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Itoldyouso.

Well done Curt and TFSource. You always come through to make sure that the customer is satisfied with their purchase. Best of luck with the claim against the supplier who sent the KO plexes to you!

fenrir72 wrote:To make this short... Takara must ISSUE the original products in order to nullify the gray market that has sprung out of the insatiable appetite for G1 toys.

I feel shifting the blame onto Hasbro is maybe a trifle harsh.

Hasbro is a profit led business, and if they feel the demand is there, then we know they'll try to satify that demand.

But remember we don't have a divine right to these figures - it's Hasbro's call. And they're well within their rights not to release a toy if they don't want to. Indeed, some of the old moulds simply don't exist any more or are irreperably damaged (such as Sludge, IIRC).

But Hasbro choosing not to release a product should NOT be misconstrued as a green light to hit the black market. Hasbro own the rights to these toys, and if they can't / won't release a certain toy, we have to respect that.

To coin an analogy, just because I can't afford ebay rates for a rare CD album doesn't give me the right to illicitly download it.

On a lighter note: Merry Christmas to you all!

I agree with everything you said Starfish, as I am sure most other people do to. I think fenrir72 was pointing out that the black market for toys will rise if the demand is not met. If Hasbro or Takara have a plan to release some of the original molds, they need to think ahead about the black market.

On a slightly different topic - it seems too coincidental that KO Metroplex came out one season before the Encore figure. Did the illegal manufacturer get his hands on the original mold while it was getting prepped? I am very curious how these people operate.

*Hm, I thought I clicked the submit button. Guess, my comment didn't get through*

Anyhow, mine also have that H2208 on the box too and I got it from ImageAnime. I think it's the real deal since the wheels have rivet, the black chest compartment is not glossy painted, no square box around H2208.

On mine, the left leg flap does not clip onto the main leg securely. So if I roughly move him around, the flap from the leg would fold down. I don't have this problem with the right leg. Does anyone has this problem too or mine is really a KO.

Ditto to Stormrider. Very suspicious or is it coincidental that the KO makers got burned with Metroplex or should I say they are trying to recoup their losses with their cloned master molds.

I say it again as I say it a hundred times...............there will always be the black/gray market for such goods unless the original manufacturers provided the highly demanded product.Make it an Ipod,I-phone,Harry Potter books, TF DVDs etc.

In China for instance, TF G1 is one HOT Tamalle............really, no kidding!Blame it on the original Marvel/Sunbow Team who helped create the mythology. Plus factor in the thousands of dopes who can't tell the real from the fakes and you've got a situation where some enterprising business person will try to fill up the void.

This doesn't justify the deed but let's face reality, someone will do it............make KO's.

How to stamp it out? Already we can see the result..............the release of the official Metroplex negated whatever profit margin the KO were supposed to reap thus now they are forced to repack them as the real thing. But still it didn't stop the KO from being repack no?

Don't buy 'em......well iffy, they are akin to being trophy pieces, heck some museams get burned too by purchasing fake Rembrandts and the works.

Fenrir, Stormrider, you're both making a lot of sense (more than can be said for myself a lot of the time).

I think Hasbro are doing a goot job, personally. With the Encore series, they're giving the fans what they want and re-issuing many of the more hard-to-obtain old toys, such as Sky Lynx, Metroplex and Omega Supreme. They've also clamped down on KOs being sold on ebay.

I completely agree that it's something that won't go away, that whatever measures are put in place we won't extinguish the trade completely.

I do feel, however, that we could be doing more as a community to help the situation. In some quarters, buying KOs is seen as a perfectly legitimate thing to do, and many online TF dealers trade in KOs. Indeed, even this site's very own news page recently front-paged a story about a new KO WST Tracks.

I'm not saying that more stringent rules will rid us of KOs forever, but I do feel that perhaps the retailers and the more infulential fan sites could give less exposure to them.