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Originally Posted by TMNTerminator
Well then wouldn't you expect the quality (paint, articulation, etc.) to be virtually identical to the "regual mass market toys"?
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You mean like the quality packaging job Playmates' factory has been doing for the last few month putting figures onto the wrong cards or packaged with the wrong inserts? The factories are going to produce according to the standards required by their clients. If the client happens to be a bootlegger who doesn't care about the quality, neither will they.
But the real reason I suggested that thes bootlegs are coming from the same basic factories as the official versions is the logistics of producing so many figures. Many of these bootlegs show up nation wide, albeit in limited numbers. Realistically, they have to have production runs in the thousands. You aren't going to make a thousand figures without some substantial equipment. It would also make sense since such a factory would have ready access to molds to use in bootlegging. Even if companies like Playmates keep the molds after their production runs are over, there are likely to be early molds that were disgarded due to quality issues or older molds that have reached the end of their useful life span. A factory or factory worker could keep such molds and use them for bootlegging.
This could also help explain why you often see bootleg toys cast in strange colored plastic. If you are trying to make a quick buck at the factory, would you pay to buy more of the appropriate colored plastic or just use whatever you have left?
As for why the articulation may differ. It seems fairly apparent that at least some bootleg toys are made from new molds. And again, who would have the most access to the equipment and experience to make new molds? I would think a factory that produces toys to begin with would be a likely suspect.
Agin, this is all just spectulation on my part. But from an economic standpoint, the most likely person or group to have the opportunity, the experience, the equippment and the resources to not only make and ship toys on a large scale, but to do it on the cheap, would be a factory that already produces those same toys.