As we head to another anime convention this weekend, we thought we would do an informational post outlining the differences between bootleg plush, unofficial plush, and official plush. Enjoy! Q: What is a bootleg plush? A: The first photo shown is a bootleg Espeon. It is a Chinese copy of the official Pokedoll released by Nintendo at the Pokemon Center stores. Bootleg plush are items that are not endorsed by Nintendo. They have no official seal of quality and the companies who designed the original pattern (aka Nintendo in this case) receive nothing from each sale. Many of these plush are reproductions of real or official plush that are still being sold in stores. Bootleg plush usually come from China or Hong Kong and are much cheaper than the original versions. These plush will be of much lower quality than the official versions and may be disproportionate, have loose stitching, etc. Bootleg plush have also been known to be filled with VERY harmful chemicals. We personally found a bootleg Sylveon that had the tips of its ribbons pained with LEAD PAINT. Be careful with bootleg figures as well as many of them have these issues. ***Please note that Roanys does NOT sell bootleg plush or bootleg figures.*** Q: What is an unofficial plush? A: As seen in photo two, an unofficial, 12 inch shiny Vulpux plush. An unofficial plush is a plush of a character that is licensed by a company, but the factory has created their own design of that character, thus not copying an original, official item. For example, Nintendo has never actually released an official shiny Vulpix plush, let alone one in the 12 inch size. These items are usually of much higher quality and are the most common ones that can be seen at conventions. They are stuffed with a safe, polyester filling and are tested at factory. These plush most of the time have some sort of square hangtag that reads Best Wishes. These plush are more acceptable due to not being a copy of an item already in production; however, they are still being sold as official products to unknowing con-goers, which is illegal (sellers must inform the buyer that the item is an unofficial product). ***Roanys does carry a select number of unofficial plush by request of our customers. We will NEVER mislead our customers to believe they are receiving an official product and replace it with an unofficial one. All of our unofficial items are listed as such. Additionally, our website does not contain unofficial plush and we do NOT carry unofficial figures.*** Q: What is an official plush? A: An official plush (like the Espeon pictured in photo three) is an item that is licensed by the company that created its design (aka this item is licensed by Nintendo and created by Takara Tomy, an official producer of Pokemon products in Japan). The stitching on these products will be accurate and items will be safety tested to meet quality standards. Many items from Japan will have a blue shopro sticker on the tag. Items will be made of high quality material. These products will be more expensive than bootleg/unofficial plush due to the licensing sellers need to obtain and sell these products. Additionally, many of these plush will not be sold in bulk wholesale in Canada, thus making them even more expensive due to import fees, taxes, etc. The company that created the design of the plush will receive compensation for the sale and endorses the product. ***Most of our plush are officially licensed products! We love supporting licensed merchandise!**** We hope this helps everyone make informed purchases!
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:13:13 +0000
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