Roger

Look on the left: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29105935@N04/2719742087/ The figure is going to be a Best Buy exclusive.

Even if you think it's inconsistent, it sure isn't boring and predictable. Because that's the way it would be if the heads were the same between all four colors. Do the different style heads really change the design so much to the point where this is undesirable? Honest opinions, here.

I agree. Having enthusiasm for the products your company makes is dumb.

And why would they bother adopting the design if they might have to hire a lawyer and sue someone one day down the road? It's cool-looking, Dave, but the idea that the Sylphide is going to be used in the live action movie is really wishful thinking on your part.

Can you post some screen caps of how the green, red, and Shadow Beta battloid heads looked in the anime?

So what you're saying is that you'll just hand over the work that you and Greg Lane did on your variable fighter design to Harmony Gold for free? So that they in turn can hand it over to a movie studio, who will then use the design in the movie and license toys, models, etc. based on it? And that both of you will promise never to ask for one cent? That's awfully generous.

Ah, okay, that would explain that. Did the Dorvack Transformers have the licensing sticker, too?

Oh, come on, you love to be contrary. ;p I was ignorant of this, though, I didn't know they had the sticker. So if it was done with Tatsunoko's blessing, then they should have had some 'splaining to do to Harmony Gold. Guess nothing happened.

My understanding is that this is not the case. Toynami buys the toys directly from Bandai's factories in Asia and nobody in Japan gets any royalties from it. Of course, it benefits Bandai because they get to increase their production runs and their profit margins due to economies of scale, but as far as I know, Big West and Tatsunoko don't get a cut of this action. Which is really the way it should be.

Splitting hairs here, Ray, I know, but Matsushiro was just contracted by Hasbro to run off copies of the toys that they had tooling for. Nobody with a stake in Macross (Tatsunoko, Studio Nue, or Harmony Gold) granted Hasbro a license to make a Macross toy. It was the 1980s and nobody really cared or ever thought they would get caught. And as it turned out, they didn't. In a way, a similar thing is happening here with Tamashii and Toynami. None of the Japanese stakeholders (Tatsunoko or Studio Nue) are getting any money for the Valkyrie toys that Toynami is bringing over to the USA, however, they are paying Harmony Gold for the privilege of selling them here and branding them as Macross and Robotech toys.

We're seven episodes in and past the halfway point. Has anything significant happened yet?

Ah, yeah. I thought you were drawing a comparison between the episode and another story. I don't know, I love VOTOMS but I'm really not too impressed with this series. People are trying to kill Chirico because they've heard he's unkillable, blah blah blah, so what else is new. I think making this a prequel was a mistake, because there really aren't any twists, turns, or revelations they can present us with that won't screw with where they need Chirico to be by episode 1 of the TV series.

Where's the coincidence? I'm drawing a blank.

The news about Kasdan was covered recently at Yaco's site: http://wildcats.pupui.jp/mt/archives/2008/06/robotech.html

Okay, Harmony Gold does things that you think are unreasonable, and because they do those things, it's okay for Big West to do something unreasonable like refusing to sit down with them and cut a deal that could bring shows like Macross Frontier to America. So you still get to claim that you're being denied something and continue blaming the party you dislike. Pretty airtight.

Actually, he doesn't address the issue. Graham was talking about Iseki-san and George Sohn. George Sohn doesn't run Harmony Gold, he runs Toynami.

Isn't it a little disingenuous to say something like this, though? Do you know if Big West has made any efforts to bring Macross Frontier to the American market, and if Harmony Gold has actively stopped them? If there was money to be made for both parties, you could bet that they would come to an agreement. Of course, with fansubbed torrents of the anime, scans of the manga, etc. being readily available (on sites like Macrossworld ;p), the declining state of the anime/manga industry in the US, and the niche appeal of the show, do you think it would be worth the effort?

You misspelled "criticism." ;p

Lousy analogy, unless you want to say that there are always people out there who will never give a cop the benefit of the doubt. ;p

Yes, but didn't that court ruling come years after Harmony Gold was sending C&Ds? If so, you can't criticize HG for trying to enforce rights that they believed they already had. Or, instead of picking a fight, Yamato could actually try to negotiate a license with Harmony Gold. Have they ever tried to do so? Maybe Graham could tell us. It's really easy to place all of the blame on one party, isn't it? ;p

And I'll ask again, do you have a list of characters who aren't in that photo and who are on the base star with D'anna when she said that only four were in the fleet?

Apparently they do have the rights since Macross Plus was a sequel to the original Macross, and their original agreement with Tatsunoko gave them the rights to derivative works outside of Japan. Yamato must recognize it, too, otherwise they'd be selling Macross Plus toys through Yamato-USA or Sunwards, wouldn't they? Organic would be selling those Macross Plus Revoltechs here, too, but as far as I know, they don't. I really don't understand the consternation over this. Has it actually been difficult for Macrossworld readers to obtain things like Yamato Macross toys and other Japanese products?

I don't like the ones that do. I prefer the ones that look like human-manufactured military machines. To me, that's what makes them mecha.

IIRC, the decision to tie all three shows together was a joint one made by Revell and Harmony Gold. Having a show to sell that was more than 65 episodes long ensured that it could be stripped in daily syndication. It worked for He-Man, Transformers, and G.I. Joe, and they were aiming to capture the same mind share. After the decision was made, Macek was hired to rewrite everything (at breakneck pace, BTW) and get the shows ready for broadcast. You may not agree with the ideas that he used to accomplish this, but it was a pretty impressive feat, especially given the time and resource constraints that he had. And hey, we might not even have Macrossworld if that didn't happen. ;p

You're painting a pretty distorted picture here. If you're referring to the efforts that Harmony Gold made to prevent Macross items from being imported a while back, Carl Macek had nothing to do with any of that. He hadn't worked there in years. Furthermore, I can't think of any Macross, Southern Cross, or MOSPEADA items that were prevented from being produced by Harmony Gold. And how is it immoral to protect your company's intellectual property?