Not so. TPC was in talks with Image Entertainment to release ULTRAMAN when the Chaiyo lawsuit got in the way. As I mentioned in my last post, TPC's plan was to use ULTRAMAN to reintroduce the franchise in America.
For ULTRAMAN, TPC has the original elements, the complete English dub tracks, behind the scenes footage, photos, publicity materials for the Japanese and US release, English translated scripts that are different than the US versions, etc. They have similar materials for the other shows. Chaiyo is the reason we got none of that. Without Chaiyo, we would have had ULTRAMAN -- with the full cooperation of the people who made the show -- many years ago, and likely (at least) ULTRA Q and ULTRA SEVEN as well. Not DVD rips and incomplete English dubs taken from bootlegs.
We could have gotten DUBS and other cool things? Not buying this set period now.
I've seen people make the "Tsuburaya must charge too much" claim before, but I've never seen any evidence to back that up. I know people at TPC, reps at companies that have handled TPC programs, and people at companies that have licensed TPC movies/shows and none of them have said anything about pricing issues. I do recall that that several distributors contact TPC in the wake of POWER RANGERS' success but TPC wouldn't let Ultraman be "Sabanized" so the shows didn't sell. But that had nothing to do with TPC's asking price for their shows. From what I know, the "too expensive" claims are nothing but assumptions by some fans.
At very least, it's not like the situation with Toei wanting so much money for their sets , but then again , even those are very reasonable for the American consumer versus the R2 release. I would totally buy sets of Ultraman if they were legit and gave quality to them.
I can even imagine them alongside my Classic Media and soon to be added Criterion Godzilla collection. Subs , dub.... what is there not to like? Seeing the first episode of Seven and clips scattered on the web makes me want to see the show in full and support the proper owners even more.
It's something I would wait for, and if I were rich enough, I would donate money to TPC themselves to help disown Chaiyo for good.
They should have just rolled with the tide and got them Sabanized in my opinion, but then again, wasn't Great a success here? Why weren't more episodes made of that show if it was a hit as I've heard claims of?
I am sad that the Chaiyo projects for Ultraman weren't able to be done, but I hope TPC will take them up and even get a reboot film......
I loved this statement so I underlined it for emphasis as this is what I feel myself.
Without licensing revenues Chaiyo won't be able to continue their fight with TPC. Some fans are making a fuss because the sales of shows like ULTRA SEVEN supports Chaiyo, and as long as Chaiyo is around the longer it will be until TPC can do anything with those shows here. No matter where someone stands on the issue, there's a definite connection between the licensing and the legal dispute between TPC and Chaiyo.
It's as big a mystery as two Starbucks across the street from each other.
Not exactly. While you got the concept of two coffee shops , imagine if, instead of a Starbucks across the street in Shibuya, a coffee shop called Starclucks that serve the same drinks with the exact same recipe ,the same logo and everything, yet have not the rights to do so.
Starbucks is then blocked to make more franchises in Japan because Starclucks, for whatever reason, uses some loophole to be able to block Starbucks and thus their company, from recuperating lost profit from copyright infringement.
Despite having made and developed their product, Starclucks Co. are allowed to do anything they want with the brand and Starbucks cannot say anything about it until it is overturned.
They can build franchises in Europe, Africa and the Americas, yet cannot create newer franchises in Japan because by said rule, only Starclucks is allowed to build franchises in the region.
*Using Starclucks for differentiation , as it would be called Starbucks under Starclucks Co.
