Are these Joes fake reproductions?

[Trance Viper]

There have been a series of sellers on Ebay for a while that specialize in selling seemingly limitless armies of GI Joes. Powerjedi999, mudnemo, sohappyfish, etc. What's the deal? Do they work at a factory in Hong Kong, and when the boss isn't looking, grab a trash bag, head to the end of the conveyor belts, and just let em fall in, or what? Even worse, are these figures just non legit copies? I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this. Let me know. I really would like to buy some of their auctions, but if it's just badly reproduced crap, then I don't want it. Anyone know anything? Thanks for reading.

[gunless]

in a word, yes. they are "liberated" from the factory in china.

[Trance Viper]

in a word, yes. they are "liberated" from the factory in china.

Seriously? Was there ever any solid proof of this? Also, if they're from the factory then they ARE legit, but they were just "shipped early", right?

[whitedalek]

They are stolen figs from the factory in Asia. It has been reported on other threads, and Hasbro is aware of the thefts.

[Trance Viper]

They are stolen figs from the factory in Asia. It has been reported on other threads, and Hasbro is aware of the thefts.

Oh good. I hope they get them. 1 of those guys, probably in a 1 month time span made $5000+. I knew something had to be up.

[the don]

i've been buying some 2003/2004 loose joe figures from a store here in manila recently for around $2 apiece. this thread somehow confirms my suspicions that these may have been either bootlegs, prototypes, stolen, or did not pass quality control (most probably the last one).


i don't have a digital cam (yah, i'm pretty stone age on gizmos) to post the images here, but so far, i've seen:
1. a comic-3 pack hawk (issue #3), with mostly the right color schemes, but the face and hands are dark brown.
2. a green-shirted version of the joe v cobra flint, but the lower legs have a different base color from the upper legs.
3. a white-shirted grunt, with gray-and-white splatter camo pattern on the legs.
4. zartan, stalker and a few other figures where the torso halves have gaps on the shoulders.

these are too "professionally-made" to be customs, so i guess these must have been either QC rejects. i got a few other figures that are "standard", which may be stolen.

we don't get joe around here anymore, so this shop is my only viable source. i must say, the figures overall are pretty good.

[the don]

oh and by the way, hope i don't get misinterpreted here. that is, i'm not saying that those e-bay guys are selling phonies, fakes, or substandard figs.


i'm just saying the possibility that i was buying were rejects, since the larger possibility of a "black market" was brought up.

hey, if i had the money (and go-signal from the missus) i'd buy the e-bay stuff.

[phillinley]

Like I said in a previous post, if they're stolen, they'd be shut down. These things are allowed out there. Hasbro only shuts down the auctions of figures that still plan to be released. They don't bother shutting down the ones that never will.

Anyways, it seems we have this discussion once a week it seems when someone new sees another auction set go up by one of these two guys. Maybe there should be a sticky thread with there names on it so we dont have to rehash this once a week.

[thorn]

some of them are test shots, paint tests, and borderline rejects-
i have a BUNCH of PJ's stuff.
many of the figures are not exactly painted like the final versions and some have little flaws like looseness, paint marks, stuff like that.

i think the majority of what he sells is stuff that was SUPPOSED to end up in the trash but didnt.

regardless, they are not copies, theyre form hasbrats originally

[The Faceless Master]

Jeez, who knows really??

All i know is, PJ & Mudnemo & Sohappyfish is really an easy way to army
build in lots AND they sometimes come out with figures with pretty cool
paint apps, like the Anti Venom & Urban Assault "pre-productions"

I myself was tempted to get the, as-i'd-like-to-call-it: Wesley Snipes
Comic Pack Abernathy, as well as the bleached comic pack Stalker