I reckon they are not KO's at all. These could be rejects due to their oddities here and there.

 

this.

 

These 'KOs' on ebay are very cheap. I'm probably going to pick one up now  

 

wink wink*  
I guess I shall try to pick one ''KO'' Human Alliance Barricade up too..

 

Just opened my KO HA Barricade. I'm quite impressed. Joints are reasonably tight. Plastics are OK, not the brittle ones like in the previous KO. I think it's pretty decent for its price

 

I emailed an ebay seller, who's been around for a while selling Transformers. I was interested in purchasing a HA Barricade from him for a decent price. His reply about HA Barricade was simple and direct "There are no KO or fake version for the Human Alliance Barricade." .................. Is it entirely possible that the Chinese sellers online all have authentic pieces and maybe they are just a warehouse find? There is yet to be any hard evidence on whether or not this has been KO'd. I'll be purchasing one of these 'KO's' soon in any case.

 

Sorry to drag this out of the depths. I bought 2 of the KOs around a year and a half ago, but have always wanted an original. My Girlfriend bought me another HA Barricade for Christmas, but I'm unsure if it's a KO or original.

When I compare the KO box to the ? Box, the colours are ever so slightly more saturated on the KO.
On the inside of the box, where the 'America' is written on the plane the KO cuts the C in half, where as the ? Box it cuts on the A, with the C untouched.
The KO plane has 5 windows on the right, the ? Box has 7.
The instructions on the KO are ever so slightly darker, with the ? Instructions showing more detail in the black and white pics. And the purple on the instructions are the ever so slightly more red.
Should the instructions have come in a bag? Neither of these did.
On the ? Box every tab on it is taped. The KO only has tape at the top where it says Human Alliance as it fades into red.
The big 'Human Alliance' on the plastic part of the box are painted on on both.
No other paper work other than the instructions came with both.

The only differences I can find on the toy it's self are:
The Decepticon badges on the front fenders on the ? HA Barricade are painted with metallic paint. The KO is a non-metallic paint.
Now onto the infamous L in the 'Police' on the rear spoiler lol. The ? Has the split exactly in the middle of the L if you are going by the bottom on the L. The KO is more to the left of the letter.
The 643 on the car roof is better on the KO, the ? 643 is more curved, with the 6 & 3 being warped.
On the KO the light bar is clearer and more red than on the ?. ? Is more of a cherry red (more pink).
Again the eyes on the KO are much more red than on the ?
Also the KO head has the tell tale missing eye brow paint app, but the ? has it painted. I watched a chinese vid about KO HA Barricade and his had both brows painted.
Should he have a 5 digit code on him somewhere. If so where should it be?

? Frenzy has much more flashing than KO Frenzy.
? Frenzy's back and torso is not as sharp as the KO.

So I know the KO is a KO, but what is ? Is it a KO version 2?

 

Maybe the one you thought was a KO actually wasn't, but you're "?" Version actually IS a KO??

 

The KO was listed as a KO in the auction when I bought it. The ? wasn't listed as KO, but was from China.

 

Did anyone save these pictures?

I bought one from Amazon and am having a heck of a time identifying it. The windows and "America" on the card are cut off, but the spoiler has the split down the middle of the L and the box was fully taped on all flaps.

 

I've reupped the pictures;

Righty, some photos, these are straight from the camera, so forgive the load times. If you want me to change them so they'll appear faster on your PC, no I don't care, buy a faster PC.  

Pics of the KO in package, I can't directly compare, as I don't have the original, but the print appears slightly lower quality than normal, as if it was run from a high end laser printer rather than a professional printers. I think, but perfectly passable.













Some things to note, in all my previous HA stuff, the 'Human Alliance' white writing is a sticker stuck onto the plastic box front itself, here it is painted on. You can see oh so slight imperfections on straight edges on the letters.



Also, the tape application on the sides is shoddy, one big piece to cover the corners. Something else I noticed, the edge of the front Barricade image is folded around the corner of the box, I think maybe the plastic canopy is slightly smaller?



Instructions, front and back. No idea is they're different or not.





Closer look still tied in, tied in using twist ties, Frenzy is held in with one of those transparent rubber bands. The only difference I can see is the twist tie is noticibly further forward on his bonnet/hood on the KO than on the TFW resources pic.



Down to the nitty gritty, car mode is pretty much impeccable. Nothing stands out and says 'KO' to me. Shots all around for you. Only thing that might be a clue is his rear panel between the spoiler and window sits proud, but that just might be mistransformation. :/ Oh, and the 'Police' on the spoiler is not centred, on the official version the break appears to be in the middle of the 'L' in POLICE, on the KO the break is right on the vertical bit of the 'L'.













Frenzy himself is a bit of a mess, very floppy legs and won't stand by himself. I'm sure it can be fixed if I tighten the joints. I wonder if I should start a thread asking how do I tighten joints on a Transformer?





Robot mode. No problems getting it into robot mode, feels solid. Only thing that might be 'different' is the gray crotch piece that slides in to secure the lower part of his body was a little tight going into the assigned hole. But it does go in after a little coaxing. Oh and the spinning wheel of doom didn't pop out when I pressed the fuel cap button, after a little wiggling it springs out, but doesn't work from the button. Something to note.



Some other things I noticed, some pins don't seem to be fully inserted, nothing major as everything still works fine. The worst one I could see is his right shoulder pin, its hard to see from the picture (auto focus FTL) but it does protrude noticibly more than on his left hand side.



A small stress mark on the two piece gray plastic underneath the chest/bonnet/hood. It actually doesn't look flush (ie not pressed together) so I'll look into that a little more later, but this is pretty much how he is out of the KO package. There's a few (and only a few) production imperfections, a couple of those stringy bits of plastic that are left behind (if you look closely at the front of the car, the ram bar has a little diagonal bit of plastic, thats not a mark, thats a stringly piece of plastic) and marks where parts were cut from the sprue. But nothing major, and indeed, nothing I've not seen on official products every once in a while.



All in all, if I didn't know it was a KO, I would quite easily overlook it and think it was original myself... I think the easiest way to spot this is probably from the packaging, the side of the Barricade pic being folded around (doesn't seem to be like that on the official one) and the placement of the twist ties. Also the 'Human Alliance' logo, is it a sticker on the original? Because the painted logo on the KO packaging will be a dead giveaway.

Compare it yourself to the official one and play spot the difference.

Barricade with Decepticon Frenzy - ROTF Human Alliance - TFW2005

Anyway insane that this is a KO.

Edit
Something possibly major I noticed. This figure was never released in the uk, but the box bottom mentions Hasbro UK and Australia... its the UK bit that sticks out to me.

 

Good work Tikgnat.

From the other thread it was pointed out that the grill on the KO won't have a section sticking out. From what I can see in your pictures, your's is also missing the same section: