My very first figure was a knock-off. I got her when I knew nothing about figure collecting, I just saw her on amazon, I liked anime and thought she looked cute. So I bought her. And I'm not going to lie, I think I got pretty lucky with this find because she barely looks like a knock-off. And I'm saying this even now with much more experience with authentic figures and collecting. I still have her on display with my expenisve, authentic figures :) It's really mind-blowing how good a bootleg can look. Sure, in comparison you can tell the difference, but really only after taking a very close look
Yeah! We just need any luck that those knockoff we got/bought is better than expected, like how lucky you got that good figure despite being knockoff tho-
Some of them are pretty insane. I have a bootleg SS3 Goku and SSGoku. SS3, the only thing that shows it's a bootleg is the stand sucks, and for the SSGoku, he's absurdly good looking, but the hair is made with this ugly, shiny plastic.
Thank you for this. I have been trying to explain this to so many people. We (my kids and I) used to own an anime shop. Sadly two to three years ago, another anime shop opened selling these knockoffs. Many in my area seemed to not notice the difference, knocking us to retreat. We even all found jobs to help support the shop and home hoping this word would get out more but we were not able to hold out.
@@vitor900000 Everyone is different. I, myself would rather support the creator and artist that spent months and or years to create the item rather than the person that stole it. I like the idea that I am not supporting child slavery. I also like to know I am getting an item that the company has to comply with regulations concerning the material they use. If some people do some research, they will see that some people found toxic material in mass-produced, counterfeit items. Last but not least, I like how the value of most of my collection has increased over the years. So far I have not found one counterfeit item that gained value over the years. They just end up in a landfill
@@shannonturner1793 Well... The official seller could sell those figurine by grade and also sell blanks. Low grades and blanks could be sold for cheap since they can be mass manufacture while high grade would be painted/colored by qualify artists with would make it worth the premium tag. Those "cheap" copies usually use the same mold as the original since they are usually made by the same factory. The copy market only exists because the official seller left it open. If it wasn't profitable the copy cats would not be selling it.
So many times, I've had to tell my friends not to fall for these scams! They're always like "normal anime figures are so expensive and this one is really cheap, and it still looks good!" but I have to tell them that the pictures are of the real figure and they won't get that high quality ordering it.
Note here for any new collectors - Corefuls are prize figures, while Pop up Parades are not. Pop up Parades are sort of their own category, similarly to Nendoroids, although there are comparable figures to Pop up Parades from Bandai, Furyu, etc. Prize figures typically have more ambitious designs for a low price, but typically don't have great quality control and are often made of noticeably cheap materials (they can look great, but it's important to keep in mind.) It's very common for prizes to have poorly done hair, but some people like the look of the transition from color to clear. Pop up Parades have good quality control and are almost always higher quality, but have very simplistic designs (as others have mentioned, sometimes the faces get messed up as well, but this is usually noticeable from photos before you buy.) Also... that Nezuko is rather bland, so I understand why people would prefer the Coreful, but I bet if they could feel the figure and see it up close, their choice would be different. You will get increased quality for your money (most of the time) even if it's not apparent at first glance. A lot of the price also has to do with size... it may not seem like it, but when you see a 1/7 scale compared to a prize or a 1/4 compared to a 1/7 in person, you'll understand just how much more enjoyable the larger figures can be. If you really love a character, go for a scale. If you like a character, but aren't crazy about them, go for cheaper options. Luckily, with more and more cheap options becoming available, you can avoid getting knock-offs and still get characters you like!
I think it's pretty important to mention as well that Pop up Parades not always are faithful to their prototypes, and can look worse than your average prize figure for half the price. For example, Zero Two figure was horrible despite her prototype looking actually pretty good. Generally from what I collected, every now and then there is a considerable difference between the prototype and the real deal, which I haven't experienced to this degree with scale figurines and other lines like nendo and figma. Nowadays, before I buy a Pop up Parade figure I just wait for someone to make a picture of the actual product to check if it's actually worth it.
I think the price has more to do with paint as that's where most of the money is. When I buy a cheaper figure, although they might look great, the paint usually isn't up to standard as a pricier figure. I'm always disappointed in Pop Up Parade figures not because of the blend look but with how cheap the paint is and the lack of details on the actual figure itself. I've sold most of mine because of this very reason.
Thanks for explaining "prizes." While I was aware of Pop Up nad their place in anime figure collecting, I'm probably in the minority when it comes to prize knowledge. And I agree that larger scale equals better quality/paint applications. Happy collecting!
Bandai's banpresto figures are also usually pretty damn good quality as well even though they are considered prize figures. Although they do tend to only do figures of what is most popular at the time.
It's a good thing that the e-shopping app I use actually tells if the figure that they sell is a knock-off or not, so i wouldn't really be worried of getting trolled like this..
@@pacifico-lx7xe Mostly are made in China even the most popular brands you know. I'm not Chinese but please remove the idea of China being the source of fake gadgets and everything. Most of those fakes are from illegal companies.
You have such a great way of talking and I found your voice so calming that I didn't even realize how much of the video I watched haha I loved this, though. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to these types of things and it shows. Especially, if a seven year old can see how low quality something is, it's truly telling.
As a casual figure collector, it really amazes me how some KO can mimic the original really well. For Anime figures since it's higher in demand, the KOs can easily be distinguished by the inaccurate colors such as too yellow skin, too vibrant or too glossy most probably due to rush production. But in video game-related figures, it's a different story. For Play Arts Kai, the bootleg is a 90% copy. The paints are also matte and everything is literally the same (except sometimes skin can have a different hue).
the reason the roxy is so accurate to the original is that in china they make the original run, for example 500 pieces with top quality plastic and paint, then they use the same mold/cast to do the fake ones but with cheaper plastic and paint overall is the same figure just cheaper materials
From my experience Pop up Parade is really hit or miss with the faces. But on figures that dont have normal faces like Goblin Slayer, Chainsaw man, Guts with armor etc they are great!
