That Transfandom link was helpful. Still wouldn't mind one for the collection but would never pay $200US for one

Alright, you've convinced me. I'm gonna write up a big article on this subject and hopefully that helps a little.

Oh please don't bring race into this already volatile Blotty mess. It doesn't matter what person's skin tone is, if they're a dick, they're a dick. Plain and simple.

Oh please don't bring race into this already volatile Blotty mess. It doesn't matter what person's skin tone is, if they're a dick, they're a dick. Plain and simple.

 

EXACTLY!!  Can you guys not read?  Race doesn't mean squat. 

 

I'm so misunderstood :wtf

Show some respect dog!! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

not cool to stereotype.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree, plus, I thought it was dawg not dog.

little info here on chinese tfs

 

http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vchina.html

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The article sounds like a China-bashing piece, but it does have some good points.

BACK ON TOPIC: (MY FINGERS ARE TIRED!)

I tried to make references the best I could. Some of the old topics on TFW and Seibertron no longer exist, sadly. I will also try to re-contact Hasbro about this issue because it has gotten out-of-hand recently with the friggin tan, black and other various things showing up on eBay that Hasbro says they made.

 

This article is to put all information in 1 place, for easy reference. It seems this has been done before, and alas, it needs to be done again.

 

History

This is concerning the recent rash of supposed Knock-off/bootleg Transformers showing up in original packaging.

 

The first instance of these hitting the internet popular was when the strange Cyclonus item appeared on Ebay. Originally, BBTS had ordered an unknown amount of these items and put them for sale on their website as originals. They were later removed and Joel had this to say about it:

 

they were extremely convincing knockoffs so we removed them from the site.  I opened one up to compare it to an authentic G1 version and there were a few giveaways, but it was by far the best knockoff I've ever seen.  We will be returning them to our supplier overseas for a refund

 

When inquiring about this particular item to Hasbro, I sent the following message:

 

In reference to this information here:

 

http://www.TFans.com/talk/index.php?showtopic=25739

 

Are you able to verify whether these Cyclonus, Beachcomber, Seaspray, etc toys are officially licensed through Hasbro or Takara? Their presence is causing a problem with the collectors as the toys themselves seem to be made slightly differently, and information is scarce concerning how Transformers were released in China. Notice all of these items have a small black chinese sticker on the cardboard in the upper right. These products are being sold on eBay as legit 1985-1987 US releases, even though they are not the same as you had released at that time. I am sure the fan community would be grateful for the truth on this matter. And keep up the good work as always!

 

And Hasbro's reply was this:

 

Thank you for contacting Hasbro, Inc.

 

In response to your inquiry, Hasbro is licensed through Takara to make Transformers. We do not distribute the product overseas. It is only shipped in the U.S. The only information I can provide you is if the box the product is in says Hasbro, then it is a genuine product.

 

Thanks for your interest

 

In 1994, Chinese factories once again started creating Transformers in their original packaging. The ones included are: Hound, Jazz, Smokescreen, Mirage, Cyclonus, Ramjet, Springer, Grimlock, Sludge, Fortress Maximus, Scorponok, the Headmaster toys, including Horrorcons, Hosehead, Nightbeat, Fangry, Squeezeplay, Autobot Targetmasters, Triggerbots, Triggercons, Aerialbots, Protectobots, Powermasters, Doublespy, Clones, and Combiner Cassettes.

 

These toys are a replica of the originals. Some may be old stock, but some may also be newly created items. It seems impossible that so many Cyclonus toys (for example) were actually left-over stock. It is also noted that some of the items use a lower-quality paper stock for the boxes, noted with Grimlock, Sludge, Cyclonus and Ramjet. These variations do not have the Pawtucket, RI section printed ont he front, however. Some of the toys also had a standard sticker on them showing the faction rather than a rub-sign. Some of the toys, while they have the Hasbro/Takara stamp on it, do NOT have the rub-sign on them, which appears on some Aerialbots.

 

PACKAGING

There are also some give-aways on the packaging. In some cases, the box "art" is not printed on the entire card stock. There are also times when there MAY be black tape somewhere on the package, although this is not in all cases. An example can be seen here:

 

http://www.geocities.com/endemion28/hktransformers.html

 

It is also reported that the instruction manuals are not as crisp as the US releases.

 

Other sources indicate that these were the original Chinese releases. This is also incorrect. Here is a shot of the packaging for the original packaging:

 

http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vchina3.html

 

Fred's Workshop has reported that factories in China, while originally licensed to create Transformers toys as shown above, continued to create them even after their license expired. This is a possible source of these items.

 

A dead giveaway for this item is the small clear sticker with Chinese characters on it in the upper right corder of the packaging. Ebay seller Maksworksusa had this to say about it:

 

the sticker shows the name of cyclonus in chinese writing. it's the ORIGINAL US FACTORY transfoormers that had been brought to Chinese market over twenty years ago when it's not authorized to produce in any chinese factory yet, as you can see from the back of the box.

 

Concerning Cyclonus there is a couple other oddities as seen here:

 

http://forums.transfandom.com/invboard/ind...=0entry267848

 

They include such things as a different number of the little boxes in the grid on the front, as well as a different plastic insert, which can be seen by looking at the placement of the weapon.

