33 replies to this topic

[NamaNiku]

So, I was going through a box of old stuff the other day, and came across a zip disc from the Stepback Production days. It took me awhile to find someone who actually still had a zip drive, but to my surprise the disc contained all the original digital color screens for the Stepback M.U.S.C.L.E. shirts.

(White Shirt on the left)



The digital screens are already sized, with all the various color separations etc.

It would be pretty easy to take these somewhere and have them made into actual screens and then into shirts.

Would anyone actually be interested in buying one if there was another run?

The reason I ask is that I ended up giving away most of the original overstock Stepback gave me because people stopped buying them on eBay.

If there is enough interest I may consider trying to get them made.

I will post the screens if I get some free time this weekend.

Edited by uoozuman, 19 June 2008 - 05:02 PM.

[Starman]

Hi uoozuman, sounds interesting, what kind of prices are we looking at for the t-shirt?

[NamaNiku]

Hi uoozuman, sounds interesting, what kind of prices are we looking at for the t-shirt?

Good question. The original shirts were made almost 10 years ago. The last ones I dumped were back in 2001, and I cannot remember how they were priced.

It is a five color silk screen design, and I am really out of touch with current printing costs. Light color shirts are cheaper to buy and cheaper to print on since dark colors require a white screen base (additional color charge) so the design colors do not get lost in the dark fibers - dark shirts also cost more.

If I personally made them, I would be more interested in hooking up folks on the board with a cool shirt, rather than making a profit, but I see nothing wrong with that if that is what it takes for someone to make them. All those images and logos are now part of the public domain.

I am pretty swamped at work right now, so I am actually talking with a few guys on LRG and a local buddy who may be interested in taking on the project for themselves.

Stepback was a little ahead of its time in the sense that the web was just starting to grow back in 1998, and a lot of people were out of touch with how to get stuff online.

The Stepback Battle Beasts, MASK, Silverhawks and Bravestar shirts all did okay, but M.U.S.C.L.E. was a bomb. If it were not for Nathan and him hooking me up with a link on his site, I think I would still have a basement full of the yosh they had leftover when the company flopped.

Working in a T Shirt factory gave me a headache and made me a little....

Edited by uoozuman, 19 June 2008 - 05:09 PM.

[dankingery]

i'm totally in for the ufc spoof shirt.

recently i was going over some pricing for making shirts through our union hall for all of the apprentices. one of best prices we were able to come up with was about $12 a shirt. that was for only 2 or 3 colors, i can't remember. so i would say realistically for five colors it would be about 20 dollaridoos. but i'm sure someone could find a better deal with a little detective work.

[Prim]

i'm totally in for the ufc spoof shirt.

recently i was going over some pricing for making shirts through our union hall for all of the apprentices. one of best prices we were able to come up with was about $12 a shirt. that was for only 2 or 3 colors, i can't remember. so i would say realistically for five colors it would be about 20 dollaridoos. but i'm sure someone could find a better deal with a little detective work.

Trust me that’s way too high. Let’s say you want to use high quality white shirts to print on sizes s-xl will run $0.95 to $1.10 it all depends on the market that week. Now that’s just for the shirt itself and you have a cost per color to print it and that all depends on how many you order, most the time it’s about $1 a color for the smaller runs (this cost varies greatly on the printer and quantity). Where most shops get you is a setup fee, my printer who does my stuff still at wholesale so that i can still sell printed stuff through my business KB Signs and Graphics does not charge me setup fees so this keeps the cost way down. I did own all my own printing equipment but sold it off when i absolutely hated the messing with all the chemicals. So I kept my contacts and wholesale people as well so i can still get stuff printed I just contract it out and supply my own shirts to print on. I have done printing for Prime Media specifically Mini Trucking mag as well as Sport Truck mag as well as much other local stuff no need in mentioning.

[Tortle]

I'd definitely buy a MUSCLE shirt. I still have most of my Stepback shirts, but they are really hurting these days. I should post a picture... they're certainly well worn. My wife really digs them too, so she'd be interested in a women's sized one.

