Awwh dang ;o; Is there a way you could tweak any distinctively Lego-esque assets to be a lil more original in design for a re-release, or are you content with calling it quits on that project? That sounds extraordinarily demoralizing and I'm sorry to hear that your hard work wasn't appreciated by Lego :/
It looks like most of your work on here is crucially linked to very recognizable IP so.. I mean at the risk of sounding like a d-bag, this was kinda bound to happen eventually without some protective measures beyond stressing non-commercial intentions. I mean, even ignoring the clear minifig designs you're directly using the Lego logo right up front and everything!
For real, I wish you the best of luck sorting this out however you see fit, and expressing these awesome creative instincts without further interference <3 Thank you for doin' what you do, you're very talented! <3
Yes, it was definitely bound to happen. It’s just more gut-wrenching to know there are people out there profiting from this IP, making thousands of dollars off cheap knockoffs and other shady merchandise. Meanwhile, they choose to go after creators who genuinely love the work and are inspired to create for passion rather than profit. I don’t earn a dime from my projects—this is something I do entirely in my free time while holding down a full-time job. Wanting to make something based on an IP shouldn’t mean I get blacklisted from the internet. And the worst part is that this is just a bot or script scraping the internet and sending out blanket messages with no regard for the creators. I’m sure that if an actual person reviewed the claim, they would be supportive.