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HG and BW reach an agreement (Link included)


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3 hours ago, Keith said:

I don't even think they'd have to hijack it, it's highly likely Sony's involvement in the resolution came about because they thought they bought a "Macross" movie from HG, only to realize they were locked into the non-Macross dregs of "Robotech."

Nah, a big outfit like Sony Pictures has a veritable battalion of top-flight attorneys specializing in contract and IP law.

If Sony Pictures didn't know what it was buying because Harmony Gold misrepresented things, the story we'd be reading wouldn't be "Harmony Gold bends the knee to Big West".  It would be "Sony Pictures sues Harmony Gold into oblivion for contract fraud".

Where the disconnect between the news that Sony, like WB before them, acquired a Robotech movie license is the misguided belief that studios only buy the rights to properties when they're absolutely going to use those rights to make a movie.  Which isn't the case, obviously.  Most of the licenses these studios acquire never see the light of day and expire without the studio taking any kind of action at all.  Often, rights to related properties get snapped up if a rival studio has success with a particular story... and that's what got Robotech picked up.  It's a product of Paramount's success with Transformers, not any actual belief that Robotech is viable.

Sony would, I'm sure, be much happier with the prospects of a live-action Macross movie in partnership with Big West than a Robotech movie given the massive difference in the level of brand awareness between the two... but I doubt they'd be particularly confident even in Macross because of how poorly anime adaptations do in general.  Even beloved titles which were cultural icons in the 90's like Ghost in the Shell failed to break even.  Basically, Sony might see Macross as worth taking a risk on but I don't think they'd find the kind of massive budget they'd need to do the job right.  Robotech, on the other hand, well... let's just say it's not an accident this movie proposal has been kicking around for 14 years without even a single iota of forward movement.

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1 minute ago, JB0 said:

We've spent two decades watching a succession of drama-bombs from these two franchises' legal situation. Where the heck are we supposed to get our legal soap opera now?

Tune in to the BattleTech and MechWarrior fans losing their goddamn minds over this one.

It's like watching the Q-Anon nutjobs go at it, but with giant robots. :lol:

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Sony was probably buying Toby Maguire happiness playing Spidey for another movie or two.  EDIT - I don't remember if this "deal" was after the Toby Spidey movies were done or not.

About shitty comics ruining a franchise - it wasn't JUST the shitty comics, it was the shitty attempts at new animation that truly did that particular "franchise" in.

Edited by Dynaman
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2 hours ago, Nied said:

I mean I have been lurking here since then. I guess I don't find the evidence here very convincing. Producers talk up the talent they've approached for a project all the time when trying to attract investors and if shitty tie-in comics were all it took to kill a franchise every property since Star Wars would have been dead as a door-nail.

One of the head honchos at HG green lighting  a lot of those comics also came from the comic book industry.  His main talent was drawing close approximations of Macross characters   It’s been the go to medium of choice when their TV and film projects stalled or got unceremoniously cancelled.

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27 minutes ago, Dynaman said:

Sony was probably buying Toby Maguire happiness playing Spidey for another movie or two.  EDIT - I don't remember if this "deal" was after the Toby Spidey movies were done or not.

It was after... but also with a different studio entirely.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that Warner Bros had acquired the Robotech movie rights on 7 Sept 2007 and asserted that Tobey Maguire was going to both produce and start in the film.  Maguire was the only person actually mentioned in connection with the project who actually was connected to it in the capacity reported, however briefly.  Everything after that turned out to be fake news.

Spider-Man 3 starring Tobey Maguire came out in May 2007, but that was a Columbia/Sony project.

Sony Pictures didn't acquire the Robotech license until about nine years later in 2016, a few years after Warner Bros allowed their license to expire.

 

27 minutes ago, Dynaman said:

About shitty comics ruining a franchise - it wasn't JUST the shitty comics, it was the shitty attempts at new animation that truly did that particular "franchise" in.

To be fair, that "franchise" came pre-ruined thanks to the delusional egomaniac who was in charge of it and flew both of its immediate sequel projects into the ground.

The shitty comics only emerged like maggots on a fresh corpse after that self-aggrandizing hack finished Kevork-ing the animated series.

 

2 minutes ago, Einherjar said:

One of the head honchos at HG green lighting  a lot of those comics also came from the comic book industry.  His main talent was drawing close approximations of Macross characters   It’s been the go to medium of choice when their TV and film projects stalled or got unceremoniously cancelled.

