Revell 30 Model A Ford Production Halted?

[Dave Van]

During my Analyst days I had to become informed about  manufacturing in China. At that time tooling created in China was owned by the state if push came to shove. While all parties are happy no issues. But it could get ugly fast. 

[BKF]

One of the HL near me had two. I picked one up on Wednesday and Thursday. I wasn't planning on purchasing any yet but figured I get them while the gettings good. There is also two of the 29's there. Seal was gone on one of them though.

[russosborne]

I stopped by the HL closest to me yesterday. They had 2 or 3 of the '29s, but no '30s. I would probably have bought a 30 if they had one, but instead I bought a MPC 1960 Corvette (with the blower version on the boxtop).

Russ

[Fat Brian]

It's not uncommon with electronic equipment for the manufacturers to make more of a given item and sell those extras under a different name. I have a guitar amp that is internally a Laney Cub but the factory put a different color pleather on this version and sold it through a company called Monoprice for about half what the name brand unit goes for. I'm surprised a Chinese company hasn't started doing this with models yet.

[Nova-ss]

give them time.when I worked in the music industry . there was Shure sm58's and 57 masquerading as real Shures.they were cheap an sounded awful compared to a real 58 or 57.so its dangerous there were the business is done......Chris 

[dartman]

Well.....maybe if it was a '64 Dart GT slant six version it'd be worth it.  ?? 

I would like a 65 GT to build my own.

[horsepower]

Mine was a '64 GT Slant six, torqueflite, I was working in a body shop and we straightened it out completely and since it had light gold interior that was flawless we painted it an Oldsmobile Bronze Firemist. When it spun a rod bearing I bought a low mile motor and replaced every gasket and seal and matched all the ports and put in a marine grind cam from Moon equipped. The final and close to most expensive was a set of 13" Ansen Sprint aluminum wheels, the only way to get them in the thirteen inch diameter and with the tiny five on four inch bolt circle Dart pattern was from Ansen directly and they were midget wheels drilled with the dart pattern, the one really nice thing was they were a solid one inch thick center section where it had the bolt circle drilled. But that was also the cause of a constant maintenance item, since the centers were solid you had to retorque the lug nuts once a week or they would work loose, and if you didn't use the torque wrench you could overtighten one and it would snap the studs on a regular basis if you did because they wouldn't have any give or stretch left and the wheels didn't have a "coin" effect around the lug holes.  With an 18 inch glass pack two inch exhaust and the lumpy idle it was a pretty good boulevard cruiser, and I could drop the nose right down on the weeds with very little work. I would put a four by four right under the frame behind the front wheels and lower it down until it just touched, by the time I put me and my girlfriend in it would settle down to just above the legal California limit. (Nothing can be below the bottom diameter of the wheels) and with the little thirteen inch wheels that was pretty low.

Edited October 29, 2016 by horsepower

[niteowl7710]

It's not uncommon with electronic equipment for the manufacturers to make more of a given item and sell those extras under a different name. I have a guitar amp that is internally a Laney Cub but the factory put a different color pleather on this version and sold it through a company called Monoprice for about half what the name brand unit goes for. I'm surprised a Chinese company hasn't started doing this with models yet.

Well Lee Models DID do that with some Tamiya kits back in the 1990s and they of course don't exist anymore, and their products were a spectacular failure.  At this point I think the Chinese who are into injection models as a business are in the business.  There are a ridiculous (compared to automotive modeling companies in total globally) number of Chinese modeling firms all dealing with IPMS subject matter.  Trumpeter of course dabbled with cars with mediocre at best results, and Meng has made two sorties in as well, fairing better than Trumpter by a long shot, but not exactly establishing themselves as a contender with their "over-engineered military model on 4 wheels" kits.

[lordairgtar]

 

It's not uncommon with electronic equipment for the manufacturers to make more of a given item and sell those extras under a different name. I have a guitar amp that is internally a Laney Cub but the factory put a different color pleather on this version and sold it through a company called Monoprice for about half what the name brand unit goes for. I'm surprised a Chinese company hasn't started doing this with models yet.

They've done that. remember Lee Models? They copied a lot of Tamiyas stuff.

 

[Atmobil]

I have a LEE Mercedes 600SEL, very much a Tamiya copy, it does not look too bad but I once also had a Ferrari F50 kit from LEE. One would have to squint and look at it bad lighting to see that it should be an F50. Is there any information out there as to what other kits LEE had?

[Mike999]

Is there any information out there as to what other kits LEE had?

They also copied quite a few 1/35 armor kits - the TAMIYA T-34/76 and British Challenger; the ACADEMY and ITALERI 1/35 Humvees; the ITALERI Leopard 2 tanks. Probably others that never made it to eBay. In most cases, LEE was brazen enough to even copy the box art and instructions exactly.  I guess there's a chance that LEE bought a license from those companies to copy their kits.  But I doubt it.

