I'm sure they'll keep producing, most people are buying the originals. But understandably some people can't pay $70+ (or here in aus around $150 judging from online pricing) per figure, especially for army building. I think most people are going for the originals , but are using the bootlegs to supplement their collectionsBootlegs are gonna kill this line.
Bootlegs are gonna kill this line.
It's the same with every other line from Bandai. They produce the figures as exclusives, and usually overpriced, and as soon as the quantities are gone, the bootleggers step in and flood the market with the bootlegs so everyone can army build or get the ones they missed for cheaper (and usually lesser quality, not always though).. If anything kills this line, it's the stupid policy from Bandai they use for EVERY other figure. It's what happens to Dragonball Figuarts, it's what happens to Saint Seiya Myth Cloth line, and it's happening here too. I'm not worried about it.
Yup. I am considering stopping this line.
just got bootleg akazonae.
No sense in photographing it, as it is good mold taken from original. Main beef with bootleg is in quality and coloring.
Quality is exactly as price - low. There are 3 kinds of plastic - soft one (skirt, thin parts of armor), hard and glossy one (chest) and hard dull one (joints). Soft is too soft, almost gooey to touch. Glossy is too glossy in comparison to original. Dull one is britle even by bootleg standard.
Sheath is too small for the sword. Sword hilt of the original has nice color detailing, bootleg has only one color.
Weathering (darkening of indentetions) is almost non existent and then you get a black blob on both recess and exposed parts. Original has wonderfull fine black weathering. Here - nothing or blobs.
As this figure is mostly repaint of stormie, the worst thing is the red repaint of black parts (textile parts like pants). Badly done. Red is applied thin and black underpaint is too much visible.
The mace/baton is a very good replica of original figure.
Joints are too loose in sense that parts joined both fall off (wrist particularly) and move on the weight of parts alone. Basically elbow must be straight. If it is bent, the weight of the arm straightens it on its own.
Robes are actually quite well made. You even can use them as spare parts for the original. Texture is the same as original, but color is a bit off (lighter). Not much.
All in all, the worst of all the bootlegs i have. Stormies you can put side by side and if you do not inspect in detail you can not distinguish fake and original. Boba is more noticable, but also good paint job. Akazonae is by far the worst. Low quality plastic and bad paintjob. I will customize the hell out of it and it will no longer be SW samurai, just samurai figure. If i find thecright size head
Can you let us know how you fixed the loose joints? Having issues with them on a bootleg gurlukovich soldier...Reading your review made me open my own Akazonae bootleg I'd received a few days ago but hadn't found the time for. Yep, it's definitely a piece of crap. The color is fine, but the leg fell off right out of the box, the joints almost all swivel freely, and the quality isn't quite up there on the paint. So that motivated me to do a better job at it and customize the crap out of it (literally). I'm now working on an Emperor's Shadow Guard, and will let you know when it's finished (probably over the weekend) with some pictures.
Can you let us know how you fixed the loose joints? Having issues with them on a bootleg gurlukovich soldier...
Let me know if you folks like it!
Does that trick work of the joint won't stay on? For e.g. that hip joint barely clips on, and when you move it it sort of falls out of the ball.The method I use is to squeeze a drop of glue into the joints and then wait a few seconds, then move it a little, then wait some more, move it back a little.. if done properly, it should make the joint a bit tighter. If it's still loose, repeat the process until you're happy. And if you overdo it, well you got a statue
Here's my customized Akazonae bootleg, ready to join his friends.
For the reference, I wanted to turn him into an Emperor's Shadow Guard :
View attachment 311043
And this is what my terrible phone took for pictures of the result :
Overall extremely easy, much less work than the customized Death Trooper I previously did. Mostly painted glossy black, colored the visor red, painted the pike silver, and split the end to insert a Darth Vader bootleg saber blade, then just had to work on a pose. I didn't use the cloak as I felt it took away from the martial arts pose, but I might paint it black later and have it on display with it, not sure yet.
Let me know if you folks like it!
The method I use is to squeeze a drop of glue into the joints and then wait a few seconds, then move it a little, then wait some more, move it back a little.. if done properly, it should make the joint a bit tighter. If it's still loose, repeat the process until you're happy. And if you overdo it, well you got a statue
Here's my customized Akazonae bootleg, ready to join his friends.
For the reference, I wanted to turn him into an Emperor's Shadow Guard :
View attachment 311043
And this is what my terrible phone took for pictures of the result :
Overall extremely easy, much less work than the customized Death Trooper I previously did. Mostly painted glossy black, colored the visor red, painted the pike silver, and split the end to insert a Darth Vader bootleg saber blade, then just had to work on a pose. I didn't use the cloak as I felt it took away from the martial arts pose, but I might paint it black later and have it on display with it, not sure yet.
Let me know if you folks like it!
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