Help identifying a figure

[Gomek]

Hi, could use a little help here.

Normally sellers, and especially dealers, are very good about identifying figures as customs. I buy a decent amount of customs and can’t remember anyone purposely trying to pass off a custom as the genuine thing. So it recently struck me as odd when  I found two separate dealers selling the same Cristiano Ronaldo minifigure, which I had never heard of,  both claiming it’s a rare authentic Lego figure.

Thing is I can’t find mention of it on either Bricklink or Brickset. (the Firestar link also seems to have an item number 42147 which does not come up anywhere) And another dealer of rare figures I have bought from has not heard of it either. Any information would be appreciated.

[deraven]

Well, looking at the actual pics on the auction page, the printing on the figure it's even remotely up to Lego standard.  And no info on a Ronaldo Lego minifig?  If it was out there, there'd be plenty of references for it.  Pretty sure it's a fake/custom.

[Borex]

I would say custom made on a authentic lego minifig. Odd. 

[RedHoodPug]

There’s a Reddit discussion that comes to much the same conclusion. My personal thought is that we would see it in other places, not just for sale.

[Gomek]

4 hours ago, deraven said:

Well, looking at the actual pics on the auction page, the printing on the figure it's even remotely up to Lego standard.  And no info on a Ronaldo Lego minifig?  If it was out there, there'd be plenty of references for it.  Pretty sure it's a fake/custom.

While I might be inclined to agree, there are a handful of confirmed Lego figures I would say the same thing about. For instance the Lego Idea House figures.

1 hour ago, RedHoodPug said:

There’s a Reddit discussion that comes to much the same conclusion. My personal thought is that we would see it in other places, not just for sale.

It was about the same exact figure? Can you send me a link to the Reddit discussion?

BTW, I have emailed both sellers. The ebay one is primarily a diecast car seller, and he or she just said the same thing with no more information. I'm waiting to hear back from Firestar, though I suspect I might not get a response until Monday. The Firestar is the real head scratcher as they appear to be a customizer, with no apparent motivation to list this figure outside their custom section.

[RedHoodPug]

@Gomek it’s nothing concrete, but it looks like the very same one. Here

[Gomek]

5 minutes ago, RedHoodPug said:

@Gomek it’s nothing concrete, but it looks like the very same one. Here

Thanks. A couple months old I see, but referencing the same exact two sellers. Of course I wouldn't be surprised if one's source was the other.

At least it makes me feel better that I'm not the only one confused by this.

[Legochaek]

Ask for a pic of the inside of the figure to see whether it’s made of real Lego parts. Maybe email Lego and ask them if they’ve ever made a Ronaldo fig? 

[RedHoodPug]

30 minutes ago, Lego-fire said:

Ask for a pic of the inside of the figure to see whether it’s made of real Lego parts. Maybe email Lego and ask them if they’ve ever made a Ronaldo fig? 

Even if it’s a genuine minifigure the print can easily be custom. Asking TLG direct May be the best way round it.

[LegoSims20]

Curious. 

[Gomek]

OK, so an update here:

Firestar got back to me and said that they got the figure from a "a reliable source we have dealing with for years" but could not verify it's origin. That to me says they likely got it from the same ebay dealer in Mexico. They also said the figure appears to be pad-printed and is not coming form any of the pad printers they know of. (the second part seems more-less accurate)

I also got a note from Lego customer service which said: "I can confirm that LEGO® has never produced a Cristiano Ronaldo minifigure. Although, if we ever did, I would imagine that it would be one of the most handsome minifigures ever made!" It was very nice of them to get back to me, and I'll give them bonus points for doing so with a personal touch.

It's funny, I always wondered why Lego factory employees aren't temped to run off custom items for themselves (after hours?). I guess you can't discount that such things don't happen, but at least in this case it's a safe bet that no matter where it came from, it's not an official Lego product.

[MAB]

42 minutes ago, Gomek said:

It's funny, I always wondered why Lego factory employees aren't temped to run off custom items for themselves (after hours?). I guess you can't discount that such things don't happen, but at least in this case it's a safe bet that no matter where it came from, it's not an official Lego product.

2

I don't think they get to stay in the factory and do what they like! Also to do a custom print is not a quick job, as it requires the cliches to be made.

