How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise 15

How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise Page 15

Sonic Gear Main Merchandise Page * Bootlegs 1 * Bootlegs 2 * Bootlegs 3 * Bootlegs 4 * Bootlegs 5 * Bootlegs 6
* Bootlegs 8 * Bootlegs 9 * Bootlegs 10 * Bootlegs 11 * Bootlegs 12 * Bootlegs 13 * Bootlegs 14 * Bootlegs 16 *
Bootlegs 17 * Bootlegs 18 * Bootlegs 19 * Bootlegs 20 * Bootlegs 21 * Bootlegs 22 * Bootlegs 26 * HUB *

Fakery and junk abounds when bootleggers think they can get away with knocking off Sonic the Hedgehog!
Fight back by educating yourself on what NEVER to buy with these pages of photos and tips!
Remember, you vote with your money...any buying of fake junk only supports and encourages them to make more. Wouldn't you rather have awesome official items? Wouldn't you rather enjoy cool good quality stuff you know you can depend on? If you want the real deal, bootlegs are never the way to go.
Remember what a 'bootleg' item is:
It is an unofficial or unlicensed product being sold to the fans- by NON FANS. These can be home-made or made in a factory. They are not approved by the company who holds the license and are NOT made to any standard. The quality is usually low, leading to items which may break or wear out. Fake items may also be unsafe. Remember, bootleg makers are only after your money. They don't care at all about Sonic the hedgehog and are only out for a quick buck. Don't waste your money! Buy official SEGA Sonic things only, look for copyrights, and demand the real deal.
Iron On Transfers Submission: CLOSED (every single art on the internet can be one of these, know that it exists & if it's a transfer of any type it IS A FAKE.

Here's where the fakes get super strange! This is a small childrens' foot stool. It says "Happy Day" at the top, but that's the opposite of what you'll have when you see all the stupid 'art' on this thing. Just what do we have here? A random baby holding a blue leaf that's sparkling while wearing a preposterous orange hat. Sideways grass. Melting clouds...& if all that weren't bad enough a super screwey mutant bootleg "Sonic" art creature they've just messed the heck out of. He's nasty green, with mis-colored ears, face & body. Blue shoes. Beige eyes and white belly dot, NO NOSE! ...And he has a shadow (mis-colored...of course) while the baby creature does not. It's just a pile of wierd fakery that makes you question what anyone was even thinking when they made this stupid stool. Discovered by: Elisto

Look at this terrible monstrosity of a plush! It's supposed to be 'Sonic' but it's horrible & scary instead! It suffers from sausage shoes, blue arms, fat body, stubby horrible ears, fatface, & filled in buckles in the wrong place. But the WORST is the eyes! What's going on with the white shape at the top? This is not only a fake, but a fright! Discovered by Toxic the Skunk

A boring button! This dark chao pin button is a dull, phony item. No copyright anywhere...it's trying to knock off the recent 'tiny buttons'

sold for .99 pound-cents? at stores in the UK. Discovered by: X

This white shirt is another standard boring bootleg. Look out for this presentation--it almost always means the shirt is a phony. They iron on the design shown & sell it, then when its flimsy & washes off, only you are sad! Discovered by: X

Sonic Colors? More like Sonic MIScolors! Look at these horrible figures! Sonic's face isn't even painted, Tails has orange gloves, Amy's entire lower half is yellow, & its hard to tell that's even 'Super Sonic'. Why? Because of horrible paint jobs,

How lazy can you get? This "Sonic Black Knight" item is LITERALLY no more than a stolen Sega piece some faker decided to throw onto ebay. What do they SAY it is?

shabby sculpting, & terrible packaging. It looks like Heroes art on a 'Colors' logo for mixed-up garbage. Then, you get "Sixteen Figures" too bad there are only 4 different ones, so it's ugly repeats galore. This fake has no redeeming value! Discovered by AlexDyson01

Oh look it's Sonic Adventure 7. SEVEN. And the thing only got up to 2. On a console, not a portable. Plus Gameboy Color predates like... everything. Only a caveman with no

"It makes a great t-shirt". Yeah if you supply your own shirt! And then, since it's just a cruddy iron-on ripped-off graphic it's not quality or sturdy. Things like this are just lazy rubbish. Discovered by: Jomaster

sense of time could be fooled into thinking this was anything other than bogus. Discovered by:

