except the nature of liscencing agreements dictates that HG is the God king of all things Macross in North America.
Which is the point where the Japanese legal decisions come into play.
While Tatsunoko had the right to market the original
SDF Macross series (and related merchandise) outside of Japan, their remit was not supposed to cover individual components of that series (mecha designs, characters, and so on), since those component rights remain under Big West and Studio Nue's control (which allowed them to develop sequels like
Frontier).
Under that line of reasoning, HG would only have been allowed to handle the series itself (since their contract was/is with Tatsunoko), but they are (from the perspective of Big West and Studio Nue) overstepping their boundaries in terms of how much
Macross-related material/derivatives they are claiming international control over.
However, while neither Big West nor Studio Nue have tried to bring any legal proceedings against HG in the United States on the back of
the decisions affirming the nature of their relationship with Tatsunoko in Japan, Hasbro is in a much stronger position financially to prosecute such a legal campaign - and, if they so wished, could consider asking TakaraTomy to get the relevant information from Tatsunoko (or to simply ask Studio Nue and Big West directly) in order to make a counter-argument as to exactly what HG themselves are doing beyond the bounds of their own licence.
