How much does Viacom actually own?

[Bjarni]

Viacom/Nickelodeon acquired the rights to the TMNT franchise, but what does the franchise have?

Steve Murphy and Chris Allan were able to continue using Ninjara in different comics because they apparently owned the rights to the character because they created it. That probably means that she is not a part of the TMNT property.

Which makes me wonder what is a part of the property (character wise)

Ryan Brown created Leatherhead, The Rat King, NoBody, The Mutanimals ect.
He was working with Mirage during the 80's and 2000's cartoon, so it was no problem using these characters (like how they used Usagi), but wouldn't it be a problem now. I'm assuming that Peter Laird didn't get millions of dollars for selling Ryan Brown's characters.

Which brings to question if any of the characters from the guest comics could be used, like Bloodsucker for example. Doesn't Rick Veitch just own that character himself? Since he created said character?

And then there are characters that were created by Peter Laird, but didn't start in the TMNT Universe, like The Fugitoid. His first comic was made back in 1983 and he's Mirage oldest character. Sure, he appeared tons of times in the TMNT stories, but was he sold as well?

The characters I'm certain Viacom must have bought are those that Peter Laird and/or Kevin Eastman created mostly by themselves, like:
The Turtles, Splinter, Shredder, The Utroms, April O'Neil, Casey Jones
Karai, The Foot, Hamato Yoshi, Baxter Stockman, The Old Superheroes,
The Triceratons, Shadow, Cha Ocho,
All Volume 4 characters
Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang, Rock Soldiers, Neutrinos,
The 4Kids characters and Venus

But the question remains;
Does anyone know how far and how much Viacom actually owns of the TMNT universe?

[Powder]

The only thing I'm pretty sure of, is that Pete still owns Fugitoid. I may even be mistaken but I think I read that somewhere.

[Archon_Turtle]

Originally Posted by Bjarni

I'm assuming that Peter Laird didn't get millions of dollars for selling Ryan Brown's characters.

You assume incorrectly. Any character created by a Mirage employee or contractor for a Mirage product, would technically have been the property of Mirage prior to the sale, and so wrapped up into the deal (unless specifically excluded from the contract)

[gobo]

So, Nick owns Planet Racers too now? O_o

[Archon_Turtle]

Originally Posted by gobo

So, Nick owns Planet Racers too now? O_o

I doubt it. It really doesn't have anything to do with the Turtles. The sale was for The Ninja Turtles, not all Mirage properties. Just like they don't own Paleo.

[oldmanwinters]

We hashed it out on this subject a little while after the sale happened:
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=28850

It is sad to think we may never again see Usagi Yojimbo crossover with the TMNT.

[Ninjinister]

I asked Laird on his blog a while back regarding Fugitoid and associated characters. They're all property of Viacom now. If anyone wants to do the diggin' to find the Q & A, you're welcome to, but I don't have the drive or time to do so. As it stands, it's a take it or leave it answer to your question.

[sdp]

We also had this discussion in one of the TMNT Smash Up threads, I remember it was stated how Mirage owned pretty much everything from the turtles including the OT and movie characters and whatnot.
The only characters they didn't own were obvious crossover characters like Usagi, Spawn etc. And likely they didn't own any of the characters created by Konami on their videogames like Aska and some other minor villains.
Viacom doesn't own the OT/movies/TNM but they do own those characters that appear in them.

I think theres still chances for Usagi to crossover, it might not be as likely anymore but definitely possible. Its also a shame we'll never see Aska again.

[Bjarni]

Thanks for the answers guys!

I had no idea about that. Seeing how everything seemed so 'creative based' at Mirage and how Murphy could do Ninjara stories on his own and the crossovers with Usagi, Savage Dragon and Cerebus...

Well, that's cool. That means that there's at least some chance to see all of my favorite characters again in the future.

[drewizzle88]

Originally Posted by The Ninjinister

I asked Laird on his blog a while back regarding Fugitoid and associated characters. They're all property of Viacom now. If anyone wants to do the diggin' to find the Q & A, you're welcome to, but I don't have the drive or time to do so. As it stands, it's a take it or leave it answer to your question.

At first I was thinking damn they even own Fugitoid! But I suppose it doesn't matter since Peter can still do what like 18 comics a year if he ever so chooses. Still I guess I'd feel better if he atleast totally controlled Fugitoid but I suppose it doesn't matter as he chose to sell his rights to him and these other characters.

I'm sort of torn on the whole thing, on one hand I hate that neither Kevin or Peter own the turtles at all, on the other at least we are getting a new toon and movie and toy line, I just hope we aren't disappointed by Nick and they do well by the TMNT franchise and we hopefully have many years of good things to come. Only time will tell I suppose.

[Venom]

Ya left out "and comics", drewizzle.

Probably like how Viacom will too.

[CyberCubed]

Makes you wonder if Viacom will do an Usagi guest-star episode like both cartoons did.

Sadly with Laird no longer in the picture, I doubt Usagi has a chance to appear in the new show. I doubt Viacom will ask Stan Sakai about using him.

[sdp]

Well chances are definitely smaller but if the producer understands Usagi's history with the turtles he might be able to convince Viacom to get the character for the show, if he was able to appear the past two cartoons I don't think it'd be that hard to license him. Laird may be out of the picture but that doesn't mean the producer of the show can't be a familiar with the source material as well. I mean he appeared in the videogames as well.

Not a fan of Ninjara but I'd like to see her again, hopefully Mirage did own her rights.

hmm...how would you guys feel if we got a Samurai Rabbit in the new show instead of actually getting Usagi? That'd be a nice trade-off if they couldn't get the rights, though not sure if thats generic enough or if they'd be able to get sued heh.

[Galactus]

With recently reading that Tatsu is owned by Golden Harvest I wonder what other anomolous tmnt characters there are. I could well imagine that some of the one off OT villains like Dr. Cycloid, Dr. Polydorius and The Badd family etc are owned by Fred Wolf. I wonder if the likes of Burne, Vernon and Irma belong to them as well.

Well chances are definitely smaller but if the producer understands Usagi's history with the turtles he might be able to convince Viacom to get the character for the show, if he was able to appear the past two cartoons I don't think it'd be that hard to license him. Laird may be out of the picture but that doesn't mean the producer of the show can't be a familiar with the source material as well. I mean he appeared in the videogames as well.

It's not a case of understanding usagi's history, he appeared in the two cartoons and had an action figure in the tmnt line because Stan Sakai is good friends with Peter Laird. It seems Sakai doesn't like the hassle of dealing with big businesses so it seems unlikely that he would License Usagi to Nickleodeon...although I wouldn't mind seeing it. Maybe whoever is in charge of the show could convince him they'd do the character justice.

how would you guys feel if we got a Samurai Rabbit in the new show instead of actually getting Usagi? That'd be a nice trade-off if they couldn't get the rights, though not sure if thats generic enough or if they'd be able to get sued heh.

It'd have to be a really well written and distinct enough character from Usagi to make me like the idea and even then I still think Sakai would have every right to sue...although he probably wouldn't.

[drewizzle88]

Originally Posted by Venom

Ya left out "and comics", drewizzle.

Probably like how Viacom will too.

I hope they dont, if that counts.

[Koi]

They own enough to create a cartoon with it.