Illegally reproduced Otsuka Ai's merchandising

[SKYia]

Can you imagine my surprise when I came into a store known for its creativity and unique stuff (cards, mugs, lamps, photo frames, etc) called FLO (I guess it's Polish store, but maybe you know it) and saw THIS:

Spoiler:

[the mascot on the right is the original one I brought from Japan with me]

I was surprised because all of their stuff I saw so far has its own design, very characteristic, and now they obviously took Ai's Love character and made it into keychain. I'm 100% sure they just found the photo in the net and didn't even realise it's some artist's trademark.

Here you can see some of their stuff:
http://flo-store.pinger.pl/

So, if there are some Polish Ai-chan fans, just visit FLO and get it, it chep, 3,90zł (about 1 euro)

[Polyrhythm]

Dude that's not surprising. Almost every Taiwanese stationary store here has that litte bunny thing and I was wondering what it was 0_o

[SKYia]

Let's be honest, Taiwan is known for reproducing popular stuff, but seeing it in Poland made me go @_@ in the store

[Kanzaki]

Yep. I've seen a swedish internet store that carried Ai-chan or Love-chan bunny mascot earrings. I don't think they've got a clue about where its from.

[visionfactory]

Yeah I've seen that Bunny in Chile too

Spoiler:

[TITANIC]

that bunny is everywhere. I can easily find many kinds of stuff with that bunny in the city

[KarenPang]

I seen those LOVE merchanise being sold here at Comic Connections too

not sure if those are the real thing(s) . They're probably not & people who buy them probably couldn't tell about it or so

[JackieRos]

oooooooh they look cute
I'll buy them maybe cheaper than original

[jiarongisme]

Singapore sells these EVERYWHERE. Lol.

[U-GO-BOY]

When I was 9 years old I found a clock of Sailor Moon in a Polish store.. I thought it was official but now I know it wasn't xD

hmm could you buy me 1 or 2 and send them to me when I give you the money? xD

[Ranma Matsuri]

Awww they're cute. I wouldn't complain too much about them, especially since it's cheap. Just think of it as buying a fanmade item.

[SKYia]

You see, I went to Japan where they are originally sold and could have hardly find any of them, if only I went to Taiwan.... xD

I wrote on this company's Face Book profile to check of they even know that Love-chan is protected by copyright (just out of curiosity). At first they replied that they were inspired by Otsuka Ai and other japanese artists and how awesome she is, etc, etc.

However, some person asked bluntly: did they buy the rights or not? (as if it wasn't obvious, but I'm pretty sure not a single person is familiarized with Ai so they didn't have to know).

Again, I replied that I was sure they had no idea what they are selling and now I got a looong PM about how they really didn't know and that I should check their other stuff and point to anything that may also be copyrighted, haha.

Don't take it too seriously, I'm not gonna haunt them because of that. I was just truly shocked since Love-chan is totally unknown in my country (even Ayupan would be, I'm sure) and finding it in our store was like winning a lotery

[noisy_harmony]

I'm not shocked anymore seeing it's copied everywhere XD...

[bondingo]

They have products of those bunnies all over the place in Chinatown. Clearly it "inspired" a lot of people.

[hearted]

omg there is sooooooooooo much of those!!!! i even saw a tshirt of LOVE at our market i was like whaaaaaat???? and i saw a shirt with ayu on it too!!! and nobody knows or even listens to jpop here

[Snickers]

LOL. so many times have i visited FLO but didn't find LOVE ~~ I'm gonna visit it this week to see if they have it in my store too XD

[LacusClyne]

they are all over singapore for years.... everyone just buy them because they are cute.

[PEARL]

Originally Posted by LacusClyne

they are all over singapore for years.... everyone just buy them because they are cute.

Yea~nobody ever knows they are Ai's LOVE character until i told them..

[aqua_crystal]

A friend of mine bought the keychain on the left like 2 years ago. Im not sure from where though. So, judging by how popular it is, I presume this has been going on for a long time now.