Dakimakuras anyone?

My thoughts on the bootleg issue are thus,
First off a lot of anime fans consider Dakimakura fans as the lowest of the low so it's tough to get their support.
Second, figures are easier to come by, some daki are near impossible to get.
Third, a lot of people don't know the difference between official, dojin and bootleg, and what the terms mean as far as daki's go.

we're that low eh? i collect daki and use them for their intended lewd purpose. i guess i'm dirt lol yea some daki are impossible to obtain, and if you actually find a rare one you saught, you best believe it'll be tax'd. lots of daki collectors know wasup on which is fake or not, but generally some are fine buying the knockoffs. however the daki elite would never buy a bootleg.. i know i wouldn't.

People are free to make their own decisions as to whether or not they'll support bootlegs, but if someone won't buy a bootleg figure on moral grounds (moreso than quality) then there's no reason they should believe it's okay to buy a bootleg dakimakura cover.

Like I said, I probably wouldn't hold it against someone if they decided to buy a bootleg dakimakura, as I do understand the cost can be an issue. However, regardless of how the community feels about dakimakura cover collectors, as a whole they should be just as pissed that bootlegs are accepted as anyone else.

For your second point, I can understand that to an extent, however, that's why I keep saying I probably wouldn't hold it against an individual if they decided to buy a bootleg. I just don't think it's something that should be accepted/advertised in the community; if someone wants to go find a bootleg, they're free to do so, just as they are with figures. I can turn your point about the availability of figures around the other way: If there's a really rare figure you want, that's very expensive and/or extremely hard to find, you don't suddenly say to yourself "I guess I should buy a bootleg of this figure", do you? Some people might, and that's their choice, but I'd imagine the majority would either take pride in the search/that they have something really rare or just admire it from a distance.

The third point is exactly what I was trying to address earlier. Most people don't know that the sites like Hobby Heart and Xfancy are stolen work. So when the average person promotes one of these sites, they don't know that they're supporting bootleg products. Awareness is the one thing I'd like to increase. There would still be those who choose to buy bootlegs if they knew, however, I would hope that just as mentioning a site like E2046 is banned from MFC (and probably also frowned upon at the very least at Figure.fm) doing the same promotion for sites like Hobby Heart would also be frowned upon.

I have extreme dislikes for individuals that promote bootleg stuff, and I especially cannot stand people praising fake goods as well. While , I know I shouldn't, it's not easy for me.My Very first cover was a fake Kotonoha which left me a deep impression on me when I actually saw an authentic actual cover.
Probably that's one of the reason you never ever see me, post on figure.fm or whatever websites. It's extremely disheartening, fake saber covers and the likes.

Yeah, I feel you. I didn't start out with bootlegs like most seem to, but I've always disliked them. The one that I know I have was an unfortunately expensive YJA purchase before I knew what to look for. I choose not to buy them myself. I don't really care if other people decide to buy them, though I do think the should consider legit covers at the very least.

But I agree with you, whether you personally decide to buy bootlegs or not, promoting them is not something that should be done, at all. I've actually recently strengthened my view even further on the subject, after talking with a few artists and the whole thing with the dude snagging my username to promote the bootleg site.

That's probably the main reason I haven't done big loot posts where I rar up shots of everything. Something just clicked in my head, and I'm going to start keeping fullsize shots out of public postings.

Edit: Just looking at it now and the growth of this thread has been absolutely crazy. From Dec 2010 -> Dec 2011, this thread grew about 25 pages. From Dec 2011 -> Sept 2012, it has added 200.

I fell victim to a few bootleg covers when I first started collecting dakimakura, but now, I try to only purchase original dakimakura.
I sleep with one cover on a pillow, but that's about as far as it goes when it comes to "using" them. There are some amazing [hentai] artists out there and I would much rather directly support them and put a little coin in their pocket, than someone who just jacks their artwork and sells knockoffs. ;)

God, SadPanda is being massive pain in the ass right now.





