AFnord: The Reseen are mechs that Catalyst game labs have managed to re-acquire the rights for.
Also, do note that it is the Rifleman IIC, Warhammer IIC & Marauder IIC are different fom the Rifleman, Warhammer & Marauder. The original Rifleman, Warhammer & Marauder are still considered to be unseen.
And the entire unseen part is a bit fishy. FASA actually managed to get the rights to use those mechs from their original source, while Harmony Gold only had the rights to the video part of the contract, yet because Harmony Gold had so much deeper pockets than FASA they managed to win a legal battle against them.
MobiusArcher: That's funny. Those mechs look almost exactly the same as the originals. Especially the Mech2 versions.
As for the rights thing, I know I had heard that before. Its not as simple as all that though. There are several Japanese companies at each others throats about who really owns Macross over there. Even if FASA got permission from one of them, it doesn't mean that they actually have the rights. This issue goes far beyond Harmony Gold vs. FASA. I wish they would just work it out already, as its problematic to be a fan of both Battletech and Robotech. Especially on game forums, as there is a strong bias in one direction.
They are supposed to look similar, but there are differences, enough differences to put them into a different legal ballpark. Also, the IIC mechs do have a different origin, fluffwise (they were clan mechs, built around clan technlology). Take for an example the
Warhammer IIC and compare it to a classic
warhammer (sorry, could not find a picture of an unseen warhammer model, and the IIC2 artwork was from a strange angle). The most obvious difference is the flashlight/missile rack switch, but look at the front, the cockpit is at a different angle, and the IIC has those exhaust port-looking things. The pelvic area is shaped differently as well, there are no torso mounted guns, and the feet have the common three toe appearance on the IIC2, while the feet on the classic warhammer are more flat, and has two toes. The model is by the way a reseen Warhammer IIC.
From what I understand, Harmony Gold & FASA got their rights from the same company, and Harmony Gold went to court when they wanted to release a toy line based on the mech-animes. Note that I got into Battletech about a year ago, so there are nuances to it all that I might be unaware of.
