Legends discontinues prop replica license

Legends Memorabilia is not renewing its Stargate prop replica license with MGM, President Paul Brown announced in a recent interview with GateWorld.

“We ran it for three years and we made, I think, 26 different items in the line. Zat guns, staff weapons and so forth. And quite frankly it was not an economically viable project for our company.

“It was somewhat of a distraction because we spent so much time doing product research, product development, into getting a licensed item onto the marketplace. Unless you’re really selling that licensed product in very large quantities, a licensing program is not necessarily a very economic project to do.”

The size of the Stargate audience, let alone those eager for merchandise beyond DVDs, is relatively small in comparison to franchises such as Star Wars. Brown indicated that the sales for the replicas would only be viable if they numbered in the thousands — not in the hundreds, as they have been getting.

“To recoup the immense costs and royalties that you have to pay,” Brown continued, “you’ve got to have numbers, and the numbers weren’t there. So we have reluctantly decided that we’re going to not renew our license. We’re not moving forward with any more replica items from the studio.”

In addition to staff weapons and zat’ni’katels, the company developed replicas of the Eye of Ra amulet, a scaled miniature Stargate, and most recently, a death glider.

“We know a lot of fans that we’ve mentioned this to are very disappointed,” Brown said. “We think the quality of what we have done has been very good. We’ve enhanced the value of the show in terms of the artifacts that people want to own.

“This show deserved the kind of quality products that we gave them, and we put a lot of good effort into all of the products that we did manufacture. There was nothing tacky in what we did. We think it was pretty classy. Right down the packaging. And that was important.”

In addition to prop replicas, Legends Memorabilia also offers authentic autographs, costumes and props from Andromeda, The Outer Limits, the feature film “Windtalkers,” and numerous music and sports memorabilia.

“We do need to be focused on the other things that we do,” he said. “Our company is a diverse company in other areas of memorabilia, and that is something we need to get back to doing.

Read or listen to the complete interview with Paul Brown, available now at GateWorld, and visit the Legends Web site at StargateProps.com!