BotCon 2012 Update: Artist Alley Restrictions on Fan Art
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 11:18am CDT
Categories: Event News, Collector's Club NewsPosted by: El Duque Views: 33,208
Topic Options: View Discussion · Sign in or Join to reply
This article was last modified on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 12:25pm CDT
Got Transformers News? Let us know here!
Most Popular Transformers News
Most Recent Transformers News
Posted by Bullycon on April 3rd, 2012 @ 11:21am CDT
Third-party toys have brought this hammer down from Hasbro. Now, the rest of the fandom gets to suffer, as a result. Thanks, guys. Thanks a whole heap.
Posted by Delicon on April 3rd, 2012 @ 11:28am CDT
Posted by korisifu on April 3rd, 2012 @ 11:31am CDT
Posted by metaphorge on April 3rd, 2012 @ 11:42am CDT


Way to shoot yourselves in the feet, guys. Are you going to keep this up until I have to boycott buying anything from you at retail?
Posted by Uncommon on April 3rd, 2012 @ 11:46am CDT
Posted by Mindmaster on April 3rd, 2012 @ 11:51am CDT
Posted by FracturedKoi on April 3rd, 2012 @ 11:56am CDT
I can honestly say that this is one year that I'm glad not to be attending BotCon! My convention of choice this year is Savcon, at least they don't have a ginormous banhammer to thwart my fun!
Posted by metaphorge on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:03pm CDT
Why should Hasbro care if they don't get paid for said "fun"?FracturedKoi wrote:I can understand wanting to protect your property, IP, or whatnot, but to restrict fans enjoyment, creativity, enthusiasm, and fun at a convention for the fans is going a bit too far.
Posted by Requiem Prime on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:10pm CDT
Uncommon wrote:I would have thought the best way to fight the third-party toys is to actually compete with them.
Well, this is easier. Trying to one-up against 3rd parties would be a losing battle. They got Hasbro's budget limits and QC beat with higher pricing and limited runs.
It's a little sad Hasbro/Fun Pub decided to stop being cool about it. Outside the MP line, (which Hasbro doesn't tap half as often as Takara) 3rd parties pretty much are the adult collector's line. Moreso really, because most stuff is tailored to join Classics shelves.
I can't say I see why they have to take an all or nothing approach.
Posted by Requiem Prime on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:13pm CDT
Requiem Prime wrote:It's a little sad Hasbro/Fun Pub decided to stop being cool about it. Outside the MP line, (which Hasbro doesn't tap half as often as Takara) 3rd parties pretty much are the adult collector's line. Moreso really, because most stuff is tailored to join Classics shelves.
Unless they announce they're creating a TF Elite line or something to do just that.
Posted by Mindmaster on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:15pm CDT
Requiem Prime wrote:Requiem Prime wrote:It's a little sad Hasbro/Fun Pub decided to stop being cool about it. Outside the MP line, (which Hasbro doesn't tap half as often as Takara) 3rd parties pretty much are the adult collector's line. Moreso really, because most stuff is tailored to join Classics shelves.
Unless they announce they're creating a TF Elite line or something to do just that.
I'd go for that.
Posted by metaphorge on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:16pm CDT
Because many large corporations are run by inherently unimaginative people?Requiem Prime wrote:I can't say I see why they have to take an all or nothing approach.
Just look at the recording industry.
I imagine Hasbro is particularly susceptible since they seem to want to transform themselves from being a toy company to being an intellectual property company since the manufacture of mass-market (see also: inexpensive) toys is rapidly becoming unsustainable due to labor and transportation costs continuing to spiral out of control.
Posted by Almagnus1 on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:36pm CDT
Also, someone needs to ask Hasbro why they don't have an line aimed at the adult collector.
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:39pm CDT
FracturedKoi wrote:I can understand wanting to protect your property, IP, or whatnot, but to restrict fans enjoyment, creativity, enthusiasm, and fun at a convention for the fans is going a bit too far.
You're not totally getting it. It's not the fan art itself that's banned, it's selling it. Giving it away should be perfectly fine, as long as the artist don't earn money from Hasbro's IP without a license. That includes paid commissions.
Posted by AdamPrime on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:44pm CDT
Hasbro stomp on 3rd party, unlicensed or unofficial works because they receive no benefit (read: money) from the sale of such things. The other party is profiting from Hasbro's characters and established efforts.
So, how is selling second-hand toys any better? Hasbro don't see a cent from the thousands of dollars that changes hands for old toys - be it Armada, Beast Wars, a MISB Fort Max or Galaxy Shuttle. What is happening is the same, dealers are making money (sometimes, a LOT of money) from Hasbro's intellectual property.
So why allow it? What's the difference between a box of G1 figures, and a handpainted picture of a G1 character, say. Both will change hands for money. Hasbro will not receive any profit. Should toy dealers apply for licenses now, or be banned from selling?
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:48pm CDT
AdamPrime wrote:You know what bugs me?
