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HG and Robotech Debates


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Umm, I don't know of too many fans who thought that stunt was anything BUT stupid. I do know quite a few denounced it as well.

I didn't say it wasn't stupid, nor was it rational. What I'm saying is the fact that it happened didn't even remotely seem to change Yune's thoughts on how he handles things. If anything, it's just made him do the same things harder.

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Would you guys say that HG screwed themselves with the deal with Toynami? Is it in perpetuity?

Before Voltron and Thundercats were introduced as new serieses, each of them got a toy deal. Voltron by Mattel and Thundercats by Bandai. But it seems like the only way they can get a toy line outside of Toynami would be to actually see R:LAM get made. There's no way in hell would the WB entrust a lucrative toy line of a movie in Toynamis hands. Obviously Classic Media didn't think they were good enough for Voltron.

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Would you guys say that the deal with HG screwed themselves with Toynami? Is it in perpetuity?

I think it showed HG was shooting low, so to speak. They either failed to secure, or didn't bother with, a mass market approach. Toynami is all well and good for high end toys, but its not what brings in new fans. I would have thought SOMEBODY out there in Toy Land would have thought that mass produced toys of Robotech might be a good deal.

There's no way in hell would the WB entrust a lucrative toy line of a movie in Toynamis hands.

I think WB is waiting to scarf up every last piece of Robotech it can. Talk has been that if Palladium either loses or drops the license, it would default to WB.

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HG got exactly what they deserved with Toynami. Don't forget, it's that unholy allliance that's responsable for no Yammies in the U.S.

That doesn't escape me at all. I mean we still remember the backstab that was Toycom. But ultimately is that why a real animation company hasn't approached HG to license a genuine animated series?

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That doesn't escape me at all. I mean we still remember the backstab that was Toycom. But ultimately is that why a real animation company hasn't approached HG to license a genuine animated series?

What would be the point in approaching? Again, Steve Yune refuses to give up creatie control, unfortunately, he also refuses to excorcise it. If Warner really wanted to effectly use their license, they'd renegotiate it from a LAM, to a 2-3 animated movie series, and let Bruce Timm's gang handle it. Start off with a 2-3 movie reboot of the Macross portion that's different enough to distinguish it from Macross = Only chance of franchise necromancy.

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So what you're saying is that this is well known within the industry that there's a couple of goons that have a stranglehold over a series while other properties are just starting to enjoy the resurgence? I'm just saying that the success of these other properties seem to be directly AND tightly knitted to the deal they've struck with a major toy company. I mean, people were beginning to already say that the 80's nostalgia was on the decline since we got inundated with toys and movies, but in 2 days we'll be just beginning to enjoy the new Thundercats. I'm assuming it's gonna be enjoyable, I'm kinda excited to see it.

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You have to understand, despite the hype, Robotech is way off the radar as far as anyone but us, and the remainder of the robotech fanbase are concerned. It only ran in syndicated slots, never had network marketing behind it, and the original toyline was epic failure. In all likelyhood, the only reason it got licensed for a live action movie at all was becasue for some reason Toby Mcguirre remembered it during post Transformers 1 nostalgic licensing blitz. Let's look at this in comparable terms.

Transformers: Hugely successfuly toyline, 98 episodes + a movie. Followed by Beast Wars, Car Robots, Cybertron, Animated, Prime, etc.

G.I. Joe: Hugely successful toyline + 95 episode series + movie, G.I. Joe Extreme, Sigma Six, Resolute, whatever the current thing is called

Thundercats: Moderately active toyline, 135 episodes produced

Smurfs: A ton of crap that was a marketting success initially, TV series + movie, etc

Voltron: Probably had decent sales for its 15 minutes, but more importantly, it was popular enough to actually produce 20+ episodes of new animation + a shitty movie.

Do you see where this is going? All of the above actually made enough to warrent paying for a substancial amount of animation to be produced. What happened to Robotech? Barely 3 episodes of original animation were produced before funding was pulled. Trying to market Megazone 23 to kids turned out to be an obvious mistep and was pulled before release. Nothing of Robotech showed that it made enough money to prove its relevance. You can talk about comics until you're blue in the face, but the fact there is that it was cheaply produced toilet paper in an already niche market. Hell, HG can't eve pay to upgrade their website to bring it itno the current decade, Robotech is obviously not profitable. Niche broken toys, a movie that uses vastly out of date technology in its production, and a repackage of the same old DVD;s only prove the shortsightedness of those running the franchise. At this piont, I can't help but wonder if Tatsunoko is paying HG to sit on the license and file dubius trademarks in order to piss off Big West.

