Huh? Not that I'm a big defender of KO's or anything (personally have no interest in inferior product), but why in the world is A3U getting their balls busted over this, but not any of the other stores that are selling KO's? Doesn't make sense.

 

I don't know the online marketplace all that well... How many other online sellers of knock-offs have Hasbro-Direct retail accounts?

Seems it would be a no-brainer in any kind of supplier agreement that the retailer agrees not to knowingly sell knock-offs. It's probably in their contract.

 

Did A3U ever ship those BT Prowl KOs and probably a couple of others, which were held up for the same reason?

 

so who does Tfsource get their product from?
I would assume directly from hasbro since they seem to carry the legions of everything that hasbro sells TF wise..

 

mods... please?

 

Echoing some of the comments I've made in previous "ZOMG! KO'S ARE TEH EVIL!" threads, I think it simply comes down to the fact that A3U are *so* well known for being a KO reseller, not to mention being Canada's, more or less, most popular online dealer for Transformers. I think that makes them stand out a lot more, and as such, makes them an easy target. Previously having an entire section specifically dedicated to KO's probably didn't help matters either.

But as I always say in threads like these, I could care less one way or the other about the rights & wrongs of KO's. They are what they are and people either buy them or they don't. But the point is that A3U doesn't exactly stay off the radar when it comes to these things, and if anything, is known to be THE western dealer for this stuff thanks to their avid presence & advertising on sites like this. I mean, 90% of upcoming KO figures that we know about are actually thanks to A3U's posts, so I'm sure it was only a matter of time before that eventually raised some red flags with Hasbro, even if it's just with their Canadian division. Plus it's a lot easier to go after legitimate businesses who have physical AND online stores with merchant accounts than it it is to chase down every guy in his basement who happens to have a website & PayPal account.

I personally think A3U should either just get out of the KO realm altogether or devise some sort of way of selling them completely separate of the A3U moniker. It would take all of 2 minutes to come up with a new business name alias, buy a new domain & setup a PayPal account. Being a exclusively online source, he wouldn't need to worry about a physical address either. It would take the legal flak off A3U and wouldn't cause anymore headaches for Hasbro or Takara than eBay sellers already do. It might not be the perfect solution, but I think it would sure as hell help.

Just my opinion. Again.

 

This post is about the most accurate a description of the situation as it appears now. Close the thread and leave everyone to read this post.

 

Done: kotransformers.com

Unfortunately in doing so, they blew away the single greatest internet resource for identifying these modern bootlegs. I was excited when Spencer announced he was planning to compare a loose Bootleg Prime along side an authentic one. I guess that fell through. Lame.

Also, just because that store doesn't have a physical address, doesn't mean he can't get in the same trouble as before. It's all a matter of time before it happens again. If the connection between that site and A3U is established by Hasbro he'll be even more fucked for violating the original C&D.

 

Yup, kotransformers.com used to have comparisons....but now it just sells KOs...wtf?

 

wow... I can't tell if that site is serious or not. Looks like a lot of work was done on it.

I do like how they kept the 'figure distinguishing information' on the sale page. So hopefully we won't loose it as a resource for those who need to sniff out issues on eBay.

 

lol metro * ahem* plex

 

Actually, very little work has been done. That's the same software I use for my store and to get that much installed is all point and click. It's fast and easy, and I'm sure that's all they wanted to get the Bootlegs moving again.

My favorite part is the character name obfuscation to deter, oh say, Hasbro from finding them. Shhh, itsa secret.

 

Whoa. Guess you slapped me down, huh?

Except, see the question mark in my post? I didn't know. The question mark makes it obvious I was not speaking with any expert authority. I was guessing. And if you read my question, I believe it's clear that I was of the opinion it's legal, and Hasbro couldn't go after them.

Reading comprehension FTW!

Do you have a specific problem with me, or are you just rude in general?

 

guys guys!

These KO threads are tearing us apart!!!

can't we all just get along?

 

I guess I should have acknowledged in my post that I *am* aware of this site as well, but obviously the big problem here is that Spencer blew his potential cover by letting us all know that he's the one behind it when he should have just kept quiet. So when I suggested an entirely new business name alias & website in no way connected to him or A3U, I meant in addition to this site as well. My bad for not mentioning it before.

This is true, but the chances of that happening are a lot less likely. I'm not saying it wouldn't or couldn't ever happen, obviously, it's just that the anonymity of it would undoubtedly *help*. With the ability to now keep all whois information for domain registrations private (even with .ca domains as of June) combined with the ability to run successful e-commerce sites without having to ever divulge your name to the public and use separate computers to mask IP tracking, it's almost scary exactly how virtual you can remain nowadays. Granted, the minute everyone figures out this product is coming from Vancouver, most people will be 100% certain it's associated to Spencer somehow. But at the same time, all the speculation in the world doesn't necessarily make things true. For all anyone knows, it could be other Vancouver residents like me or Tech Spec actually running the show, for example.