Yeah, agree to this. For now, Taito is my favorite line for cheap prize figs, especially their Coreful and AMP+ line. I have the Elaina, Albedo, and Shizuku Marin AMP+ and they all look so good and quite big already. I also chose Taito over Pop Up Parade for my Quintessential Quintuplets set.
Pop up parade was just recently introduced, I mean it's been years but they're still continuing to improve their figures. If you got their latest figures you can definitely tell that they're almost the same as scaled figures. It now only boils down to the scale and the sharpness of the carve.
Great video, I always wanted to see a direct comparison between high quality figures and knockoffs. Bringing in people who aren't as familiar with figurines at all is a great idea as well!
This video essentially turning into a Popup Parade advertisement at 10:37 made me chuckle a bit as I recently got into anime figures, and I started my collection by ordering 21 figures in one go (yes, my wallet deeply hates me right now) and out of those 21 figures, 17 are PUPs... I'm overall happy with them; my main issues (which are rather minor) are their bases (empty and boring, with some being round, some being hexagonal and all in different colors) and that quite a few of the characters have rather unimaginitive poses - still, considering the good quality and that they cost about 1/5th the price of a decent scale, I'm not complaining and I intend to buy more.
Yeah I realized when editing that I basically did a free pop up parade ad lol. I also agree about the basses, a lot of them are just a random color that doesn't always match well with the figure
I wish there more videos like this, KO comparisons! Because I always find myself with two categories, the figures I want regardless of the price and then figures I wouldn't mind getting if they were more affordable. But only if they're the quality of that Roxy, where you have to actually take a few minutes and pay attention to the finer details. If only I could splurge on this hobby to make this kind of content myself 😂. So thanks for making this video. I appreciate it. Now, I'm off to go purchase a Roxy! Thanks for sharing.👍🏻😁
Many bootleg figures just look bad but some of them can be a surprise, I have a channel about bootleg figures and the quality of them improved over the years
Me and my friends had a random figure that was on the living table, it was from one of my friends brother, and we did a bidding and reach 5 dollars, the figure was a bunny suit girl FYI thus figure was from Temu I think and they said it was about 25 to 35 dollars and I was the only one who took it home cause nobody wanted it, also the fact that the breast and you know what are broken so nsfw to display normally so I took it, already knew it was fake because of the mess up lines, the not attach nsfw covers, and the signs of printing, colors on wrong spots, and messup or broken parts.
Thanks for the comparison! I think the Knock-offs are decent enough of a gift for teenage kids as parents, since it is still a lot of money. But from time to time i see myself buying the expensive ones slowly once i am working properly^^
you can't consider it a scam since is pretty obvious is a knock off, alliexpress do sell original figures but those put the world original in the title
JC - do you think a decent painter could bring knockoff to a original quality? i thought about it after you reviewed it. Sometimes it is just about kind of varnish to improve how paint look, and my only concern is about plastic quality and posing (i.e. Levi left hand grip on the sword) Hope you'll see it and respond.
You know that's a pretty good point, I've seen a few other comments saying similar things about how repainting knockoffs can make them look good, so I think it could since the biggest problem with the knockoffs was the paint. The plastic quality wasn't great on most of them either but I think with a good paint job that would be hard to notice at the very least from far away. Honestly I think that's a really good video idea where you see if repainting knockoffs could make them look better, you'd just have to find someone who has experience painting figures but if I ever find someone like that then maybe I might use your idea (crediting you of course lol)
Plot twist: Someone with the paints, the airbrushes, the tools and plenty of time on their hands, goes and buys the cheap knockoffs, and remakes them to be as good if not better than the originals. (Is this even possible? People do make figures out of 'garage kits' with as much detail, and even some custom work and mods, and it shows on how good the results are)
Used to buy knockoffs in early days coz i don't really know about anime figures back then ... then after knowing more about it, i've nvr bought knockoffs since ... usually new and original scale figures they only take preorders. It can be expensive though, but you can always go for prize figures which is still original but cheaper ones and quality guaranteed. Brands like taito coreful, pop up parade, sega prize, are good and cheap to start with
You can print and have someone professional paint it for you. I have a friend that has been doing this, but to be honest it's not really that good compared to licensed figures.
The biggest problem with AliExpress knockoffs is the fact they dont try to remove mold lines and on top of that they are painted by bad artists, on basically every figurine you can see jagged edges when 2 paints are next to each other, however there are situations where its not the case. For example I got myself a figurine to put in my car from Wonder Egg Project, but it ended up on shelf next to premium/mid figurines. No one who I asked to show bootleg figurine on my shelf was able to do so so far.
Side to side comparison makes it a lot easier, because you will generally find some detail that's not to par. The real chanllenge is attempting to guess the price of a figure when given a mix of real and knock-off. Is it a "scam" if everyone guess a higher value than the cost? To establish an idea of what figures cost in general, a knockoff, a prize, a PUP, a lower end 1/7 scale, a higher end 1/7 scale should first be provided w/ their prices to establish a base line. Preferrably in the same era in terms of release price, as a figure today and a figure 5 years of the same qualtiy tier can have drastic different price. Then the series of chanllenge can begin. A lot of knockoff hurts the industry, which is why it should be avoided if possible/feasible. But as far as the consumer goes, if they aren't actually fooled (i.e. it is sold for the price of real but you get a knock off), the consumer isn't really the one being scammed, the license holder is. Unless it's *really* bad quality, in which case it's just garbage, there are some of those ofc. I can't be sure without seeing the figures in question, but I would guess from people's reaction that the roxy, for example, looks better overall than a PUP while costing about the same. What is it really worth then? Is the buyer the one being scammed? The real problem with knockoff, from a consumer point of view, is that it is almost impossible to tell before hand how good or bad the job is. Because, like you said, they do tend to post the real figure's promo photos on the listings. Getting the knockoff nezuko vs getting the knockoff roxy would be very different experiences. That said, some seller would be willing to provide actual photos if you make it clear you know they are knock off, are fine buying it but just want to check quality. Although depending on platform, you might need to exchange out of platform contacts so that the exchange can be kept off the record. As for the quality poll... that's kind of misrepresentative. Things seens through camera lens, especially video camera lens, lack a significant amount of detail. I would have a hard time telling prize/PUP from scale when seen through cameras, but pretty much always could in person. The degree of detail and the color gridiant is just not the same. But both of those are lost on camera. In fact, just like the knockoffs, you can try to do a price guessing game with your family&friends with a mix of PUP, prize and scale. P.S. When I say prize here, I am excluding ichiban kuji last one prize as that specific line is not very well representative of what prize figure are. There might also be ones similar to that, but this is the only one I know and have. That said, even that isn't quite up to scale quality(well, what I consider the quality of scale should be anyway, there are some bad scales out there...) P.S2 To be clear, I'm not against PUP etc cheaper lines. Those are very good value for beginning/poorer collectors. The thing with figures is that there is serious diminishing return in terms of price vs quality as you go up the line. In many ways, PUP can be 80% of the quality for 20-30% of the price. But it needs to be made clear that it is just 80% of the qualtiy, it never really measures up when seen in person.
