EyeOne, on 28 June 2013 - 10:33 AM, said:
And... And what? Are you expecting some grand answer? I'll I'm saying is that it's listed as Unseen on Sarna. I know it was in MW4, I played it. But that was a decade ago. Just pointing it out, so you can stop trying to one-up me about it.
it was in Mechwarrior 4...
After mektek got ahold of it and begun putting in Unseen mechs in the mekpaks. hell we had the Warhammer, Marauder, and many of the "harmony Gold" labeled unseen.
ABOUT THE UNSEEN= PLEASE READ!
Let me finally clear up a couple of things, since some people have issues with the "unseen" debacle.
"Unseen" is a blanket term for battlemechs seen within the Battletech IP that were designs taken from other Anime. The most Famous of these anime is "Macross" or Robotech in the united states. However many designs, including even a couple of tank designs were taken from two other Anime sources which never made it to the United States, these were "Crusher Joe" and "Fang of the Sun Dogrum."
The Sarna.net link provided earlier in this thread provides the complete listing of mechs covered by this term, FASA, and Later Wizkids and Catalyst Game Labs, decided to place mechs that were not produced "in house" under this blanket for their own protection.
======The Legal Case====
In 1992-3 FASA attempted to expand into a line of toys, and a Cartoon, for Battletech, they pitched this line of toys to Playmates, who declined the idea. However they held on to a few of the blueprints for a couple of mech designs. later in '93 FASA decided to file a lawsuit against Playmates toys, who had taken a couple of Battletech designs for the Toyline/Cartoon "Exo Squad".
Playmates had an exclusive deal with Harmony Gold, who at the time, held the licensing rights in the United States for "Robotech" which includes Macross and a couple of other anime property's which they butcher together to get the result of Robotech. Anyway Playmates was in an exclusive deal with Harmony Gold to produce a Robotech line of toys. They brought to HG's attention that FASA was attempting to sue, and Harmony Gold stepped in with all their legal might. FASA was not expecting this.
After a legal battle that was mired in secret dealings and unknown legal pitfalls on both sides. A decision was made to the side. FASA could not fight an extended legal battle with Harmony Gold, who just had more money than the small gaming company. FASA and Harmony Gold came to an agreement, FASA would remove the Macross designs[and subsiquently all other non-in house designs.] And Harmony Gold would back off. And so it was, many classic designs from early Battletech were striken from lore... and dubbed by Battletech lovers as "The Unseen"
===========Questionable Changes.==============
The Battletech IP began to change hands late 90's, shifting to Wiz Kids and gaining a clickytech versions... Before shifting back over to Catalyst Game Labs.
Catalyst is the current license holder, who obtained rights to produce battletech related content from Wizkids. As the 25th anniversary of Battletech approached in 2010, Catalyst began making big, big plans for fans of Battletech, finally making the announcement that the Unseen would be making a return to our beloved franchise. Fans rejoiced, other's didn't understand what the big deal was. And the first images were revealed for the "25 years of art and fiction." book. A 25th anniversary celebration book that was part history of Battletech, part short story collection. And adorning the Cover, the venerable "Warhammer" battlemech. At this same time, the first Trailer's for what was dubbed "Mechwarrior 3015" were released, also touting the venerable Warhammer battlemech.
This is where things get a bit weird. The internet rumor is someone at Catalyst got an anonymous phone call one evening, saying "Remember the deal." One of the upper people in Catalyst were involved with the FASA legal battle, and cought wind of what happened. After this, all images of the warhammer were pulled... The cover redesigned to show the "Hammerhands" battlemech instead of the warhammer... [also the warhammer was supposed to adorn the 25th anniversary box set... and was pulled in favor of the Hammerhands.] And most unseen artwork was pulled from the "25 years of art and fiction" book itself, save for some pictures of Battletech 1st edition.
++++++++++++++++++The Reseen++++++++++++++++++
After their legal issues being over debacle failing, Catalyst Game Labs created "Operation Phoenix." a TRO [technical read out] book that stared all the Unseen designs, however redesigned. Canonizing these mechs once more and updating their look. This was met with... mixed reviews. Many to this day HATE the "reseen" as they were dubbed, and opt to buy older versiosn of the models instead of the new casts due to pure looks. Other's have taken to buying Macross figures imported from Japan... other's don't care, other's still love the redesigns.
No matter the camp you sit in, it's no doubt that the Unseen are important to Battletech as a whole. Reseen or not, without them, a good chunk of 3025 era mechs are missing.
Edit- the lawsuit may have been filed in '95, full information on the case can easily be searched up, but the records are incomplete and don't make much sense, what you have is the best I've been able to glean from over 5+ years of looking into this case.
Edited by Jade Kitsune, 29 June 2013 - 10:05 AM.
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