Cool One-Off Halfling sculpt on BB Tactics

[inkpwn]

Slinky, I think your overreacting.
Willys doing what's right and asking carl for permission, this minis not in production currently and as such hasn't infringed on any legal copyright yet, like how me doodling a picture of thrud isn't infinging copyright because I'm not using it to make money.
I think willys just missing the point of parody, thrud isn't trying to be anything like conan, he's mocking the fantasy genre and various other things to boot.
Murdering people over crisp flavors, beating hobbits to death, accidently squishing princess to death under ogres e.t.c
He's half naked, that's about all he share with conan. Wrong weapon, wrong cloths, he's 24 stone and 12 feet tall. He's as much a conan clone as spiderman is a spider clone.
Willys doing what's right, he asked me for carls contact info and this can all be solved by granting carl royaltys, this would only have to go to court under extremem curcumstances.

[Gaixo]

Conan dressed like that (including the helmet, once in a while) and used a double-headed axe all the time. But yeah, people are overreacting. It sounds like everything is being sorted out between the creators in question.

[inkpwn]

I'm just going from the conan image in my mind, which has a headband, over shoulder fur liotard thing and sword. Googled him and your right, conan does have an axe often. But yeah, anyway, more sculpts!
Love the griff, remindes me of a judge with his awesome shoulder chicken. That's a must have for me. Also recently pedro sculpted this for a different miniatures company=
http://www.teamfrog.com/index2.htm
Which would make a awesome snow troll

[txapo]

And I think you and Willy need to realize that there are a lot of people that really could care less about this line of argument..

I don't work for Willy, nor I'm a part in this business apart of trying to make clear the situation. I don't even know him personaly, but I have develop a good frienship with him thanks to internet and helped launching his project selling some minis in one tournament last year.

and yes I think too you are over reacting instead of calming down to see if they can arrive to a compromise or not.

[Steam Ball]

And I know from painful experience with GW (hence why Thrudbowl is now Thrudball) that if IP is NOT challenged then you lose your IP rights...

So Carl would HAVE to make an IP challenge whether he wanted to or not, or else lose his Ip rights...

Are you sure? You lose trademarks is you do not sue, enforcement is compulsory. You don't lose copyright if you don't sue, enforcement is selective. All of them is under Intellectual Property umbrella name, but they are not the same, they cover different things and have different rules.

And then, any big business will smash you with hazy letters, and see if you want to go to court, even if they know they are in shaky ground, because they've more money and they prefer a "shot first, ask later" approach.

[Darkson]

I love the Willy figures (I have a few, and I'd have more if I had the money), and I feel they're some of the best on the market, but if this model comes out "as is" without Carl's permission, then that would be another company I wouldn't buy from any more.

It's that simple.


Screw over GW as much as you like, they deserve it for the way they've screwed over fans and other miniature makers over the years (not just of BB, in general).
Screw over a nice guy that helps the BB community? Then screw you!

[Norse]

Screw over GW as much as you like, they deserve it for the way they've screwed over fans and other miniature makers over the years (not just of BB, in general).
Screw over a nice guy that helps the BB community? Then screw you!

Best

Post

EVER!

[antipixi]

Darkson's post needs a "like"/"+1" button!

[commisar ken]

?

[Brage97]

Well, nobody has to worry about me buying one as a matter fact.i will not use the 32mm plus scale creep!

I wasn't worried about your decision

[inkpwn]

Bad new peeps

Code: Select all

Hi Arthur

Many thanks for getting in touch - always nice to hear from Thrud fans! I wasn't aware of this sculpt but since receiving your message (sorry for not replying sooner)  I've been contacted by the modeller to ask approval.
Unfortunately I've had to say no as I've already done a deal for the rights to any Thrud figures with Heresy miniatures - this is further complicated by a gentleman's agreement with Games Workshop not to produce any Thrud Bloodbowl type figures.
I own all the rights to the character but as Thrud appeared in several versions of the official rules as a star player it's the only area of crossover into the official GW universe so it's been mutually agreed to stay clear of any figures that might cause confusion (for the time being anyway). 
Thanks once again for bringing this to my attention - I do feel a bit bad after all Jorge's hard work but hope he won't be too disappointed.

Best wishes,
Carl

[Darkson]

Well, I hope Willy do the right thing now - ball's in their court.

[Virral]

I'm torn over this... on the one hand the similarities are clear *but* Thrudd is soooooooo generic to start with. I was just googling Barbarian images and I saw half a dozen similar designs, the only thing that really separates Thrudd from the rest is his undersized head. I think if this figure was re-worked with a different head that was more in proportion with his body it'd be fine.

[Garthantash]

Something that I could see working is to cut the currently proposed head off it and give 2 other variant heads instead. One with say a fur hat, shouty face and gap teeth ala Schwarzenegger's Conan (call that head Mighty Guz) and another head to look more over sized Giant or Ogre like. With a model that size, I see it as a Str 5 mini - and possible companion to my Valkyrie Giantess.

[Heresy_Bloke]

Hey guys. Long time no post! Sorry.

As to this figure, clearly it's Thrud, and Thrud exists as an established set of iconography in his own right these days, with graphic novels, comics etc, so there's no getting around it with 'oh but Conan looks like this, as Conan doesn't. So, this is Thrud and Carl Critchlow owns the rights to him and gets final say on figures based on Thrud. I am a license holder, but ultimately it's Carl's baby, end of.

I just wanted to point out though, that back when I first did a Thrud miniature, a stern warning was passed down to me via my remaining contacts at GW (people placed in The Know) that if I ever did a fantasy Football Thrud of any kind, GW would lovingly tear me a legal new one instantly, no two ways about it. They were, it was alleged, 'just waiting for you to do it'. Anyone attempting to market that sort of figure would be well advised to watch out.

The story I was told was that GW had a fair bit of wrangling over the rights to Thrud with Carl and it was established that Carl did indeed own the rights to Thrud, which is why the GW one was called Thrudd instead and the rights for that specific figure, Blood Bowl Thrudd, are partly owned by GW and Carl. GW therefore have every right to come after anyone who does a FF version of Thrud that looks like the GW Thrudd, especially if that figure has the same proportions in terms of huge arms and wrong size of head like theirs did. (Thrud has a pin head and anatomy that means he can't actually cross his arms etc, it's a crazy thing to sculpt as Carl cheats when he draws him and a lot of the poses he makes in the comic he wouldn't actually be able to do in real life due to muscles getting in the way)

Cheers

Andy Foster

Director
Heresy Miniatures Ltd

PS Also sorry about no new Deathball figures for ages. Suggestions@heresyminiatures.com for your angry requests etc! If I get enough I may relent and do the most popular request.