Is Disney Starting to Crack Down on the Replica/Prop World?

I saw that and was wondering the same thing. Several people are selling Baby Yoda replicas on here. I think it comes down to selling. If you make a replica for yourself no one cares, but when someone is selling replicas for $500.00 a piece I think they'll be in trouble.
 
Part of the problem is when you refer to the item as ‘baby Yoda’. That’s a trademark/copywrited character thus more liable.
They also stand to make a huge market share from that character— to be fair they kind of missed the opportunity there to push it into the market
 
First, remember to keep your sales small. A run here or there will go under the radar, but opening a store on Etsy or a website? Bad idea. That being said, let us be honest....It was going to happen sooner than later, so we can’t act surprised.

That baby Yoda character is super popular and Disney knows it is a merchandising cash cow. They weren’t ready with product, so while they scrambled, etsy shops quickly capitalized. But now that Disney is ready to do a full merchandising bonanza, you know damn well they would go after the law breakers and start cracking down. And you can't be mad or blame them, this is their property and if you are not paying them for the license to use their property, they can shut you down. Period. These sellers just need to tread lightly and not rock the boat. The more you fight Disney, the angrier they will get and then they could just decide to prove a point and start targeting all Star Wars, costumes, armor, lightsabers and helmets, etc.
 
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The difference is quantity. Here, we do runs of 10 or so most times. Etsy? That’s different. Most of us here work in the industry and fly under the radar and, though we’ve grown as a group, we are nowhere near the visitors an Etsy shop gets.

I’m sure we’re fine.
 
Yes...What Moviefreak said.

Disney doesn't chase everything. Mostly only the stuff that competes directly with their products or their vendors products. I think they were surprised at the popularity of baby Yoda, but weren't going to miss the opportunity to capitalize on it. There are people on Etsy that have been selling Mando helmets, but Disney hasn't bothered them (so far, but they would be well within their rights to do so, but like the SDS court ruling, costume pieces may cause some issue). They don't want to upset their fan base, but I wouldn't be surprised it they do a cleanup of some high priced merchandise on Etsy, Ebay and Bonanza for starters.

*Edit. A baby Yoda toy made by someone, may have dangerous chemicals or a person may have allergic reactions to some of the parts. Who know if the dolls were made in a home that was smoke free, pet free, creepy crawly free. Would you want your child to get sick?

TazMan2000
 
TazMan2000 said:
Yes...What Moviefreak said.

Disney doesn't chase everything. Mostly only the stuff that competes directly with their products or their vendors products. I think they were surprised at the popularity of baby Yoda, but weren't going to miss the opportunity to capitalize on it. There are people on Etsy that have been selling Mando helmets, but Disney hasn't bothered them (so far, but they would be well within their rights to do so, but like the SDS court ruling, costume pieces may cause some issue). They don't want to upset their fan base, but I wouldn't be surprised it they do a cleanup of some high priced merchandise on Etsy, Ebay and Bonanza for starters.

TazMan2000
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Good point on not wanting to upset their fan base. That is why they allow people to make costumes and troop at parades and such. When you are making something for yourself and using it for trooping at parades or to do charity work, I believe Disney is cool with it. But make a business out of it? There lies the issue. But we know that will upset a whole bunch of people who feel it is their right to rip off the mouse and that Disney is money hungry and evil. :lol:


Another thing to think about is, that this past year has been a game changer in the way Disney is going to look at the a Star Wars property. To quote Bob Dylan: “the times they are a-changin’. :lol:

While Disney has owned The intellectual property rights for Star Wars for some time now, they didn’t have two theme parks pandering a ton of merchandise. Now that they have The Galaxy's Edge parks, and are selling merchandise like hot cakes, they are going to start seeing all the unlicensed stuff as money out of their pockets. I suspect they will start being less lenient when your items is an item they are selling in the park. Why would they want to sell a Kylo helmet and let you sell yours?
 
