Penguin

'Dunno about "guilty", 'cause I'm shameless and unrepentent in my geekdom, but those things most likely to make people muse "What's wrong with you?": - Spacehunter, Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, 'cause anything with Michael Ironside in high camp mode is good by default - Highlander 2, the umpteenth re-edited edition, 'cause anything with Michael Ironside in high camp mode is good by default - Xanadu, 'cause Gene Kelly rocks, Olivia Newton-John was hot, and watching Michael Beck is like watching an oak desk try to emote - Uzumaki (movie, not manga), 'cause it's like Lovecraft and Cronenberg creating a Japanese love child - Dungeons and Dragons RPG, 'cause you can never have too many dice - Kanu from Ikki Tosen, 'cause hot women with polearms... I should just stop there ... and why is Dire Straits a guilty pleasure? Mark Knopfler is an exceptional musician.

Already got one, but thanks. Trademarks don't work that way. HG's trademark is Macross when applied to toys, full stop. All toys. Any toys. HG can only legally license toys based on the original series designs, but the trademark isn't that specific. Any toy that attempts to bear the name "Macross" would violate their trademark, regardless of whether HG has any legal right to that design. They've locked up the name totally. By the same token, I couldn't produce completely unique toys and label them "Star Trek" without violating that trademark, even if my toys had nothing to do with that franchise and Paramount had no rights to those designs. Bandai could rename "Macross Frontier" to "Space Colony Expedition Frontier" and market the VF-25 variants, since they are unique designs that don't carry any of the logos from the original series. The HG trademark also doesn't extend to, say, jams and jellies, from what I read. So, you could legally trademark and license Macross Frontier strawberry jam with a smiling Sheryl on the jar without violating their trademark. Edit: Or, like, what Azrael said...

That's a long and winding path, but I think I understand the point you're trying to make. While I agree that IP is more valuable than a simple merchandising right, I think you're assigning too much weight to IP's ability to trump the other. As I understand it, HG's rights would come down to two things: 1. They have merchandising rights to the designs featured in the footage of the original Macross series. 2. They trademarked the original Macross logo, and the name Macross as it applies to animated cartoon series delivered via a global computer network, television and satellite; prerecorded video cassettes and compact discs featuring music and animation from an animated cartoon series; computer game software based on an animated cartoon series; toy action figures; socks, footwear, shirts, sweatshirts, pajamas, warm-up suits, coats, shorts, gym shorts dresses, clothing belts, bandannas, sweaters, gloves, ear muffs, neckwear, ski wear, slacks, sun visors, suspenders, turtlenecks, vests, headwear, bathrobes, and beachwear. So, if Yamato were to take the 1/60 Gamlin's VF-22S, remove the name "Macross" from any of the materials and replace the UN Spacy kite with something else (since that design is featured in the TV show), HG couldn't say boo as they don't have rights to Macross 7 designs and the toy wouldn't violate any of their trademarks or licensed designs. True, but immaterial when it comes to the designs and trademarks. Possibly. The story of the Robotech part of Macross is so derivative of the Macross story, HG's rights might need to cover reuse of those elements. Well, DYRL uses the name Macross, which conflicts with HG's trademarks. So, that's a no-go there. There is precedent for identical designs to be licenced to different companies, though. You're assigning too much power to the original IP, and too little to the merchandising rights. If Lucasfilm gave Hasbro exclusive North American rights to Star Wars toys, and then exclusive rights to Bandai to do the same in Japan, Hasbro would have every right to bar Bandai from selling their goods in North America. IP ownership has nothing to do with it. By the same token, due to the deal that was made with Tatsunoko, all those designs from the first Macross get to be HG's exclusively for merchandising. Doesn't matter who has the IP. "Variation of the IP" is an interesting concept, and there are some precedents out there for similar things. Terminator, for example. Back in the 90s we had competing Terminator comics from Dark Horse and Marvel, since different companies owned the Terminator and T2 rights. Terminator was licensed to Dark Horse, and T2 to Marvel. Dark Horse could not reference anything from T2, since they only had the Terminator license. Marvel could only reference Terminator in so much as was referenced in T2. The Terminator designs and story elements that were shared between the two were usable by both companies (stylistic differences notwithstanding). So, without the issue of the trademarks, there might be a precedent here. I don't know the gritty details of the Marvel/Dark Horse arrangement or how the copyrights worked in this case, so I could be completely off-base. Perhaps, if someone were to license merchandising rights for Macross 7 designs in North America, they would have rights to Milia's VF-1. I'm not sure what legal recourse HG would have if they were to produce toys for that design. The design is obviously nearly identical to the one HG has rights to, but their rights extend from Macross TV footage only. You would have to obtain proper Macross 7 rights for North Armerica from the original holder. You can't just import Milia VF-1 toys from Japan and sell them in North America, violating HG's rights, unless you had legally been granted your own merchandising rights from the holder. It is rendered moot by the trademarks though. The "Macross" name is an HG trademark for toys, and you couldn't release a toy featuring it without HG's approval. It would have to be named something else.

Hopefully we're talking more "teen" than "tween". The other X-Men movies have all featured teens too, mixed with the older teachers. Now that the teachers are the students, who taught them? Just Prof X? Could we see other classic characters who have yet to be featured appearing as older mentors? I wouldn't mind seeing a clash between Prof's class while at the same time there's Magneto trying to do the same thing with his fledgling Brotherhood. Both the "First Class" comics and the "X-Men Evolutions" series had some neat moments where the younger members of the opposing teams found themselves bonding when outside the influence of their iconic leaders. Don't know if any writers would bother to capitalize on any of that, but it could provide some great character moments.

