I took a trip to the local hobby town today and saw some cool new kits. They are from a company out of China called Hobby something (I don't remember what came after hobby). Anyway they look just like a Trumpeter box as far as the type of box and how the pictures and layout are on their kits. I talked to the model guy there and he told me they are all copies of other kits, mostly Tamiya and that most of them are actually a little better with some corrections being made to them. He even opened a few of the boxes and I was quite impressed myself. The kits are of mostly modern stuff. I remember seeing specificaly the M-60A1 and A3. The M-60A1 is a Desert Storm version with reactive armor. They also have 2 versions of the LVPT7 (if I recall one had a different name that started with AA then the rest of the numbers and letters) including one with the new turret (with the 40mm grenade laucher). On the back of the box they showed a 3rd version of the LVPT with the new armor on the sides. They also had 2 versoins of the T-72 and again the back of the box showed a third with reactive armor. They also had some aircraft in 1/48, 1/72, and 1/144. I forget the others they had but the best news yet is all the 1/35 armor kits (all the ones I listed are 1/35) are a flat $19.95. I just paid double that for the Tamiya T-72 earlier this year and could have had it for half that . Anyway, if anyone would like some more information I could make another trip to the hobby town and get some.

Now I have a question. Am I making a big deal out of old news on this? Did everyone know this way before I did and I am just now catching up? In any case, I thought I would let you guys know what I found.

Also the guy at the hobby town is a very personal friend of Mr. Tamiya and he is suppose to be quite unhappy about these kits.

Yeah, these "copy" kits are from China and I guess they are reverse engineered from origional kits. It is nice that they are of at least comparable quality and usually lower in cost but in my opinion, and a humble one at that, in the long run copy kits are going to hurt the hobby. I am only saying this because the origional manufacturer went out onto the field to photograph, measure, document a given subject, make several series of molds (I am in an industry that develops molds for medical products and it is a pain) from prototype to final and it cost them $$$ to do so and here comes what is essentially a pirate who makes molds from the origional kit and hijacks it. If it becomes too rampent, origional innovators are not going to be willing to do all thier research only to have it jacked by a third company.

The kits your talking about are the same as the Trumpter line. What happened was that Trumpter went into an excusive agreement with Stevens International to be their excusive distrubter for their kits. From what I understand...Trumpter still wanted a bigger share so they just reboxed their kits under a new label so they could sell them to other places.

Anyway their old T-72 kits aren't that great compaired to the Tamiya offerings....

You are better off with the Tamiya version of the T-72. I have both kits and the Tamiya is soooooooooo much better.

In all kind of industry, many companies started by copying more or less what the neighbour was doing. Then, they have 2 choices for evolution : start creating their own product, or die... Let's hope it all turns out to the best !

Trumpeter kits are NOT the same quality as Tamiya! However Trumpeter does make some nice kits that no one else is doing. The Chinese armor that the produce is quite nice. I'm waiting for the Swedish "S" tanks that they claim will be out this month. So don't be upset that you have paid more for the Tamiya T-72, It still is a FAR SUPERIOR kit.

With drew's permission (I hope), I'd like to ask a somewhat similar question along the 'Trumpeter' lines.
I just recently saw a Trumpeter (I hope I get this correct) M1A1H1 w/ TWMP kit (hadn't noticed it before) going for $19.95. Sounded like a good price to me since I've been considering adding some modern stuff to my 'to-do' shelf.
What is everyone's opinion of this particular Trumpeter kit?
(I think this is along the same lines as drew's original question Hope he doesn't mind.

Tread.

Avoid the Trumpeter M60A1 and M60A3 kits. They are poor copies of Tamiya kits, and even use a copy of the instructions. They show placement of parts not included in the kit! The detail looks like someone left a Tamiya kit under a heat lamp.

The Trumpeter M1series (M1A1/M1A2) are copies of a combination of the Tamiya and DML kits. Not a bad effort and some believe it to be the best Abrams variant available (no wonder, they copied the best features of the Tamiya and DML kits). I still prefer the DML kit, but the Trumpeter one is the cheapest. Squadron sells them for $17. It includes both vinyl and single link tracks.

I have the Trumpeter Chinese type 69 tank, it is a rather nice kit. I heard that their Soviet tanks are nice except for the T-72M1 which was made when they first just copied Tamiya kits poorly. Word on the street is that their JS3M is superior to Tamiya's Stalin 3.

Many folks here know that Academy started the same way, with poor copies of Tamiya kits, some of which had become difficult to obtain. We all are happy with the direction that Academy has gone, let's hope that Trumpter stops the piracy and moves exclusively to their own designs vey soon.

Coop

The trumpeter 1/32 scale aircraft are pretty good. I did the A-10 and it looks great.