Fake Dapol Products

[Bernard Lamb]

8 hours ago, ColinB said:

I suppose the thing is, can Dapol tell. If they are copies they should be able to tell immediately. Dapol locos aren't that expensive anyway compared to Hornby so why copy them, there is more mileage in doing a copy of a Hornby Dublo Flying Scotsman at £499 a go. 

Of course Dapol can tell these from the kosher stuff.

Just check for the 'cast iron' instead of mazac, or whatever alloy Dapol specify.😀

Bernard

[Oldddudders]

I find Aliexpress offering me Piko locomotives, at what I imagine are good discounts. But while the electric and diesel models look like modern production, the two or three steam models look decidedly old-school and lacking in C21 superdetail, and their prices are far from pocket-money. None is to my taste anyway, nor my choice of prototype. . 

[adb968008]

4 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

An unfathomable amount of equipment dating back to the 1950s is still in use and needs spare parts. In the 90s the factories discovered they could also sell valves to hobbyists in the West who, by most reports, consider them to be very high quality. 

Cheap, disposable, available in vast quantities, doesn't need high tech to perform, works in wide variety of poor conditions, easy to fix in poor conditions, standardised.

 

 

Edited April 8 by adb968008

[jjb1970]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

I find Aliexpress offering me Piko locomotives, at what I imagine are good discounts. But while the electric and diesel models look like modern production, the two or three steam models look decidedly old-school and lacking in C21 superdetail, and their prices are far from pocket-money. None is to my taste anyway, nor my choice of prototype. . 

 

I find Piko on AliExpress can be crazily expensive,  European models in general. Perhaps counterintuitive, Chinese outline HO is also expensive relative to British outline OO, though standards tend to be exceptionally high these days.

[Hal Nail]

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

Cheap, disposable, available in vast quantities, doesn't need high tech to perform, works in wide variety of poor conditions, easy to fix in poor conditions, standardised.

my first car was a 25 year old humber sceptre. Walnut dash and overdrve but kept cutting out. The AA man said to me, whilst peering under the bonnet, one advantage is it only has 5 moving parts :)

[Steamport Southport]

On 06/04/2024 at 18:54, Phil Parker said:

 

It's all here - https://pages.ebay.co.uk/authenticity-guarantee-seller/

 

 

Get over yourself. If you think the company will splash millions on looking at every listing, then sending the goods to an expert to check authenticity, because some bloke on a forum challenged them, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.  As I've linked above, there is a procedure for high-value goods, but that doesn't include Hornby Dublo or any other toy train. And if it did, we can only imagine the howls of protest as the delivery of said toys was held up, and the buyer landed with a bill for the authentication.

 

 

Welcome to the free market economy. I assume you always vote communist.

 

Returning to the OP, has anyone worked out how much you would save buying a dodgy Dapol loco? A quick look at the prices suggests that by the time your postman has extracted the import duty from you on the doorstep (and you have headed to Facebook to have your tantrum about being taxed, whilst also moaning that your roads have potholes), the saving isn't really worth the effort. Now I know we are in a hobby where people scrabble around to save pennies, uninterested in the "big picture" damage they have already done to model shops etc., but I really don't see it's worth the trouble. It's not like Dapol stuff isn't pretty keenly priced anyway.

 

I'm afraid you have misquoted me and I'm very angry that you assume I vote Communist or any other political party.

 

I think an apology is in order.

 

 

Jason

[Steamport Southport]

What I did pop into this thread to mention was after looking at one of these models on eBay, not even actually watching, I received this message and offer of 5% discount.

 

Quote

Hi,My friend, Thanks for your interest. we can offer another off price to you, please have a check, you may interesting. Any questions please contact. Thanks! NOTE: If your delivery address in EU,UK, US, Australia, as the ebay policy, the tatal shoule be: item price+ VAT tax. Please refer to the amount on your payment page. Bestregards

 

 

I can assure you I won't be taking the offer up.

