Neca has universal monsters!!!

[histrionics]

So, I see Metaluna Mutant is not under the Universal monsters header/banner still. I guess whatever legal boogedy boo that occured has stuck.

Of note: Universal must have changed their licensing blocks and packages. The last three new offerings Kemp house Invisible Man, Ardath Bey, and now Masqued Phantom are from films they have already touched on. Is it possible second tier characters are offered as a separate film bundled/specific licensing tier, or off limits altogether? Like Kharis, Dracula's Son or Daughter, or Werewolf of London?

I have to wonder if some of these characters are public domain, or nearly free licenses. Universal might not really care about each and every one of them as long as the toy maker bought some license to cover a wide lot of their characters and just produce a line over many years.

This is very similar, nearly identical, to the Sideshow run from 20+ years ago, where they started with specific Universal Monsters, then extended to characters that were classic monsters, but outside of Universal, like Jekyll/Hyde and others. They had to do this at some point because the glaring omissions from a "classic" monster line were starting to show when held exclusively under the Universal banner. There were other studios that covered some of the most memorable monsters too and I think a lot of this stuff is in the nebulous public domain.

 

[Dr. Anton Phibes]

I have to wonder if some of these characters are public domain, or nearly free licenses. Universal might not really care about each and every one of them as long as the toy maker bought some license to cover a wide lot of their characters and just produce a line over many years.

This is very similar, nearly identical, to the Sideshow run from 20+ years ago, where they started with specific Universal Monsters, then extended to characters that were classic monsters, but outside of Universal, like Jekyll/Hyde and others. They had to do this at some point because the glaring omissions from a "classic" monster line were starting to show when held exclusively under the Universal banner. There were other studios that covered some of the most memorable monsters too and I think a lot of this stuff is in the nebulous public domain.

Well, on This Island Earth, and the Metaluna Mutant character design, there was a legal issue between Universal and one of the designers of MM. Universal lost. It resulted in This Island Earth figures from Super7 being dumped as an "Official Universal Monster" and under that banner. It didn't stop them from making the figure, but he disappeared from the back of the cards in the checklist section for the "Official" Universal Monsters .