The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: MintySocks on January 30, 2017, 11:11:35 PM
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Hey everypony,
I just noticed there are quite a few pearlies up on eBay right now, coming directly from China, and they don't have that imprinted heart :heart: barcode symbol on their leg. (Personally, I think they look better without it.) They're definitely not fakies, and not different enough to be considered prototypes, but d'ya think this bit of differentness, this lack of techno-birthmark, will cause their value to be lower or higher than store bought? Would this matter to you as a collector whether your set had this mark or not? Curious to hear other opinions.
Direct from China:
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Store bought stateside:
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Hmm -- I'm not sure how it will affect their future value; good question. As a collector, I'd personally want the official versions with the techno-birthmark, even though, like you, I think they look better without it :lol: Contradictory, I know . . . I just like getting the "real" version, I guess.
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I know some people prefer them without the foot QR code thing and will actually remove it with acetone. I leave mine alone because I actually had the app that it's for and I was curious to see what each one looks like in it :blush: Honestly I was considering buying the wave 3 brushables from that seller because they're just not going to be released where I am.
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For some it will not matter, but if the person was an MIB Collector or some such then it might matter xD
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It wouldn't matter to me because I don't like the app-heart, lol.
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I guess for some it will matter, and for others it won't. I'm sure there will be purist collectors who wouldn't buy altered ponies, but there is debate about G4 collectibility in future and whether it will be any where near the degree of G1.
The only thing I'd consider about store bought vs. ebay/china is how they're selling them. Is there theft involved or did they not pass QC, and if so why?
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did they not pass QC, and if so why?
Probably because they are missing the hoof heart code thingy.
I'd hesitate to call them bootleg tho. Bootlegs are fakies and these are definitely not fakies.
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I'd rather just have a copy of both honestly. I like having the real one but I do want a second set without the zapcode.
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I'm not a fan of the pearlies, but personally I prefer them without the zapcode in this case, it just looks weird against their pearly bodies.
I wouldn't call them bootlegs, though; "factory second" or "reject" would be a more correct term, I think.
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I'm sure the zapcodes will stop working soon enough (if they haven't already? idk), so I prefer my ponies without.
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I purchased a set with all the pearlized ponies except the mane 6. Some still had the heart and some didn't. Their hair seemed better to me though because they didn't have "Box hair".
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I purchased a set with all the pearlized ponies except the mane 6. Some still had the heart and some didn't. Their hair seemed better to me though because they didn't have "Box hair".
For realsies! Box hair is hard to fix! Well I've ordered a Coloratura from this seller so we'll see when she gets here if her quality is up to spec. Can't really beat the price right now.
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I think I ordered the whole set (minus the mane 6) from this seller and I love them! I was worried the pearlies wouldn't come to my area, and so far I've only seen 2 or 3 of the non mane 6, so I'm glad I did. They look pretty legit besides the code so I am happy!
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How do you know they are not bootleg?
Before I knew there was such a thing I bought a whole bunch of bootlegs from a few sellers that took forever to arrive (I would have stopped purchasing much sooner if the first one had arrived sooner) and when they did start coming in, the quality was atrocious: flashing, assembly problems, big bubbles, bad paint etc) and that's when I discovered that ponies aren't all real.
So how does one know if they are bootleg vs real when they are direct from china and there is no Hasbro packaging?
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Bootleg implies something made or distributed illegally, so in that sense yes they're bootlegs. That said, it's pretty hard to differentiate when the manufacturing and origin are identical.
These guys are from the same factories putting out the retail packaged versions, they're 'seconds' (didn't pass quality control) test runs (unlikely, since they show up in such large numbers), or extras made specifically by the factory to sell - all without Hasbro's consent. Once they're in the secondary market, unless there' s a physical difference like the missing codes, really no way to separate these from the 'authentic' versions unless the latter are still in their retail packaging.
G4 isn't going to have any significant long term value. Like G3 but to an even greater extent, a large portion of the original run is in collector hands already.
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So how does one know if they are bootleg vs real when they are direct from china and there is no Hasbro packaging?
Others can chime in here too, because they might have had different experiences, but in my experience, the fakes have a lame attempt at the "My Little Pony" logo that is obviously not accurate but close, and like you said, have manufacturing details that look "off" like plastic edges not smoothed out, poor paint, etc. All the genuine Hasbro factory ones, even "rejects" (and by "bootleg" I just mean sold unofficially by a private party who got their hands on it some other way than retail), all have a year, the Hasbro name, and a correct logo on their hooves.
