Anyone heard of these?

[Tikiman]

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.

[proosen]

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

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

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

[Tikiman]

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.

[tonioseven]

Rip-offs!!!!!!

[CamaroSSBoy346]

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

[RallyRaider]

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

[proosen]

Originally Posted by RallyRaider

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 One thing is for sure, they are NOT from Sweden...in this country we take scale modeling very serious Amen to a prosperous big T and many new exciting kits to sink our theeths in.

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

[rx7king]

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

[mike united]

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

[supratuner]

Originally Posted by RallyRaider

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.

[RallyRaider]

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.

[Tikiman]

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?

[vwman]

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.

[mike united]

You could have had mine for nothing !!!

Mike