Disappointed he copied original coo markings instead of marking them repro. Once these figures filter into the system they're going to catch a lot of new collectors out - and even some collectors that buy figure lots... easy to sneak in a couple of those Stormies and act dumb. Sometimes seeing a minty white Stormie in a figure lot can be a clincher. His work is so dammed good you'd think he would've been proud to stamp something like 'Poon Army Builders' on the back legs and not original looking coos. So, wonder how long it will take Ebay to pull the auction following the reports?

I doubt eBay will pull the auctions. Am I wrong in thinking repo weapons, card backs, diorama's & now figures are all examples of cppy right infringement? I would assume yes these do violate copyrights, but you can find any of this crap on eBay any day of the week :?:

@RetroRewindToys wrote:

I doubt eBay will pull the auctions. Am I wrong in thinking repo weapons, card backs, diorama's & now figures are all examples of cppy right infringement? I would assume yes these do violate copyrights, but you can find any of this crap on eBay any day of the week :?:

I think eBay would only take interest if they were being passed of as original (which they are not). As mentioned above, eBay is full of repro crap & people appear to be selling it legally!

I can deal with the dios alot easier than repros, fakes and customs. The dios are made for a backdrop for the figures, similar to the Cloud City playset. And there are some fantastic ones out there (look at Wolffs that he did). Ebay wont do nothing about it if there was 100k reports to them cause that would mean money out of their pockets too. But it never hurts to try.

Anyone else notice the change in description?

Not til now Mike.

"Custom Vintage Star Wars White Stormtrooper Army Trooper Builder Set"

Looks like we got a lurker going on here.

It just goes to show you that ebay is in it only to grab your money...they have a nice webpage about reporting illegal activities and all but how many complaints does it take to get things done? 1000 , 10000? Geez we should all go into the business of reproducing 70's toys! god darn it!

This is gonna seriously hurt the collector's down the road. I for one. I honestly can say that that is work is great but when you buy this you are not buying something that was made over 30 some years ago...it's cheating. And what's bad is that people will further the conspiracy and further deceive other people. We all know that of course. i am telling anything new here.

At least i can say that i got 2 decent examples of the stormies. If i ever buy some more i ll have to be extra careful. I guess you best bet now is to talk to your actual supplier and ask him straight up if he is gonna get into this with Mr Repro.

I know i am gonna ask my usual source on that from now on. And besides why would you pay almost close to 10$ for a fake stormie when you can have a real decent looking on for the same price and you know it is not faked. Personally i would rather have a slightly discolored stormie and have a clean conscience over this unless you wanna build a an army legion of them.


peace!

Another option that could be tried, is contacting Hasbro directly. A few years ago, ebay had a huge clean up of all the replica/KO transformers. It was my understanding that it was Hasbro who requested that be done. Not really because of the replicas of their old product, but mainly that fact that they were using their Trademarks/logo and that might confuse people in thinking they were buying a genuine, up to Hasbro standards, product.

I half expected this to happen with a lot of the repro card sellers and such when Hasbro started doing vintage style packaging last year and started using the Kenner logo again. I also thought they might to go after the Poon rocketfett where that was Hasbro's mail away last year.

Having them removed from ebay unfortunately doesn't solve the problem entirely though. As with the replica Transformers, they show up on other less main stream sites for sale and some do slip through the cracks from sellers listing them as original and that is certainly the most damaging part and is exactly why they should have at the least been marked as reproductions.

Although, I'd rather they just didn't exist at all.

German Hasbro is already informed!!


Why did the weapons disapeared?? Too many sold or really pulled of because of the reports?? (I reported the weapons too...though)

I just hope Hasbro will stop this. I have not heard anything from Hasbro in USA so far. Maybe I should have maid contact to Hasbro in Denmark. But I just thought it was best to contact them in USA.

@JesseVader08 wrote:

I hate the thought of giving this guy even one penny, but I'm going to buy a set. I'll take pics and post them here so that people will know what to watch for.

