Today I went to visit an asian store in Newmarket called Osia. I’ve previously noted from its display window a lot of Rilakkuma plushies.

The price for the plushies were reasonable ranging from $30 to $60NZD, but on closer inspection I realised they were all fakes! This is really sad. Just like Louis Vuitton (I’m a fan and collector of Louis Vuitton too ^-^) the world of Rilakkuma is brimming with fakes! In fact, I haven’t seen a shop in Auckland that sells authentic Rilakkuma products.

Here are some photos from Osia Judy and I managed to sneak in. Sorry for the poor quality – we didn’t want to get caught by the shopkeeper.

Another place full of fakes is Ebay. Here are a few pictures demonstrating this –

I reckon the worst of all is that all of these fakes are selling at the same or higher prices than the genuine ones! And all the sellers claim they are genuine San-x products. Little liars.

I myself was a victim of such fraud. My first Rilakkuma plushies were from an E-bay seller, I bought each for about $40NZD. They were both fakes from Korea.

Most of the time it’s very easy to tell a fake from a genuine plushie – the fake ones are usually made from cheaper materials, look asymmetrical, look ‘off’ or feature a design/theme San-x has never released. But some, such as the ones in Osia, can be tricky to rattle out. I find with these, inspecting the tags and labels can be very helpful. I’ve compiled below a quick guide on distinguishing fake from genuine rilakkuma plushies.

They took me a while to do, I hope you’ve found them somewhat useful haha.

On a happier note, one of my Singapore suppliers have told me my Dragon series have arrived with her! Now I’m just waiting for her to receive the Candy Korilakkuma and the furry Korilakkuma, then they can all be shipped to me. Mwhahahaha!