Month: September 2020

Official vs Bootleg: Kotobukiya Asuna (Aincrad ver.)

This particular figure was a user request, but also one I’m personally interested in as the bootleg seemed fairly similar to the original item.
Let’s see how close it really is, and how to tell these two apart.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥8,800
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): €43 (£38.12)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): $21.67 (£17.82)

The official I bought secondhand from another MFC user.

Box

Front:

https://i.ibb.co/hCVVMDK/box-front.jpg

Wow, looking very similar here – the bootleggers haven’t edited out any logos for this one. We do have a lower-quality print with some different colouring – the Sword Art Online logo at the top has ended up pretty much the same blue as the background design. Looking closely at the cutout, there is a variation by her head – the curve around the right of her face has been smoothed out.

Left:

https://i.ibb.co/Cw56Zq0/box-left.jpg

Again, pretty similar. The cutouts aren’t quite the same, but a decently close approximation of the official’s and the logo has poor shading.
The print quality I think is noticeably worse here – looking at the back of her cape shows print artefacts that could raise suspicions. Looking at the “Sculpted by Hiritoshi Nakamura” text we can see where the lack of colour depth on the bootleg box has pretty much hidden the design that should be present here.

Right:

https://i.ibb.co/r0G95wZ/box-right.jpg

Again, the poor print quality shows through here. And this time the bootleg has an extra curvy part in the cutout by her hair strands.
Plus we have the reason why my official box doesn’t have Genco sticker on it – it was a unit destined for international sale. For Genco-licensed stuff, you will generally find there’s a plain sticker stating it is for international/outside of Japan sale if it didn’t come from a Japanese shop originally. One reason that a missing authenticity sticker isn’t a sure sign of a bootleg.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/3BBDW0w/box-back.jpg

Here the poor print quality is on full display – the trees in the background have gone quite bluey, and the figure photo looks generally awful to me. Definitely not something Kotobukiya would have on their boxes.

Top:

https://i.ibb.co/LYGhTv8/box-top.jpg

Just a poorly-printed replica here.

Bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/xzd8f1t/box-bottom.jpg

Mostly a duplicate… but there is a difference if you look closely. No, I’m not referring to the heo sticker. For some reason that I cannot fathom, they’ve just changed the barcode numbers, but not the barcodes themselves – if you scan them they’ll come up as per the numbers on the left box, but for some reason they’ve changed the written numbers.
(heo is a wholesaler for pop culture stuff, as per their tagline. By law, they need to put their details on stuff they import, so that’s why these stickers get placed on EU boxes).

Inner lid:

https://i.ibb.co/ZmyDtJ7/box-inner-lid.jpg

Fun little squiggly with the glue on the bootleg, but not exactly practical for keeping the plastic attached. The cardboard is also a bit darker.

Box inner:

https://i.ibb.co/BgXzyY3/box-inner.jpg

Pretty similar – definitely feels like a poorly-printed photocopy.

Box inner bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/kGTQgDV/box-inner-bottom.jpg

Here is where the poor print quality is the most obvious in my opinion – lots of the ground detail has been lost into a brown, murky mess.

Blister:

https://i.ibb.co/FVVyQsF/blister-front.jpg

The blister for the bootleg is noticeably worse for wear despite it having been less in the wars than my official’s box. The blister plastic is noticeably thin and cheap and easily crumples. Also seems to be marginally smaller, though some of that is due to it trying to collapse in on itself.

Face in the blister:

https://i.ibb.co/Mg8PsVz/blister-face.jpg

The official we have a cutout so we can see her face clearly within the box. The bootleg is a bit ashamed of itself, and is fully encased in the blister.

The official also has this bit of packaging:

https://i.ibb.co/48635ZD/blister-support.jpg

Due to repacking her, it’s slightly out of place, but this holds both her foot and the pillar in place – stops things rattling around in transit, as well as keeping separation between the figure parts.

Overall the box is quite a close copy to the official, with very little in the way of edits to give itself away. The poor print quality is fairly evident, with the miscoloured logo being probably the easiest thing to spot if you can’t see the bottom of the box. Even in a poor photo, the logo on an official box should look differently-coloured to the rest of the blue parts.

Accessories

OK, time to break open these blisters and see what we get!
Let’s start with an official-exclusive item:

https://i.ibb.co/RDrjkGH/instructions.jpg

This is actually a useful item – it tells you how the sword should go, which the bootleg doesn’t give you any favours in helping you understand how to place it properly in her hand.
Also useful telling you to do the rings first, instead of rushing to place the figure on the stand. The ring placement can be understood from the box though, but does help to have a handy reminder here.

