Bri

Plenty of movies better then the books: Forrest Gump, Bladerunner, Jurasic Park, Silence of the Lambs, Starship Troopers just to name a few.

I've been working on a 1/144 RX-78 GB-01Fb, to experiment with Bandai kits before starting on my stack of VF-25. Not really used to having precolored plastics. Tried serveral types of primer but nothing felt really good. Ended up with alternating black and white primers in the end, but maybe a transparant one that allows the pastics color to shine through would work better.

The makers of the series have been constantly able to keep the fanbase off guard. Haruhi is as unpredictable as ever, and I love it. Endless eight is one of the riskiest and daring anime stunts I have ever seen, must have taken balls of steell to ignore the fanrage, heh. Anyway I don't think it will end with the novel ending, my bet is they will change it a bit. They are hinting quite a bit at the chicades. Who knows, there might be a real season 2 in the pipeline. I have learned not to take anything for granted with this series. Just enjoying an episode a week and I'll see when endless eight will end. Lot of fanrage stems from them not having enough time to animate certain book chapters. Sometimes not having read the books is a blessing.

It's a fun concept but not practical. Costs would be crazy and shipping, ouch. Not to mention that very few people would even have space for it. The dream would probably beat reality.

Whether I like a series or not does not really affect me buying a valk. For example, I dislike Macross Plus and it's characters, still I like the three valks on their own enough to buy them. Vice versa with DYRL. Love the movie but I prefer the TV color schemes.

Well, I have had these outages now for a month or 2 as well, maybe a bit longer not sure. It started with short ones of 30 mins to an hour, today had the longest one yet: 5 hours or so. Between 19.00 and 24.00 CET.

yea, looks like a must have and SAL shippable so not to expensive.

Yea agreed, the trademark used on SDFM should not affect derivative series owned by Big West. However the easy solution, getting seperate trademarks for Macross Plus, Macross Zero, Macross 7 and Macross Frontier seems impossible with the failure of the attempt with Macross Plus by Big West, the reason might be that the marks are to similar. Not really, a trademark in more then one EU country can be challenge through the EU courts, and would affect all member states. Think there is a similar agreement between US and Canada, it would be two cases max.

I wonder how much of the choise between the F35 and the F22 projects was based on economic rather then military considerations. The F35 might keep most of the aerospace sector alive during the current harsh economic conditions. That probably carries as much weight as the supposed capabilities of the respective planes. Also the F22 was already in production, most of what could be learned in terms of developing new technologies was already completed.

My priority is Macross TV so my next targets are the CF-1A and the Virginroad. Will skip the 1/60 M&Ms for now. Will end up buy a few CF-1A's, want that Skull squadron diorama. Have what I want from DYRL. May get tempted to buy the Elint seeker, but low prio atm. Have what I want from Zero. Hopefully the D will come soon. For Macross Plus, still debating whether to give in and get a YF-19 to complete the trio. I'm very happy with the VF-11B but my YF-21 is a floppy mess, the YF-19 is often described as worse Frontier 1/60s are rather meh, bought the Ozma and that's it for now but will get the Quarter when it comes out. Love the VF-22S so more Macross 7 hopefully. Not to bad, a few valks and a Macross on the must have list.

