How to Avoid Fake Sonic Merchandise Page 29
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. Bootleg Avoidance HUB Page
This time it's a phony Shadow that can't fool anyone. The head stripe is so badly put together it makes a stupid looking arrow on his head. The ears are a total waste, the nose is huge, the 'eye shine dots' are sewn in at the bottom, wierd red ridge all the way around the eyes, and what's up with the fat lower face & big nose? It's also clearly a Sonic rip-off because that's who's body they used & just put white for the belly dot. It's like they're paying SOME attention, but then just botch the whole thing at the end. Very odd--but all right as well because it makes this trash easy to avoid. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
This is a semi-plush hat but it's pretty stupid. How is mutating Sonic's face into the shape of a ball-cap a good idea? It's not, and this hat proves it. It's clearly sewn oddly so it will look thick and mushy even on someone's head. The eyes are the wrong shape, with strange, long vertical eye shines. Having the nose & mouth on the brim makes his mouth actually locate ABOVE his nose which is super improper and odd. The whole thing is a fake mess. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
It's clearly a modiefied Mickey Mouse 'mini' figure (see how there's no legs) that's also been painted to look like Sonic. You can still see Mickey's buttons, pants-line & mouse nose, as well as the circle ears. However, spikes, points to the shoes & 'eye brow ridge' have been added to get it looking more like Sonic. The paint looks really thick and rough too...almost like it's a fan item/fan-mod.
It's not terrible, but it's also clearly not Sonic. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
Here comes blank-shoe bogus Sonic to ruin people's day since this one might be mistaken for the real thing in a claw-machine / ufo-catcher. The shoes are without buckle or stripe, though they're the right size/shape. His hands are pretty terrible though, with odd long cuffs & no fingers/just blobby mittens. The ears don't have borders & the mouth is at a wrong angle. Look at the spikes too...they're like flat triangle flaps on the back of the head. The tail is also sewn on pointing straight down (somehow? That's never really been an issue before) which also looks wrong. It's just riddled with mistakes. Why are there so many bad dolls? Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
You can see how they pirated the face pattern to a degree, and gave it a similar-looking 'x' tag to try and fool people. But then, look at the bad body that's football shaped & very long under the belly dot. The hands are overly simplified & the white stripe is coming off / arching over the top of the shoe because it isn't fastened & the shoe is made wrong. The eyes are also not positioned correctly, they're too far down/cut off by his face bottom.
How do these happen, is the real question. If they stole enough of the pattern to get a recognizable "X" doll, then why not just take the entire thing and clone it? Illegality isn't an issue here: they're ALREADY counterfitting something, so why not just counterfit the entire thing & make a clone? Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
Look at these pathetic plushes & you'll lose all will to sew for the next day. These rotten attempts at a "Sonic" can barely be called such with how stupid and bad they look. These are barely even an attempt with some kind of odd split up nose, what looks like an effort at that 'double eye' problem thing & then finally something new that rarely appears: a split upper lip.
Some animals like cats & dogs have a split upper lip that goes right up to their nose-base...but why add something that it's super obvious that no doll ever has? There's a feeble try at a buckle, but then blue arms, fat neck, 3 or 2 fingers, awful ears & big body. These are just a mess of mistakes. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
The "cat" on here is awfully suspicious. That's becase it's a fairly mal-formed trace of 'smiling Tails' the Japanese art. It's been changed a lot though, and switched to blue as well....so it's like....almost barely a bootleg, and really only a Sonic fan would probably recognize it. What's the word in the middle? Zdes? tdes? It's got to be something non-English written there--but why the big size letter "S" at the end? Why are the stripes such bad colors? Why trace art at all if you could just have a better drawing of some original cat character? This sweater is full of both fakery and random questions. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
It doesn't have a million glaring problems, but naturally there are a few. Sonic has rounded ears instead of pointed, the lower face is really big (again) and the hands are super small & odd looking, as is the nose. It's impossible to see if they left his mouth off. The fabric, however, looks fuzzy & at least fairly quality for both the blue & the shoes.
