Quote Originally Posted by Ralph Wiggum View Post
Anyone consider buying a KO G1 toy from China to scavenge for parts? I’m thinking of repairing my G1 vintage Hound who needs a few bits and pieces, and notwithstanding the difficulty in sourcing parts, the postage costs are ridiculous.
I ordered some KOs a few years ago when a lot of noise was being made about them emerging because I wanted to see what the quality was. I found that plain plastic cast parts were almost the same but not strong as genuine (more prone to stress fracture), chromed parts were inconsistant (sometimes indistinguishable from genuine, sometimes flaky, sometimes the chrome didn't even cover the whole part) and the die-cast metal was generally a bit rougher than genuine. Also the overall quality differed dramatically. The insecticon I got was scary accurate to the point where I had to be careful with a side by side comparison that I remembered which was the real one. Snarl on the other had had poor chroming, loose joints, an unfinished texture to the metal and the weapons didn't fit the fist holes.

I would tend to agree with Gok though. I have a genuine G1 Hound, however the joints are loose and he's clearly seen some rough play, and a book-style reissue. The book style re-issue is indistinguishable from the genuine G1 and is more fun to play with because he doesn't feel like he's going to collapse! I don't know what reissues cost these days, but I suspect that ordering a KO would be a significant fraction of the cost of a legit reissue, and the KO would be a gamble anyway.

Whatever you decide, good luck with the restoration