Many, many years ago the short lived company N2 Toys got the license for The Road Warrior (they also did The Matrix, Rambo, The Tick, and Big Trouble in Little China, and allegedly had the Dirty Harry license before they went under), they made pretty crappy toys, but still, the point is they got the licenses, and for the US and western market at that. Which always made me wonder if certain licenses truly are unobtainable, or if companies just don't see the profit margin in them for the cost outlay it would take to get them. After all, it's far easier to tell fans "we's love to do it/we've looked into it but the license isn't available/the rights are a mess" than it is to say "we're not interested" or "we don't think it would sell enough", or in the case of Gibson's Mad Max, "we don't want to risk the controversy/backlash". While I'm sure that there is the odd unobtainable license, personally I doubt it is as many as we are led to believe. Instead I think usually other factors are at play, the main one being that a company either isn't interested, or doesn't see enough profit in it versus other stuff they are more interested in making at any given time.
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I still remember McFarlane swearing black and blue that Pinhead was impossible for anyone to get the rights for (Hannibal Lecter too, for that matter), only for Neca to eventually bring out an entire line based on the various Hellraiser movies. Sideshow proclaimed how much they'd love to do Michael Myers year after year, back in the day, but again it just wasn't possible we were told. Yet McFarlane and Neca both managed it for figures, and HCG and PCS have done statues. Among many, many other examples over the years.
I can't blame companies for taking this approach, 'we are unable to' is always a cleaner and easier argument to make than 'we don't want to' (especially when talking to people who do very much want that thing), but I certainly take a great deal of it with more than a fair pinch of salt, as well, as far as just how much truth there is to such claims. But maybe that's just me.
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I still remember McFarlane swearing black and blue that Pinhead was impossible for anyone to get the rights for (Hannibal Lecter too, for that matter), only for Neca to eventually bring out an entire line based on the various Hellraiser movies. Sideshow proclaimed how much they'd love to do Michael Myers year after year, back in the day, but again it just wasn't possible we were told. Yet McFarlane and Neca both managed it for figures, and HCG and PCS have done statues. Among many, many other examples over the years.
I can't blame companies for taking this approach, 'we are unable to' is always a cleaner and easier argument to make than 'we don't want to' (especially when talking to people who do very much want that thing), but I certainly take a great deal of it with more than a fair pinch of salt, as well, as far as just how much truth there is to such claims. But maybe that's just me.
