Ninjago City Docks Mask of Ultimate Power.

So I watched the New Podcast Highlight and noticed something, they show the mask of ultimate power on a Sticker, but it’s not the mask of ultimate power, it’s a fan version, clearly.



I don’t know why this is, maybe lego didn’t want to actually use their design (for some reason), or, the designers for this set looked it up (seeing as it’s one of the first results) and thought it was the official design (which looks like this);


Should we contact the creator about this? He might want to know that his design is being used.

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Can you show the official version as well? To my knowledge, that is what the official version looks like.

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Oh you’re quite right, I thought of that but I’ll put it here now.
EDIT: Done.

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I don’t think Lego would be foolish enough to steal someone else’s design without credit; presumably they simply have a similar version (seeing as they are based off the same original mask design by Lego). Looking closely enough, too, the fan design has some differences in the mouth/chin area compared to the official sticker.

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actually, it’s just the chin, and that’s the only difference besides the format,
otherwise, it’s the same.

Also, it’s definitely the designer, if you look up the mask of ultimate power, this is one of the first 30 results, they probably found this and said,
‘yeah this is probably the official design’,
you can’t blame them, most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

and seriously there’s no way this isn’t directly based off the fan model, it’s clearly 90% the same.

There was a similar situation with Sonic: All Stars Racing, where they accidentally stole a fan design due to the fact that it looked like the real thing.

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Even if it is intentional, can you really say they stole the design? It’s just a sticker.

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That’s kinda like saying if they took the TTV logo symbol, and put it on a sticker, without any form of credit or permission or anything. They just go ahead and do it, that’s perfectly fine, because its just a sticker.

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That would be fine though. It’s just a little easter egg.

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The TTV logo design belongs to TTV. It is their property. Lego would not be legally allowed to take the logo and use it in any form, without proper permission. I’m not sure if its quite the same here, seeing as I don’t know if this particular MOUP design belongs to a specific business or person, but the principal is the same.

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So is no piece of media allowed to reference any other piece of media then?

Also just because it wouldn’t be legal (which I doubt that it isn’t) doesn’t mean it would be wrong.

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You would not be able to use anyone’s art/design/etc without permission in a product you are selling; as such I don’t believe that a Lego designer would be foolish enough to google images for the MoUP for a sticker. In fact, I doubt they just look up designs they need online, they probably have a fully capable art team which made the design for the sticker.

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Well no, I’m not saying they have to be sued or something, you’ve missed my point.

My point is that they just used the design, that’s final, Designers use this all the time, they thought this was just lego’s official design. Where else would you think they would get the exact shapes and measurements for someone’s fan rig.
it’s very particular compared to other fan versions of the MoUP.

and again, [quote=“ThatGuyAtTheEndOfTheRoad, post:5, topic:44996”]
There was a similar situation with Sonic: All Stars Racing, where they accidentally stole a fan design due to the fact that it looked like the real thing.
[/quote]

This is a real practice, it’s been done and mistakes have been made where fan art was mistaken for official company assets/artwork.

EDIT: Uh oh.

EDIT 2: I’ve made a comparison between the two, as expected, they are not exactly the same, but the similarity and difference to the official model proves that the sticker was likely traced.


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I very highly doubt a fan could realistically sue Lego over the use of an uncopyrighted redesign of what was originally their mask.

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For anyone doubting it is the fan design, look at the two horns on the sides. On the official design, they go straight up, while they slope upward on the fanart/sticker.

Not really convinced. They’re similar, yes, but not the same.

I also don’t think a fan’s art based on an official mask design counts as that fan’s intellectual property. The MoUP and its design (which all three versions share an almost identical design) are still LEGO’s IP and they hold the rights to its likeness.

Even if LEGO did “steal” a fan’s artwork off of Google Images or something (which I highly doubt they’d do), it’s still their IP. The artists can’t really sue them.

Or at least that’s how I presume it works.

EDIT: I have just checked up on the laws, at least for the US, but copyright holders hold the right to distribute derivative works. The fan art in question isn’t really protected by fair use since it’s not a parody, criticism, or highly transformative. Not sure how this affects LEGO’s use of the design if that is indeed the case, but technically the fan art in question is a trademark violation, but fan art usually isn’t something sued over.

Article: The Messy World of Fan Art and Copyright - Plagiarism Today

Another thing to mention is that the “official” design was never a final mold. It was likely still a test part, so the design might have changed. JtO may have just used that test part since Bionicle was cancelled by then and they needed a mask.

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They wouldn’t be able to sue them, it’s not something they’ve copyrighted. It’d be like suing a company for using your Sonic OC.

Though I agree with your point otherwise, I don’t exactly see what you mean, can you make an image comparison?

My point was never that they were the same, it’s that it was traced.

They did, and that’s my point, it’s sorta fine that they did, I just find it interesting, and lego didn’t do it, a designer did.

I’m not asking them to, I’m just putting that out there to see what they think.

Seriously, it’s obvious they traced it.

FOR EVERYONE THINKING THIS IS ABOUT SUING LEGO, IT’S NOT, IT’S ONLY ABOUT THE FACT THAT A LEGO DESIGNER USED A FAN DESIGN.

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I think you’re trying to make the point that LEGO stole a fan design of their own product, yet the only major difference is that the sticker does not emphasize the dip down in the mouth/chin section of the mask.

Due to this being an actual picture of an actual piece, you can see the depth given to the center section running down the model, as it dips into the face at a sharp angle and extends back out to the chin.

Meanwhile, this one does not delve heavily into detail, and that feature has been removed. It’s a bit of a slap in the face to LEGO to accuse them of using a fan design, especially one like that, considering all the other actual fan designs that properly reflect the mask’s features, only to drop all of them (and any actual reference at LEGO, including 3D Models, conept art, and no doubt notes from the manufacturers themselves on the limitations) to focus on this fan design that doesn’t really resemble the mask itself all that well.

Uh, look a little closer. They do bend inwards. And you’re using a heavily upscaled vector based off the actual image in the set to draw this comparison when it’s most likely the pixels in that section don’t imply such a sharp angle underneath the rounded-off point. it’s most likely very minute aesthetic changes to better fit the purpose of a sticker, and people seem to be overreacting to this a bit too much.

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first, that’s incorrect,
second, pretty much everything else is incorrect,
Yes I wouldn’t be accusing lego of something that’s not true,
but I’m here now, because it actually is true,
look at the parts on both sides of the circle, on the fan model, they are high,
on the official, they are low,
on the sticker, they are high in the exact same way,

I really like how you never show the fan model,
because otherwise, your point wouldn’t look very good,
You only decide to show the official model in comparison,
if only the official model existed and the fan model did not,
then your point would stand completely and no one would be able to disprove it.
You’re attempting to put yourself in a space where only your evidence exists.

I’m not wanting to argue about the morals or reasons why lego would take it.
I’m only talking about how a designer used this design, showed it to lego,
and they said something like ‘yeah that looks like our thing so we won’t question it’, they wouldn’t have the fan insight like we do,
we see lots of things, (mostly because we go onto the internet for hours and hours looking at image search)
this gives us a large database of versions and customs or whatever,
I saw that and It immediately looked like a fan version I saw a bit ago.

There isn’t a whole lot of concrete evidence to say that it’s based on the fan design but it’s 100% more concrete evidence that you’ve displayed.

We aren’t overreacting to this issue (even if we were we’d probably have a reason) we’re reacting to your points.

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I’m talking about forward, not inward. On the official piece, they go straight down on the front, and then have a definite angle before going to the center, not the curved slope to the center the sticker/fanart has.