Rings and base, as packaged:

https://i.ibb.co/P9NKf0p/accessories.jpg

Official: here’s some bits, packaged so they don’t bump each other (the rings are in a 2-section bag)
Bootleg: Erm, here’s some stuff. Good luck!

Base top:

https://i.ibb.co/rvmRtZQ/base-top.jpg

The official has some of a texture to it to give it a stony/metallic texture, not quite sure which. The bootleg is a singular colour, so it doesn’t really look like much. And has a couple of scrapes on it out of the box.

Underside of the bases:

https://i.ibb.co/KKYJCJG/base-bottom.jpg

The official has some ridges to reinforce it. The bootleg just has some… dirt.

Larger ring:

https://i.ibb.co/tYtTdXZ/ring-big-top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/v16wCKS/ring-big-bottom.jpg

The official is more of a yellowy gold colour than the bootleg. We’ve also got some shading detail on a few parts of the official ring, whilst the bootleg is a singular colour. The bottom side of the bootleg ring has some missing chunks of paint, leaving it look a little silvery in places.
The peg on the official hasn’t been painted, which allows the peg to slot in easily to the base part.

Smaller ring:

https://i.ibb.co/y6LqbNX/ring-small-top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/LZfn3tt/ring-small-bottom.jpg

Similar story for the smaller ring,, though we also have a bit of a dent in the top of the peg instead of the ridges to help hold it in place.
A couple of the small holes on the outer edge of the bootleg ring haven’t been put in the right place, making them into notches on the outer edge instead of holes.

Let’s look at these rings from the side:

https://i.ibb.co/M25WDhh/ring-big-side.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/qFtR0bm/ring-small-side.jpg

Oh dear, no mistaking them from this angle! The bootleg ones are both badly warped, especially the larger upper ring. Whilst it would be possible to fix this, there is a good chance they’ll just warp again over time. The official figure has been on display for some months prior to this photoshoot and show none of the warping issue of the bootleg’s rings.

Sword sheath:

https://i.ibb.co/sbtMFVN/sheath-top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/m6Nfwbh/sheath-bottom.jpg

First thing that stands out is the bootleg sheath is a much darker colour than the official. Looking at the details on the outer side of the sheath, the band at the top lacks the white part on the bootleg, and some of the silver detail just above it is missing. The tip isn’t painted too precisely on the official, but the cross part is missing from the bootleg.
Looking at the back, it’s a similar story. Here we can see a bit clearer that the official does have some paint shading in the brown – the sheath is darker at both the top and the bottom. The official there is no paint in the peg hole, but the bootleg is painted all over.

Sword:

https://i.ibb.co/T4pmLDg/sword-top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/KyDksPT/sword-bottom.jpg

Looking at the blade, the moulding is poor on the bootleg and is not very sharp and defined. This poor moulding extends to the bottom of the sword where most of the smaller mould details are missing and we have distinct mould lines on the hand guard. They’ve attempted to replicate the mint green details, but only approximately. The paint on the underside is particularly poor.
The handle of the sword didn’t come out too badly, but we are still missing some fine moulding details.

Disassembling the sword:

https://i.ibb.co/f4thzm2/sword-hilt.jpg

The official comes apart well, though the peg on mine is bent – this happened prior to me owning it, so not sure how this happened.
The bootleg, however, was not very willing to come apart as the bits had been painted together. We don’t get much of a peg to work with, but not even sure it pulled apart correctly anyway. With no instructions and the sword handle being hard to remove a bootleg owner would likely have trouble getting the sword into her hand.

Overall, we’re not looking good on the accessory front – from poor painting and moulding to warped parts. The sword is also already presenting issues with not disassembling correctly. Let’s see how assembly goes…

Assembly

Firstly, the rings need to be inserted into the pillar:

https://i.ibb.co/rMKX78X/ring-pegs.jpg

The official pegs slide in easily enough, but the bootleg’s were NOT cooperative. This was the best I could do – the holes are the wrong shape and the paint on the pegs don’t help the shapes match. The bootleg rings will fairly easily fall out if knocked.

First thing of note with the pillar was the pegs that go into the base:

https://i.ibb.co/CQV1LF3/base-pegs.jpg

The official’s are unpainted, whilst the bootleg’s are painted the same colour as the pillar. Now to demonstrate the issue with painted pegs.
Hnnggghhh:

https://i.ibb.co/M9qzCgc/bootleg-wonky.jpg

This was about as far as I got with a minute or so of shoving her into the base. The pegs have become far too fat with the paint, making it very difficult to get them into the holes.
A close-up of the peg progress:

https://i.ibb.co/SNL6M65/bootleg-assemble-fail.jpg

You know you want to go, you stupid pegs!

