We may be entering the wonderful world of Disney knock-off merchandise with today’s post. There are several reasons why I say this, which we will cover as we go. First, here is the item in question:

24 Carry Along Keychains

My first reason for suspecting the authenticity of this set is the price. You get 24 keychains for the small sum of $29.92 which equates to just $1.25 each. When have you ever seen official Disney merchandise sold that cheap? Of course, it was sold at Wal-Mart, so it could be an example of their cut-rate pricing deals with licensing companies. Or it could have been a sale price.

Fairly generic packaging

This set also boasts ‘Made in China’, where we all know that respect for trademarks isn’t a priority, and from where most knock-off merchandise comes from.

However, the packaging does also mention RP Toys Ltd. of Mississauga (Canada) and CDI (Creative Designs International) Toys of Pennsylvania (United States) so there is some legitimacy there. But these could just be importing gateways.

Nice assortment, none the less

Lastly, the quality isn’t up to Disney standards:

And what’s with the handwritten ‘2008’ on each keychain?

So each keychain does have a copyright Disney/Pixar as it should if real and not a knock-off product. But I’m afraid I’m still sceptical!

So what do you think? Is this character set a cheap knock-off, or just the product of a bad marketing deal?

NOTE: I can’t find this set on the Internet as a whole, but I did find the individual keychains for sale anywhere from $2.00 to $7.00 depending on the character. In case you’re wondering, I paid just $10.00 for the whole set on a local selling site.