COLLECTOR'S CORNER -- TRIAL & ERROR VOLUME TWO: Cheap Knock-offs and Counterfeits

"Black Man"? C'mon how can you even read this
packaging label without thinking it's racist LMFAO...

Cheap Knock-offs -- I touched upon this subject briefly in the last article on my personal journey of collecting pop culture collectibles but good Lord, we have to talk about this a bit more in detail. There's a LOT of people trying to sell cheap knock offs as legitimate toys while there's even MORE knock offs disguised as heavily sought after popularized toys and collectibles. To be honest, if you're a collector who is merely concerned with having all of your favorite characters instead of looking to sell your collection at some point, you could buy a few cheap knock offs to fill the gaps in your collection, customize the toys to your liking, and no one else but you would know any different.

I happen to be in a roughly three pop culture toy collector groups on Facebook (2 following and detailing pro wrestling collectibles and memoriblia, and another covering anything and everything else nerdy collectors like myself should have their eyes out looking for), where we discuss, trade, and sell our figures for profit. While I have only bought from a few trusted sellers on there, I do happen to see a lot of hilarious posts with photos of cheap knock offs that they have seen in the wild in various retailers.

Here in the Carolinas, the biggest outlet that has all of these cheap knock offs seems to be the Rose's/Maxway store chain.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to a WHITE Kofi Kingston...

You're not seeing things that's a REPAINTED Kofi Kingston that one member shared on the group. At least the packaging is top notch, but everything else is left to be desired. I know a lot of guys who do their own custom figures for wrestlers and characters that WWE and other various promotions have been too lazy to make themselves. I'm still finding it hilarious that WWE raced out of their way to make a Kevin Steen/Owens figure after Ring of Honor announced that he was one of their premiere figures in their upcoming debut action figure line. Talk about petty much?

They aren't the only ones who have been seeing these cheap knock offs. I managed to visit some of my local outlets here in the Carolinas and EASILY found a few offenders. Let's take a look shall we?

(Laughs) I don't even think Ultimate Warrior would approve of these figures...

(Busts out laughing) So let me get this straight, this is supposed to be a hardcore match pack of wrestling figures? Sweet idea, but very, very BAD on the figures. From left to right, the only thing they have done here was took two Sabu ECW/WWE figures and head swap them with Jimmy Wang Yang and Brutus the Barber Beefcake's heads. Rambo/Rocky or whatever Stallone figure they used was head swapped with a Vince McMahon repainted body while the last figure on the right is CLEARLY a repainted D-X 2006 era Triple H figure. Once again, if you're hardcore into creating custom figures then this might be up your alley to drop $10 for these figures. I know I personally wouldn't bother. I was cracking up laughing so hard.

"Superior Robot Fighter"... Hmm, why do I suddenly have the old
Mega Man cartoon theme song in my head now?

A "Superior Robot Fighter" that is clearly in Gundam packaging. On the back of the box is a clear picture of New Mobile Report Gundam W's Gundam Epyon, but this looks more similar to one of the Universal Century timeline mobile suits from the Principality of Zeon or possibly of the ZAFT organization from Gundam SEED. (Shrugs) No idea as I've been out of the loop on newer Gundam series for a LONG time now. For $3, that's not a bad deal if I'm perfectly honest. If I was sure of which Gundam it was, I would totally snatch up one and repaint it (Walmart sells the paint that is usually used on Gundam model kits and figures on their model plane/cars aisle in the toy section).

After Gundam licensing has gone through quite the mess nowadays in terms of distributing anything Gundam-related "officially" outside of Japan without a ridiculously high price, I'm not surprised to see Gundam knock-offs. I'm pretty sure you are going to continue seeing this pop up until Gundam gets a reasonable distribution deal stateside again.




Yep, FROZEN knock offs...

C'mon you can't be too surprised. Pretty much the most popular children's cartoon for little girls right now and you know someone had to make some knock offs. Hell, that packaging is enough to fool most kids for Christmas. If you want to go that cheapskate route, more power to ya' because I know I won't judge you - those damn dolls are expensive as hell.

Yep, that's a non-Transmetal T-Rex Megatron from Beast Wars.

Ever since the revival of the Transformers franchise with the VERY popular Beast Wars: Transformers cartoon in the early 2000s, which led to Hollywood seeking to make a live-action blockbuster franchise based on this 80's cartoon and toy craze, there have been MANY knock off toys from the Beast Wars toyline. Japanese originals and other standard figures in mint condition from this toyline will net you between a couple hundred to thousands of dollars trying to get them all, but a crafty collector will simply buy a few of these knock offs, repaint them to their liking and call it a day. It just depends on how badly you want these Transformers in your collection.