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Thanks!
Sooo...if I understand correctly, we are calling bootlegs any unauthorized ones that come from a Hasbro mold or a convincing copy of a Hasbro mold, whereas a fakie comes from another mold which might be reversed engineered from a pony or originally created or something like that.
So the 'bootlegs' in the OP are theoretically rejects for some reason like the color might be too far out of range or some other detail and instead of being melted down were grabbed by someone possibly working at a factory or rummaging their trash or whatever...or they could be extra production runs done secretly or stolen inventory or even extra molds made or copied or some such thing (the possibilities are endless) but at any rate for whatever reason these are not taken into Hasbro inventory, inspected, packaged and sold through the intended distribution channel. Which means that they might have unexpected differences and could even become some sort of rare collector items in the future or could be worth nothing or anything in between...
Values in the future are speculation...I think it's premature to say G4 will have no value in the future...there is at least a chance that when Hasbro stops making them, the demand could continue on into the future...possibly bronies will eschew G5 and generations of them will fixate only on G4 for decades to come and G4 ponies could be a rare resource that could make a collector rich 60 years from now...then again, there are plenty of non-Hasbro G4 merch and in such a scenario those would keep getting made probably. I'm not saying it's likely that G4s will be a rich limited commodity later, and the conclusion G4 will have zero value seems more likely.
My uninformed and unqualified guess is that in the future the Hasbro branded ones still mint on card might have some value, and possibly could be the only ones that have any value at all.
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Thanks!
Sooo...if I understand correctly, we are calling bootlegs any unauthorized ones that come from a Hasbro mold or a convincing copy of a Hasbro mold, whereas a fakie comes from another mold which might be reversed engineered from a pony or originally created or something like that.
So the 'bootlegs' in the OP are theoretically rejects for some reason like the color might be too far out of range or some other detail and instead of being melted down were grabbed by someone possibly working at a factory or rummaging their trash or whatever...or they could be extra production runs done secretly or stolen inventory or even extra molds made or copied or some such thing (the possibilities are endless) but at any rate for whatever reason these are not taken into Hasbro inventory, inspected, packaged and sold through the intended distribution channel. Which means that they might have unexpected differences and could even become some sort of rare collector items in the future or could be worth nothing or anything in between...
Values in the future are speculation...I think it's premature to say G4 will have no value in the future...there is at least a chance that when Hasbro stops making them, the demand could continue on into the future...possibly bronies will eschew G5 and generations of them will fixate only on G4 for decades to come and G4 ponies could be a rare resource that could make a collector rich 60 years from now...then again, there are plenty of non-Hasbro G4 merch and in such a scenario those would keep getting made probably. I'm not saying it's likely that G4s will be a rich limited commodity later, and the conclusion G4 will have zero value seems more likely.
My uninformed and unqualified guess is that in the future the Hasbro branded ones still mint on card might have some value, and possibly could be the only ones that have any value at all.
IMO, some of the G4 ponies will hold value or increase slightly only if it is a pony who was released in limited quantities and therefore not available to a significant number of collectors.
But no gen will ever match g1 in holding or increasing value simply because there were virtually no adult collectors when they were readily available in stores. And additionally, there was not the Internet such as it is today. Even so, most of the common ponies can be picked up for less than $10 which is actually less than retail when you consider inflation. And that from a time when Hasbro rarely reissued characters.
These days, there is a high number of active adult collectors who buy things directly from the store and if they can't find it locally, they can just hop on the Internet and order it from somewhere else. And now that China has discovered eBay, you can still get lots of things that were never even produced. and even if there are new collectors coming in, there are always some collectors desolving or reducing there collections.
In regards to the bootleg discussion, I have most often heard the term in regards to the unlicensed factory-made plushes.
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Sunset those are very good points.
However, G1 hasn't really caught on with a lot of G4 fans so haven't become HTF as the base of collectors hasn't expanded to G4 proportions. Even so, with the points made by Sunset as to availability of huge numbers of ponies, Baby Sugarberry is probably correct about G4 having no probable value in the foreseeable future.
If anyone was convinced otherwise by my baseless imaginings, they really shouldn't listen to me too closely...
