Warning: Play Arts Kai Metal Gear Bootlegs?

I never thought i would be writing a note of Warning regarding collectibles but i just had a close brush with a very suspicious Play Arts Kai figure yesterday. Unfortunately, i was not able to take pictures since the said figure has been with me for only a few hours. Good thing, the seller (whose name i will withhold since he's not a member of the local PA Kai community and probably not really aware of these figures) allowed me a refund but i advise all my fellow PA Kai collectors to gather as much info as possible before getting a Play Arts Kai figure from online sellers.

Older Play Arts - Final Fantasy collectors would be quite familiar with the bootleg PAs by now and could easily spot the tell-tale signs of a bootleg figure even if it's boxed. Of course, the Final Fantasy series is a bootleggers favorite so i was not really surprised to see bootlegs of the PA Kai Final Fantasy Dissidia figures that are now available in the market. However, i was deeply disturbed by the fact that the alleged bootleg figure i got is NOT from the Final Fantasy Series but from Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker.

(Insert Metal Gear Alert sound here with a HUGE overhead Exclamation Point!) Let me breakdown my findings on the alleged Play Arts Kai Peacewalker Battle Dress Snake figure so fellow collectors can  check the figures out before buying one as well.

# 1. Paint Apps Part 1. The one i got has a problem with the paint apps in his visible (right) eye. I know that Snake looks a bit teary eyed on the Battle Dress version (thanks to winterquick24 for that info) but this one is different. It looks like the painter suffered a shortage of dark paint for the eyes so the glaring white pupil stands out. I am also a bit uneasy with the color of Snake's face since it seems a bit too dark compared to online pics. The hair is also darker compared to other Snake figures.

# 2. Instruction Sheet. The small instruction in-lay in all PA Kai figures are folded and placed beneath the lower fold of the box while on this one it's not folded and is floating around behind the plastic tray of the figure. It looks poorly printed also.

# 3. Serial Number. The box is sealed with Circular tapes (now that's really disturbing) and even the texture and color of the box is very, very close to the original however this one is missing the serial number located on the bottom flap near the circular seal.

Upon inspection, all of my Play Arts Kai boxes have this serial number (4 letters followed by 4 characters starting with numbers) engraved beneath the box. Once again i thank bro winterquick24 for informing me that his Battle Dress Snake's box has that serial number on the bottom. This is also something to look for in Transformer cards and boxes. I am not sure though if that is indeed a requirement in all PA Kai boxes though the second batch of Play Arts Kai Final Fantasy 13 figures (with the corrected paint apps on Lightning's face) do not have these numbers beneath their boxes.

#4. Quality issues. The figure itself is very well painted though the left elbow pad on the figure i got fell off almost as soon as it's out of the box. I saw that it's connector is made of a very thin brittle plastic that is easily broken. I don't know if this is the same with the other BD Snakes though.

#5. Smell (?). If you are a long-time collector of Play Arts you are thoroughly familiar with that new toy smell right? This one smells different, the new toy smell is still present but there is a strong stench of paint and plastic. I don't know how to describe it exactly though. Quoting bro darkseraphoem from Pinoy Toy Kolektors forum: "The paint stench and crappy paint job have been the old telltale signs of old PA fig bootlegs."

#6. Paint Apps Part 2. Saving this one for last, the extra masked head on my BD Snake have blue eyes and blue eyebrows. Winterquick24 said it should be dark brown eyebrows with blue eyes and this made  him also doubt the authenticity of the figure.   

I am not confirming the presence of KO or Bootleg figures for non-Final Fantasy Play Arts Kai, but i will leave you to judge based on the findings i laid down. There are shops with suspicious number of stocks of Battle Dress Snake which is alarming since reputable hobby shops (as per Sir Malvin of Great Toys Online) will only get new stocks  by October. Again, i wish i was able to take pics of the figure since those will help a lot. If there is anything, i sure wish that those are with QC issues only or overruns and not KOs. Thanks and feel free to ask me questions about this topic. Good luck and happy collecting.