The Energon Pub

I was offered US$170 for all 5 dinobots ko reissue with G1 packaging. Are these so called high quality ko dinobots worth US$170? How different are they from the 1980s originals? How are their quality and kindly provide advice on whether is it worthwhile buying. THanks

Forget the quality.

Do you want to look at your collection and say to yourself, "I have the Dinobots ... they're just fake".

You think you can live knowing your collection has frauds in it?

I don't have hands on experience with these KOs so I can't offer insight into level of quality.

I assume you don't mind that they are KO figures as you show interest in purchasing them. If these KOs are essentially identical to the real deal, which is the best case scenario, do you think the set is worth $170?

Don't get 'em as a set. Besides Grimlock who is kind of decent, the rest aren't that good.

on fenrir, thanks for your advice, I presume you seen these KO dinobots before, so they are very inferior in terms of quality? How about shockwave and wheeljack , I heard favorable comments on these KO figures.

Dang, you sure made a lot of KO threads even though the molds for Dinobots are lost/destroyed, there's still genuine G1 Dinobots floating around eBay for reasonable price.

Shockwave almost like the real thing. Noted rusting on his "dick"/trigger area

Wheeljack plastics almost like the real thing but the wheel rivets are the give-away........

I recently bought the Grimlock K/O and was kinda disappointed. The knoch that locks the chest in place doesn't work and the hand holes are too small for the weapons.

I was thinking of getting a Shockwave K/O and glad to hear that it's good. I got a Mirage K/O and was very pleased with it.

Without deviating from the topic, I was planning on getting the Shockwave K.O(to replace my original's gun arm which was already broken upon purchase. Seems like in my country, all the Shockwave's sold(Japanese box version btw had a broken gun arm tip ), it feels kind of expensive just to get the spare part.

fenrir72 wrote:Without deviating from the topic, I was planning on getting the Shockwave K.O(to replace my original's gun arm which was already broken upon purchase. Seems like in my country, all the Shockwave's sold(Japanese box version btw had a broken gun arm tip ), it feels kind of expensive just to get the spare part.

Why not just get a genuine G1 Shockwave for parts?

shockwave is one of my favorites, so i've had an eye out for him. there is a vaguely kosher looking old astro-thingy loose with some relatively minor looking damage to the plastic around his leg on ebay atm, plus he's black. but i've spent way too much cash on revoltech this month to splurge.

there are also pics of a WST shocky on robotkingdom which i'm rather interested in to replace Movie Prime's missing gun... yeah yeah i know, but he looks supercool and i like to use WSTs to decorate my larger TFs :]

on the subject of KO dinobots, how accurate are they?

i've been searching high and low for the bit of clear plastic from G1 Grimlock's chest as mine is missing his, but nobody ever seems to be breaking him for parts. i'm not sure i'd be entirely happy cannibalizing an intact one for parts so the KOs might be a reasonable way to get that bit, providing they're accurate.

A real Shockwave will also cost me an arm and a leg............anyway no one sells it anymore.

fenrir72 wrote:A real Shockwave will also cost me an arm and a leg............anyway no one sells it anymore.

There's still some in pretty good conditions popping up on eBay every now and then. It's those MISB or AFA graded ones that costs.

I saw a G1 Shockwave, great condition, in a video review. What a thing of beauty.

Convotron wrote:I saw a G1 Shockwave, great condition, in a video review. What a thing of beauty.

Mine is also in somewhat of a good condition, except the electronics broke and the batter cover tab was excessive wear on them.

Shockwave Ko is relatively a decent KO figure which is hihgly recommended if you are not willing to pay excessively expensive prices for vintage pieces which by now either is dmaged in term of its electronics or looking quite aged. Given that it is hihgly unlikely that Takara wil reissue this figure in the near future I would feel it is a worthwhile purchase. Worth noting is that high quality shockwave KO reissue come with tow versions, one which is totally purple (figure and Barrel) and the other variant which is purple for the figure byt barrel is grey. The grey barrel version matches the original releases closer.

I don't understand why anyone would want fake products in their collection. I tracked down the four I didn't get as a kid, all weapons, some chrome wear for less than that.

Yeah, I've got to agree with the notion that having "fakes" in a collection is not really an option, especially since, if you're patient enough, you can get the originals for less than that and still in decent condition. I understand that some see KOs as a viable alternative to hunting down the real thing, but that just isn't an option for me, as I've seen way too many shoddy KOs to roll the dice on purchasing any more.

If the knock offs are going to cost you as much as the origionals, buy the real thing.

I have some knock offs in my collection, but they were dirt cheap and they are being used as place-holders until I can get the real ones at a reasonable price. Example: I just bought a KO Defensor set at Big Lots for 8 dollars. If I can find the real one for a reasonable price I will get that. Until then Defensor is fighting it out with Devestator on the shelf.

SJ21 wrote:If the knock offs are going to cost you as much as the origionals, buy the real thing.

I have some knock offs in my collection, but they were dirt cheap and they are being used as place-holders until I can get the real ones at a reasonable price. Example: I just bought a KO Defensor set at Big Lots for 8 dollars. If I can find the real one for a reasonable price I will get that. Until then Defensor is fighting it out with Devestator on the shelf.

That is my attitude as well. I have a few knockoffs in my collection as placeholders. The limbs of my Defensor are knockoffs, as when I got an original Hotspot I subbed out the KO. I have the smaller knockoff Sixshot (I have modified a bit) as I have better things to spend my Transformer budget on than the giant G1 version.
I have a knockoff Swoop more or less out of frustration. I won a sweet G1 Swoop on Trademe, the NZ version of eBay, only to have the seller cancel the transaction cos one of his friends wanted to buy it instead. After having thought 'Woohoo! I finally have them all!' and having the rug pulled out from under me, I found the cheapest Knockoff I could find and got it, there, done. Sod the damn things. Move on.

KO Swoop is not too bad, the launchers did not fit properly into the wings, and the missiles always wanted to fire, but those are problems you get with actual Transformers too, and fixable. The stickers were kinda crap. If I wanted to pass it off as an original I would get a set of Reprolabels instead. I guess the key is, not pay too much for them, after all, they are KOs they should be priced as such.

I now have Mirage on his way, so I can retire my KO version of him finally. (never thought that would happen)

Edit: I got KO Swoop for 15usd and KO Mirage for 10 + combined shipping. I would not pay more than that for them.

They cost too much. Period. I just don't see any point behind them at their price.

I also resent that they're trying to fool us. They did fool BBTS with Metroplex and it caused them trouble. It'd be nice if the KO makers made their mark more obvious ... but they don't because they want unwitting collectors to buy their stuff in the mistaken impression that it's real.

Getting a KO Swoop was tempting ... but it's price discouraged me completely. I got a broken real Swoop and fixed him. Now he means even more to me since I fixed him myself.

Burn wrote:Forget the quality.

Do you want to look at your collection and say to yourself, "I have the Dinobots ... they're just fake".

You think you can live knowing your collection has frauds in it?

I look at my Dinobots and know that they are 2 G1s, 2 G2s (one with a false hip, I suppose he is getting old) and a Chinese KO. I have to live with it, unless Hastak re-releases them in which case the G2s and KO are getting retired.

I have the same problem with my other collection, Swords. Originals can get very hard to find and VERY expensive (part of the reason I cannot afford a more authentic G1 Transformers collection). So to fill holes in the collection I have bought and (more often than not) made a few replicas. Yes they are KOs, they lack the history and certainly have never killed anyone, but considering the originals are museum pieces worth thousands and thousands of dollars I am content with what I have. I take the same attitude to Transformers.