VFTF1

May I just add that at this rate, I'm not even finding time to transform half the Valkyrie I get from Yamato I mean - my VF-22S and VF-11B are still sitting on the shelves in fighter mode - never transformed; not because I am somehow disinclined...but there's no time... sheesh Still...personally - this is one I'll be skipping. Not a fan of the color scheme, and while I do like Macross 7 (understatement of the century), I'm far more interested in getting Soundforce instead of CannonFodderForce. Pete

Congrats! Although I hate Starbucks because I can't get my head around how you can have a cofe shop that doesn't allow smoking But I guess I'm letting my midwestern yokel side show ;-) Anyways - we're all looking forward with Baited breath and much anticipation. As to Riko and Seiko... I imagine the pronounciation in Japanese in pretty much identical... easy to get them mixed up.... Heck - I probably didn't even spell them right here Pete

More Turn-A-Gundam ramblings! Not so happy today... First of all...people need to let me know in advance when I'm about to stumble on "to sum up" episodes. I hate those. The only one that did it well was the one in Macross Frontier. All the rest SUCK. They are a complete waste of time if you're watching these in rapid sequence like me. I understand that if new episodes are shown once a week on TV, then this is necessary...but I totally have no use for it. Too bad I only realized this once I downloaded it. Although...then again - I didn't actually watch it all the way through. At first, I though Loran would tell us about the Dark History...but it seems he was just re-telling what we'd already seen. Anything worthwhile in that episode - or can I just delete it so it doesn't take up disk space? Onwards to episode 17.... Wrestless narative is one thing - but this episode just explodes in terms of how many times the "plot" twists and turns into insignificance... Oh no! A rain storm! Will you help me Colonel? Stop touching her hand I'm jealous! Give me those letters girl! I want to be a baker I hate my life Look it's my sister and she'll sleep with us if we kill Diana! Oh the rain has stopped Now it's a hurricane! I need to go outside to talk to the people! No wait! Now I need to be seen running away as danger appears! My sister has juggly boobs and she'll live with us! I have a Mobile suit but I don't have anything to eat! I need to talk to Harry! You need to talk to Diana even though I'm right here! I need to talk to Diana! You can't talk to Diana! Where did the girl with the juggly boobs go? Maybe I'm being unfair...I realize the sequencing was not as bad as the above "summary" - maybe I just had a bad night... but this episode was just a bit off for my taste because it tried to do too much. I liked the previous episodes for focusing so much on Diana. Before that I liked the focus being on Loran and his secret of being from the Moonrace. But this episode looks like it's on crack. It has shades of everything but really adds nothing. The main point of the plot? That Kiel-as-Diana sent out an invitation letter about the founding of a new state. How did any of the characters advance here? Heck! Even the mecha battle was random. Stop! Where are these trucks going! If you want to pass, be a man and wrestle naked with me on the ground! That's basically how one can sum up this episode's battle.... Thumbs down. Hope the next episode picks up... Pete

I hope that the fact that we're getting more M7 Valkyrie means Yamato will do Basara's VF-19.... As for the VF-11C and the like... I would prefer it if they did Jamming Birds customs - that would liven things up a bit. But it's not like they need to do this RIGHT NOW... just stuff they could work on in the years to come. Pete

One can hope that this continuation of M7 will eventually lead to Bassara getting his own Yammie down the line... Pete

I think one of the reasons it seems to look like a DX is that it gives off that glossy glow that the DX has... Pete

Actually, on the subject of merchandise, HG could have done better by trying to revive the old Matchbox Robotech toy line and sell it as a nostalgia line. Heck, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sold it's old 80s toys, as have lots of other franchises (Transformers as well). Instead o designing crappy new toys, they could have just gone with that. Just a thought... Pete

Are these the same two girls we see walking with Minmey when Roy is waiting for her (smoking) and tells her about Hikaru having gone missing (captured along with Misa actually). I forgot the number of the episode, but I remember clearly Minmei was wearing green short shorts and walking with two girls who she seemed to be good friend with. Pete

