Although I remember hearing these kits don't fit together well, I think they could be worth something to the custom modeling community. I mean, if each kit is dirt cheap it'd be nice to have some extra parts. Other than that I find the packaging to be quite convincing. My friends mom was in China not too long ago, and tried looking for Gundams cheap, I'm sure they would have fooled her if she saw them.
I lol'd when I saw them. What ever you see in Japan, ends up in China ^^;;
Sheesh... is nothing sacred? Is there anything that isnt pirated in china? I heard that something like 80% of their computer software is pirated!
Easiest way to avoid bootlegs is to buy from reputable online retailer's like hlj.com. I've never touched pirated merchandise.
Most peope simply cant afford them so I guess there is a huge market for cheap copies of everything.
When I went to Hong Kong recently I saw some of those bootleg Gunpla and other bootleg items too. China has alot of bootleg items. HK gets supplies from China too... Phones are known to explode.
Not only the kits doesn't fit well, The plastic quality looks as if you might just shatter it while fixing ur model. I remember the first time I saw these kits are at Brunei, the pics for the box looks like someone gave a kid the actual gundam picture and ask him to draw. Sucks terribly and the chinese naming are horribe as well. Tallgeese sounds like Telugesi.
i don't own the GD models, by friends who bought them said that the time spent working on them to make them fit better makes up the difference in cost.
Awwww all those chinese pirated stuff is getting annoying... can't they do something on their own without pirating/copying from others?
I don't think the faux Gxndxms haven't made it to our shores (yet?). But I believe we already have the faux fxgxrxs. Even though I don't collect figures (I'm XX chromosomed.), the faux fxgxrxs can be easily told by it's poor quality/make.
i'm not surprised, for such things people go to New York Cit, China Town here. Hehehhe or so I heard. Now in Europe, and especially in Eastern Europe, its all pirated. :D
The sacry thing is they are also copying food and cars (a.o. BMW X5). I try to be carful and most of the time you can spot a fake....but they are getting batter.
I like looking for the worst pirated stuff I can find. Some of it is pretty funny. For pirated clothes, I look for the 3-stripe nike jogging suits. Abbibas (which a friend of mine actually found) are always good for a laugh.
Enough faux figures and gunpla o'er here. KInda weird though that some of those are of high quality. Go figure...
I don't know about the gundams but if the pirated figures are cheap I might get some lol. They look remarkably high quality and you probably can't tell the difference unless you look close up.
http://bbs.pcgames.com.cn/topic.jsp?tid=832611 LOOK~!^^
at least it gave diorama builders something cheap to work on.. and some of the figures are really bad in quaility, but some, the difference is very little and quite well done
Model GD.. bleh. damn pirates. For those living in Singapore, I believed I saw them a couple of times before. Saw it a couple of times at Marina Square and while another was at Vivo City.
Nope, I am the kind of guy who likes to stick to the originals. All of my Gundam kits have had Bandai logos on their boxes and every ship kit I buy is manufactured by the proper owners. One good way to not accidentally buy pirated material is to NEVER buy out of Hong Kong. I made that mistake and got pirated anime DVDs of the G Gundam series. Anything I buy from the Asia Minor area must come from the land of the rising sun! Every JAPANESE kit I have bought and purchased has been of the highest quality, mainly Tamiya products. They have my full support and my workshop is an armada of their supplies (over 75% of it paint). Stick with the originals and support the proper industries. Pirated material is cheaper but is also crappier.
I like my stuff like I like my car parts, OEM. OEM is best.
It's interesting to note that the pirated Gundams, as what some users had mentioned earlier, varied in quality. Some are worst than dog poopoo while others are almost on the same level of quality. If you wanna experiment around with painting techniques, wanna build yourself your own custom Mobile Suit or just wanna set fire to it for the lulz, bootleg Gundams should save you a lot of money. Be prepared for a lot of cutting, gluing, sanding and painting though.
There's a place called Pacific Mall in Markham of the Greater Toronto Area that's infamous for bootlegs. Almost every store there carry fakes (especially dvds). Although I've never checked if the hobby stores there carry fake models. From rumors that I hear from friends; at least one dvd store at Pacific Mall gets shutdown per-month by the cops for mass selling pirated stuff. And from what I hear on the news, if you buy pirated stuff or bootlegs you may unknowingly be supporting organized criminals.
from all my ebay purchases, online purchases, and shopping at stores which hold imports, I have never seen fakes... I guess I am really lucky
WOW i seen the GD models but the pirated WOW What if a little boy went to that store and bought a pirated model HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
Pirated Gunplas are good to be made for battle-damaged or just broken models on dioramas. Since they are cheap, one don't have to hesitate to chop them up into mincemeats ^^; Is there any pirated Gunpla in Japan? Hope not, because it would be funny if there is, since Gunpla is so common and is available almost everywhere in its 'home'.
i've made the mistake of getting a pirated gundam model off of ebay once, and only once.. i look closely at the photos not :D now figures.. thats a bit of a greay area.. some figures are so limited production and some i want and can't get any other way.. then yea.. i might.. but i would try to get it leagally if possible.. just becasue its' of superior quality..
