by the fans for the fans

I had a thought when watching this video. The essay is mostly on the philosophy of classifying art, essentially that any classification is meaningless since such classifications are generally arbitrary & that art doesn't really exist except in the eye of the beholder. So that let's say the existence of Robotech exists while it is being observed in the specific way, for anyone who watches it in a foreign language this can jump out at you.

He then uses Steam's infamous asset flip games as an example of what could be achieved. From the trash that is sold cheaply to surprisingly thoughtful works of art.

Anyway this got me to thinking, isn't Robotech essentially an asset flip? HG essentially bought a bunch of assets from 3 1/2 different sources, much like an asset flipped game, then combined them in ways the original authors never intended and created, imo, something new & distinct. I mean compare any Macross sequel to any Robotech sequel and the tones & themes are wildly different despite using the same starting point.

What do y'all think? I mean combining Macross, Mospeada & Southern Cross isn't much different than those infamous foreign movies like Turkish Star Wars or 3 Dev Adam, where the designs for Captain America, El Santo And Spider-Man are used to create a new unrelated story. Legal formalities aside, or whether or not you think HG is much at all



The only other major work that's really like this that I can think of is Voltron, where it's US bowlderization, & somewhat less successful melding of two shows, has completely displaced the original GoLion

I think it makes enough sense and appreciate you bringing up such an interesting topic since its been dead as shit around here. But that's just it Robotech as a combination of the three different series is distinct enough to stand on its own and you're right the macross sequels are nothing like it at all, but then again those sequels are hardly anything like the original macross.

This is why I've never understood the hate Robotech gets from macross fans.

I would have to say yes, And it HAS been deader in here than normal. You can only talk about the same things about one million times before it gets old.

DS and I try to liven the place when we can. But it's true and most Robotech fans have grown tired of waiting for shit so they moved on to other fandoms. I know I did.

I think most of the hate is let's be honest mostly Harmony Gold's doing, they clearly don't have a good PR skills & don't do anything to change their image. Then there's blocking Macross material, but to be fair I suspect Big West is partly to blame since most of the litigation is in Japan

As for ROBOTECH, it's pretty much dead in the US. It's still alive in South America & China but even then a lack of anything new for so long just killed its momentum. Coupled with HG not realizing that their greatest strength is the Asset Flip nature of Robotech. They keep trying to sell only Macross, and it makes sense it does sell but that's not a long term strategy.

To me they Most interesting parts of Robotech are The Sentinels where they can really fuse all three sagas & possibly create new stories. Seeing all three sagas, barring the legal issues, be fully incorporated was cool & really the only way for new Robotech Animated or film media to even be made.

If you'll notice that when people say Robotech Now a days they really just mean Macross & don't care even for Mospeada anymore. Look at the new merch, only southern Cross does not have its original logos on the product anymore. Often Macross & Mospeada logos are everywhere. Robotech doméstico triss todo keep it under one logo but even then...

I contend to this day that the best Robotech comic is the Rolling Thunder arc of the Antarctic Press comics. It had a real Gundam the 08th MS Team feel about it. Just mix in Mospeada & whatever vaguely SDF Macross stuff you can and a recipe for a new world.

I was looking at the old Palladium books And they have quite a bit of stuff that could e been expanded upon. Heck there's a super cool new design in the Shadow Chronicles RPG books, ZBR-10 MK1 Bioroid Interceptor that could've been a super cool figure, hell that should've been in the movie. Hell wouldn't you buy a Bioroid Interceptor model kit? Just put it in media! Damn it HG

Chimalpahin wrote: I think most of the hate is let's be honest mostly Harmony Gold's doing, they clearly don't have a good PR skills & don't do anything to change their image. Then there's blocking Macross material, but to be fair I suspect Big West is partly to blame since most of the litigation is in Japan

As for ROBOTECH, it's pretty much dead in the US. It's still alive in South America & China but even then a lack of anything new for so long just killed its momentum. Coupled with HG not realizing that their greatest strength is the Asset Flip nature of Robotech. They keep trying to sell only Macross, and it makes sense it does sell but that's not a long term strategy.

To me they Most interesting parts of Robotech are The Sentinels where they can really fuse all three sagas & possibly create new stories. Seeing all three sagas, barring the legal issues, be fully incorporated was cool & really the only way for new Robotech Animated or film media to even be made.

