie without the MZ23 footage.

Instead of incorporating more of the Southern Cross story they should use some more of the characters like Sean, Angie, or even Bowie. Louie was a nice touch but I like to see Sean lead a cadre RDF soldiers against the Haydonites. He's kind of bad a$$ they could use for a decent story.

The 50th Shizuoka Toy Show Report: VF17 Nightmare in development, SDF-1 transformable 1/3000 kit, 1/60 Britai, & VF19 with sound booster.

http://blog.hobbystock.jp/report/2011/05/tp0649.html

Anyone notice HG essentially comfirmed Toho has the rights to DYRL? They seem real butthurt over it too, going on about confused rights and ongoing lawsuits.

I posted here that I felt TOHO had the international rights to DYRL. Now this opens up some possibilities: HG could pony up money and lease it from TOHO. Big West couldn't stop it because TOHO can already distribute anyway they see fit (they released the edited Clash). It could be a deal similar to Tatsunoko's where there won't be any new animation based on old designs but fall under HG's "everywhere but Japan" merchandising of the old Macross animation deal. If HG can't afford it you still have Warner Brothers who could distribute it through TOHO. WB could cut a side deal with HG utilize their staff, bring back some of the old RT voices, & bang! A brand new English dub of DYRL ripe and ready for the western home video market.

To me the genesis of Macross is the mechs specifically the Valkyries & the Macross (people living in a city in a space cruiser) itself. Shoji created the idea of people living in a ship during a intergalactic war on Earth while major cities are being destroyed. They use fighters called breasts fighters because of the "special" place they launch from. Then there's another idea of a transformable fighter with 3 modes of transformation called Ga-Walk (We-Walk). Somehow during the process the breast fighter and the Ga-walkers merge and become the Valkyrie. Now writers like Noburo Ishiguro probably crafted a well meaning story from Kawamori's ideas but the overall concept is Kawamori's.

I always hoped that Kawamori would revisit the Battle Cruiser Megaroad/Megalode concept as some sort of parody or alternate universe Macross.

By using their own logic, by the truckload

Back in the development of Shadow Chronicles, it was announced as a series in 2004. Then, it was a movie in 2005. The reason? QUALITY. They were going to pack an entire series worth of quality animation and storytelling into one movie. Then it got delayed to 2006. The reason? To make it a better movie, of course! THEN it got delayed until 2007, the reason being that no distributor could recognize its quality (ie, Harmony Gold wanted more money than what they were being offered).

On my old blog, I did calculation of the fans expectations of Shadow Chronicles. The movie about 1/3 of the length of what you'd get from a 13 episode series, thus you're expecting it be 3 times better. Multiply that by twice as long as it took to come out as promised, and that's a movie SIX TIMES better than the series that was expected.

And, it's happening all over again. Tommy says the "new animated project" is going to be out in 2011 (in July), then fans were told "oh, we meant the animation is going to be finished by 2011," buying them another six months, THEN, we're told early 2012, buying them at least until March (depending on your definition of early), buying another three months. The reason? QUALITY. I'm serious. They said it was so that they could "make it better" Of course, you're going to want to wait for a big announcement at Comic-Con / Anime Expo, so it'll be held back another few months.

They do this song and dance, 90% of the customers end up being someone who watched Robotech as a kid, saw it at Best Buy, and have never been on Robotech.com or at attended a con panel. Then they tout how big the franchise is (while pointing out only three people work on it at HG). If it's so big, then why aren't they pumping out series after series after series? The official RT.com explanation is that they need a network to pick it up, which you don't. Clone Wars was all self-produced, then sold to a network, as was Wolverine and the X-Men (coincidentally produced by Jason Netter, who produced RSC). For a franchise SO big, of such high QUALITY, it really makes you wonder...

Weren't you the "un-official" Robotech reporter? HG must've done some foul crap to you.

Love it! Love it! The VF-01J has been my favorite Valk..

To be honest Voltron was a silly cartoon anyways. A giant robot made of science and or magic, ghosts, witches, blue mice, & the same stock footage used over & over again. Yeah it was a fun show with robots kicking major *** but became a one trick pony real quick. Vehicle Voltron was a little better with slightly better science fiction. I saw Voltron Force and yes it's got lousy animation but it's less terrible than I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting much so I wasn't disappointed and pleasantly surprised.

I even remember a fan dub, I believe, using Gunbauster. In it, they had the Exelion as the SDF-4.

Robotech 3: Not Necessarily the Sentinels. You can still find it on Veoh..

My only problem with the movie is that all the hot chicks are on Magneto's side. They need to off set this by maybe adding Polaris, Scarlet Witch, Lila Cheney, or even Dazzler as X-Men.

Missed that completely...not sure why it would be racist if its a historical fact that blacks were slaves. Seriously though being a minority member myself some people are way too sensitive for their own good.

As for the "other cameo"...

if they showed Storm as pre-teen its a safe bet this reboot will have her maybe take the lead in the future as there is until now no mention of Scott.

I noticed that to but I wasn't offended; just they were driving the point home that mutants are an oppressed minority like others. Bryan Singer had said he wants to concentrate more on the Civil Rights movement if there'll be a sequel.

Considering the end of First Class I don't think X3 matters anymore. That's the case I really don't mind because x3 sucked so royally.

Actually there were 3 cameos.

I've read some reviews of the pilot (somehow people are seeing it) and it's been like good but not great. They say this WW likes to kick a lot of a$$ (her favorite move choking dudes with her lasso)and some of the scenes that were leaked like WW complaining about over her break-up with Trevor over a pint of ice cream with Etta Candy wasn't in the pilot. It's been pretty consistent that this pilot should be green lit for series or at least air the pilot.

Why should Tatsunoko give up their rights to Macross? They have the International licensing and they contributed to the show scripts, audio, man power, etc, etc. They're listed in the original production just like Studio Nue or even Big West.

Back to the topic of Kawamori, he can basically do what he wants. He has his own separate company Satelight that BW farms out their work. Big West (like HG) are not true animation houses (BW is an ad agency that happens to own an established anime property..Macross). Kawamori works with BW but he's not married to them; he could so work with Tatsunoko. I don't see any legal reason not to.