No Love for Southern Cross?

[jenius]

24 minutes ago, slide said:

Didn't the crash of ASS-1, and the UN's subsequent Despotic Assimilation of all national governments in the face of it, kick-off the Unification Wars?

Or was WWIII in-progress when it hit?

Not in robotech

[slide]

21 minutes ago, jenius said:

Not in robotech

ah

[TheLoneWolf]

3 hours ago, jenius said:

For the record, I think a pretty awesome Mospeada Live Action Movie could be made. Yes, the plot would need to be reworked pretty thoroughly to cram it into 2 hours. The movie would bookend with massive space battles and feature a Mad Max road trip in between... could be kinda cool. 

Stahp giving them free ideas.

[Seto Kaiba]

38 minutes ago, slide said:

Didn't the crash of ASS-1, and the UN's subsequent Despotic Assimilation of all national governments in the face of it, kick-off the Unification Wars?

Or was WWIII in-progress when it hit?

In Robotech's version, there was a world war underway when the ship crashed and humanity had its collective "oh crap" moment and opted to throw down their weapons just long enough to form a token unified front against a potential invasion before some parties resumed shooting only with bigger and shinier guns and the whole thing almost immediately imploded into a kakistocracy run by a military autocrat, then a slave society split between official slave labor for alien invaders and de facto slave labor for the militantly xenophobic army trying to "liberate" them.

In Macross, Earth was more or less at peace when the ship crashed and humanity had that collective "oh crap" moment that set the stage for six of the G8 nations (the US, Russia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan) to collectively conclude that not being massacred was something everyone could enjoy and start twisting arms to replace the United Nations with something that actually worked to forestall fighting World War III over possession of the alien ship and form a unified front against a potential invasion that became a functioning democracy after the political opportunists all conveniently died.

[slide]

It has been a long time since I suffered through RT... thanks for the disambiguation, guys.

 

[jenius]

7 minutes ago, slide said:

It has been a long time since I suffered through RT... thanks for the disambiguation, guys.

 

Most of this stuff is barely glanced upon in the show, or entirely not existent, it was the books and then the comics that really expounded upon it. Most of it I have completely forgotten as well... The Masters arch is really where the meat of the uniquely Robotech story is from an animation standpoint. That show easily deviates the most from the original plot to glue Mospeada to Macross. This is actually the only thing that gives Robotech the LAM a chance at existing. They can muddle all of the most generic elements of Macross with the unique story elements from The Masters to create a hybrid story that is Robotech WITHOUT being outright Macross. Of course... at that point you have to wonder why someone wouldn't just create a unique scifi story with mecha and just skip the Robotech license and licensing debacle entirely... which is probably the conclusion that everyone who has been involved with this mess has ultimately reached.

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, jenius said:

The Masters arch is really where the meat of the uniquely Robotech story is from an animation standpoint.

Which, tellingly enough, is why it has substantially greater quantities of plot holes, inconsistencies, and dialog errors than the rest of the series.

What's insane is the parts of Southern Cross they kept virtually unaltered... like all that out-of-nowhere stuff at the ending about immortality.

 

8 hours ago, jenius said:

Of course... at that point you have to wonder why someone wouldn't just create a unique scifi story with mecha and just skip the Robotech license and licensing debacle entirely... which is probably the conclusion that everyone who has been involved with this mess has ultimately reached.

That, right there, is almost certainly a major part of why there has been exactly zero forward motion on making a live action movie... if all you've got is the title, a few names, and one or two key terms, why not just make an all-original movie from scratch instead and not have to pay royalties to a washed-up real estate company from LA?

[RavenHawk]

So does this mean than MEPTOYS is actually officially licensed to use the Robotech name and characters?

 

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/90032

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, RavenHawk said:

So does this mean than MEPTOYS is actually officially licensed to use the Robotech name and characters?

... eh?  Why wouldn't they be?

I mean, it's the commercially successful properties that attract the attention of the bootleggers and other unauthorized third party merchandising.  Even if Harmony Gold weren't famously lawsuit-happy, Robotech can't even get real companies interested in their license anymore let alone profit-hungry bootleggers. 

[RavenHawk]

Just now, Seto Kaiba said:

... eh?  Why wouldn't they be?

I mean, it's the commercially successful properties that attract the attention of the bootleggers and other unauthorized third party merchandising.  Even if Harmony Gold weren't famously lawsuit-happy, Robotech can't even get real companies interested in their license anymore let alone profit-hungry bootleggers. 

Just surprised. MAAS Toys may have a history of making infringing (in my opinion) products, but at least they have a history of making products. MEP doesn't seem to have any history at all.

[Seto Kaiba]

4 minutes ago, RavenHawk said:

Just surprised. MAAS Toys may have a history of making infringing (in my opinion) products, but at least they have a history of making products. MEP doesn't seem to have any history at all.

Well, it's not like a thirty-plus year totally unbroken streak of abject failures did great things for the pool of prospective licensees. 

It isn't like they were spoiled for choice at the outset either, as a kid's show that got middling ratings and had an unsuccessful toy line.  They attracted the scrubs, for the most part, and now that the scrubs have lost interest or had their licenses revoked it's all down to the small time indie operators who are looking to make a name for themselves but can't afford a license for a big name property.

