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In lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, David Eaton wrote:
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In lugnet.pirates, Dave Schuler wrote:
But check out the
Wow. I admit I haven’t been following Best-Lock at all, but isn’t this
insanely close to copyright violation for the “likeness” of the minifig? Have
their figs always been so minifiggish?
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I’m not sure, to be honest. Cobi has existed for some time in Europe (based
in Poland) but has only become available in the US very recently, in the wake of
the Cobi/Best-Lock merger. Over at The Bloks
Forum we’ve been discussing this brand for a while. Apparently there’s a
large body of distinctive elements that pop up in a wide range of brands
(Oxford, Shifty, Cobi, Coko, ad infinitum), so it’s difficult to trace the
lineage of a particular part or even a particular brand. This style of minifig
appears to have originated in the pre-merger Cobi sets, and the fact that
they’re available in the US at all suggests to me that TLG’s patents must have
expired some time ago. The Just Kidz sub-brand I mentioned makes use of a
different minifig style but is still part of the Cobi/Best-Lock brand (the
logo appears on the instruction sheet but not on the box itself nor on the
bricks--weird).
I just realized that I have other Cobi/Best-Lock minifigs from one of the
military sets, and I’ll post a picture of them tonight or tomorrow. They have
the same squared legs (versus the rounded style of Mega Bloks minifigs), but
the heads don’t have a protruding nose.
For that matter, I’ll post a pic of the Just Kidz style of minifig, too.
Dave!
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Cobi/Best-Lock
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| (...) Hm. I was under the impression that even just the *image* of a minifig was un-marketable thanks to copyright. I seem to recall that Mike Rayhawk was prevented from selling his BrikWars artwork for that reason (although I don't think he ever (...) (18 years ago, 2-Jan-07, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)
| | | Re: Cobi/Best-Lock
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| (...) (URL) Here's> a shot of three minifigs from the Just Kidz line of Cobi/Best-Lock stuff. And (URL) here's> a reverse angle of the guy on the far left. As you'll see, the leg-holes are square, in what I think is an inferior design; it takes more (...) (18 years ago, 3-Jan-07, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Cobi/Best-Lock
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| In lugnet.pirates, Dave Schuler wrote: But check out the (...) Wow. I admit I haven't been following Best-Lock at all, but isn't this insanely close to copyright violation for the "likeness" of the minifig? Have their figs always been so (...) (18 years ago, 2-Jan-07, to lugnet.off-topic.clone-brands, FTX)
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