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Macross streaming on Disney+ (under the "Star" label; Star/Hulu of D+)


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11 hours ago, Big s said:

Personally, I usually rewatch the part with the VF-4 and Megaroad. But from what I remember 2012 had scenes from the series and movie.

It does... but Harmony Gold seems to have given it a pass given that it's outside the scope of what they have licenses to, similar to how the provision that rules out using the designs from the original series in new works only applies to new works created after the agreement.

 

11 hours ago, Big s said:

I was also not sure on DYRL. Does hg hold a license on that or just that the likeness of characters and mecha are similar 

Harmony Gold has the merchandising rights.  They got them back in the early 2000s after their original bid to stop imports of Macross toys from Japan failed, as a way to prevent the importation of VF-1 toys that might compete against their Toynami MPC line.  They've also trademarked the key art for several characters and so on from the original series.

 

9 hours ago, kalvasflam said:

Of course, it is less likely that Disney would actually find a way to buy Macross, but you never know, desperate execs do crazy things.

They do... but, based on statements at the last few quarterly earnings calls, Disney's seniors execs and board of directors have cooled on the idea of acquiring outside companies for their IP and audiences.  They've spent a combined $88.705 billion on acquisitions since 2006 just between Pixar ($7.5B), LucasFilm ($5.905B), Marvel ($4B), and Fox ($71.3B).  That doesn't include the organizational debt they acquired in the process too, which puts the total cost over $100 billion.  They're still paying that down, and they'll be doing so for years to come... with even major brands like Star Wars or Marvel only starting to break even ~7 years after being acquired.

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34 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Who even is Doomcock and why is his opinion noteworthy?

He's a TV/movie review YouTuber whose schtick is dressing up as a parody of Dr. Doom, and it generally isn't.

As reviewers go, he usually falls into the "toxic fanboy" category.  I'm actually kind of surprised to hear he's still around.

I don't think I've ever seen him talk anime, though... I've only ever seen him ranting about western SF like Star Trek or Star Wars.

Edited by Seto Kaiba
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1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

Who even is Doomcock and why is his opinion noteworthy?

I've seen him before, and I don't particularly consider his "opinion" to be worth anything of note.

Edited by pengbuzz
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1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

Who even is Doomcock and why is his opinion noteworthy?

A talking-head Youtuber. Noteworthy opinion? That depends on you. Like all talking heads, they've all got an opinion.

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1 hour ago, azrael said:

A talking-head Youtuber. Noteworthy opinion? That depends on you. Like all talking heads, they've all got an opinion.

Let's be real though... "Doomcock" sounds like what an 8-year-old Forknife griefer would name themselves.

Live-action joke aside, I'm happy this is real and that Macross finally has a home on these shores. Any increased exposure should have a positive impact on the value of our collections and future availability of product.

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Yeah, unexpected platform aside it's nice to know that Macross shows are going to be widely available in the near future.

Streaming releases should presumably be followed shortly by home video releases... it's shaping up to be a pretty good year to be a Macross fan.

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3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

They do... but, based on statements at the last few quarterly earnings calls, Disney's seniors execs and board of directors have cooled on the idea of acquiring outside companies for their IP and audiences.  They've spent a combined $88.705 billion on acquisitions since 2006 just between Pixar ($7.5B), LucasFilm ($5.905B), Marvel ($4B), and Fox ($71.3B).  That doesn't include the organizational debt they acquired in the process too, which puts the total cost over $100 billion.  They're still paying that down, and they'll be doing so for years to come... with even major brands like Star Wars or Marvel only starting to break even ~7 years after being acquired.

Like I said, expect more streaming licensing from studios to bolster their catalogs. All these mergers from the past few years have hurt the bottom line and they need to recoup the costs (also, corporate debt isn't the same as average consumer debt).

