A brief rant about why I hate Harmony Gold -or- Why are you suing Hasbro? What's wrong with you?
Geek Rant of the day (regarding animation and licensure): So, I just heard that Harmony Gold is suing Hasbro for the use of a design in the form of an SDCC exclusive toy, namely "Jetfire" in scale with GI Joe figures, that they claim is an infringement on their licensure of a Japanese property that they subsumed into their own brand, name Macross into Robotech.
Two thoughts:
1. I hate Harmony Gold.
2. The reason is that they (I will refer to HG as a group of individuals) exemplifies so much of what can go wrong with the appropriation of creative properties under the guise of distribution licensure for the sake of sustaining business and profits at the expense of the original creators' desire and forgoing the risk of uncertainty from it's own creative expansion. They gained the rights in the early eighties to distribute the Japanese animated sci fi classic Macross (and whose ongoing franchise I love), and instead re-edited the story/audio overtop the original animation, combining it with two other Japanese animated series to create their own multi-generational saga. Admittedly, the series that came from it introduced a whole generation to fantastic scifi story telling elements with real emotional weight. They were building on the great work of others.
Most fans wouldn't mind if HG had just let go of the original property and went off on their own to create their own spin on their Robotech mythology, gone into new territories, create new thrilling stories. But they are hacks. They don't seem to know how to put together their own quality programs, they don't seem to know how to market, they don't seem to know how produce anything that wasn't built off of someone else's hard work. Their site features almost no redeemable piece of creative work. I'll explain the almost in a moment.
The realization that they are sad, sad people came during the mid '00's when Big West, the actual owner of the Macross franchise at the time, restored and improved the original animation and sound of the series and released it as a sort of anniversary celebration for the series (their had since been several movies and series since the original release that may never see a respectable release in the US) all in lead up to a miniseries (Macross Zero) and later culminating the franchise's greatest achievement in Macross Frontier. HG agreed to release it in the US under two conditions: one, HG gets to take the restored footage, subsumed under the Robotech paradigm as a restored and extended version of the television series, and two, release that version before releasing the original restored version.
Allow me to rephrase: they said, hey, you can pay us to distribute your work, but first we're going to steal it again, sell it first, and then pretend that we care it yours to begin with. Of course, you can get a cut of the profits, or what's left.
There were three attempts I know of where HG tried to expand on RT. There was a movie that was never released that was a re-appropriation of the Japanese animation Megazone 23. Then there was a poorly written, poorly designed, poorly executed movie sequel, The Sentinels, which tried to combine elements from the three original Japanese series on which RT is based. And then there was most recent The Shadow Chronicles, which was better executed but with a premise that lacked anything new and creative, building yet again on the old model. There was a twenty year gap between the second and third attempts, and while the third attempt showed promise, it still came up short.
In the duration, they simply milked the formerly beloved, now dehydrated cow that is Robotech, and used every legal maneuver they could muster to keep anything from the Macross proper out of the US in fear that it would confuse audiences. They had one loyal audience, and the audience grew up, and they have done everything to disenfranchise that audience from having any interest in Robotech. The Macross mythology has grown and expanded to delightful creative frontiers, and American fans get to blame Harmony Gold for keeping it out of legal reach. If they weren't stopping them directly, they had positioned themselves as a deterrent for American distribution.
The funny thing is that the lawsuit is in regards to a Transformers character whose original toy mold was licensed from Big West based on Macross's VF-1, an F-14 that transforms into a piloted robot mode and appears later in that series with rocket boosters. The mold was fantastic, considered a classic among many transforming robot toy collectors. It that was restored and reused for Macross's 20th anniversary, and was never released in the USA (Instead, Harmony Gold licensed out figure production to an American toy company that squandered what potential success they had with poor quality and poor craftsmanship and high end collectors prices under the laughably titled "Masterpiece" subline). Hasbro/Sunbow at the time were made aware of the potential copyright kerfuffle, and altered the design for the 80's cartoon series. Every Hasbro toy interpretation of Jetfire since has been based on that redesign, rather than the VF-1. This was the same principal that went into designing the SDCC exclusive toy.
So, Harmony Gold is suing Hasbro for releasing a GI Joe scale F-14 with a booster pack based on the Transformers cartoon design, because they do not want their disenfranchised fanbase to get confused with a nearly 30 year old licensed based on essentially stolen work that has done nothing but decompose in their weak and incompetent hands. I can understand the impulse: they want money, Hasbro's movie partner Paramount has lots of it, so surely they can afford to settle. My position: take them to the cleaners, Hasbro. I don't care if it's over a toy. Put them in a position where they have to sell their Macross license back to Big West so that us American Macross fans have at least a remote chance of purchasing an official high-quality Macross American-licensed product before Blu-Ray becomes an obsolete format.
***Bonus third thought: I really don't like thinking badly of anybody, and it usually takes a lot to get that kind of a rise out of me. They've had over ten years to get on my bad side, since I discovered their bad side. In Otaku terms, that two full length TV series, two OVA series in HD format, three movies, over a dozen videos, and gads of transformable action figures that have to imported at an inflated price. Manga Entertainment had gotten lucky, but their video transfer of Macross Plus to DVD was horrendous. The VHS version is never supposed to look better. I'll take steps to try to balance out the inevitable negative karma that will come from airing out these thoughts, pet a kitty, hold open doors, have friendly conversations with people...
