Preorder the Godfather 12" - gotta have the hat!

[hydrobud]

canceled original order and re-ordered through your link Dave. It's the least I can do.

as did I my Darklord Dave

 

[lcummins]

Just to be sure, I canceled and re-ordered as well Dave!

 

[ProgMatinee]

It doesn't fit my collection, but that would just look VERY classy in someone's theater room, on his chair in front of a framed movie poster. No additional figures or anything.

 

[pixletwin]

Yup. Its a wonderful stand-alone piece. This is one, like Vader, that I will make sure I secure funds for.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Enterbay has the same license as Sideshow... or do you mean its the same property so the terms of a license would be the same. Hmmm... hope that makes sense, I think I just confused myself

My point was that of all the Godfather licenses from any company, the only character involved has been Brando Vito.

 

[GuruAskew]

I still maintain (and this is just my interpretation/speculation) that they have access to all the characters but with Pacino being stingy with his likeness rights (he refused to let them use it in the "Godfather" games to get more money from the "Scarface" one and I suspect the same thing is happening with other merchandise) the other companies are reluctant to "skip" Michael and continue the line with lesser characters.

For example, you can get away with doing Michael and not doing Sonny and Fredo but you can't really get away with doing Sonny and Fredo without doing Michael.

With Brando's estate on-board you can do a lot since he's the most iconic representation of the property but after that Pacino's involvement essentially makes or breaks the line and I really think that's why there are no non-Brando figures.

The only other character I think they would even consider making without having access to Pacino is Deniro's Vito and unfortunately there's no precedent for any Deniro figures.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Yes, I'm sure the license with Paramount includes all the other characters. But they had to negotiate with the Brando estate separately. So they'd have to negotiate with all the other actors separately too. Pacino licensed his likeness for the flood of Scarface stuff we saw a few years ago - so I'm sure he'd have no problem with it. DeNiro may be another problem. I'm not the biggest Godfather fan, so those 2 would be the only other ones I'd really want.

I still maintain (and this is just my interpretation/speculation) that they have access to all the characters but with Pacino being stingy with his likeness rights (he refused to let them use it in the "Godfather" games to get more money from the "Scarface" one and I suspect the same thing is happening with other merchandise) the other companies are reluctant to "skip" Michael and continue the line with lesser characters.

For example, you can get away with doing Michael and not doing Sonny and Fredo but you can't really get away with doing Sonny and Fredo without doing Michael.

With Brando's estate on-board you can do a lot since he's the most iconic representation of the property but after that Pacino's involvement essentially makes or breaks the line and I really think that's why there are no non-Brando figures.

The only other character I think they would even consider making without having access to Pacino is Deniro's Vito and unfortunately there's no precedent for any Deniro figures.

 

[GuruAskew]

Pacino licensed his likeness for the flood of Scarface stuff we saw a few years ago - so I'm sure he'd have no problem with it.

But Pacino specifically denied likeness rights to Paramount and EA for "The Godfather: The Game" in order to get more money from giving Vivendi Universal exclusive likeness rights for "Scarface:The World is Yours".

I suspect the same thing is happening with figures: that Universal has exclusive Pacino likeness rights for "Scarface" only.

I just can't imagine a scenario in which the Pacino likeness is available to Paramount and they're just choosing to do Brando only and there's this precedent in the video game of Pacino prohibiting Paramount access to his likeness to get more money from Universal. We know why Pacino is in "Scarface: The World is Yours" and not "The Godfather: The Game" and I don't think it's much of a stretch to apply that deal to other merchandise.

I think all the dots are there to connect. It certainly makes sense.

 

[LOTRFan]

I ordered, but that hat is just silly.

 

[SwedishHeat]

That hat looks photoshopped on to me. Sideshow probably asked for an exclusive piece, and HT just mocked one up and copy pasted it onto an existing promo pic.

 

[GuruAskew]

Well, we now know that the license itself includes non-Vito characters:

https://www.artasylum.com/gallery/godfather-minimates/

More evidence that likeness rights are holding up additional figures. The first company to make likeness-free "Godfather" figures is also the first company to make additional characters.