Thursday, June 2, 2016

She-Ra exclusive SDCC Mattel doll - with a stolen design for her sword

It has been a few days since images of the exclusive San Diego ComicCon exclusive She-Ra doll from Mattel surfaced on-line, first in USA-Today and later in various websites and forums. She looks impressive and has a new body design that is somewhere between the Made-to-Move bodies and a superhero sculpt. She will retail for $75 and of course you can only get it if you visit ComicCon.


She has different outfits and accessories that are interchangeable, offering a variety of looks.


Some more photos:









The thing is that Mattel (or more precisely, the designer working for Mattel who did this doll) has copied the gold sword from a professional Greek comic artist, Yannis Rubus Rubulias, who had done a fan-art depiction of She-Ra back in 2011.


See what they did?


The resemblance is uncanny. It is not the first time we see this kind of copying in the doll world but a major company doing it is the icing on the cake. Whoever designed the doll should have contacted Yannis to ask for permission and copyright. What do you think?

All doll photos are by Mattel, art by Yannis Rubus Rubulias

7 comments:

  1. Wow! She is quite fabulous. I'm not familiar with the sword issue so I can't comment but the doll herself is a winner.

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  2. I would love to have her in my collection! I also don't know anything about the sword issue, but they gave her more that one pair of hands! Why didn't they do that with the Superman and Batman and Wonderwoman figures?

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  3. Hm. Indeed a 1x1 copycat, not a single detail changed, are they that lazy? As for the doll herself, this is more of a He-Ra. Those thighs are NOT female, for goodness' sake. Should have toned down the meatiness.

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    1. Her thighs look fine to me. She has the body of a very athletic woman, and those thighs are in no way unobtainable for actual real-life women; I mean just look at the legs of any successful female tennis player. Im a big fan of She-Ras thighs, they're very appropriate for a female superhero

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  4. I'm sorry, was this fan art, or did Mattel give Yannis Rubus Rubulias the rights to redistribute their copyrighted material? Because short of adding medieval armor, where she didn't originally have any, this is clearly just a drawing of She-Ra, which he doesn't have any monetary rights to, as it isn't his property.

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  5. I wish that they'd given the superman and batman figures different hands, as well. I've ordered She Ra and she hasn't arrived yet.

    I saw someone commenting on the size of her thighs - she's meant to be a superhero, complete with six pack, so the arms should be bulkier, as should the thighs. It makes sense. I was honestly disappointed that they chose a slim build for Wonder Woman, rather than the heroic build that tends to be sported in comic books.

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