Rajorajorajo | 29 Dec 2011 | 542 Views | 1 Likes | 0 Dislikes

I Love YouTube: Mockbusters

The following is a First World Problems sob story:

Anybody who’s ever been in a dollar store is probably aware of the laughably bad knock-off toys that exist out there in the world, just waiting to ensnare clueless, penny-pinching parents - much to the chagrin of their much more savvy children. Kids know the score - hell, how could they not, they obsess over the real thing for months. Just think of how many disappointed kids tore the wrapping off their Christmas presents this past Sunday only to find a cheap-o plastic bootleg ‘Spider Hero’ action figure holding a machine gun or something equally stupid. Sure, everyone’s entitled to make a living (and clearly there’s a market for this junk), but those who thrive on crushing the dreams of young kids by feeding into the ignorance of their parents are just plain evil. Evil, I say!

Well, there’s a whole new breed of evil, taking-advantage-of-children capitalist I just recently discovered: the knock-off animated film racket, or ‘Mockbusters.’ Companies like Brazil’s Video Brinquedo basically take a popular animated children’s film, completely rip it off as cheaply as possible, give it a very, VERY similar title, and spend tons of money on the DVD packaging so as to more easily fool parents who are in a rush to buy their kids a nice gift for Christmas. You can find a lot of these terrible knock-offs in the bargain bins at legitimate retailers like Wal Mart, which puts some of the blame on them as well. The bottom line is that parents don’t always have a ton of money or time to research exactly what the difference between Transformers and Gladiformers is - all they see are transforming robots at bargain prices. Then hook, line and sinker, they put their money into the pockets of plagiarizers who couldn’t care less about quality or making people happy. It just burns me right up! That and of course, world hunger, human rights violations in 3rd world countries, what have you, etc.

At any rate, here are the five worst offenders, in my books. If you bought your kids any of these videos for Christmas you should be ashamed of yourself:

TAPPY TOES