Eighty1 Rotiform Set wheel review

[cjsbosox]

I must admit that I'm a wheel hoarder. While most shop for kits, I look for wheels. I love wheels. Especially good looking wheels. To me, they make or break a car. Wheels require thought and dare I say....taste. Now I understand that each one can do what they like with their car, model or real. But if it's out for display, opinions will fly. Put spinners on a Ferrari or Volk GT-C on a hot rod, and you're asking for it

I refuse to start a project until I have a set or two picked out. And that's where our community used to run into issues. For my part I find myself wanting modern options that Aoshima and others seem to miss. These days we have a good amount of aftermarket options. Or do we? Hobby Design has picked up the slack rather well. Others such as Eighty1 and C1 have joined in, but based on their own website pictures, I stayed away. Some time has now passed and so I decided to try a set, figuring that by now they have improved their process and quality. Well let's see....

I ordered a set from Eighty1.
http://www.eightyone81.com/rm034-rotiform-sna-rimset/
The staggered set came with tires. I was so excited when they arrived! So I quickly opened the package and.....







Now I don't know about you, but I feel as though I was robbed. They have over 30 wheel sets available by now, so poor quality like this is unacceptable. These things need so much work it's funny. It will take me at least a day to fix these things. How can they offer such a poor product??? I don't understand how people will get on Facebook and talk about how great the product is. I will give them credit for trying, but 30 plus sets in and you give us this? I just started working in a prototyping, mold and casting company. And I can confidently say that I would get fired if I shipped out parts looking like this. To think I paid $15 for this.

I would suggest they keep their horrible tires, fix this bad product and lower the cost. I can't tell anyone to not buy from them. But at least you have been warned.

Keep on building AF!

[lovegt40]

Just I can say I am like you. I love wheels too, in the same way. Have a full box of any spare possible,mostly german style.
Wheels and tires change a model from day to night. wheels and setup is my obsession.

Sad you had this unfortunate experience with those wheels.I still wonder why plastic manifacturers dont make more sets in 1/24 scale like fujimi and aoshima already do.In plastic they will come nicer and cheaper just.

[cjsbosox]

I must apologize about the pics. I was on my tablet when posted them. This is better

[BVC500]

Amateur hour! The best aftermarket wheels I've seen (and bought) were produced by FG Models, which I don't think is in business any longer. The nice thing about them is that they produced the alternative stock wheels available on cars. And they were made to easily fit tamiya, fujimi, revell, etc.

[Hemi Killer]

I saw these it looks like you can see printing lines all over. Look at the second picture of this set also. A little sketchy. What a bummer

http://www.eightyone81.com/rm023-iforged-milano-rimset/

[RonCla]

Its always disappointing to see quality like that even when you aren't the one paying for it.

I recently got a set of C1 wheels and their quality wouldn't be any better than your Eighty1s.

I've had some Hobby Design parts in the past that left a lot to be desired but what I've purchased from them recently has been excellent. Lets hope C1 and Eighty1 can lift their game like Hobby Design has.

[Mr Plumb]

I may be going against the grain here but I have yet to have a product from 81 in that condition. My advice would be to email Thomas Wong at Eightyone and express your frustrations, he will happily rectify the issue I'm sure

[turbos86]

My experience with 81 is that it really depends on the batch. Sometimes it's totally worth the money, and at the odd times you get what you see in this thread. Luckily customer service is pretty good and problems are always resolved quickly.

I'm quite satisfy with the quality and selections from both 81 and C1. Most wheels and parts arrive with minimum extra flesh. I also agree that Hobby Design has upped their game since 2014.

[sportracer02]

Hi,

I also ordered parts from 81, the wheels were done better, but not round at all, or better: they were oval. I got replacement within short time, better, not perfect.

It seems that parts are done in a hurry, no look for the quality of the parts before sending them to a customer.

@ BVC500: who is FG Models, never heard about them

[RonCla]

Originally Posted by sportracer02

Hi,

I also ordered parts from 81, the wheels were done better, but not round at all, or better: they were oval. I got replacement within short time, better, not perfect.

It seems that parts are done in a hurry, no look for the quality of the parts before sending them to a customer.

@ BVC500: who is FG Models, never heard about them

FG Models is a Korean company. The quality of the products i've purchased is impeccable. Unfortunately they no longer seem to be active.

[cjsbosox]

Originally Posted by Mr Plumb

My advice would be to email Thomas Wong at Eightyone and express your frustrations, he will happily rectify the issue I'm sure

Originally Posted by turbos86

My experience with 81 is that it really depends on the batch. Sometimes it's totally worth the money, and at the odd times you get what you see in this thread. Luckily customer service is pretty good and problems are always resolved quickly.
.

Thanks Mr Plumb and turbos86. Though it's nice, as customers we shouldn't have to deal with such poor quality. Especially when they have over 30 wheel sets by now. So I don't buy the whole batch thing. As a small company, they should have quality control down.

Originally Posted by sportracer02

Hi,

I also ordered parts from 81, the wheels were done better, but not round at all, or better: they were oval. I got replacement within short time, better, not perfect.

It seems that parts are done in a hurry, no look for the quality of the parts before sending them to a customer.

