Legioss

This may be an old question, but how could Harmony Gold register the trademark "Macross" when there were already other companies' products named Macross like Macross II and Macross Plus and then block merchandise based on those products that they don't own? What about Macross Plus does Harmony Gold own?

I guess I was wrong about that. For some reason I remembered reading a website where he said he wasn't in the credits. I'm not very much into Transformers other than the old movie. Now that I've googled him and read some web pages, I understand it seems he shared the designing with Shouhei Kohara and of course the designers of the toys in the case of G1.

Transformers is the contribution of many many people who put all the pieces of it together from the designers of the original toys used as Transformers toys (Kawamori Shouji and Aramaki Shinji) to the planning committee of the cartoon, to the uncredited designer (Floro Dery) and writer of the movie. Thundercats was probably made by toy and cartoon planning committees.

Sorry man. I guess I had too much Zereba.

I'm sure whatever it is, it's going to make Itsuwari no Utahime look like cheap amateur fanfic and you'll all ask what were you thinking for ever doubting Robotech, begging Tommy for forgiveness so you can be in the insiders gang and not an outcast to the fandom, and you'll go "Tell MEMO he was right. He was right..." when they take off your Macross purist respirator mask. Then you'll get to stand next to Macek in spirit form, a born-again Harmony Gold believer, while the primitive Tommewoks on the forest moon of Bendor celebrate Harmony Gold's worldwide acquisition of all things Macross. The minuscule Macross fandom, just a small group of holdouts, will see Harmony Gold's hard work and realize the long oppressed series Robotech has risen high into the air like SDF-1 Macross lifting off. I can feel it. The Shadow Force is giving me a taste of the inside information I could have.

I don't hate Yamato. I just never got around to watching it. Is it really that good? I know it's Matsumoto. I guess I should watch it then. Added to queue. I'm currently inflicting Engine Sentai Go-Onger on myself. I want to see it before Shinkenger, no matter how bad it is.

Yes, Robotech was and is giving these people something they would already like instead of introducing them to something new which doesn't make them any more receptive to mature animation than they were before. It doesn't lead them to anime in itself. If someone wanted to understand cultural differences through Robotech or reach a new understanding of what animation can be, they're on their own. I think it's weird how Carl Macek claimed he wanted to do one thing (his "vision"/goal) and how the way he tried to accomplish it didn't fit in with reality. Then there's people saying that Robotech did it when something like Akira seems more likely to fit what they're talking about given the gap between when Robotech was popular and Akira was popular outside Japan with nothing comparable in between that gap, making it just as easy to attribute the vision to the people who made Star Blazers or Voltron. IIRC the biggest fan groups in the 80s were for Star Blazers. These groups were filled with people who already liked to seek out weird stuff. Just so you know, I think Akira is a stupid movie and I'm not interested in Star Blazers. I'm being subjective about it.

In Robotech, protoculture is divided up into two things, The Robotech Masters, and Robotech's version of the spice (from Dune, which Macek was a fan of). The protoculture glues the three shows together as the reason the aliens attack Earth. It's my understanding, other than the story already encoded in the animation, the rest is by Bob Barron and the writers. Carl Macek was the producer. He helped choose the staff and the music. He coordinated the production. Bob Barron was the director. In interviews, Carl Macek sometimes expressed that he had a goal of changing the perception of animation to the American public so that they wouldn't think animation was just for children. He didn't turn it around completely. In America, despite Family Guy and South Park, animation is generally considered to be for children. What he did was at two different times he increased the number of people in America who were exposed to Japanese animation. The first time was with the productions at Harmony Gold. This didn't start too many new professionally translated videos from other companies. The HG stuff went off the air and it would be about 5-6 years until something happened and that was started by Streamline Pictures. US Renditions and AnimEigo got some tapes out to the fans a few years before that, but Streamline Pictures (Carl Macek and Jerry Beck) got Japanese animated movies like Akira, Fist of the North Star (Hokuto No Ken movie), and Vampire Hunter D in video stores and on the Sci-Fi Channel. Many anime fans back then claimed their first anime was Akira. "What anime have you seen?", "I've seen Akira.", "You must be new." was how it was. Turns out though, increasing the amount of people watching anime doesn't make more fans and it doesn't change most people's opinion of animation. Increasing the amount of people watching anime just increases the amount of people watching anime. Most of them don't walk out of it with any revelation. What I never understood about Carl's goal was that he wanted to make this cultural change supposedly, but he was certain it had to happen through dubs because the audience would be scared away by cultural differences. It's important to remember how Robotech and Streamline Pictures ended to see the whole picture. Much of the appeal of Japanese animation is in it's cultural differences.

