Hello,

I was recently caught out and unwittingly bought a fake figure on ebay.

I was looking for a figure to go with my model of a Hotchkiss H39. My favourite figure manufacturer is Hornet and Wolf, owned by Roger Saunders. I have been buying Rogers figures and head sets for many years, (I have no other connection to Roger other than this). I found the ideal figure from the Wolf range WAW39 WW2 French Tankman:
[IMG][/IMG]

As I like a bargain I looked on ebay and found one, with free postage from Hong Kong. The photograph on the listing showed the genuine box, the condition was listed as new and it was listed by an ebay Power Seller with over 3000 sales and 99.4% positive feedback which was very reassuring. I assumed it was old stock and he just wanted to get it off his hands and immediately bought it.

After I had paid for it with Paypal I reread the advert and noticed that it didnt have a box, yet a photo of the genuine box was in the listing. I was alarmed and checked his other resin listings and none of the ones I looked at had boxes. I emailed the seller asking if he was selling copies, to date there has been no reply.

I sent an email to Roger Saunders asking if he would look at the suspect figure for me when it arrived, Roger kindly agreed. In the mean time I bought the same figure from an authorised source in the UK so that I could compare it to the one from Hong Kong.

The figure purchased on ebay arrived after about eighteen days after I had paid for it. Upon opening the package I found a stout plain brown cardboard box containing the figure. At first glance it appeared genuine, but on closer inspection there appeared to be two mould lines on the right trouser leg and the fillets on the feet were incomplete. When I put it next to the genuine article the difference became apparent. The real one has sharper detail, is a different colour and is bigger which is a giveaway for spotting fake resin, also fillets were added to the feet in addition to the original ones.
Heres a couple of pics of the two figures, the genuine figure is on the left of each picture:
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]
I posted it to Roger and he confirmed it was a fake. I immediately lodged complaints with both ebay and Paypal.

In his emails to me Roger said:
There's no way of knowing how much damage copying is doing to genuine manufacturers -
but in my case I have already found that it is not worth while producing new figurines....

I feel saddened that Roger will not be producing new figures and angry that I have, albeit unwittingly, contributed to this situation by lining the pockets of an unscrupulous counterfeiter who I will not name, as it would give him publicity.

I am sadder and wiser from this experience and I hope that by posting this, others will not make the same mistake.

Regards
Mike

Please remove xxx from my email address.

I hate cheaters but heck one forum should be enough.

IMHO

Cheers

I am pretty sure there are some guys around here that dont look in every forum and just stick to their sphere of interest, so for me hitting them all is the best thing to do.

......expose these untalented scumbags to as many people as you can.
They are destroying the hobby by putting creative companies/manufacturers out of business.
Why not go to other sites and forums and warn the modellers there too!

Good on you Mike
...let us all be warned.

This crap is unacceptable and the scumbags responsible need to be put in the spotlight. One post on one forum isn't going to get to everyone.

As Ed says the more people that know the better.
Figure companies put a great deal of effort into producing their figures.
If its anything like my process.
Ive sculpted my own figures though amature in nature
and cant be compared to the professionals,
they do take a lot of work just for one figure
theres the research
the sculpting...this can take ages
just sculping a head takes hours and hours
and mines only amature stuff.
Preparation for moulding
making the moulds
and finaly casting
Then theres all the marketing
and the figure parts have to be numbered in some way
all complicated.
its so easy to take a resin figure and copy it
I was once tempted to copy resin figures for my own use
I could have saved a fortune
but ive always felt it to be wrong
and very disrespective to the original Artist
and believe me anything can be moulded.
Instead i buy them and i enjoy having a good look at them
totaly from an artistic point of view
The problem is i cant bring myself to paint them
so ill have to buy some more just to build
so my solution was to try to sculpt my own stuff
Is almost a separate hobby in itself
Figure companies do a great deal of work on a small figure
only to have some guy spend a few hours sticking it in a mould
and selling it a purely mechanical process
this is what makes figure companies particulary vunerable
So what can we do
What i do is only buy from big firms who are reputable and
well known agents
I cant think of anything else
accept if any of our members finds fakes just let us know
It does Pxxx me off though
regards Andrew

After reading this post I just had to give it a try and found the following seller has new items but no boxes. All H.K based as well.
Paul


http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/MegaModel-shop

and selling without a box of noted other people's stuff.

I must say he does have some balls.

But says items in USA????

Strange dude maybe a good knee cap therapy would help him.

he seems to have a great deal of stuff
i aint impressed
and all marked no more box

well we know about this one
thanks to the ml forums and our members
as i buy my stuff from Mike at Net Merchants and Hannets in London
and other well known uk sites
i had absolutely no idea this was so big
i knew it went on but not like this
regards andrew

GUYS,

Maybe if we Bomb E-bay with enough complaints... can we ban him from E-Bay ?? how likely is E-Bay to look out for th consumer & for Manufacturers of th REAL McCoy ???


ERIK



WHAT DO YOU CALL THE ASSASSINS THAT ACCUSE THE ASSASSIN???