Let’s take it apart and assess the damage:

https://i.ibb.co/VS2jvXR/bootleg-scractched-pegs.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/cYHgZmR/bootleg-holes.jpg

Due to my efforts, some of the paint has now transferred itself to the base. You can see some other paint transfers caused by the pillar pegs not going into the holes and slipping across the base. This really was a pain to assemble, and I was contemplating either scraping the pegs or just doing this article with her at a jaunty angle.
Thankfully, my second attempt went better and I got her into the base without breaking it. Bonus!

Ugh, after that ordeal, let’s move onto looking at the figures.

Figure spin-around

https://i.ibb.co/d4HjKm4/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/jvTSPDZ/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Jx2gFZy/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/vPVL2b6/spin-left.jpg

Well, those warped rings don’t stand out at all, do they…? She still isn’t fully pegged into the base, giving the bootleg a really jaunty appearance overall.
The missing line on her skirt and the absolute mess of the paint on her stockings really stands out to me, as well as the almost-neon orange hair.
Yep, not liking this one from the outset!

Figure close-ups
Let’s see how bad this gets if we look up close.
Face:

https://i.ibb.co/xggkjFG/face.jpg

First thing to stand out is that jelly hair… feeling that’s going to get a fair amount of mentions in this comparison. Her fringe is nicely shaded in the official and the bootleg is mostly the same colour. Looking at the hair by the bootleg’s chin, we can see a big chunk of missing paint.
The bootleg’s eyes seem to be an attempted recreation of the official’s but the colours are wrong and she has some strange white bits underneath her pupils. The bootleg also looks like she has four eyebrows – the lower lines are too thick, giving her a multibrow look.
Moving to the mouth, we have a subtle paint highlight on the official, which has translated to peach-coloured ice cream on the bootleg – the sloppiness of the paint make it look like she’s eaten something but not cleaned up the mess.

A further look at the hair next to her face:

https://i.ibb.co/zh2nbrH/hair-swoosh.jpg

The missing paint isn’t the only defect on the bootleg here – we’ve also got a weird orange stripe on one of the hair tips. Whilst the marred tip is pointy, the others are more rounded than they should be.

Now for a detail you may have seen in the first close-up photo:

https://i.ibb.co/61xMptf/bootleg-hair-dirt.jpg

Not sure if this is warehouse dirt or mould… whichever way, I’m not touching it and definitely not licking it. Whatever it is, it’s not pleasant and not a feature an official figure would have. And yes, I do wash my hands after doing the photos.

Side of her head:

https://i.ibb.co/mXjLQDY/ponytail.jpg

Here we can see the lack of paint detail in the bootleg’s hair – we have some basic shading on the official, and not much to speak of on the bootleg.
The bootleg’s hair isn’t assembled properly – the main parts aren’t fully inserted into each other, and the ponytail is at a funny angle.
Ignoring the rest of the figure, the top of the bootleg’s hair really looks like some kind of moulded jelly (Jell-O) to me. But given the potentially mouldy nature, I’m not going to eat it.

Hair from above:

https://i.ibb.co/4F751SB/hair-above.jpg

I think this angle captures the weirdness of the bootleg hair in full. The official’s hair is OK, though I think a little strange in texture and not too much in terms of paint detail.
The bootleg’s we can see there is some shading, but none of that good. The strange plastic they’ve chosen to do her hair with doesn’t work, and neither does the colour. We can also see some more dirt on the top of her fringe and on the left edge of her hair.
Some of the bootleg’s strands have slightly different curves to them, but look fine from this angle.

Back of the hair:

https://i.ibb.co/sbpc4Db/hair-back.jpg

Here we can see where some of the bootleg’s hair is off in shape – the lower left clump points up more, whilst most of the middle and right points down lower than it should, giving her hair a slightly less dynamic appearance.

Chest:

https://i.ibb.co/gMgFpgq/chest.jpg

Get outta the way, hair.
The painting on the official’s collar could do with some work, but the bootleg’s feels very rushed compared. The crosses just beneath her neck are slightly less detailed, but look fine.
For the actual chest plate, it’s almost as if the poor printing on the box has made it to the figure – the grey gradient of the official is missing and replaced with a mottled grey appearance that doesn’t look very good.
The bootleg arm straps are missing all of the gold paint. Well, suppose that saves a fair amount of time in the painting department.

Left side:

https://i.ibb.co/S5mkJD4/left-side.jpg

Here we get a better look at one of the bands around her arm – yeah, the colour is off, lacking all paint detail and a terrible seam line.
The bootleg’s shoulder is very shiny and would give most prize figures a run for their money in shininess.
The paint on her cape is very sloppy and messy on the bootleg – a lot of the silver lines are missing and what’s there isn’t even on the mould lines.
The red lines near the top, some paint was… thrust at the bootleg. The chest line isn’t much better, and going to the bottom, it’s better, but still runs off. The official manages to have the red trim surrounded evenly by the thinner inner line. The bootleg you can see where they continued the lines instead of terminating, as it would be easier.

