The Energon Pub

TFC Toys Uranos has made it big time. The put it on the cover and gave it a 2 page spread in Model Kit World magazine. Good work TFC Toys!







I seem to recall some toy magazine once did a story on the Iron Army a couple years back too. So this makes a second win for TFC Toys!

I've never heard of this magazine, but I'd guess that publicity like this would raise the eyebrow of Hasbro/Takara towards 3rd parties. Double edged sword

I don't think Hasbro give any more of a flying fig now than the did before the obscure (Chinese? Japanese?) model kit magazine put Uranos on the cover. Hasbro is not making a Superion, and Hasbro US doesn't sell in toys the country the magazine if from anyways.

It seems that I've forgotten to post it on the Uranos thread. Thanks for posting the pics here. You didn't include the other pic. Well, it's just for one of the limbs.

Likely a bid to increase familiarity with TFC in order to garner more interest in their Ares product.

Smart move.

Scaleface wrote:I don't think Hasbro give any more of a flying fig now than the did before the obscure (Chinese? Japanese?) model kit magazine put Uranos on the cover. Hasbro is not making a Superion, and Hasbro US doesn't sell in toys the country the magazine if from anyways.

They used a copyrighted/trademarked Transformers logo etc in the article. It's doesn't matter what country the magazine is from, it will still draw attention as its a trademarked logo being used/pictured with an unofficial non-Hasbro/Takara product.

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:

Scaleface wrote:I don't think Hasbro give any more of a flying fig now than the did before the obscure (Chinese? Japanese?) model kit magazine put Uranos on the cover. Hasbro is not making a Superion, and Hasbro US doesn't sell in toys the country the magazine if from anyways.

They used a copyrighted/trademarked Transformers logo etc in the article. It's doesn't matter what country the magazine is from, it will still draw attention as its a trademarked logo being used/pictured with an unofficial non-Hasbro/Takara product.

The logo was placed in the magazine by the magazine publisher, not TFC Toys. TFC has nothing to do with the article. The logo is there to show that this custom model kit is in the style of Transformers toys. I'm sure articles on custom made Gundams have the Gundam logo on the page, even if they are not made by the official toy company too.

Scaleface wrote:

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:

Scaleface wrote:I don't think Hasbro give any more of a flying fig now than the did before the obscure (Chinese? Japanese?) model kit magazine put Uranos on the cover. Hasbro is not making a Superion, and Hasbro US doesn't sell in toys the country the magazine if from anyways.

They used a copyrighted/trademarked Transformers logo etc in the article. It's doesn't matter what country the magazine is from, it will still draw attention as its a trademarked logo being used/pictured with an unofficial non-Hasbro/Takara product.

The logo was placed in the magazine by the magazine publisher, not TFC Toys. TFC has nothing to do with the article. The logo is there to show that this custom model kit is in the style of Transformers toys. I'm sure articles on custom made Gundams have the Gundam logo on the page, even if they are not made by the official toy company too.

Shouldn't there be a little copyright or trademark symbol next to the logo? I was under the impression that permission is needed to use logos regardless if another party uses them in a magazine, commercial, etc.

If there was a legal issue with it, Takara (the owners of the trademark in the part of the world where the magazine was published) would have to sue Model Kit World magazine (the people who put the logo there). Do you really think Takara would sue Model Kit World magazine for failing to put a "TM" symbol on a page? I do not.

I own several Japanese model magazines, they publishing articles on cool customs all the time. That's all this is to them.

Scaleface wrote:If there was a legal issue with it, Takara (the owners of the trademark in the part of the world where the magazine was published) would have to sue Model Kit World magazine (the people who put the logo there). Do you really think Takara would sue Model Kit World magazine for failing to put a "TM" symbol on a page? I do not.

I own several Japanese model magazines, they publishing articles on cool customs all the time. That's all this is to them.

I agree it's a legal issue and have no idea if Tomy cares or pursues these things, especially since this is Chinese magazine.

Overall it's cool that Uranos is featured in the magazine. Curious if this is a big magazine well known magazine.

I'm certain there's nothing Has/Tak can do about Uranos or any of its components. None of them are anywhere close to any known Has/Tak IP, and last I checked all that was required was a 30% difference from the "original" of any IP (at least in the US) for something to be considered infringement.

xyl360 wrote:I'm certain there's nothing Has/Tak can do about Uranos or any of its components. None of them are anywhere close to any known Has/Tak IP, and last I checked all that was required was a 30% difference from the "original" of any IP (at least in the US) for something to be considered infringement.

It's the use of a copyrighted/trademarked logo eg the Transformers logo being used in this magazine on something that is not a Transformer. Nothing to do the the figure itself for breaking any copyright etc.

