Oh Harmony Gold, you so crazy. This is a surprisingly effective way of making money. Squat on a license, release the bare minimum required to keep license and sue anyone trying to actually do something good with it.

 

They are fine with Skyfire, just not Macross/Robotech like Valkrie/Veritech designs.

 

They are suing over a white Skystriker with a teeny red thing on it.

 

You know, if this case goes in Harmony Gold's favour, I shudder to think of what that could mean for Whirl's release.

 

It wouldn't mean anything, as Whirl is based on a toy that was a repurposed Dorvack toy and has nothing to do with Robotech, Macross or Harmony Gold.

 

OK, I just clicked on the other images. Yea, they have a case as Hasbro made a Skystriker look like a Robotech fighter. Hasbro probably only has the rights to the transforming G1 Jetfire. This might be a close one, I hope Hasbro wins of course.

 

Oh, I'm sure this will totally work out in Harmony Gold's favour.  

 

I have to ask though, how is a Skystriker LIKE a Robotech fighter? Don't Robotech Fighters, I don't know, TRANSFORM?!?

 

The SDCC Jetfire's paint scheme is pretty close to the Valkyrie's detailing.
- wing stripe w. circular badge
- paint to fake the air ducts next to the cockpit
- striping behind the cockpit

The shape of the jet is vastly different though.

Hate to say it, but Harmony Gold has a legit case.

 

You're not quite picking up what I'm putting down.

The original design of Whirl is owned by Bandai, who licenced it to Hasbro. I'm not entirely sure if that licence had an expiry date, but if it did, it's possible that Bandai could prevent the release of Generations Whirl, based on what they observe in this court case. It's also possible that based on this lawsuit, Hasbro may re-evaluate their usage of designs that have origins in other companies.

But I'm just an outside observer, and I have no idea if Hasbro has already cleared this with Bandai, or if they would even have to.

 

Psssh..... I told them they should have done Powerglide instead. Serves them right.  

 

My question is this:

Where the fuck was Harmony Gold when Classics Jetfire came out, then?
When Hasbro releases a Transforming toy that's obviously inspired by the VF-1S right down to paint apps and FAST packs, they sit idly by and do nothing.

When they redo a *non-transforming* toy from 1983 (long before there was ever a Robotech) in the same colors though, THAT'S worth suing over? Really?

 

I wouldn't be so sure. The classics Jetfire/Skyfire mould is okay. (Imo)

 

I'm not quite in the know like most of you seem to be, but why hasn't the titanium, and classics jetfire had any legal problems? Is it the design themselves?? (Sorry, I noticed someone above me asked the same question)

 

It's the design, because it's closer to the original Valkyrie toys jet. Classics and others don't look like that jet.
They could even get away with the jet, basically harmony gold is suing over the backpack add on used with the jet, if they had used the same backpack on a modern jet it wouldn't be an issue. Harmony Gold is gong after a technicality. It's how they make 90% of their money now suing people and holding on to dear life anything Robotech they still can. Even though they seem to have lost most of it.

Hasboro announced it months ago, if they really had an issue they could have stopped it then. But they waited till it sold, so they could pull this. As I said they make most of their money in lawsuits these days. They are basically a trademark troll these days.

 

I think those were different enough, and they transformed. Remember there was a large non transformable robotech fighter sold in the 80's that was similar to the Skystriker. The thruster pods on the SDCC set look too much like the Robotech ones.

 

Eh, Bandai isn’t known to get their feathers ruffled over other toys bearing a slight resemblance to their toys, whereas Harmony Gold makes a living out of it. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

You know, it's funny, for all we talk on this board about intellectual property theft, and licenses, and who has the right to what (be it in regard to 3rd Party figures, automobile company licenses, old G1 toys whose molds were bought from smaller companies, etc.) I feel like this is one of the only times I've ever actually heard of some legal proceedings being attempted. It's sort of interesting in an academic sense.