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Shoddy Knockoff Product: Difference between revisions
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These could very well be used as a target of [[Convenience Store Gift Shopping]], especially if they resemble a game that an ignorant relative thinks the recipient likes.
The [[Evil Twin]] of the [[Well
Compare [[Bland-Name Product]] (to show a popular product in a show without stepping on trademarks), [[The Mockbuster]] (which does have a similar goal to this trope).
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Contrast [[Follow the Leader]] (there is a clear influence, but it's not trying to make you think it's the actual work its following), [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]] (It's almost the same thing as another, but at the very least changes anything copyrighted).
Oh, and someone buy up
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Kochikame]]'': A chapter of begins with a police officer showing his new Porsche to the main characters. They were skeptical at for costing only a million yen and illegitimate designs including right-handed steering, front engine, etc. It turns out be a Daihatsu with a Porsche exterior. They went to the dealer who happen to sell faux high value cars with economy car interiors using names such as, "Porschu", "Furrari", and "BNW".
* One episode of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' had Keroro hoping to get his hands on an old knock-off Gundam model kit called "Dangale". Dangale is actually based on a real-life line of Gundam knock-offs called ''G''angale, or Gungal. As with Dangale in the show, Gungal models are actually sought after collector's items because they're so rare.
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* ''[[Toradora!]]'' has a coffee shop called Sudohbucks, complete with a green-and-white logo. The first time we see the place in the anime, Ryuuji wonders why it hasn't been sued yet.
== [[Film]] ==
* [[The Asylum]], makers of [[The Mockbuster|Mockbusters]] like ''Transmorphers'' and ''I Am Omega''.
* Parodied in ''[[Coming to America]]'', in which Mr. McDowell lives in perpetual terror of the McDonalds' lawyers coming down on him for his fast-food restaurant McDowell's, which aside from a few cosmetic changes is a blatant McDonalds rip-off.
* In ''[[Serendipity]]'' the heroine and her wacky sidekick are vacationing in New York. The sidekick is thrilled to buy a "Prado" purse. The heroine is quick to remind her that at least ''her'' fake actually says "Prada" on it.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the ''[[Kamikaze Girls]]'' novel, the protagonist's father sells knock-offs like this, and at one point she mocks him (in the narration, not to his face) for thinking that changing the brand name slightly will keep him from getting in trouble for it (which he does).
* In ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'', this [[Invoked Trope|is used to avoid blowing a cover]]. A rich guy pretends to be a blue collar driver, but forgets to take his Rolex off. When a cop points it out, he says it was a cheap Fauxlex piece of shit he got off the street.
== [[Live
* ''[[All in The Family]]'': The 1973 episode "Hot Watch," where Archie buys a designer Onega watch from a street salesman for $25, a great bargain for a watch that might be worth $300. Designer watch? Onega? A bargain? Nope – it's a cheap, poorly made watch that breaks within minutes, but Archie – and Mike, who is concerned that the watch might have been stolen – don't find out the truth until a jeweler points all this out. (Actually, the designer watch is "Omega").
* In the short lived sitcom ''[[DAG]]'', someone tried to get an Armani suit, but couldn't afford it. A friend promised him a suit just as good, but got an A!mani suit, and it was nothing like the suit he saw in the store.
* On ''[[Cheers]]'' Norm's favorite low-price restaurant sold things which were [[Lite Creme|nearly meat]], like "Baff" and "Loobster."
* One episode of ''[[Harry Hill's TV Burp]]'' expands on a clip from ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]]'' in which Alan Sugar talks about his "Kelvin Kleins" by mentioning all the other hokey gear he buys (he's rich because he buys these cheap knockoffs), including Knikey trainers and Christine Deeyor perfume.
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* The SerfBoard in the ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' story "[[The Sarah Jane Adventures/Recap/S5/E05 E6 The Man Who Never Was|The Man Who Never Was]]", a shoddy laptop computer whose maker attempted to sell it with the help of alien-slave-controlled hypnotic technology.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[Dilbert]]'' mocks this, like "Wibsters Dictionary".
* Roger in ''[[FoxTrot]]'' frequently gets nailed by this. During the digital pets craze, his daughter Paige wanted a Tamagotchi. He thought a Tama''grouchy'' was close enough. It wasn't.
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* One particular ''[[Boondocks]]'' story arc involved the granddad getting Huey a "Phony Funstation" as a present. He then tries to justify it by saying it came with a free griddle.
