View this post on Instagram ^ Pulled from @Rich 's IG feed. The obvious difference is the "pimple", but stare a little longer at the side by side and reading all of those Mad magazines starts to pay off. Those eyes, that nose,.. head, shoulders, knees, and toes.
Yowzer! So who would buy this crap? I'm presuming that collectors of MVH wouldn't want it and the most follow the MVH related feeds and are aware of what to look for. Seems like now he's been rumbled, he's stuck with 'em!
@Anti Social Andy , from the looks of it, under the guise of online auction sites and the like. Tho that said, it puzzles me why they would go to the trouble and spend any money at all making these, since scammers have long been doing the same without actual product. Clearly these hooligans aren't top brass... They could be trying to push them around toy events too, but at least @Rich now knows, and in turn, now so do his IG followers... Looking back at those comparison pics - there is one positive side effect of this otherwise crappy situation; seeing them side by side amplifies just how foxy the work put into the MVH toys really is, while simultaneously making those bootlegs look even worse than on their own... Same reason you don't want the bridesmaids to be prettier than your wife to be... or Not to be.. Because That is the question. HOW TO CLASSY UP ANY CONVERSATION. RULE #2317. "Work a Shakespeare reference in to your word play and watch the room shiver in great reverence of your presence. "
The angle isn't exact its off by at least 10 degrees , so I'm having a hard time truly differentiating the difference. Why wouldn't the bootlegger just dupe an original?
It's because they don't create the mold with the original sculpt but instead the finished product. That is why the sizing will always be off.
If pulling from the finished toy The differences would be minimal, believe me. It might be smaller/bigger due to shrinkage. I think the differences would be in the quality of the paints, joints and vinyl. I assume if anything the Legger resculpted from pictures if its missing certain nuances. The eyes on the bootleg look bigger, and more happy. If I dupe my toys I usually use 2nd pulls from master molds.
Sad to see this day finally come around. Pretty sure this Zheng guy was the 2nd half of Telebobo too? Or am I remembering this wrong?
I'm pretty sure I got taken for an Ilu ilu toy last week.. I did the whole "panic buy, then check and realize they have no feedback and no other sales" dance.. I know I'll just have to wait it out.. the $40 won't kill me, but I'll do what I can to make sure I get it back and report anything I can to eBay etc. They even sent me an email assuring me that it's shipped, but they can provide me with a tracking number because "they know it was cheap for me to buy" but if I email them they can check the packages location.. and that it may take 30+ days to get here.. I'll keep everyone posted.. not expecting to ever get the toy, but there's always that little naive hope that it's an angry ex or something selling off their s.o's toys cheap! ... ..
@DrMadness - How can they check the location of the package but you can't? 30+ days to receive it? Where is the package coming from? Sounds like BS. Well, here is to the best that it comes in.
@DrMadness Yeah... I think you should contact ebay/paypal on this one.. regardless, they should be able to give you some kind of tracking if they are able to track it. I fear they are stringing you along.
I find this thread very fun to read and the conversation around bootlegging in China a very important topic to breach as the hobby becomes more and more mainstream and it’s manufacturing demands expand. This has to do more with mentalities around IPs and the collective psyche of the Chinese environment than just a few folk making money (see the Monsanto seed espionage : FBI debacle from a while back). It’s actually a thing that goes back to the commune systems of the pre cultural revolution and moves across as the country and its economy opens up to capitalist systems. As a scholar of Chinese aesthetics I am quite taken by these notions and love the take that it brings here. As a collector I’m annoyed and relieved the community is on top of it.
