The Energon Pub

Posted: **Sun Feb 14, 2016 8:48 pm**

This Ebay listing right here.

$2,000 dollars for a KO?

Am I missing something? :lol:

Posted: **Sun Feb 14, 2016 8:58 pm**

#Sideways# wrote:This Ebay listing right here.

$2,000 dollars for a KO?

Am I missing something?

From the item desription:

Some Guy on Ebay wrote:The vintage oversized Korean Bruticus is among the hardest to find G1 Transformers collectibles. If you don't know the background story, I suggest you do a google search. There are several articles about this Holy Grail from hardcore Transformers collectors.

Posted: **Mon Feb 15, 2016 2:34 pm**

I know, and I Googled it, but I only found a side remark about something like that on TFW and on a site that... Well, it looked a little shady and I feel like I should check my computer for viruses. Guess it's so elusive that no one wants to talk about it.

Which is why I was asking you guys -- figured somebody here could quell my bewilderment.

Posted: **Mon Feb 15, 2016 11:16 pm**

Believe it or not, KO's have a collector's market of their own due to their wacky and often random nature. Some even collect KO's of the same figure, by different companies, in different colors, sizes and whatnot, just because the change of one attribute can make a big difference. You should check out CollectionDX, they have a whole section of them, especially KO's of vinyl Jumbos.

Different countries of origin often yielded a particular type of KO. Taiwan's were near carbon copies for example, China's were... well, they could be anything, whereas Korean KO's are often oversized (twice the regular size, "1UP" or "2UP", or bigger) which this particular specimen is. Other Korean KO TF's include a G2 version of this one, an oversized G2 Prime and I believe that Overlord with Star Saber's head also hailed from there. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in the total KO world. It's that wackiness that fuels the collector's urge, at times more than the legit toy itself. In case you're wondering, yes, I have a couple myself.

Posted: **Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:29 pm**

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Believe it or not, KO's have a collector's market of their own due to their wacky and often random nature. Some even collect KO's of the same figure, by different companies, in different colors, sizes and whatnot, just because the change of one attribute can make a big difference. You should check out CollectionDX, they have a whole section of them, especially KO's of vinyl Jumbos.

Different countries of origin often yielded a particular type of KO. Taiwan's were near carbon copies for example, China's were... well, they could be anything, whereas Korean KO's are often oversized (twice the regular size, "1UP" or "2UP", or bigger) which this particular specimen is. Other Korean KO TF's include a G2 version of this one, an oversized G2 Prime and I believe that Overlord with Star Saber's head also hailed from there. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in the total KO world. It's that wackiness that fuels the collector's urge, at times more than the legit toy itself. In case you're wondering, yes, I have a couple myself.

Wow, that's... That's really something. XD

I was burned by a KO back in my younger, naive days. I guess that's why it's so hard to believe. Full disclosure, when I was super young, I thought that "KO" meant "knockout", and that was when EBay had "L@@K" in every title so it kinda fit. XD

Posted: **Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:58 pm**

Heh, there's another one on eBay for just shy of $10 grand.

Posted: **Tue Feb 16, 2016 10:56 pm**

#Sideways# wrote:
JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Believe it or not, KO's have a collector's market of their own due to their wacky and often random nature. Some even collect KO's of the same figure, by different companies, in different colors, sizes and whatnot, just because the change of one attribute can make a big difference. You should check out CollectionDX, they have a whole section of them, especially KO's of vinyl Jumbos.

Different countries of origin often yielded a particular type of KO. Taiwan's were near carbon copies for example, China's were... well, they could be anything, whereas Korean KO's are often oversized (twice the regular size, "1UP" or "2UP", or bigger) which this particular specimen is. Other Korean KO TF's include a G2 version of this one, an oversized G2 Prime and I believe that Overlord with Star Saber's head also hailed from there. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in the total KO world. It's that wackiness that fuels the collector's urge, at times more than the legit toy itself. In case you're wondering, yes, I have a couple myself.

Wow, that's... That's really something. XD

I was burned by a KO back in my younger, naive days. I guess that's why it's so hard to believe. Full disclosure, when I was super young, I thought that "KO" meant "knockout", and that was when EBay had "L@@K" in every title so it kinda fit. XD

If you found that hard to believe, get a load of this:

Back in the 80's KO'ed and legit Transformers were sold side-by-side in legit toy stores like Toys 'R Us, just to meet overall demand. KO's included translated Diaclone packaging (I think even Reflector/Microx got released that way) and retooled Dinobots of the "Prehistory Animal" line, and those are the more well-known and notable ones. Weirder still, a particular "KO" (more like a 3rd Party remake) of G1 Grimlock made a cameo in official Club Fiction! This is the guy:

And the toy he's based on:

Dalung Master on CollectionDX

The world of KO's is a wonderfully interesting one, but I'm not condoning getting one in place of the original, as they're often inferior in overall quality.

Posted: **Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:00 am**

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:If you found that hard to believe, get a load of this:

Back in the 80's KO'ed and legit Transformers were sold side-by-side in legit toy stores like Toys 'R Us, just to meet overall demand. KO's included translated Diaclone packaging (I think even Reflector/Microx got released that way) and retooled Dinobots of the "Prehistory Animal" line, and those are the more well-known and notable ones. Weirder still, a particular "KO" (more like a 3rd Party remake) of G1 Grimlock made a cameo in official Club Fiction! This is the guy:

And the toy he's based on:

Dalung Master on CollectionDX

The world of KO's is a wonderfully interesting one, but I'm not condoning getting one in place of the original, as they're often inferior in overall quality.

So I looked up "Dalung" and apparently it's a village in Indonesia. The images also show what seems to be military people so it's probably not a great place to live. Wherever it is, Godzillock seems to be the master of it. XD Still though, you gotta admit -- Godzilla transformer is pretty cool. Even if the only other one we have turns into a city.

What I love are the obviously fake ones that try to pass themselves off as the real ones by swapping, like, one letter.

Like this classic, or this guy.

KOs know no bounds.

All right, so I'm starting to get the appeal. Don't know if someone could justify $2,000 on a KO, though, but hey, at least it's not ten-thousand doll--

Holy flak.

I love how EBay is telling me about my coupon for $10 off and it says, "Pay only $9,490!" like it makes a difference. At least it has free shipping!

Posted: **Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:11 pm**

"Dalung" is actually a transliteration from Chinese 大龙 (Da long), meaning "Big Dragon", which makes sense. This particular character for "dragon" 龙 (long) is used for Dinosaur-like creatures.

Posted: **Thu Feb 18, 2016 7:51 pm**

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Back in the 80's KO'ed and legit Transformers were sold side-by-side in legit toy stores like Toys 'R Us, just to meet overall demand.

The abundance of that sort of knock off is why they started using rubsigns, they were supposed to indicate you had an authentic Hasbro Transformer.

Sometimes those early KO's were pretty interesting, like a brown Ravage (complete with a microcassette case that the official Hasbro version did't come with) or orange Constructicons (years before G2).

There were also KO Gobots all over the stores, I particularly remember the Gobot jeep and sea plane being extremely common.