LOL China the country who doesn't respect copyrights just to earn a buck... i saw some faux gunpla at small toy shops especially in a place called divisoria but there are some pirates who has guts and copy everything from the name of the model to the logo of Bandai but you'll clearly see the quality of not only the really cheap plastic (probably the same plastic used for those cheap freebie toys found in cereals) but also to the quality of the printing on the box that's why it's better to buy your plamo and figures to your trusted hobby shop ^^
Always the same debate about piracy. On one side, profit driven companies who work following the capitalist trends, with the production of high-quality items but with insane profit margin, and on the other underground groups (mafia anyone?) who produce copies that are dirt cheap, but of dubious value and solidity or reliability and even sometimes are hazardous to health and life itself. Will you be on one side or the other? The answer seems obvious. Personally, I have no interest in buying fakes and pretend I afforded myself the real stuff (with a grin on my face), or get something that I will regret later or that will be dangerous. I don't wish to get caught at the customs either... I don't want to waste money on things I don't need, even the cheap ones. For me, the notion of investment must be on the optimal side, even on seemingly cheap products and services (call me stingy if you want, but I prefer that than be broke or get laughed at for buying stuff that will break as soon as I touch them).
ngee_khiong, you found a use to them actually. Kudos to you. But even with that brilliant idea, I couldn't buy stuff to intentionally break it and show it to everyone. I pity everything, even bits of plastic. I think I'm a kind of animist guy ;)
Over here there are some pirated model kits under the name of Bendi. The worst thing is that th ey hardly can fit together. Even after fitting the sprues will split on movement. Well they can serve for cheap spare parts lol. Theyre li ke Thai recast resin kits. It is possible to make these pirated kits look like master pieces but the amount of work will be more than quadrupled.
Piracy sucks.After all,there's still buyers that arent "ALERTED" enough to know that buying pirated items are useless and a waste of money.Go for originality!!!
Yeah i've seen some of those around here. Somebody i know bought for an experiment involving some fireworks so i helped him put it together. Apart from how badly it fits together, the plastic is pretty bad quality too. I myself wouldn't touch it EVAR
i only buy piracy stuff for 3rd angel sachiel and eva mass type. i like eva mass-T wing and want to make sachiel as a diorama, so i don't mind if it broke or something some piracy stuff can help u from unintentionally broke a part
I've seen some of those around in Manila and believe me, they look horrible. Can't wait for the Wonfes and Good Smile meeting coverage. ^^
Ah, China. The paradise of cheap, pirated and fake goods. Strange to see that it's all labelled alike. Anybody'd recognize them as pirated. At least, anybody from countries aside from China, whose police forces actually gives a dang about pirated goods.
Tell me about it. Recently bought a Max Factory Haruhi off eBay, but realised it might be a fake when the box didn't have the usual holographic stickers. I know, bells should've rung when I saw it was shipped... from China. But to give them credit, the figure didn't look too bad... Anyway I placed an order from HLJ when they had a restock recently. At least I know it'll be the real deal. Just wondering what I'm gonna do with the other Haruhi. Display one with the megaphone and the other with the usual pointing hand side-by-side perhaps?
hey danny i've got a question how do u tell fake figures from the original?
Just look at the name of the box. my friend. Some name like Bandai change to Bandei or other name.
i had unfortunately bought some pirated figures, eventhough i should've known better. the cheaper than normal prices and the seller unwillingness to supply a bigger image of the figure is a dead give away... how do u tell? usually its by the physical appearance: crappy quality packaging or shoddy sculpting/bad paint job. if its a really good fake, i seriously can't tell em apart from the real things and there are good fakes out there which people pass of for the real thing because they're done so well... there are some figures i have which i doubt the legitimacy but then i don't have that much experience to tell if they're real or fake... oh well...
Luckily the sellers here that I've been to only sell the original stuff. But my cousin in HK showed me some pirated GK, and its very very good! too good for some, because he said some are better done than original and takes less time to clean up the ruff edges. funny stuff.
