"Tomahawk Mech(s) to a Good Home" Topic

Forum lurker here with a bit of an offer. I have 2x 1:100 Macross Attack Tomahawks I am putting together and painting. I would like for them to end up on a table battling, which will not happen with my current duties and location.

So, show me some sign that you actively game and can put one or two of these guys to use in your game, a prize or some such. Then let me know what sort of paint scheme we're looking for. Ideally, you'd fire back a post with them on the table.

Send me an e-mail and I can fire you a picture of them primed, otherwise, here's one from the internet:
link

Pick up the kit here:
hlj.com/product/BAN953435

I'm game. I game 15mm sci-fi every week or two and I have a semi-active blog that you can check out. And yes, I love mecha:

link

I would happily use the Tomahawks as part of my US forces since they seem to love mecha. So how do I contact you?

I'm game! See here for a game report of a Tomahawk in action ! link

Since I am in Europe and you are probably in the US I wouldn't blame you to send them to someone else, btw/

Wow Pijlie, cool stuff! I love using mecha in 15mm too. I just wish I had urban terrain like that!

Argh, too big. I am looking for some of the 3" ones from Robotech/Exo Squad. I just picked up a Rifleman pretty cheap. So even though it'd be perfect for me, its just too large.

OK, I was 3 minutes late! Darn. Who is the winner?

Am in the US, am close to Tgunner (hi Tgunner) and looking to put together a Battletech force in 15mm for TW (already have a pair of 15mm Marauders, 1 P-Hawk, a Shadow Hawk, an Ostscout and a Locust I need to repair (legs and body separated) so a pair of Warhammers would work. 1 painted as the cover of the old Battletech box set and another painted Royal blue as Katrina Steiner's old ride would rock. I also play TW and they'd have PLENTY of figures shooting at them for a variety of reasons from cybernetic to religious!

How tall are these? If they are 6" or taller, we could use them in the 28mm Mech Battle game our club is running at the Little Wars convention in Illinois April.

We're using the Mech Attack Rules to put on a massive mech battle on a 6x8 table.

We're not too worried about mechs scaling exactly with each other as long as they look good on the table with 28mm figs.

You'd be sure to get lots of pics of them in action as well as a writeup on our blog.
chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com

karl (underscore) e (underscore) paulsen athotmail

Thankfully we're not into religious AND cybernetic motivated war in real life. That'll be fun

M1Fanboy, TGunner, sounds like a plan. Nice to look up that reference and see the exact same markings. Verify my references below and let me know if there's any other resources to symbols or what not.

ORIGINAL

STEINER

History question: Did Macross copy Battletech or the other way around? For some reason it just feels 'right' for the Japanese to be doing giant robots first…

PI: TGunner had first, is from North America and their group doesn't have one yet, so sending to them makes sense as you mentioned. Thanks for the reply and interest though.

OB: Top of his missile pod is at 5 1/4.. maybe really big powered armor… but probably not the best choice for 28mm.

This is a 'when I get time' project, so please no holding of breath. Finally, you can hit me up at 81mech<at>gmail<dot>com.

Recent history is rife with REAL wars being fought over religion and with religious connotations. Even our own (technically) secular troops have bible verse numbers stamped on their weapons directly from the factory.

But as to the question of Battle tech or Macros first, it was definitely Macros first. B-tech used the art for their mechs.

Congrats TGunner! Be sure to take and post lots of pictures!

I use my Mechs with 1/72 figures btw. The One Scale for all people of my age :)

BT licensed the art. One story is that it turned out that the folks they licensed it from didn't have the right to license it! For a somewhat different view, see link

Thanks for the picture and measurements- I had been debating getting some of these for 15mm Battletech and this info has helped with my decision.

Rich

Mech81 – FASA pretty much swiped the Macross designs without asking. Along with a bunch of other mechs from other shows, including (their re-labeling) Locust, Thunderbot, Shadowhawk and Battlemaster. Always surprised me that they didn't mine Gundam for 'inspiration'. ;)

tgunner, enjoy them man! I will be at Cold Wars. Pijilie! Those are the correct references.

Thanks 8D

Vanilla is fine… ie the cover of Battletech.

"Always surprised me that they didn't mine Gundam for 'inspiration'."

They were looking for "legged tanks" instead of "giant people". The Gundam suits of the day were also a LOT bigger, with the smallest suits towering over anything borrowed from Dougram, Macross, or Crusher Joe. Heck, the Locust's inspiration wasn't even a "giant" robot.