According to eBay, my order has been shipped. As soon as they arrive, I will do my best to take pictures from every angle I can and hopefully that will allow us to find more details that give them away as the repros.

I just hope he hasn't noticed my name in this thread and doesn't send me a brick.

@JesseVader08 wrote:

I just hope he hasn't noticed my name in this thread and doesn't send me a brick.

Jesse, in the series Father Ted, Jack grew quite fond of his brick!

Good work on biting the bullet and ordering a set for the benefit of the community

Here's were he works and were they are coming from most likely
http://www.hanksmold.com/Toys-and-die.html

I have received a mail from Hasbro USA yesterday. They will will investigate this issue further.

I hope they will stop him in making more of those figures.

@pomse2001 wrote:

I have received a mail from Hasbro USA yesterday. They will will investigate this issue further.

I hope they will stop him in making more of those figures.

Good to hear!

Shame George himself doesn't want to sue this guy, I heard he pounded some guy for millions a few years ago for producing Stormtrooper outfits and selling them.
Shame he doesn't take more personal interest seen as it's these figures that made him his first million and now some guy is ripping them off.
Last year one of my mates bought me two fake rocket Fetts for my birthday (L-slot & J-slot), I was well pleased, because I have always wanted to know what it felt like to fire that damn rocket and knew that I would probably never get chance to do it with the real thing and that this was as close as it would probably get! I just followed the Ebay link and realized that it's the same guy. The Fetts could never be confused with the real thing, and lets be honest, you wouldn't buy something like that from anyone unless complete with COA's and utter seller confidence, but a simple Stormie? quite worrying!
If the Fetts are anything to go by, the arms are conciderably softer and can be bent with absolute ease, hopefully by the sound of it the Stormies are the same and this would be an instant give away (unfortunately up-on arrival)

Cheers for the heads up Wolff and cheers Jesse for buying them for reference.

Did this guy do a fake Vlix as well?

Hey Alex,
The same guy made the Vlix as well...I wonder if he does requests, I need a PBP Hoth Luke
Also Lucas lost his Stormtrooper lawsuit, at least in the UK.

http://io9.com/5825500/george-lucas-loses-lawsuit-over-stormtrooper-costume-replicas

Looks like I will be making my Zombie movie there!

@pomse2001 wrote:

I have received a mail from Hasbro USA yesterday. They will will investigate this issue further.

I hope they will stop him in making more of those figures.

That is brilliant news! Hope the guy gets slapped in the face with justice!

i don't think much will happen since he is in another country. Even tough some people think that they might dispense justice around the world from the US, it does not work quite that way. Other countries can and will protect their citizens from other countries laws which makes resolving these kind of things more difficult and that is why this guy is doing this because he knows he can get away with this.

In fact Lucas lost the stormtrooper suit trial the guy can still produce them but cannot sell them in USA but he can sell it all around the world if the wants too and he does. Copyright laws can easily be infringed upon if you know what you are doing and the copyright holder is not always able to defend his unlawfull duplication of his creations. case in point stormtrooper suit. I know i followed this since i myself wanted one of those life size suit which i got ( bootleg one and another long story)

The whole point of the Lucas suit was that Andrew Ainsworth was claiming that his suit were made from the original molds used to make the suit in the movies which commanded a premium price over the other bootleg suits. Lucas decided to fight that claim since They felt it was not true and lost over technicalities and laws of other country ( great Britain ) in this case. Lucas does not mind at all repros of a lot of his props since he supports the 501st legion which is a star wars costume organization but to see if he or Hasbro will do anything about a Toy that was produced over 30 years ago remains to be seen. I see no point for them in spending money on something they already made their money on and no longer viable in its current form for them. If they would do anything it would be as a courtesy to the fans and vintage market but spending money on this is not on their agenda i am sure.

i hope i am wrong on this but corporation do not like to throw money away like this.

cheers