In 2005 chinese toy company Zhong Jin released their first high end counterfeit Transformers. These fakes can be extremely difficult to tell from the originals. Not only did they have the copyright stamps on the figures, but the boxes looked almost identical, complete with "Transformers" and "Hasbro" trademarks. The collector market was not ready for the Zhong Jin counterfeits, as demonstrated by AFA grading several fakes as originals. Two other companies, Kidi Toys and Cat-Toys have also tried their hand at replica G1's. It is unknown if these companies are related.﻿﻿



That said, it is possible to tell the fakes from the originals - most of this web site is dedicated to providing collectors with, or linking them to, counterfeit ID guides. If you're not sure if what you're buying is real or not, go through the steps in the ID guides to figure out if it's fake. The ID guides are a mix of highendtfs.com produced and those provided by other Transformer collectors, such as e3nine from TFW2005 and CoolYooYu of the Chinese Transformers message boards. Do reference the CoolYooYu guides where available, as the photos are extremely detailed and often delve into differences in the toys that the other ID guides lack.

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As of 2020, Zhong Jin continues to produce more counterfeits. Individuals have also commissioned runs of high end counterfeits of some of the smaller rare G1 Transformers, such as the Japanese Headmaster Warriors and the dino cassettes. It should also be mentioned that Zhong Jin counterfeits have also been made in several different unique color variants, like various clear, black, white and chrome versions etc. We also have a section on the website dedicated to the licensed early 1990's Chinese Transformers and how to identify them.