I agree with you that seeing them through the camera it is a lot harder to tell the quality than if you were in person. Also I think if I did this again I would do it differently where I have them try to guess the price or give them like 30 seconds to look at each figure because putting them side by side isn’t really a fair comparison.
That was a very enjoyable video! I loved how you involved your family members and let them guess which figurine is which. I've never seen that before on a channel about anime figures. I owned once a cheap knock off of the classic 80s character Madoka Ayukawa but that was in the mid- to late nineties when I didn't realize that such knoff offs existed at all.
I actually ended up getting my first figurine a month ago from pop up parade. I was surprised how decent the quality was and the price. It was a Myne figurine from ascendance of a bookworm. I also recently got the Fran/Teacher figurine from reincarnated as a sword.
It almost always boils down to paint quality. The good thing about cheap figurines is that you can bleach them and use them to learn how to paint figurines. As you get good at it you will have top quality figurines at super cheap prices.
It's not just about the paint. The intricate details on the carve is also a factor. I bet you haven't had a scale figure to notice the difference between a knock off and an authentic figure. Even if you repaint a knock off it would still look like a knock off if you put it beside the authentic one, the paint quality just improved but the details are not that sharp.
@@thewhyzer I have a friend who's been doing that and we always compare my figures to what he makes and you will always notice the difference as the materials and method used is also a factor. Trust me you're just gonna waste your time and money. Unless it's your hobby to remake figures.
@@gurei4761 Those clones use the exact same mold as the original and are probably made on the same facture since most Chinese manufactures don't care about IP ownership. They will sell your product to anyone who is whiling to pay.
Man, POP UP PARADE figures could easily cost 40 to 60 euros (~42 USD - 65 USD) from where I come from. Your typical prize figure is already 30 euros! Collecting anime figures, especially in my country really is an expensive hobby 😓
@@_STRAIN_ Exactly, when I started collecting figures I always bought locally but when I found out where they buyin it, I never bought locally again it's like double the price of the figure lol. Now I always contact my figure hunter in Japan and have him send it to me. Import taxes are not a problem if they gonna ship it thru the post like some random package.
Popup parade usually delivers, yeah. The cheaper official ones can also be really good, but it much depends on the actual figure, some are the same quality, some are getting closer to knock-off brand level.
Anyone who promotes bootlegs doesn't understand how horrible they aren't. A lot use lead based paint or other weird paint that smells. Rhe mold seems are visible and there are slight defects. Save your money and by official merchandise. Pop up parade is official but cheaper but are tons better than bootlegs. I will note is the more you spend the longer lasting the figures will last.
I must be weird. I instantly knew all the knockoffs from far away in a second or less lmao and I only own 1 figure. I think it's all the browsing of the real ones I really want haha
Yeah there is kinda a pain point when the price goes past 40-50 before none free shipping regarding figures. Extra ordinary situation would be needed to warrent spending way above this.
i bought a knock off figure once, it cost me around 80 dollars, while the originals is like 400 dollars. honeslty, most people that get into my room and see it always think its real, even i the first time seeing it feel like real, but i notice its fake when i go to figure store and check it like really close, at the end, i dont really regret buying it, since 80 dollar for almost same as 400 dollars is crazy, plus i only put it in glass case with LED, so not alot people can notice its fake
its usually easy to tell when its a knock off when its next to the original, but given only the fake figure, i think most people will think its the original, not knowing its a fake
There’s a surefire method to always know the difference between cheap and expensive this is how you know the more expensive one will always cost more money 😅
I bought a 4€ generic anime girl anime figure from Temu. The quality is super shit and it feels like it would break at any moment if I touch it. But I'd rather fill my room with 50 figures like this for 200€ than spending the same ammount for just one high quality.
same, I recently bought a Fate Ereshkigal figure from wish and I even had to glue some parts. If you look closely you can also spot some color whe it shouldnt be.. but after all it looks very impressive on the shelf if you don't look too close. I buy these figures as a nerdy decoration element, not as a colector and therefore I think they are good enough. And I don't see why I should spend 4 times the amount of money for that purpose.
You probably already know that some of those almost replica bootlegs are casted from lower grade molds that were sold by the manufacturer. QC shows in terms of the paint details but many of these figures would look a whole lot better if repainted like a garage kit. All in all, all is fair as long as the consumer is informed. Not right if the consumer believes it to be the original, especially when the listing uses official images, which is deceptive marketing. But other than that, there's quite a lot of use considering they're priced more or less around material/manufacturing cost, excluding that would cover r&d/design/marketing the official license royalties cover. You should see the bootleg nendoroid market, pretty good for customization.
I have wonder if supermarkets have offical figures but I more laugh as some are older shows and others you have to already be watching them anime shows.
The only Anime Figurine i have is from my friend who died, it was a Touhou Figurine of Remilia Scarlet, i personally would never buy figurines, but my friend used to collect them excessively! that is one of the things that i have left from him besides my other friends in the group!