Moving merilly along with Turn-A-Gundam, another fun filled review ...this time of Episode 15. First - I am not a big fan of what is known as "mecha porn," which, if I understand the term correctly, refers to scenes of giant robots and assorted vehicles trying to blow oneanother into smitherines. It's not that I'm somehow "against" these kind of scenes, nor do I have some "moral" objection to "violence" or anything of the sort. I'm just the kind of person who prefers to follow the trials of characters (and stare at cute anime girls) rather than watch machines blow one another up - as a general rule of thumb. That said, Given just how muted the mecha action is in Turn-A-Gundam, episode 15 was a breath of fresh air even for someone as "asexual" [in regards to mecha porn] as I am. And I truly am asexual in this department. I remember when episode 7 of Macross: Frontier aired, I couldn't help but watch the episode thinking "boom, boom, rat-tat-tat...when will this be over? I wanna find out if Alto chooses Ranka or Sheryl?" Turn-A-Gundam gave me roughly 14 episodes with very muted Mecha action, usually just limited to the White Doll facing down some WADS, bi-planes shooting up WADS, and Sid and his people getting excited about finding more "mechanical dolls" underground. But episode 15 delivers the kind of mecha battle that I recall from Mobile Suite Gundam - which had a lot of mecha battles that I enjoyed due to their focus on strategy and the constant presence of greusome death being associated with people piloting giant robots trying to kill oneanother.... On this note - I need to pause to explain myself, because I think I've yet again contradicted myself. How can I not like mecha porn, but enjoy Mobile Suite Gundam (original series), which is, in a big way, 46 episodes of non-stop mecha-porn? Well - I think MSG has a knack for tying the mecha porn titghtly with the plight of characters. See - in Macross Frontier, the war is something distant, or parallel with the lives of regular people and the life of a community that is not geared for war. In fact, this is a big Macross theme- that people and culture can live and flourish and war is this danger to culture that takes place "somewhere out there" and sometimes intrudes into the lives of characters. In this sense, it's possible, in Macross, to follow the lives of characters and not have Total War. In MSG, things are different. Non-military peaceful civilian culture is reduced to rubble from what we see. Yeah, they kind of hint at its' existence in the colonies, but when the One Year War gets in full swing, it pretty much obliterates everything in its' path and people either join a side and the military or become beggers. Heck, when Rambl Rah and his people stopped at that tavern, the owner was told to "cook whatever you have for 14 people" - clearly implying that restaurants and taverns aren't even able to have proper menus or specialize in certain cuisine - they buy what food they can depending on chance, and prepare what they can for whoever happens to trickle their way. The people living on White Base, no matter what their past civilian lives or desires, were forced to live in a state of War. Civilians wanting to return home to Earth rebelled often against Bright, as if under the naive impression that if they just got off of White Base, there was some peaceful "home" they could return to - but it was all an illusion. War, death and destruction were everywhere - even in Amuro's house. Now, this kind of context makes the whole story all the more interesting, and makes it a struggle for a character with a moral conscious to retain some of his humanity. The basic human things; love, envy, a desire for revenge, friendship - all of these still exist - it's just in the context of Total War, intergalactic warfare and warfare using Mobile Suites. In that kind of context - mecha porn is fine. It's kind of to be expected - and Tomino handles it perfectly because it is woven very well into the thread of the story. It's not - as it was in Episode 7 of Frontier - a "dedicated episode" or "ok - now we're going to show you the Mecha in action" Frontier was in that sense forgivable because it was trying to be an homage while also telling a story. The story ran through all the episodes, but each episode needed to have a special flavor that paid tribute to some element of Macross. MSG had no such requirements inherent in it. So that's why I like the mecha porn in MSG - it's not gratuitous. In Turn-A-Gundam, it's not only not gratuitous - it's hardly ever there at all. And so the battle in episode 15 really had me cheering for the gift of an episode of action, explosions and death. It's too bad about Will - but like Diana said - he wasn't clever. He let himself be manipulated by juggly boobs and then actually though that he could win a battle using a pink mecha. Yeah - right. No - but seriously - the battle was well done. I liked how Sochie apparently doesn't understand the concept of a Missile Launcher which is why she apparently feels compelled to through the missiles in Turn-A's chest. Fun. Good thinking. The Zakus and the Kapools really look good together, and I love that one Zaku commander... But why do they call themselves the Suicide Squadron? They don't actually use kamikaze attacks...although I guess using Zakus - probably the "oldest" mobile suits in terms of armor and weaponry against contemporary MSs is...well...kind of suicidal I hope Sochie has a learning moment seeing Will's dead arms. Good stuff. Pete

