Anyone heard of these?

Just wondered if anyone has heard of a model kit maker called 'LEE'?
Just seen some on a web site and they look like repackaged Tamiyas or maybe just a cheap copy of Tamiya. :sly:

Don't know about the cars, but LEE's Yamoto battleship is a copy of Tamiya's model, without even being close to their standard. Soft plastic and vague details. Have seen a build up of this ship that was really good, but the guy who built it sad that he was never to buy from them again! Maybe if you plan to rebuild the whole shobang it could be worth a try.

Niclas

From everything I've ever heard, they're horrible rip-offs of other kits, to be avoided at all costs.

I thought as much, but for 60-70 swedish kronors ($6-$7 I think that is maybe a little less) or £5 I thought they might be worth a try or just for spare parts, wheels and such like. Or maybe good for experimenting on as they are much cheaper than the better models.

Rip-offs!!!!!!

haha...never even heard of them. From what i'm hearing, they sound worse the Arii. :lol:

Is this LEE company ripping off Tamiya by reverse engineering from their sprues? If so how do they get away with it? I'd have thought a country like Sweden would have laws against such things. Or are they plagiarised elsewhere? Either way you should boycott the maker and let the store owner know what he is selling too. We want Tamiya to be rich and prosperous. That way they can invest in tooling new kits for us ;)

Is this LEE company ripping off Tamiya by reverse engineering from their sprues? If so how do they get away with it? I'd have thought a country like Sweden would have laws against such things. Or are they plagiarised elsewhere? Either way you should boycott the maker and let the store owner know what he is selling too. We want Tamiya to be rich and prosperous. That way they can invest in tooling new kits for us ;)

Reverse tooling it is! I don't think our laws has anything to do with the fact that you can buy them in Sweden. But it's amazing that Tamiya and other manufacturers hasn't got in to action to stop this behaviour :eek7: One thing is for sure, they are NOT from Sweden...in this country we take scale modeling very serious :naughty: Amen to a prosperous big T and many new exciting kits to sink our theeths in.

Niclas "President at LEE incorporated....NOT!" Proos

ive never really seen anything from these wierd companies you all speek of

WOW !!!.................Never thought this subject would "come up" on AF. I tried a couple of years ago to get my son into car modeling so i bought him a LEE Benz 600 SEL from "Biltema" here in Sweden. It is total crap !!!
There is probably about a kilo plastic to sand off it, iv'e never seen so much sanding to do on a kit, worse than the old Airfix models !?!
This is a Tamiya rip off without a doubt, the box art is the same as Tamiya's and the instruction sheet has the same layout as Tamiya's too, there's a picture of the motor on the box which is copied from the box off Tamiya's AMG 600coupe which i have. I would say that i could maybe, just maybe use the seats one day on another project, the rest will be trashed !

Mike :sunglasse

Is this LEE company ripping off Tamiya by reverse engineering from their sprues? If so how do they get away with it? I'd have thought a country like Sweden would have laws against such things. Or are they plagiarised elsewhere? Either way you should boycott the maker and let the store owner know what he is selling too. We want Tamiya to be rich and prosperous. That way they can invest in tooling new kits for us ;)



and raise their prices even higher, because the only competition they even have right now is shity, and here in the states its hard to find fujimi, and aoshima, never seen them here in a model car shop once.

True. Tamiya, like every other company on the face of the planet, are hiking up their prices at an alarming rate. Be that as it may, having shysters like LEE ripping everybody off and potentially discouraging future modellers/customers cannot possibly be a good thing.

I wouldn't say Tamiya's competition is "shitty", for sure Tamiya are the state of the art but Hasegawa and Fujimi are not far behind. What we really need is for Accurate Miniatures to get back in the game and take up where they left off with the McLaren M8B. That'd shake the market up. :)

Actually I think that they used to be called Arii and have changed their name or been taken over or whatever.
It was on the Biltema website i saw them Mike. lol
Maybe not really worth it just for the wheels eh?
Did you ever get it finished?

I have bought Lee's USS Enterprise ship and i think it was quite good!
Now i bought the Lee's Mercedes 600SEL and waiting when it comes. I had to buy it because it was so cheap and i dont mind with little extra sanding.

You could have had mine for nothing !!!

Mike :smokin:

Actually I think that they used to be called Arii and have changed their name or been taken over or whatever.
It was on the Biltema website i saw them Mike. lol
Maybe not really worth it just for the wheels eh?
Did you ever get it finished?

I don't think LEE is the new name of ARII as you can get ARII-kits from Modelsearch, they have some 14 different kits. This is one of them.
http://www.1999hobbysearch.com/dbimages/user/hobby/itbig/10039051.jpg
Maybe it's the same company that's behinde both of them but this is just a guess as I really don't know this for a fact.

