How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise 11

How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise Page 11

Sonic Gear Main Merchandise Page * Bootlegs 1 * Bootlegs 2 * Bootlegs 3 * Bootlegs 4 * Bootlegs 5 * Bootlegs 6
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Fakery and junk abounds when bootleggers think they can get away with knocking off Sonic the Hedgehog!
Fight back by educating yourself on what NEVER to buy with these pages of photos and tips!
Remember, you vote with your money...any buying of fake junk only supports and encourages them to make more. Wouldn't you rather have awesome official items? Wouldn't you rather enjoy cool good quality stuff you know you can depend on? If you want the real deal, bootlegs are never the way to go.
Remember what a 'bootleg' item is:
It is an unofficial or unlicensed product being sold to the fans- by NON FANS. These can be home-made or made in a factory. They are not approved by the company who holds the license and are NOT made to any standard. The quality is usually low, leading to items which may break or wear out. Fake items may also be unsafe. Remember, bootleg makers are only after your money. They don't care at all about Sonic the hedgehog and are only out for a quick buck. Don't waste your money! Buy official SEGA Sonic things only, look for copyrights, and demand the real deal.

What new manner of fakery is this? A soft-side lunch carrier. Certainly, it puts on a good front, with the all-DX art, and well placed logo. But then...look at the tag: it's Sonic Riders. Doesn't match, that's your sign that this is bogus..or IS IT? Item Awaiting PROOF. A shame too cause this thing could really trick people. It is likely made with a cloth printer that makes designs on the front panel. That panel is then sewn onto a generic 'lunch box' and given a phony Sonic tag. These people are really going out of their way to try and fool the fans! Keep on the alert! Photo discovered by SonicFan09

Another phony lego man, this time sculpted to look like Sonic. However, it's also filled with mistakes like the giant belly dot, no stripes on the shoes...and the fact that the whole top of his head is super shiny & un-convincing that it would be made of 'lego plastic'. Does anyone actually get tricked by these? Photo discovered by SonicFan09

Bogus bars of chocolate! These are more of those dumb 'custom party print outs' , this time as a 'party favor' chocolate bar. The art mash up has the Japan screen saver, classic stock & then finally mixes in an SA style CG piece.

Remember: this is FOOD and you have NO idea how they stored it, what's in it, or where it's coming from. Avoid eating wierd things you don't know about. Discovered by:

This fat pinata is so obviously bogus! It's also sort of scary too, with wierd split eyes, big nose, & crazy smile. Sonic is super fat too, so no one would think this thing is the real deal. (though it DOES make you want to break it...) More complex than the run-of-the-mill bootleg, it makes one wonder what sort of crazy factory they're churning these out inside of! Photo discovered by:

This is clearly some sort of sculpture trinket type thing that someone has made...several of...in trying to sell on Ebay. But WHY? Clearly they are not a Sonic fan or they would know that he has more than 1 spike. It just looks like a non-effort, why even bother to

fake up something like this? It isn't fooling anyone, and it doesnt even seem to have a purpose, it's just wierd. Discovered by: JumpSonic Girls

What's even going on here? They've wedged all the stolen art in so that Shadow nearly has his hand through Sonic, and Sonic appears to be poking the dark chao in the head. Notice how 'sample' is written across this so 'you' can't steal their already preciously stolen art. Writing 'happy birthday' on something doesn't give you the rights to it!

Does something look off here? This distorted poster is the work of fakers. Because the graphic wouldn't fit on their desired poster size, they simply stretched it to fit, resulting in a too-tall distored image. They couldn't be bothered with proper cropping either, and cut Shadow's foot right off at the bottom, giving it an unfinished look. Don't tacky up the walls with fake stuff, there are loads of real posters with real cool Sonic art to be had instead.

This disk is a cake topper, but they abstract-ify Shadow by placing 2 of his face way too big to create the background. Plus, it's so wierd with the lame confetti and words scrawled all over it, you can hardly tell what's going on in anyway.

These rows of bogus round things are cupcake toppers. Its that same lame 'edible print out' stuff they make the cake toppers with, but it is now able to dissapoint in cupcake form!

