Art for Mattell Toy

[vid]

Admittedly, it's been a good long while since I was in the Monster Truck biz. I worked for a promoter as a designer/merchandiser. But, I can't imagine that the fundamentals have changed much.

Unless the driver is a notorious friggin' wild man, I don't see that the toy is going to sell much at WallyWorld for any other reason than it's a Monster Truck. As such, Mattel could throw anything on it and call it a day. Personally, I wouldn't count on much if any from them.

However, if your customer is smart he may have worked out a cut on the deal, either through a licensing deal or a royalty. (Buuuuuuuut, I didn't meet too many monster truck drivers that were necessarily savvy on that point.) Still, he should be buying a case or two of the toy and offering it for sale at event venues where he's driving. If he crashes, he sells toys and T-shirt.

To that end, I'd tend to see the Monster Truck owner as the primary contact for payment of a license fee for your art.

Just on a side note, I don't remember selling a large volume of toys of this kind when they were available --- Bigfoot supplied a few Maisto made trucks and they're the only one that comes to mind.

T-shirts on the other hand... bags and bags of cash.​

Again, it's been awhile and things may have changed some, so I wish you the best in your negotiations.

I like Josh's idea, too!

 

[deegrafix]

LOL I really love all of you! What a great bunch of responses. I have the number of a copyright/patent attorney recommended by someone "in the know" and will call him Monday and let you all know what he says.

FYI I have training in commercial art that may have led me in a different direction than the one I took, but the lure of the brush was irresistable. I watched a guy letter a truck when I was 16. He and his kit had been all over the country doing his thing, and I was hooked. Every job I've ever had has been doing signs and graphics and I don't think I'd have been happy in the ad agency environment. (Except for the $$$ part!)

BTW I wouldn't think of queering the deal for the monster truck but don't want to let go without doing the research first. Thanks!

dee

 

[fresh]

I will tell you this... agreement or not, it's pretty cool to be walking down the toy aisle while christmas shopping and find a bunch of your designs hanging on the pegs.

This is the problem with the graphics industry. If you don't value your time and effort, how is the rest of the world supposed to value it?

Good design doesn't just happen. It takes years of practice and education to be a great designer. Why can't all of us make awesome amazing looking signs? Because we don't have the experience and knowledge that allows us to produce something breathtaking in a few hours. My partner can make something look amazing in less time than I can even conceptualize the design. He has almost 15 years experience to my 2 years. Sure, I've got a few things in our portfolio that we are both proud of, but it didn't happen by accident.

At the bottom of every invoice we state the following: We shall retain all copyrights on artwork created by (us) (including custom logos) until specific licenses are granted for additional uses.

A good client of ours is mad at us right now because I won't give her unlimited rights to the logo I designed for her (for free no less! good deeds never go unpunished.) She said she had no idea about it, but when I told her to look at her invoice she said "oh, i never read that." How is that my problem?

Point is, your artwork is valuable. DO NOT GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE. PLEASE!

 

[Doyle]

Can we see what the graphics look like?

 

[RobbyMac]

This is the problem with the graphics industry. If you don't value your time and effort, how is the rest of the world supposed to value it? .....

Early in the thread I gave my experience on the matter, re: not giving away any of my rights to Playing Mantis for the 350+ johnny lightning diecast designs I did... I am not condoning giving away your art just to see it in the stores.

The 'agreement or not' comment later in the thread was more of an observation that is a little more light hearted on the matter.

I believe Mattels interest lies with the monster truck driver in this particular instance, and not with the artist. From posts of other members experiences, it appears that Mattel will not sign an agreement, and therefore would not continue with production of the diecast. While I do not think that the OP's artwork isn't worth anything, they may consider not burning any bridges with their client, and be more inclined to setup an agreement to handle this issue with the monster truck driver later in the future.