The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1014 · by **First Gen** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:02 pm

A while back Seibertron.com site owner Seibertron reported that certain eBay auctions were being removed by HASBRO, Inc.. Now reports are coming in that eBay is removing all listings for knockoff Transformers put up for auction or buy it now sale.

Could this be HASBRO finally taking action against the KO problem that has infested the TF market for so long? Is this eBay taking action on their own to prevent the sale of possibly fraudulent items? Right now its anyone's guess.

Seibertron.com was first to bring you this information and will continue to keep you updated as more information becomes available.

News Credits: 387 · by **Nekoman** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:05 pm

Rock on Hasbro! It’s about time.

News Credits: 2 · by **Autobotic9** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:06 pm

Awww, I wanted that Mirage!

News Credits: 1 · by **Silverbolt** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:06 pm

Shame I actually like collecting knockoffs that actually look like knockoffs. The clear tapes, and the 4 star seekers just as examples.

As long as it doesn't look like something Hasbro or Takara is releasing I'm fine with it.

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:09 pm

But how are they going to differentiate between a KO and an original?

At the moment the majority of those KO auctions list themselves as "reissues".

Now i'm in favour of this, however i'm curious as to how it will be handled because it may force some of these sellers to try to start passing them off as legit genuine figures.

And what of a seller who actually does have a genuine MISB G1 Gnaw for sale? Will he be mistaken?

by **Fussion** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:12 pm

About #@%&ing time! :DANCE:

I am tired of all the BS KO's on Ebay :-x

. My prayers have been answered! :PRAY:

News Credits: 88 · by **DavidT** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:20 pm

I don't know how I feel....

I've never bought any KO's off Ebay mainly cuz I didn't know the quality of the toy, but I have always been tempted to get KO Reissues of

Grimlock
Slag
Sludge
Swoop
Mirage
the Insecticons

I guess my choice was finally made for me.... oh well I strongly hope that they all find their way into the new Encore line, which is another reason I never bought any KO's. I missed out on the TFC Insecticons but I have no doubt they make it to Encore :grin:

News Credits: 5 · by **Sledge** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:24 pm

If this means Hasbro are going to sell the stuff that people have been buying, great. But they claim that half the molds are no longer viable, so how are people going to get that Mirage/Swoop/whatever?

Also, does this mean Hasbro will sort their distribution out properly? I wouldn't be considering buying a KO Alt Prowl if the figure had got a proper release in the UK.

News Credits: 1 · by **Menbailee** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:30 pm

My only problem here is that the immediate removal would apply to knockoffs advertised as such. In those cases, there's at least honesty, even if I'm not happy that knockoffs have become expensive attempts at lookalikes rather than cheap novelties. The unwanted side effect will be more knockoffs passed as genuine. The people who do this are the ones who need to be stopped!

News Credits: 3600 · by **Seibertron** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:33 pm

And on that note, I bought the last clear KO Mirage that I've been wanting for a while. I'll need that to do the clear Binaltech gallery at some point.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Transformers-G1-Mir ... m153.l1262

News Credits: 3600 · by **Seibertron** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:34 pm

Sledge wrote:If this means Hasbro are going to sell the stuff that people have been buying, great. But they claim that half the molds are no longer viable, so how are people going to get that Mirage/Swoop/whatever?

Also, does this mean Hasbro will sort their distribution out properly? I wouldn't be considering buying a KO Alt Prowl if the figure had got a proper release in the UK.

Why can't you just buy an official Binaltech or Alternator Prowl on eBay instead of a knock off?

News Credits: 49 · by **Scaleface** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:34 pm

This might actually still be a bad thing for us collectors, because the knockoffs will still be listed on ebay, but the sellers will have to pretend the items are original. At least when they said it was a knockoff they were being honest sellers and we could bid for them accordingly. Now they'll have to sell the knockoff Mirages and Swoops as original! How does that help us collectors?

In fact I see a lot of ebay knockoff sellers who still have Swoops, Sludge and Mirages for sale. They are listed as "reissues", not knockoffs.

Besides, I love the knockoffs where they make changes to the original items. Like the red and gold Mirage, or the recently released gold chrome Smallest Starscream. He's lovely and Hasbro never made one, see attached.

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:37 pm

Scaleface wrote:This might actually still be a bad thing for us collectors, because the knockoffs will still be listed on ebay, but the sellers will have to pretend the items are original. At least when they said it was a knockoff they were being honest sellers and we could bid for them accordingly. Now they'll have to see the knockoff Mirages and Swoops as original to stay on ebay. How does that help us collectors?

In fact I see a lot of ebay knockoff sellers who still have Swoops, Sludge and Mirages for sale. They are listed as "reissues", not knockoffs.

