New ’OEM’ knock offs?

[Admin]

I haven’t seen anyone describe these before so here goes:

Nacamchi: These come in a blister pack with a couple of practice cones or barriers. They have a spacey looking controller with a switch that gives you 2 speeds. Interesting. The bodies are large and clumbsy compared to the Bits. The circuit board is huge so the bodies have to be larger to accommodate them which makes them look pretty stupid. There are only 3 body variations – a saloon car, a van and a station wagon that looks a bit like an 82 Lada. There are 1 or two colour variations – all metalic. The only good thing I could see is that the spoke wheels are nicely molded and the tires look good – no flash like on some of the other OEMs. Nicad batteries. I test drove one and it handled worse than my Bullets. Which is pretty bad. They had a huge turning circle – epscially on the high speed setting. This could perhaps be remedied with softer tires. At $30sing each, they’re more expensive than the Bullets ($18sing) and nearly as pricey as the real Bits ($40sing).

No brand: This lot has a grey controller and come in a very small square package. The car sits on face of the controller between the two toggles. It looks like a kid’s toy – there’s not a lot of detail, the paint’s not great (but better than the Bullets) and the wheels are white. I’m not sure but they seemed to have oversize tires or something. They looked puffy – real anime stuff, no attempt at realism. the box didn’t seem to have a brand name at all, although like all the others, they come out of China. No test drive information. Price $20sing.

Nick

[Admin]

Nick

Any chance of you sneaking a camera into the shop for a photo or two? I’m keen to take a look at the offering! A pic that shows the distributor or importer name would be very handy!

Do you think the retailer would do a one-off mail-order to Australia? Please feel free to pass on my email address derek@ausmicro.com to the manager if you reckon there’s a chance they would.

Like all of the copies/OEMs/ODMs etc, I like to get hold of at least one to test, disect and report on. It can be an expensive, and at times disappointive, job – but someone’s gotta do it :smiley2:

Thanks and regards

Derek

[Admin]

Hi Derek,

I’ll see what I can do. I thought of buying at least one of each at the time but then I thought someone may have already spotted them elsewhere and I’m on a limited budget. At the least I’ll try to sneak a picture.

Then again, maybe I should start a collection – there are so many different knockoffs here. And it’s quite amusing to see their half-arsed attempts at copying things. They have some classic stickers on the cars – one I bought recently had ‘TOP HOLE’ emblazened accross the bonnet and a set of ‘Modile’ stickers that looked suspiciously like those of that famous petrol retailer we all know and love :smiley2:

Nick.

[Admin]

Derek,

I snuck my 007 spy video camera into a store over the weekend, as soon as I can plug into computer with firewire, I’ll add pictures to this post.

Nick

[Author]

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