Chiba said:As long as the price is ridiculously low and it comes from a suspicious country it's not hard to identify a bootleg, but I wouldnt know it if someone sold it for a more common price and that's what I'm afraid of.
Hey Chiba, well, I think if you're worried about buying a fake pre-painted statue, you are generally fine. Especially when it comes to AOW fakes, there are hardly any. AOW has the serialized nameplates and the metal edge boxes. Also, the only way to really have a fake statue is:
- recasting a kit, and then painting it (but then no nameplate or box, and the weight is different too).
- making a mold of a statue, then casting a kit from that, and then painting it (wayyy too much work and hard to do)
In terms of possibly being tricked into buying a 1/10 Griffith on Horse recast, well that COULD happen I suppose. If someone had the original AOW box, with all the original photographs that are included, as well as all the instructions/papers, and wanted to stuff a recast in there, and then sell it, then YES, that would be a big scam. Let's hope that never happens to any of us!
But for pre-painted statues, I think you are pretty safe. =) As long as the nameplate is there and the AOW box is included, you are good to go.
And, if it's a LE version of a statue, like let's say a bloody version, and you're worried if some random guy just painted blood on it and called it LE, then check to see if the box has the LE sticker, and to see what the number on the serial plate is. If it's a low number (in most cases), this means it's part of the LE run. If it's a higher number, then could be a fake. Also, unless the custom work is EXTREMELY good, you can usually tell what's AOW, and what's not.