[Merchandise] Counterfeit Pokemon Products

[Roni]

anyone ever run into these? i remember being so shocked when i realized that, after playing on it for ~2 years, my Pokemon Emerald cartridge was actually a bootleg (the box wasn't translucent green, just plain blackish grey). finally answered the question as to why the internal battery had run dry even when it was still newly bought (thus i never experienced catching a snorunt til later in life ;_;).

i also got this lovely little turtwig (his name is Bert btw) that my gf gifted me for my bday a couple months ago, and though i love him dearly, i am 99% sure it ain't an official pokemon product lol

Spoiler:

anyone got there's to share?

 

[icycatelf]

I've never came across a bootleg game to my knowledge, but I'm pretty sure the Furret plush I got online is fake. Not only did the seller not send the kind of Furret plush in the preview, but it was also missing its hind legs... :/

I think the only other bootleg products I've come across have been TCG cards. I personally love those foil stickers that you used to find in vending machines around the early 2000's!

Spoiler:

 

[Roni]

I've never came across a bootleg game to my knowledge, but I'm pretty sure the Furret plush I got online is fake. Not only did the seller not send the kind of Furret plush in the preview, but it was also missing its hind legs... :/

I think the only other bootleg products I've come across have been TCG cards. I personally love those foil stickers that you used to find in vending machines around the early 2000's!

Spoiler:

the funniest thing to me is that my mom bought me that bootleg game in an established mall. the wonders of living in the Philippines, where even buying from a literal mall nets you bootleg stuff lol.

also how could i forget fake cards! those were my bread and butter in elementary. i'd save up lunch money just to head to a shoddy outdoor shop beside campus and get something like a machoke holo with 8000HP xD

 

[donavannj]

Only ever intentionally run into a fake Mewtwo plush.

Did help my local game store spot some bootlegs among their Pokemon singles earlier this year, though.

the funniest thing to me is that my mom bought me that bootleg game in an established mall. the wonders of living in the Philippines, where even buying from a literal mall nets you bootleg stuff lol.

I mean, used game stores where I am in America sometimes do shoddy vetting of bootleg cartridges for main release games before they buy them. My brother got a bootleg Emerald cartridge from one of these in the last 5 years.

I've never came across a bootleg game to my knowledge, but I'm pretty sure the Furret plush I got online is fake. Not only did the seller not send the kind of Furret plush in the preview, but it was also missing its hind legs... :/

I think the only other bootleg products I've come across have been TCG cards. I personally love those foil stickers that you used to find in vending machines around the early 2000's!

Oof, I felt that on the furret plush. :(

I personally could do without those cards tbh, lol. Too many people have asked "i can't find info on this!!! is this super rare???" over the years...

 

[Palamon]

Yup. I've run into so many fakes, and bought them, too. I have a fake Eevee, Jirachi and Togepi on my bed. The bootleg Eevee was yellow, so I just couldn't leave it... I just had to have it. I saw a Black Eevee plushie, too. I also have a Disney branded Emolga? But I don't know if it's authentic or just a bootleg. I believe it's French, though, because I do know some countries do have Disney branded Pokemon plush? Could be wrong though.

Honestly, I see a lot of bootleg Pokemon plushies at the flea market some are absolutely horrible. I've also seen cheap bootleg Pokemon figures that are painted so inccorectly that they don't even look like the Pokemon they're trying to rip off.

I have... quite a few of those actually. I'll edit this thread with a photo of them. They're bad, trust me.

As for bootleg cards... yup. I got scammed at a 99 cent store near my grandmother's once. They were selling Pokemon cards. Entire box was full of fake ones. The text at the bottom (the Pokedex entry) wasn't even properly aligned, either. Most of the text was cut off. Never buy Pokemon cards from a 99 cent store, tbh.

 

[icycatelf]

Ooh, I forgot about the large "cat-Pikachu" plush my aunt gave me. It was obviously based on Pikachu—same eyes, yellow fur, black-tipped ears, and brown back stripes—but its ears were shorter and it had whiskers instead of red cheeks and no tail. I thought it was hideous and didn't keep it...

I also have a feeling that the Pikachu plush my sister got me in Jamaica is unofficial. It looks fine, a fairly normal Pikachu with a Jamaican bag strapped over its shoulder, but it doesn't have any tags. Still a nice souvenir, regardless. She also got me a bag of bootleg mini-figures for my birthday a couple years ago (some of those were pretty LOL-worthy).

EDIT: I've also got some Pikachu and Raichu-themed keychain lights. The Pikachu ones look so-so, but the Raichu keychains were colored as if they were Pikachu.

 

[Sheep]

Pretty sure the Pichu plush I had as a kid in Russia was bootleg! ugh I wish I still had it + had photos. Ended up giving it away to a much younger kid years ago. many regrets ; ;

but aaa that turtwig plush is still really cute even if not official!