Let’s have a look at a bit more of the trim:

https://i.ibb.co/JWY2CWR/cape-trim.jpg

Some of the official’s trim is slightly rough, which is why Kotobukiya isn’t everyone’s favourite manufacturer. However, it’s far better than the bootleg, where the line thicknesses change, paint has blobbed out and there’s bits of the line missing.

Now to put her sheath back on:

https://i.ibb.co/6FM5p00/sheath.jpg

The official sheath hangs on at a better angle and is less prone to being knocked off.

Hand:

https://i.ibb.co/1fhtdvd/hand.jpg

I think you have a case of melty hand there, bootleg Asuna. The hand part hasn’t been properly inserted, leaving her with mutant hand. The red line paint is awful here on the bootleg, along with her shiny skin. We can also see seam lines on the bootleg’s thumb and index finger.
Neither seem to have painted nails, so no points for either on that front.

Sword hand:

https://i.ibb.co/Rycdq79/sword-hilt-hand.jpg

You seem to be missing something there, bootleg Asuna – the sword was being a pain in the arse, so now she only has the handle to hold.
Again, the bootleg’s hand has been poorly assembled, super shiny and has mould lines. We’ve also got the hair intruding the shot, due to the fact most of it is lower down on the bootleg compared to the official.

Waist:

https://i.ibb.co/JjF8MWs/dress-lower.jpg

The linework is mostly decent on the official, but the red lines are very much a mess on the bootleg – not the worst linework I’ve seen on a bootleg, but definitely not good.
This angle may actually reveal what the strange mark is in her hair – looks like they may have been going in to paint the red lines and missed – with bootlegs they seem to assemble then paint them, which leads to a lot of paint flaws.

Skirt:

https://i.ibb.co/j8vWW65/skirt-stocking.jpg

The bootleg’s skirt is very different colour, lacks shading and the white line detail. The sculpt is also a bit rough, which can be seen if you look closely at the pleats. The official’s skirt looks much nicer and the shading is quite nice on it.
The top of the bootleg’s right stocking is so badly painted it looks like she’s bleeding to me. Not a very pretty look for a heroic figure…

Stocking tops:

https://i.ibb.co/7C5d4Z3/leg-detail.jpg

The lines aren’t so bad on the bootleg from this angle, but we can see where the lines have failed to join. The white paint is also somewhat more lumpy than the official’s and lacking the grey shading.

Panties:

Yep, they’ve been painted on both. Though the bootleg’s have a bonus seam running through the middle.

Top of cape:

https://i.ibb.co/Wg0LRRf/cape.jpg

The official’s is shaded nicely and the bootleg’s is.. shiny. The moulding mostly went well for the bootleg cape, but the edge is a bit rough.

Shoes:

https://i.ibb.co/RTCB3z9/feet.jpg

The lack of shading and different shade of white on the bootleg is quite noticeable when you have both figures side-by-side. The lower legs on the bootleg have the strange sprayed shading similar to the chestplate. The silver lines on the shoes are also a lot less distinct and thick. Much prefer the official’s shoes and stockings.

Bottom of shoes:

https://i.ibb.co/SQD7b5P/under-cape.jpg

There’s a lot more paint shading going on with the official’s shoes than the bootleg’s, even on the soles. The official has a glossy finish on her clothes, but the bootleg is matte.

Side of pillar:

https://i.ibb.co/djf9cC7/feet-pillar.jpg

Here we can get a feeling of how different the pillars are – the official is a much more grey colour and has a weathering effect. The bootleg’s is kind of green and just looks sorta dirty.
For the soles of the bootleg’s boots it seems they just went over them with the same colour paint, instead of differentiating them like the official. The official’s shoes are glossy, and the bootleg’s are a lumpy, matte-ish white paint, and we have a seam. Pose-wise, there isn’t any difference in their legs.

Back of pillar:

https://i.ibb.co/PrtPz7j/base-stand.jpg

Here we can see where the weathering is all around the official pillar, and we have some paint detail to add to the broken and cracked parts to give them a more lifelike look.
No effort was expended on the bootleg version – it’s all a solid greenish colour. Maybe this is the colour of the walls of the factory or something?
Here we can also see why it was such a pain to to assemble the bootleg’s rings – we have paint seeping into the poorly-cast holes, neither aspects making it easy to get the ring lugs in.

