Does anyone here collect bootleg toys?

[fcgamer | 4,754]

I went for a walk this afternoon and eventually decided to swing by a local junk shop. While there, I decided to purchase a set of beat up, yet unopened bootleg Jurassic Park toys from the 90s. I had seen these toys sitting in the shop for about five years, but I finally decided to grab them, I think because Taiwan is now going through a nostalgia boom and you rarely see this sort of stuff for sale anymore.

Although I'm probably likely to sell these (anyone here interested or know someone that might be?), I do also have a few bootleg Ninja Turtles figures, which I picked up last year. I'm keeping the TMNT stuff, with JP although I watched some of the movies and enjoyed them, I was never a huge fan or anything.

Does anyone else here collect or have an interest in bootleg toys? 

[spacepup | 2,412]

I've never had much interest in stuff like this.  I'm sure there are exceptions, but in most cases that I've seen bootleg toys, the quality is significantly lower than the original and it just isn't the same.  

When my nephew was really into Pokemon, I remember trying to get some toys / figures for him for his birthday one year - and I ordered some stuff online.  Some of it was fine and legit, but some was bootleg and the quality was just way off / didn't even look much like the official characters.  Everything from the packaging, to the materials, was just of very visible lower quality.  I was pretty disappointed and ended up tossing those and just giving him the good stuff.

I imagine there are people out there who have an interest and/or even collect stuff like this, but I don't really see much appeal personally, other than for comedic effect.

[RH | 4,980]

Like Pup, I'm not really into "fake" toys as collection, but my only exception that has elicited any level of desirability is for the stuff that is soooo obviously fake but also very far off from the original source, it makes you laugh.  For instance, there's the infamous Harry Potter/Obama/Sonic Bookbag.  This item obviously became a meme, but that was so bad I kind of wanted it.  I have never collected any of this stuff but some times items like these fall into a category that scratches the same itch as watching a really, really bad movie because it's fun to laugh at.

Bootleg toys are typically very cheaply made (at least in the states) and often break the first day they are played with, even if the child takes care of them.  I know because plenty of well meaning family members have tried to be nice and purchased cheap toys from places like the Dollar General and random gift them for my kids.  Never fails, half the stuff breaks while pulling it out of the box.  I'm not saying cheap toys were of excellent quality when I was a kid.  They weren't.  But the knock-off stuff would at least last a while if you took care of it.  That's not the case anymore.  For me the only appeal for a dirt-cheap, knock-off item would be something to stay in the package and display because it's sooooooo bad, it's awesome and that's it.

For reference, here is the Harry Potter/Obama/Sonic bookbag if you missed it about 12 years ago.  This was such a popular meme, you could actually find knock-offs of this gem of a knock-off.

Edited June 2, 2021 by RH

[spacepup | 2,412]

Yeah, I can see the appeal of the "it's so bad, it's good" collection - that bag hahahahah - it doesn't even make sense!  

[RH | 4,980]

4 minutes ago, spacepup said:

Yeah, I can see the appeal of the "it's so bad, it's good" collection - that bag hahahahah - it doesn't even make sense!  

Yeah, it just showed up in typical meme channels like Imgur.  I'm sure someone has figured out the details since it arrived on the intertubes, but at the time it came out it went so viral, so fast, a quick google search didn't even yield the origin.  I have no clue where this was from. Maybe Taiwan, but I had friends who were missionaries in Tanzania and lived near Kenya and from time to time would make their way to Nayrobi.  They lived in the area when Obama was elected president and practically the whole contentinent was so proud of the first black president, "OBAMA" was printed on everything.  They had sent us photos of stuff like this.  In fact, I might even have a huge, kente cloth scroll with Obamas face on it.  I know they showed that one to my wife and I and I honestly can't recall if I got them to pick one up for me.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

I need to find one of those backpacks...

[fcgamer | 4,754]

Regarding quality: Just like with vidya tapes, I'd never buy modern bootleg toys, I see no appeal to that at all. Some of my students bring in knock-offs to play with at school, and I'm honestly afraid to even touch the things, they feel so cheaply-made and easy to break. But I can't stress it enough, that stuff is all made in China.

That's one of the ways I know the items I posted above are old, as they're made in Hong Kong. This stuff has a much higher quality to it.

For me, I like this stuff for a variety of reasons. There is the comedic effect that some of the items have. For some of the others, it almost feels like an entrance to a parallel universe. Maybe the characters look somewhat reminiscent of a familiar face, yet they just aren't there yet... perhaps a distant relative or a friend? Relative that turned bad? 

