nitrosportsandrunner

I was recently in texas (southern texas) and at a toy store in a mall I saw on a top shelf a box with a HPI E firestorm 10t. but when I turned the box around, it was some ugly, crappy $10 RC. It wasn't shaped like a stadium truck, or even like a real vehicle. some light up, clear plastic wheels with a strange space ship like body. Utter crap.

so I look at the back of the box again, and this time notice that the HPI on the hood of the truck says HPH. The side still says E firestorm 10t and the picture looked to be taken from a legit box or advertising art.

1st, I don't see how they get away with this

2nd, I don't see how they think putting a picture of a hobby grade rc....that has NOTHING in common with the rc in the box will help them sell the piece of crap.

Anyone else seen anything like that? I wish id had my phone on me, I would have taken pics. Even tho they photoshopped HPI to HPH it still says E firestorm 10t and was certainly a picture of that model. That must break some copyright laws.

SyCo_VeNoM

that toy store probably had a pile of knockoffs

like 10-15 years ago Walgreens used to sell counterfeit Transformer toys (I used to collect them a 10 years ago) where in China the makers went, and made molds off of the originals. The quality was not the worst, but it was made pretty crappy in comparison to the original.

nitrosportsandrunner

not that it was right, but at least it made sense in that case. counterfeit transformers are one thing, and I understand why those companies do that. the picture below is not of the rc that was in that store, but it is very similar. seriously, it in no way reflects the stadium truck on the box! It is not like someone is going to look at the box and think "sweet, a lower priced HPI firestorm".
Why risk getting sued when the picture/name you are wrongfully using will not even help sell the item?

SyCo_VeNoM

Reasoning is simple the maker is a Chinese fly by night company. The Transformer knockoffs were just one thing, I've seen plenty of companies pull stuff like that for videogames I've seen "Sony PSP's" on ebay that were some cheap chinese knockoff that were in actuality some cheap old school LCD game hell here is a site http://www.ign.com/blogs/brigittoix/...ool-you-or-not

collector1231

My Feedback: (1)

Also fake GPUs; http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Plane...660941194.html

They are locked-down GTS 250s, lol.

Maj_Overdrive

My Feedback: (11)

It's ridiculous, there's knockoff RC-Monster Slipperentials out there and the purple Castle motor knockoffs that were on ModelsportUK. I forget the name of the company doing the purple Castle knockoffs but they were claiming they were the same motor produced in the same factory. Had a lot of people fooled too since they looked exactly the same except for the color, even had "Castle" lettering on the wires. The only Castle could do was file a complaint in china and threaten legal action against ModelsportUK for distributing counterfeit goods.

FYI Castle motors are made in China by a subsidiary completely owned and controlled by Castle. That subsidiary makes Castle products and that's it. It's in China due to China's high export taxes on raw rare earth metals like neodymium making it impossible to assemble them in the US.

turok007

some big company's buy the rights to some items then raise the price. but the original company keep selling it lol so you have to really think before you call something a cheap ripoff.

SyCo_VeNoM

Well we weren't talking about that. Your example would be how HPI sells those thunder chargers for 3-5X more then you can get them from their OEM, or how they charge more for flysky systems with a HPI sticker on it.
We were talking about pure low quality knockoffs, or deceptively advertised things like the crappy truck in a knockoff HPI Firestorm box.

turok007

well i was sort of replying the the post above mine. lol

SyCo_VeNoM

ahh k why I always quote

Maj_Overdrive

My Feedback: (11)

The RC-Monster Slipperentials was designed and developed by RC-Monster and another individual who sold all rights to RC-Monster. The counterfeits are the reason for the warning about counterfeits on the RC-Momster home page. There's also a thread there detailing all of it.

As as for the Castle and Sirrus purple copies (I remembered the name) there is also a thread about it on RC-Monster where Castle has their own subforum where the founder and CEO along with a couple other reps post. There is also a closed thread on ModelsportUK about it where ModelsportUK, Sirrus and Castle all posted. Last I checked Sirrus changed the can design slightly but still used the same exact dimensions, kv ratings and size nomenclature (ie 1515,1717 etc) as Castle. There's also a thread on RC-Monster detailing the wholly owned and controlled Castle subsidiary and factory in China. Castle only makes Castle motors and the ones they rebrand for HPI, Traxxas, not sure if they still make motors for Duratrax and Dynamite as I don't pay much attention to the 1/10 stuff. Either way Castle is the OE, they don't sell their designs and in fact they actually pay Steve Neu to use his designs in Castle motors.