Question about Chap Mei products

[fletcha]

Hi everyone, first off let me say that this forum is great.

I'm a longtime action figure collector who recently got turned onto Chap Mei. I found a few loose figures in a lot from a garage sale and wanted to find out more about them - which led me to this website. The information and photos on here are very informative and very inspiring towards getting more Chap Mei stuff for my collection.

However, one thing I have noticed while looking for Chap Mei sets here in New Zealand is that there appears to be a lot of stuff that is generically labelled and with rather poor paint jobs. The figures, vehicles and creatures are the same as many of the ones I've seen on this website, so it's clearly Chap Mei stuff, but nowhere on the box is the Chap Mei logo or name (the only constant wording is "Made in China"). And the paintjobs vary from sloppy to downright embarrassing.

My question is this: Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon in other countries? And if they have, do you think Chap Mei's quality of work has just slipped, or are other companies (whether toy companies or department stores themselves) taking the Chap Mei molds and creating their own versions? Maybe Chap Mei sells them the unpainted figures and they get painted then?

Honestly, I'm baffled. The vehicles and creatures (dinosaurs etc) seem to be good quality, but the minute paintwork on the action figures is very disappointing.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Ghouldrool]

Nov 27, 2014 0:49:39 GMT -5 fletcha said:

Hi everyone, first off let me say that this forum is great.

I'm a longtime action figure collector who recently got turned onto Chap Mei. I found a few loose figures in a lot from a garage sale and wanted to find out more about them - which led me to this website. The information and photos on here are very informative and very inspiring towards getting more Chap Mei stuff for my collection.

However, one thing I have noticed while looking for Chap Mei sets here in New Zealand is that there appears to be a lot of stuff that is generically labelled and with rather poor paint jobs. The figures, vehicles and creatures are the same as many of the ones I've seen on this website, so it's clearly Chap Mei stuff, but nowhere on the box is the Chap Mei logo or name (the only constant wording is "Made in China"). And the paintjobs vary from sloppy to downright embarrassing.

My question is this: Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon in other countries? And if they have, do you think Chap Mei's quality of work has just slipped, or are other companies (whether toy companies or department stores themselves) taking the Chap Mei molds and creating their own versions? Maybe Chap Mei sells them the unpainted figures and they get painted then?

Honestly, I'm baffled. The vehicles and creatures (dinosaurs etc) seem to be good quality, but the minute paintwork on the action figures is very disappointing.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hi Fletcha!

Unfortunately, those sound like bootlegs, which is a HUGE problem for Chap Mei. I'm from the Netherlands and bootlegging practically killed Chap Mei here, for there were times when our toy stores would carry it in bulk, but then started importing lesser quality and cheaper product as well, mistaking it for the real deal. It got so bad that there were sets produced that cpoied everything - the box art as well as the toys themselves and yeah, some are really hard to tell apart from the actual stuff. Now that Chap Mei is also working with outlets like Toys R Us they don't always put their name on the product anymore, either...making it even harder to tell the original from the fakes.

If you have any more questions, feel free to post them!

[fletcha]

Thanks for the quick reply Ghouldrool, and for the information.

I guess it makes sense that what I found are bootlegs, as the attrocious paintjobs are on par with other bootlegs. I bought a Dino Valley set and have ended up repainting the figures. I'm no artist, so they still don't look that great, but a lot better than they originally did.

I'm not discouraged from buying Chap Mei stuff, but I'm going to stick to stuff that has the Chap Mei logo on it and hopefully that will prevent me from getting bootlegs instead of the real mccoy. I'll let you know how I get on!

[Cammy]

Hi there. I've also seen these cheap bootleg sets here in Australia, on the same shelves as the genuine Chap Mei sets. The paint and even plastic quality is way below the standards of the real stuff, I went all over the coast to every Kmart trying to find a single set with the grey & purple T-Rex and every one was either poorly put together or had such a bad paint job that the eyes were hardly ever painted in the right spot. I didn't buy any of the bootlegs in the end, as I determined these things must be knockoffs, not the real thing. Thankfully Kmart has a few real sets, and so did Toys R Us before they closed and I got a couple (branded as Animal Planet). If you use your intuition when looking at the different sets in the shops, you'll know which ones are real and which are fakes. I remember when I was in New Zealand last year I was very disappointed with the high prices of branded toys (LEGO is atrociously priced) and the abundance of poor quality Chinese bootlegs when I visited the toy stores.

If you have trouble finding real Chap Mei playsets over there, maybe I could buy a few here and send them to you since postage between our countries has got to be cheaper than from anywhere else in the world.

I searched for Dino Valley on eBay and found more bootlegs, this is the T-Rex they have in my Kmart, but in a different set:

And some others which are surely bootlegs too:



I would definitely avoid buying this possibly toxic crap. I'm wondering if I should write a letter of complaint to Kmart incase they're unaware they're buying bootleg stock, or at least to voice my disapproval. Not sure if it's worth it though.

[Avian]

hey cammy I have been looking for these figures for quite some time, does kmart sell these figures in a smaller package? any chance of me purchasing these figures from you/

my email is [e-mail]
or add me on facebook allan Ludwig gadbois

I live in the united states

[Cammy]

The only Dino Valley sets at my local Kmart are the large, authentic Chap Mei gate set, and one smaller bootleg set of a guy and a small purple & grey Tyrannosaurus Rex with a tent and perhaps a vehicle and a smaller dinosaur. But they also have soldiers and rescue vehicles and figures, but no figures on their own. Most of these are bootlegs. I can take a photo of the shelves for you, if you'd like to see what's available. I don't know why you would want bootlegs though, they're pretty poor quality.