“The company that advertised an incredibly lifelike Steve Jobs doll for sale earlier this year has decided not to produce the figure after pressure from his family and the company he co-founded, Apple,” Jeremy C. Owens reports for The Mercury News.
“In Icons, the company that planned to offer the 1-foot-tall, lifelike figure dressed in Jobs’ trademark black mock turtleneck, rimless glasses and jeans, posted a statement on its website Sunday,” Owens reports. “‘Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family.'”
Owens reports, “The company had expected to start shipping the [US$99] product worldwide in February. The statement said any money received for pre-orders will be returned.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Chinese toy-maker’s Steve Jobs action figure legal to sell in most U.S. states
Apple threatens Chinese toy manufacturer with legal action over Steve Jobs action figure – January 5, 2012
Blah, blah, blah… We do not want to fight this suit…. All that heartfelt sincerity is BS.
but you know the figurine did seem tastefully done… I might have bought one….I am curious as to the other “icons” for sale. If the others chosen as icons were impressive enough I am not sure Steve would not have approved…might ha complemented his Autobiography
I’m glad they respected Steve’s families wishes..
Now, if only Graphisoft would tear down their crappy statue and start anew:
^ Biggest unintentional insult I’ve seen in my life.
RE: The 3 comments below mine from Uber, Uber & Nut:
I guess Steve Job’s families wishes mean nothing to you.
v
v
v
Evidently you can’t see Nut’s humor. (Android?)
You’re right. (Trying to be funny and being funny are not mutually inclusive.)
Apple you SUCK!
Apple is well on its way to become one of the top ANAL companies. Congrats!
F*** you Apple. Your legal team is toothless where it really matters – enforcing IP rights against Android. Well done you bunch of anal motherf***ers.
Fsck you In Icons. Your legal team is toothless where it really matters – defending your exploitation of an American icon.
Damn Asian entrepreneurs don’t respect others’ intellectual property rights.
I would have bought one to go next to my John Lennon, Lucille Ball and Mariano Rivera figures…sounded fun to me.
Just make sure you put your refund claim in to PayPal ASAP.
Give it up Apple, you don’t have any right to tell a company they can’t make a doll of your ex-CEO.
As for the family, well he didn’t treat them that well in life, why do they care so much? There are tons of insulting YouTube videos of SJ, but making a doll is somehow a bad thing?
If you ever make a dent in the world, they can call your doll “iShit” and put it next to Betsy Wetsy.
The figure looked very well done to me – lifelike and tasteful. I would have liked to have one to put on my shelf and remind me of one person who has made a major difference in this world. I have an 8×10 B&W photo of Albert Einstein on my desk for the same reason – daily inspiration to push beyond the boundaries.
I’m a lifelong fan of Apple products but every time they throw their legal weight around in cases like this I hate them a little more as a company.
I wish the toymaker had called it Steve Mobs or iGuru or found some other loophole. (Plus it didn’t help that the packaging looked identical to Isaacson’s book).
Where’s everybody today? Any mention of China, Obama or Final Cut X usually produces an avalanche of lengthy jargon and slogan-laden hate mail.
Although not a fan of Jobs, looking at the images of the proposed statue as already designed and molded, looking at the detail in the accoutrement such as the jean stitching, the shoes, the attention to his very gestures, this work was a work of love as much as it was to be a product. My own assumption would be that the family was afraid of losing a penny because this ‘icon’, as pictured, does great honor to the guy just by the obvious quality imposed on the design. IMHO, the family is simply ‘wrong’ in bullying these people using the phony cover story of ‘respect’ for Jobs’ memory. I won’t be surprised when I see some ‘approved’ (and probably inferior) image on a store shelf that feeds royalties to the family. Just my conditioned American cynicism, I suppose, born of so many corrupt stories like this over the last generation or so of time. This particular example is as much a work of devotional art as it is a potential commercial product. Again, the family and Apple are dead wrong here, or just plain old greedy corporate liars.