Tintin Forums

I've noticed over the years that on popular auction sites there are a lot of Tintin resin figurines being made in and sold from China or the Far East. These figurines, in my opinion, are not up to the standard of the official figurines although are cheaper for collectors.

Have these companies been authorised by Moulinsart to make these figures? I can't see that they have been authorised as the sculpture of the figurines are pretty poor and some copy other official Moulinsart figurines such as the shark submarine.

I've heard and read that Moulinart is quite strict with it's copyright. Have they tried to stop the figurines from China if they are not official?

I'm not certain what you mean - if they "controlled" them, the items wouldn't be fake, they'd be authorized; if they are fake, they obviously aren't "controlled"... ;-)

If you mean, would Moulinsart have the legal right to pursue people who counterfeit Tintin merchandise, the answer is, in all probablility, yes, why wouldn't they?

Whether it is possible, practical, or effective to do so may be another matter, involving the judiciary and police of several countries, the state of international relations between those countries, and what degree of importance all those parties place on the matter.

Moulinsart is a very small operation, not some multinational conglomerate with a huge legal department and an international presence which they can bring to bear: they may be actively pursuing these items, or they may not have the resources to do so. International police might be tracking the baddies as we speak, or they might be of the opinion that getting human trafficking and drug smuggling under control is of greater significance. Who can say?

You'd need to ask Moulinsart, as they are the best placed to give you acurate information.

Again, only they could tell you.

If you are worried about the authenticity of an item, the easy answer is: don't buy!

I have two of the mentioned resin models, bought from a seller in Hong Kong. Neither the packing nor the models feature any copyright information - nor do they mention Moulinsart.

My guess is that they are "unofficial" - had I known, I would not have ordered them.

The quality of the models are a tad rougher than the official Moulinsart models I own, but they are not bad really.

Hi Jeep. I hope you didn't pay too much for them. There are lots of these resin Tintin figures to be found on-line, mainly from Hong Kong and China. Some of them look ok. Some depict different scenes from the offical Tintin resin figurines.

I'm fairly sure that the new offical small plastic figures are made in China. The French company Plastoy made some small Tintin figures years ago and they were made in China. Most small plastic figures whatever the cartoon subject are made in China. It's a lot cheaper for them to be made there and exported. Perhaps the offical Moulsinart resin figures are made in China too.

The price wasn't too bad - it's the notion of buying an unlicenced product that bothers me. I guess it was somewhat naive of me thinking they were official products.

The ability of China to enforce copyright and intellectual property laws has always been sketchy. Copyright laws have been on the books since the early 1980s, but enforcement has been pretty much non-existent and interpretation of the law varies between all the local governments making it even more confusing. Response doesn't match the degree of counterfeiting at all. You can find knock-offs of almost anything in China from Tiffany to Tintin. You get what you pay for.

Jeep. Are any of these the models you bought? Link removed

There are some quite hideous (in my opinion) figures there. The most bizarre ones are the ones with Tintin dressed as a soldier (I think) looking at fighter planes.

Moderator Note: As has been said many times before, we don’t accept links to unofficial merchandise, or items of dubious origin, as it could lead to the site being shut down. As the whole point of this topic is to ascertain if the figurines are genuine or not, please err on the side of caution.

Please do not post links if you are in anyway uncertain of their authenticity: always contact admin first to have them check things out.

Your cooperation is appreciated.

The “bizarre” images of Tintin in military gear looking at planes are undoubtedly taken from the “chromos” (coloured prints) which were produced for the Journal Tintin magazine, covering the history of aviation.

The Tintinologist Team