Universe Knockoffs?

[DarkHyren]

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but arn't all Transformers distributed in English speaking countries the same, hence all the different country info on the packages we get here?
Considering anything I have bought here or from America has info for USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand I think that's about right.

I found these TFs which the seller is claiming are "Rare Variant Version Canadian Release".
Thing is, the deluxes are on the wrong backing packs and the voyagers are missing the tell tale "voyager class" logo on the front of the pack.
For the sort of low price it seems a bit too good to be something that's "rare".
So, real or fake guys?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=310186197631
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=310132509773
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=310132510469
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=310191516160
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=310191517240
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=310191517082

[Vector Prime]

Hmm... they definitely look very suspect

I've bought some Universe figures from Canada before and besides having a bit of French text printed in certain areas, the packaging and such looks virtually identical to the Australian releases.

They could possibly be just factory seconds, but who knows?

I think this may be plausible for the Deluxe ones attached to the incorrect backing cards (since Doubledealer sighted something similar in Brisbane recently).

The Voyagers, however, just look fake... they're missing the 'Voyager Class' text and the layout of the front of the box just looks plain wrong.

[mknell]

I have a feeling they all fake, like I can understand a wrong backing card here & there but not all of them, and the voyagers for sure without voyager class gotta be fake, though it's not like they are going for huge buy it now prices

[kurdt_the_goat]

TFWiki has an article about these Canadian box-shenanigans

The current Universe line also saw a strange twist for the trilingual packaging used by Hasbro for the Canadian and Central/South American markets: All the Deluxe Class figures only sport the character art of one "representative" toy per wave (Wave 1: Sunstreaker, Wave 2: Acid Storm, Wave 3: Ironhide) on the front of the card, regardless of which toy actually is in the packaging. (The artwork on the side of the bubble is correct, though.) The Voyager Class toys, meanwhile, feature no character artwork on the front of the box at all.

[griffin]

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but arn't all Transformers distributed in English speaking countries the same, hence all the different country info on the packages we get here?
Considering anything I have bought here or from America has info for USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand I think that's about right.

No. Hasbro do several different types of packaging for their different jurisdictions. The main ones are American packaging (which we usually get), Euro packaging, and Canadian packaging (which has french and often spanish for Mexican release as well).

Until mid-Beast Wars, we used to get Euro packaging, which has multiple languages on it, and often no character info. Since then, we've been getting American packaged toys.
Except - the recent Animated Deluxes and Bumper Battlers, and Powerbots Jazz were Canadian packaged (either sent here by mistake, or dumped here as excess stock). And the TF2 Bumblebee Vs Soundwave 2-pack is the non-American version because the mailaway Ravage will only be offered through Hasbro US. And anything packed with a DVD is usually not released here in US packaging because the DVDs are region 1.

As for those Universe toys, it is possible that they are Canadian, but the mixed up card art to toy, is a bit odd (but may be common in Canada). Ask the seller, as they have been on ebay for 11 years, and don't appear to list anything else that looks fake.

[DarkHyren]

Hmm, well the thing about the deluxes with the wrong backing cards checks out as kurdt said, though it doesn't explain the voyagers (I wouldn't consider the "voyager class" logo to be "missing character artwork").
Maybe quality control is just rubbish for Canadian boxes, I suppose we'll put it down as that.
Thanks for the help.

[langzixinxin]

Whether they are really located in Canada it doesn't matter. But very possible they are what I called "factory version" before.


Just imagine, in chinese factory back yard, there might be piles of these stuff that hasbro don't need them anymore and piles of cards hasbro don't need them either. So some guy would go and pay factory to buy a truck load measured by kilogram and pack them somewhere else, helping factory clear up space.


Technically, they are genuine product from same factory, just mistreated.

They maybe also are:

a, wrong computer programing made them fitted in wrong card on machine.
b, discarded as they did not pass "sampling quality test", but sample test does not mean every product is faulty, right?

So they are real toy inside, but you have much higher probability/risk to get a faulty one.

So don't buy them.