I'm sure my once again apparently ex-girlfriend would be mad at me - if she ends up being my girlfriend again - if I sold off the MIB God Ginrai she got me... Thankfully, I won't be having that experience. Of what I've sampled from Gundam, the only thing I'm inclined to stomach and enjoy is the original MSG and Turn-A-Gundam. Turn-A-Gundam is actually a great Gundam series from a collecting point of view, because in a sense, you can just pick and chose Mobile Suits from any series or Era that you happen to like and incorporate them into your Turn-A-Gundam collection. Even if they weren't featured in the Turn-A-Gundam anime...who's to say they aren't buried somewhere in the Mountain Cycle? I'm certainly in no rush, however, to collect "all" the Mobile Suits from any particular Gundam anime. I guess this is really the crux of the problem. I'm a fiction guy. I like stories and character arcs behind my toys. If the story is great, I could care less about the toy being super poseable and advanced or not. Take Nightbeat - if I ever manage to come across an MIB Nightbeat and actually have the money to buy it...scoop!...he'll be mine. The toy sucks. It looks like a precursor to Hasbro's Playschool TF line... but the character is so endearing...based mainly on Matrix Quest. I think what I need to do is starting writing some fanfiction or reading some fanfiction from the G1 universe. I've been following the "official" medium for way too long now and it's just been dissapointment after dissapointment. I slept on it and concluded that it would be dumb to sell off my G1 collection. The key is to just stick to collecting reissues. Those come out like once every two months or so anyways so it's not like it'll destroy me financially. The only thing to resist is the "Man..they'll never reissue character X so I better buy it off ebay" temptation.... kind of like with Nightbeat. I've resisted. Many a times have I wanted to get him...but no. Reissues is all. I like the boxes and I like having them completely mint factory fresh. Do I take them out and play with them? You bet! Stickers and all. But I just don't really want non reissues vintage ones... Besides - I kind of like getting "surprised" by what is reissued every once in a while. Now they're on their cassette kick... but I wonder what'll be next? I mean - will they give us ALL the cassettes? Will there be a cassette adventure four with the cassette combiners? Or will things veer off into combiner sets like Bruticus? It's kind of fun playing "guess" with Takara Tomy encore Pete

So that's why my relationships never last! .... Pete

For the benefit of those who do not wish to slog through the long version.... The Short Version: My guilty pleasure: NOT FEELING GUILT! ------------------- The Long Version: I'm kind of like Penguin. I have many pleasures; and feel guilty about none of them. In fact, the only thing I feel guilty about is mundane stuff like breaking the law sometimes... Not the Natural Law, but often times the positive law which violates the Natural Law anyways, but the problem is that one of the precepts of Natural Law is the necessity of submitting to positive law in general since one of the laws of nature is the recalcitrance of Man which seems to necessitate law in the first place, given that the alternative is the Oresteia. Still, when positive law ceases to consciously reflect the Natural Law, this becomes problematic. Other than that, I like Ping Pong, sun bathing, and going to the city to take photographs of women when they use the toilet... Wait... that's from Borat.... Let me rephrase that... I like to eat. There - that's one of my "guilty pleasures." It's also one of the reasons I had to start working out. If I'm going to eat, smoke and drink as much as I do (though I have hardly touched any alcohol in two months...all because of me now being a driver)... then I need to be working out - so I do....once a week... But dag do I like to eat. And I like girls Lots of different girls. I like girls who don't cost more than a three course meal at my favorite Chinese joint Hm... in terms of sci fi stuff... It's kind of akward to be asked to confess a guilty pleasure related to sci fi on a board dedicated to Macross in a thread dedicated to oogling over anime ... So...what can I say? I dunno... I like the Star Wars prequils? I enjoy watching all six Star Wars movies from Phantom Menace straight through Return of the Jedi? I find that they fit flawlessly together and are well done? Would that count? What else?... I think Toppa Tengenn Gurren Lagann is the greatest anime, and greatest show ever made? That is apparently not an opinion held by all people?... so ... it could be my "guilty pleasure" ... though..again..I don't feel guilty about it.... This is a hard topic to discuss. Oh - ok - I know: My guilty pleasure: NOT FEELING GUILT!

