Funniest rip-off...

[CherryPizza]

K, I guess we're all familiar with the bargain "variety stores" "clearing houses" or whatever they're called in your neck of the woods (thanks to Al Roker ), and everyone's probably come across the rip off toys that are different enough from the trademarked items to avoid the lawsuits but similar enough to them to let everyone know what it's a copy of. Examples that come to mind are the "lovely chubbies" that are oh-so-similar to Teletubbies, the "Action hero" that bears a more-than-passing resemblance to Action Man, the orange bear labelled "Winnie the Poow", and so the list continues.

Saw this one in one of those shops, and just had to share it here...

Remember the "Rock 'n Roll Ernie" and "Rock 'n Roll Elmo" from a handful of years ago? Well these ones pretty much looked exactly the same as those two, with the boxes having almost exactly the same design (the Sesame Street logo was there with the words "Crazy toys" in the place of "Sesame Street", the words "Rock and Roll Star" replaced "Rock 'n Roll Ernie/Elmo") and the boxes even called the characters Ernie and Elmo...

now here's the rub: they had the same voices doing the same songs as the licenced SS products, only somehow Ernie had Elmo's voice and Elmo had Ernie's... Ok, reading the story may not be as funny as actually being there seeing it, but I laughed so hard I had to share it here

Cherry "I can't believe it's not Spam" Pizza

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

You certainly can find some crazy stuff in those cheap shops, most of the stuff is so poorly made. I saw some sesame street items a while back similar to the ones you mentioned. I even managed to find some puppets of George Bush, Osama Bin Laden, and Sadam Hussein. Has anyone seen these?

 

[CherryPizza]

...still trying to work out how a puppet version of George Bush would be different from the original

 

[beaker]

Man I'd love to see some Muppet related bootleg products sometime! heh

 

[beaker]

K, I guess we're all familiar with the bargain "variety stores" "clearing houses" or whatever they're called in your neck of the woods (thanks to Al Roker )

al-Roker, Aleistar Roker? The once massive now trim America's funniest weatherman/grand heiropahnt of the golden divine prophecy of numeric apopcalyptic code? We need some Al Roker figures!

 

[CherryPizza]

I'm dising the Katie Couric figure!

 

[McFraggle]

I used to be amused by the generic then-WWF figures I would see at "dollar" stores in the mid-to-late 1990's. They would basically use the same sculpt as Hasbro had when they made their figures, only instead of hard plastic, buyers would get cheap plastic and a different colored outfit and maybe a different hairstyle than the wrestler actually had.

 

[Klonoa]

My favorite dollar store bootleg toy was "Clues and Monster." It had cheap knock off Blue's Clues and Pokemon toys in one box.

--Klonoa

 

[beaker]

I feel bad for the kids growing up in poor families who can only afford the cheap knockoffs(having been raised in the 80's in said poor family) Yes, they had these SAME exact dollar stores in the 80's, and they have not changed one bit in look or merchandise since 1985

 

[CherryPizza]

I'm dising the Katie Couric figure!

That's DIBSing, DIBSing... is somebody editing my posts? Or am I just a lousy proof-reader?

Cherry "Inglish Magah" Pizza