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frustratedpilotThis is an article I originally wrote for the Mekton Z mailing list:
Part of the blame goes to the fact that when a property went big time in Japan back in the early Eighties, no one company could handle the task of producing all the merchandising--there was biz enough to go around. When Sunrise made the Dougram TV series at the end of 1981, Bandai was too busy with the model kits for Gundam and Space Cruiser Yamato to produce the models, so Sunrise licensed Takara and Nitto to do the work instead. Nitto would also produce the model kits for Crusher Joe.
Macross was pretty much the same story in '82. The model kit licenses were divided between ARII, IMAI and Nichimo (and Bandai would come along later and make new pressings from IMAI's molds).
There was already a trade in American companies reboxing more traditional model kits from foreign companies. Some companies had pre-existing contracts or partnerships. Testors had one with Nichimo. Revell had one with Doyusha, which was affiliated with Takara. By 1984, both companies were bringing over Macross model kits as "R.O.B.O.T." and "Robotech" respectively.
Takara also produced a miniature wargame based on Dougram. There were two sets: The Battle of Stanrey and The Battle of Kalnock. These, other Japanese wargames, and a sizable number of mecha model kits were handled by a company called Twentieth Century Imports. This company worked with the FASA game company, which had already made another, forgotten miniature robot game called COMBOTS. It's likely that Takara's Dougram games inspired much of what was first called "Battledroids", and then renamed Battletech. FASA repackaged a number of Dougram (ex-Nitto), Crusher Joe (ditto) and Macross (ex-Nichimo) model kits as game pieces, but unlike Testors and Revell (who was also repackaging Takara-made Dougram models for "Robotech") neither FASA nor TCI cited the original Japanese sources for their mecha designs on the initial Battletech products. (I'm not going to posit whether this was done from ignorance or in the belief that they could do whatever they wanted to with the designs.) The Battletech game came out around 1985, as I remember.
As this was going on, Carl Macek is trying to get Macross onto US TV and finding that the show is too short for syndication as is. We know the answer to the problem...find two more "compatible" programs to pad out the length, somehow tie the narratives together, and give them a common title. Whether Macek found Revell or the other way around?--who knows...but at the time Revell was based in California. It was easy for the two of them to make a deal. Revell would continue to sell model kits and license the title (while keeping the legal trademark) to Harmony Gold, and Harmony Gold could also license other merchandising...Matchbox for toys, Comico for comic books (after Revell themselves had DC make a miniseries based on the Dougram mecha), etc.
Palladium's licensed Robotech RPG appeared just after the first American run of the TV series in 1986. (I don't think FASA or Macek were all that aware of each other's doings. I doubt Macek ever approached FASA for any licensing deals. ADDENDA: I've recently learned that Harmony Gold sent FASA a cease-and-desist order regarding the Macross mecha designs as early as January of 1985!--but nothing came of this because FASA had a plausible paper trail to their own licenses, even though they were ultimately bogus!)
Harmony Gold made enough money from the syndication of the TV series and other projects to buy the Robotech trademark from Revell in the early Nineties, long after Revell had finished importing Japanese robot model kits. Harmony Gold would suffer troubles, detailed in Robotech Art 3, on the attempt to produce a Robotech feature film and a follow-up TV series. But with the novels and the comic books, Robotech fandom persisted.
Meanwhile, Battletech would also progress, into video games and a TV series of its own in the middle Nineties--that would also demand further merchandising. So they licensed Tyco to make toys of Battletech 'mechs--
Which would end up in stores side-by-side with re-issued Matchbox Robotech toys marketed as part of the Playmates company Exo-Squad TV series product line. FASA cried foul, took Playmates to court, and Playmates won in early 1996.
The Court Case
A direct consequence of FASA's loss was the end of FASA's use of what is now called the Unseen...the original Japanese mecha designs from Macross, Dougram and Crusher Joe.
The Unseen, Detailed
An indirect consquence is that Harmony Gold and many other companies related to anime and gaming have become much more aware about use and abuse of intellectual properties. Rumor also has it that HG didn't like it when Palladium and Dream Pod 9 went behind HG's back to adapt the Robotech RPG for Macross II. HG and Palladium had a falling-out for a while. This eased when HG licensed Shadow Chronicles to Palladium, but I'm not sure all the hard feelings have gone away. Harmony Gold currently holds five current US trademarks on Macross, including one on the Japanese TV series logo.