Yeah...maybe you're right - but this is the first time in my life when I've actually had these thoughts at all.. I mean...seriously...never crossed my mind earlier...ever... Not even for a second - to get rid of all of them... And I have some pretty nice stuff too...all MIB..like Predaking - complete...amongst other things... But the thing is - I feel like a victim of the dark ages, also known as the XXth century, pre-internet. See - one of the big reasons I was so into Transformers was that there wasn't much else that was cool out there. Now, when compared with all the anime I've started to watch it's like...Transformers feels like the bottom of the barrel to me. Like it isn't even entertaining any more... I've tried watching Victory...I made it 10 episodes in..and it's just...ultimately it's painful. Simon Furman did semi-nice things with Transformers - but if you reeeaaallly take a hard look at it - all he did was use famous human stories as the back drop for Transformers stories. Bogart's Maltese Falcon, Alien... G2 was somewhat interesting but... In the end... the stories don't go anywhere...it's always the same ol' same ol' being rehashed and redone. That's one side of it. There's more. I've noticed a trend insofar as Japanese anime and merchandise goes. Other than Gundam, where there are zillions of mobile suites, the vast majority of Japanese anime seems to only get a few figures and mecha made for the show in question - usually the hero mecha and that's it. It's really rare to get anything but the hero mecha. Also - the hero mecha is usually ONE and it is the focus of zillions of episodes of a series and OVAs. This is actually pretty cool. I rather enjoy the fact that NGE doesn't give us a zillion variations of EVA running around. As for Gundam - the fact that they're model kits makes it ok... not that you have to "collect them all" - but .... heck it's just fun to build them. Macross has only a few valkyrie (comparatively speaking), and so a company like Yamato can focus on making them really really well. Transformers...Transformers is HUGE. But there's just so much...too much... I dunno. There are certain characters I like -Swindle, Ratbat for instance...some others..but...overall...I just find ALL of the stories not interesting when compared to anime. I've noticed quite a few people on these boards who just don't have any Transformers and instead have a big collection of anime stuff. Life without Transformers is possible. At worse, I could keep one - a token TF?... Like Optimus Prime?... but...nah...No point. If they go they all gotta go. I guess I just no longer feel Transformers to be a worthwhile endeavor. The stories are sub-par, the toys are all lacking in some big way - no matter whether vintage or modern and I certainly haven't liked where the franchise has been heading ever since... well... ever since they cancelled G2 really. After G2 it was one dissapointment after another, with BW being a kind of fun in between...First Dreamwave - boo. Then the terrible Unicron trilogy which just killed it for me... Animated really wasn't helpful... I think Animated was only "great" because it had lots of homages and it wasn't the Unicron trilogy... Beats me... I downloaded More than Meets the eye recently hoping to rekindle some kind of fire and it was just like...no. This is boring. Why are Wheeljack and Rumble standing two feet away from eachother firing lasers and not hitting eachother?.... Why do all the humans look so generic? Meanwhile I download OLD anime - not even talking about new anime - but OLD stuff like Space Runaway Ideon or heck...EVEN Getter Robo...and it's great. And I really really like how each anime focuses on just one or two giant robots instead of having millions of them running around, and how there are actually people with decent character designs and write ups... Beats me. Maybe I am having a bad day? Pete

I'm obliged to praise Macross Zero art. Although this art does a good job reminding me of the one missing ingredient in Zero - no humor! It was a brooding, serious, depressing venture... although not as subdued as Plus... Still... I would like to see more Sara art as she is one of my favorite Macross girls... And I like the VF-11B getting some love too. Pete

Just wondering aloud...should I sell off my entire G1 collection and reduce my TF collection to zero? Here's the pros and cons running round my head: Pros: 1. Completely not interested in Transformers any more. Seriously. 2. Feel zero interest in their story or the characters. 3. Tons of better stuff (anime) out there that interests me. 4. Did I mention I'm totally not interested in Transformers any more? Cons: 1. What if I wake up later and feel bad, because my "disinterest" was just a passing phase? 2. I've been interested in Transformers - particularly G1 and the Marvel comics since I was 4. That's 26 years now. Is it really possible to loose interest in something after 26 years, or am I just having a bad day? 3. I finally have a large G1 collection just like I always dreamed of when I was a kid. Wouldn't getting rid of it be bad for me? 4. I like lots of the characters from Transformers - don't I?... Hm... But seriously... it's hard for me to be enthusiastic about this anymore... And I'm not even talking about the movie or anything after G1...I'm talking about even G1 itself .... I re-read my old comics and the stories are just so childish...even the "good" ones... and it doesn't have any of the key elements of a super robot show - no boobs, no interesting human mecha pilots, no fantastical stuff... I dunno. I know that the TFs themselves are supposed to be interesting living robots...but all of them are antromorphosized so radically that they might as well be people... it's like...human stories told with machines... And no - alien machines like in the movie don't do it for me either. Am I just whining? Pete

Well poopy. Pete You Can Always Count on Him for a Well Reasoned, Intelligent Retort Such as the Above

Just start from season 1 - in order of what aired. Don't watch it in "chronological" order - that's no fun. Go by what aired first, then next, then again. It's a great great show! Pete

