Robotech seems to be the victim of cheesy licensing. I guess back in the 80's it wasn't too much of a big deal who you gave your license to. As long as the money came in, you were good. I think George Lucas changed that with his Star Wars lines in the late 80's through today. Perhaps it was just inevitable that rights holders would pick and choose and have final say over what their creations showed up on. Back to George, apparently Lucas chose to take (as part of his pay on Star Wars) the rights to the merchandising. THAT was a master stroke. He raked in the money with everything from the toys to party supplies. Over the years I have heard that Lucasfilm has been very picky about who they grant licensing to and what products come out (and the quality of those products).
Robotech (as a brand) was and is held by Harmony Gold. Harmony Gold sold Robotech out like a cheap pimp back in the day. There was the usual products sporting the Robotech theme such as party goods, toys, and the like but they didn't seem to care who bought those right or how well (or poorly) those products were.
This blog is about some of the items that Harmony Gold let their Robotech brand get slapped on. First I will pick the biggest chunk of the licensing... the toys. Matchbox bought the rights to the line and boy o boy did they do a job on that! Robotech figures were... how shall I say it... poorly executed. Sure, this was the early 80's but there were plenty of examples of how to do an action figure RIGHT. It looks like Matchbox chose to pick the G.I. Joe line as the basis for their figures. The construciton looks very similar but the end result is hideous...
The seem to have been built alright but the oversized heads and the short torsos made them look like circus freaks. The other toys in the line like the ships all appear to be re-releases from their Japanese counterparts which means the look pretty badass.
So the action figures and vehicles were alright (not great but not too bad). Where Harmony Gold really dropped the ball was pretty much everywhere else. I am not including the Comico comics in this since they seemed to be about par for comic books at the time.
Here is some examples of what I am talking about. First up is an old favorite... Have you ever seen those stoybooks that came with tapes or records, a read-along book?
The Robotech read-along was made by Peter Pan and it is quickly apparent that whoever produced this item did not know anything about Robotech. I won't even mention the art work inside. If you are interested in checking out the inside of the book, read it here at the 'Let's Anime' Blog. Thanks to them for the image above.
My next item is a 'Press and Stick' Robotech set. Look at this thing...
Most notibly the SDF-1 is upside down, you are seeing the bottom of it. No biggie but it is apparent that the producers of this set didn't realize the art was a bottom up view of the ship. Did I mention that an Alpha fighter is marked as a Veritech. It's just another example of a company that knows nothing about Robotech putting out a Robotech product. Oh yeah, and why the hell is Henry Gloval in there? He is a captian, not an action-type charcter. I guess smoking a pipe is action enough.
Oh crap! That would scare me to death on Halloween.
Next on my list is are not even poorly made items, just stuff that has NOTHING to do with Robotech at all! This stuff just seems to be random toys that Harmony Gold said 'sure, go ahead, slap the Robtech name on it'.
What the heck are these???
Huh?
What the???
Aqua-what?
Uh, cool but what the heck?
So I figure you get the picture here. Harmony Gold was out for the quick cash and knew that they better get while the gettin' was good. As a fan and sometimes collector I find all this fun but dissapointing at the same time. By the way the gun shown in this last picture has a bit of a history to itself. The white part was modified and used to make the guns the aliens used in the 80's TV series 'V'.
Do yourself a favor and click on the link above. These are classic commercials! I particuarly enjoy the last one on the video. Dana Sterling kicks ass during the day killing so many of the Master's troops then spend the afternoon working out. Also, notice how Rick Hunter is such a man-whore.
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