does anyone have any experience with these? my friend bought me one without knowing it was a fake and we're now worried that it will have lead paint or sewing needles in it...
it's already shipping to me so i don't think we can cancel it.
Oh yeah, Pokemon plush are sooo common to be bootlegged. Honestly some actually look really good, while others not so great. A lot come from China, which is where the official ones are made, but there is no regulations or quality standards if its bootlegged. (Sorry I sound like a nerd about this, I love plushes haha)
I don’t think they will be much of a danger. If anything, it might just be poorly made and look weird. I tend to avoid bootlegs because many (not all) are poorly made and not worth the money in most cases. I would’ve looked for something fan made on something like Etsy before going to a bootleg from overseas.
I go to the flea market all the time and one of my favorite things about it are the bootleg stuff in general, if I think they're endearing enough I'll buy them. Currently I have a chibi bootleg Flareon and Jolteon, and possibly a bootleg Cyndaquil, and despite being bootlegs they're still up there with the rest of my Pokemon stuff. I actually kind of prefer the chibi bootlegs to the legit one (I have a legit Vaporeon) because they have paw beans pfft
In my experience the worst you'll get is they might look a little weird or they might need some repair, but that's a huge part of the appeal for me. Despite going to the flea market frequently and buying a lot of merch, both shady and not, I've never really had any problem with it. I've also never heard of any problems with people ordering them, and from what I know they're usually mass produced so no one's going to select one of the bunch and put some needles in it just to mess with some random person.
I have some bootleg plushies bought from eBay (Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul that's definitely bootleg, Sailor Moon + Venus + Jupiter from Sailor Moon that are probably bootleg). I've never had any problems with them and I let my cousin's son play with them when he was little. I agree with everyone who said the biggest danger you'd probably encounter is them not being well-made. Mine seem to be well-made (my cousin's son liked throwing them around the room to demonstrate how they could "fly" lol, and they never got damaged) but I know many aren't. I think you should be fine!
edit: I do want to say that even though I let a child play with mine, that doesn't mean everyone should lol. Like I said, mine seem to be high quality, but in many instances they're not. Just to be safe, it might be best to not let kids play with them, especially if it has a small part that could come off, like a plushie that wears clothes with buttons.
I won a bootleg Sanrio plush from a local arcade, and besides having some stuffing come out of the seams and being constructed with some low-quality fabric, it didn't seem particularly dangerous. It looked like the character that it was supposed to be.
Legality aside, if you are concerned about the contents of the plushie, I wouldn't give it to animals or small children and just leave it as a display piece. Some fakes can be extremely high quality (sometimes even better than the real deal), but others can be very poor. You never really know until it arrives.
It most likely will be fine safety wise. It just may not be as high-quality as an official one. Maybe it isn't sewn as well or uses different, cheaper fabric.
I have a bootleg lapras plushie. Apparently it's a limited edition plushie since I did some research on it. I've had it for years on my bed with the rest of my plushies and I've never had any problems with it.
