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Interesting discovery: At some point in the late 80s, Harmony Gold was distributing Speed Racer for Trans-Lux in the UK. This is a fascinating discovery, because it may provide the missing link for how Speed Racer Enterprises came to be (1/5)

In 1991, Trans-Lux would sell the rights to John Rocknowski, who would establish Speed Racer Enterprises, and would control the rights to the series into the 2010s. What I didn't mention was that in 1991, Rocknowski was an employee of Harmony Gold! (2/5)

While I've certainly not read every single interview and feature that SRE ever put out, I was never able to figure out how the rights to Speed Racer just fell into Rocknowski's lap, but these UK tapes serve as the missing link! His employer already had UK rights, so when Trans-Lux... (3/5)

Either was looking to sell or decided not to renew their license, of course Tatsunoko would go to Harmony Gold first. As for why they passed on US rights, I'm not sure, but I have heard that the attempts to sell the series in the UK didn't exactly take off, so maybe they passed? (4/5)

Rocknowski recognized that unlike the UK, the US actually had some nostalgia for Speed Racer that could be exploited, and thus, SRE came to be. Of course, if anyone has any other good sources on the foundation of SRE, please let me know! It's anime history! (And I may be obsessed)