How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise Page 32
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.
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
Gucci Mickey Eggman Fake Bad Tee Yeah, ok, not since the "Harry Potter Obama" Backpack have we had something like this...dumb.
This is the....Gucci Mickey Eggman tee! Lets take 3 things that don't go together at all, then try to combine them into something no one wants! How are bootleggers this...idk, you can't exactly call it creativity if it's just ripping stuff off.
Onward, to the myriad problems: First of all, why write 'gucci' on there? No one would believe that expensive brand. Then, they put different converse-style shoes onto Eggman, which...at least are the right size? But why the Mickey Mouse? Eggman's body doesn't resemble him at all? Also, they didn't delete the mustache, so it looks like fakie-mouse is having an explosion of some kind of neck hair excess.
Why even make this? Nothing about it is good.
Discovered by pichu97/Charlie
Miya Mica Fake CD Label Time for a fake spotting lesson if you're out to buy Sonic music...you've got to have a sharp eye.
Multi Dimensional Sonic Fake CD This is the case/label for "Multi Dimensional" a Sonic Adventure 2 sound track CD. It's loaded with great songs that any fan would want to own (see how long the track list is) but it's uncommon. This is a recipe for bootleggers, so...you've got to to spot the fakes.
To do that, look there at the edge detail MIYA (the black square) only bootlegs things. But they do a really good job and are difficult to spy...save for their black square. Then, the other tell is the letters "MICA" in their code number thing. They like to use this because most people don't know what the number does/is for so they don't catch it. But now, with this important info, you can. Remember: if you're buying online ask the person to see the details. Any good seller will be happy to show you close ups of the item. Don't pay big dollars for fakes.
Want to learn more?
You can, at VGMDB the music of arts & games. Then, SonicRetro website has info about the real thing. Look for the Sound Track Codes & match them with the verified REAL codes on sites like the VGMDB before you buy. Fakes like this can even come with fun posters, extras, and items that make them look alike in almost every way. These seem to be among the most sophisticated fakes yet produced.
Info & photos provided by Hedgy
Green Groucho Fake Sonic Ugly Uh oh, a nasty wrong color fake...this green groucho 'Sonic' uses a grinchy color of green, then adds 'groucho' thick black eyebrows? or something to further the bad look. Either way, he's fake, he's stupid, and he's not fooling anyone. So why even make this? What kid would not be afraid of it's ugly bad look? The mutant ears, mealy lower face with wiggly texture, absolutely amature job on the body...about the only thing it (somehow against the odds) got right-ish are the shoes. Is the bottom of the 'eye' messed up? Why is there a texture? Then the pupils aren't even sewn on right.
Who knows why this even exists, but it's an ok time to remind that 'changing the characters' color doesn't remove the copyright from it, or from the original look'. (Some bootlegs still believe that outdated notion) It may be funny and dumb to look at, but it is fortunately easy to avoid.
Amy Mix Up Bad Bootleg 6 Set Dolls
More scrubby stupid dolls to befoul the bootleg page!
This is a fake set, hoping to overwhelm and fool with many characters. Fortunately it's a flop though because no one was paying any attention to Amy Rose. It's got her colored eyes, but then her classic clothing. Next, they forgot every single detail of her shoes & made them just ugly white balls. The Tails has wrongly set eyes so he looks rather goofy. Shadow is a snarly mess, with badly done glove cuffs all the way up his arms, shrivelled spikes & somehow giant round feet? Sonic is just meh. Lopsided ears, lousy spikes...nothing remarkable at all. The Knuckles suffers all the usual ills, tiny lame fists, tiny shoes...but then look how long his legs are? Then the body is so small? Silver looks like their best shot but he's so wiggly spikes & kind of a messy face. It's really a mixed bag (that is still full of un-quality fakery) where you can see what they were trying for...but they just hit too many anti quality pitfalls. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
Boom Bootleg Dumb Figures
Boom Bootlegs aren't that common...
