Butler vs Butler: Sebastian Michaelis Comparison
Yes,
dammit, I bought a bootleg Sebastian. And then a real
one. Look, my logic matters not--it's the fact that I'm
finally going to photograph them side by side to give everyone
a good resource to
be able to tell real from fake that matters, okay? Let's
get this show on the road.
While I will continue to mark them as such,
the bootleg Sebastian is always on the left side, and the real
figure always on the right. Even right here you can see
the extreme
difference between the two on the face, hair, vest and buttons
alone--but it's a lot harder to tell over the internet or
while they're in boxes. I hope this helps. Any
reputable seller will
take as many pictures as it takes to assure you they don't
have a fake.
Argh, lighting, my enemy. I'd like to
note here that the bootleg actually appears a little bit
taller--it's just the tilt of my camera giving Sebastian the
height advantage. ...Or perhaps a demon did it.
I do indeed have the only camera in the
world that blurs while on a
tripod. Ah well, it's enough. You can
already see that the bootleg has that "famous bootleg sheen",
a shiny-ness that's just not quite right. The real
Sebastian's hair and shoes are shiny, yes, but they are
clearly meant to be
that way--and the feel of the plastic is very different.
Again, the bootleg kind of screams out with
that bad-quality plastic sheen. I'm also noticing all of
the little similarities and differences in the molds with this
picture. The ankle folds in the pants are the same, but
at the knee they differ. It's just interesting, that's
all. The hair is very
clearly different as well.
Now you can really notice the differences in the poses
and vests. The paint job on the real Sebastian is
obviously a lot more smooth, his shoes and hair are glossy,
and he looks all sexy and mysterious (and about to choke a
bitch). The bootleg... looks distracted. And like
he's about to fall over from too much hip thrust.
The color and writing on the underside of
the figure bases are a huge
tell as to whether it's real or fake--and you can see this through the
package. In the real thing, the whole background is red
because the underside of the base is red. On a bootleg,
it's a background of red interrupted by a black base.
Totally classic for Square-Enix bootlegs:
all white text. The real thing has that splattering of
slightly recessed metallic silver text.
The color on a real box is far
richer. While the feel
of the boxes are similar, a bootleg is remarkably
easy to tell. Look over on the right-hand side of the
left box. Enormous,
jagged seam.
And of course, no stickers or tape or seals
at all on the bootleg. The classic Square-Enix round
seals/stickers are on the real thing.
Yeah, this being included is kind of a tell
for the real figure, too. I just love easy instructions.
Conclusion: side by
side, the real Sebastian Michaelis is really damn obvious.
Still, I'm absolutely fascinated with the details put into a
$10-$15 bootleg. It's really incredible... but it's not
Sebastian.