Hi All,
Jose has just given me the heads up on this from Britain's, cheeky b******'s. Any one fancy pitching in on facebook with some comments! I already have. I'm sure Jose would not do this but I don't fight fair
cheers
Richie

Where was it posted...?

: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1536377646450268&id=447884361966274

Added my two penny worth.

Shared and commented on our club page

I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, or anything else, except PF, but I cannot understand how a time-honoured and reputedly respectable old firm like Britains can possibly plagiarise completely the work of another company, without some sort of assent from the originator of the piece. This is disgraceful in the extreme, and I feel an e-mail to Britain's directly coming on

Alan

Just out of curiosity, is the figure based on a photo/painting?


Tommi

aren't the same sculpt... two different sculptures from the same inspirational work

they have different technical and structural issue

Sorry, but it's a direct copy of the Beneito figure PMV121.......I've sent an Email to Britain's, asking for an explanation of what appears to be an infringement of artistic copyright. If they have an arrangement with Jose, all well and good, otherwise..........

Alan

On the face of it don't appear to be cricket but as Tommi has said was the original sculpt based on or part of a painting or print.??
If so and I dont know if it is, it would make it a slightly different ball game.
Mick

I thought that too and if it is all well and good but.....

There's always a But.........

The "but" is that perhaps we should have asked before flying off the handle and accusing another manufacturer of piracy. I know Ken Osen, and I don't think he'd deliberately copy someone else's work. I understand and appreciate how sensitive you all are to the issue of piracy, but sometimes it pays to suppress our first instinct and check first, then decide on a course of action.

Prost!
Brad

Agreed Brad, which is why I asked if they were aware. If Britain's have commisioned a sculpture to make a 24th Foot figure it's possible they aren't.
This isn't really a case of piracy, toy soldier style figures and Beneito figures are totally different but if it is a copy of Beneito's figure it's plagerism and isn't right.

if you look at the figure cannot be piracy... many details are different like the left hand, position of the torso and others...

Beneito figure shows a taller man than Britain

Understood, Roger. I had the same idea that the pose might be based on an illustration. The same idea was also suggested over on the Treefrog Toy Soldier forum. There's an image linked in the Britains club figure thread there, an illustration from a London newspaper, I think, that was published at the end of the Zulu war. It's a sort of collage, not representing a specific action, but rather, showing many of the participants. There is a lone soldier standing, holding his rifle in a similar pose. So it's possible that Britains drew on some image. It would be interesting to know if Jose also drew on an illustration he had seen. In any case, it might have been better to ask the question and follow up discreetly first, before launching a campaign.

In any case, we're all now waiting for a reply from Ken.

If it is based on a painting/engraving, then obviously the image is in the public domain and not subject to the same copyright. It does, however, seem a startling coincidence that the same regiment has been portrayed in an identical pose. I , for one, am certainly not suggesting that this is in any way a recast, but if it is based on Benieto's figure, then some recognition should be made to that fact.

Was there not a similar issue with a First World War British officer figure appearing on a kit box....? I seem to remember something along those lines and the packaging had to be changed so as not to infringe any regulations

I did a reasonably long search looking at paintings and news articles. This is the nearest I could find from the London Illustrsted News. There is a review of the original Beneito sculpt on PF from 2014 with no mention of an illustration.


Looks like The Toy soldier version is based on the Beneito figure unless the original illustration is produced!

New sculpt, same pose, not nearly as detailed, toy soldier versus military miniature, therefore different market, certainly not a recast. I don't see the problem.

Mike