If that's true, and HG doesn't have the right to use the word "Macross" in any new production, then it follows that HG doesn't have the right to bar Yamato from using the word "Macross" on their Valkyries if they want to sell them in the USA. Why? Because Yamato's "Macross" is NOT "The Macross Saga" from Robotech - it's the real Macross - the original Macross - Macross which to this day is still being made and whose IP is still owned by BW who licensed Macross to Yamato and Bandai and other companies to produce merchandise. Ergo HG is all washed up. They have no case. If the trademark ONLY applies to merchandise from the "Macross Saga" portion of Robotech - then that's what it applies to -only that. Not to Macross (Japanese), which is what Yamato explicitly produces merchandise for. To my mind, HG have no case for their C&Ds then - except maybe relying on scaring people into avoiding legal fees and hoping for lazy judges who can't be assed to research this entire situation. Pete

The role of Tsuruya is indeed an interesting matter to consider. Practically invisible in season 1, she becomes more noticable in season 2, particularly in the "last" episode, where she is cleary standing in the background as Mikuru delivers her "news" to Kyon, watching, as though to make sure that her co-conspirator does as she is supposed too. Also, her exceedingly huge mysterious manshion, the fact that Mikuru seems to live with her...and of course her super-powers which we see in Haruhi-chan... Just who is she? I know the novels probably flesh the matter out more, but I'm not keen on reading them...prefer to hold out for more of the anime... It's not that I think they'll be bad...it's just I'm kind of lazy about getting them...although perhaps I should... Anyways... for all intents and purposes, Kyon seems to come through for Koyzumi in the end, dispite their mistrust and subtle male rivalry, I get the feeling that in his gutts Kyon takes "bros before hos" approach... His one independent venture is to tell Haruhi "the Truth"... and that just gets him date-less.... Pete

So...I have watched two more episodes. I don't like how characters and mecha so convieniently just appear. This is one thing I enjoyed about MSG. Nothing was convenient. You'd think the White Base could just fly its' sorry butt to South America right away - but no - they had to treck across Asia, Africa and up to Ireland and then cross the Atlantic. I don't exactly remember WHY...but I'm sure it was something technical... In Turn-A Gundam - either the action of the series takes place in a really really small perimeter of territory - almost like a child's play room where all the "bases" are close enough to launch "zoom!" attacks across the carpet...or Mobile Suits are just that fast. I speak of course of Harry's appearance in the valley ditch where he fights those Zakus. He is the commander of the Royal Gaurd - yet he's not only away from the Queen (who is actually an imposter, but then again Harry can't even tell boys from girls, so we'll let that slide) - he's also all by himself... Then again - maybe I missed something because I was admiring the Zakus. Happy to see them "return." As for Gamin (name spelling?) ....well...hmm.... Diana is right - he's foolish and not as clever as his grandfather. He can't tell the Ladys from the Slurms (no, that's not the auto-censor, it's just me writing "slurm"). See - that red head is a slurm. And not because she's moonrace. No. You can tell from her breasts. They aren't firm, but rather they're juggly - not like ugly juggly, but kind of like "used car" juggly. Like the motor still runs, and generally the thing looks good and you can ride it - but you can tell it's not fresh off the assembly plant. Also - she has a tendency to show off her boobs and whisper into men's ears trying to convince them to do things that run contrary to their interest. Contrast this with the tenderness and romanticism of Diana - a Lady, and you get the picture. Gamin (or whatever his name is) is pretty dumb. Wanting to get to the Moon by joining Diana Counter is like wanting to tour Berlin by signing up to the Neo-Nazi party and asking them to organize a field trip for you. There's plenty better ways to go about it. But we'll let that slide. Clearly the "star" of the show has been Diana. I can't help but dislike her eye shadow when she's in her Queen get up. That and her ironed out hair. But as "Lady Kiel"...she's great...looks awesome and...heck...can't help but feel a pang of love for her... also, I do hope that her switching with Kiel is also a "clever" move (to use the term she used to describe Grandpa Gamin)... If she could comperehend a man's cleverness, then surely she herself is capable of it... I hope. So - she somewhat guaranteeing that the Moonrace will be restrained from using its' full power in the heat of passion by placing an Earth Girl in the place of the Queen - someone who will always act to protect Earth and its' people instinctively... That's a smart move. Meanwhile, she needs to learn about the prejudices of the Earth race in order to overcome them - thus spending time with them. Smart move. Shacking up with Gundam as your protector is also a decidely smart thing to do. Loran...Loran is way to nice...like almost naively nice... but then again, I guess that's kind of the key to being a Gundam pilot. I didn't like him taking a bath with the slurm. On that note - who is that red head chick anyways? I guess we're meant not to like her... but maybe she'll turn out likeable or at least interesting as time moves on... I've come to expect nothing being what is seems from this show... Anyways - yay to Zakus. Hope we see more mecha. What show is the slurm's pink mobile suit from? It kind of looks like a variation of a GM...? Pete

