Beware of BOOTLEGS!
Wed 2011/03/09 21:45 JST
Hey everyone, as you all may know, bootlegs are on the loose. As for me, I bought a bootleg Azusa without having any further inspection for it. After I bought it, I realized it was a bootleg. Tried to return it and get my refund but the shop-seller refused. I was so pissed off at that moment. But, I'll take some of the blame for myself as well cause that was my first figure, I didn't know there were bootlegs and didn't know much about figures nor do I have any experience of it or whatsoever.
Her skin is darker than the original one and there's a dot on her nose
There's the dot on her nose
Bad quality
Sad to hear that, which shop you bought it from?
A shop from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia
I'm sorry for you, I hope you didn't pay this bootleg too much. Anyway I cannot understand why the vendor refused to refound: I think it's illegal to sell copies...
The price wasn't so expensive. About 1/6 of the original price.
lol be careful next time. one way to detect bootlegs is the price, although there are some who sell bootlegs at high price. another way is to buy from trustworthy shop esp online shop such as amiami or hobbysearh
Good thing I bought it at a low price. I would bang my head against the wall if it's at high price even though that's a bootleg. ~.~
Something's wrong with my comment session
It happened to all the recent posts. I guess the server must've taken a hit.
Obviously it's fixed now.
Yea, I can see comments now^^
I think this kind of thing is quite hard to avoid when someone start a hobby as a freshman, though I am quite lucky so far... Coins, stamps, artworks, antiques, and of course figures... Fakes and bootlegs are everywhere, like We are living in a minefield. LOL
True, haha. Almost everything has its own copies of fakes nowadays. Not to mention the differences in quality between fakes and the originals are of a huge gap.
The sculpt is surprisingly good for a bootleg. I could see how from a distance one could be fooled.
On the other hand, that paint job... Oh god.
It seemed perfect when I saw it from a distance.
I would tell the shop I was going to report him to the government if he didn't refund my money or make a trade of some kind.
Hope the government can ban bootleg stores though that's quite impossible.
I saw the exact one in a local shop here, malaysia alao, but the price is RM 90 only (USD 30). I order my figs from stores in KL like, thefiguremall.com, xl-shop.com, dcodetoys.com, animetsu.com and ebay malaysia, just in case u nid some reference for local vendors
XL-Shop doesn't sell bootlegs right?
i bought a nendo from xl shop. lucky its not nendo, not sure bout other pvc though
i mean its not a bootleg
All the shops i mentioned sell originals only, including xl-shop. =) Oh, and Time Machine in Time Sq KL also sell originals, though they sell Gundam kits more than figures. They also sell figures.
Oh, ok. Cause I just pre-ordered some from XL-Shop. Just wanna make sure that they sell original figures. haha
which shop? the one in lowyat?
I thought lowyat prohibits bootlegs (though it is possible to sell one thru the online forum).
Nope. Didn't pay attention to the name of the shop, but I know that shop is in Sungai Wang.
bad bad quality :)
wrong pvc material
not polish
Yea, good thing the rest of my figures are not :)
It's quite easy to spot bootlegs.
First the box itself, usually have bad graphics.
Second: bootlegs usualy don't have plastic on the figures wrapped.
Third: Plastic of bad quality/Different color etc.
Forth: Figure bad painted.
From what i see of your photos you can see 3/4.
Yea,you're right, it didn't have any plastic wrapping on the figure. Thanks for the advice! I'll remember these when I buy figures next time. =)
i'm feeling sad for you!
how didn't oyu spot it as a bootleg ? i mean it's obvious just by looking her face , did she was in a box?
next time be careful to the price, the price will give you a hint if it's a bootleg or not!
then look closely at the figure before buying!the quality will speak for herself!