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Limited editions or otherwise scarce & popular characters will, as always be the exception, in regards to G4 and value. Such is true for pretty much every secondary market.
'Bootleg' to me implies anything that was made without the copyright holder's permission. 'Fakies' would be ponies that are wholly/partially recast or original sculpts made to mimic the MLP brand. Even some lines that were not really intended to piggyback on MLP's popularity, such as the Magic Meadow CPK's - which incidentally were made by Hasbro and /not/ bootlegs - are considered by some as 'fakies'. So there's overlap in the two terms, but some cases that are exclusively one or the other.
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Limited editions or otherwise scarce & popular characters will, as always be the exception, in regards to G4 and value. Such is true for pretty much every secondary market.
Agree, I think the first run of brushables secondary characters might become like that down the road since distribution was so uneven. I mean have you seen what a Honeybuzz goes for now? :shocked: Always hard to say if the current run will go scarce in the future. Who knows whether the pearlies will go that way.
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Not fakies or bootlegs at all, just factory rejects!
Personally, I don't think they're going to be worth any extra, because anyone can acetone the zap code off, but it'd be clear if someone "faked" the zap-code if they were super valuable in the future
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The vast number of supposed 'rejects' severely calls that into question, especially given how many poor quality ponies actually make it into retail packaging. It's far more likely that the factories are doing extra runs with the intention of selling them without Hasbro's blessing.
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The vast number of supposed 'rejects' severely calls that into question, especially given how many poor quality ponies actually make it into retail packaging. It's far more likely that the factories are doing extra runs with the intention of selling them without Hasbro's blessing.
I think what happens is the factory makes extra just in case of really serious quality errors. After all its better to make extra and toss a few good ones that to make just enough and then not have enough because you had to toss the failed ones.
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If that were the case, why are so many flawed ponies still showing up on store shelves?
Last I heard they still hadn't fixed the QC issues with the G4 line. Many of the direct offerings are also some kind of 'variant', which wouldn't help or even exist if they were being made to exchange against flawed ponies. Even these pearly ones are missing the zapcodes thus are themselves technically 'flawed'. It also doesn't make sense in a country and industry where margins are paper thin and companies are doing everything possible to maximize profits for them to run off a few hundred extra ponies 'just in case'.
I don't know exactly how much Hasbro pays the factory for each pony, but can confidently say it's not anywhere close to what we pay at retail. Factories that illegally sell merchandise on the side directly to consumers make a /huge/ markup compared to what they get through the contracts they have to bid on, and that's why these ponies exist.
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Can anyone tell me the keywords to search for to find the pearly ponies without zapcodes? I hate the zapcodes so I'll gladly buy the China ponies to avoid them.
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If that were the case, why are so many flawed ponies still showing up on store shelves?
Last I heard they still hadn't fixed the QC issues with the G4 line. Many of the direct offerings are also some kind of 'variant', which wouldn't help or even exist if they were being made to exchange against flawed ponies. Even these pearly ones are missing the zapcodes thus are themselves technically 'flawed'. It also doesn't make sense in a country and industry where margins are paper thin and companies are doing everything possible to maximize profits for them to run off a few hundred extra ponies 'just in case'.
I don't know exactly how much Hasbro pays the factory for each pony, but can confidently say it's not anywhere close to what we pay at retail. Factories that illegally sell merchandise on the side directly to consumers make a /huge/ markup compared to what they get through the contracts they have to bid on, and that's why these ponies exist.
I think you misunderstood what I meant. I don't mean that Hasbro ordered extras just in case but that the factory made extras just in case. All Hasbro cares about is that they get the number of ponies they ordered at the standards they find acceptable. While what they find acceptable is what we might consider flawed, I imagine it could be much worse. At least they usually have eyes and a cutie mark. It's no loss for the factory to make extras since they can always toss them on ebay. Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if that is how factories have always worked even before ebay since there used to be stories of finding such goods on the street markets.
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I don't believe I've misunderstood; that's just not how overseas factories work.