5:55 weird, I liked the scouting emblem from the knockoff better than the original. But when seeing them from the front then yeah, it's a different story.
the hat of Roxy is where you can see the "finish" of the japanese figures is just not there. Knockoff usually look really "glossy", the "true figures" fish is really "satin" You probably can't see it behind a glass windows though
As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Quality and Cheap are 2 words that don't belong in the same sentence. For a figurine sculptor to spend a lot time and hard work to make a detailed figurine and sell it for next to nothing, they'd have to be a saint in every sense of the word, and last I checked the world doesn't have too many of those.
No I get it, they have to make the saturation higher, this is to avoid copyright issues. It's like when nike air jordan shoe knockoffs change hand posture INTENTIONALLY so they don't get hit by a Nike lawsuit. The people making them this way aren't dumb at all.
idfk why this was reccomended to me by youtube but yeah, you do like like the type to collect anime figures, like you could not get closer to the stereotype its funny asf
I remember wanting a figure very bad but she was sold out and her price went from 180usd to 450. I bought a bootleg and was immediately dissapointed. I did save up for her and bought about 3 years later the original one
Some of the knock offs straight up come from the original manufacturer. The doll maker themselves make a new mold or hire the same guy but make it less detailed with worse materials so that they can't be tracked easily. The actual material cost of authentic figures aren't really expensive if you only count their material cost. It's the QC and the official branding that comes it with making sure everything looks detailed and has no defects. Knock offs can sometimes be just straight up original but failed QC during production and sold off as knock offs.
There is a reason why the bootlegs use the stock photos from the authentic ones. As far as I have observed, none of the bootlegs show their actual pictures. Yes, there are some quality bootlegs. But you just never know what you get AND the odd is really against you. But if you are a casual "collector" and don't really care about the quality and on a budget, bootlegs are probably your best bet. But if you are buying action figures, you should get the authentic Nendoroid and figma. For whatever money you are saving on a bootleg, you will regret about it when the certain parts of the action figures keep falling off or don't fit. Or they don't hold to the position that you want. BTW, if you go to a con, there is no guaranty that the vendor is selling authentic ones. I have seen vendors bragging about how much they rip people off with their knock offs. You assume that the figures inside a glass display are probably authentic? You may be assuming wrong. When you are in a con, shop around and see the differences in quality and price of the same figure. So you can make a better informed decision. Paying more doesn't guarantee you to get an authentic figure either. If you are ordering online, shipping from Japan doesn't guarantee you getting an authentic figure either. Yes, people sell knock offs on the internet all over the world.
I'm not a collector, so at least for me I don't care about quality if I can save 300+% to get my favorite character. $30 vs $160 is a $130 difference for polish that in some instances isn't that noticeable even close up and directly compared. I agree, scammers are a crap shoot, plus morally ambiguous. But if a company is basically just 3d-printing-sculptures-but-matte while using a slightly higher quality plastic and saying it's worth two weeks of groceries or more, wish scams are a perfectly acceptable alternative.
I've noticed most fakes have worse small details, as well as being a lot more shiny / glossy. Higher quality figuers seem to be more matte.
yeah they do that so it won't look plastic and let the colors look more vibrant
higher quality kind of plastics....the knock-off usually gets oily overtime and yellowish faster than the original ones
My very first figure was a knock-off. I got her when I knew nothing about figure collecting, I just saw her on amazon, I liked anime and thought she looked cute. So I bought her. And I'm not going to lie, I think I got pretty lucky with this find because she barely looks like a knock-off. And I'm saying this even now with much more experience with authentic figures and collecting. I still have her on display with my expenisve, authentic figures :) It's really mind-blowing how good a bootleg can look. Sure, in comparison you can tell the difference, but really only after taking a very close look
Yeah that’s true, some knockoffs really don’t look that bad at all. I think you can get lucky with them sometimes
which character is it?
Yeah! We just need any luck that those knockoff we got/bought is better than expected, like how lucky you got that good figure despite being knockoff tho-
Some of them are pretty insane. I have a bootleg SS3 Goku and SSGoku. SS3, the only thing that shows it's a bootleg is the stand sucks, and for the SSGoku, he's absurdly good looking, but the hair is made with this ugly, shiny plastic.
@@JCsReviewsyou could literally buy knockoffs and repaint them with more accurate paint
I like how your little daughter can tell which one has worse quality from just her feeling w.o ever watching those anime.
She has good eyes.
lol she’s actually my sister but yeah she was really good at telling them apart, she probably did the best out of everyone tbh
Thank you for this. I have been trying to explain this to so many people. We (my kids and I) used to own an anime shop. Sadly two to three years ago, another anime shop opened selling these knockoffs. Many in my area seemed to not notice the difference, knocking us to retreat. We even all found jobs to help support the shop and home hoping this word would get out more but we were not able to hold out.
I’m glad you liked the video :) and I’m sorry to hear that about your shop
Ahh… yes, capitalism at its purest
Its hard to argue with price difference.
People are more than willing to give up some of the quality if they can pay 1/5 to 1/10 of the price.
@@vitor900000 Everyone is different. I, myself would rather support the creator and artist that spent months and or years to create the item rather than the person that stole it. I like the idea that I am not supporting child slavery. I also like to know I am getting an item that the company has to comply with regulations concerning the material they use. If some people do some research, they will see that some people found toxic material in mass-produced, counterfeit items. Last but not least, I like how the value of most of my collection has increased over the years. So far I have not found one counterfeit item that gained value over the years. They just end up in a landfill
@@shannonturner1793 Well... The official seller could sell those figurine by grade and also sell blanks.
Low grades and blanks could be sold for cheap since they can be mass manufacture while high grade would be painted/colored by qualify artists with would make it worth the premium tag.
Those "cheap" copies usually use the same mold as the original since they are usually made by the same factory.
The copy market only exists because the official seller left it open. If it wasn't profitable the copy cats would not be selling it.
So many times, I've had to tell my friends not to fall for these scams! They're always like "normal anime figures are so expensive and this one is really cheap, and it still looks good!" but I have to tell them that the pictures are of the real figure and they won't get that high quality ordering it.
