Repro madness... Please read.

[R79]

One good thing is, a lot more people have a decent camera these days, so just take a big close-up shot in good light, and paste it up on here, and let the real pros deliberate
I handled most weapons as a kid, and still have about 75% of those, but finding out recently about all the sculpt variations was pretty enlightening, that's for sure. Take the Endor Commando rifle for example. I had only ever known, for 27 years, the very detailed, very fragile version, but buying a few of these guys recently, I have seen the much thicker, slightly less detailed one in browner plastic.

A site like TIG is very good, but there's still gaps that need filling, especially the cape section. The ERG staff info on there mentions the fake one not matching up on both sides, but I have been stung with one that did, but was perfectly straight, and had a slightly different marking at the top. That's a £5 weapon loose, so you can see the reasons why these horrible bootleggers create hard to spot fakes, and flood the market. The older, painted brittle plastic stuff is much easier to detect as long as you have handled a few legit Kenner accessories. I don't know of any fake blasters yet that are translucent when held up to the light, like the original plastic is on many of them.

What is worrying, is that some of the eBay sellers peddling this stuff, have 100% feedback, with many vintage SW related transactions. Who the hell is buying it all, and not complaining? Same deal with guys on there vastly exaggerating the condition of their loose figures, with C-9 items arriving with loose limbs, dirt on them, pen marks or paint rubs. If people don't learn and object to these practices, then it will just continue. Ideally, eBay would have a real Kenner collecting expert patrolling the vintage section... but don't hold your breath for that!

[nerfherder_lover]

Ugh....my favorite subject....repros. Makes me break out in a cold sweat, and my heart rate increases exponentially. I especially like it when some call them 'Repos'. So, I guess they are 'repoductions'??? Repossessed???? Dolts....If I find reproductions, I burn them.

But back to this, has anyone found that repros have gotten better to the point that the drop test doesn't work for some? I don't mean for capes, obviously

[Robbiezombbie]

What is worrying, is that some of the eBay sellers peddling this stuff, have 100% feedback, with many vintage SW related transactions. Who the hell is buying it all, and not complaining?

I personally feel for every one person who says NO to repro there are 5 that say “I’m ok with repro” or simply they can’t identify what a repro is.
And I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, you can’t truly trust Feedback on Ebay anymore. Ebay is ONLY basing feedback percentages off of the last 12 months. So maybe 13 months ago some seller might have had 6 negative feedbacks, but wait one more month and now all of a sudden they are back to 100% positive.

[Cornfedbigdaddy]

One good thing is, a lot more people have a decent camera these days, so just take a big close-up shot in good light, and paste it up on here, and let the real pros deliberate
I handled most weapons as a kid, and still have about 75% of those, but finding out recently about all the sculpt variations was pretty enlightening, that's for sure. Take the Endor Commando rifle for example. I had only ever known, for 27 years, the very detailed, very fragile version, but buying a few of these guys recently, I have seen the much thicker, slightly less detailed one in browner plastic.

A site like TIG is very good, but there's still gaps that need filling, especially the cape section. The ERG staff info on there mentions the fake one not matching up on both sides, but I have been stung with one that did, but was perfectly straight, and had a slightly different marking at the top. That's a £5 weapon loose, so you can see the reasons why these horrible bootleggers create hard to spot fakes, and flood the market. The older, painted brittle plastic stuff is much easier to detect as long as you have handled a few legit Kenner accessories. I don't know of any fake blasters yet that are translucent when held up to the light, like the original plastic is on many of them.

What is worrying, is that some of the eBay sellers peddling this stuff, have 100% feedback, with many vintage SW related transactions. Who the hell is buying it all, and not complaining? Same deal with guys on there vastly exaggerating the condition of their loose figures, with C-9 items arriving with loose limbs, dirt on them, pen marks or paint rubs. If people don't learn and object to these practices, then it will just continue. Ideally, eBay would have a real Kenner collecting expert patrolling the vintage section... but don't hold your breath for that!