Got the poster too, but like I said, Sad Panda is being a royal pain in the ass. Took me all goddamn night just to get these uploaded...seriously. So I'll post a clean shot of the poster tomorrow.
EDIT: Poster added (see spoiler above)

I also have a bunch of other cover shots from recent purchases that I will try and post this week. Hope everyone had a good weekend. :)

Kobun, you're a beast, thanks a lot :D
From where did you get the poster? I thought only the CD was included?
Why not trying a different hoster or do you have to use Sadpanda? I use my Amazaon space for uploading pictures, really fast connection and good for high res pics.

Again on the bootleg topic:
Well, I propably own one bootleg cover but I'm not sure about that. Got it from YJA 9 Months ago, Konoe Subaru: http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/535063306/Free-shipping-Konoe-subaru-Mayo-chiki-Hugging-Pillow-Dakimakura-case-834.jpg
It was 6k YEN, but as I said, could be a bootleg...or not.
I also want to support the Creators so I'm willing to spend much more money. I had various problems with users faking my nickname and impostors on an MMO board, trying to claim that my work was theirs, so I'm also very cautious towards posting releases and pictures online.
I always used a HWID system so far, but that won't work here so I'll post pictures with a watermark ^^

Well, I think Hobbyhearts fakes are obvious, I mean just look at their tits or their pose and the colors or background, asymmetric as fuck.

Haha, you're welcome. It's always nice when your pictures are appreciated. I try not to spend too much time taking them, but it always turns out to be this big event where I end up taking several shots of each area, have to decided on which turned out the best, crop them, resize them, save them apart from the originals, name them all accordingly, then upload them. It's definitely a process. ;)

I ordered directly from Lilith-soft which is how I got the "waterproof" poster. Oh, and by the way, I went back and added a shot of it to my last post. Looks a little glossy because I've left it in the plastic sleeve, but the actual poster itself is plastic and has a nice matte finish to it. :)

Eh, I actually wouldn't be surprised if your Mayo-Chiki cover is legit. Without looking it up, it looks like a Cospa/Chara-Ani cover. They tend to retail for 7-9k to begin with, depending on the material you choose (they usually release it in 2-3 materials.) So if it was of the cheaper material, I could definitely see someone selling it at that price (the average price for similar covers on Mandarake seems to be in the 5-8k range.) But without having more information/pictures, it would be impossible to tell you if it was a bootleg or not.

As for Hobby Heart, I'd say it depends on the specific cover. Everyone here would know that the covers Hobby Heart offers are all bootlegs/custom covers. However, the average anime fan who has no exposure to dakimakura covers might not realize that it's a bootleg website. As for specific covers, some of their bootlegs are definitely more detailed/closer to the original than others. There are really strange pieces that don't come from a dakimakura source image at all, and just use random fanart that was likely taken from the internet (probably by people requesting covers of the said art.) Whereas others are modeled after specific company/circle covers. The details of the actual image might be minor/non-existent (like most bootlegs of Evening Call's BRS cover are missing her trademark scar, for whatever reason), but I'd imagine it's the actual print quality/colors and material that present the biggest difference.

bootlegs are for newbs lol like my contribution? i was tempted to buy a marks erio webstore version bootleg, but fuck that shit. i got ripped off by paying 20k yen for the legit one (came w/ certificate) but omg SO worth it >.>

I just wound up buying my first Marks cover last night. I am so fucking busted-ass broke that it isn't even funny. Why the fuck did I buy a cover at 23K?! Sigh...

I was going to cancel my bid, but my piece of shit iPhone died with 7% battery left, and for some reason they take forever to charge back up! So while waiting for it to charge back up, with the intention of canceling my snipe, I fell asleep! Goddammit!

Whats so special about these covers? Do they have a website where I can view their covers online?

