If they are going through the trouble to make knock-offs of figures that sell for $90-100 on the second hand market they freaking better make them absolutely terrible.
So how exactly can one tell at this point? I'm assuming the foot imprint has been improved and we all know this IG Turd selling this stuff. Big Fan of Cocoo but at this point with some of these blanks I'm very suspect. Currently listed on Cocoo but be aware Also this scum is already on to the chrome phase
This is like when you buy that fake birkin bag outside some bodega and then you get mugged for it and when you head back to buy another fake, the bootlegger has moved on because the style you got is not in fashion anymore. chrome nags somehow manage to look even worse than the painted ones. That said, give it to the guy for having the craft down
If I was a super high profile maker I’d be minting NFTs and using those as a source for sales of physical toys. Relatively cheap and you cut through all the nonsense of lotteries and fake email/IG accounts and bootleg BS. There are some collectors who literally have an army of smurfs applying to every lottery and shop drop. It’s crazy.
foot stamp would tell a lot, he has'nt perfected it and wont be able to... but a good rule of thumb would be to stay away from unpainted second hand unless you fully trust whom you are buying from. Don't touch the mix parts also unless you know for a fact they are the true OG color/heads that were apart of the mix part blind bag DX's from NYCC... I've seen quite a few people go against their better judgement and just buy what they think is a good deal because they want a piece, basically talking themselves into that this is a steal, or out of the fact that this sounds scammy.
i'm waiting on Zhang to drop a LED eyed boot. he is skipping some important periods in the scene. smdh
Moving an idea from the NFT space to physical production isn’t easy and in this complicated market. Also, Toy collectors tend to not like NFTs at least the ones that don’t tend to make a huge opponent to the NFT space.
so Zheng and the ( he says they are bronze, but im just going with metal ) metal offerings he posts is a very interesting take. the dude might actually have something here, too bad he can't focus on coming up with something his own versus just bootlegging other sculpts.
Have you guys seen joshwang_design's new post on IG? It seems he and Blackpearls shall take real action against our Mr. Zheng.
Anyone know more to the new Frank Mysterio toy that he has on his story? There was a kickstarter for the original version(jigokunoraida) that sold out 24 weeks ago for ~$5k total. This project has the wax mold in production currently from the last update. Granted the kickstarter might have undervalued the actual true production costs so he's stuck with some form of bill, but now Mysterio is alleging that he paid for rights to the sculptor and can produce the toy with a prototype in hand.
Hmm... I don't know what's going on behind closed doors but I hope things get sorted out. Serpico seems like a good guy but I don't know him personally. I've purchased a custom from him in the past. He was quick to ship and it arrived safely. That's the only experience I have dealing with him. I know he's done a fair amount of commissions and has a lot of happy customers.
I've casually talked to him a handful of times but nothing to get an actual opinion of him outside of that and from what I've seen he's been extremely excited about this project. I don't want to speculate as there's a thousand different things that can be the case, Mysterio's comments were just off to me about the situation. Maybe it was a translation thing on my end or whatever, but the way I interpreted it on the comment section, Mysterio said nothing has been made for serpico, but then immediately contradicted himself saying they were slated to be released in august, now december so it was just a tad fishy to me.
To my understanding frank is speaking up for the sculptor that sculpted jigokunoraida. Apparently it was a collaboration between serpico and toyheavy. Serp took toyheavy's signature off the figure in the wax stage without warning and refuses to pay him for his work. That's what I got from all of this but I am not sure what is the truth and what is not.
Hey guys, JC from Mexico here. I’d like to drop a few lines regarding this rumor. I’m friends with Frank Mysterio. I’m also his partner (as a producer) in one of his toys, Mictlan. I know Serpico too, though I’ve never met him in person, I’ve just had conversations with him and bought some of his customs. Long story short, Serpico was planning his toy, commissioned a sculptor to develop his idea and started a Kickstarter campaign. So far so good, but he didn’t reach his goal on the campaign and the sculptor claims he wasn’t paid, as agreed, for work already performed. When he requested payment he was thrown out of the project and his name and artistic credit were erased. The sculptor (Édgar Espinosa, toyheavy at Instagram), happens to be friends with Frank, so he went to him asking for help to vent the situation and to promote the piece. I believe Edgar asked for a paint job as well. The toy that Frank has shown in his Instagram and Facebook profiles is one of the actual prototypes the sculptor modeled himself and later handed to Frank. His creative vein is quite fertile and he has no need to steal anything. I think he was looking for some kind of justice for his friend. As for my personal account, I can tell you that working with Frank has been a wonderful experience, in every sense. He has been crystal clear with everything related to design and production times, collaborations, sales and money in general. Therefore I felt I had to speak out, I mean, I can deal with the fact that some of his toys (that I love!) appear in the Fugliest toys section but in the Sofvi Bootlegging Scumbags forum? No way.
Seems to be a situation where someone bit off more than they could chew and instead of eating the cost of production to keep everything moving and happy, we have a situation like this. Thank you for the explanation and insight into the situation. Also, extremely ironic to leave off artist credits as an artist yourself especially when money is owed.
You say Serpico didn’t reach his goal, but the Kickstarter was funded 106%. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jigokunoraida/semi-raida-soft-vinyl-toy Did it just end up costing more than expected? That is unfortunate because availability was fairly limited—it sold out in 90 minutes and then the project was closed. If he needed more money I’m sure he could have generated the necessary funds to pay the sculptor had he taken additional orders (assuming that’s the issue here). After seeing Édgar‘s most recent post on Instagram it seems his level of concern is as follows: foot stamp credit > payment To me his statement reads like he is upset that his signature was removed without consent. Upon receiving this news an outstanding balance that was (I assume based on context) promised to be paid at a later date is now being demanded in full as a retaliatory attack.
By the way, if anyone wants to hear what Serpico has to say check out his recent Instagram stories and make your own judgement. It seems like there was a lot of miscommunication (or complete lack thereof) on Édgar’s part if Serpico is to be believed. It appears he’s at least making an effort to come to and agreement with Édgar. Hopefully they can work things out.
