Shoddy Knockoff Product: Difference between revisions
→Real Life: rmv inline references and converted them to bare links
mNo edit summary |
(→Real Life: rmv inline references and converted them to bare links) |
||
Line 134:
* 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].
Line 146:
* 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]].
Line 153:
* 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.
| |||