EDIT: Added photos (genuine Koto stuff has green circles and knock offs have red circles). Changed Carnage info, since it's not as cut and dry as I previously thought. The box is always a dead giveaway, though.
Regarding knocks offs, I’ve actually looked a lot into this, since I really wanted Venom and Carnage, and knock offs for both exist.
If you can find pictures of the actual products and not just stock photos, the easiest way to tell is that the logos for Kotobukiya, ArtFX+, and Marvel Now are missing from the boxes on the knock offs.
If there are pictures of the statues themselves, the knock off Venom has “fatter” teeth than the original, due to worse casting. The teeth look like rounded globs rather than sharp fangs. For Carnage, I initially thought the inside of the mouth for the knock off is a lot darker black, but this seems to vary quite a bit depending on lighting in pictures. You can definitely still tell by whether the paint on the black tendrils all over his body is clean or sloppy and spilling outside the lines. Also, the plastic of the knock off seems to be more opaque and less reflective than the original, but this is less reliable.
If you’re buying these on eBay, “reputable” Chinese sellers will disclose in the description that these are “China versions,” which is their euphemism for them not being original. You can filter those out by only looking at US/North American sellers. The biggest danger then is US sellers who don’t know they have a knock off. I’ve seen people sell the whole set, then the Carnage one is missing the Koto logo on the box and they never even realized one of their statues was a knock off.
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