Deadeye

http://www.nitroplanes.com/arfce182arfs.html

Hmmm...I just built a TF 182, and my N numbers are the same. And what is this? A $120 ARF with flaps, corrugations, etc.? I'd be hopping mad if I were Top Flite/Great Planes.

JNorton

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It's a CMP Cessna 182. Fiberglass fuse. We have two at our club. Neither have flown yet. Good looking planes.
John

da Rock

Funny????

If you look at NitroPains' front page, where it shows some of their offerings, look at the FockeWulf FW. Look like a BF109 to you?

Toy manufacturers really ought to do better homework before branching out into other "toy" lines.

Isn't NitroPlanes the new name for Raidentech?

BasinBum

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Look again, the flaps and corrugations are on the real plane not the model which is listed as "4 channel". It's a $120 model and I doubt is the same quality as the GP version, one truism in this hobby is you get what you pay for.

da Rock

These people are the ones who're offering a slightly cheaper .46Ultimate. It's apparently the very same ARF that World Models sells, only it's got a few things left out of the box and a fairly weak cabane structure. The cabane design and a few other things suggests that Nitro is actually just the clearing house for seconds or maybe for the initial run of kits that they discover have design flaws.

You know, sometimes you DON'T get what you pay for, even when you pay less.

RCVFR

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Inreresting point: these folks show a photo of the model and also a photo of "another" plane (full scale?). Maybe a touch misleading? Some of their other offerings illustrations also lead to the question of what do you actually get when you buy one?

Deadeye

Guys, the pictures of the 182 I'm referring to are pictures of the Top Flite 182 SCALE airplane. The N number is N735PE, the same number packaged with the Top Flite Gold Edition.

Pic #1 is the TF, with the N number photo chopped out.
Pic #2 is the same picture TF has on their website.
All the bottom flying pictures are the Top Flite 182, not their cheap knock off.

They are passing the gorgeous Top Flite off as their own. Do you see what I mean now?

BasinBum

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You are right! What I first thought was "the real plane" is indeed a model. It didn't occur to me that they would stoop so low as to use another model in their ad. Maybe they think they are showing a comparison to a more expensive model but it is really misleading to the point of being outright deceptive advertising.

I have a theory that the better looking the girl in the ad the better the product, successful companies can afford higher priced models. I will extend that theory to include companies that have to use pictures of other companies planes to have the inverse relationship to quality .

JNorton

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Very interesting! The picture inside the box is the "real" CMP. Notice the lack of farings on the bottom of the wing strut and the different N number. I'd be honked if I was Great Planes too, but it looks like nitro planes added the Top Flight pictures not CMP.
John

Deadeye

I have notified Top Flite about this matter. Hopefully they can get these guys to remove the pictures.

scottrc

I too noticed that picture, along with the pictures of a full scale 182 flying when I first went to their site. I thought about how pathetic and cheap these guy must be and would not do business with these clowns.

I'm glad you went to TF about this. All we need is somebody abusing model copyrights in a already volatile subject in regards to copyrights and full scale manufacturers.

Scott

tailskid

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Jim said: "Inreresting point: these folks show a photo of the model and also a photo of "another" plane (full scale?). Maybe a touch misleading? Some of their other offerings illustrations also lead to the question of what do you actually get when you buy one?"

Wasn't this STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE for Royal kits? Never did see one look like the box top

Deadeye

Right you are, tailskid. The big difference here is they are using a better, more expensive KIT and passing it off as pics of their cheap ARF.

love those warbirds

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I did notice some Jap writing or something in a few of them. They probluy just copied us...agin. Only made it crappier and cheaper.[:@]

BasinBum

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At what age did you drop out of school? Just wondering.

love those warbirds

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nope, still in school. Doing alright. Getting A’s in business and Goverment.[8D]

BasinBum

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That's amazing because when you combine your lack of spelling with the racial slur your post is one of the dumbest I have seen in a long time.

love those warbirds

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Well I'm glad I can make it on your list of dumbest posts......... Again. You have made some records in my books too.

JNorton

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love those warbirds
CMP is China Model Products. The comment about the Japanese copying us was uncalled for, as was the derogatory term you used. It's an unfortunate fact that the Japanese far from copying us are in fact beating us at our own game in many markets. Right now if they stopped supplying us IC chips we would have a real problem keeping our military aircraft in the air.

As far as the CMP model goes. I've seen two of them in person, one was obviously better covered than the other but both planes looked well built and were well worth the $115. The detail on the fuselage and wing was decently done. Not scale award winning but better than I can do.

The use of Great Planes pictures on the NitroPlanes web site is deplorable which is what the posting was originally about.
John

love those warbirds

My Feedback: (39)

Fine let me change it. Chinese . I have had very bad experiences with these companies that make money of us by supplying us with cheaply built models. I'm not going to start anything thats just IMO.

JNorton

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Fine but try not to indite a race of people while your doing it. They don't call us ugly Americans for nothing.

EDIT-> Wouldn't have been just as easy to say shoddily built airplanes and leave it at that?

John

BasinBum

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Don't you mean Chinks? Maybe when you graduate you can get a job in business or government and put your racial sensitivites and spelling skills to good use.

And how are you getting A's in a class when you can't even spell the name of the class?

Cyclic Hardover

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Talk about misleading, about 20 years ago, I briefly touched Radio Control. I ordered a plane out of a catalog. When it arrived it was a box of wood! What the heck is that all about?

EASYTIGER

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Ever stop to think that this IS the Top Flite ARF Cessna 182? Same factory, same molds? Pretty much SOP for these Chinese ARF companies to send a second production run out the back door to be sold, unbranded, through other channels. Often with minor detail differences, cheaper hardware and such...
That's the price of doing your manufacturing overseas. It happens EVERY time. But that comes with the turf...Great Planes is getting those kits for fifty bucks or whatever and marking them up hugely. They don't seem to be going out of business anytime soon...their HQ in Illinois is a LOT nicer than the HQ of the ARF people in China. GP makes the lion's share of the money. All the American companies lie like rugs about their markups being so teeny. It's baloney.
Part of the deal for getting labor for $200 per person per month is that the Chinese will take whatever advantage they can, like running a second shift off your molds and making up a couple of hundred unbranded arfs from your tooling and selling them out the back door. Deal with it. GP and everybody else KNOWS the score when they go there with their designs.
They have no respect whatsoever for intellectual property rights. Everybody knows that. You will have to forgive the Chinese if they don't get all misty-eyed over it...it was not that long ago that we started a war there to maintain the right to sell them opium. For real. They don't beleive in our moral superiority!

Did they swipe some pictures? Sure! They do that all the time! Constantly!

Sooooo...you can buy the knockoff for less, or you can pay a bit more and get Great Planes' service and support. Your pays your money and you takes your chances.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Something like that...someone like GP or World might demand a certain quality level or finish and pay a little more. And quite often, the US company did NOT even DESIGN the model at all. A lot of these ARFs are designed in China by Chinese modellers and only marketed by US companies.