01-10-2006, 06:56 PM
Quote:Yay! Can\'t wait to send you some money.
Can\'t wait to get some!
:lol: Al, in response to your note, I do agree with you to a large extent. However, I understand the other side of it as well. The thing is, even if they did not care about what I do (or any of us, for that matter), their licensees probably do. I\'m sure companies like Neca pay New Line a pretty penny to be able to produce toys and shirts based on their characters. And if they let me do basically the same thing (at least with shirts) for free, that\'s not fair because I\'m technically a direct competitor. Sure, I\'m nowhere near the size of Neca, but through the internet I can sell my product worldwide, so essentially I am in the same marketplace, though I am kept out of retail chains due to lack of proper licenses. Besides, they have no idea how large or small I am anyway, so they cannot afford to assume.
I\'m not saying I\'m happy about it, or that I\'m on their \"side\". I firmly believe that us fans help keep franchises like Friday the 13th a hot commodity. And now with the internet, it\'s even bigger because we have websites and forums like these that bring us all together and help drive a large part of the market.
In my opinion, it\'s a shame that fans do not have a chance to share their love for these movies and somehow be able to sell items that they make based on them. It\'s either you are a huge company with lots of money that can afford licensing, or you are just a fan making hockey masks in your basement and selling them illegally trying not to get caught. There is no middle ground, and I think it\'s a shame. Part of that comes from the quality of the products available in stores. Companies often take shortcuts and substitute quality for low cost and come out with crap. I know some large companies are great at what they do, but in my opinion most of the stuff out here is crap.
I guess I wish licensing was tier-based and allowed certain people to purchase limited licenses that allowed them to produce their products and only make a limited amount of money on them. That way we still get the quality that fans like us desire, New Line actually gets a cut of it, and we are not living in fear. Even if a fan made say, $10,000 in a year, that\'s alot to one person and nothing to a large company. The only problem, again, comes down to competition...that would mean large companies would have to actually think about the crap they put out as opposed to just shitting out whatever they want and slapping a name on it.
Sorry for the long rant, guys...and thanks to anyone who read on this far :lol: It just seems to me that there can be a middle ground somewhere...but until we prove to companies like New Line that we are an extremely important part of their profits (at least for horror), then they can pretty much have their way.