Midnight Chinese vs. Preprod

[GBPackRat]

Kevin,

Thank you for coming forward with the willingness to discuss all this. It explains a lot and clears up an awful lot of questions I've had on these figures.

Tanner

[RedClaw]

the boots or straps may be hand painted, but the gi joe logo would have to be stamped. Plus, the whole upper body probably wouldn't be hand painted. I don't quite know but looking through the updated preproduction archives it looks as if MANY midnight Chinese are now being recognized. Interesting.

-saboteur

I owned that figure before I sold it to Drew. The entire figure, with the exception of the black plastic arms and torso and the G.I.Joe logo, are hand painted.

The head sculpt is entirely new and can be found as the helmets on the Anit-Venom task force.

It is not some bootleg, made late at night in a factory.

I have spoken with people in the factory and know that it is very VERY improbable for there to be some special late night run of figures. A minimum run, just to be able to turn on the machines, is around 250-500 (depending on factory policy).

I can confirm that everything that Kevin has said is 100% factually true and accurate.

As for our policy regarding the sale of these items, until I hear from Hasbro that people are authorized to sell these figures publicly then we have to officially state that we do not allow their sale on YoJoe. As for what people do in private, we have no control or say in the matter. But we WILL archive these figures with accurate, proven information, and not subjective opinion or speculation - you have my word on that.

[dockingbay97]

I think so of you might be under estimating the amount of pressure and anger that was coming out of certain camps in Hasbro about these figures. One of the biggest sources of this pressure still works there.

[KrymsynGardImmoral]

Oh, I got to see it in person....I pulled a nice bagged set of Cobra Island infiltrator test shots out at the 2004 con, and showed it to one Hasbro guy when he told me it was never produced...kind of like "well, what's this then?" The look i got would have melted concrete, it was hard not to laugh.

after that I learned to be a little more diplomatic .

[dockingbay97]

I think Hasbro did do something different with their factories that they use because there is dramatically less items like this on eBay for both the Joe and SW lines. You still see some new Transformers stuff listed though.

Kevin, I always wondered what Hasbro thought of you at the Orlando show with all that stuff you had at your booth. You had a mountain of the stuff. That is when the pressure from Hasbro was at its highest.

[cobrasaboteur]

hmmmm..... a PLASTIC production piece which has been hand painted....... Thats interesting because i was told that these had no place in the production line of a figure. That the production of a figure went basically from painted resin copy, to unpainted test shot, to mold/stencil/factory painted production figure. I was told this in reference to a very high profile figure of mine and in others' collections which was publically denounced as illegitimate. Sorry, but i had to bring that up. I just thought that hand painted plastic figures had no place in the production process.

Any clarification on this issue would be greatly appreciated!

thanks!

-saboteur

[KrymsynGardImmoral]

I think Hasbro did do something different with their factories that they use because there is dramatically less items like this on eBay for both the Joe and SW lines. You still see some new Transformers stuff listed though.

They use different factories for sure, and sometimes we can see it in the actual figures...the Cobra Infantry pack HAD to be made in some different factory from other 6 packs...the plastic is different, the rivets seem different, and the logos are MOST telling, they look to be applied with 2 paint apps, first the red, then the black linework over it. Nothing that I can remember was done that way before or since.

Kevin, I always wondered what Hasbro thought of you at the Orlando show with all that stuff you had at your booth. You had a mountain of the stuff. That is when the pressure from Hasbro was at its highest.

I was really worried at the time, as well. I had spoken with one or two of the bigger Hasbro guys that were at that con, so I went right up and asked them if i had to worry about it. One of them came to my booth and was actually pretty surprised at some of the series and pieces I had been able to get ahold of. He actually helped me out with some info, including where the Night Force Tracker went, and why we got Action Man, and why some of the modern pieces had running changes made. The idea of "shutting me down" seemed to be much more of a joke, and made me feel like maybe I made way too big a deal out of it at the time.

Since then, as hyped up as Hasbro gets about some things and how quickly any action they take makes it around the internet, there are some things they really seem to not care about, even with their recent "Custom figure guidelines" email announcement. there is a seller on ebay that regularly sells Art prints of some comic and cartoon images. At the last con, a prominent joe collector had a booth FULL of reproduction box art as framed prints, unlicensed jewelry, and some polish bootlegs. He was right next to the hasbro booth. It probably helped that his stuff was incredibly cool and well made, (and he had a willingness to grease the wheels) but hasbro didn't even seem to take notice. When asked, they said "We're normally more concerned with people sueing US." When I bring test Shots and art to the con, the LAST thing I am worried about is Hasbro.

[GBPackRat]

Kevin,

What was the deal with Tracker becoming Action Man?

Tanner

[GBPackRat]

I found this thread from two years ago:

http://forums.yojoe.com/showthread.p...649#post228649

Might add a little to the discussion.

Tanner

[cobrasaboteur]

could someone please adress the fact that a plastic, hand painted figure (steel brigade tiger force) is being considered a preprod piece.

thanks,

-saboteur