The Energon Pub

I buy stuff from them all the time but i guss the three owners mike gen zao and paulgrant split up what happened with that is it ok to still buy stuff from them?

victoryconvoy wrote:I buy stuff from them all the time but i guss the three owners mike gen zao and paulgrant split up what happened with that is it ok to still buy stuff from them?

Interesting. I am sure it is still OK to buy from them, but it will be interesting to see if another KO company starts up and initiates a little price war

Communication is slow, and they're working on their shop/shipping system for now, but I've bought from them previously and haven't had too much of a problem with receiving things.

The quality of the non-chms stuff is iffy though.

victoryconvoy wrote:i guss the three owners mike gen zao and paulgrant

I was never an owner Mike IS GenZhao.

further reading here and here

is it ok to still buy stuff from them?

it never was

A post on KO Toys says Mike's gone since he's found a full time job. But I dunno. I just hang around there sometimes, I don't know anyone personally ot anything. Someone else also seems to have access to the Gen Zao account since one post was from another person.

I've only ordered two packages from there. It was good overall. It's definately not as big as BBTS, though, and things are slower.

Edit: Misremembered, he's not gone.

Paul Grant wrote:

victoryconvoy wrote:i guss the three owners mike gen zao and paulgrant

I was never an owner Mike IS GenZhao.

further reading here and here

is it ok to still buy stuff from them?

it never was

Ran into similar issues like those on the other boards linked to. Mike was gonna send me a new pieces to replace a KOLD Klear Prime broken in shipping. He made it sound like Chinese post opened the box and repacked it in a padded envelope. That may have happened, but I just don't appreciate the lying about always wanting his customers to be happy and that he would do everything to make it right. I knew he was lying to me but was trying to be optimistic. I eventually just gave up. Others seem to have had even worde xp with Mike.
Thanks for pointing out some of that dialogue.

Everyone I know who has ordered from them got their stuff on time and without problem.

As for all that other stuff rumored out there, there's two sides to that. Don't buy into the hype.

Counterpunch wrote:Everyone I know who has ordered from them got their stuff on time and without problem.

As for all that other stuff rumored out there, there's two sides to that. Don't buy into the hype.

Destroyed in transit:


I can dig up some emails. The guy was never rude to me to the extreme that some say he was, but definitely lied to me several times. He never made things right and was very difficult to get a hold of until I posted on Seibertron a while back(which is what started our emails). He never made things right and is not worth defending. I've never had the issues with any online sales like I've had w/ KOToys.

Destroyed in transit:

All my clear kold figures broke 1st transformation. (they cost nothing to make).

A post on KO Toys says Mike's gone since he's found a full time job

"gone"? they run the store out of their apartment. where's he going? did they section off a corner of the apartment, a no-toy zone, put some tape on the floor and he's not allowed to cross that line.

Don't buy into the hype.

you're defending a guy you don't even really know. you guys still refuse to believe all the evidence, I guess the only way is for you guys to go to guangzhou and find out for yourselves.

this is really freaking me out i just put a order for a ko rain maker set prowl and other stuff should i be worried about getting my stuff from him? mr grant would you know where i could get this stuff if not from him sounds like you are in to the ko bussnes pretty deep please pm me so we can discuss other things

Some people have had good experiences. Some people have had bad.

For myself, I ordered a klear Seeker and it came broken. The packaging was fine, the worker just snapped off the wing and sent it to me anyway. So I sent a letter via their contact. No responce. Wrote in the forum and still no responce. E-mailed Kate (or rather the e-mail attached to the paypal account; I didn't open a dispute, just e-mailed the address) ... that did the trick. She fixed the situation reletively quickly and I got a replacement wing. Since then they've been working on their communication.

My second order was another batch of KO Seekers. Ironically the one I mostly wanted was Sunstorm and he was slightly banged up too. But I could fix him myself thanks to some glue (the part wasn't sealed properly, not truly broken) and some sandling. I can't say I blame KOToys for this ... these are knockoffs.

I can't say I appreaciate the peopel at KO Toy's comments elsewhere ... there's no defending that. But I don't have enough of a problem with it that I'm put off from buying from there. Just don't expect replies to be very fast. I gave it a good week or so before e-mailing the paypal address.

I would love to know where i could buy ko's from other than ko toys if this is the case i really think that they have some awsome stuff but if this is not exclusive to them then i would rather get it from some one else and no one say ioffer that place is crooked as hell!!!!!!!

ebay? lol.

As I understand it, some of the stuff they sell are exclucives to their store ... but I dunno which sets those are. There must be somewhere elsebuy other KOs though.

shoot I gotta figure out how to ko my own stuff!!
i hope what people say about him are lies cause now im worried a little

Some people have had bad experiences. Some people have had good experiences. That's true of most online stores.

I think it's too far to say people with bad experience have lied. But people with good experiences haven't lied either. When you get yer goods you can judge for yourself and see what's what. At this point there's no use being paranoid about it.

IMO... It all comes down to this.

