Night of the Living Dead

for a film that has a huge cult following and started the entire modern era concept of what we consider a "zombie", there is a suprisingly non existant amount of figures out there for this film. Wonder why nobody has thought of a 1/6 line of figures. At the very least a Bill Hinzman zombie, or sweet little dead girl in the cellar coming at you with a garden hoe. Litigation issues or just not a large enuff fan base?

Anton Phibes said:

for a film that has a huge cult following and started the entire modern era concept of what we consider a "zombie", there is a suprisingly non existant amount of figures out there for this film. Wonder why nobody has thought of a 1/6 line of figures. At the very least a Bill Hinzman zombie, or sweet little dead girl in the cellar coming at you with a garden hoe. Litigation issues or just not a large enuff fan base?

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The movie is in the public domain now I believe... or at least was for a while. I don't how that would affect merchandising and likeness rights. I guess somebody must still own those???

The rights situation for Night of the Living Dead is a giant mess. The movie itself is public domain, but the toy rights are not. I know SOTA has looked into it, and the problem is no one knows who owns the toy/merchandise rights. It was never contemplated at the time it was made that there would be any demand for any. I think you could get away with making t-shirts or something with the title, but representing actual characters would be difficult, due to likeness rights and just the odd probability one of the people who made the film would sue you for a shot at a quick settlement.

The only way to do it I think would be to pay off everyone who had ever had a financial stake in the movie at any time in its history. Which of course would be a considerable burden and as costly as a major film license.

Actually I don't think the rights are public domain any longer. They were for a very long time, but I remember reading an interview with Romero and Tom Savini while they were filming the 90's remake. In it they said a huge part of the reason for the remake was to resecure the rights to the Night of the Living Dead films. I think they even mention it on the dvd of the 90's version.

What about Tarman? Funny and creepy

Already done.......custom anyway

Murderofcrows71 said:

Already done.......custom anyway

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Me Like...

I hope ss keeps The Dead line going for a while before they think about doing Zombies from flicks! Their ideas are better IMO.:chew

amarcord said:

What about Tarman? Funny and creepy

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While very cool, and I would love to see a figure of him made, he is from "Return of the Living Dead". I'm not sure "Night of the Living Dead" would really provide a lot of ideas for me, other than the little girl, the Cemetery zombie from the opening of the movie, and maybe Johnnie! Of course, you could also do the "living" stars as well, which could give you two or three more I would like to see.

Return of the Living Dead rights are available, SOTA's doing a figure of Julie from part 3 in their Now Playing 7" line.

Somehow, the question got lost in the translation. Return of the Living Dead to me is a piece of doo-doo.

I know alotta folks dig it and thats cool. But Night of the Living Dead is a CLASSIC.

bluesparrow said:

Return of the Living Dead rights are available, SOTA's doing a figure of Julie from part 3 in their Now Playing 7" line.

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sweet! I'll take one. This would be a nice 12"er

Anton Phibes said:

Somehow, the question got lost in the translation. Return of the Living Dead to me is a piece of doo-doo.

I know alotta folks dig it and thats cool. But Night of the Living Dead is a CLASSIC.

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Night is a classic! I do like the first Return film and also think it is a classic; thought it was funny and scary at the same time! The sequels haven't been as good...

But, we were discussing Night figures, so let's get back to those! So far, I would want:

Cemetery Zombie (Silliam Hinzman)
Johnny as a Zombie (Russel Streiner)
Karen Cooper as a Zombie (Kyra Schon)
Ben (Duane Jones)
Barbra (Judith O'Dea)
Sheriff McClelland (George Kosana)

That's about it. Maybe one or two of the other zombies that were featured...

Phibes, have you checked out Geometric Designs website lately? They have a Hinzeman Zombie model kit coming out soon! Looks really nice.

You mean this one....?

...picked him up last month, built and painted him right away! What do you think?

...I think a recast of that head would be a great start for a custom figure!

I like the movies.. but don't want figs of them.. SS Original "The Dead" line... is much better then any movie zombie figure!!!!

I thought the Patient Zero was cool looking but I cancelled the Subject 5 security guard, wasn't too impressed. Looked more like he had boils growing on him than a zombie. I'd much rather have a Bub or Dr. Tongue figure from Day of the Dead.