[Kevin Mayle]

The original shirts were made almost 10 years ago.
All those images and logos are now part of the public domain.

I forgot about those. I had the one on the left. It was given to me in '98 or '99 by Taka Kurosaka (Stinger Wolf). By the way, Buffaloman's image is not public domain, and X Concepts LLC owns the M.U.S.C.L.E. trademark.

Edited by Kevin Mayle, 13 January 2009 - 07:37 PM.

[Prim]

Now that i am home from work heres the artwork from the Sport Truck Mag and Mini Truckin Mag shirts i printed. I just could not stand to use all those chemicals. Ive been liiking at a direct to garmet printer but they are like $13-$14,000 maybe $15,000 is you dont shop and that for a cheaper one that only prints one at a time (but full color and very sweet)

[NamaNiku]

The original shirts were made almost 10 years ago.
All those images and logos are now part of the public domain.

I forgot about those. I had the one on the left. It was given to me in '98 or '99 by Taka Kurosaka (Stinger Wolf). By the way, Buffaloman's image is not public domain, and X Concepts LLC owns the M.U.S.C.L.E. trademark.

The type drawing of Terri-Bull is Dead (if that means public domain or not, that is a different story). Since we are talking M.U.S.C.L.E. here it is not Buffaloman for all intents and purposes.

There are two separate Trademarks on the name "Muscle Men" (related to toys). One was held by Mattel and one was held by X Concepts (appears to be Dead and Abandoned on January 12, 2006). In either case, they are both Dead and Abandoned.

MUSCLE Men (X Concepts): Serial Number: 78351517
MUSCLE MEN (Mattel): Serial Number: 73593865

To do a search, you can visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office

Once on the Trademark search page, I would suggest using "Basic" search and filter by "Dead" trademarks because all the M.U.S.C.L.E. Trademarks are dead.

Searches like Terri-Bull and Thug Busters are easy to find however M.U.S.C.L.E. is not - For some reason, the system will not let you search "M.U.S.C.L.E." so you will have to search 'Muscle." There are 623 Dead Trademarks for Muscle, so to save time skip over to record 574 (page 5 or 6), which is Mattel's "M.U.S.C.L.E."

Since the links do not work, here is a screen shot of what the documents look like:

Edited by uoozuman, 20 June 2008 - 10:42 AM.

[Prim]

Sweet so short we can print the shizznit out of it

[NamaNiku]

Dead Terri-bull Trademark:



I am not a Lawyer so I have no idea what legalities surround using Dead Trademarks, but I am confident in saying no company has an active interest in the M.U.S.C.L.E. Logo or the Terri-bull typed drawing that is on the shirt in question.

Straight from the United States Patent and Trademark Office... and we all know the Government never lies

[Prim]

Yeah i know and i was selling a price tag for $8 not the shirt, the shirt you get for free with the purchase of the price tag

[Tortle]

Great find, uoozuman!

[Kevin Mayle]

The original shirts were made almost 10 years ago.
All those images and logos are now part of the public domain.

I forgot about those. I had the one on the left. It was given to me in '98 or '99 by Taka Kurosaka (Stinger Wolf). By the way, Buffaloman's image is not public domain, and X Concepts LLC owns the M.U.S.C.L.E. trademark.

The type drawing of Terri-Bull is Dead (if that means public domain or not, that is a different story). Since we are talking M.U.S.C.L.E. here it is not Buffaloman for all intents and purposes.

There are two separate Trademarks on the name "Muscle Men" (related to toys). One was held by Mattel and one was held by X Concepts (appears to be Dead and Abandoned on January 12, 2006). In either case, they are both Dead and Abandoned.

MUSCLE Men (X Concepts): Serial Number: 78351517
MUSCLE MEN (Mattel): Serial Number: 73593865

To do a search, you can visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office

Once on the Trademark search page, I would suggest using "Basic" search and filter by "Dead" trademarks because all the M.U.S.C.L.E. Trademarks are dead.

