Unlicensed · prototype · no buy path
Dasin Model · 1/12 scale · revealed August 2026
Forty years of unlicensed ThunderCats, and the one that stopped being a joke
For forty years the unofficial ThunderCats shelf was a joke you were in on. Soft plastic, wandering paint, a Lion-O whose head belonged to somebody else. Then a Chinese maker called Dasin Model posted a 1/12 Lion-O that is not a copy of anything.
The reveal
Two portraits, a composed smirk and an open-mouth shout. A Claw Shield that swaps onto the left arm as its own gauntlet. The Sword of Omens in both short and extended lengths, so the blade can grow on the shelf the way it grows on screen. At least three pairs of hands. None of that is bootleg behaviour.
Shot clean on black
Composited into a backdrop
Worth naming because it cuts both ways: four of these composite the figure into a lush jungle that has the look of AI-generated background art, and two more sit against a soft green blur of the same plate. The three on plain black are the ones to judge the paint by.
Then and now
Same character, same shelf, same absence of a licence. Everything else is different.
Then
Cast from moulds pulled off the licensed release, or assembled from other lines entirely and given a ThunderCats head. Sold cheap, to people who mostly knew.
Now
An original sculpt, tooled from scratch, aimed at the same collector Super7 and Mezco are chasing and photographed like a licensed product launch.
The maker
Dasin Model stamps its product DSM and is described by The Fwoosh as an arm of a Chinese firm called Great Toys Company. The two names travel together in collector circles, often written GT or Great Toys, and the figures reach Western buyers through a small ring of import shops rather than any mainstream distributor.
Great Toys built its reputation in Saint Seiya, where its Cloth Myth style figures are stocked as their own brand line at specialist importers, sitting on the shelf beside Bandai's official Saint Cloth Myth EX. That is the classic third-party pattern: study a Japanese premium line closely enough to make a credible alternative at a lower price.
The retailer had them listed as S.H. Figuarts when they plainly were not, and a linked Weibo post "seems to bring up possible copyright issues".
That was The Fwoosh in April 2018, trying and failing to work out what Dasin's Tom and Jerry figures even were. A month later the same site reviewed the set in hand and called them the surprises of 2018, praising ball-jointed everything, three swappable Tom heads, a fully articulated Jerry, a mousetrap, a baseball bat and a saucer of milk, for 42 dollars.
That is the pivot in one story. A company nobody had heard of, selling through one shop nobody had heard of, shipped a product good enough that a mainstream American toy site reviewed it seriously and recommended it.
Tom and Jerry. The reveal baffles Western collectors, the review a month later wins them over.
A 1/12 catalogue builds out through anime importers: Bleach, including Ichigo in Bankai and Sosuke Aizen, and One Punch Man, including Speed-o'-Sound Sonic. Retailers list them around 18 cm, in the S.H.Figuarts class and well under the price.
Mezco finally ships its licensed One:12 Lion-O, eleven years after the brand sheet thundercats.org photographed in 2015.
Dasin posts a painted 1/12 Lion-O prototype to Weibo. No licensor, no price, no window.
The rest of the shelf
Lion-O is not a first attempt. Dasin has been shipping 1/12 figures for years, mostly Japanese manga properties, sold through Western anime importers with accessory trays, swappable faces and display stands as standard. This is the company that turned up to ThunderCats.
Listed by Western importers at roughly 38 to 72 dollars a figure, in the same bracket as an S.H.Figuarts and usually a little under it. Product photography from those retailers, rehosted here rather than hotlinked.
The archive
Like every succesful brand, the ThunderCats toys have often been imitated, duplicated, but never equalled or surrpassed, by unscrupulous characters to make a quick buck, which is not cool. In some cases, these toys were made to provide children in less fortunate parts of the world their favorite characters in action figure form, which is cool. These imitation toys have been around since the ThunderCats' release in the 80's and are still produced. Even the BanDai line has a bootleg line devoted to it!
There are two kinds of these FunderCats to be distinguished:
Both kinds are usually made from poor quality plastic and the paint job is almost always sloppy, to say the least. Here you'll find some of the greatest, unofficial, unlicensed ThunderCats toys. FunderCats HO!
Questions
There is no public indication that Dasin Model holds a ThunderCats licence. Warner Bros. Discovery owns the property, Super7 holds the modern action figure licence, and Mezco released a One:12 Lion-O in July 2026. Dasin announced this figure on its own Weibo account with no licensor named.
Dasin’s own promotional captions read "1/12 TH SCALE COLLECTIBLE ACTION FIGURE". Its other 1/12 releases are listed by retailers at roughly 18 cm.
Neither is known. What has been shown is a painted prototype posted to Weibo, with no listing, no pre-order window and no announced distributor. Dasin’s own artwork carries the line "final product might be slightly different from the prototype shown".
A Chinese figure maker that stamps its product DSM, described by The Fwoosh as an arm of Great Toys Company. Great Toys built its name on Saint Seiya Cloth Myth style figures. Dasin broke into Western awareness with a Tom and Jerry set in 2018 and has since released 1/12 figures from Bleach and One Punch Man through anime import retailers.
The vintage pieces in the archive below are counterfeits of a toy: recasts taken from LJN moulds, or parts-bin mashups wearing the wrong head. The Dasin figure is an original sculpt competing with the licensed product on quality rather than price alone. It is a different problem for a rights holder and a different question for a collector.
Sourcing
thundercats.org does not sell, source or recommend unlicensed product. This page documents the unofficial shelf because it is part of the property's history. Nothing here is a buy link.
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