Die frühesten und auch bekanntesten Designs von Battletech basierten auf den prominenten Designs diverser Anime-Serien. Während der 1990′er kam es allerdings zu einer gerichtlichen Auseinandersetzung zwischen FASA und Playmates, sowie Harmony Gold, bezüglich der Distributionsrechte der Bilder in den Vereinigten Staaten. Ursprünglich ging es in diesem Verfahren wohl nur um die Bilder aus Macross/Robotech. Als sich der Staub legte, verwarf FASA alle geborgten oder lizensierten Bilder und benutzte fortan nur noch Bilder der eigenen Designs.

 

Prinzipiell geht es dabei hauptsächlich um einige Mech-Designs, hauptsächlich alte Bekannte wie Marodeur, Kriegshammer, Feuerfalke, Steppenwolf, Dunkelfalke, Greif, usw.

Über eine Dekade später passiert jetzt doch noch ein Wunder, die Unseen sind zurück!

„In 1996 numerous images originally licensed from several Japanese anime sources were retired from use within the BattleTech universe. Those illustrations formed the bedrock of the BattleTech 2nd Edition and BattleTech 3rd Edition Box Sets and were generally considered “fan favorites” across the board. These images—such as the Warhammer, Marauder, BattleMaster, Phoenix Hawk and so on—became known as the „unseen.“

After much blood, sweat and tears, Catalyst Game Labs is exceptionally pleased to announce the return of these “unseen” images.

„I’ve had the honor of helming BattleTech for a long, long time,“ said Randall Bills, Managing Developer for Catalyst Game Labs. „I’m exceptionally proud that the work of the last several years for the new line of core rulebooks and the current storyline has precipitated a resurgence in BattleTech play and recognition as a fun, great game, with one of the greatest legacies of any gameline. However, to participate in returning all our favorite images to the game we love… my geek’s been on for long weeks about this explosively cool development. Just wait until you see some of the art under development to „bring them back“ in a style worthy of our current books.“

The first books containing these images will start appearing this summer, with future releases—as appropriate—able to use illustrations of these classics.

This announcement, beyond its simple awesomeness of course, will obviously have a huge impact: will new miniatures will be produced; will Technical Readout: 3039 get images on a reprint; how will the record sheet PDFs be handled…and that’s just scratching the surface. However, at this time, there are no concrete answers as we’re exploring all options: Herb’s Standard Answers apply across the board. The one single answer I will give, however, is that the „reseen“ are not going anywhere. They are as valid and apart of the continuity as they’ve ever been.“ [Quelle]

YEAH-HA! :)