Fake Leia Pistol

lejackal said:

The timing of the 'discovery' coinciding with the huge uplift in the value of Leia figures screams repro to me

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That's very true!

I don't think I ever looked at my blaster from that angle. But I can take a look at my blasters to see if I have any that look like that one.

Others must have one from a childhood lot or one on a moc if it is original. I hope it is not a fake one that they are making better and batter just so they maybe can trick the collectors

Iv'e actually just purchased one of these yesterday from the same seller paugildin-6

He's sold 55 of these blasters within the last month and all of the feedback for it so far has been positive, and even from some buyers with a very high feedback score. I knew it seemed fishy with the amount sold and being sold at half price to what they usually go for but I was willing to take the hit with the hassle of returning it, just in case it was a genuine blaster after seeing all the good feedback for it.

I did ask the guy for much clearer pictures but they still looked a bit blurry when he replied with the pics, so I couldn't really see much detail, but I still took the risk. My blaster hasn't been dispatched yet, so iv'e just requested a full refund after reading this thread.

Also another note to add is I read the article about these blasters on TIG site, the date that article was posted was on 9th June, just looked at the sales history in the listing and the ebay seller dropped his price down from £26.99 to £19.99 right after that article came out, maybe hoping to keep the sales going. In my mind now if someone was completely convinced they possess originals from a legit source then they wouldn't be dropping their prices, I know I wouldn't if it was me.

I still don't think that the lack of a moc with one of these in it is proof that they are repro, that just means they were never distributed, no one has so far proved that these are repro 100%.

sparkysx said:

I still don't think that the lack of a moc with one of these in it is proof that they are repro, that just means they were never distributed, no one has so far proved that these are repro 100%.

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Is there actually any way to eventually prove these are genuine after all?.. I'd be kind of kicking myself if one day it turned out to be a genuine unreleased blaster after 'owning' one for 24hrs before getting a refund on it :?

I'm guessing the only way is to have Kenner themselves somehow verify it?

It would be Palitoy, and they are no more, so I think these can't be verified as fake or genuine at this time.

Ah sorry yes, I saw the picture of the bag of blasters on the TIG site showing a Kenner bag so I was thinking Kenner, I remember now they said Palitoy.

Palitoy did not pour/make any figures or weapons- they were all imported.

Back to Kenner then!

I bought two of these. The first, a blue black one, arrived the day I was setting off for holiday. I quickly checked it over and, happy with it, set off on hols. I noticed he had another for sale on eBay so contacted him again and he said he had a blue and a dark blue. I asked him if they were his last ones, to which he replied yes, and promptly purchased them both. While away on holiday I noticed he had another for sale, then another, then another...

Suspicion sufficiently aroused, when I got back home I picked up the two blasters and set about scrutinising them against variants 1-4 in my collection.

In my opinion the sharpness of detail leads me to believe it most closely resembles variant 1 on TIG - the others are nowhere near as sharp as variant 1 or this particular blaster. However, this blaster does not sport the vertical bar on the barrel, above the handle. The handle itself closely resembles variant 3 with the trademark slight bulge, but again this blaster does not have the two vertical lines or slight bulges further down the barrel that variant 3 has. In the end, what made me most suspicious, and might just be its downfall, was the near perfect straightness and smoothness of the barrel and its consistency in appearance close to the end. The others, including variant 1 just don't have this. Finally, when examining the blue black variant under light I could not replicate the partial transparency and blueness shown in the picture sent to me, or present on my variant 2 dark blue blaster.

I was going to begin writing a buyer beware post but noticed someone had beaten me to it, and low and behold the name of the seller eventually popped up too. At this point I contacted the seller and was told the same story now up on TIG. The buyer offered me and has given me a full refund. Now I've got it I am electing to add my thoughts here too.

Is this a reproduction?

It must be noted that at no point on the listing did the seller claim that it was 100% original, merely said that it had passed the TIG float test, drop test and light test. He sent me a picture of the gun indicating substantial transparency, but since he has multiple blasters there can be no definitive proof that the one shown in the photograph was the one received. The guy has been nothing but polite and obliging - However, this is my reasoning for doubting its authenticity:

- This does not match any of the known variants identified by TIG and one would have thought a version would have popped up on a moc somewhere, or even loose prior to this if it was truly the genuine article
- The seller has not put the story on eBay and has only mentioned it once a case for return has been started
- The seller is listing them one at a time and this could be as to not arise suspicion
- The seller has said they were his last items and this appears not to be true
- If they were genuine and the story is to be believed why would the original source of the weapons give them to an eBay member who started trading in April 2017 and not release them to a trusted source

Should we be worried?

If it is a reproduction and not the genuine article, then hell yes! I noticed that ScruffyLookingNH said there were tell tale signs that this was not the genuine article but you have to be an expert collector to spot these. While I don't profess to being an expert I have been collecting since 2003 and I was sufficiently rushed to miss these signs and pass it off as a genuine Princess Blaster. He also said this was a bloody good reproduction.

Let's be clear, this is by far and away the best reproduction I have ever come across. Past reproductions have been fairly easy to spot. Early reproductions lacked the finer details, such as no pattern on the handle of the Imperial Blaster, a raised bar on the Bespin Blaster, a raised bump on the Pilot Blaster, no circle on the Princess Blaster. Most of these also failed the float test. Later reproductions were too brittle and would often snap if pressure was applied such as the Bib Fortuna and Amanaman Staffs. The more recent reproductions passed the float test but were easily identifiable by the excess flashing and shiny black appearance. These on the other hand are near damn perfect. They are going to fool loads of collectors, new and old alike.

And as also mentioned it will only take a slight modification to the mould and we will never spot them. And if they can do it with the Princess Blaster whose to say they can't do it with all the others.

Let's pray it turns out to be an undiscovered original. Though the price of Princess Leia's will crash through the roof.

I've been meaning to take a few photos of my Leia pistols when I first read this thread a few weeks back...Finally got into my loft (sadly thats where all my Vintage toys are )...

Anyway all of my vintage toys are original including all the weaponary etc...(I no this cause they are all my childhood toys 8) )...

Here's a few photos of my Leia pistols ....

As you can see none of them have the square 'block mould' on the back of them

Russ...

I reckon there will be a day when people are sending off a Leia blaster to get it graded, just the blaster in a tiny little grading case :lol: :lol:

To me the one on the right when comparing it to the others looks repro, the back is totally different plus it doesn't have a centre seam like the other seven do. All seven have a thin line running all the way down them seemingly where the two piece tooling is put together, the eighth one looks like it's been made in completely different tooling which is new, it looks a little over engineered in comparison to the genuine ones.
Same with the three Russ J has posted a picture of, they all have a seam.

It does actually have too many major differences when you compare it to all the originals. I can't believe how expensive this weapon is though, iv'e just bought one for £45 last week, it has to be the most expensive piece of plastic iv'e ever bought with the ratio of cost to the amount of plastic you get for it lol.

Why is it so pricey now?, is it mainly because of the rarity of it?. This is the first time iv'e seen & handled one since I was a kid and was shocked to have forgotten how thin & tiny the thing is, so surely this weapon was lost and misplaced the most by kids?

I don't actually think the prices of these weapons are that crazy if your actually getting a genuine / original piece it's when your paying 40 odd quid for one and 6 months down the line it turns out to be repro which to be honest I think will and is happening now and not just with leia blasters ... imo many weapons that are believed to be genuine will come out as repro in time. So the work that you people are putting into identify these repros is crucial! So please keep up the great work

Well it looks like this seller ( paugildin-6 ) has had his 'Leia blaster' listing removed by ebay, I wonder if he had too many counterfeit complaints from buyers and reported him to ebay??

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-star-wars-weapons/282496529553?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=581651785582&_trksid=p2057872.m2748.l2649

Wow, just looked again but at his account this time and it seems he's either been suspended or banned...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/paugildin-6

:shock: any idea why he is not on ebay anymore ? has it anything to do with the blaster ?

Can't see it can be anything else. Last I looked he didn't have any negative feedback, but had had quite a lot of items returned as suspected repro. Must have been offering no quibble refunds as no negative feedback. Maybe eBay got suspicious.

He did instantly refund me too before he posted it out no questions asked, also others have said he easily refunded too, prob just trying to keep people happy like you say to not leave negative over it so he could carry on selling them.

So maybe the blaster is fake :?