If any production factory makes 'extras' (and they generally don't, because that costs them $$$, they'd run the line until they have enough approved to fill the order) they are almost always legally obligated by the terms of the contract they're fulfilling to destroy any remaining product - generally recycling or otherwise disposing of the item. They don't get to just 'sell it on the side' if they want to for extra cash. No contracting company would tolerate that overtly, so the stuff that's bought factory direct is bootleg: unauthorized, made after hours or on the sly or reported as destroyed. The main problem is that it's hard to catch. Companies like Hasbro have their own agents that visit the factories to make sure that they're not doing things they aren't supposed to (seriously there's a whole industry of people who do nothing but make sure the clients they represent aren't being cheated!) but they don't catch it all, and China's laws in regards to intellectual property are near non-existant.
Most if not all of the ponies you're suggesting are 'flawed/rejects' often look better than a good percentage of the ones that make it into retail packaging, so how does that make sense? If they were indeed seconds, you'd expect them all to have notable problems like head/body mismatch, misprinted eyes, wonky symbols, missing symbols, dirt, etc. but that isn't the case from what I've seen. Even if it /was/, selling 'seconds' is still likely illegal and a breach of contract.
Edited for grammar fail.
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No contracting company would tolerate that overtly, so the stuff that's bought factory direct is bootleg: unauthorized, made after hours or on the sly or reported as destroyed.
I would say it's probably the last. I'm just saying these "extras" are probably made during the actual run with the excuse that they are in case too many get seriously flawed at later steps. It doesn't make sense to fire up the machines and call in the workers for 5 missing ponies. Or maybe it's they just keep running until there are enough ponies at the finished end but then there's still all the ponies coming down the line that still get finished. The weird thing is I know worse flaws can exist (if hoof hearts can be missing than eyes could be missing) but even these Chinese seller ponies don't have such drastic flaws. I'm guessing those ones actually get destroyed since they probably figure nobody wants them.
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I have the ones from china and they absolutely do not seem like 'bootlegs' however I have noticed that some of mine have paint flaws and they don't have the heart thing so I think they were a mis-run of production.
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'bootleg' simply means distributed, produced or sold illegally.
Nothing says bootleg ponies can't be exactly the same quality - unfortunately this is often the case. They're made (for the most part) in the same factories, it's just that the Chinese contractors are selling them "on the side" without Hasbro's blessing, thus the 'bootleg' part. bootleg and fakie are not synonyms.
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Would be interesting if one of these versions has a better hair quality than the other, or if the techno heart is the only difference. Does anyone know?
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there not bootlegs there factory seconds.
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there not bootlegs there factory seconds.
So you think Hasbro has given their blessing for the Chinese factories to sell things directly to the consumer, ahead of their own release schedule, and likely not seeing any of that money go to Hasbro's bottom line ...?
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I don't mind those at all. In fact, I'm thinking about getting me some from eBay!
I also believe they are rejects that didn't pass quality control, not fakies.
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The weird thing is I know worse flaws can exist (if hoof hearts can be missing than eyes could be missing) but even these Chinese seller ponies don't have such drastic flaws. I'm guessing those ones actually get destroyed since they probably figure nobody wants them.
Yeah...
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The bootlegs are better quality that the stuff that gets through. No wonder the manufacturers will try and sell bootlegs.
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Yeah...
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The bootlegs are better quality that the stuff that gets through. No wonder the manufacturers will try and sell bootlegs.
:blink: :shocked: :dropjaw: :lmao:
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She's winking.
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She's winking.
:snicker:
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I think the point a lot of people are trying to make is that "bootleg" is often used to mean "fake", even if they technically mean different things. It carries a negative connotation. If that makes sense.
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Well the original intent of the post is kind of lost now... I was curious if people think that buying direct from China would affect a pony's future resale value. Techno-birthmark vs. none.
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Well the original intent of the post is kind of lost now... I was curious if people think that buying direct from China would affect a pony's future resale value. Techno-birthmark vs. none.
I'm not good with valueing (sp?) things but I would say that I don't think it'll affect it that much, if at all, especially since as others have said, it would be easy to get the zapcode off with acetone anyway (so it'd be hard to "prove" that it's from China or not.. if that makes sense). Personally I prefer them without the zapcodes, though :)
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When I was at ponycon, I accidentally bought a pony that I'd already bought retail, thinking it was a different pony that I'd picked up in the end. The pony was the pearly AJ, So I've had two of the same pony to compare side-by-side, one the factory version with no heart, one being the retail version with heart. I can't post pics, as I've just packed away all of my ponies (they were taking up what is now the nursery) but if you're inclined to take my word on this, they were exactly the same quality, the absolute only difference was the hoof heart. I'm actually going to keep the one without the heart, and remove the hearts on the retail ones, they're just tacky looking on the pearlies! At Ponycon I also bought 4 others of the pearly line that had been obtained direct from China, and they were all excellent quality - I obviously checked them out before even considering buying them. So no, I'd say they're not factory rejects, just not finished off with the heart. They even have the underhoof factory batch codes, which were missing from earlier bootlegs.