But these phony figures are giving it a shot. Except for the Eggman, who they left alone for whatever laziness reason. Wierd, noodly arms Amy has her sssoorta boom dress? Well there are several buttons on it. Then, we have blue arm Sonic with maybe some sports tape shoes, mis-colored red bandana and a 'bleh' looking face with some wierd spikes. Eggman is tall? and has a wacky eyebrow going on, while the Tails is somehow a bit transparent orange and has the worst-painted eyes of the lot. He has that "Chewbacca" belt/strap thing from Boom but kind of nothing else except the goggles which don't even look good. These are likely to be small, bendy-type figures and they don't look good in any way. Discovered by Ginyu DBZFan
Werehog Ugly Clear Bootleg Uh oh, the werehog is now a werebootleg!
What a strange figure to choose to fake up, it's the unpopular werehog. To add even more strangeness, it's also cast in semi-transparent blue plastic for whatever reason. (Usually this indicates 'invisible' characters) However, in this instance it makes him look even more chimp or ape-like with the big monkey fingers & oddly shaped head. It gets right the strange spiky shoes that somehow also transformed & has the 'hairy' texture all over. The figure is also pretty snarly looking. But, instead of the white/grayish replacing the peach areas on the actual Werehog, they left it peach-ish which makes it look strange.
This thing is certainly no good, but it is interesting to see. Discovered by Ginyu DBZFan
A Plus Prickle Tails Stolen Drink Mascot Fake
A terrible Tails!
This "A Plus" drink scores a big red "F" for design because it is a STOLEN mascot. They've re-colored Tails to brown and then messed up his head by adding a zillion stupid looking prickly spike 'hairs' all over it that don't look good. They've changed him to brown as well, hoping to pass by the copyrights but that's not how this works.
CHANGING something on a STOLEN design doesn't make that thing not be stolen!
The bootleggers never seem to learn the lesson and continue to rip things off making ugly mascots for themselves. Like coloring Sonic green doesn't make him "your character now". And it's always odd trivial details too like the Ogorki Pickle Creature Sonic where he's green but then has lizard bumps all over the spikes well here Tails has nonsense 'hair' that's poorly drawn. Seeing a shoddy character like this might deter people from the drink. (as well it should)
Photo discovered by Princess Panda Lover
Foxy Tails Fake Fishing Lures Fishing for phonies!
More like fishing for copyright infringement with this stupid logo mascot or whatever is going on here. This website isn't even trying with their theivery, all they did was color it so
that Tails' eyes look like they are closed and then put eyelashes there and said it was their own mascot character. Direct rip off alert! What's sad is that it's a cute name for what they do...it's a fly fishing fly tying thing where you make lures to try to catch fish by having the crafted bits look like various bugs and creatures the fish eat. Foxes are 'clever' and out-witting the fish with artful tying is also clever and sometimes the item made is called a 'tail' so...that's still no excuse to steal Tails, who is also a literal 'flying fox', so there's plenty of play upon words here...just too bad it's stolen
There are SO many easy opportunities to make something unique out of the name/concept but it just seems like this one was too lazy or too cheap to take any advantage and really be memorable. Photo discovered by Princess Panda Lover
Tomy Tails Tissue Pack Fake Here's a strange fake from...somewhere.
It's "Tomy Handkercheifs" which are basically just probably pocket-pack tissues. The Tomy name is unlikely to be trying to copy actual Tomy Toys, it's probably just a seperate company that makes a completely different item but happens to have the same name. It's not common, but, stuff like that does happen. The problem is that they just randomly...
Put Tails art on the package for absolutely no reason. While the rip off site above had every reason to steal him, these guys have absolutely none. It's like they were just looking for something colorful / a character to put on the package and somehow wound up choosing him. Photo discovered by Princess Panda Lover

Ugly Gross Detailing Mascot Truck A fake mascot with some ugly detailing for this...
A "mobile detailing" service truck. Their ugly mascot is so mutant that it wouldn't be a super candidate for bootlegs because it's a ripoff, but different...however, they went ahead and stole the "Sonic" name, and put it in a knockoff version of the font too, so you know that they are going directly for the steal. They've obviously traced Sonic to a degree here, but made him orange, the shoes shrivelled/bad, and the face more weasel-like and nasty. He's got a squirt gun or something that looks like it has msutard coming out of it too, which....meh?
