I liked the hand knife too. And frankly, there's a reason soldiers carry knifes - aside from being a good last resort weapon, knives are a useful tool in general.
I was going to bring up the cartoon as well, but I'm afraid you're mistaken -- he uses it twice. (Same episode, I think, though.)The things I love about the knife hand...
It just shows how dedicated Megatron is to combat. Even when all of his cannons are out of amo, even if you take out Tidal Wave, he's got a knife to attack you with.
Also the ONE time it was used in the show was just perfect. He uses it to cut himself free from Optimus' grasp because he knows they can't defeat Unicron unless he dies, and he knows Prime won't let that happen. So out of nowhere... hand knife and he makes the noble sacrifice.
Those two things make the hand knife a vital part of that design for me.
I always forget he busts it out earlier!I was going to bring up the cartoon as well, but I'm afraid you're mistaken -- he uses it twice. (Same episode, I think, though.)
Here was the other time:
Optimus relinquishing the Matrix and accepting that he's leader of all Transformers following Unicron's defeat andLOL at the Matrix just goofily floating by at 3:48.
It's my favourite Optimus/Megatron fight. It beats out the '86 movie just through sheer brutality.That fight was the stuff of legends like when prime broke of Megs horns and used them as swords
Armada clip
Thankfully, we have the Japanese version fully accessible to watch, now.Wow. That was terrible. I find myself thinking, maybe the Netflix shows weren't unusually bad?
Thanks for the info. Copyright in media and products, although similar, aren't the same though.
I've added some of my thoughts behind spoiler tags, due to page length/off topic concerns.
Also, there are examples of "knock-off" TFs in other Japanese media, like the NSFW "Panty and Stocking" episode, "Trans Homers".
View attachment 17397
And don't forget the "totally not for profit, honest" copyright lawyer's dream/nightmare that was the animated intro to the "Daicon IV" convention.
Doujin and other fan-made anime/comics/etc are also a thing too.
As for YouTube, Japanese media have always been fairly trigger-happy about allowing their media to be online and/or shown outside their markets. Such companies have, like many other aspects of Japan, arguably slow to change or adapt. I think at one time, NHK itself wasn't able to show reruns of its own shows at its only streaming service/website. I'm not sure how much of this has changed now but that's how things are in Japan. Yes, the copyright can be infamous when it comes to online/foreign access (in order to control the market) but in terms of homages and suchlike, in not sure if it's so strict.
Of course, as a disclaimer, this is all my opinion. I'm in no way an expert on the subject and the info you supplied was rather interesting. I might add it to the Knockoff Transformers thread we've got here as there's a section about how copyright and Transformers are linked. Cheers.
OK, my own disclaimer first. I'm not a lawyer, either. However, I did have to research copyright owners and seek permissions for works as part of my job a number of years back, and thus I learned a fair bit about intellectual property (and the difference between copyright and trademark, which often get confused, although that's neither here nor there).Yeah, parodies can happen with the permissions of the rights holder. The point is in most other places, you wouldn’t even need permission at all. That’s how strict their laws are and why Takara would be very careful around them.
For fandom works, as I understand, they are technically against the IP laws but the companies choose to not enforce them.
As far as Bandai is concerned, the only Braves are Gaogaigar and sometimes Might Gaine.
And now one of Harmony Gold's licensees have made a Robotech product aimed directly at Transformers fans by specifically coloring it in Jetfire's deco.A notable exception to this is the case of Jetfire, which as many here know, was originally created using a mold that is associated with the Macross line (whose American equivalent, Robotech, is owned by Harmony Gold). Harmony Gold tried to sue Hasbro for a repaint (with new accessories) of a GI Joe Skystriker as Jetfire for an SDCC exclusive. The courts found this accusation SO out of line that they dismissed the case with prejudice, freeing Hasbro up to use Jetfire without fear of another such suit in the future.
Thanks! If I can I might add some of this info to the first page or so of this thread, as it deals with similar issues.OK, my own disclaimer first. I'm not a lawyer, either. However, I did have to research copyright owners and seek permissions for works as part of my job a number of years back, and thus I learned a fair bit about intellectual property (and the difference between copyright and trademark, which often get confused, although that's neither here nor there).
Fact is, parodies often don't require the permission of the rights holder, but it's likewise a fact that folks like Weird Al Yankovic nearly always get such permission before going forward with releasing a parody commercially (the exceptions in his case tend to be miscommunication rather than negligence, FWIW). The issue here is what's called "Fair Use Doctrine."
The trick about using "Fair Use Doctrine" as a defense is the reality that anyone can file a lawsuit claiming infringement whenever they want (even if it's without merit). It's only once a suit is filed that the courts look at a (purportedly) derivative work and apply the rules of "Fair Use Doctrine" to determine whether the derivative work is covered (or not) by it. So, something that a writer may well have thought was a parody may later be determined by the courts not to be a parody, at which point the derivative work could find itself in hot water.
To apply this to Transformers, for most of what we're talking about, the competitors have never actually (yet) filed a complaint against the Transformer they might claim is a derivative work. We're usually just looking at cases where Hasbro's lawyers are playing things exceptionally safe, so as to avoid having to deal with any lawsuits in the first place (even ones they might win). A notable exception to this is the case of Jetfire, which as many here know, was originally created using a mold that is associated with the Macross line (whose American equivalent, Robotech, is owned by Harmony Gold). Harmony Gold tried to sue Hasbro for a repaint (with new accessories) of a GI Joe Skystriker as Jetfire for an SDCC exclusive. The courts found this accusation SO out of line that they dismissed the case with prejudice, freeing Hasbro up to use Jetfire without fear of another such suit in the future.