Seto Kaiba Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 BTW...how the HELL did their previous KS reach $1,442,312 when they only needed a goal of $70,000?! If HG ends up getting millions for this I'm moving to the Azores. Well, it wasn't their Kickstarter, for one... it was done by Palladium Books. Near as anyone can tell, the reason that it did so well (at first) was that it was being supported by not just Robotech fans, but Palladium Books' fans, and BattleTech fans who wanted miniatures to use for the "Unseen" mecha. 'course, now that it's over a year behind schedule, the backers have been lied to so many times you could reclassify this as a Presidential election, the quality of the minis has been condemned very vocally, and a whole lot of bad press has basically ensured there will not be an expansion... let alone a repeat performance.
akt_m Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Isn't amusing how HG staff talks as if they had made everything in robotech and not just adapted. And f*ck 500.000? As if HG staff had any skills to do anything.
skullmilitia Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 I just sent a message asking if they would change it to "Do you want us out of Robotech". and How much that needs to be. That regardless of the answer, it would be more successful. haha But seriously, There's nothing "visonary" about this rehashed crap anymore.
skullmilitia Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 If Carl Macek was alive and behind this then I'd probably put money into it. I don't like the idea of a 'Academy' storyline, that's something that was also discussed as a Star Trek (Star Trek: Academy) series years ago. Robotech had a great storyline with their version on protoculture so I think it'd be better if HG went bold and just rebooted the series using fresh characher/mecha designs so they would be free of any legal issues with the licensing from the original Japanese series. They can't, they only have the license to use existing characters and video. That's why even a "New" robotech is just some other 80's anime re-purposed. It's kind of a joke now, I mean almost 30 years later and the new is still old? It's like HG is a 10 year old with a bunch of old VHS tapes and dubbing machine.
Perrych Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 To be fair, they did attempt to reboot the series with Robotech 3000. It was not received well. The feeling is that fans want the untold stories that there should be quite a few of that fill in the blanks in the robotech story: how did the southern cross emerge? What happened to the sc when the invid arrived? When the Jupiter Division with Wolff? Some of these were told in Novels but since HG has now disavowed some of those stories, there appears some tales left to tell. I am just not confident that HG has anyone component to write them.
EXO Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 I'm not sure it's at all fair to anyone that saw the clip from Robotech 3000. Did anyone get to consider story or anything else when they saw 30 seconds of that scene? No one wanted it because it looked like ass. If you gave me 30 seconds of just the main opening credits of Robotech vs. 30 seconds of RT3000 I don't think they'll even consider watching RT3000. If you show the main opening credits of Macross, Southern Cross, Orguss or Mospeada...maybe more people would prefer Macross but there would be enough of a divide in preference just according to taste in quality and interests. You can jump 500 years into Robotech as long as 4 things are good... story, mech designs, character designs, and songs. If the Kickstarter campaign said something about hiring real writers, designers and a semi well known tv/film composer I'd be tempted to donate. But with the same exact team in the helm, they've already lost me.
azrael Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Let's play devil's advocate. So it was Carl's idea to use the interwebs to fund a new Robotech series. So if that fails, will Carl get the blame by all those rabid, silly RT fans? So Tommy will throw Carl under the bus if this fails? If this does get funded and they fail to make the delivery date, what then? It's a well known KS-projects suffer delays. For those of you guests and lurkers that were thinking of donating money, let me remind you, you are giving money away with the chance that this does not launch. This is a RISK. The same risk venture capitalists take on projects. I'm sure HG has approached networks before and most have looked at the numbers and said "Not interested". If you want your money back, Kickstarter does not issue refunds. Refunds are issued at the discretion of the project starter. The big projects on Kickstarter are working because they are actually feasible and will likely work when they launch, i.e. the risk is worth it. Those of you who actually donated to this project should be asking all tough questions. What's the plan? Who is on-board to write, direct, design, etc? How will you distribute this? If this project goes to a full series, will you approach companies for sponsors? Which companies would you look at to sponsor. By putting money into this project, you need to be checking in on them like any project sponsor. You better be checking in on them to see if your money is being well spent. Let's say this project does get off the ground, but fails after launch. Will you fans and project backers blame the producers for the failed project? Look at the track record of the production company. Robotech 3000? Didn't launch. Sequel to Shadow Chronicles? Still in development hell. Love, Live Alive was a reuse of a old production with ~5 minutes of new footage.