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On 3/24/2024 at 10:35 PM, Big s said:

I was also not sure on DYRL. Does hg hold a license on that or just that the likeness of characters and mecha are similar 

Harmony Gold is actually one of the few places we're sure the DYRL distribution license ISN'T

The DYRL problem, as I understand it, is that it a whole bunch of bankruptcies and mergers happened after it was licensed. We know it WAS licensed, but no one's sure where the license wound up in the end or how long it was good for. There's a few companies that think they might have it, and everyone's waiting for someone else to make a move.

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1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Harmony Gold is actually one of the few places we're sure the DYRL distribution license ISN'T

The DYRL problem, as I understand it, is that it a whole bunch of bankruptcies and mergers happened after it was licensed. We know it WAS licensed, but no one's sure where the license wound up in the end or how long it was good for. There's a few companies that think they might have it, and everyone's waiting for someone else to make a move.

I think someone should just make a move and see what happens. At worst they’d have to share profits. Maybe if one of them started a kickstarter with the assumption that they may get sued could end up covering the legal costs. Or maybe they should just team up for once and put all the pettiness aside 

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4 hours ago, JB0 said:

Harmony Gold is actually one of the few places we're sure the DYRL distribution license ISN'T

Are you referring to DYRL licensing outside of Japan?  Clearly, BW controls all licensing for DYRL within Japan (ex. BW sticker on all DYRL Bandai DX releases)...

Per @Seto Kaiba he says the "merch" rights still belong to HG outside of Japan....perhaps this is no longer the case?  

The only info I have is from KC....I had inquired a few years ago when they were first starting out if they would be producing DYRL-themed VF-1's and they said they "could not" because they could not get a license for it....they did not provide any other details so I am not sure if that meant that they could not get it from HG or from BW....since they are already getting a SDFM TV license from HG, I am thinking they could not get a DYRL license from HG.....so perhaps something has changed, in terms of HG's ability or willingness to dole out DYRL licenses outside of Japan....

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38 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

Per @Seto Kaiba he says the "merch" rights still belong to HG outside of Japan....perhaps this is no longer the case?  

To date, there has been no evidence or statement from any party suggesting the disposition of the DYRL? merchandising rights has changed.

Last we heard from HG, they had cut a renewal of the license from Tatsunoko a year or two before entering into negotiations with Big West.

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15 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

To date, there has been no evidence or statement from any party suggesting the disposition of the DYRL? merchandising rights has changed.

Last we heard from HG, they had cut a renewal of the license from Tatsunoko a year or two before entering into negotiations with Big West.

Yeah, I have not heard anything to the contrary either, which is why it seems odd that they would not want, what is arguably their best licensee (so far), to produce DYRL themed VF-1's....

With that said, alot has changed and it's possible that HG has placed a moratorium on itself when it comes to their DYRL licensing for some reason we are not aware of yet...perhaps HG and BW had decided to revisit that quagmire at some point after their initial deal...

The fact that BW still cannot release DYRL merch outside of Japan makes it clear that at least those specific merch rights are not in the hands of BW....

Edited by jvmacross
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58 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

Yeah, I have not heard anything to the contrary either, which is why it seems odd that they would not want, what is arguably their best licensee (so far), to produce DYRL themed VF-1's....

With that said, alot has changed and it's possible that HG has placed a moratorium on itself when it comes to their DYRL licensing for some reason we are not aware of yet...perhaps HG and BW had decided to revisit that quagmire at some point after their initial deal...

I wonder if it has something to do with one of their other licensees garnering a rare double cease-and-desist from Harmony Gold and Big West for making Macross bootlegs.

Either that or perhaps the provisions of the agreement related to preventing "brand confusion" go both ways and HG has to get approvals from Big West to do DYRL? merch the same way Big West apparently has some kind of editorial control over future Robotech development since the agreement.

Odds are we'll have to wait until someone puts their foot in it and the courts have to sort it out before we get a definitive answer.

 

I'd assume Big West will probably continue to do the same JDM end-run they've been doing for their more recent releases and just put official English subs on domestic releases for western fans who really want to see it.