Hm. Let me see if I understand correctly: The world has always existed as is. Then, along comes Haruhi who seems to have acquired the ability to alter reality. But this presents the following problems: 1) Since Asahina herself admits that Haruhi can "change the present" and the present is merely a "follow up" built upon past events, then in "changing the present" Haruhi must therefore also alter the past - concievably all the way back to the "beginning." Now - if Asahina claims that there was no beginning, and I presume she does since she is of the view that the world "has always existed" then, given Haruhi's limitless power to alter the present, could not Haruhi also alter the infinitity of the universe and give it a beginning...say...three years ago? 2) Asahina travels from the future...but we know nothing about that future. Is it a future where Haruhi has been "defeated" and where time flows smoothly? Is it a future where girls wear black mini-skirts, white shirts and high heels out of the 90s? Or could it be that actually - since Haruhi is "in charge" of the world, and wishes there to be time travelers in it... Oh... I KNOW who Asahina's superior is It's the FUTURE HARUHI! Who's to say it isn't? Kyon supposes that it's the adult Asahina...but maybe she is just a higher up - but not the highest up? Another possibility - is that Asahina actually isn't a time traveler, strictly speaking - that is to say, her future version is just a manifestation of Haruhi's will that there BE a future version and a future with Asahina in it. We know Haruhi is capable of doing this - after all, Endless Eight saw the elimination of the Future for about 500 thousand Years...if I remember the counting that Yuki did right?... It gets confusing... But it's so fun! Pete