Knock offs that barely look like knock offs are gems. Found one or two of those
Knockoff Levi looks like he got hit on his head pretty hard lmao
Lmao he really does look like Levi if he was dropped on the head as a child 😭
Note here for any new collectors - Corefuls are prize figures, while Pop up Parades are not. Pop up Parades are sort of their own category, similarly to Nendoroids, although there are comparable figures to Pop up Parades from Bandai, Furyu, etc. Prize figures typically have more ambitious designs for a low price, but typically don't have great quality control and are often made of noticeably cheap materials (they can look great, but it's important to keep in mind.) It's very common for prizes to have poorly done hair, but some people like the look of the transition from color to clear. Pop up Parades have good quality control and are almost always higher quality, but have very simplistic designs (as others have mentioned, sometimes the faces get messed up as well, but this is usually noticeable from photos before you buy.)
Also... that Nezuko is rather bland, so I understand why people would prefer the Coreful, but I bet if they could feel the figure and see it up close, their choice would be different. You will get increased quality for your money (most of the time) even if it's not apparent at first glance. A lot of the price also has to do with size... it may not seem like it, but when you see a 1/7 scale compared to a prize or a 1/4 compared to a 1/7 in person, you'll understand just how much more enjoyable the larger figures can be. If you really love a character, go for a scale. If you like a character, but aren't crazy about them, go for cheaper options. Luckily, with more and more cheap options becoming available, you can avoid getting knock-offs and still get characters you like!
I think it's pretty important to mention as well that Pop up Parades not always are faithful to their prototypes, and can look worse than your average prize figure for half the price. For example, Zero Two figure was horrible despite her prototype looking actually pretty good. Generally from what I collected, every now and then there is a considerable difference between the prototype and the real deal, which I haven't experienced to this degree with scale figurines and other lines like nendo and figma. Nowadays, before I buy a Pop up Parade figure I just wait for someone to make a picture of the actual product to check if it's actually worth it.
I think the price has more to do with paint as that's where most of the money is. When I buy a cheaper figure, although they might look great, the paint usually isn't up to standard as a pricier figure. I'm always disappointed in Pop Up Parade figures not because of the blend look but with how cheap the paint is and the lack of details on the actual figure itself. I've sold most of mine because of this very reason.
Thanks for explaining "prizes." While I was aware of Pop Up nad their place in anime figure collecting, I'm probably in the minority when it comes to prize knowledge.
And I agree that larger scale equals better quality/paint applications.
Happy collecting!
Bandai's banpresto figures are also usually pretty damn good quality as well even though they are considered prize figures. Although they do tend to only do figures of what is most popular at the time.
The only figure I own from them has very average to bad quality, it's a Demon Slayer figure from the vibration stars line
It's a good thing that the e-shopping app I use actually tells if the figure that they sell is a knock-off or not, so i wouldn't really be worried of getting trolled like this..
What a fun video! It was nice seeing the reactions and also close-ups of the figs. Also the editing is on point! Nice job
Thank you!
For a tenth of the price, that Roxy one definitely brings more than a tenth of the enjoyment
Especially if ya can't squeeze the OG into your budget
bootlegs are the worst. Save your pennies and go for the true scales or Prizes if scales are out of your budget.
I know the difference between the figures in the thumb nail, ones not made in China
@@pacifico-lx7xe fun fact, some real scales are also made in china
@@pacifico-lx7xe Mostly are made in China even the most popular brands you know. I'm not Chinese but please remove the idea of China being the source of fake gadgets and everything. Most of those fakes are from illegal companies.
It would help if things shipped overseas.
@EB-qb1vl amiami, mandarake, native, favorgk, nin-nin, goodsmile and Solaris all ship overseas.
You have such a great way of talking and I found your voice so calming that I didn't even realize how much of the video I watched haha I loved this, though. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to these types of things and it shows. Especially, if a seven year old can see how low quality something is, it's truly telling.
lol thank you
Loved this video! It was great to have side by side comparisons to see how obvious the mistakes are on the knock-off figures. Good stuff👍
Thank you! I’m glad you liked the video
Well, you don't buy knock off to display them, you buy knock off figures so that you can paint them :D
Casually 3d prints any figure I could want
😂😂, give another depth to "even my seven years old sister could tell that it's a scam"
As a casual figure collector, it really amazes me how some KO can mimic the original really well. For Anime figures since it's higher in demand, the KOs can easily be distinguished by the inaccurate colors such as too yellow skin, too vibrant or too glossy most probably due to rush production. But in video game-related figures, it's a different story. For Play Arts Kai, the bootleg is a 90% copy. The paints are also matte and everything is literally the same (except sometimes skin can have a different hue).
the reason the roxy is so accurate to the original is that in china they make the original run, for example 500 pieces with top quality plastic and paint, then they use the same mold/cast to do the fake ones but with cheaper plastic and paint overall is the same figure just cheaper materials
From my experience Pop up Parade is really hit or miss with the faces. But on figures that dont have normal faces like Goblin Slayer, Chainsaw man, Guts with armor etc they are great!
I think the ones I’ve gotten have decent faces but maybe I just got lucky lol
Furyu also is a hit or miss imo, sometimes their noodle stoppers look really good other times characters faces look too plastic and weird.
Yeah, agree to this. For now, Taito is my favorite line for cheap prize figs, especially their Coreful and AMP+ line. I have the Elaina, Albedo, and Shizuku Marin AMP+ and they all look so good and quite big already. I also chose Taito over Pop Up Parade for my Quintessential Quintuplets set.
Pop up parade was just recently introduced, I mean it's been years but they're still continuing to improve their figures. If you got their latest figures you can definitely tell that they're almost the same as scaled figures. It now only boils down to the scale and the sharpness of the carve.
Great video, I always wanted to see a direct comparison between high quality figures and knockoffs. Bringing in people who aren't as familiar with figurines at all is a great idea as well!
This video essentially turning into a Popup Parade advertisement at 10:37 made me chuckle a bit as I recently got into anime figures, and I started my collection by ordering 21 figures in one go (yes, my wallet deeply hates me right now) and out of those 21 figures, 17 are PUPs...
I'm overall happy with them; my main issues (which are rather minor) are their bases (empty and boring, with some being round, some being hexagonal and all in different colors) and that quite a few of the characters have rather unimaginitive poses - still, considering the good quality and that they cost about 1/5th the price of a decent scale, I'm not complaining and I intend to buy more.
