When did "Made in Hong Kong" become "Made in China" and why?

[DPrime]

I was wondering if any of you guys knew when/why/how they started doing this. I've seen figures (albeit from Europe) from '88 with "Made in China" and the same ones (presumably North American) from that year with "Made in Hong Kong", and there is NO difference whatsoever in terms of plastic (from what I can tell), paint, etc. So what gives? Was it a running change in the same factory? Was it a new factory? Anyone?

[stad]

I would guess it was just multiple factories cranking out the same figures. In it's 80's heyday, Joes were a huge seller.

[Patrick A. Riley]

I've only noticed it on Annihilators from 1989. I haven't bothered to check others though. I don't think it's a North America vs. Europe thing

http://forums.yojoe.com/showthread.php?t=43838

[Erick]

I just noticed it on Stalker v2. Plus, I have two cardbacks of this figure one has 'made in china' written and the other has 'made and printed in hong kong' strange given the fact that they are from the same year/figure/american release...

I don't know if this can be considered rare... I could post a pic

[Eric Leavitt]

In 1998, Hong Kong stopped being part of the United Kingdom and became its own country - which China has always claimed is part of China. China is so big and scary everyone keeps going along with that idea even if its not true.

[2LT VIPER]

Definetly that harkens back to when there was a difference between hong kong and the rest of China. It seems silly in retrospect that a country like Britain hung onto hong kong for so long...China could have taken it back at any time...there must have been a purpose for it.....now china is embarking on their pseudo capitalistic/commy society and so far is surpassing our GDP each year. China will be the next world power....it is a sad day....this countries lack of an education system and mounds of stupid people will slowly put us about 3rd in 20 years.

[green firefly]

I remember reading somewhere that all of the Joes were made in China and none of them were made in Hong Kong. The Chinese factories that listed Hong Kong only did so to garner more respect. Don't know if its true.

[dockingbay97]

Generally speaking since World War 2 cheap plastic items went from:
Made in Japan
Made in Taiwan
Made in Hong Kong
Made in China

The production moved as it became cheaper to make them in another country over the current country. It is really a matter of basic economics. Manufacture of goods tends to gravitate to countries who can do it up to the minimum quality standards for the least amount of money. It is now much cheaper to make these in China instead of Japan where these types of things were being made after WW II.

Also several toys were Made in Mexico during the late 70's / early 80's.

[DevilKing]

All of my figures say "made in China"

[DPrime]

All of my figures say "made in China"

ALL of them? Where are you from? Do you collect the earlier years?

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't have many figures past '88, but didn't they all go to "Made in China" in '89 or '90 or something like that?