Subject:
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Re: Sith Infiltrator
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.starwars
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Date:
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Sat, 15 May 1999 01:19:32 GMT
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Viewed:
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692 times
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TLG paid Lucas a $50 million licensing fee.
In lugnet.starwars, Steve Bliss writes:
> On Fri, 14 May 1999 15:07:15 GMT, Christopher Masi
> <cmasi@cmasi.chem.tulane.edu> wrote:
>
> > The strange thing about the Star Wars LEGO is the return to a more classic • LEGO
> > building style. While Lucasfilm Ltd. probably has control over the design or
> > approval of designs I would guess that what is really controlling these • designs
> > is money. After all, "All Star Wars elements are property of Lucasfilm Ltd.
> > and/or Lucas Licensing Ltd." I would guess that LEGO has to pay a licensing • fee
> > for any bricks created specifically to model anything from the Star Wars
> > universe. For example, the droids (R2 and the Battle Droids) the designs on • the
> > minifigs, the helmets, the scanner binocculars, the light sabers, the nose
> > piece for the X-Wing, the blasters (laser things on the wings) the cockpit
> > canopies, maybe the engines (I doubt it with these), the cockpit displays, • the
> > printed tiles. If LEGO uses a lot of regular bricks then no one can haggle • over
> > who owns the brick. Thus, it may be less exspensive to create models with a
> > high piece count than to create models with specialty pieces which would
> > require LEGO to pay a licensing fee.
>
> I don't think TLG is paying LFL per piece -- I'd guess they are paying
> either a flat rate, or a percent of the profits.
>
> As for the ownership of whatever, I'd guess LFL owns the likenesses of the
> characters, devices, and vehicles. TLG probably owns the designs to the
> parts. If this is true, TLG can use all the new parts in other, non-SW
> sets. But they couldn't use the 2x2 slope with the image of the AT-AT
> walker.
>
> The battle droid and R2 parts could be a grey area. A plain R2 head is a
> generic TLG part, very similar to the bell jar part from the Adventurers
> line. A plain R2 body is still pretty generic. The R2 legs? Hmm. Those
> are kind of iffy. The battle droid goes pretty much the same way -- some
> parts are fairly generic when taken out of the 'battle droid context'. But
> other parts, particularly the head, are pretty specific.
>
> It has always been cheaper for TLG to make sets with generic bricks, rather
> than special pieces. With plain bricks, they can manufacture a lot of them
> and spread around the fixed costs. With special parts, they make fewer,
> and the fixed costs (especially designing and building the molds) end up
> being a larger part of the per-piece cost.
>
> Steve
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Sith Infiltrator
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| (...) I don't think TLG is paying LFL per piece -- I'd guess they are paying either a flat rate, or a percent of the profits. As for the ownership of whatever, I'd guess LFL owns the likenesses of the characters, devices, and vehicles. TLG probably (...) (25 years ago, 14-May-99, to lugnet.starwars)
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