Fake Straw Hat Crew

The Impostor Straw Hat Pirates are a group of pirates that are impersonating the original Straw Hat Pirates in order to benefit from their reputation. They first appear after the two-year timeskip.

Crew
The impostor Straw Hats dress in the style of the original Straw Hats, but otherwise look virtually nothing like them, nor do they act the part.


 * Fake Luffy: A tall, fat, middle-aged man who shoots anyone who even remotely displeases him. He seems to enjoy the infamy that the actual Luffy obtained, to the point where he justifies his cruelty by bragging as the son of Dragon.
 * Fake Nami: A woman about Nami's height with an unusually large, oval shaped head.
 * Fake Robin: a old and short, ugly woman.
 * Fake Sogeking: A big man wearing a bogus Sogeking mask.
 * Fake Sanji: A man with an afro.
 * Fake Zoro: A man with a beer gut and swords resembling those used by low-ranking marines.
 * Fake Franky: A thin person with an unusually long neck.
 * Fake Chopper: A fox wearing a hat and a painted mustache.

Brook does not appear to have a doppelganger in the impostor Straw Hats, no doubt due to his relatively recent addition to the crew. Having not been part of their more famous escapades, only those personally familiar with the Straw Hats would be likely to know him as part of the crew, if at all.

Recruits
Fake Luffy is using his namesake's reputation to gather a strong crew to take on the New World. He's said to have recruited about 100 people, ten of which have high bounties. Among them are:


 * "Wet-Hair" Caribou: a former pirate captain and brother of Coribou. Famous for killing marines.
 * "Blood-Spatterer" Coribou: a former pirate captain and brother of Caribou. Famous for killing marines.

History
The impostors seem to have begun their charade relatively recently on Sabaody Archipelago, at the exact time when the real Straw Hat crew has decided to finally rendezvous, as word of their activites has only just reached the Marines. Their captain has been using Luffy's reputation to recruit pirates with bounties over 70 million beli into their crew. Due to the long absence of the original Straw Hats, most people believe the frauds despite them looking almost nothing like the originals, save for clothing. So far, at least three pirate groups have merged with this crew, including ten men with high bounties. The two most infamous pirates to join are the brothers "Wet Hair" Caribou and "Blood-Splatterer" Coribou, infamous rookies who have bounties of 210,000,000 and 190,000,000 beli respectively.

They are first seen on Sabaody Archipelago in the bar where Nami was drinking, trying to recruit people for their pirate crew. Their captain, the man impersonating Luffy, sees Nami and attempts to invite her over for a drink. Of course, without knowing who she really is. Nami's dismissal angers him, so the fake Nami holds her at gunpoint, only to receive an unfazed reaction from her genuine counterpart. At that point, the true Usopp uses his new Pop Greens to disable the fakes, and he and Nami leave the bar. Nami leaves behind a batch of Weather Balls which create a thunderstorm to shock them. Ignorant of their identities, the fake Luffy orders them killed.

Elsewhere, as fake Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and Chopper were walking along the streets, they come across the real Chopper, recognizing him as the Straw Hats' pet from his bounty poster. They decide to take him on in order to make their ruse more convincing, but an unknown group of people pursuing the real Robin suddenly kidnap the fake Robin, scooping her up into a large bag, under the impression that they have caught the genuine article.

In his search for Usopp and Nami, the fake Luffy shoots two people who look vaguely similar to them. The real Luffy accidentally bumps into him and apologizes, but the fake Luffy calls out to him, unaware of who he's talking to.

Overall Strength
Typical for a band of frauds and impostors, the fake Straw Hats seem to be a relatively weak group, probably around the same level of the Bellamy Pirates in terms of fighting skill. In fact, their recruiting of other powerful pirates (and dismissing the weak) by relying on the infamy of the actual Straw Hats mirrors what Bellamy and his crew were doing in Mock Town during the Jaya Arc. They appear reliant on their flintlock pistols, as opposed to having any skill in combat, and haven't shown any particular proficiency in their use' save for their leader, the Fake Luffy, who seems to be indiscriminate in its use, be it on other Pirates or to simple bystanders. They were no match by Usopp's pop green seeds, which grew a massive, flesh-eating plant to ensnare them, and were completely taken by one Nami's weather attacks by surprise. The fact that both Nami and Usopp, both formerly the weakest members of the Straw Hats, did not even feel the impostors to be worth their attention enough to be genuine threats speaks volumes about the fraud's inferiority in relation to the real ones.

Still, the fact that they were able to make it to Shabondy Archipelago suggests some degree of competence, provided of course that they aren't from the Archipelago or somewhere close by to begin with. They have also displayed somewhat impressive endurance; the fake Franky, Sogeking and Luffy were able to easily stand up after Nami's thunderbolts, their skin blackened by the electrical burns but otherwise uninjured.

Trivia

 * Due to their naive personalities, both Usopp and Chopper believed them to be the real Straw Hats. Usopp in particular was shocked by the presence of Sogeking, despite the fact Sogeking is his own alter-ego.
 * The recruitment fliers have Luffy's first name misspelled as "Monky".