*edit for baby brain*
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Stormness I agree. I just got a factory Coloratura with no heart and it's exactly the same quality. Better, maybe, because she doesn't have that pesky box hair! :P
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Usually, depending on country, factory workers do take samples out of the workplace to be copied.
The resulting "duplicates, fakies etc" are sold on an undermarket, and usually these are the ones that end up on eBay. The quality will always be superb, and hard to distinguish from the legitimate factories. This is so common with the clothing and accessory markets, there are Youtube videos about it.
Why do they do this? Well, its pretty obvious, with so many people wanting to buy them as oddities etc.
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The weird thing is I know worse flaws can exist (if hoof hearts can be missing than eyes could be missing) but even these Chinese seller ponies don't have such drastic flaws. I'm guessing those ones actually get destroyed since they probably figure nobody wants them.
Yeah...
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The bootlegs are better quality that the stuff that gets through. No wonder the manufacturers will try and sell bootlegs.
:haha:
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The weird thing is I know worse flaws can exist (if hoof hearts can be missing than eyes could be missing) but even these Chinese seller ponies don't have such drastic flaws. I'm guessing those ones actually get destroyed since they probably figure nobody wants them.
Yeah...
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The bootlegs are better quality that the stuff that gets through. No wonder the manufacturers will try and sell bootlegs.
:wow:
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I dont recall seeing ponies for sale in any shop in China..only from Taobao sellers but I know they are popular because many of my students watched the show.
The only pony merch I saw was a set of bootleg playing cards for sale at a shop in the forbidden city.
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The pearly ponies aren't really "bootlegs"; they're produced in Hasbro factories, made of the same material as the ponies found in stores, etc.
(This isn't in response to any particular comment, just a general observation.)
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The pearly ponies aren't really "bootlegs"; they're produced in Hasbro factories, made of the same material as the ponies found in stores, etc.
bootleg |ˈbo͞otˌleg|
adjective [ attrib. ]
(esp. of liquor, computer software, or recordings) made, distributed, or sold illegally: bootleg cassettes | bootleg whiskey.
Stuff directly from China is not sold through Hasbro, thus by definition, IS bootleg. Yes, it's made in the same factory, often same materials and same quality, that does not change the fact that they're not authorized to be selling MLP direct and are doing so on the side without license. If that matters to you or not is a whole other kettle of fish.
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Yeah, but there's an implication that it's a toy made / sold / distributed by another company. Usually either a direct rip-off of a mold from the original company (like Princess Rinse 'n Spit) or something that rips off the intellectual property rights (like if a company made a new pony mold, but produced ponies who look exactly like Pinkie Pie, Applejack, etc.)
Let's say it's the 80s and Cabbage Patch Kids are insanely popular and hard to find right before Christmas. You, a parent, convince a Toys R Us worker to sell you a CPK doll for twice the "shelf price", straight out of the back of the store. Would that make the CPK doll a bootleg, since it was distributed/sold in an illegal manner? No. It's still a genuine CPK doll, made by Coleco.
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Your example isn't equivalent. The toy you describe was still distributed by Coleco to Toys R' Us, the illegality comes into play not with its manufacture, but an employee breaking company policy (presumably) and possibly theft.
An example of bootlegging is the acquisition of a recording of an unreleased song and then the distribution of that recording, without the artist's consent. The material is not illegitimate - it's a real song, sung by a real artist - but it remains an illegal bootleg because it's not officially endorsed nor sold through proper channels, and no compensation goes back to the creators.
Bootleg isn't a synonym for counterfeit, which would be the 'rip-off' type of product you're inferring: copied moulds or designs.
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Due to a goof up I ended up with two sets of these. They're good quality and best I can tell the only difference is that they don't have the heart on the leg (which I think is ugly). They have the hasbro stamp on the bottom of their feet, so to me it doesn't matter if they came in package or not. I just think that down the line once they are being re-sold by folks who bought them at release that everyone should be careful to tell buyers which they are, for anyone to whom it's really important. (My extra set is up for sale on my website, just fyi in case anyone is interested).
