Where Do You Fit In The Picture Book Landscape?

carlianne

clearly if you guys want to add a little more "and sometimes we argue" to the podcast you know who to invite

randarrington

@carlianne we should have sold tickets for this one

davidhohn

Downsides of the Flat Fee project continued:

https://patchesofpride.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/fateful-decision-denies-stan-weston-the-creator-of-g-i-joe-millions-of-dollars-in-future-profits/

https://patchesofpride.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/shocker-original-creator-of-g-i-joe-action-figure-stan-weston-files-suit-against-hasbro-in-bid-to-recapture-copyrights-to-that-brand/

Stories like this are one of the reasons I'll always advocate for a "Ongoing Revenue" based payment rather than a "Flat Fee"

TLDR:

Stan Weston creates GIJoe in 1964.
Takes prototype of his action figure to Hasbro
Hasbro likes it and offers Weston a payment per figure sold or $75,000 flat fee.
Weston negotiates up slightly to a $100,000 flat fee. (Roughly $1 million in 2022)
Since 1964 GIJoe has acquired a value of (via Hollywood Reporter) $100 million. Doing some rough math, a 5% per-figure-sold royalty would have resulted in $5 million. Which is likely why . . .
Weston attempted to sue Hasbro to regain IP ownership just before death at 82.

Jeremy Ross

Thank you @davidhohn and @Lee-White for this insightful discussion!

Recently just finished reading Real Artists Don’t Starve by Jeff Goins, which he emphasized the Rule of Ownership with the below example.

In 1962, Jim Henson did a series of commercials for Purina Dog Chow and designed a couple puppets, one of which being “Rowlf the dog”.

Henson billed the studio $1,500 for the costs of making the puppets, which Purina offered Henson $100,000 to buy the rights to Rowlf completely. Henson’s agent jumped at the offer; however, Henson refused the offer believing Rowlf had more potential.

A year later, The Jimmy Dean Show gave Rowlf a ten minute segment during each show, which ran until 1966.

In 1976, Henson pitched this crazy idea for a show called Sesame Street, which included none other than the famous Rowlf alongside our green friend, Kermit!

Then in 2000, a German firm buys Muppets for $680 million! The Henson family purchased the Muppets back for $89 million.

Lesson? Maybe think twice before jumping on an offer to sale your characters and/or IP. You never know what’s in store!