Everybody knows the best part of going to Chinatown is seeing all the crazy bootleg stuff you can get. My wife and I were on Canal Street and my mom wanted on of the fake Louis Vuitton purses. Normally I'm against that sort of thing, because you shouldn't rip off others people's work and God only knows what the money is supporting. But it sounded like an adventure so I went with it. Within minutes we were bombarded with everything from knock off luggage to shoes to the previously mentioned hand bags. People rush at you with catalogues, pointing at the pictures of the various items they have for sale and when we found the one we liked we were beckoned to follow a young man down an alley and behind a store. Again, this would normally not be my thing because I'm against being robbed and murdered, but for adventure's sake, I went with it. There were garbage bags full of these things, and after picking the one she described to me we paid the dude and made off like we were outlaws. The adrenaline was pumping hard and we thought about robbing a convenience store with our new found badassness, but instead we got bubble tea and left.
But you don't have to go to Chinatown to find fake stuff. Just go to your local dollar store and marvel at the amount of crappy toys you'll find that look pretty similar to the things you love. And how can you not be fascinated by this stuff? If you're like me and can't get enough of it then this is the book for you. It's called Bootlegs of the Universe and it will be filled with all the crappy made knock of products from the He-Man world that you can stomach. Plus, it will feature tons of new figure makers who have transformed bootlegging into an art form. They're in the process of putting together a Kickstarter campaign to bring this book to life, but until then you can keep up with everything that develops by checking out https://www.facebook.com/bootlegsoftheuniverse.
