Fake and reissued model kits: what makers say, what hobbyists report, how to check used kits

Beginners tend to lose out on counterfeits, reissues and used kits in three ways. They buy a fake and get no support. They take a reissue for a first issue and pay a premium. Or the used kit that arrives has missing parts or has already been built. The claims here come from two kinds of source. One is the pages of makers and second-hand platforms, which state their own rules. The other is posts by hobbyists on model forums, which report personal experience.

The two kinds carry different weight. An official page states a rule. A forum post is one person's account, and a few posts that agree show only that a situation exists, not that it is the norm. So every claim from a forum is worded as "some players say" or "on such-and-such forum", and the source list tags it "community source".

Most makers' websites have no page on how to spot a fake. Batch marks on the box and revision numbers on the instruction sheet are not explained on any official page, and no reliable general rule turned up on the forums either. This article does not cover them.

Official statements on counterfeits

Only two makers have a page on this that could be found, and the scope of both is narrow.

In 2017 Tamiya issued a notice saying that imitations of its Mini 4WD (ミニ四駆) products were in circulation. They are not made by Tamiya, yet some use Tamiya's logo and product names. The notice says Tamiya takes no responsibility for imitations, that customer service cannot exchange defective ones, and that they cannot be used in Tamiya-run events ¹. The notice covers Mini 4WD only, not scale kits.

Kotobukiya (壽屋) has a dedicated page, 偽造品（海賊品）情報 ("counterfeit (pirated) goods information"). It says fakes of both genuine Kotobukiya products and parallel imports are on sale on online auctions and shops, that many of them may fall short of the quality standard needed for actual use, that fakes are excluded from support, and that it recommends using genuine products ². A separate 2023 notice is about third-party products. Some claim to be compatible with Kotobukiya's series, and some clearly copy its designs. They are sold in shops and auctions at home and abroad, and in person-to-person sales over social media. Compatibility is not guaranteed, they may not meet Kotobukiya's safety and quality standards, and Kotobukiya is not responsible for trouble that comes from combining them with other products ³.

Both state plainly that fakes get no support. So if you buy from a source you can't trace, the main risk is that nobody will help when something goes wrong, besides the poor quality. For Revell, Airfix, Eduard, Hasegawa, Meng and similar brands, no comparable official page turned up. Not finding one proves nothing either way, so no conclusion is drawn here.

What forum players say about counterfeits

Among the English-language forum threads searched, almost nobody discusses whole-box counterfeits of mainstream injection-moulded kits. On the Finescale Modeler forum, one player comparing plastic kits with jewellery and clothing said a plastic kit is hard to counterfeit ⁴. In another thread someone said plastic models aren't easy to fake and are cheap to begin with ⁵. On Tamiyaclub, a player analysing Tamiya's RC spare parts said that to make a complete fake kit you would have to produce every part, which doesn't pay at small volumes, so counterfeiters mostly aren't interested ⁶.

The counterfeits that forums do mention mostly fall into these groups:

• Knock-offs of RC kits. One player said these usually change the box art and the name to avoid copyright, and that he had never seen one sold as a genuine Tamiya ⁷.
• Resin or figure copies cast from an original. Some players say the casting seller's page shows the original box art, but what arrives is a photocopy of the art and a plain box ⁸.
• Copycat brands from the past. Veteran players recalled the Korean Idea brand of the late 1980s, saying it directly recast the sprues of Hasegawa, Tamiya, Italeri and others, copied the box art and put its own logo on it ⁹.

On price, a player on Tamiyaclub saw a batch of RC kits priced absurdly low, all from new seller accounts ⁷. In the thread about resin copies, one player said a big price drop is usually the clearest giveaway ⁸. But later in the Tamiyaclub thread, players reported that the problem with those cheap listings was that the sellers never shipped, and they applied for refunds ⁷. So the practical risk of an absurdly low price is more often non-delivery than receiving a fake.

How to read a reissue

A reissue is when a kit that went out of production is made and sold again. Some makers label this clearly on their websites, and some don't.

Tamiya sorts its products into four classes, 定番, 特別販売, 特別企画 and 限定, and the class is shown at the top of each product page ¹⁰. Three points bear directly on reissues. 特別販売 includes products that were out of production being made again (formerly called スポット再販, "spot reissue"), and they are not kept in continuous production the way 定番 is. 特別企画 products are made again after an interval following the first production run. 限定 products end when the quantity or period is reached and are not made again ¹⁰. The page also warns that some older out-of-production products have not yet been given a class ¹⁰. The four classes are explained in more detail in "How to read a model kit box and instructions".

Hasegawa's monthly new-products page puts a separate 再販 (reissue) tag on an entry, alongside the scale, product name and product number ¹¹. So on Hasegawa's monthly pages you can tell reissues by the tag.

A reissue is not always the same as the first issue. Wikipedia lists two cases. The engine in a recent reissue of an AMT show truck is much smaller than in the original, and after stopping production of 1/100 scale aircraft, Tamiya reissued a small selection of them in 2004 ¹². These are two specific examples and can't be generalised into "reissues always get worse".