It's been their medium of choice because it's the only way they can inexpensively do a narrative involving the Macross character and designs the fanbase loves so much... video games take years and millions of dollars, but you can fart out a bad comic in a couple weeks and fairly cheaply.

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5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Big West tossed the idea around back in the mid-90's in cooperation with Galaxy Films, but nothing ever came of it except a rough script.

IMO, it'd be f*cking hilarious if Big West hijacked Harmony Gold's live action Robotech movie proposal and got Sony to make a Macross movie instead.  

And even if they managed to convince BW to show the movie in USA with the "Robotech" names, they are still forced to re-cannon all the shitty comics and sequels with that movie... likely with some time-travel sh*t or something.
For example... if Sony uses Mikimoto characters from The First for the movie, imagine HG trying to fix this into their lore:

GinaBartrow.jpg

:rofl:

Edited by Gerli
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1 hour ago, Gerli said:

... if Sony uses Mikimoto characters from The First for the movie, imagine HG trying to fix this into their lore:

 

 

Guess you never heard of Macross II and where is it positioned in the current Macross canon...or whatever the current canon happens to be?  :rolleyes:

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2 hours ago, Gerli said:

And even if they managed to convince BW to show the movie in USA with the "Robotech" names, they are still forced to re-cannon all the shitty comics and sequels with that movie... likely with some time-travel sh*t or something.

... I doubt it'd even faze the Robotech fanbase at this point.

After all, the last Robotech comic's "big reveal" was that there's an entire Robotech multiverse full of different "bad future" parallel universes spawned by the many iterations of a time loop in which the SDF-3 accidentally travels back in time and crashes on Earth in 1999 to be mistaken for "Zor's Battlefortress".  It presents all of the different failed Robotech projects as parallel worlds created by different iterations of the time loop.  At the end of said comic, they apparently break the time loop and are headed for a future that isn't shite... but they got cancelled so y'know, best future.

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24 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... I doubt it'd even faze the Robotech fanbase at this point.

After all, the last Robotech comic's "big reveal" was that there's an entire Robotech multiverse full of different "bad future" parallel universes spawned by the many iterations of a time loop in which the SDF-3 accidentally travels back in time and crashes on Earth in 1999 to be mistaken for "Zor's Battlefortress".  It presents all of the different failed Robotech projects as parallel worlds created by different iterations of the time loop.  At the end of said comic, they apparently break the time loop and are headed for a future that isn't shite... but they got cancelled so y'know, best future.

In other words, everything was End of the Circle's fault.

Edited by JB0
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2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Guess you never heard of Macross II and where is it positioned in the current Macross canon...or whatever the current canon happens to be?  :rolleyes:

Is not relevant if no one talks about it :rofl:

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5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's been their medium of choice because it's the only way they can inexpensively do a narrative involving the Macross character and designs the fanbase loves so much... video games take years and millions of dollars, but you can fart out a bad comic in a couple weeks and fairly cheaply.

Harmony Gold doesn't make video games or comics. I don't know how the comic book industry works but I imagine it's like other merchandise where someone says "Hey, can I use your name and characters and give you a cut?" HG then says "Sure" and can either insist on the project being some level of quality.. or not. They're probably NOT specifying how REMIX or any of those other comics should play out... they're probably just scanning them to make sure there's nothing offensive. If that's the case, those are their mediums of choice because they're nearly zero effort all profit endeavors. 

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59 minutes ago, jenius said:

Harmony Gold doesn't make video games or comics. I don't know how the comic book industry works but I imagine it's like other merchandise where someone says "Hey, can I use your name and characters and give you a cut?" HG then says "Sure" and can either insist on the project being some level of quality.. or not. They're probably NOT specifying how REMIX or any of those other comics should play out...

Not for Remix or its predecessor... but most of the other post-reboot comics have Tommy Yune listed with a writer's credit.

Your description is fundamentally accurate for licensing in general and most old Robotech comics in particular, but there was that decade or so in the 2000s where HG really was trying to give a damn about their work.