[Lorindor]

I should post here as well:

The 1-on-1 strategic card game Robotech: Crisis Point, based on Robotech: The Masters Saga, is now up for preorder. You either play as the Army of the Southern Cross or the Robotech Masters and fight over different locations from the show with a plethora of different mecha and characters. Fans (like me) have been heavily involved in the creation of the game, so it's really by the fans, for the fans.

When preordering directly from SolarFlare Games, you also get some bonus stuff: a preorder-exclusive standard poker card deck with Robotech illustrations, a mini-expansion for SFG's previous Robotech game and an exclusive cover variant of one of Titan's Robotech comic issues. All for just $30 plus shipping (and the shipping is discounted $5 for all orders). And (something I like) EU friendly international shipping. I think it's a very sweet deal. 

To preorder and read more information, go here: https://bravefrontier.pledgemanager.com/projects/robotech-crisis-point/participate/

[tekering]

 

To preorder and read more information, go here: https://bravefrontier.pledgemanager.com/projects/robotech-crisis-point/participate/

Again with the crowdfunding, I see...  

Harmony Gold's okay with this?

[RavenHawk]

 

Again with the crowdfunding, I see...  

Harmony Gold's okay with this?

That jumped out at me as well.

[jenius]

Harmony Gold is done trying, but they're not done collecting checks by whatever means possible.

[Podtastic]

 

Again with the crowdfunding, I see...   

Harmony Gold's okay with this?

As far as I know this is going ahead.

[Lorindor]

 

Again with the crowdfunding, I see...  

Harmony Gold's okay with this?

This game is not crowdfunded. SolarFlare is just using pledge manager for preorders. The game is currently in active production.

[Convectuoso]

I just don't know what to think about this 

 

[derex3592]

Well, the fact that they are ACTUALLY making SC or "Masters" figures is a good thing I suppose. I wouldn't mind having all the main cast if they are relatively cheap and decent quality. I bet they don't sell very well though...

Edited March 30, 2019 by derex3592

[Convectuoso]

49 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Well, the fact that they are ACTUALLY making SC or "Masters" figures is a good thing I suppose. I wouldn't mind having all the main cast if they are relatively cheap and decent quality. I bet they don't sell very well though...

I thought the same, but looking at the pictures... 

[Convectuoso]

More pics

 

 

[Mazinger]

1 hour ago, Convectuoso said:

More pics

 

 

I’ll take one of each. Hopefully MEP can crank out some hover bikes.

[tekering]

The single female body MEP has sculpted for these figures isn't terrible... which is more than can be said for the faces.  

They look like newborn babies wearing wigs. 

[505thAirborne]

I do like like the idea that Southern Cross is making a bit of a comeback but it's an easy pass on these figures. Not impressed with the look of them, they have a very cheap quality vibe. 

[RavenHawk]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

They look like newborn babies wearing wigs

My initial thought was... something likely to be far more offensive... which is why I didn't post what I was thinking...

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

More pics

I get that this is essentially an indie effort, but quality-wise this doesn't look all that much better from what was available back in the 80's.  They might do OK as long as the manufacturing is done on the assumption of ultra-low-volume sales.

[jenius]

Someone hasn't seen the 80s Robotech action figures in a while... 

MEPs offerings may not be up to the standard of the day, but they're certainly much better than the 80s figures.  The face sculpts are definitely on the cherubic side but man, I can't even imagine how challenging it would be to come up for a good face sculpt for those characters. 

Would you rather have Minmay or Dana?

WHAT DID THEY DO TO HER??? So yeah, indie effort isn't as good as professional toy manufacturers but props on turning his wishes into a reality. It's too bad they don't look like they'd go perfectly with Toynami's latest figures as that could have been fun. Might have been better to partner with Toynami in some fashion. 

[mechaninac]

@jenius is absolutely right.  Although I personally happen to think that both Toynami's recent figures and MEP's efforts are sub par in design and execution, and fall rather flat in the "likeness to character" department, they are leagues beyond the old Harmony Gold/Mathbox abominations; to claim, even tangentially, that they are the same, similar, or not a significant improvement, in any way is pure hyperbole and entirely inaccurate.  I get the dislike and dismissal, but lets be honest and give credit where credit is due even if we chose not to support the line(s).

[Podtastic]

23 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I get that this is essentially an indie effort, but quality-wise this doesn't look all that much better from what was available back in the 80's.  They might do OK as long as the manufacturing is done on the assumption of ultra-low-volume sales.

The Breetai run was expressly limited so I am pretty sure that is the assumption. This why I am making damn sure I get in early for the pre-orders.

Not only are their figures an improvement on the old matchbox figures, they also plan to release figures that have never been done before. We can either support them and at least get something, or keep dreaming that Bandai will finally release that Breetai....

[Convectuoso]

I gave some Feedback to the guy from MEP Toys today. He was very receptive

[derex3592]

Nice communication there!  Gives me hope! 

[Big s]

I’m glad they are interested in the criticism. Maybe the changes will be worthwhile.

[Convectuoso]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=326628884661677&id=110599236264644&sfnsn=mo

 

[Big s]

It’s good to hear that they know they have work to do. The legs look short as well. Those characters always were drawn with longer legs.

[JetJockey]

The prototype of Dana from the other company looked better. I'll wait to see how that one looks painted and then I guess get one of them. I would prefer a painted scale figure or even better a Hot Toys figure. But no way is Hot Toys going to make Robotech figures.