cheap copys of modelkits

Oh God, now counterfeiting has reached model kits

Dave

Dave,

Unfortunately there have been illegal knock offs of plastic kits almost since the day they came on the market. Plus there are the legal knock offs when one manufacturer sells the molds to another one (Frog molds now owned by Novo and Revell) and where one manufacturer produces the kit but it is boxed and sold by another manufacturer (Italarei kits in Hasagawa or Revell boxes). If there is a way to make money legally or illegally, someone out there will try it. It's done in just about every other field of production, why not models?

Zhengdefu/Kitech/AA (I think it's one company) are well known for copying academy and italeri kits. The overal quality is much lower then with the real kits.
There also was a chinese company that copied hasegawa kits, I forgot there name.

I made the mistake of buying some Zhengdefu kits. The price was very low (€2,50) so I bought 3. The qualty of the plastic, decal and clear parts is so bad that I am not sure wheter I am going to build them.

The Matchbox kits came out of Hong Kong and are genuine. I have several in my stash and they build up well indeed.

cheers

Mike

so if i understand you guys if x co has a model and the sprues are mark y co AS long as x is producing the kit and y is not than they are probably ok?
but is x is doing the kit a y is still doing it than it is contefiet is this corrrect

sorry about the x and y i know we are not in high school algebra class

QUOTE: Originally posted by DURR so if i understand you guys if x co has a model and the sprues are mark y co AS long as x is producing the kit and y is not than they are probably ok? but is x is doing the kit a y is still doing it than it is contefiet is this corrrect sorry about the x and y i know we are not in high school algebra class

DURR, the X's and Y's are fine, it was the rest of your post I couldn't follow!
Would you mind sending me an official DURR decoder ring?

QUOTE: Originally posted by DURR so if i understand you guys if x co has a model and the sprues are mark y co AS long as x is producing the kit and y is not than they are probably ok? but is x is doing the kit a y is still doing it than it is contefiet is this corrrect sorry about the x and y i know we are not in high school algebra class

If Moe Models buys the molds from Larry Limited and packages them in Moe Model boxes, that's completely legal. (Though not necessarily fair to the customer who might be expecting a new and improved kit from Moe Model) Howver, if Curly Kits comes along and copies either of these without permission, then there's a legal problem.

Both Academy and Trumpeter started their companies by making cheaper knock offs of Tamiya kits (Trumpeter did bad copies of Tamiya and Academy).

The Chinese boxings of old Matchbox kits are legit, it is just that the quality is not as good as the Polish and original English issues.

QUOTE: Originally posted by ajlafleche If Moe Models buys the molds from Larry Limited and packages them in Moe Model boxes, that's completely legal. (Though not necessarily fair to the customer who might be expecting a new and improved kit from Moe Model) Howver, if Curly Kits comes along and copies either of these without permission, then there's a legal problem.

DAMN!!!! I didn't even know the Three Stooges had their own model companies!!!!
But, I always figured it would have been Moe who would have done the illegal copies. He always seem kinda shiftty to me.

moe larry cheese

moe was seedy, but not nearly as bad as Shemp, the forgotten stooge!