Maker of Steve Jobs Action Figure Kills Project
The maker of a controversial Steve Jobs action figure is stopping production and sale of the 12-inch doll following threats of legal action by Apple and Jobs' family. — “Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second time in just over a year that a third-party figurine of an Apple chief has been forced off the market: M.I.C gadget's Apple CEO action figure met the same end in November 2010. The current maker had already drawn Apple's legal threats earlier this month over the 12-inch Steve Jobs doll, and has now capitulated while insisting it 'did not overstep any legal boundaries.'
The stakes go beyond one toy. Jobs died in October 2011, making his likeness commercially potent, and Apple has a documented record of policing adjacent uses of its brand — from banning an Android magazine app on its store in 2010 to controlling how its executives are depicted. The company and Jobs' family chose enforcement over tolerance here, and the maker folded without a court test.
First-order effects
- Production and sale of the 12-inch Steve Jobs figure stop immediately, so the maker forgoes whatever revenue remained rather than face Apple and the Jobs family in court.
- Collectors who missed the initial run lose their only sanctioned-free channel to buy the doll, pushing demand onto resale markets where pricing is unregulated.
Second-order effects
- Other small manufacturers of celebrity-adjacent merchandise now have two data points — the 2010 M.I.C gadget pull and this one — showing that Apple will threaten litigation against figurine makers specifically, raising the perceived cost of any future attempt.
- Resellers holding unsold stock gain scarcity value, since the threat letter converts remaining inventory into a finite supply.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, depictions of tech executives become an extension of corporate IP enforcement: companies treat their leaders' likenesses as protected brand assets even after death, and independent creators self-censor rather than litigate.
The trend: Apple is extending its brand-control playbook from apps and accessories to third-party portrayals of its own executives, with legal threats enough to end projects before any court ruling.