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Diamond Select didn't "buy the rights to the Battle Beasts franchise" and all the sites that've been reporting they have have been making false assumptions. Hasbro neglected to retain the trademark rights to the name Battle Beasts because it wasn't being used and Diamond Select acquired the name; they haven't purchased, or even licensed, the rights to the original Beastformers franchise. Diamond's line is entirely new and they won't be producing merchandise based on the original character designs or making anything too similar because they legally can't. Of course, they're not going to go out of their way to clarify the issue because the whole point of registering the Battle Beasts trademark is to capitalize on nostalgia and create the perception that their line is an official revival of the franchise.

Oh wow. That explains a lot.

Thing is, Hasbro could release these TT toys as something else. They just can't call them "Battle Beasts" here in the US, since diamond owns that name now.

I wonder if they'd dare to call it "Beast Wars"

NihilistNun wrote:Diamond Select didn't "buy the rights to the Battle Beasts franchise" and all the sites that've been reporting they have have been making false assumptions. Hasbro neglected to retain the trademark rights to the name Battle Beasts because it wasn't being used and Diamond Select acquired the name; they haven't purchased, or even licensed, the rights to the original Beastformers franchise. Diamond's line is entirely new and they won't be producing merchandise based on the original character designs or making anything too similar because they legally can't. Of course, they're not going to go out of their way to clarify the issue because the whole point of registering the Battle Beasts trademark is to capitalize on nostalgia and create the perception that their line is an official revival of the franchise.

That is interesting and if true a real dick move especially considering the press release and messages we've received from them over the past few years.
I'll look into this and if true, I think the Diamond Battle Beast article will disappear.

That is interesting and if true a real dick move especially considering the press release and messages we've received from them over the past few years.
I'll look into this and if true, I think the Diamond Battle Beast article will disappear.

It is true, and I'm trying to find confirmation from my minimates buddies.

I do remember chuck, the diamond/minimates guy mentioned he wasn't sure if they could do rubsigns because of the copyrights involved, admitting they don't have the line as a whole. They're promoting toys, so they weren't going to talk about what they couldn't do just yet

At the same time, hasbro did not renew the license. So, it's a two sided issue. If hasbro really wanted it, why let it expire? They did nothing with it for however many years. So, it being stolen is kind of weird issue. I don't see it so much as a dick move as more like "if you're not going to use it...."

Though diamond had to keep pushing battle beast back. They never really addressed why. They kept doing soft promotions with their gator mold. They had completely different prototypes seen on display before, not using minimates bodies at all. Those seem to be scrapped now. These prototypes actually took animal/color combinations from the original. I suspect they ran into legal trouble.

So, now we have original ones, that seem like the older ones, still new names, new look, different toyline all togethr.

Screamfleet wrote:

That is interesting and if true a real dick move especially considering the press release and messages we've received from them over the past few years.
I'll look into this and if true, I think the Diamond Battle Beast article will disappear.

It is true, and I'm trying to find confirmation from my minimates buddies.

I do remember chuck, the diamond/minimates guy mentioned he wasn't sure if they could do rubsigns because of the copyrights involved, admitting they don't have the line as a whole. They're promoting toys, so they weren't going to talk about what they couldn't do just yet

At the same time, hasbro did not renew the license. So, it's a two sided issue. If hasbro really wanted it, why let it expire? They did nothing with it for however many years. So, it being stolen is kind of weird issue. I don't see it so much as a dick move as more like "if you're not going to use it...."

Though diamond had to keep pushing battle beast back. They never really addressed why. They kept doing soft promotions with their gator mold. They had completely different prototypes seen on display before, not using minimates bodies at all. Those seem to be scrapped now. These prototypes actually took animal/color combinations from the original. I suspect they ran into legal trouble.

So, now we have original ones, that seem like the older ones, still new names, new look, different toyline all togethr.

No it's a dick move in the sense that they lead us to believe that these where actually Battle Beasts as in the same ones Hasbro and Takara sold, while in reality this is just a line with a similar concept using the same name and then telling every one it's the original reincarnate. That's as if someone bought the trademark to Go-Bots and put it on Lego like robots while telling everyone it was the actual Go-Bots just resurrected.

Well, at certain points in the toys development their intentions may have been different. I've never gathered these are the same BB. So over the years, the sent press releases and wanted BB to be part of the original line and such. I'm pretty well convinced they discovered they could not.

http://powet.tv/powetblog/wp-content/up ... banner.jpg

Those canceled prototypes do utilize what hasbro/takara did. Yea a gorilla in red armor isn't that big of a deal, but, that's what the original was. In that sense, at one point, they were trying to reinvent the originals. I don't think their intent was to mislead, but at this point, it kind of is. I get what you mean, it is kind of a dick move in that sense. As they're pretty much utilizing the name to capitalize on the fans of the old toys.

Wasn't Seibs working on a Battle Beasts site? There used to be link on the main page but I can't find it now... (there was a GI Joe one as well I believe)

SWEET!

I'm so looking forward to these little guys!

loved them as a kid and they usually come up when remanising about childhood with friends. will deff. pick some up.

Well, it seems no one's posted about it yet, but the first wave of these little fellas has landed at BBTS and mine are on their way! Excited!

There's been so little news I thought maybe this fizzled - glad that it didn't. I'll have to head over and check it out!

Adding a few to my MP shelf