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Kyosho OEM Versions

5K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  SiNutt 
#1 ·
Well I got my Murcielago R GT, Nissan GT-R OEM versions and the Nurburgring LFA. LFA has Kyosho name plastered all over it and looks like a nice mainline casting. The Lamborghini and Nissan do not have the Kyosho name anywhere on car or package. The two cars are to my surprise very high quality much like the Pagani was. The Lamborghini has colored seats and antenna on the roof. Nissan has excellent detail. Both cars are superior to mainline versions. I was hesitant to get these cars because I thought they would just be rehashes in different colors but I was wrong.

I got the cars from H-hobby at a pretty decent price
 
#2 · (Edited)
I just got 3 sets yesterday from a seller based in Shanghai and they are definitely high quality products. All of them had nice paint job, painted seats, rear view mirror, and interior details, etc... detail and quality that you'd expect from Kyosho or Minichamps.

So far I have the 7 colors Lamborghini R-GT set, and the 12 colors Pagani Huayra, Porsche 911 Carrera S, and BMW X6 sets. My only complain was that there was a loose front seat in one of the BMW and one of the 911 was missing a tail light insert. I was able to repair the seat in the BMW since the chassis is screwed on. As for the missing tail light it probably fell out before the car was packaged.

Here are some of my observations:
The outer package box has a nice raised emblem for the logos of BMW, Porsche, and Pagani. There are no other info printed on the box.

The BMW X6 is identical to the Hot Works release but with a different wheel. The chassis has no manufacturer ID, but the outer box does seem to be designed as a dealership promo item saying "BMW Premium Vehicle Owner Collection" and a similar line in Chinese.

The Lamborghini R-GT does not match any of the previous Kyosho Lamborghini cars as far as I can tell, but the chassis does have a Kyosho stamp.

The Pagani Huayra and the 911 Carrera S seems to be brand new casting on the market. There is no manufacturer stamp on the chassis but the base plates of both cars have a Kyosho stamp on it. Perhaps they are re-using the molding of the display stands?

My seller tells me that these cars are intended for the Chinese domestic market and that the factory wants to expand their business by selling cars of their own tooling. We'll probably never find out the background stories of these cars or whether or not if they are legit, but I think they are still highly collectible due to their quality, subject matter, and rarity. They serve as great alternatives to the Kyosho cars and I hope we'll continue to see more in the future.
 
#5 ·
You were right on the Lamborghini Josh. It does have Kyosho on the base and the baseplate of the car. The Nissan has nothing.
Not a business type guy but I can't follow the logic of these being cars to see in Chinese market. If Kyosho wanted to break in that market why would they not advertise who they are? When I first saw these unmarked cars I was thinking they were made for the auto dealers.
 
#6 ·
The eBay sellers plus various Chinese dealers on Chinese websites seems to promote them as dealership only diecast cars. This might make sense if they are unmarked. One of the good example is the 1/64 Subaru WRX that came out last year as dealership promos had no markings of any kind except the name of the car and the made in China stamp. The box does have your typical legally required product description in Japanese. An in terms of breaking into the Chinese market, I was referring to the factory itself, not Kyosho as a brand. But yes, it still doesn't make any sense that they are not really promoting themselves.

As for the future release of these multi-colored sets there will be VW T1 buses too.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Latest Kyosho OEM cars can be found at this Chinese blog:

http://www.modelclub.cn/forumdisplay.php?fid=11&page=1&filter=type&typeid=48

They include Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV, Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, and Ferrari 458 Italia GT2. Interestingly, the 458 has a Mattel label and a typo where Italia is spelled with a L.

Based on the pictures the quality look excellent and had added details like reflective rear view mirrors and painted engines. Hard to tell from the pictures, but the tires looks to be better sized.
 
#10 ·
Mattel does have Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 in larger scales (1/43 and 1/18), but a search on Google didn't turn up any in 1/64. I wonder if the typo is done on purpose so they can sell it as "defective" or a "rejected" product? I can't imagine that Mattel would let them take advantage of their exclusive license that easily. Even Kyosho had to get around it by selling Ferrari cars as an assembly kit.
 
#11 ·
Friend was telling me that one story he heard is that these cars are coming out of factory that Kyosho used to use but are not technically coming from Kyosho. We discussed this before with the last batch of OEM. Did anyone ever find out exact story on these OEM?
 
#12 ·
I heard similar story too... This factory used to produce cars for Kyosho, but not anymore, at least not now. I still don't think they are fully legitimate seeing how little information is printed on their boxes. However I don't think I'll complain given that they are offering excellent products.
 
#14 ·
A while back I tried asking a major seller from Hong Kong about the "OEM Factory", but the answer I got was very vague.

Recently I was talking about it with a close friend, maybe the same one as you Atencio, and his thoughts were this (from his own experiences and dealings):

"...it's probably a subcontracted factory where Kyosho models are made, but in order to give the staff something to do in their down time, they're doing their own models too. So they're used to Kyosho quality and molding techniques, and use Kyosho bases and cases. ...the licensing is ignored... "

So yeah, I think it's some sort of underground production/marketing that brings the factory in extra money without the licensing & other costs. I have no idea how things are legally (or illegally) done wherever that factory is located, but I'm sure certain legal issues aren't enforced very well.

I have some Toyota 86 cars on order from a legit shop from Japan, they're said to be a brand called 'Oversteer'. There are also some Toyota 86 coming from the OEM factory - I don't have any of them on order, but I sure would like to see them side-by-side for comparison.
 
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