XM General Discussion Thread

[The Mule]

Comics.
What I mean is: I buy the Marvel comics license. In the Marvel comics license, are included the X Men. They are part of it. I pay for their rights too.
But, when it comes to characters approval, Disney rejects them to pursue their own plan, and making so they damage me. Because I paid for that license, I spent time and money to make those characters from concept to printed prototype, and being bounced back by Disney is not exactly a fair price.
Is it within their rights? I think so, but it's not a good practice nonetheless, it's something that should have been pointed out since the beginning. You don't have someone buy your license and then restrict his access to a certain group of (famous) characters just because you have other plans.
XM committed to many X Men characters and so did the customers who jumped on them expecting more characters... not rejections.

[traylorc]

Originally Posted by The Mule

Comics.
What I mean is: I buy the Marvel comics license. In the Marvel comics license, are included the X Men. They are part of it. I pay for their rights too.
But, when it comes to characters approval, Disney rejects them to pursue their own plan, and making so they damage me. Because I paid for that license, I spent time and money to make those characters from concept to printed prototype, and being bounced back by Disney is not exactly a fair price.
Is it within their rights? I think so, but it's not a good practice nonetheless, it's something that should have been pointed out since the beginning. You don't have someone buy your license and then restrict his access to a certain group of (famous) characters just because you have other plans.
XM committed to many X Men characters and so did the customers who jumped on them expecting more characters... not rejections.

Ok...I hear what you are saying Mule and I understand your frustation. But when a company purchases a license, they understand that the licensor has the final say regarding their intellectual property. The rights of the licensor and licensee are clearly documented in the licensing agreement. Both parties likely retained legal council to make sure make sure their respective clients understood the parameters of the contract / license agreement. In other words, I'm willing to be that when the owners of XM signed the licensing agreement they understood that every project they wanted to pursue had to be approved by Disney. That means there could potentially be projects where Disney rejects XM's proposal.

Disney can pursue their own plans at any time because they own the X-men merchandising rights. As a licensee XM is only granted the permission to use the licensor's property. To be honest, I am unclear how XM is being "damaged" unless Disney is engaging in activities not documented in the license agreement. And if that were the case, then XM would have legal recourse against Disney to cover any actual damages. Sideshow has to adhere to similar licensing restrictions which is why you often see language in Sideshow pre-orders that says "subject to final approval".

Rejection of projects is probably frustrating to XM and to us as collectors...but frustration is different than the licensor willing violating the terms of the licensing agreement and actually damaging the licensee.

[The Mule]

I agree, no doubt about it.
I'm just saying that it MIGHT provide some leverage, XM has been effectively damaged since some of their projects were initially green lighted (the X Men diorama, Cable, Brown Wolverine), while now they have been put on hold.
XM spent time and money for those projects, and now they are frozen.
I agree and understand it's within Disney's rights, I'm just saying it's not a nice practice towards a licensee.

[jfyahui]

Originally Posted by The Mule

I agree, no doubt about it.
I'm just saying that it MIGHT provide some leverage, XM has been effectively damaged since some of their projects were initially green lighted (the X Men diorama, Cable, Brown Wolverine), while now they have been put on hold.
XM spent time and money for those projects, and now they are frozen.
I agree and understand it's within Disney's rights, I'm just saying it's not a nice practice towards a licensee.

Totally agree,it's not good business practice from Disney,I also belive ss might be flexing their muscle a bit and hurting xm...but xm has the talent and QC ,so they will be ok ..

[jfyahui]

And when they realese xxxx xxxx statues...everyones going to want one..lol..

[traylorc]

Originally Posted by The Mule

I agree, no doubt about it.
I'm just saying that it MIGHT provide some leverage, XM has been effectively damaged since some of their projects were initially green lighted (the X Men diorama, Cable, Brown Wolverine), while now they have been put on hold.
XM spent time and money for those projects, and now they are frozen.
I agree and understand it's within Disney's rights, I'm just saying it's not a nice practice towards a licensee.

Agreed...it may not be nice...but rejections of concepts / ideas / projects is a common business practice in licensing arrangements. We should give the guys from XM the benefit of the doubt that they understood the terms of the licensing agreement. IMHO XM is not being hurt, damaged, or victimized...most of us work for, or with, someone who has the ability to veto, reject or even delay our plans and ideas.

Respectfully I do not believe XM has any leverage in this situation...very few companies have leverage when dealing with Disney. XM is new to the collectible industry and were fortunate to secure a very popular license. I doubt they have much leverage against a multi-billion dollar conglomerate...particularly if that conglomerate is adhering to the terms of licensing agreement. Additionally it's in XM's best interest not to complain...they simply need to keep making great sculpts. The last thing XM wants is for other potential licencors to get the impression they are difficult to work with.

[nikos35]

Has anyone contacted Simply Toys recently?I try to communicate with them for 2 weeks and still I got no answer.

[CEETEE]

Originally Posted by nikos35

Has anyone contacted Simply Toys recently?I try to communicate with them for 2 weeks and still I got no answer.

I asked Simply Toys via Facebook the same question.

They said that Rory, the person who was in charge of web sales, does not work for them anymore. So I think they have now someone else and that might be the reason why it takes so long. I also had a few questions for them but also did not get an answer...

[Spidey976]

Originally Posted by built2shred

Shorudan,

Any chance on later batch's of Wolverine we could get the arms without the hair stencils and brown paint? I know you guys tried to convey hair on the back of his arms but IMO it's kind of a fail and would rather just not have it on him. I'm pretty sure most people feel this way... Otherwise we will need to pay someone to repaint his arms

Now that is a whole load of trouble you are asking XM to take on. XM hasn't responded to the request, and I have to admit I can see issues for them anyway you cut it. 1)If they change what they are shipping out in later batches and get rid of the arm hair a crap load of guys in batch 1 are going to lose it if they want the new versions, and unless XM ships them to those guys (and we are talking a brand new body here) the guys from batch 1 will have a legitimate gripe. 2) If XM doesn't make the changes then people are going to be saying "but you always said you would listen to us... what a load of bull----... we asked", and again it is a complete catch 22. I think at this point XM has a bit of a monster of our creation chasing it around. I actually don't think it is fair to ask them to change something that isn't a QC issue persay (i.e. a breakage issue or a leaning issue), but a personal preference issue.

[Viper245]

Originally Posted by built2shred

Shorudan,

Any chance on later batch's of Wolverine we could get the arms without the hair stencils and brown paint? I know you guys tried to convey hair on the back of his arms but IMO it's kind of a fail and would rather just not have it on him. I'm pretty sure most people feel this way... Otherwise we will need to pay someone to repaint his arms

I vote for no arm hair too.

Originally Posted by Spidey976

Now that is a whole load of trouble you are asking XM to take on. XM hasn't responded to the request, and I have to admit I can see issues for them anyway you cut it. 1)If they change what they are shipping out in later batches and get rid of the arm hair a crap load of guys in batch 1 are going to lose it if they want the new versions, and unless XM ships them to those guys (and we are talking a brand new body here) the guys from batch 1 will have a legitimate gripe. 2) If XM doesn't make the changes then people are going to be saying "but you always said you would listen to us... what a load of bull----... we asked", and again it is a complete catch 22. I think at this point XM has a bit of a monster of our creation chasing it around. I actually don't think it is fair to ask them to change something that isn't a QC issue persay (i.e. a breakage issue or a leaning issue), but a personal preference issue.

Rather than prophesying what XM can and can't do to remedy the situation, why don't we just wait for a response from them, eh, Spidey?