oh okay I thought it was the 26th that the questions were due

Hi, thank you for once again inviting our questions. Many of the members of the BFTB forum are curious about producing a range of Red Shadow style figures, and are wondering whether or not the licence has lapsed. There has been speculation that the Devil's Due Red Shadows may not have been redesigned simply as artistic licence, but that because to have done them faithfully would in fact have been a violation of copyright. Is this the case?

After Hasbro bought out the British company Palitoy, many GI Joes were released in Britain and Europe as Action Force characters. We understand that these particular characters remain the property of Hasbro Inc. However, do Hasbro own the copyrights to the earliest Action Force characters, the ones created solely by Palitoy which were never Hasbro products and were therefore nothing to do with GI Joe? In short, does Hasbro own the Palitoy Action Force teams Z Force, SAS Force, Q Force, Space Force and the Red Shadows?

Would Action Force fans be within their rights to produce (from their own moulds and in limited quantities) figures based on the original Palitoy characters, for the specific small-market of loyal Action Force collectors located in the UK? Please note, such a small market couldn't possibly harm GI Joe, especially considering that not all GI Joe lines are made available in the UK to begin with. With Hasbro now mainly focusing on the 25th range, would it be possible for an independant company to licence early GI Joe moulds and re-issue them to the European market as Action Force and the Enemy? If so, who would they contact?

On the other hand, if Hasbro are still in possession of the Action Force copyrights, would you be interested in creating a new range of 25th Anniversary Action Force designs for the European market? It would be a relatively simple task to create articulated figures of the original straight-legged characters using existing GI Joe moulds, the entire range could be recreated with a few simple colour variations, vehicles included. Would you be interested in seeing some prospective designs from our customs team?

What are the chances of seeing an online exclusive pack of repaints done in the original Action Force style? Some of the original US versions of these characters have already had 25th anniversary remoulds (Quarrel, Blades, Red Laser, Gaucho, etc.). It would be especially appropiate now with the 25th anniversary of the Battle Action Force comic upon us. Thank you for your time, we appreciate this opportunity and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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Alas, being temporarily robbed of my superpowers, I shall have to rely upon mere human ingenuity.

fantastic Baron. you've covered all the bases, lets hope we get a positive response
Bill

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Yes Lets hope so !

I think we should reword the 3rd one to just include the last part

With Hasbro now mainly focusing on the 25th range, would it be possible for an independant company to licence early GI Joe moulds and re-issue them to the European market as Action Force and the Enemy? If so, who would they contact?


it would answer the same question really, that first part about us producing them could make them angry ?? just my 2 cents but either way lets hope we get something positive and and not a pernament BAN from them LOL

Agreed, Hasbro gets pissed when people make there own cardbacks.

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Who Are You? What Do You Want? Why Are You Here? Where Are You Going? - The Four Ideologies from Babylon 5

I'm commenting on the internet, Facts hold no sway with me.

It'd be a different kettle o' fish if it turns out they DON'T own those characters though. It'll be interesting to see what they say...

Beautifully put questions, Baron!


SPACE COMMANDER

Yeah, I think it's OK. The worst they can do is say no, there's no reason for them to get angry. I worry more that question #3 is actually 2 separate questions.

The questions are mostly as they were put by board members, the only one that's mine is the first, which is just designed as an ice breaker. So thank you, but I cannot take the credit.

EDIT Oh and question #4

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Alas, being temporarily robbed of my superpowers, I shall have to rely upon mere human ingenuity.

I can almost hear the memo to the Hasbro legal department being typed as we speak!

Reading the questions it's just come to me that if they dont own the rights, they may try to not answer the question, and try to acquire the rights by copyrighting something in the meantime. Unfortunately not my area, but just a thought.

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Alte Volat

"BFTB Elite??? Moi??? Ooooooo, Missus - Titter ye not!"

To be honest I don't want to own the rights, I want them to produce some new toys!

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Alas, being temporarily robbed of my superpowers, I shall have to rely upon mere human ingenuity.

Some of these questions are ill suited for the forum they are being asked and then Some are just questions that strike me as ones that are coming from people who havent interacted with hasbro that often

take the WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE OUR CUSTOMS question:

now anyone that has spent anytime with hasbro at a convention or through e-mails know they cannot LEGALLY look at any customs or designs by anyone so the answer there going to say is

NO to that. for simple legal reasons

and thats just one example

I just hope i was wrong, I was wrong on when the Baron asked about the Best of Collections book and was plenty happy to be wrong too. So If Im wrong then Id be happy to be as these questions are ones that I would like to know, its not like there bad or uninteresing questions, just thinking the way and the forum its being asked in is inappropiate and may get us into trouble

there doing this to sell toys and these questions are exactly talking much about the recent product, a question or two in the mix would have been better

this set of questions also has way more than 5 questions

lets cross our fingers and hope for the best