Emerje wrote:(Apologies to Cobotron, his post wasn't there when I started writing.)
Black Hat wrote:It is a knock off because they're knocking off a character and I wish they weren't.
That's not how knockoffs work.
That's entirely how knockoffs work. Part of that is infringing on IPs, it isn't just about copying a figure and selling it at a dollar store. It's why Harmony Gold sues anyone (including Hasbro) for making figures that vaguely resemble a Robotech Valkyrie and usually get their way.
Yeah, and Harmony Gold is absolutely despised by more or less the entire Macross fandom- including the creators- for their ridiculous handling of the license. Like, "the creator of Macross encouraging Western fans to pirate the anime to get around Harmony Gold's bullsh!t" despised.
It's why Warner Brothers has a long history of having custom DC Comic characters removed from eBay. It's why a number of conventions have dropped their artist alleys or tightened rules on banning the sales of fanart.
Yeah, and it's absolutely stupid. Just because companies can do it doesn't mean they should.
Unofficially making something that looks like something you don't own the rights to make and then profiting from it is entirely illegal. Mattel can't make a figure of a robot that turns into a red semi truck and get away with it.
Yet apparently Hasbro can make a figure of one of Don Figouera's designs (the Stealth Bomber Megatron) without crediting him at all and that's just fine.
The only reason why Hasbro and Takara Tomy don't just crush all of the so-called "3rd parties" (I hate that term, they're bootleggers) is because it would cost more time, money, and resources to take them all to court overseas than they're loosing from letting them stay.
That, and they'd lose a tonne of customers. I know if HasTak suddenly cracked down on 3P pieces I'd boycott them entirely. Not that that's ever going to happen- you may be surprised to know that HasTak and certain 3Ps aren't actually nearly as unfriendly as you might think. Reps from both HasTak and 3P companies share ideas at conventions and even collaborate on projects from time to time- IIRC one of MakeToys' engineers has done work for Takara.
That's it. If Hasbro wanted to they would be entirely in their right to ask eBay to block their sales, ask online stores to stop carrying them (they've done that in the past), ask news sites to stop reporting on them (they've done that, too), have YouTube take down any reviews for them and basically wipe them off the internet,
Legally maybe (maybe- at the end of the day most of these companies are based in China and as such are almost completely untouchable) but morally? Going after what are essentially people producing engineered fanart? No, they would not be "entirely in their right". For one, 3P sales barely even dent HasTak's bottom line, so the only reason they'd have for shutting them down would basically be spite. For another, some 3P products actually boost HasTak sales (I know I wouldn't be buying UW Computron were it not for the Perfect Effect feet) so shutting them down would just be stupid. It would also be utter hypocrisy, considering they've endorsed things like Shapeways, which is filled with people making upgrade kits for Hasbro figures. Or are you suggesting that they should be shut down too?
but they wont because it's expensive and bad business.
Emerje
That and it would be a completely dickish and counterproductive move.
Like it or not, the Third Party market is here to stay. At least, if it does go under then official Transformers will probably soon follow.