Posted: 06 December 2019 at 12:58am | IP Logged | 7
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It's like ROM going from a toy with one line in that toy series to its comic book form.
The toy was created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy.
All Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema did with that toy concept was take it and build an origin, character, villains, supporting cast and stories around it. They didn't create ROM.
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So did Ferdinand Porsche create "Herbie the Love Bug"? I'm not trying to be glib here. But Herbie is just a Volkswagen Beetle come to life with a personality, and if that is not a creation, who created Herbie?
The same argument can be made for Diaclone/Transformers. They were made in the Wild West days of toy IP, and many of the G1 toys are unlicensed uses of real-world car designs. Battle Convoy/Optimus Prime's alt-mode is a Freightliner cab truck. A real-world truck that is an existing creation. If coming up with a new name and backstory of good and evil sentient robots for the Diaclone Battle Convoy toy (I believe the Diaclone vehicles were intended to be piloted mecha) does not count as creation, would figuring out how to turn an existing truck design into a toy robot not count either?
Is Yutaka Katayama, the creator of the Nissan Z, the creator of the Transformers Smokescreen, Prowl and Bluestreak? Is Ferdinand Porsche the creator of Herbie the Love Bug and Bumblebee? Neither seems correct intellectually, but I'm not sure what other conclusion to draw based on the current arguments.
Again, not trying to be glib or clever, just trying to understand where and how the lines are drawn.
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