Art Figures AF-15 Heavy Armored Special Cop - He is the Law!

[Taibhse]

My (fictional) take on Rebellion's 'negotiations' -

Rebellion - Hi ThreeA.. you know that license we negotiated for you to sell 1/6 and 1/12 2000AD figures?.. seems to have gone really, really quite on the release front, no?

ThreeA - Hi..uh yes ..erm.. uh.. well you know the Sewer Droid really didn't sell that well.. and although we've talked a lot (on forums and such) about releasing the rest of the ABC Warriors in 1/12 at a lower cost.. erm.. well.. we did re-do the two existing figures.. and errr.. that line is still.. well.. its probably going to happen.. soon.. 'ish.. that is right Ashley, isn't it?.. Ashley?.. where did that Aussie wrong 'un go?

Rebellion - Ashley is drooling over his Bishōjo designs again, isn't he?

ThreeA - No!.. no.. errr.. well we haven't seen him doing that for a couple of hours, anyway.. erm.. he probably just popped out for something.. errr..new pencils.. yes probably needed new pencils.. or something...

Rebellion - Look guys, if you are not going to pull your collective fingers out, then we have a problem.. another Chinese company is touting an unlicensed 1/6 Dredd figure based on the Urban likeness and it appears to be generating considerable interest on the interwebz.. so if you guys do not want to release 1/6 scale figures, then there is very little point in you retaining the 1/6 scale license, is there?

ThreeA - Err.. we need to renegotiate then

Rebellion - Yeah right, we did not grant you the 1/6 license, so that you would not produce 1/6 figures.. and Ashley has clearly indicated in public, that he is not interested in pursuing the 1/6 scale ABC Warriors figures.. you had the opportunity to make bank and you dropped the ball.

ThreeA - Well, we feel that is a bit harsh .. and if there is someone bootlegging, then we don't want the 1/6 scale anyway.. so there!

Rebellion - Since we granted you the 1/6 scale license you have produced only three figures.. frankly the Tharg was an abomination.. and after two ABC Warriors, the line stalled.. excuse us if we are not overly concerned with your 'it's a bootlegging problem' red herring.. hello.. hello.. did they just hang up on us?
Ok.. get our legal eagles to go over ThreeA's contract with a magnifying glass.. find out precisely what.. (insert dream team manufacturer's name of choice here) ..are offering for our 1/6 scale license .. and get Medieval on AF's a** .. but leave a channel open, just in case AF make a proper offer for the license.. their AF-15 Heavy Armored Special Cop really is a pretty good likeness.

*this has been a purely fictional representation, any similarity to events, organisations or individuals either living or dead, is purely coincidental*

 

[Eamon]

Rather interesting post there Taibhse.

The only ones whom I could think could do better than this one is Hot Toys, Enterbay and perhaps ACI Toys. But I do not see it happening with any of those which beg the question weather an official one would be better or even equal.

 

[olbertfrog]

Got my preorder invoice from Animarket.
This is definitly getting released has they waited to have confirmation before sending the invoices.

 

[Taibhse]

Rather interesting post there Taibhse.

The only ones whom I could think could do better than this one is Hot Toys, Enterbay and perhaps ACI Toys. But I do not see it happening with any of those which beg the question weather an official one would be better or even equal.

Good point, Eamon.. I think the problem may be that if I was in Rebellion's shoes, I would probably want a fairly broad ranging license, with a premium for Dredd.. whereas I suspect Figure manufacturers like the idea of making bank on a Dredd figure but are less interested in the rest of the stable, particularly after the ThreeA line stalled.. imho the ABC Warrior figures would have been a more successful line, if Ro-Jaws had been left until last.

My choice of dream team manufacturer for Rebellion would actually be Neca, since I believe a lower retail cost would work better.. but Neca may not currently be interested in any of the stable, except Dredd.. which would influence the finances of any negotiations.

From a purely pragmatic position if AF and Rebellion made a one-off figure deal fans would be happy.. however it would set a gun-boat diplomacy precedent, for Rebellion in any future licensing negotiations, which they might regret.

 

[aesthetics]

I paid for this in full and i will laugh at all the nay-sayers once i have my glorious bootleg figure in hand!

