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I wonder how Hasbro will defend itself on this. Not on banning 3rd party stuff or KOs (I think we all saw that coming), but on fan art. It's a real dick move on the artists who must have already made plans to sell there.

Gotta wonder what made Hasbro decide to go bananas on this all of a sudden. I tend to think it was the high quality KOs of stuff like the Dinocassettes and the Headmaster set that finally did it for them. I'm not their biggest fan, but the shutdown of KOToys seems like the first salvo against the 3rd party market. Which, apparently, includes fan art.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I wonder how Hasbro will defend itself on this. Not on banning 3rd party stuff or KOs (I think we all saw that coming), but on fan art. It's a real dick move on the artists who must have already made plans to sell there.

Gotta wonder what made Hasbro decide to go bananas on this all of a sudden. I tend to think it was the high quality KOs of stuff like the Dinocassettes and the Headmaster set that finally did it for them. I'm not their biggest fan, but the shutdown of KOToys seems like the first salvo against the 3rd party market. Which, apparently, includes fan art.

In a sense, commercial art is included in the whole legal picture.

Think of it this way. We all know the bootleg and KO principle, meaning trying to earn money by using designs of other companies without permission. We see and acknowledge it with toys, yet we don't when it comes to art, even if the artists use Hasbro's designs for profit. I can only assume this is because we recognise the artists as fans themselves, and not as ordinary thieves like the KO companies are.

To Hasbro it doesn't seem to matter. Eye for an eye, tooth for
a tooth. If non-licensed (and non-Hasbro for that matter) toys are to be banned from BotCon, it wouldn't make sense legally to still allow unlicensed art to be sold no matter who made it, would it?

Mind you, I'm not defending Hasbro's action in any way, just trying to provide a few points of insight from my point of view. Take it as you wish.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I wonder how Hasbro will defend itself on this. Not on banning 3rd party stuff or KOs (I think we all saw that coming), but on fan art. It's a real dick move on the artists who must have already made plans to sell there.

Gotta wonder what made Hasbro decide to go bananas on this all of a sudden. I tend to think it was the high quality KOs of stuff like the Dinocassettes and the Headmaster set that finally did it for them. I'm not their biggest fan, but the shutdown of KOToys seems like the first salvo against the 3rd party market. Which, apparently, includes fan art.

In a sense, commercial art is included in the whole legal picture.

Think of it this way. We all know the bootleg and KO principle, meaning trying to earn money by using designs of other companies without permission. We see and acknowledge it with toys, yet we don't when it comes to art, even if the artists use Hasbro's designs for profit. I can only assume this is because we recognise the artists as fans themselves, and not as ordinary thieves like the KO companies are.

To Hasbro it doesn't seem to matter. Eye for an eye, tooth for
a tooth. If non-licensed (and non-Hasbro for that matter) toys are to be banned from BotCon, it wouldn't make sense legally to still allow unlicensed art to be sold no matter who made it, would it?

Mind you, I'm not defending Hasbro's action in any way, just trying to provide a few points of insight from my point of view. Take it as you wish.

That's probably how it is for them, and it's probably what they intended to say when they banned non-Hasbro TF stuff from Botcon. IMHO, they probably intended to ban fan art from Botcon at that time too, but just neglected to mention it specifically thinking people would get it.

But it's one thing to guess at what's probably going on in their minds as far as legality is concerned and another to get an explanation on why they sought out this PR nightmare that's happening. Stopping vendors from selling non-Hasbro TF toys ... I get that. I don't think that needs any explanation. But stopping Joe TF fan from selling at artist's alley ... where you go to BUY FAN ART ... as a fan I feel they should explain how they justify this morally, as opposed to legally. If they feel they were pushed into this situation due to the emergence of whatever new 3rd party product or KO, fine .... but I'd like to hear that from their lips.

I'm not one of those guys who thinks Hasbro doesn't care about it's fans either. So I'd be interested on WTF is going on in their heads on this.

why do i have the feeling ebay is next?
i mean whats to stop them from contacting ebay and saying "yeah you know that custom bruticus/menasor/animated omega supreme thats our ip and these people arent allowed to sell it.
any custon repaint could be removed for sure.

alternator77 wrote:why do i have the feeling ebay is next?
i mean whats to stop them from contacting ebay and saying "yeah you know that custom bruticus/menasor/animated omega supreme thats our ip and these people arent allowed to sell it.
any custon repaint could be removed for sure.

If that day comes, I will sell my entire collection, piece by piece like a vicious scalper, wash my hands of this hobby and put a down payment on a house.

I think KOs would be targeted before 3rd party stuff and fan art. They tried to get KOs before, and they're harder to find now, but if you know what to look for you can still find them.

Hasbro owns Botcon and can coarse online stores (by not supplying them), but ebay is one, huge, garage sale. I don't know if they can really do anything about that.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I think KOs would be targeted before 3rd party stuff and fan art. They tried to get KOs before, and they're harder to find now, but if you know what to look for you can still find them.

Hasbro owns Botcon and can coarse online stores (by not supplying them), but ebay is one, huge, garage sale. I don't know if they can really do anything about that.

Masterpiece Megatron was banned from Ebay at one point due to gun laws.

Yeah, they've already cracked down on KOs on eBay, all they have to do is go to eBay themselves, or have some guy trolling all day, reporting 'unauthorized' auctions. There are still loopholes that can be found, but it's harder now than before.

I still think 3rd Party stuff will always find a way though. Hasbro really has no power to shut down some small operation in China, and every time they take down a website they can just put another up. Even if they threaten the big retailers and force them to take down all 3rd Party products, the manufacturers will start up their own shops.

What's really dying here is the fun of the hobby, when Hasbro becomes the bad guy, more interested in protecting their property than actually producing quality product.

kirbenvost wrote:Yeah, they've already cracked down on KOs on eBay, all they have to do is go to eBay themselves, or have some guy trolling all day, reporting 'unauthorized' auctions. There are still loopholes that can be found, but it's harder now than before.

I still think 3rd Party stuff will always find a way though. Hasbro really has no power to shut down some small operation in China, and every time they take down a website they can just put another up. Even if they threaten the big retailers and force them to take down all 3rd Party products, the manufacturers will start up their own shops.

What's really dying here is the fun of the hobby, when Hasbro becomes the bad guy, more interested in protecting their property than actually producing quality product.

Everything you just said. igear.shop is a fine example. Fun killers.

Transformer KOs can still easily be found on ebay. Granted you won't find the ones you want by searching for "Transformers KO" anymore (although you still do get results), but they are there. I can't really agree that they've continued to crack down on them when I was just now looking at KOs of the Seekers and Botcon Breakdown.

And MP Megs being banned "at one point" is just that .... being banned "at one point".

I guess we'll see what happens, but there seems to be a lot of holes in trying to ban stuff from ebay.