Birthday cards? Boring invitations? Whatever these trashy things are, ANYone could make a better one in 3 seconds if they had access to a...PC! The bootleggers here are counting on their ability to type ugly rainbow text to bamboozle people into buying these stupid fake cards. They stoop low by adding the totally irrelevent "Ty the Tasmanian Tiger" to one card, then

they sink even lower by stealing fan art! Trying to rip off the un-wary is one thing, but stealing directly FROM the fans to do so is even worse. Discovered by Toxic the Skunk

More miserable iron-ons, which do not even come with a shirt. Owning a printer that can print iron-on fabric (so basically any printer made this century) is NOT a license to steal everything on the internet to grab a buck. First, it's just the Sonic heroes logo. That's it. The next spams logos for everything, trying to make it look official, they even shoe-horn in the '15th anniversary' logo. The 2 Silvers are stolen from a Sonic fan who creates desktops (free for use! not a bootleg!) But then they just get wierd...spamming crazy-colored werehogs for no reason. Discovered by: Jomaster

One of the few Saudi Arabia items to feature Sonic, sadly, these chips are fake. They just stole a Sonic stock art and placed him on the bag. These are "Karnosh Chips". The front probably says "Sonic's Karnosh Chips" or something in Arabic. It is not only in Arabic, it has also been mashed into someone's scanner to obtain the photo.

This was aquired by a tourist who found the bag on the ground, unopened and took off with it. A good move, as apparently they were never exported. You can kind of read the ingredients "Potato Powder, potato starch, something oil and 'flavors". They were billed as 'corn chips' on Ebay, so hopefully one of the flavors happens to be 'corn'. No one has yet tasted a chip (That we know of)

This 'Sonic costume' is on the line between 'fan made' and 'fakery'. Clearly someone made a stuffy, puffy Sonic costume (not quite correctly with giant mouth and arms attached to neck) for their kid (who doesn't seem exactly pleased) but then tried to sell it on Ebay. Is it a 1 off? Did they make a bunch or say it was official somehow? Those are the things between bootleg & just someone doing a harmless fan project. Discovered by:AlexDyson01

Oh boy it's "Sonic Adventure 8" THAT sounds totally realistic, especially since it's for Gameboy Color (of all the ancient things) With mixed up classic & modern art, no description on the box back, and random "8"s stamped all over everything this just screams 'bogus'. Interestingly it is all in Japanese and made for the Japan market...but they're not easily fooled either. The fakers did try though, pasting phony seals, stamps & bar-codes on the package. Who knows what game (if any) would be on the cartridge inside. Discovered by ToxicTheSkunk

3D Blast wasn't exactly a great hit, and it certainly never came to the Gameboy. They may have taken the title Sonic & logo, but the back is a mess. It's got unrelated screen shots (Yes that IS Sonic Jam's title screen in the upper right) plus, Sonic & Tails are somehow dressed for Christmas (that's an antler headband on Tails) then Knuckles appears with Sonic again at the bottom, and their "NEW" sunburst sticker thing looks like it's on backward. The box also says "1998" on it for some reason. Discovered by ToxicTheSkunk

Here's a fake that many wish was the real deal!
It's one of those rare bootlegs that gets several things right. It has a good idea (simple stainless steel band ring) with good execution (nicely engraved Shadow the Hedgehog title/ logo) . The end result does not look fake, it looks nice. The only way to tell it ISNT the real thing (on ebay) is to see that the seller has loads of other copyright property (no way they could get 10 huge licenses for Naruto, Sonic, Disney, Squaresoft etc) with similar engraved items. Owning an engraver does not make everything & every design your property. However, it is too bad there isn't an actual official item similar to this.

