Buyer beware: KO Henkei Starscream!

ugh i still want the ko henkei skywarp & thundercracker lol neat news though for ppl who dont wanna pay the full price of a actual henkei starscream tho

Most of the time these knock-offs are just as good as the original, which allows people who missed out a chance to get them for a decent price. So Yay!

These bloody KO's are getting ridiculous now. I can see a point not to far in the future when the majority of TF's online will be some sort of fake.

The really sad thing is unscrupulous traders will no doubt sell them as originals and at full retail price ripping us off. However the big concern is the serious lack of quality control or safety testing.

As a responsible parent that's one of my greatest fears, inadvertently buying a KO, thinking its an original. My son then gets hold of it, something breaks, a wheel or even an arm falls off and he ends up getting seriously hurt or worse.

Why the hell doesn't Has/Tak do something?

These guys do a great job !!! As far as Im concerned, I wasted $250 bucks on the originals at Botcon. I wish i had known about these and I would have got them instead. All these collectors complaining about fakes, cry me a river. They are toys. Real or bootleg, they are circa 2008-2010. Henkei figures were inteded for display, not worship. These people treat their originals like if they were 200 year old Civil War relics. Get over it and just and bite the bullet. Be happy for the next Transformers fan who can enjoy them as you have. I own the originals and I support KO toys.

Rated X wrote:These guys do a great job !!! As far as Im concerned, I wasted $250 bucks on the originals at Botcon. I wish i had known about these and I would have got them instead. All these collectors complaining about fakes, cry me a river. They are toys. Real or bootleg, they are circa 2008-2010. Henkei figures were inteded for display, not worship. These people treat their originals like if they were 200 year old Civil War relics. Get over it and just and bite the bullet. Be happy for the next Transformers fan who can enjoy them as you have. I own the originals and I support KO toys.

hear hear!

Rated X wrote:These guys do a great job !!! As far as I'm concerned, I wasted $250 bucks on the originals at Botcon. I wish i had known about these and I would have got them instead. All these collectors complaining about fakes, cry me a river. They are toys. Real or bootleg, they are circa 2008-2010. Henkei figures were intended for display, not worship. These people treat their originals like if they were 200 year old Civil War relics. Get over it and just and bite the bullet. Be happy for the next Transformers fan who can enjoy them as you have. I own the originals and I support KO toys.

Actually I do like to display them, I even still 'play' with them from time to time. I don't lock them away in a hermetically sealed bubble devoid of any contact for fear that it may devalue them in some way.

The real issue I have with the KO's is often the quality is genetically inferior when compared to the originals. I have bought several Ko's, and I'm always left disappointed. Now, they're not exactly cheap either, I've found, in particular some of the G1 KO's to be quite expensive.

My theory is, why pay money for something that I know is inferior, which will inevitably break, and I don't get much enjoyment from seeing them sitting in the bottom of a bin either, so to me that really is a waste of money in my opinion.

Actually I do like to display them, I even still 'play' with them from time to time. I don't lock them away in a hermetically sealed bubble devoid of any contact for fear that it may devalue them in some way.

The real issue I have with the KO's is often the quality is genetically inferior compared to the original. I've bought several Ko's, and I'm always disappointed and they're not exactly cheap either in particular the G1 KO's. My theory is, why pay money for something that I know is inferior, which will inevitably break and I won't get much enjoyment from seeing them sitting in the bottom of a bin. To me that is a waste of money.[/quote]


I get what youre saying. Right now I only own one KO which is a gold plated "Lucky Draw Style" Starscream. I have never transformed him because the rubbing will cause gold to peel. But aside from the gold factor, the figure seems to be pretty durable. I could see the same KO without the gold being built to withstand the test of time. Sometimes I feel people exaggerate the words "quality control" on this site. Im under the assumption that when Hasbro refers to "quality control" they mean being able to withstand play from a small child. The boxes say ages 3 and up. Were all adults here. Im not planning to drop my figure from a treehouse or shoot it off the fence with rubber band guns. If you handle a KO as carefully as you would a Fans Project or impossible Toys figure, it should be fine. Just my opinion.

I hope KOtoys gets this in. I'm not paying fifty friggin' dollars for a real classics or Henkei.

Well, this is kind of annoying. I only just caved in to buying the other 2 seekers from KOtoys, but if I knew this was coming I might have held out a bit longer! =/

Rated X wrote:Right now I only own one KO which is a gold plated "Lucky Draw Style" Starscream.

