The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting article about a toy inventor that recently lost a lawsuit with Marvel. Back in 1990 Stephen Kimble patented his idea for a toy that was activated via a trigger attached to a valve in the palm of a glove. He pitched the toy idea to Marvel but they passed. According to court documents Marvel went ahead and produced a similar toy. Kimble sued for copyright infringement and was awarded 3.5 percent of all sales of Spider-Man’s web shooter toys.
That agreement went along for years until the toys were produced by Hasbro. A recent judgement cut the patent owner out of future earnings on his patent toy. In the 20 years the toys been produced Kimble has made more than 20 million dollars.
Brad Douglas
View articlesBrad created the Crawlspace back in 1998 while attending college at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He’s the webmaster and writes front page news items, and also produces, hosts and edits the podcast. He’s been collecting Spider-Man comics since the age of three and is a life-long fan of the webhead. His website has been featured in USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and on Marvel.com and inside the comics themselves. The Crawlspace is one of the first Spider-Man fan sites to ever hit the internet. Millions of people visit the site every year.
Brad has interviewed several “Spider-Celebrities” over the years including co-creator Stan Lee. He’s also interviewed actors who have portrayed Spider-Man like Paul Soles (Voice Actor from the 67 Spider-Man Cartoon), Dan Gilvezan (Spidey Voice Actor from Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends) ,Yuri Lownthal (Voice Actor from the Spider-Man PlayStation game) and Nicholas Hammond (Spider-Man 1977 Actor).
You might be interested in …
Remembering Stan Lee Podcast Live at 9pm Central Monday
We’re going to record a podcast remembering Stan Lee today at 9pm central, Monday November 12th. If you would like to hop on and chat with us as we record hit subscribe on our youtube […]
Hans Zimmer and Pharrell to team up on scoring Amazing Spider-Man 2
Screen Rant.com is reporting that the composer for the score to Amazing Spider-Man James Horner is getting sacked in favor of not only Hans Zimmer (he of the Lion King, Nolan Batman Trilogy and […]
Spider-Previews 01-24-24
Marvel sent over previews for Spidey comics out on 01-24-24. What will you be picking up?
4 Comments
Leave a Reply
Social
Recent Comments
- Evan Berry on Panel of the Day #1615 (Splash Page Sunday!): “@Hornacek – Maybe Stan reserved the writer credit for himself.” Nov 18, 08:01
- Hornacek on Panel of the Day #1615 (Splash Page Sunday!): “In these older issues, why is the writer sometimes listed as “Scripter”? Is this like in a movie credits where…” Nov 17, 09:09
- Hornacek on Panel of the Day #1615 (Splash Page Sunday!): “I mean, eventually he’ll fall enough that he can web onto a building. This isn’t that dire a situation. Now…” Nov 17, 09:08
- Evan Berry on Panel of the Day #1612 (Splash Page Sunday!): “I guess there was something different about Cindy Moon’s body chemistry, too.” Nov 11, 08:15
- Hornacek on Panel of the Day #1612 (Splash Page Sunday!): “I don’t like the whole “something was different with Peter’s body chemistry” explanation here. He was bitten by a spider…” Nov 11, 04:30
- Gevorg on 1994 Spider-Man #15: “Battle of the Insidious Six” Review: “Your complaints look like nitpicks and made-up. Why angry face should be indicative of seeing stone crushed?” Nov 10, 14:28
- Evan Berry on Panel of the Day #1611: “I might be in the minority, but I’ve always been confused about Spider-man Noir’s wielding a gun.” Nov 8, 09:36
- Hornacek on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #60 (Legacy #954): “Hit The Road, Zeb” or “All [REDACTED] Things Must Come To An End”: “@Paul Penna: I just don’t see any future writer “doing” anything with Paul besides having him around. Marvel wants him…” Nov 6, 09:19
- Evan Berry on Panel(s) of the Day #1610 (Mary Jane Monday!): “@Hornacek — I would make a horrible Spider-man. So many times, were I in his place, I would have confided…” Nov 5, 07:53
- Hornacek on Panel(s) of the Day #1610 (Mary Jane Monday!): “At least he said “I have to go take photos for the Bugle.” This is a valid excuse since this…” Nov 5, 04:26
This is why the guy should have pitched his idea to Hasbro instead of Marvel at the time. When it comes to original ideas, never pitched them to Marvel. Give them the recycled stuff. 🙂
Well yes he has clearly earned a fair bit of money, it seems harsh to cut him out now.
But…it’s HIS patent.
Well, I was like “pay the man,” but then I saw how much he’s already been paid.