Ttaskmaster wrote:
Fair enough, the character of Apone is the intellectual property of Fox, or whoever, but Al's face is his own property. I'm sure any of you would get upset if I started selling action figures of you....
You are completely missing the point-
The doll looks nothing like Al Matthews other than the fact that it is African American.

Why did they change the facial features of the Ripley Powerloader doll? Because they couldn't secure the rights to
Sigourney Weaver's likeness. But by Al's arguement they should still owe Sigourney Weaver royalties because the doll is of a white woman with brunette hair. You expect Ripley to be a white woman with brunette hair so they are forced to make the figure as such.
So would it make any sense if Sigourney Weaver was upset that she didn't receive any money from this new figure of Ripley that looks nothing like her?
To give you another example look at the new Terminator Salvation toys (the 7 inch and 3 3/4 figures). Check out the John Connor figures. Both scales have John Connor's face covered by dust goggles and the 3 3/4 figure even has the rest of his face covered by a scarf! Obviously they couldn't secure the rights to Christian Bale's likeness. So should Bale be upset?
No.
Because they are not selling Christian Bale figures.
They are selling John Connor figures.
The Apone doll does not look like Al Matthews. It is not an Al Matthews doll- it is an Apone doll which as you said Woody is the I.P. of FOX and James Cameron.
If someone took a picture of me and started selling figures that looked EXACTLY like me- yeah I'd be upset. But if I played a role in a film and they decided to make a toy out of it
that looked nothing like me, I might be miffed, but I would know there wouldn't be anything I could do about it.
Sorry if this seems laboured on my part- it just seems that a few are missing the point of "using someone likeness".
EDIT- Come to think of it... The Hot Toys Apone figure looks more like Robert Downey Jr than Al Matthews!


Kevin