Niclas

I'm with you, Rally Raider. We need Accurate Miniatures back up and tooling up more classic sports cars. Those guys out do Tamiya for detail HANDS DOWN and out-do the Fujimi Enthusiast series for fit and finish by a mile. In fact, I have prepared a list of cars AM MUST do.



http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1959/Riverside-1959-10-11-108.jpg
#1 - Reventlow Scarab MkII. This car was an All-American Cobra. No AC about it. Gorgeous car, and one of my all time faves.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/large/2-1.jpg
#2 - Shelby Cobra Daytona. Gunze Sangyo's was good, but damn we need a full detail Daytona.

http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1967/Sebring-1967-04-01-006.jpg
#3 - Chapparal 2F - Let's face it, besides the awesome foot pedal controlled wing, this car was too cool for anything we know. Plus it managed to swat the Lolas, Ferraris, and GT40's of the world at Brands Hatch in the rain. Not bad for a race car with an automatic transmission.

http://www.greenwoodcorvettes.com/Carlisle2003/CarlSebring75front.jpg
#4 - Greenwood "Spirit of '75" Corvette - Even with all the Matras and Renaults and Porsches and everything else at LeMans, this car was the 'effin star with its massive V8, radical flares, and 210mph speed down the Mulsanne.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/large/260-1.jpg
#5 - Lola T70 Coupe - Quite simply one of the most gorgeous cars ever powered by a Chevy 350. Fast, reliable, beautiful. What more do you want?

Argh, Raider, why'd you have to make me go and agree with you? :cwm27:

You could have had mine for nothing !!!

Mike :smokin:
Off course you can send it to me for free :sunglasse :lol2: :naughty:

Off course you can send it to me for free :sunglasse :lol2: :naughty:

Sweden-Finland = cheap(ish) postage, it's all yours Mika !

Mike :smokin:

VWman, when you get your Merc, can you post some pictures of it unmade? I might get oen anyway despite what people have said. As it is so cheap.

Argh, Raider, why'd you have to make me go and agree with you? :cwm27:

If its any consolation LK I disagree about the Corvette, always thought that car looked like a cartoonists interpretation of a real racing car :p As for the rest, great choices. Although some of them might be a little too esoteric for the wider community.

A difficult choice to select a subject that will satisfy the enthusiasts yet still titillate the masses enough to turn a tidy profit. Might be advisable for them to stick with the CANAM theme and tool something like a Donahue Porsche 917/30. They could then do it in several versions like the M8B, although there may need to be more differences between kits than with the Macs.

To get back on topic: then some bastards like Lee could rip them off with cheap nasty copies :mad:

lol, yeah esoteric (except for the Cobra Daytona and Lola T70) and the 917/30 would probably be a good choice.

Though, you know, if they'd like to turn a quick buck they should revamp the M8B tooling into a M8D. As tragic a car as it is (the car Bruce McLaren died testing) it's still one of the single most awesome McLarens ever.

Man, if only I had the cash to run AM, though. And to land some topflite licenses too. Maserati Birdcage, the Ferrari TR/61 "Testa Rossa", Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, Porsche 908, maybe see about tooling up some classic F1 cars like the Lotus 49, Ferrari 156 "Sharknose", Brabham-Repco, Gurney-Weslake Eagle.

I'd probably support the mainline of hyper-detailed premium vintage race car kits with a Revell-priced lineup of moderately detailed kits of popular and exotic sports cars. You know, stuff like TVR Cerberas and Aston Martin AMV8's that we're still waiting on kits for.

As far as I know LEE is based out of China, home of all thing conterfeit and so pretty much beyond the reach of international law. However I wouldn't be surprised if Tamiya didn't start going after their distributors some time soon...

VWman, when you get your Merc, can you post some pictures of it unmade? I might get oen anyway despite what people have said. As it is so cheap.

You'll be sorry you did, i promise !!!

Mike :smokin:

VWman, when you get your Merc, can you post some pictures of it unmade? I might get oen anyway despite what people have said. As it is so cheap.
Yep if i get new camera, the old one went TOTALLY broke :banghead:

How can it hurt for 70 kr?

I got Mercedes today from Biltema. I opened box and looked all the parts and they didnt look bad at all. I think its really good kit for that price. It doesnt need much extra sanding. The instructions are same that Tamiya haves, only front page is changed. Paint instructions are exactly same and they have "forgot" pic of Tamiya paint bottle in second page. But the kit is missing the smallest details but it looks good in overall.

PS. Sorry i dont have pics right now because i dont have camera but my friend comes in two weeks and i loan his camera to get pics.

Thanks for the info VWman. I would really like to see this. So don't forget to post some pics. Make a new thread, OK?