[Gomek]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

I don't think they get to stay in the factory and do what they like! Also to do a custom print is not a quick job, as it requires the cliches to be made.

oh, there is no doubt that it is not easy (to your point it requires negatives and plates to made), and yes I'm sure employees don't exactly get to hang out in the factories totally unsupervised. But we've also seen a fair amount of test pieces leaked. And actual printing can be done anywhere if you can make the plates. I'm sure things bigger than minifigure printing plates go missing from factories all the time.

Anyway, point was really that no matter where they came from, at least I feel like I got my answer that they are not official.

UPDATE #2

I emailed again with Firestar. They a telling me their source is not the dealer in Mexico and are sticking by their story that these are coming from somewhere within Lego. I guess the mystery will continue...

Edited September 4, 2018 by Gomek

[RedHoodPug]

How strange. I do like the official response from Lego, though. Nice touch.

[Elrond]

Maybe, just maybe this was part of a doomed CMF series meant for a limited release, much like the German Mannschaft series we got a few years ago. Maybe it got cancelled because Ronaldo rather unexpectedly left Real Madrid for Juventus this summer, making this minifig outdated. However I suppose the possibility of it being an obscure Chinese knockoff or a custom print is much more likely.

[MAB]

It does also show that custom pad printers on genuine lego parts could cause a problem. They could print things like this, get people that live near LEGO factories to sell them as "escaped" parts and they become real (no pun intended!). Then they can start to flood the market with these "rare" parts that LEGO doesn't officially release.

[Gomek]

12 hours ago, MAB said:

It does also show that custom pad printers on genuine lego parts could cause a problem. They could print things like this, get people that live near LEGO factories to sell them as "escaped" parts and they become real (no pun intended!). Then they can start to flood the market with these "rare" parts that LEGO doesn't officially release.

It does always surprise me that (more?) of the knock off companies don't use Lego parts. A knock off figure goes for $1 to $3, a custom on genuine Lego goes for $20 to $50. This far outweighs any savings had by producing your own parts.

[Robianco]

Knockoff companies aren't really thinking like that though. They're just pumping out stuff and not worrying about QC. I've actually had a recent conversation about this and mentioned the same thing. Some knockoffs were getting so good around 4 or 5 years ago that if they'd just made the decision to print on genuine Lego they could have made the transition from 'bootlegger' to 'customiser'.

As it is they all seem to have lapsed into utter tat, poor quality plastic, terrible artwork reproduction and inferior print and qc overall. It won't be a knockoff. They simply don't go to the trouble of getting official Lego pars to print on.

There was a few figures a couple of years ago that seemed to originate from factories, maybe Mexico, that were meant to be leaks but never got released. There was the red and black Batman figure that used old artwork, Joker Nurse etc, all things that should never be discussed as anything even remotely genuine again.

I don't think Firestar are being dishonest, but without any confirmation from Lego it seems impossible to confirm that it's genuine from a Lego factory... and then even if it is, does that guarantee it's a genuine Lego figure rather than a custom? It certainly seems that it's not an official release. But I'd also probably say that even if it was done as a very limited run by a particular factory for some kind of promotion, the person who answers the Customer Service emails probably wouldn't know about it.

I'd also add that if I worked for Lego and knew of the existence of a Cristiano Ronaldo minifigure that was done in a very limited run as a special promotion but was leaked to the public somehow then I'd deny all knowledge of it and claim it as a custom. He makes tens of millions from his image rights. Part of the reason he left Real Madrid for Juventus is down to tax laws. In Italian law he'll only have to pay a maximum m of $88,000 in tax on his image rights. On tens of millions. (Even though he's signed to Nike he's attributed to have earned Adidas over $200million in revenue by being photographed in his Real Madrid Adidas kit on his social media accounts to the 300 million people who follow him on FB, Twitter and Instagram). Think about that. You think he's going to let a Lego figure of himself be produced without any kind of agreement or payment?

Edited September 7, 2018 by Robianco

[MAB]

34 minutes ago, Robianco said:

I don't think Firestar are being dishonest,

1

Me neither, but they have possibly been tricked into believing it is real.

[Gomek]

Oh, I totally buy that Firestar were sold these as "employee gifts", so I don't think they are being dishonest either. Same, I'm sure, holds true for the Mexican dealer. One of the other things Firestar wrote me was something like - If we were able to prove these were genuine, they would be worth a lot more. - Which I also agree about.

And also totally agree Lego customer service is not (and in some cases can't be) 100% informed. Heck, I've also had Lego store employees give me 100% false information on multiple occasions.