10 Reasons Not To Buy Bootleg Gunpla

Hello bootleg lovers, after posting the 10 Reasons To Buy Bootleg Gunpla, I was interested to make this post. So these are the reasons not to buy bootleg gunpla

1. Plastic Quality

The most reason why people don’t want to buy bootleg gunplay is the plastic quality. The quality is far below the Bandai. Although some companies still progressing to make a better quality, yet they cannot make it as good as Bandai. Let’s say Daban Model whose MG 00 Raiser has a kind of oily and rough  plastic. They progressing and have produced a better plastic for MG Blitz. And now their latest release Nu ver.Ka received a lot of compliments from both bootleg lovers or non-bootleg lovers for the plastic quality. But the quality is still lower than Bandai one though.

2. Color

Some colors on bootleg kit are off. Usually the yellow seems pale and sometimes too dark almost orangey.  Some colors like blue are duller on some kits.

3. Authenticity/Originality/Brand-GBWC

For being a knock-off or bootleg or “fake”, of course it lose its authenticity. Some world top tournaments and the biggest tournament Gunpla Builders World Cup (GBWC) forbid the usage of bootleg parts. And also the pride of having a bootleg gunpla cannot be compared with having the original.

4. Details

The details on bootleg gunpla never be as good as on the original. Some details and panel lines always wider and not deep enough compared to the original which is perfect on every micrometers. Sometimes some of the details are not intact on the bootleg kits.

5. Defect

The most annoying thing for having bootleg gunpla is the defect or excess plastic. Almost every kits have defect and excess plastic that we need to fix.

6. Pushfit

If you are wondering what pushfit is, this is the signature of bootleg gunpla. If Bandai has snap-fit, bootleg has push-fit. Yes we need to “push” the parts to assemble it together rather than just snap it. The pegs do not have good precision. Sometimes the male pegs are bigger so we need to trim it or widen the hole. So we always need to do extra effort to assemble bootleg kits.

7. Packing

The packing of bootleg gunpla is awful in Gao Gao High Grades. Usually it comes with only one plastic bag for all runners. That makes the runners scratched. Unlike Dragon Momoko, the plastic bag is like the Bandai’s.

8. Safety

Yep, Bandai always consider the safety issues in making model kit. The v fin and other sharp or pointy part will be dulled. But the bootleg ones never consider that issue. So we will find so many pointy parts that can stab our finger accidently. So actually bootleg gunpla is not recommended for newbie especially kids.

9. Sticker

The sticker in bootleg usually is so bad.  Gao Gao always made it bad. The cutting, the stickiness and the quality is bad.

10. Inconsistency

Yeah, we can called it ‘lucky’. Sometimes we get the good one, sometimes not. Even in the same shop and the same model, we can still get different flaws.

So yeah, I think that’s the main reasons why we should not buy bootleg gunpla. See you guys in the next posts. :)