Forums also have reissue experiences. All of the following are individual cases:

• The same mould sold under another name in another box. On the Finescale Modeler forum, one player gave Revell sailing-ship moulds that were renamed and reissued (a 1970s Golden Hind turned into a Spanish Galleon, for instance), while Aoshima kept the original box art and used an Imai mould ¹³. In another thread a player said the same Revell hospital-ship mould carried different ship names in different years and was repackaged by several small companies ¹⁴. These are decades-old kits and can't be applied directly to new releases. The name on a box doesn't necessarily mean a new mould.
• Reissues with only the decals changed. On Britmodeller, one player said Hasegawa's F-111G is a straight reissue of the FB-111 kit, even the instructions unchanged, with only the decals replaced ¹⁵. In another thread a player mentioned that the 1980 Hellcat got new decals when it was reissued in 2003, though that player said the information came from Scalemates, so it is second-hand ¹⁶. These are two Hasegawa cases only.
• The year stamped on the mould. One player answered that the year on a part is the year the part's mould was first cut, not the year this box was produced, and the same answer said Tamiya part numbers contain no year code ¹⁷. This is one player's answer in a single thread.

For batch or date marks on the box and version numbers on the instructions, no reliable general rule turned up on the forums. Don't count on small print on the box to tell you whether it is a reissue.

What to check before buying used

The condition words in used listings mean different things at different shops and platforms. Below are two examples that have official explanations. Don't apply them to other shops.

Suruga-ya (駿河屋) sets the standard for plastic models like this: unless something else is written, the default is unassembled (including parts already cut off the sprues, ランナー), with box and instructions, no missing parts, and a box in comparatively good condition ¹⁹. Some rules that are easy to overlook:

The word most easily confused is 未組立 (unassembled). By Suruga-ya's definition, parts cut off the sprues still count as unassembled ¹⁹. So "unassembled" does not mean the parts are still attached to the sprue untouched. If you want to confirm that, ask the seller when the listing doesn't say.

Mercari's item condition has six levels: 新品・未使用 (new, unused), 未使用に近い (close to unused), 目立った傷や汚れなし (no noticeable scratches or dirt), やや傷や汚れあり (slight scratches or dirt), 傷や汚れあり (scratches or dirt) and 全体的に状態が悪い (poor overall condition) ²⁰. The six levels apply to all goods, with no model-specific rules. The page doesn't say which level a kit with missing parts or one already built falls under. Mercari advises asking the seller in the comments before buying if anything worries you ²⁰.

To check for missing parts, compare against the maker's site. Airfix's product pages give the part count and the number of colour schemes. The Blackburn Buccaneer S2, for example, has 288 parts and 4 schemes ²¹. If the seller's description, or the count you make yourself, doesn't match the maker's figure, it is worth asking.

Problems with used listings that players warn about

The following are warnings from forum players about used listings, again personal experience:

• Blurry photos, one photo for a whole lot, vague wording. In a Finescale Modeler thread about eBay, one player treated blurry photos as a red flag, one said a listing with a single photo of a whole lot turned out to be loose parts, and another said that in a lot of 9 kits, 2 had been partly built and the seller hadn't said so ⁴.
• Opened or handled items not declared. On Britmodeller, one player said a kit opened for photography should be described as "pre-owned, but unbuilt", and another mentioned a seller who cut a decal sheet apart and sold the pieces without saying they were loose items ²². In another thread several players said used kits can contain extra, missing or swapped parts ²³.
• Missing parts are hard to replace. A Finescale forum player who dug out two Revell kits stored for years found the clear parts and landing-gear doors missing, and the maker replied that they were discontinued with no replacements. Another poster replied that Revell often reissues under a new number, so the part may be in another version, and that "parts kits" are often for sale at used auctions and model swap meets ²⁴. This is one case from one thread.
• A kit that has been glued can't be undone. On HobbyTalk, three players agreed that plastic cement welds the parts together ²⁵. Returning an assembled kit to its unbuilt state is close to impossible.

For judging from photos whether a kit has been glued or painted, or checking whether the sprues have yellowed and whether the instructions and decals are all there, no reliable general method turned up on the forums, so this article doesn't give one. What you can do is ask the seller before buying about anything the listing leaves unclear.

What goes wrong with old decals

When you buy an old or used kit, the decals may be the first thing to fail. These are the accounts of players on several forums:

• Brittle, cracking, falling apart in water. On Britmodeller, one player said the old decals he had fell apart the moment they touched water ²⁶. A player on the Airfix Tribute Forum said cracked decals can be rescued with a protective coat ²⁷. On the Finescale forum, players said decals can turn brittle as they age ²⁸²⁹.
• Not every old decal is bad. In the same Britmodeller thread, one player had used 40-year-old ESCI decals with no special treatment, while another said old Williams Bros decals wouldn't come off the backing. One suggestion was to soak a spare decal first, see how it behaves, and judge each set separately ²⁶.
• Yellowing is common, and opinions differ on sunning them in a window. One player said putting the decals in a clear bag on a sunny window brings the yellow out ²⁸. Another said the yellow comes back after a few weeks ²⁷, and another said the colours also fade while the yellow goes ²⁹. The lengths of time in the threads don't match, so no figure is given here.
• Binding them with Liquid Decal Film. Players on several forums mentioned that brittle old decals can be brushed with a coat of the film before use ²⁶²⁸. There are two limits. Brushing the whole sheet joins all the decals into one sheet, so they have to be cut apart one by one ²⁷²⁸. And it helps only so much with decals that are already badly broken up. One player said the film bought them only a second or two more ²⁶.