I agree with what you're saying. In a perfect world all of this crap would disappear, but that will never happen. Even if someone were to buy all repros and fakes today & destroy them, the market would be flooded with them tomorrow! If I can play devil's advocate... I don't think some sellers really know what they have, being repros or originals. I think they just sell what they believe to be real. IMO your only real defense to this is education. Could you still get burned- Yes. That unfortunately is the nature of the beast!!!

[TheRealMrMaul]

I agree with what you're saying. In a perfect world all of this crap would disappear, but that will never happen. Even if someone were to buy all repros and fakes today & destroy them, the market would be flooded with them tomorrow! If I can play devil's advocate... I don't think some sellers really know what they have, being repros or originals. I think they just sell what they believe to be real. IMO your only real defense to this is education. Could you still get burned- Yes. That unfortunately is the nature of the beast!!!

It is true, some Veteran Sellers have no clue what is repro or what is real. And yes, you are correct about Educating Oneself, I never refuted that. I'm glad you have no love for repros, I just didn't like the "let the novices have them" part as you cannot avoid them unless you are a veteran of vintage toy collecting. I have collected since I was a kid when Empire figs came out in 1980 and even I have a hard times every now and then with new repros getting far better made with new technology.

[finestcomics]

I know enough to say that those white stormies are repro.

This fact doesnt seem to be slowing members of these boards from buying them and calling them "modern bootlegs."

[carpetdragon]

Since starting this thread it seems that most of you have just accepted the current situation!! and i have to agree with what has been said. I could name and shame the sellers who seem to be the worst offenders as im sure that trading standards would still class this sort of thing as counterfeit items!!? in the case of sellers selling them as original when they are clearly not.
The repro market is booming and as mentioned by other members they are getting good/near perfect, as if something was made it can be faked. On a plus note it will come to pass that there will be more weapons than figures doing the rounds turning the value of the repro market on its head and it will fade... but the damage will have been done. As it stands some weapons/accessories are worth more than the figure they go with.... maybe we should all collect figures without the accessories, now that would really ruin alot of sellers days.

[Mynock]

Yup, can't stand reproductions. I started collecting about five years ago and finally had to go through all of my original weapons and compare with pieces I have bought over the last five years (the oldies buy goodies collection). Last week I found 6 rebel blasters that were repros in my collection. Sucks... A figure is so incomplete without their authentic weapons in my opinion. In the past five years I have educated myself on spotting reproductions. It's a crap shoot every time I buy a Star Wars item online. I would say 85% of the time everything goes okay on eBay, but I've been screwed multiple times by sellers giving the old "I'm no expert" line...

This should make you all smile, here is a repro vinyl cape Jawa the PayPal made me destroy, enjoy!

[Leif_G]

This fact doesnt seem to be slowing members of these boards from buying them and calling them "modern bootlegs."

It just goes to show that its the collectors themselves who are fueling the market for repros. If someone takes a soft stand on repros, trying to legitimize them as 'fillers' then they are enabling the repro market, and contributing to the demise of the hobby, IMO.

Only a steadfast refusal to buy anything reproduced would somewhat slow the repro market. But that's not a realisitc expectation, mainly because a lot of the newbie collectors are either just too plain stupid to understand the consequences of their actions, or they just don't care.

[DJ121]

Having been a collector pretty much since I saw Jedi in the theaters back in 83, Even us "seasoned" collectors can have bad judgement. I recently won a lot of figures from ebay. I saw the Stormtrooper gun, and knew it was a repro, but bid on the lot because 1, the figures were cheap and 2, most of them had weapons.

Well, when the package arrived, I got what I paid for. EVERY weapon, including the Snowtrooper cape turned out to be fake. I contacted the seller, and it really was not worth the hassle to return them. He said he "Never gave it any thought" and he should have mentioned it. At least he did give me a few bucks back. It was my own fault, because the pic was far away, and I did not ask a question. So, I was complacent and it cost me a few bucks, but at least there are about a dozen FAKE weapons that have now been taken out of circulation. My loss is a gain for fellow collectors, newbie as well as veteran!