JTA reader Andrew G. has found MULTIPLE bootleg The Black Series [Phase III] 6" figures at his local Kmart. It seems that the same people that have painted these bootlegs are the same people who paint Hasbro's figures. Click through for his story. How are these three figures bootlegs? Shouldn't they be spending time bootlegging R2-D2 and Darth Maul instead?

Good evening,

I thought I'd share an interesting experience from my local Kmart just now. As usual, I'm hunting for the new Revan wave (yes I prefer the thrill of finding them in the wild) and I decided to check Kmart.

Usually they don't have anything new but it's worth a shot. I immediately noticed the pegs are deserted but there are three black series figures lined up on a lower shelf - 01: Finn, 02: Rey & BB-8 and 03: Kylo Ren. As I was looking at them I noticed how absolutely ridiculous their paint apps were. There were misplaced patches and places where paint was totally missing. Their poses were distorted too.I own a few different variants of all three figures so usually I know how to analyze the small details. I checked the tape to see if they'd maybe been opened, played with and returned. They were sealed but the tape was thicker and looked cheap so I got suspicious.

I took them to customer service where I explained this to the worker. I brought a genuine Hasbro Finn (from the shelf) to hold up next to the fake and broke down each weird flaw. The boxes even had different markings and colorations. The workers looked at them and agreed something was fishy. I said I thought it would be interesting to own them just to say I found knock-offs in the wild and they went to talk to the store manager. It ended up that they couldn't do any discount from the usual almost $22 price tag because they had no solid proof that they weren't shipped from the manufacturer. Also, they did all end up scanning on the price-gun. I passed on them but it's definitely one of the weirdest things I've seen on the pegs.

P.S. I am a longtime follower of your site. I check it every single day, even being a rook at Norwich university, the military college in Vermont. I love your reviews and constant updates. Thank you!