Andrew Martin, a pro-digital sculptor, posted a video thread on TikTok accusing Disney of plagiarizing and selling his design of the Tiki Drummers from the Enchanted Tiki Room for their 50th anniversary.
Martin, who works under the studio name Monster Caesar Studios, is a freelance sculptor who works with digital and traditional mediums. Martin specialized in making fan art of pop-culture/movie/anime and comic figures. Among his portfolio are the Tiki Drummer idols, which appear in Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and are brought to life by the attraction's magic.
In 2018, Martin digitally designed the Tiki Drummer from Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room for himself, but due to tons of positive feedback on social media the digital artist decided to release the model on Thingiverse under a creative commons license so that people can make ones for themselves while Martin could avoid a lawsuit. However, in 2022 Martin received news from a friend that Disney were selling his exact design as its Official Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Commemorative Music Box. To prove his argument, Martin draws many landmark similarities in design between his and Disney's Tiki Drummer models - the digital sculptor emphasizes his main issue being that Disney has taken credit for his work, selling it without his permission and hasn't credited him.
In the recent TikTok video update, Martin corrects himself. Originally, the sculptor assumed that Disney has just outsourced the commemorative anniversary model to a freelance artist who just thought they could make easy money from ripping off his design. But upon further investigation, Martin discovered that the artist credited for this model was Costa Alavesos. According to LinkedIn, Alavesos is the product design manager for The Walt Disney Company and has worked for Disney since 1997. Martin the goes to directly address Alavesos in the video, asking how many other artists has he plagiarized while working at Disney.
There are certainly many similarities between the two models that are hard to dispute, and if Martin's accusation is true then Alavesos could find himself in hot water with Disney. Who knows how many products Disney has sold that Alavesos may have plagiarized. Comments on Martin's TikTok also pointed out that Martin shouldn't be the only person credited for the WOW Disney 50th Anniversary Commemorative Music Box. The original artist of the Tiki idol is Rolly Crump, who is an American animator and Disney Imagineer, meaning the music box should credit Rolly Crump as the original designer and Martin as the product designer.
Source: Andrew Martin/ TikTok