Hi guys, I am relatively new to this forum but i've found in my short time on here the views and knowledge of people on this site truly incredible, I have really enjoyed reading and viewing posts and collection photos by many of you, fascinating stuff.
But I need some help, having been an on/off collector of vintage star wars figures for some 30 years now I have recently been trawling the internet for some of the last 17 that I need and have found a seller on ebay offering 14 imperial gunner custom cast reproductions, nothing untoward from the seller but I thought it was largely repro weapons that are flooding the market not figures, so my questions are; What are custom casts, are all the vintage figures reproduced like this and how do you tell the difference between a genuine figure and a custom cast figure ?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as it's putting me off any future purchases.
Thankyou for looking.

Have you got a link to these custom cast figures. It doesn't make sense to fake a $30 figure :scratch:

Those figures are really nothing to worry about - they are crappy custom casts that probably look a lot worse in hand than they do on the pictures (but they still look crap in pictures) - If someone were to reproduce Vintage figures as accurately as people do with weapons it would be a costly process (having to make moulds that from existing figures) and to be honest - there are so many figures out there its really not worth the hassle.

If a custom figure is cast using a vintage figure the result would be a smaller figure and the marks from the mould would probably transfer over to the figure, not forgetting paint matching etc

It's likely those figures on ebay are just one piece figures and not heads, torsos ,legs and arms

Don't worry is what I am trying to say

This is the first I've heard of an Imperial Gunner custom like this. Like Joe said though in most of these cases you can tell from pictures. I know I've seen Yakface and Boba customs done in odd colors and things, but I don't recall any of them looking exactly like the vintage figure.

The most common custom cast figures that I've seen are versions of the Unproduced 2nd series of Droids and Ewoks. Which I'll admit those ones look pretty good, but I'm sure there are still ways to tell if you know what to look for.

Vialli sent me the auction link, so I thought I'd mirror the pictures here. From this far away shot it is certainly hard to tell they are recasts. It's be nice to see a closeup of one.




and here's the description and auction link

Quote :

Vintage Star Wars Army Builder Set

These are NOT real Last 17 Palitoy figures. They are custom-cast reproductions.



14 x Imperial Gunner Figures

These are superb custom-cast figures

In pretty good, played-with condition

11 come with repro guns





These look cool!

A great addition for any collector!

I honestly don't think you would be fooled close up- there's a reason you he put such a small picture IMO.

1.Size will be all wrong
2.Articulation will all be wrong ( or not even there)
3.Material used will be wrong

However cheap and cheerful Kenner figures are the tooling was still expensive and complicated so you just can't compare a fake cast to a real production line figure.

BTW- not saying YOU think they could be hard to tell apart Shawn - Just in general for anyone worried

Don't worry guys .

Thanks for doing that for me Shawn, I had just bought an Imperial gunner online when I came across this auction and I began to wonder if i'd done the right thing, without the benefit of being able to study the figures close at hand a photo of one of these figures on it's own would have fooled me, that's why I asked the question.
Thankyou for help again Shawn.

Perhaps someone on ebay can contact the seller for a better picture? (posing as a potential buyer of course) and post it here for all to see.

Joe_O wrote:

I honestly don't think you would be fooled close up- there's a reason you he put such a small picture IMO.

1.Size will be all wrong
2.Articulation will all be wrong ( or not even there)
3.Material used will be wrong

However cheap and cheerful Kenner figures are the tooling was still expensive and complicated so you just can't compare a fake cast to a real production line figure.

I think the same and agrre (besides the size thing).

I close-up you will notice:

- wrong material (the size can be the same. There is materials that dontshrink will hardening)
- no articulation (I also think they are casted in one piece)
- and most important: no emblems! These are very hard to make. You would need a correct mask to spray all these...


I dont say its impossible, but very expensive to do a good fake. Selling a lot you need then

I wouldnt worry at all looking at these

BTW: This is illegal! These arent customs...this is near a "massproduced" bootleg from a Kenner figure....an illegal copy of a copysaved figure/mold etc.. So...if it happens more often...maybe someone should point ebay or Kenner/Hasbro or Georgyboy to this!

Joe_O wrote:

Perhaps someone on ebay can contact the seller for a better picture? (posing as a potential buyer of course) and post it here for all to see.

I contact the seller who forwarded me some pictures (which i had to clean up as best i can) and he also provided a brief description that i have added to picture 1.

I though REPRO /Custom Cast figures were limited to Blue Snags but i guess that's not the case these days.

Well I know the ovner of the Imperial Gunners, and I asked him about the figures. Here is what he replied:

"
I had the customs made about 2 years ago, purely to add to a ROTJ diorama [the Emperor arrivng at the new DS walking down from the Imperial Shuttle - a classic figure set up].

The people on the forum seem a bit obsessed with saying that the size of the figure are a smaller size. They aren't, they are identical. They are of a different type of plastic, though - much harder.

The arms and legs have articulation, but some are quite stiff. I don't think the heads turn [I can't remember off-hand].

They were made for me as a one-off. There aren't hundreds of fake Gunners around, just my 14 I guess...

They look pretty good and work as background diorama figures really well, infact I don't think most people would even notice that they weren't genuine if stood in the background. The lack of arm insignia is the major give away although the insignia have nearly worn off my original Gunners as well.

Hope that helps a bit Michael.

"

So no big production of custom imperial gunners just the 14 for diorama use.

if they sell good....who knows! (They look good IMO)

The molds he still have I guess! Be prepared! An expert can make a spray mask for the emblems and : baaaaammmmm!!!! We have a problem!

IMO to get a proper comparison you would need better quality pictures of things like the detail, the neck and limb joins, the COO area and all next to an original gunner, I still think you would see these as fakes in your hand.

I am pretty sure there would be some size difference, however small it would be there and could be measured - it would be almost impossible to recreate something exactly like the Vintage figures unless you had the money and access to industrial tools to do so on a large scale (something i don't want to happen)

Well Wolff you are right. At the moment there are problems in the GI Joe line with custom cobra officeres and cobra soldiers. The customs are made so good that you almost cant tell the differens. even the cobra logo is neer the original. I realy don't know how to see it, but a GI Joe collector can tell the original form the custom in the albow joints.

Joe_O wrote:

IMO to get a proper comparison you would need better quality pictures of things like the detail, the neck and limb joins, the COO area and all next to an original gunner, I still think you would see these as fakes in your hand.

I am pretty sure there would be some size difference, however small it would be there and could be measured - it would be almost impossible to recreate something exactly like the Vintage figures unless you had the money and access to industrial tools to do so on a large scale (something i don't want to happen)

Remeber.....you can sell hundreds of them BEFORE anybody can get these in hands! I have no doubt that these can be identified easily in hand!

Also please think of all the newbies! Really...rember back the last 5 years what was taken for real from "some guys" out there because they just dont knew better!

Ahh.....I know...I overreact......Im a bit paranoid today.....I just saw the new bleaching thread and U-grade ship thread on RS and Im done for today. This all makes me sick and sad!!

Yep that is true but what platform would someone be able to pump out 100 of these without someone noticing?

Surely not ebay or the forums, I would notice 100 imperial gunners from the same seller in a heartbeat and if he wanted to do it slowly over many weeks the first sold would reach their buyers before he sold 20.., perhaps an online shop? hmm maybe.. but I don't know if anyone would fall for it.

Let's hope whoever made these (if not the seller) destroyed whatever home made mold he created and doesn't intend to do so again, its possible the collector just went to a plastics company or knew someone that worked for one that had access to tools to do this as a favour- if so then I think its less likely that these would be anything to worry about as far as any more being produced.

The danger here is- who will buy these and use them to scam people ?

The auction is for a bunch, if a scammer buys them one at a time - I think the current seller has a duty to just get rid of these tbh...

**Prays for any newbies buying Imperial Gunners in the next few weeks to do their homework and ask questions!**