Blue Lavion ...?

So I bought some more bootlegs. A big-ole mixed lot of genuine Gormiti and 'genuine' Knock off's in all sorts of strange colors. And I got some really interesting ones this time. 

Quite often the bootlegs are series 3 (or sometimes series 2) but I got a handful of Energheia knock off's!

But let's start out with the more common ones and build tension before revealing the guy from that showstopper headline.

These series 3 (below) are quite common - they exist in myriads of colors.

Comet, the freezing, light series 3 KO's

And here's another series 3. They did a pretty decent job here, but the somewhat sloppy paintjob and the lack of paint on the back and tail gives him away. 

Skorpios, the mean stinger, series 3 KO

I finally got some of these transparent aqua-colored series 3. I read about them on the board Littlerubberguys some years ago. Apparently, they were sold all over Asia in a normal blindbag and with a random card. They are really beautiful.

Mightytrunk and Wisemoss, series 3 KO

Another series 3 ... in absolutely CRAZY colors! Love it. 

Moonarious, the dark enchanter, series 3 KO

And this suspicious looking guy with the horseteeth again! I think he might be following me!

Multiplop, series 2 KO

And now it gets exciting. Here we have Energheia Lavion, but something's not quite right with the color of his arm and the pose. But they did their very best here - he even has a number under his foot.

Lavion, Energheia KO

This next one's really funny. It's like the painting department got tired halfway and didn't finish the legs. But the end results is fantastic and makes a great addition to my museum of horrors (that's my bootleg collection!). It is worth noting that the PVC here is very smooth and glossy, more so than with genuine Gormiti. 

Ancient Jellyfish, Energheia KO

Getting closer now ... here we have one of Lavions minions in a stylish blue. Again in the highly glossy PVC. 

The Mastodontic, Energheia KO

And here he is. The main attraction ... BLUE LAVION!

Lavion, Energheia KO

Here he's just chillin' with some other Lavions. They don't mind he is a bit smaller and not genuine Gormiti.

(left to right) Lavion, Energheia, Lavion, US variant, Lavion, Energheia KO

Thanks for reading!!

NEXT UP:

L'isola di Gorm ... the  De Agostini collection!!

Hong Kong variants!

SOME OF THE most interesting Gormitis and absolute favorites in my collection are the ‘semi-official’ color variants from Hong Kong. And now you might ask: Why semiofficial …? 

I’ll get back to that.

Let’s first rewind back to 2018.  

I was scavenging the web for Gormiti-related stuff – as I always do – and came across a picture of some transparent reddish Gormitis.

Four characters from the Elemental Fusion series (forest tribe) and four characters from the Supreme Eclipse series (Volcano tribe). 

They looked similar in style to the red variants from series Atomic/Final Evolution that change color in hot water, but what were they? Bootlegs …? Official releases I for some reason had never heard about …?  

I started doing some digging and the first explanation I found for the existence of these odd figures seemed so plausible that I instantly bought it and started repeating it to whomever wanted to listen.

Apparently, Giochi had made a mistake. In the excitement of producing as many Gormiti variants as possible, they had simply forgotten that the footchip (you know, that little gizmo that makes the Gormiti ‘talk’ on the Alter of Life) would malfunction when being doused in water. And somehow they escaped the factory and made their way to Ebay. 

Makes sense, right? That could have happened!

Maybe so, but it was wrong.

About six months later I found a much more reasonable explanation on the Spanish Gormiti blog Mi-Gormiti. Apparently there had been some debate about these transparent red fellas in the Italian Gormiti Magazine. And it turned out it was a Hong Kong factory (producing Gormiti for Giochi) that had sort of gone rogue and started creating (and selling!) their own crazy versions.  

This was sometime in 2010. According to ‘legend’ Ebay was flooded with these strange color variants from Hong Kong sellers at the time.

Very few facts, if any, have survived about this whole Gormiti/Hong Kong ordeal, so in all fairness Giochi could have issued a license for the factory to make these variations. But knowing the Asian market – with its glorious tradition for shamelessly knocking off large franchises – I highly doubt it!

But still, you couldn’t really call these knock off’s, could you? The figures are produced the same place as the official Gormiti releases, it’s the same molds, same paint, they even have the freaking Giochi stamp and the number under the foot. I’ll go with the term ‘semi-official’ releases.

I only have thirteen of these little wonders in my collections, not nearly enough, but let’s have a look at them.  

We'll begin with the red ones it all started with. Strangely they don’t change color in hot water. I also tried putting them out in the sun, but no effect. Furthermore, they have no chip under the foot, only a hole. 

Cyclops and Xiron (Supreme Eclipse)

Blind Screamer and Moloch (Supreme Eclipse)

Rotten Leaf and The Artefact (Elemental Fusion)

Bo Bamboo (Elemental Fusion)

And then there's these two guys. Forest people from the Elemental Fusion series. Note that they are not painted under the feet - it's always like this with the Hong Kong variants. 

Clubtrunk and The Artefact (Elemental Fusion)

Here they went totally bananas in the paint department, right ...? No, not exactly. What’s interesting here is that the Hong Kong factory didn’t randomly choose these colors. There is actually both reason and a - dare I say - finely tuned aesthetic sense present - because they chose to paint these figures in the Titanium series color scheme for the People of the Dark. Comparison in the picture below.

