For this one, we have two bootlegs to compare! We have one that is intended as a copy, and another that’s a variant.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥11,000
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥12,480 (£98.06)
Price I paid for the bootleg copy (inc shipping): £16.00
Price I paid for the bootleg variant (inc shipping): £12.08

The official I preordered from Big in Japan.

Box

Front:

Wow, three very different boxes here! The official goes for a compact box, and the variant also goes for the compact design but with a different window configuration. And the copy… wat. A massive box, with the figure really oddly angled within it. This box came flattened, so wasn’t sure which orientation the blister was designed to fit in it, but neither orientations looked good.
With the variant, we see the text “Summer Dome Sister”… but what the heck is this? Some people are probably shouting the answer at the screen right now, but I had to research it. Turns out it is Kasugano Sora from Yosuga no Sora. I don’t play VNs, so wasn’t a series I was familiar with (nor have I seen/read the related anime/manga). I have seen a couple of her figures floating around before… and that’s the extent of my familiarity. So yeah, they’ve taken Rurudo’s character and modified the head so it has a resemblance to Kasugano Sora, which we’ll see when she’s out the box.
If we look at the top right of the variant box, we also see a white version alongside the red – this white version does exist but I opted for the red version to add some variation to this comparison.
Going back to the copy bootleg – the front of the box borrows the artwork of the official box, albeit blurry and stretched. Thankfully they didn’t try to stretch it up to the full height of the box.

Sides:

For the copy box, they’ve duplicated the sides of the official box, then attempted to extend the artwork to fill the rest of the space. Mostly works, but you can definitely see where the edits are.
For the variant box, they have created their own art, inspired by the right-hand side of the official box. We have the border, inset closeups and an overview of the figure. On the right side of the box we have the white variant, and the red on the left.

Back:

Lots of differences here! The copied figure uses the artwork from the official box, but has a generic-y stretched-out warning box replacing the information panel.
The variant box has two variant figures pictured, plus the “Summer dome sister” title. No comparison to be made here.

Top:

The copy box does its best to duplicate the official box, but the designer of this box neglected to notice where the flaps would go so those now obscure most of the top window. Guess they didn’t test the design prior going to print! Or didn’t care enough to fix it…
Variant box wants us to know what’s in the box. No window to be seen here to actually see what’s in the box.

Bottom:

Plain, plain, and warning text!
The variant box has its warning text down here, and a “Made in China”. Well, at least that part of the box is accurate. At least there’s some Sad Onions – Ashens would be proud.

Backing paper:

Only the official has this – adds a bit of class to the box, especially versus the plain white of the other two.

As far as the boxes go, well, wow, there’s no confusing which one is which! I do like the comedically large one for the copy – not sure what went on there. The variant box is decent enough – it does have an over-reliance on the same photos, and slighty janky editing, but overall wouldn’t look overly odd in a shop.

Blisters

When editing these blister photos I came to the conclusion that I likely had the blister backwards in the copy’s box. However you’ll see how neither way around showcases the figure well.
Front (maybe):

For the official, she’s mostly facing outwards so we can get a good look at her face. The variant is slightly turned away so her face isn’t as visible, however we do have an extra – a white cloth piece which we’ll look at later.
And the copy… sigh. Looking at some random part of the blister.

Back:

…or is this the front for the copy? As we can see, the copy bootleg isn’t looking this way either.
Not too much to say for the other ones – yep, here’s some hair.

Base

Only one base to look at here, for Kasugano Sora. Apparently she’s too special to sit directly on the hard surface.


It’s very thin with a very shorthaired fur on top. It is mostly oval-shaped, but the cut hasn’t been done precisely so it is a bit unevenly shaped. Which is possibly the cause of the wonky stitching around some parts of the edge.
Functional, but not fancy. Not the worst fur base I’ve reviewed, but nothing to write home about.

Spin-around

Well, the red one certainly stands out here, with her contrasting colour and “base”. The copy bootleg looks like a prize version of the official when next to it. The shiny skin and less detail on the bows stand out to me.

No accessories to look at, so straight onto looking at the figures!

Figure close-ups

Face:

Comparing the official to its knockoff – let’s start with the bows. The bootleg bows miss the line detail, lumpy in the cast and the holes are missing from her left bow. Moving to the hair, the shading is much more clumped on the bootleg, and the hair doesn’t curl in quite the same places. The bootleg finish is also rough and shiny. The eye decals on the bootleg, the orange seems to have been printed in an off-white colour instead. Looking at the dress, the bow on the bootleg appears to be melting into the dress and we also miss the blue collar detail. Some shading has been added to the bootleg’s dress, but it doesn’t look particularly good. The face and shoulders look sweaty and have a more yellowy skin tone.
Moving to the Sora bootleg, the hair has been retooled significantly at the front so her hair doesn’t go beyond chin height and has a thicker fringe. We also have an ahoge added. No white bows in her hair – instead we have some larger red bows. For her face, we have completely new eye decals, and a smaller mouth. Moving down to the dress, again, the collar detail is lost and it looks like she’s slopped something down her front rather than shading. Blergh. Her skin is less shiny than the knockoff, but still has some shine to it. The skin tone I’d say is better than the knockoff.

