Any Basic Fun retro G1 news for 2023?

[Carrehz]

yeah, I was wondering if it was an error on Amazon's part too - or if maybe whoever put up the listing just googled for an image and used it without bothering to check if it was what they actually wanted it - sad to say it wouldn't be the first time I've seen THAT happen.

I'm not necessarily blaming Basic Fun for it; like Flitter I was wondering if it was a case of "we were using this for inspiration/a general proof of concept/etc, and whoops, it got put into the wrong folder and now Amazon have it". which if that's the case... I'm not annoyed that they've *seen* the customs, you know? hell, if I was at BF I'd probably have gone looking for fan interpretations of the designs too - see if there's actually interest in them being made, get some inspiration, etc... I'm just annoyed Pandabear's photo wound up on Amazon! :/

[Leave a Whisper]

I'm confused as to why Amazon would do that? Considering BF has perfectly good images of their own product.

Then again,  I've seen Amazon use a place holder photo of a beauty product for an upcoming Transformer toy.

Post Merge: April 27, 2023, 05:58:20 AM

yeah, I was wondering if it was an error on Amazon's part too - or if maybe whoever put up the listing just googled for an image and used it without bothering to check if it was what they actually wanted it - sad to say it wouldn't be the first time I've seen THAT happen.

I'm not necessarily blaming Basic Fun for it; like Flitter I was wondering if it was a case of "we were using this for inspiration/a general proof of concept/etc, and whoops, it got put into the wrong folder and now Amazon have it". which if that's the case... I'm not annoyed that they've *seen* the customs, you know? hell, if I was at BF I'd probably have gone looking for fan interpretations of the designs too - see if there's actually interest in them being made, get some inspiration, etc... I'm just annoyed Pandabear's photo wound up on Amazon! :/

This is going to make people mad, and I'm not trying to make people mad, just putting out an observation.

It's kind of odd to me, tbh that people will get riled about the company using photos of fanart or a custom of an official toy or character.

Yet they're doing the exact same thing and the company has graciously not issued a C&D. Even if they've made money on commissions by recreating a pony that wasn't available in their customer's country, as an example.

I mean no offense to any customizers by saying this.

[DreamvalleyMLP]

I agree with Leave A Whisper.

I would have felt honored and not have made a fuss about it. After all, you are using someone's existing IP.

On a bit of a side note, it's just amazing that the retro line has been going for 5 years now!

[pinkkittywinks]

Then again,  I've seen Amazon use a place holder photo of a beauty product for an upcoming Transformer toy.

Really? I rarely use Amazon so I didn't know that this sort of thing happened. Is it a regular occurrence?

Love pkw xxx

[Leave a Whisper]

Then again,  I've seen Amazon use a place holder photo of a beauty product for an upcoming Transformer toy.

Really? I rarely use Amazon so I didn't know that this sort of thing happened. Is it a regular occurrence?

Love pkw xxx

I don't know if it's a regular occurrence? I'm just saying that I have seen them use an unrelated product for a completely different listing for something not out yet. I think it's kind of amusing tbh.

[Carrehz]

It's a tricky thing, certainly... the legalities/moralities/etc of selling fanart. I'm not great at debates for stuff like this, and I don't want to start a big fuss or anything, but I'll try and explain my thoughts on it...

I think the big difference is that usually fan creations are small run, the creator isn't making too much money off them. If a big company steals their art then they're likely to make 300x the cash. It might be the company's IP but it's still not their art... art theft is wrong. Especially in this day and age, where it's easier than ever to get in touch with people. I've seen some "powers that be" contact fanartists and arrange deals to sell things with their fanart and such -  I think that's how that WeLoveFine site works. I know a lot of the Adventure Time comic artists were approached because of their fanart. THAT is how you do it IMO.

I don't think it's an "honour" to have your stuff stolen. Derivative or not, the artist still put a lot of time, work and effort into the piece.

(To clarify, I'm speaking in general here. I disagree that Basic Fun "copied" Pandabear's customs - they're both working off the same design, of course there's going to be some similarities. now if the customs in particular were VERY interpretive - if they had some specific detail that wasn't present in the original Hasbro art, but was in both the custom and Basic Fun's version - then I'd understand, but as it is... of course the official take on the design is going to look similar to a "Hasbro-match" custom, especially customs as dead-on as PB's
It wouldn't surprise me if they'd looked at multiple custom Celestials for inspiration etc, I think that's fine. It's just crummy that a custom photo ended up on an official listing - I'm sure it was an honest mistake and nothing sinister was meant by it - it's just lame, and it's misleading/false advertising! hardly the first time they've put up the wrong image... but there's a difference between an obvious error [beauty product for TF], a prototype being used for the stock images, and them using a photo of a completely different pony! )

edit: Oh wow I just saw the pics on Amazon have been edited to remove the background - I'd been assuming they were using the actual original photo that was posted earlier in the thread - so someone actually went out of their way to make these look like proper stock photos... Yeesh....

[serena-hime]

If anything, BF messed up by making me disappointed that we probably won't be getting a Celestial with the Gingerbread Pose, especially because I hate Tootsie pose and therefore probably won't even debox the Tootsie pose Celestials lol

Actually I much prefer a lot of what PB did over Basic Fun! Don't get me wrong, I love the BF Celestials and I am DYING to get my hands on them, but PB's interpretation looks more aesthetically consistent with the era in which they were meant to be released by Hasbro (I think year nine or ten?) while the BF Celestials look more consistent with earlier waves in a way that feels sort of anachronistic because of the darker colors and especially the much shorter manes.

