The print on the back is cutoff by the puch hole at the top. The spec card is almost to the top edge. The front print looks pretty good but if you look closely it is a couple millimeters too high toward the punch hole.

 

And it can't just be a badly printed specimen because...?

 

no sighting of Warparth or Gears in Winnipeg Canada, just some leftovers from previous releases

 

Anything is possible but from my experience of buying KOs this is the type of mistakes you see on the packaging.

 

ko's don;t normally show up this quickly do they?

 

Those minibot KOs have been around for years.

Edit: Can't check on a phone right now but those KOs might predate Hasbro packing everything in robot mode because reasons.

 

I have 12 of the Walmart reissues (2 of each) and they all have varying degrees of print erorrs, especially things being too close on one side. I also have 4 KOs of recent minibots (seaspray, blue BB, etc) and they also have errors.

The KOs have other problems though: slightly off colors in the printing, bubbles not in the right place, etc. Did yours come from China or from someone in the USA? If it came from the USA its most likely legit.

 

That packaging is specifically that of the current reissue, though, what with the bilingual English/French texts and the modern UPC barcode. While the toy itself (assuming it is a KO) might predate the reissue, the packaging does not. A replica 1985 Hasbro US card would be English only, and a replica 1985 Hasbro Canada card would have different French texts (and the additional French name "Trajecto"). Both would also have different UPCs. So unless a KO company employs a clairvoyant, the packaging is either a screw-up genuine card or a very recent counterfeit.

 

My local Wal-Mart had a couple Bumblebee's, several Gears, and a Warpath and a Swerve. The Bumblebee and Warpath came home with me, never really cared for Gears or Swerve. They still had several OP's too, but still wanting $50 for them, and no sign of Soundwave yet.

 

The package is definitely slightly darker then all the other minibots I own. It came from a usa seller who had listed several of them. He is recycling the same photos over and over in each listing. What I received is not what he has pictured. I must have looked through 200 plus sold listings of all the minibots and have yet to find a single one with my print defects.