More to come.
FP
Part of the blame goes to the fact that when a property went big time in Japan back in the early Eighties, no one company could handle the task of producing all the merchandising--there was biz enough to go around. When Sunrise made the Dougram TV series at the end of 1981, Bandai was too busy with the model kits for Gundam and Space Cruiser Yamato to produce the models, so Sunrise licensed Takara and Nitto to do the work instead. Nitto would also produce the model kits for Crusher Joe.
Macross was pretty much the same story in '82. The model kit licenses were divided between ARII, IMAI and Nichimo (and Bandai would come along later and make new pressings from IMAI's molds).
There was already a trade in American companies reboxing more traditional model kits from foreign companies. Some companies had pre-existing contracts or partnerships. Testors had one with Nichimo. Revell had one with Doyusha, which was affiliated with Takara. By 1984, both companies were bringing over Macross model kits as "R.O.B.O.T." and "Robotech" respectively.
Takara also produced a miniature wargame based on Dougram. There were two sets: The Battle of Stanrey and The Battle of Kalnock. These, other Japanese wargames, and a sizable number of mecha model kits were handled by a company called Twentieth Century Imports. This company worked with the FASA game company, which had already made another, forgotten miniature robot game called COMBOTS. It's likely that Takara's Dougram games inspired much of what was first called "Battledroids", and then renamed Battletech. FASA repackaged a number of Dougram (ex-Nitto), Crusher Joe (ditto) and Macross (ex-Nichimo) model kits as game pieces, but unlike Testors and Revell (who was also repackaging Takara-made Dougram models for "Robotech") neither FASA nor TCI cited the original Japanese sources for their mecha designs on the initial Battletech products. (I'm not going to posit whether this was done from ignorance or in the belief that they could do whatever they wanted to with the designs.) The Battletech game came out around 1985, as I remember.
As this was going on, Carl Macek is trying to get Macross onto US TV and finding that the show is too short for syndication as is. We know the answer to the problem...find two more "compatible" programs to pad out the length, somehow tie the narratives together, and give them a common title. Whether Macek found Revell or the other way around?--who knows...but at the time Revell was based in California. It was easy for the two of them to make a deal. Revell would continue to sell model kits and license the title (while keeping the legal trademark) to Harmony Gold, and Harmony Gold could also license other merchandising...Matchbox for toys, Comico for comic books (after Revell themselves had DC make a miniseries based on the Dougram mecha), etc.
Palladium's licensed Robotech RPG appeared just after the first American run of the TV series in 1986. (I don't think FASA or Macek were all that aware of each other's doings. I doubt Macek ever approached FASA for any licensing deals. ADDENDA: I've recently learned that Harmony Gold sent FASA a cease-and-desist order regarding the Macross mecha designs as early as January of 1985!--but nothing came of this because FASA had a plausible paper trail to their own licenses, even though they were ultimately bogus!)
Harmony Gold made enough money from the syndication of the TV series and other projects to buy the Robotech trademark from Revell in the early Nineties, long after Revell had finished importing Japanese robot model kits. Harmony Gold would suffer troubles, detailed in Robotech Art 3, on the attempt to produce a Robotech feature film and a follow-up TV series. But with the novels and the comic books, Robotech fandom persisted.
Meanwhile, Battletech would also progress, into video games and a TV series of its own in the middle Nineties--that would also demand further merchandising. So they licensed Tyco to make toys of Battletech 'mechs--
Which would end up in stores side-by-side with re-issued Matchbox Robotech toys marketed as part of the Playmates company Exo-Squad TV series product line. FASA cried foul, took Playmates to court, and Playmates won in early 1996.
The Court Case
A direct consequence of FASA's loss was the end of FASA's use of what is now called the Unseen...the original Japanese mecha designs from Macross, Dougram and Crusher Joe.
The Unseen, Detailed
An indirect consquence is that Harmony Gold and many other companies related to anime and gaming have become much more aware about use and abuse of intellectual properties. Rumor also has it that HG didn't like it when Palladium and Dream Pod 9 went behind HG's back to adapt the Robotech RPG for Macross II. HG and Palladium had a falling-out for a while. This eased when HG licensed Shadow Chronicles to Palladium, but I'm not sure all the hard feelings have gone away. Harmony Gold currently holds five current US trademarks on Macross, including one on the Japanese TV series logo.
More to come.
FP