Yeah I realized when editing that I basically did a free pop up parade ad lol. I also agree about the basses, a lot of them are just a random color that doesn't always match well with the figure
Its why I dont get pop ups lol
Amazing video! Would really like to see more of these for sure! Great job 😃
Thank you!
I wish there more videos like this, KO comparisons! Because I always find myself with two categories, the figures I want regardless of the price and then figures I wouldn't mind getting if they were more affordable. But only if they're the quality of that Roxy, where you have to actually take a few minutes and pay attention to the finer details. If only I could splurge on this hobby to make this kind of content myself 😂. So thanks for making this video. I appreciate it. Now, I'm off to go purchase a Roxy! Thanks for sharing.👍🏻😁
lol of course! I’m glad you liked the video
Many bootleg figures just look bad but some of them can be a surprise, I have a channel about bootleg figures and the quality of them improved over the years
Yeah I realized that with the Roxy figure, there are some pretty good looking knockofs out there
Me and my friends had a random figure that was on the living table, it was from one of my friends brother, and we did a bidding and reach 5 dollars, the figure was a bunny suit girl FYI thus figure was from Temu I think and they said it was about 25 to 35 dollars and I was the only one who took it home cause nobody wanted it, also the fact that the breast and you know what are broken so nsfw to display normally so I took it, already knew it was fake because of the mess up lines, the not attach nsfw covers, and the signs of printing, colors on wrong spots, and messup or broken parts.
These honestly look pretty good for being dirt cheap
I would totally buy a knock-off since it wouldn't matter if it is in a shelf far away
theres one thast look good
Thanks for the comparison!
I think the Knock-offs are decent enough of a gift for teenage kids as parents, since it is still a lot of money.
But from time to time i see myself buying the expensive ones slowly once i am working properly^^
Get your lead test kit first ;p
you can't consider it a scam since is pretty obvious is a knock off, alliexpress do sell original figures but those put the world original in the title
You just got yourself a new subscriber 👍 Would love to see more content of figurines in the future!
Thank you! I’d like to do more things like this in the future
Got it, only buy knockoffs after checking reviews
This was great, Thanks alot!!
You have such a nice, warm and loving family.
the alarming is the fake imitates the exact pose as the original that the chance getting a fake is high
JC - do you think a decent painter could bring knockoff to a original quality?
i thought about it after you reviewed it. Sometimes it is just about kind of varnish to improve how paint look, and my only concern is about plastic quality and posing (i.e. Levi left hand grip on the sword)
Hope you'll see it and respond.
You know that's a pretty good point, I've seen a few other comments saying similar things about how repainting knockoffs can make them look good, so I think it could since the biggest problem with the knockoffs was the paint. The plastic quality wasn't great on most of them either but I think with a good paint job that would be hard to notice at the very least from far away. Honestly I think that's a really good video idea where you see if repainting knockoffs could make them look better, you'd just have to find someone who has experience painting figures but if I ever find someone like that then maybe I might use your idea (crediting you of course lol)
@@JCsReviews thanks a lot
i am not a pro, but i'll try something like this this year 😅
@@MeeWho good luck 😊, I’d love to see it when you’re done
Plot twist:
Someone with the paints, the airbrushes, the tools and plenty of time on their hands, goes and buys the cheap knockoffs, and remakes them to be as good if not better than the originals.
(Is this even possible? People do make figures out of 'garage kits' with as much detail, and even some custom work and mods, and it shows on how good the results are)
My fav bootleg I have is my 1/4 freeing Lucy Heartphilia
Used to buy knockoffs in early days coz i don't really know about anime figures back then ... then after knowing more about it, i've nvr bought knockoffs since ... usually new and original scale figures they only take preorders. It can be expensive though, but you can always go for prize figures which is still original but cheaper ones and quality guaranteed. Brands like taito coreful, pop up parade, sega prize, are good and cheap to start with
Lets say you have a really obscure character you wanna have as a figure. How would you go onto creating and printing the figure yourself?
You can print and have someone professional paint it for you. I have a friend that has been doing this, but to be honest it's not really that good compared to licensed figures.
@@gurei4761 Print as in 3D print? What materials/plastic is used? Obviously it may not be "as good", but in what way?
The biggest problem with AliExpress knockoffs is the fact they dont try to remove mold lines and on top of that they are painted by bad artists, on basically every figurine you can see jagged edges when 2 paints are next to each other, however there are situations where its not the case. For example I got myself a figurine to put in my car from Wonder Egg Project, but it ended up on shelf next to premium/mid figurines. No one who I asked to show bootleg figurine on my shelf was able to do so so far.
Prize and / or used figurines ftw! The only new figurines I would buy are 30ms or 30mm, since they are not too expensive already.
Side to side comparison makes it a lot easier, because you will generally find some detail that's not to par.
The real chanllenge is attempting to guess the price of a figure when given a mix of real and knock-off. Is it a "scam" if everyone guess a higher value than the cost? To establish an idea of what figures cost in general, a knockoff, a prize, a PUP, a lower end 1/7 scale, a higher end 1/7 scale should first be provided w/ their prices to establish a base line. Preferrably in the same era in terms of release price, as a figure today and a figure 5 years of the same qualtiy tier can have drastic different price. Then the series of chanllenge can begin.
A lot of knockoff hurts the industry, which is why it should be avoided if possible/feasible. But as far as the consumer goes, if they aren't actually fooled (i.e. it is sold for the price of real but you get a knock off), the consumer isn't really the one being scammed, the license holder is. Unless it's *really* bad quality, in which case it's just garbage, there are some of those ofc. I can't be sure without seeing the figures in question, but I would guess from people's reaction that the roxy, for example, looks better overall than a PUP while costing about the same. What is it really worth then? Is the buyer the one being scammed?