Clearly Mike (GenZhao) and a few people who worked with him had a falling out. Personally I don't give two $#!1$ about who did what, nor do I care. While I support the right that those who were (or feels) wronged by the situation should be able to state their grievances with the buying public so we can judge if we want to order from them (or another company, I remember people complaining when Ages 3 and Up had their problems without understanding the situation fully.)

However I find it quite distasteful for those same people to constantly post negative and sometimes misleading things on as many sites as they can. Post your issue, show proof if you have it, but leave it at that, and let people make their own call.

If things were truly awful, then people will stop supporting them, but the amount of negative transactions really aren't out of proportion for what the product is.

I have bought from KOToys, I plan on doing so again (even if just for Toxitron), and my experiences have been neutral/positive. Are these the best products? Of course not, but anyone expecting retail quality in a KO is expecting too much in the first place. Are they over priced for what they are.... yes.... yes they are, but if you are too lazy to repaint a figure yourself, or really want something see-through or glow-in-the-dark, then the cost isn't really your concern if you are getting something you "need" for your collection.

If the "Haters" for lack of a better term, truly wish to hit KOToys where it hurts, than do them one better. Start your own store/site, get the stuff with better quality (seeing some believe better is possible) and sell it cheaper (if it mark-up is that outrageous then you can sell for less and maintain good margins). If they can put-up and do that then people will naturally not buy from them anymore. That would be a lot more effective than posting crap or private stuff that isn't relevant to the situation.

Editor is my hero Well said myman..very well said

Paul Grant wrote:

victoryconvoy wrote:i guss the three owners mike gen zao and paulgrant

I was never an owner Mike IS GenZhao.

further reading here and here

is it ok to still buy stuff from them?

it never was

I went to both links and I have to just shake my head. IMO your talking about a totally different person. I've bought tons of stuff from Mike and he's always been helpful and quick to respond .

While I cannot speak from personal face to face experience like you, I have to say that the site runs alot better then it did in the past. orders arrive quite fast and the quality is vastly improved.

editor, you have calmed me down a little. For what it's worth to any one out there i have never had any thing i got from them break,but i do know from experiance that there communication really sucks. I also don't think that the seekers that they are selling are expensive ether,where else are you going to get sunstorm air warriors
and rainmakers? I'll tell you,no where!! Unfortunatlly I thought the same thing before i brought thundercracker,but thats here nor there.

Thanks guys, but I'm just calling it as I see it.

I've purchased from them one time, ordered Classic Sunstorm and the Purple Clone. The Purple Clone showed up with no chest fans/landing gear. I emailed them and sent pics, they replied promptly and said they would send a replacement, but it would take around 30 days. I agreed, but the 30 days is up and still haven't got my replacement. If I don't have it tomorrow, I guess email them about it again.

El Duque wrote:I've purchased from them one time, ordered Classic Sunstorm and the Purple Clone. The Purple Clone showed up with no chest fans/landing gear. I emailed them and sent pics, they replied promptly and said they would send a replacement, but it would take around 30 days. I agreed, but the 30 days is up and still haven't got my replacement. If I don't have it tomorrow, I guess email them about it again.

Thirty days? You've gotta be joking that you actually agreed to wait that long. That's flat out ridiculous man.

El Duque wrote:I've purchased from them one time, ordered Classic Sunstorm and the Purple Clone. The Purple Clone showed up with no chest fans/landing gear. I emailed them and sent pics, they replied promptly and said they would send a replacement, but it would take around 30 days. I agreed, but the 30 days is up and still haven't got my replacement. If I don't have it tomorrow, I guess email them about it again.

Geez, no kidding?

Well, their new shipping system said things may take up to 30 days to ship if you choose the cheapest route ... I guess that may have been what happened. Maybe you should ask for a tracking number.

They only gave me two options. Either place another order and they would just add the replacement and send it with normal shipping or send the replacement by itself and wait 30 days. So it really wasn't so much me agreeing to it as much as I didn't want to place an additional order just to get the replacement faster.

For people looking for some of the KO offered but don't want to buy from KOToys I found a site through ebay called Aces Toy Store. They have the new chromed out seekers and a few other KO seekers. I believe they are located out of California. I placed an order and will let you know how it goes for them. My order was like #4 so I imagine it is pretty new.

DISCHARGE wrote:For people looking for some of the KO offered but don't want to buy from KOToys I found a site through ebay called Aces Toy Store. They have the new chromed out seekers and a few other KO seekers. I believe they are located out of California. I placed an order and will let you know how it goes for them. My order was like #4 so I imagine it is pretty new.

Yea, checked out the "acestoystore.com" and they don't take original pictures of their stock. If you check the rainmakers photos (if they haven't edited them by the time you're reading this that is) you'll notice that the spade is covering the kotoys logo. My assumption would be that if they were an original company, they'd want to take pictures of their stuff instead of being connected in any way to kotoys. As it stands, it wouldn't be surprising to discover that acestoystore is just another front for Mike. Logic prevails.