Author Topic: The Tonnika Sisters  (Read 44995 times)

Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #150 on: May 22, 2024, 12:03 PM »
This reminds me of a time during my missile tour.  Missile Crews routinely carried code authorization docs out to the field when pulling alert.  Back in the day, Missileers were armed with an M-9 pistol, but during my tour, we were never authorized to carry.  Talk amongst the crew force was back in the day some idiot was playing with his pistol on alert and put a bullet through the console.  After a four year missile tour, I could totally believe that.

One day during our Pre-departure briefing, the 20th AF Commander, General Klotz, came to speak with us and he told us a different story:

     It was 4th of July and nearing crew change over, the relief crew had received their brief from the security forces guy upstairs and were getting into the elevator to head down to the Launch Control Center (LCC) and had brought a bunch of firecrackers with them and were lighting them and dropping them down the elevator shaft.  Meanwhile, the alert crew is prepping for change over and while the crew commander was getting all the classified out for inventory the deputy opened the blast door and was putting their bags out into the tunnel junction.  The deputy was startled by the firecrackers and cracked his head open on the low ceiling and knocked himself out....bleeding all over the floor.  The Crew Commander, wondering what was taking his deputy so long to put the bags in the TJ went to check on him and saw him laying in a pool of blood and hearing what sounds like gunshots.  He immediately pulls his weapon and takes cover behind one of the shock isolators at the back of the capsule and calls upstairs to declare a security situation.

     By this time, the relief crew are laughing about the firecrackers, come out of the elevator and see the deputy lying in a pool of blood, and the Crew Commander taking cover at the back of the capsule with his weapon drawn.  They thing the Crew Commander has lost it, shot his deputy and is ready to kill them as well, so they retreat to try and get out!

     After everything was resolved and medical attention was administered, a formal review recommended that crew members no longer be allowed to carry weapons.

Tell anyone who has pulled missile crew duty in the USAF and they would all tell you either story is completely plausible.  Especially because a two-star general told the more fantastical story!

Anyway, I highly doubt we're ever getting the Tonnika sisters.  It would've happened by now.
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #151 on: May 22, 2024, 06:10 PM »
I would be willing to bet most of those licensing people at LFL are no longer there at this point.

I’m pretty sure Chris Holm is still there, but he might fall under a Disney reporting structure.
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Offline EdSolo

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #152 on: Today at 07:32 AM »
It is utterly insane they wouldn't just give the second sister a figure for free.  That was an actually smart ask on her part because I think we all now how impossible finding figures in the wild can be.  The whole objectifying woman angle seems very odd, but not out of place for Disney.  Oola and Slave Leia are easy ones to target for that.  A couple of background characters, that are seen for a few seconds, and are fully clothed, and had zero background info on them when the movie was released?  That seems rather odd to label them as being objectified.

Offline Nicklab

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #153 on: Today at 09:27 AM »
What someone says on a podcast might be completely different from their interactions with Lucasfilm.  What I took from Victoria's interview with Angela Staines is that Lucasfilm was of the opinion that she wanted to shake them down for $$$, and that's just not how they do business.  They have on screen talent (with no dialogue) sign a STANDARD release in order to produce licensed merchandise.  If someone bucks that standard?  It potentially opens the door to countless other on screen talent to attempt to negotiate their own deals.  And the legal costs alone might make the situation incredibly prohibitive from a financial and administrative standpoint - down to the point of potentially slowing production of new content.  It seems like a pandora's box of hassles.
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Online GrandMoffNick

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #154 on: Today at 09:34 AM »
I'm with Nick. This isn't about "one person wanting one figure". It's about not changing the standard for one person.
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Online Rob

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #155 on: Today at 09:47 AM »
I think that sounds likely.

And, as much as you could roll your eyes at Hasbro for not wanting to provide her with a $5 figure, you could roll your eyes at her for not being willing to sign unless given a $5 figure.

Offline Jeff

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #156 on: Today at 09:51 AM »
What I took from Victoria's interview with Angela Staines is that Lucasfilm was of the opinion that she wanted to shake them down for $$$, and that's just not how they do business. 

I went back and re-listened to the interview that Victoria did in 2017.  I really think it all boils down to this chunk of the interviews: (https://youtu.be/E8Yu1fKCDko&t=1605)

- Someone she knew saw the tiny little Galoob Action Fleet Tonnika figure in a shop
- Her husband said 'they should be paying you for that'
- Her husband's lawyer sent a letter to LFL

Then she (Angela) casually mentions that Christine (the other sister) had many interactions with LFL and they ALL knew about the letter at LFL and that was the one of the reasons there were no figures.  Again she mentions "why not give us some royalties" in reference to making the figures.

I think her story softened over time down to "I just wanted a free figure", but the more you dig into this the more it sure seems like she wanted something and like the Nicks are saying, LFL isn't going to change their standard contract/approach for one background character (even if she was in a named role on the call sheet and not just an extra) for fear of the precedent it would set.

This fits well with Nick's story about Derryl saying LFL had a 'long memory'.  She tried to shake them down and LFL isn't going to forget it apparently...
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #157 on: Today at 09:51 AM »
I heard that condition about the figure and it sounded like BS to me.  She got her husband involved along with legal representation in her communications with LFL.  It almost certainly got adversarial.  That set the tone and LFL was probably like "Yeah, no".

No doubt Angela Staines is missing out on being involved in officially sanctioned Lucasfilm events.  That alone could be bringing her a nice income stream.  Lower level actors are charging maybe $40 or $60 for autographs these days.  Factor that in to appearing over a 3 day weekend and averaging 10 signatures per hour?  And charging more for photo ops?  And one of the actors with non speaking roles might taken home close to $10K for a weekend's work.  Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees...
« Last Edit: Today at 10:00 AM by Nicklab »
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Online Rob

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #158 on: Today at 10:31 AM »
As far as I can tell she's done her best to monetize being a Tonnika Sister.  Her facebook page is full of this kind of stuff.





Ironically, she was also pimping the Last Figure Standing poll.  Lolz...

« Last Edit: Today at 10:33 AM by Rob »

Online Rob

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #159 on: Today at 10:33 AM »
Jeff, do we want to spin this off into a dedicated Tonnika Sisters thread?  As much as there isn't anything to say about it, I do like the topic for some weird reason...

Offline Jeff

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Re: Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Reply #160 on: Today at 10:45 AM »
Jeff, do we want to spin this off into a dedicated Tonnika Sisters thread?

Good idea.  I spun off these recent Tonnika-specific posts and merged them into this old Tonnika themed thread.
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