I've reread those two years of that thread, thanks for that, it was a lot of fun to wade through Anyhow those 50 pages can be summed up in a few sentences: Tatsunoko and BW had a lawsuit about the copyright. The consensus on the verdict is that Tatsunoko and BW each own part of the copyright. The original 1982 memorandum from the production commitee grants international distribution and merchandising of SDF Macross to Tats. BW/Nue have the rights to all the designs for SDF Macross. Tats was awarded ownership of the animation and they sued BW/Nue for use of the name Macross and the rights to sequals in Japan. Tats lost and BW/Nue are free to use the name Macross and designs to make further sequals. Unfortunately this all means little for the international situation, and now we are slowly reaching different territories from the 2003/2004 thread as it only went on and on about who owned what part of the copyrights. HG correctly saw that the way to control Macross internationally was by trademarks. In July 1999 they commited their coup by trademarking the name in several countries. Not only was that action able to block a licensed YF-19 from Yamato by Toycom it also stopped further Macross publications in Europe. Glenat and Planet Manga had gotten sub-licences for M7 Trash in 1998 through Kadokawa. Note that buying those trademarks for multiple classes and representation by at least 7 lawfirms must have cost HG tens of thousands of dollars if not more. Wonder how they managed to pull that one off given they had trouble "minding the store" just a few years earlier. As can be seen from thispost is that both Tats and BW tried to get US trademarks as well. Typical that both Tats and BW stopped/lost/gave up their attempts the same day. BW also tried to get a Macross Plus trademark. How to interpret this? I'm sure this can't have been a solo action by HG. Tommy Yune confirmed that Tats has to renew the HG license, so HG can't afford to screw them over. MEMO even suggested that they are very supportive of the blockade. Also BW also tried to get a Macross Plus trademark. Had that succeded they could have just marketed any derivative in the US under a seperate trademark. How solid is HGs grasp on the name Macross? Tatsunoko's part of the copyright, the economic rights, would suggest that they can use the name outside of Japan. Based on the memorandum of SDF Macross they are responsible for the international distribution. So the grip might be quite strong, which might be hinted at by the unsuccesful attempts of BW in winning the US trademark.

The daily outage lasted for about 3 hours or so today, bit longer then usual.

I can only give the timeline for the trademarks. Other members know far more about the Lawsuit in Japan so maybe they can put some dates up. Anyway the whole Macross trademark affair: United States Harmony Gold...Trademarks IC 009, 016, 028, 049, prerecorded DVD/VHS/CD/Tape, Books-Magazines-Comics, Merchandise/Toys/Videogames, Animation, Applied..............July 12, 1999 Abandoned....... March 12, 2002 Harmony Gold... Trademarks IC025 Clothing Applied............. July 14, 1999 Published...........February 29, 2000 Registered........ May 21, 2002 Tatsunoko ........Trademarks IC 028, 041 Merchandise/Toys/Videogames, Animated TV series Applied.............. August 11, 1999 Abandoned.........September 22, 2000 Big West...........Trademarks IC 009, 016 prerecorded DVD/CD/VHS/Tape, Books-Magazines-Comics Applied............. August 18, 1999 Abandoned........September 22, 2000 Big West...........Trademarks IC 028, 016, 009 Merchandise/Toys, Books-Magazines-Comics, prerecorded DVD/CD/VHS/Tape (relist of IC 016 and 009 for unknown reasons) Applied..............August 23, 1999 Abandoned........September 22, 2000 Big West...........Trademarks IC 025 Clothing Applied..............September 22, 1999 Abandoned........September 22, 2000 Big West...........Trademarks IC 009,016,025,028, 041 for Macross PLUS Applies............. February 23 and 25, 2000 Abandoned........March 8 and 27, 2001 Harmony Gold....Trademarks IC 009 prerecorded DVD/VHS/CD/Tape Applied..............July 20, 2001 Published...........February 26, 2002 Registered.........October 15, 2002 Harmony Gold ...Trademarks IC 016, 028 Merchandise/Toys/ Books-Magazines-Comics and the words Super Dimension Fortress in Chinese and Macross in Japanese language and Applied............. March 13, 2002 Published...........June 17, 2003 Registered........ September 9, 2003 Harmony Gold...Trademarks IC 041 Animated TV series Applied............. March 14, 2002 Published..........October 29, 2002 Registered........ January 21, 2003 Harmony Gold... Trademarks IC 028 Merchandise/Toys/Videogames Applied............. January 6, 2003 Published.......... .November 11, 2003 Registered.........February 3, 2004 Canada Harmony Gold... Trademarks IC 009, 016, 025, 028, 041 Applied.............1999-07-30 Published.......... 2001-01-10 Registered........ 2002-08-09 Germany Harmony Gold....Trademarks IC 009, 016, 025, 028, 041 Applied............. July 30, 1999 Registered........ March 2, 2000 Extended...........August 1, 2009 France Harmony Gold...Trademarks IC 009, 016, 025, 028, 041 Applied............. 1999-07-07 Published...........1999-08-13 Extended...........2009-07-07 Italy Harmony Gold...Trademarks IC 025, 028, 041 Applied..............August 13, 1999 Registered..........March 20, 2003 United Kingdom Harmony Gold... Trademarks IC 016, 025 Applied..............July 30, 1999 Registered.........February 14, 2003 Extended.......... August 7, 2009 Spain Harmony Gold.......Trademarks IC 038, 041 Registered.........01/03/2001 Essentially in July 1999 Harmony Gold applies for trademarks in several classes in at least 7 countries. Big West and Tatsunoko respond by appyling for trademarks in the US in Augsut 1999, interesting to mention that Tats aplies first so not in reaction to BW. On September 22, 2000 both Tats and BW are either denied a TM, come to a settlement or give up on their own accord. In 2002 most of the HG trademarks are not awarded except for the clothing one, however they immediatley reapply and get the trademarks on a class by class basis. Big West tries to apllly for a Macross Plus trademark in 5 clases but that attempt fails/is abandoned as well.