skullmilitia Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Let's play devil's advocate. So it was Carl's idea to use the interwebs to fund a new Robotech series. So if that fails, will Carl get the blame by all those rabid, silly RT fans? So Tommy will throw Carl under the bus if this fails? If this does get funded and they fail to make the delivery date, what then? It's a well known KS-projects suffer delays. For those of you guests and lurkers that were thinking of donating money, let me remind you, you are giving money away with the chance that this does not launch. This is a RISK. The same risk venture capitalists take on projects. I'm sure HG has approached networks before and most have looked at the numbers and said "Not interested". If you want your money back, Kickstarter does not issue refunds. Refunds are issued at the discretion of the project starter. The big projects on Kickstarter are working because they are actually feasible and will likely work when they launch, i.e. the risk is worth it. Those of you who actually donated to this project should be asking all tough questions. What's the plan? Who is on-board to write, direct, design, etc? How will you distribute this? If this project goes to a full series, will you approach companies for sponsors? Which companies would you look at to sponsor. By putting money into this project, you need to be checking in on them like any project sponsor. You better be checking in on them to see if your money is being well spent. Let's say this project does get off the ground, but fails after launch. Will you fans and project backers blame the producers for the failed project? Look at the track record of the production company. Robotech 3000? Didn't launch. Sequel to Shadow Chronicles? Still in development hell. Love, Live Alive was a reuse of a old production with ~5 minutes of new footage. Yune is in charge of producing, it's not about "if" it's going to fail, but by just the level of fail it will achieve. I have a dollar, and a better investment would be to use it to start my grill.
Gakken85 Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 So sad. Harmony gold is the truest vampire of IP's ever shat into existence.
Froy Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Wow. But why the look so serious? Do they really really believe that they are doing something real good?
Cdr Fokker Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 If you want your money back, Kickstarter does not issue refunds. Refunds are issued at the discretion of the project starter. Doesn't KS issue full refunds if a project doesn't meet their base goal, though? (Of course if the goal is met, you're SOL if the project doesn't actually follow-through and produce what was claimed...)
Roy Focker Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Are kidding me? You mean to tell me that after years of running Robotech.com, dvd sales, toy sales and the super successful Shadow Chronicles they don't have the money to pay for a pilot episode themselves? They don't have at least $500,000 of profit from Robotech that they can use for this? Bull crap! Harmony Gold has the cash. This is the real reason. Despite their claims Robotech is a dead property. If Robotech was still as great as they claim somebody with money to spend would have already use that money to make more cartoons and even that live action movie. The fact no one has done that already means that no one who is smart with their money is going to risk it on Robotech and that includes Harmony Gold.
Dynaman Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 I know it is big on this board to roast anything RT related but this one actually has promise. Funding has always been there problem (even when they swear a title went gangbusters...) and if this gets funded then that is one excuse out of the way. NOTE - *I* am not backing this, then again I don't back ANY kickstarters.
skullmilitia Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 I know it is big on this board to roast anything RT related but this one actually has promise. Funding has always been there problem (even when they swear a title went gangbusters...) and if this gets funded then that is one excuse out of the way. NOTE - *I* am not backing this, then again I don't back ANY kickstarters. Promise for what? They are buying an old anime show and repurposing it to fit some terribly hacked story at this point. It's telling that HG won't spend 500K on a license they own.. it means they don't have faith. They shouldn't because they've handled the entire franchise like crap for so long. Promise.. ha.. Promise that it will be just as terrible as Shadow cronicles? or as "new" as LLA? I'd rather pay 500K to have the promise that they'll never do another RT related thing again. Hell make firing Yune a stretch goal at 600K.