== [[Toys]] ==
* Even though they are compatible with [[LEGO]], many kids are often disappointed to receive Mega Bloks instead of proper LEGO from a parent, relative or friend unaware of the difference between the two and just going for the cheaper product. Unlike most examples, Mega Bloks doesn't really actively pretend to be LEGO - its branding and products are fairly well-differentiated from LEGO, it's fairly easy to tell the difference when you have one of the same sort of piece from each to observe, and it tends to produce relatively different sorts of sets with a greater emphasis on licenced cash-ins. According to the [[SCP Foundation]], sentient self-assembling LEGO brick specimen aren't particularly pleased to see instances of Mega Bloks either...
{{quote|...a small mound of Megablocks (a common copy of Lego) was placed near the community. When this happened, everything constructed of [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-387 387] stopped moving, turned slowly towards the Megablocks and
''Addendum 387-6: Jesus [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] Christ. - Dr. Arch'' }}
** Or, [http://www.cracked.com/article_15670_the-25-most-baffling-toys-from-around-world_p2.html Cock Bloc].
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* ''[[Star Wars]]'' toys are frequently knocked-off, and some have actually become ''more'' valuable then the official merchandise. The vintage Turkish and Polish varieties are the most popular.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A large percentage of [[Shovelware]] is made of these.
* Many video games made for early pre-assembled desktop computers (starting with Apple ][, Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80, Commodore PET in 1977) were poor-quality imitations of coin-op arcade games. The underlying hardware was simply not capable of anything better. The names of the knockoffs differed from the arcade originals, but Warner (which owned Atari) was infamous for repeated attempts to sue over copying the "look and feel" of individual games... even though Atari's own model 2600 [[Home Game|home consoles]] were [[Consolation Prize|as bad or worse]].
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* The success of ''[[PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds]]'' has spawned countless imitators especially in China, where the [[Battle Royale (genre)|Battle Royale]] genre is known colloquially as "chicken-eating games" in reference to the slogan "winner winner chicken dinner" made popular by ''PUBG''. One such example is ''Rules of Survival'', whose similarity to ''PUBG'' prompted a lawsuit.
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'': Mocked in [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail190.html this email] toon from Strong Bad, in which he has ''officially'' unlicensed Strong Bad merchandise, and objects to Bubs selling legit-looking "unlicensed unlicensed" merchandise.
==
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', although it's mentioned that John is a ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' fan, his iconic Green Slime Ghost T-shirt is actually a [https://web.archive.org/web/20120326212508/http://www.topatoco.com/graphics/00000002/mspa-ghost-print.jpg Japanese character] [[Blatant Lies|totally unrelated to Slimer]].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Stuart Ashen]] specializes in reviewing cheap knock-off products; usually game consoles and toys. The most famous being the POP Stations: A series of cheap and unplayable LCD handheld games made to look like existing video game consoles.
* Mike Mozart of [[Jeepers Media]] occasionally reviews knock-off toys and merchandise in his videos.
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* A group on Flickr titled ''[http://www.flickr.com/groups/fake/pool/ Fake Products: Mutant Knockoffs]'' is entirely dedicated to collecting photographic evidence of these sorts of imitations. Some of them are quite hilarious. Even more are to be found at ''[http://www.flickr.com/groups/644706@N25/pool/ The Chinese Copy Pool]''.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''
** Homer goes to a discount electronics store:
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* One episode of ''[[The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat]]'' featured a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] who sold cheap knockoffs of Felix's magic bag. At first, the only noticeable difference was that the copies were black where the original is yellow and vice-versa. However, they used cheap materials to replace expensive ones because the boss said the customers would never know and to replace materials the spies failed to identify while analyzing the original bag because nobody would care. Despite knowing the knockoffs would be dangerous, they mass-produced the black bags.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/11/09/buckstar-pizza-huh-mcdnoalds-open/ These] [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/07/24/chinese-mickey/ articles] from Sankaku Complex. Do note though: '''Site NOT safe for work'''. If you browse through the posts tagged "China", you'll find more and more cases of this trope, some of which might even challenge your sense of belief. What's worse, they ''always'' deny accusations that they're ripping off original ideas.
** There's even a ripoff of the iconic [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/01/30/chinese-gundam-returns/ Gundam statue].
