We had reported to us recently that knockoffs of our products were for sale at the Toronto Comicon, and were sold as the real deal when they weren’t. What is worse, the products were sold at premium price levels, not the cheap price points knockoffs normally go for. So the customers who were misled not only ended up with a rather poorly made copy, but also overpaid for it.
Despite paying lip service to protections against piracy on their website. Toronto Comicon’s parent company Hobby Star, has refused to cooperate with us in identifying the vendor. It seems to me as if they actually do not care that much about it. I’ve spoken all the way up the food chain, to the president Steve Menzie, and have not gotten any cooperation. It would appear to me that they are actually doing the opposite of what their website claims, I can only guess as to their motivation.
This lax oversight of vendors and dismissive attitude towards claims of infringement would make me question any merchandise for sale at their events, but for especially swords. If any of you did purchase a sword there, make sure it is the real deal. For our products it should be laser inscribed and come with a certificate of authenticity (and of course, compare the look and dimensions to the product specs we have). If it isn’t, you were probably ripped off, and hopefully you paid with a method that provides you recourse (such as with a credit card).