During just his first interaction, he spent an hour late into the night threatening me to sell and/or find him the unreleased Darunia prototype figure from Toysite (formerly BD&A). He kept messaging me for about an hour insisting I knew where these missing toys were.
Limited Records of the Toysite Prototypes and Advertisements
Some of these photos were originally found here:
https://htloz.net/archives/htloz/2000-2001/zelda5/stuff.html
The carded Zelda that was brought to him attention can still be found via the Way Back Machine here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150911050957/http://good-evil.net/features/game-hunt-021510-kim-possible-gbc-lot-a-flock-of-wavebirds
The original post was made by Eric Kennedy on Monday, Feb 15th, 2010.
The Initial Interaction
- Nicholas - "Hey! I saw your website of wishlist figures! Who took this picture?" (Referring to photo of the carded Toysite Princess Zelda.)
- Me - "I don't remember offhand, unfortunately. I think I found it after going down the rabbit hole trying to get info on them."
- Nicholas - "That's exactly where I've been for the last week since finding their existence. I need the darunia figure more than water or air.. I cannot express in words how serious I am and how much it means. I know we don't know eachother but if you find whoever has this new that I can buy from I will give you one thousand dollars. Either PayPal, cashapp doesn't matter. And yes I am serious. Lol."
- Me - "Harder thing would be to find one. They never made it past the prototype phase."
- Nicholas - " I hear that everywhere and from everyone. I call bullshit. I've collected figures for many years they don't package protos without distribution to some place even in the smallest of quantities. Allegedly even, someone few years back found darunia at a goodwill for 10 bucks.. Also allegedly they were up for order "not pre-order" online briefly around 2000. At least that's what my rabbit hole yield me 😄"
- Me - "Only ones proven to exist are the ones in the image from the toy fair. Though Mallow plush from Mario RPG have started to pop up so there's always a possibility. There are two (three technically) other Darunia items that are more accessible."
- Nicholas - "First four figure. Plush. And that's all I'm aware of."
- Me - "I was just talking figures/statues, but yes, the plush as well. There are two from F4F (one with the fire medallion as a base and the other a plain base), the Takara plush, and the Bandai? Mini Real Figure one."
- Nicholas - "I don't think I know those? I've seen a Lego one I think do you have pictures? Oh wait first 4 figure lol. I haven't seen a Bandai figure."
- Me - "There aren't any official Lego ones. There was an OoT block caslte made in Spain (not by Lego) but it didn't include Darunia."
- Nicholas - "Must have been a custom. You said Bandai made a darunia?"
- Me - "That was my guess but my friend things they were made by Kyodo."
- Nicholas - "The 3mm line?😄 Well my offer stands for the toysite figure, you may have no reason to trust my offer but it is a promise and I am a man of my word. What would help and perhaps solve the riddle is finding out who took that picture of the zelda figure. That's in someone's home... That line made its rounds and that photo is proof"
- Me - "The prototypes all ended up in the wild. There's no evidence of multiples being made. There was a loose set and a boxed set at the toy fair. The concept art for their catalog doesn't even 100% match."
- Nicholas - "Ofcourse it doesn't match it was in the development process on its first rendition and that was a year before these ones. But I am surprised that not even the prototypes ended up being photographed anywhere aside from zelda which seems like a copy not the one from the toyfair."
- Me - "Gonna be hard pressed to find one - let alone that person being willing to sell. Good luck. 👍"
- Nicholas - "One thousand bucks. Good luck to you."
Reaching Out To The Community For Help
The Sudden "Discovery" and Increased Violence
- Nicholas - "I must have this darunia figure.. If you or anyone you know has this new than I am prepared to pay a very large amount for it cash."
- Nightram56 - "Never seen it for sale or in a collection. Good luck."
- Nicholas - "You will."
- (Shortly after when he harassed me) Nicholas - "Mark that off your bucket list jackass."
Nicholas posted photos of his "find" as well as a video [https://www.instagram.com/tv/CXADRJqgqIc/?utm_medium=copy_link] (video has since been deleted) threatening those who didn't believe him. He attacks comments of those who call him on his fake figure as his main account as well as from his known secondary accounts, like the "Pudgers_sweetface" and "Baby Yoda" accounts. He also used these secondary accounts to praise his find, literally just talking to himself. After attacking other commentors who didn't fall for the ruse, their comments would get deleted and/or blocked by Nicholas.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DBZCU/comments/qs085b/cereal_scammer_nicholas_ghenov_is_back_it_it/
This second Reddit thread includes one of alternate eBay accounts iand is also about him selling fake DBZ figures. There is also a very likely chance that he was also using his second account to inflate the bids.
www.reddit.com/r/SHFiguarts/comments/mwjcof/hobbies4lobbies_is_a_cyber_criminal_scammed_dbz/
The Community is -NOT- Ammused
The Decietful Auctions
The first auction was listed here under his @treasures.cove eBay account - EXPLICITLY listing it as the missing Toysite Protoype.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Legend-Of-Zelda-Ocarina-Of-Time-Darunia-Toysite-Figure-/203735137693?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0
With the help of the community, myself and several others reached out to eBay to have the listing removed. Not only was it against eBay's Terms of Service (bootlegs are forbidden - especially if proven), but also they had found the evidence of him using multiple accounts to inflate the bid. We successfully had the first listing removed. We also were able to get his account removed. At this time, we thought the good guys had won and we had helped save a potenial, innocent victim who was not as knowlegeable from make a multiple thousand dollar mistake. Or so we thought...
He would then make a second eBay listing, this time under the eBay account @nickcam4566:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Legend-Of-Zelda-Authentic-Toysite-Darunia-Action-Figure-/393777124635?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0
We tried to reach out to eBay again, but Nicholas made the timeframe for the second auction shorted, thus ending it faster than eBay could get to it to shut it down. The bid ended at a rediculous $4k, and by a bidding between two questionably low eBay ratings, the first having just 24 ratings, and the secon being a brand new account with 0 ratings! To my knowledge, no one has come forth as winning this auction or came forth with a complaint about this auction.
Has Nicholas Been Holding a Grudge?
I hypothesize that it’s the same guy that was a pain in my ass almost a decade ago. (My collection site has been live the whole time.) Some dude on eBay took pictures of one of my Zelda sets and put the set up for auction. This seller had a lot of DBZ items also up for auction when he was trying to “sell” my set.
More on that here:
http://linksliltri4cezeldacollection.weebly.com/blog/fraudulent-majoras-mask-ebay-auction
Not that it’s impossible- but a dude who has a history of creating multiple eBay and social accounts who is specifically targeting my Zelda photos and site who also does scam DBZ listings…. The probability is real narrow.
So if you come across the name Nicholas Ghenov, stay clear. He is very agressive, he appears to be mentally unstable, and he could potentially be an even more dangerous threat.