In the wonderful world of stuff, as anyone knows, there's always unlicensed, second banana merch.
Knock-offs, rip-offs, clones, bootlegs, facsimiles, copycats, call 'em what ya will, if you can obtain it, the no-frills budget-brand version is out there.
Depending on which side of the bed you got out of in the morning, there's multiples ways to view them.
On toys in particular, some are unintentionally hilarious - names lost in translation, novel attempts to cash in another popular line. Others are creepy, say an unlicensed Ben 10 with three pupils & backwards arms by accident, or Harry Potter with a huge blob of toxic looking red goo for hair, apparently lead-painted by a blind chimpanzee during an epileptic seizure.
Some companies have gotten things right in the past however. I'm thinking Sungold or Imperial in the 1980s, creating decent figures to play alongside Mattel's Masters of the Universe line, rather than stealing Mattel's concepts word for word. As a result they've achieved a lasting collectable status.
Not so for a billion of the Transformers knock-offs floating about our planet.
I'll head into a cheap-o store occasionally, purely for a chuckle.
To read names like Super Deformation Robot, Super Change Android, World Soldier Peace Fighter, or just to check out the absurd paint jobs and character profiles on the generic 'Knights' or 'Pirates' lines. Etcetera, etcetera.
How's that? Whoever created Beast Worriers (there's no country or manufacturer printed) didn't even break a sweat creating an original back story. Just stole it right outta' the Transformers Beast Wars handbook. Right down to naming the Maximals and Predacons. Optimus Primal, Megatron, Rattrap, and even throwing the generic Dinobot title in there.
I didn't follow Beast Wars very religiously at all, so didn't know Optimus Primal was a giant bat and Megatron a crocodile.
A laugh and a shame. These don't seem like overly terrible toy designs, but no matter how good our mystery manufacturer made 'em, that is always going to be overshadowed by the fact they wouldn't rustle up their own story concept.
"Never make assumptions based on opposites, water burns as surely as fire cleanses" - Rihia2k.
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