Got the real Luigi doll on the right from a claw machine at a proper arcade ages ago. Well… I think one of my friends won it and then gave it to me. Can’t quite remember. Then a few months ago I was killing time before I had to pick my mum up from work and found a claw machine outside a super market and noticed a Princess Peach doll,which was the only doll in the set that I’m missing. But then on closer inspection I noticed that many of the dolls in that machine were fakes based on existing claw machine dolls I was used to seeing (from various childrens movies such as Monsters Inc. I can’t remember if the Peach doll was real or not but the Luigi and Donkey Kong were horrible. Especially the Donkey Kong which had giant black eyes with no colour in them. The regular claw machine Donkey Kong is pretty horrible looking to start with (giant bulging eyes that poke out of his head) but this other one looked like it was dead. It was too hard to pick up though so I could only get the Luigi.

If you compare the two dolls the one on the right is much cheaper looking with un-soft fabrics and very weird hands with giant thumbs. His clothes appear to be too small for him and his hair is held on with minimal stiching so it looks like he is wearing a wig which could be easilly pulled off. His eyes are printed rather than embroided as well. He also has no swing tag. The real one does but you can’t see it too well in the picture.

The real one are made by Hunter Leisure and are made for “Amusement only, not for retail”

The retail plush toys are slightly nicer again. This official doll is a bit fat and weird looking as well but but is still nicer than the fake one.