These figures probably aren't fakes...however, they ARE being sold as something they're not. Altering regular merchandise and then claiming it's officially 'that way to begin with' or 'protofaking' is also a type of bootlegging. In this case, it seems someone is using paint & industrial solvent to alter regular Jazwares 3.5 line figures. Paint has been removed (Silver who is all white...you can even see red finger-prints from where they were touching him with dirty paint hands) and added (SS's black gloves) & the Shadow has just been mostly paint-stripped. Discovered by: Berzerker

Talk about shoe-horning something in! Unsatisfied with the rather legitimate looking Mario Cart DS skin...these fakers have literally clipped out & crammed in Sonic from Sonic Riders on his hoverboard. He may cover up part of Peach, but there's still no way that a hoverboard fits in with kart racing. Not only does it look bad, but it makes no sense. Discovered by Meowman70

Now isn't THIS rather convincing! Someone's buying plain clothing and applying a clever applique. It's the same one on the top & shorts, which is only a minor 'red flag' for fakery. Real things usually use something slightly different art-wise if it's a 2-pc set. There's no Sega copyright anywhere though, & nothing Sega or Sonic on the tags. The seller (ebay, of course) confesses that it's nothing but a "High quality applique" which means they think owning a printer means that everyone's art belongs to them, to make money with. Don't be afraid to ask about authenticity BEFORE you bid. Keep fakes out of your wardrobe. Discovered by Hali66

Need a charm for the hole of your Crocs shoe? DONT pick these bogus Sonic faces. The fact that they got blue in the 'white dot' for the eye may be a small detail but it's a dead give-away for fakery. Discovered by Cfire176

Oh no, what do we have here? Terrible Ten-inch fakes!
These "big figure" knock offs may be late, and expensive (at nearly 30 dollars each...a costly mistake!) but they're hardly articluated at all. Maybe the arms and neck move, and that's it. The ebay seller that's fronting these fakes even goes as far as to label them "Jazwares" to try and trick people!

Sonic may be mostly correct (right # of fingers, face detail all present, etc) but SuperSonic has purple eyes...his only paint error. The faces are somewhat odd though, as well as the poses. Also note that they're "no box figures" because fakers won't waste money making bogus packaging--it's a sure way to tell "New but no box" is 99% of the time a fake. Left photo discovered by Bianca Nishitani, right by Berzerker.

When the ebay seller couldn't clear out their batch of bad watches, they try again with a new tactic. This time, they're using a Rush Adventure box with Sonic Heroes themed watch band that has Sonic 2006 art in the watch face. Then look at the band! Same as before, Sonic has no feet! See those

little white dots on the black band where his feet should be? That's all that was left after someone stole the art & erased his shoes. Box or no box, these mixed up art items are totally lame. Photo discovered by Goclone999

Here is a set of fake pogs. Why fake up some pogs in 2011? The fad has gone & they have returned to niche status long ago. You can tell this set is a sham by its mixed up art. Secret Rings, Shadow, Colors & Sonic 06 make no sense here. Discovered by:KatAndSilver

This fake had a lofty goal, which was to try and include EVERY character on an iron-on transfer. However, they resort to stealing from the fans (there was no CG'd fully Shade art)

& bizzarre proportions. Look at Storms huge noodle arm, Big's non-existant item he's holding...plus fake 'updated' Mighty. Discovered by: SonicToast

This figure ISNT fake. Metal Force (the body) and Space Fighters (the head/helmet) ARE real toys, but making a mash-up by combining figures & then attempting to sell it as an all-new guy IS a fake tactic. The result looks odd anyway because the helmet doesn't match the body color or paint. Photo discovered by: SonicToast

Oh no, what is this nonsense! A super mutant fake! You've seen this keychain before (in a tiny photo-to disguise how horrible it is amongst a collection of fake chains) But with this big close up you can take in the terrible. 3 fingers on 1 hand, 4 on the other? Yellow nonsense glove cuffs? "Arm" is one giant brown noodle for no reason? Misshapen eyes, dot nose & no face bottom? It's got it ALL and it's all no good. Discovered by SonicToast

This is the worst kind of fakery, right here. While the goofy examples above are good for a laugh, no one's happy when they end up with this: A bootleg soundtrack CD that's advertised as "The Real Thing". The only difference is tiny, see the close ups? You can't spot that fake company MIYA / MICA in the photos...and that's what they're counting on. A flimsy phony print out copy of the album cover, some slick copy, and they can fleece the fans with full cost CD prices. (and no extras, liner bits or anything the real one would include--they know it's too late for you once you've bought)
The whole point of buying the soundtrack to anything is to have an official piece, to support the artists / game designers & to own a great collectible. It's especially rotten to fake up things like this. Photo by Pro1137