The Bootlegger's Ball

[GoktimusPrime]

This thread is for posting photos of very obvious (and sometimes hilarious) knock offs that no collector could possibly confuse for being legit.

Here in China KOs abound. It's really hard to find legit TFs. But the KOs are pretty shoddy... but here's some photos for a chuckle:

<cue.Benny.Hill.music>









And here are some older photos of KOs I found in my last trip to China back in 2005-06:





I found some really hilarious ones today at a department store, but the staff kept shadowing me so I didn't take any photos. Some of them included:
* Oversized modified GoBots, e.g. Motortron as a police car
* Undersized Ultimate Bumblebee
* Several toys vaguely resembling movie toys... extremely poor imitations - so poor that they could arguably legally pass off as not being counterfeits cos they're so dissimilar!
* A KO Movie Starscream painted in Animated Starscream colours (only the grey-blue was too blue)
* A really poorly KOed movie Megatron in colours akin to Deszaras (probably unintended)
* An even worse imitation of Classics Hot Rod (oversized) in yellow.

That's all for now, but I get a feeling that I'll be seeing more before my journey here is done *sigh* I've only sighted legit TFs ONCE (it was like finding an oasis in a desert of counterfeits!) And the legit stuff was nothing new. Gah.

[GoktimusPrime]

Found these yesterday - KO Animated and Beast Wars toys


And found these today:

+ KO Landcross, undersized w/ Decepticon logos
+ Undersized Vuldigus KO
+ Extremely undersized Fortress Maximus KO, with Brave Maximus' box art on the card!
+ KO Animated Safeguard
+ KO of some other Takara toy line but in packaging style similar to that used by Hasbro
+ (not pictured): undersized KOs of other G1 gestalts; Defensor (with red Hot Spot), Menasor, Superion


+ Movie 1 Leader Optimus Prime KO. The "Try Me" window is above the head which makes it hard to reach the switch on the belly, and the other toy is encased in a plastic bubble anyway, so you can't activate the switch!! Fail whale...
+ Ultimate Bumblebee KO
+ Animated Starscream KO

I also saw a remote control toy truck in the colours of movie OP. Unfortunately the store keeper wouldn't let me take photos.

[liegeprime]

Gok if you do find a KO set of those Alphabet robots/ NUmbers robots can you grab one set for me please... You can bring em home loose, I couldnt care for the packaging anyhow Mebbe even 2sets if they're really cheap - as in my budget for a set would be around AU$35-40, Thanks

[KillinSpoon]

Gok if you do find a KO set of those Alphabet robots/ NUmbers robots can you grab one set for me please... You can bring em home loose, I couldnt care for the packaging anyhow Mebbe even 2sets if they're really cheap - as in my budget for a set would be around AU$35-40, Thanks

This. If you find them bring back enough sets for all of us!

[LordCyrusOmega]

I was in Paddy's Markets in Sydney a couple of years ago and saw that KO Devestator. At the time I thought it would be the closest I would get to Owning a G1 Devestator so I brought it for $8. Upon opening I found it was poorly constructed and mostly unpainted. So I gave it a paint job and displayed him combined. A short time later I realised that he was smaller then the actual release and into the old toy bin he went. First and last time.

They also had some funny stuff for sale. An activators Animated Starscream under the heading Distortion Android and some really bad ROTF Toys I hadn't found at retail. They looked exactly like the ROTF toys. Upon closer inspection they were actually Revenge of the allen (sic).

I love looking at KO's. They're so bad

[GoktimusPrime]

I saw these fakes in Kyoto (near Kiyomizudera). Which was quite surprising because it's actually rare to find fakes in Japan (unlike China where it's hard to find legits )

[GoktimusPrime]

I found this in my recent China trip, and thought it was actually pretty cool!

A microphone Transformer! It's not technically a KO but rather a cheap original creation (AFAIK) -- but what a great idea! I wish Hasbro would get back into making stuff like this like they did in 2007's Real Gear Robots (which harkened back to the Microman-based G1 Transformers of the 80s ).

[Demonac]

I found these today at the local import salvage place.
That Soundwave is a lot bigger than the G1.

[Lint]

Found these gems at Sam's Warehouse

[GoktimusPrime]

He has Mondays!