TheLoneWolf

Did you by any chance use the transfer cable to migrate the date from your old hard drive to the new one?

No problem, I'll add it to my own queue of scans that I'm working on. Good luck getting into contact with Masaya. I'd say there's a good chance that lineart for the VF-4 Siren exists. From what I've seen, the cut-scenes in PC-Engine games were usually penciled, inked, and colored on paper and then redrawn as bitmapped images for use in the games. So there should be, at the very least, artwork for those cut-scenes. Hopefully Masaya still has them and knows where they've been stored at. If you're truly serious, you could ask them if they would be willing to sell or license them to you for use in an article that you're writing on ELS. Money has a way of opening of doors.

I might be able to help with this. I have a Japanese PC-Engine magazine that has a 2 or 3 page story on Macross 2036. It might cover some fascinating details, or it could just be telling you that you'll be the coolest kid on the block with this game.

That's pretty accurate. At Acen 2001, Robert Woodhead was asked about DYRL and here's what he had to say. And this was said long after he closed the deal with Harmony Gold for SDFM, so I think it's safe to assume that HG does not have the film distribution rights to DYRL. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.mac...8d7b68df79d?lnk I like your Variety idea, it's so crazy that it might even work. Got enough money for a full-page ad?

I would also love to see DYRL released in the USA again, but I doubt it's going to happen. Celebrity's Just For Kids released DYRL in the US under a license from Toho International Co. Ltd.; meanwhile Best Film & Video Corp. released DYRL in the US under a license from Big West. In retrospect, it looks like Big West licensed the film distributions rights to DYRL to a couple of different companies worldwide and now no one knows who owns what. I've given up trying to sort it out.

Bury me in timelines! With all due respect to you and Mr. March, I care more for story backgrounds and production notes than I do for mecha stats. Nevertheless, any translated information you guys can provide will be greatly appreciated. And I eagerly await your translation of the Mardook people. It'll be interesting to see if 2091 refers to some other event in Mardook history.

I believe that everything you posted above is accurate, except for this quotation. I've never seen Harmony Gold claim that they have the IP or film distribution rights to DYRL, just the international merchadising rights.

2091? I really do hope that that's an in-joke, because Macross Ace apparently listed 2090. Not to mention that both of those dates are most likely incorrect, with 2092 being the most accurate (for the reasons you listed above). Sigh. Now, more than ever, I'm looking forward to your B-Club and Entertainment Bible translations. Not only are they going to be comprehensive, they're also probably going to be more accurate that today's official publications.

Thanks for the scan! Hmm, I was actually hoping that it would've been published post 2004. Though it is nice to see that it was officially licensed from Big West and Haruhiko Mikimoto.

That's very interesting! What year or years was that published in? Also, does it specifically list Big West as the licensor? Thanks for the clarification. Mind you, I've never listened to any Destroy All Podcasts, just going off of Freiflug88's post.

I had heard something similar, but I've never seen anyone provide a verifiable source. It's always the "I heard it on the Internet, so it must be true" explanation. Until someone discloses a verifiable source (not Destroy All Podcasts), it's nothing more than a fanboy rumor to me.

Except that Manga Entertainment didn't even exist when Macross II was released in '92. I agree, I loved the action scenes and music, but the plot was weak and occassionally bordered on the absurd (and I'm not talking about the ending either).

That's because no one in their right mind would be willing to pay $$$ to license Zero stateside.

This is probably going to be the first v2.0 that I'll be buying. It solves most of the problems that I have with the line. There's no priest-collar, it'll most likely have the redesigned shoulders, and the anorexic legs won't bother me since I don't ever plan on displaying it without Fast Packs.

