Are there any ways you can recognize bootleg combiners as oppsoed to their G1 counterparts when purchasing off of ebay?

 

What questions would you ask of the seller to try and differentiate the origins?

You'll see things like:

 

-Red Decepticon symbols and purple Autobot symbols

-Mismatched combiner groups

-Wierd repaints

 

Just keep an eye open  :thumb

Ask what the copyright info says on the back/bottom of the figure. Should say something like "Takara/Hasbro 1984". I would look for you for sure, but all my figures are packed up for a move.

 

Also, I accidentally bought a KO Devastator and I have the real one as well. The colors on the KO are much brighter and cheaper looking. It is much more of a lime green color than the original.

 

Finally, you can kinda tell by looking the stickers on the figures. On the KOs the stickers are almost always askew, look brighter compared to the rest of the bot (really sparkling white) and look to be in better shape than stickers on a 20 yr-old bot would normally look.

 

Mainly just ask about the copyright info, ask to see a bunch of pictures (good sellers will be happy to take more pics for you) and see if the color looks right.

 

Hope that helps.

Stickers are the big give-away. They usually have ones that were made up, like they will make a logo that looks like the decepticon symbol but isn't.

 

And paint apps are usually different. Such as, one bootleg Mixmaster, his truck face is green instead of chrome.

If looking for a Defensor remember that the main bot Hotspot should be light blue. With Blades the helicopter being red and white.

 

However they might go with calling it Guard City.  In which case Blades should be Blue and White and Hotspot will be Red.

 

Of course if they are selling a combiner for under 50 bucks you cna almost garuentee it is a bootleg as well.  You get lucky with a person that doesn't know sometimes, but most of the time if they give the toy a name and then try to sell it at a really low price, then its a bootleg.

look for crappy sticker apps they will be all crooked and stuff  I have yet to see a bootleg that looks like somone took more than 15 seconds to put the stickers on...  heck most of the time the stickers are too big anyway

look for crappy sticker apps they will be all crooked and stuff  I have yet to see a bootleg that looks like somone took more than 15 seconds to put the stickers on...  heck most of the time the stickers are too big anyway

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What do my KO combiners look like?

Basically what's been stated already, labels, coloration, chrome (lack thereof), and in some cases, size.  If something doesn't look right, do a websearch to find a picture of the original and compare that way.  And if you find a seller trying to pass of a KO as an original, call 'im on it :thumb

look for crappy sticker apps they will be all crooked and stuff  I have yet to see a bootleg that looks like somone took more than 15 seconds to put the stickers on...  heck most of the time the stickers are too big anyway

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What do my KO combiners look like?

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the new smaller combiners are made of better plastic, the sticker apps are the best I've seen and the sizes are right on, that micromaster constructicon one is exact same size and quality of the real thing!  the only difference is the coloration is a little different

each of bootleg has bad quality(compare with original)