The Energon Pub

Does any know if Takara ever mades their toys with plastic inserts vs foam inserts for G1? I was under the impression that they only used foam for the toys tray inserts.

Reason for question: http://cgi.ebay.com/vintage-Transformers-G1-Dinoking-Giftset-MIB-Rare_W0QQitemZ250111901101QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4694QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The trays for all of these Dinoking characters is plastic. Shouldn't it be foam? Are these real or KO's?

plastic looks right to me, I mean Dino king came out during Victory correct?? if thats the case, Victory was I think just before beast wars or somewhere in there... anyways I'm not an expert, but I rememeber older japanese Takara toys kinda had a cutoff from a certain year where they all switched to the plastic inserts because it was cheaper and easier to produce..

Any how, wow what a cool auction, Dinoking!!!! he is sweet, especially if this is the real thing.. lets let some of the expert guys do an examination.. I will keep an eye on this thread, I want to know if thats the real thing as well.. If it is, some lucky bidder is gonna get Dinoking!!the original!!! Lucky Bastard...Maybe..

It's a few years before Beast Wars, but yeah, it's near the end of G1, so it's possible they had gone to plastic by then.

At the brice that guy's charging they damn well better be real...

Redimus says:

At the brice that guy's charging they damn well better be real...

That's my point. I think these are KO's and they are being priced at a rate for origs. The boxes may be real, I don't know if Takra had stuff made in Macau, the box says so and on the back it has the "Takara Kid" symbol. But how can we tell if the toys are real? I have two Dinoking KO's with shells (Rairyu and Goryu). Goryu looks exactly the same as the one for auction, but the box looks different. Rairyu's shell is different colour. Both have cheap plastic insert trays and every other Japanese TF that I have came with a styrofoam insert tray.

Thanx! Now I know...and knowing is half the battle.

Do you know when they started the use of plastic liner trays? I also have a Phoenix (Cloudraker) Pretender with a plastic liner tray, I always asumed it was a KO. That would have been during the Masterforce series.