Near Perfect Repros

[Robstyley]

Ok, I don't want to confuse anyone or post misinformation. I have always thought these are repro having compared them to ones I know are genuine. As I said I've had some of them a long while. I'll have another look at it and if I'm mistaken I'll admit to it.. and also be quite chuffed. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on the V5 Jimi, you may be right. I will take some photos to try and explain why I think they're repro, it's not about the version, it's about the finish/plastic. I'm very busy with work and kids etc but I'll do it as soon as I can.

 

[yoda]

This is starting to get exciting almost like a loft find!
Wouldn't it be great if it turned out the blasters are all original

 

[tobedesu]

I don't know if its useful, but these are all my childhood blasters.
I've put some "x's" on the photo in case it gets stolen.

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

Looks like you have two of the v4s up for debate there, top right and second down on the left. And you can see particularly with the top right they do look a bit more Repro like, but that's the v4 for you. Still pretty sure Rob's are all ship shape.

 

[Robstyley]

I've just tried taking some more close up photos of one of the blue/black Imp blasters I posted but it's not working, I can't get them sharp enough that close. I think what's possibly happened is a long time ago I've wrongly identified the V4 as a repro .There's no other ones (V4's) in my loose figure set so I think every time one's come my way it's gone in the repro bag. The fact a few people think they're genuine I suppose they must be. They just look so new, shiny and black I was convinced they were fake. Oh well, you live and learn :wink:

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

I've just tried taking some more close up photos of one of the blue/black Imp blasters I posted but it's not working, I can't get them sharp enough that close. I think what's possibly happened is a long time ago I've wrongly identified the V4 as a repro .There's no other ones (V4's) in my loose figure set so I think every time one's come my way it's gone in the repro bag. The fact a few people think they're genuine I suppose they must be. They just look so new, shiny and black I was convinced they were fake. Oh well, you live and learn :wink:

At least it was the Repro bag and not the trash bag. You've got 5 extra blasters now. It must be your lucky day. Quick buy a lottery ticket...

 

[spoons]

I've just tried taking some more close up photos of one of the blue/black Imp blasters I posted but it's not working, I can't get them sharp enough that close. I think what's possibly happened is a long time ago I've wrongly identified the V4 as a repro .There's no other ones (V4's) in my loose figure set so I think every time one's come my way it's gone in the repro bag. The fact a few people think they're genuine I suppose they must be. They just look so new, shiny and black I was convinced they were fake. Oh well, you live and learn :wink:

At least it was the Repro bag and not the trash bag. You've got 5 extra blasters now. It must be your lucky day. Quick buy a lottery ticket...

Or the fire! So many people burn their repros :shock:

 

[Robstyley]

Pffft yeah I can laugh about it now. I would never have thrown or destroyed them, I always wanted to refer back to them and they're part of my collecting journey. They have been in the hands of beater Stormtroopers dotted around the house in the past though :lol: The strangest thing was the V5, after being informed it was genuine and only came with a Taiwan Fett I got up this morning and for some reason had a look at the loose Fett I've got in my big cabinet standing next to my loose Slave 1 and low and behold it says TAIWAN on the back of the right leg! He had some dodgy looking Gi-Joe blaster in his hand but now he's got the correct weapon

 

[Snaketibe]

Pffft yeah I can laugh about it now. I would never have thrown or destroyed them, I always wanted to refer back to them and they're part of my collecting journey. They have been in the hands of beater Stormtroopers dotted around the house in the past though :lol: The strangest thing was the V5, after being informed it was genuine and only came with a Taiwan Fett I got up this morning and for some reason had a look at the loose Fett I've got in my big cabinet standing next to my loose Slave 1 and low and behold it says TAIWAN on the back of the right leg! He had some dodgy looking Gi-Joe blaster in his hand but now he's got the correct weapon

I love a story with a happy ending! :-D

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

Pffft yeah I can laugh about it now. I would never have thrown or destroyed them, I always wanted to refer back to them and they're part of my collecting journey. They have been in the hands of beater Stormtroopers dotted around the house in the past though :lol: The strangest thing was the V5, after being informed it was genuine and only came with a Taiwan Fett I got up this morning and for some reason had a look at the loose Fett I've got in my big cabinet standing next to my loose Slave 1 and low and behold it says TAIWAN on the back of the right leg! He had some dodgy looking Gi-Joe blaster in his hand but now he's got the correct weapon

I love a story with a happy ending! :-D

George Lucas couldn't of written it better :lol:

 

[subzero]

This seller is getting so bloody greedy now, like the amount they were listing wasn't enough already, now they're starting to list even more at once....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16-X-Vintage-Stars-Wars-Figure-accessories-weapons-They-float-and-transparent-/302451355233?hash=item466b816e61:g:qigAAOSwDQJZuTMo

 

[aussiejames]

hand held sabers now as well as a 'black' Imperial blaster
http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t9156-more-more-fakes-handheld-sabers

 

[subzero]

Yep those sabers have been all over ebay the past few days.

