TOPIC:

As I've been buying RC cars again lately after a few years of an alternative motor-hobby (motorcycling), I've noted a trend that has become more obvious the more I keep digging. Most recent buy was the SG-1002SE from Pinecone Models, a lovely desert truck that kind of looks like the Traxxas UDR, but is quite smaller in size. It has been called "a clone". A few more rc-cars have found a place in my 'garage', most of them being the same car out of several 'brands'.

It started with this one though, the DBX-07 by ZD-Racing which I found on Banggood a couple of months ago for a good price. When I was browsing internet for more information about the car I discovered that the DBX-07 wasn't exclusive to ZD-Racing, infact the same model was sold under different names with variations only in paint motifes. All variants have the same specs so buying the ZD-Racing edition I assume the others were the same car regarding performance and quality.


I did a bit of investigating about the companies marketing this desert buggy and it seems that ZD-Racing has the most detailed presentation of this vehicle on their website, so I assume ZD-Racing is the manufacturer. Also they're located in China which would explain why they are most likely to be the manufacturer.

The RTR on Banggood went for about EUR 500, comparing the price of the same RTR vehicle by the other brands made its price almost double. Now, clone or not, I went for the ZD-Racing model.

Listening to youtubers reviewing rc-cars of various types and brands, I've learned that "clones are bad". Why? No one tells except for that cloning hurts honest traders and is a sort of rip-off. So how can I find out if a vehicle is a clone? And why would I? Considering that the clone is the same car, cheaper yes, but not worse than whatever "original" a brand seller would offer.

Also I've noticed that not all brands are cloned. Tamiya seem be left alone, as seemingly has Kyosho. Perhaps thanks to their elaborate and innovative designs that aren't easilly copied? Compared to Traxxas, and most other basher-RC brands they aren't even in the same league. Why and how can be discussed. What are your opinions on the subject? What brand should I be buying when different stores promote the same car under different names?

When buying on the internet my prefered choice is always safety, using invoice based services like Klarna or Paypal. As we all know I've been scammed enough in the past

I'd like to add the "about" information from www.zdhobby.com as they seem to use two sites, the zd-racing and zdhobby. 

"Dongguan ZD Hobby CO,.Ltd (hereinafter referred to as ZD Hobby) was located in Dongguan, which is a modern city with rapidly developed economic and full of high technology enterprise. Here is a international center and manufacturing city for remote control model making. ZD Hobby is a high-tech company specialize in RC Car products development, manufacturing and sales.At present, we are committed to researching and developing, manufacturing all kinds of and all scale of RC Cars for competition or teaching for new comers..

ZD Hobby was producing and selling the racing cars,buggies and touring cars. Also 1-18,1-16,1-10,1-8 and 1-5 high-end racing cars. No matter how your platform is.each of our products will work for you!We will try our best to pay fully focus on every detail of products,make continuously improvements in pursuit of the product perfection . We have been taking closely tracking to the latest development of science and technology, and making improvement accordingly.

ZD Hobby has brought together a group of motor aspects of enterprise management, quality management, production management, and technology to develop professional talents;Through strict management, good faith service, the company won a number of long-term and stable customers; our products conform to the requirements of the EU environmental standards (ROHS) and exported to Europe, America, Japan, southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries and regions. products are exported to the United States, Europe, Japan and other developed countries."

I get an impression that zd-racing may be the manufacturers behind several other massproduced rc-cars. Perhaps even brands such as Traxxas and HPI? Because there isn't a clear overview of what brand uses what factory, it's all an unclear mix of mysterious manufacturers hiding in the mist of Dongguan, which seems to be the center of rc-toy production.