Happy you see my point. Now let's take it one step further then. This basically means that Intellectual Property rights trump merchandising rights. This actually is logical. After all - merchandising rights relates only to merchandising, and merchandising relates only to merchandise which is based on something. The thing that merchandise is based on is the Intellectual Property. If Big West retains the intellectual Property rights to Macross, then it can go about producing more Macross series and movies and licensing the merchandise for those series and movies. Next hypothetical question: Let's say Big West makes a new Macross series called...oh...I dunno..Macross Frontier, featuring new mecha and pilots and so forth and so on. However, this new series is thematically tied to the original Macross series, which itself is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from Robotech. Now... How can Harmony Gold make the claim that Yamato can't sell Macross merchandise in the USA, when they actually don't have the merchandising rights to Macross, but to only that portion of Macross which falls under the general guise of Robotech - or the "first part" of Robotech, which happens to be Macross. But the Macross which is a part of Robotech has nothing to do with the REAL Macross from Japan. Sure, the pictures are exactly the same, but the dialogue is completely different, and the plot - particularly if looked at via the novels and the remaining two segments of Robotech which themselves were originally completely different series - makes the show something totally different. In fact - it's so different, that Harmony Gold can legitamitely claim to own the INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS for...Robotech. Robotech - yes. Macross -no. Why? Because Robotech is something that they, for better or for worse, like it or not, thought up. Macross was just one of thre canvasses that they used to tell their story, and I would argue that what they got from Tats was the FOOTAGE but not Macross. It's just like Hasbro with the Jetfire toy. They got the VF-1S mold. Yes. Fine. But did they get the VF-1S? NO. Hasbro just got the mold - but they couldn't say "this is Roy Fokker's VF-1S. He's now part of the Transformers universe. They got the mold, which they treated as a "blank slate" and onto which they imprinted their own intellectual property - Transformers Jetfire. Do you now see Hasbro suing Toynami for making Robotech Veritechs that look just like "their" G1 Jetfire? No. I realize this is partially because Hasbro has better things to do and partially because Hasbro likely no longer has the license for the VF-1 anyways (I think?) - but just as a hypothetical - would they be able to do it? So - when a vendor in the USA wants to sell a Yamato Macross product from DYRL, they are not violating HG's merchandising rights, because HG owns merchandising rights to Robotech, a part of which is Macross. But Yamato DYRL valkyrie are not from Robotech. They are from Macross. Macross is a different entity altogether. To contest that Macross is the same as Robotech, and therefore that a product which is meant to celebrate the Macross universe is an infringement of merchandising rights for a product meant to represent Robotech is messed up. Yamato is producing its' stuff under license from BW which holds the IP rights to Macross. HG holds the IP rights to Robotech and the merchandising rights to Macross which is a part of Robotech and only IN THE CAPACITY TO WHICH IT IS A PART OF ROBOTECH. I know this is kind of a shaky point to be making - but I get the feeling that I'm on to something and feel like Haruhi Master Detective Suzumiya - I must pursue my silly quest... I just basically think that without Intellectual Property rights - merchandising rights don't mean very much. The only reason HG's merchandising rights mean anything is because they own the IP to ROBOTECH. Without Robotech as IP, they would only have the merchandising rights to a Japanese anime - which actually would be a far broader category. I dunno...I'm tired. My brain hurts again. But the example with Mechawarrior the hypothetical movie got me thinking that there are way more holes in HG's legal argument than people allow for. And that we've been so focused on demonstrating that they only own the merchandising right to Macross that we've kind of let slide the implication of this - namely that owning merchandising rights to something that you have no IP rights to means didly really, since the IP owner can just say that he sold you the merchandising right to one variation of the IP. Heck - in this case the IP owner didn't do anything - Tats just had broadcasting rights and HG acquired merchandising rights as part of its' package deal for broadcasting ...broadcasting what? Broadcasting MACROSS? No. Broadcasting ROBOTECH. This is why they won't show us the contract guys. It's because the contract can't possibly be about Macross. Think about it. HG might have initially wanted to bring over Macross - but in Robotech Art 3 it says that due to how the TV syndication market in the US was structured - they couldn't - they needed more content - so they had to grab Southern Cross and Mospedea. Now.. think more - did they grab these anime and sign contracts that said "we're going to be able to show Macross in the USA" and then "we're going to be able to show Southern Cross" and then "we're going to be able to show Mospedea?" My guess (and I'm just guessing here) is NO. Why? Because since that's not what they did, and since Tats never sued them or complained that they were supposed to do something else - it appears that both parties agreed to the USE of the FOOTAGE from three different anime to construct one new cartoon show "tailored" to the American market. That said - what's in the contract? ROBOTECH. Not Macross. Not Mospedea. Not Souther cross. ROBOTECH. The contract stipulates that the footage from these three anime can be used in the creation of ROBOTECH. And this makes sense because if they were to just get the right to bring over Macross, then they would not be able to create Robotech because it would violate the IP of BW. Huh? Well - think about it this way... Macross is its' own show. Just like..say...Star Wars is its' own movie. What if I got Geroge Lucas' permission to use footage from Star Wars and dub over it, and combine it with dubbed over footage from two other unrelated shows - say...Star Trek and Alf (and to name the combination STAR TREKS OF AFLONSO). And I put together a story line linking all three of these seperate stories and got the rights to show this in my island nation of Koo Koo Cloudy Land. Question: do I therefore have international merchandising rights to Star Wars, Star Trek and Alf....or just to STAR TREKS OF ALFONSO? I contend that the only way that such a contract could possibly be put together is to spell out in plane language that HG has the right to ROBOTECH, which is composed of these three anime to which TATS as a studio had the right to their FOOTAGE - and that's all. And this is why HG won't show us the contract. And this is also why HG likes sending out C&Ds but doesn't actually go to court with anybody unless it's somebody with a very small interest in the matter and not much money to pay for expensive lawyers. See -HG flexes its' legal muscle very selectively. And anybody can write a C&D - but let's see them follow through and slog through court battles? Let's see them present the legal basis (the contract) upon which they make the claim. It won't happen because the contract itself has to be about Robotech and not about Macorss. And the argument HG has kept on using when bullying on Yamato products and retailers selling those has been "oh - we own the merchandising rights to Macross." Really? No. They own the merchandising rights to ROBOTECH a part of which is Macross - but as clearly demonstrated by the Mechawarrior example I gave - BW owns the IP and can license the designs from Macross to anybody it wants to - license as a film/series property and not as "merchandise" per se. Now this ipso facto means that Harmony Gold DOESN'T own the merchandising rights to Macross - but only to Robotech. If this isn't clear - I'll try to write it more clearly - because I know I'm kind of all over the place - But I hope somebody sees what I'm getting at?... Pete