Certainly, some official plushes have looked worse than this one, but, as the lessons have taught on these pages not all fakes are always terrible looking. But this one seems to have a terrible fate! The big bendy Shadow is threatening him with a realistic looking gun. Push fakes away from stores & off shopping lists by keeping them out of your collection. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
Just steal a character & make it worse & stupid looking...what could go wrong? Well: This! This is a Sonic Drift ripoff graphic where they changed the Sonic & made him ugly and bad with a wilted/wiggly single spike, big snoot nose & elbow-noodle bendy arms. This nasty character isn't going to help them sell anything and "just changing it" is not a way to avoid copyright infringing. It's obviously a stolen Sonic, just with poor design. Photo discovered by: HenryPitt
Here's proof that you need some careful inspection before you bid or buy. This is a Sonic Boom fake...can you spot what's wrong? First off, he's missing the bandanna that the show gave him & then, the belly dot is connected directly to the neck. Even in boom, it's supposed to be a 'dot' not some connected piece. The rest of the doll is actually fairly ok, you can even see a cloth tag there on the side. With this guy, it's certainly "Buyer Beware"! Photo discovered by:
Oh no, these are just awful & stupid again...the first (left) is trying to be a "Sonic X" fake & to prove it, they've bootleged up a paper tag for their stupid, un-detailed doll. The shoes are missing the colors, the eyes are just poorly done & the white crescent is just a white body-top. He's wrinkly & poorly done.
The second one is a real fright! We've got the un-detailed shoes again, but then look: FINGERS! Messed up chest 'stripe' HORRIBLE scary eyes & shrivelled nasty spikes. This thing is just awful. It's not even going to fool a baby...how does stuff like this get made? Photo discovered by:
They look suspicious, but COULD be Australia's 2018 prize plush. They're popping up in listings with utter garbage (seen above) & other "clearly trash" fakes. That's ALWAYS a red flag. Then, the Sonic has the proportions of classic but the green eyes of modern. Also: look how tiny the feet are! They're wierdly, inappropriately small while the Tails is much more normal. He suffers a bit of 'big body' though. They seem like a real good attempt at 'well made' but ARE they the Australia prizes or a fake of them? And why list them with the above 2 Knuckles fakes on the above photo? Photo discovered by: HenryPitt
This one is a little more 'creative' than others, where it combines some old Japan screen-saver art & the 10th Anniversary logo despite not being released near the date of either item. The game itself has no title at all. They're trying to make it look like the "Welcome" banner they've partially cut off the top is the title while they bury part of the 10th logo under their Photoshopped in GBA bar there.
Was the game even Sonic? Sort of. It's like "Somari" with crummy sprites & some alterations like the Google logo in Mario's castle & "Player 2" could be Knuckles jammed over a Luigi sprite somehow. The game was not fun (of course) & is a shambles of bad graphics. Photo by:
Look at this stupid trash! These are some of the stupidest figures to appear here in a while. Fake ugly rubbery figures are mounted on sticks (why?) that go to Sonic bootleg logo bases (trying to trick people with a base) But the sculpting is so bad, and only the 'amy' has a nose. Everyone looks especially bad without a nose. Why is one of the 'Shadows' blue?
The Werehog doll in the background is authentic, so it's too bad this nasty plush is close to it & ruining the area with it's bad quality. What's worse, is that if it were face down in a prize machine, it might actually fool someone into wasting money. It's certainly something to beware of. Photo BillyR
Why...A whole set of 3 of them, of course! And what's worse than that is this odd 'naked-Knuckles' there in the middle. He's by far the worst one with zero shoe detail giving him odd red 'feet', tiny knuckle-free fists, half sideways eyes, bizzarre horizontal spikes & lack of chest crescent mark. What is even going on here? The Tails is a variation on one you've seen before that has that huge tilting lower face issue...but then
This time instead of 6s, their magic number is all 8s. Except...that many games for psp don't exist. So it's a huge number to bamboozle people into buying--just as the Sonic graphic also is. He's there because he's popular & when kids see him they think 'fun'. But this has a surprise in store!
There's NO SONIC AT ALL in the cartridge. 0 Sonic games because bootlegs are out to cheat you & be miserable quality that's just an empty shell of a trick. Don't be dissapointed, avoid all bootleg merchandise. Photo by Billy R
This is another instance of "fake-on-demand", where a portion of some stolen art is cut out & photoshopped onto an item, in this case a towel. When someone takes the bait & orders, the design is then printed onto a blank towel using a special printer.
Here come 2 bad dolls with odd shoe issues. The first looks like a down-sizing of the 'big shoe dolls' (normally these are huge) complete with mutant foldy fingers & ugly brow ridge. But then, somehow Sonic's shoes are giant and all white.
One where it's just completely the wrong color for no reason. This fake 'Sonic' is completely spring-green wherever it should be blue. Of course, the shoes are wrong too, lacking in any stripe, buckle or detail & has white soles. The construction isn't horrible particularly, just with short legs, the flappy flat borderless ears & a bit of 'big face'...but it's not frightening or some shrivelled mess. It's likely a stolen pattern with skipped details to cut costs...but why make the dumb thing green?
Bootlegger's purpose is usually to fool the unwary into buying the phony item, but to do that, it has to at least get the largest detail correct. Everyone who knows so much as the name "Sonic" knows that he's blue. Why this exists is a mystery. Photos discovered by Pichu97/Charlie
