The Official Bootleg thread
 

Hi, all.
First of all, some sort of introduction: I live in Serbia, Eastern Europe, a place that's heaven on earth for bootleg collectors. I' ve joined these boards just to share the excitement of my TMNT bootleg finds with you :). Hope you like them!

Before we go onto the pics, a disclaimer: these toys belog to my four- years old son, so they are far from mint condition, but, as you'll see, some of them stand up pretty well to the test of time (considering that the 1st wave is almost 3 years old).

It all started back in 2003, i think, with those four bad boys:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...1vidoniraf.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...vileoimajk.jpg

As you can see, they all share the same body colour. Their belts are just painted on and cannot be removed. As for the accessories, they all LOOKED the same as the originals, but there were some problems - eg. Don's axe and sword cannot be attached to the bo, Leo had only one suction cup and Mike's and Raph's climing thingies don't work at all. Here's the pic of two different types of their backs:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../backs1vih.jpg

They all came on the same looking card - Mike w/bio card on the back, all 4 turtles on the front. (BTW, these were the toys I tried to send to TMNTgal who I know from heman.org, but things didn't quite work out since... well, let's just say that the great number of bootlegs is the smallest of this country's problems :)).

Some time later, we got this Shredder (whose legs can't move) and Splinter, mounted on the same card as the original 4 turtles - the cardback also featured a Foot Soldier whom I could never find:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...nterisekac.jpg

A while later, I found this Giant Mike. Like the rest of the turtles released with him, he came with one pair of nunchukus (?), one bo staff and one katana sword. On his chest, you can see a red light that, activated by pressing a button below his belt:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../giantmike.jpg

There was nothing new for a while, but then this month alone I found... (continued in a new post)....

EDIT: These pics seem to be much larger than I expected. I'll edit the post in a few minutes. Sorry if I'm breaking any image size rules!

I think the images are fine, don't worry about it unless someone starts complaining. (I'm on dial up and had no problems) Thanks for sharing, these are awesome! what name do you use at .org? Mine's GK Version 1

First, there's the Air Leo. As you can see, there's red light on his belt as well. It's activated by pressing a button on his back. (NOTE: there are 2 variants of this toy - one that comes with helmet only, and one w/ complete gear).

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...acke/aaleo.jpg

Next, here we have a Shellcycle with.... ummm... Don? :) Only his feet and arms can be moved (look at his feet so see where they're cut for movement). He also has red light and he's different from other turtles since he's made of hollow plastic. The cycle really shooth those arrows made of cans (thouogh the projectiles are completely gray/silver).

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...hellcy-don.jpg

And now... Xtreme sports TMNT! :) Here's Leo MOC:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...remeleomoc.jpg

And here's the cardback. The original toys belong to "Ninja series", while these are a part of "Arming series", according to the back of the card :).

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...leomocback.jpg

Also, sometime in between those "waves" the Turtles got renamed:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...cke/clanci.jpg

Here's the 3 Turtles I've located this far:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...urlesfront.jpg
Back:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...x-tmntback.jpg

..continued...

Another interesting item are TMNT playing cards:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...zapakovane.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ojedinacno.jpg

Not pictured: role-playing Don's staff and (plastic) mask since the staff is pretty much the same as original.
As for the price of these toys, you could buy 3 bootlegs for the price of one original.
Hope you enjoyed looking at these pics, I just HAD to share my excitement with someone! :)

Kittie february6 I'm Papa_Taz at the .org, though I don't post there much :).

Actually, I know exactly who you are. I recognize the name Papa Taz!

:D Sweet bootlegs...im normally not too big a fan of them but i like those! esp. the ones with the lights on chest/belt...great pics!

Those are pretty neat. As I only collect figures (as a general rule), I also try to pick up a few decent bootlegs here and there. I was thrilled to see those photos.

Glad you folks liked them! :)

The cards say "Made in China" on the back, and I have been able to find some of these figs in those... what's the proper term? ... shops that have only stuff from China (and are, more often than not, owned by Chinese people as well), while others are from the local flea market... So, my guess is that they should be sold somewhere else in the world as well :).

Maybe...I remember when I was in Italy I saw some bootleged X-men figures. They could be anywhere where American copywrights have about as much weight as Kate Moss.

UPDATE!

Fightin' Gear Turtles are here... at this rate, the bootleggers will catch up with the original line in no time :lol: .

Anyway, here are the two turtles I have, both came on Raphael's card (BTW, the card is large as if these were deluxe figures), and they all (I've seen Leo as well) have the same armour and same body, which is far from super-poseable; the figs move only at "the big five". At least their coluors are accurate this time around :). Enjoy!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...acke/gear1.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...acke/gear2.jpg

Dem bootleggs is WACKY!

WHat is up with the red light up bulb in their chests.

A VERY interresting find, dude!