matthiastyr Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 (edited) I wonder if it's too late to hire a hitman to off Yune and his cronies? EDIT: Before anyone gets any ideas, this was made in jest. I'm not serious, of course. Edited July 5, 2014 by matthiastyr
dizman Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 It's gonna be sad to see this get backed (it will unfortunately). Then HG will say it can't make the pilot because they under valued the cost of the project and blame the fans because they didn't give enough extra money. HG will get away with the cash and be set for a few more years.
matthiastyr Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Well, 500K isn't a lot of money, especially for a company like HG. I'd say it'll only last them, like, two months.
Roy Focker Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 The sad thing is even if it gets complete funded and they make the pilot chances are it will just end with the pilot. Harmony has made several attempts to jump start Robotech and all have failed to go anywhere beyond a pilot. How is this one going to be different?
Gerli Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 I think the guys from Creavision can make some interesting visuals... the story? Not so much. Let's see how far can they go with this.
Dynaman Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Promise for what? They are buying an old anime show and repurposing it to fit some terribly hacked story at this point. It's telling that HG won't spend 500K on a license they own.. it means they don't have faith. They shouldn't because they've handled the entire franchise like crap for so long. Promise.. ha.. Promise that it will be just as terrible as Shadow cronicles? or as "new" as LLA? I'd rather pay 500K to have the promise that they'll never do another RT related thing again. Hell make firing Yune a stretch goal at 600K. Promise of getting made, as in a if they make the kickstarter and take money then they have to do make the show. (actually technically they just have to make the attempt). It has been done for other shows so it is not an invalid method of funding.
skullmilitia Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 I'm honestly thinking about making a Kickstarter that won't complete, but to make one that asks for 1 million $ to buy the rights away from HG just as a big middle finger to all of this. The only problem is, if somehow it made a million dollars lol.. I bet for 1 million I could hire a badass lawyer to dive into the whole license fiasco between HG, BW and everyone else. hmm.. anyone want to admin with me? lol
CrazyDude Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 If it gets made or not see simply we will have on impact on me. Might catch if it is on TV and got nothing better to but watch it.
Guest davidwhangchoi Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 anyone know when pre-orders start? i'll be up all night for this one. i'll be stalking amiami, hobby search, or NY. i hope HG makes english subs.
azrael Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Doesn't KS issue full refunds if a project doesn't meet their base goal, though? (Of course if the goal is met, you're SOL if the project doesn't actually follow-through and produce what was claimed...) If I read it correctly, you pay when the project is 100% funded. Once a project is funded, the money falls into the hands of the project creator. At that point, Kickstarter cannot get a refund back for you if the project fails. Looking around the web for reactions to this, I was pointed to this Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1311401276/little-witch-academia-2 $150,000 for a 40-minute episode. The extra 500,000-extension is for audio commentary and making-of-documentary for the Blu-ray release. Compared with HG asking for $500,000 for one 24-minute pilot. Now I know there's some markup for exchange rates, licensing, and other stuff, but wow...that's a heck of a markup for 24-minutes.
Mommar Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 I'm honestly thinking about making a Kickstarter that won't complete, but to make one that asks for 1 million $ to buy the rights away from HG just as a big middle finger to all of this. The only problem is, if somehow it made a million dollars lol.. I bet for 1 million I could hire a badass lawyer to dive into the whole license fiasco between HG, BW and everyone else. hmm.. anyone want to admin with me? lol Yeah, start that kickstarter. Essentially hire somebody to do the international legal work for Big West free of charge.
Seto Kaiba Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 It's gonna be sad to see this get backed (it will unfortunately). Then HG will say it can't make the pilot because they under valued the cost of the project and blame the fans because they didn't give enough extra money. HG will get away with the cash and be set for a few more years. Well, the Robotech fans seem to have learned from getting burned so badly on the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter WRT quality, timeliness of delivery, lies upon lies, so it's not inconceivable that a few more significant burns and they might actually learn that supporting Robotech is a massive waste of time and money that nets them nothing in return but the contempt of the company they're supporting.