And even when it comes to things like copyright infringement of (most) physical product, companies are obligated to first issue an official cease & desist warning *before* they're even able to pursue full blown legal action. That creates a huge window of opportunity for someone to take advantage of and ultimately close before things potentially get caught up in litigation.

I'm not saying this is what Spencer or anyone else *should* do. I'm just pointing out that it *is* an option for anyone that desperate to sell KO's, no matter how shady it ultimately is in practice. Or there's always the easy alternate option of just creating an eBay store instead.

When all is said & done, though, I think Spencer is pretty much screwed when it comes to selling KO's anymore. He's now been red flagged by Hasbro themselves, so no matter who else might end up selling them out of Vancouver either instead or in addition to him, he'll likely be the one to get blamed anyway. That's why I think he should just get out of it altogether and leave the KO shit for the Asian eBay sellers to deal with. I think most of us would prefer A3U stays in business with the continued ability to sell official Transformers at equal or close-to retail price than to have their dealer license yanked at the expense of selling handfuls of (often) inferior KO's that we don't really need.

 

I believe he was talking to me. Sorry if I offended you by being wrong, but I thought it was the kind of thing where Takara basically said "you're adding to our product so we don't care." I didn't believe any of these where officially licensed. The only thing I knew was completely legal where those kits sold at conventions, because of the "1 day license" that is available in Japan. I didn't know takara had any relationships with people like Justitoys and Fansproject. Can you tell me where you got your info? I'd like to see what else I can learn from your source(I'm not being sarcastic, I'm eager to be constructive here) Anyway, I was stating my thoughts that the physical kits where legal, but maybe not the packaging and usage of licensed names.

 

Any form of personal attacks or name-calling will not be tolerated in this thread.

 

Actually, your posting reads as a sarcastic/rhetorical question, rather than a legitamate question. I replied in that tone.

I appologize if it was not intended that way.

 

I'm not sure how it reads as sarcastic, but no, it was not intended to be.

Sorry if I overreacted.

 

Guess it is time for me to step in and make a post. Just some information for me to share:

1. It was not Hasbro Canada that contacted me but it was Hasbro US. When I originally spoke with them, it was only their legal department. They were quite helpful and co-operative. We were singled out because someone reported us to them, specifically someone from tfw as all their resource was pointed back to this site and quoted several threads from this site. They asked us to cease and desist which I complied with by taking down everything from our site. I was under the impression that we had worked out that I could complete all transactions that I currently had but could not make any more new ones. The reason that everything is delayed right now is that I had to put a stop on everything coming in and then to get it started up again to fulfill my orders takes time. Everything in this industry takes time.

2. Why am I being singled out? Well, I was told it was because I was the only one with a complaint against me so other companies are free to continue to do so until someone complains about them I guess. They were kind of vague about this whole process. When asked about eBay I was told that there really is nothing they can do about that and don’t intend on doing anything in that avenue. Items from Justitys are NOT legitimate product and are also considered KO figures to Hasbro but they have not done anything about them as of yet. I have attempted to get a breakdown of what is ‘OK’ and what is not as Big Lots sells KO Devastator sets and they are a huge US chain. It does seem that what it comes down to is the use of the Hasbro Logo and directly inferring that the KO product is a Hasbro product.

3. I am not so much and advocate of KO s but do believe in keeping everyone informed. There are too many people out there selling these items as legitimate items and that pisses me off as much as everyone else. I am as much a collector as a retailer of Transformers and I have spent many years also collecting KO figures as well, new cheap items and vintage well made ones as well. My stance on these is that Hasbro will not stop them. I have been threatened into providing all information as to who the KO manufacturers are and know for a fact that Hasbro has done NOTHING to even contact them in the 4 months they have had the information. It is my opinion and my opinion only, that if you can’t stop something like this from happening then you should have a hand in attempting to control it. Not only did I provide a legitimate forum for selling these items but also provided vital information regarding them and the awareness for the fandom to tell the differences between these figures and vintage ones.

4. www.kotransformers.com will NOT ever be selling items. This is an information site only and while using the zen cart format, it is not ever going to be a selling site. This site will have all the same content as previous and I have many reviews still to go up but we here at Ages Three And Up have been busier than ever as we are opening our second store here in Vancouver on the weekend of May 30th and that is why I have not had much of an on line presence over the last month or so. I have been so busy trying to get the new store all set up and everything in order and it does not leave much time for on line browsing.