COUNTERFEITERS

Sometimes, what you think you see is not what you get. This is certainly the case with counterfeiting, an illegal activity which, in respect of the hobby, involves the production of fake miniatures. These fakes are of a far inferior quality to genuine miniatures and are sold through a variety of channels, but mainly through online auction sites and at car boot sales, usually without proper packaging. Counterfeiting can be done on a large scale, by professional criminals, or on a small scale, with single miniatures, by petty law-breakers.

From a distance these fakes may look like the real thing, but do not be fooled, up close you can see the distortions in the model and the concomitant loss of detail and sharpness that mark these models as poorly made copies. The Mark of the Counterfeit boxout below should give you some idea of how to spot fake miniatures.

Forged miniatures, and the nefarious characters that make them, although few and far between, are bad for the hobby and for hobbyists. The reproductions are of a poor quality and are usually made of a variety of unsuitable materials. One appalling batch that we have seen were made of plaster of Paris! Needless to say, we took appropriate action against the person selling those horrible imitations. Of far greater concern is the large amount of lead present in many of these copies. Games Workshop has not used alloys that include lead for over 15 years. Fake miniatures all too often contain large quantities of lead. You are probably even more unhappy about this than we are.

Sadly, the people that suffer the most from counterfeiters are innocent hobbyists. Indeed, this is what prompts hobbyists to write to us, for some people have bought miniatures in good faith, believing them to be genuine Citadel miniatures and have ended up with fakes. It makes us angry when we receive emails from disappointed hobbyists who have been duped by these criminals. Nobody wants to have fake miniatures.

Counterfeiting, in this case copying models, is against the law in most, if not all, countries around the world. In fact, in many countries worldwide, merely selling fake miniatures is illegal, even if the seller has not actually made the fakes.

Whilst there are only a few counterfeiters or groups of counterfeiters in operation at any one time, Games Workshop is intent on pursuing them all and taking action against them until they have been punished for their criminal activity. We are proud of the reputation that our miniatures have of being the highest quality miniatures on the planet and accordingly we take any damage to that reputation so seriously that we divert significant financial and other resources toward bringing these criminals to justice. It does not matter what country in the world that they live in, we will spend the money to bring counterfeiters to court to protect our hobbyists and the Citadel miniatures brand. After all, it has taken us many decades to ensure that Citadel miniatures are the best miniatures in the world and we do not want our hard work undermined by the actions of a few criminals. We want to bring these unpleasant people to justice, regardless of the cost, as counterfeiting ruins the hobby for everyone. We will pursue legal action against anyone that we believe is making or selling counterfeit Citadel miniatures.

THE MARK OF THE COUNTERFEIT Some counterfeits can only be identified by chemical analysis, but generally a counterfeit miniature will have some or all of the following properties: The model will exhibit loss of detail. This may manifest itself by a lack of hard edges. There may well be holes, or areas obscured by bubbling. The model might have two mould lines, showing that the model has effectively been cast twice. Parts of the model may be missing, especially fine parts such as weapons, equipment or faces. They will usually not be painted, but are likely to have been undercoated in white, black or any other colour, to hide the defects. The models are often multiple copies of the same miniature. They may be made of materials that the genuine miniatures were not ever made of, for example some counterfeiters will take our plastic miniatures and reproduce them in metal or vice versa. They are frequently sold in small plastic bags, not official Citadel miniatures packaging (be aware though that some counterfeiters actually reproduce the packaging). Counterfeit models often have a high lead content. This is apparent by the miniature’s extreme pliability and colour; usually a deep bluey-grey rather than silver. If someone has large numbers of older models for sale – be wary, he or she may be a counterfeiter. Genuine old Citadel miniatures are hard to come by in quantity. Accordingly, you should avoid buying cheap or old models without first ascertaining whether they are the genuine product, because you may well be being duped!

In fact, some of our keen eyed hobbyists may well have noticed a reduction or even cessation of the trading activity of some of the more suspicious characters that were notorious for this behaviour. In the last year we have taken action and brought cases against several counterfeiters, both big and small, around the world. We have also informed the authorities of the activities of many of those counterfeiters as, in addition to any action that Games Workshop may take, these lawbreakers may also find themselves facing criminal prosecution by the state. In many territories worldwide, counterfeiting is a crime that is punishable by imprisonment. It makes you wonder why they think that it is worth it, particularly when it is so difficult to escape justice.

To take action against counterfeiters, we collect information and build cases over numerous months and even years without the counterfeiters ever knowing that we are doing so. We even hire private investigators to obtain evidence for us. In most, if not all, cases the villains do not know that we are watching them. Indeed, we will soon be bringing more counterfeiters to justice based upon the evidence that we have collected within the last few years. Thankfully, our hobbyists provide us with eyes and ears everywhere so information is usually not too hard to come by.

Speaking of our hobbyists, we would like to give a big thanks to all of you who have sent us information, and continue to send us information, in respect of this illegal activity. If you know of a counterfeiting operation, or you suspect that you have been the victim of a counterfeiter, you can do your bit to put a stop to them by writing to us with that information. What we suggest is that if you encounter a counterfeiter, get as much information as you can before you contact us: where you saw them, what was being sold, where they are being made, etc. If you can, buy a small representative sample (taking care not to overly handle them as you do not know what they may be made of) and, if possible, get a receipt. If the products are indeed counterfeit, we will reimburse you for any postage costs and will try our best to replace any counterfeit with the genuine article. E-mail us with any information at:

Legalq@games-workshop.co.uk

Or write to:
Anti-Counterfeit Team
The Legal Department
Games Workshop Group PLC
Willow Road
Lenton
NG7 2WS

And remember that the counterfeiter has no regard for the law, the hobbyist or the hobby!