Yeah same here. My Electrum Sunstorm will be the only toy I never transform. As far KO toys are concerned, I can see how a parent may have concerns, but I would also be concerned about spring loaded projectiles that pass child safety laws as well. Funny how things change though. My earliest memory of childhood was looking for lizards through thorn bushes (catch them and fling 'em at girls we liked) and playing on baseball diamonds that were painted on cracked asphalt - broken glass from beer bottles here and there. Fun times. Yeah, getting stuck in the eye by a shard of knock off transformer plastic would be traumatic though.

I can't really see why a parent--at least a parent in the western world--would order a KO from overseas and have it shipped over only to give it to their child. I guess it probably does happen, but it would be a heck of a lot less hassle just to find something at the local Wal-Mart to give to the kid. These KO's are clearly directed at the adult collector.

well i just got scammed on ebay. bought what the seller claimed to be an original Henkei Starscream, cost me $55 (about £40) including shipping. Have bought from the seller once before without trouble.

What i got was a piece of s**t.

the missiles dont insert fully into the launchers, they certainly dont fire. The left wing is held on barely. the joints are so loose its just a glorified ragdoll in jet mode, doesnt hold form. and the left leg is jammed, more or less broke off the second i tried to extend it. Im so angry right now. And this is after i watched the Xovergen Grand Patriot review (ive stupidly got both enroute to me as we speak, regretting that big time). I know some KO's have relatively good rep's, but this one is a disgrace, and im p***ed that i got scammed.

Not having a good day

MightyMagnus78 wrote:The real issue I have with the KO's is often the quality is genetically inferior when compared to the originals. I have bought several Ko's, and I'm always left disappointed. Now, they're not exactly cheap either, I've found, in particular some of the G1 KO's to be quite expensive.

My theory is, why pay money for something that I know is inferior, which will inevitably break, and I don't get much enjoyment from seeing them sitting in the bottom of a bin either, so to me that really is a waste of money in my opinion.

I agree with your overall point and I'm not a huge fan or supporter of KOs, but what's sad is it sounds like the quality of most of these CHMS seekers is actually better than many of the Has/Tak seekers out there. I've heard many accounts of people's Henkei Thundercrackers and Skywarps being loose and the missiles not staying in the arm holes...and I can personally say my Acid Storm fig is a floppy, loose POS. To be fair, I did buy it second-hand, but it was from a collector who I assume wasn't abusing the thing. On the other hand, it sounds like the CHMS figs are actually pretty nice quality and many have said some of the joints are almost too tight.

Stumpybot wrote:well i just got scammed on ebay. bought what the seller claimed to be an original Henkei Starscream, cost me $55 (about £40) including shipping. Have bought from the seller once before without trouble.

What i got was a piece of s**t.

the missiles dont insert fully into the launchers, they certainly dont fire. The left wing is held on barely. the joints are so loose its just a glorified ragdoll in jet mode, doesnt hold form. and the left leg is jammed, more or less broke off the second i tried to extend it. Im so angry right now. And this is after i watched the Xovergen Grand Patriot review (ive stupidly got both enroute to me as we speak, regretting that big time). I know some KO's have relatively good rep's, but this one is a disgrace, and im p***ed that i got scammed.

Not having a good day

This is why I want to stay away from KO's. Even if there are some decent KO figures out there, I know I'll always end up getting the screwed up one. It's my luck. I'll just hold out as long as I can and hope Hasbro (or a 3rd party such as FP) does a Sunstorm or the other seekers.....

So are they all like this? Did anyone have a positive experience with a KO Henkei Starscream?

OptiMagnus wrote:I hope KOtoys gets this in. I'm not paying fifty friggin' dollars for a real classics or Henkei.

I get the feeling that wont be happening as KO Toys seem to have bitten the bullet as far as I can tell!
I have been checking their website for the last couple of months only to find it 'down for maintenance' with no option to look at, let alone order from, their tiny amount of 3rd party KOs?

They where once great, but now...

yet chimung and others have been allowed to stay open yet they openly sell kos themselves.....

Thanks for screwing fans over Hasbro...now i cant get the kos of figures i want coz you wont release them..instead you give me the option of nothing or a shitty abundance of prime/movie bumblebees.....thanks...

This is a VERY old thread, guys. Obviously some comments no longer apply.

Cyberpath wrote:So are they all like this? Did anyone have a positive experience with a KO Henkei Starscream?

I got a KO Henkei Starscream reletively recently and it was pretty decent. Here's my take on it:

a-better-ko-seeker-mold-t86063s200.php

If it's also by CHMS, they've improved on their older mold.