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Not once, did I ever think I would live, to see this day.....:blink:

Now I got to find a place to preorder my official US release of the series. ^_^

Also, on a side note. I for one,  cannot wait for HG newest series comming out that will expand, broaden and build upon the "ROBOTECH" series and mythos. Launching it into newer story lines, which none of us have ever seen(unless you have been a Macross fan). I can see it now and can not wait for the announcements of:


ROBOTECH: Do You Remember, Zor?
ROBOTECH Zero
ROBOTECH Plus
ROBOTECH  7
ROBOTECH 7: The Invid is Calling Me
ROBOTECH Frontier
ROBOTECH Frontier: The False Masters
ROBOTECH Frontier: The Last Sentinels of Goodbye 
ROBOTECH Delta
ROBOTECH Delta: Passion of the Invid Queen

Edited by SkullLeaderVF-X
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43 minutes ago, SkullLeaderVF-X said:

Not once, did I ever think I would live, to see this day.....:blink:

Now I got to find a place to preorder my official US release of the series. ^_^

Also, on a side note. I for one,  cannot wait for HG newest series comming out that will expand, broaden and build upon the "ROBOTECH" series and mythos. Launching it into newer story lines, which non of us have ever seen(unless you have been a Macross fan). I can see it now and can not wait for the announcements of:


ROBOTECH: Do You Remember, Zor?
ROBOTECH Zero
ROBOTECH Plus
ROBOTECH  7
ROBOTECH 7: The Invid is Calling Me
ROBOTECH Frontier
ROBOTECH Frontier: The False Masters
ROBOTECH Frontier: The Last Sentinels of Goodbye 
ROBOTECH Delta
ROBOTECH Delta: Passion of the Invid Queen

Yeah, none of that will be happening, you'll be waiting a while there.

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6 minutes ago, SkullLeaderVF-X said:

I was being facetious Keith. Also, it's been awhile.  Good to see you.:good:

You haven't missed much, we've just been keeping the forum warm for this prophesied time.

If you stick around stay out of the Star Trek topics, it's like a wild west bar fight in there.

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8 minutes ago, Keith said:

You haven't missed much, we've just been keeping the forum warm for this prophesied time.

If you stick around stay out of the Star Trek topics, it's like a wild west bar fight in there.

Thats good to hear. Sounds like I don't have much to catch up on. And thanks for the heads up. :hi:

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Just saw this blurbed over at ANN...

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-04-12/manga-entertainment-rebranding-as-funimation-in-u.k-and-ireland/.171632

 

Quote

Manga Entertainment and Funimation have announced that Manga is officially rebranding as Funimation in the UK and Ireland.

 

So, will this mean that we FINALLY get the awesome Nadelman english-subs and Animaze english-dubs with Walter White on all the episodes for the suspected-to-be-US-released Macross PLUS OVA BD US-edition?

Or not...

 

:touche:

 

 

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15 hours ago, JB0 said:

In other words, everything was End of the Circle's fault.

I find it somewhat amusing and comedic, that this feels seemingly plausible. Especially with what Seto just said. And remembering how much you detest the Robotech novels. It still kinda does seem to unintentionally tie back to "End of Circle". It's like "End of Circle", is finally coming to full circle.:lol:

This is made more funnier to me. When I remember what you told me when I accidentally and unintentionally triggered your Robotech Novel PTSD.

"All you need to know about the last book is that EVERYTHING IS MINMAY'S FAULT FOREVER."

I still remember JBO. I still remember! :good:

Edited by SkullLeaderVF-X
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Man, that book was SO BAD. Glad my suffering has brought others long-term amusement.

 

 

To clarify, though... I actually enjoyed the Robotech novels, the final one excepted. I admittedly didn't have the most discerning of tastes in my teenage years, but they were alright.

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1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Man, that book was SO BAD. Glad my suffering has brought others long-term amusement.

 

 

To clarify, though... I actually enjoyed the Robotech novels, the final one excepted. I admittedly didn't have the most discerning of tastes in my teenage years, but they were alright.

Not long term amusement JBO. Just passing. I liked the novels too....Until I found out that ROBOTECH and Macross were entirely two different entities. Also,  my reading of the novels ended with the first novel of the  sentinels arc. I just could not read anything more after that convoluted mess. And it sounds like I dodged a bullet there, before I invested any more of my time and money into it.

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Hopefully all the questions will be answered soon. I’m sure that all the shows and films will get released or even rereleased with both subs and dubs, but as far as merch, I’m not so sure. 

I remember not long ago there were issues with Bandai regarding Star Wars items being released outside of Japan due to similar items licensed by companies here, so my big question is if we’re going have the same issue with Macross? There are other companies doing similar items here in the U.S., will those companies block Bandai and or Arcadia?

 I really do hope that everything does turn out ok and that maybe this gives a push for the Japanese companies to put out more macross products. Personally I would love to see a revive of the macross hmr series or some more models from wave or those super cool little tomy tech kits and it would be great if it was a bit easier to get in a preorder for the dx line.