About my Konoe cover:
Well, if it would be from Cospa or Chara-Ani, it would have a sign how to wash inside, but that isn't the case.
The fabric is really smooth and shiny, no bad smell and the color quality is quite good. A evidence for a bootleg could be, that you can see the seams.
Heres a link to an auction: http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n108067805
The same one as mine, but I got it without a card.

The material you described could either be peach skin or suede. You can see the seams on some legit covers, so that doesn't help that much.

Looking it up, it's a Dengenki cover. It was sold in 2WT and Smooth Knit, so it's probably a bootleg given your description of the material. It doesn't stretch at all, does it?

Which covers in particular are you referring to? Marks? They're a very popular circle known for their explicit work and art that stays pretty close to the original character design. They mostly sell their covers at events (with the occasional web order) so they can be very expensive. They also don't like to release a ton of sample images/full size ones, unless it's for the mail order cover, so you don't know exactly what you're getting a lot of the time (since they often do 2-5 versions of a character.) You can see some of their auction listings here:
http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?n=100&ei=UTF-8&p=%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9+%E6%8A%B1%E3%81%8D%E6%9E%95&auccat=0&tab_ex=commerce&slider=0

Hmm, it doesn't stretch, so that means it's a bootleg? Well, I never used it, just got it for the looks when I wasn't into this topic and almost trusted every offer :)

Jesus, these covers are expensive :O I found the Miku cover a few days, sold for 40k. It looked really nice but I would never pay that much for a single cover

Not necessarily, but in this case it probably does. Peach Skin (used almost exclusively by bootleggers) and Suede do no stretch. The other main batch of materials (Smooth Knit, 2WR, 2WT) do stretch. Cospa has some materials of their own, but I'm honestly not familiar with them so I couldn't say if they stretch or not. In this case, the cover was made in Smooth Knit and 2WT, so by not stretching it's more or less confirmed to be a material that wasn't used for the official production run, hence it's a bootleg.

Yes, they are. And you're probably talking about Anko Koubou's Miku. Anko happens to be my favorite artist. Much like Marks, they're known for their very explicit covers and high popularity. It isn't uncommon for their covers to sell for absurd amounts, and their Miku has been the worst. I own the Miku from their first batch, and I can honestly say that I got lucky by only paying 35k for it. They just sold another Miku that they introduced at C82, and she's selling for a bit less; the original price was in the 35k range, but she's dropped down to about 30k now.

Final question, I swear haha. What's the final "Status" on SMJ? I've got a few that have been "Back to US Office" for awhile. I can certainly imagine this process takes a week... has been about a week now on some orders. Will I get notified once they're set and ready to ship out or something?

Nope, you won't get a notification. Once the "Batch to US office" phase is completed, it will be "Stored in USA". Process can take anywhere from a few days to about a week.

Cool, suddenly they are stored now haha. I take it since it's all shipping from within the USA now it just comes in standard boxes, does it say "anime chaos" or whatever on them?

It's kind of funny how it also seems very possible to beat prices of stuff available here by importing them from Japan instead... makes sense I guess since a lot of other buyers wouldn't know how to go through something like this or want things easier.

The printed shipping label usually has SMJ/Anime Chaos on it, but it's fairly small. Otherwise the boxes they use to ship are just standard ULINE boxes.

Well, it would depend on what you were buying. Using a proxy isn't cheap and just adds extra cost, so if you can avoid using one, it's definitely preferable. Off the top of my head, I'm not really sure what would be cheaper to import through the use of a proxy. Short of some exclusives, most figures can be ordered from AmiAmi/Hobby Search; to buy Native figures or Hobby Japan exclusives, it might be a bit cheaper to use a proxy compared to buying from a US retailer. I have purchased a used PS3 game or two that worked out to be about $60, when the new price on Amazon was $110 (and the AmiAmi price was like 7500 yen.)

ugh, does anyone know how to get a stain outta daki (chocolate). damn thing won't come out...