Conclusion

Whew, that was a fair bit to get through. Hope you enjoyed this tour!
In terms of telling the boxed Asuna apart – the boxes are very similar, but close inspection will reveal the poor printing and the incorrect barcode numbers on the bottom of the box. Definitely sufficient to hoodwink a novice collector.
Looking at the box contents however… it becomes quickly apparent the contents aren’t what they should be – a lot of parts lack shading details on the bootleg, the hair looks weird and the rings will likely come warped. Assembly for this bootleg was quite difficult and a definite clue to its lack of authenticity as parts won’t go in or simply fall off.
Looking at small sections of the figure largely don’t make it look too bad, but the thing as a whole is just a mess. It might pass as a prize figure, but not as a scale.
The amount of dirt on this one was pretty disgusting, which makes it a pretty non-recommendable bootleg, as far as bootlegs go.
Excuse me as I go dunk this bootleg in some cleaner, and thanks for reading!

Official vs Bootleg: FuRyu Momo Belia Deviluke (Drink Holder)

Today’s blog will feature the drink-hugging Momo by FuRyu. This is one of a set of FuRyu knockoffs I bought – the other ones in this set will be noodle stoppers. As she’s pretty skimpily dressed and there’s some closeups of her bikini bottoms I’ve marked this blog NSFW.
As these FuRyu blogs will be shorter due to the size and complexity of these figures and me no longer owning the boxes for a box comparison, these blogs will be released at a quicker rate.

I chose this particular figure as it’s a favourite of mine of these small figures, and is a little different from the other noodle stoppers.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): n/a
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥2,060 (£14.03)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): £3.00

The original I preordered on AmiAmi.

Figure unbagging

This bootleg simply came in a clear bag, but an immediate issue presented itself:

https://i.ibb.co/nMTQC4X/bootleg-armless.jpg

Ah, hrm… not going to be hugging many bottles like this!
Unfortunately it was not a case of plugging the arm back in:

https://i.ibb.co/LCZ81MX/bootleg-arm-break.jpg

Here we can see where the arm peg has simply snapped in half. Before I commenced this review, I glued the arm back together with some cheap superglue. The bond wasn’t great, but sufficient enough to allow me to photograph it.

Figure spin-around

https://i.ibb.co/G9rZ4Kq/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/8jtyxmV/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/RC9bjYC/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YZYY1n5/spin-left.jpg

A fairly similar effort, but we can see that the hair is a mess, the panties are a different colour and her bra doesn’t show through her clothes in the same way.

Figure close-ups

Face:

https://i.ibb.co/DQ61QNP/face.jpg

For the official, we have a cute, smiling expression and the bootleg… has a face only a mother can love. The eyebrows, embarrassed cheeks and mouth have been done in pale colours on the official and fit in with the rest of her face whilst the bootleg has lines done in a much stronger red and thicker than their official counterparts. It’s almost as if the bootleg has fresh wounds rather than facial details.
Moving to the eyes, the bootleg has lost significant amounts of detail – we’re missing two shades of purple and the white shines are underneath the black iris markings leaving her eyes looking odd to me.
The official’s hair is a pleasing peachy-pink and contains some shading. Bootleg’s hair is blobby and poorly moulded as you’d expect of a bootleg and painted more of a “pure” pink.
Moving down to the bow, the official’s looks nice, even if it is’t super-detailed, whilst the bootleg’s has a dent in it.

A closer look at the bootleg’s hair:

https://i.ibb.co/f2T7Db0/bootleg-hair-gap.jpg

The hair on the bootleg is actually partly loose – it will wiggle around, but it didn’t actually come off (and that’s with me trying to some extent). If it gets pushed up, it looks really ugly. Official has no such problems and remains in place.

Hair decoration:

https://i.ibb.co/Pt26pyZ/head-side.jpg

The official’s hair flowers are painted well for a prize figure, and we have some paint shading in her hair, which is also a treat for a prize.
Now the bootleg, oh dear. The flowers are barely painted, making it hard to tell what they’re supposed to be. We’ve got plenty of excess plastic, including some wisps of the stuff at the lower back. The hair seam is also very messy, completing the bootleg look.

Hair tips:

https://i.ibb.co/zJnkhzh/hair-tips.jpg

Both are actually shaded here, so points for both.

Top view:

https://i.ibb.co/2cwP52N/top-view.jpg

The seam in the hair on the official has been blended to some extent, decently well for a prize. Bootleg doesn’t have such attempts made, and we have spiderweb of lines making the top of her head look odd.

Body:

https://i.ibb.co/wBtf0zf/chest.jpg

The official’s shirt is a peach/off-white colour, and we can subtlety see she has a pink bikini top underneath. The bootleg’s top has been painted with a rough, stark white paint and her bikini top is a lot more visible than the official’s. Guess she got the cheap shirt from Primark.
The finish on the official’s shirt is much nicer in my opinion – the shiny finish gives it a silky feel, whilst the bootleg’s just look like she’s been dipped in paint.
The stomach definition is fairly similar on both, but the bootlegs is slightly less defined.

