IAmThePeej wrote:mandingo_rex wrote:Noideaforaname wrote:That looks very much like a repurposed dollar store playset, especially given that the only thing that really resembles anything from the cartoon is the paper Teletraan 1 that doesn't mesh at all with the "rock" it's inserted into.
And I'm not happy with them stealing my artwork to sell it. I made it for fans to print out and assemble, not for third party Chinese folks to rip off and make a buck from.
For anyone curious about it, here's the original:
http://forums.tformers.com/talk/index.p ... 91920&st=0
I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here; its not exactly the same, and I'm not just referencing the difference in size, but the main screen on their Teletraan is wider than the one you have provided in your link, and the 3 screens below the main screen are in a different order. Showing the two side by side screens above what appears to be a voice wavelength. Also your secondary screens are pretty much the same size, theirs shows the left screen to be slightly wider and not exactly centered.
All in all though, enough changes to make it not the same item, much like the differences between Queen/ David Bowie's Under Pressure and Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby (which Ice's lawyers showed it differentiated by one note, literally that's all it was). They may have seen yours, and copied it since it is a nice amount of work you put into it.
Please note I'm not siding with the makers of the toy set and saying you're lying, so please don't get mad at me or anything. All I did was point out enough differences noticeable on the images provided. Pretty much showed how the zebra is white with black stripes instead of black with white stripes.
I also prefer your Teletraan print outs since they looks nicer as well.
Not mad at you, and when it comes to 3rd party makers, it's not like they have many scruples. A lot of it's done overseas where they can't really be touched, and let's face it: if they aren't scared enough by Hasbro or Takara to stop stealing work almost identically (like in iGear's case) then they're not going to stop stealing fan's work. And I'm even a purchaser of such items, because frankly, Hasbro/Takara aren't making the items themselves.
But just because they took Photoshop and rearranged it, doesn't make it different art... or theirs to distribute. Especially when they're making money off it. I'd know my own work because I've seen it for hours on end while working on it, and over the years as people have used it for videos, dioramas, and some fans have even reworked the art—mostly with my permission, and having contacted me before modifying it for redistribution... which I'm totally fine with. When iGear made their Teletraan, I had people contact me that they "stole" my work. They didn't steal anything though, and even I personally used comic book artwork to fill the screens... although the rest of the artwork was mine. But it was all fan art, nothing more, and never to be sold. I also posted it for free, for folks to use for free, explaining all that up front (and also the fact that I used artwork for the screens and cited that it wasn't my own work), and asked everyone to not sell it or make money from it.
Which is what these guys are doing... making money from it. If they "saw it and copied it", which is similar to what iGear did for their box art (not talking the plastic product, but the box art)... The art style was very similar but they redid all the lineart/coloring/etc themselves. This, on the other hand, is almost exactly the same. Going so far as just reusing my artwork, not mimicking it in any artistic way.
I appreciate the other side of the argument usually, but with these guys, they've clearly just ripped off a fan's work. The mountain itself isn't really any intellectual property by Hasbro or Takara, so they get away with that. The Teletraan artwork though, I find it lazy. To be honest, it doesn't even fit with the aesthetics of the set (like some other people have mentioned.)
