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RavenHawk

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  1. RavenHawk
    Not great at selectively quoting, so, apologies... As to your first quoted part here, I have been going with the assumption here that this new comic was sort of an experiment at trying to remove elements of what was licensed and building up a storyline that might be more original to Robotech. My basis for this? Absolutely nothing. Just trying to justify things a bit beyond "Furman!" As to your second quoted part, I agree that the late '90s comics were an insult to septic tanks, but I think there were some decent ones earlier on. Not an argument, just a question: What makes you say that they have more rights to MOSPEADA? I'm not feeling masochistic enough to go re-read what is publicly available about the licensing, but don't recall there being any real greater granting of rights there.
  2. RavenHawk
    I'll deny it in person, but I actually kind of enjoy that movie. Not in a "this is a good movie" way, but more of a mindlessly-entertaining-but-if-it's-on-tv-I'll-watch-it way. Absolutely no disrespect, but I don't think that I completely agree with you here. As I understand it (and I may be wrong), they lose their rights to the all of the copyrights associated with the original animation, artwork, and designs, as well as the trademarks to "Macross", related logos, etc. That means mecha and ships (including the SDF-1) will have to look significantly different (as opposed to being derivative works) and no logos that are associated with the classic series. While scifi wars with space aliens are pretty generic, as you said, and much of the story would fall under scene a fair, I don't know if that would apply to the key elements. Let's look at the current comic, at its fundamental: alien ship crashes on Earth, humans reverse engineer the tech (so far still generic), aliens come to retrieve the ship (probably still generic), humans use the rebuilt ship to fight them, space fold to the edge of the solar system, and then make the journey back to Earth, fighting them along the way. That last bit I think is unlikely to be considered generic, in my opinion, and seems key to what I would imagine would be taking place in the movie. What successes of Tommy's are you referring to? Shadow Chronicles, the Toynami licensed figures, or the Wildstorm comics license? I agree that he may have done a decent job of bringing it back into the spotlight. However, my intent in my statement the other day was about quality level. I think that the things which he personally touched (i.e. the stories that he wrote or "directed") were very low quality. I think that there was better quality writing going on in the early '90s, and I say that as someone who recently re-read a chunk of that material.
  3. RavenHawk
    This just seems... hmmm.... how to be polite about it... foolish. Their entire business model is based around kickstarter. They claimed to have the license, but terms such as funding and what would be a go or no-go weren't discussed? I really think MAAS had some very preliminary conversation with HG, and then jumped the gun claiming to have a license and rushing out a mediocre design.
  4. RavenHawk
    Well, they can license whatever they own, which at that point will presumably just be whatever they would argue they have added as original creative content not present in the original series, and the name itself (which I believe may be the only trademark they'll retain). So... something, but not much. Sort of like what you'd have left from Sentinels and Shadow Chronicles if you removed all the MOSPEADA mecha.
  5. RavenHawk
    I was more referring to Shadow Chronicles, which I don't think could lay any blame on the movie deal.
  6. RavenHawk
    Interestingly, they've gone up on the prices compared to their similar Macross ones, while also having fewer molds in the set. The Macross set was $12 each (or a dozen for $120) and had 4 distinctive molds, with one mold being used with 3 different heads for 3 different figures. This one is really only 2 molds, plus a couple extra heads.
  7. RavenHawk
    Not a word. I didn't scan through all the old stuff on their site closely to see if things were reworded, but the quick glance I took seemed to talk about interacting with the community and the fans, as opposed to talking about crowdfunding. Still, as I've griped before, they're not so great at taking feedback from the community if it isn't pure praise.
  8. RavenHawk
    Frankly, if we want to go by how the franchise has "progressed" since Tommy took over, I'd say it's more of "regressed", and I'd be inclined to expect "drastically worse than what we has in the 80s or 90s".
  9. RavenHawk
    Looks like MAAS is back to posting on Facebook, after being silent since Jan. 16. Still no comment on Southern Cross or replies to questions about the project or kickstarter.
  10. RavenHawk
    If they were cheap, I'd be tempted to get them, just because I'm thrilled to see any MOSPEADA/New Gen stuff any time it come out. However, at $14 per blind box figure, or $180 for 15 figures (I guess to ensure that you get at least one of each), that's just silly.
  11. RavenHawk
    Never watched this as a kid, but I really do love the look.
  12. RavenHawk
    I honestly remember the lion Voltron episodes much better than the vehicle Voltron ones (by A LOT), but I always loved vehicle Voltron more. To me, as a kid, it was about vehicles turning (or combining) into robots, and not animals. Dinosaurs were, obviously, an exception.
  13. RavenHawk
    Has it gotten any negative reviews, or did sellers just over stock on it?
  14. RavenHawk
    Don't remember for sure, but I think it was around $125 or $140.
  15. RavenHawk
    Oh, I have been! Haha. He's been listed on pre-order for like a year now.