 

Cyberguardian of Transfandom says that these were noted on the carded Beachcomber.

 

1. In the box that talks about the rub-sign, the word true is spelled "ture"

 

2. On the robot point, the word special is spelled "sepcial"

 

3. On the tech spec, the word interest is spelled "inrerest"

 

4. On the directions on the back, in step one, the phrase "swing arms down and push wheels in " is REPEATED in the same box, with a little squiggly to the right of the repeat, as well as the word "Swing" below the repeated phrase that looks like a cheap typewriter put it there.

 

THE TOYS

A Soundwave release shows that it comes with Laserbeak, not Buzzsaw as it is stated on the box.

 

http://www.geocities.com/soxerboxx2/1hksound1.jpg

 

The Cassette releases are a different matter. In the most popular cases, the packaging has the wrong toy in it. An example would be having a Frenzy in a Rumble package. For those who don't know, in the cartoon, Frenzy was Red and Rumble was blue, but the toys were released backwards. Frenzy was the blue one and Rumble was Red. So in other words, some of the Cassette Packages have the corrected colored toys in them.

 

Also, a lot of them have printed details on them instead of a sticker. If you own any real TF cassettes you know they have a sticker on them. Even the later releases like Squawktalk and Beastbox have stickers on them. Although printed details would be a better thing to have, that isn't the point of this article.

 

Steeljaw appears with a printed blue version without having a rub-sign on it.

 

http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vsteeljaw.html

http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vchinacass.html

 

Other curiosities

A lot of newer TFs that are obvious fakes, such as the clear or tan Convoy come complete with rubsigns! As far as I am aware, they are fully working as well. Most of these toys appear on the market in package, so individual toy details are hard to come by, as it would appear that most collectors are NOT buying these items and/or opening them. And those that do are not very detailed in their reporting.

 

http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vchina.html

http://www.TFans.com/talk/index.php?showtopic=25739

I have sent a new message to Hasbro about this issue.

 

Greetings,

 

I would like to re-open the Question Reference #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ticket.

 

The response that was given in response to this issue is not accepted by myself or the Transformers fans regarding the issue of possible faked Transformers showing up in the marketplace. The response was:

 

"Thank you for contacting Hasbro, Inc.

 

In response to your inquiry, Hasbro is licensed through Takara to make Transformers. We do not distribute the product overseas. It is only shipped in the U.S. The only information I can provide you is if the box the product is in says Hasbro, then it is a genuine product.

 

Thanks for your interest"

 

I am requesting escalation of this issue to a manager or someone who can give details about this specific issue. It is a known fact that certain (unnamed) manufacturers and factories in China continued to produce Transformers product during the 1980s after the license or authorisation to produce and market those products had been removed or expired.

 

This is a growing concern because a lot more of these items are appearing on eBay.com or on Yahoo Auctions and other various places as being legitimate original USA releases, when in fact it seems impossible for them to be so. Some of these items have inferior plastic, spelling errors on the package and/or other variations that make them different from the original release.

 

I understand that you as Hasbro, Inc make no money off the marketing of original toys, but the fans and buyers of your product need to hear an official response to this issue that they can trust. Generic corporate responses such as the one quoted previously is not enough in this case. An investigation needs to be done, or if one exists, we need to know about it. Even in 2000-2002, when Takara released their Generation One PVC toys, and bootleg versions began appearing, they had created a page on their website to warn the consumers of this. In the minds of the consumers of legacy products, we would rather have concrete information so that we can determine for ourselves whether we are buying legitimate products or not. We do not need to begin to feel we cannot trust what we buy. If it starts with the legacy products, who is to say that other items that are currently marketed are not real as well? There are even a few instances of the current Cybertron line appearing IN STORES with incorrect toys being sealed in the package (toys that are not Transformers product at all) and being found at mass retailers.

 

We also understand that it is impossible to keep a handle on the entire bootleg market, but this is such a small facet of it. There are even more recent appearances of bootlegged Optimus Prime product on Ebay. More recent efforts seem to include high-grade plastics quality only found in the official Hasbro or Takara releases. The packaging material quality has also increased, and some of these newer appearances are even using actual rub-signs.

 

I remember when I was a kid, the rub-sign was toughted as being the bona-fide way to determine the difference between a real Transformer and a fake. It seems we are now losing that luxury. So I ask you please to reconsider the response on this ticket. We need more information on this issue.

 

Yes, I blanked out the ticket number. If they still refuse help on this issue, I will release the ticket number to the public.

AWESOME!!  Maybe now we will get some answers.  KEEP US INFORMED!!

I have sent a new message to Hasbro about this issue.

 

(Insert awesome letter here)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was very well written & straight to the point, keep us informed Dude!

 

Maybe you could also add:

 

Dear Hasbro

You claimed "If it says Hasbro then it is."

The box says "Hasbro", it also says "Ages: 6 & up" on it.

I will be be buying one of these for my 6 year old child. Should my child fall ill due to unsafe materials used in the probuction of this toy, or choke on a small part if it breaks, I will be using your last reply as evidence in a case against your company.

 

(Or something like that!?)

 

I know toy laws have changed, but this may get the message across to them.