Darkwater
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I thought it was so that he could claim his millions came from Robotech products when he gets sued Italian Judge: Mr. Agrama, there was over $10 million in your Swiss bank account, where's it coming from? Agrama: I make Robotech! We are so popular! We sell calendars and wristbands and CDs! Millions buy it! Italian Judge: You've made over $10 million on selling $9.99 calendars while being able to afford a staff? Agrama: Yes! Robotech is popular! We have some crazy guy in Ohio making a four-hour podcast every week! Seriously... who the F#CK would put money into Robotech WRISTBANDS?!?
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That's almost forgivable, since every reference can't be policed and likely no permission was sought in the first place(like when Letterman was using Robotech music). But when someone says "Hi, HG, I'd like to put some official artwork of yours on the cover of my book," you'd think at least they'd say "Why sure... when is it coming out?" What's also weird is you'd think Frank Catalano would say "Hey, HG, remember that book I was writing that I used your artwork on? Well, it's coming out in case you want to mention it on one of your websites/newsfeeds" If they were in the middle of releasing their 10th DVD movie, 8th comic series and prepping the LAM, you could see why something like this would fly under the radar. But when the big story is another RPG book and remodeled toy, you'd think this would be something they would want promote, if nothing other than to promote the brand name.
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That's me btw Unless the reason is that this book totally bashes the current HG admins, I'm honestly perplexed why there is absolutely not one mention on Robotech.com, the Robotech twitter feed, the Robotech Facebook page or even HG's "Unofficial" Robotech blog. I know fans have said "Why don't we ever hear of new stuff coming out from you guys??!1" to no end, and most of the time, it's due to to things like negotiations which HG can't talk about publicly.... but this is a NEW product. Something that's not a reprint or a re-hash. Then again, this WAS published by a CreateSpace, Amazon's self-publishing unit, so it's entirely possible that this was a rogue publication that HG didn't know about. But with Tommy's artwork, a copyright symbol next to the "Robotech" name, and the fact that Frank Catalano has over 25 years of experience in television, it's doubtful.
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It all goes back to the "I'd love to..." and "it'd be great if we could..." type statements. They mean nothing, and just get people whirring speculations on small forums that, in the big picture, don't really make a dent. Remember that guy who directed The Losers, and how he said he looked at the script for the live action movie? Nothing came of it. I remember once Aint it Cool used to post crap like this years ago. Once, they posted images of an "Aliens" themed cartoon some well-known artist did mockup for, along with comments like "Isn't this neat? Wouldn't you guys want to see this?" It wasn't until commenters started saying stuff like "Use this site to report real news, not pitch unsolicited projects" Besides, you think the "creative" team at HG wants to have over control to Mike Jelenic? They're probably jealous as hell that he actually pulled something off that's successful and fans love.
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That's the biggest difference between fan fiction and professional work. Fan fiction tends to fill in the littlest gaps of existing characters, rides on story arcs that not one person who hasn't followed the entire series would understand, and generally alienates ay outside audience. That's where Shadow Chronicles failed story-wise. It was basically episode 86 1/2. In other series that span over generations, including Star Trek and Macross, you'll get your subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) reference here and there, but overall they're relying on a new story, new characters, new settings, etc. Robotech 3000, as bad as the two and a half minutes we saw of it, could have brought in a lot more fans (ie, paying customers) simply because it didn't alienate new viewers.
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"I would love to do it" is the not-so-subtle way of saying "hire me to do it." But, as it's been said before, HG would make it so difficult to work for that even if it were properly funded and the right talent was behind it, the show would hit so many pit stops that we'd be lucky to get a straight-to-video, half finished pilot with no real plot two years later.
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Didn't you see Pocahantas or Last of the Mohichans?? The Native Americans were great fighters with a deep spiritual connection to their land, but it took a few white guys to show them how to fight the other, evil white guys. And I could totally see the Twilight guy playing Rick Hunter, but I doubt they'd be able to afford him at this point. That, and he'll be 43 years old by the time we see it.
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What are you talking about? It totally took a white guy to make the Japanese emperor realize how important the Samurai culture was.
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A lot of the Hollywood whitewashing comes from fear of how it'll sell in international markets. In the European & South American markets, movies with white characters simply do better. Granted, I think there are large enough markets in Asia to counter-balance that, but those are the main reasons why Hollywood is afraid to be more multi-cultural. Also, if a big Hollywood movie is based on something niche, like an anime, you need more than its core audience to support it.
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I'd beg to differ. Even around 14, when I started watching Robotech again, I still didn't know they were separate series until I picked up an RPG book that explained it. A lot of the mecha (not all) was consistent with what would be a natural progression, and I attributed the change in uniforms to just like that of Start Trek, which had distinct changes between the original series, the movies, and the next generation. The only thing that felt really out of place was feudal-like armor they wore in Southern Cross, and the fact that the Masters were so different than the Zentradi, who they built.
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... like the backseat of a Volkswagen?
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Here's what bother's me the most about those commercials. In the first, Rick flew her in the Fanjet to take her on a date when in fact, he flew the Fanjet to meet her parents. That's out of continuity. In the second one, after a day of ordering squads to their deaths, Lisa still finds it okay to dress formally for a date with Rick. Wouldn't you be disturbed by that. Regarding both of these, they show two women competing over one man, as if to tell young girls that they're not pretty or talented enough, and will always be in competition with each other. Finally, in the third one, Natasha Lyonne went on to have well documented drug and alcohol problems, so no, playing with a Dana Sterling doll is not in fact, neat.
