All new reissues, altho many keep the original date on them, are all marked as being made in China, whereas all of the original G1's were marked as being made in Taiwan, which is where you'll be able to tell the difference.

All new reissues, altho many keep the original date on them, are all marked as being made in China, whereas all of the original G1's were marked as being made in Taiwan, which is where you'll be able to tell the difference.

Or Macau. Or Japan. :nuts

 

He's right though.. I did totally forget about that. The reissues do have Made in China stamps across the board, whereas the originals varied in their place of actual construction.

I don't know what kind of G1 knockoffs you have from Taiwan, but aren't most of them marked "Japan"

The earlier reissues had odd copyrights on them-- they seemed to be the last use of the molds, or whatever version of the mold was availible. Like stated above, Prime was 92 for his G2 release, 80-83 for the first version of Starscream. Later ones seem to vary.. I actually credit Hasbro to this. The copyrights have to be updated for American trademark reasons I suspect.. and thus the Seeker mold now reads 2002 across the board (both on the US ones and Anime Starscream/Sunstorm). Soundwave still reads 74, 83, the Autobot cars vary-- the DW reissues still have their old copyrights, the American ones read more modern dates, so any time that mold gets reused from now it'll likely have the new date on it. So.. it's something of a crapshoot still, unfortunately. Seems like if the mold isn't gonna get a US release any time soon.... they don't bother changing the copyright stamp. As there's "no plans" to release Predaking stateside... I suspect he'll remain with his old stamp.

Hasbro Commemorative Tracks still has the '86 date, and the Takara logo (not just the type print, but the actual logo). No Hasbro copyright to be found.

The earlier reissues had odd copyrights on them-- they seemed to be the last use of the molds, or whatever version of the mold was availible. Like stated above, Prime was 92 for his G2 release, 80-83 for the first version of Starscream. Later ones seem to vary.. I actually credit Hasbro to this. The copyrights have to be updated for American trademark reasons I suspect.. and thus the Seeker mold now reads 2002 across the board (both on the US ones and Anime Starscream/Sunstorm). Soundwave still reads 74, 83, the Autobot cars vary-- the DW reissues still have their old copyrights, the American ones read more modern dates, so any time that mold gets reused from now it'll likely have the new date on it. So.. it's something of a crapshoot still, unfortunately. Seems like if the mold isn't gonna get a US release any time soon.... they don't bother changing the copyright stamp. As there's "no plans" to release Predaking stateside... I suspect he'll remain with his old stamp.

Hasbro Commemorative Tracks still has the '86 date, and the Takara logo (not just the type print, but the actual logo). No Hasbro copyright to be found.

Really? Huh. So much for my theory then :lol

 

Oh, and Valdraz... several of the original, pre movie G1s, especially those that might have come from old Diaclone/Micromen stock had Japan stamps. My original Inferno, whom I checked for this argument does. I could dig through the box in the closet for more... but if you really want proof.. the information can be found online somewhere, I'm sure.

Well, I thought it over, and have done a preorder from bigbadtoystore.com, for the reissue.

 

I was thinking about it at work today, and I realized that I am NOT collecting these figures for monetary gain - I am collecting them for nostalgia's sake, and to catch up on some fun that I missed out on in my childhood!

 

Hell, if the knockoffs were not of such utterly poor quality, I'd stick with those. But man, those are just nasty, for the most part.

 

At any rate, I thank all who have put in any bits of info - at least I learned something new about the reissues!

Okay, as all of us know, Takara is doing a wonderful thing by reissuing Predaking, later this year.

 

These Takara reissues - do they come stamped with new dates on the copyrights?

 

I ask because one of my goals is to get one of each G1 combiner that was released in the US. I have Superion, Bruticus, Computron, Abominus, Devastator and Menasor. Obviously, I still need the Seacon one, Predaking and Defensor. (Did I miss any?)

 

I would LOVE to be able to pick up an original Predaking, and hopefully AFTER Takara reissues him - reason being, I'm hoping that the original falls through the floor price wise when that happens. $200 and up is a lot for a transformer, especially now when I have car registration, payment and insurance due within 6 weeks!

 

BUT, I'll be severely pissed if someone rips me off on an auction for an original one, by sending me the reissues!

 

Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

EDITS: For fixing dumb typos/mistakes on my part

 

Your best bet is to verify the maker stamps with seller. Anything vintage is going to be stamped Taraka with eitherTiawan, Japan or Macau. Likewise, Hasbro should have something similar. What you are looking NOT TO GET is anything made in China. I believe ALL the new reissues will be stamped that way or something to that effect.

 

I am sure there are some sites that will help you sort our the vintage stamps from the newer ones. At least for former.

These Takara reissues - do they come stamped with new dates on the copyrights?

 

All my re-issues (Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, PM Optimus Prime, God Bomber, Jazz, Prowl and Red alert) have a 2002 stamp. I'm pretty sure all re-issues do Ask the seller to show some proof of that. After all its your hard-earned-cash and that gives you the right!