The Energon Pub

I've been thinking about bolstering my Beast Wars collection by grabbing some Beast Wars II and Neo characters while they can still be found at reasonable prices online. There are some Takara releases that can be had for cheap, but others are a little pricey, particularly the leaders.

So what are the thoughts on Sonokong's official releases? I have the Starscream and BB set (got it on clearance from BBTS years ago) and it's really not great, like a step above a knockoff. The stickers aren't on good, the plastic is cheap with rough seams, and the screws are a bit rusted.

I've heard they're not quite as good, but did I just have a bad experience or is this pretty much the norm?

Emerje

I've never encountered any problems with them.

Sure my Big Convoy has a loose shoulder, but so did the Takara release, and from memory, so did Nemesis Prime. I'm thinking you might have had a bad experience.

I have some Korean Beast Wars figures, and the quality is pretty good on them. The plastic may be a little bit cheaper feeling, but no way KO quality (that's a bit harsh).

A note on the Starscream & BB set: along with the other main BWII Predacons (Galvatron, the Auto Rollers and Megastorm) the set was re-released for the Korean version of Car Robots in 2003. If your set came from that (in a red box), it's possible mold degradation has set in.

Emerje wrote:I've been thinking about bolstering my Beast Wars collection by grabbing some Beast Wars II and Neo characters while they can still be found at reasonable prices online. There are some Takara releases that can be had for cheap, but others are a little pricey, particularly the leaders.

So what are the thoughts on Sonokong's official releases? I have the Starscream and BB set (got it on clearance from BBTS years ago) and it's really not great, like a step above a knockoff. The stickers aren't on good, the plastic is cheap with rough seams, and the screws are a bit rusted.

I've heard they're not quite as good, but did I just have a bad experience or is this pretty much the norm?

Emerje

I got a Loose Big Convoy from ebay to replace my JP broken shoulder. The sample I got came from ebay. It was excellent. Not a single blemish at all and a great replacement part.

from here: http://myworld.ebay.com/kitaechan

Highly recommended

I'll have to see if I can take some pictures later to show where the problems are. I'm positive it was the BW realease, and I don't remember seeing Sonokong RID stuff on BBTS aside from Brave Maximus.

And thanks for the link, fenrir72, I see a few things on there I might get.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:I'll have to see if I can take some pictures later to show where the problems are. I'm positive it was the BW realease, and I don't remember seeing Sonokong RID stuff on BBTS aside from Brave Maximus.

And thanks for the link, fenrir72, I see a few things on there I might get.

Emerje

You are very much welcome. Btw, when I got the loose Big Convoy, I was lucky the vendor had a sale (plus I made an offer so it was much cheaper" back then).

None of the Sonokong items I have bought in the past, Transformers or Brave, have been far from the mark.
Highly recommended from me and an excellent way to collect without gouging pockets.
You can get some great molds and characters on the cheap without excessive prices.

IIRC the only difference between their Brave Max and the Takara is that one preapplied sticker (with a big Autobot symbol) is upside down.

Outside of one bad recent experience (Galaxy Force First Gunner having rusty screws right out of the box), I've never had an issue with them.

However, I would note that they typically do not come with the Japanese collector cards that the Takara releases do. Some come with nothing, other lines with variations that don't fit in with the Japanese set. Using Galaxy Force as an example again, the Sonokong cards have holographic images of the toy itself on the front rather than the CG art.

ScottyP wrote:Outside of one bad recent experience (Galaxy Force First Gunner having rusty screws right out of the box), I've never had an issue with them.

However, I would note that they typically do not come with the Japanese collector cards that the Takara releases do. Some come with nothing, other lines with variations that don't fit in with the Japanese set. Using Galaxy Force as an example again, the Sonokong cards have holographic images of the toy itself on the front rather than the CG art.

Galaxy Force isn't Sonokong: it's Mocom.

OK, so looking over my Starscream and BB again I noticed that BB is actually fine. Tickers are good, plastic is fine, and the screws are clean. On the other hand Starscream is a mess.

The metal is rusty, not just the screws but also the rivets.




There are gaps in the seams of the arms like they used the wrong sized screws. Strangely enough the joints remain tight.



And the stickers, well, I guess Hasbro isn't exactly doing stellar job themselves with Titans Return.