But let's put this into pop culture relevance.

Robot Chicken? No Roboteck

Family Guy/Cleveland Show? No Robotech

Simpsons? No Robotech

Talk shoes? a surprising (though still small) amount, music on Lettermand, and a reference from Pierre Bernard

Movies? An arguable Macross/SDF-1 reference in Spaceballs

Again, it's off the radar. The biggest acknowedgement Robotech has had in the past 20 years was the obvious nod, and vast improvement that Exosquad was. But then, where's that now?

Edited by Keith
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Since Toby was mentioned, wouldnt he know, or quickly found out what kind of legal mess Hg and Bw were in before buying rights? I just can't imagine him and wb not doing their research on fans and not knowing that macross successfully exists. I really wish they just bought LAM rights to sit on it indefinitely to stall any half assed anime movies HG claims to want to make just to kill this property in its current form. BTW.. is it fact that wb really told them not to make any sequel yet to SC, or is it more bs from HG to stall because they can't write themselves out of the mess they made?

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I'm not gonna get into that whole Robot Chicken argument again because that's the cheesiest argument ever. Anyone and everyone knows that Hollywood is ready to pick at the nook and crannies of your nostalgia to make a buck. I mean Captain Power? Major Matt Mason? You under estimate the power of Hollywood to dive to the bottom of the barrel. I'm pretty sure it's HG's inability to do what ALL mediocre businessmen are able to do and that's to sell out. They can't even get that right because their individual incompetence have painted each other into corners... that includes Toynami.

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Since Toby was mentioned, wouldnt he know, or quickly found out what kind of legal mess Hg and Bw were in before buying rights? I just can't imagine him and wb not doing their research on fans and not knowing that macross successfully exists. I really wish they just bought LAM rights to sit on it indefinitely to stall any half assed anime movies HG claims to want to make just to kill this property in its current form. BTW.. is it fact that wb really told them not to make any sequel yet to SC, or is it more bs from HG to stall because they can't write themselves out of the mess they made?

I don't think he knew. Again, countering Keith's argument that a franchise needs to be in the general cultural radar, all you really need is ONE person like Toby Maguire to make it happen. Tom Hanks wants to do a toy astronaut movie that no one under 50 has heard of. I think Toby was a fan of Robotech and he thought, F Transformers, I remember a cartoon I enjoyed more. And before he can find out what a legal mess that property is, he's already holding the movie rights. But these people have the money to bury projects. If I can't make it, then I'll make sure no one else will (until the rights expire and I have to pay again...)

My guess is, regarding bigger toy companies, after a couple of attempts, they left the HG offices cackling at their demands and then the knocking just stopped.

We can all guess whether that WB story is true or not. But regarding the source, I'm pretty sure a show of hands here will pretty much vote on the side of BS.

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At this point the LAM would be viewed as a Transformers ripoff by the general public anyway. Chances of it doing well at the box office are about zilch. That, more then anything else, is my guess for why it is not getting made (and let's face it Tobey is no longer an A list star, upper B still, but not A)

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Has the live action movie been cancelled ?

You can't cancel a project that has about as much credibility as vapourware.

And for those wondering why Tobey M. got interested in the RTLAM to start with, two words.

Tax dodge.

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(...)

Smurfs: A ton of crap that was a marketting success initially, TV series + movie, etc

(...)

I understand the point you're trying to make, but Smurfs is simply incomparable and belongs in a totally different category of import character/comic/animation.

In short, it first saw publication in 1958, and is still being published. The only character/comic/animation that's comparable that comes to mind is Sazae-San; and even though the manga has been imported into the North American market, the anime has not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazaesan

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Since Toby was mentioned, wouldnt he know, or quickly found out what kind of legal mess Hg and Bw were in before buying rights? I just can't imagine him and wb not doing their research on fans and not knowing that macross successfully exists.

Whether or not they know HG has no right to use Macross designs is moot. They'll redesign it for a LAM. Why pay to use something when it would be easier to do it yourself and own the rights perpetually. If Michael Bay can take a F-22 and turn it into Starscream, it shouldn't be that hard to do something similar to a VF, considering they're inspired by real fighter jets.

Has the LAM been cancelled? And I love to use the analogy... you can't cancel something that hasn't even been loaded at dock.

As I mentioned we're on the toes the Thundercats reboot. Voltron is coming back. Robotech has no excuse not to just reboot and make that title their own and stop riding the coattails of 3 1980s productions.

