In recent years, Japanese toy giant Bandai has aggressively pursued Chinese counterfeiters who illegally profit from their products. Over the past few years, several well-known pirated Gundam model kit brands have been identified and brought to justice. While the resilience of Chinese counterfeiters is tenacious, these crackdowns serve as a deterrent. However, not everyone gets the message. Recently, another factory producing "counterfeit Ultraman S.H.Figuarts action figures" was raided in Guangdong Province, China, leading to the arrest of three suspects.
According to Shanghai police, the counterfeit products from this factory featured packaging nearly identical to the genuine articles and were marketed as authentic, albeit at significantly lower prices. One unsuspecting collector, after purchasing a counterfeit figure, brought it to an offline gathering to share with fellow enthusiasts. Veteran collectors immediately identified tell-tale signs of a fake, such as paint discrepancies and rough joints, prompting the duped buyer to report the incident to Bandai.
Police spent six days tracking down the illicit manufacturing operation, which was cleverly hidden within a legitimate plastics factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. Three suspects were apprehended, and the raid uncovered at least 5,000 counterfeit "Ultraman" figures along with a large quantity of unassembled parts. Investigations revealed that the primary suspect, a man surnamed Liu, had previously worked as a quality control manager at a Bandai OEM factory. After his departure, he allegedly used inside connections to obtain official product blueprints and technical specifications, then partnered with two others to establish the counterfeit factory. They mass-produced and sold pirated goods by disassembling and replicating genuine Bandai products.
It is understood that the factory produced nine different types of counterfeit Bandai products, with total sales exceeding 20,000 units. The illegal profits amounted to over 4 million RMB (approximately 70 million Japanese Yen), a level of brazenness that undoubtedly spurred Bandai's decisive action. This incident serves as a crucial reminder: always be wary when purchasing toys if the shipping location seems suspicious or the price is unusually low!
via： 警民直通车上海