[Den-O]

Sadly I have to report a bit of bad news about one of our favorite online bargain retailers. Mandarake, known for reselling various new and vintage products at discounted prices for years, has recently engaged in omitting information regarding restoration done to vintage toys. And not just low level restoration.

This information began circulating thanks to members of the Toy Box DX facebook group and has just been corroborated by a Mandarake employee today. The company has actively been fully repainting, repairing, and otherwise restoring numerous vintage tin toys, gokins, and other vintage action figures and selling them as authentic unrestored products. Reports have come in from several buyers who've noticed the restorations and had to return entire orders.

One order in particular, from a buyer whose name I can not release, had to be fully returned very recently. He luckily knew a Mandarake employee well enough that this individual was willing to disclose to the buyer exactly how many figures in his order had restoration. Of nearly two dozen vintage toys, only 3 or 4 were entirely authentic.

It was originally assumed to be only cosmetic touch ups but we now know the company has been fully restoring toys from the ground up to pass off as authentic unaltered product. While it primarily seems to be affecting higher dollar vintage toys that range from the 60's through the 80's the possibility that this could be happening to other newer figures is also highly likely at this point.

This IS NOT a case of Mandarake buying second hand collections with touch ups and unknowingly selling them. They are actively engaging in high end restoration and purposefully not disclosing it to buyers to make high dollar profits.