darkSpyro

So I'm commissioning an ex acti sculptor (who also worked for Mattel hasbro wiz kids all kinds of things) to commission me the skylander villains in toy form, they'll be sculpted onto Norma skylander bases so they'll be playable (not as the villain though sadly ) I've already booked Wolfgang the golden queen and count moneybones who should I go with next ?

Update:
Unclebob..Thanks to someone who will remain nameless. I have access to chips which I can put in the base so the figure will play as the villain. ALSO I have molds made. So I'm able to make more of them, if anyone's interested. Also, due to me working as a game designer, theoretically I can edit the toys timer. And for each toy including the Mold it cost me 250$ however with the Mold, I can make them much. Much. Much cheaper. Pretty much at the cost of supplies, postage and a little bit for my time.

Uh...The Gulper.

Vathek

Good ideas so far..isn't vathek from dragons peak?

All the doom raiders and Kaos

Quote: AusLander

Good ideas so far..isn't vathek from dragons peak?

Yea but he IS a villain.

Painyatta!

Painytta and Dreamcatcher!

Painyatta and Golden Queen!

Broccoli guy,... nah just kidding.

Well maybe glumshanks, it could be like a boomer repose.

Smoke Scream and his bad ass mech.

While they wouldn't stand, I wonder if your artist friend could attach the base from a trap, allowing you to have the trapped villian in the sculpt.

How has Chompy Mage not been listed here? I do not understand. He is the greatest villain ever. That's not even an opinion; it's science.

Krankcase and Painyatta.

I'd say all the Doom Raiders, Kaos, Glum & Pain-Yatta. Be cool to see a figure duo like Bruiser Cruiser be attempted too!

Scrap Shooter and Broccoli Guy

you gotta pick Broccoli Guy

Kaos is a must. The fact we're this far in and there's no good tangible figure of him is a crime. I have an odd question though, how much is all this costing you per figure? I know someone in the Monster in my Pocket community doing similar for the missing figures from that line and it's costing him a small mint o.O

I would personally say the 'main' villains. Kaos, Doom Raiders, Glumshanks, Kaos' Mom, Hektore, Frightbeard and maybe some of the Adventure levels' baddies, like Vathek and Cluck.

Ideally, Id say one of every known Villain, but alas. Very unlikely.

Brawl& Chain or Trolling Thunder

Unclebob..Thanks to someone who will remain nameless. I have access to chips which I can put in the base so the figure will play as the villain. ALSO I have molds made. So I'm able to make more of them, if anyone's interested. Also, due to me working as a game designer, theoretically I can edit the toys timer. And for each toy including the Mold it cost me 250$ however with the Mold, I can make them much. Much. Much cheaper. Pretty much at the cost of supplies, postage and a little bit for my time.

Kaos. You have to use Kaos!

Oh yes..Kaos and his mummy is coming.

pain yatta and can you show us some pics of it

May I see pictures of the figures and gameplay when they arrive?

Better yet, I'll be posting work in progress pics. Except the making the villain playable on the figure, gotta have some secrets

Yuss! Thanks a lot!

I'm surprised David aka gamemaster78 hasn't done this yet !

Hektore.

@Aura24: Vathek! Yay!

Is no one gonna ask for Wolfgang?! Really?!

Wolfgang plz.

(In general I'd really like a wolf Skylander but will settle for Wolfgang, just saying.)

All I'd like to see are all the Evilikins, and :Hood Sickle.

Okay I dont wanna be THAT GUY but.. someone else wanted to do this same kind of thing, for himself, not for a profit or anything, and he got all sorts of hate. and he just wanted to make a toy for himself to enjoy.

unless this guy is licensed by activision for these things. simply making the characters will be a violation of intellectual property let alone selling them. and adding the chips?! altering code for the timer?! this has to be fake. and if not this person is doing everything right to get a nice lawyer to show up at his door. or worse. and did i mention this sounds too good to be true? </that guy>

It's the P-A to the I-N-Y-A and the T-T-A PAINYATTA!

Exosquad, in theory you are sort of right.
However, I am pretty sure that making a copy of a toy is legal because the physical shape can't be copyright or patented.
Otherwise you could copyright the shape of a person and all dolls would be in trouble etc.

You can't use any of their original artwork or graphics, but anything you draw or make is legal. You can't use their copyrighted terms or patented stuff, so no "Skylanders" logo or anything can be added.

Just making a figure that looks like an in game character? Totally legal as far as everything I have ever heard about law in almost every country.

Otherwise I am about to copyright the shape of a car and HotWheels (TM) are in trouble.

As far as the chip goes. If you buy a trap and dissolve the plastic you can remove the chip and add a proper antenna, it's hard but possible and LEGAL again. So nothing he is doing should involve getting in trouble.

