It seems like a lot of people outside of here are blaming red Sonja and boss fight so no
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah.. that tracks for fucking 4H fans.
I think... The duck thing actually soured me, for real, for real. Frfr.
If I have to hold Skynet and Brainiac and the prompters accountable as an artist, I gotta hold the flesh and blood accountable, too. I understand homages and IP skirting. But the duck story as presented is what got me.
To be fair, I've been pointing out for years that the 4H outright steal artwork to base their designs on. Some of their weapon designs are 1:1 stolen from an artist who was a friend of mine for quite a while. Incredibly solid dude and I know for a FACT they didn't credit him or ask his permission to, again 1:1 copy his designs for their figures. And these aren't generic designs. These are like.. the very distinctive big Elven sword and some other things.
Some of their character designs are virtually 1:1 cribbed from places like DeviantArt, and at least two of their Cosmic Legions characters are ripped off from Pathfinder: Starfinder designs, as I recall. And other people have said similar things they noticed.
Not to mention the constant 'homages' that are 100% just IP theft. These guys are fucking thieves that have never seen an original idea that didn't think they should own a piece of. They fucking suck. But, they're the 4H. So as usual.. no one will really care and their toys will keep selling.
But as far as character homages go, I dunno.
My favorite Savage crucible figure is Battle Cat, but he's a lizard. That's the only reason I bought it. It's the only reason I even took an interest in their line. Do I drop them for their homages?
I could. I think that would be an interesting conversation in this community.
I'd agree with wyldman on this; the reality is that there is a difference, even if it can be hazy, between homage and IP theft. I do think you've gotta look at both intent and frequency; two things the 4H fail the test on HARD.
Is the intent to basically recreate a character/thing as close as you can without getting sued? Are you doing it once for fun, or constantly?
We know the answer with the 4H. They basically just re-do every single character/thing with their in-house style, but it's still very obviously that thing. Man-E-Faces is just.. Man-E-Faces, but filtered through Cosmic Legions. And they didn't JUST do Man-E-Faces. They did basically every MOTU character. You can buy almost the entire primary MOTU roster as Mythic Legions/Cosmic Legions figures and you know EXACTLY what they are the second you look at it. And again, they do this CONSTANTLY.
Compare that with Boss Fight Studio. Did you know they have a Skeletor homage? It's not actually Skeletor, though. It's a green skeleton (complete skeleton - not a skull on a muscle body) wearing purple Greek armor, and the shield has the 'spirit of Grayskull' on it. Amazing. It's its own unique thing, clearly a love-letter, but doesn't take the PLACE of that character in a display because it's still very unique and different. And they did that one time. They didn't release a 'MOTU homage figure' in every wave.
Savage Crucible used a distinctive color scheme on a VERY DIFFERENT concept for a character in order to evoke something you like without stepping on it or trying to 'get really close without getting sued.' It's literally a lizard guy but in a color scheme that makes you do the Leo pointing at the TV meme. THAT is a good homage.
