How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise Page 8

Sonic Gear Main Merchandise Page * Bootlegs 1 * Bootlegs 2 * Bootlegs 3 * Bootlegs 4 * Bootlegs 5 * Bootlegs 6 * Bootlegs 7 * Bootlegs 9 * Bootlegs 10 * Bootlegs 11 * Bootlegs 12 *

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 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.

If it's fake, don't put it on top of your cake! This is one of those 'edible images' cake toppers. It's a flat sheet of special icing that can be put on any cake. They come from a special printer...but do you really want to eat something that's made and handled by just anybody? Again, with fake items, you never know what you'll get or how it was made. This is especially suspicious when it comes to food! These are mostly sold over ebay, so watch out if the seller has loads of other character cake toppers, or, personalization. Photo discovered by BlueBlur9

A 'loot box' is a box that is used to contain party favors, the small 'giving back' gift usually recieved by guests at a birthday. There is no known official equivelent of this. This is just a thin card box with the 'custom' image printed on it. It comes flat, and then is folded into shape. There are plenty of alerts here to notify you of a phony! First, personalization, then they added the date, squashed the art some, and even water-marked it. Why? Because other bootleggers love to steal art...as well as photos! One would think it'd teach them a lesson because they already stole Sega's art here, and are using it without permission...or payoff. Photo discovered by BlueBlur9

It never takes fakers long to turn out their shabby wares once a new opportunity opens up. For example, this is a DSi skin which popped up mere weeks after the release of this hand-held. Rather than actually designing something, they just recycled more art...and it didn't even fit! Look at where the hole is, it's right on Tails' face. Sega would never neglect a detail such as this. Photo discovered by Beatleboy62

Here's a terrible fake costume with a mascot-like head. Too bad they did such a lame job with it. You can see the head to this costume on another page of bootlegs (it's facing front). When their wiggly mouth un-Sonic-like head didn't sell, they clapped together a shabby, wrinkly costume to go with it. Notice, they weren't even paying enough attention to add his spikes! (or shoe buckles) Now they're stuck with a giant stupid head and a wrinkly costume because it wont sell! Discovered by Surferbrg.

Is there anything these bootleggers won't fake up? Here's a ripped off address label. They're so easy to make because all they need to do is steal some Sonic art off of Sega, and print on a sheet of labels...then, charge way too much for them! Again, the 'personalization' here is the big tip-off that they're phony. Discovered by Hypersuperchao

This is a bogus bottlecap. Someone has a special printer that will make any design on a fake bottle cap. Here, they're stealing up some stock art to try and convince you this is a real Sonic cap. It is exactly like the myriad 'dog tags' and 'belt buckles' and other specialty items which specific printers can print on. Never buy anything from an auction that says "We can do any character on a ____" (whatever they're selling) you KNOW it'll be fake. Also note their cautions to not get this metal item wet...that means the metal is easy to degrade (try not to actually...wear it around either...you might sweat on it!) and may even stain or leech minerals/glue. Bootlegs are never made to any safety standard. Discovered by Hypersuperchao

Here are more plushes from the early fake Fighters series. These aren't the same as the ones who produce the endless fake Fangs. They're Japanese fakes modeled after the Fighters plush series, but done at a time close to the initial release, and having worse patterns (notice how the proportions are off, the plushes are very simplistic, and they don't look as good) than the originals. True knock-offs they can be easily told-apart so you can avoid them. Still, it is interesting to note the popularity of the plush set caused them to be knocked off almost right away. Photo discovered by Annalise

This is an odd fake! Usually if someone's going to rip off something, they only rip off one thing at a time. However, this shirt abuses both Sonic & "Monster Energy Drinks" by combining the 2 into a nasty hot-green fusion of foolishness! Why? Who knows! Someone has taken a screen of running-foreward Sonic, stained the whole thing hot green and thrown the 'Monster' logo at the bottom along with a can. (Is that a can photoshopped into Sonic's hand too?) The top says "Feel The Energy" but all this shirt does is feel the phony! Who can be sure why they thought combining 2 ripped off properties would bring in more money...but here's the shirt for you to be sure to NOT buy.

Item is UNDER SUSPICION! This hasn't proved to be real or fake yet. Do you know for sure with proof? Write in to clear it up! This has several features working for, and against it...so what'll it be? This is a dual purpose item. It's a key strap & screen cleaner. The back of the charm can be used (it is spongey and soft) to clean screens. For Real: Die cut dangle charm, patterned strap, real metal fittings, official art Fake: Mis-matched logo (Secret rings logo with non-secret rings artwork) Wierdly cheap at only like 3 dollars, no 'Sega' or copyright anywhere, dubious useability (clean screens with metal beads so close? Scratchy! Discovered by DioSoth

More fake party stuff is never a surprise, since party items are throw-aways the bootleggers think it's ok to do a super cheap job. Here, you can see some boring cups with a stolen Sonic art slapped on there, party noise-makers with more simple print out art, and some character stand-ups. Notice the mixed up art from several games and lack of "Sega" anywhere. Plus, Shadow looks out of place there at a party for little kids...he's shown out strolling with his Glock or whatever--so much for the mood! But the bootleggers don't care, they'll put the easiest art they can find to make a buck. Discovered by Sonic Boy 19.

