Kennyverse Legal Defense Fund
My name is Kenneth Koepnick, but you might know me as Cousin Kenny—a store manager, family man, friend, and active member of the action figure collector community.
On April 4, 2024, ToyTuber Bobby Vala & his toy company, Valaverse LLC, sued me for alleged defamation:
“This is a civil action under state law for defamation (libel, slander, and defamation per se), false light invasion of privacy, civil liability for criminal acts (telecommunications harassment), and deceptive trade practices.”
You can read the filed lawsuit in its entirety here: Robert Vala vs Kenneth Koepnick
These claims were without merit, and I believe the lawsuit was a SLAPP suit.
What is a SLAPP suit?
A SLAPP suit, or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, is a lawsuit, often based on a claim of defamation, filed to intimidate and silence critics rather than to win on the merits of the case. These lawsuits are used to burden opponents with the high cost of legal defense, effectively punishing them for speaking out on matters of public interest, even if the original claim is baseless.
Many states have passed Anti-SLAPP laws to help defendants fight these cases more efficiently and potentially recover their legal fees. Unfortunately, at the time Bobby filed his lawsuit against me, no such Anti-SLAPP law existed in Ohio. Ohio later passed an anti-SLAPP law on January 8th, 2025 to become the 35th state to enact an Anti-SLAPP Statute.
This Lawsuit and Surrounding Circumstances
I believe this “lawfare” was intended to silence my public lampooning of a public figure in my community by draining my financial resources. These types of legal threats and lawsuits are intended to have a “chilling effect” on free speech, where individuals become afraid to speak out. Although the details of Bobby’s SLAPP suit focused on 2 videos I posted on YouTube (more on that later), Bobby had previously, on August 21st, 2021, sent me a Cease & Desist Order where he threatened to sue me for content on my Kennyverse website that included humorous memes and parody “Kennyverse” T-shirts and apparel.
For those of you not familiar with Bobby, he is an independent toy maker producing action figures using trademarks like Action Force & Steel Brigade. He’s also, quite ironically, an extremely vocal critic of other toy lines and toymakers. I personally found it deeply hypocritical that he was so upset over a parody T-shirt (at one point he demanded that I recall and collect all Kennyverse shirts that had been purchased and shipped to others), when he himself had previously worn a parody “Subpar7” T-shirt of the toy company Super7 while he criticized the company in a YouTube video. It's funny when he does it, but a crime when other people do it?
(I believe this video has subsequently been removed from YouTube)
As a strong believer in Free Speech & Fair Play, I continued to point out what I viewed as hypocritical behavior using memes—a communication method I (and many others) found humorous and entertaining. Many of these memes were a direct response to Bobby’s own public behavior, such as this post from the Valaverse Facebook Group:
Though my memes are admittedly childish and silly, I believe I should be free to comment on what I view as bad behavior in a collector community that I truly adore.
On June 25 2022, after hours at a collector toy show, Bobby was very upset at me for wearing a parody T-shirt of the Palitoy Action Force logo that said “LEGAL ACTION FORCE”. The evening culminated in him & his friends tracking me down for a verbal exchange in a hotel lobby. I later made a video about it, explaining the events from my point-of-view. The response to this video was intense. I was falsely attacked by Valaverse supporters on social media, as were friends of mine. Bobby Vala (once again) directly pressured a showrunner to ban me from a convention (Bobby’s ultimatum failed and Valaverse pulled from the convention.) A Valaverse supporter contacted my workplace and stated that he would not be a customer because they employed me. (“I was thinking of visiting your store until I found out that piece of shit Kenny worked for you.”) I had an unsettling encounter at a convention that raised concerns for my family. Experiencing this ongoing series of events motivated me to delist my entire channel from YouTube & close off my public social media accounts... a timely move that I learned derailed other supporters of Valaverse from making content attacking me. In an effort to be fully transparent, you can again view the controversial videos in their entirety here:
Months after I took the channel down, Bobby filed his lawsuit against me.
I decided that despite the costs, I would not be bullied into agreeing to Bobby’s unreasonable proposals in exchange for him dropping the SLAPP suit. I endured a 501-day legal battle that ended after I was deposed by Bobby’s attorney for approximately six hours. They insisted that I be deposed first, despite pushback from my attorney. Bobby sat in the room for my deposition, then dismissed the suit (edit-) without prejudice shortly after we wrapped up—on the eve of his own deposition.
In addition, Bobby sent subpoenas to at least seven of my friends and family, demanding they produce
“for the period January 1, 2021, to the present”, “All communications with Kenneth Koepnick explicitly or implicitly regarding Robert Vala and/or Valaverse, LLC” AND “All communications with anyone other than Kenneth Koepnick regarding Robert Vala and/or Valaverse, LLC” explicitly or implicity” as well as “any notes, statements or reports” and “any documents or communications…regarding Robert Vala and/or Valaverse, LLC.”
I believe this attempted overreach was not just an extension of intimidation, but also a “fishing expedition” to obtain and exploit private communications, as evidenced by Bobby’s attempt to have one of my friends banned from a convention by using a private message he obtained during discovery as the basis of his attempt. (Fortunately, that attempt also failed.)
This GoFund Me
I made a personal choice to stand up against intimidation and, due to the laws at the time of the suit, the legal costs associated with this fight are my own. It’s a decision I made and stand behind.
That said, if you appreciate and value the fight against those who wield their power and influence to intimidate and silence others, I would greatly appreciate a donation to this cause. I incurred direct legal defense bills of $24,942.40 as a direct result of this lawsuit. Additional legal fees of $14,740.00 were incurred for representation of some of those who were issued subpoenas. Donations will be utilized to pay for these legal fees, and if total funds are donated beyond the combined legal fees of 39,682.40, they will be donated to the STOMP Out Bullying charity.
I recommend donations be made anonymously to eliminate any possibility, however small, that contributors could face harassment for donating.
My reputation and integrity are important to me, and although I was ultimately victorious in this suit, I & others have been personally targeted by a small, but active, group of Valaverse supporters in the past. I urge those supporters to watch video of Bobby himself speaking. I believe that his own words also clearly demonstrate how frivolous this lawsuit was. Here are a few examples:
"What's the next thing you're going to steal?" "We're gonna take a break from that "
"Yes, you can call my line a GI Joe ripoff if you want . That's fine."
"I don't want to sound like I'm ripping off GI Joe, but I'm ripping off GI Joe ."
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and God bless.
With gratitude,
-Cousin Kenny
Organizer
