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I'm starting to get fairly into the idea of getting a couple of these. I would get the actual official Takara releases but those are way out of my price range; so if I've any hope of handling, say, MP-28 Hot Rod any time in the next decade; this is my only shot. Anyone know what the best KO companies and sellers are for these? And are there any good KO 3P sellers? Since 3P falls into the same "I really can't afford this" category as MPs.

All my ethical issues with them aside, KOs are a serious crapshoot. The good ones are as expensive as the real deal and the affordable ones are absolute garbage. I know some people swear by KOs, but honestly they're a false economy. You might get a good one but you're just as likely to get a flimsy piece of junk. I'm not talking about "The colours are a smidge brighter than on the official" either. I'm talking smeary paint, floppy joints and brittle plastic.

There are good KOs out there (WeiJiang and the like make actual improvements to their molds) but they're more expensive than the actual products. If you're after a cheaper version with equal quality you're out of luck.

My honest advice would be to either save up, or lurk places like Mandarake for a good deal. Mandarake sometimes has really good offers on figures where the box is mildly damaged, and on top of that if you ask them in the order section they will undervalue your package to circumvent the blatant thievery that is UK import fees.

TLDR: Avoid cheap KOs like the plague.

That's certainly odd to hear since my 3 Takasa Tony MP car bots are such high quality for $30 a pop, that I sometimes forget which ones are the KOs. Some are even better than official ones because they took the time to fix known issues during production. My KO MP-10 is far better than my SDCC '17 Hasbro one and has not suffered from wear and tear over the past 3yrs.

Even without the matrix in, the Hasbro still has a chest gap:

Kurona wrote:I'm starting to get fairly into the idea of getting a couple of these. I would get the actual official Takara releases but those are way out of my price range; so if I've any hope of handling, say, MP-28 Hot Rod any time in the next decade; this is my only shot. Anyone know what the best KO companies and sellers are for these? And are there any good KO 3P sellers? Since 3P falls into the same "I really can't afford this" category as MPs.

I always go thru TF-Direct because you know which version you are getting and they send out review copies. Rocket Punch Army has no problems pointing out the most minute flaws or improvements.

Here is the review for Hotrod:

https://youtu.be/JNOYLXOBBYo

A true fan doesn't support the KO industry.

And 40yr old men do not buy toys.

pcsguy88 wrote::lol:

And 40yr old men do not buy toys.

Good thing Kurona isn't 40, nor a man.

And 20-almost-21 uni students don't buy expensive Japanese action figures

Wait, girls can buy Transformers??? You mean my daughter and I don't have to pretend to be buying gifts for her cousins anymore?

But seriously, all of the KO's I have bought look the part and mix right in with my real MPs. Some of them you can tell are not the real thing while actually transforming them, but none of them have floppy joints in bot mode and a few of them even have added ratchets. I'd say the QC with paint and stuff are fairly close to the real deal considering how many people complain every time Takara kicks a new one out the door. They definitely serve a purpose to fill gaps in your collection when on a budget since not all of us can drop hundreds of $'s a year on bots.

Significant others approve of KOs.

Burn wrote:A true fan doesn't support the KO industry.

Thats a load of crap.

Im a fan of the characters, fiction, and continuity. Which factory the plastic is poured into a mold to make toys means nothing to me. Thats human affairs. Im here for the robots.

My strong support for KOs comes from repaints Takara never gave us. Particularly generic seekers such as rainmakers. Hasbro can always choose to make them if they want more of my money. Its not like they dont already get a good chunk of it.

Rated X wrote:

Burn wrote:A true fan doesn't support the KO industry.

Thats a load of crap.

Im a fan of the characters, fiction, and continuity. Which factory the plastic is poured into a mold to make toys means nothing to me. Thats human affairs. Im here for the robots.

My strong support for KOs comes from repaints Takara never gave us. Particularly generic seekers such as rainmakers. Hasbro can always choose to make them if they want more of my money. Its not like they dont already get a good chunk of it.

Try unclenching, maybe then the joke won't go over your head. Kurona gets it, that's what matters.

Burn wrote:Try unclenching, maybe then the joke won't go over your head. Kurona gets it, that's what matters.

Awwwww, thanks

Gotta look for that sarcasm font before responding.

I almost took you seriously too Burn until I remembered this isn't a certain big board...

pcsguy88 wrote:Gotta look for that sarcasm font before responding.

I almost took you seriously too Burn until I remembered this isn't a certain big board...

Oh finally! Someone who's cottoned on to the fact that the majority of the time I'm taking the piss!

Rated X wrote:

Burn wrote:A true fan doesn't support the KO industry.

Thats a load of crap.

Im a fan of the characters, fiction, and continuity. Which factory the plastic is poured into a mold to make toys means nothing to me. Thats human affairs. Im here for the robots.

My strong support for KOs comes from repaints Takara never gave us. Particularly generic seekers such as rainmakers. Hasbro can always choose to make them if they want more of my money. Its not like they dont already get a good chunk of it.

But some "true fans" say they're not official. So any profits made from not-true fans who buy KOs goes directly into the KO company's pockets instead of R&D for more figures.

And I do own a 3rd party MP, Cloud 9 Quakeblast, which I consider to be much better looking than either the official MP Shockwave or FT Quakewave.

"You know Hound, sometimes I feel like there are imposters among us. Unlicensed bots. KOs even..."