Fake watches have been seen before, but this one steals some Sonic X art and jams it into the most boring, ordinary watch case possible. Discovered by Techno1252

Difficult to see, but this fake PSP case has the holes for the buttons right in Sonic, plus it seems to be mixing game art again, both sure signs of fakery! Discovered by Techno1252

Annoying phony birthday invites. These are a different "ticket style" which even uses old Heroes art, & tries tossing the logo on there to trick people further. However, anything that can be made by pinching art and using a crummy layout (art looks squashed!) can be made by ANYone cheaply, & then, they can over charge. Beware ALL non-packaged birthday invites on ebay! Discovered by Techno1252

What is this festival of fakeness? It's all the material for "Sonic Jam 6" or "Super 1998 Sonic 6" Bootleggers usually realease more than 1 art for an item, in order to keep fooling people into picking it up, and this has at least 3 different boxes for the same thing!

With mish-mashes of mixed up art, bizzarre non-sensical titles "Super 1998"? and a shoe-horned in '6' its obvious this thing's a phony. But what is it like? Someone edited Sonic into a slightly upgraded (?) version of Super Mario, and he's red when you have no mushroom (instead of being small, that must have been too hard!) and blue when you do (as seen in the shots below). What an odd thing to think to do? Photos by SonicRetro.

If they can make Sonic appear in a Mario game, then...Mario can appear in a Sonic knock-off game! (and, where are his sleeves??) This is "Somari" for the 8 bit NES

As you can see here from its cartridge, it came as part of one of those sure-to-be-fake "5 in 1" collections. They're hoping you'll think at least 1 game will be fun, and spend the money, but this is hardly the case! The whole point of Sonic 1 was to go fast, which the 8 bit cannot handle, and neither can Mario. It is sure to be an awful knockoff without much fun value. Fortunately, it is unlikely that anyone could be tricked into buying this. Photo & screens discovered by Berzerker.

Thanks to fan efforts, this clock has been definitively proven a FAKE. It is from China and has no Sega symbols or copyrights anywhere. It runs on batteries (see base) and talks in Chinese saying "Good Morning!" and "I don't want to get up". It isn't very large, seen here compared with a JW figure

nor is it accurate, with white shoe buckles, blue inside the ears, and 2 separate eyes. With big lines down the sides, it doesn't seem that well put together either. You can watch/hear it in action on Fake Clock On Youtube, but it is a company video and they'll argue with you if you say it's fake. Photographed & owned by Berzerker.

Another fake DSi skin, this one uses Sonic Heroes as well, but gives you only the top part. There isn't anything overtly fake about it, which means you just have to watch even more carefully for real Sonic or Sega copyrights & logos to spot it. Photo discovered by Techno1252

There have been a rash of these irritating phony shirts popping up in 2010. It is a supposed "Birthday Shirt" but it's nothing but a fake. However, they are getting more sophisticated (see added graphics like balloons, background dot thing) so it's worth posting a more modernized version again. As you know NOTHING that is personalized is EVER the real deal. Sometimes they just put the age #, and sometimes both age/name (seen here) trying to fool people into thinking Sega might have done it. They didn't. There's no point in a shirt that's only good for 1 year. These things need to go away and stop dissapointing innocent kids on their birthday. Photo discovered by SonicBoy19

Here's another bogus bank, but it's been 'modernized' to have the SA style green eyes, in hopes of tricking people into thinking it's better. (it's not) It resembles an 'improved' version of the clock seen above, and also the plain bank before it. Why they keep on deciding to make it look so odd by not giving it a body is a puzzle. There are no copyrights or 'Sega' stamps anywhere on it. The sellers are argumentative as well, they'll fight with you on ebay or in comments if you try to say anything against the item.

The best way to lame up a birthday party? Add bogus Sonic junk to it! At left is a very-overly-colorful 'edible art cake print', and at right are some phony cupcake toppers. Sonic DX is years old, why would you want something so out of date? Bootleggers don't care!

Maybe they're trying to hypnotize people into buying it with the crazy colors. Remember: do you really want to buy food from someone who's uncertified and using stolen art? The 'cupcake toppers' are merely tooth picks with stolen art glued into a round, flat paper ruffle at the top. Sound cheap? They are! But that won't stop the fakers from trying to crud up cakes with them. (all you do is poke the toothpick into the top of the cupcake, so you don't have to go to the trouble of icing or decorating it. Notice Tails' distorted head! Discovered by Werewolf_Sonic

This is yet another bootleg NES cart where they tried (and didn't really succeede) at 'porting' a Sonic game. Remember, Sonic's earliest game was 16 bit, and the NES was only 8. This one is a bit more of a modern attempt at it though, as you can tell from the Sonic Jam art, mashed in with the old logo. Discovered by Werewolf_Sonic