This is an Amy Rose cosplay style dress. As you can see, it is merely Amy themed, not really trying to replicate her exact dress. First, it's quite long, and does not stick out at all. Second, they've given her some kind of wig/hat & horse-ear combo. It is great to cosplay as your favorite Sonic character, however, you may be better off making your own costume so you can get it as close as possible to the character without having to give un-licensed people loads of money instead.

It's not enough to mix up different eras of Sonic any more, no! Now, they have to just pull out all the stops and steal Star Wars too! This terrible topper has Mario vs. Sonic (couldn't bother to add the 's') complete with photoshopped-in 'light sabers' and the stolen StarWars font too. They seem totally disinterested in eachother as they hold pointy (light sabers werent even ever actually pointed at the tips...) light sabers and the bottom reads "Unleash the force" just to add more nonsense to it. Way to wreck the cake with fake!

These are very large posters, sometimes listed as 'wall decor'. They are made on a special printer with a tiling program that splits the image as seen (the cracks) so you can re-assemble it to get something giant for cheap. They're photo-shopped in above these phony living rooms to give you an idea of the size. Unfortunately, having a fancy machine does not give anyone design sense, as Shadow looks terrible chopped off at the top AND bottom. The Tails...they just picked an awful art of. He's not only mis-colored (Brown) but off model too, and not even cute.

All photos in the above section discovered by JumpSonic Girls StoryMaker, RBW, and Chocolate Dog

Have some boring bubble solution to sell? The answer is not 'steal a batch of art' to try and make it popular. Here, someone's gotten a hold of classic Japanese style Tails, mixed him in with a random frog & some kind of puppy they probably found on the internet, and are attempting to use it to sell ordinary bubbles. These were found in Finland. Discovered by: CannaT

Mouse-pad nonsense! Grab some graphics and throw them anywhere! What's even supposed to be going on here? Sonic is cropped too close to the edge, flying in & pointing at Shadow who is just walking along. It doesn't even look cool. Discovered by NiosoSonic

These are fake pillow cases. You can see they didn't stop at just Sonic, there's Twilight, Lost, GhostBusters and even several bands who DIDNT want to be represented on print-on-demand pillow cases without

anyone's permission. Bootleggers will stop at nothing to try and fleece fans of ANYthing they can steal the art from/get away with. Discovered by NiosoSonic

You already know to beware of shady 'multi-in1' cartridges, but here comes a 20-in-1 hand-held Genesis emulator thing. Of course Sonic is used to headline it (as the most popular of the collection) but you supposedly get a batch of other games too. Notice how there's no actual manufacturer name anywhere...Discovered by Amethyst Van Der Troll

More fake watches, what a bore. Are these even fooling anyone any more? They just keep on pinching the art and throwing it on cheap disks to put on the face of the watch. Discovered by NiosoSonic

Look at this bogus mascot! What happens when you're not creative enough to think of a mascot for your sports team? Why...steal Sonic, of course! They've painted him darker blue...and changed his shoes, but they're still ripping him off. Isn't school supposed to TEACH you things? Like "Stealing is bad" and how about "Copyright Infringement Isn't Cool" ? Maybe this bogus sports team needs a lesson in creativity, more than anything else. How can you have 'school pride' in something that's ripped off? Photo discovered by JoelxSonic

Fakers are up to something new and lame in 2011: Fake wall decals. These 'giant stickers' are easier to make than phony posters, but they still look just as bad. The left one uses only black & white--ultra cheap, not edgy! and throws in a Mario for good measure. With details obscured by the black ink, neither sticker looks good. The 2nd one gives itself away with bogus personalization, & simply steals SA1 style Sonic stock art, then uses only blue ink to print it. Discovered by Piplupfan77

These flames stickers are also fake. This time, they took an Archie Sonic image, added flames and tried to sell it...even though the art pixelated! Discovered by Piplupfan77

This is a fake watch...that was actually bought by a fan. It happens sometimes! Fakes can be very convincing & look quite quality. It's easy to be fooled when they do a good job...so beware & be sure to read up on all the tricks here on "How to Avoid Bootlegs". This one used quality metal, well aligned art, & didn't make any obvious mistake. The only thing it's missing seems to

This is another annoying 'personalized' birthday item. This time, they've grabbed Sonic Riders art (does it look off-color? Remember there's no printing standard with fakes) and then scrawled "Happy Birthday David" in rainbow hippie font across the middle. Discovered by JumpSonic Girls

be a Sega copyright somewhere on it. Watches can be especially difficult, as real & fake are made in a similar manner. Photo by: Tabbo Amber the Hedgehog

