Their candy wrapper puzzle from a couple of years ago, which went on to become their "Puzzle of the Year" was also created by artist Charlie Girard - a fine fellow who doesn't get paid much for what he provides, but who lifted liberally from my Flickr archive of scans to create said puzzle. And who claims to have gotten permission from the myriad candy companies for said puzzle (which not only do I doubt, but which I believe would be near-impossible based upon what I know of the companies involved). The success of the candy wrapper puzzle led to their following it up by more and more collage puzzles created by Charlie, and clearly this Wacky Packages puzzle.
When I learned of their use of my scans I contacted the manufacturer and what followed was my attempting to be nice while also attempting to communicate why their use of my scans to make themselves money without compensating me was messed up. They never seemed to get it. Charlie even suggested we could "collaborate" on future releases down the road. I politely declined, still puzzled at how they didn't understand how the initial forced collaboration was wrong and unwelcome (and possibly illegal). At first I assumed he painted over the scans digitally, but he explained that no, what you see are actually my scans, arranged and with a few physical candy pieces added above them digitally.
Ultimately, I only sought to make sure that credit be added to the boxes and they agreed to not license the puzzle collage for any other media as it contained nothing but lifted images from my Flickr (and the CandyWrapperMuseum and another pal's image archive). While I found Charlie and the owner of the company to be a bit dense to my misgivings, they were seemingly decent folks, and my patriotism at the puzzles being manufactured entirely in the USA also lent to my ultimately not pursuing any other action.
Current versions of the Candy Wrapper Puzzle do contain a credit of sorts to myself and CollectingCandy.com, yet I've never been compensated for the images lifted and used, and I continue to find it to be a powerful annoyance every time I see these puzzles given special praise.
I'd be curious to know if they ACTUALLY got the license from Topps, or if they've just learned to indicate it on the box. I imagine Topps' legal department wouldn't be a easygoing as I was with my images being used. So maybe they did get permission this time.
, e
I don't care for it too much. Many of the main title names and images are cut off and although I like a collage, these images seem so smashed together.
The company has been around for 30 years, and they sell their products on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/White-Mountain-Puzzles-Packages-1000-Piece/dp/B00L6JDKDS/ref=sr_1_9?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1406774675&sr=1-9&keywords=wacky
This "artist" who has created these product puzzles is a fellow named Charlie Girard. In his bio, he claims to have permission to use the 3 Stooges images, and that it takes upwards of $100K to release one of these puzzles. They all look very rough and not professional to my eyes and am surprised the candy and cereal and car companies went for it. Maybe he sells tons and is making a fortune, and I'm just an _oolgers
http://www.sundaystreet.net/2012/04/kindness-of-strangers-guest-blog.html
(Image removed from quote.)
