I went to a flea market here in Hawaii and noticed some of my favorites like the Combaticons, Aerialbots, and Constructicons, but in complete sets! They had different colors, some missing weapons, and some interesting packaging (my Combaticons were called “Waqonsoldier”).
Obviously Asian knock-offs, but they were ridiculously inexpensive (I paid $8 for an entire set) and worked and looked just like my toys back in the day.
Any Transfans (is that what you call them) tell me more about them?
Here is a bootleg toy site: http://www.bootlegactionfigures.com/transformersindex.htm
Too bad Bootlegtoys.com isn’t still up, they had lots of transformers knockoffs as well.
Bootleg toys (of all genres) are all over the place – most Asian supermarkets and shops I’ve been to have them in some degree or other. Keeping track of all of them is akin to trying to count how many pirated copies of the Spider-Man movie are on the internet.
Some of these bootlegs are outright ridiculous – I once found a bootleg version of the Transformer Decepticon “Scorponok” (a giant scorpion about three feet long) on sale in China – encased in clear plastic on a giant card! Dragged the sucker all the way back to the 'States and sold 'im to a collector for $50.
You should document your bootleg transformers, they’d be interesting to see. I have 5 of six bootleg battle beasts that are a mold copy with some modifications (actually quite detailed for a bootleg toy), plus extras of three, probably making the largest bootleg Battle Beast collection in the world.