Re: The Lord of the Rings Polystone Statue and PF Lines are dead?
Hmmm ... I suppose there's no reason WB couldn't give two companies the same license. I guess we're just assuming the licenses are exclusive. Without knowing precisely how the agreements are worded, it makes it hard to know much for sure.
Or maybe they're allowing them to overlap for a while? Whilst one winds down and the other ramps up?
The license has always been exclusive in the past and since we are talking lmited edition collectibles, I would think it needs to be.
Just imagine if two seperate companies, neither of which are part of each others planning had the same license. You can then get, Company A puts up for pre-order an Aragorn 1/6th scale statue.
A week later, Company B puts up for sale and in stock, an Aragorn 1/6th scale statue. Same scale, same license, same likeness, both polystone, both say 1000 ES as each Company thinks that's about right for the market.
Company A gets almost no pre-orders, while Company B sells fairly well but even when Company A finally starts shipping, B still has some of there's in stock.
Both spent a fair amount of time and development money getting each made, but only one is heading for a profit, while the other a large loss.
Nope, totally unworkable and no collectible company would go for it, hence the rights are always exclusive.