This is a phony alarm clock. It's made to look old-fashion and cartoonish, with the 2 metal bells on top. What's really 'alarming' is what they did with the clock hands! They've put them right in the middle of Sonic's face. No real item would ever mess up the art/obscure the character face like that. They also sized it poorly, so the corners of the logo are cut off & it says "he Hedgeho". Photo discovered by CrashbandicootPro7

It's unusual to see phony mascot suits because they're so costly to make. However, something in Russia has gone ahead and done one. By coloring Sonic green, and giving him blue arms & shoes, they're hoping to create a mascot for something. The text (on backdrop) is Russian so you can't

Monkies are bad enough as-is, they don't need to be faking up items too. This is a "on the line" bootleg. It's not infringing anything to just write words on objects...but then, it's not a real Sonic item, either. Why anyone would need this...who knows. Photo discovered by Techno1252

read it. With the slightly goofy head, odd body & 'little' hands, it's not very Sonic-like, but you can still tell that was the basis. Photo discovered by ApocalypticRice

This is an odd bootleg, in that it's extremely specific, as well as being fairly well made. It is an enamel pin created for the Little League Baseball of District 18 (Manchester) New Jersey. The background is the outline of the state with a baseball on it. Sonic has been altered to be holding a bat that says Manchester (note his tiny odd hand with not enough fingers) They gave him a Little League hat that deleted his left eye-ridge/brow, and then colored his socks red. Sega would never approve of having writing all over Sonic, or releasing something with mis-matched hands. This is a curious bootleg to see. Photo discovered by Calistine.

They just can't stop...these cursor kooks who keep steaing an old Sonic 2 Tails sprite (and painting it purple). Don't let the slightly cross-eyed kitten distract you: ripping off Sega art is still against the rules, no matter how old it is, or if you change the color. 'Cursor Mania' is responsible for these 'free' (it's spam!) phony cursors. Discovered by Berzerker

Yet another bogus DS lite skin. This one has a Sonic Heroes theme, & as usual, the buttons are in everyone's way, and the top screen is just nonsense. Bad placement

This is an odd denim bag. It is a quality HongKong fake. The graphic is just a square, which seems 'iron on' like fakers prefer. However, the 'Sega Sonic' early 3D era graphic is unusual, & so is the inclusion of the 'Sonic Team' logo at the bottom. In the 1990s HongKong put more effort into fakes than many other places, they can be harder to detect. Fakeness confirmed by: Bianca Discovered by A Cat.

of character graphics is a standard for fakery. This item makes the page because it's of fairly good quality otherwise: didn't peel, curl or fade. HOWEVER just because a bootleg is made with 'good' materials doesn't mean it's ok to buy it. These people are ripping off Sonic by taking art that doesn't belong to them, & then never sharing any of the profits with Sonic or Sega. Discovered by A Cat.

A contender for oddest bootleg? A hoax? A crazy mutation? Whatever this doll is, it's STRANGE. It's some kind of Sonic/Knuckles COMBO doll. With Knuckles-like divided eyes & mouth...it's blue like Sonic. It's also got a gray stripe on the shoe...and look at that long tail & smooth back. But then there's the perky little ears & Sonic green eyes. Most striking though are this spikes! They're clearly Knuckles dreadlok style things but they're all curling UP! What could possibly be going on here? This plush is 24 inches high and was attempted to be sold on Ebay. (& look there's even a tag) Knuckonic? Sonuckles? FAIL! Discovered by SuperSonic1497 & Popp

Sonic Tails Classic Fake Old Phone Cover

An older fake, but still just as un-real. This is an old style cellphone cover. It would only fit on over that particular style of phone. It has classic Sonic at the top, but then the buttons disrupt classic Tails making him a little hard to see. Photo discovered by Techno1252

Can't design your own logo? Get super lazy and STEAL one! This lame restaurant "Silberfuchs" (which is Silver Fox in German) put Tails in grayscale, got rid of his arm, and then called him their logo. You know a place is bad when they can't even come up with their own logo/mascot. Since they didn't change anything, it's instantly recognizeable as a ripoff. Photo discovered by Taaron.