Hot Toys Issues Infringement Notice

[ali032373]

Wasn't there a bootleg Hulk?

 

[payton34]

On a serious note, I know that you can find re-casted headsculpts on Ebay, but has there ever been a fully bootlegged HT figure?

Ghost Rider and his motorcycle. Blade. That's all I know offhand.

 

[onethousandmasks]

On a serious note, I know that you can find re-casted headsculpts on Ebay, but has there ever been a fully bootlegged HT figure?

Yep.Origins Wolverine, box and all.

 

[enzolt]

Yep.Origins Wolverine, box and all.

That was one of the worst ones. Don't think it's been topped yet.

 

[GMan022]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that some people are stupid enough to buy a knockoff and then call HT to complain. Does that really happen? Also this reminds me a lot of when Lucas had Star Wars and threatened to sue anyone who tried to profit off his baby without his consent. Maybe Disney is pressuring HT to do some damage control? As for the price increases, they don't surprise me at all. Labor in Asia has been going up for the past decade, gone are the days of having skilled labor work for peanuts.

"And we can charge anything we want, 2,000 a day, 10,000 a day, and people will pay it...Well, we'll have a, a coupon day or something."

 

[franpincho]

Damn it where is John Brennan?

Seriously, I can't seem to find his comments on Facebook...

 

[Sidewinder]

Re casts shouldn't happen. If anyone re casts a custom sculpt it's looked upon badly, yet no one seems to care when a HT sculpt is ra casted and sold.


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[Futotta_Neko]

Re casts shouldn't happen. If anyone re casts a custom sculpt it's looked upon badly, yet no one seems to care when a HT sculpt is ra casted and sold.


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[enzolt]

We should just stop condemning people

 

[RiggsMcClane]

What's to snitch about? No one hides their recasts, bootlegs, etc. It's all in flagrante delicto

Maybe I didn't word that correctly. I just didn't care for hot toys trying to make it the communities problem instead of their own. As per the confusion in this thread I think it would be easy for people policing sixth scale to point out third party offerings and not just hot toys knock offs. Bleh. Anyway, I do in fact support hot toys going after purely knock-off figures. I don't support this creeping into third party lines.

 

[jacerc130]

very nice!

The part I find hilarious is HT is dealing with the common Chinese manufacturing ideals. Copy right laws seem to be misunderstood in China or completely disregarded. At any rate, if there is ever a name product you can bet your butt there is a knock off of it available and I bet it was made in........CHINA!!!! So if HT is that concerned about it, then start enforcing strict laws in their own country for copyrights.

But if they do that then over half the business done in the country will be gone and China's GDP will be cut in half. So HT answer is, don't buy knock offs? LOL.

 

[morphosis]

Maybe I didn't word that correctly. I just didn't care for hot toys trying to make it the communities problem instead of their own. As per the confusion in this thread I think it would be easy for people policing sixth scale to point out third party offerings and not just hot toys knock offs. Bleh. Anyway, I do in fact support hot toys going after purely knock-off figures. I don't support this creeping into third party lines.

yup, just to be clear HTs statement has nothing to do with 3rd Party who are making their own figures. They just don't want people taking their products and recasting/reselling as a HTs product. that was all. Its not a big deal. Its common sense, but there are people out there who won't stop this behavior no matter what.

People have been selling knockoff Vintage Star Wars figures for decades. Some people made hundreds of thousands of dollars off them. Even when some got caught, they just started it up again.

But collectors will buy them anyway. Some collectors are very into "knockoffs".

it is what it is. Just be careful if your buying from someone off eBay or some unknown online store if you want to make sure your not getting ripped off. If you want a knockoff figure, well thats your own personal decision you need to make.

 

[Doomsday]

HT is worried about "knock offs" but all these companies are doing is producing the figures that HT will not make out of spite. Instead of producing all 46 Iron Man variants along with repaints maybe HT should focus on lines that fans have been begging for. What ever happened to the DX line? Batman Returns? Batman 1966? Hell I'm still waiting for the full Civil War line ( Crossbones, Vision, Spiderman)
If Iron Man fans can get all the armors and even re-releases of some, is it too much to ask to get variants of other characters? I've never had an issue with HT quality but the selection over the past year or so has me worried, between the amount of Iron Man and Storm Trooper armors I see them milking

 

[xipotec]

Good luck with all that



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[lordregnis]

Hot toys is reminding me of YouTube heroes. The balls on these companies, we all know damn well any legal action they might take, they'll pass the expenses on to the customer.