Most of them don't find their way to HG and Robotech Debates. They start their own thread and it gets locked. You'd have to put a ROBOTECH logo in the main forum list with a link here to catch them all. Since Robotech fans are willing to pay money for anything with that logo they wouldn't be able to resist it.

Robotech fans insist the debate is still open. They come to Macross World and this thread was made to contain them to one thread. Macross fans want to know why HG is still standing in the way of Macross. They want to express their take on it, what it means to them, and how they feel about it. Maybe some are here to determine if recent non-legal actions, like Macross Frontier or Robotech live action movie, by the involved companies will change anything in reality or symbolically. There's a dead link in your signature, Protoculture.

Cool story, Bro. The comments on the Facebook page are funny. They're all like So, when are you guys going to do something?

I wouldn't say I know of HG doing anything illegal because I don't, but I do think that they're mixed up about what they think they should have and what they do have. They do have a copyright for the SDF Macross TV series. They do have a copyright to create merchandise based on it. They registered a trademark(s) for "Macross". I've heard they do and don't have copyright to the designs internationally. I assume they don't because why would Studio Nue need to sell the international rights to the designs, right? So, that's what they have. Their claims of ongoing litigation at con panels are a lie. Anyone know of ongoing litigation regarding Macross? I haven't heard of any. The part that's uncertain is, Harmony Gold is always implying there's something in their contract that says they should get the license to all future Macross sequels. If that were true, they could sue for it. If an obligation like that didn't have to be in writing, then Big West could say they're obligated to the trademark. The trademark is legal, but unethical. It exploits a loophole in trademark law. It holds the Macross sequels for ransom. Harmony Gold did not create Macross and they do not maintain the brand at the level of more than a joke. The name Macross has a lot of value. The concerts have thousands of people going to them and the movies are coming out one after another. The name is one of the main selling points of the rest of the Macross franchise. I'm sure Harmony Gold understands the effect of registering the Macross trademark.

There must really be new developments with live action Robotech because you know Tommy never lies.

What about the word "possibly" was unclear? Some concrete and not vaporware failures or successes could possibly change the situation with Macross and since HG says they're putting something out next year that could possibly be it. Also, aren't they going to announce the death of the live action movie idea if it goes on for too long? Then if you know, what's going to happen? The situation is different. How much money will they spend trying to revive Robotech? I know we joke that it'll go on forever, but seriously how long of a forever?

Hopefully the ultimate fate of Robotech will be decided in the next couple of years by how successful their planned new products are, and maybe we won't have to wait five or ten more, and that could possibly change things for Macross internationally if they ever decide to stop throwing their money away.

No, it was just the mod and his friends who can't take a joke, Keith. It's the culture over there. They don't strive for improvement in Robotech or anything else and that kind of thinking makes them like that.

Tom, are you able to talk about the Robotech license or any experiences with Big West, Studio Nue, or Tatsunoko in this thread?

Maybe I'm the last one to notice, but wouldn't the belts work better on their pants?

Artland's really expensive. Maybe we should get Tatsunoko to animate it.

I still have the non-special edition widescreen laserdiscs. Low resolution and composite video, but it's the best way to watch the Max Rebo Band play Lapti Nek unless they finally released it on DVD. I seem to remember something a while back about some kind of halfway version.

It should, Keith. This is what the creators intend it to be. Tatsunoko was a bad mistake. Unfortunately I guess Tatsunoko was the best they could do at the time and they did make DYRL. If only HG didn't have the Macross trademark though. Oh well. At least we can read Nihongo or get translations. Here there's furigana for all the kanji anyway. Mikimoto's doing so great.

I did in fact sell some of my Robotech comics. You have to find a Robotech fan. They're the ones who value the comics, not the stores. The store doesn't need to fill the gaps in it's Robotech collection. That's why I don't put them on eBay.

すみません、冗談でした。

Imagine BGC by Harmony Gold and DR Movie. Everyone's 7' tall, even Nene. Mackie has a ripped physique with broad shoulders and giant pecs. The Boomers discuss their evil plans inside Genom. "The Knight Sabers will never expect us. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!"