 

[Eamon]

By all means, give it to NECA if you want cheap and cheeful. But I for one do crave and very much want a high-end screen 1:6 Dredd figure and there are only a few capable of this out there.

 

[aesthetics]

lol @ Neca

 

[inked]

Before this figure was announced I was hoping that the licence would pass from ThreeA to ThreeZero.

 

[Empir3]

Got an email its happening for sure. They are altering it however

"After chatting with Art Figure, the manufacture decided that the date of releasing will remain, but the figure “Heavy Armored Special Cop” will have slight adjustments by the designer team:

Art figure will have different designs on the item:
1st for the packaging: There will not be any controversial words that might attempt knowledge infringement.
2nd figure will be packed as parts.
3rd the figure does not require having a license as it will not be exactly portraying the movie or the novel. "

 

[slamscaper]

I assume, at the least, the badge will be gone.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[Empir3]

I assume, at the least, the badge will be gone.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

Thats my assumption

 

[Hunterdnrc]

****, I can make a badge. This sounds good to me!

 

[Taibhse]

By all means, give it to NECA if you want cheap and cheeful. But I for one do crave and very much want a high-end screen 1:6 Dredd figure and there are only a few capable of this out there.

Agreed.. If I'm honest its probably the idea of a 1/4 scale Dredd and a line containing some of the other 2000AD stable that makes Neca appeal to me.

Apart from the ThreeA figures, I think there has been one Sideshow Dredd statue and another from Dark Horse.. plus Reaction's small scale 2000AD character line .. and a few random releases in the Far East?.. apart from that, licensed product seems mainly to be Graphic Novel Collections, T-shirts and Mugs with an intermittent, small number of 1:1 props.. and the availability issue on the original licensed, Fibreglass Dredd Helmet appears to have been made much worse by the flood of cheap bootleg casts, taken from a couple of the new Film props and currently flooding eBay.

 

[Revol]

Just got my refund from CollectableKitbash Damnit!

 

[grphyx1]

I'ont even know what da hell dat means?!

Got an email its happening for sure. They are altering it however

"After chatting with Art Figure, the manufacture decided that the date of releasing will remain, but the figure “Heavy Armored Special Cop” will have slight adjustments by the designer team:

Art figure will have different designs on the item:
1st for the packaging: There will not be any controversial words that might attempt knowledge infringement.
2nd figure will be packed as parts.
3rd the figure does not require having a license as it will not be exactly portraying the movie or the novel. "

 

[Empir3]

I'ont even know what da hell dat means?!

Yea English is not their first language. I copied and pasted it exactly from the email.

 

[Asta]

Got an email its happening for sure. They are altering it however

"After chatting with Art Figure, the manufacture decided that the date of releasing will remain, but the figure “Heavy Armored Special Cop” will have slight adjustments by the designer team:

Art figure will have different designs on the item:
1st for the packaging: There will not be any controversial words that might attempt knowledge infringement.
2nd figure will be packed as parts.
3rd the figure does not require having a license as it will not be exactly portraying the movie or the novel. "

With the June release date remaining the same they can't be doing anything drastic to the figure.

The badge will probably be a separate item hidden somewhere in the box!

Who sent the email?

 

[The-Dark-Knight]

Hopefully it won't differ too much from the original pictures, or they'll be no real point to it if it just looks like a swat officer.

 

[**16k**]

Got an email its happening for sure. They are altering it however

"After chatting with Art Figure, the manufacture decided that the date of releasing will remain, but the figure “Heavy Armored Special Cop” will have slight adjustments by the designer team:

Art figure will have different designs on the item:
1st for the packaging: There will not be any controversial words that might attempt knowledge infringement.
2nd figure will be packed as parts.
3rd the figure does not require having a license as it will not be exactly portraying the movie or the novel. "

...which in more layman terms means: take it up your ass Rebellion, it will be the same!

...after all, it already is different: it's a figure of a combo Uarl Krbam and silstallone Vester called Judge Daed! : lol

 

[knucklefunger]

Let's consider this:
Marvel comics does nothing to arrest the production of the Punisher figures. Yet somehow armored cop may be shut down? Really? I get the need to protect intellectual properties but if Marvel let it slide then... I'm just being hopeful I suppose.