Mysterious dubious (alleged) TBLEAGUE 1/6 'FAT MAN' seamless body listed on Ebay - does anybody know anything about this?

I'm possibly making a delayed n00b-style mistake here,    but:

This is an ebay listing (where of course Jaiou dolls regularly get listed as TBLs with no apparent comeback on the seller), so take it with the usual pinch of salt, but does anyone know anything about this and if it's even for real?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TBL-PHICEN-PH-1-6-Plump-Nude-Figure-Body-Fat-Collectible-Body-Doll-Model-Toy/274570389686?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160727114228%26meid%3Da87cdb4b20f142debbd5ef9e75a7ad10%26pid%3D100290%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D112555684964%26itm%3D274570389686%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2060778&_trksid=p2060778.c100290.m3507

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/oi4AAOSwqf5fq53p/s-l1600.jpg

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MXoAAOSwFe1fq53l/s-l500.jpg

Allegedly a TBL preorder, but details are shall we say minimal (and quite possibly totally untrue). Looks more like a statue to me to be honest (could just be the lighting but it certainly doesn't look like it's made from the usual material anyway), but if it's true it's very intriguing. But... seamless hands?  Hmm.

It certainly appears to be on a TBL promo display stand though, for what that may or may not be worth.


I tried contacting the seller about it but no response (and I wouldn't necessarily believe one if it were forthcoming).


Apologies if actual genuine news of this has been posted elsewhere - a forum search for 'TBLeague fat man' didn't turn anything up.



EDIT: Interestingly, further into the description, it's described as an 'outfit/bodysuit' ...

Not sure about this body but stay far away from SC store 9999 they've screwed me over many times.

Doubt it's TBLeague. To be sure, you could check their website www.phicen.com . All their recent figures are listed there (everything since 2014). If it's not there, it's not TBLeague.

I saw this and was wondering wtf it was myself. Likewise, I doubt it's tbleague. No idea what the heck it actually is.

That sc_store9999 is an odd one.... I have had experiences there that are fine, but then sometimes they seem to get 'pre-orders' in that never materialise. So for me it's been mostly fine with a couple of cancellations. Usually they give me my money back though...

it's actually phicen, this was shown during one the last comicon before covid strike, I remember those pictures! (actually on the second pic you can see the brand on the small card)

blackpool wrote:it's actually phicen, this was shown during one the last comicon before covid strike, I remember those pictures! (actually on the second pic you can see the brand on the small card)

Interesting. Wonder why it is totally seamless when they never do that for any other figures?

This might be real, but maybe a very early call -- as GianToy and KGHobby, among others, don't seem to know anything about it yet -- perhaps TBLeague has not actually put this up for pre-order, just advertised what is coming up. Looks like a photo from some sort of exhibit of Comic Con. It is odd that they showed it posed alongside twelfth-scale figures.

Edit: blackpool beat me to it, but it's nice to have confirmation. I look forward to these bodies, would be nice to get more variety. But they are not done fixing existing ones (M31 wrists and frontal sculpt and completeness, M33 height) or providing enough skin tone variety (paler, darker).

It might just be a prototype, I remember starace showing the underworld selene with seamless arms without wrist articulation, which turned into regular wrists on the final product...

As pointed by Gub I think it's just a very early call after seeing it at the convention.

GubernatorFan wrote:This might be real, but maybe a very early call -- as GianToy and KGHobby, among others, don't seem to know anything about it yet -- perhaps TBLeague has not actually put this up for pre-order, just advertised what is coming up. Looks like a photo from some sort of exhibit of Comic Con. It is odd that they showed it posed alongside twelfth-scale figures.

Edit: blackpool beat me to it, but it's nice to have confirmation. I look forward to these bodies, would be nice to get more variety. But they are not done fixing existing ones (M31 wrists and frontal sculpt and completeness, M33 height) or providing enough skin tone variety (paler, darker).

I honestly don't understand why they missed the black panther hype to release a full batch of african skin tone bodies... instead of R&D on one more female body, they could just re release their whole catalog with two or three new skin colors that would sell mad...

Well, they did do the M36B, but (talk about stereotypes) it is a basketball-player's height and built (confirmed by the specific choice of hand sculpts). And of course the black Anubis body is literally black and not suitable for anything realistic.

It's certainly a puzzler.

The 'outfit/bodysuit' description has me quite intrigued though, to the point of veering off into a flight of fantasy that has me imagining that this might be some kind of seamless 'fat suit' for the usual run of TBL male figures.

This does seem unusually pale for a male TBL body though - almost porcelain-like. And the head certainly doesn't match. I still think it looks more like a statue than an articulated figure.


And yes, I've had a bad past experience with the seller concerned myself.

