DID FROG EVER CELOPHANE WRAP KITS??? any ideas on this
EVER? I cannot answer that particular question, but I can share my experiences. I have many Frog kits in Frog original boxes. Not one of them had cellophane wrapping on them. The boxes were taped with a short piece of cellophane tape on each of the long sides of the box. A close friend of mine’s father owned a hobby shop and I occassionally got to go to the wholesaler and pick up kits for the shop. I personally picked up cartons of Frog kits from Frog (the manufacturer), opened the cartons, and put the kits on the shelves of the shop. Never did I see a kit box wrapped in cellophane.
None that I built.
Why?
Tom [C):-)]
I bought a “Frog” Heinkel 111 (F201) as a"Mint" condition kit, it was cellophane (Shrink ) wrapped according to the add,
now I am a builder rather than a collector (or a collector who likes to build what he buys and pretty good at it)
Ive been buying and building kits for over 33 years many of them Frog since there origal release when I wis a boy of about 9 years old in the 70’s and have about 40+ frog (and copies by firms such as Novo and the like) kits currently
And I have never come accross an original Frog kit that was shrink wrapped , infact the only ones I have had by Frog that were wrapped were wrapped by other collectors to protect the kit!! the kit I bought had no internal bag and many of the parts were off the sprues ,neatly trimmed I may add and the Kit was also molded in an almost Black Navy blue plastic rather then the usual medium grey common to most of the frog kits I have seen
unfortunatly the top half of the canopy is missing too (any Ideas on an acetate replacment version and who sells it would be appreciated) so I am pretty disapointed with what I have got as you can Imagine, to be Honest I believe the kit is a fake in a possibly original box!!
As for the cellophane wrapping, I remember a shop in my city ( a kind of “technological” one as it sold refrigerators, TV sets, vacuum cleaners, and the like, and records, which is the point I want to stress); there was a time when you could ask to listen to a CD record and, if you did not like it, the employee wrapped it back with a wrapping machine, so this opportunity is not only devoided to factories, I think that some professional sellers on ebay can own them.
As for fake models, I’ve already heard of such practices: a friend of mine who is 60 years old “suffers” of the same “disease” : he likes to get original kits from his youth, in his case mainly Heller or Solido ( we live in France) so he has a sharp eye on this kind of stuff and he told me he already saw a guy sell a first edition model in a swap meet, but only the box was original, and the model inside was a much newer edition, much cheaper both in quality and price. And the best is to follow : the original model was sold without a box but rather expensive ( it was the original edition, after all ) not so far away, by another guy.
So my conclusion is that I fear you were swindled, chap.
The seller Claims to have sold thousnds of kits and seen many in cellophane , Like you said its quite easy to get a wrapper and wrap kits to keep them fresh or cover a scam, all I can say is buyer beware
I have another for alot less comming that has photos of the kit in its box which is not wrapped! and looks more like the genuine kit should,so I hope this is the genuine articale , it has the missing bit from the first kit so I hope to build both by using the original canopy to act as a former to make acetate replacements.
There are a lot of fakes about. Old boxes with Novo (made from orginal Frog moulds) or even Airfix kits (with the name Airfix crudely scratched off) inside. There is a one page article in Feb’s Scale Aviation Modeller International about them. Suggest you email Martin Foley mfoley@martinfoley.co.uk about it. If you got it from e-bay complain to them about it and they can stop them being sold on e-bay.