What problems? Pull out any video or anime catalogue from the early to mid 90's and you'll see a slew of Robotech products ranging from videos to toys to t-shirts. And let's not forget the much hyped, but never released, Robotech game for the N64. Harmony Gold was definitely very active then. Like I said before, history shows that there's absolutely no evidence to support that assetion. Macross II and Plus didn't eat away from Robotech's market in the early 1990's, so I can't think of any reason to assume that Zero and Frontier would detract from Robotech either. Harmony Gold registered their Macross trademark to make sure they get the chance to make money off of any official Macross releases in the USA et al, not to outright block them. Additionally, I believe jenius reported that in a recent anime convention, Harmony Gold publically stated that they would not block Frontier from being released in the USA. If that quote is accurate, then it proves that Harmony Gold just wants to be paid for the use of the Macross trademark.

When Macross II and Macross Plus were released in the USA in the early 1990's, Harmony Gold still had no problem selling Robotech tapes, CD's, laserdiscs, toys, comics, novels, and television syndications. At that time, the mediocrity of Macross II didn't reflect negatively on Robotech, nor did the success of Macross Plus reflect negatively on Robotech either. All the different frachises were able to co-exist in financial harmony.

Nowhere in Macross II is it explicitly stated that the Mardook are, or related to, the Protoculture. Officially, the Mardook are just an alien race that employs enslaved Zentradi. Seto Kaiba and I discussed this a while back and he made some good points as to why they could be related to the Protoculture, but honestly, there's so little written material on the Mardook to make that into a solid conclusion.

I don't believe the trademarks are meant to "protect" Robotech from Macross sequels, rather they're used to ensure that Harmony Gold gets a cut of the profits from any future Macross sequels and merchandise officially released in the USA, Canada, et al. Harmony Gold isn't afraid of any of the Macross sequels per se, they just want a piece of the pie. Unfortunately, the end result is that no more Macross sequels will be officially in the USA, Canada, et al, because, among other things, no one wants to pay Harmony Gold for the use of their registered trademarks. It's all about making money.

You misunderstood my last post. Robert Woodhead never changed his statement regarding the audio track, Macross fans changed his statement about the audio track. During my research I came across this thread?, dated from 2000, where Keith quotes Robert Woodhead as stating that AnimEigo remastered the Macross audio track. Years later, Macross fans somehow managed to convolute the story by saying that AnimEigo got their Macross audio track from Japan. That's why I contacted AnimEigo, to set the record straight. AnimEigo and Robert Woodhead have never given out contradictory statements regarding the audio track, they've always maintained that they obtained it from Harmony Gold and remastered it themselves. Macross fans (fueled by anti-Harmony Gold sentiments?) dreamt up the false notion that, since AnimEigo's Macross audio track is superior to ADV's Macross audio track, then they must have gotten it from Japan.

Yup. I was originally going to import the Origins of Valkyrie Super Max 1A fom Japan, but when I heard that Toynami was going to release the classic 1/55's, I decided to wait. It would have been cheaper to buy it through Toynami, plus I would have liked to demonstrate my support of the deal with my wallet. Alas!

I always thought that story sounded kinda fishy. I didn't understand why Big West or Bandai would give audio reels to AnimEigo and not the video reels. What really boggled my mind was that Big West or Bandai would willingly assist a project that puts money into Harmony Gold's coffers; in addition to paying Harmony Gold for the license to release Macross, Harmony Gold probably received a percentage on all of AnimEigo's Macross DVD sales. Anyways Keith, thanks for suggesting that I contact AnimEigo directly, it was a great idea! Robert Woodhead said that AnimEigo got all of their audio and video masters directly from Harmony Gold, they received nothing from Japan. The audio track sounds good because AnimEigo remastered it themselves. Kudos to AnimEigo!

Unfortunately the spine from this particular book fell apart years ago. So getting nice scans won't be a problem.

Fixed! The major problem with most of those macross articles is that they provide no citations, that's why they're up for deletion. I think that's the problem with a lot of the anime articles on wikipedia. According to wikipedia's rules... The few macross articles that do list citations, all point right back to the Compendium. In order for an article to be considered encylopedic, it should reference information from multiple sources, not just the Compendium. So yeah, since those pages don't even follow wikipedia's own guidelines, I don't see why they should be saved.

Bri, thanks for doing all that research! Interesting stuff.