[xCharx]

It’s possibly more someone at Amazon’s fault than Basic Fun.
I’ve been seeing that a lot with Rainbow High lately that early classified mock up images are being posted as listings months before release date. Even with obvious watermarks across them. That image might have been something they showed retailers as an example of what they were trying to do or used as a reference to show their designers the idea. Still bad to steal but I bet that wasn’t intended by basic fun to be used in that listing at all. The customizer it right to be frustrated but the Celestial Pony designs are Hasbro’s. So, for her to say that BF’s designs are too close to hers is a little unwarranted imo because, like her and BF are using the same source image. I’ve seen the Basic Fun protos in a video and don’t really see them as exact copies.

But at that toy show, two of Basic Fun's Celestial ponies were in the same pose the customizer chose for the ponies. To me that's a very close match which wasn't necessary. Because the concept art from Hasbro is just drawings showing the ponies in non-existing poses, right? So I can understand the customizer is upset not just about their pictures being on Amazon but also about the Basic Fun ones being so similar.

[Leave a Whisper]

It’s possibly more someone at Amazon’s fault than Basic Fun.
I’ve been seeing that a lot with Rainbow High lately that early classified mock up images are being posted as listings months before release date. Even with obvious watermarks across them. That image might have been something they showed retailers as an example of what they were trying to do or used as a reference to show their designers the idea. Still bad to steal but I bet that wasn’t intended by basic fun to be used in that listing at all. The customizer it right to be frustrated but the Celestial Pony designs are Hasbro’s. So, for her to say that BF’s designs are too close to hers is a little unwarranted imo because, like her and BF are using the same source image. I’ve seen the Basic Fun protos in a video and don’t really see them as exact copies.

But at that toy show, two of Basic Fun's Celestial ponies were in the same pose the customizer chose for the ponies. To me that's a very close match which wasn't necessary. Because the concept art from Hasbro is just drawings showing the ponies in non-existing poses, right? So I can understand the customizer is upset not just about their pictures being on Amazon but also about the Basic Fun ones being so similar.

I agree that it was Amazon that screwed up the picture instead of asking to be provided by the ones from Basic Fun.

Those ponies were supposed to come out, Hasbro did have prototypes of the originals shown off, and they probably instructed BF to use some of those moulds. BF has also only done a handful of Earth Pony moulds. And what are among them? Gingerbread,  Posey, Tootsie. So I don't see the point in crying foul over them reusing the poses they've already made.

People literally begged for this set to be made.  Let's not screw up future releases for the rest of the community by throwing a hissy fit over designs that were copied from official art. Because that's rather hypocritical and frankly it would make us look super ungrateful.

Finally, I have seen big companies shut down fan projects for far less then making profit, as is their legal right to protect their ip.

[Carrehz]

Basic Fun only have so many moulds to use in the first place?? Why wouldn't they use those common poses? Of course there's going to be some overlap when two parties are making interpretations of the SAME THING.

To me this argument is like... if Basic Fun made some alt-pose ponies and someone went "OMG they made a Rearing Pose Applejack, they ripped me off!!" or if they made babies for a pony that didn't originally have one (say, Baby Nachtlicht) and people that had made custom versions complained. When you're using Hasbro designs and Hasbro moulds, you kinda have to expect similarities.

(I just pulled random names/poses out of a hat BTW, I've never seen a rearing AJ, if you've made one, I am not taking a crack at you... But if you have made one then I wanna see her! )

Now if they were knocking off a fan-original design... Like if they made a pony that was "very close" to (say) Flufflepuff. Or if someone had sculpted their own original mold with a very specific pose and then BF did a lookalike.... Then I would understand the fuss. Or, again, if the customs in question had some significant deviation from the original art, that BF had copied. But as it is, sorry but I think there's a bit of overreaction going on here. Come on, guys.

(Want to add - I love PB's customs, they're fantastic - I just don't see any copying going on here - just two interpretations of the same design. Which I've seen happen plenty of times with customs!! I've seen tons of Baby Nightlights, hell I OWN two, and I don't see anyone pointing fingers and saying they're knocking off each other.)

[Leave a Whisper]

Pandabear's customs are absolutely gorgeous,  she is way talented.

Those are some good points you brought up Carrehz.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I posted in Out now and Coming soon, but here's this:
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It seems that gave them a kick in the pants.

I like the walking pose, so no complaints from me. I do wonder who was at fault for the initial mixup (you would have had to EDIT those photos to get the stock images used as placeholders...) but this seems to be fairly concrete as far as what we will get eventually. This is where we stand.

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Did anyone else see this yet?
https://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Anniversary-Collector/dp/B0BK22QV85
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[brightberry]

My guess about the stolen photo is that Amazon is using something like a "calling center" only their job is to put up product information. Whoever did it probably has a quota and just googled up the image not knowing it wasn't official. 


But I love these ponies and want them all!

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

So happy to see their real stock photos! I hope there will be more places to order them from online besides Amazon.

[Ponyfan]

I'm glad they changed the photo.   That was my main complaint, that the customizer's photo was used without permission on Amazon not that Basic Fun copied the customizer's designs.

The other photo looks like the Rescue at Midnight Castle set, but a mock up of some kind as some of the ponies mentioned in the description aren't on the box?

Ponyfan