Some new thoughts on Sighs, as well as commentary on my new SOS-dan t-shirt... First I'l start with my new T-shirt. I got the white cospa t-shirt with the SOS-dan insignia on it. XL. Fits perfectly. Good quality shirt, and the emblem is well done. Happy with it. I've worn it a couple of times and so far I have not gotten any strange looks, nor has anyone inquired what it means. Then again, I guess there's so many faux design t-shirts and clothes out there nowadays with seemingly random numbers, insignias etc etc on them that people might just assume this is another one of those... Of course, what I'm REALLY holding out for is that some gorgeous blond will notice me in my SOS-dan t-shirt, run up to me and say "oh my god! You're also a fan of Haruhi Suzumiya!" and then we'll strike it up and get married the next day. Moving on... I've rewatched Sighs and a couple of thoughts have bubbled up in my weary old brain ... First - in the last episode when Koizumi says that perhaps Haruhi doesn't want the film to end, and that she wants it to just go on forever...I suddenly realized that that's kind of like how the entire anime is. It doesn't want to end. It tries to go on forever. This is, I realize, a banal explanation... but it dawned upon me while also considering which faction's interpretation of the essence of Haruhi Suzumiya is correct. I still lean more towards Koiyzumi's interpretation. Asahin-san's actually DOESN'T make sense, and I think Kyon knows that - he was just being nice to Asahina agreeing that it sounds sensible. In fact it doesn't. How could the world have "always been like that" - like what? And what does "Haruhi can certainly change the present" mean...? The present doesn't really exist. Asahin explained as much when she compared time to an animation flip-book. The present is constantly in motion...but even the flip book analogy is wrong since you can always single out pages from the flip book - while time is so fluid as to make it impossible to single out a particular point - unless of course you happen to be Haruhi Suzumiya and it's summer vacation. I dunno...I just don't really understand Asahina's explanation. Other than being at odds with Koizumi on the fundamental issue of who Haruhi is....it seems to be illogical... As for Yuki - I appreciate her honesty...but it might just be a function of her following the guidelines of her programing: to observe. You can also see this whenever the group is conferring in the sushi bar (sans Haruhi). Yuki never contributes any suggestions, never comments, never has anything to say. She is there to observe. If confronted, she will help... But... on this point...I wonder why nobody makes more use of Yuki? Clearly her knowledge is vast and I personally think she could rival Suzumiya-san... actually..Yuki is like an inverted Haruhi Suzumiya. She is conscious of everything but can do nothing to alter the course of events. Haruhi on the other hand has total power over events, but is unconscious of it... interesting... Anyways...just some thoughts for now... Nothing concrete. I do hope this is continued. best non-robot show I've seen in my whole life. I really love it. Pete

Yeah, but in my fictional-hypothetical question, BW would just give those IP rights to Catalyst for the Mechawarrior movie. The point here is simply that BW can give rights to Macross designs to companies in the USA for movies that are not named "Macross" but have some other names. HG only has merchandising rights to Macross, but it doesn't have IP rights to the designs and the films. If the designs from Macross were licensed to an American firm which made a movie or a tv series called "X = anything except "Macross" or "Robotech" then...technically that firm could then sell merchandise based on that film, licensed by BW...and that merchandise could theoretically be...say...Yamato valkyrie. This is the fictional/hypothetical that I raise. And it is an open question. As to Hasbro.... I did not know that they had that license prior to HG. That's strange. Didn't Robotech air prior to Transformers - or at the very least prior to the introduction of Jetfire? In any case - my only point with that is that I figured that HG couldn't touch Hasbro's Jetfire toy because it was sold as a toy representation of Jetfire and not of a a VF-1S from "Robotech/Macross" I dunno... I guess it's easier for me to post bodybuilders This stuff makes my brain hurt Pete

Actually, your example just seems to complicate things even further. How was it possible for Hasbro to sell Jetfire under license from Tatsunoko when it was clearly similar to a VF-1 for which supposedly HG had merchandising rights? Answer: because according to Hasbro, the VF-1 look alike they were selling was supposed to represent the character Jetfire, who is owned by Hasbro, and therefore it's not "Robotech" merchandise. In other words.... Let's say I opened a company in the USA and called it My Crap Movies. I then went ahead and made movies with a random white jet that turns into a random white robot. Then BW magically sells me the merchandising rights and Yamato lends me the molds to the VF-1. I then make Yamato VF-1s available in America in boxes which say "MY Crap Movies" Likewise with Mechawarrior - they could sell the Destroids as merchandise based on the Mechawarrior movie (hypothetical) just like Hasbor sold a VF-1 by claiming it was based on a trademarked Transformer... Or was that just a case of HG being asleep at the wheel? Or maybe of HG not wanting to risk taking on Hasbro in a legal fight? Because ... you know...it's easier to send C&D orders to smaller vendors and video game companies than to fight a court battle with Hasbro? I dunno... Either way it's all grasping at straws because usually when a cartoon or movie is successful, then even if there are legal liabilities along the road (and these days there almost always are), the company just treats these as sunk costs. The movies and toys still get made because the money made off of those is bigger than any law suit will ever cost... In HG's case, I'm not sure the same can be said... Pete