How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise Page 28
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.
Iron On Transfers Submission: CLOSED (every single art on the internet can be one of these, know that it exists & if it's a transfer of any type it IS A FAKE. Bootleg Avoidance HUB Page
This fat lame looking fake suit uses a 'clever' trick to create the head. Notice how the face bottom is super inappropriate & un-Sonic-like...well, that's because it's from a knockoff Mickey Mouse mascot suit. They cut the mickey face away on top & used that plastic bottom to frame a phony Sonic head. Of course, they messed it up with fat flappy spikes, scary eyes/face & that the head is super huge. The 'body' they didn't want to bother with so scrunchy wrinkly sleeves were added to a fat suit with "Sonic" written on it so "he looks like he's wearing clothes" & they don't have to do an effort. Remember: as bad as this looks, they're trying to sell it for 100s of dollars. Conveniently they cover up the shoes with the company logo there (so you know who to avoid, ugh)
No amout of costume cannibalizing can make something fake into something cool. Discovered by Pichu97
Inacurate Amys are nothing new, but this one's suffering from something a little different: too much pink. Her red dress is pink & so are her shoes. They've still got the stripe, but the color is wrong. Amy herself is also a lighter pink. Look at her odd hands too, she has like a giant mutant thumb or something going on. The dress isn't detailed, she's missing her gold bracelets & her ear borders as well. The whole doll just seems a little rumpled or floppy. The eyelash 'lines' are also quite out of hand.
It won't fool anyone, but it is rather odd to see this many strange mistakes showing up all at once on a doll. Discovered by Pichu97
Just look at this trash in a box! These have to be THE WORST fake figures ever produced in the name of Sonic. EVERY single thing about them is 100% wrong. Fail-quality plastic, hideous non-sculpts, mis-matched everything, stolen fan art, mixed up era box art, bad colors, bad poses, frightening faces, melting proportions... the list could just go on and on. This box set defies description as to how it ever got conceived of, let alone made and set out to spoil and sully a shelf somewhere. FAIL. Discovered by Pichu97
These seem to be some sort of creepy combination fake plush. They're combining from the 'big shoe fakes' (where the dolls had large glossy fabric shoes) & the 'bad mouth fakes' (where all dolls had mis-sewn embroidered wrong-smiles) 2 bad things clearly go bad together, as this set looks creepy & shiny and just no-good. Discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
This ugly overly simple classic style fake has a dumb looking brown nose, scribbly red mouth & a total disregard for detail with 0 cuffs, micro mittens, tiny ears, & detail free shoes. It's just terrible, and all the mistakes add up to a really rotten looking doll. Discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
What's a Kinder Egg? It's a chocolate 'surprise egg' that is illegal in America. It's illegal because inside the chocolate shell, there is a package with a toy/game/puzzle. The world's worst child opened the chocolate egg, ate it, then....they ate the toy! Package and all! Because a kid couldn't figure out that a rolling plastic car wasn't food, the egg became illegal to own or sell. (Do they also eat cereal-box prizes like those plastic color change spoons?)
However, just because you can't have it in America, doesn't mean you can't fake them up elsewhere, which is the case with this garish orange egg from Veitnam. They stole some CG Sonic art from Sega, colored the gloves orange (why?) & added him to the shrink-wrap on this bogus egg. Inside the plastic shell there, there'd probably be candy & a prize. Bootleg food is especially no-good though, because who knows if it has any clenliness or quality controls? If they're already willing to rip off art, what else will they rip off? Photo & owned by The OrangeHedgehog
This has got to be the WORST produced Silver bootleg yet, and it's all because his eyes are almost completely sideways and fused in the middle. The mouth is also somehow vertical too, which isn't helping anything. They're clearly trying (and failing) to get his details going, look at the detatched cuffs & wrong chest fur. He also doesn't have enough fingers & the forehead spikes don't lay right. The cloth tag is likely just a copy of something else. How could anyone, bootleggers included think to unleash this nasty thing? Discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
Yes if it gets bought. This bogus bed has a comforter/blanket & 2 pillow cases all with the same image. It's off one of the 'posters' to Forces so it's pretty grim with burning background & charging forward cast. But, it's also got "Demo Generic Guy" the glasses-wearing 'fan-char' stand in that nobody cares about featured front and center too because it was only meant to be an ad for the game & not...well, a bedspread as it is here. (The purple thing on the left edge is a wisp) The logo also appears, but notice how they hide it under the turn-down of the blanket since usually a blanket isn't just ripped off game art. Discovered by Sonic Dollz
Not Sonic Dimensions....because not only can we not get a licence, but we also cannot spell. A goofy looking mis-spelled word glares the obvious from the front of the otherwise ok jacket. It has big bands of blue, green, black & white with checkers on the sleeves. The double misspelling is attempted to be covered by the nicely copied logo font, hoping to fool people into overlooking it. Were they trying to skirt the copyright by saying that it is a SUNIC item?
Whatever they're trying it's not working, but it is an odd/interesting fake to see. Discovered by Taaron.
This bank is actually fairly cute, with a cross-eyed Sonic theme & nice enough paint. However, he certainly has 2 eyes which no official thing ever shows. Notice the hand & the ruler there in the photo: this is fairly big too. By the stopper there is a "Sega 1991" copyright stamp, but remember: fakers can fake ANYthing they want onto their molds & can produce phony tags at will. This thing is no exception. It is likely from/sold in China. Discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
Well, it must be that vertical thing! NO! Like a bad case of 'where's waldo' this phony plush is sitting among normal/real ones. The bad quality eye embroidery didn't give it away as a fake, the horrible mouth surely will. It's taken from a Knuckles mouth pattern, but for some reason the sewed it on completely sideways so it's extra scary and stupid looking. Discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
What is the Dool? It's a stupid looking fake Sonic plush best known for its seller's ability to NEVER spell the word "Doll" correctly when listing or describing it. The original Dool is here on Gear, but as time has gone by, they still can't spell but they can change the pattern a little bit. The eyes are still at a scary/poorly angle, but now they're a brighter green & the nose is bigger and woolier which makes it look worse. Hopefully their spelling problem drives everyone away from this return of the ugly nonsense. Discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
But it's time to do the opposite when you see this small Sonic plush as it is a phony. The details are there, but things just don't add up, like the uneven eyes, wierd white area on the shoe heels & too-dark-brown fabric for his lower face & belly dot. He also uses 2 of the commonly stolen-pattern 'big finger' pointing finger hands. But then, look at the tag. It's all in Chinese (normal) with the logo on one side, but look what's on the back...it's a holo-foil sticker with a Sonic graphic in there and the word 'sega'.
This bogus wallet has a lot of design effort put into it. Not all fakes are sloppy trash like the above mascot suit. This wallet has a Sonic Riders theme, but uses the Japanese logo. (Japanese letters are kind of sloppily printed from a shoddy copy of the logo there...it's white on black) It has Riders style Sonic on his hover board as the exterior design, along with some nice checkers & convincing white swirls. The closure is a big, quality-looking round panel with a snap. This has a Sonic face on it but....they forgot to color in one whole eye! Then, the other one is blue because they were too lazy to get green paint.
The inside even has some design going on as well, which is the "Glove-hand thumbs up wing ring" that appears in Sonic 2's Special Stage, plus some added swirl & leafy designs. The problem is that it mixes classic & modern elements--another common bootlegger bungle. The interior has a clear ID holder & plenty of card slots though. While the art is making an effort & the complexity is good, without the right coloring & the glaring missing details it still looks phony if seen for more than about 10 seconds or so.
This is a high-effort fake that is interesting to see. Photos by Sonic Dollz