 

[Sydian]

i have a big umbreon plush that's booyleggy but it looks so good that idc lol and i have a bootleg shiny mega garchomp. other than that though i don't really have a lot of fake merch. i had some of those foil stickers as a kid and a couple of fake cards, but i didn't really appreciate it enough back then. i'd love to have more bc i really like those foil stickers. they're really cool and pretty tbh.

 

[Roni]

I've also seen cheap bootleg Pokemon figures that are painted so inccorectly that they don't even look like the Pokemon they're trying to rip off.

Man I remember that youtube toy channel that was showing off all the crappily painted "pokemon" figurines they bought off pound land (british lad). it was hilarious to see some digimon coupled in there as well lmao.

can't wait for those pics!

Ooh, I forgot about the large "cat-Pikachu" plush my aunt gave me. It was obviously based on Pikachu—same eyes, yellow fur, black-tipped ears, and brown back stripes—but its ears were shorter and it had whiskers instead of red cheeks and no tail. I thought it was hideous and didn't keep it...

I also have a feeling that the Pikachu plush my sister got me in Jamaica is unofficial. It looks fine, a fairly normal Pikachu with a Jamaican bag strapped over its shoulder, but it doesn't have any tags. Still a nice souvenir, regardless. She also got me a bag of bootleg mini-figures for my birthday a couple years ago (some of those were pretty LOL-worthy).

it's as if the person who made the pikachu refused to look at references and was certain they could redo its design completely from memory lmao. jamaican bag pikachu sounds amazing though, got any pics of that?

Pretty sure the Pichu plush I had as a kid in Russia was bootleg! ugh I wish I still had it + had photos. Ended up giving it away to a much younger kid years ago. many regrets ; ;

but aaa that turtwig plush is still really cute even if not official!

Bert says thank you <3

Spoiler:

it's really hard to get a good pic of him bcs he's forever looking down lol

 

[Momoro]

my Pokemon Emerald cartridge was actually a bootleg (the box wasn't translucent green, just plain blackish grey).

Every single time I buy a Pokemon game from online sellers (eBay being the most notorious) is a bootleg, and I even sometimes get bootlegs from GameStop-- and they advertise them as authentic copies..

On the off-chance that I do receive an authentic copy online or in a real-life shop, I never receive another one for a long time. ..and they say it's bad luck, ey?

I bought a copy of Pokemon Black Version 2 off of eBay and it was actually authentic! I was so surprised, as I got it for $13.49, which is usually the price of a bootleg game. The same for a Pokemon Black Version copy, too.

I've also been given fake Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver copies through eBay, and couldn't get a refund because they closed their account ;-;

I don't purchase from out-of-country sellers anymore unless I know them, because 99.9% of them sell bootlegs and don't mention it in the description-- then it's up to you to pay the return shipping 😔

 

[Roni]

i have a big umbreon plush that's booyleggy but it looks so good that idc lol and i have a bootleg shiny mega garchomp. other than that though i don't really have a lot of fake merch. i had some of those foil stickers as a kid and a couple of fake cards, but i didn't really appreciate it enough back then. i'd love to have more bc i really like those foil stickers. they're really cool and pretty tbh.

shiny mega garchomp plush?? now i've heard everything. i really wanna see how big that umbreon is though, because that do be one of my fave dark types :D

Every single time I buy a Pokemon game from online sellers (eBay being the most notorious) is a bootleg, and I even sometimes get bootlegs from GameStop-- and they advertise them as authentic copies..

On the off-chance that I do receive an authentic copy online or in a real-life shop, I never receive another one for a long time. ..and they say it's bad luck, ey?

I bought a copy of Pokemon Black Version 2 off of eBay and it was actually authentic! I was so surprised, as I got it for $13.49, which is usually the price of a bootleg game. The same for a Pokemon Black Version copy, too.

I've also been given fake Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver copies through eBay, and couldn't get a refund because they closed their account ;-;

I don't purchase from out-of-country sellers anymore unless I know them, because 99.9% of them sell bootlegs and don't mention it in the description-- then it's up to you to pay the return shipping 😔

big F to you mate. i never realized just how rampant bootleg selling of pokemon games still is. i guess i've never had that issue because i just play with roms and emulators and don't mind not being able to trade.

what's the quickest way to tell though if a copy's authentic or not?

 

[Momoro]

big F to you mate. i never realized just how rampant bootleg selling of pokemon games still is. i guess i've never had that issue because i just play with roms and emulators and don't mind not being able to trade.

what's the quickest way to tell though if a copy's authentic or not?

