Any reproduction of existing merchandise for profit is "bootlegging" by definition... So it's definitely not legal, but that doesn't stop people from doing it obviously. Whether LFL decides to stop you or not, depends. They stopped several companies from bootlegging/marketing knock-offs recently, fairly small time...
They shut down a couple garage-kit model companies not TOO long ago actually... They sculpted (from scratch) Star Wars ships and cast them in resin and sold them, limiting their production to only the double digits in some cases... If they can get shut down I 100% guarantee a C&D can go to someone casting Hasbro figures, painting them, and selling them.
Like I said though, whether they do or not depends I suppose on their motivation to do so... LFL's real protective of its materials though and I can attest that Hasbro is as well. I thought there was actually something even mentioned about the Ewok castings by Frank prior to C4 that he got "permission" to do all that with giving them away and all? I forget but I could've sworn something was said about that at one point or another. Senility is setting in though.
Most forums/boards also have "bootlegging" rules in place against that stuff... We've gotten notes from LFL on people selling bootleg DVD's for instance... We had to ban a guy selling bootleg lightsabers once that he hand-made. Rebelscum had a policy in place on DVD's at the same time as we did and I recall something about one of their staffers at the time selling bootleg DVD's off the site till they got caught doing it (and telling others at the same time that they couldn't, IIRC).
From a strictly legal definition of the whole matter though, basically anything like that's a no-no as it does violate LFL copyright laws and things.
For the record too...
GTG customs casts things that someone else worked to produce. For instance I see they have a cast of a sawed off shotgun from BBI... That's illegal bootlegging, to cast that other company's work and sell it for profit. I'm not knocking them, that's not an insult IMO, it's simply the truth...
Maurader Inc. who we have a working relationship with here at JediDefender.com, sculpt their accessories from "the ground up" and cast them, and they are put into professional production by manufacturers (overseas if I'm not mistaken) like a toy company would do. The only non-sculpted items on their site are items I believe they have a deal to sell from a line called "Power Team Elite" that includes folding chairs and whatnot. Marauder's weapons and such though are hand sculpted though otherwise.
A company similar to GTG customs in EVERY way really, was shut down back in the early 00's or so, I forget when now, for selling reproduction casts of Hasbro work, so obviously that's proof that they can and do get shut down sometimes, probably dependant upon how "above the radar" they wind up flying and getting into Hasbro's sights.