Probably pretty easy to see why I would find the Sonokong quality questionable. We'll see how a second shot goes.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:OK, so looking over my Starscream and BB again I noticed that BB is actually fine. Tickers are good, plastic is fine, and the screws are clean. On the other hand Starscream is a mess.

The metal is rusty, not just the screws but also the rivets.

IMG_4086.jpg

IMG_4084.jpg

There are gaps in the seams of the arms like they used the wrong sized screws. Strangely enough the joints remain tight.

IMG_4088.jpg

And the stickers, well, I guess Hasbro isn't exactly doing stellar job themselves with Titans Return.

IMG_4090.jpg

Probably pretty easy to see why I would find the Sonokong quality questionable. We'll see how a second shot goes.

Emerje

My Takara BB also had crappy decal placements, same with Starscrem2. Though checking the Starscrem2 mold, yup, yours got a lot of mold degradation.

Btw, the fig you got, was the screws rusty out of box? Mine has some oxidation but not "red rust"

Yeah, right out of the box and just on Starscream. BB's screws are fine so it's not like the box got wet or anything, it has to have been this way from the factory.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Yeah, right out of the box and just on Starscream. BB's screws are fine so it's not like the box got wet or anything, it has to have been this way from the factory.

Emerje

You got "lucky" with a bad batch. Sorry. But over all if it's the so called 1st pressing, you are okay.

Even their Black Convoy is superb in quality (I don't own that one (Sonokong) but handled one personally....my version is the Takara btw)

The Korean Starscream would be the 4th and 5th pressing:

1) G2 Dreadwing & Smokescreen / G2 Stealth Assault / G2 Ace Evader
2) G2 ATB Megatron & Starscream (saw limited release in Ohio)
3) BWII Starscream & BB
4) Beast War Starscream & BB (Korea)
5) Car Bot Stealth Saber (Korea)
6) RiD 2001 Dreadwind & Smokejumper
7) Robot Masters Smokesniper & Gigant Bomb

Yikes...

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:The Korean Starscream would be the 4th and 5th pressing:

1) G2 Dreadwing & Smokescreen / G2 Stealth Assault / G2 Ace Evader
2) G2 ATB Megatron & Starscream (saw limited release in Ohio)
3) BWII Starscream & BB
4) Beast War Starscream & BB (Korea)
5) Car Bot Stealth Saber (Korea)
6) RiD 2001 Dreadwind & Smokejumper
7) Robot Masters Smokesniper & Gigant Bomb

Yikes...

To it's credit, the B2 wing bomber is a good mold/design. Very solid unlike my fave (really, he's my fave!) TFLegends Jetfire.

Though strangely enough the later uses didn't have the same issues. I wonder if Takara was passing off older molds to Sonokong and keeping the good ones for themselves? Might explain why their figures have a reputation for being inferior and why later uses don't suffer from degradation (newer molds).

Emerje

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Galaxy Force isn't Sonokong: it's Mocom.

Ah, yep, sure is. I knew that, but not on command (obviously)

Emerje wrote:Though strangely enough the later uses didn't have the same issues. I wonder if Takara was passing off older molds to Sonokong and keeping the good ones for themselves? Might explain why their figures have a reputation for being inferior and why later uses don't suffer from degradation (newer molds).

Emerje

Or maybe they were copied, but the copy was less than stellar in some cases. I'd just stick to bad batch for now.

Wow! Bummer about that rust. I just checked my SS and BB and everything looks ok.

I've had really good luck with all the Sonokong stuff I've purchased. Even the turn of the century Microman stuff. In fact I just recently bought the Micro Trailer (re-color of Action Master Prime) and it is really good quality. I'm not sure I can really tell a difference in quality between their product and Takara product.

Emerje wrote:I've heard they're not quite as good, but did I just have a bad experience or is this pretty much the norm?

Emerje

I have a bunch. Well 6 actually:

Big Convoy
Saberback
Chroroda
Longrack
Guiledart
Death Garry Gun (Sky Garry redeco for Brave series)

And the beast wars toys are all excellent. Some of the screws are rusted on my Saberback. Death Garry Gun feels cheap but apparently its exactly like how the Takara one was.

I think they are comparable to the takara versions, My Big Convoy is of excellent quality. I have read that it is even better (more solid feeling).

I would say to buy with confidence, the only differences are the box. And the Korean boxes are sooo awesome.