@ BVC500: who is FG Models, never heard about them

Sorry to hear that sportracer02. They seemed rushed to me also.
By the way, here are some FG wheels, which were a much better product. Keep in mind I added the dish.
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul....php?t=1120696

I will contact them to see what they say. I'll post the outcome

[willimo]

Yikes, those are bad. I can understand how disappointed you were. I would have been, too, especially after having the good luck I've had with Eightyone81. I have ordered a lot of stuff from him, and while quality has been hit or miss in my experience, it has been mostly hit, with the misses not being as bad as that one.

Here is a picture (left to right, top to bottom) of their CCW classic (two pieces and fantastic), Fifteen52 Tarmac (a copy of something Tamiya being passed off as a Tarmac, I think), the Rotoform LHR which has been the lowest quality part I've gotten from them (but anyone would struggle with a resin casting like that), Mugen M7 (two pieces, and crisp but the wheel is off center, and which I know is a Aoshima copy, as is their Mugen RNR), the Enkei RS05RR which is incredible in my opinion, with excellent detail for under the tire (my second set for this very reason), and their TE37 (a Fujimi copy, with a not pictured stepped lip that is admittedly a bit hamfisted).



There is flash on these wheels, but it won't be hard to remove. In my experience, all resin does, even Hobby Design. The biggest gripe has been the tires. They put them all in the mold the same way, and since the point where they cut them from their excess molded rubber is on the sidewall, it's obvious on one side of the car since they layed up all the tires the same direction (if they reading this - next time you make the mold, turn two of the tires the other direction).

I have bought a lot of parts from them: wheels, hoods, wings, body kits, lip spoilers, all of it has been well better than acceptable. Their Rocket Bunny v1 kit is tremendous, for example. But the pictures of their website of the FD2 Civic have scared me off of spending $170 on it.

C1 Models is good, too. I tried to get a picture of a couple of their wheels but it didn't come out - the Work Emotions are great, and the Rotiform RWBs are INCREDIBLE. His version of the Fifteen52 Tarmacs are nice, but show lines from 3D printing which is a bummer but will probably sand off easily. The RWB 964 is a little uneven left to right, but totally workable and the Spoon S2000 transkit is perfect.

I am not totally rah-rah but I wanted to show that I have had pretty good luck with these guys and while $15 is a hard bit of money to throw away on a bad wheel set, they do have good stuff.

My real question is, when will we get Orange wheels??

[lovegt40]

ALso I get some wheels from C1 models. Chris ones are not so bad imho.

[yelo]

Originally Posted by willimo

Yikes, those are bad. I can understand how disappointed you were. I would have been, too, especially after having the good luck I've had with Eightyone81. I have ordered a lot of stuff from him, and while quality has been hit or miss in my experience, it has been mostly hit, with the misses not being as bad as that one.

Here is a picture (left to right, top to bottom) of their CCW classic (two pieces and fantastic), Fifteen52 Tarmac (a copy of something Tamiya being passed off as a Tarmac, I think), the Rotoform LHR which has been the lowest quality part I've gotten from them (but anyone would struggle with a resin casting like that), Mugen M7 (two pieces, and crisp but the wheel is off center, and which I know is a Aoshima copy, as is their Mugen RNR), the Enkei RS05RR which is incredible in my opinion, with excellent detail for under the tire (my second set for this very reason), and their TE37 (a Fujimi copy, with a not pictured stepped lip that is admittedly a bit hamfisted).



There is flash on these wheels, but it won't be hard to remove. In my experience, all resin does, even Hobby Design. The biggest gripe has been the tires. They put them all in the mold the same way, and since the point where they cut them from their excess molded rubber is on the sidewall, it's obvious on one side of the car since they layed up all the tires the same direction (if they reading this - next time you make the mold, turn two of the tires the other direction).

I have bought a lot of parts from them: wheels, hoods, wings, body kits, lip spoilers, all of it has been well better than acceptable. Their Rocket Bunny v1 kit is tremendous, for example. But the pictures of their website of the FD2 Civic have scared me off of spending $170 on it.

C1 Models is good, too. I tried to get a picture of a couple of their wheels but it didn't come out - the Work Emotions are great, and the Rotiform RWBs are INCREDIBLE. His version of the Fifteen52 Tarmacs are nice, but show lines from 3D printing which is a bummer but will probably sand off easily. The RWB 964 is a little uneven left to right, but totally workable and the Spoon S2000 transkit is perfect.

I am not totally rah-rah but I wanted to show that I have had pretty good luck with these guys and while $15 is a hard bit of money to throw away on a bad wheel set, they do have good stuff.

My real question is, when will we get Orange wheels??

You are totally right with the eightyone tire being all the same, it's a big problem...

As for C1 spoon kit, I got #1and mine is full of air bubble and poor casting, I was a bit disappointed when I check it, especially after getting a perfect DMC kit for my Aventador....

As for orange wheel, I'm waiting for them too....

As a side note, I us d to do a bit of casting miself, imo wheels and tires are the worst kind of parts to cast.. It is very difficult to do a good job on those .....

[dieteufel]

Hi Guy,

if you want to get really good rims and wheels, than take a look into the shop of Scale Production..

Most of the rims are made out of Aluminium-rings and injection-molded parts
and especially with real rubber tires.

A few samples of Mikes rims & wheels I had used for my model cars.

Cheers
Sascha