Knock off kits..common?

[Mike999]

I've been wondering for a while now why we aren't seeing knockoffs kits for sale online...so this intrigues me...

I found this Lee Models Ferrari Barchetta on eBay just now.  Several are up for sale.  Soapbox Mode: copying by Chinese vendors is a huge problem in the world of 1/35 resin figures. Many of those companies are very small operations. The flood of cheap copies has almost put some of them out of business.  That's being dealt with on military-model forums the same way it is for 1/25 resin copiers on this board - when people see the copies on eBay, they report the item/vendor. But it seems like as soon as one gets shut down, 3 others pop up.

 

[iamsuperdan]

I've been wondering for a while now why we aren't seeing knockoffs kits for sale online...so this intrigues me.

How do they create the knockoff? If there is an obvious decline in quality, is that because of the technique they're using to duplicate the parts, or simply poorer quality plastics? Are they laser-scanning entire parts trees (flash and all) and then creating new tooling based on those scans? Or some cheaper, faster method??

I consider the Lindberg '40 Ford a knockoff of the AMT kit. It's SO close, but not identical. And that would have been done with old technology. Seems like now there would be more options for engineering imitation kits.

Looking forward to seeing some more photos of this kit...and it would be educational to see a comparison with original Tamiya parts!

 

I've started this kit, and will be posting up part one of my "On The Bench" tomorrow. 

I won't say too much here, but I can say that this will be an interesting adventure!

 

 

 

[niteowl7710]

Those Lee kits and I suspect the "HKimya" were reverse engineered from the Tamiya kits back when they were new. Tamiya reissued those Mercs about 10 years ago, but the tooling is from when the cars were new in the late 80s. There was no fancy 3D scanning back then, which is why the copies are so crude.

[LDO]

Lee also copied the IMEX 1958 Cadillacs. Someone gave me several of them. The only thing they are good for is chopping up into lead sleds. The body has an orange peel texture.

[iamsuperdan]

My "On The Workbench" for this kit has been posted!

 

[Rob Hall]

Imagine if someone made cheap copies of Palmer kits, at lower quality...I'm sure they would sell if they were cheap. 

Edited September 7, 2017 by Rob Hall

[Junkman]

I think tool leasing is pretty commonplace in the far East.

Fuman did these ex Bandai kits:

 

 

 

 

Zhengdefu did a few old Nichimos:

 

 

 

Academy did a couple of Italeris:

 

 

And some Tamiyas:

 

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by Junkman

[gray07]

I think this is one of the Tamiya kits I bought

[ZTony8]

I had one of the Lee Ferrari F50 kits. I sold a while back only because I had both the Tamiya and Revell versions. The Lee kit was crib on the Revell kit but ,to my surprise ,the body was better than the Revell kit. The Lee mold was apparently polished and the body was much smoother and shinier than the Revell kit.

[peteski]

I think tool leasing is pretty commonplace in the far East.

Fuman did these ex Bandai kits:

Zhengdefu did a few old Nichimos:

Academy did a couple of Italeris:

And some Tamiyas:

I agree, and since the quality of those kit's parts is the same as original kits those aren't really knock offs.