JB0

It was a mining accident, if I recall. Which explains why no one saw it coming. The romulans were taken by surprise by something that gives folks thousands of years of advance notice. An explanation for the surprise is warranted.

That is fair.

That's a pretty nice Slag, aside from some color choices and the lack of dinosaur legs on his humanoid shins(which looks to be an option, actually). I really like the transforming triceratops frill. If that red is darker in-person, it'll be a hard toy to turn down.

I have to ask: does it MATTER if Macross 2 is canon or not? The show can be enjoyed without the explicit blessing of the powers that be.

That's actually really saddening. I'd watch it. But I still think they need to make my "A-Team with Valkyries" pitch first.

Oh, it was a quantum disruption in their star's subspace microsignature? That makes a lot of sense, it's no wonder the romulans didn't notice until it was too late.

My understanding is that Tatsunoko had some merchandising rights for DYRL, and HG signed up for a license to make their Macross trademarks look more legitimate.

Is the correct answer "every time it wasn't the Borg"? Because they had multiple ships show up in Best of Both Worlds and First Contact. And those are pretty much the only cases I can think of for multiple ships between Earth and certain doom.

The press release is vague and written to be a positive spin for all involved parties. I would bet HG gets nothing outside SDFM, and DYRL merchandise(they only have a merohandise license for DYRL, Tatsunoko doesn't have dietribution rights to the movie). I admit the DYRL situation is complicated, and I'm not an expert in international copyright law, but don't think HG actually has any say in that one.

I do note that Praxis was a VERY large blast, with effects carrying far enough in subspace to knock Excelsior out of warp on the Federation's side of the neutral zone. Even assuming those wider effects are limited to subspace, they probably have significant short-term implications for warp travel within the empire.

Man, that book was SO BAD. Glad my suffering has brought others long-term amusement. To clarify, though... I actually enjoyed the Robotech novels, the final one excepted. I admittedly didn't have the most discerning of tastes in my teenage years, but they were alright.

In other words, everything was End of the Circle's fault.

I just realized a HUGE problem with this annuncement. We've spent two decades watching a succession of drama-bombs from these two franchises' legal situation. Where the heck are we supposed to get our legal soap opera now?

Looks removable to me. They turned the chrome radiators of the original toy into missile launchers. As missile launchers, they almost certainly are on pegs so they can be handheld.

If they want to distribute CURRENT Robotech works featuring elements from Macross outside America, they have to partner with Big West. They're over a barrel there. Future Robotech "works" is a flexible concept. They can't make more animation featuring SDF Macross elements, but comic books are still fair game. Though perhaps one they might be hesitant about, given their licensees' propensity for lifting things from OTHER Macross works and adapting them into Robotech.

My understanding about the trademark lawsuits is thus: 0: Around the turn of the century, HG starts telling everyone they need to quit bringing Macross merchandise out of Japan because HG actually owns all of Macross and there's no way out without paying them. In spite of Macross II and Macross Plus already being distributed internationally without HG's approval, and Mac Plus toys sitting on shelves across America. This is probably due to plans to bring the original Yamato 1/60 VF-1s to America, which are much nicer than Toynami's Masterpieces. 0.5: Big West is furious about this and adopts a "don't negotiate with terrorists" approach to HG. Any Big West licensee that pays money to HG sees their licenses cancelled, and any manufacturer that does business with HG gets blacklisted from ever doing business with Big West. 1: HG, upon realizing their opponent has a spine and they can't ACTUALLY force Big West to just give them all the Macrosses by saying "we own this, so give it to us", files a bunch of trademarks on everything tangentally-related to Macross everywhere outside Japan explicitly to prevent Big West selling any Macross. HG still doesn't own the copyright to anything or even any distribution rights, but they own trademarks on the word Macross and the UN Spacey logo and a bunch of other important terms and images. Big West is effectively locked out of the international market unless they negotiate with HG. (This is the point where HG starts putting the words "Macross Saga" prominently on their merchandise, to give the appearance of actually using these trademarks for legitimate business purposes.) 2: Big West, upon realizing most countries' trademark law contains provisions for overseas creators to take of maliciously-registered trademarks, filed complaints and got all the trademarks confiscated from HG and assigned to Big West. Now the shoe's on the other foot as those obstructionist trademarks prevent HG from selling anything Macross-related outside the US(including the first half of Robotech), because Big West has trademarks on the word Macross and the UN Spacey logo and a bunch of other important terms and images 3: HG, upon realizing that US trademark law does NOT work this way and very much favors the applicant, stonewalls Big West. They can do whatever the heck they want everywhere else(except sell SDF Macross merchandise due to the Tatsunoko agreement), but HG has the US market completely locked down. It is the only weapon HG has, but it is a fairly big one. 3.5: I believe Big West was waiting for the license agreement to run out so they could swoop in and take over. This probably seemed a fair bet, as HG and Tatsunoko were on fairly bad terms. But that didn't work out, and Tatsunoko renewed the license agreement for international distribution of SDF Macross and related merchandise. 3.9: Oh, hey, there's a plague. That's pretty much affected every industry on Earth, including the ones HG and Big West are involved in. I believe both companies suddenly started looking at red ink on their balance sheets and became a lot less interested in stonewalling. 4: That brings us to today, where Big West and HG have sat down and negotiated a ceasefire.

Because it gives Big West gets veto power over future Robotech decisions? It is hard to see how this is a win when HG used to answer to no one.

Legally-speaking, they aren't. They don't use any SDF Macross names or designs.

Here in Dallas, that's about what I'd pay in taxes... except I don't have a state sales tax. Sales tax is all city and county level, and adds up to 8.25%. (The cities want to raise it, but state law prohibits total sales tax from exceeding 8.25%) I can't actually set up an order to check, because Ark is sold out. What's even the point of preorders if you aren't going to make enough to fill everyone's orders? I HATE EVERYTHING!

Comic books and novelizations are considered merchandise, which is why HG can make them. They don't have rights to produce derivative moving-picture productions, be they animated or photographic.

That'd be satisfying as hell, but they don't really have the leverage to force that particular concession. They would've had to get Tatsunoko to not renew the license, and Tatsunoko doesn't really care about all this except that they get paid one way and don't the other.

It certainly explains recent weather down here in my neck of the woods. Texas got REALLY cold for a little while, and our weather is famously connected to Hell's. I guess the aggressive campaign to overturn HG's trademarks and release 100% Pure Macross™ everywhere outside the US was hurting the Robotech money-laundering operation sales more than they would publicly admit. My guess is this agreement is almost exclusively on Big West's terms, with the "Robotech movie in Japan" clause being the only exception.

Ah, she got the Isamu treatment.

I'm honestly pleased with the Ark toy, aside from the large gaps on the sides. I feel like there ought to be panels folding over those. While I grant it is not show-accurate(and there's no such thing as comix accurate, with Marvel drawing it different every time), I like how it looks. I probably would've skipped it if they hadn't also included Teletraan-1 as a converting robot. I was kinda hoping for a second that the Teletraan-1 robot would attach the rest of the ship as armor to make the Ark-bot, but... nope.

They found a sucker to pony up more dough for this trainwreck?