Quote: exosquad

Okay I dont wanna be THAT GUY but.. someone else wanted to do this same kind of thing, for himself, not for a profit or anything, and he got all sorts of hate. and he just wanted to make a toy for himself to enjoy.

unless this guy is licensed by activision for these things. simply making the characters will be a violation of intellectual property let alone selling them. and adding the chips?! altering code for the timer?! this has to be fake. and if not this person is doing everything right to get a nice lawyer to show up at his door. or worse. and did i mention this sounds too good to be true? </that guy>

I am the mastermind called Chaos and these are my own creation called air earthers! And the leader shall be a teleport professional called Master Leon! All kidding aside. The only thing I would probably struggle with is the removing the timer. However if we were to develop our own chips, and use our own Mold and name them differently then it will be fine, trust me I've seen plenty of fake skylanders for sale mass produced (even though this will be small scale) and they got no c&d. I'm having the villains sculpted for me but the ones I have cast will be called something completely dofferent.

Quote: Pyrofer

So nothing he is doing should involve getting in trouble.

I'm sure the character designs are legally protected - while if he is making them himself for his own enjoyment, he'd be okay - the act of commissioning someone to do it is questionable and the idea of making a mold and selling them is almost definitely going to get some attention.

Quote: UncleBob

Quote: Pyrofer

So nothing he is doing should involve getting in trouble.

I'm sure the character designs are legally protected - while if he is making them himself for his own enjoyment, he'd be okay - the act of commissioning someone to do it is questionable and the idea of making a mold and selling them is almost definitely going to get some attention.

While the character designs are protected, you can't prevent someone from making their own rendition of the character. However, I have to agree with you on the selling of them part.

You wouldn't be able to prevent someone from making his/her own - but that's not what OP is doing. Someone else is making it and selling it.

While, on a small scale, I take no issue with it, I'm not entierly convinced it would pass any kind of legal evaluation. IANAL and all.

Quote: Pyrofer

Exosquad, in theory you are sort of right.
However, I am pretty sure that making a copy of a toy is legal because the physical shape can't be copyright or patented.
Otherwise you could copyright the shape of a person and all dolls would be in trouble etc.

You can't use any of their original artwork or graphics, but anything you draw or make is legal. You can't use their copyrighted terms or patented stuff, so no "Skylanders" logo or anything can be added.

Just making a figure that looks like an in game character? Totally legal as far as everything I have ever heard about law in almost every country.

Otherwise I am about to copyright the shape of a car and HotWheels (TM) are in trouble.

As far as the chip goes. If you buy a trap and dissolve the plastic you can remove the chip and add a proper antenna, it's hard but possible and LEGAL again. So nothing he is doing should involve getting in trouble.

making the same characters (like with the art from the game, same outfits, color schemes etc etc) violates the "intellectual property", but not the laws, but its enough to get a company ready with a lawyer. saying youre going to sell those toys as pieces of "art", okay youre getting right up on the line... adding custom chips, modifying code, ding ding ding, thats way over the line, and when you will get a c&d lawyer at your door.

if what he did was literally buy traps, take those chips out and put them into villain sculpts, have some 3d printed toys or something, that could work. but i still bet activison would send a c&d letter/lawyer to him.

i like the idea, i dont like the idea of him making money "for his time" off of someone elses art work and programming.

also i think this guy is full of lies.

Well, with all this talk of legal stuff I don't fully understand, you'd think it'd be easier to just get some clay and make your own figures. Or get s 3D printer like they said.

I find the lack of understanding of the law here quite upsetting.

We have been through all this before and nothing has changed.

You can't copyright or patent the SHAPE of a figure.

They can protect the 3D models, the artwork and logos. They can patent code and files.

They CAN NOT protect in any way the shape of the figure. LEGO fought this in court and lost. Trust me, if LEGO lost Activision have NO HOPE.
Yes, LEGO LOST. Other companies can produce plastic bricks with the same dimensions as LEGO with no fear of legal threats. They are only in trouble if they put a copyright logo etc on the bricks saying "LEGO".
If it's ok to make plastic bricks exactly the same size and shape as an existing plastic brick then making a physical thing shaped like a non-physical 3D model is no problem.

Before anybody comes back with "Well I THINK" or "In my OPINION" please try to find a fact or some actual legal reason to back it up. I find it hard to believe that people have such a problem with this yet pay $6 (or £6!!!) for a plastic trap that costs approx 40c to make when Activision even have said they won't make villain figures so it's not like he is taking anything away from their sales!

He hasn't said it's going to be a production line or selling in any quantity at all so why is everybody jumping on him?

I think people need to relax and stop drinking the media industry kool-aid so much.

Just to quickly add, I am not commenting on the legality of adding the chips. I can tell you though it's completely legal to take the chip out of a trap you bought and modify it to work in a normal figure.