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30 minutes ago, Big s said:

will those companies block Bandai and or Arcadia?

I doubt that they can. And , of course, Macross isn't the market SW is. So I imagine it's a bit less cut throat competition in the US.

Edited by Bolt
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6 hours ago, Big s said:

Hopefully all the questions will be answered soon. I’m sure that all the shows and films will get released or even rereleased with both subs and dubs, but as far as merch, I’m not so sure. 

I remember not long ago there were issues with Bandai regarding Star Wars items being released outside of Japan due to similar items licensed by companies here, so my big question is if we’re going have the same issue with Macross? There are other companies doing similar items here in the U.S., will those companies block Bandai and or Arcadia?

 I really do hope that everything does turn out ok and that maybe this gives a push for the Japanese companies to put out more macross products. Personally I would love to see a revive of the macross hmr series or some more models from wave or those super cool little tomy tech kits and it would be great if it was a bit easier to get in a preorder for the dx line.

I'm actually hoping that the same thing happens with Macross as did with the Bandai Star Wars kits, because all that situation proved was that the customers' money speaks louder than the licensing lawyers.

Basically, yes, Disney tried to embargo the Bandai kits from being sold in the US.  My suspicion would be that Revell got on their case because they knew they didn't have a chance in hell of competing with Bandai's level of quality.  Well, that lasted all of maybe a few months before I began seeing Bandai kits popping up under hilarious pseudonyms on Amazon through foreign sellers at close to retail price.  They stopped the sale through places like HLJ, but they just could not stop the flow of private sellers on Ebay and Amazon, and eventually they just seem to have given up trying, because last I checked they're back to being sold with English instructions, and distributed through Bluefin.

Supply through Amazon fluctuates, so maybe there's still no official distribution going on, but I know two of the B-Wing kits I got were San Diego Comicon exclusives, so certain releases were definitely sold here directly.

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On 4/12/2021 at 1:01 PM, treatment said:

Just saw this blurbed over at ANN...

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-04-12/manga-entertainment-rebranding-as-funimation-in-u.k-and-ireland/.171632

 

 

So, will this mean that we FINALLY get the awesome Nadelman english-subs and Animaze english-dubs with Walter White on all the episodes for the suspected-to-be-US-released Macross PLUS OVA BD US-edition?

Or not...

 

:touche:

 

 

I wouldn't get too excited. Funimation owns Manga Entertainment UK, which split off long ago as a separate company from Manga Entertainment US, which is owned by Lionsgate. What this means is anybody's guess, but someone might have to do some negotiating with Lionsgate to do Macross II and Macross Plus.

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1 hour ago, Einherjar said:

Their new partner will be watching everything they say and do at these events from now on.

I feel bad for them... it's like that scene from Life of Brian where the guards struggle to not laugh 

 

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So after watching that video from the stream with HG...it definitely seems anyone wanting SDFM/DYRL merch of any of the "41" Macross characters or mecha needs to hope the likes of Bandai and Arcadia are willing to "pay to play" with HG to make them available outside of Japan.....I would hope that the profits to be made outweigh whatever "cut" HG has negotiated under this "brave new deal".....

Unfortunately for me, I am all about the OLD SCHOOL MACROSS.......so this could be just more status quo for me as a collector.....besides, unless Bandai just slaps on a "Robotech" slipcover on their DX's for US/HG release.....I think I would continue opting for the 100% Japanese versions rather than some "Robotech" rebox edition.....

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I hope this will also possibly open the chances of Macross games coming over as well. Would love some of the PSONE/ 2, 3 and PSP games re-released on switch and ps4/5 ect. Imagine, if they "accidentally" found those western psone copies of VF-X2, in some old warehouse.:ph34r:

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Just now, jvmacross said:

So after watching that video from the stream with HG...it definitely seems anyone wanting SDFM/DYRL merch of any of the "41" Macross characters or mecha needs to hope the likes of Bandai and Arcadia are willing to "pay to play" with HG to make them available outside of Japan.....I would hope that the profits to be made outweigh whatever "cut" HG has negotiated under this "brave new deal".....

Unfortunately for me, I am all about the OLD SCHOOL MACROSS.......so this could be just more status quo for me as a collector.....besides, unless Bandai just slaps on a "Robotech" slipcover on their DX's for US/HG release.....I think I would continue opting for the 100% Japanese versions rather than some "Robotech" rebox edition.....at least for the ones that do not already come with slipcovers...lol!

 

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