I think blackpool covered it. I haven't had many experiences with this retailer, but they were all good, I think. Here is another listing, by tototoys, with which I have had good experiences only, and a few of them:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-6th-Scale-TBL-PHICEN-PH-Fat-Plump-Male-Soldier-Figure-Body-Model-Doll-Toys/174521027450?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160323102634%26meid%3D47a0706d7fbc47f7a1b231e6a6911527%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D274570389686%26itm%3D174521027450%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganic&_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1

I don't know whether they are the same retailer under two different names or entirely different retailers.

I still have a preorder by sc9999 lets see how this will fare. At least he was talk active so far.

Maybe we need a chinese ebay thread for good and not so good shops.

As for the figure: ive seen it a few weeks ago already, pic is from wonder festival i think so i expect it to be released this year. But who knows...

blackpool wrote:it's actually phicen, this was shown during one the last comicon before covid strike, I remember those pictures! (actually on the second pic you can see the brand on the small card)

The brand name on that comicon sign is interesting for more than one reason (and it must be older than the last comicon pre COVID) because it's Phicen and no TBL. This would apparently date it no later than 2017, and those very first 1/12ths are roughly consistent with that. I can't make out what the second co-operating brand name is on that sign (and I can't read the Chinese description). One reason this may look weird is if it reflects a design that's been back-burnered for 3-4 years. It has the look to me of something that was maybe put together for a specific project that maybe never happened, but I guess it's coming out now as a general use body.

There are a few details that make the whole thing smell pretty bad indeed... as you pointed it shows the old phicen logo instead of the TBLeague one... If you check the product description the reference is BY-ART BY-G01, which is the reference for a 1/12 scale leonidas figure by the brand "by art".
Last, it states PVC as the material, and it states Greece for the manufacturing country, which seems very unlikely from phicen...

GubernatorFan wrote:I think blackpool covered it. I haven't had many experiences with this retailer, but they were all good, I think. Here is another listing, by tototoys, with which I have had good experiences only, and a few of them:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-6th-Scale-TBL-PHICEN-PH-Fat-Plump-Male-Soldier-Figure-Body-Model-Doll-Toys/174521027450?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160323102634%26meid%3D47a0706d7fbc47f7a1b231e6a6911527%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D274570389686%26itm%3D174521027450%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganic&_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1

I don't know whether they are the same retailer under two different names or entirely different retailers.

I bought an item from tototoys once before and it was a smooth transaction.

It was posted way back here by @connseanery
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t877-shanghai-comic-con-shcc-2018-event

It looks like it was a prototype Phicen/TBL back in 2018. I think the card loosely translates to 1/6 fat man (something) - translator couldn't piece it cohesively together.

doodlehobby wrote:It was posted way back here by @connseanery
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t877-shanghai-comic-con-shcc-2018-event

It looks like it was a prototype Phicen/TBL back in 2018. I think the card loosely translates to 1/6 fat man (something) - translator couldn't piece it cohesively together.

Ah, thanks for the link! So it was genuine then. Interesting.


Whatever happened to the fleshtone Lady Death?

GeeWillikers wrote:Ah, thanks for the link! So it was genuine then. Interesting.

Actually I would come to the opposite conclusion, about the E-Bay listing at least, which I think is likely not genuine.  The suspicions raised in your original post were good ones.  It would not be a normal thing for someone to be selling a new TBL body using only a three-year old photo of a display taken by some attendee at WonderCon 2018.  If TBL made this body available to a distributor, they'd have actual current promo pics taken by TBL.  And it would likely be on the TBL website.

Theoretically this item could be the one same actual prototype that was photographed at WonderCon.  But if that was the case, the price for an unproduced prototype would be ten times +++ as much, and the E-Bay seller would say so.  And anyway, the E-Bay seller claims to have 5 of them.  So my Spider-Sense tingles.  (I'm speculating, not accusing, and I may be wrong).

Yeah, certainly the offer of sale side of it is still highly suspect. I'm just surprised that it genuinely existed as an apparently fully-seamless TBL/Phicen prototype, even if it never went into mass production.

And as you say, if it were that prototype, then the seller surely wouldn't be giving it away at that price...

Moonbase Alpha Male wrote:

Actually I would come to the opposite conclusion, about the E-Bay listing at least, which I think is likely not genuine.  The suspicions raised in your original post were good ones.  It would not be a normal thing for someone to be selling a new TBL body using only a three-year old photo of a display taken by some attendee at WonderCon 2018.  If TBL made this body available to a distributor, they'd have actual current promo pics taken by TBL.  And it would likely be on the TBL website.

Theoretically this item could be the one same actual prototype that was photographed at WonderCon.  But if that was the case, the price for an unproduced prototype would be ten times +++ as much, and the E-Bay seller would say so.  And anyway, the E-Bay seller claims to have 5 of them.  So my Spider-Sense tingles.  (I'm speculating, not accusing, and I may be wrong).

When the spider sense tingles, gotta listen to it! I'm pretty sure you're right, the proto is genuine, the sale is another story, and it smells very bad