China is the land of piracy. Last time I was in Shanghai, we visited this place I nicknamed the Pirate Market. It was %100 pirated brand name goods. Cheap price and cheap quality. Well, actually I did get some sock that I still wear... When I was in Hong Kong though I was able to get some legit gunpla. It's much cheaper there than in the States. My cousin there is into that kind of stuff so he knows what he's doing when it comes to gunpla.
These stuff have been existing for ages, but seems like their packaging are getting better lol. They can easily be found in newspaper stands or some stationary shops in Hong Kong. Just don't go to those places and you will be fine. All hobby shops in Hong Kong don't sell fake stuff. If you're you really paranoid then you can go to a department store or toys r us. However, they are always a little more overpriced.
I intentionally buy some of pirated Gundam stuff, as spare part for my modification or accidentally broken parts (^^). Yeah, most of time their quality is cheap, you need a lot more of cutwork and putty to get decent display if you did not use them as spare parts. Nevertheless, some part often have better quality than Bandai, especially transparent parts in some model (there are different manufacturers, some are better than the other) which often better looking than the original. Some parts are stronger than Bandai, for example my Freedom HG wing joints are replaced with pirated ones. They are just sturdier (^^). It is also good the pirated model if you want to get damaged version. I own several damaged zakus and recently destiny from the pirated model. Note that the destiny itself have some of their parts replacing the original destiny parts (^^). Another story come from resin model, they often have quality, despite most of them not as good as the original, yet if you like to remodel or to repaint , be prepared to careful cutting and a lot of primers layer. I am not supporting piracy, it is just some of them is quite good if not better than the original, especially if "used" properly.
We have something similar in the US, techincally its Mexico. Just across the border from California is Tiajuana. Everything there is a knock off. You can get rolex watches, for two dollars.. basically anything you can buy in the states.. except a cheap copy. Kind of like a hispanic china.
D BLADE, I agree with you on this one. What you pay for is what you get. Would you buy a $500 car and expect it to work for very long? How much more is it going to actually cost you to maintain that cheap car, and in the long run you will probably have to buy a new one. Quality is something that most products (even the non-knock offs) are lacking, so it should be strived after. Accepting cheap forgeries just tells everyone that that is the standard, so why bother to make good quality? Personally, I prefer to pay extra for good quality, because that money comes around full circle.
I thankfully don't own any pirated figures. I got one on ebay years ago from some Chinese dealer. I run an anime store that buys direct from Good Smile, Alter and others so for both me and my customers I never want a fake. They sure can fool many people though.
I returned the one I got that I knew was pirated.
Gundam model kit are easy to know if pirate or not (since the letter are really huge and fake lol) figure might take more skill i guess --> probably detail si the key to the difference but take about pro~ china --> the land of pirated stuff lol (pirated or tagless)
Well, i've tried on one of those Model GD before..indeed their quality differs a lot...I've bought my infinite justice from model GD but later after that, i continued on buying Bandai brand..juz testing it out to see its quality. ;)
how can yo fall for that! it looks so boot leg! -KAZU
Alright, do all original Max Factory/Good Smile products have stickers?
The brand name of that MODEL G.D. has not yet been seen here in the Phillippines.But many of that pirated kits has already been selled here, the brand name BENDI and LITTLE WHITE DRAGON.I've tried those brands...BENDI SUCKS !!!LITTLE WHITE DRAGON is not BAD, I mean not that BAD ! I'm not encouraging everyone to try it ! I wanna try that MODEL G.D. to test it's quality and compare it to the real one's !
I ve bought one of m they look the same but the matirials a bit different . and i cant believe i bought impulse sd
They're very good at creating names for each individual suit.
in the 3rd picture, notice that the Zeta-plus near the upper-left corner is the only non-pirated MG.
yeah, got those loads here in Brunei, It's hard to get a real Gundam you dont have any options, parents here nonetheless buys it for their kids anyway because: 1. its cheap 2. A kid's mindset when it comes to toys, one minute its there, the next minute, KABLOOEY. But for a master builder, he/she might see it as a challenge, good luck with that. I had to get the original figures in the neighbouring country, (THANK YOU MIRI, [Serawak])it's bad enough to sell those cheap stuff here, I couldn't even get Gundam magazine i.e. DENGEKI HOBBY, Oh hey Danny, did you get the April 2008 Dengeki magazine that comes with a dvd?
actually my brother bought one of these models it was a strike freedom 1/60 lightning eddition and in the box it just has no name of it instead the name where in numbers lols well all parts fit together properly and the lights are working the plastic is not that bad and youll able to save about 85% of the original cost of that model oh yeah there is a small defect on the wirings and some extra plastics to cut
Bootleggers of all kinds should be beaten with a rubber dong. :@
