Thunderwolf Cav

The legs are pre-cast into the wolves. All you need are torso's arm's and head's. They look better than the GW one.

Scroll down in the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190385615528

At the bottom it says he's also making a Storm Raven, Organic Drop Pod, and Hydra/Manticore conversion kit.

I really wonder if GW will shut this guy down soon..

Damn, that would be a nice and cheap (ish) way to field them.

friend up here in petawawa plays space wolves and i believe he bought a set, not sure if they are from this guy, but he had them last night and they looked pretty good.

The auction was pulled when I tried the link. Had it ended or did GW grab a hold of his nuts?

ScottRadom wrote:The auction was pulled when I tried the link. Had it ended or did GW grab a hold of his nuts?

he relisted it

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190387983934

People are getting smart about GW and what they can and cannot get away with. Basically in the past GW has just sent out legal threats to anyone that they felt was doing something connected to the game. The theory being that most people did not have the legal knowledge, or the resources to hire a lawyer to look at the threats GW was sending out to determine whether or not they were legitimate. Recently some people have looked into what GW can and cannot do, and it is pretty ridiculous what they have been getting away with. I really dont have the diction to describe the situation properly, so here is what one private mini producer had to say on his website:

Guys we just released 2 new alien head sets. One is great for representing Ymagrl stealers the other is great for modding your bugs to look like xenomorph "Aliens".

Both sets are selling out faster then I can order them, so get them while you can.

On another note, I recieved this email today.

"games workshop is gonna sue the crap out of you if you dont go below the radar with your casting project, I'd sell em on ebay or some jeez man what're you thinking??
casting your own models of GW copywrighted material is grounds to rip you a new anus, legally speaking."

I do not know what concerns me more, that the common hobbyist is so uneducated about legal law but insist on telling us what is legal and not.

Or the fact that a certain large miniatures company has pretty much brainwashed much of its fans (and many forum admins) that its illegal to make parts that can fit on their models.

I want it on the record that all our parts are sculpted and created by our sculptors. Even our shoulder pads are 3d designed and created from scratch by us.

No company can copyright the idea of a shoulder pad... or a U... or a arrow with numbers.. Many of our symbols are similiar to other companies, but there is much interpretation in our works, and nothing is a copy.

Further more. Do a little trademark research before you think you can not use the word Space Marine or any of the chapter names on your website. These are or may not be copyrighted names, used in written text, this does not mean you need permission to use such text. The same goes for trademarks. As long as you are not claiming that they are official Space Marine bits, or saying that they are from a certain company, you can use such language according to the IP laws in your country. Please, consult a lawyer for the laws concerning such matters.

So do a little research, talk to a lawyer, read a bit, before you buy into all the legal hoopla on a certain companies "IP Policy" website.

If you have any questions, I recommend you talk to a licenced attorney as we are not attorneys or offering any legal consul.

If you want to see how far this company has pushed into GW's business take a look at their products on the website. Its amazing, and if they havent been lawhammered out of business then it seems likely that GW has been throwing its weight around for some time.

http://chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/home

well theres a site that has all the pre-heresey primarchs for sale, but they dont list them as the actual name

like, The Lion is named the paladine or something like that. theres the emperor named The Lord etc etc

But yea, they got around the GW stuff by just renaming thier items

Well I think the best line in that statement that Cam quoted is the last one.

As far as I know the bit about copyright law is that you have to protect your IP ruthlessly and indiscriminately. You simply can't turn a blind eye to one compnay selling tzeentch flamers and then try to shut down the operations of another similar company. They just claim discrimination.

William Hughes and I were playing an online version of Mighty Empires (The old version. Campaign for Warhammer). William had scanned the tiles and built a private site for us to track moves on. GW asked him... in polite terms actually... to shut it down or face a nude Gav Thorpe or something.

I know of at least one company fairly recently that had one mini forced out of production. It was an armored dwarf that really, really looked like a piece fo GW fluff. That's all. It just happened to resemble a pic of a piece of art. It didn't have any distinct GW chaos stuff or anything. But the mold was ordered destroyed. The same company does sell conversion bits and stuff that are clearly targetted at GW stuff but I do find it odd that this one piece got shut down as looking like something GW did, but the shoulder pads and stuff are open game.