Hasbro stomp on 3rd party, unlicensed or unofficial works because they receive no benefit (read: money) from the sale of such things. The other party is profiting from Hasbro's characters and established efforts.
So, how is selling second-hand toys any better? Hasbro don't see a cent from the thousands of dollars that changes hands for old toys - be it Armada, Beast Wars, a MISB Fort Max or Galaxy Shuttle. What is happening is the same, dealers are making money (sometimes, a LOT of money) from Hasbro's intellectual property.
So why allow it? What's the difference between a box of G1 figures, and a handpainted picture of a G1 character, say. Both will change hands for money. Hasbro will not receive any profit. Should toy dealers apply for licenses now, or be banned from selling?
Totally different story. Hasbro already has your money (actually, the money from the store buying their stock) from way back when the 2nd hand toys were first bought. Do you see other companies suing stores that deal in 2nd hand items? No. It's basic economics with the supplier not being a company, but an individual, a middleman as it were. Perfectly legal, as the original product was still bought from Hasbro. If it was stolen along the way however, only then you'd have a problem.
Posted by Dorkimus on April 3rd, 2012 @ 12:58pm CDT
JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:AdamPrime wrote:You know what bugs me?
Hasbro stomp on 3rd party, unlicensed or unofficial works because they receive no benefit (read: money) from the sale of such things. The other party is profiting from Hasbro's characters and established efforts.
So, how is selling second-hand toys any better? Hasbro don't see a cent from the thousands of dollars that changes hands for old toys - be it Armada, Beast Wars, a MISB Fort Max or Galaxy Shuttle. What is happening is the same, dealers are making money (sometimes, a LOT of money) from Hasbro's intellectual property.
So why allow it? What's the difference between a box of G1 figures, and a handpainted picture of a G1 character, say. Both will change hands for money. Hasbro will not receive any profit. Should toy dealers apply for licenses now, or be banned from selling?
Totally different story. Hasbro already has your money (actually, the money from the store buying their stock) from way back when the 2nd hand toys were first bought. Do you see other companies suing stores that deal in 2nd hand items? No. It's basic economics with the supplier not being a company, but an individual, a middleman as it were. Perfectly legal.
Actually some game companies tried to stop people from re-selling their games. Some suggested making the games kind of a console bound. Meaning that once you put the game inside your console it is registered to that particular console only and basically you couldn't sell it forward. But I think that this didn't quite work. Don't remember all the details, but I guess it was against some laws and such.
So you might say that at least some big companies would try to change this thing if they could. Would hastak do the same? Hopefully we'll never know.
Posted by Autobot032 on April 3rd, 2012 @ 1:05pm CDT
This is ridiculous. Can you honestly tell me that fan artists are damaging their bottom line? No. If you try, then you're just drinking the kool aid and won't listen to reason.
Banning 3rd party stuff? Okay. I get it.
Banning the sales of fan art, after it was allowed for ALL these years? No. Sorry, I don't get it.
I think Hasbro's trying to crush Botcon. Make it unappealing, so they can focus on their multimedia and drop the toys and all...altogether.
Mark my words. There will be a day when TFs are a property and nothing else. No toys. Zip.
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on April 3rd, 2012 @ 1:05pm CDT
Dorkimus wrote:JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:AdamPrime wrote:You know what bugs me?
Hasbro stomp on 3rd party, unlicensed or unofficial works because they receive no benefit (read: money) from the sale of such things. The other party is profiting from Hasbro's characters and established efforts.
So, how is selling second-hand toys any better? Hasbro don't see a cent from the thousands of dollars that changes hands for old toys - be it Armada, Beast Wars, a MISB Fort Max or Galaxy Shuttle. What is happening is the same, dealers are making money (sometimes, a LOT of money) from Hasbro's intellectual property.
So why allow it? What's the difference between a box of G1 figures, and a handpainted picture of a G1 character, say. Both will change hands for money. Hasbro will not receive any profit. Should toy dealers apply for licenses now, or be banned from selling?
Totally different story. Hasbro already has your money (actually, the money from the store buying their stock) from way back when the 2nd hand toys were first bought. Do you see other companies suing stores that deal in 2nd hand items? No. It's basic economics with the supplier not being a company, but an individual, a middleman as it were. Perfectly legal.
Actually some game companies tried to stop people from re-selling their games. Some suggested making the games kind of a console bound. Meaning that once you put the game inside your console it is registered to that particular console only and basically you couldn't sell it forward. But I think that this didn't quite work. Don't remember all the details, but I guess it was against some laws and such.
Really? Never heard of that story.
My guess is that is to prevent software piracy, as I can imagine it's pretty easy to copy games onto a blank cartridge or disk if you have the right equipment. With us in the Netherlands we're pretty strict on software sales: exchange within 24 hours, or if it has a one-use activation code, no exchange at all.
Posted by Megatron Wolf on April 3rd, 2012 @ 1:05pm CDT