Mini Plagiarism?

Dark Lord · Mini Plagiarism?

Okay, has this been copied from Grimgor Ironhide and others? I know those feet look familiar, and that hand holding the axe is from an ork nob or something. I have it in my bits box.

I see bits of all three of these in him and not just influences...they look damn close.

Click the link for a pic of Grimgor. Seems very familiar to me.

Norse

you're right, very very similar to Ironhide, but is the first pic you show not a Grandma Wendy Orc? If it is by another company then they are guilty of plagiarism.. if it is by Grandma Wendy themselves, they are guilty of unimaginative, lazy conversion work..

Dark Lord

It's from this company.
http://www.avatars-of-war.com/hfaweb2mail/hfaweb2mail.php

I don't get it. Their minis look good, why copy? Unless the others are all copied too?

Darkson

Dark Lord

I'm not talking about the general style...which was stolen from Warcraft, but that's a debate for another time.

I'm talking about the left arm, particularly where the hand grips the weapon being identical to the hand of the ork nob. The feet, particularly from the knee down being identical to Grimgor. The right arm and hand being very similar to Borgut.

As far as "copying Grandma Wendy"s style" I would say "What style?" Grandma Wendy ripped off their "style" from other places. Then they treated their artists (both 3D & 2D) like garbage and they now do their "style" for other companies. Grandma Wendy is currently imitators (poor imitators) of their own style. Notice that right about the time they changed the look of their orcs, their chaos dwarves, their trolls, and their ogres is the same time they started selling warhammer as an over priced box set?

But like I said that is a debate for another thread. I'm talking specifics with this mini.

Mephisto

Félix Paniagua is a Grandma Wendy sculptor, or at least an ex-one. He has worked several years for Grandma Wendy, so perhaps you should look if he is the sculptor of the one you posted

http://www.avatars-of-war.com/aboutus.htm

Here, have a look at that:

http://paintingfrog.wordpress.com...avatars-of-war-e-arena-deathmath/

Lychanthrope

I've bought from this guy and he used to sculpt for Grandma Wendy. You could be looking at two of his sculpts, one he did while he was with them and his new one for AoW. I love his barbarian.

Dark Lord

That would make sense and dismiss any plagiarism thoughts I had.

And makes sense with what I know to be true...Grandma Wendy won't make Orcs like these ever again.

Unfortunately since Grandma Wendy is crappy about crediting their artists I don't know who sculpted the Grandma Wendy ones.

SillySod

I've seen both axes before but not on the end of orc arms. Same poses but different arms.

Thom

Well an Orc is an Orc is and Orc bro. . . There are only so many poses available and only so many bared teeth looks!

I would imagine that when trying to sculpt a rampaging Orc these days it would be nearly impossible to NOT have it looks like something that has already been done. . .

Dark Lord

Lychanthrope

Thanks for pointing me back to his site. I haven't been there in a while and it's completely redone. It looks like he has made a galdiator game for the minis. I've been wanting one of those. I may need to look at what people are saying about it. Gotta get teh barbaian. I bought the dwarf hero a long time ago.

Mephisto

Xtreme

Looks like the situation has been explained. I can assure you that Grimgor and that 40k orc are both sculpted by Felix, i'm a big fan of his work. My entire Streetbowl team is all Felix's sculpts.

Norse

I was going to post yesterday when my internet went down - looks like the same sculptor or possible also same concept artist from day one...

I guess when a guy has a style that people like, he will have the same style no matter who he sculpts for (just like PF's toads for GoblinForge - I spotted his work a mile away)

R

Lychanthrope

Dark Lord

R U seriously on a dial up?

I didn't know they even still had providers.

Okay, sorry for pointing and laughing.

Lychanthrope

Me too! but it's all that is available in the country. When VErizon gets thier butt in gear and gives me another affordable option I'll take it.

The rulebook is 24 MB, that is a 2 hour plus download.

Dark Lord

I downloaded it, but haven't read it yet.

Thadrin

IIRC Felix did a LOT of the Trollblood figures for Privateer, and there are some definite Orky flavours in that range. Since he went 100% solo the quality of the Trollbloods has gone way down (on average. Some sculpts are fantastic, others pitiful).

Dark Lord

IMO that's what happens to a lot of self-edited artists. A prime example is Image comics and Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, & Todd McFarlane in particular. These guys did some amazing work at Marvel but at the vanity experiment that was Image comics in the early nineties their styles got out of control, arguably sloppy, and their books were constantly delayed.

When they were reigned in and kept tight their editors milked some of their best work out of them.

Frank Miller might be another good example of what happens to talent when it's unrestrained and in love with itself.

SteveB

By the way, Grimgor and the 40k Ork weren't in fact Felix's sculpts. They were both sculpted by Brian Nelson. And the other fantasy Orc is, I believe, Colin Grayson's.

I'm sure that Felix hasn't used any Grandma Wendy parts in his sculpt though. He's just been heavily inspired by Brian's sculpting technique.

Xtreme

Really.
Huh, guess I was wrong then.