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* Since Third World Countries are a major trading partner of China, the quality of the knock-off products has become something of a business model. There are several levels of quality, ranging from abysmal to almost as good as the real thing. There was a direct connection between the quality of the items and the affluence of the importer. In theory, this allows everyone to get a taste of the product, albeit in varying qualities. Compare that with original Western products that are good quality but often times over the price range of the average buyer in third world locales such as Sub-Saharan Africa.
* In Brazil and in China (see Engadget's [http://www.engadget.com/tag/kirf/ "Keepin' It Real Fake" section]), cheap knockoffs of smartphones are very common.
** Most of the time, they copy the [[Apple|iPhone]], [[Nokia]] smartphones or Android-based phones, the latter being aided by Android's open-source nature, though certain components, most notably the Play Store components, are proprietary and restricted to certified OEMs, not to mention that the Android-based clones are more often than not run on a very-low-tier MediaTek system-on-chip to save costs. In an ironic twist, counterfeit iPhones run on Android, albeit heavily skinned to more closely resemble iOS thus adding a heavy overhead to an already-anaemic chip. The earliest clones however use either a real-time OS supplied to them by MediaTek, or a half-heartedly skinned version of Windows Mobile 6 in the case of the more expensive models. Such was MediaTek's involvement in the counterfeiting scheme that a Chinese newspaper
** One such manufacturer who gained notoriety for copying iPhones even had the balls to sue Apple for copying their "Goophone i5" (a knockoff of the iPhone 5) on the grounds that they released it first.
* Some people advise buyers to refrain from purchasing memory cards online, as they are more often than not counterfeit if not of questionable quality, not to mention that they can be hacked to report a larger capacity than it actually is. And forget about using a promotional flash drive you got off a convention or as a company souvenir either -- data recovery facilities
* In a similar vein to forged SD cards, surplus units of older-generation Nvidia and AMD video cards such as the GeForce GTX 550 Ti or GTS 450 can be flashed with a hacked BIOS to make it appear as a newer-generation model, often reporting as a "1050 Ti" or something along those lines. While they do more or less work in some cases, they're mostly cut-price trash with (newer) games performing poorly if not crashing outright due to said hacked firmware. (Owing to the fact that the video memory being reported is more than what the card actually has, and in earlier cases with ex-8800 or 9600 cards hacked as a "GTX 770", not being capable of running DirectX 11 games and later) Unfortunately, sites like eBay have been flooded to the brim with these cards, and as
* Subverted with aftermarket clones of Harley-Davidson and Chevrolet engines as while they are effectively unauthorised reproductions of said motors, their quality and performance is either to par with the ones they're imitating, or [[Up To Eleven|surprass the OEM offerings]] by more than a margin. Harley did
* [[Shirley Temple]]'s popularity during the 1930s led to both licensed merchandise and counterfeit goods featuring her likeness, such as "an army of unlicensed dolls, clothing and oddities" and even cigars with her face printed on the bands. While she was in retrospect appalled by the "elusive commercial scoundrels" unfairly cashing in on her childhood fame, she concluded that it made no financial sense to sue every single counterfeiter considering the costs of litigation and the economy of the time. They did however go after a few high-profile cases, one of them being Ideal filing a $100,000 patent infringement suit against a certain Lenora Doll Company who manufactured Shirley dolls without a license. Temple herself was named as a co-plaintiff befitting her celebrity status during the height of her popularity.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130728003531/http://www.oldcrank.com/articles/crapophone/Introduction.html Knockoff "Vintage" phonographs] made in India/China are common on eBay/antique stores. Sometimes, they're correctly labeled and sold as replicas, but some sellers tend to attempt to pass them off as authentic Victor phonographs from the early 20th century. While they look real to the average person, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140216183503/http://www.mainspringpress.com/crapo.html experienced collectors can easily identify them as fakes by the shape of the box, materials used, and parts on the player].
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* With the return of the [[Casablanca|ceiling fan]] to popularity in the late 1970s-early 1980s, most quality models (such as this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5q_pIvHROc Hunter Original]) were made in the USA, had long-lasting motors and parts, were relatively quiet, and could cost well over $250–300 new (roughly $1,000 on today's market). Enter the ''$29.95'' offering from "Family Handyman" magazine, complete with the advertisement literally "daring you to tell us the difference"... well, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR2jorKYcCY listen for yourself]... and enjoy the yellow plastic while you're at it.