I think its like he said in that statement. There are allot of generic things that GW uses that cannot be copyright, or that they only have limited control over. I did another scan of their site and found that some items were gone since i last visited. I think that the ultramarines and blood angels used to have shoulderpads, and i dont see them now. How GW can copyright the greek letter for ultra (or whatever the ultramarines symbol is) i do not know. If im not mistaken the fact that it is a greek symbol means it has been around for 3000 years or something no?

In the case of a miniature looking like a GW fluff image, i would imagine that GW would have the artistic copyright on the original art. So anyone who duplicates that image would be in violation? If there was no art to go with the fluff, then that is all kinds of crazy, and i would have to wonder if the guy got good legal advice. I suspect that this is someone you know Scott, so you would be the best judge there.

The mini I am talking about wa a TOTAL rip off of a piece of GW art. It was a dwarf from a company called MaxMini, and I am friendly with the dude who runs it but just through the forums. I don't know his real name even. Unless it actually is przymas. Might be, he's a pollack.

But the sketchy area for me is it may look like a piece of GW art, but the piece of GW art looks like so much other stuff. In this case it was super obvious that it had been ripped off (cool fig too, I got one I should do up!) but in other instances I think it's less clear. The letter ultra for example. Can't really copyright that as it's a greek letter but I think if you slap it on a shoulder pad the meaning becomes very clear that it's not just a greek letter anymore.

All second or third hand info here... but over on CMON there was some stin kabout GW defending copyright. For the record I am pro GW on this. I do support some companies who's stuff is clearly targeted at GW players but I still think GW is right to keep people from making a living off their work. Just like I sided with Mettalica vs. Napster. Anyway some company made a Dr. Who Tardiss, which is essentially just a red phone booth I think. Not sure, as I =I=censor=I= hate Dr. Who. It came to the attention of whoever sold the "official" Dr. Who stuff and it went to court. The guy claimed it was "just a phone booth" but when they put the question to x amount of people they responded that it was a tardiss time travel thingy. SO the guy lost and had to cease making phone booth thingies. But I have only heard of this in the roundy-roundy way and have no contact with the people involved.

Avatars of War is a company I love. They make mini's that could mostly be ripped out of GW books. So I can't get too high and mighty about not supported GW or forge world and stuff. Plus sometimes comanies step in and make acceptable mini's when the GW ones are just ass. Check out the GW minotaurs inthe beast range for warhammer. They're so =I=censor=I= it is mind boggling.

But I think the concept of a Space Marine riding a wolf is the gayest thing ever. Well, maybe if they rode a unicorn it would be more gay, but not much. Man I hate Space Wolves.

There's always all sorts of ways to get around legalities, especially on a global scale. Sure there are global copyright laws but is a guy is Assbackwardsikstan going to be easy to find after selling some close to infringement product on a forum or website. GW does throw thier weight around, and they do a good job about it, even if it is just scare tactics.
Just a few months ago there was a huge crackdown on their specialist games range stuff (Cam will remember).
The wolves, if just wolves I think would be fine. But they have went ahead and molded space marine legs onto them. That's where I think the issue is with these figs is and the pic using GW upper body's on them.

I have that Dwarf fig Scott is talking about. Complete and total rip off of artwork in the Dwarf army book. And I agree with Scott, Space Marines riding wolves is awful..

Dude, didn't I get that dwarf back form you? I thought we swapped for something. If I didn't I'd like to trade for it. I love that fig!

Oh yah! My bad, I traded it to you for that Imperial Pilot. I guess I don't have that fig . But I used too1

I just want to point out that the U that is used for ultramarines is not a greek letter. there is no letter ultra in the greek alphabet. the ultramarines letter would only come close to an upside down omega. for reference, here is a image of all the greek letters.


So in reality the U is likely a capital U only it's written in a gothic script and could have been trademarked or copywritten as a symbol created by GW. Obvious im not a lawyer but just thought i'd add my thoughts.

I did not know that Greg. Look at the big brain on Greg everyone!

Hmm, well that sort of makes it more likely to have GW stomp some of these manufacturers then.