What would indicate that the sellers in China were selling them illegally? Or is that just a suspicion?
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Common sense? I mean it's not like these businesses are trying to pass themselves off as authorized Hasbro distributors even.
There've been a number of documentaries on Chinese factories and how rampant side-deals are. Intellectual property laws there are minimal and not well enforced.
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I think the sellers must be getting them at the factory. If it's common for side deals to happen then that's a possibility. They could have been stolen, or maybe a manager just passed them off and said "here, do whatever you want with these." I'm wondering if maybe they were manufactured before Hasbro decided to add the heart to the leg.
As to the original question about value. Right now these are selling for less than the ones in the package. Down the line if everyone who wanted one wasn't able to get one, then I'd bet the difference for loose ones will be minimal.
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Sometimes employees walk off with merchandise but that's pretty rare (and a huge risk for said employee). It's most common that the factory owner is selling the stock behind the backs of their contractors, either directly online to to a third party who lists them.
Not surprising they're getting them at the factory and selling them for less than Hasbro's retail - I mean there's a huge markup on almost all products when you look at how much big companies pay the factories to make their stuff compared to what the end user shells out for them. Between companies like Hasbro and retailers (let's say, Toys R' Us) there's often a doubling of price. Between Hasbro and the factories, probably an even bigger jump. So factories sell stuff on the side because the profit they get is much better than the per unit cost for the legitimate contracts. Even if they get half of what Hasbro's charging, it only cost them pennies on the dollar to make.
As for the missing zap codes, only conjecture but maybe it's to pass them off as 'flawed merchandise' if there was ever an inquiry, as I'm sure whatever contract Hasbro has specifies that all the retail-bound ponies have to meet a specific design sheet. If they were made before and design specs. changed, why wouldn't they just run them through the extra step to pad-print the missing marks? Much easier than running a full new batch of ponies.
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Sometimes employees walk off with merchandise but that's pretty rare (and a huge risk for said employee). It's most common that the factory owner is selling the stock behind the backs of their contractors, either directly online to to a third party who lists them.
Not surprising they're getting them at the factory and selling them for less than Hasbro's retail - I mean there's a huge markup on almost all products when you look at how much big companies pay the factories to make their stuff compared to what the end user shells out for them. Between companies like Hasbro and retailers (let's say, Toys R' Us) there's often a doubling of price. Between Hasbro and the factories, probably an even bigger jump. So factories sell stuff on the side because the profit they get is much better than the per unit cost for the legitimate contracts. Even if they get half of what Hasbro's charging, it only cost them pennies on the dollar to make.
As for the missing zap codes, only conjecture but maybe it's to pass them off as 'flawed merchandise' if there was ever an inquiry, as I'm sure whatever contract Hasbro has specifies that all the retail-bound ponies have to meet a specific design sheet. If they were made before and design specs. changed, why wouldn't they just run them through the extra step to pad-print the missing marks? Much easier than running a full new batch of ponies.
Really liked your posts on the matter, although I had suspected about this, your arguments are more solid and well constructed than my own conjectures. But yeah, with my little knowlegde about how things work, I bluntly believe that that is indeed what happens. Its a reality - they need profit, and why not. I think it's very easy to understand and pretty plausible with the given life patterns of nowadays. Sadly we dont live in the pony world...
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If they were made before and design specs. changed, why wouldn't they just run them through the extra step to pad-print the missing marks? Much easier than running a full new batch of ponies.
A lot of companies don't, oddly enough. I used to work at the corporate office for a big retailer and vendors would ditch stuff for all sorts of reasons. There's also a big pet supply company that used to give the animal shelter I currently work at donations of things for reasons such as they updated their packaging. I don't really get it, not that I'm complaining about the donations. ;)
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Vendors rejecting 'flawed' merchandise I can understand, presumably that stuff isn't made by them directly and they don't have the means to fix it, but before it leaves the factory? Makes less sense.
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I bought these as well and agree they are great quality. No flaws as far as I can see. Maybe they are delivering higher qc than Hasbro because they know a large proportion of thier sales go to collectors who are buying with eBay protection? It's just economics and we are a market after all. Even if too small for Hasbro! Anyway I'm very happy!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!