Subject:      Re: Trouble Afoot from prototype owner and Hasbro legal
From:         lopez@halcyon.com (Gus Lopez)
Date:         1998/03/08
Newsgroups:   rec.arts.sf.starwars.collecting.misc,rec.arts.sf.starwars.collecting.vintage

In article <35028464.556658503@nntp.iglou.com>,
Virginia Brooks wrote (in email to Ed Wiser ):

>I see you guys are very far behind on the news.  My figures have already
>been sold.  I won't give the details because you guys wouldn't believe
>the amount I actually did get for them. 

Great. We'd love to see confirmation that you actually sold them for
hundreds of thousands of dollars.  I eagerly await some proof of your
claims.

>As far as 4 up hardcopies and prototypes, unless your friends have a
>release from Kenner, then they have Kenner property in their collections. 

Not necessarily.  Some prototypes were thrown away by Kenner.  Some never
belonged to Kenner as they were byproducts from subcontracters.  Some
items were taken home by employees in an acceptable and open fashion,
years before the company ever had a policy about it.  Some were given away
by Kenner reps at events such as Toy Fair.

>I even had to get a release from Kenner before I could finalize the sale
>of my figures.  Tell Gus to call Jim Black in Cincinnati and ask him if
>my letter of release really came from Kenner. 

Better yet, show us this release.  I eagerly await proof that Kenner
granted you permission to sell (what you claim is) their property.

>I know my buyer didn't go public because part of the conditions of the
>sale was for her to remain anonymous.  Which as far as I know, that has
>been honored.  They were sold almost 4 months ago. 

I believe it's impossible that you got what you claimed these pieces were
worth ("hundreds of thousands of dollars") but I eagerly await your
*proof* that I am wrong. 

I promise to publicly eat a proof card if you can prove you got over
$200,000 for 300 unpainted *produced* micro collection figures from a
single buyer.

>My real beef is the money people are losing for buying the unproduced
>micro figures.  They are being falsely advertised and sold via the
>Internet to people who believe what they are being told by these persons
>who claim to be experts. 

We're still awaiting some evidence that the Hoth Bacta Chamber and the
Bespin Torture Chamber were never produced and that a conspiracy of
collectors (including myself) is behind their existence.

>When everyone has the opportunity to see all the documentation there is,
>they will never believe all those top authority people again.

Great...let's see the documentation.  "I'm holding a list here of 500
communists in the State Department..."  Wonderful.  Let's see the
documentation! 

>As a matter of fact, there is a group of people considering a class
>action suit over those unproduced figures right now.  These guys brought
>it on themselves.

Great...let's hear the name of a single plaintiff from the suit.  Oh no,
let me guess...that's "secret" too.  Who are they suing?  There just
aren't that many unproduced micro figures around... to really warrant a
lawsuit, but feel free to prove me wrong on this too.

>It certainly had to have been worth one phone call to put the matter to
>rest. They consider themselves to be experts and they probably have seen
>a lot of collectibles, but they didn't have to be so close-minded without
>seeing any of the documentation. 

You have never presented us with documentation.  Here's your big
chance--post it to the net!

>All their proof is what Kenner employees and ex employees have told them. 

I dunno...information from several employees seems pretty solid to me. Of
course, we have loads of information beyond just interviews with Kenner
people. 

>Those guys couldn't authorize anything and they certainly did not have
>access to the original engineer's records

Let's get one thing perfectly straight.  There is no such thing as "the
original engineer".  There are lots of engineers who work at Kenner and
who worked on the Micro Collection.  No offense aimed at Kenner engineers,
but engineers have a very specific role in the production of the toys. 
They design such things as joints, movement of parts, and mechanisms for
toys.  Engineers are not the lead on the overall production and management
of a toy line, and they do not make marketing decisions.  And there isn't
just one engineer who has complete visibility on an entire product as
large as the Micro Collection.

That's great that you found *one* engineer who worked at Kenner, but there
others at Kenner who worked on the Micro Collection. 

>They have had an investigation going on to put a stop to this and some
>other things as well.  Actually there are two investigations going on,
>one inside Kenner and one outside to make sure the one inside isn't
>biased for any reason.

Investigation for *what*?  I can certainly understand why Hasbro would be
concerned about prototypes of their *current* line getting out.  They
don't want information getting out before they've had a chance to present
it to buyers and they don't want competing toy companies to steal their
ideas.

But 13-20 year old prototypes?!  Get real.  

Of course, my take on reading that article in AP is that Kenner was
confused by your outrageous claims.  My impression was that they were led
to believe that collectors were making replicas of their current toys in
tremendous numbers and competing with their products.  Kenner doesn't even
have the license for micro sized Star Wars toys!  I believe that when
Kenner gets to the bottom of this, you're most likely going to look like
one sinister, scheming individual who misled corporations for petty,
ulterior motives. 

As usual, we eagerly await documentation and proof.  I'm sure we'll get a
response back from you saying "call so and so" or "it's a secret" but that
only serves to convince us that your information is total hogwash and that
you are acting out a petty vendetta against Steve Sansweet and many others
in the collecting community who disagree with your claim that your little
"find" is "worth" $100,000's. 

Gus