PGowdy said:
Yeah i didn't realise that. I thought they were official reproductions. So probably bad example but you get my point about the difference between a reproduction and a bootleg. Just that these now go in the bootleg category.
But you're saying Hasbro DID do their own 'official' reproductions of the vintage line?
Just goes to show how dangerous this kind of practice is.
No problem Pete. I just hope you didn't pay too much for them thinking they were official, but as you and I have said, they are pretty damn close to the real deal with the die cast parts, instructions, sticker sheets and everything. It really is a bit scary in that regard.
Here's some links of what the official reissues have looked like. I'll use Optimus as the example since he's been reissued the most throughout the years. Some of the packaging is very G1 inspired, but different enough that you can tell on first look that it isn't a 1984 Optimus Prime.
Takara actually started first right around 2000 with a few to test the market and some as convention exclusives.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281090445214
In 2002, he was reissued by Takara again. This was one of my first reissues that I got on a preorder list for and is still my favorite. With this one, the toy was changed to have cartoon accurate blue eyes and blue windshield.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/310644188077
The next year, I believe, was when Hasbro also decided to bring some of them to their own markets. Here's their version of Prime. The smokestacks were shortened on him to conform to new toy laws in the U.S. that didn't exist in 1984. There were some sites though that you could pick up replacements from to fix that.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171030887337
The next release was another Takara. They had moved all their reissue packaging into these book style boxes that opened up showing the toy inside. Hasbro did the same with their design after their first wave of reissues.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/390523483956
The Hasbro reissues slowed down and because of the high TRU prices, the line eventually died. Takara continued and then some time lapsed on those as well to the point that many collectors thought they were done. Tomy ended up purchasing Takara and around the time of the first Michael Bay movie, they relaunched the reissue line calling them Encores. Here's the Encore Optimus Prime
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250985906572
Hasbro hasn't stopped reissues completely at this point, but have made them a lot more limited being store/convention exclusives. This is the last Optimus reissue that they did a couple years ago now, that again has the shortened smoke stacks.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281095483381
Hasbro/Takara have really gotten their use out of the Prime mold. There's also two Pepsi Prime reissues done by them both and some other exclusives, but these are the main ones. The only official reissue line still going strong is the Takara/Tomy Encore line. The latest, Fortress Maximus, was just released this month. I hope no one minds the long winded post, but I feel it is relevant in that another major collecting toy line has had to deal with both official reissues and counterfeits on a much bigger scale than we have with SW. Official reissues certainly have their affect on the market too, but for the most part things seem to bounce back once they go out of production. A real 1984 G1 Optimus Prime will alway be an amazing sight to me and still commands a good price MISB.
