Before you buy that next vintage figure on Ebay...

[GoFigureToys]

With all of the news recently on Alibaba.com going public, I decided to check out the site. If you don't know about Alibaba.com at this point, it is basically the Amazon of Chinese wholesale. If you can think of it, there are 20 factories in China that will make a knock-off for you and ship to you in large quantities. I was board so I decided to search for Star Wars figures.. I almost threw up!

Polyresin Wholesale Action Figure Custom Made Star War Figuren - Buy Star War Figuren,Action Figurine,War Figurine Product on Alibaba.com

For several years now I've come across an HUGE number in figures that just didn't "feel" right. I'm talking the plastic quality was off just a tad or the colors ( especially the skin tone being too pink ) didn't seem right.

Who in their right mind can buy with confidence these days?

Take some time and run your own search on the site and let me know your thoughts. It ain't just repro accessories we need to worry about folks!

[ecl]

All this talk about Alibaba has been fasincating. Not many people on this side of the planet know yet just how much garbage is for sale on that site. I remember looking around the net for some rare figures by a popular japanese artist, and I happened to accidently run into the Alibaba site (at the time I knew nothing about it), and found a ton of his work for dirt cheap. Obviously fakes.

[andrewb]

This could really cause a ruckus , as these copies get better and better...??

Ebay will be flooded with them , especially since they cost 5c a piece..??

Simply amazing - I wonder if they actually look like the pictures or are super crappy..??

[rageaxe]

this can ruin everything O_o..

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

It may be that collectors have to end up inspecting or testing figures in the same way that they do with weapons (drop test, float test, weight, etc)... or it may be that repro figures are very obvious and anyone with eyes will be able to tell the difference.

I think the photos in that link are of vintage figures (Luke Farmboy has a snapped saber tip) but I would be interested to see the end product produced by such factories. This may be a driver that causes more collectors to use AFA, and it is certainly something that the community needs to be aware of and gather more info on. The Imperial Gunnery does a great job at keeping up with the repro products on the market and hopefully these polyresin Chinese knock-offs will have a multitude of tells that make them easy to spot.

[Alex_Miller]

Kind of surprised we haven't seen more of these already. For the last couple years the Chinese have been churning out packaged G1 Transformers that are pretty much dead on (at least in pictures), and those must be far more difficult/complex to reproduce than 5 or 6 piece Star Wars figures. Check this out, for example:

Comprehensive G1 Counterfeit / "Knockoff" ID Guide | HIGHENDTFS.COM - G1 Counterfeit ID Guides

We are talking large, boxed toys with bubbles, sticker sheets, chromed parts, the works.

I'm sure people will be able to tell the difference, but unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if full reproduction MOC sets are available from China over the next couple years.

Hopefully one of the benefits of the Disney purchase is they have the resources to come down on this sort of thing, though Hasbro hasn't seemed to have had much luck.

[fbrd98]

if these are good enough this could be the loose collectors "toy toni". what do you guys think it will do to the value in the long run?

[Kenner76]

if these are good enough this could be the loose collectors "toy toni". what do you guys think it will do to the value in the long run?

Depending on the quality of these figures, it could really hurt market prices on loose figures.....

[greedodidntshoot]

Has anyone had one of these figures in hand to get a feel for the differences? If they are using a 3-D printer to produce these, i believe that process leaves obvious evidence of that type of production. The tusken raider looks really poorly detailed. I thinking that it wouldn't be too tough to spot as is now, but if the process gets refined a bit.....could be very bad for business.

[Suke_Lkywalker]

I have seen these in hand at a local toy show, the guy imports a ton of bootleg Star Wars vintage, Clone Wars, Transformers, Hello Kitty, Ponies, all kinds of stuff. The pictured figures are not what you will receive.

The body and parts are pretty close, but the paint is way off (think the repro Vlix figures, its very glossy and bright)....

...except, the Stormtrooper, it's almost perfect, but the black paint is again, to glossy.

The accessories are also off, I don't really want to go into detail about why, for obvious reasons.


EDIT: There is another show in July, I would be happy to pick a few up and submit them to RS for reference purposes?