TRUMPETER is highly respected in 1/35 armor today. But when that brand first appeared in the USA back in the early 2000s, they were infamous for their bad copy of the TAMIYA 1/35 Russian T-72 tank.  The commander figure looked more like a melted blob than a human.  TAMIYA provided etched-metal grilles for the engine deck, but TRUMPETER left those out and used chrome stickers!  Not even close.  The T-72 also appeared boxed as other brands, like Wasan Plastic Co. (Trumpeter's producer, according to armor expert Cookie Sewell) and Mini-something-or-other.  There's also an equally awful copy of the TAMIYA 1/35 U.S. M-60 tank lurking in kits with those names on the boxes.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Mike999
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[Fat Brian]

Wow, I didn't know it had already happened.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I have a LEE Mercedes 600SEL, very much a Tamiya copy, it does not look too bad but I once also had a Ferrari F50 kit from LEE. One would have to squint and look at it bad lighting to see that it should be an F50. Is there any information out there as to what other kits LEE had?

I have a couple of Lee kits I bought off the web out of sheer unadulterated ignorance (F50 and Eldo Biarritz). Decent starting points for wildly hacked-and-whacked customs, but that's about it.

[ZTony8]

I had a Lee F50.It seems to be a direct crib of the Revell F50 kit.But the plastic was a LOT shinier.I sold it off only because I have the Tamiya and Revell versions.

[dartman]

Mine was a '64 GT Slant six, torqueflite, I was working in a body shop and we straightened it out completely and since it had light gold interior that was flawless we painted it an Oldsmobile Bronze Firemist. When it spun a rod bearing I bought a low mile motor and replaced every gasket and seal and matched all the ports and put in a marine grind cam from Moon equipped. The final and close to most expensive was a set of 13" Ansen Sprint aluminum wheels, the only way to get them in the thirteen inch diameter and with the tiny five on four inch bolt circle Dart pattern was from Ansen directly and they were midget wheels drilled with the dart pattern, the one really nice thing was they were a solid one inch thick center section where it had the bolt circle drilled. But that was also the cause of a constant maintenance item, since the centers were solid you had to retorque the lug nuts once a week or they would work loose, and if you didn't use the torque wrench you could overtighten one and it would snap the studs on a regular basis if you did because they wouldn't have any give or stretch left and the wheels didn't have a "coin" effect around the lug holes.  With an 18 inch glass pack two inch exhaust and the lumpy idle it was a pretty good boulevard cruiser, and I could drop the nose right down on the weeds with very little work. I would put a four by four right under the frame behind the front wheels and lower it down until it just touched, by the time I put me and my girlfriend in it would settle down to just above the legal California limit. (Nothing can be below the bottom diameter of the wheels) and with the little thirteen inch wheels that was pretty low.

My GT was a 273 2bbl car but it was gone when i got it 25 years ago.I have a 340 six pac with a 904/manual valvebody /3.91 geared 8 3/4 rear.It's the car in my avatar.

[RT6PK]

If anyone is looking for the '30 Ford Coupe, A guy has some on Amazon for about $30.00 with free shipping. That seems pretty reasonable considering that some ya'hoos on eBay are already asking $39.99 or more PLUS shipping.

[Snake45]

Wow, I didn't know it had already happened.

It's not uncommon in Model Airplane World. There was an outfit in Korea called IDEA that pretty much completely ripped off the Fujimi P-51D and the Monogram Stuka and F4U-4--except VERY poor quality in all cases. Then there was the Russian company ICM which supposedly ripped off the Tamiya P-51D almost exactly--I've never compared the two so can't swear to that one myself. Friends in MAW tell me the ICM is ALMOST as good as the Tamiya--like 95-98% as good.

[stavanzer]

The ICM and Tamiya P-51 Fuselage have would mate exactly together. Even the location pins were in the same place. I've seen them test fit that way. There are differences though, I cannot remember what they were.

[CometMan]

Two of my LHSs still have a few of each. With no way to build either of them stock I normally wouldn't give them more than a cursory glance, but with all the discussion going around about damaged molds, they piqued my curiosity. The owners the shops weren't aware that there was a problem!

[High octane]

I have one of the Model A Roadster kits and one of the '30 Model A Coupe kit, and that's enough for me.

[FordRodnKustom]

I have one of the Model A Roadster kits and one of the '30 Model A Coupe kit, and that's enough for me.

Agreed. Same here. Fun to watch how this situation unfolds though.

[Bob Ellis]

During my Analyst days I had to become informed about  manufacturing in China. At that time tooling created in China was owned by the state if push came to shove. While all parties are happy no issues. But it could get ugly fast. 

Possession may be 9/10 of the law, but I figured the customer who paid for the work owned it?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Possession may be 9/10 of the law, but I figured the customer who paid for the work owned it?

Yeah...but only in places where intellectual (and other) property rights are taken seriously, all the parties are bound by the same laws, and the courts operate the same way and respect each other's decisions...none of which applies to China.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Mark]

Possession is nine points of the law.

[Dave Van]

Yeah...but only in places where intellectual (and other) property rights are taken seriously, all the parties are bound by the same laws, and the courts operate the same way and respect each other's decisions.

If I get time I'll see if this 'law' is still in place. But the muscle flexing going on right now......I'd not spend a lot for tooling in China. 

But look how much they copy and don't even think about it......Do you think if you have 200 tons of tooling sitting in a quasi state owned shop in China you can just walk in and take it??? Glad I ain't in charge.