BST AXN Licensing
 

Hi everyone. I was just wondering how companies like The Loyal Subjects are able to get licenses to make action figures that other companies are making. For example, there are a wide variety of Aang figures to choose from with McFarlane's 7 inch, 5 inch, DST's 7 inch, and The Loyal Subjects' own 5 inch offerings.

How are The Loyal Subjects able to do this when other versions of Aang are floating around? What is the process of obtaining a license to produce merchandise for someone else's intellectual property?

Honestly there isn't a single answer, it really varies from license to license. The big play for a company is to acquire the "master license" which is what basically secures rights to that license as exclusively theirs in their main market. Hasbro for example has the master license for Star Wars which is why the only other figures made in similar scales to any of their lines are import figures (which aren't sold at the same traditional markets as Hasbro's product or for the same price range). So to answer why so many companies are able to do Avatar figures, it's probably because there isn't a single master license holder and the owner of the license is happy to make more deals and therefore more money. I'm probably over-simplifying things but when we start talking about licensing and companies it can become a seriously involved legal and business lecture so simpler might be better.

That definitely sounds familiar. I have heard of the master license before. I greatly appreciate what you've written here. My additional question is are companies allowed to make merchandise for shows that were written off for tax purposes?

Also, if you could point me to any additional resources about the complicated legalities behind merchandising and licensing, that would be awesome. Thank you.

This is a toy industry trend nicknamed "slicensing." Industry trades have covered it in recent years.
https://toybook.com/slicensing-the-t...ring-licenses/

As mentioned in the article, different licenses are extended for different product types. "In just one sub-category, the [Fortnite] license was sliced to give Moose Toys figures smaller than 3 inches, Jazwares figures at 4 inches and 12 inches, and McFarlane premium figures at 7 inches and 11 inches. From a collector standpoint, it can come down to different strokes for different folks, but for some kids, parents, and other toy buyers, the choice can be confusing and overwhelming."

With Loyal Subjects BST AXN, they're at a 5" scale that is relatively non-standard, so they may have the license only for that product class. For brands like TMNT, the other major collector-friendly licenses are NECA at 6" and Super7 at 7". Playmates also does a 5" scale, so I don't know how those licenses work together.