This is part 15 in a series.
Up to this point in the series we’ve dealt with the franchises, that to the best of my knowledge, Hasbro owns. Some of them might be a bit murky, such as StarCom and Centurions. I believe Hasbro owns those rights, as Centurions was a toy line by Kenner who Hasbro bought, but perhaps the animation company owned the rights to Centurions? As to StarCom that was owned by Coleco, who Hasbro also bought, but the last time StarCom toys were produced Mattel released them. So, I’m not sure who owns StarCom. From this point on we’re going to include some franchises that Hasbro definitely does not own. In a lot of cases, these franchises that are not owned by Hasbro can be skipped over, this universe is meant to be very plug and play, but in some cases they add a fair amount of depth to the universe that makes them difficult to not include. One such franchise is Robotech.
Up until this year, it seemed like Robotech would be an easy franchise to buy, Harmony Gold’s license to the three anime series that made up Robotech was set to expire in 2021, I believe, after which point, the brand would essentially be worthless. Most fans thought Harmony Gold would be unable to renew the rights, as the Japanese company that owns the anime series used in the creation of Robotech has had an adversarial relationship with Harmony Gold for years. However, Harmony Gold was able to renew their license to the three series that make up Robotech, much to the dismay of Robotech and Macross fans. Given that most fans were not pleased with the news that Harmony Gold renewed the licenses to the anime series that made up Robotech, it may still be possible to purchase the franchise from Harmony Gold. There is a Robotech live action movie in development though, so Harmony Gold may be reluctant to sell. Then again, that film has been in development for a very long time and may never actually be produced. It wouldn’t hurt to make an offer. If it is possible to get the rights to Robotech and thus the three anime series that comprise it, here’s how it would be integrated into the Hasbroverse.
So, an alien spaceship crash lands on Earth, providing Earthlings with another source of alien technology besides the Autobots. Due to the appearance of this ship and the Autobots and Decepticons a single world government is formed. This is a messy process. Eventually, the ship is repaired, basically, the plot of the Macross Saga plays out, perhaps some Dire Wraiths oversee the Earth Government, perhaps not. The Mars Base/Colony that is visited during the Macross Saga is the one that was destroyed during the events of StarCom and covered up, Misa/Lisa’s boyfriend was on the base/colony. The humans maybe stand a slightly better chance against the Zentradi than in the original Macross Saga just because there are still some Autobots on Earth and we have slightly more advanced technology thanks to our contact with the Autobots, but we’re still seriously out matched. Also, the existence of the Zentradi, giant humanoid aliens created by the Robotech Masters, and the existence of Autobots and Decepticons is why the GoBots program was considered, as well as the Centurions program. There are multiple giant alien species out there that are hostile to humans, we need some way of fighting them on even ground. Eventually, a peace arrangement is made with some of the Zentradi and the humans, and the majority of one Zentradi fleet is destroyed. At the end of the series, the remaining Zentradi forces and much of humanity’s forces go to the planet of the Robotech Masters.
The lack of communication with this Zentradi fleet causes the Robotech Masters to investigate. They send out a force to investigate as the joint Zentradi and human forces leave Earth. The two groups cross paths without meeting. The group sent by the Robotech Masters arrive on Earth and see the wreckage of the SDF-1. Turns out this is a pretty special ship, is the corpse of a dead Cybertronian Titan with what amounts to an infinite Spark. The Titan is dead, but its spark for some reason can still merge with a planet it lands on, allowing said planet to produce exotic matter like energon, and it can do this over and over again, most Titans can only seed one planet at a time in this way. Technically, any Titan can seed multiple planets. But if a Titan leaves a planet they seeded, in the process they extract their spark from that planet, and the planet loses the ability to produce exotic matter going forward. The SDF-1 is an extremely valuable ship that is wasted on Earth, as Earth can already produce exotic matter, thanks to the presence of Unicron at its core.
Additionally, the presence of Unicron at the center of the Earth is what makes humanity a Protoculture. A Protoculture is any species that developed on a planet with a being like Unicron at the heart of the planet. However, when humanity was reverse engineering the remnants of the crashed SDF-1 one the records were kind of corrupted and they didn’t quite translate it properly, instead they thought the Robotech Masters called the exotic matter produced on such planets protoculture.
The Robotech Masters are really interested in the SDF-1 because their civilization is running low on Exotic Matter, especially as they are at war with the Invid, their home planet currently being assaulted by the forces of the Invid Regent. So, a little conflict starts between this group of Robotech Masters and the small detachment of Earth forces left behind to defend the planet. However, this conflict ends not long after it begins, as the Zentradi and human forces arrive at the Robotech Master’s home planet and strike up an alliance to help the Masters against the Invid Regent’s forces. News of this alliance eventually reaches both Earth and the Robotech Masters invading Earth, the two groups on Earth settle their differences, and the Robotech Masters return home to help against the Invid invasion.
