The Isuzu All Star Hero Festival 2007 was held at Challenger Hall 3, Muang Thong Thani, between March 16 and April 8. The event attracted 4,000-5,000 visitors a day during the week and 17,000-20,000 a day on weekends.

But Ultraman fans were shocked when they crowded into Challenger Hall last weekend. They had expected to see their action heroes, but they had fled the scene.

Two weeks ago, there were three life-sized Ultraman models and a wide-screen LCD featuring the preview of a new Ultraman TV series scheduled to hit the small screen in the next few months.

The campaign was part of Chaiyo Productions' plan to promote the anticipated new spin-off of the Ultraman series whose lead characters - Ultraman Elite, Ultraman Millennium and Dark Ultraman - were all created by Chaiyo based on the original model of Ultraman.

However, the event organisers decided to drop all the new Ultraman models on display.

Moreover, the wide-screened LCD featuring the preview of long-awaited Ultraman TV series called "Project Ultraman" was also pulled off. The booth where the audience was required to pay to take a sneak behind-the-scenes preview of the new Ultraman TV series was likewise out of sight. The studio that allowed the audience to take pictures with the new Ultraman characters was scaled down, leaving only the originals.

The abrupt change came

after the Intellectual Property Court ruled on April 2 to pro-hibit Chaiyo Productions from making profits from the spin-off Ultraman characters. Their

verdict was that the new guys constituted a copyright violation.

Most fans were not aware of the ongoing court case and had no idea of what was going on. Fans who planned to take a picture with the new Ultraman characters were disappointed but they might take some consolation from the thought that these so-called superheroes were outlaws who violated the IP law.

kwanchai@nationgroup.com