Bootleg CAT Mini Tough Tracks toy

Another bootleg I found while looking through those seller stalls in the Mall was a CAT Mini Tough Tracks toy. The original of this was made by Toystate and is targetted for pre-school kids.

Bootleg Strike Gundam Figure

Saw this in a stall in the mall a couple of days back. A couple of Bootleg Strike Gundam Figures. I saw three variants available that look like the Strike Gundam configured as Aile Strike, Sword Strike and Launcher Strike. The toy stands approximately between 4 to 5 inches in height. Not sure about the price though as I didn't see any posted on, must be newly stocked or my eyes are beginning to fail me already *snicker*

Bootleg Leader Class Optimus Prime

Along with the largest bootleg Transformers toys that I saw while walking in a mall was a Bootleg Leader Class Optimus Prime. Since my son has a Leader Class Optimus Prime it was easy for me to tell from what toy it was copied from. I couldn't understand however why the toy came with spare fenders (right side of the packaging). The thing was selling for about $8 plus.

Largest Bootleg Transformers Toy

I have to say that these are the largest bootleg Transformers toy that I've ever seen to date. Saw this at a stall in the mall and the toy seems to stand at about 2 feet in height. These are pictures of a bootleg Optimus Prime and Ironhide that were selling for about $72 each. There was also a Bumblebee there but I didn't want to call attention to myself by taking too many pictures *snicker*.

Bootleg Transformers Toys

Was in the mall recently and I spied some bootleg Transformers toys being sold in one of the stores. Didn't bother buying any to get a sample of it because the price is half as astronomical as the original ones... hehehe. I have to say however that they have a lot of varieties of it. Some are copies of existing toys while others just ride on to the Transformers toy's name. Characteristic of bootleg toys are cheap price and cheap plastic that will break easily.

Bootleg VF-1S Valkyrie from Macross DYRL

Back in the 80's, my brother got a bootleg VF-1S Valkyrie for Christmas. At that time he was already going towards highschool so he had no desire to play with toys already. Luckily I was into toys at that time (even up till now *snicker*) so I was able to inherit this toy from him.

Gundam Puzzle

Saw this in the mall a few days ago, a bootleg Puzzle of a mecha that surprisingly looks a lot like a Gundam. Initially I thought that it was Freedom Gundam from Gundam Seed Destiny, turns out that the knee and head antenna design are different.

Commercial Enamel Paints on Model Kits

Update: Just found out that the paint component that you have to watch out for is Toluene, too much of this thinner material is what eats the plastic.

Wanted to try out another type of paint because the Pylox brand I was using was starting to get expensive. The local hardware store I bought it from had raised their prices by a staggering 60%. Plus of course I wanted to try out some other colors which Pylox didn't have. Once again my test subject was the Bootleg Gundam Dynames.

Bootleg 1/100 Gundam Dynames

Here's photos of the finished bootleg 1/100 Gundam Dynames that I had bought out of curiosity. Don't worry Bandai, I had already offset it and proved my loyalty by ordering a genuine 1/100 Gundam Dynames. Sorry, but I can't seem to get some good shots with my camera on this model. It must be my subconscious that's resisting, hehehe.



The model will come out as ugly because I used this model to test some paints, markers and techniques, hence no effort was really made to make it look good. One other thing that I can say about this bootleg made by TT Hongli is that the copy comes close but the quality of the plastic is cheap and reflects really on the model.

Bootleg Transformers Toy

Yet another example of how childhood memories are massacred by makers of counterfeit toys... hehehe... Found this in the mall again. I've realized that there are two types of piracy when it comes to cartoon related merchandising. There is the blatant copying and then there is the trying to pass it off as part of the franchise. The picture above is more of the latter.

Bootleg 1/100 Bandai GN-002 Gundam Dynames

Update 11/08/2009: Finished model pictures can be found here.

I went back to the mall and bought a bootleg GN-002 Gundam Dynames to review in this site from a stack of bootleg gundams that I had seen. It cost me about 1078 yen. At Hobby Link Japan (HLJ) this was selling for about 2300 yen. I'll probably buy this from HLJ in a couple of months in order to better differentiate the quality of the pirated versus the original.

Judging from the box shots you can see that they had copied everything down to a T except for the pilot which was visible in the original Bandai product. Instead of the red Bandai mark, it was replaced with a "TT Hong Li" tag. Also they missed out on the "Gundam" tag. I am shooting at the dark here, but assuming that Bandai has already trademarked the term "Gundam" in China. This could be some sort of a defensive tactic by the Chinese bootleggers to circumvent it since when they get caught they could always say that its not a "Gundam". This way Bandai will have to start suing in the individual product level for copyright infringement.

Bootleg Gundam Action Base Stands

Went back to the mall again and found this in the stack of Bootleg Gundams I had seen previously. I guess if you have no conscience to prevent you from pirating Bandai's Gundams, what's to stop you from counterfeiting its other accessories? They are actually copying now the Action Base Stands sold by Bandai to help display Gunpla's. This particular one was molded with the color red, it costs about 350 yen . Once again it is branded as "Hong Li" and definitely looks ugly because the plastic looks cheap. It was also renamed to "All-Purpose Bracket", instead of branding it as an Action-Base.

Bootleg Gundams For Sale in the Mall

Was surprised to see this in a Mall, a whole rack of counterfeit (Bootleg) Gundams. I found this when I went scrounging for some modelling paint for the 1/72 VF-25G I was planning to assemble.

Macross Toy Collection

I confess, that I keep my 23 year old 1/55 VF-1S Strike Valkyrie from Bandai on my home work table to inspire me. Along with that is his baby brother, a bootleg VF-1S that I inherited from my brother (he tossed it away) that he got for Christmas from a relative. With them also is a Mospeada motorcycle made by Matchbox from the Robotech series. I have a GBP armor kit for the VF-1S that I make it wear occasionally. I should get shots of that in the future.