Home ยป G1 Counterfeit ID Guide

Counterfeit Metroplex ID Guide

Before we go into the guide, the counterfeit Metroplex was only made in the poster box version (i.e. it has the "Free Poster Inside" notice on the lower right), so obviously if your Metroplex is not the poster box variant, then it's not a counterfeit.  If it is a poster box version, then check for the following tells:

Box Differences:

  • The grid is barely visible on the black area of the counterfeit's box.  See title image above:
  • This is also true of the grid on the back of the box.  See example below:

  • The "Transformers" logo on the back of the box has a weird white glow to it.  See example above.
  • The toy picture of battle station mode on the front of the box is not the same image as the original's.  As you can see in the example below, while the images are very similar, they are not the same image.  For example, look at how much of the ramp door is covered by Metroplex's knee in the first image versus the second image.


  • The tech spec font is wrong.  The font for "5" on robot points is also wrong.  Like their Devastator release, there are probably more text issues than just this, but these were the most obvious to me.  See example below:  (Note that the different manufacturing info is probably not a difference to tell them apart, just a variant on the original box.)


  • Up close, the image looks blurrier and the colors and brightness/contrast don't look right, like a bad photocopy.

Toy differences

  • Some of them have mismatched grey plastic tones, some don't.