well when i was a kid in the 60’s(back then you builtmodels for a diff reason the glue man the glue[(-D] ) anyway kresge’s dept store (k-mart today) and woolworths used to rewrap kits all the time because kids would always open them to see what they looked like the store would just rewrap it and a lhs i frequented wrapped ALL models that did not come that way so kids could not steal parts or parts would not get lost( depending on your view of humanity)
This is my point The manufacturer IN QUESTION never wrapped kits in those days , most kits were bagged in the box and the box taped anyone selling “shrink wrapped kits” as mint factory sealed items has either no knowledge of the subject OR is lying or faking,
I in my desire to build one of these old kits I bought a kit that was “wrapped” and claimed to be in mint colndition ON AN ONLINE AUCTION SITE , this wasnt the case as the kit had no internal bag which raised my concerns the minute I opened the box!! it was the wrong color of plastic for the era it was claimed to come from , even now most manufacturers bag there kits internally to minimize loss of parts! had the Guy I BOUGHT it off offered a refund of some kind I would now be happy, Infact he didn’t respond to the E-mails I sent him on the subject other then to claim Ignorance !!,
I know a lot of second hand model dealers and most of them would give a refund in this sort of case ,Ie parts were missing or the kit was apperently a fake even if they claimed Ignorance, since anyone can get a shrink wrapper the lesson today is “Trust no-one” … one bad apple sours the entire barrel IMHO and I will be alot more wary of what I buy in future.
My [2c]
The general rules I follow regarding buying anything from anyone on the internet are:- It must be an established business, with a real website of their own and a good, working contact number for customer service, or someone I personally know. I test call them first, and if I don’t like “the vibes”, I go elsewhere with my money.
- I will and do not bid for stuff on E-Bay. Since it is a crap shoot, I would prefer to play the slots at the local cassino if I am going to “chance it”.
- I use a credit card so I can contest the purchase if anything goes wrong.
I feel that certain dealers who sometimes put their “older” kits “up for grabs” on E-Bay to see if they can get more then their usual asking price are jerks, and I will not buy from them in either case, since I had one guy pull a kit from his website and offer it on E-Bay to see if he could get more then his officially advertised price, telling me “Oh, I just sold that yesterday”.
I have found that if I wait long enough, eventually someone will come out with a better, newer release of that “wonderful old kit I built in the days of yore (from a now defunct model maker)”, usually less then they want for an old funky “origional” with moldy decals and missing parts.
Some very nice examples are the Roden kits for the Bristol F2b. and their Gotha bombers as compared with the old Aurora kits, all for under $30.00 each.
Tom [C):-)]
I have several Frog kits in my stash that have never been opened since my father bought them back in the early 70’s. Most of these are boxed and cellophane wrapped.
As mentioned by a few responses however, the wrapping may have been put on by the retailer.
Don’t know if it’s a relevant point, but on some of the kits, the cellophane wrapping is so tight it has crushed the box a little, though maybe this is a result of the cellophane shrinking over the years?
many shops did cellophane wrap kits to prevent theft or loss of parts, how ever cellophane is a poor mans sealer it is very weak so rips easily and I feel can easily be used to dupe the unwary buyer into thinking a kit is complete as it is “factory sealed” ,Total “TOSH” If a SUPPLIER is selling something be it on on an Auction web site or via there own shop it is up to them to take responsibility for what they are selling and check it more thoroughly, THE problem with web Auction sites is it makes selling “Rubbish” TO easy, afterall isn’t it all money for old rope!
However I like the older kits for there simplicity of construction, alot of the later re-releases were produced very cheaply so for the wargamer they are Ideal if you like using the bigger models, I find the newer releases while technically far superior to be laborsome and aimed at the detail modeller,in my example I have 3 simply built frog/italieria Heinkels (they are built and painted as well as competition model might be) I use them for wargaming and planned another 3 choosing the frog kit for its simplicity I also have a New release Revell/Hasegawa Hienkel which is a far finer kit but unsuitable as a wargames model… Now why look on sites like The Auction sites, well it stands that you can get some bargains particuarly when you consider what alot of old kit traders mark up there kits for.
I’ve had 99% excellent experiences from ebay. One key to remember is to always pay with paypal. thereby guaranteeing your satisfaction. They cover your purchase completely. I’ve bought everything from rare Aurora models to 1:1 scale Camaro and Corvette parts, and always had pleasant experiences. The one time I got a bad item, I simply reported it to paypal. The seller never responded, and I got to keep the item, and got every penny back.
Problem is that it relies on the seller admitting he is in the wrong wether you get your money back!