  16. RavenHawk
    Thanks for the recommendation. I'll keep an eye out for good deals on that one. It's not that I'm not a fan of planes. I love planes, cars (thus the not-Throttlebots that I collected), trucks (as in tractor trailers and Ultra Magnus, big time), and motorcycles, and have since I was a kid. It's just that there came a point where I had to decide what to focus my collecting on, and, since I'm most passionate about bikes, that's the route that I went. That said, the Technobots were a personal favorite in a big way when I was a kid, and I was really tempted to get Quantron. Blindfire, funny enough, was the most tempting to me, since I really dig that scifi fighter design, loved the original toy from the '80s, and felt that Blindfire and Overheat were the two new designs that most clicked with me. I didn't end up getting him, but already regret not getting Quantron this most recent Black Friday... Edit: I forgot to mention that I also have MakeToys Battle Tanker (I think in two different colors) and am really impressed by that one as well. That fell under my first culling of collecting, where I narrowed it down to Motorcycles, Ultra Magnus-related stuff, and Prowl.
  17. RavenHawk
    That's likely just intimidation on their part, overstepping knowing that you're not going to spend the money on fighting it. Using a minimal amount for review purposes typically falls under fair use. You just can't use more than is really needed to be able to do the review, though that's all subjective. The transformative aspect isn't even relevant in this case, or needed.
  18. RavenHawk
    I have to say that I've become a big fan of MakeToys' stuff. Their designs really, in my opinion, do a great job of being very original, while still being homages to Transformers (and other things, as well). I have Overheat and Axle and really was impressed by both. I don't collect planes anymore, but if I did I'd definitely be getting Buster Skywing or Stealthwing.
  19. RavenHawk
    I know I've mentioned them before (but heck, I REALLY like them), but the Toyworld non-Throttlebots were the perfect mix of vehicle mode accuracy and compromise on robot modes, while all but one were, in my opinion, genuinely solid and fun to transform. Did they every accomplish anything similar for planes? (not my pics, fyi; Google searched some, since mine had to get boxed up due to space constraints)
  20. RavenHawk
    What do people think we can expect for actual price? I think most of the ride armors were offered by the usual suspects at preorder time for around 10-15% less than the MSRP.
  21. RavenHawk
    I believe that definitely one, and possibly two, of their designers are based in Australia. From what I can tell from various posts, videos, and comments made about conventions, the design team (which basically comes up with the looks of the toys and general transformation guidelines) is in English-speaking countries, and then manufacturing (and final designs and transformation details) are done by a handful of Chinese factories.
  22. RavenHawk
    Well, gray market goods are generally still authentic licensed products, just not sold through the approved channels (i.e. a Japan-only product being sold in the USA), but I get that that's not your point. When it comes to trademarks, that's not exactly the case. The issue isn't about precedent in one specific infringer's case, but rather in weakening the trademark. A trademark that is not enforced can later be invalidated by, potentially, anyone. That is one big companies often will send a cease & desist letter to small infringers, including charities, and then offer to license the mark to them for a nominal fee. It is part of the obligation of policing your mark, as well as insuring quality. Copyright enforcement isn't quite the same situation, and there it can be a matter of not pursuing an infringer on one copyright infringement does not necessarily carry over or benefit other infringers.
  23. RavenHawk
    The situation is odd, really, for more than just the above reasons. These types of companies aren't really even gray market. Their business models are essentially heavily based on (strongly arguably) trademark and copyright infringement, and they get by through (in my opinion) being small enough to not be worth the hassle of pursuing in combination with a degree of anonymity as to their actual ownership. I may be wrong, and maybe it's all just "it's good for our reputation to let you keep infringing", but that seems unlikely due to the potential trademark risks associated with that. I suspect it's mostly just a "you're not worth the litigation expenses". Signing a licensing deal with a more visible company seems risky.
  24. RavenHawk
    Seems unlikely. They're experienced at ignoring feedback they don't like. It's definitely possible, though my understanding is that their team do this professionally, for a living. Some of their projects have been done as a hobby, with hopes of them turning into profit makers, while the rest of their projects are paid for with the full intent of being a revenue stream. In this case, my suspicion (just a guess, really) is that it was some combination of a few factors. Maybe they did not get the positive glowing feedback that they have come to expect from their more devoted customer base, HG took issue with the crowdfunding approach and so they had to pull everything (which, if it's the case, would be foolish of them for not getting this nailed down beforehand), they jumped the gun in assuming HG was going to give them a license before all of the final numbers and details were agreed upon, or they have legitimately gone back to the drawing board on this and prefer to delete any references to version 1. EDIT: Just checked FB, and the pictures are all still up, just silence since 1/15 (as was mentioned). So... uh... who knows?
  25. RavenHawk
    That makes sense. I also think that the dimensions were likely fluid during the animation process as well (i.e. "Crap, we forgot that we are putting it on the back of a flat bed in this episode... well, draw it smaller.")
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