It seems to be in this day and age there’s no hotter topic in the film and figure collecting communities than licensing. It’s no secret that hundreds of thousands of fans request different boutique labels to release certain films and figure manufacturers to produce different characters from existing or new properties.

I, like many others are requesting titles and figures all the time. Though I do realise that it’s not at all possible for somethings.  For example NECA would love to do Mad Max figures but George Miller hasn’t licensed his iconic property for action figures which is a darn shame. It’s the same case with Halloween and many other properties.

NECA have also produced 1/4 scale figures from Marvel & DC properties and some fans have continuously asked if they could produce 7″ figures. I know it to be a no every time as DC Collectibles, Mattell and Hasbro are the main license holders and won’t allow another company to compete, even though NECA’s would solely be for the collectors market. Yet people have a go at them every time not realizing it’s out of NECA’s hands.

I’m very grateful for what NECA produce and they’ve taken some great risks as well and they do pay off for fans. There’s not many companies who do that. With them it’s a slow and steady process of getting characters out from the more iconic properties like Predator and Alien as they have to get the actors rights which takes a long time. We only got Ripley in series 4 or 5 of the Aliens line and Dutch in Series 8 of Predator. Now we’re getting more Marines from Aliens which makes me very happy and Newt is coming as well. That’s something that was not possible not that long ago.

In the realm of boutique labels getting rights to different films I find much more frustrating. In the US Scream Factory are releasing a beautiful new edition of John Carpenter’s The Thing. It comes with loads of special features and I would definitely get it. Though unfortunately Scream Factory is a US only boutique label. So our only hope of it being released here in the UK is if Universal release it or they give the rights to Arrow Films to release it under their Arrow Video banner.

I have to be honest it really does annoy me that they release so many films in the US on Blu-Ray that won’t be released here at all which is a darn shame and it’s all due to licensing and I’m sure the Americans feel the same when we get films on Blu that we don’t. It’s certainly a double edged sword which all collectors have to deal with.