Honestly I don't know how much money can really be made from this stuff anyway. Often to keep the quality up you have to either use expensive materials or you have to spend a lot of time (ie. hours spent building/ painting, etc. costs money) or both. The profit margins are often so thin that many makers are barely making a profit and often break even. Setting aside the legal risk of opening a business replicating items without holding the rights, how many examples exist where they can't keep up with the quality and demand, much less be profitable?

Just look at Anovos. They hold the license and even they can't get it right.

For my part I just make things for myself. I can make a few things here and there for other fans (when time and funds permit) and usually break even or maybe make a few bucks, but usually not a whole lot. I could never afford to make a business out of it and I would never risk my livelihood trying to profit off this IP when all it would take is a visit from Lucasfilm to crush everything I built. From a legal perspective the fans have no recourse. That's why I don't have a website for the little work I do, despite people encouraging me to build one, it's not worth the risk.

If I do get any work, it's word of mouth. Even then it's few and far between.
 
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I just hope the merchandise doesn't affect creative decisions going forward. Favreau said in an interview he specifically asked disney to hold the baby yoda merchandise so no toys would spoil the surprise: I wonder if they'll allow something similar in the future given this "lost" opportunity...
 
Potroclo said:
I just hope the merchandise doesn't affect creative decisions going forward. Favreau said in an interview he specifically asked disney to hold the baby yoda merchandise so no toys would spoil the surprise: I wonder if they'll allow something similar in the future given this "lost" opportunity...
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I don't think Disney looks at this as just a money making thing. They care about quality and character driven good story telling. The S.T., Galaxies edge, all clearly show that.
 
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It’s “The Child” so yeah they are and will be handing out C & D’s like candy to protect their Licensees whose Product has not even reached the shelves yet.
 
Maybe the balance lies somewhere in fans making things that aren't in the spotlight?

People making The Child (can we please stop calling him baby Yoda because he's not Yoda) and Mandalorian stuff have a MUCH larger risk of getting hammered by Lucasfilm than people making Prequel Era stuff for example because the popularity is now with the new TV show.
 
Interesting discussion, but bottom line. If you sell Star Wars intellectual property they can shut you down at the minimum... they can also sue you for making money on the intellectual property. So far, runs of 10 or 20 haven't been stopped, but at any moment that could change. You take a risk selling ANY product based on someone elses intellectual property. Obscure things that don't have merchandise for sale are usually safe because your not taking money out of there pocket by competing with there sales... that is not the case with "The Child".

The scary thing about a run on a forum like this is that you could have orders and invest a lot of money in the product then get busted before the runs complete. Just saying you take risk doing that. They may not stop project runs... but they could.
 
Back when Master Replicas started up they issued C&Ds frequently. A bootleg run on the forum could even get you banned at one point.
 
teecrooz said:
A bootleg run on the forum could even get you banned at one point.
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I recall one instance here on the RPF, where a license holder contacted the Administration here and not the member producing the item in the JY. The Admin kindly asked the seller to cease selling the item, and they ignored it. They pushed back. That person was quickly banned as the owner here does not want any legal issues turned towards the forum. I believe the terms you agree to when you join here state the site is not responsible, but still... they don’t want any trouble here.
 
Disney barely has any Child merchandise released - my take is that they want to have market presence and prevent uninformed people from buying unlicensed stuff. Disney wants their stuffed-toy cash.
 
Moviefreak said:
I read his post with the tone of sarcasm... but maybe he believes it?
Click to expand...


Yes I was being very sarcastic. That's why I posted the "Yeah Right" meme.

Technically I have not seen the "S.T." as I will never see ROS. I saw TFA and LJ which I truly wish I could erase them from my memory but, I know what happens in ROS and I will never see it. Hard to believe there is a Star Wars movie I will never see, but I only saw Solo once when it was on Netflix.

Yeah to be clear Disney cares about nothing but money. Ironically if they made good Star Wars movies they would have made a lot more. A lot more than 25% more for sure.
 
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