Knock-off Amiibos spotted at retail

Counterfeit versions of some of Nintendo’s Amiibo figures have been found on sale in Brazil.

NintendoLife reports that illicit versions of Mario, Link, Pikachu, and Samus have been pictured.

There are quite a few ways in which the fake figures can be spotted. The boxes contain Chinese text and a different design to the originals while the figures also have some minor differences – Pikachu, for instance, has different arms and his feet are raised off the stand.

The biggest difference, however, is the lack of an NFC chip. This may not bother those who might eye a discounted figure for display but could be problematic for oblivious gift buyers.

While these figures should be easy to spot in the wild should they make their way to the UK, it would seem wise to remain sceptical of any unusually cheap online listings for Amiibos, particularly on eBay.

That knock-off Amiibos are now in production is of little surprise seeing as the official product has been in such short supply.

The KO industry is rife in other areas of the toy industry, too.

Take Transformers, for instance. Aside from the currently thriving business of companies producing unlicensed versions of characters from the show that official manufacturers Hasbro and Takara have failed to produce themselves (such as this recently released ‘Masterpiece’ version of arch villain Megatron by a company called X-Transbots), many official figures are themselves cloned and sold at lower cost.

There are even instances, albeit rare, of KO versions becoming more sought after than the official product on which they are based due to increased colour/variation range, different sizes and even in some instances better quality (compare the Megatron above to Takara’s own official Masterpiece Megatron released back in 2007 for an example).