In the beginning, I would bet on some obscure, talented guy in a basement being responsible.

TGunner, would you prefer the non-Steiner one done up olive drab with blue accents you match your current force?

Two Mechs from dubious design origins, primed and ready for paint:

Macross Martin, you said "FASA pretty much swiped the Macross designs without asking."

I'm a lifelong fan of Macross and have loved Battletech since I bought my first Battledroids set at Gen Con when it was premiered back when I was in High School. I love both very much and to this day am a huge fan of both. So keep that in mind that this isn't an attack on you, as I follow all your posts and your blog. I just want to correct the record.

I also worked as a Senior Producer for FASA Interactive in the mid 90s and know for a fact that the your statement is just not true. FASA didn't swipe anything. EMcKinney has the right of it. Long before FASA did Battledroids they were well versed at licensing big properties and released fully licensed games based on Star Trek, The Last Starfighter, Battlestar Galactica, Top Gun (of all things) and started making products for Traveller under license.

They did acquire rights to lots of mech designs for Battledroids and then BattleTech (changing the name proactively in preparation for trying to -unsuccessfully- obtain Star Wars). These rights included Macross and several other series.

This was a period where there was very little anime in the US, and people like Carl Macek and Sam Lewis foresaw that anime was going to become a phenomena outside Japan, which is why they sought to obtain rights to these amazing series.

However, the licensing agent FASA utilized turned out to not have the rights that they thought they did. The agent was acting in good faith, but frankly was incorrect on what they could grant. The particulars were complicated, but both Harmony Gold and FASA thought they were in the right and both felt justified in that stance and that they would win in court.

FASA acted in good faith, seeking legal rights for the use of these designs in the US, but laws for licensing in Japan and the US are very different and ultimately it was clear that Harmony Gold had a solid and specific set of licensing rights for Macross in the US (so solid that the original makers of Macross in Japan can't even sell their other series here, which is frankly a travesty- I wish Harmony Gold could come to an agreement on that as I think they could co-exist or a deal could be struck where Harmony Gold could sell the later Macross titles under their label).

Unfortunately, this meant that the rights to non-Macross titles were similarly unclear so FASA dropped all the licensed mechs rather than get burned again by future disputes. FASA made the right business call that they should rely only on their own designs moving forward, as much as it kills me to not see the original unseen any more.

Ironically, I got into some heat during my time at FASA Interactive because, as a huge fan of Robotech and Macross, I had several Macross mecha on my desk and there were still a lot of raw nerves in the office over the lawsuit and I was asked to quietly remove them so as to not upset certain folks.

I cannot speak to the more recent dispute with Catalyst as it is well after my time (more than a decade), but the re-emergence and re-restriction of the Unseen mechs is unrelated to the original problems to my knowledge.

I will cherish my old Unseen Minis and buy the new Robotech minis when they come out as proxies (as well as use them in the coming Robotech game). It is incorrect, however, to say that FASA ripped off these properties. That was never the intent at all.

As I write this, over my left shoulder is my display of several Alpha Fighters, a Beta Fighter, three Zentradi Battle Pods, two VF1S masterpiece mechs and a VF21 (my VF19 sadly broke apart), a fully transformable SDF1 and a 2 foot long home kitbash SDF1. I still love my Robotech, so please don't hate me for setting the record straight as I also love Battletech with a ridiculous collection of metal and plastic mechs stretching back to the mid 1980s and far too many Click Mechs.

I suspect there are still many fans of both who will still love both equally.

Happy to have sparked such a throw down of information, thank you for the insight. I have a few axioms that experience continually reinforce, one being, "Death's in the details."

But for perspective, "Keep it Simple Stupid," is first on the list.

TGunner, would you prefer the non-Steiner one done up olive drab with blue accents you match your current force?

Sounds good! Either that or the normal colors are fine. Thanks!!

Mech81, how tall are these? The site you link only estimates them, but since you have the minis in hand you can give us the actual number.

Wellspring,

Here you go, approx 14cm or 5 1/2".

Yeah, I was really surprised when I put mine together. I was expecting them to be bigger.

A Glaug/Marauder can pretty much walk over a Destroid without hitting anything!

Don't suppose anyone here has a 1/100 scale Rifleman/Defender or two they'd be willing to part with?