The collector community has recently become quite aware of the rising cost of action figures these days, but how many of us have realized that these increases go beyond retail and online exclusive lines? Although it has admittedly been a while since I was in a position to gauge the cost of bootleg figures outside of Dollar Tree, I recently visited an old independently owned "dollar" store and was shocked to find that, whereas just a few years ago bootleg figures could be had for $1 apiece, they now cost upwards of $4 -- with the old $6 multipacks selling for $10 and even $12. What the heck? I mean, I understand that plastic costs are increasing, but even four poorly and poisonously painted Bakugan figures are not worth $10. High-end replica knockoffs notwithstanding, what bootleg figure is?!
Actually, maybe this one is. Keep reading to behold it in...
I had no idea who or what this was when I first encountered it towards the beginning of my relationship with Transformers, but I just had to buy it when I saw it at Big Lots. $10 did seem pretty steep for what was obviously a bootleg, but this guy was HUGE on his blister card and his angry little face revealed him to be in need of some consumer love.
Behold: the mighty GIGATRON! Or Megatron, as he's known English-speaking audiences. I prefer to call him Gigatron to better distinguish the characters in my collection -- and because he just looks like a Gigatron. At 9.5" tall (though his wings reach past 11"), he doesn't sound like a very large figure, but in hand this sucker is just imposing and awesome. I don't have the wings spread to their full span here due to the limitations of my setup, but you can imagine that he looks even nastier with them out. Honestly, aside from the cheaper quality plastic of his face, hands, and claws (all of the purple plastic feels especially sturdy) and the odd texture of the metallic paints, it's easy to forget that this guy is a bootleg.
That said, it gets a little easier to remember the nature of the beast when you get into the transformation. For one, the bootleg is lacking certain joints and catches that were present on the original figure -- so while he can still pull off his main transformation into a fearsome two-headed dragon, it's kind of awkward. I imagine the elbow joints were also ratcheting on the original figure, which would have given him better balance, but the bootleg's elbows turn smoothly. When coupled with the impressive heft to the figure -- despite the otherwise tight joints -- that fact means that he doesn't hold his footing easily in this mode! And since the bootleg didn't come with instructions (I later looked up the official's instructions online), unwitting kids had to transform this guy using intuition alone... though admittedly it's not a difficult task.
However, one of the main selling points of the legitimate Gigatron/Megatron releases was that they had multiple alternate modes -- six on the Japanese Car Robots release of the figure and a whopping TEN for the Hasbro version. With the missing joints, the bootleg loses that ability (not that you'd know one way or the other without instructions), though there's enough of the original figure left to finagle him into a few of the different ones. Above, we see a bastardized version of the elephant transformation! I think this is my favorite, actually.
The bat is pretty cool, too! And while Gigatron could do a couple of the other modes (I don't remember which ones off the top of my head), you can already see that a huge knockoff Transformer with at least three alternate modes wasn't too bad a deal for $10.
Man, why do I like bootlegs so much? I should be blasting this guy, and here I am singing his virtues! This sucker even has decent poseability. But he's not the unbeatable value that he appears: around the time I got him, the legitimate version could actually be found for $20 on eBay, and if I had the choice I'd definitely pay more for that one. As an impulse buy for someone with no real knowledge of or affection for the character, however, Bootleg Gigatron is plenty nifty.
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Want to see even more bootleg toys? Find past and future editions of Bootleg Tuesday right here.
