Decade Old Ghidora PACHI-BOOTLEGS from Toronto Chinatown

Set your time machine for 10 years ago and head for Chinatown in Toronto, Canada… then there you have it!  ’Fenfir’, an unlicensed Ghidorah toy.   About 8″ tall, made of hard plastic (cheap!) instead of the more expensive vinyl/sofubi that we’ve all come to love and covet.   It walks while the wings flap and mouths open and close, all the while the tongues glow red.  JUST AMAZING! EH?

 

 

Apparently this bootleg ghidora came in two different color versions, the traditional ghidora gold and a more sinister brown (tho it looks to me more black-ish).   I sooooooo wanted those back then when i was shown but, to no avail, ”they came boxed and ran about $10 USD. I’ve never seen them before or since!” Stephen said to me when I bugged him to get me a set a decade ago. BOO HOO…

 

 

As artist/designers ourselves, we frown upon the practice of pachi-toys, or commonly known as bootlegs and unauthorized toys (or anything else for that matter) here in America.  But at the same time, we’re fascinated by the wide range of colors and design twists that these toy bootleggers apply to their unauthorized products… all made with inferior materials and most with lousy paint applications and of course, no copyright or safety regulations and probably deadly as hell to kids.  But they are wild!  They are cheap!  And they were readily available (at least in Toronto Chinatown a decade ago)!  Though I’m sure many-a-little boys must’ve been pretty happy with their golden ‘Fenfir’ dragon in China back then… of course they could be all brain-damaged by the lead paint (possibly) applied to those bootlegs and are running around as sociopath psycho killers today… but I digress.

 

 

For those of you that may be interested in this bootleg phenomenon, more boots can be found at ‘The Complete Guide To Fake Toys – THE BEST bootleg toys book EVER!‘ on Tofufu!

 

 

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fotos & partial text by our wonderful toy guru friend Mister Singer of Whistling Pony Toys!