Two thoughts:
1. I hate Harmony Gold.
2. The reason is that they (I will refer to HG as a group of individuals) exemplifies so much of what can go wrong with the appropriation of creative properties under the guise of distribution licensure for the sake of sustaining business and profits at the expense of the original creators' desire and forgoing the risk of uncertainty from it's own creative expansion. They gained the rights in the early eighties to distribute the Japanese animated sci fi classic Macross (and whose ongoing franchise I love), and instead re-edited the story/audio overtop the original animation, combining it with two other Japanese animated series to create their own multi-generational saga. Admittedly, the series that came from it introduced a whole generation to fantastic scifi story telling elements with real emotional weight. They were building on the great work of others.
Most fans wouldn't mind if HG had just let go of the original property and went off on their own to create their own spin on their Robotech mythology, gone into new territories, create new thrilling stories. But they are hacks. They don't seem to know how to put together their own quality programs, they don't seem to know how to market, they don't seem to know how produce anything that wasn't built off of someone else's hard work. Their site features almost no redeemable piece of creative work. I'll explain the almost in a moment.
The realization that they are sad, sad people came during the mid '00's when Big West, the actual owner of the Macross franchise at the time, restored and improved the original animation and sound of the series and released it as a sort of anniversary celebration for the series (their had since been several movies and series since the original release that may never see a respectable release in the US) all in lead up to a miniseries (Macross Zero) and later culminating the franchise's greatest achievement in Macross Frontier. HG agreed to release it in the US under two conditions: one, HG gets to take the restored footage, subsumed under the Robotech paradigm as a restored and extended version of the television series, and two, release that version before releasing the original restored version.
Allow me to rephrase: they said, hey, you can pay us to distribute your work, but first we're going to steal it again, sell it first, and then pretend that we care it yours to begin with. Of course, you can get a cut of the profits, or what's left.
There were three attempts I know of where HG tried to expand on RT. There was a movie that was never released that was a re-appropriation of the Japanese animation Megazone 23. Then there was a poorly written, poorly designed, poorly executed movie sequel, The Sentinels, which tried to combine elements from the three original Japanese series on which RT is based. And then there was most recent The Shadow Chronicles, which was better executed but with a premise that lacked anything new and creative, building yet again on the old model. There was a twenty year gap between the second and third attempts, and while the third attempt showed promise, it still came up short.
In the duration, they simply milked the formerly beloved, now dehydrated cow that is Robotech, and used every legal maneuver they could muster to keep anything from the Macross proper out of the US in fear that it would confuse audiences. They had one loyal audience, and the audience grew up, and they have done everything to disenfranchise that audience from having any interest in Robotech. The Macross mythology has grown and expanded to delightful creative frontiers, and American fans get to blame Harmony Gold for keeping it out of legal reach. If they weren't stopping them directly, they had positioned themselves as a deterrent for American distribution.
The funny thing is that the lawsuit is in regards to a Transformers character whose original toy mold was licensed from Big West based on Macross's VF-1, an F-14 that transforms into a piloted robot mode and appears later in that series with rocket boosters. The mold was fantastic, considered a classic among many transforming robot toy collectors. It that was restored and reused for Macross's 20th anniversary, and was never released in the USA (Instead, Harmony Gold licensed out figure production to an American toy company that squandered what potential success they had with poor quality and poor craftsmanship and high end collectors prices under the laughably titled "Masterpiece" subline). Hasbro/Sunbow at the time were made aware of the potential copyright kerfuffle, and altered the design for the 80's cartoon series. Every Hasbro toy interpretation of Jetfire since has been based on that redesign, rather than the VF-1. This was the same principal that went into designing the SDCC exclusive toy.
So, Harmony Gold is suing Hasbro for releasing a GI Joe scale F-14 with a booster pack based on the Transformers cartoon design, because they do not want their disenfranchised fanbase to get confused with a nearly 30 year old licensed based on essentially stolen work that has done nothing but decompose in their weak and incompetent hands. I can understand the impulse: they want money, Hasbro's movie partner Paramount has lots of it, so surely they can afford to settle. My position: take them to the cleaners, Hasbro. I don't care if it's over a toy. Put them in a position where they have to sell their Macross license back to Big West so that us American Macross fans have at least a remote chance of purchasing an official high-quality Macross American-licensed product before Blu-Ray becomes an obsolete format.
***Bonus third thought: I really don't like thinking badly of anybody, and it usually takes a lot to get that kind of a rise out of me. They've had over ten years to get on my bad side, since I discovered their bad side. In Otaku terms, that two full length TV series, two OVA series in HD format, three movies, over a dozen videos, and gads of transformable action figures that have to imported at an inflated price. Manga Entertainment had gotten lucky, but their video transfer of Macross Plus to DVD was horrendous. The VHS version is never supposed to look better. I'll take steps to try to balance out the inevitable negative karma that will come from airing out these thoughts, pet a kitty, hold open doors, have friendly conversations with people...
posted by Ravings of Ki at 8:55 PM
0 comments