Hoptimus Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 There are too many suckers out there that will probably fall for this. The bad news is HG will burn them as they have all of us in the past.
sketchley Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 For those of you guests and lurkers that were thinking of donating money, let me remind you, you are giving money away with the chance that this does not launch. This is a RISK. The same risk venture capitalists take on projects. I'm sure HG has approached networks before and most have looked at the numbers and said "Not interested". If you want your money back, Kickstarter does not issue refunds. Refunds are issued at the discretion of the project starter. The big projects on Kickstarter are working because they are actually feasible and will likely work when they launch, i.e. the risk is worth it. Those of you who actually donated to this project should be asking all tough questions. What's the plan? Who is on-board to write, direct, design, etc? How will you distribute this? If this project goes to a full series, will you approach companies for sponsors? Which companies would you look at to sponsor. By putting money into this project, you need to be checking in on them like any project sponsor. You better be checking in on them to see if your money is being well spent. Let's say this project does get off the ground, but fails after launch. Will you fans and project backers blame the producers for the failed project? Look at the track record of the production company. Robotech 3000? Didn't launch. Sequel to Shadow Chronicles? Still in development hell. Love, Live Alive was a reuse of a old production with ~5 minutes of new footage. Thank you for applying some critical thinking to this, and reminded us to do the same.
sketchley Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Looking around the web for reactions to this, I was pointed to this Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1311401276/little-witch-academia-2 $150,000 for a 40-minute episode. The extra 500,000-extension is for audio commentary and making-of-documentary for the Blu-ray release. Compared with HG asking for $500,000 for one 24-minute pilot. Now I know there's some markup for exchange rates, licensing, and other stuff, but wow...that's a heck of a markup for 24-minutes. Very interesting. Aside from the costs and promised content, just glancing at the two begs two questions: - why doesn't the RT one have preproduction art? (If it does, why isn't it more obvious?) - where is all that extra money going to? Hollywood has been operating on a series pilot first, green-lit TV series later system for decades. Shouldn't a pilot cost less than a finished, complete release, with all lose ends tied up? (Or be more comparably priced, given exchange rates and so forth?)
Seto Kaiba Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 $150,000 for a 40-minute episode. The extra 500,000-extension is for audio commentary and making-of-documentary for the Blu-ray release. Compared with HG asking for $500,000 for one 24-minute pilot. Now I know there's some markup for exchange rates, licensing, and other stuff, but wow...that's a heck of a markup for 24-minutes. Well, they have to budget for all the time they're going to waste "promoting" the pilot by adding a few slides to that one PowerPoint slideshow they've been working from since 2004 and flying themselves all over hell's half-acre to hold convention panels to show it to the half-dozen fans who care enough to attend each one. All that airfare, hotel accommodation, etc. costs money. Though, being serious for a moment, they'll probably end up spending a significant portion of that money on the voice cast... the old voice cast are reportedly SAG members now, so they command a much higher payscale than when they were working for HG back in the day. Very interesting. Aside from the costs and promised content, just glancing at the two begs two questions: - why doesn't the RT one have preproduction art? (If it does, why isn't it more obvious?) - where is all that extra money going to? Hollywood has been operating on a series pilot first, green-lit TV series later system for decades. Shouldn't a pilot cost less than a finished, complete release, with all lose ends tied up? (Or be more comparably priced, given exchange rates and so forth?) Oh, it has one piece... I think. it's in an update on the Kickstarter, but it's of a posthumous character (Zor). Harmony Gold is notoriously stingy when it comes to preproduction art, the whole Shadow Chronicles project only released a few pieces in one issue of Newtype USA the entire time the film was in production. Two or three other pieces of concept art were put out on the net by a Robotech.com moderator who received them in confidence from Tommy, but between those two events that's less than ten pieces total.
Gerli Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Mmmm... I think this Kickstarter had better opportunities of succed than the Robotech one: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/324283889/potato-salad
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