7 replies to this topic

[990Dreams]

Quote

I know that they won't make the game, but how come? Are there illegal (out of the 3049 time period) variants, or are they not completely produced, or are they just old? I get the whole Clan tech thing, though. So yeah, please be rational. Don't call me a noob or an *****, I already know that I am rather stupid and noobish when it comes to BT history/'Mechs. I also only joined late early this year, and heard about the Unseens this year.

Now leaving this open for discussion.

Edited by DavidHurricane, 10 July 2012 - 07:45 AM.

[EmptySkull]

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen

Maybe this will help.

[Derek Icelord]

The stats and BattleTech names have never been removed or disallowed. It's only the artwork. It's not a lore issue, it's a "copyright" issue with several anime series that predate BattleTech.

[akaChrisHimself]

Cause they are invisible.

[TripleHex]

They are Unseen because, although they were/are canon mechs, they were borrowed from another company. That company filed a law suit, and FASA had to retract those mechs from all of their official stuff. Books. TROs. Images. EVERYTHING. Even the names couldn't be used, if I remember correctly, although I'm not sure on that point. Does that help any?

[Derek Icelord]

TripleHex, on 10 July 2012 - 07:03 AM, said:

EVERYTHING. Even the names couldn't be used, if I remember correctly, although I'm not sure on that point.

No, only the images where in dispute. The names and stats are original to BattleTech.

[990Dreams]

Ahh, trademarked. OK then

[Weird Beard]

-Waaaayyy back when, FASA paid the creator of the Japanese Macross mecha images for rights to use them.
-FASA at a later date approaches Playmates with a deal to make a toy line and the deal falls through.
-Playmates subsequently releases a remarkably similar toy line so FASA sues.
-Harmony Gold, having dealings with Playmates for its own toyline, and also owning rights to everything Robotech (same images as Macross) sues FASA over said images.
-FASA pulls all disputed images (plus some) from its published material. The mechs become known as the 'Unseen'

As a long time fan of Robotech I was saddened by the dirty pool and have completely stopped supporting anything related to Harmony Gold as Battletech is cooler still and I think got shafted hard.

I think I summed it up accurately. Better details can be found here.

edits for spelling/grammer & corrected some of my own facts.

Edited by Weird Beard, 17 July 2012 - 04:05 PM.