Just thought to give you guys a heads-up on something that's happening here. I put the word "scare" in the title, because no one has any real concrete information yet.
I've mentioned before that there's a significant number of stores here that specialise in toys for the collector's market, and they have their own supply networks to get stuff that doesn't get to mainstream retailers. For products like Transformers, these networks sometimes enable them to get stuff faster and more cheaply than through Hasbro's official channels.
Recently, a number of stores have been selling DotM figures at huge discounts. Like, 3 Leader class figures for the price of 1. At first glance, the toys look legit. The packaging is identical, right down to the copy and print colours. But more often than not, the toys are problematic - missing screws, drastically loose joints, Left shoulder assembly on the right arm, etc.
Naturally, a lot of speculations sparked off in response to this, about whether these are elaborate knock-offs, or maybe someone in the factories was selling QC rejects on the sly and so forth. Further discussions have also touched on how the "knock-offs" have less refined prints on the packaging and so forth.
I personally acquired a Deluxe Top Spin and Voyager Prime before learning about this. I've been skipping most of this line aside from the HA Commanders, so I don't have that much to compare against. Nonetheless, those 2 figures feel like they were made of different, lighter plastic. Compared to my copy of TakaraTomy's version of Voyager Prime (the one with the trailer), the "Hasbro" version does feel lighter, the joints more "gummy", and the rubberised smokestacks are much stiffer.
While I doubt there's much of a chance that these iffy products will find their way to mainstream retailers over in the West, you may want to take note of this when buying online, especially in later months/years when the line has ceased production.
And, before any one asks... we don't have a culture or legally-provided right to return toys for refunds here. If the store owners allow customers to return or exchange the toys, it's purely a matter of goodwill.