My concerns exactly.

While I want to see KO's out of the market, I just feel it's going to force them to become more underhanded and people WILL be duped into thinking they're getting a genuine release.

News Credits: 3 · by **Dread_Wing** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:39 pm

I wonder how this will affect retailers? The Warehouse (NZ equivalent of Walmart, but not as big) has always stocked knockoffs. Right across from the Hasbro transformers a lot of the time.

by **ponycorn** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:39 pm

Menbailee wrote:My only problem here is that the immediate removal would apply to knockoffs advertised as such. In those cases, there's at least honesty, even if I'm not happy that knockoffs have become expensive attempts at lookalikes rather than cheap novelties. The unwanted side effect will be more knockoffs passed as genuine. The people who do this are the ones who need to be stopped!

Quite right!

Only the honest sellers are being punished. There's no way for Ebay to know if something is real or not, and the buyer will know even less than before, on account of sellers using creative word play to avoid the ban.

For those of us lucky enough to have a fleamarket nearby, we can still get our knockoff kick. I feel bad for those that don't though.

News Credits: 8 · by **Liege Evilmus** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:42 pm

I like this news.

I don't care if KOs are sold, I just hate seeing them sold with the same name and price as something vintage or reissue.

News Credits: 1 · by **Blackstreak** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:43 pm

A great part of me is :-P

in this, but part of me is :-(

. I picked up ghost versions of WST Thundercracker, Skywarp...well all of them save Starscream and Thrust and I love 'em. Well, Thundercracker's nosecone doesn't stay up in robot mode but their great! There are some KOs I will miss and there some that I would love to see DIE DIE DIE!! The really bad KOs to be specific. And your right the KOs who try pass themselves off as reissues are bad news.

by **ponycorn** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:44 pm

Scaleface wrote:Besides, I love the knockoffs where they make changes to the original items. Like the red and gold Mirage, or the recently released gold chrome Smallest Starscream. He's lovely and Hasbro never made one, see attached.

Lovely!

I want one!

I wouldn't know where else to look but ebay. :-(

News Credits: 49 · by **Scaleface** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:45 pm

Okay, here's a guide, if the toy looks like this, it's probably a knockoff.

News Credits: 38 · by **Sunstar** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:46 pm

I rather like knock offs, like the mini seekers or those WST Seekers.

This bites. I will have to look elsewhere to find those cool things that hasbro never does.

News Credits: 8 · by **Megatron Wolf** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:17 pm

Screw you hasbro. Half the KOs out there are never going to reissued. There goes trying to get a mirage or sixshot now. I understand the figures that are still in production but removing the ones that either had their mold "lost" or just cant be reissued is retarded.

I have an idea for the sellers. List them as gobots.

News Credits: 3 · by **DISCHARGE** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:17 pm

Seibertron wrote:And on that note, I bought the last clear KO Mirage that I've been wanting for a while. I'll need that to do the clear Binaltech gallery at some point.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Transformers-G1-Mir ... m153.l1262

Wow! You overpaid. I paid $55 shipped. I really should have picked up the 5 piece set Spirit of Cybertron was selling, they wanted about $250 for the 5 piece set. Now I regret not getting the clear black/smoke and red diaclone versions of Mirage too(the quality isn't bad for mine at least.).

As far as I know ebay is about capitalism as much as the people selling on there. The listings for the most part list them as KO
so I don't see the problem of them being sold. Hasbro does have the right to protect their intellectual properties though, so I can see
to a degree why they would want to eliminate the ones in
G1 styled boxes. But, I don't get why they would care so much about
about some of the KO like the combiners like liokaiser on the
single card. I'm pretty confident that it may slow the KO producers down, but they may just move on to another sales/auction site.

News Credits: 38 · by **Sunstar** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:23 pm

in light of htis, I just went and quickly bought that KO mini Seeker Starscream I was wanting. It was Marked Knock Off and no shipping and for 15 bucks. SO, that's pretty good. really sucks since well, its because some of the figures are cute.

News Credits: 1014 · by **First Gen** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:23 pm

Megatron_Wolf wrote:Screw you hasbro. Half the KOs out there are never going to reissued. There goes trying to get a mirage or sixshot now. I understand the figures that are still in production but removing the ones that either had their mold "lost" or just cant be reissued is retarded.

I have an idea for the sellers. List them as gobots.

KO's have been selling for years. If you haven't got what you want by now thats your own fault.

News Credits: 38 · by **Sunstar** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:29 pm

well that's a bit harsh as some of the more recent reproductions or knock offs are not of things made way back when, ie the mini-seekers. Not WST but the ones between them and the big guys