So the bad art, bad color, wierd accessory and nasty looking face all combine for a batch of bad details on this detailing truck. Is it supposed to make them look fun or trustworthy to hire? It rather has the opposite effect. Photo discovered by Princess Panda Lover
Tilt Eye Fake Wrinkle Hat A wrinkly & bad fake Sonic hat.
This was probably a copied pattern from an actual hat, but, being fake, it suffers from bad quality control so one of the eyes is badly tilted and looks rubbish. It's purely the mis-sewing of the fabric that the eyes are on, into the hat itself that causes this. You actually have to be careful putting goods together and fakers, as this proves, are often really...not. Then, they were too cheap to use a 3rd color of fabric so the face bottom & ear interiors are white too, instead of beige. This looks bad because the eye shouldn't be the same as any part of the face.
What's surprising is the quality of the embroidery for the eye color/pupil area, in that it is actually well stitched and thick. It isn't terrible at all, which is strange to find a quality bit in this bogus hat. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
Movie Mash Up Freaky Figures It had to happen eventually...
Movie fakes! These freakish figures are marketed for the movie, but they just throw any/everything at the wall that they can get (except for quality) You've got Boom, Movie, Silver, & regular Tails as well. As if the art jumble wasn't bad enough the figures themselves are WORSE. They all have the same shoes painted the wrong colors, bizzarre proportions & horrible faces. Shadow fares the worst with the non sensical 'goat eyes'
that plagued a few early figures and look positively horrendous. Tails' head is gigantic but poorly constructed & everyone has Knuckles' shoes but without the detail. It's odd to see something so shabby and poor but bothered to be put on a bubble card with actual interior/fitted plastic. Photo discovered by GamingChiliHedgehog
Fake Face Mask Amy The virus is even affecting bootlegs...
Because here comes a phony face mask with Amy pattern on it. Wearing masks helps prevent the virus, but wearing a fake mask doesn't prevent looking tacky. Fast fakers have thought up a Sonic design with large Amy portrait & smaller CG Amy to print onto a sewn fabric shape to create this mask. It looks ok but...
Remember! (And this is especially important here)
Fake's DONT have quality control! How good is the fabric? How well would it fit? They don't care enough to stop ripping off Sonic, so the super-sure don't care about the customer either. Avoid! Discovered by Princess PandaLover
Storage Box Random Sticker Fake Now here's something you don't see much of any more...
An item that randomly plops a Sonic image onto itself for absolutely no reason. This is an ordinary plastic storage bin for closet stuff. But then, there's Sonic, set on the label sticker. It's not even 'Sonic brand', or anything to do with him. There is ZERO reason to put him here, the label doesn't mention him, he's not being used as a mascot, there's nothing fast about the bin. They're not even trying to trick people into thinking the container is somehow Sega or video games related. They just got a picture of him and slapped it on there like they were making a collage. All the text except for 'storage' and 'new' is in Chinese so you can't read it anyway. It's for the Chinese market (made in China then sold there too) but it doesn't make the choice any less odd. Did sticker-guy just like him? This sort of thing was more frequent in the past, but here it goes in 2020 once again. Discovered by Princess PandaLover
Big Nose Movie Bootleg Doll A Big Nose Bootleg!
And, with the Sonic Movie...there comes the movie bootleg doll. Trying to cash in on movie merch is what a faker would do, but instead they faked up this terrible stupid looking plush. The nose is HUGE, what were they thinking? The ears are big floppy flaps too, with odd, white interiors. The eyes have extra detail (trying to be like the cg, but no success) but they still don't look good because the eye/face shape is off. Look at the tiny, detail-free hands, what's going on with those--well, they're probably copied off an older inferior Sonic fake as well. The legs are wide and chunky, which makes the socks/shoes and small feet just look klunky in the boring movie shoes. The spikes are kind of set up oddly also? This kooky plush likely won't fool anyone...and that's as plain as the nose on it's face. Discovered by Pichu97/Charlie