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Fact of the matter is, if WB wanted it to happen, we'd have had trailers 3 years ago. There's a freakin' battleship movie already. Smurf's is relevant for its 80's nostalgia, importing has nothing to do with this particular issue. And I'm not inclined to disagree with Toby wanted a tax shelter, robotech has so much fail written on it, it makes absolute sense. Especially with the announcement of Pacific Rim, anyone who believes that there's a legitimate chance of a live action Robotech movie coming from anywhere outisde of Asylum is delusional.

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I actually though the LAM was just a myth to keep what is left of the fanbase interested in RT - put it out there and get people excited. ANd bang nothing happens. But still talk about it..

And as stated before, they will produce nothing. And the new product will be re-pakaged stock to make it look new. (I know that they did for the RT DVD collections in AU) With some more stuff no one was really interested. Who knows, maybe a DVD reelase of all there convention tours in one pack to show how a Anime company works......

ANd I agree with a comment said before how RT is such a small market, sure heaps of guy's in there 30's remember it when it came out. I did. It was different then the usualy Cartoons we used to get. But most people have moved on. Heck no one really rememebered until the DVD releases came out in the 90's. And even then it was more for nostalga then anything else. I know I did.

But the way HG has done the no marketing strategy to get people interested, and not use the internet and other modern mediums to get there stuff out sort fo shows that they have nothing to really push. And the LAM will not happen as there is not a push by WB. As it is such a small fanbase that know of it. ANd was forgotten for so many years.

Only way it can survive is if it someone else takes control of it. It worked for Voltron and Thundercats (mind you I have not seen either of these new versions) And revamp it and start it as new. As they ahve done for Transformers and G.I. Joe and others.

Back to work.....

Edited by Smegalot
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Can someone explain to me what the deal is with this pic that I found...?

It can really get on someone's nerves when RT fans just arbitrarily take Macross pictures, and use them as false representation. Yeah, Misa/Lisa is in DYRL as well, but DYRL was specifically Macross, and never used for Robotech. It's funny that RT fans have this insatiable desire to use everything Macross, and Macross fans don't want anything Robotech interfering with the Macross franchise. It's like the loser step-child wanting to be like daddy, and never, ever being able to even come close...even moreso now.

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Of course they're using Mikimoto... who else can do great Macross character art? Someone in HG? There's probably one or two drawings of Hikaru in that library and none as good. I'm surprised they haven't strip-mined Macross The First just yet.

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I don't know what the deal is with this Robotech vs. Macross conflict, but man, you guys are harsh :p

I don't like people who copy other's works just as much as the next guy, but you guys are really beating those Robotechies down to the ground, and defecating on them for good measure ^_^

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I don't know what the deal is with this Robotech vs. Macross conflict, but man, you guys are harsh :p

I don't like people who copy other's works just as much as the next guy, but you guys are really beating those Robotechies down to the ground, and defecating on them for good measure ^_^

You think this is bad? This is common talk. You should hear some of the angered RT fans. :lol:

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I'm not anti Robotech fans... I'm mostly harp on HG's inabilities. Mostly. Sometimes the line blurs. I do agree that a lot what's on this thread is make fun of anything RT. I was gonna say that the art was probably innocent ingnorance, but when you go on there, they go on to explain the difference between RT and Macross. Maybe they don't have all the facts. The legal stuff is indeed tedious and boring. But the ads on that site tells me if you're gonna make money, then do the research. But again... who can blame them for using Mikimoto and Studio Nue's work? There really isn't an alternative.

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...I'm surprised they haven't strip-mined Macross The First just yet.

Wait for it......

The more these fans wanna mooch off someone else's work, the more criticism they should expect.

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You think this is bad? This is common talk. You should hear some of the angered RT fans. :lol:

You don't say? :D

I try to avoid RT.com, so I am not to aware of "the other side" :lol:

That, and no one over there has any idea of what they are talking about, and from what I can tell, anyone who speaks the truth

gets banned :rolleyes:

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The quality of the fandom is Harmony Gold's fault. The robo-techies use DYRL pictures as robo-tech "art" because Harmony Gold trained them to think that way. They could still choose not to make fools of themselves if they wanted to. Harmony Gold does good things sometimes like remastered video and lost soundtracks, but the bad stuff has outweighed the good. They're beyond redemption. People who want to be Harmony Gold's shield believing they're defending Robotech have made themselves an object of ridicule.

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