All those same weapons the new sabers and the blasters are all being sold under 2 different ebay accounts, they're either run by the same seller or it's 2 sellers who know each other because their location in the listings is in the same town.

paugildin-6
joggers78

This seller(s) has been totally flooding ebay with these repros, and it will quickly get much worse!

FYI, paugildin-6 was the seller who was originally selling the new Leia blaster repro as genuine a few weeks ago, before the joggers78 account started listing the same ones as repros, quite a lot of buyers bought that blaster for about £20 - £25 and left positive feedback believing it was genuine.

 

[Pomse2001]

I am getting more and more tired of all this repro :evil:

 

[Pomse2001]

This weapons is only made to trick people so sellers can earn big money on them.

The old repro was much better, because you could place them in water and ID most of the repro like that.

 

[chipsteak]

This wasn't a popular opinion but I saw typical quality repro is utterly inevitable. As sure as there is black market anything there will be repro Star Wars accessoeies and it's up to us,
( well the learned people on here, TIG and elsewhere ) to be up to speed.

These things however are crossing new lines. They are made with the intention of fraud and it's only due to learned collectors that they're being sold as repro but with the USP of 'so good you can commit fraud with them ' albeit more carefully worded.

As I said before, I got caught out with two of these Leia guns and got refunded thanks to the knowledge base on this forum. I think I may have a suspect Jawa blaster, mind.

Fraud, pure and simple. This is something I never considered your common old repro to be.

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

These things however are crossing new lines. They are made with the intention of fraud and it's only due to learned collectors that they're being sold as repro but with the USP of 'so good you can commit fraud with them ' albeit more carefully worded.

Fraud, pure and simple. This is something I never considered your common old repro to be.

I totally agree with this statement. I posted this on TIG and I still stand by it. Old Repro which was meant to be for those who could not afford the real thing is fine if that's your thing, but new Repro which is designed to fool is a different kettle of fish. Anyway here it is.

"Everyone has a different opinion on reproductions. For the most part and particularly on the forums people detest them. They have a negative impact on the collecting community as a whole making it extremely difficult to collect with 100% certainty. However, we must remember that there are some members of our community, old and young collectors alike, that are not as well off, who love the Star Wars Trilogy and toy line and who want to collect the figures, but who can not afford to buy a blue black Princess blaster for £60, a solid black Endor blaster or imperial blaster for £100, a pop-up Lightsaber for £200 or for that matter an original Yak Face for £300 - and for them the reproduction serves a valuable purpose. Who are we to deny them that right?

What we really need to do as a collecting community is stand up to the real problem, which is I believe is the people who are knowingly trying to pass off modern reproductions as originals. And I am referring to people like lingardpaul who has been selling hundreds of Millennium Falcon arms and balls as originals; paulgildin-6 who was responsible for a recent large batch of near perfect Princess Leia reproduction pistols flooding the market and joggers78 who is currently doing the same thing with Princess Leia, Jawa and Imperial Blasters. If we all report them as a community we will be playing our part."

 

[subzero]

If ebay won't stop them then maybe HMRC can, did anyone consider that there's a very high chance these casual ebay sellers might not be registered as self employed?, maybe HMRC could benefit from a little tip off :twisted:

 

[jay4]

i've noticed in the last few weeks that when on auction format the seller paulgildin uses his joggers ebay account to fraudulantly shill bid the prices up. Had a quick look and spotted at least 15 auctions where the joggers account with 330+ feedback was present on the paulgilden completed listings pages. Report all the ended listings where you see joggers33 and ebay will eventually limit selling on those accounts and any related, they might even stop selling rights period. From my experince shill bidding is the only type of report that ebays robots then reps take seriously. Get reporting those completed listings. Even if he only gets a warning from ebay it means he can no longer bid the prices up in fear of ban

 

[Snaketibe]

So not content with selling repro crap with a thinly disguised message that the weapons can be used to dupe people, they are also shill bidding to con those dubious customers that they do have? Wow, I didn't think this could stink any more than it already did!

I haven't commented much before on the whole 'Report Repro Sellers' threads, not because I am in favour of repros, but rather because in all honesty it's so rife throughout the hobby these days that I really don't think it can be stopped. The horse has long since bolted on that one, and I take no pleasure in saying so. For as long as Star Wars remains popular and prices insane, con merchants will try to exploit the situation by making repro crap. It's a horrible situation, but realistically there's sadly not much we can do about it. Kenner is now defunct (subsumed by Hasbro), Lucasfilm is now owned by Disney, and the original figures and weapons are long-since out of production, so whilst it almost certainly is copyright infringement, none of the above are losing any serious money currently because of it, and hence it's more trouble than it's worth for them to go after all the small-time individuals manufacturing the stuff. However, if shill bidding is taking place, that IS something eBay at least will care about, so reporting it should certainly do some good in at least this instance, so if it is happening, report away!