Bikini bottoms:

https://i.ibb.co/KVTsqk9/crotch.jpg

The official has a hot pink bikini, but the bootleg’s is more of a berry colour. The painting is also not very good on the bootleg, and there is a noticeable amount of paint on her abdomen.
Looking at the bootleg’s legs, something has gone quite wrong with the plastic casting, and it looks like she has sores on her upper right leg. I find it slightly unpleasant to look at. Along with the skin aberrations, she has a dirty knee and dirt spots on her left leg. My official does have some dust on it, but that’s British dust rather than factory dirt.

Shirt side:

https://i.ibb.co/M1mH96Y/shirt-seam.jpg

On the official, we have a subtle seam line for the shirt that’s been sculpted, but on the bootleg it is much more noticeable. The slapped-on paint on the bootleg shirt is in full view here too.

Shirt back:

https://i.ibb.co/BVgk2fs/shirt-back.jpg

The bikini strap on the official has a bit of a sculpt to it, whilst the bootleg doesn’t. With the bootleg it feels a bit “painted on”, but does look OK in the photo in my opinion. The sculpts have come out pretty much a match, but you can see the rough paint at the bottom of the bootleg’s shirt. The bootleg has also come with some free dirt on her left shoulder.

Backside and tail:

https://i.ibb.co/2YLy5DF/tail-side.jpg

The tail on the official is a much more pleasing shape, and happily springs into the position shown. The shading on the official tail is a fair bit more subtle. Both tails have excess plastic on them, which would’ve been nice to not be there. The main issue with the bootleg tail is the position it naturally resides in – it curls up against her body and just looks messy. It is also a less solid plastic giving it a cheap feel.
Looking at her bikini bottoms, the bootleg is horribly painted with a massive chunk of overage. Her leg is also not attached well to her body leaving a large gap.

Feet:

https://i.ibb.co/XJyxNps/feet.jpg

Here we can see the playful nature of the official tail and the “feh” of the bootleg.
Moving onto the feet that this shot was taken for, they’re actually pretty similar. The official’s left foot has a copyright stamp on it that the bootleg doesn’t. Official does actually have a bit of shading, but the bootleg doesn’t look noticeably worse for not having that. The toes weren’t perfectly replicated on the bootleg, but definitely a lot better than other bootlegs I’ve seen.

Underside:

https://i.ibb.co/K2HCtCH/underside.jpg

Here we can see the difference in finish on the skin between the two – the official is matte whilst the bootleg very much has “cheap figure shine”. Again, the official has some shading in the skin that the bootleg doesn’t (located at the back of her knees). The bootleg also features a noticeable seam on her outer right leg.
In terms of the sculpt, the bootleg fares well, and is pretty close to the official. The toes do look a little longer on the bootleg, but I think that’s mostly a result of the finish.

Action feature:

https://i.ibb.co/VCpQGjN/arm-bendy.jpg

The official has rubbery arms so that they can be bent as shown above to squeeze a bottle into her grip. The bootleg has solid plastic arms which sort of defeats the “use” of this product, and mine would just snap anyway seeing as she came broken. So definitely a win for the official product here.

Conclusion

The official is definitely better than the bootleg, though the bootleg does look OK for £3.
Telling these apart is quite easy – if the face doesn’t immediately scare you away, the colour of her clothing and the shiny finish are also clues to the figure being bootleg.
The main disappointing feature of the bootleg is the fact she can’t hug a bottle – the plastic arms won’t allow her to hug as many items and the plastic would likely snap if you tried to give her a bottle. In terms of looks, the face is definitely not good, but it was the tail that really stood out to me as being poor quality – whilst it might be possible to improve the pose of the bootleg’s tail, it will likely deform again over time.
Going to be sticking with my official figure for this one.

Official vs Bootleg: Kotobukiya Ayanami Rei – Party Dress ver.

This one I found an interesting choice on the case of the bootleggers – this figure is still being actively bootlegged, despite its aftermarket price usually being quite low. So what can we get for bootleg prices?

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥3,800
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥4,290 (£30)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): $13.70 (£11.13)

Box

Front:

https://i.ibb.co/qp78wXR/box-front.jpg

The Kotobukiya logo is conspicuously absent on the bottom left, along with the authenticity sticker. They have also removed the warning texts as well – not sure why bootleggers do this sometimes.
Interestingly the text that says “Party dress version” above Ayanami’s name is white on the official but black on the bootleg. Not sure why that happened as the box doesn’t appear to be a total recreation. The blue colour is slightly off, but not in a way that screams “bootleg”.