The real problem with knockoff, from a consumer point of view, is that it is almost impossible to tell before hand how good or bad the job is. Because, like you said, they do tend to post the real figure's promo photos on the listings. Getting the knockoff nezuko vs getting the knockoff roxy would be very different experiences. That said, some seller would be willing to provide actual photos if you make it clear you know they are knock off, are fine buying it but just want to check quality. Although depending on platform, you might need to exchange out of platform contacts so that the exchange can be kept off the record.
As for the quality poll... that's kind of misrepresentative. Things seens through camera lens, especially video camera lens, lack a significant amount of detail. I would have a hard time telling prize/PUP from scale when seen through cameras, but pretty much always could in person. The degree of detail and the color gridiant is just not the same. But both of those are lost on camera. In fact, just like the knockoffs, you can try to do a price guessing game with your family&friends with a mix of PUP, prize and scale.
P.S. When I say prize here, I am excluding ichiban kuji last one prize as that specific line is not very well representative of what prize figure are. There might also be ones similar to that, but this is the only one I know and have. That said, even that isn't quite up to scale quality(well, what I consider the quality of scale should be anyway, there are some bad scales out there...)
P.S2 To be clear, I'm not against PUP etc cheaper lines. Those are very good value for beginning/poorer collectors. The thing with figures is that there is serious diminishing return in terms of price vs quality as you go up the line. In many ways, PUP can be 80% of the quality for 20-30% of the price. But it needs to be made clear that it is just 80% of the qualtiy, it never really measures up when seen in person.
I agree with you that seeing them through the camera it is a lot harder to tell the quality than if you were in person. Also I think if I did this again I would do it differently where I have them try to guess the price or give them like 30 seconds to look at each figure because putting them side by side isn’t really a fair comparison.
Bro this vid was amazing had me crying 🤣
This defs deserves more views💯💯💯
Thanks man!
That was a very enjoyable video! I loved how you involved your family members and let them guess which figurine is which. I've never seen that before on a channel about anime figures.
I owned once a cheap knock off of the classic 80s character Madoka Ayukawa but that was in the mid- to late nineties when I didn't realize that such knoff offs existed at all.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video
I actually ended up getting my first figurine a month ago from pop up parade. I was surprised how decent the quality was and the price. It was a Myne figurine from ascendance of a bookworm. I also recently got the Fran/Teacher figurine from reincarnated as a sword.
this is why i only collect prize figures, scale figures are pointlessly overpriced and are probably only worth 2 times less their price
Nice video man!
Interesting. At 2:43, I thought the one with the flashier colour was the real one, that is until I looked at their front sides.
It almost always boils down to paint quality.
The good thing about cheap figurines is that you can bleach them and use them to learn how to paint figurines. As you get good at it you will have top quality figurines at super cheap prices.
true mostly is just paint
It's not just about the paint. The intricate details on the carve is also a factor. I bet you haven't had a scale figure to notice the difference between a knock off and an authentic figure. Even if you repaint a knock off it would still look like a knock off if you put it beside the authentic one, the paint quality just improved but the details are not that sharp.
@@gurei4761 Wouldn't all the intricate details be the same if the knockoff is printed off a full scan of the original?
@@thewhyzer I have a friend who's been doing that and we always compare my figures to what he makes and you will always notice the difference as the materials and method used is also a factor. Trust me you're just gonna waste your time and money. Unless it's your hobby to remake figures.
@@gurei4761 Those clones use the exact same mold as the original and are probably made on the same facture since most Chinese manufactures don't care about IP ownership.
They will sell your product to anyone who is whiling to pay.
can you link the sites where we can buy figures please?
yo nice video, good job youtube for the recommendation
12:15. When you get four opinions, that's hardly a "poll", and using words like the "majority" is pretty heavy handed! LOL
Yeah I totally agree lol, honestly I probably should've done another poll before making the video
Man, POP UP PARADE figures could easily cost 40 to 60 euros (~42 USD - 65 USD) from where I come from. Your typical prize figure is already 30 euros! Collecting anime figures, especially in my country really is an expensive hobby 😓
Just buy figures in japan online shops. It will be way cheaper, than buying in shops in your city.
@@_STRAIN_That's not always the case for me, we have really hefty import taxes :(
@@_STRAIN_ Exactly, when I started collecting figures I always bought locally but when I found out where they buyin it, I never bought locally again it's like double the price of the figure lol. Now I always contact my figure hunter in Japan and have him send it to me. Import taxes are not a problem if they gonna ship it thru the post like some random package.
@@gurei4761figure hunter? What is it?
Because I used to buy it at shops like amiami and hobbysearch.
@_STRAIN_ would you mind telling what site you use?
Popup parade usually delivers, yeah. The cheaper official ones can also be really good, but it much depends on the actual figure, some are the same quality, some are getting closer to knock-off brand level.
Buy the Cheap one and if you are a very good artist turn it into GOLD!! Make it look Bad Ass!!!
I've seen people do that it looks awesome.
Anyone who promotes bootlegs doesn't understand how horrible they aren't. A lot use lead based paint or other weird paint that smells. Rhe mold seems are visible and there are slight defects. Save your money and by official merchandise. Pop up parade is official but cheaper but are tons better than bootlegs. I will note is the more you spend the longer lasting the figures will last.
It`s really scary i just bought this Roxy figure online and now i have this video on my You Tube start page.
the knockoffs almost always mess up the face
I must be weird. I instantly knew all the knockoffs from far away in a second or less lmao and I only own 1 figure. I think it's all the browsing of the real ones I really want haha
I bought one Asuka figure off of Aliexpress for 7 dollars as an experiment... Whoa Nelly, it was rough.
Yeah there is kinda a pain point when the price goes past 40-50 before none free shipping regarding figures. Extra ordinary situation would be needed to warrent spending way above this.
