Bootleg BE@RBRICKS In Singapore

Spotted in Singapore (the past couple of months) were a series of figurines which looked pretty darn similar to Medicom Toy's platform BE@RBRICK toys! Scroll thru for MORE snaps and my personal observations.







BOOTLEG vs BE@RBRICK: Above-left is one of the bootleg figures, while above-right is a legit Medicom Toy BE@RBRICK. Besides the obvious difference in ear-form, everything is pretty close, but not exact. The bootleg is slightly elongated, most noticeably the head, and main-body, which also happens to be slightly "less-rounder than the legit one.

There are no markings on the bootleg-figure tho. Although the paint-apps were pretty decent, and crisp enough for the smaller design-elements, as shown below. One "key" thing about the bootleg-figure, was that it's "hands" could not rotate/turn! (Well, mine couldn't :p) and is permanently downturned.

Peep the packaging of the figures in the slideshow directly below. Yes, they even had "properly" printed box, with a plastic-tray within, as well as a key-chain attachment! The only indication of "branding", is of "Raffles City" printed at the back. There were no other markings of "Medicom Toy", hence my accusation of the figures being "Bootlegs". Apologies if this be indeed a licensed-product, but there really should be markings to indicate otherwise.





HOW-MANY: Currently there exists 3 x printed figures, and a DIY White Blank version! I currently have two more full-colored figures, which seemed to be hand-customed, but made for sale too (will snap them soon and post a separate post). There may well be more, but the feedback was that this was it. And who bought them for me? My Mum! She saw it, sorta recognized it and snagged them for my reference! Finally, my home-toy-education pays off LOL








WHERE: The above RED and YELLOW figures were actually bought year-end-2009, during the Christmas period (in anticipation of Chinese New Year, no doubt) and were made available as promotional items at Raffles City, Singapore! Did the folks know they were hawking bootlegs? The third design shown up top was actually procured yesterday (by my parents!!!) at the lobby of Victoria Theatre!