More Unlicensed Otaku Box Figures

If you don't already know about unlicensed figures you can see my other post here, but the tl;dr is that they do not have the proper licensing and permissions from the owner of an anime/manga series to make them, and the quality is therefore far lower than legitimate figures.

So we're a little over halfway through 2020 and I think all in all it's been a pretty bad year so far for The Otaku Box. Shipping issues, a rough launch to their new terrible digital art service and people calling them out for fake figures, terrible service and delays. Here is a new post to further drive home how rubbish the box is, and why you should avoid it!

One thing I'd like to point out is that Liz is now asking $20 US dollars for the figure add-on! I just don't get it, the whole point that is meant to make them different to other sites like LootAnime and Akibento was the "figure in every box". So you have to pay for a subscription box, that has mediocre merch compared to competitors, and the whole benefit of the box is a $20 add-on. That's almost more than the box to begin with.

To drive home how bad value this is, $20 US dollars is bordering on the price of a legitimate prize figure by real Japanese companies like Banpresto or Sega. I own many of these legitimate figures myself, and I can assure you that they are leaps and bounds better than the absolute trash that you pay for in an Otaku Box. If you want a good figure at a price point that doesn't break the bank, you are much better off getting a legitmate prize figure than you are rolling the dice with The Otaku Box.

And without further ado, here are the unlicensed figures since my other blog posts:

April 2020: Jibril from No Game No Life

The Otaku Box's face doesn't even resemble Jibril, the sculpt is subpar, the pose is generic (probably because the Otaku Box figures are sharing moulds or something), and it's just not even close to the quality you can find elsewhere. A solid miss on their part.

 

The box is also super generic, missing copyright info, the name of the show and all round just screams unofficial.

This is just awful, compare it to how a real Jibril "1/12 scale" figure should look:

May 2020: Lucy from Fairy Tale

Maybe they've read my previous complaints about the figure box, because they've tried to up their game here

Yet again, no mention of "Fairy Tail" and no manufacturer brand or any copyright tells me it is unlicensed before I even see the actual figure. Look at how Japanese companies design the box for even the cheapest prize figure of Lucy.

Clear branding of the manufacturer "Taito" as well as the name of the show. Granted the quality of this figure is pretty bad but the information is still all there.

The quality of The Otaku Box's Lucy isn't better though, it's just something about those faces... She looks sort of fat compared to the actual character.

Another poor effort all round.

June 2020: Raphtalia from Rising of the Shield Hero

Well you can't say they're not trying with these boxes. They're even including katakana names and kanji to try and make them look more Japanese?

It's almost like they don't want to name the show since that will make them more likely to face some kind of copyright lawsuit...

There's no two ways about it, that face is just wack. Another awful figure from The Otaku Box.

One of the things that I often get asked is why unlicensed figures are an issue, and "well at least they're not fakes like before". The fact is that these have zero value on the aftermarket to any collector, as they're not worth the plastic they're (poorly) cast from. You will NEVER find these on official sites for figure collecting, like MyFigureCollection, since they're breaking all forms of copyright on a level I don't think has been previously reached by a company operating out of the US. Hell, MyFigureCollection has had issues in the past with companies like Mytheos (a HK based legitimate figure company) being on the site so this has absolutely no chance. If you try and sell this on Reddit, a Facebook anime group or anywhere else that knows its stuff, you will be laughed at and ridiculed. The only way you could sell these is by fooling someone the same way you were fooled to subscribe to this box in the beginning.

The only reason why Liz gets away with this is because a lot of subscribers don't know any better. If you're a past (or for some reason, present) subscriber of The Otaku Box, please leave a scathing TrustPilot review or get the word out some other way to let people know that these figures aren't legit. Their whole business model operates on ignorance, and all they do is make it harder for collectors and anime fans to access real merchandise outside of Japan.

Thanks for reading!