Sbavion (Titanium) and The Artefact (Elemental Fusion)

 

By doing that, they were mirroring exactly what the Italian Gormiti Magazine was doing at the time. They did Bertz (frequently seen in Hong Kong variation) and Hornelm, both from the Supreme Eclipse series but with the color scheme from the Titanium series. 

It's almost as if the people on the factory said "Hey, we did those official ones for the magazine with the Titanium colors ... why not just do some more?"

Of course, I'm doing a lot of guessing here but no matter what, these figures are amazing! The Artefact is a weird figure in his normal wooden green colors (he looks like a freaking living treehouse!)  but in this version he's out of this world. Could easily be one of my top ten Gormitis.   

The ones shown below are also interesting. The people of the air, golden with white parts. Again, the lack of paint under the feet is a dead giveaway.

Rondor, Sirgius and Picchiavex (Supreme Eclipse)

This next one could be a bit more tricky. Could look just like a normal gold figure. But again no paint under the feet. It's a Hong Kong variant!

Sirgius (Supreme Eclipse)

As far as I know, not a lot of official gold or silver variants were made from the Elemental Fusion and Supreme Eclipse series. 

The only silver ones I know about are these. Four of the lords from Elemental Fusion sold in a box set.

And these ...

Not sure how these last ones were sold, but they are painted gold under the feet so definitely not Hong Kong variants!

So, basically, if you see something gold or silver from one of the abovementioned series - better check under their feet! You might just have found one of the epic Hong Kong variants.

For more pictures of Hong Kong variants check this out: http://mi-gormiti.blogspot.com/2010/06/made-in-hong-kong.html

 

 

Meet ... the bootlegs!

TO PROVE THE non-chronology of this blog and, well, irresponsible nature of me as a blogger, my first post ever will not be about real Gormiti but about the bootlegs!  

When you look at the sheer amount of different Gormiti bootlegs or ‘knock-off’s’, if you like, it shows just how massively popular Gormiti was back in the day.

In this post I will look at some of the different types – not all of them – and yes, I sort of collect the bootlegs too.  

Some of the most common are the ones pictured below. The paint is not as glossy as the real deal, often quite sloppily done and they don’t have the number or, obviously, the Giochi stamp under the foot. The sculpts are similar to the genuine Gormiti, but are a bit smaller with less detail. This is probably due to the fact the manufacturer just bought some real Gormiti and created the mold after these.

Some are very ease to spot as fakes. Like these. 

Armageddon is all bent out of shape, his head looks like it's melting and the colors on the others are just grotesque. As said, easy to spot. 

But what about these?

The same type, but these are oddly well made. Paint job is pretty close to the original, the gloss is even there. Especially the people of the forest are hard to spot. In fact, I had Oakbeast together with my series 3 for six months before realizing my bad.

This same type also comes in transparent COLORFUL versions.

I really like these. They look like little pieces of candy - you almost want to eat them!

I particularly like this guy. He can't stand on his own, but just look at those crazy colors!

Another line of interesting bootlegs are the ones from the Cyprus-based company Afancon. They made their own sculpts, ehh ... 'inspired' by the official Gormiti line.

Below you can see the real series 2 and their bootleg counterparts. You decide who's who! It's a tough one.

A funny detail here is the error they made with Multiplop. The 'bootleggers' mistook the tentacles going down on his chest for one big mouth and they even added some giant horse-looking teeth - it makes him look absolutely grotesque. I love it!

And just look at the amazing details on Quarry's face. Wow!!

 

Only kidding! He looks like some sick nightmarish thing that lives in a cave underwater and needs no eyes to see. Truly the stuff of nightmares! Imagine being attacked by this thing late at night.

Afancon also did some Atomic figures (seen below). I think it's fair to say that, once again, a bit got lost in translation.

The bootleg below I know absolutely nothing about. It looks like Supreme Eclipse Nick in the newsstand edition, but look at the impossible pose here. Who thought of this? Is it cool ...? I don't know. But I'm happy to own it. (EDITED 27-08-2020 - just found out the guy below ISN'T a bootleg but a driver from a Gormiti car - perhaps not Giochi Preziosis finest hour?)

The last thing I want to show is not from my own collection, but something I saw on a polish website selling clothes and apparently also ... fake Gormitis??

Just WHAT is going on here?

"Atomic" it says. Well, yes ... okay ... but then we have another logo from series 3, an illustration from the Cartoon series, pictures of Energheia figures AND Final Evolution. So we have elements from FIVE different Gormiti series in one glorious pack. The confusion is total. 

When we take a closer look at the cards, it get's even more confusing. 

   

Polypus (who, despite the lame elephant-looking sculpt, looks really cool in crystal clear) comes with a card for Fiery Hammer (Cartoon series) and for some reason they dyed him yellow and presents him as being part of People of the Earth (even though the card is volcano-red, ehhh ...). 

The other visible card here is Steelback also from the Cartoon series, but he is presented as being from the People of the Volcano. On a blue card. 

Man, would I like one of these sets!