My thoughts exactly! Glad to hear some kind of confirmation by someone who studies Chinese aesthetics. Watch out though.. a few people around here would label any kind of challenging theory or intellectual thoughts as being "slightly racist" lol
The practice in itself is abusive and advantageous from our standpoint. From theirs is a system that asks for solutions and they are providing options. The beauty of capitalism as filtered through a Chinese thought is that it dispenses from a lot of ethics. As I pointed out the espionage thing is one example, but more in line with our areas, think about the proliferation of Chinese porcelain. It became so simplified to the point that the quality of it is called China when it is of a certain grade and the Dutch and other European markets cared for its origin far less than they did for its stamps. The west takes and does as it pleases with the objects of the other, why shouldnt the other do so as well? More to the point, part of this responsibility falls on us from a complete capitalismus standpoint. the consumer needs to be able to distinguish fake from original and if we are true to the artists, then we must keep to them and their art (Rich providing provenance and comparison is a great start) and not cut hairs on whether some factory in Shenzhen is producing affordable knockoffs of a commodity we all want. Rich can keep these folk accountable but thats shouldnt be his job other than being aware of it happening and they can all go to hell for all we care. The fact is they should be still allowed to continue doing their thing if that allows an environment that educates the collectors AND creates opportunities for conversation. lets see this practice as a conduit for the dissemination of craft and how it approaches the art of our artists, then take it and critique it. Then laugh at its poor quality and gauge its ability to incite debate and new aesthetic possibilities. Hopefully those that throw thousands at second market prices can eventually do it for the artist as well, like NNN fans do or even some HxS and Pushead releases do. We are talking about theatre here and this only adds more acts to an already long and elaborated production. None of this is relevant beyond the ability of the artists to continue to make a living.
But that’s not bootleg. What’s happening to me is bootlegging. It’s an exact replica that’s trying to be sold as original. What your describing is a mash up.
I feel like there really needs to be a differentiation between the words bootleg and counterfeit... generally speaking "bootlegs" are cheap knock offs that aren't meant to fool the consumer, whereas "counterfeit" goods are direct copy fakes, trying to be passed off as legit. think of it in toy world: sucklord selling bootleg resin storm troopers vs someone trying to sell counterfeit MVH toys
Is it bad that I kind of want a fake nag though? Just for fun? I can't see myself ever paying $800+ for one or getting the chance to pay or one directly from shig. Regardless, its a shame but indeed the time has come for this hobby to have this problem. I would say it could have been predicted a couple years back- its only logical that this would happen. Also a fun fact: the same person who is making fake toys also makes fake clothes.
Hit the nail right on the head. With the average bootleg, you KNOW it's not an official product. With resin toys, it's usually something poured in someone's garage and mashed up with various other pieces. With vintage toys, they usually change some colors and shapes just enough to escape copyright laws, but enough to sort of look like the character they're trying to portray. I mean, we've all seen bootleg Pokémon toys with multicolored Pikachus. This situation with Rich's toys is counterfeiting. It is copying with the intention of replicating an already-made product as precisely as possible, and will certainly be used with the intention of making "real price" sales. In other words, someone will be swindled and profit will be made. My fear is that this is just the first wave of counterfeit toys, and we'll soon see better replicas infecting the aftermarket. A lot of people new to the hobby are going to be had, simply from lack of experience differentiating the true versions from the copies. Just a shitty situation all around. At least right now the imperfections and the shitty paint jobs give the fakes away.
But do you guys really care? Because more than one of us has a replica of something there are very limited quantities of. I love my Koons ashtray and would never pay more than $10 for it. Good riddance to those that have the 10K they actually do for. Same. Exact. Issues. Here. Just look at all the customizing and hobby forums around IP licenses and the creating of props for them: SW, GoT, BSG, etc. If there’s an acronym for it in pop culture, you bet your ass someone is trying make a buck off of it. The market keeps provenance accountable. Again, as long as we continue to back Rich and buy his stuff as fans, then there is little else we can do in relationship to market. Eventually fakes will float around and hopefully we’ll be informed enough to distinguish them. There is only so much work one human can do to meet demand.
dont really have much to weigh in to the conversation, but i hope some of these kids spending $1k on blank mvh will have to sense to at least talk to a few collectors first and get a better feel for what theyre buying. times are different right now but i feel like theres plenty of cool collectors out there that will help you out! id rather not see somebody supporting those counterfitters but instead see new collectors of these neo-kaiju soft vinyl toys asking questions to other collectors before jumping the gun and throwing cash away just to have the sick new toy