Thank you kindly. Coreful seems like a great place for some one to start collecting with out going broke :)
i bought a knock off figure once, it cost me around 80 dollars, while the originals is like 400 dollars. honeslty, most people that get into my room and see it always think its real, even i the first time seeing it feel like real, but i notice its fake when i go to figure store and check it like really close, at the end, i dont really regret buying it, since 80 dollar for almost same as 400 dollars is crazy, plus i only put it in glass case with LED, so not alot people can notice its fake
yeah but now buy a 1/4 scale bunny, and you will see that the price native or freeing charges are really insane
its usually easy to tell when its a knock off when its next to the original, but given only the fake figure, i think most people will think its the original, not knowing its a fake
idk. i knew instantly which roxy figure was fake due to the slight facial distortion on the knock off
I have a Zero Two bunny coming from china for $50 instead of $280, we'll see how it goes when i get it.
is it worth buying a figure on amazon for 600 bucks or is it overpriced?
when the facecam came on, I knew it was jover
Look at the hair! That is the best way to tell
There’s a surefire method to always know the difference between cheap and expensive this is how you know the more expensive one will always cost more money 😅
U can also buy pre owned figures, they can be 5-30 for an original figure
I bought a 4€ generic anime girl anime figure from Temu. The quality is super shit and it feels like it would break at any moment if I touch it. But I'd rather fill my room with 50 figures like this for 200€ than spending the same ammount for just one high quality.
same, I recently bought a Fate Ereshkigal figure from wish and I even had to glue some parts. If you look closely you can also spot some color whe it shouldnt be.. but after all it looks very impressive on the shelf if you don't look too close. I buy these figures as a nerdy decoration element, not as a colector and therefore I think they are good enough. And I don't see why I should spend 4 times the amount of money for that purpose.
your family is very pretty, such an entertaining video!
You probably already know that some of those almost replica bootlegs are casted from lower grade molds that were sold by the manufacturer. QC shows in terms of the paint details but many of these figures would look a whole lot better if repainted like a garage kit.
All in all, all is fair as long as the consumer is informed. Not right if the consumer believes it to be the original, especially when the listing uses official images, which is deceptive marketing. But other than that, there's quite a lot of use considering they're priced more or less around material/manufacturing cost, excluding that would cover r&d/design/marketing the official license royalties cover. You should see the bootleg nendoroid market, pretty good for customization.
For the Roxy one, I noticed it right away at just a glance because of the face. Then I went back and the lines were just not as smooth.
I have wonder if supermarkets have offical figures but I more laugh as some are older shows and others you have to already be watching them anime shows.
The Nezuko took 1 sec to tell based on the eyes alone lol
3:23 I had to laugh out loud - the difference is night and day and obvious at first sight.
This was a really good video
Thank you!
The only Anime Figurine i have is from my friend who died, it was a Touhou Figurine of Remilia Scarlet, i personally would never buy figurines, but my friend used to collect them excessively!
that is one of the things that i have left from him besides my other friends in the group!
To put it right : fake figure vs real
5:55 weird, I liked the scouting emblem from the knockoff better than the original. But when seeing them from the front then yeah, it's a different story.
the hat of Roxy is where you can see the "finish" of the japanese figures is just not there.
Knockoff usually look really "glossy", the "true figures" fish is really "satin"
You probably can't see it behind a glass windows though
As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Quality and Cheap are 2 words that don't belong in the same sentence. For a figurine sculptor to spend a lot time and hard work to make a detailed figurine and sell it for next to nothing, they'd have to be a saint in every sense of the word, and last I checked the world doesn't have too many of those.
I personally wouldn't spend 1000% more for a figure thats like 30% better
Yeah also as an artist myself, if the knockoff looks bad I usually just paint the details myself since it aren’t something I would resell or anything
No I get it, they have to make the saturation higher, this is to avoid copyright issues. It's like when nike air jordan shoe knockoffs change hand posture INTENTIONALLY so they don't get hit by a Nike lawsuit. The people making them this way aren't dumb at all.
Where’s your fedora?
Honestly
i bought knock-offs because i can paint them, but i do hate it when the sculpt is bad.
The plastic on the knockoffs is just too shiny so i was able to tell them apart easily
idfk why this was reccomended to me by youtube but yeah, you do like like the type to collect anime figures, like you could not get closer to the stereotype its funny asf
I remember wanting a figure very bad but she was sold out and her price went from 180usd to 450. I bought a bootleg and was immediately dissapointed. I did save up for her and bought about 3 years later the original one
Insane price
Knock-off Levi has jaundice
Some of the knock offs straight up come from the original manufacturer. The doll maker themselves make a new mold or hire the same guy but make it less detailed with worse materials so that they can't be tracked easily. The actual material cost of authentic figures aren't really expensive if you only count their material cost. It's the QC and the official branding that comes it with making sure everything looks detailed and has no defects. Knock offs can sometimes be just straight up original but failed QC during production and sold off as knock offs.
There is a reason why the bootlegs use the stock photos from the authentic ones. As far as I have observed, none of the bootlegs show their actual pictures. Yes, there are some quality bootlegs. But you just never know what you get AND the odd is really against you. But if you are a casual "collector" and don't really care about the quality and on a budget, bootlegs are probably your best bet. But if you are buying action figures, you should get the authentic Nendoroid and figma. For whatever money you are saving on a bootleg, you will regret about it when the certain parts of the action figures keep falling off or don't fit. Or they don't hold to the position that you want.
BTW, if you go to a con, there is no guaranty that the vendor is selling authentic ones. I have seen vendors bragging about how much they rip people off with their knock offs. You assume that the figures inside a glass display are probably authentic? You may be assuming wrong. When you are in a con, shop around and see the differences in quality and price of the same figure. So you can make a better informed decision. Paying more doesn't guarantee you to get an authentic figure either. If you are ordering online, shipping from Japan doesn't guarantee you getting an authentic figure either. Yes, people sell knock offs on the internet all over the world.
The price and the eyes.
I'm not a collector, so at least for me I don't care about quality if I can save 300+% to get my favorite character. $30 vs $160 is a $130 difference for polish that in some instances isn't that noticeable even close up and directly compared.
I agree, scammers are a crap shoot, plus morally ambiguous. But if a company is basically just 3d-printing-sculptures-but-matte while using a slightly higher quality plastic and saying it's worth two weeks of groceries or more, wish scams are a perfectly acceptable alternative.
10:51 Anyone knows the name of the busty red headed waifu thats under bell and at kurisu's left?
Pop Up Parade Marika
Rias?