I have several factory paints. The 10 runs tend to be much thicker and heavier than the 20 runs. Usually can tell by picking one up if its from a 10 or 20 run before even checking the header.

Your right,I have a couple 1/20 and they are quite abit lighter than the 1/10 runs...My mixed parts are quite abit heavier though..Also I just bought the clear orange bemon from RC,it didn't come with a header but I'm not worried about it though because it is spot on in size and smell(all of them have the same vinyl smell)..This orange clear Bemon has to be seen,It's almost like a neon flouresent orange.(Beautiful)...By tha way selekta_nips this was the first orange bemon I have seen pop up in a long time,seen a few purple and green pop up from time to time though...

Boots scare the hell out of me anyhow. I'm also a resin modeler and I cannot stand to get a recast of a kit. Usually some people are fine with it since it's a cheaper version that just "needs more work." Just like with these toys, the resin kit community is somewhat small and you get to know the artists that master these kits. It just sucks to see anyone's work copied and I have a special place in hell for bootleggers.

Toys in general (plastic figures mostly), the practice of copies and "lunch time specials" have cheesed me off. That's the cost of using a cheaper company in China to make your stuff. You have zero control of who takes home a prototype or fires of a few special versions for fun and profit.

The really bad Big Lots knock offs/bootlegs where there is so much fail in it...those are kind of cute. This is mainly because they are so bad that no one would ever mistake that for a real thing ever. I do not get, however, how anyone could buy a known boot. Especially one that would fool a new collector if it were not disclosed.

all the clears I have had have been pretty heavy and thick..I have heard of boots in HK I think Kichigai told me about some existing a while back..but I haven't seen any to be able to compare

no pics?

If you go to countries that are, how to say, less well-off than the parts of the world most SBers hail from you'll see that most of the toys there are boots. If not boots of actual figures, at least boots of characters. A lot of these are incredibly cool. I picked up a blow-molded Sailor Moon bank in Indonesia for a friend, and it was totally amazing. Lots of cool stuff like Spider-Man heads on ninja bodies or robot bodies, Gundams with medieval swords and maces, ridiculous color schemes. Totally cool stuff, and I think a lot of the collectors on here really dig that sort of stuff, particularly the vintage bootlegs and patchi-kaiju type stuff (many of which were literally pasted together from official art).

The question then is where do we draw the line? Is it cool to enjoy my bootleg plaster Mexican Spider-Man bank but a not bootlegged Bemon? And to be brutally honest, Bemon is really a bootleg in and unto itself, isn't it? I don't see IKB stamped anywhere on the figure or printed on the card. Granted, the original "figure" doesn't exist and granted they have made something entirely new out of the character. But still... its a gray zone.

I guess it all boils down to intent. If you're making a direct copy of a figure with the intent to trick people into paying collectors prices for a rip-off I think that's undeniably on the "black" side of the spectrum. If you're making something clearly distinguishable from the original and making a character or figure that would be otherwise unavailable in that area (because of economic or licensing restrictions) I would personally put that at least a bit more on the "light gray" side. But its a difficult call to make, and I'd be interested to hear what other board members think.

I would agree with your assessment, V. Toys like Suckadelic and whoever was making those resin He-Man casts are bootlegs - but because no one would ever mistake them for authentic figures they're kinda cool. But it's pretty weak to make a mold off of an existing figure and cast copies to sell as the "real thing".
In the early days of CDR me and a few friends put out a bootleg of a certain musician's live show. The friend that got the source tape was a huge fan of the musician and had his finger on the pulse of the fan community and management of the musician. Because it wasn't something that was released, or would ever be released, he didn't feel he was doing anything wrong in duplicating the recording and selling it to the fan community - in fact, quite the opposite. And of course he was up-front with the sales that it was a bootleg - it couldn't have been more obvious. After we released the album it received glowing reviews from several websites devoted to the musician. I'm sure some people still think this is shady, but what we did didn't financially impact the musician in any way - free downloading is more detrimental to musicians, and I've never done that.
So yeah, I think there's a very wide spectrum of bootlegging.

this is a pretty interesting topic.

bootlegging by nature is pretty whack, although the result of that process sometimes yields some really interesting figures. the idea of intent is interesting, as it can potentially distinguish between a piece designed to add something to the original creation and a piece designed to capitalize on the success of the original. the line between these two intents is very very fine, if present at all. bootlegging with the best of intentions can get whack in a hurry.

personally, i enjoy tracking down old bootlegs of old toys (the shittiest skeletors i can find) that have been passed around a bit, but wouldnt really be interested in buying them from the folks that made them. its a fairly arbitrary distinction, but it sort of feels like collecting artifacts of some pop culture thing, as opposed to supporting bootlegging. in reality though, i imagine the distinction is something i convince myself of to feel okay about it.

bootlegs of something like a bemon or other recent collector figures seem obviously designed to snake some easy profit, and a lot of time would have to pass before folks could see the product of that in a different light, if ever.