Searches like Terri-Bull and Thug Busters are easy to find however M.U.S.C.L.E. is not - For some reason, the system will not let you search "M.U.S.C.L.E." so you will have to search 'Muscle." There are 623 Dead Trademarks for Muscle, so to save time skip over to record 574 (page 5 or 6), which is Mattel's "M.U.S.C.L.E."

Since the links do not work, here is a screen shot of what the documents look like:

Thanks for the link.
I found tons of Dead Trademarks for the names and "typed drawings" for Mickey Mouse, Superman, Star Wars and so on. Looks like I've got some products to make.

Edited by Kevin Mayle, 13 January 2009 - 07:37 PM.

[NamaNiku]

I have no idea what it all means, or how it all really works, but at the very least I think it is kind of interesting to look and see when the original trademarks were put into place, etc. A fun bit of M.U.S.C.L.E. history that I was previously unaware of.

I did find this little bit on Wikipedia:

"In the U.S., failure to use a trademark for this period of time, aside from the corresponding impact on product quality, will result in abandonment of the mark, whereby any party may use the mark. An abandoned mark is not irrevocably in the public domain, but may instead be re-registered by any party which has re-established exclusive and active use, and must be associated or linked with the original mark owner."

So it sounds like anyone can use the mark and that it can also be re-registered (no idea how much that costs), but my guess is that Mattel is not too concerned with it if they abandoned it in the first place.

I personally would never mass market anything unless I knew that I was legally free and clear, but I don't think Mattel would poo their pants over 50 T Shirts and a Dead trademark.

Trademarks Wiki

Edited by uoozuman, 20 June 2008 - 12:32 PM.

[dankingery]

well, i think you stated in the beginning, uoozuman, that you weren't going after the profit, just hooking up members who were interested. so if you aren't profiting from someone else's idea then there really isn't a problem there. i think. i don't know. i too am not a lawyer.

[Jet-Mech]

There are two separate Trademarks on the name "Muscle Men" (related to toys). One was held by Mattel and one was held by X Concepts (appears to be Dead and Abandoned on January 12, 2006). In either case, they are both Dead and Abandoned.

MUSCLE Men (X Concepts): Serial Number: 78351517
MUSCLE MEN (Mattel): Serial Number: 73593865

I used to like X Concepts' "Modifiers" line of die-cast cars. I wonder about their use of the "Muscle Men" trademark?

Now that i am home from work heres the artwork from the Sport Truck Mag and Mini Truckin Mag shirts i printed. I just could not stand to use all those chemicals. Ive been liiking at a direct to garmet printer but they are like $13-$14,000 maybe $15,000 is you dont shop and that for a cheaper one that only prints one at a time (but full color and very sweet)

Man, them are sweet!

I like the M.U.S.C.L.E. T-shirts, too...and I could use some new threads!

[chopa]

Im interested in both.

[TheOrgg]

I'd LOVE one of those Terri-Bull shirts. I'm 4X Large, though, unfortunatly.

I never saw that second design, ever!

[GRANDTHEFT]

Mate i would definitely be interested in 1 or 2
Great find







Mischa

[NamaNiku]

What about a Battle Beasts shirt? Any interest there? I was thinking about the actual Battle Beasts logo and it looks like it it would be about a seven color design - not sure if that is doable.

[Prim]

Hey Uoozuman did you ever get that Zip disk downloaded? And oh ive already drawn the BB logo up so thats ready to screen already.

[NamaNiku]

Hey Uoozuman did you ever get that Zip disk downloaded? And oh ive already drawn the BB logo up so thats ready to screen already.

I have not - I have the external zip drive sitting at home - the problem is that the cord does not fit with any of the ports on my computer. I need to find an old computer to hook it up to My computer is pretty new and does not have that port.

Anyone have an internal zip drive?

[galthisan]

there is far to much blah, i dont understand on this post. so my question... can i buy a tshirt? i like the red one in the first post...... i am a medium in size, maybe large... probably medium..

thanks


oli

[Prim]

Ive got one and several computers im sure to be able to backup the information on the zip disk.