Right:

https://i.ibb.co/Kj0mN4x/box-right.jpg

On this side, we can see they have removed the Kotobukiya logo, the “Neon Genesis Evangelion” text and the warning text from the bottom edge. Not sure why they object to people being warned to be careful with the product.
In the top left there is less contrast in the blues on the bootleg, but nothing that massively stands out.

Left:

https://i.ibb.co/Sc0tT0L/box-left.jpg

Here they seem to have gotten lazy with the editing and just removed everything in the bottom left, plus the warnings.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/Pg0XbhR/box-back.jpg

Here they’ve removed certain parts of text and rearranged what was left to vaguely fill the space. Anything that references Kotobukiya has been removed, but we do seem to have the corrected text slapped on there, instead of whatever’s underneath my box’s correction sticker.
This box also has had its barcode replaced with one for a sticker sheet. Well, I suppose it’s a sticker sheet by Kotobukiya! One of the bootleg boxes which shows it can pay to check the barcode.

Top:

https://i.ibb.co/hYSGjzr/box-top.jpg

Not much different here – no Kotobukiya logo and they’ve removed the Japanese for “Party Dress Ver”

Bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/PZJTQgK/box-bottom.jpg

Slight difference in the shade of blue. Not much to report here.

Now to open the box:

https://i.ibb.co/BzyPmk1/box-opening.jpg

Ah hm, here we have the bootleggers cheaping out – with the official we’re greeted with a card inner whilst the bootleggers have decided to print the box double-sided so the design is directly onto the box itself.
Here’s the official’s inner:

https://i.ibb.co/gPyLQGT/box-official-card.jpg

This blue part slides out and isn’t attached to the box.

Blister:

https://i.ibb.co/P63hMdk/blister-front.jpg

The official blister is a bit different from your average blister and folds open, as well as having a separate support piece to place Rei upon when packed. The bootleggers have gone for a very basic clamshell design.

Blister side:

https://i.ibb.co/mRxz59H/blister-side.jpg

Note the trapeze shape at the bottom of the official, whilst the bootleg is a “normal” design.

Here is the official blister opened up:

https://i.ibb.co/MDDM79W/blister-official-open.jpg

A small thing, but a pretty cool feature.

Base

My official was purchased secondhand and opened and there’s a couple of scuffs on the base, though the scuffs don’t really show once Rei is on it. Let’s see if the bootleg can make a worthy replacement:

https://i.ibb.co/K9rGfxN/base-top.jpg

I’m not feeling it… The official’s base is a much nicer velvety material, and the bootleg looks scuffed on the edges from the outset.

Underneath:

https://i.ibb.co/z7F7LGb/base-bottom.jpg

The official’s base is made from a rigid blue plastic and has the copyright printed on the bottom. The bootleg is thin clear plastic with nothing printed on the bottom.

Let’s see just how thin the bootleg is:

https://i.ibb.co/6RrQ1LJ/base-bootleg-bendy.jpg

Yeah, this thing can be bent with little force. It really is cheap and naff.

Let’s shed some light on the matter:

https://i.ibb.co/5v6ZX08/base-lit.jpg

Official is entirely opaque, as one would expect. The bootleg however… doesn’t do much to obscure the photography light. The fluff stuck onto it is very sparse and the base plastic is ridiculously thin.

Overall, this base is a poor replacement for the official. It looks naff, feels naff and is well… naff. I’ll be sticking with my official one, thanks. I expect if I did use the bootleg base it would eventually bow in the middle thanks to the plastic used.

Figure spin-around

OK box, bad base, let’s see how the figure itself holds out.

https://i.ibb.co/xJJV423/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YkHjs56/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/qyD6mRH/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/LRyTyLg/spin-left.jpg

Can definitely see some colour variation going on – most notably on her tights. The bootleg overall seems to have a more “potato-y” look where everything is slightly less distinct. We also have shiny face syndrome where the bootleg hasn’t been given a matte finish.

A couple of extra angles for the spin-around:

https://i.ibb.co/RyYVxhh/spin-top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/sCmC8vr/spin-bottom.jpg

Yep, definitely some imperfections and shininess to look at closely on this bootleg.

Figure close-ups

Face:

https://i.ibb.co/C91x370/face.jpg

Hmmm… that bootleg face. First thing that stands out is the skin – the official is matte finished whilst we have a shiny finish for the bootleg. And then we have the facial features – the bootleg’s eyes are too bright of a red – I’d personally say Rei’s eyes are more like the official’s. With the bootleg’s lack of finish and the lack of a paint line between her lips her face also looks rather blobby.
The bootleg’s hair is lighter and dirtier but the ends aren’t as blobby as other bootlegs I’ve looked at, but still not a crisp mould.
Moving to her sleeves, the top of the bootleg’s right sleeve is rough and uneven. Personally, I’m not a fan of the shade of blue of the bootleg’s shirt either.
Looking at the dress near her neck, the pattern has been painted neatly on the official and we have three shades of blue. The bootleg’s isn’t too bad, but doesn’t match the mould lines nor have the lighter blue infills.