Remembering how RC has evolved over the past 50 years I've been around, I remember Robbe, Hirobo, Thunder Tiger along the most popular like Tamiya and Kyosho. How lovely it would be with some more insight in this industry and its evolution. It seems as the process of plastic-injection put a real spin on this hobby with stuff from Traxxas, HPI, MST and others taking over sales around the world. Not to forget all the third party spares  manufacturing and option parts of metal and various aluminium, to upgrade the plastics! And that's bashing or track racing only, then there's RC4WD with their super scale all metal kits and licensed bodies for the more adventurous and scale enthusiasts. It's almost like the real car bussiness!

There was a clone of the Tamiya Brusier that came out 4 or 5 years ago. 
I’m not sure if you can still get them, I’ve also seen a version of the Holiday Buggy, although I think the chassis was a bit more you grade.
I suspect Tamiya are quick to close these down judging by their approach to some of the people making repro parts, I’m thinking the guy that used to do the excellent Blazing Blazer tyres.

Yes, I remember that Bruiser. I wonder how they could keep it selling for as long as they did.

And I also remember some similar looking rc-cars back in the 90's that resembled the Tamiya models. But they were mostly cheaper look-alikes.

 

A quick Google and this popped up.
This has been sold for a year or so now.
 

Also the HG P407 which is the Bruiser clone. I have had a couple and the quality is very good, the 3 speed actually shifts better in my opinion than the Tamiya.

I did a comparison of the bodies and the mold lines are in different places telling me they have their own mold etc. 

Tires and rims appear to be exact matches. At nearly $900 retail for the Tamiya its no surprise they sold thousands of these knock offs, I got mine for $200 in kit form. Great bashers and with MCI decals you can run without worrying about destroying something rare.....

BTW: Totally wrong to rip someone off like that, just commenting on quality....

"I did a comparison of the bodies and the mold lines are in different places telling me they have their own mold etc. "

- Then it wasn't enough alike for Tamiya to win any legal battle? I'm positive that they tried to sue. The truck looks alot like Tamiya's. They should, and probably could, do it more different to make it stand out from the original somewhat more.

"Totally wrong to rip someone off like that, just commenting on quality...."

- Yes. But that is actually how evolution and development works in large. Besides creating an exclusive patent like several of the awesome designs from Tamiya, a great lot of what Tamiya is / was doing has been copying real vehicles, making models of them. If that's not copying .. what is? Then again so do most in this industry too. Looking at the crawlers, even the basic rally chassis look very similar to each other. One can argue that "they copied Tamiya's TT01 and TT02", but how many more ways are there to manufacture a toy car? Either there's independant suspension, one or two solid axles, and that's the base for any four wheeled vehicle. Just like household appliances, how many ways can you make a washing machine? Anything else is licenses and body styles, maybe certain proprietary functions which may get patented. Even so a patent isn't worldwide, mostly it's only within a country.

Academy made copies of the grasshopper 1 especially a copy of the hummer when the tamiya humvee first release has been sold. and another did it for the tl01. 

Also I think of the fact that often a clone can have several improvements over the original. I'm thinking in the case of my Verdikt 1/8 which is pretty similar to Axial's Yeti. Since the Yeti isn't made anymore, HSP (or Redcat?) started to make this Verdikt (Camo x4), which I'd call "Yeti Eco". Cheaper design with less parts and definitely simpler, but just a fun to drive. I'd say that is an improvement over Axial's original Yeti. It's not an exact copy / clone, but it's very close under a quick glance, and if the patent has run out, original not available, then I think it's a fair blessing that a 'clone' of it is made.

Also the word "clone" isn't correct in my case as the Verdikt isn't cloned or copied. Looking at details, and at the body, you see that someone has re-designed the vehicle from scratch, only to appear as Yeti from outside. It's not as if someone stole the molds from Axial and did a re-run like Tamiya and Kyosho did back in 2014 with their re-releases.

I'd guess that even if the Verdikt 1/8 would be made during the same period as the original Yeti, Axial wouldn't find a way to sue HSP / Redcat for stealing their design.

Here's a "clone", or what I've seen people call it on the internet.



It's the prequel to what I bought recently. Here's the later, cheaper version without gears and with the colorful body.