If you'll notice that when people say Robotech Now a days they really just mean Macross & don't care even for Mospeada anymore. Look at the new merch, only southern Cross does not have its original logos on the product anymore. Often Macross & Mospeada logos are everywhere. Robotech doméstico triss todo keep it under one logo but even then...

I contend to this day that the best Robotech comic is the Rolling Thunder arc of the Antarctic Press comics. It had a real Gundam the 08th MS Team feel about it. Just mix in Mospeada & whatever vaguely SDF Macross stuff you can and a recipe for a new world.

I was looking at the old Palladium books And they have quite a bit of stuff that could e been expanded upon. Heck there's a super cool new design in the Shadow Chronicles RPG books, ZBR-10 MK1 Bioroid Interceptor that could've been a super cool figure, hell that should've been in the movie. Hell wouldn't you buy a Bioroid Interceptor model kit? Just put it in media! Damn it HG

Well in that case then I would say that the hate Robotech gets overall is really just the frustration many former fans feel towards HG for their failure to deliver new content. I mean there was a promise of a live action movie for crying out loud, and how many years ago was that first announced? It really all boils down to nostalgia now because that's all that's left. And Sentinels really was the last decent story because Shadow Chronicles did not deliver IMO.

And now we have this new Robotech comic that has made a lot of unnecessary changes to the macross saga to the point it no longer feels like the same story, and not in a good way either mind you. And should the live action movie ever happen then its most likely going to follow that comic's story line. Lord save us all.

But as you pointed out, there's all kinds of ideas and designs that could be utilized in order to tell a new story, but that doesn't seem to be happening unfortunately. At this point we're better off reading fanfiction.

I've often thought that, given the crazy legal state of the Macross stuuf, Robotech would be better served in the future to combine Macross and Masters. The only reason they couldn't is Dana, as the kid of Max and Miriya... and the Sterling kid can be part of Scott's team.

They could use the Americanized names, I'm pretty sure, and the mech designs of Masters instead of Macross (or mix them with whatever Macross mech is not tied up in legalities)

Story wise - the Master come with the Zentraedi. Both those wars become the first war. Invid invade a generation later, causing the second war.

But I'm not holding my breath. HG doesn't care about Robotech, except for milking nostalgic money from it.

The reason the New Gen mecha are half the size of Macross mecha is that Invid are half the size of Zentraedi. So there was no logistical need to have full-sized Macross-era mechs at the point of New Gen.

That being the case, you could omit Macross mecha altogether, give the characters a visual makeover, and their names were already different than their Japanese counterparts anyway. Combine that with free access to Southern Cross and Mospeada content, and they surely could have pulled off the Sentinels properly. The real blunder was abandoning that.

Ever since, there has been no motivation and no real talent at work on writing new stories. Battlecry on the Playstation 2 was probably the best post-anime story we've received, and legally, I'm at a loss to explain how that even managed to be made.

Alpha Bravo wrote: The reason the New Gen mecha are half the size of Macross mecha is that Invid are half the size of Zentraedi. So there was no logistical need to have full-sized Macross-era mechs at the point of New Gen.

That being the case, you could omit Macross mecha altogether, give the characters a visual makeover, and their names were already different than their Japanese counterparts anyway. Combine that with free access to Southern Cross and Mospeada content, and they surely could have pulled off the Sentinels properly. The real blunder was abandoning that.

Ever since, there has been no motivation and no real talent at work on writing new stories. Battlecry on the Playstation 2 was probably the best post-anime story we've received, and legally, I'm at a loss to explain how that even managed to be made.

The reason that game got made is because HG can use macross designs in games, toys, or comics but not a new animated series or movie. That's what I remember hearing about. So you're right they could just go with Sentinels designs and use mecha from Masters and New Gen. But because Macross Saga is the favorite for many, its those designs fans want to see and it's part of why past continuations to the story of Robotech have failed to get anywhere.

I remember reading that the reason Sentinels failed was lack of funding from Hasbro, because it wasn't a half hour toy commercial such as Transformers, GI Joe, or He Man, etc. All they had to do was draw up some new mechs for both sides at regular intervals, it would be like printing money. Dunno what was so difficult about that.