True. It's cool that they're willing to listen to our opinions via Graham, and Graham's first post did mention he only proposed "serious contenders". So, by no means am I trying to discourage VF-2SS fans from voting for their favourite. The thought just occured to me when reading Save's post that it would be funny in a sardonic/ironic/perverse sorta way if expressing our collective opinion had the reverse result of us never getting what we want.

You're assuming it's a "win". Worst-case, Yamato says "VF-2SS?? That'll never sell in Japan! You guys are out of touch!" and never listens to our opinions again. I agree with Alvaro... just do 'em all.

Which would be good for all, since Sheryl is at least 50% less psycho than Sharon.

Haven't heard "Pink Monsoon" yet... on the rest we'll have to agree to disagree. I love the music for "Northern Cross" and "Diamond Crevasse Vacuum", but I don't particularly care for May'n's voice (there's my personal Macross musical heresy). "Infinity #7" I can do without entirely. Sheryl's songs tend to be really... busy is the word that comes to mind, in terms of arrangement. Aesthetically, I tend to enjoy simpler arrangements. One of my favourite Macross Plus tracks is "Coma", for example (call me moody and emo, whatever ). You could see this trend to more complex arrangements in some of the Cowboy Bebop works, and songs like "Inner Universe" from Stand Alone Complex, but while I enjoy most of those I don't really enjoy the Macross Frontier works that continue in the same vein. Megumi's tracks from Mac F and "Some Other Time" from SAC are more my taste. So, for me, SHERYL = NOT INTERESTED

Curse you as a blasphemer and an uncouth lout, sir! I'd take Ranka's "What 'bout my star" over Sheryl's any day, and "Idol Talk" over the lot of them. Next you'll write you prefer Reba West to Mari Ijima and our eyes will bleed just to read it... P.S. To be taken with appropriate grains of salt... my avatar is a fictional satanic bass player, so what do I know?

I love all the vocal stuff from GITS, and "Green Bird" from Cowboy Bebop is one of my all time favourite tracks (in fact, the whole "No Disc" album is awesome), but I too think Macross Plus is her best work as an overall package. Of course it all depends on your style preference. If you don't like jazz, Cowboy Bebop can put you off (as it does for me in some places). I love grand orchestral John Williams-esque soundtracks, so Macross Plus fits me perfectly, with Escaflowne a close second.

Excellent. My VF-22 army grows. Now all we need are sound boosters for Milia's. Sing it with me, y'all know the tune... While my wallet gently weeps

The fundamental problem I have with Legioss transforming toys or models is that they can't get rid of the "stubby wing syndrome". The old 1/72 scale fixed-mode kits, tiny though they were, gave the fighter mode decent proportions. Every transforming toy I've seen has got wings way too small in proportion to the rest of the body, and the feet just drag out behind to a ridiculous extent. Until someone, anyone, figures out a way to give the fighter mode a reasonable delta shape, I just ain't interested. So, the option for me that isn't in the poll is "Doesn't matter until the Legioss looks decent".

From what I understand, this extra stuff MekTek's adding is for multiplayer support. Did they say somewhere that they were changing the mech interface for MW4?

I've got some vague hopes for this one. Much as I like Hugh's Logan portrayal, I'd love to see the rest of the team get some decent screen time. X3 left me flat, especially seeing my favourite X-man (Cyclops) get an off-screen death. On the flip side, there've only been a few writers in the comics that did Scott justice. Hopefully the screenwriter will take a page from them.

For all us Canadians, showtimes for Evangelion 1.0 are up at Cineplex.com

Curse you and your easily clickable links! Now I've downloaded it and can't stop playing it!

Really, I want them all , but I gotta go with the VF-17. Something really different from previous offerings would be nice; more diversity on my display shelf. Plus, brand new opportunities to complain about how thick it is in fighter mode or too skinny in battroid. It's all win!!!

Back when I cared about and enjoyed Robotech, I always saw the concept as humanity's resilience and spirit in the face of destruction. At least, when I too played the Palladium RPG, that's how I interpreted it. The destruction of Earth in Macross, the continued disintegration through Southern Cross, and then with the Invid invasion the final conquering of the planet, but in the end Earth is reclaimed and there is a chance to rebuild. All in all, I thought it was a decent cycle, back before all the sturm und drang with Harmony Gold soured what I had enjoyed about Robotech. Whether the creators had that concept in mind or I'm just meta-projecting my own theme on to it I can't say, but then again I don't think that really matters. "The author is dead" and all that...

That's a shame. There's some nice artwork there. Although, some of the designs made you think, "Hmmm... where exactly are the weapons?"

Did FASA have another rights or license expiration or some such issue that meant they had to stop using the Victor Musical (sic ) artwork? I was looking at a more subsequent printing of the 3055 Technical Readout and they weren't there anymore. Come to think of it, it might have been a second hand copy, and I know those pages long ago separated out of my copy, so maybe that's why they weren't there.

Man, I loved the Marauder IIC

My powers of pointless recollection name him Emil Lang, I think. He shows up again in the Sentinels footage with the same eyes, and may or may not have died off-screen inbetween Prelude to... and Shadow Chronicles.

Looks like a variable glaug.

Bandai 1/48 thread

... I'd call that a win