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JERRY BECK
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AMID AMIDI
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Kung Fu Panda Knockoffs
by amid
July 11, 2008 11:25 am


Kung Fu Panda toy

Apparently Kung Fu Panda is so popular that it’s spurred a whole bunch of counterfeit merchandise, some of which are pretty funny.

07/11/08  11:44am

That’s awesome. think I saw one of those sold retail though. Thought it was odd, the way the eyes weren’t symmetrical…

07/11/08  12:19pm
Leandro says:

Even worse than doing those wierd and awful merchandise products is a whole “full-length feature”:

http://www.ursinhodapesada.com.br/index2.html

07/11/08  1:01pm

Molto obrigado for providing a link to that “jewel” Leandro. Seems the pandas are the new penguins of 2008 ;-)

07/11/08  1:44pm
tom says:

Part of the fun of these is that the actual KFP merch is fuglier than a dog’s breakfast and duller than oatmeal. The mass-market line consists mostly of ittle hastily-painted PVC figures and weird plushes made from discarded parachute pants from the 80’s. Can the knockoffs really be worse than the official toys? The happy meal figures were sadly the most handsome playthings produced for this film.

As I only recently found some Mexican Pixar chalkware knocks and some beautifully grotesque Toy Story and Incredibles figures to add to my collection, I obviously would love to see some enthusiastic, imaginative bootlegs of KFP produced. Ugly is the new beautiful.

07/11/08  2:51pm
Dan says:

I can see the need for this, I’m in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada and I have not been able to find one KFP toy since opening day. I have been to every toy section in town, including Toys ‘R Us and no is carrying them. Even Wall-E toys are scarce and the selection most stores have is pitiful. It’s a sad day for toy lovers in Halifax.

07/11/08  3:16pm
RODAN says:

Looks like Tim Burton is designing a few of those knock-off’s.

Where do you go to find these items? Tiajuana?

07/11/08  6:36pm

Heeeey, the kung fu panda ripoff film, from the great folks who brought us such gems as The Little Cars and Ratatoing!

Great stuff. Yep.

Knockoff toys are a lot of fun, way more fun to collect than the actual products. They’ve got a lot of weird character.

07/11/08  9:32pm
Steve Gattuso says:

I was rather surprised at the lack of merchandising on KFP myself. It’s such a toyetic movie.

07/12/08  8:52am
Stephen says:

Hi Dan, nice to see another Haligonian on here.

Haven’t seen much KFP or Wall-E stuff either.

But it was the same with Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story, as I recall. I guess here at the other end of the earth from L.A. we only get the crappy stuff.

07/12/08  10:25am
Jason says:

So I’m not the only one unable to track down a decent-looking KFP plush. I have the panda toy McDonald’s was giving out, and was pretty surprised by how big the thing is. (It’s sitting on top of my computer module as I type this). But you’d think a big cuddly Po would be a huge seller and that toy stores and Dreamworks would be aware of this. Sometimes movie studios and merchandisers can be TOO cautious. Well, maybe if there’s a sequel we’ll get decent toys. Then again, it’s hard to find even a decent-looking Mickey Mouse plush, and trust me, I’ve looked - even at Walt Disney World!!!

07/12/08  2:27pm

it’s weird how knock-off stuff sometimes has this desirable quality about them….they’re so cute-ugly that i kinda wouldn’t mind having one!

07/12/08  3:13pm
Ian V. says:

I think Toys R’ Us is selling a good one; I haven’t seen it in person, but the picture looks okay.

Those are pretty funny! Especially that last one. I’d actually buy that =P The weird part is that some of those don’t look that much worse than the real ones; they just screwed with the eye placement.

07/12/08  8:19pm

Thanks for featuring my post! I actually got these awful pictures from my colleague in China who took those just to give me a laugh and something to share on our blog :)

Apparently China is swarming full of Kungfu Panda knockoffs. According to the Chinese they deserve to earn the money because the Panda is the national treasure of China!

You might want to check out this news report on the Chinese’s mentality on Kungfu Panda’s success at http://blog.media-freaks.com/kungfu-panda-scores-in-china-but/

07/13/08  3:53am
zekey says:

someone mentioned above there seemed to be a lack of panda or wall-e merchandise.
i work at a video rental store and we have lots of wall-e stuff
including some stylized chibi-style plushies that we quickly ran out of
and we have large posters of wall-e and kungfupanda as well
lot of dark knight things as well, now of course

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