 

 

Jason

[Phil Parker]

40 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

I'm afraid you have misquoted me and I'm very angry that you assume I vote Communist or any other political party.

 

I think an apology is in order.

 

 

Jason

 

You are right, the quote about profit should have been attributed to the Johnster - no idea why it wasn't, but I apologise for the error.

 

However, I won't apologise for suggesting that anyone take part in a democratic process that millions have fought and died to support. Indeed I'd expect someone to be more upset if I suggested that they disrespected those people, and didn't vote.

[john new]

On 07/04/2024 at 11:05, andyman7 said:

 

The Airfix moulds have been to various places, for many years after Haldane Place closed the kits were made by Heller in France. Nowadays most Airfix kits are made in India but there are other locations that get used (occasionally UK as well). Making plastic kit is vey different to making an RTR loco, the process consists of moulding, breaking down the sprues to 'box' size (newer moulds generally have the frames set to the box size to aid this) and boxing with instructions and transfers. There isn't the skilled assembly and soldering requirement so kit making is still pretty well dispersed across the globe.

 

Frankly if you need some screws and they're 99p shipped 'shopping around' is likely more effort than its worth

Until you try tightening them up.

[Colin_McLeod]

I thought the "No politics" rule was still in place. 

[2E Sub Shed]

On 08/04/2024 at 10:42, Hal Nail said:

my first car was a 25 year old humber sceptre. Walnut dash and overdrve but kept cutting out. The AA man said to me, whilst peering under the bonnet, one advantage is it only has 5 moving parts :)

So was mine, in 1982 and it was old then, left at a garage after suffering a major lack of oil in engine.

Edited April 9 by 2E Sub Shed

[Roddy Angus]

1 hour ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

So was mine, in 1982 and it was old then, left at a garage after suffering a major lack of oil in engine.

As was mine, a 1972 model.  I still miss it as it was fun to drive, mind you, I fitted a Holbay engine and reworked the gearbox/overdrive and suspension.  The sound that the twin Weber 40 DCOEs made was fantastic.  Unfortunately, like most 70s cars, the tin worm did for it and it began to bend in the middle.  I sold it to someone I knew who wanted the engine and gearbox for a rally car.

 

Roddy

 

 

 

[Hal Nail]

2 hours ago, Roddy Angus said:

As was mine, a 1972 model.  I still miss it as it was fun to drive, mind you, I fitted a Holbay engine and reworked the gearbox/overdrive and suspension.  The sound that the twin Weber 40 DCOEs made was fantastic.  Unfortunately, like most 70s cars, the tin worm did for it and it began to bend in the middle.  I sold it to someone I knew who wanted the engine and gearbox for a rally car.

 

Roddy

 

 

 

Funnily enough despite knowing nothing about cars, after numerous breakdowns I fixed it myself in the end by splicing in a fuel filter. I think the coating on the fuel tank was flaking off and blocking the carbs.

 

Having got it working I then blew the head gasket. Bought an old Hillman Hunter for the engine which I had put in the Humber but it was hopelessly prone to overheating and in the end I gave up and gave it back to a garage. I did see it on the road once later on.

 

When it worked it was very smooth. Sort of glided along!

[John M Upton]

I did the same error of looking at the Dapol Facebook thread on the subject.  Good grief, that place really is the wild west of social media!!!!

[pete_mcfarlane]

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

I did the same error of looking at the Dapol Facebook thread on the subject.  Good grief, that place really is the wild west of social media!!!!

BuT wHy WoNt Dapol pOsT tHe LiNk To ThE cHeAp FaKeS sO i CaN aVoId ThEm? 

 

 

 

 

[AY Mod]

31 minutes ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

BuT wHy WoNt Dapol pOsT tHe LiNk To ThE cHeAp FaKeS sO i CaN aVoId ThEm? 

 

Certainly pathetically transparent and worthy of getting duped.

[john new]

36 minutes ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

BuT wHy WoNt Dapol pOsT tHe LiNk To ThE cHeAp FaKeS sO i CaN aVoId ThEm? 