Closer look at that ahoge:

Yeah, minimal sculpting and casting effort expended here. Looks like she’s got a tube of clay coming out of her hair or something.

Hair bows:

Bit of a sad showing here, in my opinion. The official bows, the cast is a bit blobby in places, and the stripes are only so-so painted – which isn’t a surprise from Union Creative.
Moving to the knockoff though, and we’re really in terrible territory. Bits of flashing, and entirely lacking paint detail.
Moving to the Sora bootleg, we can see where the bow has transferred onto the ahoge a bit. I like the look of these bows in shape, and they don’t have excess plastic, but there is a lack of shading and there’s a carved, unpainted detail at the bottom that makes it look like there’s some paint detail missing. We do have a little bit of seamline showing through, but it isn’t as noticeable as most bootleg seams.

Back of the head:

Nothing subtle about the “shading” back here on the knockoff. The strands on this one also look very spaghetti. The official has some quite subtle shading – would be nice to have something in between these two. Maybe an additional dark tone to go near the parting.
Moving to the Sora bootleg, the fact they were sculpting hair combed to pigtails seems to have gone by the wayside, and they’ve enthusiastically added various lines, which makes her head reminiscent of a walnut to me, especially with the lack of shading. The pigtails themselves have a lot of excess material.

Side of the head:

The hair shading is far better on the official on this side than either of the others. At least UC nailed that. The hair seamlines on the bootlegs both look poor. For the official and knockoff her ear sticks out of her hair, whilst none shows with Sora. The lower pigtails on Sora also looks a little odd in my opinion – like she was being a bit lazy when combing her hair.

Dress:

Wow, getting a lot of shine off of the knockoff! All three have buttons, but they’ve very hard to see on the knockoff copy. The knockoff’s dress has a very plasticky look, The Sora one looks better in this regard, but the shading is awful in my opinion – looks like the dress has been burned or dirtied. No points for the bootlegs here.

Side of the dress:

Mmm, the finish really isn’t looking good on that knockoff version. Is her dress actually some kind of icing..? The casting detail isn’t as sharp on the knockoff, and we have a noticeable seam running down the dress.
The Sora bootleg seems to keep slightly better casting, but the frills around the edge of the dress are definitely a victim of poor casting. Whilst she doesn’t have the dress seam, she has a very noticeable one down her arm instead.
Looking at their hands, the official has a subtle nail polish, the knockoff has none and Sora has quite a shiny colour.

Closer look at where dress meets arm:

The official’s dress looks like it is resting on her body, as a dress should. I think the knockoff’s is trying to melt into her. Sora’s looks like it is risen up a bit lower down, but not really in a noticeably bad way. Some of the edges are more visible, giving it a look of Play-Doh modelled around her neck.

Bottom of the dress:

Here we can see where the official hugs her leg on the left of the photo, but the other bootlegs don’t achieve this. The bootlegs manage to look OK from this angle (apologies for the poor focus on Sora).

Hair strands:

As we go from left to right, the hair strands bend more towards the floor. Almost looks like an animation of her hair settling down XD. The cast also gets less and less distinct.

Hand:

Subtle, none and shiny – same as the other hand we looked at. The colouring on the Sora bootleg is a bit inconsistent, and the thumb nail polish has been done really badly. We can see where both of the bootleg casts lost detail here, which makes the hands look deformed.

Back:

The Sora bootleg has managed to hide the removal of the wings so it isn’t noticeable on her back, and has retained the shoulder blade shapes.
The knockoff has the wings replicated, but the join isn’t quite as good and the wing angles are different.

Looking closer at the wing attachments:

The official’s meet up neatly with the body and the knockoff ones have some roughness around them preventing the join looking as neat.

Wing close-ups:

The knockoff copy suffers from significant paint bleed from the black to the purple, and the pointy parts of the wings are less pointy. There is some lost curvature too – on the left wing’s tip and the right wing’s lower right point.

Knickers!

Only the official has the copyright on her dress. The bootlegs did copy the cast of the panties, but didn’t shade them. From this angle, it’s the Sora bootleg giving the most reflection. Both bootlegs also have visible seaming along the legs – Sora more so than the knockoff. The deformities of the bootleg hands is also on full display here.

Legs:

The official’s legs are nicely shaded, with the same delicate nail polish on her toes. The knockoff’s legs are as shiny as the rest of her, and we have a lump of plastic coming off one of her toes and a visible seamline on her other foot. And no nail polish. For the Sora bootleg, the nail polish is messily painted and her legs are slightly shiny – not as bad as the knockoff.

Feet:

Mmm, yep, only decent nail job is the official. All three have some shading on the feet/legs – the official is the neatest shading job.

Conclusion

Mixing up either of these bootleg figures with the official is not going to happen. Any cursory investigation would reveal neither are the “real deal”. The boxes are extremely different – one matches the design, but not the “form factor”, the other matches the “form factor” but not the design. For the figures themselves, the knockoff very much looks like a prize figure version of the official, and the Sora one… is a different character. Though if you’ve seen it floating around, now you know what figure it is mostly based on.
The fur base was a nice addition to the Sora bootleg. I don’t tend to use a base with sitting figures, but I know some people don’t like having baseless figures, so it would’ve been nice for UC to have included something like this for people who want it.