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4 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Are you referring to DYRL licensing outside of Japan?  Clearly, BW controls all licensing for DYRL within Japan (ex. BW sticker on all DYRL Bandai DX releases)...

Per @Seto Kaiba he says the "merch" rights still belong to HG outside of Japan....perhaps this is no longer the case?  

To be more precise in my statement: International distribution rights for the film are what's been lost in the shuffle.

Not any japanese rights(clearly controlled by Big West), and not international merchandise rights(clearly sublicensed to HG from Tatsunoko).

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Who could possibly object to the release of the DYRL film outside of Japan?

Seems to me that both BW and HG would benefit from doing so...in this case it sounds like the road-block is potentially within Japan...

With DYRL merch rights seemingly firmly in place with HG outside of Japan...it still makes no sense why they would not be willing to grant it to some licensee...like KC or perhaps Three-Zero, which can only sell "Macross" outside of Japan...not sure what's going on, but I'm hoping with Disney getting involved maybe the parties involved can see the benefits for all in trying to put this final piece in the Macross debacle to rest...

Nothing to do other than perhaps upgrade my view to cautiously optimistic from fool's hope...

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1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

Who could possibly object to the release of the DYRL film outside of Japan?

Harmony Gold, for one. 

So much so that they made a request to Big West in the contract negotiations that Big West refrain from using OG Macross characters in new works. Including games like the recent Macross Shooting Insight game. They're afraid that if those character and mecha designs become intrinsically associated with Macross instead of Robotech, it will erode their franchise's distinctiveness.

Which, when you think about it, is actually a pretty reasonable fear on their part as their attempts to keep the franchise alive are pretty much entirely Macross-centric and focused on endlessly rehashing the Macross Saga.

 

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

With DYRL merch rights seemingly firmly in place with HG outside of Japan...it still makes no sense why they would not be willing to grant it to some licensee...like KC or perhaps Three-Zero, which can only sell "Macross" outside of Japan...not sure what's going on, but I'm hoping with Disney getting involved maybe the parties involved can see the benefits for all in trying to put this final piece in the Macross debacle to rest...

Nothing to do other than perhaps upgrade my view to cautiously optimistic from fool's hope...

It's possible that there's some new approvals process because Big West is now involved in the management of both franchises. Or maybe they agreed not to do DYRL? merch at some point in the negotiations.

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12 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Harmony Gold, for one. 

So much so that they made a request to Big West in the contract negotiations that Big West refrain from using OG Macross characters in new works. Including games like the recent Macross Shooting Insight game. They're afraid that if those character and mecha designs become intrinsically associated with Macross instead of Robotech, it will erode their franchise's distinctiveness.

Which, when you think about it, is actually a pretty reasonable fear on their part as their attempts to keep the franchise alive are pretty much entirely Macross-centric and focused on endlessly rehashing the Macross Saga.

I think it would benefit HG to have all associations regarding Robotech to ultimately be about "Macross"...which, in terms of most of the world, that is most likely to be SDFM...and not any of the other shows...sure, that may change with the upcoming streaming deal...but I think it is a risk to move forward with the franchise worldwide without the original...I know it is controversial to say around these parts...but the majority of the Macross series post M+ are just not that good....it is like being given full access to Star Wars without the Original Trilogy...

For HG the ultimate end game would be the licensing and profits generated from Macross' transition to live-action...the more Hollywood equates "Robotech" with "Macross"...the better it is for HG...

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That's my thought----imagine how much merchandising/revenue HG has missed out on over the years, even recently from Delta alone.  The amount of concert and cosplay stuff on the 'net at its peak was insane, far surpassing Frontier from what I can tell.  But HG seems to be all "nope, never going to try to take ANYTHING new, even as the market and culture changes over decades----the world ends at 1985".     Instead of "antagonizing" BigWest etc and preventing global release of stuff---imagine what they could have done if they'd partnered...

