Snowbluff, on 02 April 2016 - 08:15 PM, said:
EDIT: Oh, I'm not kidding. It's literally from that series. It was licensed to the Battletech guys to sell excess toys or something.
Actually, the company that sold the artwork sold it to two parties, BT and Harmony Gold (Robotech). At the time of the selling, the company didn't think the two buyers would ever collide with each other (BT being based in America last I knew, and Robotech in Japan).
After a lot of legal battles, the end result (now) is that Robotech has rights to the artwork only for their preexisting stories, but not for any future additions to that story (which is why you don't see the "old tech" in their newer expansions).
BT however was proven to have the rights before hand, and have "creatively altered the original artwork". BT has the right to the older artwork, but have decided it best to stop using it altogether to prevent any possible problems. (And they did this with more than just Robotech images they had bought. They went completely in house imagery instead.)
There was a time when BT had lost the rights, but more recent court 'stuff' gave it back to them. So if people say BT don't have the rights to the old imagery, they are in part correct. They didn't, but now they do again...