I think I pieced together the whole thing and arrived at my final conclusion in regards the suppose knock off version of MP12. Which by now, seems to the the gospel truth in majority of the forums.
Let me just share my 2 cents worth.
- items are from the same company that produce the retail version of mp12 . They can be considered as original somewhat , however - they are most likely - stolen goods or a rejected production run.
Stolen goods angle - From Factory -> assembly --> smuggled out. what should have been is that after assembly --> inventory --> warehousing --> releasing --->distribution --> retail -->end user.
Rejected production run angle - there are indications/reports over at the actoys forum that the ko mp12 have a strong odor and bad paint. The run might have been rejected for lead contaminated paint which china toy factories are famous for. Now why would the manufacturer suddenly change paint? most likely for financial reasons. Whatever the cause, the entire contaminated run was shelved and warehoused. The contracted manufacturer decided to sell them off via "back door means" to recover his loss.
regardless of any of the two angle. I buy my things on wholesale basis. let me round up a few takara boxes, very important to take notice of the numbers under bar codes at the right side of the box.:
and to let you guys know where they came from, - here's a pic of an postal declaration sheet from one my sources -:
check out the number codings on the MP12 carton box 1st release:
now check the actoys forum's guy purchase carton for the supposed ko mp12:
a ko maker would not put into consideration getting the "order" ID number coding and the batch number coding correctly. it is only logical that the alleged ko sideswipe could've only came from the contracted manufacturer.
second. take notice - there is no manual numbering in the carton numbering slot of the ko mp sideswipe. A slot that is normally filled up at warehousing for auditing inventory.
If it wasn't properly numbered for inventory, then most likely - these are either stolen
or "under the table" extra production midnight run - without the knowledge of the customer- which in this case, Takara-Tomy. Manufacturing companies often term these as factory over runs.
KO MP12 could also be from a rejected production run. - the cause of the reject could be lead paint. This would explain the color shade differences and the alleged reported odor(smell) of the ko mp sideswipe.
My conclusion - the ko mp sideswipe are from the same source that made the originals - they are either smuggled out goods or a production run reject batch due to one reason (high lead content paint?)or another. In both cases though, they should not be classified as Knock-off (which to me means -> an imitation product of an existing product) but rather illegal products (which technically - is also the classification of a knock off product.
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