 

[screamingmetal]

Didn't HT start by doing unlicensed figures?

They did. This maybe be more about bootleg Hot Toys figures though. I know there have been bootleg figures that are very close copies of previously made Hot Toys figures, which wouldn't exist if Hot Toys just went back into production or made new versions of long sold out figures but they don't seem to be revisiting old releases so, I don't see how those are affecting Hot Toys in any way.

 

[RiggsMcClane]

Is there a list of everything hot toys bootlegged back in the day? I'd find that interesting.

 

[morphosis]

Is there a list of everything hot toys bootlegged back in the day? I'd find that interesting.

Hot Toys did not bootleg any figures, they just made some unlicensed figures. there is a difference. They didn't take someone else's toy, copy it, and resell it. At first, they put out a Neo Matrix, a Tom Cruise, and a George Lucas figure without a license. But nothing was re-casted, or stolen off another toy, then resold. Here were their first 3 figures ever made. kind of funny to see now

 

[screamingmetal]

Hot Toys did not bootleg any figures, they just made some unlicensed figures. there is a difference. They didn't take someone else's toy, copy it, and resell it. At first, they put out a Neo Matrix, a Tom Cruise, and a George Lucas figure without a license. But nothing was re-casted, or stolen off another toy, then resold. Here were their first 3 figures ever made. kind of funny to see now

The yellow packaging is the second wave release of those figures, the first wave had the black and grey packing the Director has there.
I had written a whole diatribe about this before rethinking and deleting my post. I'll post some of the other unlicensed figures Hot Toys has made.
In the year 2000, they released their Famous type figures; "The Director", "Neo", and "Ethan" which are intended to be George Lucas, Neo from the Matrix, and Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible 2 respectively.
Then they made look-a-like figures. Such as Tom Cruse as Maverick from Top Gun that they called the "F-14 Aviator" and a Will Smith as Capt. Steven Hiller from Independence Day that they called the F-18 Hornet pilot "Alan J Nance". There's also the many early head sculpts from Hot Toys that look like notable actors that Hot Toys did not have the rights to make such as Vall Kilmer as their second version of the F-18 pilot figure (this could be used to make an Iceman from Top Gun with the F-14 release's suit)
I believe Hot Toys even got a Cease and Desist on their "The Director" figure from Lucasfilm.

Yeah, these figures look like shi- by today's standards, but they are Hot Toys figures that clearly infringe on movie license and actor's likeness rights.
Some more pictures:

 

[morphosis]

The yellow packaging is the second wave release of those figures, the first wave had the black and grey packing the Director has there.
I had written a whole diatribe about this before rethinking and deleting my post. I'll post some of the other unlicensed figures Hot Toys has made.
In the year 2000, they released their Famous type figures; "The Director", "Neo", and "Ethan" which are intended to be George Lucas, Neo from the Matrix, and Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible 2 respectively.
Then they made look-a-like figures. Such as Tom Cruse as Maverick from Top Gun that they called the "F-14 Aviator" and a Will Smith as Capt. Steven Hiller from Independence Day that they called the F-18 Hornet pilot "Alan J Nance". There's also the many early head sculpts from Hot Toys that look like notable actors that Hot Toys did not have the rights to make such as Vall Kilmer as their second version of the F-18 pilot figure (this could be used to make an Iceman from Top Gun with the F-14 release's suit)
I believe Hot Toys even got a Cease and Desist on their "The Director" figure from Lucasfilm.

Yeah, these figures look like shi- by today's standards, but they are Hot Toys figures that clearly infringe on movie license rights.
Some more pictures:

right, they did infringe on the movie licenses, no doubt, but they aren't bootlegs of other toys. Their letter had nothing do to with people making unlicensed figures of other movies or characters. It was all about people taking a Hot Toy product, recasting/repainting/reselling it as official HTs product when its clearly not.

only the movie companies can shut you down because they own the rights. Hot Toys does not own the rights to Star Wars. they pay a fee to get the license to make Star Wars products. They cannot tell someone to stop making Star Wars inspired figures, only Disney can.

But they have every right to stop you from taking their figures and recasting/repainting/reselling them and trying to say those are official Hot Toys. Thats what the letter was about.