Sure, a Walkure tour isn't going to possibly bring in even a fraction of Taylor's, but there IS money to be made, globally, if you embrace the whole concert+cosplay+con merch of modern anime fandoms.  But not if you intentionally deny the main vehicle for the franchise (the show) from being shown and focus solely on the type of stuff that sold decades ago.   

Sure, I want DX toys of valks, and almost nothing but.  But I know that is NOT how Macross makes its money nowadays.  (though Gundam sure seems to thrive on its "boxed plastic")      But HG still has a merch/sales mentality that is more or less "Toys R Us in every city, with 500 small cheap action figures on the shelves"   

(I could be totally wrong, but that's the impression I get, looking at HG's actions, marketing, and promotion over the years)

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It was a two way street, BW would rather eat it's own face than share revenue with HG. I don't know that it ever could have been different because BW never viewed HG as legitimate in any capacity. 

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27 minutes ago, jenius said:

It was a two way street, BW would rather eat it's own face than share revenue with HG. I don't know that it ever could have been different because BW never viewed HG as legitimate in any capacity. 

I can't say I blame BW. I'm one of those people who feels like paying HG to cooperate is like paying that hacker to deactivate the ransomware on my computer...

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5 hours ago, jvmacross said:

I think it would benefit HG to have all associations regarding Robotech to ultimately be about "Macross"...which, in terms of most of the world, that is most likely to be SDFM...and not any of the other shows...sure, that may change with the upcoming streaming deal...but I think it is a risk to move forward with the franchise worldwide without the original.

3 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

That's my thought----imagine how much merchandising/revenue HG has missed out on over the years, even recently from Delta alone.  The amount of concert and cosplay stuff on the 'net at its peak was insane, far surpassing Frontier from what I can tell.  But HG seems to be all "nope, never going to try to take ANYTHING new, even as the market and culture changes over decades----the world ends at 1985".     Instead of "antagonizing" BigWest etc and preventing global release of stuff---imagine what they could have done if they'd partnered...

Well, yeah.  If Harmony Gold were rational about their Robotech franchise, they would probably have come to very similar conclusions about their Robotech brand's prospects and the inherent advantages of working with Big West and their Macross franchise instead of against them.

But Harmony Gold doesn't behave rationally where Robotech is concerned.  For some insane reason, Harmony Gold is incredibly reluctant to just let Robotech go and focus on more profitable matters even though it's been over fifteen years since their senior leadership decided the franchise was a commercial failure and cut off funding for new development.  It makes no rational sense, but for some reason they are stubbornly committed to maintaining Robotech even though they know it's a losing proposition... no matter that it means losing out on royalties and merchandise sales from distributing the original series with the rest of Macross.

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5 hours ago, ScrambledValkyrie said:

As of Wednesday, Hulu is now (at least partially) absorbed into Disney+. My bet is that this hub is where Macross will appear in the app.

https://www.techradar.com/streaming/hulu-is-now-officially-part-of-disney-plus-heres-what-you-need-to-know

That's been in preview for two months, I think. Not sure if it was available to everyone with a sub, or just some of us.

edit: read the article, was in beta for four months.

Edited by Duke Togo
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On 3/29/2024 at 1:32 PM, David Hingtgen said:

I thought my TV was messed up when the app went from blue to greenish-blue with no warning...

Yeah, I got a little thrown off two weeks ago when I saw the color change 

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55 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Probably a dumb thought, but the DYRL issue can't still be related to the "Clash of the Bionoids" release, can it?

Indirectly, yeah... to that brief licensing free-for-all that allowed Clash of the Bionoids to come into existence.

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7 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Probably a dumb thought, but the DYRL issue can't still be related to the "Clash of the Bionoids" release, can it?

Ayup. No one knows for sure who that license wound up with in the end, or what the exact terms were.

Most importantly, no one knows if it has an expiration date in it or not, since a limited license term would render everything else moot. 

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