Isn't the answer blindingly obvious? More will go for the low prices via the link than then avoid the site. Just buy via the normal UK retailers or from Dapol direct. As others have mentioned it is a bit down the line when the issue will really bite, these grey area purchases have been sold on, and need a repair of some kind. I have said grey area as I don't know whether they are unauthorised overruns or "replicas" made with alternative parts and QC standards. Either way Dapol lose out which isn't good news.

[pete_mcfarlane]

39 minutes ago, john new said:

Isn't the answer blindingly obvious? 

Not to people on Facebook it isn't.  If you look at the post on Dapol's page it's full of people demanding to be told exactly what to 'avoid'...

 

(And in fairness, there are some people talking sense on there as well). 

Edited April 9 by pete_mcfarlane

[John M Upton]

3 minutes ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

(And in fairness, there are some people talking sense on there as well). 

 

Definitely the exception rather than the rule....

[jjb1970]

I wonder if Dapol's notice isn't a form of the Streisand effect. If the issue hadn't been raised I suspect few would have noticed. UK customers who did find the seller would probably do the math to add VAT and the handling charge and decide they'd be better off buying from a UK dealer (or in the EU from their German dealer). They're not actually that cheap, it's a good discount if you are not liable for VAT but if added the prices don't seem out of the ordinary for retailer discounted prices. For some Dapol enthusiasts outside the UK and Europe it is different as their sales tax may be much lower or even zero and with free shipping these will be very attractively priced but I suspect that is a marginal market for UK outline O and not enough to make it worth the interest of Chinese sellers. For those buyers the warranty issue may also be much less important given the hassle of returning models. Now however the seller has been getting loads of exposure, despite not being identified it should take less than a minute for anyone with a functioning brain cell to find the things. I get why Dapol have done it but I think it may have been more effective to stay quiet in public and engage with the factory in private.

[Andy Hayter]

Unless of course they have already done that.

 

There will be much going on that we will never be party to.

[JSpencer]

10 hours ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

BuT wHy WoNt Dapol pOsT tHe LiNk To ThE cHeAp FaKeS sO i CaN aVoId ThEm? 

 

They made it blatantly clear that they do not supply shops etc... selling out of China and such things won't be protected by Dapol.

So IF someone is selling Dapol and they are based in China, then it is not Dapol.

 

And you can always check to see if they a bonafida stockist here: https://www.Dapol.co.uk/pages/store-locator-1

 

Furthermore, posting actual links probably puts them into direct accusation. Likewise scammers can create links faster than anyone else can report them.

[TheQ]

You can buy from the UK and find it's a copy from elsewhere, I bought something from a UK seller "UK made" item..

When it arrived under the UK label was the original made in Pakistan label.

 

Some years ago when doing a summer job we were called into the receiving warehouse to witness the opening of a case of whisky bottles.. three were missing from the sealed case. So you can guarantee 3 bottles from that case left the Bells factory by the back door.

[Oldddudders]

39 minutes ago, TheQ said:

You can buy from the UK and find it's a copy from elsewhere, I bought something from a UK seller "UK made" item..

When it arrived under the UK label was the original made in Pakistan label.

 

Some years ago when doing a summer job we were called into the receiving warehouse to witness the opening of a case of whisky bottles.. three were missing from the sealed case. So you can guarantee 3 bottles from that case left the Bells factory by the back door.

"Just have three afore ye go!"

[Mark Saunders]

40 minutes ago, TheQ said:

You can buy from the UK and find it's a copy from elsewhere, I bought something from a UK seller "UK made" item..

When it arrived under the UK label was the original made in Pakistan label.

 

Some years ago when doing a summer job we were called into the receiving warehouse to witness the opening of a case of whisky bottles.. three were missing from the sealed case. So you can guarantee 3 bottles from that case left the Bells factory by the back door.

Missing from a case is theft, however a full case can be lost in transit!

Edited April 10 by Mark Saunders
A case became academy under spell check