In this way I think it's fun to let one's imagination run wild on these. 

[RH | 4,980]

13 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

I need to find one of those backpacks...

If you find one, buy it and add it to your collection!  If you find two... CALL ME!

[fcgamer | 4,754]

1 minute ago, RH said:

If you find one, buy it and add it to your collection!  If you find two... CALL ME!

I'm actually going to ask the local dirty reseller if he can track this down.

[RH | 4,980]

5 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

I'm actually going to ask the local dirty reseller if he can track this down.

Seriously, if you find two and it's a reasonable cost to buy and ship it to the states, give me a call.  That graphic was so-bad-it-was-great, the bootleg was bootlegged.  If I get one, I want a legit original and the quality better be as bad as I'd expect.

It feels so weird to say that.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

19 minutes ago, RH said:

Seriously, if you find two and it's a reasonable cost to buy and ship it to the states, give me a call.  That graphic was so-bad-it-was-great, the bootleg was bootlegged.  If I get one, I want a legit original and the quality better be as bad as I'd expect.

It feels so weird to say that.

I'll see what I can do

[Tanooki | 4,953]

I used to have a supply of some KO Transformers (four star, etc) stuff but got rid of most of them.  I also have a few other odds and ends such as a KO large Godzilla figure, most is gone.  The one big one I still have, I've attached the images.  Chinese release within the last 20 years, G1 Abominus still in the blister pack.  All I could ever dig up was next to nothing, even the major sites like transformerland.com barely have squat on it.  They have a listing at least, others don't, but they don't even have good/any images of this toy.  Offered it, seemed interested, took the images, then never got back to me.  The construction and stickers on these are as good as the original which is a surprise.

[phart010 | 1,708]

When I do visit Asian countries I know the bootleg toys are everywhere. But I don’t think we see too many bootleg toys in the US market. At least I don’t really remember seeing them my whole life.

My brother is a big Godzilla toy collector. Predominantly Japan made Godzilla’s, but there are a few American ones he has also. Some of the old vintage bootleg Godzilla’s are sought out by Godzilla collectors

 

[RH | 4,980]

2 minutes ago, phart010 said:

When I do visit Asian countries I know the bootleg toys are everywhere. But I don’t think we see too many bootleg toys in the US market. At least I don’t really remember seeing them my whole life.

My brother is a big Godzilla toy collector. Predominantly Japan made Godzilla’s, but there are a few American ones he has also. Some of the old vintage bootleg Godzilla’s are sought out by Godzilla collectors

 

Next time you're in a Dollar General/Family Dollar browse the toy isle.  You'll find a lot of cheap-China toys and, yes, some of them are knock-offs.  Going to flea markets is another good place to find this stuff.

[Tanooki | 4,953]

2 hours ago, phart010 said:

When I do visit Asian countries I know the bootleg toys are everywhere. But I don’t think we see too many bootleg toys in the US market. At least I don’t really remember seeing them my whole life.

My brother is a big Godzilla toy collector. Predominantly Japan made Godzilla’s, but there are a few American ones he has also. Some of the old vintage bootleg Godzilla’s are sought out by Godzilla collectors

 

This is one, it's a KO of the Imperial released Godzilla's and people are into it and it has been on a slow steady incline over the years compared to some atrocious cheap looking/quality ones.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

@fcgamer what makes them jurrasic park? Is that Mandarin, does it say “Jurrasic Park”?

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

No, but I've been known to pick up the odd KO Transformer if the quality is high enough.  I also picked up a few KO Cobra soldiers dirt cheap a few years back that are basically identical to the real thing except the missing copyright info on their leg.  Heard that someone started doing the same thing with vintage Kenner Stormtroopers but have never managed to find anyone close enough to the source for them to be available at a halfway decent price.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

5 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Heard that someone started doing the same thing with vintage Kenner Stormtroopers but have never managed to find anyone close enough to the source for them to be available at a halfway decent price.

Oh that would be fun to get a ton of those

[fcgamer | 4,754]

On 6/4/2021 at 10:46 AM, MrWunderful said:

@fcgamer what makes them jurrasic park? Is that Mandarin, does it say “Jurrasic Park”?

Yeah. Well the text as is reads Cretaceous Park Adventure, but the word "Cretaceous" is actually just a sticker added on top of text that reads "Jurassic", so the package was originally marketed as Jurassic Park Adventure.