Four Horsemen Studios Mythic Legions

Mint In Boks said:
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Motherfuckers have never once credited my wife with designing Minotaur the Duck’s head, which before she designed the helmet they sculpted was duck wearing a cartoonViking helmet.

Motherfuckers steal art all the goddamn time and I’m glad they’re finally reaching the “FO” of FAFO
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I'm unfamiliar with this, regale me.
 
I've seen people blaming Boss Fight already, but this isn't their fault. It was clearly meant to invoke Red Sonja and the redheaded look was right in the center of their promotional images. It'S not shocking that the Red Sonja IP holders noticed it.

While I do enjoy some of these IP "inspired" figures like FMF's Crimson Moon, its actually a bit refreshing to see an IP holder do something about it.
 
I think the Legendary Barbarian was much closer to a substantial IP claim than this figure, I’m actually surprised it got pulled. Mainly because I think the most iconic part of Red Sonja is the red hair plus the incredibly skimpy chain mail bikini. I wonder design wise what they have claim to… all red haired female fighters that bare their midriffs and thighs? 4H’s figure seems painted with a broad enough brush to get away with the homage, there are so many lookalikes in the fantasy genre. But I’m not the biggest Sonja fan so maybe I’m missing more of a connection. Did she ever paint her face with woad?
 
I feel like Sonja's ownership and licensors have always defended the IP better/more aggressively than most IP holders - truly not one I'd ever want to take a chance on. 4H is pretty cozy with Mattel though, right? I always assume they got away with what they do with MOTU homages because they had a good relationship with the company. I suppose while "red-headed warrior lady" shouldn't be enough for a copyright strike, if a lawyer were to go "as you can see, they have a business model based on not licensing characters" there's no way they'd win even if the other IP holders don't seem to care.

I mean, they had Jjuno years ago who I always figured was Sonja adjacent, but also she's got enough distinguishing design choices to make her unique.

(EDIT: Didn't they pose this new figure like a recent Red Sonja comic book cover in one of their promo shots? I mean, poke the bear...)
 
docsilence said:
I feel like Sonja's ownership and licensors have always defended the IP better/more aggressively than most IP holders - truly not one I'd ever want to take a chance on. 4H is pretty cozy with Mattel though, right? I always assume they got away with what they do with MOTU homages because they had a good relationship with the company. I suppose while "red-headed warrior lady" shouldn't be enough for a copyright strike, if a lawyer were to go "as you can see, they have a business model based on not licensing characters" there's no way they'd win even if the other IP holders don't seem to care.

I mean, they had Jjuno years ago who I always figured was Sonja adjacent, but also she's got enough distinguishing design choices to make her unique.

(EDIT: Didn't they pose this new figure like a recent Red Sonja comic book cover in one of their promo shots? I mean, poke the bear...)
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Out of curiosity I googled it and yes, there are a few pictures of Red Sonja on a throne, and 4H definitely posed their Red Head on one as well. It's kind of hilarious looking at the original art vs theirs because of how sexualized the original art is - she's very, uh, open legged. But the 4H photo... aside from not being as sexualized... doesn't actually have the articulation range to get into a pose like that anyway.

I was going to pass on this one as I think the Thrace head reads too young and clashes against this body. It's also looks large.
 
docsilence said:
I feel like Sonja's ownership and licensors have always defended the IP better/more aggressively than most IP holders - truly not one I'd ever want to take a chance on. 4H is pretty cozy with Mattel though, right? I always assume they got away with what they do with MOTU homages because they had a good relationship with the company. I suppose while "red-headed warrior lady" shouldn't be enough for a copyright strike, if a lawyer were to go "as you can see, they have a business model based on not licensing characters" there's no way they'd win even if the other IP holders don't seem to care.

I mean, they had Jjuno years ago who I always figured was Sonja adjacent, but also she's got enough distinguishing design choices to make her unique.

(EDIT: Didn't they pose this new figure like a recent Red Sonja comic book cover in one of their promo shots? I mean, poke the bear...)
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Not even in one of their promo shots but the main announcement photo!
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AgentGreen said:
Out of curiosity I googled it and yes, there are a few pictures of Red Sonja on a throne, and 4H definitely posed their Red Head on one as well. It's kind of hilarious looking at the original art vs theirs because of how sexualized the original art is - she's very, uh, open legged. But the 4H photo... aside from not being as sexualized... doesn't actually have the articulation range to get into a pose like that anyway.

I was going to pass on this one as I think the Thrace head reads too young and clashes against this body. It's also looks large.
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As a Sonja devotee with two diff fine art prints of her on thrones, they were pretty clear with their nudging.
 
So I can understand them pulling that head sculpt but I wish they hadn’t pulled the other one. Are we not allowed to have red haired female highland warriors because it gets too close? I wonder if they changed the skirt to be more highlandish or covered her midriff if they could have kept the heads.

I wonder if what forced their hand in removing the heads was the fact that the announcement picture was so close to the IP image that there was no way real way to argue that it was just coincidence. They probably should have just shown the promo pictures with the other head sculpts and just showed the non-face painted red hair one in the picture that shows everything that she came with.
 
It's funny, the redhead from the head pack from a few years back is a perfectly fine Sonja stand-in, too, I've got her on a generic barbarian body.

(To be fair, if I've learned one thing as an IP owner it's that you actually do have to take action to defend your copyright/trademark - if you're sufficiently negligent it can become harder to protect it in court. It's why you'll see stuff like Homsetuck or Critical Role create fan art policies.)
 
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