I don't have an issue with it - but I still don't think it's as open as an areas as you claim. Individuals find themselves in legal hot water often for , say, producing, importing, and selling counterfeit Pokemon merchandise.

If it's not illegal, then why does one have to be licensed to make toys of Mickey Mouse? Why wouldn't everyone put Mickey on everything they make for kids?

Take a look in your nearest dollar store for "knock off" toys.
You will find many that look exceedingly similar to big name stuff.

The critical thing is what can and can't be legally protected.

For example, if Activision have copyrighted a logo, Say the element symbols on figures. YOU CAN'T use them. That would be a breach.
However, the basic shape and rough look can't be protected. You can find fake Spiderman figures and Pokemon, they will always look similar but not exactly the same.

In this case the villains don't even exist as a physical toy so he isn't copying one! If he was exporting the 3D model and texture files to 3D print exact duplicates, THEN there would be blood. Lawyers would circle in the sky for that one.

However, he is having an artist custom create a figure using NONE of the original files. You can't load a 3D model into a person so there is no way he can be accused of using them. The law very specifically doesn't cover this because of the abuse that would follow. Like I said before it would lead to copyrighting the shame of a "person" and trying to sue all doll makers.

You CAN make something that looks a bit like Mickey Mouse, however they were clever by copyrighting the basic 3 ring head and ears shape as a logo, so things that appear to be infringing that logo can be taken down a lot more easily.
But don't get me started on the "Mickey Mouse" law, that stuff should have expired years ago but they keep bribing politicians to extend protections just to keep their racket going.

Quote: Winter

@Aura24: Vathek! Yay!

Is no one gonna ask for Wolfgang?! Really?!

Wolfgang plz.

(In general I'd really like a wolf Skylander but will settle for Wolfgang, just saying.)

I'd be interested in a Wolfgang figure for myself. ^w^

^You are Wolfgang

No one has suggested Wolfgang, because the opening post states "I've already booked Wolfgang the golden queen and count moneybones who should I go with next ?". It's completely pointless to suggest what is already in progress. I would have suggested Golden Queen if she wasn't already booked.

As for villain sculpts, Vathek, as others have mentioned, would be a great choice. Possibly make him playable as Cynder, since he's not a trappable villain, and she's the closest equivalent (undead, dragon, introduced in SSA, similar shape).

Pryofer - I think the biggest issue you might run into is that it'd be really, really hard to claim the figure you're selling is only "like" Activision's characters if you're putting a chip inside of them that pulls up that character in the game.

It'd be an interesting court case - but I don't feel it'd go in OP's favor.

Pyrofer,

i think im one of the few people that actually has a problem with this. but my issue is i think this guy is a scammer. and judging by the reaction of people on this thread, it seems like people would throw money at him if he said he was taking orders. (so its the making money off of it that is what is bugging me)

dont you think its weird someone who's pretty new to the forum, doesnt seem to have any credibility , just suddenly posts about how hes hired an artist (how much do artists cost to make sculptures of things? its not cheap) to do video game character sculpts? drops big name toy company's and throws out a dollar figure in his first post, and says "and a little for my time." talks about how easy it would be to modify the timer on the chips (another red flag) you should know how hard it it is to do that kind of stuff and the price associated with it. so im thinking this guy cant be legit. there's no way

if im too negative i apologize. (edit i removed the thing about legos)

Masker Mind maybe?

Quote: Pyrofer

I find the lack of understanding of the law here quite upsetting.

We have been through all this before and nothing has changed.

You can't copyright or patent the SHAPE of a figure.

They can protect the 3D models, the artwork and logos. They can patent code and files.

They CAN NOT protect in any way the shape of the figure. LEGO fought this in court and lost. Trust me, if LEGO lost Activision have NO HOPE.
Yes, LEGO LOST. Other companies can produce plastic bricks with the same dimensions as LEGO with no fear of legal threats. They are only in trouble if they put a copyright logo etc on the bricks saying "LEGO".
If it's ok to make plastic bricks exactly the same size and shape as an existing plastic brick then making a physical thing shaped like a non-physical 3D model is no problem.

Before anybody comes back with "Well I THINK" or "In my OPINION" please try to find a fact or some actual legal reason to back it up. I find it hard to believe that people have such a problem with this yet pay $6 (or £6!!!) for a plastic trap that costs approx 40c to make when Activision even have said they won't make villain figures so it's not like he is taking anything away from their sales!

He hasn't said it's going to be a production line or selling in any quantity at all so why is everybody jumping on him?

I think people need to relax and stop drinking the media industry kool-aid so much.

Just to quickly add, I am not commenting on the legality of adding the chips. I can tell you though it's completely legal to take the chip out of a trap you bought and modify it to work in a normal figure.

...Well in that case, let the guy commission his figures, people! Also, I don't exactly know how putting the trap chips in the figures would work in game. Would the villain timers be made to work like health bars or something?