did hasbro rip mego off?

[Orlock]

It's actually more complicated... and it involves what is referred to as "Derivative Works" in the copyright law land.

Hasbro created the 12inch Joe and licensed it to Takara in Japan as Combat Joe.

Takara adapted Combat Joe as a Cyborg known as Henshin Cyborg Hero
(a derivative work of the original Combat Joe/GI Joe character)

Henshin was shrunk and sold as Microman. At the same time Takara had started a spin off of Microman called Diaclone.

Microman was licensed to Mego as Micronauts.

When Mego went out of business, Takara decided to bring Microman to America themselves and combined it with their spin-off Diaclone. They licensed this combo to Hasbro....as Transformers.

Full circle.

Now, you have Hasbro's American Hero GI Joes based on the Microman body type...
Which was based on Henshin Cyborg Hero...
Which was based on Combat Joe...
Which IS Hasbro's 12 inch GI Joe.

That makes GI Joe, GI Joe's own grandpa!

Did Hasbro rip off Mego?
Nope.
Mego was always the odd man out in this equation.

This post seriously just clicked in my head and blew my freaking mind. It seems so obvious, yet is new to me. Awesome!

[bgrimm77]

Ladyzod made my head explode!!! That was an awesome break down