I didn't knew there were bootlegs that time. So when I took it out of the box, I realized there were something wrong, so I searched a picture of the original one and I compared mine with it. Then, I noticed. =_=
oh so it was in the box...next time be sure to look if the figure is wrapped in a plastic in the box, all the figures are wrapped in a plastic when they are in boxes!
it happened to me too when i start collecting i bought a POP one piece and the difference with you is that i paid the price of the real one,since then i'm really careful!
Ouch! That really hurt. Hope you won't be reminded of this again. It's like a torn to the heart. I'll be careful when I buy em next time
haha yeah well i am trying to not fall into trap again xD
hope you won't as well :D
Thanks, I'll try not to either. You too! ^^ Like they say "Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me" haha
yeah, that's hard because somewhat you wanna have it for the best price so in the end we are all falling into it :/
yeah nicely said :D
Thanks for your concern! I'll take note of that ^^
no problem ;D
Yea,you're right, it didn't have any plastic wrapping on the figure. Thanks for the advice! I'll remember these when I buy figures next time. =)
I would highly recommend buying from a trusted source such as: HobbySearch or Amiami. If you do chose to buy off eBay always look for paypal guarantee and ALWAYS READ the description of an item. They will make it sound good like "Original and Brand new, Sealed" which from a certain point of view is true. But the item is new and sealed from their basement. lol. Anyways always be on the lookout for their descriptions. Good-luck next time comrade.
Thanks! I'll remember that :)
I just started collecting figures a few months ago [Dec 2010]
The first two I bought were bootlegs too, but I knew they were, because they were so cheap :P
Nendoroid Mio and Azusa - $18US each, including tracked shipping [bought on ebay] :P
For the price, I'm ok with that lol.
Since then I've only bought from other people here on figure.fm, or online shops like amiami, hlj.com, and hobbysearch
- hlj.com is pretty good because they always have 20% off EMS shipping, if you want fast shipping
- amiami seems to have the best prices on figures, and they offer registered SAL shipping, which is still pretty cheap
- hobbysearch seems to have a lot of stuff in their PVC bargin bin section, so you might be able to find a good deal on a figure you want
Hope that helps ^_^
Yea, now I know where I can get the real deals. Thanks! =)
Mole??
Yea. It's like a stain or something I don't know, but it won't come off when i tried to clean it.
My eyes! They burn!
Take a look at that skin tone. It's so dark =_=
Bootlegs sadly is quite common in Malaysia >w<
I would say a number of shops in Kl sell bootlegs...I have seen quite a number ^^;;
and what is sad is it isn't really that cheap anyways.
I still prefer to get my figures online.^^''
Hope this will b ur first and last bootleg >w<
Hope so >.<
Somehow i find it ironic that, you are more likely to end up finding a bootleg if you buy figures from physical stores than buying online, except within KL. Even Penang also have bootlegs except big malls but too overpriced. Although there are bootleg sellers online, such as ebay, their percentage is relatively low compared to original sellers (if you buy from ebay.com.my - malaysia's ebay, it is also safer than buying from china or HK sellers, and they do not necessarily require paypal). If you are inexperienced in buying online, dont attempt ebay, but the earlier sites i mentioned (some of them have physical stores) are safe and original.
I can give you some malaysian ebayers that is safe to buy from, their display names, just in case you need ebay as a last resort. Payments can be done by bank deposits.
dtol8
koowaichong
happyyip
kev5911
linuslai
roboticatoys
ministry_of_toys
yeegim6
Ok, thanks for the info! :)
Learn from mistakes, comrade. Good luck next time :)
Hope this will be the last and only mistake that I'd made.
Everything has a silver lining, at least you didn't pay the retail price of the original. It's a shame there are people out there who take advantage of others like this; like that person who refused to get your refund (then again he wouldn't be selling bootlegs if he had a conscience).
The best bet for old figures like this Azunyan is looking here for sales, or look in myfigurecollectiondotnet. Sometimes you get lucky! Also, beware of ebay sellers from Hong Kong (and I guess Malaysia too), they're usually brimming with bootleg sellers.
Anyways, at least now you don't have to worry since you have the bad experience behind you.