Depends on which games you're looking for. If it's HeartGold/SoulSilver or Black/White/Black2/White2 then the quickest way to tell if they're counterfeit is check the color of the cartridge shell. If it's a really deep black, it's real, because it's not really black, but it's actually a really really really dark shade of red. (Hold in front of a light and you'll see. Google shows images of that, too!)

And sadly, if you get a counterfeit HeartGold/SoulSilver or Black/White/Black2/White2, Infrared connection will most likely not work, as the counterfeit's are as cheap as possible.

As for Diamond/Pearl/Platinum.. Eh.. 🤔

It depends. It's really hard to tell those ones, because they didn't have the Infrared connection like the later games did-- and why that makes it harder is because every Sinnoh Generation 4 game has a gray cartridge shell....just like every single DS game bootleg. 😔

As for GBA Pokemon games, it's hard, because fakes can be really really really good sometimes, and you can be ripped off thinking it's real. Most of the time if you hold your game up and look through the bottom of the cartridge, you should see a "Nintendo blah blah blah.." seal on the motherboard. This is good, but a lot of fakes also have this-- except that most fakes also use a slightly different font for this seal. Google "how to tell a bootleg Pokemon GBA cartridge"

I could go on and on about this.. 😄

So far, I haven't seen anything about bootleg 3DS Pokemon games yet, or any bootleg 3DS games yet at all. The 3DS has higher security, it seems.

I've researched this really really hard, as I'm often searching for a certain Pokemon game on eBay. I refuse to use Ali-Express due to their reputation for bootleg everythings.

 

[icycatelf]

jamaican bag pikachu sounds amazing though, got any pics of that?

Here it is (it actually does have a tag, just doesn't say Pokémon, Nintendo, etc.):

 

[Roni]

Depends on which games you're looking for. If it's HeartGold/SoulSilver or Black/White/Black2/White2 then the quickest way to tell if they're counterfeit is check the color of the cartridge shell. If it's a really deep black, it's real, because it's not really black, but it's actually a really really really dark shade of red. (Hold in front of a light and you'll see. Google shows images of that, too!)

And sadly, if you get a counterfeit HeartGold/SoulSilver or Black/White/Black2/White2, Infrared connection will most likely not work, as the counterfeit's are as cheap as possible.

As for Diamond/Pearl/Platinum.. Eh.. 🤔

It depends. It's really hard to tell those ones, because they didn't have the Infrared connection like the later games did-- and why that makes it harder is because every Sinnoh Generation 4 game has a gray cartridge shell....just like every single DS game bootleg. 😔

As for GBA Pokemon games, it's hard, because fakes can be really really really good sometimes, and you can be ripped off thinking it's real. Most of the time if you hold your game up and look through the bottom of the cartridge, you should see a "Nintendo blah blah blah.." seal on the motherboard. This is good, but a lot of fakes also have this-- except that most fakes also use a slightly different font for this seal. Google "how to tell a bootleg Pokemon GBA cartridge"

I could go on and on about this.. 😄

So far, I haven't seen anything about bootleg 3DS Pokemon games yet, or any bootleg 3DS games yet at all. The 3DS has higher security, it seems.

I've researched this really really hard, as I'm often searching for a certain Pokemon game on eBay. I refuse to use Ali-Express due to their reputation for bootleg everythings.

huh first time i've ever heard of infrared connection stuff. that's really interesting. and good to hear that counterfiets are harder to make for the newer games. could lead to less kids being scammed at least.

say, would it still be considered bootleg if you loaded say, a rom file into an R4 cart? just curious about how that would work since the game in itself should be legit, just that it doesn't have a physical manifestation.

Here it is (it actually does have a tag, just doesn't say Pokémon, Nintendo, etc.):

d'aww looks like it wants to go on an adventure! bootleg or not that pikachu is geniunely cute :D

 

[Momoro]

say, would it still be considered bootleg if you loaded say, a rom file into an R4 cart? just curious about how that would work since the game in itself should be legit, just that it doesn't have a physical manifestation.

Technically, no, I guess, because it's not being advertised as that specific game or has a copy of the original shell / case. I play ROMs on my R4 a lot-- btw whenever I buy R4 cards, I always get bootleg timebombs, even from the actual R4 site. Not a total rip off, as there is an alternative kernel you can use- YSMenu, I think?

d'aww looks like it wants to go on an adventure! bootleg or not that pikachu is geniunely cute :D

why is it so cute 😍 I don't even care if it's a bootleg, like you said, it's genuinely cute! 😄

 

[Sydian]

shiny mega garchomp plush?? now i've heard everything. i really wanna see how big that umbreon is though, because that do be one of my fave dark types :D

if u behave, santa syd will send u a picture lol...and by that i mean if i remember i will take a pic and post it. the umbreon looks decent imo but the garchomp...she's a little Sad.