* A Chinese company named Lifan used to make and sell "Hongda" motorcycles which were shoddy copies of Honda's models, until [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aI5Y5nlSaiXI&refer=top_world_news Honda sued] and put a stop to it.
** In a similar incident, a Filipino company called Ramas-Uypitching Sons, Inc. was
* Between the two World Wars, due to regulations on arms exports, China started developed a large industry of cloning foreign firearms for domestic use. While several were very solid copies made in factories, there were lots of guns made by hand by decent to good machinists who didn't really understand how guns worked. This leads to very early examples of Chinese Shoddy Knockoff Products like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HNaB7l2GQk a pistol with a bayonet lug], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byEIP9mRAwA markings from multiple different companies] or [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtFPgu82f1c non-working sights].
* [[w:Ulfberht swords|Swords marked "ulfberht"]] were known for exceptionally high quality during the 9th to 11th century. Naturally several fakes arose (particularly after the high quality materials needed for them dried up), and chemical testing of archaeological artifacts shows many examples have much lower quality steel than authentic examples and often had incorrect markings. This trope is thus [[Older Than Print]].
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* Khyber Pass, which links the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, has a lot of gunsmiths. Some of these smiths are more talented than others. As foreign soldiers who are paid enough to make the local currency look like [[Funny Money]] have recently been active in the area and (supposed) antique firearms are fairly easy to import into their home countries, several of these gunsmiths have made fake antique guns for sale to these soldiers. Some of these are very poorly made, unsafe to fire and won't fool anyone (yet will still be bought because such item are an interesting souvenir in their own right) but others are genuinely high quality replicas even an expert can't tell the illegitimacy of easily.
* Those drugs/medicines which spam e-mails insist are from an "[[Blatant Lies|online Canadian pharmacy]]". Most often, there is no Canadian connection; drug costs are significantly lower in Canada hence the moniker. In ''Spam Nation'', cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs identifies the digital mafia behind the two largest spam pharmacies as [[The Mafiya|Russian]], with the product mostly originating in Southeast Asia. The product exists, but quality is variable... some are the real McCoy, some are knockoffs of variable reliability, some are worthless, some are expired. The only sure thing? Buy from these people, and you will be spammed for the rest of eternity as that marks you as someone who buys dodgy medicine online. And it gets worse as other such stores don't actually have the drugs in stock ''at all'', instead serving as a front for credit card theft.
* A confectionery company in the Philippines called Columbia Food Products came up with their own malt drink named "Chocquick" in 2005. It wasn't before long that Nestle took umbrage and
* Like Khyber Pass in Pakistan, the city of Danao in Cebu, Philippines gained a notoriety for its cottage industry of backyard gunsmiths producing replicas of .38 caliber revolvers and Colt 1911s using scraps such as angle irons commonly used as construction materials. Despite appearing to be well made, with some examples even bearing markings taken from American firearms, they are otherwise reported to be of poor quality, lacking rifling and are deemed to be more dangerous to the ''shooter'' than ''their target'', no thanks to the fact that these "paltik" guns as they are known locally are made using basic tools such as files and hacksaws, with checks for accuracy being rudimentary at best. A number of these guns are
* There exists a motorcycle brand in Angola named [https://ameblo.jp/enoki-2019/entry-12540850628.html Keweseki], which is quite obviously a dig at the real Kawasaki. The bikes–some of them actually being clones of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CG125 Honda CG 125]–appear little more than rebranded Chinese motorcycles made by a certain OEM. Further driving the faux-Japanese branding home is the inscription "せんたんぎじ也つ" (translit. ''"Sentangijiyatsu"'') occasionally used on the logo, which [[As Long As It Sounds Foreign|looks vaguely Japanese]] but makes absolutely no sense to a Japanese speaker. The latter spawned a minor meme in Japan as bemused Japanese netizens and at least one television show commented on what amounts to a bizarre mangling of an established motorcycle brand.
* The Swiss-owned discount chain [https://www.dali.ph/ Dali] gained a bit of notoriety in the Philippines--its initial target market--for thinly-veiled [https://www.dali.ph/copy-of-how-we-work store-brand versions] of household products popular in the country such as "Grandiosa" bread (a dig on the popular Gardenia loaf bread) and "[https://www.reddit.com/r/crappyoffbrands/comments/v5pv7v/i_found_this_nutella_offbrand_on_dali_everyday/ Go Nutt]" which is not quite Nutella.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]▼
[[Category:Follow the Leader]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Truth in Television]]
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