Re: Idle thinkings on BattleTech
Actually, the whole ordeal over the Btech books didn't shut FASA down... they decided to close their doors due to a slumped market that wasn't making them any money. The problem was due to a confusion over who owned the rights to the images of said mecha, and who had the right to sell that license. Harmony Gold, FASA, and at least one other party were all involved; FASA wasn't sued, per se, but they were given a cease and desist regarding use of those images (as I understand it), though they were pretty much moving towards compliance before that point.
As mentioned above, TRO: Project Phoenix pretty much brings all those designs back, and most of them are fairly recognizeable. I prefer my copy of TRO:3025 (orginally) due to the timeline (and my first mecha love- the BLR-1G Battlemaster), but the whole new Jihad era piqued my interest, so TRO:PP is also in my collection.