Unfortunately there is no guarantee what-so-ever that HG will cease their stranglehold on Macross if Robotech would become an independant franchise. In an ideal situation Tatsunoko would sell the international merchandising and economic rights to SDFM to Bandai or Big West and then the problem would be solved.

The current offer price seems far more realistic in compared to the quality and amount of toy your getting. Might just go for this offer now.

The one person who could answer why Big West did not get the trademarks on Macross would be Cynthia A. Nishimoto, a LA lawyer who represented Big West during the three way trademark fight between Big West, HG and Tatsunoko between July 1999 and September 2000. Interestingly she works for Bandai as a company lawyer these days.

The use of online dealers is not the end all. Due to shipping fees and taxes it's far more expensive here to buy individually from online vendors then from local speciality stores. Not to mention the hellish postal service. The Macross trademark by HG in the major European anime markets makes it impossible to buy items via the normal channels. I have to pay at least twice as much for Macross items then for comparable licensed anime merchandise. Also it would be nice to be able to get translated (art)books. So from my perspective it would be nice if HG lost those TMs. Do we really know anything about BWs position on the matter? I've not seen any statements. Also BW tried to aquire the US trademark on Macross but failed, HG got it instead, that doesn't sound like BW ignored the US market.

Can't help but wonder if it is BW is not licensing any post SDFM goods outside of Japan, or if it's Harmony Gold actively blocking licenses. I've contacted a representative of Glenat who are publishing Macross 7 Trash with the question why they are not affected by the HG trademark (they only credit Big West). Hopefully I'll get a response from them soon.

Two 80s classics with a Scifi Wild West theme: Couldn't find a particular good sounding version but still awesome today: and that other Axis battleship: original OP Bismarck Peter Cullan narating the transformation felt so right.

*cough* proxy server *cough*

I think it's more of a question why BW isn't reacting. We know they own the designs etc, but they have never commented on the situation outside of Japan afaik. Unless they give an explination anything we can do is speculate on the matter.

There is plenty out there: Since you like GITS: other works by Mamoru Oshii like Patlabor, Blood and Jin-roh. Personally I like his Urusei Yatsura work best, but that is serious and silly. Anything by Makato Shinkai, like 5 cm per second and Voices of a distant star To name a few that come to mind: Monster, Black Lagoon, Rahxephon, Appleseed, Serial Experiments Lain, Infinite Ryvius, Saikano, Mushi-shi

Because you realise that Haruhi is an inverted Evangelion? A mecha show that disguises itself as a high school comedy. Haruhi is just so hotblooded and strong willed she doesn't even need a Super Robot

Afaik Yuki was the only group to sub the reruns and they had aranged with AFK to use their subs for the reruns as they contained scenes which had not been broadcasted before(DVD version). It all got a bit weird when Kadokawa/Kyoani deciced to mix in the new episodes. As for the quality difference, it's all a matter of speed. According to subbing comments, the best raws come from the Tokyo channels which broadcast them later in the week. The groups which wait longest generally has acces to the better quality raws. Especialy on episode 8 and the second endless eight is the difference between groups noticable. As always a lot of it is user preference.

I've got yahoo mail as well, but no outages there, only MW.