Pearly brushables: bootleg vs. store bought

[Baby Sugarberry]

If Hasbro isn't doing any QC on their end, it's quite possible.

After all if you're dissatisfied with your purchase through eBay (That is where most of these get sold right? That and Taobao?) there's repercussions for the seller's account, if they rack up too many negatives. So sellers are incentivized to ensure their product is acceptable to the buyer.

[Shabi]

Ugh, I wish I could tell more about the "bootlegs" but the language barrier is killing me. I'll try to tell it simple. There are factories in China which were built just to make ponies and they were built by Hasbro. They have blueprints and they can easily produce any amout of ponies. They still do it and they choose rare ponies to make because they're easier to sell. Chinese people are a lot like Russians. They make money without caring about copyright. I know a lot of little girls who will buy rare pony on AliExpress and tell everyone they bought it store long time ago or bought it from a collector.

I like both ponies with and without qr heart. If I had the one without the heart I wouldn't buy extra one with it.

[FarDreamer]

They still do it and they choose rare ponies to make because they're easier to sell.

That's really interesting.  Are they all G4 style ponies they make or do they do the older styles as well?  I'd assume that we would have heard of this by now, but you never know.

[Baby Sugarberry]

I don't think too many of the original G1/G2 moulds still exist.  If they did, Hasbro wouldn't have had to redo them for the Anniversary Collector sets, the ones that flopped because they were 'off' and looked worse than the originals 20+ years their juniors.   Casting blanks often get melted down for their metal content once they're no longer of use.

All those 'hybrid character' or 'alternate' G4's are a perfect example of made-to-market 'rares'.  They're not mistakes, the factories very deliberately choose what they're going to produce for direct sale to collectors.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Ugh, I wish I could tell more about the "bootlegs" but the language barrier is killing me. I'll try to tell it simple. There are factories in China which were built just to make ponies and they were built by Hasbro. They have blueprints and they can easily produce any amout of ponies. They still do it and they choose rare ponies to make because they're easier to sell. Chinese people are a lot like Russians. They make money without caring about copyright. I know a lot of little girls who will buy rare pony on AliExpress and tell everyone they bought it store long time ago or bought it from a collector.

I like both ponies with and without qr heart. If I had the one without the heart I wouldn't buy extra one with it.

Thank you for writing this!