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Quite possibly Natasha Lyonne (redhead from the America Pie movies) at 1:15
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That is a ridiculous price, but you probably are looking at the single rarest comic book issue of Robotech right there. This was the last pre-Wildstorm issue to come out and store had gone from ordering 5-6 issue per store to 2-3. Since 3,000 of these were likely printed at most, probably 1,000 sold. And it doesn't help that over the last couple of years, some guy on eBay has been buying ALL of the Academy / Eternity comics, driving up the prices for the ten people who want them. This issue is probably sitting uncatalogued in a few bargain bins around the country, but the amount of people who have this issue and can identify it are few and far between. This comic also kinda/sorta ties into the first few pages of Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles, so there's that.
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Not only that, Steve's story doesn't add up. The pie incident took place in summer of 2007, and McHenry wasn't "un-modded" until something like six months to a year later. But, it's nice to see that Steve has kept his level of professionalism by banning someone, then responding to them "fanboy-rant" style. At least Kevin allows the people he trolls to respond when he goes on his "defending my job" rants.
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Pretty much that. It was a joking thread that said something like "let's give Tommy a pie to the face!" and afterwards, it was like "Holy sh*t, we were joking!" Now, apparently, it was a conspiracy amongst Robotech mods to have it done.
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Yes, their website is horrible and embarrassing. Yes, the Sentinels was horrible. But I can guarantee you that if they had the option to make money from Macross, they would jump on the chance to no end. After all, it's money, the only thing that HG cares about. But, like Gubaba said, we have no idea if they're being stingy or if BW is. The funny thing is, McHenry was the one who explained to MedMapGuy that he was banned from RT.com for pie incident (for the drama, you can read it here http://rdfhqcommunicationscenter.yuku.com/topic/470#.TsYC3bJnCEU). I've got to say, though, Steve comes across as a real professional in that post, not showing any personal feelings that affect him getting under his skin.
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That's a good point. For all we know, HG could have said "Let's distribute Macross internationally and give us only 1% of the profits!" or on the other hand, they could have said "Let's distribute Macross internationally, but give us 99% of the profits!" From now on, HG should live-blog all negotiations imho. I think you're underestimating HG in that sense, because although their negotiation tactics have been criticized in the past, they do have some money along with some negotiation power. (owning titles like Shaka Zulu and Around the World in 80 Days helps) They also have a pretty big team of lawyers from what I've heard. That would depend on any sort of deal they could work out with BW. If they said "Give us the rights, and we'll work out the deals with the distributors internationally, and give you cut," then it would be all in HG's hands. If BW were to say " Okay, HG, negotiate, but we have to have final approval with each distributor," then things could get messy and possibly not worth the distributor's time and resources. Distribution would only scratch the surface, because you'd have to take into account potential costs of dubbing and or/ subbing, but I keep thinking that there has to be some compromise available to both parties. There's money to be made, and that amount becomes less and less as time goes on and the product becomes older.
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But going back to what I was saying, and I'm not trolling here, even if HG were were the vile, underhanded company in existence, and lets assume that they are franchise-squatting, then you would be right in the fact the ethically, there should be no reason for compromise. However, hanging onto those ethics, and not coming to an agreement, means that millions of potential dollars are lost in the meantime. At some point you have to ask yourself, "is it worth losing money because its the right thing to do?"
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I've said before, I don't know the the entire details of who owns what and who wants what out of the properties, but I really, really hope that it's not because of a pissing match going on between both sides. If a product doesn't get released because two companies disagree about who should get what, both get nothing in the meantime. That's an awfully big price to pay to keep your pride, while a little humility can compromise can payout in the long run.
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Don't you see? Jasonc actually hypnotized Tommy and forced him created the calendar in order to piss of Robotech fans and convert them Macross and you're the proof. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this.
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In all seriousness, I think it's them releasing the single-disc version one week and the 2-disc version a week later. Kind of an odd release strategy, but that's up to the distributor.
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You even admit it. Maybe you didn't fly to Chile but you set up a false advertising firm only so that could buy ad space in a Chilean magazine. Your next ad is going to say "No Nuevos Robotech? Visita Macrossworld.com!"
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Isn't it obvious? Just like how Jason flew to Canada to put up the fake Alto ad for Robotech, it now seems he flew down to South America to distribute this fake Shadow Chronicles II ad in order to piss off Robotech fans and convert them to Macross.
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Interesting, I didn't know about the Olympus Trading. I assumed it was HG because that's where the ANN article said the FBI raided (then again, that building is/was probably the base of operations for all of his companies). The article from October said he "faces" trial, but doesn't specifically say he will be tried. I guess we'll find out in December, but it seems like they probably won't find anything. Statute of limitations probably apply, and he's had 6 years go clean up anything that might have been considered "evidence." This whole thing seemed like a "get to Berlusconi through his friends" witch hunt and now they're just following through the motions. Edit: Just found this article on Robotech.com from 10 years ago, which looks really, really odd and out of place: http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=33