Turning her around slightly:

https://i.ibb.co/mGRvRjN/front-end.jpg

Here we can see that the bootleg’s arm seams haven’t been smoothed out well.

Right earring:

https://i.ibb.co/RHzJCZ8/earring-and-hair.jpg

The earring itself on the bootleg has turned into a blue, blobby mess. On the official we can clearly see it is supposed to be an earring poking through her hair.
Looking at the hair itself, the joins have been much more smoothed out on the official, and the bootleg’s seam lines aren’t the same as the official’s.
Moving down to where her upper body meets her dress the bootleg wasn’t and can’t be assembled correctly – the joint has large gaps and the parts don’t share the same shape to join up properly.

Left earring:

https://i.ibb.co/WsYdFjJ/earring-othre.jpg

This one is even more of a blob on the bootleg – looks like the bottom half of the earring didn’t get cast and they did they best they could with what was there. The official’s adds a cute touch to a fairly simple figure.
Hand mould isn’t great on the official, but slightly more blobtastic on the bootleg.

Top of the hair:

https://i.ibb.co/h1jq3tX/head-top.jpg

Official we can see some paint shading in the hair. The main seam is fairly visible, and the bootleg is not too dissimilar for this seam. We do get a lot of dirt on the bootleg however. Not quite shading…?

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/2F8CfMJ/back.jpg

Man, the bootleg really doesn’t hold up from this angle.
First of all, we have the terrible shirt-dress seam – figure can never be good if the parts don’t fit together. The shirt is lacking shading and is just generally an “off” colour.
Moving to the dress itself, the shading has been done far too sharply on the bootleg and too widely. We’ve also got a very unevenly applied finish so she’s sort of matte in some places, but has a very shiny spot on her bum which looks really weird when the light falls on her.
The one thing that held up was the crease sculpting – if the paint wasn’t so poorly applied, the creases in her outfit would look good.

Gap on her dress from the other side:

https://i.ibb.co/ZhMXTKp/dress-gap.jpg

The separate parts are more of a match here on the bootleg, but we’re definitely gapping. For the seam that runs down her dress it looks like the official has “dressed” this up to make it look like a fabric seam, but the bootleggers have missed out on that trick and left an unfinished plastic seam instead. We can also get a good look at the seriously uneven finish on the bootleg from this angle too.

Legs and lower dress:

https://i.ibb.co/VMwzrxK/lower-dress.jpg

The paint on both legs of her tights matches on the official but on the bootleg they’ve become weirdly different blues. The casting has gone decidedly rough around the edges of the bootleg’s skirt. And yet another area where we can appreciate the even finish on the official.

Feet:

https://i.ibb.co/PrZmfwG/feet.jpg

Yeah, those blues on the bootleg don’t look good. Here we can see the janky assembly of the bootleg means her feet float above the floor, especially her right leg that should be lying on the ground.
The bootleg foot also features some missing finish.

Dress pattern:

https://i.ibb.co/C6JW86p/dress-pattern.jpg

An attempt was made with the bootleg – the overall design is reminiscent of the official’s but doesn’t follow the moulding and wonks off to her left side.

Bottom of the dress:

https://i.ibb.co/hDdx0HV/dress-bottom.jpg

This part of the figure should be flat so she lays evenly on the base. The official has achieved this, but the bootleg is horribly warped like a wet piece of wood.

The parts don’t even match up correctly on the bootleg:

https://i.ibb.co/fDXZb32/bootleg-dress-uneven.jpg

This doesn’t really show when she’s on display, but does demonstrate the quality of manufacturing for this bootleg.

Conclusion

The box for this bootleg could definitely confuse a novice collector – the box itself is of a nice quality, though they have edited out the Kotobukiya logos. The printing inside the bootleg’s box gives it a more premium feel than some of the bootleg boxes I’ve seen.
The figure itself isn’t the worst bootleg I’ve featured but definitely falls down in the details. I think a “bootleg collector” would be happy with this figure, but with the gaps and odd paint I don’t think someone who collects official figures only would be happy with this. And probably not fooled with its poor quality.
In terms of reusing the base, I wouldn’t bother. It’s so low-quality you might as well not use a base for the official figure if you don’t have the original base. Or make a mini-rug out of some carpet or fluffy material.

In terms of telling it apart from the official, the box has a few giveaways – the missing logos and warnings, incorrect barcode and non separate cardboard inner. For the blister, it doesn’t have the “opening” design of the official.
For the figure itself, the poor finish, blobby earrings and poor assembly are major clues to its lack of authenticity.