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:

xyl360 wrote:I'm certain there's nothing Has/Tak can do about Uranos or any of its components. None of them are anywhere close to any known Has/Tak IP, and last I checked all that was required was a 30% difference from the "original" of any IP (at least in the US) for something to be considered infringement.

It's the use of a copyrighted/trademarked logo eg the Transformers logo being used in this magazine on something that is not a Transformer. Nothing to do the the figure itself for breaking any copyright etc.

A magazine doesn't need to ask permision to include logo in an article.

But it's implying that it's a Transformer, which is why I said it would raise eyebrows with the big wigs.

I've no idea about asian magazines, but I'm pretty sure you need to get the permission from the owner of any image eg logo that you do not own before you can reprint/publish it. I maybe wrong, but I remember for uni work if I wanted to use a picture that I hadnt created or owned myself, then I needed to get the permission of the owner to be able to use that image.

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:But it's implying that it's a Transformer, which is why I said it would raise eyebrows with the big wigs.

I've no idea about asian magazines, but I'm pretty sure you need to get the permission from the owner of any image eg logo that you do not own before you can reprint/publish it. I maybe wrong, but I remember for uni work if I wanted to use a picture that I hadnt created or owned myself, then I needed to get the permission of the owner to be able to use that image.

We have no idea what the text of the article says, being in Chinese. It may say "This toy is similar in style to Transformers" or "This not is not a licensed Transformer".

Either way no one in the US or Japan is going to sue a magazine publisher in China over an article.

Have you ever read the book Transformers: The Fantasy, the Fun, the Future?

http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-The- ... 1572439831

It's an UNAUTHORIZED book about the TRansformers franchize. It was made to cash in on the 2007 Transformers movie, and sold at school book sales. They put in a disclaimer in the beginning that it was an unauthorized guide. Hasbro made no money on it and gave no persmissions to use the material inside. It's full of information cut and pasted from TF web sites, pictures from Dreamwave comics, and the author knew NOTHING about TFs. No one sued them, and it was made in the US and sold in US school book fairs!

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:

xyl360 wrote:I'm certain there's nothing Has/Tak can do about Uranos or any of its components. None of them are anywhere close to any known Has/Tak IP, and last I checked all that was required was a 30% difference from the "original" of any IP (at least in the US) for something to be considered infringement.

It's the use of a copyrighted/trademarked logo eg the Transformers logo being used in this magazine on something that is not a Transformer. Nothing to do the the figure itself for breaking any copyright etc.

Ah, I see. I didn't realize they'd done that.

Scaleface wrote:

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:But it's implying that it's a Transformer, which is why I said it would raise eyebrows with the big wigs.

I've no idea about asian magazines, but I'm pretty sure you need to get the permission from the owner of any image eg logo that you do not own before you can reprint/publish it. I maybe wrong, but I remember for uni work if I wanted to use a picture that I hadnt created or owned myself, then I needed to get the permission of the owner to be able to use that image.

We have no idea what the text of the article says, being in Chinese. It may say "This toy is similar in style to Transformers" or "This not is not a licensed Transformer".

Either way no one in the US or Japan is going to sue a magazine publisher in China over an article.

Have you ever read the book Transformers: The Fantasy, the Fun, the Future?

http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-The- ... 1572439831

It's an UNAUTHORIZED book about the TRansformers franchize. It was made to cash in on the 2007 Transformers movie, and sold at school book sales. They put in a disclaimer in the beginning that it was an unauthorized guide. Hasbro made no money on it and gave no persmissions to use the material inside. It's full of information cut and pasted from TF web sites, pictures from Dreamwave comics, and the author knew NOTHING about TFs. No one sued them, and it was made in the US and sold in US school book fairs!

Yeah, I've got this book. It's an awesome resource, but completely unofficial. I wish they'd have done the second one they'd planned to which would have covered all of the Beast Wars characters/figures the first one didn't.

How did this thread go from a magazine giving props to Uranus to a debate on copyrights, IP, etc ? Since Hasbro stopped worrying about that BS, we should too. 3rd party figures are here to stay ! They were even allowed to be sold at Botcon a few months ago. Throw your drinks up ! Cheers ! Screw IP it was a stupid concept to begin with !

Rated X wrote:How did this thread go from a magazine giving props to Uranus to a debate on copyrights, IP, etc ? Since Hasbro stopped worrying about that BS, we should too. 3rd party figures are here to stay ! They were even allowed to be sold at Botcon a few months ago. Throw your drinks up ! Cheers ! Screw IP it was a stupid concept to begin with !

Probably because of the very first reply from this thread:

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:I've never heard of this magazine, but I'd guess that publicity like this would raise the eyebrow of Hasbro/Takara towards 3rd parties. Double edged sword

...and it went downhill from there, people overly-worried about hos a US toy company would respond to an article in a Chinese modeling magazine... as if Hasbro or Takara knew or cared at all.