Here is a piece out of the Transformers Club I just received today. Read on..

 

 

 

 

"Time for me to get on my soapbox.  We are seeing a fair number of unannounced and ureleased items being STOLEN from the manufacturing plants in China and being sold online.  Please DO NOT purchase these incomplete, unfinished, potentially dangerous items!  By purchasing these stolen items, you are hurting every brand they represent.  Why?  Because the funds you are spending on them never go back to the people that make them.  This means that the more these items are siphoned off by theives, the less the manufacturer sells and the less support the product receives.  So, if you don't want a product line cancelled, don't be a part of this illegal trade.  In addition, almost all of these items are incomplete as they do not come with documentation, file cards, and/or accessories.  These products are untested and could also be hazardous.  They could also degrade quickly as the material is not finished goods quality.  It is silly to purchase items that will disintegrate on your shelf.  Hasbro has very strict standards and we don't want to see anyone injured by these untested, illegally obtained products.  If everyone will stop buying these items, they will quit stealing them, as there will not be a market for them.  So just say NO to items being sold from Hong Kong!  Don't purchase unreleased items from theives!  OK, I'll get off the soap box now."

 

 

This is very interesting in light of my conversation with Aaron Archer. I don't believe this is in response to that conversation, as it is only Friday and Botcon ended Sunday and there is no way they could have gone to print with this issue of Collector's Club and got it mailed out in that little of time.

 

So my feeling is that this is in response to the Botcon exclusives that surfaced on ebay just a couple weeks before the Con. I also have no doubt that the Con exclusives were stolen. I also would like to know if he pointed out Hong Kong exclusively for a reason. One of the sellers on ebay is in Singapore. As with other industries, I wonder if perhaps Hasbro/Takara contracts with factories there as well.

 

Anyway, interesting article from Brian Savage of Master Collector and I thought I'd share it.

boo hoo. simple economics. there will always be a supply if there is a demand & in the world of collectors, these items are considered "rare" & they are willing to pay for them as long as they exist.

 

they can say the same thing about knock offs...

boo hoo. simple economics. there will always be a supply if there is a demand & in the world of collectors, these items are considered "rare" & they are willing to pay for them as long as they exist.

 

they can say the same thing about knock offs...

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As a manufacturer, I'd be way more concerned with Knockoffs than protos.  Knock offs undercut my pricing, quality, and intellectual work.  Protos reward it.

Stealing is bad but...

 

WTF? Reactionary for sure.

 

People buy bootleg toys because they can't get the originals anymore and don't want to pay high secondary prices. They also buy them to kitbash. For the most part they're placeholders until the re-issue hits. Bootlegs are also piss-poor quality. Again. They're just placeholders.

 

People buy testshots because they're neat collectors items and for the 1st look factor. Yes they're unfinished that's part of the 'charm'.

 

I highly doubt either could get a product line cancelled. Dangerous? Hazardous to your health? Yeah that's reaching.

I'm surprised Hasbro/Takara dosent have spmeone within the company win these auctions to find out who is stealing their protos.

Because some of the auctions are legitimate, as Archer indicated.

Because some of the auctions are legitimate, as Archer indicated.

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That's what I was thinking. I'm pretty sure that somewhere down the line, the prototypes get "declassified," for the lack of a better word, and falls into some private collection eventually.

 

And why did he point out "don't buy from sellers from Hong Kong?" I find this troubling, because this is making a blanket statement saying "all sellers from Hong Kong are thieves" - this is just as ridiculous as saying "Japanese writers don't know how to write" (a jab at the TF cartoons of late.)

 

Is there a list of sellers that we can look up, or types of sellers where there is a FAQ that informs collectors of dishonest people who is trying to make a buck via selling ill gotten gains?

Knock-offs are worst than Protos. How many people buy Protos anyway, like less than 10? On the other hand, a lot of non-collectors (who are buying for kids) and kids would probably buy knock-offs since they are a lot cheaper than their original counterparts, and that's a bigger danger.

 

Also, they should understand that people buy protos and test shots most likely because they want these versions, not just because they're too damn impatient. If Hasbro and Takara wants to discourage the proto/test-shot market, they should look exactly like the released version, including no "not for sale" etched on the toys, and other visual cues to differentiate them from the retail version. That way, it would be difficult to sell them off once the actual product has been released, because sellers will have a difficult time convincing customers that what they've got on sale is a test shot and not just a loose toy.

Dangerous? Hazardous to your health? Yeah that's reaching.

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I just had a conversation about this the other day.  They can be dangerous.  The paint used doesn't follow US rules and regulations.  It was a lengthy discussion.

 

Funny that this topic came up.

i dont see the prodlem with buying protos. how many of us can afford the price tag plus thier so few in number like 30 of each alt/bt even less for main line stuff and even then we all buy the toys any way if its a good toy