All the cool toys have the red light, didn't you know? It's all the rage in the bootleg world these days! ;)

Look at these Justice League toys, for example... You'll see that they have it too, as well as the Marvel heroes (we have a light- up Hulk, Spider-Man and a few others in the house)... Come to think of it, only robotic toys (ie Transformers and Bionicle bootlegs I have) have no lights, which makes no sense at all, if you think about it for a bit :).

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...gracke/jla.jpg

Thats soooo funny about the red lights...and that is weird that the TF don't have them...of all toys, they should have em!!

I'm having a hard time imagining the logistics of manufacturing these bootleg toys...They aren't very well-made, that's apparant, but it must require a fair amount of machinery and know-how to get these made and packaged, so I'm assuming this isn't just some nut in his garage playing with plastic.

Furthermore, where would you purchase these? Do any large retailers actually carry these things? That simply wouldn't fly over here in Canada and in the U.S. -- but do big-name stores in Serbia sell these?

That would be awesome...:)

it's actully pretty funny that bootleg splinter is better then the first one that came out hahaha!

That's an interesting point. Though I certainly wouldn't want to buy any of these figures, they do somehow possess a strangely interesting quality about them. Just the notion that these bootleggers go to such great lengths to manufacture, produce and package these rip-off toys in order to pass them off as real ones -- and then screw them all up by doing the most asinine things, like inserting lights in their chests or putting five turtles on the packaging. :roll:

Thing is, people here aren't exactly loaded with money, so any toy store that wants to make some profit carries bootlegs as well as originals... These bootlegs are all legaly imported by several different companies; each toy comes with a generic declaration/sticker that reads:

Besides the toys I have already mentioned, I have bootlegged LEGOs, Action Man, Max Steel, Hulk and many more- even a few Bratz dolls and a NES console :)... I'm thinking about starting a website dedicated to bootlegs, there's so much material! :)

makes me glad i live in america

That's fascinating...So what's the sticker price on these? 'Same as the real ones?

Well, the Fightin' Gear Turtles were roughly $3.50, others were closer to four bucks... while regular originals are 15$* , the deluxes 18.75 and, for instance, those "Paleo Patrol" Turtle + Veichle 2- packs are $ 30 and some change... so, you can see the appeal of these bootlegs :).

* Which is silly, IMO - the Marvel Legends have the same price, while oher ToyBiz figures are even cheaper, in the 12 $ range... I guess the importers are trying to cash in on the Turtles' popularity...

I didn't know about the 5 turtles until you pointed that out.

It's like that trick where someone makes you read a card that says

I am a very smart
smart person

or something to that extent, where you don't know the word is there twice unless you are careful.

I will say the TMNT play cards are the pick of the litter. Especially the one with original comic book design.

Another update!

Can someone tell me if this particular bootleg is based on an existing original figure? Thank you! :)

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...eocudanmoc.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../leocudan2.jpg

A direct bootleg of the Thunder Thrashers version of Leonardo from the TMNT:the next mutation series.

You can see the original here.

well .id like to say that toys although their quality not good as playmates toys

put they too god for poor people like me how dont have much money to buy playmates products -

-note that the playmates toys in our country are so expensive

for example :one guy of tmnt costs 70 LE-about 12 dollars

as for chinese toys :one toy of tmnt costs about one and half dollar only

tmntman Thank you!

magidkaiser That's still twice chepaer than the originals are here! :o

wow thoooooooose are awesome!

Wow...unbeliveable bootleg of Thunder Thrasher Leo from the Next Mutation Line...those are pretty cool...im not really into bootlegs myself, but thats one I would probably get...:)

That's a really cool bootleg Leo figure. So how are these guys doing this? Are they stealing the molds from the Playmates Toys factory and messing with them?

Well, it's funny. 'Cause it looks like the images are just folded over each other; Don and Leo are exact mirror images of each other, but Raph doesn't seem to be...

Hmm...

These are fun to look at, but I would never buy any bootles for several reasons.

No-- most likely they're casting the original toys in some kind of hard plaster and then using that as a mold to make more toys. Anyone could do it, really.

Another thing about the bootleg figures is that nobody knows if the paint on them is safe. I assume the official figures have safe paint, but when it comes to bootlegs it wouldn't suprise me if they had lead paint.

I wouldn't be overly concerned about such things. Even though bootleg toys have a much smaller production run than the original, they are still producing runs numbering at least in the thousands. Factor in the need to be able to produce all of the packaging and shipping cases and it is a pretty safe bet that these bootlegs are being produced in the same factories that produce regular mass market toys. They aren't being cooked up in some guys basement or garage. And they are probably using the same materials. Just take what ever left overs they may have and use them for the cheap knock offs where quality won't be as big of an issue.

Well then wouldn't you expect the quality (paint, articulation, etc.) to be virtually identical to the "regual mass market toys"?