China Bootleg

Is it always assumed that if you get a gunpla or figure from China it's most likely a bootleg/fake?

If so, I am sad that Play-Asia does this because my Kagamine Rin would be then.

Not necessarily. It depends from where or whom you buy. Ebay sellers are the biggest offenders of bootleg items from China and usually some hobby shops in Asia regions. I rarely hear online hobby shops selling bootleg item. The only issue I've heard are payment methods, shipping price and delayed items.

I'm pretty sure Play-Asia sells the original item. Play-Asia is a pretty reliable online hobby shop. The only issue I have with them is the figures I wanted to buy from them are always sold out. >

That's why when you buy from ebay you read the seller's reviews. I would only buy from a seller with at least a 97% rating.

Also check pricing if it's too good to be true it probably is.

I've found play-asia is decent all the stuff I got from them were genuine.
But I now buy most of my stuff from Hobby Search since they offer better pre-order pricing.

The yen rate is terrible now, but generally speaking, your best bet it to buy from one of the two major Japanese retailers: either AmiAmi or Hobby Search. They usually offer the cheapest prices, have fairly good/great customer service, and you won't have to worry one bit about the products being fake.

As far as I know, Play-Asia sells legit items, albeit at a slightly higher price usually.

eBay is the trickiest; you can find some legitimately good deals, but generally speaking, you'd want to avoid them, especially if you can still get the figure from a big name store. You have to be careful even with high feedback sellers, as some people don't care if they get fake figures and only care about a cheap price. It should still be pretty easy to tell, though. Just don't buy anything on eBay from China/Taiwan/Malaysia. Of course it's possible that the items are legitimate, but it's usually not the case. The reverse is true for items coming from Japan; I'd say 99% of the time, if the seller is based in Japan, the item you get is going to be real, but it's still a very small possibility.

I didn't actually know about boot legs and got Angel Beats! for $15, won't ever do it again, subs are pretty messed up, but quality is decent, and better than $100/ volume on ebay. But 'tis a sin I shant commit again.

I believe most, if not all, authentic figures are made in China. So, there's no reason to doubt that most fakes come from there as well.

I would definitely assume that most figures bought on eBay from a China/Hong Kong seller is most likely bootleg. Though you definitely will find some authentic ones, the prices are no different than buying from a safe website like amiami. I would definitely caution against buying online. I've personally been to China and Hong Kong. I can safely say that the prices are no different than the ones from Japan. I would especially suspect any seller from HK. It's difficult to even find a shop in HK that sells authentic stuff. Most stores sell bootleg stuff, and you'll have to know where to go to find the real stuff. Out of the many stores that I've been to, I only found maybe 2-3 are selling authentic figures.

China = Dodgy. Kinda redundant nowadays but yeah

Not all made in china figures are bad. As mentioned above, figures are produced in china. The only inferior parts of the bootleg is the material used to produce it and in most cases they look like shit.

Take the bootleg Saber Lily from GSC. They literally stole the sculpture of it and mass produced it. THe only problem with the bootleg was a slight tint of paint and the figure was made of less quality material.

i've never bought fake figures but i bought fake gunpla just for spare parts or something else
For figure, sometimes fake one is tricky. in 2 meters radius the fake looks like original (i have no idea it's fake), but when see in up close, yikes... THEY"RE FAKES

I had the opportunity to buy a Freeing 1'4 scale Haruhi bunny girl last night on ebay. I was outbid in the end however merely 3 minutes later I received an email saying that either the original sale fell through or the seller had an extra and would be whiling to sell it to me at my max bid price. I was skeptical from the start that it was probably not a freeing but a knock off due to the low price, the Shanghai location, and the quality of some of his other statues. He had 98% feedback rating many of which I read but the fact the he had a spare to sell three minutes later makes it pretty conclusive that it was a fake. 98% or no.

Gah, I can't believe this happens. Glad you didn't buy it. I've been reading up on fakes and bootlegs and it scares the crap out of me. I kick myself now for not buying figures at the Anime Expo this year so that I know everything is legit (or at least I can have a hands on experience with what I want to buy so I can check to see if it's fake).

If it marked in clear easy to read letters made in china then it is probably real, most figures are manufactured there and will normally say it on the figure or the base.