Movie megatron worth buying if it were done like this.

[Pulse]

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" haha

Now you've gone & made me wanna watch Letterman, Leno or Conan...

[ChlorHex]

but i like that "pig"... suits the sculpt IMO.
much better than calling it Megs

[GoktimusPrime]

Still, in terms of "display" and for personal enjoyment, stuff like that can't be copyright infringement right? Say somebody makes this Thunderwing, purely not for profit. Does that constitute copyright infringement?

I'm not sure what the laws are. I'm pretty out of track with those.

I think it's only an infringement if you try to sell it - because then it's seen as an attempt to make money from Hasbro's stolen intellectual property. afaik you can make customs for your own personal enjoyment and give them away to other people as gifts or what not... but you're not allowed to make any sales from them. If you do then you're falling under the same category as people who make and sell knock-offs.

[griffin]

Do you think Hasbro are even aware of customs like this?

Since this wasn't actually answered in the above posting. I think it is safe to assume that with all the monitoring and interaction Hasbro does with certain fan-sites, they would be aware of certain high-profile customs. At least the design team would, as they go to Botcon and see the art displays, and talk to people on major fan forums and wiki.
They wouldn't have any interest in actively looking for customs, specifically to make sure they have 'plausible deniability' if they ever did do a recolour that could have been inspired by a fan-custom.
But as Goktimus said, customs, if sold, are illegal if they are labelled as 'Transformers' or use the character name they are representing (if Hasbro still owns the trademark). When the current BotCon mob became official, they had to do up a lot of fine print for their art-comps to get Hasbro approval.

[Pulse]

I guess there's a fair bit of a difference between a straight repaint (ala. Movie Megs into Thunderwing) & scratchbuilds involving lots of styrene (eg. Anemis' work).

Where as a straight repaint has Hasbro's product as its core, A styrene-based scratchbuild can't really be compared to an original Hasbro figure at all (sure the inspiration is there but the final completed figure is a one-of-a-kind original ).

[GoktimusPrime]

Doesn't matter. Transformer characters including their names, images and even likenesses are intellectual property of Hasbro/Takara. If you made a scratch built garage kit of a Transformer you would still be infringing upon their property.

That's why other garage kits like Jizai Toy's MP Megatron extension and the HKTF Ultra Magnus trailer intentionally avoid using any Transformer names, logos, images etc. For example the Ultra Magnus trailer garage kit is called "City Commander." The word "Transformers" or "Ultra Magnus" etc. are not used anywhere in the packaging afaik. It's basically a garage kit toy that happens to be compatible with Classics Ultra Magnus. Ditto the Jizai MP Megatron extension set - no TF names, logos etc. used, it's a MP-Megatron compatible garage kit. Garage kit makers do this to get around the legality of making unofficial accessories for existing Transformer toys that they intend to sell to people, lest they have HasTak lawyers knocking at their door.

[jaydisc]

I think it's only an infringement if you try to sell it - because then it's seen as an attempt to make money from Hasbro's stolen intellectual property. afaik you can make customs for your own personal enjoyment and give them away to other people as gifts or what not... but you're not allowed to make any sales from them. If you do then you're falling under the same category as people who make and sell knock-offs.

I disagree. There are lots of car tuning companies that do this, i.e. Brabus buys Mercedes, modifies them, and then stick their own badge on it.

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" haha

+1

EDIT: Let me clarify. Using Hasbro's trademarks (character names, the word TF, etc.) would definitely be infringement, but simply making and reselling customs of Hasbro products would not be.

[Pulse]

EDIT: Let me clarify. Using Hasbro's trademarks (character names, the word TF, etc.) would definitely be infringement, but simply making and reselling customs of Hasbro products would not be.

I'm guessing that's why people like Jin Saotome haven't gotten into trouble .
(Although I've noticed that he's recently been using his real name in his photos instead of Jin... *shrugs*)

[Paulbot]

As far as I'm aware Hasbro has never made a statement about Custom Transformers. They have however made a statement about Custom GI Joe toys.

Hasbro Provides Customizing Guidelines to Collectors

Dear Fans and Customizers, The G.I. JOE team would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the customizing community and the incredible creativity and passion that goes into each one of your projects. We are continually impressed by your work.

The customizing community ranges from those who work with product to those who customize packages and artwork. There has recently been some confusion as to what constitutes the legal resale of customized product and what constitutes trademark infringement. The following guidelines for using Hasbro trademarks should provide some clarity.

1. Hasbro encourages the customizing of individual figures for personal usage, and can be resold as one-of-a-kind, out-of-package figures.
2. All Hasbro artwork, such as card art, cannot be reprinted without permission from Hasbro. These assets contain Hasbro-owned trademarks and logos, and cannot be sold or reproduced without Hasbro’s permission
3. Hasbro owned trademarks such as character names and the GI Joe brand name cannot be used without written permission from Hasbro.

As we look to the future of the G.I. JOE franchise, we want to ensure that the customizing community can thrive while Hasbro continues to protect the brand that it has spent the last 45 years creating. Hasbro will become more aggressive in the legal pursuit of counterfeit product that is being sold in all channels. We appreciate your cooperation with this matter.

http://www.hasbro.com/gijoe/default....A85C51782405B1

If we assume Hasbro's policy for custom versions of their toys is consistent across the toylines then selling custom TFs is fine as long as they are not sold in TF packaging, with TF trademarks or with any TF artwork.

Using a name like "Thunderwing" would not be allowed but colouring a toy in it's colours seems like more of a grey area.

[TheDirtyDigger]

That does look awesome. Really looks like a professional paintjob. Personally I like the Movie Megatron mould and seeing it in Thunderwing's colours is even better. Stormbringer is probably my most enjoyed IDW collection so far so I would definitely buy this for the character were it available.

On the off topic...people do customs all the time and name them with who they intend to portray.

Examples...

Custom Sideswipe

Custom Quintesson

Custom Ironhide