There are several listings for copied casts of Bravo 6 figures on ebay. It is coming out of China, Here is one item number:
330489817508
DO NOT BUY FROM 1st.foto

I have reported each one, I encourage others to do the same.
I love the fact that Bravo 6 is doing such great work and want him to continue.

S~

This guy rips off Bravo6 figures and Young Miniatures busts as well.

Unfortunately, eBay will not do a thing until a copyright owner claims his rights himself using VeRO system. I know Vladi from Bravo6 is trying to stop this, but I'm not sure if Young is doing the same...

Mario

Hi

Ebay will do nothing if you are not the actual manufacturer of these figures. It will be down to Bravo 6 to get these listings removed.

As an individual all you can do if you see any copies or what you believe to be copies on ebay etc. is to contact the manufacturer of the items and leave it in their hands.

Alan

I sent an email to Bravo 6 letting him know. I encourage others to do the same. I don't want to see them go under as their work is INCREDIBLE and well worth the money.

It is very easy and fast for the copyright owner to
pull these auctions off eBay through their VeRO system.

eBay are a bunch of twats.

Counterfeit goods (not just figure kits) are regularly posted up on the site by pirates. eBay KNOW they're fakes, and yet they refuse to do anything about it until and unless the copyright holder complains.

But you try selling an old copy of Playboy or Fiesta or something similar, and they'll remove the auction in a heartbeat because it "breaches the rules" (that's certainly the case on ebay.co.uk and ebay.de, I believe ebay.com are a bit more tolerant).

What kind of message does that send out?

- Steve

The problem with this sort of activity is that ultimately it hits the sculptor and thats the lifeblood of this hobby.

Without the quality they produce we wouldn't have the great range of figures that we have now.

I know its seen as a victimless crime, but I can assure you that its not.

You are so right on this.
Let me give an example: I am sure you all know of Mr. Roger Saunders
from Hornet figures. Some years ago, I asked him why he was not sculpting
any new figures. One of the reasons was because of the fakes. He said
it was just not worth it. So there you go. We are not seeing any new full figures
from one of the greatest figure sculptors from our time because of the
buying/selling of counterfeit figures. So who's the victim here?

How do you know they are copies and not just selling stock supplied legitimately

Paul

Well only the most naive person would think that someone from China, selling resin figures dirt cheap, and not listing them under the manufacturers name wasnt selling fakes.

so its just an assumption then

The only "real" evidence would be buying from the guy and seeing the piece in person. However, as Rob said, getting over 10 figures from Bravo6 (each is about $15) and selling them on eBay for $5 a piece... repeating the procedure over and over again. Well... I think we all know what's going on.

Mario

Paul

It's a well known fact that regular buyers of resin figures will always look to see what brand the figure is. Some are sculpted and fit together better than others. Brand names sell, and every legitimate dealer/seller puts the manufacturers name because they know this will attract potential buyers. Indeed for example I regularly search Ebay using the name "Alpine Miniatures" as a search choice, because I know these figures are excellent, but only buy genuine figures, correctly packaged.

Even this fact is used by one crooked seller who puts not only the manufacturers name but an image of the original box art but when you read the description it always says "no more box". Why? because its reasonably easy to make castings of figures. You can even print copies of the box art and include that by using a scanner and cheap printer, but making a replica box is an altogether different matter. They are all recast, counterfeit copies.

If the seller mentioned in the first post was selling genuine figures they would have no problem in describing them by their correct name and serial number, in fact this would be a positive selling advantage rather than a drawback, so why not do it ?.

There is a reason why resin figures cost what they do, and you'll find they all sit around the same price levels dependant on several factors. Repetitive selling of figures at well below market value doesn't need great detective skills to figure out what is going on, especially when cast in the wrong colour resin to the genuine ones and not coming in original packaging.

Alan

Hi

In case you need any further convincing I've just had a look at some of the previous sales. Again no manufacturers name and in the case of several this would have attracted potential buyers and a higher selling price than achieved, had they been genuine.

But the big give away was the figures were sold made of resin, where as the genuine original is cast in white metal/pewter. Nuff said.

Alan

I've even tried to contact the seller to ask if the figures were genuine & every time the seller has failed to reply! I wonder why!
The guy is a faker...& a tosser!

If this guy has a licence to cast Bravo6 figures he wouldn't have problems calling them "Bravo6 figures" in his eBay store. These figures are not original and Vladimir Demchenko, the owner of Bravo6, confirmed that.

I hope you have understood well.

Mario

I've been following this thread and maybe it's a language thing but I have no idea what your post means

That makes two of us

Well, obviously it is hard to understand...

I know many companies outsource their work to China, since production there is very cheap. But the end product is always created under a specific licence and is properly marketed, with the brand name and all the other information which helps customers know the product is legit. Working in a pharmaceutical industry, this is very important for our own medicines some of which are outsourced and produced in China. So, you can say I'm informed as well.

But what does it have to do with this tread? This is about stealing from sculptors to make cheap resin copies and sell them for profit. Why is this so hard to understand?

Mario

...Juan.That's one of the negative effects of "globalization" I think....

Cheers

l bought a few of these figures from ebay then soon realized what was going on, and 90% turned out CRAP casts,so they ended up in bin or the spares box.
YOU WOULDN'T BY A DVD FROM A CHINAMAN,DON'T BUY RIP OFF FIGURES FROM ONE!