Easy way to tell a reproduction gun from original gun?

[jwanko]

I recently bought a giant pile of GI Joes. In my pile I found Heavy Metal, he has a reproduction mic so I was just wondering if the gun was also a repro. Is there an easy way to tell. I'm used to doing the float test with star wars weapons but was unable to find anything online talking about GI Joe guns, only mics. There was also a Serpentor in my pile with what appears to be a repro cape. So now I'm worried the whole pile might be full of repros. Any help would be appreciated!

[hotdog]

Depending on the quality of the items the float test will likely not work. There are also many different types of “reproduction “ parts, some items were re-released in the early 2000s by hasbro and have color or physical properties that are different from the original (night force spearheads gun for instance, or snake eyes uzi)- these items can still be purchased cheaply from China on eBay. Then there was the resin reproduction stuff, resin generally looks like plastic but doesn’t always feel like plastic. Most resins can be easily identified by running it under hot water, it’s heat resistant properties are not as good as real plastic and they get all wiggly at 120 degrees (but this can be advantageous too- because warped parts are more easily straightened). The exception to this rule is task 21 but I was probably the only person ever using it, and I only used it for the last few years I was on eBay. It is nearly indistinguishable from plastic unless there are mold lines or seams that give the reproduction part away. It’s likely though that if you bought a collection with a couple reproduction parts in it than it is probably a collector who didn’t mind having reproduction parts and probably had a lot of them. Hope that helps.

[jwanko]

Hi, that definitely helps, thank you so much for taking the time to reply.