After the Robotech Masters leave Earth, the Invid Regess’s forces attack Earth. Earth’s forces are drained at this point, she easily takes over. A message reaches the Earth Forces fighting to free the home planet of the Robotech Master from the forces of the Invid Regent. They can’t spare a lot of troops, but they need to defend their home somehow. A small detachment is sent, Scott Bernard is among this detachment. It goes badly. Scott survives the initial engagement but most of the attacking Earth forces are destroyed. He hooks up with the other characters featured in Robotech: The New Generation, still trying to reach Reflex Point thinking others must have survived the initial attack. Lancer aka Yellow Dancer was part of the initial wave of Earth based defenders destroyed by the Invid invasion.
The Cyclone Armor used by the cast of Robotech: The New Generation is the ultimate production form of Centurion technology, based on the Wild Weasel platform used by Jake Rockwell. After the initial successful tests of the various weapons platforms by the Centurions it was found that most of Jake’s weapons platforms, while providing a lot of fire power, left soldiers far too vulnerable to enemy fire due to their low speed. Wild Weasel as originally conceived also took far too much training for standard troops to learn to operate as their bodies becoming the motorcycle was often too disorienting. Ace McCloud’s weapons platforms were found to take far too much skill to master and deemed impractical. As for Max Ray’s weapons platforms, his smaller units were found to be easy for most troops to learn and so many are in use, but only during sea missions. The Cyclone Armor developed from the Wild Weasel weapons platform is packed in every Alpha Fighter due to its wide usability.
Meanwhile, back at the home planet of the Robotech Masters a new alien group shows up, offering to help the Robotech Masters, Zentradi, and humans against the Regent’s Invid, they are the Haydonites. Except they’re not. Remember that third group of Dire Wraiths that Rom didn’t capture, the ones sent into Deep Space in search of Unicron’s spark? Well, if the rights to Robotech are obtained, this is where that group comes into play, if the rights to Robotech are not obtained, that group doesn’t exist. Anyway, since for now, we’re assuming the rights to Robotech have been obtained, that group of Dire Wraiths does exist, they did go off into deep space, and they did find Unicron’s spark. Unicron wants to be re-united with his body, preferably the one at the center of Earth, but he needs help getting there, and the Dire Wraiths, well their numbers are very small, it’s just the group in deep space sent to find Unicron that exist at this point. Unicron teaches them how to build mechanical bodies that the Dire Wraiths trapped in the dimension Rom sent them to can operate. These mechanical puppets become the Haydonites.
Anyway, the Haydonites offer to help the group on the Robotech Master’s planet defeat the Invid and provide them with what is named Shadow Technology. The Invid on the Robotech Master’s home planet are defeated, and the alliance of humans, Zentradi, Robotech Masters, and Haydonites travel to Earth to reclaim it, arriving just as Scott Bernard and his small group of rebels arrive at Reflex Point. Earth is retaken with the Invid Regess leaving the planet for other regions of space, along with most of the Invid on Earth. Some Invid remain, those that were stationed in remote regions of the planet cut off from the Invid hive mind by the influence of Unicron’s body. They will be a problem to deal with in later series, perhaps.
After the final battle with the Invid, the Haydonites turn on humanity activating the built-in self-destruct on the shadow technology. The Haydonites trying to take out humanity and the Invid, so they can take Earth for themselves and Unicron. However, this effort is defeated, and humanity survives, the Haydonites running off to unknown regions of space. After Earth is reclaimed a message is received from Cybertron. This is the first message received from Cybertron in years, communication between Earth and Cybertron has gone dead for decades and no one could figure out why. Any parties sent to investigate haven’t returned. The message is the voice of Optimus Prime calling for aide. And we’ll touch on what’s been happening on Cybertron later.
What may or may not be revealed to the audience is the nature of the entities sleeping at the center of the Invid’s home planet, and the nature of the entity sleeping at the center of the Robotech Masters’ home planet. The entity at the center of the Invid’s planet is the embodiment of Peace, the Regent believing in peace through annihilation, the Regess believing in Peace through co-existence. The Invid began life as a completely peaceful society until their planet was attacked by the Robotech Masters who were looking for more exotic matter, and finding an abundant source of it in the Invid flower of life which could be refined into something like Energon very easily and grew quickly. The Robotech Masters originating on a planet where the embodiment of War slept.
For now, that’s it for Robotech. Next up is the Bionic Six.
A New Hasbroverse 